Crepes and Mulled Whine in your pants

[Auriga]

Somebody had to do it

CV, where in Bristol? We have been there loads (have been doing Twixmas breaks since the DC were born!) - Redwood Lodge when they were tinies and the Doubletree in more recent years! Going to Ireland for NY sounds fab Though not on a ferry - DD and I are not good boat travellers!

Auriga, for after the talk! Sure it will go famously

Abscess has come back up again. I will go back to dentist next week...

Oh No! I think I will have to make a dentist apt too as my back molar feels decidedly dodgy

I need the dentist too. My teeth are so stained, I look like a horse when I laugh. And they're all sensitive. But I HATE it, and it's so expensive. So I keep putting it off. This also means I've never taken DS, which I realise is very bad of me.

Got my birthday meal tonight. Have eight people joining me in a private room, with, terrifyingly, a minimum spend. One has already dropped out, meaning the rest of us have to cane the booze to bring up our tally. Not usually a problem.

Herbs! Take him. Make an appointment. It's free for him.

Is it your birthday today, Herbs? Happy Birthday! (and make a dentist's appointment for you and your ds, you naughty person )

MrsS, you poor thing. It sounds absolutely horrible.

Auriga, I want to hear your talk!! Best of luck, although I'm sure you won't need it.

Ds had a "VE day tea dance" at school yesterday, for which he and dd baked cakes. He was cross because dh and I did not go to said tea dance and "lots" of other parents did, apparently. We had informed him that we were busy with this thing called work, but this is, it seems, a poor excuse for non-attendance at school events of such towering importance.
Ds ate too many of his friends' cakes. He was spectacularly ill all over his bed at about 11.30pm and then said "Ah, I feel better now". Just as well I have a washing machine big enough and tough enough to deal with duvets. I suppose if I had blown off my work and gone to school I could have prevented him from eating 5 cupcakes that were more icing than barely-baked sponge, but I would have still lost sleep as I would have had to stay up until 2am finishing my work. Swings and roundabouts. Meh.

My birthday isn't until next Tuesday, crepesters, so stand down. But next Tuesday DP will be away. And Wednesday. And Thursday. So my actual birthday will be something of a damp squib. I'm thinking I might order myself a curry and drink some prosecco, while watching Professional Masterchef.

And yes - dentist appointment to be made.

Wilbur - hope you don't mind, but I've sent you a PM about speech therapy, for the purposes of brain-picking.

Herbs - have replied to your PM - can you email the address I've sent you and then I will reply at longer length re SALT.

Looong day today, lots of errands and kids all over the place back and forth. Went down to Ikea (to buy Xmas mugs) and on the way almost had a dreadful crash - a woman pulled out from a car wash and was clearly not going to stop so I started to slow down and then she shot, and I mean shot, across the road about 3 inches from my front bumper and drove straight into the house opposite, taking out the front wall and porch and totalling her car. More significantly, she took the gas meter off the front wall, setting off a massive gas leak, to the open air, thank god but still dangerous, with the poor man who lived there trapped in the house by her wrecked car. Thankfully, neither person in the car was hurt, and it could have been truly awful as the road was busy with people walking as well as driving. So I stopped along with some others, called the gas emergency people, and someone else did police and ambulance. Driver was in complete shock, poor thing. Police got there v quickly and sorted it all out. Close shave though.

Dh has made me a martini and I have been listening to the JFK stuff on radio 2 which is and fascinating.

Auriga : good luck you'll be fabulous of course!
Mrs S : thanks for the sporn. I've been really good and NOT described my pus filled open wound and you went and beat me to it. Sorry to heat it's still ailing you.
Wilbur: oMG what a close shave! Sounds like a horrible accident. Was the lady ok? Was the car out of control or did she have a moment ?
Grim all round.
I went searching for those glasses in ikea today but couldn't see them. Dh brought me out for coffee and a cinnamon bun. I stocked up on bargainous ikea ground coffee which is surprisingly good for £1.70
Herbs : better take ds tithe dentist in case he takes to a life in the stage

It's getting into silly season now isn't it.. People get more and more hyped the closer it gets to Xmas . It's like its a big surprise they weren't expecting.

Argh, enough pus already!

Bloody hell, Wilbur, that sounds scary. Coincidentally, I was on my way back from Ikea when I had my huge prang last year.

Herbs, get DS to the dentist when he's young enough to find it a novelty. At that age they don't do much more than counting their teeth and chatting about brushing techniques; they get stickers etc. Best not to wait until there's a dental problem before you first take him.

BTM, don't get too excited about our Bristol trip; we stayed in the somewhat underwhelming Premier Inn. But it wasn't all bad; it was opposite the most enormous branch of Primark.

DH and I have a challenging task lined up for the weekend; we have just taken delivery of two wooden venetian blinds for the DDs' bedrooms, which have to be installed. The windows are massive, almost 2 metres across. DH and I are not a good DIY partnership (his default setting is "brute force and ignorance"), but it's unavoidably a two-man job. Anyone recommend a good divorce lawyer?

Er, good luck, CV.

Wilbur, hope you enjoyed your martini. Sounds like you needed it.

I am just back from a very nice Germanic fondue evening. Verrry tasty and good .

I have been to Lidl and am feasting on Lebkuchen and Grosser Dickmanns.

I called my mother this evening. She started off by saying "I was really angry..." She had had a card from the widower of her friend who died the other week saying thank you for coming to the funeral and for the flowers. So what was making her froth about that, you may ask? One: the card was too small. It should have been a proper notelet and not something the size of a gift tag. Two: he hadn't written "Dear Fanny", just "Fanny." Three: he hadn't thanked me for the flowers or for coming and I had travelled all the way from London for the funeral (30 minutes on the train) and should have been mentioned, especially as the flowers were from both of us. I basically said "Don't sweat the small stuff." She has vowed never to see him or his children again (and apparently it should have been them who wrote all the thank you notes, it's not for the widower to do). She brushed this off, and said her usual "People make you sick, don't they." We then had a long shpiel about the Asda bus and how they had to go back because she had forgotten her bag, but Jerry didn't mind because they weren't quite half way there, how they only had Fairtrade bananas and she won't buy those on principle as she doesn't see why someone should benefit from her shopping. And she finished by saying she thinks she will stay with us between Christmas and New Year because she is going to Bromley for New Year, and there's no point in going home in between. I will kill her if she stays a week. Shall I tell her we are going to the outlaws from 27-29 December? She doesn't exactly live far from London. It's, err, half an hour on the train...

Fondue .

CV, clearly trips to Ikea are fraught with danger far beyond the peril of potentially burning one's house down with tealights. Other driver was ok, physically, although v v shocked. From the look of it, she hit the accelerator instead of the brake, it was quite alittle car, so maybe pedals are close together.

Martini was v nice, thanks Stropps - had some melon liqueur in it, so a touch fragrant.

Auriga, hope the talk goes well. Sure you will knock em dead.

Good grief Wilbur, what a shock You tell it so calmly, yet a martini hardly seems equal to the emergency. A week in bed, more like.

Sorry to hear of folk weltering in pus. Debilitating and discouraging. Hope things improve soon, MrsS and CV.

Got here in plenty of time for rehearsal tonight, now tucked up at handy sister's house. Typically ramshsckle univerdity set-up,

Oops sorry

Laptop borrowed from PhD student and balanced on trolley with no brakes, which shoots away from me if I touch it. Laptop has been dropped a few times so clicking and scrolling don't work No microphone thanks to muddle with tech (huge auditorium and - of course- I'm brewing a stinking cold). Apparently there will be mictomorrow.

Aaargh!

Wilbur - hope you are okay!
Auriga - what is the talk on (being nosy)
Herbs - I need to do the dentist too, but round here it's pretty much all private so costs a fortune- but they've got a wii ds says, I should bloody well hope so at their prices!!
Stropps - lovely, nothing like a midnight chuck up to deal with!
Herbs HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Shall we forget next week crepeys and pencil a post Christmas/BD birthday bash in instead?

Wilbur, how awful.

Good luck, all those who need it (sounds like going into battle, which is of course not unlike a family weekend...)

Wilbur, that sounds horrendous So lucky you weren't crashed into too.

MrsS, your DM makes mine look pretty easy-going and non-judgemental!

I am feeling a leetle delicate after the most fabulous evening last night - friends 50th at Aquashard. We felt like we were in a movie with all those stunning views around. So happy to live in London!

I have revolting cough but no pus anywhere (yet).

Wilbur that sounds terrifying. Auriga, good luck.

I really love living in London too. And when I think of dc leaving home, it does cheer me up thinking of all the Stuff I can do (once not trying to cling on to family life in some form).

I have had a haircut and am going out for lunch with friends including the 47 year old pregnant one

I have a catastrophic hangover. I'm supposed to be starting my SLT diploma application, but the screen swims in front of my eyes. I also can't find the original application form that specified I should have volunteering experience, case studies, etc. Not sure if it's all changed, or I'm just being dense.

Have noticed, rather belatedly, that the course wants you to have a 2:1 Honours degree. Mine is only 2:2. I'm wondering if I can big up my 'life experience', and all that...

Herbs, I'm still feeling rough too! I'm so out of practice - I don't think I had THAT much

Herbs - have just sent you as much info as I can remember re dcs and their various speech problems. Hope it helps.

Have been doing laundry and helping make a papier mache roast peacock today. Going to eat crumpets now.