The Crepey Cube

[cremolafoam]

Oh MI :(
I am not looking forward to DDogs regular check up as he has even more lumps....

Beachy - interesting about the cultural differences - I am pretty sure we are witnessing some of that at work too. It's pretty unpleasant actually...

Poor inferiorcat mi - sorry to hear that
Beachy - all the best for pouring oil on troubled waters.
I have started having those dreams in which one is nekkid. A sure sign of minor interview panic....

Yes I started that thread QQ , before I bought the skirt. I wanted to put it to the vipers first to see if I was way off the mark.
ps thanks everyone for your good wishes re eye and job . Still look like captain jack sparrow . Aaaargh!
I have tried it on with a dark grey silk top and dark grey velvet jacket. It works quite well but is veering toward the conservative.
I like these shoes

At least it wasn't a party chez Herbs, Cremo.

Like those shoes, speaking as someone who always wears clumpy flatties

Oh poor inferior dog.

I too have been in an office with a US/European culture clash (in our case, it was more of an invasion - what you can't meet your commissioning targets when the US office pinches all your good ideas? - oh dear, there's the door).

The Scab is now smaller, still very black and thick. We were visiting very clean and tidy house this week, and ds had nasty moment when he thought it had fallen off and was lying on a highly polished floor somewhere, for all to admire.

Love the shoes Cremo - deffo get them! The top half does sound fairly conservative, but I'm not sure what else to suggest!

MI sorry to hear about your cat.

Am sitting with a cuppa in JL, trying to summon up some energy. The skiing has taken its toll - having lived on my nerves for a week! Noone in my family csn understand how I can still find it so terrifying after so many years

Poor pussy, MI.

DD2 has a friend over from Paris (her father is taking her to look at universities here - she is 12 - twelve, XII) and they have gone into town on their own. I am meeting them later for lunch. I had no inclination to spend hours in Forbidden Planet, Tokyo Toys or Orbital Comics. They will no doubt bump into DD1 in one of these shops, who is meeting a friend in London too. So I am pottering here, attempting to make some order in the rising tide of chaos. (DH has had the hall carpet up "to see what is underneath" - the answer was a mixture of parquet (good) and concrete (bad).)

Crem - like the shoes, but the skirt isn't my thing, as I'm not a midi fan. Fabric looks lovely, though. Have you actually got an eyepatch, then? Will you have to wear it on Monday? That would make you memorable.....

MI - sorry to hear about cat.

BTM - I remember that feeling of screaming fear as you hurtle downhill, trying to resist the temptation to apply snowplough brakes. But it did go away after a while - I had a whole two weeks skiing with a group of people who were much, much better skiers than me (including gorgeous California-living ex), and I had no choice but to keep up, or risk being left in a snowdrift. I forgot about being scared after a while, and my skiing improved immensely.

All children are now back at home after various sleepovers, and I'm sitting in the sunshine trying to decide whether or not to do anything productive today. There is probably some gardening which needs doing, but can I be arsed?

CV you sound way braver than me I like to come down very slow and controlled whereas all the others are speed merchants. Especially since DH downloaded an app that measures your speed - all trying to break 100km per hour

On way home - hope you don't get crushed in the crowds MrsS!

Yes CV an actual eye patch bandage doodah. I will be memorable but for all the wrong reasons I bet.
Have been doing the sums on this job versus old job and it only just stacks up. But I will be losing sickness/ holiday benefits etc which would be a bit scary. Really do not know how to play it tbh. I am going to have to sit down and do a proper comparison . May have to consult y'all on that.
Bd it's going to be another scenario like yours.........

You don't want to lose sickness/holiday benefits!

Could you make a feature of your eyepatch, for the interview?

Like talking like a pirate BTM .
" ar, yer job shivers me timbers , Matey"

There's a small possibility of doing both jobs which is why I'm going to the interview. The new job JD is vague at best and hours seem to equate to operational need. This may only amount to 23 hours per week .
Oh my head hurts thinking about it.
The redundancy threat is still hovering over my current job.
Neither of them are ideal. But I don't live in a perfect world.

Cremo - :). Not sure I'm a good judge of these things - but run things by us all!!!

I've seen a job I'd really like but in the wrong city, however I might see if they can relocate it.....

Evening all. Just back from my ladyjog, with painful knees once more. Perhaps I should rest them awhile.

Also just back from visiting my parents. My dad's dementia comes and goes, and when it goes he's so much still 'dad'. But when it comes, I find it so unbearably sad that I get angry and cross instead, and find it hard to engage with him.

As I left this evening he gave me a kiss that felt so much like the 'old dad' that tears sprang to my eyes, and I had to jump in the car and drive off, bawling my eyes out most of the way home. I miss him so much.

Anyway. DP cooking a mushroom stroganoff downstairs, the Guardian weekend is just waiting to be read, and there's wine to be drunk.

DP is working again tomorrow, so I feel very much like I've been lone parent of slightly difficult four-year-old for nearly a fortnight. So on Monday I'm going to give myself a day off, take in an exhibition and have lunch. And NER NER NE NER NER to anyone who doesn't like it.

You go, Herbs.

I am so sorry about your dad. I have guiltily suggested we visit my parents tomorrow. Will do - and I am quite embarrassed to admit this - morning Ladyjog to arm myself for it (and did one this morning too). God almighty, I never thought I would become a runner....

Cremo, I was thinking more Gabrielle

Herbs, so sorry to hear about your dad - must be horrid when you had a great relationship with him and now it's just not the same.
Make the most of Monday

I have to say I am rather of those of you who can visit your parents in a day trip.

bTM - it's a stretch for a day trip 1.5 hours each way, but doable. In this instance we stayed overnight. I was awoken at 6.45 by DS and his cousin coming into my room. I suggested they 'go and play', and they returned, a minute later, with all DS's toys to play in my bed. Sigh.

I'm thinking the National Gallery on Monday. Always soothing. And that lovely rooftop restaurant. Anyone want to join me?

God Herbs wish I could :(

We are off to London today (2.5 hour each way) to collect ds from my parents. Normally I'd let dp go alone, but feel I need to take every opportunity to see mum these days.......

Horrid day out there - grey and blowing a gale...

Our journey takes over two hours but beats staying there. Ahem.

Herbs, I really must hack words out of the cliff face tomorrow, aka pursue experts who refuse to speak to me for their own newslettert

Herbs, I would love to, but I will be back at the chalk-face tomorrow.

Sorry to hear about your dad, Herbs - nothing worse than seeing people decline and especially mentally. We have been singularly lacking in GPs - I only had 1. My DM died when I was 23, DH's when he was 14, and our DFs when our DC were quite young. I think that's one reason I like to be there to help with our GC as we did most things without help when our DC were small (plus moving all over the country). Treasure your parents while you can, even if, I am sure, they drive you mad at times. Sorry, getting maudlin now.

Hope everyone is doing well this morning? Eyes, job interviews, poorly cats and dogs? I am on phone so sorry if I have missed anything.

Will try to link dresses when I have a moment; we have been helping out DD after her flooded house which seems more important.

Herbs, I've been wondering how things have been going with your dad. It must be very strange to have the dementia coming and going. So frustrating and confusing for everyone, I'd imagine. I hope you had managed to have a nice evening after that troubling day. I would love to come to the Nat Gall and would do so if I weren't too damn far away.

MI, sorry to hear about Grumpy Cat. Is the diagnosis still pending or is it definite?

Took the dcs and Frankendog to see dm for lunch on Friday. Frankendog cheered up considerably after being given lamp chop offcuts. Abandoned dh at home, still struggling with computer issues and a sudden influx of work. Looks like I might be busy with work again next week, although we are currently on standby, as the actual text hasn't been delivered by the client yet. Could turn into one of those jobs where the client delivers at the last minute but still expects us to turn it round for the same deadline (client has form in this particular dept.) Keeping next w/e clear just in case...

Ds was invited to a laser zone party in Weymouth yesterday, so dd and I took the opportunity to do some nice quiet girly things and found a couple of little galleries to browse (could really get into this, as it turns out we both enjoy it - especially if dh and ds are not there to moan about how they don't) and went to a waffle bar by the harbour. Yum. Really nice afternoon.

Beachy, how did your dd's trip to NY go? Glad the sleepover was civilised.

Re: grandparents - dcs only have the one. Dd also knew my dad and strictly speaking still has 2 gps as her paternal gm is still alive (as far as I know), but dd doesn't see her and doesn't want to. (Big ole can of worms, that one). Ds has only ever known my dm. Even though dh is 18 years older than I am, my dad was still older than his dad. I'd like to bet that ds is one of only a very few in his age group with a grandfather who was born in the first decade of the last century.

(that last sentence came out slightly wrong, but y'all know what I mean anyway :) )

S&B query - are bootcut jeans all beyond the pale? I tried some on this morning and couldn't work out whether they were reasonably good, if a little bit "safe", or actually just hideously baaaaad. Am still unconvinced by my ability to properly carry off skinny jeans and can't seem to find any straight legged ones that don't make me look fat, dwarfish and unnecessarily middle-aged. Or perhaps I am just deluding myself and I really need to learn to accept looking fat, dwarfish and middle-aged as maybe it is nothing to do with the cut of the jeans.

I think boot cuts are a no-no on MN but I am afraid I still wear them, Stropps - my legs (and particularly knees) do not like skinnies.

DD's two aunts (his DD's half sisters) lived until they were 103 and 98 respectively. I loved the "younger" one; she loved fashion and style and I can remember her asking me, when she was in her 90s, what the latest colours were.

Just back from the match - hooray we won. I picked up a sample of the Clinique perfume which India Knight was plugging in ST Style on the way back - very nice and different.

dd's trip to New York was fantastic, although she had a hideous cough and cold throughout, which made her throw up a lot. Still didn't stop her doing anything. She does now realise, more than ever, that she seems to need a LOT of sleep, way more than her room mates anyway!

I think bootcut are out, unfortunately. I think skinny, but not too skinny is the way to go. I know I've waxed lyrical on here before about Urban Outfitters Mid Rise Cigarette jeans here, which actually look ridiculously skinny and tight on her (but maybe I buy them so big, they look a bit loose and wrinkly on me).

My dcs have my dad close by (30 mins) and pil's about 90 mins away. They see my dad a lot more, mainly because he is a lot cooler even though he is on his own and disabled. They are all mid to late 80's; some wear it better than others!