Shiny Happy Crepeys

[Blackduck]

Over here all........

Hmm, well unless dd takes a packed lunch with her, she doesn't get any lunch as she often has to work through her lunch break. There are lots of revision sessions running through lunch and breakables and she is also using this time to prep for her art exam which is the second week of next term. As she frequently misses breakfast because she has "no time", this means that if she misses lunch she has nothing to eat (or drink) all day. She wouldn't ever make her own lunch ("time" issue - see above). So unfortunately I am landed with task in order to protect her from herself. Tried not doing it and she just got thinner, even more tired and sick even more often. Maybe things will be better in 6th Form - for which she has just been offered a place. Yay!

"breakables"?? Breaktimes. Eejit phone.

Sixth form at current school Stropps or somewhere new?

Great news, Stropps, re the Sixth Form place; congratulations to DD. It must be a weight off your mind.

Shh, the weather is a little better here today (after a week of fog and murk - more like the season of mellow fruitfulness, than spring). I might, just might, change the music in the car so that I am not listening to Leonard Cohen any more - his music this week has seemed very apt with all the greyness about.

We are off to the match this afternoon, followed by our free coffee and cake at JL, before catching the metro home to my lovely home-made ham broth for dinner. Exciting times - not!

Have a lovely day, everyone.

Thanks, NU. Yes, 6th form place at current school, QQ. The 6th form is a completely different environment to the lower school, so I hope that she will feel happier there. There is no other school in our town, so any other option would involve travelling quite far and public transport is not splendid around here. Despite the un-fun times she has had for the last 3 years, she was not inclined to look elsewhere, apparently. We'll see what happens...

I ordered her 3 dresses for prom from the boohoo website that Crem linked to. She refused to get involved in the choosing, so I just had to do it and hope for the best. She looks amazing in 2 of the 3, but is very self-conscious and doesn't usually do dresses at all, so is now of course saying she doesn't want to go to prom. I think she will, however, opt to keep at least one of the dresses, if not both. We are going to start looking for shoes now.

Stropps, great that she has been offered a place in 6th form What a relief! But is it conditional?
Apparently offers at DD's 6th form are minimum B's, but one she (first choice currently) wants to go to need A's (according to a friend) Still, she's got a year to go yet!

And I bet she looks fab in the dresses

DD's phone has come back, not mended. Apparently it had moisture in it DD denied all knowledge, loudly, and is now asleep in her bed!

Yes, the place is conditional. A minimum of B in the subjects she wants to study at A level. Interesting times ahead.

I seriously have no clue how I have spawned someone who could look so damn good in a dress. Or so damn good generally, in fact. She gets her looks from her dad. :) Although she appears to have my mother's hour-glass figure, which clearly skipped a generation.

Same here, Stropps - DD also has a gorgeous little hour-glass figure which she definitely didn't get from me! And is way prettier than I ever was, but that's definitely NOT inherited from DH

I'm sure she'll get her B's easily - what does she want to study at A'level?

Since when was sixth form like a practice run for uni in it's selection process? We just all went to the local. Well done to Stropp's DD - and well done on the dresses. My DD's are the reverse - they love dresses I think they have an excess of dresses and not enough basics. I would never dare buy for them - especially DD2.

I am very about the selection process for the sixth form of local schools. My DS wouldn't have got there following Stropps' criteria, although he is now a successful business man. BTM knows his some of his story; he really didn't get on well at school at all - but since then ....

DD rarely wears either dresses or skirts, but looks amazing in both. She is tall and willowy and does not look as if she has had two children. I sometimes wonder how I produced her. I bet your DD looks wonderful, Stropps, and I do hope you can persuade her to go to the prom.

Rudy Is she doing it with others? How brave of her

And I hope you can persuade your DD to go to the prom too. Looking beautiful in her dress

Wow, that's brave of her, Rudy.

Good news - I just realised I won the office Grand National Sweepstake! £40 - verrry nice, thank you. The bad news is, I organised said sweepstake. There will be muttering about foul play.....

Very impressed to hear about DD, Rudy, you must be very proud of her. I am not saying that homelessness doesn't exist up here, but we're fortunate it's a small problem, unlike the south.

CV, congratulations - what are you going to spend it on? Something to give you a lift for the summer? I still need some bits before we go away in ten days' time.

That's great Rudy! I hope she have woken up the downpour we had this morning. Certainly 'cardboard soggy' making!

We are packing for dd2 to head down Stropps way for 4 days outward bound.... Big emphasis on raincoats and good shoes, less on hats and suncream.

Ruddy how fab of DD!
Here I am lounging in bed after trip to dental hygienist yesterday (not fun) and cooking dinner for friends......

Ruddy?!? Rudy :)

Disturbing amount of rural youth homelessness round Cumbria though, NUFC, I seem to remember when it was my job to know about such things Rudy, how great of your DD. And I agree about present-day gorgeousness though in all honesty I suspect we looked pretty good ourselves back in the day, helpful maternal comments notwithstanding (my mum is not in the class of MrsS's mum, who is a world leader in this area, but she felt it a personal insult if not considered the most beautiful and charming person in any room and thus - I realise now- did a fair amount of undermining the threat of teenage daughters: "darling, I don't like to boast but it was nice when I'd walk into a room and it would fall silent"...)

In artistic and performance news, we sang broadly the right notes in the right order last night and sounded bloody lovely

Well done, MI. I did think of you. We sang our absolute best, I think. It was exhilarating & in places extraordinarily moving. There were some 'this is what life is really all about' moments. Better still, DD was thrilled by it and now wants to sing it herself.

I was lucky to be there at all because the gig was two hours away and we could tell as soon as we set off that something was dreadfully wrong with the car. We had to turn back, and I ran for a train (well, a train, two Tubes, two more trains and a taxi) while DH called the RAC. But I got to the rehearsal with two minutes to spare and they got to the concert

Interesting, MI, didn't know that. There are even quite a few boarded up properties in Newcastle, and I do know of youngsters who have managed to get social housing (although they were all people in relationships with children).

I was full of insecurities as a teenager, although my DM was always supportive. DH, when he was just my BF, liked slim women and I do remember him asking me if I ought to lose a bit of weight (I was about 9 st 7 at the time! ). Might have mentioned this before - why did we stay together, I hear you asking. DD has a lovely figure and is not interested in fashion or make up - where did I go wrong?

Pleased to hear that the singing went well for you both, MI and Auriga though the journey sounds like a nightmare. Was the car fixable? DH's car keeps telling us that yhere is a sudden loss of pressure in the run flat tyres. Got to go DD has just broken down on motorway.

Well done MI and Auriga. Sounds as though all the hard work paid off and you both had uplifting experiences.

Rudy, hope your dd didn't get too soaked last night. We have had very wet weather so far this w/e and I would definitely not like to be outside in a cardboard box. As for pig's ear stew - I felt a bit queasy just reading that. She must be made of stern stuff, your dd.

Beachy, the weather is supposed to be pretty reasonable on Tues and Wed. Is your dd going to the PGL centre?

MI, I can assure you that sadly I did look ghastly as a teen. 2 years in my early teens as a rattling anorexic bag of bones and then the rest of them being merely fat and then later clinically obese. Plus I had Bell's Palsy when I was anorexic from which I never properly recovered, so had a very lop-sided face. Which I still have, as I was left with synkinesis. The right side of my face doesn't move much at all and I have increasing problems with vision these days thanks to the eyelid droop. My mother wasn't wrong when she said I looked dreadful and I knew it. Enormously fat and wonky, sadly. My children laugh hysterically when they see the photos. I can say with some confidence that dd looks nothing like I did. Thank God.

Congratulations to all you brilliant singers. Pleased it all went well.
Commiserations to those with broken machinery/ cars. Boo.
Stropps - hope that dd comes round to the idea if the prom , and that's great that boohoo offered up some viable options . I think her confidence will grow in the next couple of years and brilliant she's been accepted to 6th form . They do it with points here. ( abcde all worth so many points or something and you need to get a certain amount to be accepted) sounds a little more equable perhaps.

Rudy incredible that dd is sleeping rough for charity. Amazing thing to do, and I'm sure it will be a sharp learning experience.
My dd is preparing for her trip to Ghana in July to teach Music / singing at a community music project. They are a very worthy generation aren't they? I think I was busy drinking in old mens bars and majoring in snogging Unsuitable Boys.
CV I also had a few bob on Pineau De Re yesterday and dh and I went out for a delicious dinner last night to celebrate my win/ his new job
Had the most smooth and unctuous crème brûlée I've ever been given.
So good to see dh relaxed and dare I say it , happy ....
Off to sit with dad today where well mostly be watching tennis.