pipsqueak

My husband and I live in the same area we grew up in, and our children are currently at the same primary school we attended. In those days, kids from our school didn't take an 11+ exam, we all just went to the local comprehensive. Nowadays though, it is far more the done thing to try for grammar school in our area. Our eldest daughter, now in year five, is showing signs of being rather clever.

My husband and I are both also gifted with high IQs and we each had very different experiences of secondary school. I enjoyed school life and relished my 'cleverness', and had a good group of friends, though I have realised there was a feeling of "we are not the same as normal people" and "those are the people that run things" you know the kind of thing - the kids smoking behind the bike sheds seemed to be the advanced ones even though academically they weren't, that's how it felt to me as a teen and I believe that is in part responsible for my not particularly having a career until I was 30 (although I always worked).

My husband never particularly enjoyed school but did not feel on the outside of society in this way as I did.

We are now in the process of going round looking at the local grammar schools. It is throwing up all kinds of conflicting thoughts and emotions for me. I believe I would have been better off going somewhere where high IQ was celebrated rather than being regarded as kooky and not very useful. Buried in there somewhere is also a bit of very old prejudice of these schools which of course were the same ones that were nearby when I was young and we regarded the kids that went there as "posh" and various other things... and that grammar school must be boring because they must have to work harder and have less fun... I am having these perceptions challenged I am happy to say!

I am also a bit drawn to the argument that there shouldn't be grammar schools and that all schools should be excellent. I also remember a lot of people disrupting the lesson by dossing about because they weren't really interested and engaged, and I guess this wouldn't happen as much at a selective school. I also have clear memories of pretending not to know answers that I did know, because my peers would take the mickey.

Clearly there is a lot of stuff going round in my head at the moment that I am trying to process - sorry if I am rambling!

I am interested to hear others' experiences - in particular how did it feel going from a primary school where you were consistently the top of the class to a secondary school where perhaps you were more average? Did anyone have similar experience to me? Any other views?

Thank you very much for helping me with my mental processes!

If you search for my website it doesn't come up on google. If you put in some keywords which ought to lead you to it, you get some other websites. If you do advanced search and enter exact phrase and quote an exact phrase from my site it says there are no results. Why is this?

They took 4.4K for the marketing of our house. I mean they told us 2% up front so I'm not saying they didn't, but just why does it cost this much? They write up some details, show some people round, make some phone calls...? Bit of a huge hourly rate? or am I missing something?

Also, why is it a percentage? Surely if you have a small flat they would do the same things they would if you had a large house, but the price difference would be huge.

If you are an estate agent please explain these things?!

I intend to start a new business. My husband thinks that I can only offset my start-up costs on my first business tax return, so if I buy things now before I've got anything to offset them against I will not have the chance to do so again. However if I wait til April I will hopefully have earnt some money over the next year and be able to offset at my first business tax return in 2013. Is that right?

Up until a year ago I was having contraceptive injections once every 12 weeks, I had these for about three years and did not have any periods at all in this time (yay!). But last year I changed to the implant, as I was told this was better. I still didnt get any periods for a long time but now I have started having a continuous one it's been going on for over a month now. It's only very light but is annoying as I like to swim a lot and have never been comfortable doing so with a period, even though I know it's perfectly possible with the right protection.

Has anyone else had this and is there a solution?

My husband bought some to try. He is a cyclist and usually has a protein shake made from whey powder after a training session. He bought the hemp just to see what it was like, but he didn't like it in a shake. Is it possible to use it in cooking, eg flapjacks or similar? It is strawberry flavour (allegedly - I havent tried it but it stinks).

On River Cottage Veg they did a raw vegan recipe for a choc torte thing made with avocados. I am not a raw vegan but this recipe looked interesting and I would like to try it, especially since avocados are supposed to be really good for you but I hate them in their plain form so maybe this would be a good way of making them palatable! Anyway, the recipe called for raw cacao powder, but would normal cocoa powder work just the same? I assume it is roasted or something. The stuff they had on the show was a paler colour.

If I have to use raw where can I buy it?

I have a pack of tofu hot dog sausages in a kind of boil-in-the-bag vaccuum packed package, the brand is Wheaty-the vegan way. They have no cooking instructions. I dont want to heat all of them up at once as it is only for myself, so i dont want to boil them in the bag. Is microwaving one or two of them ok or do I need to fry them? Can I even eat them cold chopped up in a salad straight from the pack?

Thanks!

It is an ingredient which seems to be in a lot of recipes but I have not been able to find it anywhere, but I have found brewer's yeast on the holland and barrett website. Is nutritional yeast the american name perhaps?

I have suffered with eczema on and off since I was a baby, and in that time I have had it in verious places - hands, arms, wrists, legs, chest, ears, both sides of the body. For the last couple of years I have had it only on my right arm on the inside of the elbow crease, and on the back of my right knee, and nowhere on the left. In the past, although it has tended to move around, it has always been symmetrical ie both hands or both sides of the chest. Is there some meaning to its current one-sided-ness?

I have heard some religious people say that it is sinful to be vegetarian because God meant us to eat meat and by not doing so we go against his wishes. How many here hold this view?

I know chewing is good cos it maked more saliva which neutralises plaque acids, but was wondering about the fruit flavour having acids of its own.

When if you are feeling angry about something, for example, it reminds you of all the other things that have made you angry in the past, and you get angry about those things all over again on top of your anger that you have already, and it feels like you have always been angry!

Or insert other emotion like guilt, joy, sadness, whatever

I know that this is normal, I just need to know what it is called. For an essay. It works for any feeling positive or negative. It's like when you file that new feeling you have to open the filing cabinet in your head and when you do that you spot all the other things that are already filed there and relive them a bit. I know it must have a name. What is it??!

When if you are feeling angry about something, for example, it reminds you of all the other things that have made you angry in the past, and you get angry about those things all over again on top of your anger that you have already, and it feels like you have always been angry!

Or insert other emotion like guilt, joy, sadness, whatever

i wear little else

On my washing line are some lines of what looks like tiny eggs, they are yellowish and lined up around the cable itself which gives a kind of mini corn on the cob effect. What are they?

My 4yr old daughter seems to have swollen tonsils all the time even when she seems perfectly well. Is this normal? My other daughter, who is 6, never seems to have the same problem. Could it be an indicator of anything to worry about?

Such as hemp seeds etc? I cannot find these things locally. I would also really like to try seitan and tempeh but I guess these are chiller products and so I probably couldn't order them. I live in Gloucester, so if anyone knows of a shop near me where I can get things like this that information is very welcome too! I only know of Holland and Barrett and the supermarkets.

Thanks!