Gunpowder, Treason and Crepes

[CointreauVersial]

Here we are again.....

CV, DS had glasses from the age of 4, DD from about 7, I think. DS is very short sighted and was under the hospital eye department for years - they put him in lenses when he was about 11 - there was no charge at all. It was quite stressful, though, as he was a sporty boy and he was forever losing them. His sight was so bad that there was a question as to whether he would be allowed to drive.

I do feel for your DD as at her age it will probably feel like the end of the world (voice of bitter experience). My DD wore her specs until she left school and hasn't worn them since. She ended up having three operations for a lazy eye. I hope that you can get her sorted out with something she likes.

I want a snuggler....

Here one of my colleagues has written an amazing very tactful email which basically says 'no stop, back in your box. We need to discuss all this'.

Phew. Back again.

NU - I'm really hoping we can sort DD1 out with lenses, because she really is very obsessed with her appearance at the moment (hours of hair straightening every morning). She has lasted longer than me anyway; I wore glasses from age 8, back in the days when NHS glasses came in one design, in brown, pink or blue, with curly wires around the ears.

Anyway, really must stop MNing and sort out my lovely new phone. I treated myself to a Moto G and now have to wrestle with SIM activation, PAC codes, and the like. I phoned O2 earlier to give them the heave-ho and of course I was put through to the Retentions Department, where an over-friendly chap enquired in a sad voice why I was planning to leave them ("because you cost a bomb, so I'm going to GiffGaff").

CV - I know it's little consolation for a teenage girl but later on she could maybe get laser surgery which wasn't an option for us (she says bitterly).

Very exciting about the bathroom although it's awful living in a building site.

I went to get an eyebrow pencil today and she showed me a sort of mascara for eyebrows which seemed really good until she put it on me - I looked like a wearwolf!

I had those glasses in pink, CV. I used to cry and refuse to wear them, so my mother tied them on. (I was about 3.) Contact lenses are not that expensive - I think mine are around £16 per month.

Lalsy - this woman is a minor player, not the main bitch boss. There are too many egos where I work, that's the problem. And too few senior women, and those who are there seem determined to make everyone's life a misery.

So far, the sight in DS's good eye is 20:20, but I almost hope for a slight glasses requirement to act as some protection for it. Particularly now he likes nothing better than running around the house with another small boy and a sword.

Molly - I so hear you about irritating group dynamics. My PGCE course is full of, frankly, bellends. As well as the beard-stroking chortling men, dominating any class discussion and diverting it onto subjects they know, there are a cohort of irritating young things, all bezzie mates (after about four weeks of knowing each other), and over-enthusiastic giggling. Then there are a few crepey women, who just leave everyone else to it.

There's one woman in my tuition group who drives me mental. She's in her 20s, has already (apparently) set up an orphanage and school in Malawi, ran a language school in Switzerland, is also teaching in a primary school while doing this course, and is so intensely patronising in a mid-atlantic way that it makes my head itch on the inside. She dropped into conversation the other day that a) her parents have adopted a baby boy that was left in their garden at four days old, and b) her mother has a terminal illness. Either she has the most incredible life, or she's a total fantasist. Irritatingly, she seems a really good teacher.

Hatty, that's the look now! DD actually asked me if I liked her scouse brows this morning

Eeek, MrsS, I remember those pink NHS glasses. My friend (boy) had and hated the brown version which became quite popular years later.

Herbs, I'd take what she says with a pinch of salt

Herbs - definitely fantasist. I find I'm becoming increasingly less tolerant of people - I think its with the onset of crepiness. I especially cannot bear junior attention seekers who think they know it all.

Mrs S - I've seen Chanel glasses that cost about £400 which look exactly like the NHS frames when we were small.

BTM - the DD's both have dark well defined brows naturally - mine are sort of patchy and seem to be in the wrong place and colouring them in seems to emphasise this. DS of course has beautiful naturally pencilled in brows - unbelievable.

Thank you so much for all your help and advice re my mad and irritating classmates. I had hoped to avoid all that, it being an area of NON-fiction, but the attitude of "please acknowlege me every week as your favourite little girl, Mr Clever Professor" is truly nauseating. It did really, really help to write it all down here when I was full of rage. I will keep you posted.

My younger two both have had to wear glasses and were patched as well being long sighted, (utter bloody hell). DS2 doesn't need his any more. DD had full time from a baby, but now at 14 just for school work. Having never needed them as a child myself or DS1, I was devastated when the younger two did. However now in the secondary schools that they go to, glasses are the ultimate fashion accessory…..so no one seems to want lenses!

Chuckling at the group dynamics stories. Try teaching the classes that I do…usually couples. It's very interesting. We have our ways of dealing with the various stereotypes but usually the group itself takes care of any really problematic elements.

I have committed the ultimate S&B sin and bought a pair of bootcut denims. They are unbelievably comfortable (a sin in itself in some peoples' eyes) and make my legs look endless. Finally I can see the attraction…I have also bought a maroon bag from M&S. Quite pleased. Will link later.

It's cheered me up a bit…I've had an absolutely shite week.

Rose - I wear my bootcut jeans proudly - I liken them .

Rudy - I like good eyebrows - and would love that Downtown really groomed look - I think it's just my eyebrows are a bit weird and not in the same place as everybody else's so when we colour them - they look even more alarming.

I report back to you all from MI who is having a lovely lunch off a banana leaf.

I wear bootcut too. I love em. Have never noticed my eyebrows or anyone else's (I am well hidden in S and B, no?) apart from my df, who had enormous ones and my ds who may follow suit in time I think.

Go, MI.

I could do with a lovely lunch.......

Lucky MI - could do with lovely indian meal with or without banana leaf - a bit of heat today wouldn't go amiss either.

Am feeling very put out as our normal gym is shut for building work so our fitness sessions have been scattered about the town. Today I got it wrong and turned up to an empty room! Am feeling irrationally annoyed about this.

No sign or the Paris tiger by the way folks - although I am on the wrong side of the town for it.

Lucky MI....

bootcut

The bag doesn't seem to appear on the website

Yes, I think I need some sculpt and lift too, but I am desperately trying to stop myself from buying especially jeans.

I got completely drenched on the way to work and we were supposed to be doing day 2 of Bikeability today

bag

Can't think why I could find it on ebay and not on the M&S website…. (and considerably cheaper

Just had breakfast out with a friend happy to report jeans not yet digging in.

about MI's banana leaf.

I like the bag, Rose. I too am envious of MI's banana leaf plate.

It's awful here, almost torrential rain and DH hasn't gone out cycling so hes mooching around. The gutters are full of leaves so we have our very own waterfall in the back over the kitchen window. DH gets very cross as the leaves are not OUR leaves, they're off the neighbours' trees.

We were going to go to Dunelm Mill and get a throw for the new bed, plus a bin for the kitchen, but I have decided it's pointless going out when I don't need to, so will probably do some clerical work for my charity.

Love the clothes, Rose. I think you should wear whatever suits you be it boot cut or skinny. I think boyfriend is supposed to be in fashion but I can't think of anyone who would look good on them!

Am at hairdresser. I hope she can work a miracle. I have 2 in long grey roots and my hair has no shape. It will go short. Fingers crossed it will look ok rather than butch. Earrings and lipstick will be a must.