Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Style and beauty

Looking for style advice? Chat all about it here. For the latest discounts on fashion and beauty, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Crepeys say Bah Humbug, (it's not Christmas yet)

999 replies

beachyhead · 16/11/2014 21:38

Here we go Wine

OP posts:
Rosebag · 21/11/2014 15:57

Oh Monty Envy have a lovely time and don't worry about the minor celebrity misery guts. I can't bear people who can't accept an apology gracefully!

I've no idea what the right age is for ear piercing…I wasn't allowed in the 60's…my mother said it was common. Guess what the first thing was that I spent some of my university grant on…DD got hers done for her 10th birthday. The DSs were never interested altho' I made no secret of the fact that I don't mind blokes with earrings, but I would have something to say about tattoos…. runs for cover for fear of offending crepeys with tattoos

Stretchy, barely there skirts seem de rigour for girls in DSs 6th form even though its against the (religious) dress code. Sadly, not all of them have the ideal body shape for it. On the other hand there is a very cool looking bunch who wear maxi skirts (often the pleated, floaty sort) with little tops who look amazing. They are all plastered in makeup regardless of their skirt length, naturally. God I sound Victorian.

Stropps it'll pass. I was reading your post and wondering what we did to waste time and shut out -annoying- -parents- the world, not having phones and screens. I think I was just lying on my bed listening endlessly to David Cassidy on my Dansette and fantasising about whether I would be the one girl in the universe to get Mr Spock to smile. Grin

CointreauVersial · 21/11/2014 16:18

Mr Spock??! Confused Shock Can't say he featured in my teenage fantasies.

Flying Scotsman to Edinburgh, indeed! Without children, oh, how lovely. Envy

Beachy - congratulations to your DD for passing her driving test! Does that mean she takes over school run duties, collection from clubs, miscellaneous errands to the supermarket, and so on? There has to be some payback for that pricey insurance, no?

herbaceous · 21/11/2014 16:35

Thanks for thinking of me today, crepes. I do love you all. The lesson was a minor disaster. As my mentor spotted, I hadn't really got straight in my head exactly what the effing present perfect actually is, so found it hard to teach it, despite my carefully crafted exercises.

Over lunch afterwards, while trying not to cry, I said that I thought I'd been thrown a bit too much in the deep end, and that she wasn't always totally clear about what she wanted me to do. It turns out she thought I'd had much more teaching experience than I have, and so from now on is going to be much more explicit. The next few weeks will be much better: the next two weeks I'm just teaching for an hour, and the week after that we're all going on a class trip to the Museum of Childhood. I feel much better. Though utterly exhausted. Tonight is my designated night off, and will include mucho vino.

Tomorrow I have to go my sis's house, with brother in attendance, to try and sort him out. Remember him? Aspergers (but won't accept it), made bankrupt in a Law Society action, working for an unscrupulous bastard paying him £450 a month, living on bread and water... I'm going to try the 'ooh, how marvellous to be retraining in one's middle years' approach, to maybe get him to consider a librarian or archivist course, or something...

As for shopping with DHs, no bloody thank you. I like to shop alone, without any friends or anything. I'm either holding them up, or they hold me up, or they buy something I like but looks terrible on me, or similar. Fraught with difficulties.

bigTillyMint · 21/11/2014 16:43

OMG Stropps, your DD is my DD to the last detailGrin Sadly at least yours is a year nearer leaving home!

Rose, my DM was the same about piercings being common. I am not keen on the old-fashioned" type of tats (that DFIL and DBIL are covered in but DH abhors), but don't mind the small well-hidden ones that are so popular now. But not on my DC yet or ever!

CV, Mr Spock definitely didn't feature in mine eitherGrin

DH and DS are off out to a footy match tonight and DD to another party, so I am having a friend or two round for a Wine. Just praying DD has the pick up/bus sorted.

hattymattie · 21/11/2014 16:53

StroppsGrin - I was more of a Captain Kirk girl myself - although the new Spock is quite hotWink

Monty - have brilliant time in Edinburgh and wave a Durham and York for me as you cruise past my corner.Smile. Loving the account of the train journey.

hattymattie · 21/11/2014 16:57

Herbs x post - well done on surviving the day and clarifying objectives with your mentor. I'm not entirely clear on past perfect either - is it "I had done"? like in French? I think we are a whole generation that didn't get proper grammar which made learning a foreign language very difficult.

bigTillyMint · 21/11/2014 17:02

LOL, I didn't even watch Star Trek!

herbaceous · 21/11/2014 17:06

Present perfect is anything from "I have ridden an elephant" to "I have had enough of this", "Have you paid the gas bill?" and lots of other things. Nine different functions, appaz.

And yes - I was never taught grammar, either, and despite having edited other people's for years (just by KNOWING what's right) am finding it difficult to teach it back. So I'm having to learn all my formal grammar, as well as how to teach, all the pedagogic theory, etc etc...

bigTillyMint · 21/11/2014 17:08

Herbs, I am the same - was never taught it but just know what's right. I remember the pluperfect in French, but have never known anything about the present perfect in EnglishConfused

How did the lesson go?

herbaceous · 21/11/2014 17:14

It wasn't great. I hadn't really set in my head 'how' I was going to teach it, and how I'd answer their questions about it. Some of the class could already use it, while some just stared in blank incomprehension. Mentor had to step in on more than one occasion.

MontserratCaballe · 21/11/2014 17:17

Am at Newcastle now, NU, and thinking of you.

The woman opposite me is coming home from uni to see her mum and is on the phone to her. She is so excited to see her and I feel a bit teary. I hope my children are as excited to be seeing me in a few years. Thinking of the crepeys with children who are away from home.

herbaceous · 21/11/2014 17:19

The present perfect is used for things in the past that are still true now. 'I have ridden a unicycle', 'I have lived in London for 25 years', 'I have left you and run off with the postman.'

RudyMentary · 21/11/2014 17:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hattymattie · 21/11/2014 17:31

BTM/Herbs that's it - the pluperfect - "I had" - obv I've no clue on the present perfect and should step away! Well done Herbs.

Molly - so sweet - now dead straight to Edinburgh isnt it? For gods sake don't overshoot.

CointreauVersial · 21/11/2014 17:39

I've only been to Edinburgh (or indeed, Scotland) once, coincidentally to visit MI's and my mutual friend. In 1989, I think. It was freezing (she lived in one of those mansion blocks with no heating), the rain was horizontal and the people were rude. I hear it is much nicer now. Wink Wink

Auriga · 21/11/2014 17:39

I love the present perfect & hate being asked 'did you forget your password?' instead of 'have you forgotten your password?'

In my mind it's bracketed with DD saying 'Hey' instead of 'Hello', as an unnecessary Americanism.

Sorry to hear of teenage woes. I'm trying to take a step back & be less directive with DD, allow her to make more mistakes etc. Not sure how long I can hold my nerve :)

bigTillyMint · 21/11/2014 17:45

OK Herbs, I can understand that explanation!

I also have only been to Edinburgh once - about 25 years ago with my ex. I seem to remember it rained just about the whole time!

Auriga, it sounds like you ought to be mentoring HerbsWink!

hattymattie · 21/11/2014 17:46

Auriga -Grin. I am much too interfering - I think I will be a dreadful MIL/grandmother.

My DS says Hey - it drives me wild but he is in a school with Americans so I have to be tolerant.

DH has phoned to say he will be back within the hour - can I hold out that long for some?

hattymattie · 21/11/2014 17:48

In positive publicity for Edinburgh we took the children two years ago I July and it was boiling.Grin

bigTillyMint · 21/11/2014 17:52

Chance to be directive with DD would be a fine thing - she won't listen to a word I say!

Rosebag · 21/11/2014 18:08

We went to a castle just outside Edinburgh for honeymoon part one. I loved it. And then several years later with the Dcs when the theatre had a gig at the festival fringe.

I did various units in linguistics as part of my degree and concluded that I couldn't understand how anyone learn English....French grammar on the other hand seemed ok.... With the exception of the rules of the PDO. Never mastered them.

tilly at least we will never have a cat fight over a man!! I have to confess to having a weak spot for the geeky ones...not that I'd like to live with one. What am I talking about ....I do live with one!

All credit to you herbs for tenaciousness with your studies and the tutor. You deserve your night off.

I am once again on my weekly sad stint in Morrisons cafe while DS has a piano lesson, and my Friday night dinner takes care of itself ( not). dS1 is coming for dinner and DH is on his way back from Chesterfield. I haven't heard hide or hair of him yet. We are going into another weekend of dress runs and this time I'm working there saturday night. Tired.

hattymattie · 21/11/2014 18:10

... my comment below should say can I hold out that long for some wineBlush.

bigTillyMint · 21/11/2014 18:41

HattyGrin

Rose, what are the rules of the PDO?!

And I always went for the bad boys. Till I realised boring and sensible was the way forward met DH!

I am excited now - Tesco have arrived with sushi platters, olives, and dips! Might have to have a pre-drinks G&T!

lalsy · 21/11/2014 18:57

Rudy, sympathies on teenage woes. If the school has timed Uniform Fuss terribly, I have sent brisk notes saying dd will have shoes that don't have flapping soles as soon as we can buy them, which will be after the concert/mocks/bad cold. On the bigger stuff, I agree with BTM, I would go and talk to them.

When my dd and friends rolled their skirts up, I don't think they were trying to look like adults. I think they were having fun, pushing boundaries in a safe environment, being fashionable, developing their feminist consciousness (Slutwalks etc) and debating skills, trying to wind up their parents and teachers, any or all of the above Smile. I'd see my dd and her friends in tiny skirts playing games, charging round the place, being idiotic - they weren't thinking of themselves as women.

BTM, I was on the bus earlier with a load of kids from your dc' school and was struck by how smart and clean they looked in their uniforms.

Stropperella · 21/11/2014 19:11

Lalsy, I think you are very right about boys re: sport and turning up and being cheerful. And indeed it is a key life skill, in which ds is already highly proficient. After perusing the website of the local rugby club and clocking their annual subscription fees, I have decided that the after-school rugby club is sufficient for ds's needs until further notice. We are already forking out for cubs, taekwando, swimming, piano and drama, after all.

Hatty - I did wonder Grin Grin