Crepeys do Christmas...

[oldqueenie]

Will this fit the bill. Dull but seasonal?

MrsS, were you really, really bad in a previous life? Can you not get work to send you on some kind of emergency trip between Christmas and NY?

CV, oh dear, mice in the wardrobe - they have a terrible tendency to chew all sorts of things not just scoff chocolate. DH is currently moaning because the mice in our garage (they move in every winter) have chewed one of his speakers. Last year they ate a hole in a hoover hole and made a big nest in a box of packaging materials. I have repeatedly told dh that if he tidied the garage so that the dog could access all areas, the problem would probably be solved quite quickly.

This morning I arrived at my desk to find a bulging envelope addressed to me. Inside was a 6-page closely typed treatise by dd on the subject of why she should be allowed a hamster. I have to give her A* for persistence, as this campaign has now been going on for over 7 years. We have had the screaming, the cajoling, the emotional blackmail, the shouting, the wailing, any amount of frankly outrageously over-the-top behaviour to try and get her way. Now we have the "I am so grown-up and mature, you can see that I am now ready for the responsibility and will not ever neglect the hamster the way I neglected the fish and I will hypnotise the dog and completely change his character so that he will not spend the rest of his life trying to eat small furries" phase. It is now clear why she suddenly cleaned out the fishtank (home now only to a few) without being asked last weekend and why she has started to tidy her room. Of course, the fact that she did these things during the last week is supposed to cancel out the last few years of not doing them. Jeez, I hate having to have the same bloody arguments all the time. I mean, it's not as if we don't have a pet FGS. And the dog sleeps in her room which would not be able to continue if she had a nocturnal rodent living in there FFS.

X-posts, herbs. So sorry to hear that your niece is now in hospital. Is there any definitive diagnosis yet?

Nice boots. I seem to be living in my wellies at the moment...

Wah - hoover hose

She'd got to the stage of having 20 seizures a day, so she was admitted to hospital for observation and to try out various drugs on her. She's on some pretty hefty drugs now, with some nasty side-effects, but they are working to reduce her seizures. There's no definitive diagnosis yet - one of the neurologists doesn't think it can be epilepsy, as it's come on so suddenly, and got worse so quickly.

But of course my poor sis has to sleep with her, on the open ward, with nurses bustling about all night, machines going 'beep', etc etc, so hasn't had a decent night's sleep for about six weeks. And of course the worry is so exhausting too.

Your poor sister. It sounds harrowing.

Oh Herbs, that sounds horrendous But hopefully the hospital can get it sorted.

I have some Merrell boots - furry inside and really cosy

Grinchy, we had a hamster obsession in our area when DD was in Y2 or 3. We managed to avoid getting one (well, flatly refused!) and after a month or 2 DD saw why - her friends had all lost interest in them and the parents were having to look after them! However, the plus point of hamsters is that they only live for about 2 years

BTM, yes, dd has had this bloody hamster/small animal obsession since Y2 and given that she is in Y10, this subject is getting a tad ... old. We have had some spectacular rows about this over the years. You'd think after 7 years of me saying "NO!" she would give up. Approx every 3-4 months the subject is broached again. Drives me bloody mad. Mind you, she did bang on and on for a couple of years about getting a cat until one scratched her. Maybe I could find someone with a really vicious and misanthropic hamster and borrow it for the w/e.

I wouldn't put it past her to have cooked the whole thing up with a friend this time, as I am getting the impression from her essay about why she should have the bloody thing that there is someone else involved. Someone with a bunch of baby hammies on their hands, maybe. The thing is, dd has done some pretty baaaaad things over the years in her seemingly never-ending quest to get a small furry (that she will be bored with after a week and leave me to look after and foot the vet bills for): such as last summer contacting a guinea pig breeder and pretending to be 18, getting 2 damn animals, bringing them home in a shoe box and letting them loose in one of the garden sheds. Dealing with that shituation was a right performance, I can tell you.

Strops! She shows remarkable persistence. I fear the only way to cure her obsession is to get one of the infernal beasts, then rehome it once she gets bored. Or, indeed, get one to bite her. That blasted well hurts.

Having some jowl-based despair. They seem to have got more pendulous and unpleasant since the onset of builders, no doubt down to my permanent grump. Has anyone found any uplift from creams or exercises? Or is minor surgery (or elastic bands from ear to ear) my only hope?

Bloody hell Strops, she IS persistent!

We looked after DS's friends' hamsters a few years ago and one snuffed it DS was a brilliant undertaker

Herbs, I feel your pain - DS calls mine a froggy!

Herbs, I have a terrible neck wattle and lop-sided jowls (one side is dropping faster than the other). The only things that help are: cowls necks, v. large scarves and smiling like a loon all the time. I have found the last to be somewhat counter-productive as it causes people to avoid you anyway.

cowl necks, ffs. Bad fingers.

My cowl neck would need to come up to my nose to hide my face droop.

Balaclava?

With reinforced chin area?

- if you have a couple, you'll forget all about your jowls

I won coffee beans and cafeteria at staff lunch - I never win anything. I don't drink coffee Although I may need to in order to get through tomorrow!
All the neck talk makes me

BD - I came home from work today with a pepper-and-salt grinder (from the secret santa) and a bottle of export-strength vodka (from the charity raffle). I need to hunt out Christmas-vodka recipes (probably involving toffees and dishwashers).

I think my neck is just about OK, but I have stupendous jowls and a permanent "11" between my eyes. No amount of make-up will make me look young and beautiful for this evening's office Christmas Party, planned by yours truly; I shall be first at the bar to blot out the stress of ensuring 36 hopeless and demanding people get to the right place at the right time, and have somewhere to stay/go afterwards.

Regarding small furry critters - some years back a lot of my excess "stuff" was stored in my Grandpa's garage. One day, I went to collect my ski-boots only to find them half full of peanuts. Grandpa and I were scratching our heads until we worked out that the squirrels had been nabbing nuts from the bird table for months, and putting them away somewhere safe for winter. Not safe enough, as it happened.

CV - the SS prezzies, not the 11 (I already have that, and DD was born frowning in exactly the same way!)
Re: Secret Santa's, DS's tutor group are doing SS - he said it's £1 each, so DD sold him some of her spare Christmas choccies and he has taken them in ready, unwrapped He says he knows who his SS is and they are giving him an xbox game

seasons greetings, my crepey friends...
Am nearly done with all the usual grind, last commitments til 08/01 finished by lunchtime tomorrow. Have spent the week feeling VERY unfestively grumpy with dh. Both dss on holiday since last friday, my week involving all usual commitments AND having to organise dss (who are old enough to fend for themselves for a good few hours at a time but need nudging / reminding / overseeing) as well as buying ALL christmas presents etc etc etc. I honestly don't think he even thought for a single minute about dss being off school and what that might mean in terms of what needs doing and I really resent feeling that it is all my responsibility. When I finally boil over (last night I came up to bed at 1.00 and he was complaining) and pointed out that I was up so late as wrapping presents for dear cleaner (last day today) he said I should have asked him sooner if "I needed his help" FFS. AAAAAGH! etc.

I bloody hate Christmas .

ps. Hamsters are the devil's work. Revolting and nasty buggers. And don't be lured in by the idea they don't live long... I still have a traumatic childhood memory of "Fang" (because he bit us so viciously) who lived to the grand old age of 6, by which time he was almost bald. EEEEW.

In the very first photo of me (about 6 weeks I think) I have a wicked frown....nothing has changed really....
OQ - sorry to hear it is stressful. I guess in that respect I am lucky - dp really doesn't care all that much.
Tomorrows advent kinder surprise has been safely stowed out of dog reach.....

Strops, all hamsters are vicious and misanthropic. I still have horrible memories of my sister's, which had only one eye but still managed to bite us all. It also smelt horrible.

My nephews had rats, they were lovely.

YY Get a rat, Strops! They are lovely, smart, funny little critters. You might fall in love with it yourself.

Degus seem to be all the rage at Pets at Home. A kind of new fangled gerbil. Seem a bit more interesting than hamsters, but less... Ratty... Than rats.