Fab and Forty, Blooming, Popping, Popped or working on it .... join us

[BonzoDoodah]

Hi All
If you're over "that age" and want to chat to similar mums - join us here for gossip, slander, oggling, dieting, cake, chocolate and more ... get on here and join in hte gossip .. we don't hang round ...

yes ermintrude what with the home birth (fingers crossed) and you being an old hand at this malarky we shall be expecting an announcement within the hour! (of the birth, not this hour obviously)

wonder how onehitwonder's doing

Ohhh new babies, new names, new everything!

exciting!!!

nods to mrsb

Bet you're getting broody eh?

nope

maybe

Bet you'll be on here before xmas telling us you're up the duff. A fiver says you will be.

spits on her palm and offers it to mrsb**

ermintrude I think we're all expecting a blow-by-blow / push-by-push account while you're having your LO. I mean, I can't see why your DH can't log into MN while you you talk us through it all Babs Cartland style. Oooooer, just had a vision of you in a birthing pool, heavily made up and wearing a huge, wet puffball pink frock....*ugh need to lie down, I feel sick

mrsB Yeah, I'll chuck in a quid to say yer'll be up the duff by New Year!!

JW thin legs....ahhhhhh, I can only dream.

Oooo, I bet tee will have been shown her bay...surrounded no doubt by some lovely curtains! Hahaha while on Morphine after having had Iris I thought I could see Ringo Starr moving in the curtains round my bed When I came round it was actually just an odd print of famous Buckinghamshire landmarks and Ringo Starr wasn't one of them!

haha jj how perfectly random

I would take your fiver gladly jw if you add a few zeros to it!

the only thing stopping me is a) my weight
and b) the cost of nursery places for 2.

Even though our work nursery is cheap there is no guarantee it will be kept open for anything beyond the next year or two.

Ladies, I will do my best to give you every gruesome detail as soon as possible, if not in real time . I thought it was all kicking off this morning - not because of any physical Signs, but because I felt the most tremendous urge to depilate, which I've not bothered with for ages. Epilated legs, shaved pits and Immaced down below - but of course, couldn't see under the bump so applied by touch and have ended up with a rather pathetic tuft in the middle . JJ, that could be an even worse image than your Babs Cartland fantasy.... And no real signs that anything is doing, birth-wise. Grrrr.

haha I did the same thing ermintrude but was left with more of a one sided affair than a tuft. I do remember idly wondering (although certainly not caring) what the dozen or so onlooking medics made of it when my legs were up in stirrups...

Well, ladies, seventeen different kinds of sh&t hit the fan today over that client situation I mentioned the other day. The "intermediary" is furious because I sent my invoice direct to the people I did the work for. He wanted to intimate that he sent me to the client (ie that we have a business relationship even though I do not know him from Adam). His contribution to the whole tale was to suggest that the client call his secretariat (a freelance lady whom he pays a yearly fee to field his calls while he's interpreting).

As far as I can see, and the client can see, the situation was this:

1. he was unable to do the job himself as he was on holiday on the west coast of Ireland.

2. he was unable to recommend anyone directly, but told client lady to phone his secretariat.

3. secretariat lady phoned me to see if I could do it

4. I could, and did.

5. I was instructed by client lady to send the invoice to her, which I did

6. he simultaneously sent another invoice for 10 euro cents more per word to her. She told him to boil his head, that she was not paying his invoice but mine. He at the same time looked a little dishonest.

7. He rang secretariat lady to tear her into little strips, she rang me (telling me I was ruining my career in France), I rang him at her behest, he was unpleasant and bullying in the extreme to me, instructed me to ring client lady, which I did and "report back to him" (the arse).

Client lady says she is disappointed in his behaviour and is keeping my details on file. Did I score a coup for my business, or an own goal? Only time will tell. This man has never sent me any work btw, even though I sent him my details yonks ago, so it's not as though I'm losing his patronage.

As my sister said, "intermediary" guy needs to wake up and smell the coffee, and realise that freelance "means" freelance. I have far less to lose than him- all it would have taken with a bit of business acumen on his part, when he realised he couldn't do anything about the work he was being offered, was to graciously accept the fact. Instead he's made himself look like an absolute crook and a bully to boot. And I still have nothing to lose. Honestly, it's like operating in a feudal patronage system at the moment in France.

hi tee all the best for tomorrow! like duchesse said see you on the other side

Duchesse that's not an own goal!

When I had my own PR business and got preggie I was way too busy to take on anymore work as I kept falling asleep! I told a regular client I wasn't able to do a project for her - then gave her a list of people I thought would be ok - one of whom she gave the job to and I let them sort it out. Yep, I risked losing the client in the long term as he could've been better/more competitive than me - but hey, that's business! If you can't do it yourself don't moan!

I think he was basically looking to get a bit of something called a 'Finders' Fee' it exists in DP's business but TBH it's disappearing as the work becomes more precious. He's being a prima donna. Well done you!

ermintrude scruffy tuffs of pubic hair are the new 'Brazilian'

Thanks jj. Honestly that's what I think. Apart from the shouting (face? bovvered?), I'm feeling fairly smug calm and collected about the whole thing tbh. I was very honest with the client and told her that I worked "practically" (read- "entirely") on my own so there some jobs I would not be able to do for them- ie large ones with a tight deadline. I was a lot less honest with "intermediary guy", I have to say, but since he was shouting at me at the time, I really could not give a damn.

I used to work in head-hunting, where finders' fees are obviously common, but this is not at all the same thing- for a start he was not "finding" an employee, but a freelance translator for one job. So tough, really.

duchesse all is fair in love and hard nose business transactions. Tell him to kiss your a$$ !

I didn't do anything with lady garden on any of mine....I couldn't see it so why should anyone else be bothered?

Ringo Starr in the curtains eh? rubs chin Something Freudian in there I'm sure of it.

mrsb since when has money come into the equation with babies? I didn't have 2 pennies to rub together when my older 3 were little. Come to think of it.........I still don't have 2 pennies

Well I'm having a fab afternoon. Archers just finished, K has managed to get pineapple all over herself and I'm gonna go and test run the new pushchair.........bet she'll cry when I put her in it!

P.s. ermintrude if you get a move on, you'll just about beat tee to it......go on......

JW I didn't bother with down below last two times and am sure that MWs don't give too hoots about pubic grooming - I think I'm just bored. And not much hope of squeezing it out before tomorrow morning I fear.

On the subject of the Archers, what's the point of Vicky? Is she going to drive a rift between Mike and Brenda? Is the engagement cake going to be so tastelessly garish that even Jolene will blanch?

duchesse - sounds like the guy assumed his secretary should sub-contract you and gave her a hard time because she didn't, so she tried to pass the hard time onto you. But since you negotiated direct with the client and have no sort of agreement with Mr Bullyboy as a 'finder', it's entirely between you and client. I reckon it'll do you no harm at all.

hi all just got back from a lovely lunch with a mate and her 4wk old baby boy (awwwwwwwwwwww - he's so cute!) and I didn't have to take any children with me which was first! Uninterrupted adult conversation for 2 hours - bliss! DH took DS1 to pre-school then put DS2 to bed so it's all peaceful at home for my return too (though, on the down side, he's just announced he's going away again early Aug for a month )

Duchesse - your "intermediary" sounds like aprize dork - certainly no own goals as far as I can see (apart from for him - and serves him right!)

mrsb if you've any designs on more children then just do it - money really doesn't come into it once you've got them you just seem to manage! (my money's on Christmas too )

jw - that thread is very funny - clearly all men are the same (though I have been guilty of asking DH to do things and suffixing it with "for me"?? note to self....)

Going for a sit down with a cuppa before collecting DS1 (thanks DH ) catch up later

I thought Vicky was an overall good thing at first, but after today and the overnight bag in the boot thing, am beginning to wonder if she isn't in fact a little conniving...

OMG iris my Virgin box didn't record last night. Is it being repeated? ]sad]

Vicky is a nymphomaniac methinks and gives us 'good' girls a bad name

Errr....who is Vicky???? [baffled emoticon]

Isn't Iris on next week????

Have I walked into another thread?????

Vicky is doing the bizz with Mike. Trollop.

Nah, same thread I'm 'fraid

jj I just thought the same thing - I think Vicky's on some radio programme where they go "ooh arrr" and "more tea vicar" alot lol

jw - panic ye not - it's on next tues (8pm I think)

I think it is the Archers JJ I have lost track of it since I stopped driving home when it was on.

MrsB there is no time like the present the nursery could be there for years to come and if not there is always the baby in the draw like in the Britas Empire.

What am I going to do with this baby? he is only happy if I hold him so he can stand up, I can't really get much done not even type on MN. He is not being fobbed of with his activity centre either.

duchess pwwwwwww to the other guy (that is a raspberry by the way)

I did think you were talking about Ms Pollard for a mo though