My Forum

Poor old moggy passed away this afternoon. Girls and I were out all day at my godson's first holy communion and when we got back hubby was on the doorstep so I knew what had happened. In a way I'm glad it happened today as had already decided that we'd take her to the vet tomorrow otherwise and really don't know how I would have dealt with having to watch her go. Lily was in bits, really upset, Issie pretended to cry because we were crying (but she was actually intrigued by seeing a dead cat), and when I told Anna we were going to bury Mash she asked if we were "doing gardening" with her which made us laugh. House won't be the same without our old cat (reckon she was about 18 yrs) but glad she wasn't suffering for long - really she was fine up until about Friday then suddenly went massively downhill. We've buried her in the garden and the girls all picked flowers to put on the stone we laid on top. Sad day .

Erm, thanks for popping in "international movers" - on your way now ...

So looks like I've missed quite a lot; Minks doing a marathon (fab going even if you didn't get the time you wanted),  TT moving, and nasty black clouds (hope they clear for everyone soon), and talk of soft poo!

JG - well done on your race, definitely sounds like you should knock a few minutes off for the terrain. I'm doing my first off road race next month and was wondering how far off my road race time I'm going to be - after your report I'm definitely not holding out any hope of a PB over the distance. Hope you're rewarding your efforts tonight with some well deserved vino.

TT - boo to the poorlies in your house, hope you all feel better soon.

Caro - saw your message about the Gunpowder Mills, we went last year on fireworks night (they do a bit display in the evening), kids loved it but I would like to go back when it's not so bloomin' freezing outside.

So I did my long run this morning as not sure if I'm going to get a run in at all tomorrow as I'm out with the girls at my godson's first holy communion which is on the other side of London. As it's close to my mum's I'll have to pop in to her too so probably won't be back til pretty late. So 10 miles done today averaging 8.38mm which is pretty much identical to the speed I did last week but boy do my legs ache today. Probably wasn't helped by the fact that I then didn't sit down all day until Doctor Who at 7pm. Hubby held his first kids-fit trial session today which I had to video for his assesment as the final part of his YMCA course to allow him to teach fitness stuff to kids. So we had nine 5 and 6 year olds in the park taking part in the session. Rather him than me though, most of the kids behaved really well and were totally up for the games but some of the girls just couldn't be bothered. On the whole I think he handled it really well though so fingers crossed it's good enough for a pass.

On a sadder note though, my cat is dying . This last year she's been losing weight continuously and has gone blind and in the last couple of days she's now stopped eating and is struggling to walk. My dad thinks I should get her put down but even thinking about it makes me cry . I know she's only a cat but I've had her for longer than I've had any of my children and longer than I've known hubby so very sad to think of her not being here . Off to give her some strokes now ...

Thanks for all the reassurance that I'm not blowing a fortune on our holiday. Although I let slip to hubby tonight how much the ferry was going to cost and got a massive "HOW MUCH?" back. I think the problem is we're just not used to treating ourselves to luxuries and a holiday is most definitely a luxury in our house. Just realised I didn't factor petrol into the price but as I'm planning to pay a bit extra to get the ferry to a port that is just 2 and a half hours away (rather than going on the cheapo one to Calais and driving for 4 and a half hours), it shouldn't be too much more. Sod it, I'm booking the ferry tomorrow anyway and am not going to think about the cost again!

I won't be joining you on the no drinking tonight though Minks as there's an opened bottle that needs finishing off tonight. Well, I wouldn't want to risk it going off would I  .

Well done Camio - fab time there!

Minks - I googled Knebworth House, looks really nice and not too difficult for us to get to so might take my girls there over the summer.

Talking of summer, I'm having a wobble over our Summer holiday. Bear in mind that we've not had a proper holiday in years so I've no idea how much these things should cost so I'm now worrying about spending the money. We've already scrapped the Euro Disney day as that was going to cost as much as a weeks accomodation at the place we've booked in France, but still the holiday plus travel is going to cost about £1000. So I'm going to be nosy and ask how much do you ladies normally spend on a family holiday. Is this about normal? I guess I'm really just looking for someone to tell me it's okay to spend that amount of money so I can then ignore the little voice in my head that keeps reminding me of all the things we could use that money on for the house.

Good luck to MM for today - hope it all goes well.

Hoggle - poor M, very unlucky to have both impetigo and HFM at the same time. Good to catch the impetigo early though, my nieces both had it quite badly when they were little and it was really nasty to look at.

JG - you're right the stranger danger thing is really tricky. She keeps talking about getting lost and how she thought we'd never find her so it must still be playing on her mind too. So last night we talked about what she would have done if somebody offered to take her to a policeman, would she have left the beach with them? She said no but she's actually quite trusting so I think she would have gone with anybody who promised to find her mummy and daddy for her. Statistically speaking I know it was highly unlikely anybody would have taken her but as CC says there is so much reporting on all these horrible cases of kids being being abducted that it has us all worried that there's a wierdo around every corner just waiting for the chance to snatch one of your kids when that's clearly not the case.

Boo to annoying work colleagues, so frustrating. My work colleagues are mainly okay but I'm going through a lack of motivation stage again, not really helped by the fact that the promotion my boss and I were pushing for last year still hasn't happened (and I'm not sure if it ever will). Back to feeling a bit undervalued but shouldn't complain really, at least I have a job and it pays reasonably well. And on that note, I should probably get back to work ...