Crepes, Galettes, Pancakes and Brian the Bucket!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Here you go...

Would any Crepeys like a (free) ticket to see Orfeo at the Roundhouse tonight at 7.30? We're (me, dh, bil) going but have a spare.... Shout quickly if you fancy it!

info here

What a kind thought, QQ, just a bit far for me.

Am extremely irritated with DH; he's mislaid his bank card yet again. And he got me some smoked salmon out of the freezer so I could have it with scrambled eggs for lunch, but put it in the fridge so it's still frozen. First world problems.

BTM - I usually threatened in rage but then failed to follow through as a)she was normally really upset afterwards and b)we never got generous or rigorous enough with pocket money to make it realistic (given her lack of social confidence at times - deep down she would prefer to stay in so that never seemed a helpful consequence when at some level it was anxiety that had stopped her going in the first place, IYSWIM). So all hopeless really. But she does now go to what she has committed too (albeit within a very narrow range. She likes Michael Clark too), and is generally more up for stuff.

Rose, I love my varifocals too (now there's a sentence I didn't think I'd write).

Not entirely successful day here. I'm in the Institute of Ed library, but none of the books I want are here, I forgot my glasses so had to buy an el cheapo pair from WHSmiths, and the computer won't read my assignment (on a memory stick) so I can't write it anyway. And I've got a stealth hangover. I thought I'd got away with drinking four bottles of wine between three of us last night, but it's catching up with me.

I have posted back Internet purchases that were too small or made me look more hideous than usual, shopped, walked the dog, gone on a bike ride and am now thinking about hoovering....
It's day 24 of dry Jan and I can't say I am seeing the effects - I am absolutely knackered, sleeping worse than I did before and don't seem to have shed a pound - where are all these so called wonderful benefits - honestly makes me want to crack open a bottle of red :)

Bummer, BD. Still, at least you can enjoy the booze from now on, knowing that it doesn't make any difference. :)
Here, I was out early to buy supplies for my chickens, walked the dog, cleaned the house, did 3 loads of laundry and cooked a big lunch as my dm came over. This afternoon I cleaned the chickens out and am trying to encourage ds to get on and make some invitations for his belated b-day party at half-term. I am staring at the work I have to do tonight and wibbling, as I don't understand some of it and am not feeling very confident. But I had nightmares about it last night, so I have to get it done now so that I can have a decent night tonight.

Glasses - ah varifocals. I love them. Almost as much as I love my splendid satnav. I am perfectly competent at map reading but when I'm off on a long drive cross-country in the dark, I like having someone to tell me where to go. Especially as I strongly dislike driving.

I dislike driving so much I am refusing to drive to see my mother tomorrow and am investigating coaches .

I would like to wibble about having to sort stuff out for my mum (and more to the point the fact my dad is doing nothing but Be Exhausted And Stressed - someone has to insist she has a social services assessment and he is the one who is THERE) but am too damn tired after DP snuffled and coughed all night.

Same here BD And to add insult to injury, we are off to a Burns Night Ceilidh later, and I am not drinking!

DD and I are raging at DH who is looking at budget-airline-type flights for NZ - not a good plan with the current skiing fiasco.

Lalsy, DH is insistent that I dock DD some money (will go unnoticed as she has piles in the bank) as a message. I am thinking it will be a hassle to stop her DD for a month She did offer to pay for it when she apologised, and I think she felt bad because I told her that I felt she had let me down. Hmmm. Not sure who Michael Clarke is. The cricketer?

Sorry your dad is being so useless MI.

O Thou, in whom we live and move, Who made the sea and shore; Thy goodness constantly we prove, And grateful would adore; And, if it please Thee, Power above! Still grant us with such store The friend we trust, the fair we love, And we desire no more.

Happy Burns night Crepeys.
I am not donning a kilt but have spent the day listening to pipers rehearse for a Burns night Concert.
For me it's Spiral and a wee lie doon.

Thanks for that wee tribute Crem

We've been out hunting haggis and neeps this afternoon, we'll have them tomorrow with a few songs. I said to DH in the supermarket "haggis - that's poultry, right?" And he pointed me at the poultry section before he realised

I'm soaking up all the combined crepey wisdom and tolerance about teen behaviour: haven't needed it very much yet but it's good to see the prevailing emphasis on honesty, fairness, trust and acceptance.

Stropps, you're moving mountains there, getting so much done and still squaring up to your difficult and demanding course. Well done for getting on with the scary bit instead of putting it off.

I love my sat nav. I had a full-on driving phobia with great big panic attacks. It took me 20 years to get desperate enough to push through them and take a driving test. I've never been a happy driver, though always a competent navigator and journey planner.

But sat-nav is company and reassurance. If you miss the turn or the road is closed, it re-plans. In the dark, it displays what you can expect to see round the next bend or over the blind summit. I have DD's voice on it .

Never managed to get it to stay on the bloody windscreen, though. I have a Heath Robinson arrangement with cardboard and duct tape to hold it in position.

I must be (finally) recovering from my virus. Getting the urge to tidy up and throw things away.

Sorry I couldn't take up your kind offer of Orfeo ticket QQ. Hope it is a lovely evening.

I bloody love driving. And maps. I don't have a sat nav, but use my phone app for any bits I can't remember from my mental pre-journey photo of the map...

Auriga. You mentioned a while ago that your choir master used to be in the Swingles. So did ours! He was first tenor and musical director for a while. I think he fell out with Mr Swingle over copyright issues. But what a coincidence!

herbs. Come to our next concert - doing two arrangements by Ward Swingle. Bloody hard but worth it. I've had to practise my socks off. Dog now knows every note of it and tuts if I make a mistake.

Btw MI, you should wibble away, or if you're too tired we will take it as read. Tough spot you're in. Inconsiderate of DP to have a cold. Sympathy

Evening All.

Orfeo was very good - beautiful music on authentic instruments - and a pretty good story too! Dh gave our spare ticket to an elderly mad cat lady hanging around the box office (it was sold out) for a tenner. She was very very grateful. Indeed Much Too Grateful and wanted to make best friends with us and to do our astrological charts for us. As ds would say, "you're all right".

Happy Burns Night to all those that way inclined.

Go Stropps, you are truly SuperWoman.

Cremo! Noooooo how can they kill him off! He's the thinking woman's crumpet! (spiral watchers will know what I'm rabbiting on about)

I hate driving. My hatred of driving stems from a fly-drive holiday to the US, when, half way across the Atlantic, DH announced that he had left his licence on the kitchen table. Being forced to drive, after a long flight, on 16 lane motorways ("Right lane must turn right!"), and covering over 1000 miles over the next two weeks didn't do it for me.

And now I don't drive or put the rubbish out, because if I did, that would mean I did everything.

I am howling at your New Best Friend, QQ.

Yep, Stropps is Superwoman.

Isn't a Swingle a single person who goes swinging?

Every time I hear that fly drive story MrsS I am . -was he at all contrite?

We went on a skiing holiday once and took our nanny at the time. Dh and I both left our driving licences at home, she had hers, so she ended up driving the party bus up into the mountains and we ended up paying a massive premium for an under 25, non EU driving licence......we loved her!

Not quite the same as a fly drive holiday Beachy!

All driving decisions are made by dp, so Mexico - he planned it all I just go along with it!

We are illustrious company! Taking the nanny skiing...

DP doesn't drive, which is a source of great irritation. He had lessons for a while, then contrived to not take his test, so all that money/time was wasted. Day to day it's not too bad, but if we go on holiday I have to do ALL the driving, and have to do all the ferrying of DS. Which means he's missing out on a few things at weekends at the moment if I'm doing coursework. DP refuses to even discuss it. Another source of great irritation.

Mrs S - I had a similar US driving experience. Flew to LA, super jet-lagged, got into a hire car - a convertible Mustang, no less - and immediately had to negotiate the terrifying 24-lane freeway, with seemingly no lane discipline. I couldn't work out how to adjust the wing mirrors, so could never change lane, and the car seemed about 20ft wide, so the whole thing was terrifying. However, after a day or so cruising around LA in a convertible 4-litre black monster car was the best thing EVER.

Glad the show was good, QQ even if you did acquire an unusual friend in the process
Hate the driving abroad experience...DH drives...hate it. Enjoyed the train experience this summer and want to repeat it elsewhere. I wish we drove on the right here....would be a whole lot better on holiday, I think.
Happy Burns Night ( not sure what the greeting is!) that was. I haven't been to a Burns Supper for ages...do like a bit of ( veggie) haggis, neeps and taties.
Bit fed up this morning...DD was due to see Art tutor who has cancelled. I am now looking at a significant proportion of the day helping DD finish and mount her work. What do you have to do to get a day off around here?

It has been a challenging weekend. I am still trying to be accepting of my lot in life. I am failing miserably but I AM trying.

As I suffer from rather bad left/right confusion, I find driving on the other side of the road when abroad in a Brit car completely impossible. I tried it for about 15 mins last summer in France when dh said he was too knackered to drive any further and we really needed to put our sodden tent up at the next campsite asap. After experiencing me driving at approx 5 miles an hour whilst twitching and sweating, dh said he was completely awake again, and indeed feeling hypervigilant and could take over the wheel again.
My course work plans last night were de-railed (or, more exactly, I allowed them to be de-railed) by an email from Difficult Cousin. I thought I had done the right thing by patching things up with him, but now it appear that I have simply made myself look like Soft Touch Numero Uno. Dm told me to tell him to "b-off".
I was browsing the Guardian website while still in bed this morning and in among the usual crop of articles to which my responses varied from "Meh" to "Who cares?" to "Eh?", I found this . Good ole Maz.

Rosebag, there are times when acceptance is neither feasible nor justified.

DP v kindly drove me to Stratford station (trains not going from usual station) and am awaiting first leg of journey to Norwich, which will involve changing at Ipswich. I may do v long walk to hospital when I finally get there as otherwise will be mutinous and immobile all day.

Herbs, that non-discussion is bad. I don't like driving the route to DD2's dance....so we take the bus.

I wonder if Dh is the only Scot who has never been to a Burns Night...