Mission Crepe: no surrender

[Collymollypuff]

Here ya go...

Happy birthday, Herbs! Hope you're having a splendid day.

WAF, you're being a lot braver than I would be under those circs. Hope it's not too foul.

Gah, sixth form - don't get me started. I was in Colditz boarding school. 2 years of miserable hard labour with no respite of any sort. I had no recreational excitement until I left home to go to university. My df did not believe in the existence of teenagers. He thought they were a nasty modern invention. You were supposed to go from being seen but not heard to reading improving books in your room to getting a job. As my dps lived in the arse end of nowhere with no neighbours and no public transport, and they got pissed every night and refused to give lifts anywhere, db and I just didn't have lives until we left home.

Happy birthday Herbs, uber-splendid, wonderful birthday and party to you!

WAF, you are being very brave.

Sixth form - I mainly did.....maths and physics. Also gearing up for '4th term', MI, too. I did vaguely think there was probably more fun being had, discovered a bit of it at university, perhaps not quite enough, then started work in jobs that involved long hours. Then my df got ill and that was the end of Yoof. I think my dc have a better balance, even though the coming home after parties/booze etc worries me.

Very Happy Birthday, Herbs.

Sixth form was when I discovered sex & drugs & rock & roll!!

And did not do very well at all in my A Levels.

Plenty fun since - and the discovery of different types of gin, ideal for late-flowerers

Gin...

Oh and I have taken advantage of lovely friend who works at Penhaligons for bath/shower stuff (gin lovers - I recommend the Juniper Sling). Divine.

Sorry to hear of crepeys who didn't have much fun in the Sixth Form and Stropps, that sounds particularly awful.
Although my grammar school was stuck in the 1950's, I did actually enjoy Sixth Form (mostly spent in the Common Room rather than lessons) other than Chemistry which was a bad mistake! But it was the stuff I got up to outside of school which was the best

Happy Birthday Herbs - want to see lots if party photos xx

I loved sixth form in a state sixth form college. Great fun and great teachers.

Quite a few French students who leave here are actually surprised that they have to put the work in at British uni's. They think it's going to be continuous partying and easy compared to France.

Mon Dieu Hatty, they are havin a laugh...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERBS! May the water be reinstated, and flow as gin, your dreams continue to come true and a warm breeze be at your back! ( old Irish Proverb c.2015)

I have,{ whispers} an !!!!!!!!!!!! Interview!!!!!!!!!!!! tomorrow. One is shitting oneself.

Congrats and may continence be with you .

Hattie, that is v reassuring.

crem hold your nerve. This is A Good Thing

Similarly re holding ones nerve hatty I bet you aced it with the kids...or hasn't it happened yet?

Happy Birthday Herbs and I hope you're seeing all the FB messages too! Have a great day
Xxx

Too add to my sixth form memories, I do remember doing a fair bit of bunking off as well. The favourite method was to go to school as usual (tube and bus) and just kind of stay on the bus, sailing past the school to fun places. Camden was a great place to be a teen in the 70s. Sorry yours was so grim stropps , surely you tried to have a bit of fun in secret?

DSis went back across the pond this morning. So took DM out for breakfast after DSis had checked in. She's doing ok. I am now trying to get back into the work loop ...got a class tonight and five hours of it on Saturday. Have rebooked four sessions of writing notes at the theatre which is quite nice as I get to see four performances free, although I shall be scribbling madly in the dark. Just still feeling a kind of heaviness and falling asleep at odd times of the day. Par for the course I expect.

In S&B news I am not a great one for black Monday but Landsend has a great code, so ordered a coat and blue suede ankle boots. 30% off and free delivery. Will link....

in the black

navy suede ankle boots

Happy Birthday, Herbs! Hopefully you are out being lunched, treated and generally cossetted by your nearest and dearest.

Crem - congrats! Knock 'em dead!

WAF- eek, hope it's not too grim. Be brave!

Rose - glad you are back with us again, don't do too much too soon, though. Boots and coat both gorgeous, and will be "useful" I expect.

Sixth form - I was a girly swot at boarding school, also doing "4th term", and also a total hermit in the holidays (parents moved house when I was already boarding, so I never had any "local" friends). Strangely, it never bothered me, and I felt no urge to rebel. I just saved the sex and drugs and rock'n'roll for university

Cremo, that is fantastic news - got everything crossed for you.

Best of luck, Crem!

Nice boots and coat, Rose. Hope you don't feel too wiped out after Saturday - sounds as though it might be gruelling. Re: sixth form - I did my fair share of smoking in secret, but I was too fat to squeeze into the cool secret smokers' area Also, my strong dislike of gin dates from my 18th birthday, celebrated very pukily. I had no idea drinking lots of alcohol made you sick. Apart from that, not much secret 'fun' - and I still have nightmares about being back in boarding school. Real, proper, hideous, sweaty nightmares. I did rebel hugely when I went to university, though. And nearly got booted out in the second year.

My sister still can't drink vodka...

Cremo, fantastic - do you want to say what it is for? Much power to your elbow anyway.

I should say I absolutely loved my sixth form, all those sums . Looking back, am not so sure...

Rose, good idea on easing yourself back in - routine helps I think.

Ah Rose, may we all sail past the school to fun places

Crem best of flaming luck tomorrow.

Endoscopy was grim but coped. Will spare you the details. And the high res colour photos. I have a sore throat.

So today, crepies, just now, my literary agent of 3 months standing made the very first of my literary submissions to a publisher! I believe the word 'squee' might cover it. Weirdly, it's not the novel I've been writing on and off since 2012, but actually the first 3,000 and synopses for a proposed children's book series (they would be 20,000 words per book). This all came from meeting a childrens pub in Sept who said 'pitch me your kids ideas.' So I had some and he liked this one. It's been an utter joy so far and writing in the first person as an 8 year old girl is delicious. If you have any fingers spare, could you cross them a little bit please.

Ooh WAF, if you need any trying out of the books, I'm your woman How exciting!

Got 'em all firmly crossed, WAF. Wowsers, that really is fab. Now I am cross that I will not have any dcs young enough to sample these upcoming delights.

Ladies. Having a lovely birthday so far. After a rather down-market morning - spent at the Post Office, Poundland and charity shop - I met some dear pals for lunch. One of them presented me with an orange Hermes bag, and in it was this beauty. It's incredibly light, and very lovely.

My other friend took me to Gill Wing Jewellery, with a budget of £300, for which I chose three separate necklaces, all with a 'space' theme - one with a little silver rocket, one with an agate 'planet' with a gold ring around it, and one bronze and gold ball in a cage. I didn't know what I wanted until I got there, and these leapt out at me.

Lovely lunch at Trullo, with much wine. Now home and about to open the parcels in the hall.

WAF - this commission is surely the reward for being a brave solider in your endoscopy.

My lower sixth - I got my first boyfriend, and spent the whole year with him, being nauseating. Also discovered cinzano, and that too much of it causes unconsciousness in youth club toilets. I still can't drink it. Not least because it's disgusting.

Lovely coat and boots Rose. Your Saturday sounds gruelling.

Crem - good luck - got everything crossed for you.

Herbs - I'd forgotten about cinzano - I used to love that (although it never made me unconcious.)

My, what generous and lovely friends you have, Herbs! But it's good to hear you still managed to squeeze in a bit of charity shop scavenging on such an important day.

SQUEEE indeed, WAF. Bit confused by the sore throat - don't they go in via the other end? Or am I confusing endoscopy with something else entirely?

Psst - CV, I think you're thinking of a colonoscopy.

My charity shop pop yielded rich fruit, in the shape of a truly hideous, and thus perfect, kaftan too for tomorrow night. I shall tram it with leggings. Pop socks, crocs, fake tan and my wig. And turban.

And yes. I am feeling very blessed with my friends. If I've got this far, and managed to acquire and hold on to so many lovely people. I must be doing something right.