Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 9: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Why has no-one mentioned the purple Quality Street? Do you not like them, or have you already eaten them?

Quality street - finaly sth I do not have to google. It's been sold here for ages and I might even have eaten it when I was a little girl.

It's lightly snowing here and DS just informed me that he might fail a vital part of his Abitur, which definitely means repeating the year. Aaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh! - Deep breaths, calm down, look at the snow, it does not really matter, he has AS+ADHD - but he is also lazy as [insert appropriate English adjective]!

Having roast pork for dinner today. Fingers crossed we get some nice crackling - I’m following Queen Delia’s instructions so fingers crossed!

I went on a short bike ride to the shop earlier to pick up some carrots and gravy granules, and got caught in a rain shower on the way home. My bike doesn’t have mudguards fitted, so I arrived back with a lovely wet patch on my bum However, my face mask did at least keep my face warm and dry. Meat is now in the oven, and I’m putting my feet up for a while. DH has gone with DS to collect FiL, so it’s just me and ddog, so we’re enjoying the peace and quiet, although. I can unfortunately see the mess that DH made clearing the ash out of the wood burner so will have to go and do something about that in a minute as it’s annoying me

Oh Prok, that is less than ideal. Keep breathing, maybe scream into a cushion or two as well... hope he’s wrong and he gets through ok 🤞

I did a whole big Ikea blue bag of my ironing this morning. I have enough smart clothes ironed to get me through my first week back in the office and enough casual tops etc to see me through for about a fortnight.

I'm not sure what we're going to do for the rest of the day, having just finished virtual church, so I'm just about to get coffee while we decide. As it's cold and slippery outside I suspect we'll be remaining indoors.

Spudlet
He has to hand in the paper tomorrow, if I ask what he has done for the last 6 month, he rolls his eyes at me - my (our) patience is running out.

It is still snowing, but it won't stay.

Back to work tomorrow.

I'm waiting for a lady to pick up an item I've sold and then I'm going to do some baking.

Really trying to come up with an idea for my current uni assignment which is writing the self and needs a 3000 word autobiographical piece. I'm really not keen on writing about myself but it's due in the first week of Feb so I need to shift myself.

@MissConductUS sorry I started replying and got overwhelmed by some sort of face wiping incident I think.
Your area looks lovely. We are in Surrey, south east UK, about half an hour from London.
Trying to persuade 17 month old DD to nap. Back at work tomorrow. Sigh!

Welcome, @RoseMartha and @cigsoffofthefloor, and thanks for sharing your news. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Rose, back problems are really tricky to diagnose and treat. Cigs peanut butter cookies are a favorite here too, though we usually add some form of chocolate.

@Prokupatuscrakedatus, sorry to hear about your DS's academic challenges. Mine struggled quite a bit when he was younger so I know how frustrating it is.

I had never heard of Quality Street before coming on MN. But you all had probably never heard of Ghirardelli before I started raving about it.

There are 1-3 inches of snow in our forecast today and DD has to work, so we've put the snow tyres on DH's car just in time. I think our tree and decorations will come down today, and I have tomorrow off as one more day of annual leave carried over from 2020.

DS has just informed me that not only will he be paid for his internship, which starts in a week, but that he'll be making $30 per hour. I told him that he needs to work really bloody hard then and get a haircut this week, as he looks a bit wild at the moment. DH is going to help him set up a retirement account as DD has done.

We decided to push our comfort zone this year and buy Roses not Quality Street.

@kittlesticks - Face wiping is a common activity with a 17 month old. It does get easier as they get older.

Surrey looks lovely as well. You're much closer to London than I am to NYC but we still have loads of people in my town who commute into the city for work. At least we did before the pandemic. I worked in NYC for almost 20 years.

Sorry to hear about your DS's Prok My DS is very bright but can just refuse to do a lot of things as he knows he knows it so everyone else should know or 'not interested' or he's not writing / reading. Next 2 weeks I will be doing about 90% of his work but exams you can't do for them. And the whining. DS was puzzled when I said I wasn't looking forward to more home learning. Other times he can be lovely and like an adult to teach, its either like an adult or a tantruming toddler.

That's really good pay MissC

I've just woken up as I stayed up late again and not sure I am completely awake.

The cat is seriously happy with new single mattress, its in our dining room and cat thinks its the pefect spot close to food bowl in kitchen and DH whose piano is a lot there and he also wfh. She is living the cat dream atm.

@sueelleker, I go for the purple ones early doors - I am enjoying finding strange phrases which I think are British English to keep @MissConductUS and @Prokupatuscrakedatus entertained but perhaps ‘early doors’ is more universal than I thought?

I have done a zoom yoga class this morning and had a video all with relatives. DH wanted to hang the washing outside - I didn’t argue even though I know that it won’t dry at all because there is no breeze and the temp is too low to do anything useful whereas we have the heating on indoors - oh well.

Oh @Prokupatuscrakedatus, that’s a right royal pain. I hope your DS has done enough to pass.

@MissConductUS, wow that is really good pay, well done to your DS!

@RoseMartha, I hope you feel better soon - back pain is horrible.

@ all of you Thank you for you commiserations
Thing is he is clever enough for university but the practicalities of everyday life are beyond him.
At the end of year ten he confessed to DD that he never (in 10 years of schooling) learned for a test and managed OK.
Let's see how it turns out .....

My amazon delivery is only a few stops away. I'm excited 😁

We are venturing out in the car for a walk on the other side of town, partly motivated by checking the car still starts before work tomorrow. We’ve not used it since DH collected a click and collect on 20th December. It needs a good wash as it has been parked under a tree (bird latrine) for the last two weeks.

Well the driver was in my village but they've vanished in the wrong direction so I have no idea what's going on 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh @Prokupatuscrakedatus Bless him. And you! I hope he muddles through it.

We are now blowing bubbles on the sofa, preparing ourselves to go for a walk.

@kettlesticks I used to ride around Epsom when I lived in London, it’s a nice part of the world. We used to go galloping along part of the Derby course, apart from when they closed it ahead of the big race. They did that a few days earlier than we expected one year and we encountered a fence at the start of our very exciting gallopy racey whizzy hill and had to turn back without galloping, which was the cause of many equine complaints, much like removing a half-tonne toddler from their favourite playground Are you anywhere near there?

Prok My DS has been bragging about similar how he's never revised and always done well but that's partly if he can't get 90% or so paper goes on floor ripped up but he doesn't count those. We have 2.5 years before big exams I am hoping he will mature but Good luck for you and your DS.

DH is playing the piano. We will have Sunday lunch soon then DH said before he is going down to old house again to put out recycling and black bin. He says two more visits are needed so nearly there.

@Silkiechickscat
Thing his - I always think of what his grades could have been if he had put a bit of work in!?!
He is working at the moment and perhaps he manages a 'not fail' and feel fine about it.
(Abitur: the grades of all subjects of 4 half years + the results of the paper + the results of the centralized exams in his 4 chosen subjects are turned into an overall grade and if you want to apply for university or a place in the dual system you have to do it with a paper showing the complete final results.)

Haven't had any boring news to report for a while, but I went to the Starbucks Drive-In for a final eggnog latte of the season and they'd run out. We had to have gingerbread instead .

DH's friends in France have one American among them who makes eggnog and they all hate it. I tried it and loved it and they all looked at me like I was crazy but the American lady was very happy one other person liked it apart from her as she had made loads.

We went to Mass this morning which was uneventful, lasagna from the freezer for lunch and then a long meander around the village, usually dull. However, the DC were in great form and it made me think v fondly of my own siblings, as the atmosphere was v similar. I miss my gang very much.

Have the kitchen to clean and ironing to do before bracing myself for work tomorrow.

In case I haven’t previously disclosed my location, we live in a small village, my nearest urban centre is Oxford (about 20 minutes by car in light traffic). It’s a nice part of the world, nice neighbours, good transport links (car only, no public transport out here!) and close enough to culture and dipping into city life - though not at the moment!