There I was all set to do a post and a 'hello' catch up with you all and then whilst I was trying to conjure up stuff to discuss that might be remotely of interest to anybody else, it all kicked off for the thread, and cod and VVV all got involved. Freaky.
FWIW I sloped off for a while because I felt that the chat on this thread seemed to have become a bit, well, rowdy. Not that I had a problem with that, but it felt sometimes as if I was in a pub eavesdropping on private conversations, a bit more of a chatroom than a thread IYSWIM - lots of the same people texting back and forth between themselves, with the conversations cutting across each other. Which was fine, but just wasn't my scene, and I just couldn't keep up with it all. And while I don't think that the stuff that was said last week on this thread warranted a row being kicked off, I do see why Hunker got annoyed at being a bit cold-shouldered, when she was in all honesty trying to offer advice. Mind you, the palavar that followed got really weird.
The best thing about MN is that you can ask for advice on anything and people will pitch in and do the best they can to help. That was priceless for me during my PG and still is. The worst 2 things about MN are that (1) there are lots of people with lots of differing opinions and some find it difficult to respect others peoples' points of view, and (2) people can be far ruder on here than they would ever dream of being in RL. I manage to still like people even when I don't agree with their views (hell, I still speak to my mum after all), but sometimes on here if people don't agree with an opinion then they start to attack not the opinion but the person. Not nice. Life is just too short for all this stuff.
Anyway, I've been a long time gone from this thread and will probably not post back here - life is frantic enough with work and Uni and kids, and I don't have the time to scroll through everything and catch up with everyones' news, so I always feel guilty at just pitching in when I haven't been respectful enough to read through everyones' posts. But I thought it would be a bit rude though to just slope off without saying ta-ra when lots of you welcomed me back the other day.
There are loads of you I'm really pleased to have met and a few I really wished I'd been able to meet. I will never forget the image of knocking back formented horse milk, nor the early days with people like firstnicki. It was freaky and fab having Marthahm giving me ante-natal osteo, and - having just picked up the keys to our place in Nice - I'm still curious as to where Nowanearlynicemum lives, and wonder if we'll catch up out there. I cringe when I think how taken in I was by SAKA (I guess you've all twigged by now that she was a troll) and I blush when I remember watching you all posting to Kat and I was thinking all the time about whether or not I dared to jump in and mention the troll word)
I'll still be lurking on MN and sticking my oar in on other sites, and I will set up a CAT link if anyone wants to get in touch. I'll look out for meet-ups and will gatecrash on occasion (if I may), and I might possibly see some of the Kent mums on the Maidstone mile for Maude?
Thanks to everyone for your company over the past year, and best of luck to you and to your lovely babies.
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Off now to that thread about Harry Potter and hus magic wand