Whatever you want, whatever you like, be WISE and AVID, so do your sums, and get it right....!

[DolceeBanana]

New thread...sorry bit lame compared to normal, but thought I'd bite the bullet (as it were)....

bet it Chesneys Tracey

Bloss....wowee! Gorgeous photo and love jacket!

Loobylu- can I be added too purleese? Thanks

NY so sorry to hear about your friends

hells you sound like a wonderful friend

NY carciofi is spot on with the skin creams. Chemo can make the skin very dry. Also is she having to stay in hospital for chemo? What about a kindle, iPod etc something to help occupy her. Some treatments require you to be in hospital for a couple of days so I can get really boring. Obviously trying to vist, perhaps on the way back from work on one of the days she is having chemo would, I am sure, be really appreciated. I used to visit my dad once I had called in to get his food order. He loved his food and so I was often tracking down pret sandwiches. I think cleaner is great idea. Do you have a group of mutual friends? Perhaps you could club together and get her a cleaner. Having had a few tough times in my life I would say it is always more helpful to get on and do something for your loved one rather than say let me know if you need anything. She may either be too shell shocked to know what she wants and ask for it or she may be too shy / Stiff upper lip. I know I am rubbish at asking for help but always so touched and grateful to be given it ( rather than offered it if you see what I mean).

Everything - I've got photos like that from last year a while back too!

Pickled - thank you - but honestly it was inspiration from MN that helped me get it right.

NY, I am so very sorry to hear about your friend. When she is recovering from treatment, she will prob feel very grim and not like getting dressed. Perhaps a lovely new robe, and perhaps a fleecy blanket to use in hospital? Or a Waitrose delivery for her family the day before her 1st treatment?

Right, have added wedding photos to profile. I think. Will leave there for a bit, then delete, or at least make private (all this is assuming I actually HAVE added them, unlike all the times before when I just thought I had)

Goodness, NY- what awful news about your friend. Breast cancers in younger women do tend to be more aggressive :( I really hope that all her horrible treatment is as straightforward as it can be. She obviously has lovely caring friends.
We used this company who deliver hampers of fruit and other tasty things for a colleague of DH's whose DD was diagnosed with Ca at a very young age. You can select exactly what items you think you friend would like. It was some years ago that we used them but I think the hamper was v nice!

verity - your poor and aunt and awful for all of her family too :(

tracey- I think I mentioned saline douches before for your sinuses and I see that others recommend too. I think roary mentioned neti pots (or similar name) which you can definitely purchase online. I was given one over last Summer when I had v unpleasant hayfever and it did help. I think cutting out dairy can definitely help to reduce mucus production. I'm not sure if there is actually evidence for this but it is my own personal experience and I have heard others say the same.
You do seem to have had a bad run of family illnesses so I hope you feel better soon!

I'm with fleecy re Miranda Kerr not being made up at all. It is a beautiful pic though.

bloss and anybody else who is interested (which I'm sure you are not), I'm sure I am an Autumn (deep autumn) now after a lady at the Bobbi Brown counter (was only trying on, you understand), told me that I definitely have a warm skin tone. No more grey and blue toned pinks for me!
Sorry to bore you all but felt like a bit of a revelation and I just had to share! :)

Many thanks for your ideas ladies!

plum - can't seem to click on your profile at all...so can't see photos.

Plum, try actually setting up a profile rather than just adding photos. You don't have to put any info in it but it is necessary to showcase the photos IYKWIM.

Oh FFS! The photos are THERE! How annoying! Why can't you see them?! Gah!

Hate technology.

I haaaaave, Pickled. Why doesn't it work?!

I can see them Plum! Yey for you!

• you are gorgeous! And so young looking!

Plum, is that you? You are so gorgeous and you look soooo happy. Thanks for sharing .

NY So sorry to hear about your friend.

Plum You certainly look like a child bride, whatever you are doing it's working! You really were a beautiful bride .

Evening ladies, it seems to have been ages since I caught up here.

My new office is all open plan and I get all twitchy about having MN on screen too much so like the mature and important woman I am I have taken to taking my iPhone into the loo and having a good read . But not much chance to post.

Hells I was very sorry to hear your news. Your family sounds very close and I'm sure your Grandma felt loved. Be kind to yourself and do distract yourself here.

Tracey another persistent sinusitis sufferer here (sometimes in summer too ). I find that the light irritates my eyes which in turn exacerbates the inflammation, so the only thing which works for me is, literally, spending a day or two in the dark, avoiding all screens and mumsnet etc. And sleeping as much as I can. Obviously completely impractical when you've got kids but maybe your DH could step in?

notyummy Sorry about your friend. My MIL had breast cancer too and really enjoyed reflexology. It helped her to take her mind off her fears. And she needed sometimes not to be positive, and just to wallow in the bloody unfairness of it, which I think people didn't know quite how to deal with and tried instead to perk her up instead of really listening.

Reading your posts about haggard faces on the way home tonight hit home here. My skin is definitely not as perky post DS and I can see jowls appearing. I was 34 yesterday - perilously close to the 35 that one of you mentioned as being the no-going-back-age-for-skin. I decided to check it out in Kings Cross by taking a photo of myself on the phone and . Needless to say, the results did not make happy viewing...

I feel a bit obsessed by the ageing and pregnancy damage thing. I can't see past the flaws and whilst I'm increasingly happy with my W&A bedecked body, am increasingly unhappy with my actual body and from the neck up.

Do any of you with dodgy bits really feel you look good naked? Can't get past it.

Anyhoo, I logged into tonight and spent a while nosing through all of your profile pics, hoping to find comfort in a wrinkly sisterhood but you are all so blooming gorgeous . Why can't you lot be normal looking? Or just throw in a few uggers to make me feel better?!?

Harrumph.

Beautiful plum.
Glad you got it sorted looby!
Sorry you missed yesterday carciofi, and hope you both feel better soon.
ny, such awful news. Sounds like sound advice from a sadly experienced lot here. She has a good friend in you.

Plum another stunner!

plum - you look stunning! Joke! Or is it....? . The Bride of Wildenstein will meet in the lobby of the Hilton on the 19th.....

Oooh - I would love to divest myself of the wrinkles I have developed over the past couple of years. And the cellulite from my thighs. However, I honestly do look on the positive side most of the time. I think I look pretty good for my age. I am not trying to kid myself that I can pass for 10 years younger though. I can beat myself up by comparing myself to a whole load of younger/richer/air-brushed women, but that is a kind of masochism I only give into occasionally. I bet you look fabulous.

The thing that really resonates me with the passing of time is that in some ways amazing looks are a curse. I have a couple of friends/acquaintances who are stunning. They are, however, defined by their looks. It is the first thing (and for some) the only thing you remember about them. At least one of them is having an incredibly difficult time in the realisation that sometimes now when she walks into a room, people will not always do a double take, and the 'superficial' part of being beautiful will change as you get older.

I was never the most beautiful girl in the room, so I haven't had to have such a crash course!!

plum you are stunning, I love your hair!

NY so sad for your friend. I think you have some really good advice, I think just being there is good and agree about texts. I sometimes send texts and add "no need to reply" if I want someone to know I am thinking about them but might not want to answer.

hmm not sure what I spent for jan but definitely TOO MUCH. Hence no shopping for me until end of February.

I have given lots of stuff away this week, gave my sister a massive bag of clothes which are currently too big for me, another bag to charity, another load of stuff to some of my workmates.

Very wise post NY I agree with SO MUCH of what you say and often.

Plummy you look soooo young and gorgeous - really lovely

NY I think flowers are always appreciated except when you have run out of vases (like after birth of a child). If you think she might currently be deluged with flowers maybe wait a few weeks. Otherwise I think I would buy something pretty and frivolous (like a necklace or a scarf) that is nothing to do with her illness and simply a distraction.

Bloss meant to say I really like those wrap shorts and there was also a pair of tracksuity bottom/jersey trousers I thought looked good too.

I have been feeling really strange about my age recently (37) as if I have had the realisation that I really am middle-aged . Also I think it is the fact that dd2 is going to school this year. Went to nursery mums drinks thing before Christmas and was slightly horrified to find the younger mums treating me a bit like an older mum and sort of looking to me for advice (I didn't have any obv ) .
When I was much much younger (late teens) I would sometimes see old people on documentaries/in articles say things like "inside you still feel 21" or somesuch and I would and think yeah yeah, like you were EVER young, bla bla bla.
And now here I am, 40 fast approaching, and I could WEEP as it is all true - my inner kernel of self is no more than 23, 27 on a very grown-up day, but the world refuses to regard me as young anymore.

Notyummy that was an impressively lovely and, as Macmama says, wise post. You are right, of course. And thank you for replying to my trivial and self-indulgent post when the things going on in your life are so much more significant.

Actually realised I was having a bit of a melodramatic moment when I got to the point of telling DH that I am beginning to resemble the people with melty faces who watch the ark being opened at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Having reached that level of silliness about it I am feeling happier. DH did a lot of and outright .

But still at you lovelies.