Crepes, Galettes, Pancakes and Brian the Bucket!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Here you go...

I am back on 5:2 but am not going anywhere near any scales..... I don't want to know....

I am low carbing but got rather sidetracked this weekend by the wine, so not doing so well.

MI and Auriga, huge amounts of strength and good wishes being sent your way. Both situations must be a terrible worry.

Rose, I hope your DD rallies soon. It is wearing when they are poorly like that.

Time to do some batch cooking before pick up. Then I'm on head lice duty before Brownies and a piano lesson. Rock and roll

I climbed onto our scales. It made me very sad. Feel deludedly that I cannot be as enormous as they tell me I am.

I was on the scales earlier, but only to weigh a suitcase that we are sending away to be mended. But it was in kilos, so I have no idea what that means (ignorance is bliss ).

Rose - I guess running up and down stairs waiting on madam will at least help with the weight-loss.

Gone Girl was great; I rather liked the non-Hollywood ending.

Morning everyone! Still feeling a bit bleurgh, but hoping it's just tiredness pre half term. I have had a message to go to see one of the big cheeses at work today. "Nothing horrible, promise". Hm. Can I believe her? I suspect that our ideas of horrible might not be the same. Oh dear.

How is DD this morning, Rose? Bit better I hope.

CV, you are very brave with the mice. We had a rat once which nearly sent me over the edge. I remember a few mice coming out of the fireplace when I was 8.5 months pregnant. I was terrified but utterly beached. Had to just wait until they went back in. Awful.

Right, off to a fun day. Hope you are all well. Laters.

Ooh, Monty, hope she has free tickets to a chocolate tasting or alternatively a pay rise in mind?

Ladyjog conducted. Came back and made idle conversation with Mr Inferior over breakfast. He accused me wearily of "liking to be noisy" in the mornings. In retrospect my huffy silence was probably exactly the response he wanted.

MI, I like to be noisy of a morning too . I hope things have settled down a little with your dm and dsis.

Auriga, , I hope you have got some sleep now. Awful when new worries drag up old ones - that seems to be a feature of crepey hard times.

On a lighter note, had classic incident at parents' evening with ds - his first coming with us - in which managed to tell a lovely new, touchy feely teacher that her exploring-the-world-in-a-circle type methods were all right by him as long as they didn't affect his grades.

The Nice Woman from social services asked DSis:

Has your dad
(a) always been like that
(b) got dementia?

Her answer was (a) yes (b) no, see a above. But she feels deeply relieved to have our reality corroborated by external professionals. Nice Woman said she didn’t think dad should be left in a position where he might leave things on the stove. DSis explained there wasn’t any risk of that as he’s never put anything on the stove in his life.*

apart from the stovetop coffee machine and also the saucepans we used for boiling water for tea, till I’d left home. I didn’t actually know most people used a kettle.* We used HUGE saucepans and then tipped them into the teapot.

**mind you I didn’t know till last week that a slipped disc wasn’t a permanent disability as my father always claimed the one he incurred in 1969 counted as one.

In other news am in grip of bloating and self-hatred but even I can see this is probably psychosomatic.

Auriga Its funny how this 'coming with' thing at parents evening seems to empower kids, mine included. I'd have sat there dumbstruck as a kid….

Good luck with your boss meeting, Monty…I would put my money on a promotion! DD is still poorly after a better night, but very much listless, in bed. I have cancelled my writing morning with ConS..well, rescheduled to Friday. I am going a bit mad, stuck in, but I can't leave her whilst she's still got a fever. She's just asked for a slice of toast so that's something…she's eaten virtually nothing since Sun afternoon.

CV Monty In our old house, next door had a rat problem and one got in to our house via the garage. DS2 was a new baby at the time. It wasn't a good time…

I like silence in the morning….

Cross post MI a good social worker is a thing to be treasured as I have found with the fogies….

It was self hatred that finally tipped me over the edge into the welcoming bosom of Slimming World (done in the past only after I had my babies…) and it is only day 2 but I do feel SO much better for actually trying to tackle the problem. I made a very tasty "free" spag bol last night from their recipes which was probably the first meal I've actually enjoyed for a long time despite all the wanton gluttony of the last year or so!!!

I'm back on the 5:2, partly to encourage DP to do the same, as he does need to lose weight but has the least willpower of anyone I have ever met. Buys an expensive bike to ride to work - it sits in the hall. Buys gym membership - never goes. Says he's going for a run - never been. And meanwhile moans about being fat and unfit. Drives me mental.

Already mildly soiling myself about my summative observation of teaching on Friday. I have to plan and conduct the whole lesson, and will be observed for the second part by my university tutor. I also have to write a 500-word rationale for it. Fortunately, I've got loads of time this week to titivate the plan, but that of course doesn't mean the lesson will go well at all. In fact, probably the opposite. I am already at brain freeze point.

MI - lol re your social worker. So nice to have your thoughts confirmed by a third party!

As for mornings, I like to be left in bed for 15 minutes while I listen to the radio. After that, gentle noise is fine. Toddlers banging pans, for instance, would not be fine.

Can I just add DP had got up, showered, and boiled himself an egg. I was chattering idly about how I was going to make soup for supper and boil chickpeas for a curry tomorrow....

I'm going to try banging pans tomorrow

MI dp is like your dp - lucky if you get a grunt out of him......

I generally am up and out before everyone else anyway - no wonder I am so bloody knackered.

Thanks for the rodent sympathy. Actually, they don't bother me at all per se (I kept pet rats for years, and throughout my childhood was often called upon to "assist" shrews and field-mice out through the back door after they had been brought in by the cat), but I object to the little bastards crawling, nibbling and pooing all over my house.

We did have a rat once; I would find half-eaten bananas under the sofa which it had dragged from the fruit bowl. For that, we called in the professionals.

Morning-wise, once I'm up, I'm up, so no problem with morning chatter. But conversely, it must be silent at bedtime; I cannot bear any noise at all. Fall asleep with the radio humming in the background? No, no, no - the thought makes me feel positively ill.

I like to have silence on my own for half an hour in the morning if at all possible. And then as little talking as poss! However, I can fall asleep to the TV no problem, as long as it's not footy!

I have womaned-up to the mice as I can't bear the thought of them scampering over/nibbling/pooing on everything and the rest of my family are pathetic wimps.

MI, great to hear what the SW said. Even if it is after many years of trauma for you all!

I am similarly 'whatevs' about rodents. I positively adore the sooty little dears that live in the underground, and that scurry about on the tracks. Though you don't seem to see them as much these days.

Not so much of a fan of rats, though. I think it's the way they dart about, an look sort of oily.

DP has a couple of friends living in Paris, ATM, recently moved there from LA. I think they're finding the relentless grey a bit much, and have suggested we all do an impromptu jolly to somewhere like Barcelona for a few days at half term! All last-minute like! I'm rather thrilled by the idea...

No, I HATE rats.

Jolly in Barca sounds fab Herbs!

Herbs

Our cats bring us furry presents quite often. Bastard cats.

Molly, DSis v grateful for disposable glove recommendations.

In other news, nipped to Lidl at lunchtime (frozen peas and porridge, so glam) and noticed Putinoff vodka. Surely a marketing own-goal???

I hope you bought some MI, as it also starts with P!

Hmmm... having said that I don't mind a bit of noise in the morning, I guess that having one small boy (who is usually on the computer or eating breakfast) and a DP who has usually gone by the time I get up, my mornings are pretty quiet. I have to admit I don't enjoy them when on a 'jolly' communal holiday type thing, with Other People's Children being loud.

Left to my own devices I wouldn't get up till 9am. This would actually be quite feasible now, what with my working from home; but I'd never move. At all. I would spend the day immobile.

Oh, don't talk to me about Lidl. Last time I popped in for a pack of eggs I blew £100, coming home with a heater, PJs, lipsticks, scented candles and half a ton of turkey steaks. And yes, I forgot the eggs.

In other news, it's work experience week chez nous. We have a silent Y11 boy following one of the engineers around at the office, and I spotted two more stacking shelves at M&S. I was musing aloud in the car on the way home as to what DS might do this time next year for his work experience.... something appropriate, something aspirational, perhaps...? Without missing a beat, both girls chorused "McDonald's!"

The chains have arrived!
It took us 5mins to get the case open DH is telling me to watch YouTube videos on how to fit them

Yee, BTM..... Off to the snow. I'm on my way home to pack the big two off on their respective school trips - one is off tomorrow to Italy for Art and one off on Thursday to Belgium for WW1 History. Two very early drop offs for Dh and I....

No real plans for half term other than an Art interview in Cornwall for dd1. So once again a swift 6 hours there and 6 hours back. Can't wait!