Crepeyistmas Time, Camel Toe and Whine...

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Pandering to the uncouth...

Nerve-wracking start to the day for me, going to school with DD to record a duet for her music GCSE. I wasn't her first choice but her classmates were too flaky/preoccupied with boyfriends/otherwise unavailable to be relied on.

By doing that, I missed her appearance on Breakfast TV, looking beautiful and singing her heart out at the Albert Hall last week.

Car repaired at a cost of £745 and will now definitely have to keep going for another 180,000 miles.

Very sorry for your friends, BD. And hoping the news about your Mum is not too bad tomorrow, MI.

Haven't sent any cards yet. Am I last?

Not last at all, Auriga. Haven't sent any. They may have to go 1st class.

Hope tomorrow is a much better day, MI. It's a horrible time for you.

Have not even got the cards out of the packet yet, Auriga. Wow, you paired up with dd for her music GCSE duet? Now that's impressive parenting!
(Boo to expensive car repair)

BD, what a horrid time for your friends. Fingers crossed for their ds. My cousin was diagnosed with lymphoma a few months after dh got his diagnosis. Nasty chemo, but so far, so good. He has his hair back and things seem to be going well. (and they found tumours in quite a lot of places)

I am mucho happy-happy because I got a VERY positive review today from my tutors - "Very Good" all round and a "lovely rapport with my learner". They (our group has 2 tutors) were all smiley and beaming and made me feel very good. I will try and remember this when I am sweating through redrafting my assignments over Christmas.

Sadly, I lied about being able to post my SS yesterday. The queue at the post office was out the door and I was short of time. Tomorrow morning, I promise.

Hope you get good news about your mum tomorrow, MI.

Congratulations, Stropps
I hope you'r egoing to relax and celebrate a bit

Wow, Stropps, that's a fantastic result. What a great way to end the term!

Congratulations, Stropps. That's wonderful.

Auriga, I haven't either. Christmas isn't for another few weeks is it?

I think we should embrace Chanuka instead. Doughnuts and latkes, what's not to like?

Congratulations Stropps - that's a great end to the term

And you too Herbs

I was stuffed last night - after another full-on day at work I had to do an hour of taxiing and listening to DD's blow-by-blow account of her run-in with a teacher yesterday.
I am fearing today may be worse - she was saying she wouldn't go in as she just cannot learn her French speaking and listening off-by-heart (need another strategy - any ideas?), INSET this morning followed by work "do" at work afterwards then DD's Parents Evening tonight. Gulp

Well done to the trainee teachers. Herbs - enjoying the people watching notes - pompom hat indoors???

BTM for DD's French - I'm sorry I haven't any useful suggestions for learning it.

MI - hopeful wishes for DM and her scan results.

I am having a quiet 15 minutes having got two off to school and DH (who has taken the car) off to work.

DD1 came back from the Netherlands and is asleep at the moment. I have to say she was quite loud and egocentric. She basically expects the family to fit round her rather than slotting back in to family life. Also as BF in the Netherlands are all going skiing over Christmas we have been reproached for not organising the family holiday so she can come. We are limited for this a by school half term and the availability of snow FFS. Also, I pointed out we stay with parents in law when we ski and not a fancy chalet as she would like.

She is also not pleased as I told her she needed to work over the a summer and I could not finance fancy holidays.

I think Christmas may be a bit trying if things don't calm down a bit.

Oh, Hatty, that sounds a bit much. I hope she settles soon. I suppose after spending 9 weeks surrounded by young people, doing your own thing for 95% of the time and not being told what to do by a crepey, she needs to settle back into the routine of family member rather than student dude. There is still a week to go for her to calm down.

BTM, sorry to be no help about the French. Sounds like a busy day.

Stropps, you are wonderful and clearly have gone down a storm. Brilliant work.

Fingers crossed for today, MI

Well done to our Crepey students and doubly well done to Auriga for doing the duet with her DD.

MI, I hope you have a better day today and that the news from DM is encouraging.

BTM, commiserations on your coming day. No suggestions re the French, I am afraid. DD's DC are enjoying their French lessons at nursery and DGD2 (19 months) breaks out into "bon jours" at every opportunity, so I guess starting early is the answer.

Hatty, just you wait until the DC are all away at uni, they then come home and moan about the state of the fridge - "this is an old person's fridge, mum"! (I swore I would never buy another pizza when they left).

Off to Derbyshire later - DS's moving day now seems to be in the New Year so at least I don't have to worry about a house invasion while we're away.

I have posted all my cards, written all my letters > but still haven't bought presents for DD, DS, DDiL and DSoniL. >

Auriga that's amazing and brilliant…but what must it be like to be back at school thrust once again in to the exam arena. It's my recurring nightmare!!

Stropps it's going great! Celebrate…you must!

MrsS we had latkas last night and it'll be doughnuts tonight and other nights too. Rubbish for my low carbing.

Gosh Tilly that's a lot on your plate. DS just walked around the house in a slightly demented fashion chanting his French and Spanish. We just got used to his strange incantations. Then he used and abused all the printer paper in the house writing it out repeatedly. He was like a robot eventually.

Hatty par for the course, really when they come back. It's "me me me" for a few more years let if DS1 was anything to go by. Stay strong, especially about the summer hols and needing to work for their holidays.

Well we survived The Spanish Inquisition last night and the rest of parents evening. It's all ok…although I think the staff have really lost touch with reality about how many hours in the day…
DS2 is not well and thought he wasn't going in to school today but has gone any way. He's got a show tonight and the inlaws and DSisIL with nieces are coming to watch tonight. There is something wrong with me…I truly wanted DS to have the day off school so that he's well for the show tonight

Aaaaargh!!!

Aww thanks Rose - you cheered me up. She wasn't this bad until she went to uni - too used to doing what she wants on her terms I think (and forgetting who is financing!).

DS was exhausted and felt unwell last night but thankfully OK this morning - I think he's on a growth spurt actually.

Hatty - are you already looking forward to the start of term?

MI - hope today is better and that there is some positive news from your DM's scan.

Yay Stropps! Great start to the festive period. I have also not managed to post my SS yet, though it is packed and good to go.

BTM - I despair at the teaching of foreign languages today, with all the rote learning. I had an assistant in Paris, who despite having a degree in French from an RG uni, was quite incapable of holding a conversation in the language, writing an email or calling the maintenance people to tell them that the a/c wasn't working. She had spent a year in France as part of her degree, but had apparently just "hung out with the English speakers." Mea culpa, I should have tested her.

Rose glad to hear Parents Eve went well and I agree about them not realising how many hours there are in a day.

Hatty, I'm sure I must have been horrible coming home from uni - hope your DD settles back into the swing of it.

MrsS, totally agree about MFL. I was able to speak French pretty fluently when I did my oral and just answered the questions there and then (did we even know what they were about?), so I cannot begin to grasp how you could learn it off by heart

I suspect my mum won't know today: apparently there's a meeting tomorrow to discuss it and then - oh lord - presumably a meeting with her to discuss treatment options. So at the moment we have no idea if the sodding tumour has shrunk, responded a bit, not responded, etc etc...she sounds exhausted and drained but otoh this is the first week of chemo so she is going to be feeling utterly awful.

Stropps and Herbs, I am in awe.

I am not sending Christmas cards again this year. It feels v liberating to decide you're not going to. I may send a Festive Email if I can persuade my lovely daughters to look fetching for a photo.

Hatty, I know what you mean. On dd's first night back she seemed...bigger. I am sure it is normal and will pass - we all have to readjust don't we?

BTM, I seem to remember dd learned the first para by heart, a few trickier constructions and the last bit and the rest then came to her - dunno if breaking it up like that would help? (actually speaking her MFL off thecuff didn't seem to be on the cards. ds is doing a different syllabus and will apparently have to - they just talk, no topic beforehand, that will be interesting!). I hope it goes well.

ds isn't well so he'll miss his last day of term. He's been asleep 13 hours and counting......

MI, I hope you don't have to wait too long.

MI - that is an agonising wait.

Lalsy - 13 hours - it's good though when they can just sleep it off. I went in to help out at school yesterday and everybody including the teacher was coughing and spluttering. I almost felt I should have had a mask.

DD1 still asleep - it is 10.30 am. I suspect exhaustion may have kicked in. Not sure what a sort of mood to expect today.

I am already worried about how to maintain the momentum for the rest of my course. But generally I am feeling pretty damn good about what I have achieved over the last 3 months.

BTM, hope your mammoth day goes ok and dd makes it in to school. The utterly idiotic way most schools insist on teaching MFL makes my blood boil. It caused me to rant, froth and rage when I was working as a teacher myself and was a source of constant conflict with the other people that I worked with (at least in the last school I worked in). "Don't teach them grammar; it's too abstract for them" and "It's no good caring about your subject. You have to accept that a lot of the time, we're just baby-sitting" are two of the gems I remember from senior members of the department.
I'm sorry, I don't have any words of wisdom about the CA. I can only say that dd was lucky enough to be taught French by a fierce Frenchwoman who employed traditional and rigorous methods, insisted on perfect grammar and was a strong disciplinarian. By contrast, dd was taught German by someone with a very different approach and the difference in Dd's skills in French and German is extremely marked. I ensured that some of the grammar deficit in German was corrected, but the methodology used at school destroyed dd's enjoyment of the language. And dd is still holding her own in the top set in French A level, despite it being her "4th" subject.

Hatty, sympathies re: the bolshy student.

Lalsy, I live in hope that the rote learning for CAs is being got rid of completely.
Dd has her second lot of mock exams this afternoon. This morning's revision consists of snoring, mainly. I have been in 3 times to wake her up FGS. I hate "study leave"...

I absolutely adore DD1's current language teachers, I must say. They are true Crepeys.

Am going to sneak out and pick up DD1's Converse from the post office ('we called and you were out' - no I was in the sodding SHOWER for TEN MINUTES, you @rse) and DD2's Rubik's Cube from Argos, on basis if I'd ordered it to be delivered I would have been at the post office when it arrived (this has happened, more than once).

I do understand why they can't talk about the scan as they're doing it, but surely they can see what's going on? Yes, that would be inappropriate, etc etc, but a bit of a headsup would also be welcome.

Mmmm, new line of thought about which of dc teachers are true crepeys, thank you .

You should be very proud Stropps. And yes about CAs [ideally after they have switched from a system involving ds learning lists of different types of ports and gymnastics. Ready for a his rhythmic dance gymnastics tour of the container ports of Europe presumably].

Hi all - happy end of term Herbs and Stropps and hope all returning students calm down :) (I do recall being most upset that my mum had rearranged the kitchen cupboards - how dare she!)

Here I intend to put up a 'don't talk to me unless it is good news' notice as I can't take anymore (yesterday student undergoing radiotherapy) today one of my team's father has had a heart attack......

I've done half my cards...... I might get to the other half but I am not promising. I have also told dp if he wants 'the works' on Christmas day foodwise he can arrange it......

MI - sorry to hear it's all delayed re Dmum - it's pants.....