August 08: World domination

[cyteen]

Thought the title might be appropriate for both mums and babies

Queenie. Perhaps the UK contingent could meet up for a meal to celebrate his life.

Oh no, sorry it sounds like there is no way to visit but a UK memorial sounds lovely

I have finished off my day by buying a new Isofix car seat for DD1 and drinking champagne. BAck to frugality tomorrow

Oh, and i think i have worked out a way for us to go camping this weekend, encompassing picking up the new car and dropping off MILS's car

Queenie I am so sorry to hear your terrible news

Sazz yay! for your new car and also yay for camping. We are having another go at it too, off for three nights this time and thanks for those of you who put in your two pennorth re which site to choose - the ice cream parlour one is the winner

Hellooooo all the rest of you lovely girls, just checking in quick on myway to bed. Second night of DC sharing went much better than the first bit they were both awake and yelling at 6.45 so need to be in bed an hour ago in a minute

QoD so sorry to hear your news. Hope you manage to get together to celebrate his life at some point in the near future.

DS has in the past suffered from constipation and have found that really cutting back on dairy for a while helps and upping fruit and veg intake as much as possible. Juice also seems to help along with lots of water of course.

Hi everyone else. Hots forgot to say DH says thanks for the compliment!

Re camping - DH and I were talking about this the other day as he reminded me of something I said when we were first offered the opportunity to come to Singapore - we didn't accept then as DH had been offered and accepted another job with someone else which subsequently turned out to be not what he expected and so he went back and here we are - anyway we were going to go camping in France and so I said I didn't mind not going to Singapore but there was no way I was going camping in France for a holiday. At the time I couldn't think of anything worse! How times change as I was saying I would like to be able to go with DS - but way too hot and no where to go here.

So sorry to hear about your Uncle QoD. Must have been horrible breaking the news to your Mum. How is she?

DH is fine thanks VG. He was a bit stiff and sore for a day or two after he finished but that was more the sunburn and car collision injuries acquired en-route. Padded shorts seemed to deal with the bottom issue . He was at the hospital yesterday having his hand checked out and for a horrible hour or two was waiting to have the most battered finger rebroken and relocated/reset. Thankfully in the end they decided it was healing ok on its own. His bike was also looking to be a write-off too (despite having completed the last 120 miles on it after the accident ), so cue lots of wailing about how much he loves that bike. Anyway, lovely local bike shop seem to have sorted that. Phew!

Thank you for all my birthday wishes . Lovely day, albeit at work for most of it. Girls came and met me (accompanied by DH!) in their PJs at the end of the road when I got back from work, I then received several rousing rounds of Happy Birthday from both - DD2's suprisingly good - and candles were lit and blown out many, many times.

Congrats on the new car Crispy. Based on the ominous creaks coming from my car and the fact that DH is about to change his sporty thing for an estate (only 4.5 years after becoming a parent ) I decided to trade in my monster for something smaller and hopefully more reliable/cheaper to run/still under warranty etc. So.... picking it up this afternoon. Mildly excited!

In the meantime though off to bid a v. sad farewell to a friend who's moving away to start a new life after the end of her marriage . She's has dealt with a deeply nasty situation with such dignity as well as being a fantastic person to have around.

Oh and dizzy - many congrats on making it through your first big event (and a monster hangover ). Grrr to the crappy competition. My friend who I mentioned before had a look at your blog and has decided that she'll focus more cake decoration and non-baking arty things.

Morning everyone, and thanks for the messages
crisp My mum was very upset at first. I think because of the shock as well as the knowledge that he died in such a horrible way, but she's feeling better now. She's tough, my mum. Think it's difficult because he was on of the siblings she actually had a relationship (of sorts) with. (my mum's family is a bit messed up tbh)

anyway, S seeming to be in a better mood today. So fingers crossed that his poo that he managed yesterday afternoon has removed most of the blockage

HP most of your camping trip. DP will not go camping at all. That's ok, we can't afford any kind of holiday at all.

VG on the egg weighing thingie - weigh your eggs in their shells and take the weight of the eggs (eg. 6oz) the you use 6 oz each of butter, sugar and flour. cream butter and sugar, add beaten eggs little at a time, then fold in flour withg a large metal spoon.

Wotcha laydees

6.15 today but managed to ignore them and half-doze until 7.30 . Am hoping DD hurries up and learns to read so she can read him stories for an hour or three and leave us to snooze

VG good luck with the cake! But I thought you were off shopping. You're doing as well as me, been downstairs for 2.5 hours and have fed DC and put one load of washing on

Queenie glad your mum is feeling a bit better today

Poppy glad you had a lovely birthday, and well done for steering your friend away from being competition for Dizzy

Springa I think I would swap camping for some of the weekend breaks you have told us about

Hots yep we're pretty lucky in that respect . Have just been sent the offer for rooms for our anniversary break and am actually wondering whether I shouldn't have gone for a more upmarket expensive hotel as the offer they gave us works out really cheap here's the link but we got special deal www.lebelairhotels.com/boutique-resort.htm. As I have to do all the booking I might just do that

Poppy about your friend. You're birthday welcome home sounds very cute.

springa what can I say but

Happy birthday poppy, and how cute to be met by your girls Between that and Crispy's gorgeous photos on FB of her two little sweeties, I am longing for DS to have a sibling.

Afternoon

Brilliant result here for the day with the car. They paid out £200 more than i spent on the new one (which does have higher mileage) so we are only about £800 down on contents. Very happy and relieved

I have then spent the day trying to sort insurance, changing ferry bookings, breakdown cover and sorting the remortgage now i know how much money i had to play with. Was all a bit like a house of cards. Thankfully with a little more stability now.

Glad you had a good birthday poppy and got to see the girls too

LOL @ VG and her WTF? baking Q. I think even I might have known that

cyteen/VG I can lend you a screaming cute sibling if you would like

dizz hope you passed with flying colours today

spring I have refrained from clicking on the link, although would happly swap you camping in Dorset i would imagine . Loving the turnaround in camping thinking though

We have the Toddler group social evening here tonight so i have also spent the day cleaning and mopping in preparation. Am wondering when things might calm down

I LOVE warm weather. DD1 has amused herself for the last half hour painting patio slabs with water. No lasting mess or pictures to be strung up at jaunty angles in the kitchen. Just fab

It's been so nice here today that we walked to nursery and back, 2x 30 minutes in the hot sun without cream on means my back and shoulders are a little red. Luckily my face is only on the inside.

VG ignore all the mocking... i would have had no idea either about the eggs! i probably would have broken them and then weighed them. Hmm, wondering now how much an egg shell weighs.....

i'm not here, i'm making more baby cubes! thankfully for only a 4 letter name this time though

catch you all properly later

My shoulders are certainly feeling a little sensitive to the touch tonight, despite Factor 30 on morning and afternoon and my battered straw cowboy hat. Thank heavens my blue skin genes (from the wayward Scottish garndfather) got beaten by DH's lovely golden ones when it came to our kids.

DH off to Boringwood til Friday so I now have the car, hurray. Trying to decide if I should let him take the laptop next week as he is threatening to buy a new expensive gadget to entertain himself. Could be a good exercise in living internet-free for me (more reading, more housework etc) but God it would be lonely wouldn't it! What would you guys do?

buckets...if it were me and my dh, i'd definitely give him the laptop. my DH is far too good at spending money and needs no excuses to go shopping!

Having heen up since 5am I am officially shattered. I couldn't sleep last night so decided in all my wisdom to get up and sort out the kitchen. Needless to say that turned into irrational panic that he would be inspecting the lounge, downstairs bathroom, study and front porch Lovely Env Health bloke, whom I have met before, came in, had a cup of tea and a chat, filled in the form and left, job done

Maviscake party this afternoon which was great fun, I think I enjoyed it more than the kids and they were great. My friend Jen just kept clicking away with the camera and took some brilliant shots. Poppy is it terrible that I'm not devastated about your friend changing her mind If she very near me as if someone asks for decorated cakes I can pass them on to her - I can't do sugar craft etc

Lovely news about all the shiney new cars I want a bright yellow campervan called Sunni but she's £14.5k so I'll stick to the keyring to remind me what we're aiming for!

DH is putting the bikes away and then on nightshift so I'm sitting eating my salad - for some reason the phone hasn't stopped ringing and I can hardly string a sentence tonight - which is unlike me I know!

Miamla - loving all your ideas! I was thinking about the blog colours but tell me if I'm insane.

VG - how did the cake turn out?

QofD - hope your mum is doing ok.

Slingapore I can't remember if I've said how much I loved the photos!

My Aunt is over from Spain, I didn't know she was coming with my cousins' daughter so she phoned today looking to have DD1 for a few days next week. This will break DD2's heart and mean that I'm not with DD1 on her birthday. Fecking families I know I'll manage with DD2 no problem but why does it all have to be so fucking complicated?? Have resigned myself to the fact I'll have to be without my aunts and as long as they still want a relationship with the girls then thats fine

Sorry all to be so absent and apologies if I'm repeating myself. Everything has caught up on me, I'm shattered and possibly premenstrual so having an early night once DH leaves and going to catch up a little.