Crepeys in the Long Grass of Life

[CointreauVersial]

Thanks Beachy for the frisky title suggestion.

Well, here we all are!

Home from the shopping after having bought some trouser socks and a nail buffer - last of the big spenders.

Hatty, very well done to DD. And you will enjoy coming over, too.

It's bucketing down here - I hope it's better for you tomorrow, Herbs.

MI, - pm.

Thank you for all your kind wishes. I shall now turn my attention to France v Germany.

Am feeling very irritated with the painters who although efficient, are ultra slow and left at 4 pm, no doubt to get an early start for the football!

My floor is done (yay!) and the kitchen units about to be delivered. My builder is still here

Hatty, I am ensconced in my nice easy chair, knitting in hand (or on the floor as I write), ready to watch. We're having a salad tonight for dinner as it is no effort. It should be a cracking match.

My mum is here. She has a friend, another Indian woman of similar vintage, here too. Which is nice - her best friend from college days in Madras, who had also married an Englishman, lived quite near here and they were very close and increasingly so over the years. S died a couple of years ago, and my mother misses her horribly. It's nice to hear them roaring with laughter.

(If DP comes back while friend is still here they will both fuss dreadfully over him as Nice Asian Boy. At that point all my limited stock of niceness will run short abruptly.)

Stropps, would you like to do some of your interview thinking on here?

(I don't suppose an affirmation along the lines of "I am really terrific and if you don't like me I know where your bin lives" would work, would it?)

MI :) love the bin line...

In dress news I think I have a touch of MrsS syndrome and seem to think I'm three sizes larger than I am.

One is fine, but the other (sorry Beachy, but the one you bought) is massive. I am keen though so may well take it back and order a smaller size (promise not to wear it to a crepey meet up)

Talking of meet-ups, is Fri July 25th a date or are we looking at September. Or both?!

BD - I did this with clothes - I like to think I am looking slightly better now I've sized down a bit.

MI at the old ladies fussing over DP. This reminds me of a few years ago when the old lady next door invited DH and FiL and not MIL and myself over for a drink.

I'd like to be 2 sizes smaller than I think I am!

MI, DM fusses over DH and tuts at me not looking after him like a 1950's wife.

Please let's do the 25th!

Have solved inadequate-food issue through the medium of DD2, who is knackered and leapt at the thought of a separate supper of chips and fishfingers ahead of everyone else. And who can blame her? Food of the gods.

You should have seen the expressions on the faces of my mum and her friend S - who was visiting my parents at the time - when they first met DP. A Nice Asian Boy!

MI

My DM took pity on DH when she first met him - after a couple of months she told him to bring his washing and ironing round and she would do it for him!

MI

So Friday July 25th - who's in?!
MI
BTM
BD?

DH and I are drinking cold Cobra and the DC are sitting on each other and moaning that the Chinese takeaway has still not arrived whilst commenting on the boring football.

NU that is so the kind of thing my DM would do.

Hatty - many congrats to DD! Great news.

NU - you have a shopping session, and all you come back with is a nail buffer and some trouser socks? I'm disappointed in you.

Phew, wot a scorcher. Looking at the forecast for tomorrow I'm optimistic that any rain will have come and gone before the evening event, so wellies shouldn't be necessary. I cannot for the life of me decide what to wear. There will be some sweaty dancing but also some late night outdoor chills, so I'm thinking layers.....but of what?

When I was doing my finals 500 years ago my dm turned up on my doorstep one day (she lived near) with a cake she'd made.... for my flatmate!

CV remind me of what you are doing tomorrow night? Is it in a field?

BTM - it's basically a mini-festival but just for the evening. In a field, with live music, a bonfire, dancing, a plate of curry and good beer. It happens every year and is always excellent. If it doesn't rain.

I guess it depends on what you want to wear. I would probably go with jeans, nice top, converse or similar and a really big long thick cardy for when it gets cold.

S&B news: I bought a navy foldover maxi skirt from Gap sale, where the 'foldover' part at the waist is a racy coral. Then I went into that lovely big Boots at Liverpool Street and bought some more no7 CC cream, and an eyeliner so I could get the 'free' gift of useful small make-up. That means I spent £40 on myself in one hit. On top of the £25 I spent on shoes the other day.

Where Will This Madness End?

The speed awareness course was very interesting, and filled with a huge variety of people. One looked vaguely familiar, as if he was on the telly. I was on the same table as a woman who worked for the Met, in its traffic enforcement division!

One dozy posho, after watching harrowing photos of the aftermath of a car hitting then dragging a small boy on his bike down a residential street, asked a question involving the word 'skidmarks', then started laughing at how very amusing the word 'skidmarks' is. No-one else laughed.

Coffee was terrible, though, contrary to stories I'd been told.

Like the sound of your skirt Herbs! Not the posho though

I can do the 25th.

Had run in with BB today. I was at my assertive best and she back tracked massively. I felt quite empowered, saying to her "As a manager, do you think it was in any way appropriate to say what you did?" She didn't quite apologise, but it was quite gratifying to see her back pedalling madly "What I said was not what I meant..." Suggested she might think through what she was saying and how she comes across to others. (I know it's not the first time this has been said to her.)

Woo Hoo, MrsS - well done!

Good for you, MrsS. It is indeed very empowering, especially if you maintain both your cool and the moral high ground.

Herbs - good to hear the Speed Awareness course was informative, but how embarrassing having to attend one when you work for the Traffic Police. One of the van drivers at work says he's been to "several", but he has just got his third speeding ticket in as many weeks, so we are just waiting to see which book they throw at him.

DD1, DD2 and DD2's mate are outside having a little spat with a group of girls from the prep school over the fence (who have some sort of evening event). I went outside a few minutes ago to intervene when one of the little darlings climbed on our fence, but now they are throwing pine cones at each other. Do I wait until someone gets one in the eye?