Crepeyistmas Time, Camel Toe and Whine...

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Pandering to the uncouth...

Heard from mum. Tumour has responded and they'll go ahead with surgery

No further details at the moment but PHEW what a relief.

Starting to cough repulsively and wondering if Ladyjog should be postponed indefinitely (pants, have backache and wanted to sort out. OTOH backache is definitely lurgy-related....)

That is GOOD MI xxx

Great news MI

Excellent news, MI!

BTM, I am @ "chimbley".

Lost: one Christmas Mojo. If found please return to me @ Stropp Mansions.

MI, that is fantastic news. I remember that stage so well with my dad. Such a relief that surgery can go ahead. Hopefully that means you can relax a bit more over Christmas.

Stropps, have you looked under the Christmas tree for said Mojo? Where did you have it last?

MI, .

BD, that sounds very tough.

Stropps, you had a Christmas Mojo? Where do you get them from?!

Mi great news....

Stropps down the back of the sofa?

I am taking it one day at a time or I might actually just cry....

Oh BD Sending positive calming vibes your way

MI such good news for your Mum and such a relief for you. Coupled with your friend's babies and the teaching feedback you can open a good bottle this evening and look forward to Christmas.

I have done gym and come back to the still sleeping teenagers.

I have just driven DD and her friend into town and weather is so awful I have stopped at posh (but lovely) more expensive shop for essentials rather than deviate to the cheaper supermarket.

DD's friend is Jewish and has traumatised DS by explaining to DS that they do not have a Christmas tree; I fear this is beyond his comprehension.

Ladies: Orange Parfait recipe for those who still wish:

• 3 egg whites plus a pinch of salt
• 8oz sugar
• 1/4 pint of water
• juice and fine zest of 2 lemons and 1 orange
• 1/4 pint of double cream

Whisk egg white until stiff like meringues.

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat.
Add the zest
Boil 3 minutes
Pour gently into whisked egg white , whisking all the time until stiff.
(this bit can take a while)
Whisk in the fruit juice.
Whisk the cream until thick and fold into the meringue mixture.

Pour into old ice cream containers and freeze overnight.

Great with mince pies and Christmas pudding.

Oh BD, darling. This is not good

Stropps, yield to loss of mojo. 'tis the season.

My mojo has vanished in face of rest of family all being too ill/wounded to stir themselves......

BD, you need lots of TLC. I hope your nearest and dearest will provide some this w/e. That's damn tough to have to work right down to the wire on Christmas Eve. Do you have a block of time off after that?

Molly, I was somewhat surprised to see Stropdog had apparently made it into the Daily Fail montage. Small brown dog, blue collar, halfway up a Christmas Tree. He has clearly been moonlighting...

Stropps, I thought that was MollyDog. They are obv masters of disguise.

Lalsy, can I PM you a modest recipe? Is there a deadline?

Is it really, really wrong to distract self by googling the image of handsome obstetrician with the world's nicest voice? He is one of my favourite interviewees because he is so nice and helpful and also has a rather knee-trembling Irish accent. I see from his pics he's not bad-looking either....

(I am not entirely sure gorgeousness is what one wants in an obstetrician, mind. Not if one is at the ahem receiving end.)

Bit of a showdown. at the hairdressers because DS (12) found a picture of Romeo Beckham also 12 and asked for the same haircut - NO NO NO!

I am going to have to concentrate on the food aspect of Christmas this weekend and write lots of lists before I forget something essential. I have however got the pudding.

BD hope you're feeling a little cheerier .

Please do, Molly. No deadline - I think I will pull them together and pop online somewhere dropboxxy so they can be added to easily anyway, if people think that's a good idea.

MI, I always had obstetricians who looked about 12. I once said, "I know the evidence is not robust but if I were your moth.....ahem....sister, what you would advise me to do". To his eternal credit, he gave me a cheeky grin and answered the question straight.

Tonight's recipe in the Inferiority Complex is DD2's and my favourite of pasta puttanesca. We could both live on it. And it's just us. I will make masses as DD2 - who usually picks at her food as I've frequently lamented - can eat enough for a moderately-sized bodybuilder of the stuff.

I fell instantly in love with the anaesthetist who administered my six-hours-post-induction epidural with DS. He was called Edward Breeze. I would have named DS Edward if I hadn't already had a nephew so named.

End of term, for me and DS. Thank the buggering lord. This has been greeted with stomach ache and sinus madness in my head. Great. Still, all I have to do tonight is address Christmas cards and watch Masterchef.

What do you think the Post Office will be like tomorrow morning, crepes? Rammed, or empty as it's now past the parcel posting date? I have to return a new mobile phone (the deal turns out to be rubbish), but have to do it special delivery. Perhaps I should take a deck chair and flask.

Mmmmm. Pasta puttanesca. One of the problems of this wheat-free malarkey is that it rules out pasta as an easy dinner. However, I have discovered that spelt pasta a) is quite nice, and b) doesn't cause digestive torment, so puttanesca may live again. The normal gluten-free pasta is utterly repellent. Both rigid and soggy at the same time.

Nothing good can come of combining rigid and soggy, Herbs

I refrained from correcting the misspelling on the consent form for my emergency ventouse, or rather 'ventous'. The pen might be mightier than the sword, but when said sword - OK scalpel - is about to be plunged where the sun never shines, it is excusable to give in. (Still resent it, though. Rose, does this count as a Bad Birth Experience?)

Evening crepeys.

MI That is wonderful news. Really really tremendous that things can go ahead with your mum. I was so worried that the news would be sad.
But yay.

Bd ( links arms) I also am working up to the wire. Last panto is 5pm on Xmas Eve . I will be on my knees
The only thing buoying me up is dds homecoming on Sunday.

Please don't make me relieve birth experiences and scalpels....

I have told Dp in no uncertain terms that if he wants the full works for Christmas dinner he is cooking it......

Meanwhile I wonder what ds's 'secret Santa' recipient made of the soap and shower gel from l'occitane .... (More than the sodding £3 limit I can tell you...)

Such restraint, MI.