The Darling Crepes of May

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My turn......

DD1 has just come home bewailing ALL THE REVISION she has to do for Y8 exams. Apparently this is incredibly cruel, is FAR MORE than anyone at any other school gets and will mean she never gets anything fun to do ever over the half term. Given that half term is going to involve the bloodbath that is my dad’s 80th, I feel the heavy weight of 20 minutes’ French revision a day is hardly onerous. I could always get her speaking French with him, if feeling truly cruel.

Nude is vile - who would wear that colour beige at any time? The only person I ever knew who could rock that colour was a Nigerian friend and she used to wear bright orange accessories, including lipstick and looked stunning.

Having scraped through the exam this morning with the lowest mark in the class, we went on to do the practice paper for the Difficult Exam on Friday, and I am pleased to report that I got the top mark. I find this easier, because it is in context, where you have a scenario and have to answer questions about it, not a load of random questions. The girl who sits next to me, who got 100% this morning, got about 35% this afternoon. I wonder if it is an age thing (she looked about twelve and very pleasingly had a surname that rhymed with her first name, although I did wonder what her parents were thinking) - if you are young, you aren't fazed by a load of random jargon filled questions, but if you are older, you prefer something that is set in context that you can get your teeth into.

I never know about DD2's exams, MI. It was apparently parent's day, where she was supposed to book us in to see her teachers last Saturday, but she hadn't done so, we knew nothing about it until I saw the email in the morning, which had been sent on Friday evening - "Your children should have brought home completed appointment cards, and we all look forward to seeing you for a progress report in the morning!" So being the unfit parents that we are, we didn't go. Not that DD2 had completed the appointment card anyway...

Rosebag, how many bra's did you get for £142?

Hi all and commiserations with Crem on sciatica and BD on discouraging work front. Hope things will start to look up soon. Trying to deal with work stress whilst assailed with others' problems outside work is v. difficult, BD, you must feel as though there's no respite.

I'm slowly improving; less lame, not coughing as much but still no voice. We're all singing in workshop and concert on Sat & all have solos so need to speed up our rate of recovery. Wonderful music: Purcell, Tallis, Byrd, Monteverdi.

Nervous about leaving DM but a bit less so since we discovered a phone that connects wirelessly to her hearing aids, so she can actually hear on it.

at Gove graffito. DD collects anti-Gove jokes to take to her teachers, like apples.

BTM, I suspect not that many. A serious brazeer costs quids.

I'll get ivory, then, MrsS. Ivory lace as opposed to nudey rubbersuit look. Ho yes.

That'll be 5, BTM. 2 everyday, 2 plunge, one smooth t shirt bra. Sounds extravagant but I'm giving away a drawer full. i get black and nude…is the nude committing an S&B offence? Trouble is, I like to have some that look ok under sheer fabric, hence the nude. Not sexy though, no. They look like what Miss Trunchbull might have worn

I suspect nude is an S&B must-have, along with alarming smoothing matching nude pants. If one is truly soignee. Hatty might know, wot with living in Paris and all.

I got my last bra from Amazon . For £20. It is a bright pink Fantasie jobby with white floral embroidery. I am usually pretty safe buying Fantasie in my size as 99 times out of 100 it will fit.

I thought Parisian women all wore little wispy bits from Princesse TamTam, which were whisked off at the first lascivious look from their other half. But perhaps the control stuff is kept for work? (I just had a picture of struggling unattractively out of a pair of beige control pants in the bedroom.) I used to have crotchless knickers in my wild and mis-spent youth. It caused quite a few surprises, I can tell you.

Congrats on your purchases, Rosebag. There's nothing like a bit of uplift to raise the spirits.
Dh has recently presented us with two albums of family photos covering the years from 2003-2009 (the photos have been languishing on his hard disk for all this time). These were, for me, clearly the pre-uplift years: truly, my bazonkas seem to have spent years pointing in different directions and wandering all over the shop. Surely I must have noticed them knocking on my knees?!?

I do find the years drop away as the bosoms are raised.

DP greatly disapproves of my necklines, which is incredibly hypocritical of him as he says they're the first thing he noticed about me. I take no notice, obviously.

Definitely take no notice MI.
Can I stick up for 'nude' bras? Admittedly not terribly attractive but necessary if you want to wear white / sheer things in the summer without your bra being very visible. I only ever buy nude and black, never white...

I have found cream bras to be a useful addition to my wardrobe.

but then I never wear white.

Nude and black…yes, essential. And I do have one gorgeous red bra…I'm not throwing that one away despite the quad boob.

Well done, MrsS. Now sock it to them on Friday.

DH bought me two bras yesterday which are lovely and so comfortable: he was less than pleased when I turned down the matching pants which wouldn't have covered my derrière. I didn't actually need any bras or pants but I knew if I showed them to him he would tell me to get them.

It's been a glorious day here: after our visit to the Arts and Crafts church (a little bit of Art Nouveau too), we went for a walk in the park.

Sorry to hear about Durham Passport Office holdup; I wish I could help. It'll be awful if the trip to Paris has to be cancelled.

The wretched sciatica must be dreadful, Crem. I used to find with mine that I would just wake up one morning and it would be gone - so fingers crossed for you.

DH and I have just discovered that it's the Bank Holiday weekend coming up.

You need Bonsoir for serious bra advice. I bought two at 70â?¬ each last year on sale in a posh bra shop. I have never spent that much before but I have to say they have been the most brilliant bras I have ever worn. I am awaiting the summer sales to get new ones. I do think nude is great for bras - ivory shows under white/cream shirts.

the 70 is supposed to have euro sign after it which was clearly there on preview.

5 isn't too bad if they actually fit you I am lucky on that score - cheap as chips are fine on my fried eggs!

NU, I guess every weekend is a bank holiday when you're retired

I do possess one singularly charmless but functional nudey seamless bra which seems to have a bit of oomph in it still so I'll go for cream. When I've transferred the cash outlay for underpinnings.

Oh no, MI, is it subsidence? Or your top half

Hatty, I found in Paris that it was impossible to get large cup sizes in bras, unless you went to Laure Sokol or somewhere like that. Most places seemed to end at a B cup, with the odd place running to a C and very occasionally a D. We had an awful time trying to get DD1 a sports bra in Decathlon, and when I asked the girl if they did an E cup, she laughed. DD1 cried and we got her one from Amazon, and went to Go Sport for all our other sports purchases. French women don't have heavy periods either - Franprix never had any tampons higher than regular absorbency, and I used to end up buying my super jumbo torrent-stoppers at the pharmacy, like some kind of freak.

Gosh, that is fascinating MrsS. Do you think Brits are prone to being gynaecologically...untidy? I have always suspected French women of having very light periods.

Well Paris is my place for bra's then! And periods now I'm on HRT

BP was down a bit - now 155 over 90, so she has upped the dosage on the BP tablets.