Sour Crepes

[QueenQueenie]

Well someone had to do it....

Oh I don't mind one bit, in fact love talking smells, just seemed to miss the post in which it was mentioned. Senility, etc.

Tot klaxon (cannot draw!) 100.
MI, excellent rules.
I will give this a go by cutting down/out weekday booze (have been doing this anyway because it does not go well with the family rubbish but slightly compensated for in chocolate) and sacks and doing more exercise and see how I go.

C diff is being a total arse, shows entirely missed the point.

I think I mean snacks. I find sacks very easy to cut back on.

What about this one MI, scent and g and t in one?

I'm a tuberose or gardenia scent obsessive personally...

I have just had a cup of Twinings Salted Caramel Green Tea - and it was the most delicious thing I've had in a long while. Sounds like it should be terrible but is in fact lovely.

I do have some samples of that one courtesy of friend who gets staff discount and ADORE it.

OPM, size 8???? I could only get size 8 on in my early 20's. Mind you, that was the old size 8 I looked like a skeleton at the time, 2 stone lighter than I am now!

I inhaled a couple of biscuits at my meeting and now have to wait till 8 to drink eat out

QQ I might give that a try - the tea rather than the scent!

Oh blimey I could NEVER get into an old-style size 8, no never, not ever. Even when I was at school.

I have just had a spell of productivity and made banana bread. The bananas were past their best, which is fine of course. The butter was also a couple of weeks past the "best before" date and I'm not sure when that packet of walnuts was opened but .

Will I poison my family? Perhaps I should eat it all myself to be on the safe side.

OPM, you should definitely test it

I was brought up on out of date food and have probably had less than 10 sick days in 27 years

I'm also making plans to do wossername's malt loaf from Guardian recipe earlier this week. Although I've just read it and realised that I don't actually know what malt extract is . Domestic goddess, me.

Sick days - pre-kids, I think mine were mainly of the hangover variety {blush]. Post-kids, I've tended to go into the office as long as I can actually stand up, as it's much more restful than being at home.

Ah yes, the old 'food poisoning' day off...

A good friend of mine who was also a lawyer once got a taxi from St Paul's to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand because she was so hungover, and had to stop it no less than three times on route to, er, do that thing that emetophobics don't like.

And I'm sure that's not how you spell emetephobic, is it . Gawd, I had a brain once.

Blimey OPM that a lot of vomming over a short cab ride.
When I was a lawyer I once did a case with an opponent who left court (at high speed in the middle of the proceedings) twice in the course of a morning to throw up because she didn't feel well. Unlike the judge I was standing next to her and could smell the stale vodka eminating from every pore. Classy!

Lovely Crepeys, does anyone wish to be ruthlessly exploited give me the benefit of their parenting wisdom for a feature (mag of a popular supermarket that begins and ends with the first letter of the alphabet) on 'squabble-free summer' (apart from 'arrange childcare and work through it')? It needs a sense of humour, apparently, and to whizz gracefully through 'dealing with disagreements, keeping the peace, making sure they’ve got lots to do (suggest days out), things to do inside if the weather is bad, getting them helping out with housework, etc'.

Any suggestions welcome. I suspect 'get your partner to take them away for hippy t'ai chi for a week' is probably a little niche...on the other hand 'pay kindly teenager to take them to the park' is a winner IME.

QueenQueenie, classy indeed. Could even have been my erstwhile pal!

MI, is it possible to achieve a squabble-free summer?

MI, how about:

"I find Medised really helpful for a squabble free summer. Give the little bleeders slightly more than the recommended dose, and they will conk out PDQ, leaving you to open the gin and fanny about on the internet."

When I was a child, a friend's mother used to deal with her and her sister's squabbling by dragging them across the room by their hair and banging their heads together. (I was usually sent home after that.)

No of course it bloody isn't and the v nice editor knows that too.

Love the idea of the Salted Caramel Green Tea, QQ; will definitely have to give that a go.

MI, is there such a thing as a squabble free summer? I never had one - and know of nobody who did. I liked the idea of the charity shop for the earrings; but I think that round here they won't take them. I think I will have to keep them and then, in the unlikely event that I get to a MU, I will bring them and give them to you (and you can recycle them to your charity shops.

Crem, we are watching the Giro in Belfast - are you there? Should I be waving to you? What a shame about the young Irish cyclist; he looks in a lot of pain.

Solution for a squabble-free summer - only have one child.

Long days out with other families, so their children can dilute the horror.

Wetsuits.

Gin.

Re squabble free summers, I have just remembered DH telling me that he and his best friend used to go up on the moors for the day when they were about 11 and make dens, light fires, etc., , and would only go home when the BF's mum used to hang a sheet or towel from an upstairs window - that was the signal that dinner was ready. Now, if you don't see your kids all day, it must be squabble free, mustn't it?