Crepeys do Christmas...

[oldqueenie]

Will this fit the bill. Dull but seasonal?

[CointreauVersial]

I've not seen that ad Ruby (or maybe I have, but zoned out due to absence of frizzy hair). I'll check it out!

I did some more Christmas shopping today (well, it mainly involved dragging DH around in an effort to find something for PILs). But I did bag an unintentional bargain for myself. I saw this (not in Wallis, but in a concession store) which I have had my eye on for a while, and it was marked 30% off. Hooray, I thought. It's a lovely colour and mighty cosy. The label was handwritten with the price £60, but the shop assistant rung it up at £62.50.

"Oh, it says £60 on the label," said I (thinking, well, £2.50 is £2.50).

"I am sorry madam. Of course, it's 30% off," said the lad behind the counter, and proceeded to give me 30% off £60. So my lovely coat was £41. What a shame I failed to check the receipt until I was out of the store.

[FuckingWonderwoman]

Bargainous coat, CV. I have just realised that my winter coat is nearly 10 years old and still going strong.

I am indeed the owner of a bottle of Coromandel, CV.

[FuckingWonderwoman]

I'd like a digital camera for Christmas. I've wanted one for the past three years and have made this known. DH never gets me anything till Christmas eve, and it's always something last minute. I lost it last year and had a screaming fit and then burst into tears outside Galleries Lafayette, saying that it made me think that he didn't really give a shit about me, as he never put any thought into my presents. He had to take me into a bar to have a stiff drink to calm me down, as I had reached the point of crying where you have stopped with the tears and snot, but still sobbing. (This is really not like me - I am very calm usually.) I then went home and he went shopping for my present, armed with the name of the perfume I liked - Grand Amour (oh how ironic) by Annick Goutal and came back with Les Nuits d'Hadrien. Nice, but not what I wanted. Or asked for.

I have told him that he has to buy his family's presents this year, which means they will either get nothing at all, or something ridiculously overpriced, which was bought on Christmas eve. I'm not taking bets...

[FuckingWonderwoman]

Alternative three: he says on Christmas eve "What did you get my mother/father/brother..."

[bigTillyMint]

Baaaargin coat CV

Glad to see you arrived home OK MrsS. My DH is similarly useless. I stopped him from buying me presents when I had to return the pink stripy sweater he got me from Next that even your Grandma wouldn't be seen dead in. He just gives me money. Even DS commented on the absurdity of us both giving each other money from the joint account

We have friends visiting from New Zealand next weekend (and a few days after) with 8 and 5yo boys. I just hope the jet-lag isn't too bad this time - remembers 2 years ago, boys charging around the house at 5 in the morning But it will be lovely to see them!

[Blackduck]

I have to admit dp is pretty good on the present front (when we are buying - a number of years we have gone away instead) he buys artworks usually and so fab stuff.
MrsS that is true shite particularly when you have told him what you want...)

[motherinferior]

I have just had yet ANOTHER row with DP. Ho well...

[motherinferior]

...and also my job surrounded by glossy young things is making me feel quite grotesque. I feel like one of those minor characters you get in 17th century paintings, in the background looking hideous.

[Blackduck]

Dp just grunts so no room for a row there....
And I am not doing his Christmas shopping - I laid that law down ages ago. His family, his problem. I do min which is hard enough...

[oldqueenie]

Bloody hell. These menfolk of yours need to shape up (with the honourable exception of artwork buying dh). Dh and I had a VERY satisfying time last night combining x factor watching with red wine drinking and going through the box of unwanted / ungiven presents that accumulates in a cupboard... we found lots we could give away rather than buy yet more "stuff". Only problem is trying to avoid giving someone their unwanted gift back . Am immensely cheered by not having to contemplate massive present buying task... Cheers!

[motherinferior]

Oh ffs. Mr Inferior and the girls just came back from Sainsbury's. I asked them to pick me up some basic socks from the kids' section (I have v small feet), the sort of close-fitting boys' socks I wear as a layer under thick woolly ones (I get very cold).

He's got me children's size 6-8. "I thought they looked the same size as the pair you gave me for comparison." I am actually quite upset by this. He nearly bought me size 20 pants recently too.

[bigTillyMint]

MI - size 20 pants on you!

FWIW, I would NEVER, EVER in a million years send DH to buy me any clothing. Especially not underwear!

[FuckingWonderwoman]

Sorry, MI, but that made me laugh. Size 20 pants? Even I don't wear size 20 pants! But I really don't see how he could think that baby socks would fit a grown adult. When my father died, DH had to fly back on his own with DD1 for the funeral. She was 3 months old at the time. I gave him a detailed shopping list, which included a small pink padded jacket, aged 3-6 months. He brought back with him a wool duffle coat, in dark red, age 2, which had been given to us by a friend. How he thought it would fit a small baby, I have no idea.

DD2's new bras from M & S are too small in the cup and I think I have lost the receipt, so if anyone needs bras in a size 30C (I'm not suggesting that they would fit you, MI, but they might fit someone's child!) please let me know, and they're yours. They are slightly moulded/padded. Thankfully the sports bra (same size) fits her, and is, if anything, too big in the cup. You can't get regular bras here above a C cup, so not sure what I am going to do now - maybe take her to M & S here to try on?

[FuckingWonderwoman]

clothing list, not shopping list.

[Blackduck]

Size 20 pants MI?! That's grounds for divorce (if you were married).

[motherinferior]

Figleaves? Ask a kindly friend ?

Or indeed a trip outside Paris? Some French women, somewhere, must have bosoms???

The socks won't even fit DD2. And he's now huffy.

[FuckingWonderwoman]

No-one does huffy like a man who was "only trying to help", MI...

[Blackduck]

Anyone been to marrakesh recently (dp and I went about 17 years ago) - goa is off this year, been put off Egypt, Mexico has stupid flight times/days, but five days in marrakesh is both doable and affordable...Pre Christmas treat!!

[CointreauVersial]

See, if I dared to criticise DH for buying me giant pants or tiny socks (or indeed, for doing anything not quite correctly) he would have a giant flounce and say with a sniff, "fine, well, I won't ever do it again, then."

I'm not sure what I'm getting for Christmas, but I am dropping heavy hints about a dull but useful food mixer. If he buys that he hopefully won't make any expensive mistakes elsewhere.

More car shopping today; having settled down with the new Verso we have realised that DH's aging Saab is starting to suck up serious amounts of money, and is not pulling its weight as a commuter runaround. He fancies a Fiat 500, but I will have to resist the temptation to break into the Noddy theme tune when I see one.

News on my crash back in September is that the police are taking "further action" against the guy who hit me, so hopefully his insurance company will now admit liability and cough up.

[bigTillyMint]

BD We also went about 15years ago. A friend went in the summer.