The Creped Crusaders - new thread!

[wilbur]

New thread for chatting. Oh and swapping S&B tips.

Having a manic day here - INSET day at school and I have 7 kids (inc my 3) over for lunch. While also trying to "work from home" and talk to removal people.

Rogue crossings out above!

CV - I do seem to have got off lightly. Much more lightly than I was expecting. Though I am finding the constant...

'I need a poo/wee mummy'

'There's no poo/wee in there'

... a little wearing, and impossible to get anything done, but I know it's just a stage.

Oh dear MI - hope it wasnt the lovely lady who got the Champneys day sorted!

The thought of a new job (or lack of) is pretty unnerving, I find, particularly as I slip further into middle-age! Having said that, my full-time post in Sept is looking less gruelling as it seems that some of the current pupils will have "moved on" and I may take up some of my current ones, which is all much less stressful

On the harmonious family-life front, DD's return last night dissolved into a tantrum/being shouted at by DH and I this morning as she did not want to leave for gym I know she is knackered, but I have just had to write out cheques to the tune of over £500 for her, so I do not want her to miss any more than she really has to, and she missed last night.

On a posititve note, DS has gone off to Lovebox, so DH and I are going for a walk in the woods and a grown-ups only lunch.
Before he disappears off to the pub to watch the rugby, of course.

I just end up feeling old and fat and hideous. Have v short hair at moment too [sad

MI you are NONE of those things

I'm with Blackduck on that one. MTFU, MI.

The DDs have been crying on and off since yesterday about having to leave Paris. I think this has been exacerbated by the end of term and some of their friends moving on.

I am still looking at schools. Does a school journey by train from either Vauxhall or Waterloo to Kingston sound too horrendous? The TFL website says it will take about 40 minutes door to door.

Lots of London kids do that kind of journey, MrsS - and DD1's journey to secondary will be 30 mins plus; it does sound a bit wearing, but not overwhelmingly so. (DD1's journey will be mainly mooching on foot, with possibly a bus journey part of the way. School is pretty local, though.) If she'd gone to the school where loads of her mates are going, it would be around the same as your DDs' with a train journey in there.

Have just had flaming row with DD2 (who is exhausted after a sleepover, natch) about Things She Does Not Like To Eat. I said, possibly exaggerating a bit, that she hates most things. (Mushrooms, hard boiled eggs, courgettes, boiled potatoes...and as DD1 doesn't eat meat, this makes life difficult.) She has started drawing up a comprehensive list of things she does like. Even though I feel 'chocolate mouse' [sic] and 'cakes' and 'buscuits' [sic] probably do not have legitimate status on it (who doesn't like chocolate mouse, after all?) it is, I will admit, fairly comprehensive. (Although not sure 'mayonayse' [sic] also counts.)

It would be fine. It takes DD 40mins to go all of about 3 miles to her school on public transport - only 10mins in the car! Most of her friends travel 40mins or even more every day to schools all over the place. DS's mate travels well over an hour each way on trains and tubes, and can get to/from places like Kingston on his own (not an easy journey from here) and he's in Y7

Are you thinking Tiffin?

Isn't Tiffin super selective? No - the one we are looking at is called Marymount. It's all girls, Catholic, but not overwhelmingly so, and does the IB Middle Years Programme and IB itself. They get excellent results at IB, and regularly play the DDs' current school at football, so this will be an incentive to keep up their sport.

My cousins in Norf Landan used to do a horrendous journey to school. Bounds Green to Turnpike Lane on the underground and they picked up a bus from Turnpike Lane to Hornsey. I think children often do have fairly convoluted journeys to school in London. I used to cycle 3 miles over rough ground in t' country myself.

I think it probably is super-selective, whatever that means! Hopefully you could win your DD's over with the possibilty of going back to Paris to play their old school?
I didn't realise your DD's play footy - so does DD (and DS, of course!)

DD could cycle, but likes the socialising on the buses. And there's all the sports bags to manage too!

I have lost my glasses

Emergency appointment at Vision Express looms.

Ask your vacuous colleagues for some advice on new frames

They would be appalled at the idea of glasses! But I can't face contacts as am tightfisted not prepared to go down that route at the moment. Oh lord, I did need new glasses anyway - the last time I had my eyes tested we agreed I could 'go on with these for now' and I suspect that was the wrong call....

To be fair, I don't think they are vacuous so much as very, er, different from me. I would never have my bikini line electrolysed

this is quite a good article. I find it particularly interesting where they say about the rate of maturation. DD1 seems to me to be quite young for her age, compared with me at the same age and certainly compared to her friends who are in the UK - they are very much into boyfriends, make up, snogging etc etc (according to their FB pages) whereas DD1 is still at the slobbing around in jeans and a T shirt and kicking a ball stage.

DH's new glasses here set him back over a grand . He refused to countenance my suggestion that he pop into Boots or Specsavers when he was back in UK. He can't wear contact lenses. Apparently he doesn't produce enough tears.

I wrote a long post about DD1 compared to yours and then realised you were talking about your DD1 and yes, remembered myself at her age

I think your DD1 and my DD2 are not dissimilar, MI. Even in looks.

DD2 has spent most of the afternoon asleep. I think it is end of term-itis. She has finally woken up and looks much better.

I wish my DD had. I picked her up early from gym and she was vile. She eventually improved, but is seriously knackered and we are going out for a cycle ride with friends tomorrow. Watch this space!

MrsS I had a quick look at that article - very interesting what they said about the positives of international school. I'm afraid DD is very much into make-up and boyfriends, though no snogging yet (I hope!). And slobbing around in jeans and a Tshirt and kicking a ball She isn't 13 yet though! I've forgotten how old your DD1 is MrsS?

Yes MI. Unless you have put on 2 stone in a week and had your head shaved?

ruby, go to the docs - I had terrible periods as soon as I started and got some horse-pills prescribed which helped enormously when I took 2 at a time. I'm sure there must be something they could do for your poor DD.

Yes, definitely take her along - it sounds terrible and she is only 13

Yes second (third?) doctors, but would add will probably pass. I was a migraine/puberty sufferer and hideous as it was at the time it was short lived. I still get migraines, but only if really stressed and really knackered.... (or post birth :) )
Took dp for fathers day curry - lovely... And saw house we are hoping to buy...everyone has been told about ds already (he bent the vendors ear for 30 mins last time...)

BD I have forgotten if this was house a), b) or c)? Was your DS begging them to drop the price?

I usually get a headache and throw up when I come on. Sorry, that's no help. I did get some tablets from the doctor that tasted so foul I used to bring them straight back up.

Given that I am so fat, I am unsure why I throw up so much. And no, it's not the drink!

On a positive note, the weather seems to be perking up for our holiday.