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.

Realised belatedly my clever-clever editor post is a grammatical mess. Oh for an edit button.

MI, I have in similar cirx (but with wet client so being slightly scary works fine) replied with link to eg economist style guide (think it was that one, anyway something uber respectable and free online that makes clear some things are just wrong).

Auriga and Crem, I hope you both feel better soon. It is horrible to start the new year feeling rubbish. I went to bed at half eight last night (recommended, dc slightly baffled as I texted them instructions from bed but hey ho) and feel marvellous - but as if I have been eating too much for 2 weeks, so that must stop.

I want wine and chocolate. Ahem.

or actually sherry, which I have just rediscovered

I've done that NHS BMI calculator in the past and it told me that the lowest healthy weight for my height was about 2 stone less than I weight now - I would have to be made of balsa wood to achieve that. I am not dieting this jan - too much going on for me to be hungry and bad-tempered, but I am going veggie for the next couple of months which may help keep the waistband from cutting off my circulation. I have bought many pulses. I love a pulse.

Lalsy - love the Economist style guide - it was our bible at home (two copywriting parents) and I still have our little hardback copy.

I know, it is wonderfully strict, and quite funny in places (if you like that kind of thing, which I do).

I love it too. For top style-guide hilarity, follow the Guardian style guide on twitter. Though I disagree with their policy on acronyms.

Me too. Just checked and it is kicking off about UKIP vs Ukip now.

Do you think this is what other threads mean when they discuss style?

getting a bit high falluting here isn't it. I'm wondering what an Economist (clothing)style guide would look like - quite severe, tailored stuff I would imagine.

I would probably have written 1950s with an apostrophe , at least I've learned something on Style and Beauty today.

With regard to weight loss - we have to maintain healthy bones so cannot demineralise them by overdieting (that's my excuse).

Thanks for good wishes, everyone. Slept well last night and had a better day.

MI, I'm with you on superfluous apostrophes and - as you can tell from my posts - dashes. Haven't kept up with changes, though and only discovered recently that it's no longer considered correct to put two spaces after a full stop. Now I alternate between two and one, undecided whether to update or embrace cronehood.

Speaking of cronehood, bought this coat in the Country Casuals sale . It's a little wrong in almost every respect but the old one was falling apart and this was half price in the shop.

I realised the reason I haven't had a new coat for 10 (ten, X) years was I was holding out for The Perfect Coat, which doesn't exist. This could be the key to a whole new me.

Well I like it Auriga - I've got similar - but I took off the fur collar as I felt a bit too overdressed with it.

MI, of course

It's nice Auriga! Like the fur collar, looks very cosy. At such a good price it doesn't have to be "perfect" and you can actually wear it and enjoy it. I used to do that thing of keeping things for "best", which in fact meant they never got worn. Have given that up and that's been a revelation.

Crem, you poor thing. Hope you're on the mend. You really have been in the wars

The editing stuff sounds horrendous. You all need the patience of saints to put up with that sort of shit from people who don't have a clue. Deep breaths.

Mmm, am now wondering if I should join Twitter just to follow the Guardian style guide. I have avoided Twitter up until now, as I have enough trouble managing the time-suck aspect of FB.

I see too much US English during the course of my work and have become confused between some US and UK conventions. Which is not good. Have got to the stage where I have to keep looking up rather basic rules on punctuation. (see: speech marks - where does the punctuation go? Am so old and batty that I now have to check virtually every damn time.)

I love dashes, I do.

I adore dashes. Also colons, semi-colons and brackets.

Stropps, I went so off my head with my last editing job I had to email Lalsy and Addle in sheer panic, so incredibly detailed was the style sheet.

MI, I had a big (and quite possibly costly) disagreement with a client just before Christmas mainly down to the 31-page style guide I had to use for a rather large job. The whole thing was infuriating and also depressing and I am just psyching myself up for submitting my invoice.

(Style guide was in German, but was detailing the preferred conventions for a particular brand of academic Euro-English)

Auriga I love the purple coat . Looks snug and stylish. Just noticed the buttons on that picture look like little aliens. I'm a bit delirious I'm afraid . Full of painkillers both tablet shaped and rub on gel. It appears I have a pinched nerve and the advice is to walk and swim. Off to an evening lady swimming session now. Lovely Victorian pool and they play Mozart as you toil up and down .
The stray Cat owners have been located ( 2 miles across the fields) but the ruddy feline has scarpered now.

Is there a specific use for { } these
Apart from unmumsnetty hugs-
< vom>

You're feeling sick as well as everything else?!

I love that coat. I'd love to have a coat that was smart, rather than 'dog walking style' and washable. I feel like we are drowning in mud here and I can't wait for the weather to sharpen up.

On a completely different note, my chickens are playing up at bedtime, bit like Herbs ds. They are camping out in the shed at dusk, like naughty Mallory Towers girls who don't want to go to their dorm. I have to climb over piles of stuff to grab them individually and repatriate them in appropriate beds. I'm getting quite tired of this

Looking forward to next Friday! I can make it by 630 I think. Did we go direct to the table before or was there another area we can have drinks? Can't remember.

Very smart coat, Auriga. My "smart" coat is 10 years old. DH says it looks it. I think it is perfectly serviceable. I was wearing my tatty old parka in the bank yesterday - I was waiting in the "premier" bit and almost got dragged out by zealous bank lady, who obviously thought I was eyeing up the free tea. She actually had hold of my coat sleeve at one point, as she was so insistent that I go and wait in the ordinary part of the bank. I wonder if a slightly untidily dressed man would get the same treatment?

I am a big fan of dashes. I have an editing job at the moment and some of what I am editing is so badly written as to be incomprehensible.

Nice coat, Auriga. I like the colour.

Do you want to see what I've snaffled in the sales? You do?? Well, I've just taken delivery of this dress in the sage colour. Should be nice for work, but I need to flatten my tum a bit before I wear it (low carbing is underway, and not a moment too soon).

I also picked upsome cut-price cashmere in Ireland. I sized up two sizes, because I preferred it a bit bigger. Exceedingly cosy.

And I'm waiting on a little box from Mango as there is a black blazer-sized hole in my wardrobe.

Today I did my first run for about three months; I thought I'd start gently, so I've gone back to Week 4 of Couch to 5K. All good. Had a smear test too, but the nurse at our practice is lovely, and we were so busy chatting I barely noticed it happening.