Crepey wattle and daub

[herbaceous]

At last! I get to use my thread title.

Over here, my hags.

Wattle [as in neck]

Daub [as in CC cream]

Nice one Herbs!
Do you remember that TV series, LA Law? And the female judge who was rather crepey? Her younger male lover used to beg and plead with her to let him waggle her wattle! Didn't think I'd ever be typing those words in this lifetime...

I do! Had Calista Flockhart in it, being irritatingly ditsy.

As cow poo is an essential ingredient of daub, I will guarantee the supply to this thread from the Normandy countryside.
Many modern French houses are covered in crépis of course.

I remember, that was Ally McBeal. Loved that series - I've got the soundtrack which is excellent. All that jazz in that bar under the office....

Signing in from the desk. Have FINALLY sent off complicated feature on complicated eye condition, edited another on Mass Observation and trying to pin down someone to talk about how you adapt a playground for children with visual impairment. And must do my Things To Do For Nice Older People Over The Summer piece...

DS has always called my wattle a froggy

We have FIL, MIL and BIL coming (till Monday) which means space will be in short supply as although MIL is teeny, FIL and BIL are huge and take up half the sitting room! However, they are going with DH and DS to watch their team play on Saturday, DH and I are out Sat night and they are all going to watch DS play on Sunday.

DS is all happy because his new phone for his birthday has come AND he is definitely at the club till May when they do new contracts. However, this did not mean that he got out of bed in time this morning[

MI, will that piece be good for us?!

Can the next thread title be Crepril Fools?

I am dithering again, now, about the job, but am erring on the side of not going. My main problem is that I would not be running my own show (as I have done before) but would essentially be working to someone junior to me. So there is not going to be the "here is what we want, get on and deliver it", which is what I am used to doing, but more incessant interference from someone who doesn't quite understand, and won't leave me alone to get on with it. So if it all goes right, he will take the glory, and if it all goes wrong, I will get the blame. This puts me off from a work point of view. From a personal point of view, I think the DDs will find it difficult with me not being there every weekend, particularly DD2, as she is very good at not getting on with DH. So I would get the added stress of that relationship long distance, which is what I had when I went to Paris on my own, and I seem to remember then that we all thought that me being away for a chunk of time really didn't help the wellbeing of the family.

Sounds very much like a NO MrsS

Can someone remind me of date of next crepey meet so that I can put on calender and dp can ignore

BD, I think it was 25th April

MrsS, it's not looking good for the escape plan

I am just googling Alzheimers info as I am thinking that I'd better be informed for when I go up to DM's. Especially as the fridge-freezer mender man spent another 20mins on the phone to me last night because he is worried about her (she tried to pay him twice for the work, amongst other things) - so lucky he wasn't dodgy.

Hope the sickies are feeling better - Auriga, Mrs S, BD?

MrsS, it's a difficult call but if it is not going to advance you in any of the 3Cs (which I think is inspired BTW and am immediately stealing) and is going to be positively damaging to family harmony, maybe the better choice is to stay put. OTOH it is only 10 weeks, but I suppose that is long enough if things are going tits up a la maison.

BTM, sorry to hear about your mum. My dad has vascular dementia which I think manifests itself differently. Hope you find some info which is reassuring.

Have done fitness and now trying to confirm my lunch date. The friend is am meeting is usually v reliable, but she hasn't replied to my text saying when and where. I wonder if it's still happening, or if I should push off to Bromley instead for a bit of light shopping.

Happy Friday, crepes.

It's the bucketlisty one, BTM - thing is, it's more 'things to do' than 'do this before you die'.

I have also had eyebrows threaded (first thing this morning) and must get the moustache dye out.

In cocktail hour news, I am considering a White Lady later.

ThanksMC - largely on the mend, although could have done with Monday off to fully recupe. Think the cold is making a reappearance though. I guess I'm just run down

Thanks BTM.

Monty, just wanted to say how cheering I found the outcome to your car scrape experience. Likewise, BTM's dm's fridge repair man.
MrsS, sounds as though this job wouldn't be a very uplifting experience for you. Go with the gut feeling.
I know I couldn't leave my crew for more than a day or 2, as even when he tries his best, dh cannot cope. And as I know this, it would be my fault if anything went really badly wrong when I was away. He is simply hopelessly impractical and crap at communicating and has a very poor memory. If it were just him and ds at home in a couple of year's time, I would leave them to it, but at 10, ds is too young at the moment to be left in charge and dd is a loose cannon and a special case.
It is because dd is a special case -and so similar to me that it is painful - that I make great efforts to support her. I did not get any support when I was a teen, quite the opposite, in fact, which is why my anxiety and depression turned me in on myself and I was doing horrendous things to myself by the time I was her age, which had lasting effects on my health, my confidence and my appearance. It is a constant dance with dd to step away at the right moment to encourage independence and self-confidence, but also to stay close enough to break her fall when she loses the plot. Because falling too far and too hard would be dangerous for her. My hope is that she will gradually gain more insight and be able to practise self-care more efficiently and develop better life strategies. I had hit middle age before I managed that. I hope for better for her.

Thanks for new thread, Herbs, and I do second MrsS' next title of Crepril Fools. Vair good.

I am doing really boring housework and it's giving me existential crises. I may go to some charity shoppes in a minute, and do pointless spending on dust-gathering shite.

MI, how about "make a YouTube video and get 100 hits" or summat? "Start a Blog" is too boring, innit? Don't know how desperate you're getting. "Join Meet-Up and go to a meet-up"?

X-post with you, Stropps. And what a brilliant and moving post it was.

Stropps, you are doing so well at supporting your DD

I don't think I could leave mine for much longer than a couple of days either, particularly not in term-time as there is so much going on and DS's blasted football training/matches, etc However, I will see how they get on when I go up to DM's at Easter and DH is not at work.

Oh Stropps. You've gone even further up in my estimation, as if that were possible.

Having a small bit of DM management going on at the moment. A few weeks ago on the phone she mentioned it would be nice to come to ours for lunch, and invite Difficult Brother, as otherwise he lives on biscuits. Literally.

So I suggested a couple of dates, and that I'd ask Dsis which, if any, she could do. There then ensued endless emails asking, again, if we should meet, and are we free, and when, and general highly annoying buggering about. The whole reason for doing things on email is so she has the 'paper trail' to refer to, but now she's taking to starting a new email each time, so that doesn't work. I bit my lip for a while, but in the end did say, at the fifth time of asking 'do we have any dates for meeting up' that 'there's a whole email trail all about it'! Probably not helpful.

It just tweaks my nerves, as she was always so super-organised. And now is mildly losing the plot.

Ahhh, thanks for the props, crepeys. You lot just don't know how valuable you are to me. You've seen me through some difficult times with dd these last few years.
On a different note: I am very offended by autocorrect messing with my apostrophe placement in that last post. "a couple of years' time" was what I wrote. Blardy phone. Or is that apostrophe hyper-correct and it would be better without?
Herbs, that is very tricky with your dm. So difficult when they start going all woolly. And usually blame you for confusing them.
Molly, I now have a vision of an assortment of seniors making unsuitable YouTube videos and sending out the link in a round robin email to all family members.

Sympathy to all coping with difficult teenagers. It does pass, honest.
My DD would have no problem saying, "FGS mother read the fucking emails".
I am making a spicy, middle eastern lamb shank thingy for tonight. My OH made a fresh tomato concasse for me (I hate peeling the bloody things) and I also used some of the chicken stock that he makes, reduces and freezes as ice cubes. Think I am lucky really.

Stropps

I am sorry if I sounded both glib and smug earlier about going away. I think I have a very short fuse with my lot and just need to ESCAPE.

I am writing another feature about video gaming for blind people. Just spent 30 minutes interviewing a bloke who was really keen, really helpful and quite exhausting. I know bugger-all about gaming and unlike many other topics it's not something I feel the urge to investigate.

OTOH have come up with 52 suggestions (need spares in case Difficult Client aka CDiff rejects some).

And I got the leading specialist in his field to read through a feature that I wrote on this topic so am confident I didn't make a total pigs' ear of it.

I have had a surprisingly productive day, writing the draft of my next assignment. We've had to all choose a learner, interview them, and will have to analyse and then write about their writing, reading, speaking and listening. Just the writing bit for the draft. It is in fact very interesting and enjoyable. I'm going to rather miss this course when it's all over.

Off to shop for essentials such as pizza, cat food, milk and wine, then DS's new chum, and his lovely cool mum (with the chef at the spleen place), are coming round after school. I asked chum what his favourite tea was, and thankfully he said pizza, rather than lamb pancreas cooked sous vide, with an anchovy vinaigrette.