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.

Wrote a long rant on the elderly parents thread which has sunk without trace, but writing it helped anyway.

Good week with DD, including maybe the happiest evening of the year, laughing over West Wing funny moments , baking and singing duets. The teenager is possibly the nicest and best-behaved person in this house.

Nephew, age 24, in second year of PhD, has just had paper published.

In Nature

Guess what DM said?

Umm,
"Is that good?" / "Well it's about time!" / "Did he get paid for doing that?" / "I thought he wanted to be a scientist not a journalist..."
OK. I give up.

You're in the zone, QQ

She said: Well, that's a little feather in his cap.

< >

Exactly.

I'm in the zone due to years of exposure to my own DM.
When ds1 told her he'd got an A* for the GCSE he tok a year early she said, "Is that good?" She still doesn't know what he got for the ones he took this summer as she hasn't bothered to ask.. you couldn't make her up.

Will we all grow into horrible old ladies? My cousin's daughter not only got a first, but also picked up the rather prestigious prize awarded for the top performing student of the year from the professional organisation connected with her degree. My mother's comment? "She's horribly spoiled though." And when another cousin told her she got a company car with her new job: "I bet you think you're "all that" now."

No, My DM and DMIL would never say things like that. They would be pleased and proud. There's hope for us all yet!

Now got to wake the DC to get going to the IL's...

Mrs S - I'm counting on being a horrible old lady - it's our turn isn't it?
I hope they got the speeding car that caused the bus crash!

Well done to Phd student - sounds fantastic - on his way to being a professor.

BD - am so jealous of your hols - sound fabulous love the pics on FB.

I am hiding out from the UCAS thread, having been told off for derailing it by chatting too much with Bonsoir about French education issues.

Well that told you, Hatty!

By the way - Lalsy - I reckon Dr Who guys are probably OK - sort of like the Big Bang Theory ones.

That's what I was hoping, hatty!

Fantastic on the Nature paper.

Your horrid old lady tales remind me of my grandma. I was the oldest of all her grandchildren (she had two children, my mum and my uncle) so did everything first. When I got quite good marks in my O Levels, she said 'well, I expect cousin A will do better'. When I passed my driving test and offered her a lift home, she said 'I think I'll wait until one of the others pass their test.'

She was always telling us how marvellous, pretty, clever, etc, her other set of grandchildren were (cousin A especially), and how we were lacking. It turned out she was doing exactly the same thing to the cousins, making them feel inadequate, perhaps in some bizarre and misguided attempt to induce healthy competition.

Then, the last time I saw her she held my hand (first time ever) and told me shed always loved me.

That's so sad Herbs. We won't be like that
Nearly at ILs - DC flat out in back of the car which is just as well as DD was being a really horrid teen before we left. Late

My grandmother sent me a card 'congratulating' me on my scholarship to Oxford adding 'but darling, please don't go getting too clever, as clever people miss so much in life'. Cow.

My lovely grandmother thought everything we all did was extraordinary, and was the most calm, funny, undignified old lady. I think that sort of unconditionally positive attitude is a great gift to grandchildren - it is hard for parents always to see their dc in that rosy light so someone should!

My paternal grandmother told us that she was going to die before Christmas and spoil it for everyone. My mother said to her "What makes you think that would spoil it?" Granny did exactly as she had threatened though, and died on Christmas Eve. She was a truly nasty piece of work, and not one person cried at her funeral. My mother is getting very like her, bizarrely. My maternal grandmother was lovely - had no truck with my mother at all. My mother used to keep correcting her pronunciation, and one day my gran just flipped and said "Fuck off! I'm 92, I'm not going to change now!" My mother was like this:

Mrs S.

We've been to the Chinese for a family meal to celebrate good school reports (we've decided to overlook DD2's dire Physics result).

I then went to M&S for some Christmas goodies - caught the short train back meaning I had to rush along the Platform tipping all the blackcurrent off my cheesecake. The problems I have

Published in Nature, Auriga, respect . Old ladies, FGS, when will they learn? My English granny was tremendously difficult, bitter about life (even tho she had had a far more interesting one than most women of her generation) and with very few good words to say about others. She royally pissed off her children (and their spouses), but it turns out that all along she had been writing to my Canadian granny saying how wonderful "our girls" are and how clever and special. Why couldn't we have had a bit of that when she was alive ? She was funny though, which is the general pattern of my family - difficult, angry, brittle, but could make you laugh like a drain.

MrsS - I saw the bus and thought of you guys being so close. What an awful thing to happen.

I have had a bit of a challenging day - too long a story for here - but have cheered myself up by wrapping the presents for our annual naff present competition (least desirable gift you can find for under a fiver). This years offerings are a static electric fleece nightmare slanket in fake burberry check, and a car air-freshener shaped like Jose Mourinho.

MrsS I am loving the f off comment
And your tasteless presents, wilbur!

Am gagging for a baileys and ice but mil doesn't have any so am making do with snaffling DDs chocolate buttons.

What I wouldn't give for a Jose Mourinho air freshener . We did the 'stocking tot up' here earlier - DS was 8 short of the girls, and of all of them, he would notice. He was also a 'main' present short . How do I do this every year - someone is always short.

So off to Poundland and H&M with dd1, to purchase clothes to trendy him up and naff things for the stocking.

I do miss my dm at this time of year - she could always be relied upon for pithy and slightly acid comments, whereas my mil couldn't be acid if you poked her with a stick.....

beachy I thought your DS looked pretty cool in your FB pics - not majorly in need of trendying up!

Trendying up is all in the eyes of dd1..... his hair is a large disappointment to her...

Thank you all for nephew appreciation. I keep trying to drum it in to DM what a big deal it is to be published in Nature. All she can do is moan because he still hasn't sent her a thank-you letter for his birthday present (birthday 1 week ago).

I suspect many of these ungracious old ladies were themselves devalued and criticised as girls. I know I've paid dearly for the way my DM was unfavourably compared with her brother. Still, knowing that doesn't necessarily help when you're being skewered.

Lovely day today. Put tree up and, in the box of decorations, we found the lists we made of our best bits of 2012 and hopes for 2013. Definitely going to do that again this year.

How are you Crem? And Rudy how is your DM?

Beachy - good luck with the trendy shopping tomorrow . I'm sure ds will cut a dash.
Dd and dh went into town at 8am this morning with rest of the population of Norn Iron under the strict self imposed instruction not to come home until all people on the list had a gift. ( achieved??)
I'm fine I think Auriga. My usual close to tears , one centimetre away from hysteria fine.
There were unexpected tears from dd after tea this evening. She idiotically lent her driving license to a "mate" yesterday as id. The friend is 17 and used it to try to get into a licensed club last night, where it was promptly confiscated by security .
Ffs

Dh marched dd down to the club bouncers tonight at 11 when the club opened to get it back. Honestly I dunno sometimes. Last night we had angelic dd singing a solo of Ave Maria for the First Minister .Tonight we have twit Dd being an eejit. How could she be so dim?

Gawd I love Christmas.

Am slumped on the sofa after my evening being the "hostess with the mostest". Actually it was a fun evening (two families we are good friends with who each have three DCs of similar ages to ours). I cooked a Thai chicken dish (which went a bit weird when I reheated it), rice, and a butternut squash affair. Followed by a chocolate cheesecake (made by DD2) and a divine sticky toffee pud (DD1).

The house required a top-to-bottom clean, which took all morning, and I wasn't best pleased when DS returned from football looking like the creature from the black lagoon, after a belly-slide competition in the goalmouth with his best mate.

Off to Colchester tomorrow for lunch with DB, if he hasn't forgotten we're coming (which is always possible).