June 08 - if your name's not down you're not coming in!

[EddieIzzardismyhero]

Welcome to our new cliquey thread !

Poppy - Went on Tikkabilla website and got the msg "Not avail in your area".

Wow Amber - That is impressive counting. Think you should book a holiday so he can practise his spanish properly. Ry counted to 5 today at his Nannys, doesn't do it here. However that was in English, so we'll need to come back to England so he can practise!

Spider - LOL at clashing Boden Mums. Used to be the same in Wimbledon, that and Jigsaw.

Eddie - If that is the purple ronnie guy then he also does the Edward Monkton cards, which I love. What a talented chap.

KTPie - That sounds bloody awful to me. I had my one and only real migraine when pregnant. It's the zest running book and yes, it's definitely mainly walking right now! Went out this morning in a stinking mood and came back in a good one, purely from the smugness of actually doing some exercise I think.

Rolf - Love the description "Bog Irish fishwives with huge arses". Now there's an untapped market... Thought your book was a Thomas the Tank Engine one for a minute, I was shocked a how horrid and whiney Thomas and his fellow trains are. Much prefer chuggington.

I take back everything I have said about Peppa Pig - C has just watched an episode about Mummy Pig's birthday, she gets a nice new dress and Daddy Pig says she looks beautiful. C turned round at the end of the programme and said 'My Mummy Beautiful' I have no forgiven her for waking up at 4.30, crying, coming to my bed and wiggling around for an hour and a half before falling asleep!

rolf - lol at bog irish fishwives!

I braved the shops yesterday to try on bikinis . Might not be so bad except for the awful wrinkly tummy. Also why are bikinis not made for people with big boobs - I end up having to spend £££ just to get one that my boobs don't hang out of - hmm, saggy boobs and wrinkly tummy, nice

neenz, how was martin mere? I would second stockley farm, it's great there. We were at formby at the weekend!

spider, more sympathies on the migraines

biscuits that is so cute of C to say that!

allnew - sadly it probably just means she thinks I look like Mummy pig!

Abdn we have Mortimer and Love you forever, but I'd not heard of the paper bag one. I'll have to find it. The boys loved them, and DD1 is just getting into them.

Allnew I salute you for even being in the same room as a bikini. I would wear one to a Star War Jabba the Hutt audition, but nowhere else . btw I live near Formby.

My boys have engine names .

Allnew - I would not ever go near a bikini now and prefer cossies or tankinis. There are new cossies out from Speedo that hide a multitude of sins but they are £££ I bought a cheapo adidas one from lillywhites for about a fiver and it's seen me well! Got some nice tankini sets from Bravissimo which again are a bit £££ but they are all supported in the boobs and you can buy higher rise knickers to cover up a bit more. Worth a look?

Biscuits - Luke loves Peppa Pig (and I do too espeially Daddy Pig). He has never said I'm beautiful though but does call Mark Daddy pig and himself Luke Pig!

Eddie - I wish Luke liked books that much - he is definitely more of a TV child. Even when it's off he wants to play in the garden and won't sit still for longer than a few pages. Hey ho maybe that will change when he gets older.

Rolf - ha ha with the Boden description. I am a working class council estate person who happens to have met, moved in with and procreated with someone with a couple of quid. I think I may (possibly wrongly) have associaed Boden with middle class sloane rangers. Scared is how much my life seems to have changed!

ktpie - my friend had the lying down in a dark room migraines so I do hope you are feeling better soon and coming off the pill does the job.

lol biscuits

rolf - that's a lovely place to live, must be nice to be near the coast

amber - I'd forgotten about bravissimo, will have a look. I found a brand last night called seafolly but they really are £££. I got a lovely tankini last year from moontide and it's reversable and really nice

A loves the process of getting books to read but in reality only lasts a couple of pages unless it has flaps/sounds

Did anyone see the news story today about the 5 month old baby that has 20% body burns after a day on Brighton beach? It's made be feel quite ill and . Am off to buy another uv hat for A!

Hi all. Step away from the bikinis people - unless you are going to be on a glamourous remote island beach with zero chance of anyone you knows you in real life seeing you. Of course, this is just the advice I would give me!

Just been to visit a friend who moved over the weekend. She has moved into the country and has a lovely cottage with a field and 5 stables for 200k less than our new house is going to cost. It is so nice - but miles from anywhere and she has to drive for 30 mins to get the kids to school. Is it worth it I wonder...

No sign of Essie coming back then? I had hoped she would change her mind.

Bikinis , no way I could wear one, bit of a spare tire going on with wrinkly stretch marks, lovely. Maybe in a few years. Saw this in Decathlon the other day and thought it was more appropriate these days. Also saw this (totally unrelated to swimming, you might drown), for some reason the idea of walking round in your sleeping bag keeps making me chuckle.

I'm hoping stopping taking the pill will put a stop to the migraines, really hoping.

Took H for his jabs today and J started to scream as soon as he saw the nurse, he did the same last time. I don't think he has forgiven her for the swine flu jab yet. Or it's a ploy to get chocolate as she always gives him some to try to shut him up.

Sybil - personally remote sounds good, but then again the school run sounds a bit tiresome.

for some reason I read that as rolf trying on bikinis and was a bit confused... For the record, I tried on a bikini last summer, looked in the mirror, and realized I will never ever wear one again. Honestly, a nice one-piece makes me feel much more confident. I'm tempted by the boden ones as I bet their tummy-friendly... Like this.

And I love Thomas 100x more than Chuggington (which annoys me). We've read all the classic stories - or actually DH did with the boys. He really enjoyed it and said it was a really special thing to do.

oh and 30 minutes for the school run would be way too long (I assume that's one way?). Mine is 8 minutes each way and it eats up a lot of time and fuel. Fortunately for us it's just for nursery - the primary is in the village. And I like neighbours...

That's me: Liverpool Irish, huge arse, big hips, huge norks, hideous temper. Poor DH doesn't know what's hit him (often literally)

After weeks of trying, I've managed to get through to someone on the anti-social behaviour team and my first port of call needs to be the police, who can come and have a look at Steroid Bob. So do I do it and create a disclosable situation if we ever want to sell the house (I've kept it no-names with the council up to now), or work on helping the clematis grow up our new huge trellis so Bob can't peep at us?

That's a v hard decision rolf, but we had to disclose a neighbourhood issue when selling our house and it was v stressful worrying about whether the buyers would pull out. Tbh, I would go for the clematis option first - neighbours from hell would certainly put me off buying a house .

Thanks for the book link btw, they look great. 'Tiddler' has now become the favourite book for daytime reading which is fab cos I love it - the little fish who blew small bubbles but told tall tales!

I do like the Thomas books but IKWYM penguin, I find Thomas esp whingey! I do like Chuggington but we don't watch tv with A anymore (except ITNG before bedtime) - hence the love of books!

Went to a toddler group for the first time ever today and it wasn't too bad. Also met another Michael! The mother told me that he was named after the archangel (sp?) (this is a church toddler group ) - I didn't have the heart to tell her mine was named after Michael Owen!!

eddie church toddler group I don't think anyone's named their kids after angels at ours (and I'm running it now - although I'm missing it this week because i'm working tomorrow).

Saw your fb update about the exchange getting put off for a day - fingers crossed for you. How crap.

We love tiddler too but we really really really love William and the Night Train

With my current baby name obsession I have wondered whether "Michael" will spike in the 2009 baby name popularity stats because of Michael Jackson. The statistics geek in me will be checking when they come out in September (yep, I even know when they come out). I met another baby Peter for the first time at our toddler group the other week.

Rolf - don't really want to advise you on this sort of thing. It's intensely personal, and I keep on changing my mind as to what I would do in your shoes. Sorry to be useless, I am more than sympathetic though.

Rolf think I am with Eddie - would go clematis route first. We had difficult neighbour(who was famous too- well known actress) who complained all time and was thoroughly miserable - was soo happy when she moved out.

Loving the book talk- tiddler is not as popular as monkey puzzle (although I am not keen on the mama monkey connection) or meg and mog or any of eric carle ones. Am
also a massive Thomas fan (he is whiney and as a child had other favourites) but find that the old style stories aren't always pictorial enough to hold her attention.

Got early scan next week as thought would rather know how things going pre holiday .

Spider your pushchair thread good but I am a massive fan of ergo sling- still use it and only wish I had found it earlier.

Amber - who says tv isn't educational!? and how are you feeling?

Rolf - I meant to say days ago but got side tracked, we have a golden hops in our garden and it climbs quickly and has big leaves it if that is any help. Dies back in winter though.

Abdn - Also meant to say ages ago saw the cycling pics on FB, well done to your DH!

Eddie - Hope the exchange goes OK.

Thanks AH, it's all getting extremely stressful. Our vendor went round to her new house today and found a gypsy encapment out back so she's now potentially getting cold feet . God know what will happen now.

All of the toddler groups round this way are held in churches - is this normal or just something that happens here? Lol at none of the babies being called after angels - I didn't even know there was an angel Michael but then my biblical knowledge isn't exactly great!

spider, I had worried about the Jackson thing and would be interested to know if it had any bearing on the stats. I'd forgotten my concerns when I was in labour though and just love the name - he was M as soon as he popped out .

poppy, can totally understand about the scan. Will be keeping everything crossed.

Keeping everything crossed too, Poppy. And the rest of the pregnant ladies, too!

Thanks everyone for the advice about Steroid Bob. I like that plant, ktpie. We've bought 2 clematis and 1 jasmine, and I'll ask DH whether he thinks we have room for the hops plant too. He's in charge of gardening - I have Fingers of Death .

lol Eddie about church groups and angels . Sorry the house move is so stressful for you. Moving house is the pits. How is your house move Sybil?

Rolf - golden hops might be a bit overwhelming next to a clematis and jasmine, but it does grow quick

Eddie - How stressful, I hope the vendor doesn't change her mind.

Cross posted before Poppy, I hope the scan goes OK.

Ok, it's me Essie, and since Sybil was so nice, I'll admit to lurking around the place until I get over myself. I was going to stay away a looooong time in case you all thought I was attention seeking and waiting for you all to say 'oh, please come back, we love you'! I am still having a severe wobbly, though. But I don't want to bore you all with it.
I name changed as part of my flit. I was missing you all though.

Good luck with the scan, Poppy! And fingers crossed on the house move Eddie.

Bikinis - I bought one last week! I'm basically too flabby in the stomach dept, but my sister has me on a fitness thing so I'm aiming to follow the 4-week plan and look great. Co-incidentally, the 4 week comes to an end at the same time as my friend/colleague's hen do, in a spa. She does ultraman triathlons. (None of your puny little 5k swims for her - 18k or over etc) As you can imagine, I need to be able to at least come out of a changing room without shame.

Michael is one of ?seven angels (being puritanical we don't have that kind of stuff) but he's a good one. Doesn't Michael mean 'gift from God'? It's definitely got God in it - the -el bit. Other angels I know - Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel. Um...don't know any more apart from Lucifer. There's a fab painting of St Michael with his sandalled foot on Lucifer's head, sending him down to hell, in Jesus College chapel. I once fainted in choir, and came round to see that. I honestly thought I'd died.

Going to Aberystwyth tomorrow (groan) so better get some sleep.

Hurrah! Welcome back. Sorry you're still wobbly, but glad you couldn't stay away.

Hooray, welcome back Essie . Sorry you're still wobbly, but lovely to see you back