Crepeys/Hagsnet - come to the candlelight!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

As the last thread is now full...

Oh shit. Is there no chance they will look at it? I always look at late applications (much to HR's disapproval) in case I am missing something good.

THere is an outside chance...

Oh MI, what a pain. Fingers crossed they look at you favourably.

Mothers......hmmm.... I've been getting the full-on guilt trip from mine recently. She thinks she hasn't seen enough of us this year, which is true, to be fair; life has been very hectic, and what with holidays, school, operations (her), house renovations (us) and life in general, she hasn't been over here as often as usual. She's about 50 miles away, but often pops over to help with inset day childcare and the like.

What I didn't need on Friday was a ten minute telephone whinge-a-thon, during which she listed every occasion (precise date and duration) she had seen us over the last six months, in a slightly hurt tone of voice, as if it were a deliberate ploy to keep her from her grandchildren. Then, on Sunday, we had exactly the same conversation all over again. Sigh. So I suggested she might like to come over this week to assist with some wallpapering (she is a DIY whizz). No doubt when she comes over she'll offer a critique of all the things I ought to have done to the house while I sit in the corner steaming quietly.

Have talked to contact there, and the best they can do is promise to look at us if they don't appoint this week. Which they will, though, because they will have had excellent applicants.

I am avoiding the topic of mothers .

Fingers crossed MI.

I am fairly lucky my mother is 'normal' in comparison to these stories.....Just wish she would accpet that on the housework from I am a complete slattern in comparison to her standards and actually I don't mostly care....

I get on very well with my mother, as long as we gloss over my early childhood. She's only just stopped telling all and sundry what a difficult child I was, and how I regressed when my two younger siblings arrived, blah blah. And she only stopped because I told her how upsetting I found it. So, issues there.

Now DS has turned two, he seems to be living up to the 'terrible' stereotype. He'll get a DVD out of the box, open the player, put it in, press play, then if he's particularly enjoying it, will press eject, and scrape the disc all over the floor, while whining that it's not playing any more. After a few days of this, the DVDs are now on a high, unreachable shelf.

On the other hand, he can now read all the numbers 1 to 9. I'm sure this makes him a genius.

Fingers crossed too MI

Feeling much relieved after sitting in a cold sweat for 3 hours at DD's sports day, knowing how nervous she was.... but she won the 100m (just - a girl twice her height almost overtook her on the last stride or two!) and is the fastest Y7 girl out of 270

My mother and I don't really get on - we are on totally different planets, which is fine as we live over 200 miles apart But as she is getting very aged, I am feeling rather guilty, at least some of the time!

Herbs, he IS a genius

Well, I've heard at least I have more lecturing next year (upside of cutting Real Staff) so I am going to drag myself out of self-pity via Wine. I am sorry, you lot. I am usually rather less self-centred and more of a nice person. Honestly I am.

MI nothing to apologise for. I have had my moments on here too. Hope you feel better soon...enjoy the wine

Glad to hear the weekend's parties went well! bigTilly, you are soooo brave to have all those 12 year old girls. I'm afraid my dd's days of large parties were over several years ago. I can't take more than about 4 or 5 big girls at once - all that shrieking drives me mad (I am v. intolerant, sadly for my dd).

MI, sorry to hear about your application-related travails. Hope the wine worked. And that's good news about the lecturing.

I am currently stressed as I have procrastinated to a ridiculous degree and now have a deadline staring me in the face.

I am also worried that I don't really know what I am doing with my parenting of my dd. She is an able girl who had a bit of a rough start in some ways (product of my rather unfortunate first marriage), but frustrates both me and her teachers by never really trying at ANYTHING, despite everyone's best efforts to motivate her. She has just done a bunch of SATs exams and the maths teacher had a go at her yesterday saying that her result was a reflection of her poor attitude during his lessons and the lack of effort she had put in. She is in Year 8 and got a 7a, which is pretty good, but the teacher had been coaching about 10 of the most able - including dd - to get a Level 8 and several of the others managed it. Do I congratulate her - or do I say, yeah, that's alright, but we both know you could have done better?? She changes school at the end of term to go to upper school, which is huge and has a good track record with able pupils (and sets the SATs and uses the results for streaming/setting) - but only if the pupils make the most of what is offered. Am worried dd with her can't-be-arsed attitude will end up doing bugger-all. Then again, maybe I just have to accept that's how she is and in the final analysis, it's her life....

Aaaargh.

Sorry for monster post.

Btw, bigTilly, thank you very much for link to the red velvet cupcakes recipe. Is there anything I can substitute for buttermilk if I can't get hold of it

Strop, I think you can use yogurt and milk - will find link in a mo!

Your DD IS doing very well - 7A is a great score, but I can see how frustrating it must be if she hasn't put as much effort as she could in. Why do you think that is? Is she more into her social life, or does she think she can't do things so doesn't try her hardest or does she need a rocket up her backside at home? Does anything in particular motivate her?

I think one approach could be to really praise her for her 7A, and try to not be at all negative, and then she might feel guilty if she knows she can do better and either admit to you or at least herself? OR say how pleased you are and then ask her how she feels she did. How do you know what the teacher said? Did she tell you, and if so in what way?

Hopefully the move to new school will be a bit of a motivator - do they start their GCSES now? Just asking because DD's school is moving to starting KS4 in Y9.

substitute for buttermilk or this?

All this talk of deadlines and freelance makes me quite appreciative that I am in a steady (albeit untaxing) job where the workload rarely varies and the pay is regular as clockwork! My job is the one stress-free area of my life (which leaves me ample time to obsess about trivial household matters).

I had a lovely day off yesterday, not bad as Inset days go. DS1 was at a sleepover next door the night before, only reappearing at 4pm still in his PJs so for most of the day it was just me and the DDs. We went for a bike ride, played with the rabbit and generally enjoyed the sunshine; very therapeutic. All intentions of cracking on with the bedroom redecoration went out of the window, though.

Strop, regarding your DD, it's difficult, I think some people are naturally inclined not to put the effort in and therefore don't always reach their full potential. I count myself as one of those people; I have always done the bare minimum to get by, but was redeemed by the fact that I was always very bright with a good memory. Brains will get you a long way in life, and your DD is clearly a bright girl. I agree the change in school might be the shake-up she needs.

Herbs, your DS reminds me of DS1 at that age. He took a particular liking to our huge rack of CDs, and, if left unattended even for a moment, would remove every single disc from their cases and frisbee them across the room. His sleight of hand was amazing.

< arf! Just re-read that paragraph and I had typed "huge rack of DCs". That would be cruel, surely? >

bigTilly, thanks for the mock buttermilk links. I feel the need for a big plate of red cakes.. And yes, dd will be starting KS4 in year 9 and will be doing a bunch of GCSEs in Y10.

dd was really shifty yesterday when telling me her results and essentially said that she hadn't done very well in maths and told me straight out what the maths teacher had said. I don't yet know how she's done in science. I've just wasted more precious work time moaning to dh about dd and his verdict is that I clear up after her too much (in a metaphorical sense) and I should let her face the consequences of her inaction a bit more. She is worryingly passive and does nothing v. useful with her time unless I harry her. I have tried backing off, but she does even less than nothing. She's not particularly social or particularly into anything. She is supposed to be G&T for maths and art and is good at music but refuses to join any clubs/bands/orchestras. I have spent all this year cracking the whip and issuing various sanctions/setting goals/lecturing/proferring rewards for improvement, but essentially she doesn't seem to move on much at all.

OTOH, maybe I am a controlling old bag and possibly I shouldn't place so much credence on what that maths teacher says as none of the other teachers are anything other than positive about her - although all do chant the "could be REALLY good if tried harder" mantra. OTOH again (this involves a lot of hands) dd is the one who is always whinging about so-and-so doing better than her. She says "X got 98%, but I didn't, because I am rubbish". This inevitably elicits the response from me that X got 98% because she works really hard all the time and dd does zip and they are essetially of the same ability. Which is true.

Oh dear, can you tell this is a Major Issue chez Strop?

Today I am writing about pensions. However, I cannot give in to the urge to let this drive me Over The Edge as tomorrow I am writing about cuts in bedspaces for mental health patients.

Oh what fun .....

I am variously rowing with dp about ds, nagging ds about his missing three school jumpers, dealing with difficult students.

I am about to phone EDF about how on earth our quarterly gas bill can be over £500. And prepare for my committee meeting tonight.

Just fell asleep on the settee watching the news. Woke up with a load of dribble all over me and the settee. Nursing home, here I come.

Hang on till nursing home payments change, Herbs. I've just written about them...

Now I am going to assess some candidates for something. So far they have been not perhaps always as impressive as they could be.

I had a day interviewing dullards yesterday. Today's bunch were not sparkier. Bizarrely, all of today's candidates had applied for the job we were interviewing for yesterday, but for some peculiar reason had not got through the sift. (NB I had not done the sift for either job - it was done by my deputy and his sidekick while I was on leave...)

not sparkier? Much sparkier!

None of three, count 'em, three jumpers have materialised. That is seven he has lost in a year. I despair...dp off for teacher chat tomorrow and countdown to end of term (Blackduck makes shaker in 10 minutes this morning) apprentice last night ( look away if you haven't seen it) thank god she's gone!!

I have an actual S&B question! I'm going to the Royal Opera House tonight. Not the main bit, but the smaller theatre where they put on the newer, 'challenging' works. The ticket is free. But what to wear? Has anyone been? Is it all taffetta ball gowns and velvet headbands, or skinny jeans and sparkly tops (not that I possess any of the aforementioned)?

Oh Herbs how glam! Have no idea...but didn't someone else go recently (MI)?