We May Be Crepey.......

[CointreauVersial]

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

Very sorry to hear that, MI.

Oh god, realised she didn't even make it to her sixth. Life stinks, sometimes. Her parents have not managed to have any other children either.

So sad for your friend, MI, and for you.

I am off to another funeral this week, but my lovely aunt, at 89, had lived a long and happy life and had been lost to Alzheimers for the last couple of years. The funeral will be sad, but very much a "celebration" of a life well lived.

I can't imagine having to go to a child's funeral.

This will be the first funeral the DCs will attend; DS was supposed to come to my grandmother's last month but chickened out at the last moment, but they don't have a choice this time as DH is in Tunisia all week. But it shouldn't be too upsetting.

I have just paid nearly £400 for me and the DDs to get back to UK on Eurostar to spend a few days with my mother at the end of August. I am now trying to think of nice things we can do while we are there, and am planning on a day in Oxford, and maybe a day at the seaside. (She lives nowhere near the seaside but we can go on the train.)

Want to pop up to London to see us?

AIBU to be feeling a touch fed up with DP's (rather fab in her own way) aunt who has emailed me about books the Inferiorettes might like for Christmas? Why can't she email HER NEPHEW?

To be fair, I like kids' literature a lot. And he's not so keen.

Yes! She has the Asda Bus on the Friday, which she won't cancel, so that might be a goer. I will let you know. I have some more clothes for the Inferiorettes as the Schadenfraulein has grown an inch since breaking up for the holidays. That's six inches in a year. I have asked her, please, to stop.

I love children's literature. Have you read The Phantom Tollbooth? It is DD2's book to read the first term back. DD1 hated it. I luff both of the DDs' English teachers and we keep giving them recommendations of "English" books which they duly put on the reading list.

Ohhh, The Phantom Tolbooth. I adored that book when I was younger - I probably read it when I was about 9. I found a copy at a 2nd hand bookfair and bought it for DD1 who ignored it completely. It is still gathering dust on the bookshelf.

Hi Ruby - good hols?

Oh yes, The Phantom Tollbooth -loved it, ds equally unimpressed. My friend who died last year was a big children's lit fan, particularly fantasy, so always made good recommendations.
Ds is in disparate need of a haircut...(again), and new trousers - arguing with his ankles.

Oh oh < overexcited>
I'm on the boat to France!!
Having my first holiday

Creme is that first 'ever' or first 'this year' ??? :)

Well Stropps, I am feeling very proud of my crepey old self - wearing my new bikini and lots of factor 50

First ever wine of holiday
Several thousandth of all time
2nd hols of this year lol- Barça in feb
Lol
Sozzled

Are you coming within sniffin' distance of Paris, Cremola?

BTM, that's the spirit

Glad to see Cremola is also wasting no time getting into the holiday mood

I too remember loving The Phantom Tollbooth. I also remembering waving it in front of dd and she went "meh" or equivalent. I went wild on Amazon about 3 or 4 years ago buying all sorts of fab books that I remembered enjoying (Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and a bunch of others) and it was a sad disappointment. They virtually all gave dd nightmares. Whereas she will read lots of "real life"-type stories with - to my mind - excessive misery in them (usually lots of death and divorce) and enjoy them with no ill effects. Those types of books just depress me. No accounting for taste.

Ahhh, Alan Garner.....

DD1 is reading some dreadful tripe by someone called Erin Hunter at the moment, about supernatural polar bears, or something. I recently found out that Erin Hunter doesn't actually exist - it's a team of writers. Somehow I don't think we're talking literary classics.

Bottoms up, Cremola, start the holiday as you mean to go on, eh?

Oh no, Mika has come out of the closet and has declared openly that he is gay. I am devastated. Who would have thought it? Who will DD1 marry now?

DD2 absolutely adores the "Warriors" series by Erin Hunter, CV. They can't be that bad (can they?) because they are on the school reading list...

CV, Alan Garner has finally written the book finishing the Weirdstone triology. Due out this month, apparently . I will read it even if my offspring won't - although I'm pretty sure ds will be a Garner fan.

Sadly not near Paris this time mrs s- maybe back in Paris in October for a weekend
Off to west coast to visit les parents.long drive tomorrow
Bonne nuit Mesdames !

Creme I took the wine for granted :)

DD is not into sci fi or those fantasy-type books. infact she is not into much reading at all atm I was hoping she would devour a few novels this hol, but she seems to be having too much fun with her bro - who'd have thought it?

I however have my guilty pleasures - just finished an Anita Shreve and am about to give 50 shades a go (on my kindle of course) - wish me luck!

Morning crepeys, I see we have another two days of summer on the cards - make the most of it!
Stropps - is DHs op soon/now? Fingers crossed.

BD, yes, his op is scheduled for today. He had to take extra-strength laxatives yesterday (he said if bowels evacuation was an Olympic event he would definitely have got the gold ) and is now fasting, but we still have to phone the hospital after 9am "to check they have a bed". Dd and ds are staying with my mother until at least Saturday. I am not hugely happy with this arrangement, as my ma is insisting she is going to drive them all around the countryside on outings, which is obviously very kind of her BUT she is not used to driving with squabbling kiddiwinks in the car (and she's 82, has cataracts and is not as well as she might be). So it will be just me, the dog and my overblown anxiety in the house tonight...