Maybe Yes, Maybe No, May Be Crepey

[QueenQueenie]

Unilateral decision... No space for consultation. Call me Dave...

Hatty, that sounds like more positives than negatives. When do you have to reply?

Well done, Stropps, it sounds really positive. And Hatty, I should go for it; when the DC get to this age I do think that you need to think about your own future, too. On DH's op, it involved wires and balloons - and they go in through either the wrist or groin to work on the heart!

Off to the dental hospital this morning for, hopefully, my last appointment, and then to the hairdresser this afternoon to have my highlights done. I have belatedly decided to buy the lime green cardigan from Next - must do the order. And whilst I am in Newcastle this morning I want to investigate Rieker (sp?) shoes as somebody has told me how comfortable they are. Anyone else tried them?

Go Stropps!

NU, say hello to DP if you pass him .

MrsS, cocktails are practically a health food, being full of fruit. I know this because I am a health journalist.

Hatty, take the job, I think.

Definitely healthy MrsS.

NU, your day sounds nice, treat yourself.

Hatty, how do you feel about the job apart from the FT/PT bit? Is it what you would really like to do long-term? If so, I think go for it too.

NU - sounds a nice treat to get your hair done after the dental hospital. I coloured my hair this morning to hide the grey and have as usual missed a bit! Next time salon!

Re job - thank you all for your support. I think I will go for it - it's not exactly high powered but after the gap I've had owing to being in France and small children I'm just happy to have something. I do like working with primary age children. Also it's school hours so reasonable and with holidays. No guarantee I can get it though - but am seeing the Directrice on Tuesday.

Dashing in briefly to pat Stropps on the back…you now have a foot in the door and this will yield results. Go you.

NU keen to hear the results of your Rieker investigation…always on the trail of comfort but not frump in a shoe… Hope DH is doing well.

I do not recommend fruit juice for dieting…
preferring to pickle my insides with diet coke

I am off to a posh charity lunch in a posh West End hotel….Doreen Lawrence is the speaker. I am wearing my new Mistral dress but have to wear boots on account of the crappy weather instead of the red heeled courts I'd planned. Still it doesn't look bad and have put my Next grey jacket on for warmth. Hope I don't arrive like a drowned rat with frizzy hair…This is very likely

Have a good lunch Rose.

NU - so glad your DH is through the other side of this and feeling good.

Mrs S, I laughed at the idea of your cat's 'deliberates' not accidents.

Stropps, the vouching of someone who is well thought of is a brilliant and copper bottomed thing. Sounds really good.

I'm linking arms with Beachy and Hatty on the tricky DD2 front. Mine argues the toss about EVERYTHING. I will have to ask advice another time. Meanwhile I've saved BTM's spiel to keep up my sleeve. Self appraisal is a good thing to try... Mine is the sister of a DD1 who is fairly pliant, reasonable and charming (although she has some spectacular moments, obvs) - is there a pattern with Mini Beachy and Hattie's big sisses?

BTW, NU, I note that it's true, then, the way to a man's heart really is through his....

Rieker shoes are very comfy NU!

Beachy - my administrator advocates the 'set your own punishment' and frequently finds her son is harder on himself than she'd be! - she doesn't promise to use the punishment she just asks him what he thinks is appropriate.

Hatty go for it!

Here ds is knackered - exams, sailing, birthdays, growth spurt, all taking its toll

Rose - enjoy the posh lunch

Hatty - go for it!

NU - the sandals Herbs very kindly sourced for me on my recent "blue sandal" thread were Rieker. Unbelievably comfortable, which is a rarity with my rubbish feet - and look nice too.

Well, I've booked a vet consultation for Chubby Hamster for this afternoon (I think she has a sunflower seed stuck in the side of her mouth) - £27 + treatment. Ker-chinggg.

Then, as I was dropping the DCs at school this morning I felt the car pulling to the left, so limped to Kwikfit and walked to work in the rain. New tyre needed. Ker-CHINGGG. Just wondering what else is going to have a claim on my wallet today.

However, DS has just texted from an all-day inter-schools athletics tournament in Kingston. He's made the 100m final!

MrsS, cocktails are part of your 5-a-day

Rose, charity lunch sounds fab!

Hatty, good luck!

Well done CV's DS! He must be fast

Word - middle child?

My argumentative one is bottom child, or precious last born

Oh no Beachy- don't tell me I have two argumentative ones to go then. Precious last born is the only male - and still reasonably pleasant not having yet fully hit adolescence.

2nd of two, Hatty. Bang goes that theory

Beachy, when your dd2 is prime minister, she won't have to take instructions from anyone

My younger one was more boundary-pushing than the older one at home. He still is, but now it's mainly at school

I do have quite a few friends whose older children are "easier" than the younger ones.

DD is very oppositional…it seems to have fallen into a way of life…i almost expect it. Nil desperandum…these are the girls who will grow up to make a difference….

Yay for DS CV

I am back…a bit bedraggled. Naice lunch. Excellent work of a wonderful charity to hear about. Doreen Lawrence …well the content of her speech was very interesting, but the delivery…. …hesitant, a bit inarticulate. Public speaking doesn't suit everyone, does it…she's still an admirable woman. What is is about a room full of women that makes them start braying like donkeys after a while?

Were your 'naughty' children always that way inclined? DS is ridiculously 'good', to the point of being a big of a prig. He is currently outraged that he is the only boy to line up correctly after playtime, and that the whole class gets punished, or that some boys talk in assembly, and feels injustice very keenly. Whenever he does clubs the first thing the teacher will say is how well-behaved he is. I worry he's a) too compliant, and b) he'll turn into a total bastard in his teens.

DD2 has always been fiery and DD1 by comparison is much more reasonable and helpful. DS is another who gets outraged at rule flouting - I really do not know how he's going to shape up as a teenager. He can seem a right old woman sometimes.

DH - has gone on a work trip to Greece where it is 30° compared to the torrential downpours we are having here. I am left with DD2 and DS who came down to eat, ate,hardly spoke and then retreated back up to their lairs. I feel quite rejected sometimes.

Herbs, my ds was also ridiculously good and a complete teacher's pet and has always been super-compliant in comparison to his sister, who has always been a firebrand and keen to plough her own furrow in a completely different direction to everyone else. I can, however, see signs that ds's compliance is now wearing off. Dh wearily said last weekend that he is fed up with fixing doors. He has just fixed dd's door back on it's hinges and now he and ds have to fix the kitchen door where ds got in a rage with dd and kicked the catflap (remnant of previous house owners) out of the door. I fear my dcs have inherited my bin-bashing tendencies.
Dog now amuses himself by putting his head through the catflap hole and wagging his tail. Nitwit.
This morning I woke up from a nightmare, shouting loudly, "I have done the cleaning and I have done the washing." Ddog jumped on the bed to soothe my nerves by huffing in my ear and dh said, "I had no idea you were so stressed about cleaning." Well, neither had I.
I have to invigilate tomorrow and I don't want to. I have another massive assignment to get done for Tues and a bunch of resources to prepare and I do not wish to spend all day staring at teenagers. Then again, I can pop into the SEN dept at some point in between exams and ask the SENCo if she's still prepared to let me work with some Y9s (she said she would when I saw her in the autumn). Trying to cover all my bases - KS1- KS3...

Soz about rogue apostrophe. its, ffs.

Hatty, good luck with the TA job, btw!

Rose, glad the lunch went well.

BTM, how is dd bearing up?

CV, how's the hamster?

Dd2 was an articulate non tantrumming 2year old. Thoroughly reasonable. Then from about age 5-8 teachers mentioned having to wrest control of the class from her . Now she's just v oppositional at home and absolutely won't talk about she feels about anything which is a big worry to me and the opposite of dd2.

Nil desperandum, Rose. You're right x