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Beware the Crepes of March!

999 replies

QueenQueenie · 16/02/2015 12:36

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

OP posts:
Blackduck · 12/03/2015 15:15

Beachy retired?! Really.... ?

bigTillyMint · 12/03/2015 15:15

That's great Stropps! Fingers crossed it lasts at least a weekWink

motherinferior · 12/03/2015 15:25

Bugger, Terry Pratchett has died.

beachyhead · 12/03/2015 16:00

He's only 49 but in a public sector job with a 30 year tenure, so all done and pension being gratefully received.

New job is a similar role, but not IYKWIM....

He's gone out to lunch. All quiet here now.

bigTillyMint · 12/03/2015 16:09

PensionGrin

Blackduck · 12/03/2015 16:13

Pension?! What's one of them?

Let me guess - no more pounding the beat Wink

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 16:24

I hate it when my DH works from home - it would be awful to have him retired and ...Shock expecting lunch!

Stropps - so glad it's looking up up with DD.

All these choices seem so tough. DD2 doesn't know what she wants to study.

CointreauVersial · 12/03/2015 16:30

Aww, poor old Terry Pratchett. Sad DDad is a huge fan.

Crepeys, if you have a moment, do pop over to Chat and offer your opinions on my dilemma regarding taking DS's GF with us on holiday. I can't decide what's best....

bigTillyMint · 12/03/2015 17:25

Oh, I hadn't realised that was you!!!

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 17:34

CV - I have added my opinion which is the same as BTM'sSmile

lalsy · 12/03/2015 17:56

So have I Smile. Sounds like far too much washing up.

Stropps, good news. However she reacts in the short term, I do think eventually the drip drip message gets through - don't panic, talk to people, there is support.

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 18:41

Waah - my tangine which I made in advance and was so smug about obviously had a bitter courgette in it which has entirely ruined the sauceSad. Fail!

EmilyAlice · 12/03/2015 19:01

Oh no; would a bit of honey help?
I have been watching 4 Mariages et 1 Lune de Miel. Why are French wedding dresses so awful? Why do they wear those bits of frilly lace and feathers in unlikely places? Why does nobody else dress up?

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 19:10

EA - I've just salvaged the chicken which is fine and will eat it with salad. I used one fresh cougette plus another that had been hanging around in the fridge a bit. This happened once before and I'd forgotten about it.

Agree about French wedding dresses - and polyester abounds. People round here are dressing up more though.

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 19:13

...and I just noticed I wrote tangine - it's a tagine!!!Blush I must learn to reread.

EmilyAlice · 12/03/2015 19:28

I was gobsmacked when I went to my first funeral here to see everyone in jeans and jumpers. Then I was gobsmacked to discover that we were expected to go to every funeral in the village. Hmm

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 19:33

EA - thank god I'm in ParisSmile . I couldn't stand living in a small village like my parents in law.

Now I'm sulking and watching Masterchef in the hope I might learn something!

EmilyAlice · 12/03/2015 19:45

It is a very nice village, but we have to duck and weave a bit to avoid too many invitations.
To say nothing of the planning meeting for every village event, which is always exactly the same as the year before. We spend ten minutes discussing whether we need another roll of tablecloth and an extra jar of mustard and then three hours eating and drinking....

MrsSchadenfreude · 12/03/2015 20:14

Hello Hags. Grin I am better now, apart from having pulled every muscle I didn't know I had in my stomach. I hope the rest of you with this filthy lurgy are on the mend now, as well. Feeling a bit washed out, though.

I am tentatively thinking of applying for a job overseas (somewhere warm, about three hours flight) for 10 weeks. The DDs could come out for the summer and for half term, and I would get back for the odd weekend. Pros: it would get me out of my current hideous job early. I could do the job with no difficulty at all, as I've done something very similar before. It's a nice place; somewhere people go on holiday. Cons: no more money at all. Nothing in it for me career wise either. DD2 might not handle my being away very well, after the lovely month there in the summer. The cat would miss me.

Any further views?

cremolafoam · 12/03/2015 20:23

Stropps and Rose, hang in there my lovelies. As you may remember we had all of these issues with dd, and had to make the decision to drop a subject and give up the Cambridge application even though Clare wanted her ( but she needed the extra A level)

There are so many hoops after that again ( open days, interviews, portfolios, predicted grades, the waiting, the dashed hopes, the student funding application, blah blah blah )that it is exhausting and stressful for everybody. I sympathise completely. It is a marathon and not a race.And helped neither by negative teachers, nor, just being a teenager, with all the angst and lack of experience that comes with it.

All I can say in retrospect is get advice when you don't know, and talk to us or ask on here for advice.
Rose you are right that ds has to decide himself. I feel for him, but you know whatever is liveable with ( can he imagine it? ) will be the right thing.
Stropps I am so glad you got a calm and measured response from the HOY. I hope dd settles again and can take the advice.

Beachy I can't believe the Day of Reckoning has arrived. hope this is the start of something good for you both. X

cremolafoam · 12/03/2015 20:28

Go for it Mrs S! If it gets you out of that office , surely it's a good planWink Is it Bermuda???

MrsSchadenfreude · 12/03/2015 20:48

Just catching up with the thread...

Rose, does your DS have to do French? Would he not consider learning something different, like Mandarin or Russian? Agree Spanish teacher sounds a complete cow. I am having the opposite problem with DD2 - she has now had six years of French, four of which have been pretty full on and intensive, in Paris, and her French is good. So she doesn't really need to be learning "Where is the station?" which is what she is doing in her French class. Class is not streamed and teacher is intransigent.

Stropps - perhaps we should run away to the Med together and leave them all to it?

hattymattie · 12/03/2015 20:50

Mrs S - would DH go with you?

MrsSchadenfreude · 12/03/2015 20:56

No, Hatty, he would stay here with the kids, cats and his job.

Stropperella · 12/03/2015 21:08

MrsS, I entirely envy you having the choice. If you feel it will refresh your life, do it.

Today for me: pennies earned = 0, coursework done = 0, parenting points earned = about 5,000,000. Dd to me earlier this evening: "I am sorry for being a turd this week." Grin

Crem, I think dd has now come to the conclusion that giving up French is the way forward. She has a bunch of misgivings about this, but I have done my best to help her re-frame the whole thing in as positive terms as we can manage and she has had a useful convo with a friend of hers who is also academically able but also has problems with anxiety and who has given up French too. They have made a pact that if they can, they will both do Additional Maths next year instead. I'm saying nuffink about the likelihood of that coming to pass, because it's just about whatever gets dd back on track with tackling the mountain of work. The HoY was encouraging her to come to his after-school maths group and she is already doing after-school chemistry, so with the extra free study periods she will get from giving up French, she will hopefully be able to get on top of her maths, biol and chem. She is still also doing Critical Thinking (which is a pile of old guff anyway). And she can also still do the Extended Project during the summer as she logged a load of voluntary hours at the beginning of the year before everything went pear-shaped. She seems a lot more communicative and a lot calmer tonight than she has done for a while. But I had to put in another hour of yadda-yadda this afternoon to achieve that.

Please oh please let ds stay relatively low maintenance. I would like to say more, but it is unwise. Let's just say I feel quite drained.

I award myself a big, fat medal for modelling grace under pressure today. I have not actually full-on blown my top for more than a month.

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