Crepeys/Hagsnet - come to the candlelight!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

As the last thread is now full...

This week is turning out very exhausting. dcs are having a wonderfully social time with dd seeing a different friend every day and currently off camping at the coast with yet another friend with a large family and having a fab time. Weather permitting, ds and I will be joining them for a bbq tomorrow and some beach time. ds has also had plenty of jolly time with friends. Am beginning to feel left out as I don't think dh and I have any friends. Wah!! Next week is looking v. dodgy on the work front as work is scheduled but no sensible childcare. Could be interesting.

Eye test revealed that my close vision is getting worse but I can probably hold out for another year before changing lenses. So I bought a new bike. Like you do. Have to go back to the optician for a special test for my peripheral vision next week, though, because I mentioned it seemed a bit off. Had the full monty as far as the glaucoma test goes. Everything fine.

Am feeling at the moment - I finally finished all the painting, cleared up the dustsheets and got out the vacuum cleaner with a contented sigh, with visions of finally getting rid of the inch of dust on the carpets and having a lovely clean house once more. Then there was a loud bang and a smell of combusting appliances, followed closely by steam pouring from my ears.

We have friends to stay tomorrow, so I now have to hot-foot it to John Lewis tomorrow morning (five kids in tow ) to pick up a replacement. I'll be buying a fiendishly expensive nice reliable Miele; never again will a Hoover darken my door; that damn thing has spent more time in the menders than in the house and is still less than two years old.

And the carpet people mucked up and ordered the wrong shade, so it is likely our bedroom won't be useable until after out holiday. Grrr. Deep breaths. Reach for the Rioja. And......relaaaaax.

Eeek!

Did i tell you DP was taking the kids off for a hippy t'ai chi week next week (long story) and I'm off to Devon mid-week to house-sit for Lovely MNer and they're catching me up?

They were planning to go on Monday. Now there's the possibility they'll go tomorrow. Kids rather thrilled. Obviously I am ecstatic devastated. Two extra days of peace devastating loneliness.

Watch this space...

CV I feel for you - I recall our hoover going 'bang' as I was doing one last tidy on house move day.......

Ds is off to grandparents tomorrow for a week so that dp can stress about unwritten Japanese conference paper in peace. I, meanwhle, need to make a decision re jobs, and feel like I could sleep for a week.....

MI, I'm impressed. I can't imagine my dh and dcs at a hippy t'ai chi week. They would be expelled on day 1 for loud and disorderly conduct.

CV, a Henry is the way to go. We killed our Miele with too much dust from DIY activities. I lurve my Henry, even though he is a bit cumbersome.

Ooh I love my Miele. It's had some pretty hard core DIY action, and is still going strong. Cat n Dog version - maybe they're made of sterner stuff.

Strop - funny you should say you feel you've got no friends. I feel a bit like that. Even though it's not strictly true. I used to have a big gang of friends, and we'd do all sorts together. Then one moved to New York, another moved to Sydney, one to Sheffield, one to Bristol, one to Jamaica... and now my best friend is moving to Sheffield too. And someone I thought was a pal didn't invite me to a party when she did others of the same 'rank'. Feeling all odd. I've got lots of new friends, but it's not the same. They feel more fragile.

We're also always hosting friends for lunch and dinner - as it's easier than carting DS around - but rarely have reciprocal invitations. BAH!

And I'm not always such a moany wazzock as I'm being here - I consider myself 'rather fun' (as my mum would say)!

Don't talk to me about hoovers. Our last one went bang on a very frenzied and skint day. We have a replacement cheap and fairly efficient one.

Mr Inferior has done hippy t'ai chi for decades. Various experiments in taking the kids along to the summer week sessions (I have declined, really quite politely as in I didnt laugh loudly) have had varying success. This year they are raring to go.

Oh, can I join the 'no friends' club? Having ds late(r) meant all my friends pre ds have no children and so adding a small child to the mix really stirred things up and not always in a good way. Then I didn't do nursery/toddler groups/school run so was late in making friends in that sphere. I find I dn't really fit particularly well (one of the few mothers who works full time). I have hosted stuff and had no invites back too! (doesn't help my lack of confidence streak which is a mile wide....) Having said all that I am also a bit of a loner which doesn't help......ho hum....

Is cat and dog miele REALLY good? We have a dsyon that I LOATHE and a dog who leaves large chunks of himself all over the carpets......

I'm definitely not a loner, but find there's an optimum number of friends. My current situation has dipped below 'optimum'! I'm also a bit shit. If I'm feeling secure and happy, I'm not the best at keeping in touch with anyone that involves effort. Not helped by hating phoning people up. Then when I'm sad, I wish I'd kept in touch and feel miffed that I've been left out. There must be a balance!

The Cat n Dog is very good. We've got two cats who leave clumps of fur all over the place, and it gets them up in a trice. Also much lighter than a Dyson.

May be I should accidentally drop the dyson and buy a new vaccumm cleaner....

So Herbs could you put a number on 'optimum'? I think the thing I struggle with is how many couples seem to think you have to come as a couple IYKWIM. I had a major bust-up with DH of a friend and as a resut he dropped dp totally (they used to meet socially - golf and stuff) and I was this was MY argument with you, not dps. But it is a kind of all or nothing. Dp just doesn't want to be around people who talk about their kids all the time and to the exclusion of anything else :)

For me, optimum is four or five close friends who I might not see very much but could always count on; about the same number of 'mum' friends, to see each week and hang out at park/soft play/etc; about the same number of 'couple' friends to have lunch with on a Sunday. Plus family. Actually, that's about what I've got. Maybe I've just got 'random hag paranoia'.

Interesting...
Have the first (close, old, friends - probably 4/5 there)
Couples - no - major bust up put paid to that and I haven't cultivated any new ones.
'mums' - guess I do have 4/5 there....
So I suppose about the same. I think we all have periods when we feel left out and lonely and sometimes it is true and sometimes it is just how we are feeling at that moment in time. And I also think it is the type and quality of the friendship if that makes sense. I have a friend who has hundreds of friends (her fb page puts mine to shame :) ), but she is a very different person to me and I have learnt not to compare (well, I am trying!)

omfg
interviewee I spoke to at length YESTERDAY has just rung to say he is under LEGAL SANCTION and cannot be published. Cue entire rearrangement of feature IN ONE AFTERNOON. Have exported kids ? whom I was going to take to picnic in the park ? c/o one of our amiable teenage babysitters who will take them to park with his own brothers (babysitter obviously v chuffed to convert afternoon of reluctant unpaid domestic babysitting into profit...)

In other news, they are off tomorrow!

Had he forgotten this rather saliant fact?

I need to go home and throw stuff in bag for ds, whilst thinking about the fact that I need stuff for ds to put into dp's bag when he packs for Japan next week (have had the fear of god put into me by colleagues about the sheer crappiness of Air France and the fact that mine and ds's luggage will in all likelihood go missing...). I am not sure my mind can cope :)

Don't ask.

just do not effing blinding ask.

Just don't.

Commisioning ed says bracingly 'get some other experts'. THis is not, actually, my area of expertise.

What kind of expert do you need? May be one of us can rustle someone up?

soil depletion of mineral levels in the UK over the past 50 years...

how coenzyme q10 works at mitochondrial level in the body...

the precise operation of siberian ginseng on the adrenal function....

women's testosterone levels...

Ah.

On the other hand, maybe not, (I am not even sure I understand the second one - is it in English?)

You see what I mean. I can get experts to talk to me in minute detail about stem cell treatments for age related macular degeneration, but theeeeeees....

I think I've managed it. THINK.

MI - I might be able to find you someone who knows about one and three on your list (not the same person).

I can recommend the Miele cat and dog. We have had ours for 6 years and it is still going strong. The cat inconsiderately died about a month after we got it, but we now have another one (I felt we needed to get value out of the vacuum cleaner) which has long fur. (DH regularly comments that the cat deposits enough fur around the house to make a small kitten, so that will give you an idea of the problem.)

Most of my friends are long distance, due to moving every 3-4 years. I only have two friends in Paris, and I met one of those through MN.

MrsS: if a quote about one is possible, I would be v grateful. Have sorted 3 c/o Edam. Must feed kids.

Email me on Monday on my work email address to remind me and I will try and find someone here who is not on leave. Actually, I have just thought, my newest recruit comes to me from the Soil Association, I will ask her if she knows someone who can help as well. She will, hopefully be eager to please her new boss.