Forever Autumn Forever Crepey

[cremolafoam]

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old,
and darker days are drawing near,
the winter winds will be much colder,
now you're not here.
I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
and one by one they disappear
I wish that I was flying with them,
now you're not here

Haha, Rudy, that's exactly the kind of utterly useless crap I'm inclined to buy for ds. It's certainly displacement activity. Just go and shop for stuff he doesn't need, then everything will be alright. Almost as if I could cover him with a protective coating of coasters and the like.

A protective coating of coasters, what could possibly go wrong? Part of my plan was that we would unpack dd, and then bring back all the clearly useless crap extras but because she pushed us out so fast, she now has to live in a tiny room surrounded by the products of my feverish displacement activity - we may have to go and dig her out from a pile of Uncle Ben's savoury rice and teabags before long. Hope the preparation goes OK, Hatty and Molly. dd is doing fine I think, is missing home and close friends and not quite sure how to go about the social stuff, but is trying new things and getting stuck in.

BTM, just awful. Poor love.

I would like it on record that I went to a party last night and appear not to have a hangover though admittedly I have retired back to bed with a gory thriller. Am going to rouse self from pit later to go on climate change march.

Ooh, how fabulous! Spare room for guests? Additional sitting-room without a TV? Office? Library? I would faint with joy if we uncovered an extra room lurking somewhere...

Way to go MI march for me too. Have lost half the family as it is the town brocante which I love. It was raining earlier on so I retired home to make lunch. DS is still out there somewhere and DH went on a bike ride and hasn't been seen since. Normally he is back by now. I suspect he and his mate stopped for a coffee or aperatif somewhere.

Office/guest room Rudy?

Coaster protection sounds like the way to go
I am on a train off to an Indian wedding with ds as my plus one as dp bailed. Ds looking fetching in a yellow silk Indian shirt! I had trouble finding stuff to wear as I don't do 'posh' these days and nowt fits....
Happy Sunday all!

Oooh how wonderful. I'd have an office/guest room/no clutter or children room, with one of those day bed type things, a bookshelf, little desk and not much else.

Happy marching MI.

Ooh rudy a child free area definitely. With a chaise longue and lots of books.
Enjoy the march MI. Sun's out here at the moment. I just can't be bothered to make lunch....assessing my chances of us pottering up to the Green and eating at one of the places there. We're developing a nice little cafe society round here of late. We are up to date with homework. Minimal screaming involved ( minimal not none, unfortunately...unrealistic aim) .
Very chilled last evening at the theatre bar with friends, and theatre cronies. 2 G&Ts, just right to heal 4 hour traffic ordeal. We even won a pair of tix to Kew Gardens in the raffle

Or, Rudy, a teenage den? Leaving you teen-free in your sitting room?

BD, sounds great!

Enjoy marching MI - wonder if my friend has gone...

Rose, sounds like your weekend's come good!

I had a lovely morning catch-up with a friend and have been chatting with DD for the last couple of hours. She is generally anxious about going back to school. I predict a tricky 24 hours, eek.

Hello again all, I am kind of lurking here rather than posting ATM as I just feel boring and tongue-tied and meh. I hope everyone's having an ok crepey autumn so far.

DH goes into hospital on Thursday for hip replacement surgery. I can't quite imagine what the recuperation period is going to be like . I am working from home most of the time and sort of looking forward to that but am probably kidding myself that it will be ok.

Hi OPM, I very much hope that your dh's op goes well. Im sure everything will be Ok afterwards. Its lovely to see you on here. keep us posted.

We are in jam , jelly and preserving mode here today. Have damsons, blackberries and a friend of my sister gave us apples. I have just cut into one and they are Pink fleshed inside , which is very satisfying. Delicious too, with a hint of grapefruit.
We have also had a duh! moment with the Victoria plum in the garden. Turns out it isn't a Victoria plum , but some kind of gage. Maybe a Mirabelle - green flesh and dlish

Hello OPM.

I am knackered. Last night is catching up with me.

Have you marched MI?

OPM - my friend is having a hip replacement as well - apparently she'll be out of it for about six weeks. They have just postponed her op because her blood is too thin! Hope everything goes on for your DH.

...goes "OK" for your DH.

I have marched. It was fun.

Hi OPM, good luck to your DH and you ministering unto him!

Cremo, they might be Reine Claudes - yummm!

I am feeling crappily full of cold and have done nothing much this afternoon bar watch 4 in a bed with DD.

Full-on week next week, including enrolling on my course (which takes a whole day), moving DS's school, and doing ACTUAL TEACHING on my own, with a lesson plan and everything.

So I just had a peaceful day, going with DS and DP to Stansted Mountfitchet castle - a recreated wooden Norman castle, complete with peasantry and animals. It's totally great. Then a film at home, with popcorn. Next, delicious stew made by DP.

Stew was supposed to be our anniversary dinner last night, but as per usual he didn't read the instructions properly, and didn't realise it took nearly three hours to cook until about seven o'clock last night. So we got a Thai takeaway instead.

School-moving is going to be OK, I think. We have a friend who is a teacher there, and went to the park with her yesterday (she's the one on the slide with me!) I primed her to tell DS how marvellous the school is, and how she'd come and see him and make sure he was OK, and as she was doing so a little light came on in his face. Today we told him that he was definitely going there, and after a brief protestation of 'I'll be shy' seems to have accepted it.

Phew-o-rama.

That's a full-on mummy triumph in my book, Herbs. Because you a) have that friend b) knew you needed to help convince ds some more c) fixed an outing so she could reassure him. Brilliant.

Herbs!

Thank you all . I am sure I will be posting more here when I'm working from home.

Herbs, that sounds great.

Well done for marching MI - you may have wine now.

Herbs - what a relief - wine for you too. Slide looked rather steep - I think I would haven felt rather shaken up! I do remember thinking my Auntie Phil was very cool for going down the slide in the park. I was about six and she was really old (I realise now she was probably in her forties!).

Oh well done, Herbs. Best of luck to both you and ds for the new starts this week.

BTM, I'm sorry to hear that your dd is still being troubled by someone being downright nasty. Hope your dd spends more time thinking about how brilliantly she did during her work experience rather than dwelling on that individual's small-minded unpleasantness.

Have just about ticked off all the things on the mammoth to-do list which I have been working my way through for 2 months and have also typed up checklist for dh for when I am away (although still a few things to do tonight). Bit of a big week here too, as I am off tomorrow to stay with db in Surrey and then to the first day of my course on Tues.
Dh has an aortic aneurysm scan on Wed, which is also the day that the scaffolding is going up as the chimney is coming down at the end of the week. Allegedly. The chimney is coming down all the way to the floor of the loft, which means we will have to clear the computers etc etc out of the office. It is all going to be a bit of a messy palaver. There will be a large amount knock-on effects and various other jobs that will need sorting afterwards. It is going to be tricky, most probably.
I am also starting volunteering to help with reading in Reception at ds's old school on Thurs.

I think it's probably DH's cancer checkup the week after next as well, so I will have to nag him to sort out his blood test and fill out his assessment forms as he won't do it otherwise.

And now, back to a job that dh wants to edit tonight for delivery tomorrow.

Hope all goes well for your dh's op, OPM.

OPM, Stropps and Herbs - all of you good luck next week - fingers crossed for you.

Here the wedding was epically long (as are all Indian weddings I have ever attended). But she looked fab and 'our little girl is all growed up'. (She was the administrator to me and another colleague and was a shy naive little 25 year old (who looked about 14) and now she's blossomed!