Crepeys in the Long Grass of Life

[CointreauVersial]

Thanks Beachy for the frisky title suggestion.

Well, here we all are!

Thanks for the good wishes, all. It is 4.30 am. DS is checked in to the Tour and off to the airport soon.....and I'm back home. Feel a bit weird. Should try and get back to sleep,for a bit, s'pose....

Did DD complain to Thorpe Park management - she needs to if it looks like an inside job! And spread the info as gear as possible (FB?)
Last ever week of Primary starts here........ sob

Well done smallestCV - what a brainiac!

BD, DS seemed far less shocked by his sex talks. Given that he hit puberty like a train 6 months into Y7, I'm not surprised!

Rudy, so sorry to hear your news. It is indeed a very difficult decision, and so hard to make in the heat of the moment with so many unknowns.

OPM, your poor DS - DD would have gone into complete meltdown. Thankfully she has always broken up by the time her birthday comes.

Stropps, that's what I thought when you said only some money had gone - agree with BD about making a fuss. Great news about your course - you are really getting on with your life!
Am a teeny bit jealous of your camping en France - many happy memories of when the children were smaller.

Rose good luck to your DS and you!

Glad to hear all the pets have found sitters.

Here DH has booked us some accommodation for our forthcoming hols. It is not 5* (doesn't seem to exist where we are going!) and I am worried about humidity - remembering Kochi.

Rudy, sadly the tiler is postponed till hopefully tomorrow. At least I can sort of use it! Wishing you strength.

Rose, I too was awake at 4.30 - I think I must have dropped off again just before 6. I hope it all goes well with DS.

Rudy, my sympathies; it sounds awful for all of you and, yes, obviously you are going to worry about the effect on your family.

Stropps, what a shame for Dd and her friends, and I also think it should be reported to Thorpe Park and also the Police. A lot of people would not bother to report or not notice what had happened. Good luck with getting on the course. We loved camping in France and had some of our best family holidays there.

Maths (shudder), well done to DD, CV.

Rudy, those options are grim, aren't they. I am so sorry.

I have to take DD2 to her exam later and have convinced myself the trains will be cancelled. The fact we can jump in a cab and it will take 10 minutes has not affected this delusion. Is horrid driving there and parking a nightmare.

DP has had some sleep and said the pasta was very nice. He is under a hell of a lot of stress, which is one reason why he is being grumpy. He has asked his brother about presents and apparently SIL "just likes moisturiser". I helpfully suggested that instead of piling in helpfully with a tin of Nivea we get her some luxurious body cream. Reasonably cheaply. Posh Sanctuary stuff or the Balance Me one we can bung on the Ocado order.

Stropps good news re course and sounds like you have plans!

BTM where are you off to?

Rudy hope today is okay. Maybe not any help but mum went through a hell of a lot of surgery last year at 79 and really the issues are to do with the heart attack and the stroke, not the surgery itself. She really bounced back from that okay.

BD, Costa Rica/Nicaragua.

MI, LOL at bunging it on shopping order!

DD has just announced that she needs wine and chocs for her favourite teacher who is leaving. DS is also gutted

Oh BTM - nice.... (can I come?)

I guess I should buy something for ds's teacher (but he's only had her five minutes) - might buy the head something though.....

MI - I like your style (my kind of shopping :) )

I have had enough of DD2. Will go into more detail later but she is driving me up the WALL. Sick of being held hostage to the mood swings of an 11 year old. (A v small pre-pubertal 11 year old, btw, cannot even blame hormones.)

Oh Rudy, you are SO far from selfish. Really you are.

Rudy, it doesnt sound selfish at all. Do you have siblings/other relatves or friends who could take their turn? Could you arrange for them to cover while you are away?

MI they are frustrating, aren't they?

NU I also managed to drift off just before the alarm for the normal getting up time. I am a zombie...more from the tension of the last few days rather than the sleep deprivation!
Rudy please don't beat yourself up over needing to be there for your own household as well. After 6 weeks of being heavily involved in my DParents care a while back ( DM recovering from an op and DF not coping in a variety of ways, dementia, incontinence, has a supra public catheter and a bag) I now know that I can't do that again and look after my brood as well. Something had to give. And it wasnt going to be my sanity. Got some help in place now and I made a referral to social services( initially without DParents permission) They've been brilliant.
Tilly wow! Exotic location. Makes us sound like wusses.
CV amazing maths result. Good on her and you!
MI walk away. Have a glass of gin or a cream bun. Whatever's your favourite poison.
DS has boarded with his 2 closest friends. Three soppy mothers are exchanging soppy, simpering iMessages about lovely boys, safe journeys, Godspeed. Thanks heavens the boys can't see that. They'd be disgusted and making sick noises

Rudy, so not selfish. My DBros have shouldered most of the burden because they are physically closer than me. It has not been easy.

Look after yourself - it's that sandwich generation thing again isn't it.

MI what's DD2's problem?!

DD2...well, she can just be snappish and tearful and refuse to do anything bar watch YouTube on the tablet.

OTOH she is being a total trouper today. Currently doing her sax exam....for which the teacher totally forgot to teach her one scale. He emailed me about it last night. It is new on the syllabus. I am really worried she will have to do it after playing it a few times (I offered help and advice but she refused - the accompanist here is fab, though, and has been briskly firm with her)...

Good luck to DD2 MI. So glad I dont have to go through music exams any more!

Phew. Didn't have that scale. Nipped out in break before her trumpet one and picked up posh Neals Yard body stuff for Princess Bride who doesn't have to know it was 30 per cent off.

Is literally as well as metaphorically princess, btw.

Rudy, of course we understand (and some of us have been there). However do not do what I did, which is beat yourself up because you cannot physically manage. (I still have a burden of guilt). I am sure your DM would not want that.

By the way, my new washing machine holds 8 kg which makes life a lot easier (old one was 5).

BTM, that sounds wonderful - I am very impressed that you are so adventurous.

It's grey and miserable here.

That's lucky, MI, pretty poor about her teacher.

One of my fellow invigilators this summer was an actual princess. Not from the same continent as yours, though, MI.

Have just shot off my last-minute course application and have got an immediate interview for next Wed. Will then find out the horrible truth re: the 2 hour drive to get there. Is going to cost an arm and a leg, but I have been fierce about putting money aside for the last year, so as long as we can get by with enough work coming in of various sorts, I should be able to manage it. Fingers crossed for the interview. The course is the gold standard for the subject area, so is def worth the dosh and includes a teaching practice every week. oh please oh please let this be a good idea and not just me being delusional....

This whole project and indeed my current behaviour is soooo far from the way I have led my life for the last 15+ years, that it is all mighty scary.

Stropps, go you.

I am LOVING the new rocket-powered Stropps.

I've had to have a word with DS's school. A number of times now he's come home saying that some of his 'friends' have been 'fighting' him. They punch him, pull his clothes, etc, and even when he tells them to stop it, they don't. If he walks away, they follow him, and even encourage others to 'come and fight DS'. Obviously, this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but if it's actual bullying, rather than just part of a game (and I don't hear about the bits when he corners other children) then it needs to be sorted. He hasn't really got a best friend or two at school, and I just hate the thought of him getting a skewed idea of what friendship is - putting up with shit just so you have someone to play with.

Go Stropps....

And go Herbs.... I am very touchy about the subject of Bullying having been subjected to it myself as a child and do tend to come over all tiger mother if ds so much as mentions such things.....
even if it is a 'game' they perhaps need to learn fighting isn't a game.....

go MI's DD2 too!!

I had raised it a few times with his teacher and TA, and it still wasn't sorted, so I happened to drop it in to conversation with the head who was at the gate this morning. She is a force to be reckoned with, so hopefully it will get sorted. Of course, the six-week holiday might be enough of a break to stop it all, too.

I was bullied at school by people I thought of as friends, and it's bloody horrible.