Crepeys/Hagsnet - come to the candlelight!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

As the last thread is now full...

I went, yep, again on a freebie ticket. It was a chance to dress up, but not essential iywkm. Not taffeta ballgowns!

Blackduck, I feel your pain.

BD, poor organisational skills (ie losing 7 jumpers!) are also linked with dyslexia/dyspraxia, etc Did your DP go in yet? Any joy?

Herbs, no idea what you wear to the ROH - have never been, but definitely sounds like an opp to dress up

BTM - losing 7 jumpers is also a sign of sheer lack of regard for belongings too :) Pretty sure he is not dyslexic - no difficulties reading, comprehending, writing etc. Dp going in tomorrow for chat so we will see.....

OK. I will admit it. I just bought a linen peacock-blue tunic in The Shop That Must Not Be Named

It was only £18.

Is that the B one or the one that used to be a St?

It was only 18 after all ....:)

Sainsbury's

ah that one :)

Hello all, been offline for a week, trying to get stuff done in RL, but I missed hagsnet too much.

[clutches crepeys to small, wrinkled bosom]

After my recent rant, which I repeated, with tears and snot, to dh when he got home last weekend, I have been feeling a bit wobbly in general, but better the last couple of days. I think it's a combination of school holidays starting and the weeks stretching ahead of me, meaning I will have no time to tackle my endless to do list, an ongoing problem with my very difficult sister that is bothering me a lot, dh still not being permanently employed when we have a remortgaging issue coming up, and a general mid-life restlessness similar to blackduck's. Although, in my case, my restlessness is not about not knowing what I want to do, but being prevented from doing it by having So Much To Do. I think what I need is either (a) a week or two on my own getting to grips with the half-finished jobs and projects that are stressing me out and making day to day life deeply annoying or (b) a brain transplant that would stop me from being so stressed about half-finished jobs and projects. At present, with 3 children on summer hols, the brain transplant is the more likely scenario of the two.

Still, lovely MIL has just called to say can she have the kids for a few days at the beginning of August (Yes, yes, have them! Keep them!) which means that at least some of the shriekingly urgent things - taxes, finish painting bathroom and get new shower installed - can be done before we go on holiday.

Stroperella - I meant to say about your comment that you might buy Dr. Gluck's book, that I also recently read a very good book in a similar vein called The Female Brain by Louann Brizedine, which was really interesting about how hormonal changes affect the brain at different stages in life. She's more medicalised in her approach, but the research seems kosher. As I had a full on hormonal meltdown on Sunday (prompted by finding out dd had hacked off a big chunk of her hair and will now have to wear a hat for our family photo session), it's been really helpful to know I am not alone in spectacular overreacting and days of despair!

MI - sorry about your job application nightmare. Did you hear anything further about them?

Wilbur, you are definitely not alone But I have to say, not for a few days - is it the HRT?

Nope, not alone. Been feeling inexplicably bereft myself the past few days. Post-menstrual tension?

Outfit sorted - retro-print wrap dress from Top Shop via charity shop, and last worn when pregnant. Smartened up with Whistles jacket. Clarks pumps. Sprayed-on fake tan on legs. BHS hold-it-in pants. I think I look quite passable, but could be deluding myself.

Very excited by Gok's new range for Sainsburys, as previewed in this very forum!

Thanks for the book recommendation, wilbur, it does indeed look interesting. I am trying to break my Amazon habit, so may venture to the local library (a quaintly old-fashioned notion, but I must use it while it still exists).
I have decided to be pragmatic and stick with my weedy freelancing for the moment, but to try harder to up my game. I have bought myself a luvverly new netbook for non-work internet faffing and will henceforth be in the home office only to work. No, no, I will. Honestly.

Am feeling faintly deprived because the itsy-bitsy place where I live only has a puny Sainsburys corner shop thingy. Am considering a Major Shopping Expedition to a proper shopping destination to find some clothes not aimed at county town matrons.

PS: Remember that fairground goldfish dd acquired a month or so ago? We've now got one cold water fish aquarium and one sub-tropical fish aquarium and 10 fish. Damn.

Ah, we're all feeling the same, it would appear, all going slowly loopy. I don't think there is any cure for the general frenzy of life, though, it's just a case of rolling with it and trying not to focus on the petty things.

I have the added bonus of a cold at the moment (which struck me about an hour after I scoffed about a malingering colleague's poor resistance to "illness", proclaiming to all and sundry at work that I rarely get ill, constitution of an ox, blah blah blah....the man upstairs clearly has a sense of humour).

DH and I both have the day off tomorrow to tackle the redecoration of our bedroom, but I'm having a wallpaper indecision crisis at the moment - the rolls have been sitting in the loft since last November, but somehow during the 8-month delay I've massively gone off it and have decided I simply must buy something else. DH just went but I pointed out that it was better that I change my mind now rather than wait til it's up (as if the poor love has any say in the matter......).

I'm feeling left out of the Sainsbos clothing club too - we have quite a large one about 15 miles away, but they are having a refurb, so no clothing at the moment. But I did spend an obscene amount at the Next Sale last night, using my coveted VIP online slot. At least I know that a fair amount of it will go straight back.

By the way, Blackduck, DD1 (age 10) is also a serial loser of stuff. She also walks into roads without looking, slams doors in people's faces and is generally "away with the fairies", totally unaware of the world around her at times. I can only hope she'll grow out of it. I am regularly found with my head in the fetid lost property bin at school collecting her stuff.

As we come to the end of the first four weeks of the summer holidays (and my leave), I am wondering what to do with the DDs for the next six weeks. DD2 (who chooses her friends well) has the promise of a week on the Riviera (she went last year too). Almost all of their friends seem to have disappeared off for the whole ten weeks (the advantage of having one parent who doesn't work), so I think it won't be long before we reach the "I'm bored/there's nothing to do" stage. Am wondering if I can send them to the swimming pool on their own? (They are 12 and 10 - DD1 is excellent swimmer, DD2 can only swim underwater, but is reasonably competent.) Will probably go back to UK for a week in August, but need to sort this out. Paris Plage starts in a couple of weeks, but not sure they would be happy going there on their own/I would be happy with them going there on their own.

Blimey, MrsS, mine don't break up for hols until Tuesday 26th.

Perversely I probably see less of them during the holidays than usual, because they go to an all-day holiday club when I'm working (giving me a precious couple of hours of me-time each afternoon, which I usually squander at the supermarket, or on MN).

DD1 has been invited on a camping trip for two whole weeks with a mate, and I'm debating whether or not to let her go; it's an awfully long time, and DD2 will be bereft. She's such a space cadet (see earlier post) I'm not sure I can trust she won't do something stupid if she's free-range at a Devon campsite.

Oh CV don't talk to me about the lost property bin, we are close friends...(yuck) Annoyingly, despite being labelled (why do I bother?) ds's stuff never makes it there. He had one jumper he had worn for one whole day, left it in the classroom over night, and, poof, it had gone never to return...
Ds breaks up next Thursday and we have a week of sports club, a week at grandparents (I hope), week of my parents (with me - I am working, dp in Japan) and then we fly out to Japan to join him. I have ds for the entire trip (both ways) on my own (looking forward to that - not). Am stressing because of the money - tres expensive and my contract ends in Feb and I have no idea if it will be renewed (this is standard Blackduck stress :) )
Then ds doesn't go back until 8th Sept as they are having THREE teacher days in a row at the start of term!

DC break up next Friday, and me and DH too The end of term is always so manic.

We're off camping in France for just under 3 weeks, then back home / visiting friends and rellies up north, then 3 days in a hotel with DH only and poss another 2 at home as the DC are going to the in-laws caravan

DS goes back on 7th - 2 inset days, DD on 8th Sept only Y7 in on 7th, and she will be Y8 So they have 6 1/2 weeks this summer!!!

My top has already garnered compliments. Sadly, this means I am very tempted to go and get the similar one in a less exciting colour.

I need to talk about work options with sane people (and failing any of those, you lot will have to do ). Will be back anon. Now have to interview mental health specialist

DC break up next Friday for six weeks. As per usual, I have made no concrete plans at all. It is all about going with the flow round here, depending on work and who is around. Living where we do (on the south coast), visitors tend to be keen to come at this time of year and we go to the beach quite a lot and do lots of day trips and I have to be creative in fitting my work around this. It works most of the time. DS may be doing a Stagecoach course for a week, but not sure yet.

I shall soon have to go and purchase the very expensive upper school uniform (blazer and tie etc etc) for dd, who will be starting there in Year 9 in Sept. It is a truly VAST school - there are more than 20 classes for dd's year group. It is a bit scary. I doubt that looking for anything in lost property there is a worthwhile option...

Yes, I switched a few years ago from military-style planning for the holidays to 'oh soddit, I am around and you can doss a bit'. Ahem.

We have to be organised here, at least for the first couple of weeks before Mr Blackduck heads to Osaka, because said Mr Blackduck, has, in his usual inimitable style, not written paper to be given at conference and thus will be a miserable, grumpy git for a couple of weeks and unable to do anything with ds. I am still at work, so not available. Mr Blackduck will HAVE to pick up slack on return from Japan and before Baby Blackduck returns to school (during which he doubtless will be trying to write lectures/course for first term)
20 (!) classes Stropp - wow......head explodes.....

God, I thought DD's school was big - 10 forms in her year group but that increases to 15 teaching groups as 2 forms of 30 turn into 3 teaching groups of 20ish. But 20 ! They probably don't even have a lost property

I reckon the lost property probably just has actual children in it. All the Year 9s who took a wrong turn in one of the corridors and couldn't find their way out again.... They have nearly 1000 students in the 6th form and it is allegedly the biggest in the country. Which is a bit strange for a pokey little rural town, but there you go.

I am loving the idea of children in lost property. How long would ds be there before I went hunting for him :)

Week ends on a (semi) high. Ds has only lost two jumpers this term, not three (found one lurking at the bottom of a pile of clothing....)
Dp went to see teacher re report. Very polite, expressed concern, yada yada. Teacher said he would show dp work, and in partic the assessed piece and, the mark on it was higher than on the report. So looks like transcribing error. Kept saying th dp that the mark and the comment didn't match. Dp sat through summer conference and is of the opinion he was Vlad the Impaler in a previous life as that could be the only excuse as to why he had to suffer such an experience :) (as a trained musician he is sensitive to these things).

MI - as you asked so nicely what was it you were going to ask about work :)