Season of Mists and Mellow Crepiness...

[QueenQueenie]

Here you go Crepesters...

How old is your DD Rudy? I find 14/15 the worst age.

Herbs - I just have to ask how the bassooning went?

Rudy, what were you doing in Balham?!
Yes, there's only so much you can do to help your DD - in the end it is down to them. Such a difficult age - the hormones seem to clash massively with the timing of the GCSE's.
There is some comfort watching that Educating the East End, where Y11's who are clearly underperforming pull it out of the bag in the actual exams. And I did most of my revision for my O'levels the night before the exam

Herbs and Rudy, glad you made it back through the mass of drunken youths. And fingers crossed MrsS actually got away.

We went out to the pub for dinner last night (after an afternoon negotiating the tourists on the South Bank ) with BIL and the teens. I can recommend the elderflower Kopparberg cider

Good morning! How refreshing to wake up in house with only me in it!!!

Style and beauty matters…I have a posh charity gala in Novemebr which I mentioned. All the flapper dresses including this seem too short. (not real flapper dresses imho).
I picked this up in Debenhams in New York Manchester this weekend LBD which looks ok but have to wear Spanx (mid evening tummy ache) and although my waist looks tiny, the hips are a bit
Monroe-esque as a result. Opinions please. Hope the links work.

Right …off to make scones for DM's birthday tea….

Bugger, second link…trying again.

www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10701_10001_007020335260_-1

I like both dresses, Rose: the second one would certainly be a better length for me. Personal question - do you really have big hips, or do you just think that you have? From the photo I wouldn't have thought that the dress would accentuate the hips, but only you will know that. John Lewis has some lovely black tie dresses, have you looked there?

DH has gone out on his bike, I had been going but a bad night with my knees has put paid to that. DGS is coming for lunch whilst his parents take DGD2 to a birthday party. The weather is iffy so I think we might bake.

I am still feeling euphoric, however, as my football team actually won yesterday for the first time this season. My knee problems were not helped as we all had to stand outside the ground for an hour for elf and safety reasons. Then the down escalator packed up on the Metro, not good coming down one foot at a time.

Are you safely ensconced in New York, MrsS?

Star dress is lovely Rose and good choice for a flapper-style party.

Feeling almost human this morning after about 10 hours sleep I too have the house to myself as everyone has gone to watch/play footy - DD to her bezzies bf's match (they are back on now after many apologies and a very public making-up session - DD said the faces of those who had cheered him on the week before were a picture!), so I am baking.

BTM, back on? Really??

I am just settling back down to work after cooking a full-on proper roast. I am not terribly good at cooking roasts and hardly ever do it, but this must have been ok because there is nothing left at all. The beef joint was from a friend's new butcher's shop and came originally from a farm that I can see out of the window. And the eggs for the Yorkshire and the choc brownies came from my chickens. Unfortunately the sugar snap peas came from Kenya, but hey.. Still doing my best to keep it local. The beef was, despite my crap cooking efforts, tender and delish. Dh declared it to be the best he has ever tasted and the dcs both licked their plates clean and then some. Wish they were always as easily pleased, frankly.

Re: wayward teens and GCSEs - dd got her results based on the 6-8 weeks hard work she did between March and mid-May. She was scared witless by her mocks, when reality hit, but it still took her a couple of months after that to get to grips with the fact that it wasn't all going to go away and she would have to apply herself if she didn't want to bomb in every department. Not sure that I will ever forget quite how stressed I was last year in the run-up to her mocks when she was refusing to engage with the reality of the situation At All and shooting herself in the foot at regular intervals.

Hello all

My bassooning went as well as could be expected. Couple of stuff-ups, and I feel I was out of tune the whole time, but I didn't faint or soil myself, so feel it was a triumph. Bizarrely, I wasn't at all nervous.

Raced down to Islington to see my old pal for her 50th. She's one of those really good friends who I don't see for years on end, and we just pick up where we left off. Really special and precious.

She too is doing a mid-life career change, from university admissions head to hypnotherapist! Talking of career, must get on with my PGCE work. I've got to teach for a whole TWO HOURS next week, so have to spend about three days planning it...

Stropps, well done on the roast front.
Yes, really He is a really nice kid, but I think they all think they are in Waterloo Road. At least she/they are being grown up - they found a solution and moved on

Herbs, sounds like a bonza night. Good luck with the planning. Is it all one lesson?

I have made a huge quiche, cupcakes and Millionaires. I will shortly put a toad in the hole in the oven - always guaranteed to be eaten!

All one lesson, yes. Teaching the difference between past continuous and past simple, when telling narratives. While of course differentiating between the different abilities and all that shizzle.

Had a lovely morning today. Went to Victoria Park to air DS, then had lovely Sunday lunch at a pub whose huge garden, which opens up onto the park, has lots of 'cabanas' for sitting and eating in. They even have little heaters!

Easy then Pub sounds great!

Mmmm, Millionaires. I lurrrrve Millionaire's shortbread. Do you have a foolproof recipe you would care to share, BTM?? I made flour-less brownies with 100% cocoa chocolate and served them with white chocolate ice cream. A triumph, if I do say so myself.

Obvs do my best cooking when procrastinating an academic assignment. Good luck with the lesson-planning, Herbs. I'll be joining you in that in a couple of weeks. Have bought myself a laminator in preparation for making lots of jolly resources (wish I'd had such a thing back in ye olden days when I spent my life making learning resources).

And BTM, oh yes, indeed, they have found a solution and moved on. Got to wonder about that partic solution, though. But they do all enjoy their drama, don't they? This is why it is really quite difficult to tell whether some things require adult intervention or not.

Laminators are wonderful things

Recipe:

Shortbread
200g plain flour
100g butter
50g caster sugar
Bung in mixer then press into greased, lined 20" square tin
Bake 25-30 mins gas 4/180C

Caramel
200g butter
200g caster sugar
4 tbs golden syrup
1 can condensed milk
Bung in pan and heat gently stirring ALL THE TIME! Bring to boil and boil 5-7 mins then leave to cool
Pour onto base then leave to set in fridge 1-2 hours

Choc
200g
melt and pour over. Leave to set before cutting!

Oh thank you, thank you, BTM. Cut, pasted and saved for next w/e. Yum!

Now, a little punctuation question for all those who know about such stuff (I'd like to think I do, but I may have been doing this wrong all my life and every paper and online resource that I have consulted may be out of date ). Ds had a hw last week about punctuating direct speech. He had been taught the following is correct:

"Blah, blah, blah." said Katy.

I would write:

"Blah, blah, blah," said Katy.

As indeed is confirmed by assorted grammar books and online references. But have I got it wrong and have I been getting it wrong all these years? I corrected ds's attempt at his hw, thinking it was him that had it wrong, but he insisted that was how he had been taught, and it has indeed come back re-corrected by the teacher with full stops instead of commas.

You are right. Homework is wrong.

I want to do the millionnaires' shortbread. Sounds fab. Thank you.

Stropps - you are correct, of course. The teacher is probably 12 and doesn't know any better. You need to have a word. I corrected the 5 year old's teacher last week on practise and practice. I am sure she was most grateful, but if the children are going to learn one, let it be the correct one, I say.

Ooh, Strops, you should put that to the Pedants in the Corner - I'm with you on that one. It might be one of those cases where both are correct.

Well done on the roast beef; one does get a glow of satisfaction when the family praise one's effort, but that happens all too rarely here.

Aww...BTM, young love, eh? We haven't reached that stage yet. DS has had a few minor "flings" but tells us nothing. DD1 says she is a "single pringle" and proud of it, and DD2.....well, pity the poor lad who crosses her path.

Today was DSDad's 80th birthday party. I have sore feet from running round in stupid shoes, a headache from trying to remember which of DM's school friends was which, and a fridge full of random leftovers (48 mini quiches and a bowl of butter, anyone?). But birthday boy loved it, and I had a great catch-up with my lovely cousin who got married last year, and DSB who was over from Oz. In my PJs already....

It seems bizarre to put a full stop when the sentence has not in fact ended….

I'm not sure that I'd even put the comma (or am I really showing myself up here!)

Thank you, all! I was definitely taught to use a comma in that context. And so was dh. However, my edition of Fowler's Mod Eng Usuage (admittedly not all that modern) agrees with Beachy and says that any punctuation mark at that point is "otiose". Can't find any source that agrees with ds's teacher, though. She has written an explicit note telling him to use a full stop "at the end of a speech sentence". And no, sadly she isn't 12.

You are right. The teacher has shown herself up! I have just been doing something similar with my little lovelies. Correctly, of course
It is quite important that she gets this right - they will get tested on it - SPAG tests in Y6 and she is teaching them the wrong thing.

CV, that sounds brilliant - well done!

I am with fellow Crepeys, Stropps, definitely a comma. I do get irritated at the way grammar is altered almost willynilly. If I look back to my school days I was taught that a proper noun had a capital letter and that included things like French doors, Cheddar cheese - when did they alter that? Don't forget that I started my education in the 50s so be gentle with me!

I have a wonderful recipe for chocolate brownie cake which has pistachios in it - my go to dessert which I serve with raspberries and cream. I have never made Millionaire's shortbread, so thanks for the recipe, BTM. I had ginger scones when we were in the US, I keep threatening to make them as they were delicious.

Nucat seems to have developed a flea problem - we're using Frontline but I have resorted to the DC's old nit comb and a bowl of water to drown the blighters in.