laura g

I think I know what you mean but then again its an argument that can be taken a long way isnt it? Using that rationale, there are an awful lot of people who mark christmas / easter etc who shouldnt. "Belief" is such a personal thing. Our family has a few religions wonderfully jumbled up so as a result we seem to have an eccentric mix of beliefs! But when it came to our wedding we'd both been christened C of E so we were married in the church where my parents, aunts and uncles had been married. And where I was christened. We had to go every week for a year before we married and it was actually a really nice thing to do. We don't regret it in the least. I feel 'properly' married although that's probably not fair, never having done it any other way. But when things have been very bad, I do seem to get strength from thinking 'well, I promised I'd do this in front of God so therefore I'd better sort it out /get on with it because that's the way it is'. Does that make sense? I agree with whoever said earlier that you dont necessarily need a church / temple. We don't / haven't at the moment but I rather hope that will change in the future. Recently our local churches have been rather stuffed with parents trying to make sure their children get into the right schools (although the places have just been announced and there will no doubt be a corresponding drop off in attendance) but that's a whole other controversial debate.....

i dont usually do emotithingies but thats alot of stuff going on. no wonder you feel like your at breaking point. biggest thing though is where are you? like otherts have said: just an idea would be useful. and are you where you want to be for the foreseeable? are you looking to stay in the same area. and your son ..... re school uniform. bet i'm like a lot of people - always trying to shift the outgrown stuff. what colour is his uniform and what age / size does he wear?

I read it more as 'walking with a dog will make you (feel) more secure' which it can well do but i think some people will view dog as 'hard security; which is probably not the right message. especially in this climate.

The copy on the website does the 'concept' no favours at all. Who/what/why/when/where is about as clear as mud. I picked up on the 'biting dogs' comment - not sure how its meant but its not a good alliteration to make, if you see what I mean. Very interested to know why he has come up with the scheme and what the police and local council think.

This thread has made me laugh. Asses and double buggies and the like. The year I got married I was working to develop and launch a brand new coarse fishing club. Thousands and thousands of full colour leaflets and newspaper advertising. Wedding fever had me in its grips: I had half a brain and I was running late to deadline. It all went to press and got distributed......with my mums home phone number and address in. I had to bribe her to answer the phone nicely for 6 weeks.......

ooooh. brassed off. brilliant film. my dvd has probably worn thin at the aranjuez piece. stunning.

we finally got a wii a few weeks ago. dogs enjoy it more than us .... cant understand why we're standing up waving our arms around and join in with much shrieking and raaaaaring. raving rabbids or whatever its called is hysterical.

i'm ambidextrous, me. i've been the battleaxe and i've also been the person legging it after dope-off-the-rope shouting 'sorreeeeeeeeeeee' !!!!

even if you drive somewhere and park up and travel the rest of the way by PT .... isnt that too much hassle? if you dont know exactly what you're doing? at least with a train you dont have to think and you can just enjoy beingwith the kids. I'd wander down to the station at a quiet time and have a word with the ticket guys. They'll tell you exactly the best day and time to be going by train. quite often its worth buying a family rail card - even for one journey. depends on how old your children are. online quoting is scary because they are usually the full price tickets. OH had to travel to London from Colwyn Bay - via work so he wasnt bothered about the cost. paid over £100 when my mum used to travel up on apex for a quarter of that or less. last time we went to the natural history we found a car park just 5 minutes walk away. Very convenient so we took it but a bit mad - looked like a building site in progress. Probably the brickies making a few extra quid! Paid a tenner for that, all day.

currently in the car cd changer thingy.... miles davis boz scaggs joe jackson stevie wonder bee gees / barbara streisand and..... ukelele orchestra of great britain. and if you've never heard of them they're brilliant.... have a look at these.... life on mars nirvana smells like teen spirit

I've missed all reporting on this. I just knew a girl had died and there was confusion over how / why. Blummin hell fire, if those are the facts then yes I agree those in charge of the child's welfare have a lot to answer for. Because a child she is. Or rather, was. And she has been failed on many counts with tragic, tragic consequences.

this looks brilliant. Not a huge house which I quite like because you only end up cleaning it. But great outside space. and a lake!!! other than that it would be some kind of island. now that would solve my recall problems in a flash!!!!

Funny you should say that. I have a gsd x deerhoundy lurcher and he does the 'banana back' thing. Especially if you stroke his back, he naturally drops into it. Looks mad! He gets told to stand up properly!

I watched crufts last night. .... in my role as joe-bloggs-public-know-nothing the clumber looked really unwieldy and uncomfortable. I would have liked to see him in his 'natural environment' to get more of an idea of how they work etc etc. Im another one that agrees that for a good example of any breed, let alone a rare, specialised or 'at risk', £1000 seems a comparatively small amount.

That's really brilliant. I keep seeing knitting machines swing by on freecycle ..... i'm such a useless handknitter I wonder whether they're easier to use. When we've moved I may just have to look out for one (although then of course i'll never see one again!)

i love imdb myspace also, for all the things wonderful people bother to upload so you dont have to! www.mp3.com is really good too. buy far too many t shirts from www.threadless.com riight now this is kids favourite... unicorns poo marshmallows

Nice pic Jacky - you've resurrected the ongoing haircut argument! I think it's time for one and rachael most certainly does not! Oz hair bites for attention... Wrestling the space hopper And one year later ... shows how much both my boys have grown ...and incase anyone was interested in what happened to the space hopper.... Ozsnogs with Sam Rachel with (Dot, was it?) Shattered after a walk... A little bit of jackysian's cooper love (note the cushion to sit on - no nasty hard surface for him!) Sam and Twigg. Fashion victims both... Supervising the pool fill...

i disagree with you, op, and it's probably safest and most diplomatic to leave it at that.

we've had mowing going on round here for a few weeks. not in this garden though! we move out in april and i'm supposed to leave the garden as i found it.... last year Twigg amongst the greenery... day before yesterday. I believe the word is 'sparse'. what the *&@* am I going to do?

great pic but i could do without the foxes at the moment. they are all over the place and the dogs (well, Oz really) is a nightmare of wooohing and hurling himself at the window at the. Sad - I've only just found out that Joyce Stranger died before Crimbo. Both oz and twigg went to one to one training with her before we moved from wales. oz loved her even though she never really decided whether he was extremely clever or extremely stupid!

ozzy wants to get at the foxes having a shagfest up the garden.

i think breeze might have breed specific ears ... specific to what breed i have no idea!!! Twigg imo wins all ear competitions though!!

What a tragic story. Sadly one I can echo through my husband's experiences. His mum was in her mid 40's when her dementia took hold. At the time the family were living on a smallholding in scotland. His mum had sole charge of the place while his dad worked the rigs. Its very hard for my husband to talk about this period in his life ....... he was not old enough to realise what was happening and tragically more than one animal lost its life due to the illness. So I have to agree that sole care of an animal by a person with this condition is a very dangerous thing. It only takes one lapse. And if the lady concerned should make a mistake and then realise that error .... what a dreadful blow. I also agree that pets as therapy can be of real benefit. perhaps something can be done to ensure that this lady has supervised interaction with the animals she adores?

no! how can you call this a noodle?? I love your bagpipe dog (incase anyone's not met sidney, so called because as he winds himself up for a big yell he sounds just like inflating pipes!)

You might want to consider holding on to that. I watched a 1970's argos sell on ebay a while back - went for over 50 squids!!!