Gunpowder, Treason and Crepes

[CointreauVersial]

Here we are again.....

Morning all - we had friends round for a raclette last night. We actually haven't entertained in ages and firstly I couldn't find the posh table cloth - we had to use a plastic one and secondly, forgot to buy paper napkins! It really isn't posh round our way. I also need to top up our crockery so we have at least 8 small matching dessert bowls.

I hope our friends enjoyed their evening - I did and it'll give me the confidence to do it again - once I locate the tablecloth!

Crem - you have absolutely done the right thing with DF - even if he is grumpy about it!

Stropps and Herbs - I really admire you doing your student work. I'd love to teach the younger ones but I don't think I could face what you two are going through.

My DF sounded depressed on the phone, mainly because DM's memory is going and he has to sit and watch - awful. I wish I could be there to support him more.

Mrs S - who wouldn't want a sparkly Eiffel Tower and what are fairy hammocks?

Raclette .... mmmm. Yum. None of our crockery matches at all, Hatty. I just buy bits I like from charity shops. I like it all not matching, because if one thing gets chipped, it doesn't matter. I just replace it with something else completely different. I have a entire green Wedgewood tea service (used to belong to my granny) which takes up virtually a whole cupboard in my tiny kitchen and never, ever gets used. In fact, thinking about it, I should box it up and find a corner of the loft cupboard for it and make better use of the cupboard.
Crem, lots of sympathy from here re: nasty germs and huffy dps. Does your dm not drive? Your df definitely shouldn't be driving. My df gave up at 85, but dm then took on all the driving. That was 21 years ago, and dm is now 84, still living out in the sticks by herself, and getting antsy about driving any distance. She has cataracts and is still safe to drive, but not at night. I foresee some kind of crunch point with regard to her living arrangements in the very near future. She is currently keeping her head stuck in the sand. I can still remember the huge upset when she and her younger brother ganged up to take my granny's car keys away when she was 85 and no longer safe to drive - and then they sold her car.

I'm not complaining about my course workload or content: it's pretty much as I expected and it is, in all honesty, far more interesting and rewarding (so far) than when I did my secondary PGCE 20 years ago. I'd like to hope PGCE courses have come on a bit since then in terms of coherence, but maybe Herbs' experience can prove me wrong on that one. My problems with my current set-up are all about our lack of money, sadly. I can't afford to turn down the small amount of work that comes in for me, but my deadlines on both work and study fronts are non-negotiable, which doesn't leave a lot of room when things get tricky with the family. Dh's workflow is also somewhat pathetic. We are in a precarious situation and I need to make my expensive course pay for itself ASAP, which means networking in the right circles in the local area. Which means finding time for that, too. I can't help being a bit and also of the others on the course who work one day a week and are supported by an oh with a hefty Home Counties salary. The car park is full of massive shiny Volvo 4x4s - and then there is my rusty 12-year-old Citroen. I am, I admit, well jell of those who don't wake up in a sweat at 3am worrying about being in fuel poverty. But then, I'm doing the course to try change my work situation. So I try to remain focused on doing what I need to do and getting the most out of it and close my ears to people who whinge about not being able to fit their skiing holidays in this year. I just want to learn as much as possible, pass the damn course and get on.

Oh and I'm also juggling working as an invigilator and volunteering one morning a week in Reception to find out about teaching phonics/reading etc. I think it's fair enough that I might be a teensy bit intolerant of some of my course mates who either only work one day a week or, in several cases, not at all, when they moan about the course workload.
Ahhh, and I think it might be worth me explicitly pointing out that my course - which is only one day a week but with a silly amount of study that comes on top of it and takes me at least 2 days every week - is a very different beastie from Herbs' full-time PGCE, which also has a ludicrous amount (and then some, I expect) of extra study involved.

stropps I just want to send you a big hug and also huge respect for what you are doing and managing at the moment. I am probably one of those people who don't need to work for financial reasons...but in my shady past I have been alone with a young child, and poor, and had to take a cleaning job on top of the day job to keep the wolf from the door. I had a research proposal accepted for a doctorate and had to deregister, even after I had sorted funding, because my boss wouldn't give me paid time off to study, and I did the maths and couldn't make it work. Hang on in there. Xx

Strength to cremo re DF and driving...we have been there too and no doubt will again.

The various dinner party gastro delights sound delicious!

I am not going to see Turner because every friend who's been says it's a boring and awful grunt ridden debacle of a film. We saw The Imitation Game yesterday whilst the kids were all afternoon and evening in tech runs and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. How can Benedict Cumberbatch play such a tragic character and still manage to be impossibly sexy? He's a genius of an actor. When I was growing up we had a neighbour who had worked at Bletchley Park!

We had meltdowns yesterday morning from DS2 re the theatre and out of,the blue deciding he hates his character group and costume. Said he looked like a drag queen because of the black eyeliner he has to wear. I told him he looks like Jonny Depp ( he does) but don't know if that helped or not. In the end I lost it and told him to suck it up because " that's theatre, darling..." Now we have a day of homework. Oh joy

I thought Mr T was good and Mr Spall was amazing, but it is quite an old fashioned film in a lot of ways. Beautifully shot.
I want to see the Imitation Game but know dp will refuse because it stars the divine Mr C.
Off to try to do some Christmas shopping.....

Stropps you are amazing and if there is anything I can do....

Stropps - hats off to you and hang in there.

Rose - re' Mr C - he's brill but not sure being impossibly sexy is part of his acting .

I've also had DC's who desperately wanted to act and then sulked about their roles. I always remember DD2 who said she wanted to be in Oliver Twist but only if she could play Nancy and sing oompapa.

Stropps, you are doing brilliantly well juggling your course, the home, financial input into the family. I know I keep on saying " hang on in there", but it is true. and

We don't generally go to the cinema as I am happy to wait until films arrive on Sky, but DH and I were saying that we ought to get out more in the evenings and do things which do not involve food.

I have had a bad morning: I decided to bake and made MrsS's marzipan cake. Then I remembered that we had cooking apples in the garage and decided to make Apple Oslo cake. All was well until I thought I ought to cool down the apples before I put them in the cake. I left the cake mix in the kitchen and went into the utility room to put the apple bowl in a sink of cold water. The water was running into the sink, I turned and saw the cat on the counter licking the cake tin, ran back and moved the cat only to then see the apple floating in the sink! I think that I have salvaged the cake but we will see.

Dentist tomorrow to start on my "appliance", am feeling very old and haggish.

Ach, I'm not much amazing at all, but thanks BD and Rose. :) I've had a rackety life, rather heavily influenced by MH isshoos - both my own and other people's, which means that my so-called career has never really got off the ground, which in turn means we live hand-to-mouth. But, I have to say that I have been immensely lucky compared to many, many people - I have my own house, for instance. I am simply currently rather envious of the people working in the local supermarkets and may yet have to try to get work in retail part-time just to see us through, but I suspect no one will want to give me that sort of job (although I have done it before in the dim and distant past).
It's a bit hard dealing with dh's denial that we need to stop pretending that it's effectively all over for the line of work we've both been in for the last 15 years. Also, on a completely different subject, his most recent blood test results weren't as good as his previous ones (PSA gone up rather than down for the first time), so the stress will build horribly for the next 6 months until the next test. As a cost-saving measure, he no longer gets to see the oncologist when he gets his results. From now on, he just speaks to a radiographer on the phone and she gives him the results but will "refer it to the doctor if there are any concerns". I am simply painfully aware that I need to be in a main bread-winner situation in the near future or we won't have our own house anymore. It's as simple as that.
This is also, in all honesty, why I won't be coming to any crepey meetups in the near future, as what with Christmas and the tax man and course fees and materials and er, food etc we're going to be in a bit of a mess soon if I can't get a handle on things. This is not a new situation, I've known it for years, but as long-term crepeys know, it's taken me until recently to be able to pick myself up and face it, thanks to various things, including the crepeys helping me to see the bigger picture and not just the inside of my loft. You have all been an immense help to me for these last three years and you have no idea how far I've come in that time. Reading your stories and meeting so many of you fabulous people in person has been a life-changing thing for me. What an amazingly diverse bunch of women we are and what a wealth of experience we all have. I was scared witless the first couple of times I came to meetups because I felt I was going to be the nitwit impoverished under-achiever among loads of glamorous high achievers (not to mention the fact I'd barely met any new people outside my little town for more than a decade). Well, you are all glamorous high-achievers, but you've never made me feel anything other than welcome. And you've spurred me on to Do Things. Thank you, crepeys.

Now off to do more course work so I can free up time for paid work tomorrow.

x-post NU and Hatty :)

I am that anyone would find Benedict C sexy/. He is quite the opposite of sexy IMHO
I have been to Bletchley Park and played on the phones so am quite interested to see The Imitation Game. But also Mr Turner!

Stropps, you are doing really amazingly juggling all that - it makes me tired just thinking about it! Well Done Woman!

I have just put my Christmas cake in the oven, having been Christmas shopping yesterday

Right, Meet-Up Crepeys, where are we going to go? I am happy to book, but fear we may struggle to get in. Shall I try Addles suggestion of Ev's (sister to Tas) in Waterloo? Or throw in your ideas!

Stropps, x-post with yours.

Aww, Strops. Sorry it is so tough financially at the moment, but you are right to keep your "eyes on the prize", and get though each day as it comes. You are doing the right thing, and it's totally understandable why you don't feel able to come up to London.

I didn't see that 1970s TV programme, but it does sound interesting, so I might search for it on catch-up. I'm not surprised that today's teens are about the attitudes we accepted as "normal" back then.

DH and I ended up watching Forrest Gump yesterday, a film I have somehow never seen before. Perfect bland escapism for a dull Saturday. Mr Turner doesn't appeal at all, I have to say.

BTM - restaurant suggestion sounds fine, and agree we should book sooner rather than later.

I just looked in my diary and have realised I am out on the 4th, 5th and 6th of December. I may not have the stamina.....

It was pretty shocking CV - shocking that it was all accepted as normal.

I have tried Ev's online but the whole Tas website is down - will try again. Meanwhile, I emailed the place we went to last time. Any other ideas?

I am out the 5th and 6th!

Stropps, I am so sorry to hear about your woes and how hard you are having to work. for you. Sorry, too, to hear about your dealings with MH problems. I too have had that sort of trouble, both personally and in my immediate family, and I know how hard it is when you are in a low patch and how hard it can be to get yourself back up and running. I am in awe of your energy and commitment. Hope things ease for you soon .

Good luck for your dental bits, NU. Hope they are sorted swiftly, painlessly and (relatively) cheaply.

Hatty, your raclette thing sounds delicious.

Rose, your DS sounds funny. They are tricky, aren't they, when they get a bee in their bonnets about something. I know you write, but did / do you act as well? You are clearly a woman of many talents, with all the different things you do and have done. I am very impressed by having a proposal for a doctorate accepted. What a shame that you couldn't get the study time sorted. Is it something you think you might still like to pursue?

Cinema - I am afraid we don't go at all. It seems a bit of a waste to spend £££ on a babysitter to sit in silence and when I go out without DH I tend to eat and drink, or go to a concert etc rather than the flicks. We are terrible heathens. I love BC, although I can see why he looks a bit strange to many people. The niece of my room mate at work went out with him for 12 years and so she has met him many times and said he was delightful. Unfortunately this is not the person he is now marrying so no more inside gossip alas.

A quiet Sunday here. DH and I had an almighty row last week about him not having any time to himself blah blah so I have despatched him to town to do his own thing. The DC and I went to Caffe nero for breakfast, then had a mooch in Claire's (both DDs), the newsagent (small boy wanting match attack cards) and the charity shop (me). Now we are back and they are playing happily. Hurray. Hope DH returns in a better mood.

PS have washed hair and now less purple, but a bit brown. Still very short. I don't feel I have the face / bone structure for this type of thing. Less Judi Dench, more potato in a wig. Still, it'll grow

MC a at 'potato in a wig'

Here I have bought ds some stocking fillers and the Yo sushi cook book (pretentious moi?). - he keeps saying he wants to make sushi so I am taking him at his word.
Rose I too am impressed by the doctorate proposal! (I did mine p-t over a zillion years)

Stropps let's not talk about underachievement / you know it brings out the competitor in me

Had a reply - no space in the Mulberry Bush!

BD, sushi is perfect for a DS - if mine can make it, then yours can!

Tas/Ev website is now back on so I have emailed them and WB+K

I am not hiding from DD doing her Personal Statement for her sixth form applications, oh no

Yikes, just watched the 1970s programme. DS was most shocked at the smoking elephant. I had forgotten all about beauty contests on TV, but must confess I quite enjoyed watching them - heaven knows what appealed.

George "Doctor in the House" Layton's wife was a college friend of DM's so we used to stay at their huge house in Richmond in the early 70s whenever we came down to London. I remember sleeping on a pull-out bed in George's study listening to the tube trains outside, and his DC's nanny taking me shopping in Harrods. I think the marriage broke up soon after, so the friendship fizzled out.

Wow, CV!

Waterloo B+K have emailed that they have a table from 6, but that we would have to leave by 9 - not so good.

We can almost certainly get a table in the Turkish place by the IWM for as long as we want, if you want to go there? There is an Italian on Lower Marsh that isn't bad, but is a bit pricey.