laura g

when we had the secondhand / antiquarian bookshops, i ended up pulling the older dog training books off the shelves. One particular one advocated a good hefty knee in the dogs chest to cure jumping up. couldn't guarantee that some loon wouldnt buy thinking it was ok methods to use.

so sorry teq. thats (to me anyway) extreme behaviour in the least. i wouldnt know where to start. interesting thread though. quite relevant to the fact that i've decided to keep off of full time work for the next few years - because of the kids. Sam is 12 and going into year 8 in september. rachael is moving up to year 7 to join him. at a time when most parents are using the opportunity to go back into work full time, we've decided its best that i'm around. it seems like time and 'effective parenting' opportunities are like water running through your fingers - if that makes sense. i'm not going to be on their case or smothering them. i can keep a handle on them and be here when they need me. respect is the key word. i think its fair to say that some parents present themselves as friend rather than carer. boundaries are blurred. my children have friends. and i'm not one. a different role entirely.

interesting to see all the gatwick ads - we're only 5 mins away and this time of year do a roaring trade in family and friends. wouldnt dream of charging but a duty free bottle never goes amiss!!!!

excactly the bit i picked up on. was she checking couples didnt cohabit before the event too?

Rachael turnedd 11 last month and goes up to senior school in september. the school holds a 'junior prom' on the same evening as the senior leavers do. 'newbie' youngsters get to see the glamorous older ones, like simikins lois, leave for the south of england show ground ..... took this picture of rachael just before she left. cant believe how grown up she looks.

really lovely. you'd never want to leave it, even in the winter wrapped in a duvet with a mug of hot chocolate....

excellent ideas all lmao at the waitrose thing. you were me last night when the steak and stilton open topped pies had been put down to 20p!!!!

Blimey no. darent do RMF it's like the land that time forgot - go in for 'a quick look only' and you lose the day! Kane is fab. We could staple you on or something?!

Excellent stuff so far. And interestingly enough stuff i'd already been thinking about. So great minds and all that. BMAK (before marriage and kids) I was a qualified BSAC diver. Always wanted to dive Scapa Flow... so that's on the list. Right behind getting fit enough not to look like Mrs Blobby in a dry suit!! And if I'm getting fit, number two on the list is western riding -have been inspired by the fact that we now live on a quarter horse stud farm!!! Dont fancy working with orangutangs. Like carrying coals to newcastle after living with my kids / oh!! If I could go anywhere in the world it'd be the Galapagos Islands. Love the tattoo idea. Would really like a stylised hare. OH would had an apoplectic fit. So that's number 10 out of the way too! More info needed! Buying one? Playing out fantasties involving Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall in one? Building one? What are we talking here? Oooh you can have a go at Jacky's Kane. Just watch you dont fall off him like everyone else seems to!! sorry. done that already!!! much better relationship now the business has gone and he spends two weeks of every month in dubai!!!!!

ooh. sounds like a plan!

could have sworn I's started this topic before but perhaps not - or did someone else? Certainly the brain cells are decreasing in their thousands as the birthday approaches! Right. I'm 40 later in the year. Life has been a bit of a repetitive, turgid swamp for a good few years. So shakeup time. I've sort of started a list: 40 things to do at 40. Plenty of categories to choose from. Cheap / easy / cheap and easy / expensive / insane and dangerous / expensive, insane and dangerous / cheap insane and dangerous etc etc etc etc etc What would you do? Or have done? ps: might be a prize for the most inspirational and / or shocking!

thats a good thought. when we were looking the first time, agents would ask what kind of dogs I had. In my naivety, i thought they wanted little toy ones rather than big and hairys. So I was describing the (then) two lurchers as 'oh you know, normal sized cross breeds). Turns out what they DONT want to hear - or at least round here is 'bull breeds' or the other breeds most in the press these days. Bloody tragic.

funny jules saying that. as a bookdealer (and with no chance of being at your bootfair) my advice is just check what you have there. Very little value in 80's enid blyton but some, even paperbacks, from that time are highly collectable.

we found ours through a high street agent. no extra deposit required. advert made it clear it was rural and animal friendly. only issue for us was slapping holding deposit down first and fast. i actually signed up for it without husband even seeing it!

absolutely. i remember peter coming home from the park quite upset - with himself. he'd taken the kids to play and another little girl had fallen off the swing - bashed her knww, bawling her eyes out. His first though, rather than runnign to help / comfort was what him approaching the girl could have looked like to others. He actually walked to a group of women further in the park and asked them to come help. it hadnt helped that only a few weeks before, he'd been helping at the school. walked into the classroom, they must have been 5 or 6 at the time. Two children immediately started screaming and crying - it's not that they had ever been abused by a man, just from a female only house and never interacted with one!

that's a really good one. hadnt thought of that.

agree he looks fab! daughter, bless her, managed to fall off Kane. Hope Jacky didn't force you into climbing back on like we forced poor Rachael! (DON'T be silly... no nonsense, it doesn't hurt, back you go!!!....)

re: the washing, there's a guy on ebay selling 10kg sacks of top brand crushed washing tablets. enough for 350 washes so works out apparently at about 4p per wash. 6.99 plus a tenner postage. seems really good value - would last me a year - so i'm thinking of buying some of that.

we don't shop at morrisons any more - on account of the fact i have no idea where the nearest one is! only thing i miss is the deli counter: they sell the end pieces of the cooked meats - all mixed up - at a fab price. and cheeses too. they were brilliant for the dogs.

another yay for charity shops and boot fairs. we bought practically all daughters b'day presents from a local bootfair. literally a couple of hundred poundsworth of stuff for quids. tons of practically never worn top shop / warehouse clothes. bath and makeup kits never opened. and a never used babyliss hair extension kit - less than a fiver as i recall. dogs also do very well at bootfairs. toys and balls and the like. and i had a good one last week. bought a book for 20p that i'm going to turn around for at least £20. like a said in a previous post - i'm struggling with whether watchmovies.net is kosher. because if it is i never have to buy a dvd or go to blockbusters ever again. or go to the movies even. we love the cinema but it's becoming so expensive. even without the popcorn / drink stuff.

I have one of those taller pet ones from argoos. blummin fab. should have got one years ago. can now come into the house without being mobbed. what about one of those kiddyguard retractable fabric ones? they're like roller blinds. Useless for our guys who love to hang over it yelling but for a less enthusiastic pooch? bonus is no trip hazard at all and when they're restracted they are practically invisible. think mothercare sell them.

if ethical is indeed the right word. i'm having a blonde day. ok. well. as a family, we don't 'do' pirate movies. so: what's this watchmovies.net site about? it's a 'crawler' type site, picking the films up from other sites. I can see that. But if we're not paying for them, who is making money at the other end? there has to be someone getting something for it, hasnt there? and its got to be illegal somewhere along the line, hasnt it? some of these movies have only just hit the theatres, let alone blockbusters!

must be said, that would be my solution too. My OH won't pick poo up. And he won't do the cat litter box - although he did do when I was pregnant. Bit annoying but then again he never said he would, if that makes sense. Could I make him now? I suppose if it was a good enough reason. Although he'll mobilise the kids before he did it himself. And they'd love it too much. We don't bag up - just lob over the hedge. Tend to do it myself as I have reasonable aim and their version of 's**t-cricket' involving a blindfold and an old bat is a game too far for me!!!

lovely kitchen. i had black granite effect surfaces (axiom stuff) and continued it up the walls as splashback too instead of tiles. looked a bit 'full on' apart from at night: when the under cupboard lighting was on the effect was fab. what about white but oblong rather than square - like bricks? or would that be a bit too public toilety? huge wall space like that: how about 'statement' wallpaper? the big patterened bold stuff thats 'in# right now? although the one my friend has just put into her kitchen / diner: i could swear my mum and dad had the same back in the swinging seventies!!! or this type of thing? wall paper murals. or this place even converts your own photo to a wallpaper mural - have your dogs tearing across the wall!! digital photo to wallpaper depends on how big your room is I guess.

interesting that. perhaps there is an element of not being able to. for instance, my mum is very wary of young black men. why? because she was mugged by one. So I guess she cannot help herself; although I do believe she should - like others with isms - engage her brain when she reflects on what she is feeling and why. Ooh! I've done that! Not a fetish though - he was v good looking and i wanted to find out how it stuck on round the corners (it's magnetic, you know). What's an extraordinary coincidence given the way that this thread is going .... he's now gay! It's the effect I have on men, apparently.....