Beware the Crepes of March!

[QueenQueenie]

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

Ooh coppicing....
There is a cottage in the garden that doesn't see many visitors....
Sadly the art of hedge laying has been lost here; they just slash and burn.

I have a hedge that needs laying and mucho compost that needs turning. Not to mention an entire veg garden that I have given up on and needs turning into a half-hearted border and lawn arrangement. So that I can put a bench on it and lounge about communing with the chickens. There is also a large wild area that needs beating into submission. According to dh, we don't actually have a garden. He looks out of the window and sees stuff that wifey will deal with. Please, all crepeys who are planning an activity holiday in Normandy chez EA, can you stop off in Dorset first and I will provide a proper West Country cream tea in return for any garden help!

If we come your way, Stropps, I promise I will call and inspect your garden.

CV, I am from Leamington Spa - what about you? Sorry to hear about DH's aunt, but how lovely that he had a nice time with her the day before.

Molly, you should be just be able to click on the link I sent you (if I did) as you would any other link - you don't need to have or use dropbox yourself (MI6 are you listening - or is that dead letter boxes?).

Oooh, I like that idea...it's a thing, isn't it, to have parties where people form a work gang and muck in with the decorating or gardening. Then drink themselves silly. But not till afterwards.

You could compare Dorset cider with Normandy cider then Apple Brandy with Calvados.
Hic.

Good plan, EA.

Ds, struggling with the top of a tub of ice cream and then finally managing to open it: "With great power comes great responsibility."
Dh:???? "Where's that from?" (clearly expecting slightly erudite answer)
Ds: Spiderman.

I love that boy

I like that Spiderman quote.

Here, we are lounging in front of Top Gear, post-roast-dinner, enjoying a nice Pinot Grigio. Half way through cooking the joint (pork) I noticed that the little square plastic doohicky it was resting on in the packaging had somehow been transferred into the roasting tin. The gravy had a slightly unusual note to it, but I think I got away with it.

No DS; he went swimming in the river earlier on, and has gone for dinner at GF's.

And I'm delighted to announce that DH's 2015 hayfever season has kicked off.

CV - plasticky gravy DS swimming in the river

I am rubbish at gardening, but I could wheel the barrow!

Here I am trying to watch Call the Midwife whilst DD can't find revision books and DS researches mobile phone deals, both requiring my input

Woohoo Crepeys,
Have spent all day wrangling to produce a professional looking document for a work thing for which I don't have anything like all the requisite skills and which is therefore extremely stressful... luckily a teenager took pity on me and helped just before I started screaming / crying. Phew! Apparently I am getting a word processing / desktop publishing course for Mothers' Day

Stroppsboy

Please don't say hay fever season is starting.... It's the blight of dh's year (and therefore mine!).

We've had an interesting weekend to say the least. Dylan's rescue lady from Cyprus came to visit and to say that I was told a crock of poo by the UK crappy rescue place I picked him up from is an understatement. Turns out he was a failed or abandoned hunting dog in Cyprus who came down from the mountains as a stray, lived rough for at least four months and was then taken in by my rescue lady, who looked after him for six months until he was shipped to us (via an other English family where 'he didn't get on with the cat' ). I just hope he didn't eat it.....

So happy end for him, I feel a bit unnerved by the line I was fed, but it doesn't change him as a dog!

I'm quite jealous of your school reunion CV the only one I was invited to, I had to miss as I was very very pregnant.

All better now and back to work tomorrow. All sorts of stuff kicking off as someone very able has resigned to we will be working to fill the gap.

I have ordered two new pairs of jeans from UO... I will report back.

I hear we are off to France. Excellent failing that, a spa day with cream tea it's all looking good to me.

I can confirm hayfever season is starting .

DD2 up vomiting all night. If she had just come for a family walk instead of going out with her friends yesterday afternoon! Mind you she also plastered herself with tester lipstick yesterday morning - if it had been that though, I would have thought it would have kicked in before 9 pm. Poldark was completely ruined.

Here dp and I continue to feel rough and is stay if it weren't for a meeting with someone very senior. Have to say this bug is doing my weight loss regime a power of good.

I feel I want the weekend again as I didn't really get it.

Oh BD.

I continue to be not at my sparkling best, but have been worse. I am mainly seething with continual anger about/towards my parents. It is not anger that will go away. I am not about to 'make my peace' with them. I realise I have to find some kind of workable solution for me which means I don't go completely off my trolley, but it is shall we say a Work in Progress.

Beachy, I have to do a little piece on rescue animals today

DD1 is looking really rough too, Hattie. A wretched cold bug. She has staggered in to school, though.

I continue to be twitchy about these sick bugs assailing Crepeys and their families… Hope Hatty's DD gets better and you too BD…it's lingering on. And hope MI's DDs cold doesn't morph into something worse.

So poor Dylan has a "past"…he's like a child who's been in care all his life finally finding a loving home Beachy. No wonder he's a bit off the wall.

I do not like travelling for work. The venue is just a few miles in a taxi from Nuneaton station, I believe. I'm going by train…it's just over an hour from Euston. Actually my main beef with the organisation is it has a throwback to when it was started by a group of interested and benevolent practitioners…so the tutor I co teach with, (from the early days of the company) always goes and sleeps on someone's floor to save money. And then asks me if I want to get put up similarly. I always refuse. I like my own space and find a reasonably priced hotel (on expenses) but she makes me feel bad. I also don't want to share a car with her….I don't do sharing

Rose - I do think at our age we have the right to be put up decently. Floor sleeping is for the young and students.

DD2 is now asleep and the vomiting seems to have abated a little. That'll teach me for thinking we'd escaped the winter unscathed. I have put copious quantities of bleach everywhere.

BD - hope you feel better soon.

Oh good god, Rose, sleeping on the floor? If you were somewhere exotic and exciting there might be a conceivable reason. In Nunbloodyeaton, that would be a no. TBH I'd just come home, in any case.

I'm with MI on that, Rose!

Beachy, that explains it all You'd better learn some Greek. Pronto!

Sorry to hear about all the sickly people. I rarely ever vomit.

MI the class we're running starts early tomorrow morning, so I have to travel up today and stay over, otherwise I'd have to pay the commuter fare tomorrow morning, which is something ludicrous...over 100 squids. I think the problem is around an organisation that starts as a charity with no money. The veteran members feel more emotional about it than me. I just want the cold hard cash and am not looking to save money by staying over with someone else, freeloading my meals off them etc. hard but true!

Bloody hell Rose, no way. I also think the sleeping on floor type of attitude sometimes leads people to undervalue what a charity provides too - cold hard cash has a currency beyond its buying power (perhaps wrongly, but that is the world). Make sure you pack your hairshirt.

BD and Auriga, I hope you feel better soon.

MI, it is a very hard situation. My family lives with a lot that is not said - and it can't be said, there is nowhere to go with it. Dealing with crises becomes difficult just because of that but the emotions are old and mostly cold - it must be very difficult for you. Is there someone entirely outside the family that you can seethe and rant regularly to? You are spot on I think about finding a way that works for you. I am sure you will .

Cold has turned into a proper stinker. Can't work. Also supposed to be clearing study for painter tomorrow - having to leave it to DH, who hasn't even made a start.

MI, Lalsy, I'm in similar position with DM. I don't discuss the past with her. I don't tolerate any nastiness towards DD but otherwise I accept that she won't change. She is, however, a lot nicer to DD than she ever used to be. Zero tolerance does work. And I only ever once got to the pan-throwing stage (there was no-one else in the room, I hasten to point out. It was a little private melt-down and I have a dented pan to remind me of it)

Sorry you are still feeling under the weather, BD. I am actually OK now, though I seem to be reaping the rewards as well on the jeans stakes. Can you take some time off later in the week? These bloody viruses can really knock you for 6. Take care

Rose, I don't do floors, not for anyone. I am far too old and, despite my inbuilt padding, too sore to lie on wood for long. Is this to do with your writing or your teaching? Hope that you get some time to yourself whilst you are away.

Sympathies to all battling difficult family relationships. It must be v hard. MI, could you allow yourself to be cross / furious / sad etc for a certain amount of time each day and then tell yourself that you won't think about them / dwell on them for the rest of the time? It sounds odd but it is a technique which I was taught when I was suffering from extreme anxiety after DD2 was born and it meant I could actually function better as I had a bit of time earmarked each day for stressing about things. This meant that I was more productive (and happier) the rest of the time. Worth a try? Other than that, I suppose shouting, ladyjogging, eating well etc will help you to have the energy to deal with what the situation is throwing at you.

I have conducted a ladyjog and cooked up a storm - bolognese, fish pie and mini scotch eggs this morning. Now to tackle the mountain of washing which needs putting away. Happy days.

Monty, what an excellent idea.

Vile grey day here now. I did conduct a slightly listless Ladyjog first thing, though. Have taken various sorts of curry out of the freezer for later. We appear to have quite a lot of fresh veg lurking, and I've realised most of us are out tomorrow - DD2 has a concert, I'm at her concert, and DP is doing something amazingly original, which I'm sure you can't guess.