Walking in a Crepey Wonderland!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I couldn't see that anyone else had started a new thread, after Stropps carelessly finished the old one without starting a new one, so here you are.

Blackduck, that is horribly sad news, so sorry.

Hello crepeys, I am back from a surprisingly enjoyable Christmas with my dm. Her partner has really poor short term memory now, which can make conversation very tricky, but we all enjoyed ourselves and astonishingly had no rows. And no flooding, although we did put the flood gates on and take Christmas presents, wellies and vast array of prescription medicines upstairs one night! We watched the local rugby derby today, which was extremely good fun.

BD that's awful news and very difficult to process.

Oh BD, what very sad news

We are off to Norwich....

BD, how very sad. I'm so sorry.

BD, that's terrible

CV, I don't envy you your trip today. Hope you don't have to spend too much time in that car park.

MI, hope your relatives behave themselves.

Thanks all - we can only take it one day at a time and hope for as long as possible.

Meanwhile off to my folks for Christmas #2 ....
Have a good day all

Bd how heartbreaking. Have you got nieces and nephews ? So sad.

Cv it is howling this side of the pond.
Wild in fact. Fingers crossed it blows itself out.

I am reeling from a spectacular Christmas Day row with dd.
Dh is really low again. And ddad is in hospital since yesterday with breathing diffs. Can't help feeling somehow this is all my fault.

Cremo, my dear, don't be daft - no way is it all your fault, you are a lovely caring and fun mum/wife/daughter and they are lucky to have you Sympathies though - life can be so gruelling.

CV fingers crossed the wind dies down - you don't want to see that turkey again!
MI, good luck

Had a great Boxing Day night mini-party with a few friends and their DC - so lovely to see them all growing up and still close.

Just back from Bluewater with DD - our ridiculously early start paid off and she is the proud owner of yet another pair of trainers and a fake leather biker jacket, etc. Plus we made use of the free cake and coffee voucher in JL's, so is all 's.

Cremo - sure it's not your fault - hope you have a better day. BTM - good you went early - M25 is hell and the queue for Bluewater horrendous according to fil....

Have a sympathetic pat crem. I think rowing at Christmas is wholly unsurprising. There's so much pressure to have a "fantastic" time that it can be very hard to live up to. Please don't feel bad, it was probably very cathartic and will be long forgotten in a day or so... You've had an awful lot to manage in the last few months. I do think teenagers can find Christmas especially hard, well certainly my 16 yo ds. He doesn't like enforced polite socialising with extended family, being in any way the centre of attention ( opening presents in front of everyone) or the pressure to enjoy himself. We just about managed... He did say to me at one point "Christmas is just another day you know!" And I do see hi point...

BD, what sad news. Your poor sil and poor all of you.

A quick wave to MI in nearby Norfolk, and a wave to RRR too! MI, how is the running going? Am on week 7 here (25 mins at a time) and JUST about managing, albeit at a pace that a snail would snigger at. Just been out for a stagger round the village in Suffolk. the wind was so fierce I felt likens was being blown backwards. Now lying on the sofa feeling feeble.

Like I was even...
Am "borrowing dh's iPad as my computer charger chose yesterday to stop working...

Well, we're on the boat! Departure looks to be only 30 minutes delayed, so fingers crossed we'll get away shortly. We had a fantastically quick drive up here, so stopped in Holyhead for lunch (Christ, what a dump. Windswept and deserted). We all tucked into plates of stodge, except DS, who sensibly decided that the less that went down the less there would be to come back up again. I'm just hoping he's proved wrong, or I'll be seeing that All Day Breakfast again soon.

Chin up, Crem, and it's not your fault, it really isn't.

Well done at the Sales, BTM. I hope to pick up a few bits in Ireland, although the prices are nowhere near as good as they were in the past. DD1 has no decent winter footwear, and DS has only one pair of jeans that fit him. He has optimistically packed shorts ha ha ha.

And top marks for the running QQ. I'm just waiting until after the New Year........

The captain has just been burbling about Force 10-11 winds and stabiliser fins; net result is we have another hour in port to give the wind a chance to die down a bit more.

But Enchanted is about to start on TV - one of my guilty secret fave films.

Shorts, CV

QQ at least you have a reason to lie on the sofa and feel feeble. I am wondering if I can justify a new duvet. coat on the grounds I don't really like the one I've had for the last two years. I just got it because it's warm. DH's clothes rail has fallen down due to him keeping everything for the last ten years. He does however need at least two new suits.

I'm feebly slumped on couch after just walking round woods.

BD very sorry to hear your bad news. And Crem, hope your DF and DH will be okay.

No rows here, but I took myself off for a good hearty sob this morning. DSis, after helpfully proposing to take DM home with her when she goes, then ruined it by inviting DD to go too. She did this behind my back, got DD all excited about seeing her cousins etc, then told me in front of DD.

This is more high-handed than it sounds. DD would have to stay with my other DSis, which is a problem for many reasons. And would have to be driven all the way (5 hours) by nephew's 19 yr old gf.

And of course, she wouldn't be with us. But I hate having to disappoint her and am left feeling that what we can offer her is second best.

Last year we went there, against my better judgement, and the adored older cousins ignored DD the whole time. But of course she's forgotten that. Maybe I should, too.

Anyway DH has dried me off and cuddled me up and we've said no.

CV I remember the dump that is Holyhead! Hope you have calm seas and a pleasant voyage

Auriga, well done for saying no. I still recall your sad interim updates from last Christmas.

We are having a lovely quiet do-what-we-like day here, after 2 days of relative-pleasing. Ds and dd are watching films and playing nicely, although dd requires regular doses of paracetamol to help with a nasty dose of sinusitis.

It has been an unusually calm few days in our house. Up until today, I have been a bit on edge, waiting for a blow-up any moment. I have now relaxed (with the help of a couple of glasses of cava), so someone is bound to have a meltdown shortly.
Every Christmas that passes, I am more and more struck by the way that my mother's family are/were a) hidebound by tradition and b) such a bunch of snobs - and that both of these factors have been the cause of much unnecessary misery. My father, a decent but very Edwardian man, colluded in this. My mother is a nicer person since he's been gone. I feel a bit bad that I hated her so much in my teens and 20s and gave him the benefit of the doubt. Life: always so much more bloody complicated than you think it should be....

Auriga, I have just received a friend request from someone with the same first name as me - I am hoping it is you Sympathies on the DD/DSis front - it all sounds rather complicated.

Stropps, same here - apart from a very short but very loud tantrum from DS (followed by DH's loud and unrepeatable admonishment) on Christmas Night, things have been unusually calm and family-like here. DD (who is her old sweet and bubbly self) and I even managed to get out of the house and to Bluewater without a row this morning. It won't last

Families are strange things

BTM, I did actually do a proper LOL at your description of your DH's "loud and unrepeatable admonishment". I can completely see dh doing the same with ds in a year or two.

Thanks QQ and cv and BTM .
Cv didn't you stop at The Waitrose at Menai for supplies? It where kate and wills get their nappies dontcha know. Holyhead is one of the saddest places I've ever been apart from Kirkcaldy.

Everything is calmer now. Dd has gone to granny's in notts and dad is looking better and telling inappropriate blue jokes to the long suffering nurses. Dh has gone to see his councillor.

I've had a pain in my neck not my family for a week now and just as was getting into the shower noticed a rash. Well if it isn't my old friend shingles! Got a big strap mark up my neck and a cross my arm.
2013 really has been the year that keeps on giving.

Aww no, Crem, you poor soul. Shingles is a truly shire way to end the year. May 2014 be a better year..
Arf @ the misery that is Kirkcaldy. I know exactly what you mean. The only surviving in-laws live in that vicinity. Less said about that, the better.