Crepes of Froth

[MaybeBentley]

Bum! Just join a thread and lock it down! So I'll start the next one.

ruby, it's dead easy - won't take a minute or two to mix!

It is indeed super simple. Just taken mine out of the oven, and it smells GORGE. Though its not very big!

So I'm making a massive quantity of salads this morning; new potato salad with chives and spring onion, cous cous with roasted red peppers, broad beans with mint and feta cheese and tomato, mozzarella and basil. Everyone is bringing meat and I have the rolls. Well, mr tesco has the rolls to be strictly accurate!

I need to make pavlova and I have ice cream in the freezer...

I might have a look at that cake recipe too. Like a mass simultaneous crepey bake off!

I love that picture MI. Amazing!! Those were the days! And melons, Crem. I have numerous pictures like that, had we never seen fruit before?

I saw Morris Men this morning. They make me strangely happy!

Off to sing also am I too short to indulge my strange yearning for a maxi dress?

Alto - Israel in Egypt. I have a solo. About frogs..

Ooh MI - is that the Handel one that goes on about horses quite a lot? If so, it was the first thing I sung in choir. And wasn't put off...

Cake made, jellies made, fridge full of expensive Waitrose deli meat, potato salad ingredients at the ready. About to buy 4-shaped helium balloon, then go to party at soft play (mm just the weather), come back, change into v hot polyester concert garb, and go off to sing in the drama theatre of the local private school.

Tell you what, it gives me terrible SchoolCrush. Lots of ivy-clad Georgian buildings, its own dedicated drama studio, modern architectural glass box next to the cricket pitch, blah blah.

I'm going to be a rebel and chuck some raspberries into my cake mixture. I did this once with chocolate brownies, and the results were rather marvellous. The cake is a similarly dense texture so I'm hoping it won't be a soggy mess.

We've just enjoyed a nice al fresco lunch, but the ambience in the back garden is ruined somewhat by a huge pile of scrap wood and guttering on the patio, scaffolding boards stacked on the (un-mowed) lawn, and a wasps nest just under the wood cladding on the back wall of the house.

Great photo, Crem, but I can't see yours, MI.

CV, update us on the effect!
MI ought to get royalties for bringing the recipe to our attention!

I might also risk a raspberry in the mix

MI I love Israel in Egypt. When I sang it last summer I found it an excellent vehicle for all my impotent rage. Lots of smiting and the horse and his rider being thrown into the sea.

I've been singing Whitacre Gesualdo ans Frank Martin all day and I'm whacked

I have just got back from Brussels (work) where I tagged on a Friday night to go out with some friends. Had a slight falling out with the friend I was staying with, who was invited out as well, but won't leave her child with a babysitter. She was going to bring him, but had a hissy fit when I said where we were meeting up as she "can't take the buggy there as it is cobbled." I said I would text her if we moved on, but she said "Don't bother; I won't want to come out if it gets any later." She then texted me around 8, asking where I was and what time I was coming home, as she goes to bed at 9.30. I said I was going to grab something to eat with friends and would be back around 11.00, but if that was difficult, I would try and make it back for 10.00. She said "Don't bother; I'll wait up, but you might have told me you were eating out." She then called and texted me non-stop after 10.00 asking when I would be back, cumulating in "I am locking the door in 5 minutes" - fortunately received when I was right outside her building. (She wouldn't let me have a key.)

She was arsey with me when I got in, had a rant about how difficult life is for her as a single parent, and how important sleep is, and how she thought I might have cooked something (I always end up cooking dinner, and usually stuff for her freezer as well, when I stay). I made her a cake this morning (at her request), cleaned the kitchen, and picked up all the dirty nappies, wet wipes and tissues from around the place, tidied the toys, and generally made the flat look less of a tip. I suggested we go out with her baby for lunch, on me, and she said "Oh I've got plans for the rest of the day, you'll have to leave now." So, having previously agreed to do this, she reneged on me, and kicked me out of the flat at 11.00, when my train was at 4.15.

I am seriously pissed off with her. I am not remotely tidy or houseproud (MI can vouch for this) but I think it is going too far to have dirty nappies slung casually around the flat - there was one in the washbasin of the guest bedroom and a sticking shit covered muslin on the floor when I arrived, no clean bedding... But on the other hand, I think she needs some help. She has always been a bit of a filth packet, but it has gone to new limits since she had the baby. I don't think she is depressed, just extremely messy. Our mutual neat freak friend is going to stay with her in a few weeks, and if the flat is in the same state, I know she will take one look and walk out of the door. Quoi faire?

stinking not sticking!

Oh blimey mrs S what a cauchemar

How utterly rude! Don't know how you resolve that. She sounds jealous or envious of you maybe?
Is her child v small? Is there other stuff going on?
Why would she say it was ok for people to stay if it clearly doesn't suit.
She actually sounds like my sister when she goes off on one of her rants. There's no reason to it except that I am in the way and she wants to vanish me. Quite often this passes off quietly and all goes back to normal after a couple of weeks- like it never happened pisses me off though
I'd warn your mrs tidy friend so she can make other plans

MrsS, it could only happen to you! What a dreadful experience - must have been really awful for you.

It sounds like she is unhappy and struggling, though if she has always been like this, it is obviously something in her personal make-up which perhaps she needs professional help with? It's not just the untidiness/dirtiness, it's the trying to control you as the visitor - no key, kicking you out, making you cook/ tidy, etc.
Is she single because of a failed relationship or did she plan to have a baby on her own?

I would warn the mutual friend - it sounds like it would be too much for the "hostess" anyway ATM.

I have a burnt neck, and a burnt foot and haven't eaten since this morning. I am now mainlining juice in the hope I won't get sunstroke and be sick as a dog tomorrow.

It was a glorious day

Ohh and apparently our singing wasn't bad either :)

She is in a horrible and complicated situation. She had been with the baby's father for 10 years - he refused to get married, said he didn't want commitment, didn't want kids. She has always wanted kids and accidentally got pregnant. I have no idea how much of an accident it was. He went on holiday for a few weeks to his home country, met a local girl, she got pregnant and family insisted he take his responsibilities. So he has two children three months apart. He lives with the other girl and his other child (who is the younger of the two). My friend only found this out fairly recently, and has said it is over between them, although she wants him to co-parent - which he does, although it is very much on his terms (his live-in girlfriends doesn't know about my friend and her baby), he turns up when it suits him and contributes nothing financially. For reasons best known to herself, my friend always defends him "it's difficult for him to get away and see DS1" and "he doesn't earn very much, so of course he doesn't contribute financially."

I have been to stay three times since she had the baby, and I have to say that this time she seemed to be even worse on the cleanliness front (and don't get me started on the fridge, which I also cleared out, and gave her a lecture on food hygiene and not putting raw chicken pieces on top of a cooked one). I think I am going to have to say something to mutual friend - she will expect our friend to go out to dinner or for a drink with her, and won't be overly impressed if the baby comes too, and will absolutely hit the roof if there are shitty cloths and dirty nappies around the place. I did wonder if Mrs Tidy and I should go and visit at the same time - we could give the place a good clean, and one of us could babysit for a few hours while she goes out for a drink with the other.

Oh dear, what a mess. The relationship, I mean.

That is a very kind thought - to go with MrsTidy and clean/babysit, etc. Would MrsTidy be up for it?

Oh sorry mrs s my post sounded a bit harsh given her situation . Sounds like she's coping with a lot with nowhere to let off steam( if she's alone with the baby a great deal)
Not a bit if wonder she's stressed to the eyeballs and needs help.
Will she be able to accept it though ?
I think considering what's happened your offer of help is very thoughtful.

Yes, I am sure she would. Mucky Friend might not like us turning up like the Put Em Rights (anyone else remember this nauseating Enid Blyton book?) though, and I can see her refusing to leave her baby with one of us and go out, so it may just be Tidy Friend and me (and her capacity for alcohol is enormous...) which may cause more resentment for Mucky Friend if we turn up pissed in the small hours.

Oh merde mrs s. has she got any other strands of help en place as it were?

I mean you can't be running up to Bruxelles every weekend. I'd be a teeny bit anxious about the baby though

The baby is fine, Crem, as long as he doesn't get food poisoning. I think she needs to get her ex to help more - to tell his new partner about the baby, and to spend more regular time there. I suggested she ask him to babysit, so that she can go out with friends, and she bit my head off. But most of all, she needs to get a grip on the flat, and to start by putting nappies in bags in bins and throwing away the used wipes and tissues, rather than leaving them all over the floor and sofas. And to put dirty plates into the dishwasher rather than leave them strewn round the kitchen, and to wipe the table and work surfaces as she goes along. The kitchen just looked so much better and more welcoming once I had done this, and it only took a few minutes. And it must be quite depressing to come home to all this, although, to be frank, she doesn't seem to notice the mess.

Hmmm, helping would be wonderful, but only if she is willing to accept it (and you don't end up carousing till dawn while she locks you out!)