We May Be Crepey.......

[CointreauVersial]

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

Sorry to hear you have had bad news MrsS.

Have spent the morning at the beach (from 8.30!) watching ds doing karate, mostly in the sea. He had a great time and had certainly earned the hot choc he had afterwards.

I never want to see a packing box or Lego ever again.....
Ds's room is done (including disposing of a load of soft toys whilst he's out of the way (wicked mother), and locating one missing school sweatshirt -no longer required.....
Dp has sworn his way through his office - a mammoth task. I am hoping rest of the house will be relatively easy..... (famous last words)
Knackered and very sweaty so off for a bath and a takeaway...
Would have preferred you day Stropps.

Agree Ruby,
I've also had strange summer. Lost a friend to suicide in Julymy lovely summer holiday has had an undercurrent of deep sadness.

In other news:
Now awaiting dds GCSE results on Friday. < bites nails>
Have decided to low carb ( if that's an acceptable verb) for the next month to shift holiday bulge

Sounds like you had a very productive day BD. I am sure that if I packed up ds's room I would find his "missing" swimming goggles. (He is reading over my shoulder and smirking)

Oh yes, ruby?? Tell me more... Any chance of a crepey-meet?

Sorry to hear about fellow crepeys getting traumatic news. It is indeed draining.

(Hmm, that should probably be "pricks up ears" rather than perks - blame it on the after a few hours of sun)

What's up, MrsS? Hope you are OK.

Well, I survived the Rewind Festival. OMG, the heat!. Certainly no call for wellies/cagoules; I thought I was going to melt. What a laugh, though; seriously camp, with lots of dressing up, cheesy music, and a very convivial atomosphere (no drunken teens to lower the tone). Amazing after all these years that I can still remember all the words to Adam and the Ants, OMD and so on.

Staying overnight at the Hilton (as opposed to a sweaty tent) was a masterstroke, especially as half of Kool and the Gang and the tall bloke from Dr and The Medics (remember them?!) were propping up the bar when we arrived back at 1am.

I'm just mustering the energy to start the holiday packing. We are off first thing Wednesday; just a pity the hot weather doesn't look like it will last.

We have hit that horrible packing stage where it looks worse than when you started...I am also at the 'shove odd things down the side' stage (dp will be very short of tshirts for a while) meanwhile the charity shops are benefiting from our largess and dp spends his lunch break planning the new bathroom, and putting sofas on a wish list....
Holiday, what holiday?
Ds meanwhile has done Horseguards, Nat Portrait museum and Buck House....how the other half...

Keep up the good work bd it will be over soon and worth it!

CV - ultra impressed at festival attendance
Etc. lol @ knowing Adam & ants songs. That happens to me all the time and my( less crepey) colleagues think I am a veritable sage regarding 80s music.Lol
[ hours spent listening to Top 40 instead of revising for o'levels]

CV - I am Henley bound tomorrow to see my mother - I should have made it a week earlier and done rewind with you.

I am feeling an unpleasant sense of karma - a friend, married someone 20 years older than her, with a dicky heart, led him a merry dance, frequently unfaithful, but said she had no intention of divorce, as she was hanging on for the big house and money...she died last week, cancer, six months from diagnosis to death. He is devastated and it is all so sad and so wrong.

So sorry about your friend, Cremola. I lost a friend to suicide a few years ago and it is an utterly shit feeling - I kept thinking - what could I have done to help? G was always the life and soul of the party (we were drinking buddies and would egg each other on) and screamingly funny - the last person I would have thought of to have hanged herself.

Sorry to be depressing. Will sign out now until next Sunday.

Mrs S - was precisely that.no- one knew the extent if her depression. She was never anything but sweet and funny at work.

V sad to hear about your friends death and her husbands grief. Life is v complicated I think. It seems so difficult to live with verity sometimes. And it's a shame.

MrsS I can see that must be hard to get your head round, life is weird sometimes.
And sorry to hear about the suicide too - I found out that an old colleague of mine committed suicide last year, leaving four boys and his wife pregnant with number five. One child was the same age as ds and I just couldn't imagine how ds would cope if I had to say daddy wasn't coming home.....he, too, was one of the last people I thought would do such a thing.

Oh, all the sad news of deaths, etc

I am feeling that we are really lucky to have had a trauma-free holiday (so far).
However, this may change as we are about to start decorating our bedroom. DH has been despatched to find the sandpaper to do the woodwork...

Packing with a hangover - not good, I keep having to go for a lie down between boxes.....

Well, started on the decorating, but DH went off to watch the cricket at the Oval, leaving me to it
I gave him a good mouthful before he went - "you been boy'd!" from DS. He will have to make up his time tomorrow

BTM - what paint colours you got there?

Made him sweat today Paint is a sort of dirty lilac (greyish) and there will be a "feature wall" with sort of Chinese-ish cherry blossom in cream/white/gold on a mottled dirty lilac/black background. New chests of drawers ordered and I am off to see the carpet man tomorrow as I am fed up of stripped floorboards. Must be getting crepier by the minute.

Talking of crepiness, I got a breast screening appointment through the post as I "have now reached the age for breast screening" That'll be nearly 48 then?

BTM

I was told at my recent smear that as I'm 49 now, smears will be 'swopped' for breast screening in the future... Hmmm!

S & B news, I saw a lovely pair of Liberty print, platform wedge sandals in the local Clarks last week, my size and £16.49 so had to be bought! Wore them with M & S jeggings and floaty blouse (both charity shop finds) when out to lunch today and had compliments from both DS(20) and his very stylish girlfriend.... :)

Off on holiday Saturday with DH (via one day/night with DH in his house tomorrow - this so I can do his packing). This is the very first time DH has organised a holiday and my idea of Barcelona has been translated to a week in Cornwall with him working (farm-work) and accommodation is the farm owners touring caravan in a field...

This may well be cited as unreasonable behavior in the future.

Hello crepeys! I have missed you all. Have had a quick skim catch up - Blackduck - great, great news about the house, well done! Don't worry about the packing, it will get done and undone because it has to. MI - hope you have/had a great time in Cornwall. MrsS and Cremola, I'm sorry about your friends - that's very tough. My aunt is very ill at the moment, not expected to pull through this time, but she's 84 and has had a very full and fascinating life with its own sadnesses (she lost her baby daughter to malaria at 5 months old) and although I will miss her madly, it is her time to go. Going before your time is desparately unfair, no matter the circumstances.

Stropps - we are on our way to Weymouth for camping (in the howling gales) this weekend. Tips for wet weather activities locally for kids aged 4 to 11? Not sure how long playing Uno while parents get bladdered under the gazebo will last. Also, I know you mentioned a nice cafe and that I made a note, but I have lost said note and would love a reminder.

Have finished my Olympic volunteering which has been great but very hard work with getting up at 4.30 in order to start at 6am some days. We then managed to get a quick cheap week on the Costa del Sol, although thankfully the family bit rather than the 'ere we go bit, which was lovely an dlazy and involved a siesta every day. Back now to 400 (actually 400 rather than an exaggeration) work emails and bits falling off our new house. Sigh. It's ok though, colleague definitely coming back from maternity leave on 11th Sept and I will be nailing her to her inbox (I have been dealing with a lot of her stuff) for the first 6 weeks.

So that has been my summer of filling the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run which is why I have been so silent recently, but hopefully I will be a bit more around from now on. I think I can make a meet up on the 11th, would love to see you all - just have to check if that's the night of the scouts parents' meeting.

Yes, BTM same - I am not sure what is worse, having cold things shoved up your fanjo, or being on tip toe whilst they squash your boobs between two plates and tilt.....blimey the indignities...

Swop your field for my packing boxes....

Dp and I have realised there is some kind of symmetry as we are moving out sans dog and ds, just as we moved in....

Hi wilbur - thanks...
We are at random box stage (you know, where you just shove things in from various corners of the house rather than from a specific room...) - I think this means we are near the end.....

Endinsmiles - that is unreasonable behaviour indeed, although if the farm is picturesque it could be verytranquil. If dh organised our holidays we would be following one of the Etapes of the Tour de France.

wilbur - it's the Hive Beach Cafe at Burton Bradstock. But do not stand near the cliffs. I sent my ma, aunt and uncle and my children there a few weeks ago and they had a lovely time but said the cliffs looked in a right old state. The next day there was a landslip and unfortunately some tourists went over to have a look and then got squashed by a second landslip. Cliffs around here are generally all a bit crumbly round here, so fossil hunting not recommended at the mo.

I have been beaching it a lot with ds this week (as dd is still away tobogganing down glaciers and batting her outrageously long eyelashes at French boys). I even managed to drag dh away from his work this afternoon and got him rowing my new (small, inflatable) boat up and down. And saw him enter the sea in Britain for the first time ever.

For entertainment in wet weather: Nothe Fort in Weymouth and Portland Castle are worth a visit. Portland Bill lighthouse always atmospheric and Portland good for a quick visit to sample the, um, otherness of the place. "Fun Factory" soft play on the Granby industrial estate in Weymouth if you are desperate. Sealife Centre in Weymouth. Jurassic Fun Centre near Burton Bradstock (swimming pool with slides etc) - have not been but have heard it is good. Splashdown water park in Poole - but may be too much for littlies. If weather not too bad, Abbotsbury is good, with the Swannery, Children's Farm and Sub-Tropical Gardens and access to Chesil Beach (good for kite flying and geology lessons). Um, that's all I can think of right now.

Welcome back Wilbur. that's good u got hols too.

BTM the lilac dirty or not sounds and I live the idea of the cherry blossomlove lavender and greys together a la Francaise!

Yes I too have reached the age of breast screening I fear. Had my first one last year although it was a voluntary scheme for laydeez at my work. Quite taken aback by the boob squasher contraption. Didn't expect it to pinch so much.

Bd - the end is in sight. Hope the kettle and the teabags are perched within easy reach( or )...

Lol @ replacing stripped boards with carpet. I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday especially after the big freeze in 2010. Blimey it was draughty and cold.

GCSE results for dd in the morning.
Fingers crossed for her

Oh fingers crossed Creme
Stropps you sound like you have been busy...
The house looks bizarre (and bare), I am determined to finish today, so I can have the weekend off. Removal men arrive 8.00 Tuesday, and I am back to work Wednesday. I need some sleep before then!!