Mumble

If not, you can pop round to mine...

Why not try using the opportunity of being in a different country to expand his diet? I've never got the concept of going on holiday somewhere and then only eating English food, staying in the hotel, speaking English and doing English activities. The part I've loved most of holidays and had the best memories from is where I've tried different things or been able to experience something authentic of the country I'm visiting. Just my opinion though.

Are you quite sure it's a rat you've got yourself there? It could be a Huffelump. My neighbour had a rat in my old old house. He used a cricket bat. No more Mr Rat.

Is it a real rat, or are you using 'rat' to mean a person? If it's a real rat you have to call pest control at the local council and they come round and kill them. In terms of qualification/experience, then surely it's totally individual? It depends on the person, their role and how they're 'selling' themselves. I would trust a hair-dresser who had 20 years learning on the job more than one just out of college with a string of qualifications who had only cut the hair on plastic dummies (dunno if that's actually how it works, but hopefully my point's clear... ). Jo Frost always qualifies what she's doing by referring to her 20 years nannying/etc. - she doesn't try to be someone she isn't.

That's 'cause they saw their older brothers and sisters who did try running away being eaten by random woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tiggers. Oh, and video hadn't been invented then.

This annoys me so much. Lost count of the number of times I've heard parents sreatching as a misbehaving kiddy in the supermarket that if they don't pack it in they won't be doing any more shopping and will be going straight home. And they don't get why kiddy carries on... D'Oh. It was a girl?? I though 'she' was a boy? But yes, I did the train-spotting too, though I began to have doubts because it seemed too rehearsed with the 'I know where my phobia came from' thing, almost as if the parents had read the fish 'n' chip psychology book and then rattled it off to the kid who had taken it all in and was now enacting it.

Thanks, I shall try that. I'll summon up all my powers of persuasion!

I'm not sure if it would be allowed (maybe you could ask you boss, he seems to understand what the mad woman is like) but could you use an MP3 player (could put the wire inside your uniform if there was a concern it would get caught) and listen to music / podcasts / whatever both so you have a reasonable reason to ignore her and just to distract you from her?

Ha, dropped yourself in it there, Mandapanda! Great news Tally, it sounds like things are settling down for you which you probably need right now. <'>

Thanks Lufty - though I wish I totally understood this. It's my Yahoo email that won't send to any email addresses belonging to this one company (sends to everyone else fine), and I can send to this company from my Google or college email accounts (but I don't want to use these for this as I try to keep things separate). How do I find out who my ISP who hosts my email is? I use uni wifi in student halls so don't pay anyone for a separate internet connection.

D'oh - why didn't I think of that? And I'm right in thinking that it would only be polite if I was making use of the cafe's free wifi that I purchase and consume a large double choc muffin whilst I'm there, yes?

Thanks both, That's a good idea - I'll ask my sister to send an email just explaining the problem. Would I have the same problem if I went into college and used a different computer? I can send emails to others without issue, it's just this company that the problem is with. Is it something they would have to sort at their end or something to be fixed at my end? Okay, feeling a little silly but, what's a DNS and how do I find who manages the wi-fi?

Help! I need to send an email to someone in a particular company, emailed them lots, they're expecting email from me, but each time I send it to either contact I have, I get a failure notice saying my IP has been blacklisted and the email undelivered. What does this mean and what can I do about it? I think IP means Internet Provider, but I don't have one of them (like AOL, BT, whatever...) that home users have because I'm in student halls where we have wi-fi access provided by the uni. Would this mean all the students have the same IP and so someone else might have done something naughty which has resulted in a blanket blacklisting? Is there anyway round this even just to let the people know that I'm having email probs?

Just watched it. And now feel the need to thump someone. Pass the drugs please. Is it just me or did anyone else want to slap and/or waft coffee under the nose of and/or send in Super Frosty for the first mum? Felt really sorry for the kid who was crying out for boundaries and completely lacked any positive behaviour modelling.

No, no no Kez, you don't understand. They say it's just diagnostic, but actually it's part of a huge Government conspiracy to magnetically and electronically align the future populations of the world. All babies will undergo 'diagnostic' scanning which will actually be used to re-programme every human baby to a set Government blueprint. The 'diagnostic' use being pushed is just a front for a massive agenda by a few to create a population of uniform robotic individuals to continue their work... Or something like that. I read about it on Wikipedia so I know it's true.

That sounds just like the holidays my brother's first care home used to take him on and he looks so chilled out in the photos from them - almost breaks a smile a few times!

And there's a silly amount of scare-mongering about by people who read a few books/websites/articles and think they are suddenly qualified nuclear physicists. In my opinion it is that ignorant spouting of nonsense containing long words which causes a lot more harm than any medical intervention.

Yes dear. Mmm Thanks for the tip, but I prefer my flowers in pots, vases and bunches.

Yes. Several times.

Have you tried any assistive technology to help you with essays? I was very sceptical at first, but it has really helped me and I've been able to transfer the techniques to both other situations and to using them without using the programmes (if that makes sense - visualising them and working through them). Two programmes I've found particularly useful which were both funded by my DSA: Inspiration - lets you draw out and map out ideas, move them about, turns diagrams into text, various strange things too to waste your time on. I've found it useful because you can just chuck all your ideas at the page without having to worry if you're jumbling them up, order, importance then it has lots of tools to help you sort your ideas and clarify them, deciding what's important etc. Claro Read - fairly simple programme but really useful, reads your essay back to you but in a normal voice and reads it as you've written it, so if you've written an 80 word sentence it's really obvious or if breaks are in the wrong place you can see. I find it useful because I put it on and if when listening I go "huh, what are you on about?" I know I need to do something, when if I was just reading it to myself, because I knew what I meant, I would make it make sense - if that makes any sense - it's late and I'm severely sleep deprived at the mo!

No, but they do blackmail us - you should see the size of the white chocolate parcel I have to send to Kathryn every week to be allowed to remain here...

This is directly against forum rules.

Darkshine - no need for you to respond to this, more one for you to think about and I could be well off the mark and so it doesn't apply anyway - when you say you've 'mentioned' this to your MH team (I'm assuming CAMHS?) I wonder what you actually mean by mention? If you have told them explicitly that you don't want to be alive and are at risk to yourself they would have had to implement some action. I wonder if, as I have done in the past, you have skirted round the issues and not actually explicitly explained the issue. If you need help, you have to cut the ###### and admit it.

Because you have access to the Big Red Button.