Creper Roses

[SheherazadeSchadenfreude]

Here!

Anyone got any ideas on what I can get my Goddaughter for her First Holy Communion (RC)? She is just turned 8 and I got her a crucifix on a chain for her christening (she was about 4 IIRC!)

Hi Crepeys,
It's all rather Sunday eveningish here - supper / laundry / organising etc etc

Full on week of exams here - for BOTH of them .
All is calm at the moment but it feels that fuses are shorter than usual and sibling bickering is at an all time high or rather low...
Welcome home MI. Chin up Crem. Lovely dress CV. Well done Auriga's intrepid dd. You fat rascal you Herbs.

I appear to be only watching Nashville ATM and indeed must catch last week's with glass of wine. Following the supper Mr Veg produced which involved baked potatoes, salad and those well known fresh veg baked beans.

Did you looks smug and self satisfied, MI?

I have taken DD2 back to school. She was in a foul mood - lack of sleep, I think, as she was up until 0130 the other night, finishing a drawing.

I am also a bit crabby, due to lengthy hangover. It doesn't seem to have affected my cousin in the least - they had a barbecue earlier and she washed it down with some more wine. I don't have her stamina, clearly!

DD2 never wants to do anything at weekends except a) draw and b) play Minecraft with her friend in the US.

There are FAR worse ways for teens to be spending their spare time Mrs S!

Evening all.

Just catching up on all the news and purchases! Congratulations on that dress CV - it's fab! And silk yellow tunic will really suit you, MI. Well done on northern foray, you handled it better than I could have!

Had a busy weekend, cramming for year 8 exams here, but Very Slowly, coupled with a lovely dinner out last night with friends and their massive teenage sons and a BBQ today with another family. Just found out my boss is in town next week! Not good as I was planning an easy week back in after Barcelona.

We start the Uni open day season here this week which is very scary!

For Rose and Windy, the camping to which you all refer, is open house at mine on the South Coast. Stropps will be here, holding up the Crepey baton, but you are welcome. PM me if you would like details. I think it's 21st June, but my brain is very addled with taps, light fittings and tiles at the moment.

For atmospheric purposes, I am sitting in the garden, there are bats flying overhead and the crows have not yet gone to bed! But my new sooper dooper wifi reaches this far, so I'm happy here with and fag!

Hope teenage angst passes, BTM.

QQ, full on exams for both dc here too this week - and both on study leave. Gulp. I was dreading this half term but actually it has been dull but calm so hope that continues.

BTM, I hope things settle down with you. I had a long chat with dd the other night about a couple of things that caused trouble in the last few years, was very illuminating. I do think and hope that the way they are encouraged to think and talk about their emotional and psychological lives means that they have more self awareness than perhaps we did - dd seems to have processed stuff that I would not have been fully conscious of at her age, and I think is more resilient and a better judge of character as a result. I have had a martini so hope that makes sense .

Yo Beachy - sounds great in your back garden. If I could hop to sarf of engerland I'd be there with my groundsheet, Mr Loves a tent and The Exam Weary dd. Not happening sadly. I do hope you have a brilliant time < clinks Pims>

BTM all the recent pain /throb /scorch/ electric shock has been in my leg , arse and foot eminating from a 'wonky' disc. Actually no back pain at all weirdly. This is how sciatica works , slowly driving you to insanity.

Me too Beachy! About to embark on a UK wide tour with ds1... kicking off with the furthest away in a couple of weeks all the way to Edinburgh. We're catching the sleeper train - am sadly excited by the idea. Where are you headed? Maybe we will coincide!
Crem, did you go to Edinburgh with your dd? Any tips?

Not so far for us at the mo, QQ. We are on the rounds for art foundation, so Central St Martins ( if we are very lucky!), Kingston, Camberwell and Falmouth.

We also have the joys of the First Driving Lesson on Friday followed by an evening with Chase and Status! Bet you don't envy me now!

Yes qq we did indeed do the triple
Glasgow Edinburgh and St. Andrews in 4 days .
Get to the subject talks as early as possible - it's hectic.Monumental queues. Visit the subject departments after that.
Picnic in George square recommended to gather yer self .
We took the bus out to the halls at pollock which was q interesting if ds
wants to imagine what life might be like. If it is sunny get ds to imagine high winds, freezing horizontal sleet and rain. ( how it might be most of the time)
Ignore large batches of tall blonde wealthy Scandinavian prodigies in Ralph Lauren. Only joking a bit

Love Edinburgh

Oh Beachy -my old alma mater.!

QQ highly recommend

Any DC looking at Newcastle? I would be happy to help with a tour of the city if they are. Good luck with the exams this week.

Any better today, Crem?

Bed stripping today plus putting the house back to rights before we go back to childminding tomorrow. DD restarts work after ML.

beach lovely hospitality!!! That's the weekend DD comes back from long, far away school trip, so need to be around. Hopes to meet in the future though.
Good luck to all sitting exams and embarking in city tours and uni open days. Have memories with DS1 of this…lots of enthusiastic parents toting round sullen, disaffected teens. DS1 was doing music/audio tech. I remember quite liking the look of some of the tutors….
Teaching this morning…and script writing this afternoon. Like the non- domestic feel of the day

I'm back at the desk, about to start pulling together a piece on 'hover or hands-off', for parents of new students .

I feel the need for a crepey meetup too as cannot do chez Beachy.

How do crepeys. Back in London, and as DP is around today we're going to do a spontaneous exhibition. As in 'visit one', rather than 'make one of ourselves'.

Had a lovely time in Harrogate. It's very good for me, to have to talk to the huge variety of people on these things, from professional singers to barmy old bats who can't carry a tune in a bucket. Though I did lose patience by the end with a few at the madder end of the spectrum, and would leap behind various scenic bushes to avoid them.

Due to a room booking cock up, I ended up sharing a four-poster bed in a suite, which all added to the fun. Ate loads, as the delicious cooked breakfasts were all included in the price, and of course had to sample the Yorkshire Fat Rascal. Our coach driver seemingly had never left London before. He had no sat nav, or indeed a map, and got lost frequently. The coach was the type that takes children to the zoo, rather than a motley collection of weak bladders on five-hour journeys. No loo, small non-reclining seats, and a crude approach to climate control.

Our final concert was in a village hall, with an incredibly enthusiastic audience, which made it all worthwhile. Followed by delicious meal in local pub, and lots of wine. Hurrah!

Herbs that all sounds great fun!
Love your description of the old singing bats.

That's me you're talking about then, Herbs! It all sounds lovely (well apart from the coach). I, too, have over indulged - food was great, even if I do say so myself.

Herbs that sounds fun. Sadly I would be one of the tuneless old bats!

Grrrr, bad start to the day - was on my way to work when DS called to say his keys were missing, with his bike lock key so he couldn't ride in and he was going to be very late. After many frantic calls to and from DH and DD, I ascertained that DD had them, but had left them at her mates, so she couldn't even meet him with them at school. I had to hare back to drop him to school with note in diary.... making me extremely stressed and late for work

Things have to get better, right?

I definitely could do with a meet-up

Crem sorry to hear you are still in sciatica hell.

Mrs S - thanks for Chartier tip, we loved it. DDs were first through the revolving door and by the time I arrived we'd all been judged Not French Enough to sit downstairs, and were ushered onto balcony to be served by surly (obvs) English speaking waiter who denied dd2 ketchup for her frites! . We bloody loved it. Had excellent time all round and walked feet down to stumps. Other highlights were ketchup dd getting all serious about long jump in one of the Place Des Voges sand pits and doing longer and longer run ups while the rest of us gorged on pastries. Also same dd actually following demand for silence inside Sacre Coeur which was the first time all day she (and her sister, but less so) had stopped asking a million questions a minute. Bliss.

CV dress is gorgeous and you will look fantastic in it.

Herbs, laughing at the coach being 'the type that takes children to the zoo, rather than a motley collection of weak bladders on five-hour journeys.'

WAF, sounds like a great trip!

Herbs, I was so busy reading your report on your choir trip and chortling that I fell off the edge of the pavement on the way home from work. No damage done, apart from slightly dented pride. :)

BTM, hope the rest of your day runs more smoothly.

I completely failed to even start to cut the hedge yesterday as I was so knackered that the idea of even getting the large electric hedge trimmer out of the shed was enough to make me want a lie-down. Oh well. It'll wait another few days.

It all went well for dh's band last night, apparently. They have been asked back.

I am having an entirely predictable "oh god, I'm so hideous, I shouldn't be allowed out without a bag over my head" moment after gurning photos have appeared on FB. I have spent most of my life since my teens avoiding people with cameras or, if I have to be in a photo, I have done my best not to smile. Cue 35 years of moans about me looking "miserable". What to choose: miserable or smiley and hideously wonky? I seem to have given up and plumped for the "wonky elderly washerwoman" look. Who cares? Well, probably no one except me and I should obviously give up caring. And yet... The wonkiness is the by-product of the Bell's Palsy I had in my teens and it is getting much worse with age.

Anyway, as I barely managed to get anything useful done yesterday, I now have a list of critically important tasks to complete by, er, yesterday.

Stropps, the one of me on FB that many of you buggers have alleged they like is unspeakably hideous. And how can I look quite so...statuesque (not in a good way) when I'm a size 10 five-footer, ffs?