Sour Crepes

[QueenQueenie]

Well someone had to do it....

Friend has gone home to mum - best place for her at the moment as at least she will be looked after and she is very fragile. She wants to try again, I don't know if that will happen, lots of water under the bridge and all that. They will certainly need to do some serious talking if that is even to be on the cards...

BTM/Herbs - with you ToT - I am starting afresh today.

Hatty, have they children and do they need schools for them? if they do, I'd start with that and work outwards.

Places in Brixton and Streatham seem to be selling very fast (especially if they are near good schools) and Brixton particularly is now pretty expensive. Perhaps places near the new Overground line - I don't think they have quite caught up yet price-wise, but now have goodish transport links?

Mrs S - they'll be renting and will be fine with a flat. They only have one child left at the moment as their DD's are at uni in the UK. They were looking at Ebbsfleet as this apparently (unbeknownst to me) has a Eurostar terminal. I fear the culture shock would be too great for a Parisian. Not sure of their exact budget - will try the find out. I get the impression they're a bit like us ie. struggling middle class under Monsieur Hollande.

Lalsy - thanks x post - I think Clapham will be way too expensive but ideally they'd like a bilingual school. Not sure this is going to be achievable.

Ebbsfleet! Well it sure isn't London.... (my in-laws live in Kent), yes Ebbsfleet is a Eurostar terminal. Kent - lots of very good grammars, but over subscribed....

What's it like BD? I sort of imagine it like Dartford but could be being unfair. I used to live in Maidstone. Ideally they want London but it's a question of price.

I'm also off today for exam purposes. Dd has two music A2 papers today.
Seems so unfair to have two long papers on the same day
Best of luck to all the other dc's doing les examens aujourd'hui.
Lalsy have your ones started? Are they very spread out like my dds?
I had grim nightmares last night about results day. Didn't even realise that I was pondering this subconsciously .

Darling crêpes of May is good

Hatty, lots of Frogs in my area (even my street!) but it is quite expensive.
How about Forest hill/Sydenham? Not so sure about Ebbsfleet

Where will they be working?

I'm not, in truth, worried at all about SATs.

Forest Hill is where I used to live. It's nice. What gender child? One thing to watch out for is single-sex schools, which we have a few of round here including DD1's; it's not ideal, though in truth I like it (and the boys' equivalent comp) very much. (And there are plenty of French-speaking kids, I reckon, in among the multiculti melange.)

Crem, dd starts today with AS resit. A2s start after half term and are very spread out apart from the two that clash! (so she will have to be chaperoned and have two biggies back to back). I have no idea whether I should be worried or not, no idea what she been up to really and rarely understand the little she tells me. We have a fun fortnight after half term when both dc will be on study leave (ds with internal exams and he will be at school most of the time). Our house is small.....Good luck to your dd today.

I agree, MI, there seem to be French speakers all around.

Hi lovelys.
Thanks for all the kind words about my poor friend and the memorial. It was a strange occasion - very bittersweet. Like a good party without the party girl. Very glad I went though, as it was good to be remembering her and sharing memories with lots of others who had valued her. There were people there from all aspects of her (very full) life and lots of short speeches. It was very moving. Both her boys spoke and were amazing - she'd have been soooo proud of them! She had planned it down to the details and had ordained that there be lashings of prosecco to help things along. After wards went back to a mates who lives near the venue with a couple of other old friends and drank copious amounts of tea and that was good too.

No idea at all about good places for French people to live but agree Ebbsfleet might be a culture shock too far!

Very good luck and all positive vibes to all the dc who have exams (and their Mums!). Ds1 now home on study leave - first AS on Thursday then a really packed week of exams next wekk and a trickle after half term. He has worked / is working so hard I know he'll be very disappointed if he doesn't do very well (and it's massively important that he does if he is going to be able to do what he wants to do next) so feel quite anxious for him...

Thank you for all your suggestions. I have e-mailed them to my friend to give her something to think about.

Crem - DD1 had an acid stomach all last week with exam stress. She couldn't even do her swimming training. Seems better today but she has to go to the local uni for an English oral thus missing vital lessons at school.

I am also dreading results day and we haven't even got started yet.

Good luck to all dcs doing exams. Dd starts the main block of exams today. Something like 21 in total with the majority over the next 2 weeks and the few remaining odds and sods in the 2 weeks after half-term. She only did the first module for each science subject in Y10, so everything else is now. Ahhh, just like the old days. :)
Although she has exams all this week, dd is not officially on study leave until Friday. However, the school doesn't seem to be offering much of use during the "lessons". Dd says the staff just say "do your revision" and then everyone sits around quacking. Seems strange to me. This morning she announced she wanted to do French past papers with a friend who also has the audio for the listening papers, so I'm afraid I ok'd that. Have told the school as much. She's going in at 12.30 for her French exam. Tomorrow she has 3 exams. And I'm working in school every morning from tomorrow. Am v. unmotivated after last week's fiasco, but need to just grit teeth and do it for the next few weeks.
Dd has - for her - worked very hard for the last few weeks. Far harder than I worked for my o levels. But that's not hard because I did no work at all, as I recall. She still thinks she will fall far short of the grades that she desperately wants and I genuinely have no clue about how well or otherwise she will do. It ultimately depends to a large extent on whether she suffers one of her incapacitating anxiety attacks during any of the exams, as if that happens she will undoubtedly bomb. Still, nothing for it but to wait and see.

And I'm trying quite hard not to think about results day because I foresee the mother of all meltdowns. :(

Stropps - this is exactly what I'm afraid of. I reckon we just have to be on standby to hold hands and pick up the pieces. I do hope for all of us that we don't have to do the second.

QQ, I fear DD1 is not going to make a classicist. She appears to believe all the Romans lived in Pompeii and therefore this is why Latin died out

She is actually quite good at Latin...

Bless her MI. Ds2 says Latin died out "because it's completely hodge, obviously" . He too is good at Latin!

Urgh, the wait for results day...much crepey hand holding!

MI, does she do the Cambridge Latin Course? I think they do such a brilliant job telling the story, with help from Dr Who, I can quite see why your dd thinks that.

Yes, she does. And a school trip to Pompeii in July doesn't help either.

I only discovered this misconception when she suggested there might have been some stray Romans absent from Pompeii who survived to propagate the otherwise extinct species.

I do love DD1. A person of mainly sunny outlook and a kind of 'hello flowers hello trees' attitude to life.

My dd loves Latin, and shed a tear over Caecilius in the BM last summer. I thought the CLC did a great job, giving them real, meaty, stories to get stuck into that played into the literature they read if they carry on (in stark contrast to the learn to shop, work for tourist board and buy double glazing approach of the MFL syllabus).

Well MI - Vesuvius probably got at least a few Romans who were on holiday along with the locals. Has she been watching that cheesy film that's out at the moment? Apparently it's totally inaccurate.

I might take her. Or possibly not, as it will presumably inflame the hysteria among her friends that it's going to go pop while they're all there.

I remember having to translate Pink Floyd into Latin in my O Level class. "teacher, leave those kids alone" etc We also studied a lot of Molesworth. I found doing Sallust at A Level a major letdown after that.
They only do Latin in the 6th form at dd's school and I can't see her taking it up, really. However, anything may happen after results day.

No Latin at my DCs' school, thank heavens. I didn't do it either.

The Darling Crepes of May sounds like an excellent title for the next thread - let's face it, there is only a limited window for the use of it...

MI - I'm not fussed about SATS either. I just wish that DD2's new-found devotion to revision would rub off on her elder brother, who, let's face it, really needs to be doing some, and soon. Good luck to all doing proper exams.

First Ladyjog after the illness break went well - I noticed all the azaleas are in full bloom. Lovely.

Stropps, it sounds like your DD would be much better off spending her time at home - DD can't concentrate on revising in class with others around. I am not even thinking of results day as the possibility of an anxiety attack in an exam is at the forefront of my mind too. She text to say her RE exam was long, but she finished it. This is really positive feedback as she usually says she flopped it for every exam!

My DC are very scathing about Latin - neither of them would remotely consider it. Neither DH or I took it and it doesn't seem to have ruined our careers

And yes, SATs are for the schools/government, not the DC. And I find all the pushing to get L6 a little

Am also liking the Darling Crepes of May!