Crepes, Galettes, Pancakes and Brian the Bucket!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Here you go...

So sorry to post and run but I am on between classes. I am not going to be able to meet for lunch alas as I am covering a class for a sick colleague at 12, then have to dash to pick up the weans from school. Bum. So sorry not to see The Russell square crepeys. Hope to make it another time. Will catch up on thread tomorrow but hope everyone is well.

I've done some work on the eye drooping condition, Stropps my lovely, if you want me to investigate.

Ooh, Stropps, that sounds as if it should be corrected on the NHS. Sorry you're feeling down, just stick at it and pin a smile on your face.

Have done my charity meeting and called at the greengrocers on the way home where I caught sight of myself in a mirror and wondered who the old hag with the marionette lines was, so I do sympathise.

Not at all shallow, Rudy My friend's eyes looked almost closed by the time she had the procedure. Her vision was really affected. She was referred to Moorfields and it was all taken care of under the NHS.

NU I have catching sight of myself in a passing mirror, or window. Have to remind myself that it's just a moment in time….. We're Crepeys, not hags…

I have just made an appointment with the Head of Education at the theatre to have a rant about something. Fairly major rant. because the so called Head of Ed is also HerrD

hate not have...

Aww no, Rudy, it's not you, it's me. :) I would be surprised if it were a straightforward procedure in my case, as I have fairly pronounced synkinesis and I suspect it is something I would need to live with until such a point as Rose mentioned, i.e. my eye nearly closed. Any surgery might have some unfortunate side effects because of the nerve damage in that side of my face. I need to carry on with my normal attitude of focusing on what is good rather than what is not. I just have down days like today when I am really tired and I have pain in the affected areas and the right side of my face takes until lunch time to wake up. And then I think, it's not going to be fun going back to teaching with a supremely wonky fizzog.
At 15, the right side of my face was completely paralysed and I didn't get any movement at all back for several months and I am therefore lucky that I recovered to the extent that I did. It's just unfortunate that the natural ageing process is now highlighting some aspects of asymmetry which weren't as obvious 10 years ago. Could be worse, though. And eventually it will be, probably. When I'm not feeling so knackered, I'll be back to thinking I can get away with looking droopy and doing the odd bit of slurring and dribbling and no one notices (except my dcs and dh).

Attempting to convince my mum of the non-bonkers rice option. She sounded unconvinced. "XX is sending in some soup," she said. I pointed out my dad is capable of heating up some ready-made soup and bringing it in (not least because my sister showed him how to, the other day. This is actually true). She sounded unconvinced again.

Words are starting to fail me.

I think I had better start training DH up now, for fear of him needing to fend for himself in the future! He can heat up soup and burn oven chips though!

My DH can make crepes and being French lots of high fat recipes involving melted cheese.

On the plus side, MI, do such outrageous demands mean that your DM is very much herself?

Lovely to meet up with Molly and QQ, however briefly this lunchtime. I was aware, even as I did it, that I was rabbiting on something chronic, so next time we meet you two have 15 minutes each to talk solely about yourselves in recompense.

As My lunch companions are only too aware, many people on my course are getting right on my tits. The same people each week ask stupid questions that show they've got totally the wrong end of the stick, and cause the lesson to be derailed so we never get to the vital stuff at the end. Another lot chat all the way through, which is so bloody RUDE. And one girl never does any of the exercises, just plays on her phone, and doesn't being a pen. She borrowed mine today, and didn't give it back.

Irritatingly, she'll no doubt do just enough to scrape a pass, so have the same qualification as those of us - ie me - who have been working our arses off.

Stropps, have PMd you about a non-face-related issue

I am going out in the cold to choir.

Mwah Herbs, really lovely to see you and Molly too... there was something very pleasurable about meeting for lunch in a park cafe before all rushing off to the next thing on our lists of things to do.
For those of you who weren't able to join us I can report fine dining on omelettes (me and Herbs) and oranges (Molly) washed down with tea and water. It was all surprisingly delicious - clearly it was the company that made it so... As an added bonus Molly was a mine of information on the new Head at my dss' school.
Herbs, you didn't rabbit on any more than the rest of us - well certainly no more than me anyway .

Stropps, moan away - you can you know and we'll listen and sympathise.

MI, don't let them drive you bonkers - they clearly enjoy their double av=ct routine of demands and incompetence and are most unlikely to reinvent themselves as undemanding and competent anytime soon... sounds ideal to me that your dm is going into a nursing home - she will be looked after and won't starve and you won't have to have the same level of worry about how the hell they're managing. Silver lining and all that? But like Stropps come on here and moan and be cross - we can take it!

Yes, lunch in a park cafe with crepey company was most decadent and pleasing. Note my amazing restraint in having only tea and oranges (a propos of which, does anyone like Leonard Cohen, or are you all too young to have heard him first time around, long before he lost his money and resurfaced? My excuse is that I was going out with a wanker man somewhat older than myself.) There's a song of his called Suzanne, much loved by folk club warblers, which features tea and oranges.

Stropps, you'll have to let us crepeys know what kind of work you need to get. I'm sure between us we have address books containing all the contacts you could ever wish for.

Molly - Leonard Cohen's son Adam was on Women's Hour this !morning. Might be worth a listen.

Herbs - sounds like the Upper Fifth. Your description made me.

Oooh, thanks. Will have to listen.

Stropps, just popping in to wish you courage & strength. You've already thought it through and told yourself all the sensible things I might say.

I would just add, no academic work is ever wasted, even if you're working on tosh. You're using your brian, mentally comparing the tosh with real stuff that matters, etc. Yes, you have to go along with it & jump through hoops for now but that doesn't make it a waste.

But I think "get on with what needs getting on with" could be my new anti-black-dog mantra

On the subject of ageing, I had to get a passport photo this week. I will have to live with it for 10 years. Oh, how I wish I'd had time to put some slap on. I look like a corpse. At least I can hold out some hope that in another 10 years I won't look any worse.

Come to think of it, you're the very people I should ask for some advice. How can I learn to apply eye make-up so that it stays put? I'm terrible for smudging it/rubbing it off.

In other news, choir is fantastic and DD won the regional semi-final of her public speaking competition, so is thrilled (as are her teachers).

MI, I think Herbs has hit the nail on the head: the outrageous demands make it sound as though your Mum is getting back on form already.

I look like a camel in my passport photo. But not, at least, like a camel toe

Molly, as some of the other Crepeys may recall and as my ds would say, I don't like Leonard Cohen, I LOVE Leonard Cohen...

Wise words Auriga and brilliantly well done to your dd! We need a proud Crepey parent emoticon - maybe a with a smaller alongside?? (Which is impossible to actually do obviously,,,).

Molly, I am a big Leonard Cohen fan (DH introduced me to him when I was in my early 20s), and we frequently listen to one of his CDs in the car.

MI, I think I would disengage from discussions re food.

My DH has only taken on cooking since he retired and I like to encourage him to cook at least once a week. Recipes which he made first are a good way into getting him regularly into the kitchen.

The decorator is using Dulux paint which we bought last year when we were going to do the work ourselves - it came from B&Q. When he opened the tin he discovered the paint was very runny and we have decided that somebody had used some out of the tin, then filled it up with water and returned it to B&Q.

The MU sounds fun - I have been to the leisure centre for the third time this week!

Cross posts - very well done to DD, Auriga.

And don't let yourself get irritated by fellow students, Herbs, not worth the effort.

Auriga "You're using your brian" Just as long as it's not your Brian the bucket
And if it's any consolation, DD looks like a corpse on hers too. The photo was taken on Halloween, but she wasn't intending to look like a corpse IYSWIM!
And well done to your DD.

Molly, I am interested to know how you could look like a camel in yours. Is there a hump visible? Better than a toe, as you say!

I am not into Leonard Cohen.

Just come back in and DD is VERY grumpy and screechy. Yuk.

Hello from the snow drift that is Cremona Cottage. Dh has had to abandon his car a mile away and hoof home in the snow.
Fgs, were supposed to be flying out to Italy tomorrow and at the minute it looks as if the chance would be a fine thing.

Auriga , that's a good mantra. I may use it myself, and save myself a lot of grief . Very well done to your dd too!

Rudy- hope you get a good rest tonight and knowing you, you will look fantabulous in no time.

Herbs, stick your fingers in your ears when you see your classmates coming

MI -I'm thinking of you. I'm sorry your mum feels so tired.

Mrs S, I am intrigued to understand how you ended up with the Plyms. My preschool nursery was run by a delightful coupling of Brethren and Woodcraft folk. Mostly they were just a bunch of hippies in Very Long Skirts.

Ahhh, crepesters, thank you for making me smile. I am just back from dragging myself through a particularly punishing circuits class and I do feel better after reading all your posts. And Herbs, please keep complaining about the people on your course. It makes me feel much better

Auriga, thank you! I am still quite proud that my brian is still capable of writing an essay, even if I am not always very convinced by the subject I am writing about. I did snort at the description of your passport photo. Very well done to your dd!
I can't give advice about eye makeup. My eyes usually look like currants in an uncooked currant bun. When I put on makeup, they look like 2 smudgy currants.

Dd gave her hamster - who is now getting rather old in hamster terms - a wash this evening, as she said he smelt of wee. He was a bit like BTM's dd - grumpy and squeaky. I think it is fair to say that hamsters do not like being washed. I am beginning to think he may also be going senile, as he has become strangely fixated on the dog to the point of constantly trying to cosy up to him. This is an immensely bad plan, as the dog is still quite keen on eating him.

Leonard Cohen is one of my guilty pleasures, but dh would rather chew on his own eyeballs than listen to him. I like some of the very old choons, but am fondest of "Take this waltz".

Fingers crossed for your flight, Crem!