Crepes and Mulled Whine in your pants

[Auriga]

Somebody had to do it

[lalsy]

Stropps, I don't know if this is at all helpful on the practical front, but we have found it is the starting that is the hard bit for which support is needed, for applications. Setting aside a time, and making dd sit in the kitchen with me pottering, telling her just to bung anything down for now, doing just a short session and not mentioning it till the next one (tricky that ), all helped.

We like Jamie Oliver's quick fish pie, where you add creme fraiche, mustard and grated cheese and veg to raw fish. I've not sold it with that description I don't think...

[bigTillyMint]

Stropps, vent away. Self-sabotaging DD is having a wobble about her CA for French tomorrow (having had one in Spanish last week) and saying she wants to stay home tomorrow/drop a language...
I am being upbeat and encouraging. And going out soon

Am liking the sound of your fish pies. Shame the DC don't!

[hattymattie]

Lalsy - I do the JO fish pie but without the creme fraiche - I sort of construct a white/cheesy sause around it - less fat (or so I tell myself). I have also had to take out the carrot owing to protests from the troops - it's not really Jamie Oliver's fish pie anymore is it?

[lalsy]

Yeah, I do the tiniest grated celery ever, it gets disguised in the general gloop (JO - would you like me to copywrite for you, I've clearly got the knack?).

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Lalsy - that is the fish pie I make too. It seems to be the only one that doesn't give you a puddle of fishy water when it's cooked.

Wilbur - yes, in your home town. It is just so smart, it has its own little branch of Space NK. (We thought we were coming up in the world when we got Pizza Express.) We had dinner in Carluccio's. I suspect we could have done better, but the food was fine, the service excellent and the bill not too horrendous. DD1 is tucking into a large Thanksgiving Dinner tonight. As she hasn't been able to come home for two weekends, we are back there en famille this weekend, on Saturday afternoon for a bit of shopping, dinner and then we will go back to London and leave her in the dorm. She hates the dorm at weekends, because there are people there. She is her father's child.

[hattymattie]

Ooh yes - it did originally have celery as well

[bigTillyMint]

So where does everyone sleep in the week?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

In the dorm, BTM! But I guess that they don't see that much of each other, because they are all doing various activities. On a Sunday there are no activities and they just "hang out."

[Blackduck]

Blimey crepeys can't keep up.
Stropps sorry things are hard - I was (am) a very pessimistic teen, but I liked learning so did the whole school thing as a hobby - just subsequently made crap choices (I want QQs previous career)

Fish pie - mummmm now there's a thought.

Glad the ring was found and strength to all you UCAS people - god only knows what he system will be by the time ds gets there, let alone Herbs seedling!!

Here I have an interview today and after the redundancies and the fact I am in the eye of a shit storm it is looking mighty attractive!

Happy Friday all - the weekend beckons....

[bigTillyMint]

Ruby, good to see you! Are you still mad-busy unpacking boxes/buying nice furniture/decorating, etc?

Good Luck BD!

Yes, TGIF - looking forward to tomorrow as DH will be at the rugby all day (he is being pretty grumpy ATM), though the aftermath may not be so pretty

[Blackduck]

Ruby congrats
One more and you'll be running the place!!

[hattymattie]

Good luck BD.

Ruby - well done on the promo.

Marco Pierre White sounds like a posher pie than Jamie's

[Auriga]

Yes congratulations Ruby and good luck for the interview BD

[bigTillyMint]

Oooh, well done Ruby!

[beachyhead]

Good luck today BD and well done Ruby.....

Luckily we have another year before the UCAS button needs to be pressed although I can feel the panic rising already.Lots of 'I don't know what I want to be yet!' at the age of 16!!! and 'I just want to have a happy life and not earn any money'.

I have tried to point out that in any job there are good days and bad days and that you might as well have good days and bad days with money, than without, if possible! Not sure that has helped in any way.

We have four more chickens, super pretty and very timid so far.....

[motherinferior]

Well done and good luck from me too

Am editing a report today. It's slightly less well-written than it could be, though of course that is why I am being paid to edit it

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Congratulations Ruby, and good luck, BD!

I have a really shite non-job at the moment. My colleague and I have vented our spleens to BB, who is apparently going to come and speak to me about it today. I hope she agrees with us that it is a non-piece of work, but I think as there is nothing else on the cards (IMO they have hugely over-recruited) we will have to stay on the project and see it through. On Wednesday, the woman I am working to (not BB, someone else) commissioned a long paper from me. I couldn't finish it, as I needed some extra info from her, but apart from this, it was pretty much good to go once I had the info. Yesterday she changed her mind and wanted me to do something different. So that's what I spent yesterday doing. Then at 5.30 (bearing in mind I got in at 0730 for a meeting) she wanted me to do something else entirely different "and get it out tonight so that people can comment first thing in the morning." I said that I would start on it in the morning. She looked surprised. I was only still there at 5.30 because I was waiting for her to email me the info I needed to go in one version of the paper.

[bigTillyMint]

MrsS, would you recommend a job in your line of work?!

[Stropperella]

Have you had your blood pressure taken lately, MrsS? Mine would be sky-high in your position, I reckon.

Congrats Ruby, you really will be running the show soon!

BD, hope it goes well for you today. Best of luck!

Beachy, congrats on the new birdies! Two of mine still aren't laying - is this normal at this time of year for birds that are (I think) about 8 months old?

I went to an event at dd's school last night which was so patronising that I left sometime before the end. I got home to be shouted at by dd, who had decided to bake rather than do any coursework and had had some kind of messy chocolate disaster and this was apparently my fault. As was the fact that she now was going to have to clear it up. I did my bit for peace and harmony by going to circuits. I did get an unprompted apology when I returned, so hey.

Today, dh is throwing bits of crappy work my way that he doesn't want to do himself (he has kept the bits he likes) and pretending he is being really generous. I am going for a brisk dog walk first to get myself in a positive frame of mind before tackling the texts.

[herbaceous]

This is most UNFAIR. I had half a bottle of wine last night, and have a grim hangover. I may as well have necked a bottle of vodka. And I'm off out tonight with the NCT gals, too.

Any advice on this, crepeys? DS seems very scared of his 'speaking' part in the play. He says his teacher keeps telling him to say it loudly, but it makes him 'feel sad', and his voice goes all 'scratchy'. He's obviously nervous and shy about it. And I don't really know how to help. Which is ironic considering my hopefully future career!

[Cremolafoam]

((((((Herbs wee man)))))))
Bless him. I have no idea what you might do for sad fear. Maybe practice shouting the line in funny voices?
Make it less scary and more funny

Rubes- bloomin heck congrats on your meteoric rise! That's fab.

Beachy more chickens !!
are they rescue jobs?

[Stropperella]

Herbs, would asking him to imagine you standing far away at the back of the room, smiling and waving, help? So he might like to imagine you there and knows you would really like to hear him? Or maybe practice singing the lines loudly to a tune of his choice?

[herbaceous]

Strops! That's just what I suggested to him last night, to imagine I'm in the back of the room and want to hear him. To speak the way he does when he shouts what he wants for breakfast down the stairs. Not just loud, but as if he's throwing jewel-like words to the back of the room. Fortunately, he doesn't have to learn it, as he can read from the card. So that's one less thing to worry about!

He does get very self-conscious. In the summer, when I congratulated him for reading out a long sign at the zoo, he told me to stop saying he was good as it made him feel sad. So now I just treat his reading as totally ordinary, and get him to read me the school newsletter from the back of the car.