Someones enjoying the snow! 

 

That's a brilliant video, Cinds. What a happy little pingu!

It is so cute isn't it, I should have posted it in a thread of its own titled 'I've been secretly filming our FM Pengy'

You should have done.

 

I showed it to my 24 year year old son, who normally goes at the videos I show to him, but this one got a big .

My 2 yr old loves the penguins on my pj's (she counts them... there are LOADS) and she loved this earlier

Ha ha - the bags ball just got a mention on TV - This Morning.

 

It was a dance place in Cleethorpes - Wednesday was always known as the bags ball - as the guy said - it was known world wide - all the sailors and deck hands used to go when they were in port.

 

It's not there now - I only went once to a hen night - it is very fondly talked about and remembered by the locals though.

I've never been to bags ball, although I have visited one or two ball bags in my time 

In between unpaid child care I've been trying to chase up vat details from a customer. I haven't got my right clothes on today. Went to the local florists to get some staffs and all is being cleared out for the Valentines scam. As if Christmas isn't enough, we'll soon have Easter and various Mothers grandmothers and so on. Where did St Patricks day suddenly come from? Or are they missing a trick by not selling Burns Night cards? Perhaps we should beat them to it?

Interesting that daffs was changed to staffs mind.

Haha Joe ... I did wonder if staffs was an Up North thIng!

 

I'm liking your thinking re Burns Night ... let's do it

Joe, you missed pancake day! There should be a nice lemon, sugar & flour display up

We've looked at 2 schools this week with the eldest.  He has to choose which he wants to go to in September.  I asked what he thought of both and he answered 'well the first one didn't have many snacks but the second had loads'.  Nice to know he's got his priorities right

 

The first school put on quite a good show.  The science lab was great, lots of experiments going on and they even dissected a rat in front of us   The second did the kind of experiments you'd actually get to DO at school although they weren't as exciting.  And he was right, the second school put on quite a spread.....all cooked in the Home Ec class during the visit.  The 2 schools are quite different and I have no idea which he would be better off at.  

 

My advice Ells, for what it's worth, is that they thrive when they are happy.

 

Look where his nice friends are going (and look where his horrid classmates are going).

 

Go where the nice kids go

I'll have to wait til next week til his transfer test results come in before even talking it over with him.  If he doesn't pass then there is no option, he goes to the school we saw tonight but if he passes then he'll have to decide.  Such a big thing to let an 11 year choose but I don't want to force him to go somewhere he doesn't want to.  His classmates all seem to be the same though, they say they want to go to the 1st school (because it's a college and they think that means it's better) so I suppose they'll know better where they are planning to go once the test results are in.

Very important - NUMBER ONE PRIORITY even over the school itself. The kids your own kids make friends with has so much if an impact.

I'll have to have a nosey on his facebook next Saturday when the kids are all posting their results and see where the wee shits who picked on him last year are going.

In kind of related news I had a freshly made scone tonight with jam and cream on it.  Normally I just butter my scones but this was so delicious I've decided I'm going to attempt to make my own this weekend.

I'm loving your thought process Ells.

 

Yup, don't go where the little shits go

 

And, yes, scones with jam and cream deserve a revisit

*pops in*

 

Ells...   I went through hell when we were doing this with Alf...    he got horribly bullied at primary school by one kid (it went on for over 2 years, and ended up going all the way up to the local authority, and even police ended up involved..  the kid got excluded in the end)...  

 

anyways...   cos of this..   & cos this little shit was going to the local secondary, we promised Alf he wouldn't be going there.    So I put 4 other options on his form...    and then they allocated us a completely different school..   the other end of town..    the roughest bloody school in the whole region...    the mum's don't even wear shoes when they pick their kids up..  and its surrounded by a load of high rise flats known locally as Skag (heroin) Towers.

 

then there followed months of horrendous uncertainty, we dipped our toe into the appeals process (which is a farce)...   and it looked like I was going to have to home school him out of protest until they managed to get him into one of the original 4 requested.

 

Then his primary school teacher told us there were places at a school over the county border, her words "a good, well performing HAPPY school".    We've never looked back.    Best thing I ever ever did.

 

I do have to drive a 28 mile round trip twice a day to get him there...    but not just sending him to the local school was definitely the right move.

 

Agree with what Rexi says..    Alf's group of friends are all nice lads, from nice families (not necessarily well off..   just well brought up)...   

 

 

Good luck with it all....    it was one of the most stressful times ever when we went through this (though I will warn you...    you are now at the point where you have stress city milestones every couple of years...   Roll on when they are 25! )

Ditty, who lied to you told you that the worrying stops when they are 25?

 

Ells, I agree with the other posters. If you can, choose the school where you think your son will be happiest.

Had you put Mrs Joes on by mistake?

 

yeah,,..  I hear that alot...    

 

ok, so more specifically...     after 25 I can worry from the outside/from afar...   it won't be down to me to sort it

 

I'm still kidding myself here aren't I? 

25??????

 

I'm stopping at 18

Yep!

 

20 years ago I used to say..   "16 years, then I can have my life back" 

 

over the following decade I upped it to 18 years (baring in mind that I reoffended 5 years later, and had the boy...   adding 5 years onto the countdown to freedom).... 

 

the girl is 20 in March, the boy is now 15...  based on the way things are going I have readjusted my parole time to 25 

 

No, no. When the boy turns 18, I'm getting the dogs put down and I'm effing off, Mr C can come if he wants, either way I'm still going.

 

882 days to go.

Speaking of the girl...     I have just discovered there is a way to appease her/cheer her up/encourage her/comfort her when she is having one of her (hormonal   teenage   diva-esque   pity party) woe is me moments down in London -  

 

sometimes these moments are a little bit justified, but they do tend to just be her having a moan...     I used to either try to comfort her, or give her a kick up the rear..   but all that did was make me the target for her angst 

 

I have now discovered that my daughter really is a mad cat lady waiting to happen.

 

Any crisis can be averted by texting her pictures of either her cat, or my friends kittens...   or even cute pics of cats from the interweb (no chance I will ever run out of those).

 

She was having one of these moments last night on FB (pressure of uni workload...  with a large helping of PMT - though she would deny that ) and her cat jumped up on the sofa next to me and posed for the cutest pic EVER!!!  I swear whenever she normally does something cute the moment you get your phone ready to take a pic she stops...   this time she posed... 

 

So I posted it.. 

 

 

Job Done!    Ickle drama over!    Mad Cat talk for the rest of the night! 

 

I had a similar plan..      though it was get MrD put down & the dog can come if he wants 

Although I see from my FB that after I went to bed my daughter posted something about not knowing that Lonesome George (the Galapagos giant tortoise that was the last of his species) had died, and why did she not know this had happened (it was AGES ago) and then that this news had made her cry

 

 

MOST DEFINITELY PMT!!!!!!    

 

So glad she is not coming home this weekend..    yesterday was the tears...   today will be the stropping..    tomorrow will be the rage!!!  

 

I will look forward to her coming home the week after next when she is sane! 

Last term we were unfortunate enough for her 4 weekly visits home to coincide with the 'weekend of rage"  (or the "red rage" as her suicidal brother once said to her )

Right... 

 

the dog is getting seriously pee'd off with me...      I told him I was just gonna have a quick coffee & then we'd go for a walk...    that was half an hour ago.

 

 

So back out into the cold I go...........

blimey...    I spammed the thread!! 

That's hilarious.  I either get irrationally angry, and it could be over something that happened 20 years ago OR overly emotional so much so I cry at everything and anything.

"I haven't got my right clothes on today!" Is a family expression for being disorganised or annoyed. Nothing to do with "being up on the blocks!" Or any of the other delightful euphemisms you ladies come up mit.

OMG that pic is SO cute and I'm more of a dog person!

 

Ells i'm going through the school selection waiting to to hear back process too, we had to apply by the 31st of Oct and won't hear back until 1st March (which actually isn't that far away now) Closest 2 schools to here are the ones you see all the kids walking home from swearing and fighting etc looking like little gangsta wannabes or soon to be teen mums (that's sounds awful but you get my drift right?) Admittedly one isn't as bad as the other.

 

So we applied for one just outside the 'catchment area' (what a load of crap that whole system is!) she had to audition (you may remember me stressing about it) and just wait..... and wait..... and wait.... If she doesn't get into that one i have put the better of the two not so great schools as the second option. AND once we get the news yay or nay..... THEN we have the SAT's in May..... 

 

I have to agree with the others about your son being happy, that's all thta counts Good Luck i hope the choice gets easier for you

My girlie is 30 on Valentines day - I worry far more about her now than I ever did when she was younger. Believe me it never stops.

I'm a definite dog person....     I really wasn't that keen on cats at all.

 

But we've got lucky..    Faythe is soooo lovely...    and funny.

 

I am besotted with her 

 

 

&  - the school selection process sucks!   Really sucks!   I hope she gets in Jen (I had similar thing with Ickle...    she sat the 11+ in the autumn...  then had to wait til March to find out if she got a place at the grammar.    was mega stress cos typical Ickle..   she didn't want to go anywhere else..   we had no back up plan.    I opened the letter after she had gone to bed on the night of her bday (didn't want to ruin her bday if she hadn't got in)...    and screamed when I read she had & had to go up & wake her up.

 

I really hope lil Jen gets her place xx

shhhhhhhhhhhhhh 

 

 

 

Lol Soozy, my Mum used to say 'Once a mother, always a mother'

 

Ditty thanx, I'll be sure to put a post on here either way.

You mean my mam is still worrying about me? Why? I have a job, a roof over my head, pay my bills on time and so on... surely I'm ok now