Pinot's Potty debt free journey!!!

f1widow

Hi pinot - just catching up (:o very ashamed to say my diaries have all ben neglected Im sorry - but I do have to say I do think about what you are all up to whilst im not looking on line!)

I too have a tonne of birthdays coming up - oh and mothers day - so feel very wicked spending money (more of that will be revealed over on my diary)

as usual your diary has made me chuckle - also have a DH who snores horrendously - but hopefully that will all be fixed soon as we learned last week that he needs an operation to remove very large pollops (Drs have been saying for years he has hayfever - poor man sounds like he has a heavy cold permanently and there are tissues around this house everywhere!) - no I dont for one minute want to worry you but if he has other nasal problems might be worth getting him checked out???

Ha ha fabreeze on the school shorts (I whisper I thought that was only me that did that kind of thing snigger snigger)
Anyway - promise to be more pro-active with the support - hear more soon x
Ps as dfw has just said please find time for you - a burnt out Mum and Wife is of no use and you know they cant all operate without you!

brizzledfw

Hi Mrs PG

Good to catch up on your diary. Its been a busy few days for you. Well done on getting through all the birthdays..I have started regifting stuff and so far it must have saved me a bit. I really don't need the toiletries I got for Xmas for example (no..really I dont!!! The bathroom is awash with them already!!) so have handed them on..eg. a Clarins collection to MIL and sold another collection of No.7 stuff on EBay last week.

Re DDs and schools..well its a huge topic and one that's close to lots of people's hearts I know. We were adamant that we wanted DD1 to go to the local comp and luckily she wanted to to, too. However it has been a tricky transition (she is Year 7 and adored her primary school) and she find some of the other kids basically bewildering with their attitudes and lack of wanting to learn. But..as others have said.. it has been getting easier since Xmas, she gets loads of after school/activity stuff and some fantastic, really motivated, switched on teachers (believe me, no adult is cruising in this school!!) and increasing amounts of self motivation...this is good news in my book - life skills indeed.

However DD2 is much more likely to struggle - she's feisty but much more likely to switch off and become disengaged. She's dyslexic to boot...we will just have to see how that one goes.. but for preference I hope she follows her sister.

Oh..and they walk..so thank god for that. £1500 in bus fares:eek:...how do you guys manage??

PinotGrigio41

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi Mrs PG



Re DDs and schools..well its a huge topic and one that's close to lots of people's hearts I know. We were adamant that we wanted DD1 to go to the local comp and luckily she wanted to to, too. However it has been a tricky transition (she is Year 7 and adored her primary school) and she find some of the other kids basically bewildering with their attitudes and lack of wanting to learn. But..as others have said.. it has been getting easier since Xmas, she gets loads of after school/activity stuff and some fantastic, really motivated, switched on teachers (believe me, no adult is cruising in this school!!) and increasing amounts of self motivation...this is good news in my book - life skills indeed.

Hey brizzled, how you doing ?

Well I think I could sit with you and ramble on all day about the bewildering attitudes of the children towards their learning and their behaviour. I had a similar conversation with DD1 last night, who informed me that the majority of her friends don't bother doing their homework and in her words "have no life outside of school as they are in detention every night" . She is in Year 9. The majority really do seem to have a don't care attitude and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate. I am starting to feel very old and seem to be constantly nagging and repeating phrases that my mum used to say to me and I vowed never to repeat to my own children, but some of the behaviour is astounding. I will shut up now though or I will be on a roll and go on forever and ever and ever ................. :rotfl:

How long is it before your DD2 will start secondary school ?

PinotGrigio41

Morning All,

Lovely to hear from you F1, please don't apologise for neglecting diaries, I have been too I'm ashamed to say, but we are all busy and we will get around to it in the end. I will try and catch up with you later today and read your news. Hope all goes well with your DH and the op to remove the pollops, my BIL has had that done a couple of times now. I don't think its something we need to check on with Mr Pinot, I think his snoring stems from being exhausted most of the time and is defiantly worse when he has been working crazy hours. He managed the weekend off, but is now working straight through until the 22nd without a day off, so the snoring will probably increase as the days go on, but bonningtons top tip definitely has helped.

Well I am really pleased today :j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

DD1 came home with her Options Confirmation letter yesterday and has got all of her choices. Just goes to show it was worth going into battle with the school over, as the subjects she wanted to follow weren't in the correct columns, so we had to make a special request. She is over the moon, as are we !! She also came home with a gifted and talented letter for a particular subject wanting her to attend Workshops for the next 4 months but at cost of £33 a session :eek:, I think there are 5 in all plus travel costs. It would be an amazing opportunity for her, so I will need to tweak the budget again to incorporate these, but Im not going to say no to her if I can help it !!:D

Have a lovely day everyone x

PinotGrigio41

Can someone please tell me how , if I want to quote something someone has posted, but only bits of it, how I do it ? I have tried everything and I only seem to be able to quote the whole thing, not little sections. Everyone else seems to manage, what am I doing wrong ?? !!

debtfreewannabe321

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

Can someone please tell me how , if I want to quote something someone has posted, but only bits of it, how I do it ? I have tried everything and I only seem to be able to quote the whole thing, not little sections. Everyone else seems to manage, what am I doing wrong ?? !!

I just press quote and then delete the bits i don't want :rotfl: there is probably a more technical way but i've no idea how.....! So long as you leave

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

at the beginning and

at the end it's always worked for me xx

debtfreewannabe321

hahahhaha excellent i just made a quote up that you have never said

I meant leave all the bits in that have [] in the quote lol!

debtfreewannabe321

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi Mrs PG



Re DDs and schools..well its a huge topic and one that's close to lots of people's hearts I know. We were adamant that we wanted DD1 to go to the local comp and luckily she wanted to to, too. However it has been a tricky transition (she is Year 7 and adored her primary school) and she find some of the other kids basically bewildering with their attitudes and lack of wanting to learn. But..as others have said.. it has been getting easier since Xmas, she gets loads of after school/activity stuff and some fantastic, really motivated, switched on teachers (believe me, no adult is cruising in this school!!) and increasing amounts of self motivation...this is good news in my book - life skills indeed.

Hey brizzled, how you doing ?

Well I think I could sit with you and ramble on all day about the bewildering attitudes of the children towards their learning and their behaviour. I had a similar conversation with DD1 last night, who informed me that the majority of her friends don't bother doing their homework and in her words "have no life outside of school as they are in detention every night" . She is in Year 9. The majority really do seem to have a don't care attitude and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate. I am starting to feel very old and seem to be constantly nagging and repeating phrases that my mum used to say to me and I vowed never to repeat to my own children, but some of the behaviour is astounding. I will shut up now though or I will be on a roll and go on forever and ever and ever ................. :rotfl:

How long is it before your DD2 will start secondary school ?

luckily for you your DD sounds like she has her head screwed on :eek: at all the others being in detention.....i'm so glad my son stayed where he was. He's MADE to do his homework in prep time. I remember when he was at the primary and he would refuse to do homework for me :eek: i think he would be the same if he went to that local comp we were thinking about .....ds will be in year 9 this september and is looking forward to making his gcse choices just so he can drop R.E :rotfl: he is an atheist and refuses to par-take in any discussions in school about it! :eek:

PinotGrigio41

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

luckily for you your DD sounds like she has her head screwed on :eek: at all the others being in detention.....i'm so glad my son stayed where he was. He's MADE to do his homework in prep time. I remember when he was at the primary and he would refuse to do homework for me :eek: i think he would be the same if he went to that local comp we were thinking about .....ds will be in year 9 this september and is looking forward to making his gcse choices just so he can drop R.E :rotfl: he is an atheist and refuses to par-take in any discussions in school about it! :eek:

I will try again with the quote thing, but thanks for your top tip. I thought that was what I was actually doing, but the quote then didn't come out highlighted !! I will persevere !

Theres definitely something to be said for the children being made to do their homework in prep time or a homework club. I find that homework often eats into family time or stop us doing things as a family as we can't spare the time for DD to be out of the house and not doing her homework. Hopefully come Ye, itar 10 with GCSE homework will be a little more structured than it is at the moment. Its currently a bit hit or miss never quite knowing what they will get on what day. Sometimes going for days with nothing then being bombarded with 7 pieces all at once. How is DS doing now? Don't get me started on the RE thing !. DD has to study it at GCSE level, I think its a short course or something, but many schools study the short course only until year 9. She wanted to take a GCSE in another subject that the school don't offer and if she didn't have to study RE, it would have freed up some time for her to study the subject at another school apparently. So we aren't too pleased that RE is compulsory :mad:

PinotGrigio41

Well, today definitely wasn't a NSD again !:( I mentioned ages and ages ago that DD2 needed new dance shoes), but I have put it off for far too long and the poor thing hasn't had jazz shoes or ballet shoes for ages. She is dancing tomorrow so I really needed to get my act together. So today after school while DD1 was at a Dance Workshop we nipped to buy the Shoes. £48.00 lighter for a pair of ballet and jazz shoes we returned home !!:eek: Thankfully she has said she can make her tap shoes last a little longer.:D Unfortunately I couldn't tell the make or size of the old shoes or I would have scouted around online to see if I could get a better deal, but I didn't have time for this or any clue what size I needed. I will write it down now though in a safe place before the size and make wears off ,ready for when her feet next grow !!

Other than that another proud day with DD1, after yesterdays costly good news, she has today been scouted at the dance workshop and been asked to audition for a place at an Advanced Training Academy which is about an hours drive away. If successful she would need to train all day on a Sunday and twice in the evenings midweek. It is supported by the Education Authority and she can apply for a means tested grant, but having had a quick glance at the figures it would still cost in the region of £2000 to £3000 a year. On top of the workshops for a different subject yesterday and the singing and normal dance classes this could really get silly. I will take a proper look into it and give them a call tomorrow. It could potentially lead to a full time place, so I'm not quite sure if the fees I am looking at were for a full time place or part time. Also, as much as she is sooo excited to be one of only 2 people chosen to audition, and loves to dance , I am not sure she has great aspirations to follow it as a career. There are far more other things she loves to do. So, looks like we have a lot to think about over the next few days.

Re DD2 and secondary school, we have accepted her place at the local Comp with her sister, but as of tomorrow we will find out where she is currently placed on the waiting list for the Grammar Schools. IF a place were to arise ( by some miracle ) we can then re think things. She is currently being taught at the local comp anyway and loves it there, so I am sure whatever happens she will be fine and happy, but will maybe need to toughen up a little. I will get DD1 to give her some training !! :rotfl: Right off to dose up my youngest now, she is running a lovely temperature tonight xxx

Hope everyone is well and you all have a lovely evening xx