We May Be Crepey.......

[CointreauVersial]

.....but we are still Stylish (if not Beautiful).

Hags, I have a meeting in London on 12 September. Not sure what day this is, but does anyone want to come out to play on either the 11th or the 12th?

Yerss

Love love love to.
Will check prices.

Oooh, I would like to come and drink vino. 11th would be best for me!

Still getting over AI in Turkey which was soooo far away from what we normally do, I think we've wiped it from our memories...

On an S&B note, am on Hope in a Jar moisturiser which is proving lovely and Almond Oil cleansing when I remember....

Will check work diary MrsS - would love to.... (and it's about time you saw me in all my crepiness glory.

Oooh a meet-up - with our leading lush And with some new or as yet un-met crepeys

The 11th would be better for me too!

beachy, was the AI awful??? We are off on ours on Monday and I am considering getting my jaws wired shut before we go...

Wine? Though I have one of those vague feelings about that weekend. That I'm supposed to be doing something...

Feeling like a wet rag today. DS has no nursery this week or next, and I'm REALLY MISSING that time to myself. It's only two days, but... He's also being particularly 'challenging' at the moment. And has just dropped his nap. Yesterday he threw his lunch on the floor (it involved soup), pushed all his 'craft' stuff off a table and broke a cup, threw water over me, hit me in the face, and behaved in such a riotous manner that we had to leave Argos, of all places. Wednesday was a similar picture.

We're going to a big park today, for maximum exercise potential, but if he's true to form he'll lag behind everyone else, inspecting blades of grass, lie in the ground having a tantrum about something, then run off, etc etc. I think I may need to leave him with DP for a couple of hours tomorrow, while I go and sit in Dorothy Perkins, or something.

And I'm still dithering about fit flops. I think I'm going to splash out on these, given that I haven't bought any new sandals since getting pregnant with DS, they'll be useful, as my mother would say, and I like them.

Herbs, the 11th Sept is a Tuesday, so unless you have a particularly heavy weekend planned?

I'm sure your fit flops are lovely (I love mine!) but I can't open the link. And definitely time for your DP to have a turn!

Aah, the particular joys of having a toddler! Herbs, you have my sympathy (although I reckon I got off fairly lightly in the tantrum and food-throwing stakes, thank goodness, or perhaps I've just blotted it from my memory?).

I am home with all three today, but the girls want to go to Guildford Spectrum swimming pool, which will be absolutely heaving. I will take a stack of mags and sit on the balcony and ignore them for two hours supervise from there. The payback is a quick trip to the city centre afterwards, so I can try on these boots which I quite like the look of.

Sadly, I don't think the 11th will be a goer for me. DH is in Berlin all week.

Aahh Mighty's nearly as nice as my Clarkes

Haven't you got sitters in your neck of the woods, CV?

BTM, the AI was Very Hot and so dinner was spent in 38 degrees! I guess it was the fact that we didn't have to 'do' anything which was a bit challenging after 4 years of camping, so as it was ALL relaxation time, you didn't really relax (if that makes sense!)

The food was fine, but got very samey after the first week, I did like having Pina Coladas before I'd got out of my swimming costume every night and if you remember how magic my magic suit was, it seemed to help with the struggle!

I have just bought scales for the first time in my life!

Gulp! Was it 38degrees in the hotel? No air-con? The kids won't eat outside in the evening for fear of mozzies anyway, so I am hoping to at least remain cool!
This is our first summer not camping for 10 years, and DH and DS don't do sitting still for more than 5mins!
And are the scales due to the AI? I will be the wrinkly Sumo in the corner at the meet-up

On the plus side, Pina Coladas

Air con in the rooms, dinner outside or in open sided restaurant with fans.... Fans don't really work at that heat, just swill the hot air around!

Yes, AI = scales

Oh dear beachy, I knew there was a reason we had never done AI before

Ah, a Tuesday. That should be fine!

And these are the shoes. A bit 'this season's wedge'?

And what the hell is AI?

Very shiny and red Herbs - you can be Dorothy (I have a pair of pink patent leather shoes that I love )

AI = All Inclusive AKA hotels for the greedy and fat (even if they weren't before)

Shiny and red? The ones I linked to are yellow, I thought. The internet is a mysterious thing.

Ah... AI. All becomes clear. Talking of which, looking at a week away, possibly somewhere forren, with things for DS to do, bars for DP and I, beach, culcha, stuff like that. Any suggestions?

Barca - loads of culture, bars and nice places to eat and beaches too. Plus they like children and are used to them running around, even late at night

Can you tell I'm all Olympic'd out - it's on 3 TV's in our house all day long! But we are going out for a drink soon and I don't want to miss Rebecca!

Barcelona is fab, one of my favourite cities, although I have only been there child-free.

Well, the trip to the swimming pool was a little eventful. I sent the girls into the pool and settled down in the viewing gallery with a skinny capu and a copy of Easy Living, but was snapped out of my glossy magazine reverie by the sight of DD2 (aged 8), poised Tom Daly-like on the edge of the high diving platform. Unfortunately she interpreted my shrieking and frantic hand-flapping as encouragement, and jumped off. Next thing, she is being helped out of the pool by the lifeguard with blood all over her face. Thank goodness it was just a nosebleed, and the first aid chap had it all in hand. She said she only jumped because DD1 said she wouldn't speak to her any more if she didn't. DD1 was completely unrepentant.

Fortunately DD2 recovered enough to cope with a trip to Top Shop (how old do I feel in that shop?), where I picked up my lovely boots, but I ended up getting the black in the end, because I think they will be more versatile. Cheap too!

As impoverished no-holiday folk, we appear to be everybody's go-to family for house-minding. Currently overseeing three extra sets of keys. Dd has just finished an extremely lucrative week of chicken and cat-minding and I am just slightly worried about what she will do with her earnings. Last time it was something spectacularly idiotic. She is already sporting a slightly unwise extra piercing as of last week (sanctioned by me in a compromise agreement). Am vaguely concerned she may try to get her nose pierced as well. She has previous form in getting away with looking 18 (actual age just 14). Hmm.

Today I dragged the family out to Weymouth to check out the Olympic action. Sadly, we didn't quite get that far as we got ambushed by ds's desire to go to the Olympic sports try-out section of the beach. We got involved in canoeing, firstly by trying out the Ergo paddling machines on dry land and then I had a rush of blood to the head and agreed to take the dcs out on the water. We had not come prepared (i.e we didn't have our cozzies on) so I just took my jeans off and got in a kayak with ds. Note to any local lurkers: I was the middle-aged mum in orange lacey pants and a cowboy hat.
I am going to try my best not to share a kayak with ds again. It was a very damp experience. I want to get some family kayaks, but I will make dh share with ds.

Orange lacy pants, Strops? How glam are you?

I have Not Cooked Dinner. It is now nearly 11.00 and no-one has demanded any, so I am going to bed.