Crepey wattle and daub

[herbaceous]

At last! I get to use my thread title.

Over here, my hags.

Finally found thread. I actually want new bright trainers for gym but will stick to low converse for walking around in summer. Don't understand why people have to be rude for no apparent reason - obv brought up with no manners

Lalsy it can't be depressing to have more energy - although I see where you're coming from with the alcohol. We are trying not to drink during the week - I blame DH for always twisting my arm with "just a glass of wine".

No danger of that with DS, Lalsy - just had another call from the school - not quite managed a term without calls home

Well, BTM, we don't want to be scanning the skies for pigs do we, if all these once in a decade events happen in the same week!

I agree, Hatty. Thought you dealt with it well, Herbs.

I like all the trainers, too, Herbs. I have been looking in a lazy kind of way, but I know I will have to be proactive soon. Did you flap your lashes at the lecturer? (And on that subject DGD2, who will be 2 in May, flirts outrageously at times - anyone else's DDs do this when they were little? Her DM did it, too, when small - thankfully not for long).

I liked the idea of the Oceanography trip - it sounds really interesting.

It has been glorious sunshine here and the washing has been dried on the line for a change. I think it will be cloudy tomorrow so the eclipse will be a non event.

Rose, sorry to hear about the problems with DD and school. The staff sound as if they have been very remiss.

I do love the sheer variety of subjects on our threads. So far on this one, we have:

Lesbetarian Longings in Colonial India
South East Asian Brothels
Difficult Teens
Annoying Husbands
Brightly Coloured Trainers
School cliques
Teachers (Difficult and Lovely)
Holidays
Fillums

I have discovered that nit lotion removes all the colour from your hair and am currently looking rather unattractively skewbald. Think I might go blonder again, and will put this in the hairdresser's hands rather than attempt it myself.

Absolutely MrsS. Have you decided about that job yet?

I didn't go for it Lalsy, but sent them a nice email, and offered my services, should they need someone for a shorter stint. They said they may well do.

Your job offer reminded me of my first year in banking in the blue one with the eagle, when 'Level 2 cashiers' could apply for a summer in Jersey, Bournemouth or various other seaside resorts. Those who applied and won were put up in a whole hotel where there were a lot of the third 'C' going on and the stories in September were fantastic.... this was the late 80's. Not sure yours would be as much fun, Mrs S......

We are living through the anxiety of changing schools here from ds. It's OK but slightly on a knife edge and I just need him to be there now. It's taking management, that's all I can say. DH doesn't have quite the same approach to stress that I do, shall we say!

Sorry, too many 'shall we say's! sorry.....

Major meltdown from travelling friend (and morning lift) tonight. Too boring to explain, but I don't want to feel beholden so dp will have to get up and drop me, and I will bow out gracefully. Ho hum....

Have proposed to DS that he take the colander to school to see the eclipse. He was not impressed.

Will you see it in Paris, hattymattie? Very cloudy here at the mo.
Have finally bitten the bullet and ordered satellite broadband. Half a mg is just pathetic and my Guardian takes 10 minutes to download (twenty at the weekend). When you greet your neighbours' arrival with dread because you know they will steal most of your bandwidth it is time for change. We have ordered 20 gig a month so GDs will have to have a limit imposed when they visit.
Must remember never to use the word megabyte in France. Snigger.
The only thing I know about brothels is that we once passed one in La Mancha called "Mary Poppins".

Hatty It is completely overcast here ATM, sun forecast for after lunch

BD, that sounds like a whole MN thread - time for a NC?!

Spoke too soon about DS, he was proper down after training back at his old team last night - the reality of being released finally hit him. Hopefully he will bounce back for Sunday - they are have a v big match.

Stropps glad DDs trip was good, a welcome oasis from plodding back and forth to lessons I guess. Don't worry about the meeting…the info about UCAS is easy to come by. I have to shamefully admit I'm bored by school meetings and send DH to most of them. bad mother I just go to the music concerts which are at least enjoyable.

to Beachy re school transfer and Tilly re bloody phone calls and other teen/footie related traumas.

BD did said companion have a melt down directed at you ? I think we'll have to know the details. Are you ok?

Good move EA you need decent broadband one way or another.

I feel tired and achey this morning…I went to collect a referral letter from the GP earlier this week (for my painful ankles ) and it wasn't ready!! It's funny not funny at all, actually how you wake up one morning and realise you live with chronic pain. Taking lalsy's point, I have a feeling wearing trainers daily will go a long way to help…aaargh, I don't want to completely give up on lovely shoes.

Overcast in Paris too - although the weather forecast was glorious sunshine. Still, at least I won't get yelled at for failing to buy the glasses.

Rose about sore ankles. It is very frustrating when a problem could be addressed much more quickly without a administrative blunders.

EA - apparently one of our neighbours was stealing our Free broadband as the debit suddenly got very weak. DH phoned Free who confirmed this was the case and gave DH a new frequency to switch to thus locking them out. No problems since.

Off to school meeting now and then friend for coffee.

MrsS, sounds good!

Beachy, that sounds very stressful. I think it is very hard for children to wait like that.

Rose, I know. I've always had great clodhoppers so never loved shoes but still......Yesterday I did a day of my volunteering - which involves standing for hours - wearing new trainers (addle helped me buy them ) - and felt so much more energetic than last time, when I was wearing very sensible, decent quality, low-heeled boots with insoles. It is great having more energy though.

BTM, it is tough this club lark, hope he is OK.

Beachy hope it all gets sorted soon - waiting is always the worse bit.

BTM - sure he'll be fine, nature really that he should be disappointed.

Yes said meltdown was at me, as I say long and really boring, but I suspect means I will have to sit in a different carriage of the train from now on as I dont want to be beholden. I felt it was a tad over the top and unnecessary, but it's complicated by other factors. Sometimes you just have to walk away.

I have decided to take the day off and loaf......

Happy Friday all

I hope the DSs are both ok, BTM and Beachy.

A funny day here - neither cloudy or sunny, so I am not sure what we will see of the eclipse. I, too, am going out with a colander, Hatty. I remember the last one as I didn't follow the directions well and ended up with an image of the sun sort of burned into my vision for half an hour or so.

I seem to have woken up with a cough this morning - no idea where that came from.

That sounds grim, BD. Enjoy your day at home, whatever you have to do.

I somehow didn't realise about the eclipse until yesterday, so haven't really thought about watching it. DS's school hasn't said anything about it, so no doubt they'll be corralled in assembly, being told about God, while missing the natural phenomenon outside.

I think thoughts about B(BHE) prof have been infiltrating my subconscious. I had some mental dreams last night: one involving being the long-term, secret, mistress of Alan Johnson. During one of our forced times apart, he sent me a message on a sign towed behind a plane.

Herbs your dreams are always so creative!

I saw the last partial eclipse so won't be rushing out with my colander - not sure we are in the right place to see it anyway.....

BD, that does sound grim. Hope you have a relaxing day today.

Beachy, DH and I are also mismatched when it comes to stress and emotional stuff. And it is a stressful time for your DS.

Herbs, how weird is that?! My dreams generally centre around my family and close friends, sometimes involving friends from the past but never politicians or celebs!

The 1999 eclipse was something like 99% here and I was on top of the local Iron Age hillfort with the druids. And a lot of other people. It was cloudy, dark and mighty spooky. Dd was in her pushchair and my old dog was with us too and he started shivering and muttering to himself. But that was probably because he got cold and bored. Plus I'm not sure he approved of the druids, who were wearing furs, banging drums and chanting.

I was nursing DD who was a teeny tiny newborn at the last eclipse, whilst DH was decorating around me - we had just moved house. I remember it going very dark!

We moved house the day before dd's first birthday, so she would have been 13 months at the last eclipse. And db (who was then still a scruffy phd student, I think) and his gf and two of their disreputable friends came to stay. The house was a complete tip, as we were also engaged in deep cleaning/decorating.
That was also the day that I found out that my then-MiL, who had stayed with us a day or two before, had a habit of using a chamber pot during the night and then tipping the contents into whatever receptacle she could find in the room she was staying in, whether it be a plant pot or an empty vase. I later found out that she did this even if you put her in a room 4 steps from the nearest loo. Ah happy days. Not.