Crepeys/Hagsnet - the moonlight beckons!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Because moonlight gives you a nice glow and doesn't show up your wrinkles or grey hair.

Ahhh found you! Spent the evening in a local bar with some drunk Japanese doing karaoke .... Was given a loaf of bread, no idea why! Dp was given a glass of something lethal that I think powers small machines
Miscarriages - no personal experience, but two friends had lots between them and it was the the fact they were treated like failures that got them. One never found out why and ended up adopting, the other now has two girls. Care SHOULD be better.
Champange MrsS celebrating the departure of the parasites

Yes, have had several glasses and probably the best part of a bottle of rose! Cheers!

Hope you're feeling OK today, MrsS Thanks for the moonlight. So we've gone from candlelight to moonlight. The next thread will just be in the dark.

Sooo, Blackduck, did YOU do any karaoke - or did your dp?

The kennels got back to me yesterday to say they have had a cancellation, so we will be going to visit my glam friends after all. Am off shopping today to try and get something that will make me feel a tad more confident. And to get more bras for dd - it's a bit scary how fast she is growing in that dept. Looks like she is going to be rather, erm, pneumatic.

Aha! Found you in the gloom! I haven't had much time on MN in recent days; we have DH's relatives over, but DH and SIL have skipped off to a music festival leaving me alone for the whole day with (count 'em) FIVE children.

Having said that, looking after five kids is marginally preferable to an 80s pop festival - lots of creaky, balding superannuated pop stars trying to relive their youth (along with most of the audience).

I had to chuckle when I read the comments about university contemporaries - I was at the same uni, same year as the Prime Minister, ffs.

My other news is my trip to the doctors - the lady doc nodded very sympathetically when I recounted my peri-menopausal woes. She felt it was a tad too early for blood tests/HRT etc. but has put me on the mini pill (progesterone only), and we'll see how that goes for three months. I was a bit concerned to read in the leaflet that a possible side effect was loss of libido - what if there isn't any to lose??!

Herbs, I am appalled by your miscarriage stories (I am fortunate enough never to have suffered one). The fact that they are common does not mean they're not hugely traumatic, but it doesn't sound like the medical staff in your case had any compassion at all.

Please urge me to go to the GP, talking of perimenopause. My last period never, well, properly got going - it has just surged and stopped for some weeks now. I had a similar thing a couple of years ago, and GP was soothing (as was the lovely STD nurse in my pilates group, with whom I had a very loud conversation outside another pilates class ) so I doubt it's anything major to worry about, but just in case it's not a hormonal blip and I'm actually about to conk out with some vile gynaecological malfunction....

CV, which festival was that then, eh? They have festivals of 80s music? So many cringeworthy tunes, so few to remember with any affection.

Had a very good shopping trip today, although dd is now tottering around in a state of shock saying, "D? But D is enormous. What if I don't stop growing? I will be F and not able to stand up anymore." (Bra measuring)

The upside of dd's expansion is that I have been able to give her lots of my old clothes that no longer suit my ageing self. (I used to wear a lot of bright pink, because I thought it suited me. I may well have been wrong. But she can wear it ok.) This has made me feel better about all the nice things I have bought today. However, is buying stuff from Miss Selfridge a major S&B faux pas?

I have this

for instance, which I would not have touched with a barge pole if I saw it online. But it looks luvverly on. Honestly. Dh didn't even make his "polite agreement to avoid a wife huff" face.

Only trouble was, dd pitched up in the changing room with the same top. But ran away quickly when she saw me. I won. Harhar.

MI, you should go to the GP

Strops, I had the same conversation with my DD (she's 12 and has suddenly sprouted bosoms) last week. M & S told her she was a 36A, which was patently wrong when we tried them on. The evil old trout in John Lewis fitted her as a 32E, which seemed about right, and then gave her a lecture on how she had been wearing the wrong fitting bra, and this was what has given her stretch marks on her boobs. DD1 is a sensitive soul and was tearful as we left the changing room. She is using bio oil now, and I think they will fade quite quickly (unlike the ones on my stomach, which 11 years on still look as if I have been clawed by a tiger).

Unfortunately I can't hand my clothes down to DD unless she and DD2 want to use them as tents.

I cannot wait for my periods to stop. Although all of my friends who have gone through menopause have ballooned, and I am fat enough already.

MrsS, do not go anywhere near M&S bra fitting dept: they are loons. We drive 40 mins to find a decent fitter. She saw my dd 6 months ago and said she was 30A (correct) and then again today: 32D. Blimey. Hope your dd's stretch marks fade quickly.

(I got some on my thighs age 11: they didn't ever fade. I envy the buggers who only get the darn things when they are pregnant.)

BTW, I used to be rather large, but am now medium-sized. This means that I have a load of excess skin that flaps in the breeze. Ya can't win.

I have been all sizes as I was eating disordered for rather a long time (you name the eating disorder, I've had it) and I am now paying the price in terms of ageing faster than my contemporaries. My chronological age is 46. My neck is 64.

Strops, the festival is called Rewind; it is being held in Henley-on-Thames, and is two whole days of 80s music, if you can believe that anyone could cope with so much nostalgia. I don't mind hearing the odd track on the radio, but DH is positively stuck in an 80s music time-warp.

Well, the child-count reached six at one point, with DS's mate from next-door here for most of the afternoon, but now all but one have gone to bed, and I am finally able to hit the Pinot Grigio. Actually, I can't complain, DH's niece (9) and nephew (8) are lovely and well-behaved, but I'm glad they are all in bed now!

I am a long way from being able to share clothes with DD1 (she's 10, but is shaping up to be a late developer, like her mummy. Nine-year-old niece, however, is developing breasts, has size 6 feet, and towers over her cousin. Yikes).

By the way, Strops, the top is lovely. I can't remember the last time I ventured into a branch of Miss Selfridge, however. Similarly, I feel like an old fogey/someone's mum in Topshop or River Island.

I also got [http://www.missselfridge.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=33055&storeId=12554&productId=2592175&langId=-1&categoryId=&searchTerm=super skinny jeans&pageSize=40 these]

Again, wouldn't have looked at them twice on t'internet, but the "super skinny" is just misleading. They cope with my large size 12 backside just fine. I reckon dd would let me know if I was really making an idiot of myself in sartorial terms (although I can never be completely sure).

Bollocks, that link went wrong. skinny jeans&pageSize=40 try again

CV, I've heard of Rewind. Are the festivals in Henley-on-Thames very decorous? I imagine they might be. The only time I've been to Henley is when I was 10 and a friend of my dad's owned a house on the finishing line of the Regatta. (See, I win the prize for being the most socially downwardly mobile Crepey: am so not going anywhere near Henley Regatta anywhere soon.)

Well, DH and SIL have just rolled in having had a whale of a time - apparently everyone was dressed in full 80s garb; there were groups of identical Freddie Mercurys, several Madonnas, Don Johnsons etc. They boogied the night away to the Village People, ABC, Billy Ocean and others, and apparently it was a most civilised event. I'm almost sad I didn't go (I say almost).

I grew up nearly Henley and spent my wedding night in the Red Lion Hotel there. Teenage years spent at the regatta with the sole ambition of pulling a rower, posy regatta, at Wheeler's night club on Remenham Hill. We used to drink in the Two Brewers pub, on the Berks side of the bridge and then dash across the bridge for last orders on the Oxon side which was half an hour later. One memorable Sunday afternoon, friend and I, aged about 17, decided to row into Henley. Spent the afternoon and evening getting very pissed and then rowed back, leaving about midnight. Navigating Shiplake Lock in the small hours sobered us up somewhat and I think we got home around 4 am. Oh happy days!

Henley was crap for shopping in my yoof - there was "Facy of Henley" which was a sort of "Are You Being Served" department store (and which is still there - I was in Henley last week) and Gladys Falloon, which sold dresses for Laydees of a certain age. Oh and there was Chloe, which was out of our price range. But they now have Joules, Monsoon and FatFace, which I think is progress.

Sorry can't keep up, but to answer question NO I did not do karaoke, but ds wowed them with Dancing Queen (I do worry about that boy) and Dp murdered 'Shes out of my life' (sing like that mate and she would be) please don't tell me you get fatter post menopause, I am just coming to terms with the fact a large chunk of my wardrobe we probably never fit again....

Well done to your ds, Blackduck. Did you not film it for posterity? :) Or for blackmail purposes, in yr dp's case?

Am sniggering at CV's teenage exploits and then suddenly getting at twitchy at the idea of my dd rowing drunk in the middle of the night with no lifejacket. I'm definitely getting old (and my middle-aged spread is .. spreading. Giving all my tight t-shirts to dd).

Ooops, sorry, MrsS's teen exploits, I mean.

I weighed myself yesterday .

I resumed swimming this morning.

I have also decided to accept the fact that the M&S trousers I got a while back are just too tight round the waist. Well, that was £20 down the drain but no more....

I took DD2 swimming this morning. I have offered to take the DDs to the pet cemetery here, which also has a lot of live cats wandering around. It is nice weather. We like cats. I thought it would be an interesting way to spend the afternoon. They have both said, ewwww, no.

DH is putting his CD collection into alphabetical order, being "helped" by the Schadenfreudekatze. There is miaowing, swearing and crashing of CDs hitting the floor. I thought it best to go out.

Wow, this has moved fast, even in the moonlight, the serious moonlight (for all the 80's music fans ) My friend lives in Henley and does the whole 80's festival

Actually, I ought to confess right now that we took the DC to We Will Rock You last week. DD was not keen on going - so uncool, and I was wobbling, but as DS was so keen we schlepped up there and within a minute I was hooked. I mean, who could not be hooked in when Curly Watts appears on stage And the musicians were amazing, as were the lead singers. It was actually really good and I keep catching myself humming Queen ditties

CV, my GP fobbed me off with the progesterone only mini-pill (well, to be fair, I was happy to try it as I was a bit nervous of the HRT) but aside from having no periods for 3 months, it did nothing to help my PM symptoms. So I went the whole hog and I am now on HRT (well, a low dose one, apparently) and things have really looked up (especially for DH ) But maybe the mini-pill will do the trick for you!

DD's growing nicely in the boobage department - hopefully she won't have 2 fried eggs like me, but she will not let anyone near her to measure up, so I'm going on guesswork at the moment. No idea whether she has any stretch marks. I grew very fast in all directions (apart from my boobs) around puberty andam consequently am now covered in stretch marks. Hence my preference for one-piece swimming costumes!