Swagger Inn thread 163 - it's raining --HBFs-- rain. FML...

[SisterHelenoftheEternalCatchUp]

Emergency new thread, with suitable decorations.
Fill your boots...

Grubby HBFs in leather are in our imaginations residence.
Sense of humour required, and tolerance for domestic tedium.

Will that do for Starters LetUs?

I am having a half-hour sit down before I crack on with stuff. This may be a mistake. I may be here for half a day instead.

Hope Wicked is having fun in London.

Afternoon

Ooh yes, hope ww is having a fab trip

I have been pottering and listing stuff on ebay & Freegle - determined not to miss my target of getting rid of one thing a day in 2019 by too much

Need to get back doing stuff, but frankly that selection of faf is not helping

Sorry Fancy - are you getting distracted?

See what I said about not getting back up off the sofa... FFS. I can't even blame a HBF for keeping me pinned down

I shall turf her off and go do something more productive that being a cat bed...

Evening. Very cold here, haven't been out all day.

at rolling around on bubble wrap.

Yes, hope WW is enjoying her trip and buying all the things she wanted.

We have the Cristmas trees down from the loft and DH is doing his annual swearing at the lights.

It’s definitely a start Helen

That sounds an excellent idea Fancy - get rid of one thing a day. Might try that next year.

Being a cat bed is a very productive thing.

Hope Wicked is having a fabulously wenchy time in that there London.

DS1 is feeling better in that he’s back to being completely uncommunicative and DS2 has very much continued with the ratbag attitude.

Made a bit more headway with Christmas and December birthdays present buying.

Have to go out shortly for an hour or so but I very much intend to have a very big drink when I get back.

Who as rolling in bubble wrap? Ah yes. We have some of the massive bubble-wrap on the kitchen floor by the bin, and periodically someone will stand on it and it goes off like a gunshot! Most disconcerting (but obviously not disconcerting enough to make me pick it up and move it).

DS has been on the xbox all afternoon so he should be very happy. He will probably be grumpy though because he's been told to get off it now, ready for tea.

I still have unopened boxes of xmas cards by my feet... and a British girl is doing rather well in the ski-ing (relatively speaking. She won't get a podium, but she's def. in the top 20) (No prizes for guessing what we're watching!)

Now have a vision of MrApricot tangled up in the Christmas lights, wriggling about on the floor

Thanks for the drinks Helen. How did British skier do? Number of cards written - none.

We”re about five minutes in to the new Tim Minchin programme - Upright. Good so far.

Morning wenches.

December is here so now I start to panic that I am definitely not going to get everything done in time for Christmas and why didn’t I start sooner, etc etc etc. To combat this panic, I have watched Miss Marple and had a cup of tea.

Now trying to get DS1 out of bed.

Morning. Just about.

I know it's December because DS is over the moon with his lego advent calendar. (I don't think he can even comprehend the concept that I used to get the same advent calendar to re-use every year - let alone that all it had were pictures - not toys or chocolates or anything like that.) But anyway, he is utterly delighted and we got presented with a page full of "Thank-you"s written at 6:45 this morning, so, awwwwwwwwwww

Oh that’s so sweet of him Helen! I used to have an advent calendar like yours, with pictures that you had to open carefully so they could be closed up again ready for the following year

No HBI today. I have washed and ironed and am now sitting with my feet up. Need to ready myself for DS2 upping the ratbag stakes when he gets back and has to do homework.

His Dark Materials tonight.

Afternoon

Love your attitude to the Christmas Panic letus

My task for next week is to write my cards helen posting a selection of faf is not helping!

Can't believe I forgot about my advent calendar this morning Will wait for DD to get home so we can open ours together

Afternoon. Well, the lights are on the tree, so now it's my job to decorate it. Tomorrow. I'm still knackered from all the packing. It looks like Amazon's warehouse here.

Oh, that's so sweet of DS Helen.

We're still catching up with His Dark Materials.

Perhaps we will be rewarded with actual FAF after we’ve written the Christmas cards

I bet your tree will look gorgeous Apricot

I’ve made some headway with gift planning and have a list of stuff to order —tomorrow at work—

I have been peeling and stewing apples all afternoon (ish) for about 2 hours anyway.

Tell you what Fancy - here;s motivation for you. Each time you say you've written some cards i'll post some FAF. OK? (Like you don't have a computer-full that you could drool over at any time )

DS has just pointed out that we don't have the 'family' advent calendar up - one of those ones with pockets. I shall have to dig it out of the xmas cupboard. He also doesn't want to read our annual Christmas story at bed time though he says that's because we're reading something else already. Who knew that Bill Byson's 'Mother Tongue' was such a good bedtime book? Or how may words there are that I can't pronounce!

Oh - LOL at the x-post LetUs

I do have a few presents and of course, the boxes of cards. This means that I am feeling vaguely like I have Christmas under control (apart from the advent calendar). This will all go horribly wrong by 14th, when I will realise that the month has shot past while I was feeling vaguely complacent about it all, and I'll be in a complete frantic flap about it all.

Wench hive mind

I’ve got the Bill Bryson book on my Christmas list

I’m one Pimms down and am watching the film Crazy Rich Asians.

We've Dark Materialsed, which isn't a word, but you know what I mean.

Mother Tongue is very interesting and a good read too. Just not what I exepcted to be reading to DS at bed times!

I'm going to head to the horse trough and then the hayloft. Via the bed, which needs to be made and the kitchen which needs to be tidied up. FMAL, I want to do a Mary Poppins style finger click and just get the house to sort itself out... I have better HBFs things to do with my time then domestic tedium. Hey ho...

(I have written no xmas cards)

Or a wiggle of the nose Samantha style to get the house tidy

We are now also Dark Materialising.

Card count - zero

Card count - 60!!!!
All sitting in their boxes, unwritten.

Have a good day all. The big wide world is sunny and clear sky and no frost and soggy underfoot still.

Morning wenches.

Helen. Perhaps we should follow the advice I give the DC - don’t try to do your homework/revision all in one go, spread it out and do a bit at a time.

Very frosty again here. Brrrr.

Also, BFI awards on twitter have the FAF in pictures. twitter.com/tottenhamstrike/status/1201266645437763586
tbh, the thing I makes me think most are:

• the haircuts I inflict on DS at home are better than that
• the only thing to do with that sort of haircut is to give your hair a good ruffle about so it's messy.

And apparently the film didn't win anything.

But the replies to this completely unrelated thread are wonderful. (I'm considering taking up Judo now, because fried-eggs-on-a-plank.)
twitter.com/wirewalking/status/1201269266999369729

Oh - I seem to have attached the wrong FAF picture. Wonder what that's from
Whatevs...

Morning
Cold and frosty here - and I have to go to work, boo!
Must get moving. Then I can get home and write cards. and receive faf

Afternoon. Cold and frosty here too.

I see TB has a new suit but I'm not too sure about the colour. The least said about the hair the better...

We did ep 4 of Dark Materials last night, will catch up with ep 5 tonight. Love the animals, particuarly white pine marten Pan, so cute, and the hare.

No cards written here. No tree decorated either.

I rather liked the tie apricot

Bloody cold this evening. I have put the magic frost protector on my car though, so it will be raining by the morning. Fact.

We're watching the last part of WotW...