MMXV (2015, twenty fifteen) : Here Come The Crepeys!

[CointreauVersial]

More crepey wisdom.....

Mulberry Bush sounds great.

Now that I've been diagnosed as allergic to wheat, I have to be tedious and ask for some wheat-free provision, I'm afraid - but that would also suit Herbs, I think? So last time the sweet potato chips were divine, houmous is good, crudites are good. Anything with pastry is out, as is bread. But all that needs to happen is to order a slightly disproportionate amount of the wheat-free options because I will be grabbing the whole plateful and wolfing them down to the exclusion of nicer wheaty stuff.

Yay to Russell Square coffee. I am easy with dates.

Yes, of course! If you could have a look at the Grazers and tell me what's best, that'd be great

And Molly (and Lalsy and Monty!) are you around Sat pm for BP?

I am feeling somewhat fragile but it hasn't developed into the D and V that I was petrified of.

Gosh Beachy …all of them in bodycon dresses??? They don't suit all of us, though…. Who wants to wear a uniform any way? However I remember being at the Flower Show in the summer…looking fairly ordinary for dodging the rain and the mud, in sensible shoes etc etc and then having to go to the corporate tent of the firm who invited us and feeling horribly out of place. You guessed it…they were all in body con. I take the biscuit for the world's worst corporate wife. I doubt the thin, body conned masses had even been near a flower….

Hope Addle's first day in the new role is going well!

Hatty How is DD…what did the Doc say?

BD and others feeling low….quick, get some light. I am not a habitual sufferer but feeling low after the hols…well, yes. I still have DD at home until tomorrow. Still doing revision and finishing up homework. It's a terrible up hill struggle for her and me. Poor child only remembers a fraction of what she crams in. Roll on the end of next year…

Monty Is there a specific day we can work towards for coffee mini MU? We loved Paddington btw….and my lot are older. It was funny, clever and sweet with loads of famous people in it. Enjoy.

I should think all of those below would be good - I've put them in order of safeness and preference! I would happily just eat the Fennel, Apple and walnut slaw with Sweet potato wedges. But I would get through a fair amount....So as long as you get plenty of those, I will be happy! The wedges are truly yum. And the two dishes make a really balanced meal.

Fennel, Apple & walnut slaw (n) 3
Sweet potato wedges 4
Triple cooked chips 3
Bloody Mary mussels 6

Yes, I could definitely trot round BP on Saturday PM. Let's get that in the diary as well.

Thanks MI, most useful.

BTM, I'd love to, but will have to play by ear as dd getting train back to uni and ds will be in the thick of mocks.....

Damn, I missed a salad of that list of wheat-free food, and it sounds delicious, so here's another to add to the top of the list:

Rocket, chicory and carrot House salad (n) 3

Thanks all (partic those with a Black Dog of their own), and MI just don't get me started on the lack of achievement.

I guess at least these days I am much better at seeing it coming and aren't in the midst of the swirling fog being dragged of a leash god knows where (I am now having images of Beachy and DDog which has made me - sorry Beachy). I have two (II, 2) nights out this week - greedy - so that helps. It was mainly a dwelling on some pretty rubbish years in my early/mid 40s that brought me down.

Much strength to all those back at work - I have checked email - remarkably quiet but realised I have a meeting tomorrow which I have done no prep for - ahhhhhhhhh.

DD2 has been hastily finishing her art and physics homework and we have just rushed out to get her a Spanish dictionary. Oddly, we don't have one. We have all sorts of other delights, including a Polish-Romanian one (don't ask) but no Spanish one. I wonder where it went? One of the pitfalls of moving about so much is that stuff does, inevitably, go missing. We've lost at least one box of Christmas decs, some kitchen equipment and a few other odds and sods. I'll add Spanish dictionary to the list...

I do not want to go back to work tomorrow.

I have attended my two (2, ii) meetings at school. DD1's rather subversive form tutor - a charming dance teacher in vertiginous heels and bum-skimming skirts, with Strong Views on including the arts in the curriculum* - says cheerily DD1 is her poster girl and will be fine. DD2 has two new form tutors, one of whom was there and appeared to feel DD2 should Focus on Areas for Improvement which I felt was a little harsh since as far as I can see the child's doing rather well (her parents' evening was a raveathon). She warmed up, though. (She turns out to be DD1's music teacher, and therefore one of the people who have forced a modicum of musical competence out of my beloved but cloth-eared PFB.)

*DD1 says diplomatically her form teacher is good at dealing with you, mummy...

I want to go back here for a meetup. Anyone on for it?

Waiting for my smear....

Right I will book us in for a table downstairs and order plenty of lovely Grazers to share. Should I aim for about £15 per person?

Go on then MI

Me neither MrsS..... Any light at the end of the tunnel for you?

That sounds good MI. I have sometimes felt the Main Area for Improvement, for football-mad ds anyway, is Not Being a Child - hard to know how to support that endeavour .

Lalsy DS will be fine as an adult too!

BD - I am going to ask to leave early, this summer. BB leaves this month, so am going to try very hard not to see her before she goes. Feel very sorry for her next team.

Why do cats lick plastic bags?

BTM - all those grazers look finger-licking good. No mac cheese for me, but I could eat industrial quantities of everything else.

MrsS will they allow that? And where would 'next' be?

I'm scouring the job ads. My job would be great if it wasn't fir the interference.

BTM - well done taking the lead (again!) in sorting out our meet up and dragging us kicking and screaming towards "decisions". I also vote wholeheartedly for the Mulberry Tree, as I am less likely to get lost on my way back to Waterloo. Hope the smear test wasn't too grim.

Rose - regarding our garden wall, considering it had previously been hit by at least two vehicles (one being DH who, having negotiated 20 miles of packed, icy roads in a screaming blizzard, failed to make the final turn into the drive and smacked into it), I really wasn't expecting the chap to make it perfect. He didn't want to make an insurance claim, as he is self-employed, and he was so nice about the whole thing I felt it would have been morally wrong to force him to do so, just so I could end up with a wall in better condition than before he reversed into it. They didn't do a bad job, actually.

Addle - hope new job is OK.

Sorry to hear a few of you are feeling down in the dumps. I have been surprisingly positive so far this year, and have made a few resolutions to get back on track diet/exercise wise. All carbs are henceforth banned, and I have started the 30 Day Shred (BTM - you did this, if I remember), which I will try to do on the mornings when I'm not running. The DDs caught me at it this morning, lunging with two cans of coconut milk, and I had to wrestle DD2's iPhone out of her hands before she could plaster pics of me sweating in PJ bottoms and a sports bra all over the Internet. DD1 wants to join me tomorrow.

I have also spent a very productive 45 minutes on the phone to Virgin, finally getting to grips with our poor broadband performance. All was revealed! After a quick tally I realised we have a total of 14, that's FOURTEEN WiFi devices munching our bandwidth, and some days are downloading as much as 30GB of data in a day. The Virgin chap actually went "WOW!" when he checked our account. More money.... (sigh).

All over now, BTM? Will it be long until you hear?

DS and family not coming to stay tonight - he says they are in good shape (though how he knows as he has been at the office all day, is another thing). He did say that the NDNs had been singularly unhelpful.

We went out in my convertible this afternoon - first time it's been out of the garage for months - along the Military Road: absolutely no sign of walkers which is really unusual.

I did do the shred. Should do it again really! But I got proper weights (pretty cheap in Argos IIRC!) and did it very early do the was no danger of a DC catching me at it!

Smear was fine though it may have to be redone due to A Flo (news to me!)

I will try to work out a plan of Grazers!

NU, am thinking Last Tango In Halifax

Auriga, can you come on the 6th?

BD, sorry it's so bad. And MrsS.

CV, we have talktalk and I think unlimited? DH always has to sniff out the best deal!

CV, the MSE site has excellent BB comparisons/explanations I think. We've just switched to fibreoptic.

BD and MrsS, sounds like you both need a running away plan.

Oh and Monty - yay to Russell Square coffee for me too. Though have to say don't quite know when. Possibly not until 29 Jan...

I can jump on the bus from Trafalgar Square and come and join you for coffee or lunch.