Though She Be Crepey, She Is FIERCE!

[QueenQueenie]

Ta Da!

Oh Rudy. So sorry re ears.

Can you send an out of office reply?

I want to have my ears double-pierced but as I've taken up swimming again I'm going to wait till October when I'm teaching and will probably be happier to reschedule exercise while I panic about the stuff I don't know.

Rudy - you need medical help with earrings.

Mrs S - are you coming back to Paris (excited).

Commiserations to all those with DH's with job problems. Mine has gone back to work today and reverted, almost immediately, to his normal stressy self. Might go and see Pitch Perfect 2 with DD 2 today.

Rudy, I'd go to a piercing place and ask them for advice. They deal with things like that all the time and should have the right tools and skills to sort out the prob.

MrsS, do you want the job?

Well done on the smear appointment, Herbs.

Enjoy the last day of your hols, BD. Sorry you had to still be embroiled in all the work stuff whilst away.

HB to Mr MI.
Crem, fingers crossed that your dd will make it back for your party.
Rose, hope you are continuing to have some R&R in the secret garden.

Here, the weather is unexpectedly crap this morning. Am waiting for dd to say a definitive Yay or Nay to doc's appointment. Appointment is booked for tomorrow, but she initially said she wouldn't go as is perfectly fine. Then last night she said she would think about it. For the last few days I have also been juggling seeing my db and his "delightful" offspring. One day of them I can manage. 3 days, not so much.

I am pondering an electric toothbrush as have very stained teeth - do I get a circular or up and down motion Crepeys - the problems I have[confu.

Hatty - circular. They are fab (and clean way better than you can with a manual)

I agree with BD - circular.

I have a circular one. When I remember to charge it up.

In career news, I have registered with a teaching agency, which seems to think I'd be super-qualified to teach literacy/EAL intervention in both primary and secondary schools! I'm not so sure, but hey! How hard can it be! [sarcasm]

Ohh - everybody has one - obviously I'm behind on this - thanks Crepeys - will go and buy circular oral b thingy this afternoon.

Sounding good on the career front Herbs - I do imagine secondary being very scary.

I don't want to teach whole classes of scary teenagers - just do one-to-one or small group work for those with literacy needs. Thus also not having to get embroiled in planning/politics. Or not too much, anyway.

As I am very Crepey at the moment, I can't remember if I answered your Q re: new business, Herbs. I'm just setting up as a 1:1 tutor for students requiring extra literacy stuff (because of 'dyslexic tendencies' or whatever). Will be starting in the last week of August. The teaching agency I registered with tried to send me to do supply as a class teacher in a primary school, despite my having told them very firmly that I am not in any way qualified to do that, so I'm not impressed with them at the moment. Also their grasp of geography appears a bit poor - they sent me a notification last week about a job in Andover.

So, anyway, I'm doing my own thing and will also be volunteering and working alongside the specialist SpLD teacher at the local middle school for one day a week from the beginning of next term to get experience (and some form of current reference).

No ladyjogging here. Feel lazy.

Having said that, the admin office has been empty all morning so every time the door buzzer goes I have to sprint the length of the office to let people in. People sitting at desks just outside the admin office have hearing problems, apparently.

YY to Oral B toothbrush, Hatty. Amazon is the best source of cheap brush-heads (just make sure you get the genuine ones, not the knock-offs, which jam/fall apart/fail to actually get the grot off your teeth).

I've got a freebie new Oral B I blagged. V fetching. Charges up through a USB port. I'm slightly terrified of it.

I must try these turbo charged toothbrushes.....

Good luck to herbs and stropps with continued efforts on the work front.
And MrsS.... Weren't you at that point a few months ago...about taking a post overseas...?
Rudy wot Stropps said about your earrings. Or a good jeweller. Dunno whether a quick shot of WD40 would do the trick....although you'd end up smelling like a chemical plant for a month.... sorry, unhelpful

I have not made it back to my secret garden, alas. We did a trip along the coast to Villefranche where DH and I had a particularly romantic day around 20 years ago....avant DC, avant le marriage..... It was lovely and we even found the restaurant we'd eaten in. BUT....the heat...reader, it was too, too much. We are now referring to the trip as a Death Valley experience. Two sweaty bus rides later we are back in Nice and there is a welcome breeze. A few lengths of the pool and I feel better. I am slowly realising that I'm not the girl I was.

Packing to night for tomorrow's transfer to Monte Carlo just for two nights and the back to Blighty on Friday.

I must say I do realise we will have some STONKING heat and that I must take some Indian-style coverings to protect skin when we're out for solid chunks of time. V appropriate, trotting round the Alhambra in churidar kurta.

Stropps, piercings shop advice is suggestion of great brilliance just don't come out with more than you went in...

Oh. My. Back. I am broken. Got a bit carried away with the front garden and dug up a load of periwinkle (which is an utter bastard), laid a membrane, planted plants and poured out six bags of stones.

I too can't be doing with too much heat. Or cold. Anything between 18 and 25 deg is perfect. Outside that, I'll be moaning about something.

Herbs - I am impressed - I am a very lazy gardener, so well done you.

I found the heat in the South of France intolerable recently and the UK was frankly a blessing. Back in Paris it is about 30 and still feels relatively cool compared to the beginning of the month. Also when it's too hot my face always goes bright red and shiny - obvs because I'm a lady of a certain age.

DD1 gone to the bus stop to say goodbye to her BF. She's going to be teary and bad tempered tonight. I'm going to miss having him around - such a shame they're in different countries but each must pursue their separate studies and career. It's just I do feel he's one of the few decent men on this planet.

I'm not usually that keen, hatty. The front garden has needed doing ever since we moved in nine years ago! What I really need to tackle is the ever-growing fig tree in the (tiny) back garden. When we moved in it was about 10ft tall, and rather scenic, and now it's about 25ft tall, and far too big for the garden.

Crepeys, I can't keep up!

Am also feeling of your hot hols as we are now in windy Welly. It was also raining yesterday. At least we are warm and dry at our lovely friends house and the ferry crossing was calm, amazingly. DH reckons he saw dolphins in the Malborough Sounds, DD is gutted that she didn't.

Herbs (and others) the play doh ear plugs are the biz We are currently all staying in our friends' Rumpus Room (converted garage) which has a really comfortable pull - down bed (who'd have known?), so the plugs are a god - send.

Herbs, well done on the agency and garden. I do love a bit of pruning.

Rudy, get help from the GP- the longer you leave it... DH has got to take DD to the docs as she seems to have an infected stye or something on her eyelid. Then we are off seal - spotting!

Rose give me your heat over the miserable 9 degrees plus howling winds any day. Have a great time in MC. Swanky!!

Had a particularly unswanky day, cleaning out the coal shed and greenhouse. Oh the junk we have accumulated. I feel a trip to the dump recycling centre is due. Have to be careful not to come home with more stuff than I went with.
Herbs your extreme weeding sounds cathartic.

MI, how's your mum? I think your idea of wearing a silk Kurta in the Andaluz heat sounds eminently sensible. S&B icon!

Cremo, it's 9 degrees here atm, but supposed to get up to 13/15

Clearing out stuff is good. Be ruthless

Ruthless is my name BTM ! I am just a bit afraid of Dh asking me where stuff has gone to at some point. He's the kind of man who always has a use for a broken rotary blade or cat carrier without a door. Meh!

I need to do more of that, Crem. Ruthless cleaning..... We are both hoarders in our own special way, me with paperwork and him with useless bits of machinery.

He has done two days at the crappy job, miles away, and is coming to the conclusion that it's tiring and not really what he wants. I would like to state now, that I had this premonition, with Crem, over a large bottle of wine, after the QQ meet up!

It will all sort itself out, I'm sure.

I managed to leave work early, only to find London Bridge closed, so I left work at 5.50 and got home at 9.10pm! Still I'm off next week as ddad has an operation to take a cancerous lump off from under his eye, a delicate area when you have minimal sight.....

How annoying Beachy.
Hope your DDads op goes well.

DH took DD off to the GP this morning - came back spluttering that it had cost 100 dollars to get her seen plus prescription for the "recurring stye" on her upper lid. Not quite the same as our NHS!

Went for a long walk round the coast to spot some seals this morning and saw loads. Got as close as 3 metres from one!
We have been having a right old laugh with our friends, particularly over the old photos. The DC can't believe that DH had curly dark brown hair 25 years ago. And some very dubious fashion choices