March 06 *#* all around the world

[UniS]

sorry couldn;t think of a funny title. but here goes.

Anyone with Dcs born March 06 welcome to come on in and introduce yourselves.

evening all.

staycations continue down here in devon. Last thursday we went for a big walk, this week it will be a forest day, I was going to be do a GO Ape high ropes thing with some work friends but one has pulled out so its being rescheduled. DH and boy were going to ride bikes in teh woods while I swung from trees, so I guess we will continue to do some variation on that theme.

Other wise school hol is panning out nice and gentle, boy is playing with some of the multitude of toys he seems to have built up and I'm not achieving much round the house.
We do now have a our new wood burner tho and wall insulation is timetabled in for week after next.

Your staycation sounds lovely Uni...my girls are just out on the deck playing with a plastic village we inherited which they love.

I'd like to do a Go Ape but I did a little ropes course in Scotland and was a real wuss!!

Need to make tea as have to feed family and leave for a meeting at 6.30pm...all go here this week as I try to wind up for hols on Sat.

sorry/glad to hear about playroup LL.
Hope holiday is fab - France?

Uni, sonds like a nice relaxing time! Ar you having good summer weather then?

we are all stuck at home this week wih colds,brochitis and kids have conuntivitis. Yuck and

Its DD2s birthday tomorrow!!!!! BBQ planed for saturday so hoping weare all well enough and no rain, as 50 people wont fit in the house!

key board is being weird so wont keep typing. x

must be good to be rid of the worry of playgroup LL.

Sympathy for poorly household, hope it clears up by weekend.

Weather here? typical dartmoor, a bit cooler and wetter than surrounding countryside. have had some sun and some drizzle.

Gosh this thread has been busy!

Astro {{{Hugs}}} for the all being poorly and Happy Birthday to dd2 for tomorrow

Uni, sounds like you're having a lovely time, shame about the Go Ape thing, but at least it can be re-scheduled, phew!

LL, sorry about the playgroup, but on the other hand I know it took up a lot of your time, so hopefully there will be a bit more you time now? Glad Latitude was good bar the meltdown obviously! Happy Holidays!

We went to Chatsworth yesterday, so the kids and I had a lovely day out (was a day early birthday present for me! a pile of my friends came with us) and today I'm in reciept of lots of lovely stuff, including getting taken to a lunchtime tea party, without the kids!! (was in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Fund at a posh hotel) had a lovely time

Chatsworth sounds lovely Friz - we loved it there too :) Glad you had a nice birthday!

Well I am still popping anti-bs trying to kill this bronchitis, but the rest of the family are on the mend thankfully.

DD2's party last weekend was fun and it didn't rain, hurrah, so we had a nice BBQ in the garden. She got some lovely little pressies and some (unlovely!) HUGE ones which we can't regift or charity shop because the givers will nitoce that they are not in the house IYSWIM! We gave her a wheely bug and she loves to turn it over and play with the wheels :o

Bad news is looks like our landlord isn't renewing our lease :( :( I rang the agent yesterday and pleaded that she tell us asap what is happening (lease expires in few days), and she was very rude and snapped that I'm not the only one who has to get my kids schools sorted :(

I really can't bear the thought of moving again.

On the upside I am doing some fun sewing and a friend is teaching me how to make a funky bag. I'll post a pic when I finish it (might be a while).

oh bugger about the lease astro, thats a pain in teh butt. hope it sorts out in teh end.

evening all. just at teh end of a very busy weekend in chez uni. was ging to be doing a big day out tomorrow but friends child is ill so that being re-scheduled.... will brek news to boy in morning and deal with the tears and tantrum. but its for teh best i think as boy is knackered and could do with a lie in himself.

chatsworth sound nice.

Hi all, how's things?

Astro, sorry about the lease, that totally sucks, I have posted on your 'gah! what to do thread'

Uni, how did he take it? hope it's all rescheduled ok.

Had fun in wet wales last week (see facebook) just watching news about China, poor people

Also having fun....with tax credits, have started a thread in money matters, after getting a letter today stating that apparently I've not renewed nice.

Bit of a whinge, but sorted out with a bus ride to big city and lunch from bakers.

Its being a busy school hols. This week we are doing lots of crafty stuff at holiday activity workshop in village. AND boy has 2 apts at hospital. Sight test was today and hes fine, Speech and Language assessment on Thursday. After which we will go and visit teh country show in nearby town.

Twas teh village flower show ( next village over actually) on Saturday and boy entered several childrens classes adn 2 open cookery classes. Coming 2nd in one of teh open classes with some very enthusiastic fairy cakes, liberally covered in icing and sweets. I managed a 2nd in teh compost class and 3rd in Tomatoes. AND 1st AND 2nd in the craft item from recycled materials class, with two items knitted from plastic bags.

Are your 4 yr olds finding it hard to stay still at teh mo. Boy seems to have SOOOO much energy All the time. Except when he has to go upstairs to bed at which point he claims his legs don't work, despite using them to bounce on the sofa whist saying this .

Evening all,

We're back from our hols so just catching up with the thread.

Astro - what news on the lease? I see from FB that you are enjoying home ed'ing at the mo . Have you got rid of your bronchitus?

Friz - we've been in Wales too, Llangrannog which is a lovely place. Know what you mean about the rain though. We also camped here near Dumfries which was great. Excellent mountain biking Uni. Then had a few days at my sister's in Forres where the rain cought up with us again.

Uni - my 4 year old is very lazy!! Wish she had a bit more energy. I picked her up a balance bike today at the Panda sale to try and get her interested in cycling but to not much avail. It's a shame as we other 3 love cycling. Still she likes the tag along but just sits there and doesn't pedal .

Still in school holiday mode but trying to grab a meeting here and an hour there to go through my millions of flagged emails. Thinking of a few days in London next week if we can find a good hotel deal - shout if you know of any hidden gems...

We had a friend visit today with her toddler who managed to walk into our pond!! She is appropriately called Lily.

Good grief Uni, very busy time, but at the stuff ds won, that's great! did the fairy cake section just involve icing n stuff, or did he do all the chucking in and mixing?

LL, was very soggy! glad you had a good time though

Astro, how's it going with houses n things?

Dd2 here is very bouncy all the time, I'm going to have to try and alter her sleep pattern before school starts, she's gotten used to 10pm bed times.... holidays n camping n all that jazz.......she likes her bike though (still on stabilisers mind)

We've had a total mare with tax credits, apparently although their system had a full record of our renewal, it still chose to boot us out and not process it when I eventually got thru on day two of trying all day the nice man said it'd happened to loads of people (cynic in me says to make the gov's cash flow look better) so now I have an unauthorised overdraft and a pile of bouncing dd's and we won't get the money back for another month (although it will be back dated) oh joy

wow Uni, impressed with your's and boy's prizes!

LL 0 lol at Lily in the pond!

Friz - just to make you feel a bit better, the govt here are just as hopeless with Family support/FTB etc, and we are STILL negotiating the money they owe us from when DH was unemployed...at the moment we are being massively over paid, but for months they paid us nothing. Hope you get it sorted out asap.

DS is becoming more and more energetic here too Uni - apparently they have a testosterone surge at this age, which settles down again around 5ish (hope so!)

Yes LL we are enjoying Home Ed at the mo - I guess I am getting used to riffling through the washing basket for clothes, as that is where all the clothes seem to live permanently these days! The thing I find hardest is that I just can't keep the house running anywhere near smoothly AND home ed well, and so I choose home ed over house mostly, and then have a melt down now and again when the chaos really gets to me and I ignore the kids for a few days and get back on track. But we are having some beautiful sunny winter days here - just starting to get warmer, lovey breeze - you know that weather? And it is very inspiring. The kids are both right into sewing and have made a lovely set of felt buns and cup cakes :)

House - well the owner is selling, but he is letting us stay, so we are sort of looking for a new place, whilst simultaneously hoping that the new owner will let us stay (although unlikely, as the house is not a good investment I don't think). The house will be auctioned on sept 18th, and then we will have 4 weeks notice from then if we need to move, so no big rush, although if we see something good before then we will move.

Trouble is we have no time to look - weddings, baptisms and a federal election on the next few weekends...

eeek at house situation Astro. Felt buns and cup cakes sound yummy.

Boys prize winning fairy cakes , he helped with measuring and putting in bowl and beating eggs. I used mixer, then he dolloped into cake cases. I did hot bit. Then he helped sift and mix icing and chose colours. we walked to shop and he chose sweeties and then he did all teh decorating and chose which 6 to show. So , yep, I think they were his own work.

We went to the country show at a nearby small town today, sort of a bigger version of a village show, with lots of farm animal and horse riding competitions as well. A nice day out. The Dartmoor hill pony display team were rather fun to watch. Lots of girls charging about on over and under their ponies in fancy dress.Doing a sort of pony sized dog agility course.

Uni that's sounds like a great day out, I love watching pony club type affairs (though of course they're far too bitchy when you are the age to be in them!)
Sounds like you and ds had a ball making those cakes I love baking with mine, although they mainly like the licking the bowl/spoon bit and of course the decorating!

Astro, big hugs hope you get the house sorted soon, I've just been contact by a friend who may have to come back to the UK, as her visa has messed up where she is (after a trip back here) and thus she's lost her job....so she may have to kick her UK tennants out... and they're very settled for both parties, as she loved her job....and her tennants love the house (kids on school waiting lists etc)

We were supposed to be going to the ford summer cinema thing tonight (did I mention I won tickets ) but it peed it down, no idea if they cancelled the screening, but we sat in pub over road for hour n had a coffee, but it never really cleared, so we took the kids back home Have said we'll have the hamper we got with a dvd tomorrow evening instead.

How did you win the tickets Friz? What a shame it rained though .

Astro, what a pickle re the house....hope it works out come auction time. Can you not bid for it??

Uni, we did the local show thing last weekend too...kids entered jam tarts, decorated buns, jewelery and 'a bunch of flowers for Mum' . They got a few prizes and Tilly won a cup for her flowers...she is well chuffed!! Not as chuffed as the fact that a 'grown up' tooth has appeared!!! Sadly it is behind her milk teeth so not ideal. Dentist says she needs to keep wobbling the old one out.

We also watched the show jumping and I told the girls how I fell off and landed on a jump as a teenager...Tilly is very taken with the idea of horse riding now ££££££!!!!!

We are off to London early tomorrow morning. I am working in the afternoon but then we're staying down til Thurs. In a hotel - camping done for this year!

Now I'll spend all of Wednesday wondering if " that lady" is LL while I'm in London. We are going to do a BIG DAY OUT. might manage to get to Buck House for changing teh guard, might do a boat trip on Thames, might visit Nat History or Science museum. Boy wants to see underground trains.

sorry you got rained out Friz, and sorry for your friend's troubles too - all very unsettling I imagine :(

LL, we can't afford to bid on the house - they say it will go for approx $890,000 (which is roughly 400,000 pounds...) and whilst we do have a deposit, there is no way we could afford the rapayments on a loan that size unfortunatly. We are not even that close to Sydney proper, it's just SUCH an expensive city for housing. Anyway, we got termination notice today, so we actually are being kicked out and they are delaying the sale until after we have left so they can paint etc. In a way its easier for us, because we wont have to keep tidy for viewings etc, and we have a date by which we need to go - Oct 25th.

Show days all 'round sound so lovely! We don't have that type of thing here, but in spring (not long now! yay!) all the schools and churches have Spring Fairs, which will be fun. There is the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, with all the baking and flower competitions, but its really very comercia;l and costs more than $100 enrty for the family , and so we don't go.

Your London visits sound lovely! My SIL is a flight attendent for QANTAS - she usually only does short trips to Asia to avoid leaving her DD too long, but next month is doing a London trip and has asked me if we want anything. what do I ask for????

oh Uni, be sure to read "They're changing the guard at Buckingjham Palace, Christopher Robin went down with Alice..." before you take the boy to London :)

I wonder how Caddy is getting on? Yooohoooo! Caaaady!???

Astro, sorry to hear you've been officially kicked out such a pain for you, I can't believe how many houses you've had to move thru in the past year or two Have you had any more thoughts on where to next? you need to ask for things you can't get in Au I guess! although I have no idea what, as generally you can get most things globally now...how's about mcvitties chocolate digestives!

LL and Uni, enjoy London, I really must take the girls down there at some point, maybe next year when dd2 is older and less likely to do a runner

We've just put our house on the market, wish us luck, can't link yet, as literally done today!

Astro, we sang it as we crossed Green Park. LL if you heard us, yes, that was us, sorry.

Had Lunch at Corams Field playground, what a tresure of a playground in central London. Boys best bit of eth day was underground trains.

Mucho smpathy Astro on your house woes. friz, I hope yours goes OK.

links asap friz (nosey) Where are you moving to?

Uni - sounds a lovely day!

Business as usual here. Not a single suitable house to look at this weekend - hopefully something comes up in the next few days, as we have this saturday free and could look, but not the next week.

DD2 is sleeping through! She sometimes needs a cuddle, but no feeds from 8pm-7am yay!

Morning all (just!),

Back from the big smoke to find that both Friz and Astro are house hunting - Astro, I agree that it is better to know what is happening though instead of hoping to be able to stay. Friz - have you seen somewhere you fancy moving to?

Uni, we didn't see or hear you in London. DP did take the girls to Coram's but on Monday whilst I was running a team day at work. Weds we all went into work as DP does my clients book keeping system and then up to a friend's near Hampstead Heath. Bloody constant drizzle put off our outdoor plans so we came back into town and went to the maps exhibition at the British Library.

TBH we were all a bit grumpy all week but highlights were the Tate Modern (Kiah esp loved the kids pack), double decker buses, 'driving' the DLR and the Greenwich foot tunnel. We went on the Clipper river taxi too which was fun and a great way to see the city.

Back home and meant to be catching up on MASSIVE backlog of work but hiding on MN....

Any suggestions of what to do with shitty 6 year olds here !!

LL, Hugs for the six year olds, I'll go look at the thread in a minute....

Uni, sounds like you enjoyed it

Astro, booo for nothing good on the market so far, fingers x'd you get a gem of a find soon.

For those of you on facebook I've email'd you our current house, as it's now on the market (Uni I'll mail you it on msn when I get a sec)
We're sorted for where we're going to, (provided we can get rid of our current house) but no pics to show you just yet! it's a smaller house, but the garden is bigger (veg or chickens, hmmm) n it's a more expensive area

LOL - I thought that was the house you wanted to buy!!! I said it looks perfect - it is.

Your house is sooooo tidy and clean...