Crepey continuum

[Cremolafoam]

Over here!

It must be horrific, mustn't it? And how lucky his alarm clock went off when it did. He rang us the night before the fire for a chat, and said he was having some work done on the house, so I wonder if this had anything to do with it?

When you said alarm I thought you meant that the fire alarm went off but he thought it was his alarm clock IYSWIM. Weird coincidence!

No - it was his alarm clock that woke him, not a smoke alarm, apparently. He has lost everything in the past eight months - wife, job and now house.

On a (slightly) lighter note, I gave my mother directions for an easy route to her sister's which didn't involve crossing London by tube, just one change by train at Clapham Junction. She has chosen to ignore this advice and has gone a lengthy and convoluted route involving at least one change of underground line and a lengthy walk between the two lines because she knows better.

MrsS, shall I nobble her and biff her on the head?

I am making a website, using allegedly a Very Easy Template. I feel about 102 as I try pathetically to cut and paste text to slot into it, plus pic of me.

Mrs S you are having a terrible start to the week. Some really bad news there. So sorry about your auntie.

I hope your temperature is receding.

will hopefully raise a wan smile.

MI talking of templates , I need something like that to improve the look of the invitation I'm designing for Mothers Birthday Party< trumpets>
It needs to be simple and stylish and pass muster withTHE most critical eye in Europe( apart from Mrs S's dmum obv)
There is to be a film( 1943 one) followed by a ' fork supper ' ( not heard of in this land since 1975)
I am , with sister , supposed to provide same.
Ffs

I am better at a Fork Off Supper, frankly.

Loved the cats, Crem!

They used to call Fork Suppers (or buffets of any kind) "Walking Dinners" in Belgium. My Dear Mother once memorably told my cousin that she "wasn't schlepping all the way to Cambridge for a finger buffet" when my cousin and her husband wanted to renew their wedding vows. She may have had a point; my cousin ran off with someone else six months later.

I need to find Somewhere Nice for my mother to go for lunch in London for her 80th birthday. It doesn't have to be that nice, actually, as she will either describe it as "a bit of something and nothing" "not all that" or "overpriced for what it was."

Well if that is her likely attitude you should definitely go somewhere that you really like Mrs S! What are your fave eating places in London... or where do you fancy trying?

Take her to a Berni Inn. Do you still get Berni Inns?

I was thinking of lunch at Claridge's (Friend is manager there) but feel that will be wasted on her. This is the woman who, when taken on a shopping trip to New York described NYC as "just like Bucharest" (trust me, you cannot think of two cities more different) and in all the shops "you can get better and cheaper in Primark." I would quite like to go to Veeraswamy's or the Cinnamon Club, but almost certainly "the local tandoori is better and cheaper than this."

Mmm MrsS, forget your DM - I'll come instead!
The DC are a bit bemused by BBC World News ATM!

Mrs S - your mother sounds quite a character. I'd go for Claridges - at least she can say she's been and everybody knows the name. Is Veeraswamy's the Michelin starred Indian in London - I'd love to eat there.

I've waved DS off on the train to Megeve with his school. One little girl very upset to be leaving her mother for a week, unlike DS who rushed off with his friends to bag the best seats on the TGV. I got a swift peck on the cheek. It's very strange not to be strutured by school. I keep looking at the clock to see if it's 4.15 and then realising I don't have to to school pick up.

Crem - I didn't know what a fork supper was

do NOT waste the Cinnamon Club on your mum. Take me instead

I'll take you there for your birthday, MI, yes?

oh curry...dp took me to Zaika (when it had a star - fab fab food)....

I am a bit disappointed that the Arzak venture that has just opened in London has had such poor reveiws.

I would suggest Mucky Ds MrsS but you'd have to eat there too...

Mmn pity they don't still have Lyons Corner Houses. Dmum is very nostalgic about them.
Perhaps mrs S your mum and my mum could have a meet up and be thoroughly disapproving of one another in a completely unsuitable venue that blatantly overcharges for water. It T.A.P. as mother refers to it under her breath to bemused waiters.

Holiday ended with visit to MIL's to collect family photos before house is cleared. Oddly touching. Found all her wedding photos still in envelope they were delivered in 61 years ago - seems she never looked at them. Also all the baby photos I sent her, which she never acknowledged, carefully stuck in an album.

Back at work, was ready for early retirement after a couple of hours

Happy to see ddog and own bed again though

Alto that's amazing about the photos. And rather sweet that she had them arranged in albums.

I had another rubbish day at the coal face including a lecture from boss about data protection which lacked any form of enlightenment or edification. I am now scanning old photos of dmum from 1950 for the party of the year invites.
She will categorically veto this idea at the 11th hour.

I have bravely purchased a cardigan. This is a large step forward for a button phobic. The last cardigan I owned, I was 4, and I used to insist on wearing it back to front so that I couldn't see the buttons. I may wear this new one to work tomorrow with a dress.

I will be very brave and wear it the right way round as well. But I will wear a scarf too, so that it covers most of the buttons.

What is it you don't like about buttons? Is it the slippery little sucker aspect ? Or a germ thing?
I have read up on this and found out its called Koumpounophobia.
< fascinating fact of the day>

Is it quite debilitating?

MrsS - take your DMum to lunch at the Cadogan Hotel for a bit of old-style charm.

BTM - you say your DS is "hench" so maybe his voice is breaking. Some of DS's friends have moustaches and baritones and are barely 13. DS himself has shot up, and now towers over his squeaky-voiced best mate.

Ruby - well done on your rubbish clearance endeavours. We were similarly productive on Sunday - the hole above the kitchen window has gone, and DH (bless him) attacked the permanently blocked drain outside the kitchen window. We possess a set of drain rods but they don't go round corners, so he was on his hands and knees with his arm in the unmentionables for quite a while. For reasons best known to himself he carried out the whole unsavoury task wearing a posh polo shirt and his favourite trousers. Wouldn't you change into something old before clearing a blocked drain? Or is that just me? Anyway, I made him strip off outside (completely!) before I let him in the house.

DD1 is completely better, and announced at the breakfast table how pleased she was to have done "the first solid poo for two days".