Fab Feb 2009 - 9 months in, 9 months out, now they're sitting, standing and crawling about

[TheHAUNTEDHouseofMirth]

Here we go again!

and breathe....

Just spent the last few hours talking/fighting with travel agents/BA rep.

DH and I looked at alternate flights last night and BMI were SR8,000 (around £1,333) This morning, when we thought about booking them to ensure we got back, the same flights were SR23,000 (£3,800!) How can the arses justify that increase overnight

We've also had it confirmed that if we want to move to an earlier flight (before the strikes start) which BA are allegedly offering, yes, we can do it but have to pay the difference between what it was when we booked in April and what it is now which is a lot more. DH can't leave until 26th December as he is covering the whole office so I'd have to choose between getting back to the UK with DC 3and 4 and being there for 1 and 2 but being apart from him or risking not getting back.

LBB you have to get the tree up and get festive. I wrapped a few pressies yesterday and put under the tree.
Sorry DS1 is playing up. Thinking about it, DD (aged 3) is arsing around at the moment and being very attention seeking. Maybe its the time of the year

MOS, sorry to hear about your Christmas dilemma.

Oh MOS - that is shocking. Am wishing much bad karma on the evil beings making money out of people's travel-related misery this Christmas. Hope you manage to sort something - just the kind of stress you dont need at this time of year

LBB - definitely get the tree up. DS1 goes through periods of being quite clingy and needing a hug and reassurance and to be honest, where I can, I give it to him. He was quite clingy after Danny was born and goes through phases of it - part developmental I think and part to do with realising they are growing up but not quite knowing how to deal with it (esp when potty training). DS1 has also just had a lot of your attention through pottytraining so is probably still wanting that too. It is just a phase and will pass but I'd pander to him abit if you can (without driving yourself crazy that is) and it will probably pass that little bit quicker...

Danny has decided to ignore the baubles on our tree now and focus on removing the tags from the presents forming the barricade around the tree so is going to be a bit of a lucky dip round the dinkys this xmas

Off to twisted christmas concert at the Barbican tonight with my sister her BF and DH - cant wait. Also cant believe that this ttime last year when I went to it I was pregnant with Danny bopping away in my tummy...

mos, i'm so on your behalf.

those arseholes at BA should be thouroughly fucking ashamed of themselves pulling something like this at Christmas

I really hope you get it all sorted in time and don't have to spend christmas worrying about it all.

out of curiosity, what are dc1&2 going to do for Christmas with you and dh and H & G in KSA?

lbb, mine go through phases of clinginess as well, just like dinky's older lad it lasts a few weeks and then they forget about it again... pain in the arse when you've got things to do though. I find it helps to make a point of bringing the older two out on their own now and again, today i had ds1 at the shops alone for example. I know it's difficult to manage but once a week or so seems to keep them happy so maybe on one of dp's days off leave luke at home and go out with just ds1... it doesn't have to be anything special, just helping you at the shops but having your full attention seems to cheer them up no end.

dinky, you're brave... i'm not putting too many presents under the tree before the big day this year as A is such a fiddler he'll have them opened asap ds1 is the bauble and tinsel thief in this house but luckily he's always been good about ignoring the presents. He mortified me in the bank yesterday though, he stripped the tinsel off their tree and came running across the bank with it one of the other customers kindly helped him put it back on though as i was at the cashiers desk already

enjoy the concert, sounds lovely

big, proud Mum here .
it was dd's christmas play and she was ralph the reindeer in ralph the reindeer. she had so much more to do and remember than i'd realised and she did it so beautifully and kept grinning over at me. i feel a bit bad cos i could see how hard she was concentrating on remembering all the times she had to come in and do something which explains why she's been a bit more tired and grouchy at the end of the school day recently.
must try not to become pushy mum now!

mos i'm so sorry, hope you make the right decision and don't spend a fortune doing so. i'm sure you've gone through every option but is there any chance dcs 1 and 2 could fly our to you on a different airline?

ds is such a whinger at the moment but i think he's teething. hope it's that and not him turning into a whinge bag! we've strategically placed things like lego buckets round the base of our tree so that distracts him before he can try and pull at it too much but at a friend's on sunday he managed to get about 5 baubles off!

Hi all, many thanks for your supportive comments not like some silly bitch on a chat thread who I'd like to fly back and punch

PT DCs 1 and 2 are with their dad (ex DH) for christmas for the first time ever! (sods bloody law!) he has them until 28th and then he is flying off somewhere for work and cannot change it.

Can't get them out here due to the visa nonsense, takes weeks/months to get them sorted. Also, DS goes back to school on 3rd Jan and DD 10th Jan and we are due to have her until pm on 8th when due to fly back here and ex DH is collecting her on 8th when he returns to the UK (does that make sense?) My head is all over the place

KBN how lovely for you and DD. Wish we had things like that here

Hope everyone else is doing ok and enjoying any last minute christmas shopping x

MoS - was that Daftpunk on your thread? Saw a couple of stupid comments she made - she's the one who always makes stupid comments that make people want to do unspeakable things to her (and it turns out is a big fan of Mr Griffin from a thread a few weeks ago - not a huge surprise there) so just ignore the silly moose. Could your lovely brother help out with the DC if you cant get back - or maybe school friends they could stay with if need be? At my secondary school there used to be a support network of guardians who stepped in to help out where something like this happened (lots of boarders from abroad at that school) so may be worth looking into as a very last resort.

KBN - aaah, I'm proud of your DD too! Good girl! We've tried the tactical toy diversion tactic but Danny is showing cunning and retaliating with the seek and destroy tags tactic in the battle of the chritsmas tree...

daftpunk is a fool, if it was her ignore her mos, the rest of us do

Just skimming for now, will detail read later.........I haven't read your other thread mos but I have had a run in or 2 with daftpunk and I agree with TAT she is a fool and is mostly ignored by normal people!

hello all, thanks for your comments.
Yes, it was daftpunk who should really change her name to daftbitch. I've often see her write really stupid posts, its as if she WANTS to piss people off.

dinky I don't have a nice brother I have an evil one who I will never speak to again and the other one and I tolerate each other but he certainly wouldn't help out.
Unfortunately because I am away all the time I don't know any of the mums at the schools except a mum at DD's school who I 'met' on here but she lives in France.

Anyway, due to daftpunk's comments I decided I HAVE to get back as I want to track the bitch down and beat the shit out of her.
We have therefore managed to get alternate flights home. However, we have to leave a day earlier (on my birthday) will have to fly an hour and a half in the opposite direction, spend 3 hours in another airport and in total it will take 14 hours to get home instead of 6 1/2 hours. Coming back, we will need to spend almost a day in Dubai and will get back a day later so DH will have to take two more days off work and he is already in minus with his holidays. We have had to pay out an extra £1,500 and it seems unlikely we will get our money back from BA. We were told if we waited until the day we were due to fly and it was cancelled then we would/might. Clearly in our situation we can't do it. I f*ing hate BA and will never fly with them again.

Sorry for being so pissed off the last two days. DH hopes I'll cheer up now but I'm so angry with them and the fact that they can deliberately ruin peoples lives. There are so many people on MN that are affected by this and at least 8 families I know out here.

Hope everyone is doing ok and enjoying the run up to Christmas x

Just want to say, quickly, whoever it was who nominated me for the christmas appeal (I know it was one of you), thank-you. My gift arrived this evening

maybe it was daftpunk? I hear she speaks highly of you so go on, what did you get or was it all wrapped up and you are being a good girl and waiting til Christmas??????

I got a house plant from next with a bottle of champagne and some champagne truffles. I opened it because I didn't know what it was! dp spotted the csrd on the box and read it to me.

Where is your other thread? Just so I can laugh at whatever words of wisdom and instruction daftpunk gave you

champagne
Glad you got a lovely present for YOU

My 'BA are twunts' thread is in chat but I can't link (I'm crap at IT stuff) should be near the top.
I'm going to bed, exhausted after a stressful day. Was in tears this morning when DH told me BMI had trebbled their prices since 10pm last night. Thieving bastards but thats another thread.

Enjoy your champers x

mos I just read your thread. Well, I skimmed it, didn't read all of it, just the posts I thought would be funny!

I've just watched a bit about it on the one show. BA fuckwits!

Oh MOS - at least you're going to be back in the UK with the kids but sorry its going to be such a hassle and cost you so much

LBB - what a lovely present

well on the brightside dinky, I might just squeeze in a birthday drink at Dubai airport as we land there at around 11.50pm on my birthday so will head straight for the pub and camp there until our am flight to LGW. Another positive, we fly into Gatwick instead of Heathrow and our house is only 10 mins from Gatwick. A lot of money to pay for the privilige of that though

glad it's sorted mos, sorry it's far from ideal though

TAT, I thought of you this morning when in H & M, there was kitty stuff everywhere! Clothes, slippers, knickers, cups. You name it, they had it. Typical

Good that fletch seems to have finally got all the matches out and that 'one of ours' has got something.

PS. Dreamt last night that the person I've bought for was daftpunk or don'tblameme (BA cabin crew) Am keeping an eye on the 'thank you' thread and keeping my fingers crossed.

pmsl mos, that would be really, erm, 'unfortunate'... can't imagine anyone would nominate daftpunk though, she's a cow on almost every thread i've come across her so can't see her having many MN 'friends'

i did find one hello kitty item after much hunting, a little makeup wallet type thing (hope mom doesn't hit the roof I made up a box with a load of other girly bits to go with it and picked up a pressie for the girls little brother too so got that posted yesterday and have a lovely warm glowing feeling now. ds1 helped me post it and it was lovely explaining to him what we were doing.

ds1 just came home with tonnes of homemade chrsitmas tree decorations, i've been dying to have more decorations for the tree made by the kids

PT/TAT but on the bright side, at least I'd have the bitch's address and could pay her a visit

That present sounds lovely. Last year I bought for two families each with three kids and DC and I had a lovely time shopping for them. I'd explained to the DC that they would have one less present each so some other children who wouldn't have much could have something and they helped to choose. It is so lovely reading the thank you threads (will look out for anything that mentions kitty!)

DD has made a few little decorations. Today was her last day at nursery until 10th Jan God only knows how I will entertain her

ds1 has a visit to the reindeer farm tomorrow, santa and a party on firday and then he's off til the 7th

i may hit the booze hard this Xmas

Put the DC to work creating more xmas decorations for the tree and house Tulips - will keep them busy...

and when xmas is over, creating new year decorations...

and when new year is over, creating decorations for A's birthday in February...

dd birthday is first in january

good plan, except for my irrational hatred of paint and glitter being in the same room as my kids when i'm in charge (school is fine, i don't care if classrooms are bombed )

yes i know, mean mummy!