Beware the Crepes of March!

[QueenQueenie]

Well someone had to do it as my last post was number 999...

I am in awe too, Stropps. Your DD sounds very much like mine - won't say anything in class, goes into rabbit/headlights mode when asked anything, yet can stand up and give a presentation to 400 people. Please let me know when you have found out what to do that works, and I will come down and clean out His Royal Whiffyness.

Lalsy - it depends on the make. I have found Fantasie to be Good Sturdy Bras, and Freya to be less so.

The Bravissimo own brand ones are really prone to wire springing, which is such a pain as they are a good shop with a good reputation but obviously tried to make their own brand on the cheap.... I stick to Fantasie as Mrs S says.

Stropps, it actually still sounds a lot better than this time last year and yes, you are a good mum and axe grinder

Yes, it was DD1's Bravissimo own brand ones that had the wires pop out, not her Cleo or Freya ones, which are still going strong.

Stropps and MrsS, dd is another one silent in class. She says there is No Point in speaking up.

Do any teachers suggest remedies? I've read that she could set herself targets, eg one question a day, but I daren't even suggest it. It could result in her determining to never speak at school at all, ever.

One positive about flu is that I can't eat and the weight is rolling off. I'm tempted to weigh myself frequently - like, hourly - in an ana sort of way. Happily I cba.

Think today I feel more like me with a cold rather than a cold with me iyswim.
Off to Prtsmouth to get the ferry and bounce back across the channel today.
Then 32 raised beds to prepare and plant, a new strawberry bed to cut, prune the roses, tidy the potting shed and tackle the winter weeds in the gravel paths. Such fun

Portsmouth obvs.
I think tiredness may well be meno. I had a horrendous one for ten years (53-63) and having got to the other side I now feel a thousand times fitter. The trouble is that it is a bit like childbirth and there are people who sail through it and make you feel as if you are just fussing and all you need is a brisk walk or the latest snake oil. Nothing worked for me except HRT and I hit the big scare so was only allowed it for three years.

EA, 10 (X) years I have been suffering for at least 6 years and on HRT for maybe 4 of them. I just want to get back to being me

Re:silent DD'S, have they always been so? DD was always confident and participatory at Primary but less so into secondary and from Y9 the MFL teachers in particular report that her not wanting to speak aloud is a problem. For DD it was all linked to self-esteem and not wanting to be noticed. Her BFF never put her hand up at Primary, but is now a confident and very bright high - attaining student, so maybe it isn't too much of a problem?

More awe here, Stropps.

Interesting re the meno exhaustion - DD2 is not v well (we've packed her off to school in the hope she can cope as DP has day from hell and I have yet another jolly jaunt to a consultant appointment) so it may be linked to that but it's NOT FUN.

Sorry, Lalsy, I did giggle at the bottom-jousting.

Ladyjog conducted. Now to sling words onto page via assorted technology over the course of the day. I have a rather interesting piece to do on getting kids in care involved in the arts.

DS has his first wobbly tooth. It has made me feel rather wobbly, also.

Off to new set of lectures, for new module. Timetable talks about a 'museum visit'. Rather annoyingly ending at 3.30, which would make it impossible to collect DS on time. All previous afternoon stuff has ended at 3, making it fine. I'm going to have to bunk off early.

No tiredness here, oddly. Or flu, or cold. This obviously cannot last.

Stropps that was some day!!! Maybe the reason we are so tired is just listening to how much you are having to pack into a day!!!

Wishing Molly Emily and other sick Crepeys better..Is CV still covered in a rash?

Herbs the tooth fairy is pricing itself out of the market these days…no wonder you're feeling wobbly…i feel very old when I remember that I used to get 6d…yes, old money.

I've been on HRT through all the scares….having stared into the lion's mouth once, I'd rather be able to function and live my life, such as it is!

Emily you make me feel very guilty when I look at my pathetic, neglected and somewhat urban back yard! How many raised beds???? Sheesh!

I am off to a teachers meeting in Herts. and then prep for a new course starting tonight. Ds2 came home impressed with the courses at Bristol but not impressed with the Halls being 30 mins away on a bus…

MI, I can laugh at bottom-jousting now. Well done on ladyjog. I've not done much yet but must stir stumps.

Oh and Lalsy, I optimistically bung my bras into a small bag before they go in with the rest of the delicate wash (we have two (2, ii) washes in the Inferiority Complex, as opposed to the complex arrangements of many others, depending into which washing basket they've been put). I realise this isn't the same as lovingly hand-laundering them, but it is a - probably empty - gesture of Protection.

I have potting shed envy. I'm not even sure what they are, but they give me a glimpse into another life. (Possibly, of course, the one of Cold Comfort Farm.)

God, I would love a potting shed!

We have three sheds, all ramshackle and leaking. There was a fourth, but DH burnt it down soon after we moved in (intentionally, might I add).

I am better-ish, and made it to work to finish off the urgent stuff, but I am not 100%.

Can't blame it on the meno - all done and dusted at 46!

CV

We have one small shed here. And a large mess on the grass where DHS started to try to dig out some concrete yesterday and gave up

Well done, Stropps, hope your cold is starting to get better. Glad to hear some ill Crepeys are improving, though it sounds as if others are going downhill.

I've done the non-cancellable stuff, dragging myself around & muttering all the while. DH has been in bed all week but seems to be perking up a little this afternoon. We're supposed to go on a residential singing w/e tomorrow, don't know if f we'll make it.

Submitted the final text of my conference poster to Comms, who made it up using an earlier version of the text and the wrong graphs. Corrected that, poster OK (was sent to wrong person but I retrieved it). I now find it won't fit in my baggage allowance & BA suggests I pay £65 extra to take it. Suspect it would be cheaper to get it couriered to myself in Budapest.

Then conf. prog and abstracts arrived & I find they've put in the provisional version of my abstract, though I sent the final version early and they acknowledged it. Are you spotting a theme here?

DBIL has finally contacted a debt charity but still hasn't found out what benefits they're entitled to. I made him stay on the phone with me while I filled in an online calculator for him. Left to himself he'd carry on burying his head in the sand, hoping someone will ring him up and offer him a well-paid job

Crikey Auriga. That's a whole load of incompetence you're battling there. And a whole load of BiL-ly head-in-sand challenge.

We have NO SHED. This is a cause for some distress. But I can't work out exactly where to put one. I'm not sure our side return has the width, matron.

Gosh Auriga. That sounds mighty frustrating.

Here I am surfing the Internet and ringing people to find advice about DM. Her GPs surgery were very nice and helpful and let me book an appointment for me to go to with her, unlike the old surgery that she went to for 30+ years.

Blimey Auriga, that makes me want to cry / shout on your behalf just reading it! Hope it all comes out in the wash (as my GM would say).

No shed here either... all the neighbours have large extra rooms at the bottom of their gardens - on a good night you can see one lot in their home gym and the other lot's teenagers smoking bongs and having sex! Such fun.

Herbs, you can get all kinds of mini-shed things in catalogues they send out to old people. You may not be crepey enough to get them yet.

Phew. Back home after one of those crossings that was much calmer than we thought it was going to be. Cold seems better but OH is starting it.....
The potting shed is not really a shed, but one of the many stone outbuildings on the property. We replaced the old tin roof with corrugated plastic so half is greenhouse and half storage. We have a woodshed too MI but nothing nasty in it afaik.
When we moved to France we had a very English view of renovating everything, but we still have a cellar, huge barn and a stone and tiled former rabbit dwelling that are all just used for dumping stuff. The village is full of tumbly down places that would be snapped up in England but as we are 14km from the nearest town the neighbours say we will never attract commuters as it is too far to get home for lunch.

Glad you had a calm crossing EA - the thought of the ferry makes me shiver!

Lalsy is Addle ok? Haven't seen her on here for ages.

Yet another drama at school for DD - spent last night trying to calm her...

Hi BTM, that's kind, yes Addle is fine, just been busy I think.

Love this thread - where else could you get knowledge and wisdom on parenting tricksy daughters, bra wiring issues and mini-sheds in one place?

dd is home for the weekend and we are off on a jolly. In a surprising turn up for the books, she now wakes up early every day she says .

And hope dd is OK this morning. You must be looking forward to third week in June!

Yes she got up and went off - I dream of the third week in June and her waking up early