Crepey wattle and daub

[herbaceous]

At last! I get to use my thread title.

Over here, my hags.

Ok, now I want a 'like' button.

(currently minding the hamster during his late night perambulations around the kitchen surfaces)

And sorry about the diversion, folks, got a bit carried away.

Morning all. DD1 back today, unbelievably excited. Hoping she doesn't have to work all the time and we can have a some girly lunches and shopping. Meanwhile, better get on and actually make her bed up!

Oh Lalsy hope it gets sorted!
Stropps - go you!

I'm afraid my hand me down go to the boy up the road and ds has been known to pick them up and bring them back by accident

Here it's a funny old week what with all the avoiding, but one of my colleagues is getting married on Saturday so have that to look forward to.plus need to pack for ds going to in-laws....

Well Done Stropps! That's great. The written work is a breeze in comparison to getting the teaching right

Lalsy, that sounds crap for your DD - I thought universities had all this sort of stuff under control? Mind you, when I first started my degree, I signed up to be majoring in Maths, and then when I got there found that Sir Keith Joseph had decreed that he wanted more "generalist" teachers, so the specialism in Maths got dropped in favour of a specialism in "education"

Hope she's not too exhausted Hatty!

BTM - can't believe that - I thought Maths teachers were like gold dust.

Will report back on the state of DD.

Lalsy - hope it gets sorted for your DD.

Ooooh Sir Keith, he was a peach wasn't he? I remember the unions actually being at a loss for words at his pronouncements .

Thanks all. My whole family seems bogged down in bureaucratic incompetence at the moment - I am quite fed up with it.

Crem, sending you and . And congrats to Stropps, and grrr for Lalsy's DD.

The news from Pisskitten Towers is that she shat in the hall last night - I am not sure if this was protest at box not being cleaned last night (it is always changed on a Tuesday) or something more sinister. I do get a bit tired of the house smelling like lemon dettol.

Work is dull. I am wfh today, and currently sitting at dining table with bacon sandwich and large mug of tea.

That's great news stropps …and Herbs you won't have forgotten it all…you have had great feedback…it's just end of term exhaustion, I'm sure.
lalsy the university sounds as though it's cocked up and it will have to find the solution…I'm sure it will…it's just so anxiety provoking for you and your DD to have to wait.
Hatty, enjoy having DD back for the hols. I always used to look forward to DS1 coming back for hols from Leeds…but it didn't last. He rarely got out of bed except to cook fry ups at 3am. I was glad to see the back of him by the time term restarted!
Computer is now sending as well as receiving….lalsy you were kind of right. I hadn't changed the password for both incoming and outgoing mail. But now, the Mac seems to lock me out and I have to use a feckin' password to get into all my settings…of course, I didn't actually have a password in the first place...…so I had to create one using my iTunes password as security before they'd even let me change it…even though there wasn't actually one to change…iyswim I could scream.

DD came home last night to say that Ms Prima Donna "I love you all" in the drama class has decided to change the script AGAIN for the 4th (fourth, iv) time. I am childishly smug to report that Miss Prima Donna "I love you all" got a right royal bollocking from the teacher who has now given the group a script and said that's the one they're going to do. Miss Prima Donna "I love you all" is sulking.

DS has seen the careers adviser at school who says as a boy wanting to do MFL he's in a very good position and should expect to "walk in" to most Uni's …well hardly! He's still got to do A levels. But it's give DS a lift…his mood seems lighter….

Right, time to stop rabbiting. I am going for an MOT with my singing teacher with whom I haven't had a lesson for about 3 years. I've got stage fright!!!

Well done Stropps....comments like that are lovely to receive. Hope you had a good night off.

Sorry to hear about cat poo - not sure I could deal with that every morning....

Off to see lambs being born today. Dd2 has a friend over and we are going to one of my very favourite places in the world. It's a regular sheep farm near here, who open for a month to the public, and everyone gets to hold lambs, chicks and ducklings. All of the money raised goes to a far off church charity they support and there are homemade cakes and lashings of tea. We normally go at least twice in the month that it's open and it is genuinely the thing I look forward to all winter.

dd1 dreamt she got a birthday card from Grayson Perry last night - how weird is that

Crem, sorry to hear about the angst with DD - let's hope when she comes home she can relax (and so can you!). How long will you be in hospital?

Stropps, very well done on your teaching. I hope you enjoyed your quiet evening?

Herbs, DGS 1, who was 4 last month is a Spiderman fan, we haven't got to Star Wars yet. No doubt we will have to get the XWing fighter and Millennium Falcon out of the loft at some time. Yesterday, bless him, he was asking if you have to be a big number before you die. Since we lost the DCat he has become very interested in death.

BD, how is your week going now?

Lalsy, am amazed at the university - how can they do this?

Hatty, am at your girly lunches and shopping - since DD had the DC these are in short supply here.

I hope everyone is feeling better now - my cough is going, which is encouraging. We're off to Whitby tomorrow for my birthday so I had been feeling rather fed up that I might still be hacking.

Beachy, bon voyage!

How is the poorly computer, Rose? I have asked for an ipad mini for my birthday as I use my phone such a lot as I get fed up with the laptop.

Cross post, Rose, glad to hear that the computer is now fine. I get really fed up with passwords.

Rose - I am assuming reasonable wake up times which given her track record is maybe a bit rash.

NU - enjoy Whitby - that's quite a drive for you isn't it? (For some reason I have you perched on the Wall somewhere near to Haltwhistle - although this could be completely wrong).

Oh the whole password thing. And the mac asking 'do you want to add this to your keychain'. What the hell's a keychain? I just say yes to everything, and hope it all works out!

That had also been my strategy for life, but of late I've realised I can say no. For example, one clique from the course is going out on Friday night, as it's the last time the 'part timers' will see the 'full timers'. While it involves karaoke, which I love, it's in Kensington/Bayswater, which will take me hours to get to, I'll need to get a babysitter for about six hours, which will cost too much, and... I don't really want to go! They're all young, all very friendly with each other, and I'd just feel like an auntie along for the ride. So, I'm not going! I shall stay in with Masterchef, a curry and a bottle of wine.

CHARITY SHOP KLAXON: an M&S Autograph cashmere jumper, £4.50. It's a slightly odd shade of lilac, but it was bargain so Must Be Worn.

Hatty, nooo, I live much closer to the Toon than that. I forget that you're "local" - we're actually going to Raithwaite Hall in Sandsend which you probably know - Sandsend, that is. It should take under 2 hours, if the traffic on the Western Bypass is cooperative.

Very easy for me to pop down to the Darlington area for a mini MU when you visit your DPs.

Hatty, this was back in 1983 - were maths teachers in short supply then? Anyway I would have been a primary maths specialist, not secondary for me, oh no thanks!

Rose, karma

Hi lovelies.
Congrats to Stropps for being teaching wunderkind, Rose for battling computer and winning, Hatty for having dd home, Herbs gor saying NO, Mrs S for calm in the face of cat shit etc etc...

My hard work thing I had on this pm was cancelled - hurrah. Am having coffee on my own to celebrate before heading home to menial chores... off to East Angular at the weekend where I hope to see lots of skippy lambs and to eat the odd Lindt Easter Bunny. Really looking forward to it. The whole thing, not just the bunny.

QQ - that sounds like a lovely weekend, enjoy the skippy lambs. I am going to meet a friend at a play farm place on Monday where I haven't been since the dcs were much smaller. She has a 6 yr old, so it's a good place to meet where he can have fun and we can chat, but I am also quite excited about the baa lambs. Although if it's cold like it is today, I may have a bit of a sense of humour failure.

Sir Keith Joseph - that's a name from the past. I seem to remember the Not The Nine O Clock News team being very rude about him.

I am proud to relate that 500 years ago when I was a militant student at a rather left wing University I was part of a very noisy protest against KJ who unwisely came to visit after announcing some particularly swingeing higher education cuts. He got pelted with eggs (not by me!) and we were all on the News. He was particularly loathsome .

Sir Keith, You Are Mad And We Hate You song. I remember that too.

Me too, MI . Great lyrics.

Jealous of all lamb encounters....

QQ, you should be ashamed that you were not an egg pelter

Students were quite militant in the 80's - what has happened to the yoof of today?