Crepe Fear!

[GiddyGiddyGoat]

Ta Da.

Crem that does sound quite awful. So sorry

Good luck to Hatty's DD...three Uni's in one visit is amazing. Tilly DS2 did half and half...some with us, and some on his own. I think I only did one with DS1....and I suspect that some of the ones he allegedly did alone..he never actually got there and had a grand day out instead. I did all mine alone...

Wish you better MrsS...it must be a real drag to start a new job feeling several degrees under but I doubt anyone's noticed. You are wowing them with your amazingness.

Beachy Good luck with DDad's skin results . BTW all things being equal, I am likely to be back down to the coast next week between Mon and Fri if you fancy breakfast....

MI I am completely intrigued by your Great grandmother...I think laudenum addiction was quite common in those days...

I have had a morning working feverishly on the final draft of the script. I am quite pleased with our additions. A whole extra scene plus some excellent tweaks to certain story lines. I am teaching this afternoon so a day with some useful activity. I have also sent invoices to the theatre having finished teaching a course ( amazing how much better they're treating me because I am no longer a volunteer...take note Herbs) plus another one for my home- based classes. Few quid I suppose....

In the other bit of my brain...you know the bit reserved for traumas and sadness, I am trying to process having to write the DNR/ forms last night for DDad...DM didn't actually want to pen it herself, or DSis. It's awful. You know it's necessary and compassionate but feel like you're kind of wearing the executioners hood.

I maybe should add DD is not alone - she's with her friend - so hopefully they should find an ounce of common sense between them.

Crem - sounds totally crap but do fight for your rights.

Rose - I wish there was some way we could all grow old gracefully without having to fall apart.

Oh Rose, what a responsibility . I'm so dreadfully sorry.

MI also intrigued by dggm. She sounds like she enjoyed an unusual life in Interesting Times.

Hello again crepeys! I've not been far away but took advantage of what is purportedly the last fine day to mow the field lawn. Have been reading over the elderly parents thread recommended by BigTillyMint for nuggets of wisdom, and they are as lovely as you! MrC has a man-migraine and the C'Hound is dozing gently in the sun. Am trying to muster enthusiasm for my reading task but it's a translated novel in Word for a friend in publishing, and I have lost my place about 200 pages in so it is going to take time to find where I was. Quite good though, I have already said as much.

Hi, sorry you're having a crap time, Crem. I recognise the feeling that it would be a relief to stop fighting but it sounds as though you should hold out for the last shred of your rights.

Rose, well done for wielding the pen. Are you the big sister?

I've had a hideous couple of days feverishly editing a Serious Incident Inquiry report, all flung at me in a mashed-up, garbled state yesterday morning for delivery today. Looked up from it briefly to go to a brilliant chamber concert of DD's last night, only an hour long but hugely cheering & uplifting. Today stopped for long enough to take DM to a hearing aid appt, which was incidentally a tour of glorious trees dressed in gorgeous autumn golds and reds

We truly are the sandwich generation. Or more like the club sandwich, caught between aging parents, demanding offspring and attempting to have a career while being squeezed from all angles. A problem men don't seem to have. As much.

Another day volunteering today, and managed to get a cup of tea. And some lunch. Another frustration, I don't have a 'base', so have to leave my bag/coat/bike helmet in whichever office is handy. And which inevitably gets locked meaning I can't retrieve bag/coat/bike helmet. And get email passcode, so I can read reports on children I'm supposed to be helping. And finding out what language they speak, so I can get relevant dictionaries. From rooms which are also inevitably locked.

I can indeed ask, but everyone's so busy and rush rush rushing everywhere and I look like a tool.

I now have quite a lot of work. I am not entirely clear when I am going to get it all done. It helps that quite a lot of my students appear to regard their assignment as optional. Or they tell me they've been ill, in a manner that suggests I will be even remotely bothered about this (I'm not inhuman, obviously if someone is actually properly ill this counts, but three weeks in a row????)

Herbs, I really get that. I volunteered in a school once and it was just like that. I like my current volunteering set up as a big emphasis is placed on teabags, keys and where to leave stuff. Surprisingly important, makes you feel welcome - but we have FT staff member specifically to manage us and tell other staff about us.

Rose, it is hard. When my df was dying, there was no question of a DNR but no question of resus either - time and forms change, but the basic principles are the same?

Crem, I agree with Auriga. Really hope you get resolution soon and new dit is at least bearable (talk about managing expectations ).

MI, how fascinating. Have you her name? I wonder if there are any records anywhere?

Somebody once asked what I found to do all day now I'm not gainfully employed.... "I am the oil that keeps the machine working." You all seem to juggle magnificently with much more complicated lives. It gives me hope! Between aging parents, unappreciative employers, and self-centred DC (not a gripe this; we are all self-centred, until we are parents) women just grit their teeth and hang on for dear life.

Herbs, I like the club sandwich analogy

I am not going to moan about feeling tired - just remembered the NDN will be coming round with his building plans and DH will be acerbic which will be awkward and I need to shower/bath/wash my hair before going out...

Herbs, the last time I worked in a place that didn't give me a set of keys, I got on someone's case about it reminded them that keys would make me more efficient twice a week until the third week. Then I stood in the lobby and politely offered to go home unless the keys were forthcoming. Lo, keys were found for me & for a colleague who had been without them for three years

In rubbish news, DH put some of it & some recycling out for collection last night. He then left the empty bins out all day so, as often happens, I had to stop the car in the road, get out and put them away before I could get back into the drive after the hearing appointment. I asked him why he hadn't put the other bin out. He said he didn't think about it.

I'm being subjected to a sustained PA attack by someone I'm meant to appraise. The e-mails go like this:

Me: Please could you send me a selection of potentially suitable dates for the appraisal?
Her: Next Wed in Timbuktu? (unreasonably short notice btw)
Me: Sorry, that's outside my area. Please let me know when you will be working in London, Kent or Surrey. I am available on (list of dates)
Her: The day after tomorrow? (not one of the dates on the list)
Me: Sorry can't be available then. Here is another long list of dates.
Her: First of those dates in Timbuktu?

I do not have a good feeling about this.

Oh, Auriga. Grin at Timbuktu and

BD - you sorted out your wardrobe. What excellent self-care. Straight to top of Sister Auriga's self-care.

Pilates. So tired. Meerkat wake up in night for two hours....

Cresset you are very nice to us all, thankyou.

List. Her list. Sister's list.

Auriga, EVERYONE I have emailed to interview saying 'any day except Wednesday' has responded with 'how about Wednesday?'

< S&B Klaxon >

I've just seen these beauties, reduced to £45. Phwoar.

at Timbuktu list. I don't think people read emails any more, not properly. Can people still read?

I'm crepe-ing in!!!

And the boots are memorable!

I'm crepe-ing in!!!

And the boots are memorable!

Whoopsie! double post. Pilates teacher on holiday for a fortnight so the brain-fascia connection has lapsed disastrously.

Hamster has turned up!!!

Newbie still here. Keeping up, sort of. Like the club sandwhich. I like to think of times when it is all a bit much as a "stack attack" i.e. each thing on its own is sort of manageable but a few together is a different proposition.

MI's opium addict great grandmother story reminded me of being at a family wedding in the summer.

My slightly younger cousin (but in her forties) says, "amazing that great aunt H killed her husband by pushing him off a cliff but got away with it because he was having an affair."
Me - gives slightly older cousins a hard stare and accuse them of embellishing the truth to entertain themselves whilst doing endless babysitting of younger cousins while the adults got drunk (1970s).
My mum confirms that great aunt H actually drove OW around, threatening to kill them both by driving into a wall.
Then my Aunty chips in with, "Our cousin T murdered Mrs G (v famous star) by accidentally overdosing her with morphine in a nursing home because she didn't have proper nursing qualifications."
Poor younger cousin looked very confused

Presumably alive, MI, and not in pieces next to a smug cat?

God that is most intriguing. All my relatives seem to have been quite bonkers in many different ways, including the (Indian) one in about 1820 who translated the Old Testament into epic Tamil verse.

The hamster was actually by his own cage, trying for a swig of water. We picked him up in a towel and slung him back in. The truly bizarre thing is that the cat looked on imperturbably. They've all been in the same room for days.

That is so sweet, MI. He went back to his own home for a drink of water. Bless.

Aww, poor little thirsty rodent. And soppy cats. Hooray for a happy ending!

Well done on slogging on with nasty germs through the first challenging days of your new job, MrsS. I can report that a month on from going down with the Vile Cold, it is still hanging around. Not that I want to depress anyone or anything.

I have suddenly got lovely and interesting work possibilities in the pipeline, partly thanks to a Crepey and partly thanks to my visit to a Very Nice School last week. There may be developments in the coming days...

I have spent the last 3 days struggling with documents that were sent for "reviewing", after they were translated by native German nitwits. Now I have a headache. And I don't get headaches very often.
'What is this stupid "e.g." that these British write instead of "for example"? Meh, we will just use the logical "f.e." instead, as that is clearly what these idiotic British should be writing.'

Will catch up with everything on thread tomorrow.