ADs drinking al fresco at The Sleeping Swans

[BogRollBOGOF]

ADs, grab your thermals, long johns and winter woolies, we're finally off to drown our sorrows at the Sleeping Swan!

Hello Sloe hope you’re ok ;)

@Wilberforce42

Hello Sloe hope you’re ok ;)

Thank you I am okay but feel very teary Mostly thinking about my bestie who I can't even have a phone chat with..it's all lateral flow tests, blah Doesn't want my company anyway as has sister literally round the corner.

Sorry to be so woeful.

Hello Sloe, you reminded me of 'Allo 'Allo and 'it is I, leclare'! Very fond memories of watching that with my late Stepdad. DM and I have had many conversations about how much he would have hated all this. He was very old fashioned and upstanding but had a very healthy disregard for unnecessary authority.

Hi MrsDeacon

I've never watched that, maybe it's the cheer up comedy I was looking for....

I'm not sure it will have aged well... 😂

Hi Sloe!

My DF died in 2019, but he would have been apoplectic about the incompetence, nepotism and waste of money. He wouldn't have been able to wear a mask either, he regularly fell over without one. At least we could be with him every day in hospital before he died.

@MrsDeaconClaybourne

I'm not sure it will have aged well... 😂

Neither have I! 😂

It's interesting that you and Tabby say that. I think there might be a generation factor but I dislike dividing ideas by age group.

I suppose historically people had less nanny state.

I feel exhausted today. It's emotional, not physical. I agree about the masks making for a very nasty environment wherever you go.

There's so much work to do in the flat. I am reluctant to do much because it feels like no one will see it except me, I should save as much money as I can, etc.

Sometimes the best thing is to do nothing. I heard you should tell yourself HALT - ask if you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired before you take action.

Me neither Sloe 😂 my BF and I often say we have now tipped over from what was quirky and individual when we were young to full on eccentric now we're older!

I think DS needs some 'Allo 'Allo in his life. He's getting to about the right age to find Ze Fallen Madonna Wiz Ze Big Boobies quite funny. He loved The Life of Brian at Easter
Actually I said "Good Moaning" to him a few days ago and ended up explaining the concept.

My friend had a French girlfriend and bought the box set one Christmas and she thought it was brilliant

I've done my race
I was in a bit of a mood this morning. Partly time of the month. Partly navigation. Partly just adjusting to a chopping and changing world. When I last did a race there last autumn, cases were going up, the county went into tier 2 that week and it was all uncertain, and very quiet, so not ideal circimstances.
I was nervous about the masks in carpark to race village instruction, but it seems I'm not the only one who is not convinced about the efficacy of masks outdoors, plenty of marshalls were bare-faced and other runners being lackadasical about their chin-warmers, and the atmosphere was more relaxed and less perfunctorary than October.

I sacrificed pace to stay chatting with a parkrun buddy who I haven't seen in over a year.

I'm feeling more enthused about racing again, but I would like the buzz of a proper road race. I enjoy trail and do it anyway, but the gear change would be good.

Next week is our return to general parkrun.

It hasn't sunk in yet that life next week, (tomorrow!) will be closer to normal routines with school and our sports/ extra curriculars functioning again. It's a more significant step to us than May's easing will be. I'm glad things are easing and making the most of it, but after so many disruptions, changes and uncertainties, it's still a bit of a head-fuck (and not truely normal).

My DF was apoplectic about most things to be fair and generally unaware of how his behaviour affected others and/or that there might be other opposing yet valid views. I wasn't really attributing it to his age, it was his personality, shaped by his own history of trauma. He was very engaged with politics though, right up to his death, and was pretty astute, at the age of 87 he knew there was a Dominic Cummings type figure manipulating things in the background even before we'd all heard of him. Things would have been unbearable for my DM though if he'd stayed alive to see all of this, one of his favourite topics was the problems with the NHS!

@MrsDeaconClaybourne

Me neither Sloe 😂 my BF and I often say we have now tipped over from what was quirky and individual when we were young to full on eccentric now we're older!

I intend to finish up at totally batshit Statistically I should outlive DH long enough to get a good turn at Crazy Cat Lady.

I had my MP3s playing in the car... that's pretty eclectic. Listening to Supertramp reminded me randomly of being at uni around 2000 listening to that album which was pretty non-conformist. The playlist also leapt around from David Grey straight to Soft Cell doing their original of the same song, a bit of raving from The Prodigy, Disturbed, Lighthouse Family, Take That and Chuck Berry. I don't make any claims that I am discerning

Bog that sounds like a great tracklist!

Well done on your run.

I've pretty much written off today for anything constructive.

Sounds a bit like my running playlist Bog Every time I think of a song I'd like to hear I add it in. So it's got some proper nostalgic stuff like Crystal Gale and the Seekers I remember DM playing when I was little; lots from my uni days through to reasonably cool stuff I've looked up after hearing on the radio.

No rude vegetables sadly but here’s a picture of the swans on the lake over the road from my flat. Three are last year’s cygnets and the other one of the parents. Not a great photo as my stupid dog was trying to pull me in the water.

Sorry for all those struggling. We’re at such a weird point - lockdown is coming to an end but is not actually over.

I’ve been putting plans in the diary for various meet ups with friends. My husband and I are going out for lunch on the first day that the children go back, I am meeting my two oldest friends in a vegetarian restaurant in my hometown in mid May and I have a restaurant booking for my birthday (mid June) for us and another family. I keep hearing about nice places that have gone bust and I’m bloody sick of lockdown so I’m going to spend my way out of it.

I’ve also bought some new clothes. The thread about how bad skinny jeans are inspired me to buy some girlfriend jeans. They are very comfortable but I also bought four pairs of jeggings so am not exactly cool (I am in my forties so couldn’t give a shit).

Jeans confuse me
I am fat so I have never worn skinny jeans. But I can't see why MN has turned against them suddenly.

I am fat too (about a Uk 18/20). I buy mine from the Mango Violetta range - this is Mango’s plus size but it starts at a UK size 12 which is no one’s idea of plus size. The jeggings have elasticated waists so I wear them with long tops

I’ve found out that Levi do plus size jeans now. I might get a pair.

I rang a friend and she had gone to a camping shop with her family. They’d all dressed up for it as their first trip to a non essential shop is a special occasion.

Jeans confuse me as well Sloe. I’m very, very short and kind of apple shape. If I buy skinnies that fit around my “waist” then they are far from skinny on the leg! Perhaps I need to investigate girlfriend jeans. Currently living in leggings and hoodies.

I’ve also booked

• a haircut for me;
• a haircut for my daughter;
• a session at the laser clinic to sort out my facial hair (much needed);
• the piano tuner to come and tune my piano; and
• dentist for both my children.

My girlfriend jeans are meant to be halfway up my calf but I am so short in the leg that they fall to the top of my foot - which is perfect.

I think jeans are designed with a very tall, thin person in mind. A bit like kitchens, I always have to stand on a chair to get things out the top cupboard.

@Juliettbravo Im often on the Covid board banging the drum about poorer people not being given money so they can afford to self isolate. Because thats a big reason why we keep ending up in these bloody lockdowns. Soo right wing of me isnt it. Wanting ppl to be able to afford to do this. Either you dont agree with this or you are only seeing what you want to see.

I can remember really clearly sitting in the staffroom about 20 years ago looking at a magazine with a colleague and swearing blind I would never ever wear tight trousers tucked into boots. I've then spent about the last 18 years living in exactly that! I've been checking out what people are wearing while I've been out and about this week and there's definitely a greater variety of jeans styles around than there was.

Made me a bit sad realising looking at people's outfits wasn't even something I knew I'd missed. Little things..

I'm on the plump side (even more so at nearly 5 months post partum, and with no gyms open!) I spend my life in fairly skinny jeans with long tops which I tell myself hides the tum! (I have a horrible feeling I'm wrong about that.)

Hope Piccalilly is doing well @110APiccadilly .