All I Want For Crepemas Is Youth

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Phew

Hatty, I once made the entire family stand in the bathroom while I gave them a loo- cleaning tutorial. I can state that in the many months (years?) since, dh once cleaned the loo and then went on about it like he needed a medal, and neither of the dcs has ever bothered. I recently told ds I will fine him 50p for "poor aim". This has worked.

Molly, just seen yr message re: FB - yes, yes, please do send me a friend request. I am just a view of West Country greenery, I think.

Stropps - I did the tutorial too with similar results. Hadn't thought of the fine though. Will instigate immediately 50centimes here though.

RIP David Bowie. At my brothers boarding school it was Genesis or Bowie so I was brought up listening to Bowie. Still recall watching Kristian F at the age of 16 - grim film - fab sound track.....

I am facing another week of feeling not very well. Feeling v sorry for self. Must get @rse into gear and throw words soothingly at page for an hour.

I was also hopelessly over protected and as we lived in a main road...dual carriageway, actually, playing out was pretty much confirmed to the garden. However, once we went to secondary school it was two buses and a tube, and glorious, glorious freedom. Although woe betide us if we didn't appear home on time. So happy we had no mobiles then! My DM gives me a terrible hard time because I have never joined that queue of parents meeting kids off the school bus, or in DD's case, pick up at school. She gets 2 buses home, and the DSs always had to get another bus from the school bus stop to the house. I never wanted them to get the idea that it wasn't safe to bring yourself home at 5 in the afternoon even in the winter.

No one cleans the loos at this end except me...I go ballistic about it especially when were living in a male dominated household. The buggers don't listen though.

MI are you poorly or just fed up?

I had a beautiful couple of hours at the ballet yesterday afternoon....courtesy of BFF as an early birthday present. Must do this more often. I left behind a household in absolute homework meltdown and unfortunately, returned to the same. I mean, how can they sustain such vileness all bloody day?

They kind of spoil my fun...and I am in abject misery over the loss of the beautiful David Bowie...we're all fans in this house including the DC. He has had a huge influence over DD's art work in particular.

I have various stomach/digestion things going on, Rose, which are interfering with my sleep. And homework/music practice meltdowns here with DD2, and I am feeling vv guilty that I haven’t found her stuff to do musically so she is doing NOTHING apart from school swing band. And DP appeared yesterday, fell asleep most of the afternoon – though in fairness he did do a lot of washing – and is grumpy with me for ‘not being affectionate’ but also does this passive-aggressive thing of getting grumpy and then when I ask why he is grumpy saying “oh, so I can’t be TIRED or ILL, you have to make out it’s all about YOU, so now I just will claim I’m fine, no I’m FINE FINE FINE” which is just vile.

Pah, MI. Look after yourself. And Rose, homework meltdowns sound like the last things you need.

I think my dc have a similar amount of freedom to me, when at home (except for the mobiles thing, so we are in contact more often). They started travelling on their own around London, and to come home late on their own, at about the same age, similar journey to school etc etc. We perhaps spent longer in parks on our own at a younger age, but lived in a calmer area. The holidays are the big difference: we used to go to My Favourite Place for weeks on end, and my dsis and I would go feral. Now we go for a week, so we want to spend it together. Wouldn't mind a summer holiday right now!

MI, DP sounds infuriating.

Had v easy babysitting session last night for DS's BFF's cool parents (the chef ones). Got given a lovely G&T, children went straight to bed, and chums left me out some lovely Livarot cheese to scoff.

Re freedom, we lived in a semi-rural area, but there wasn't a whole lot of random exploring in gangs, except during school holidays when we were 'babysat' by local teenagers. Then we'd go roaming through fields, and it was great. I think I walked to school at about at 9 or so...

Sorry if my 'parking in Waitrose' comment caused offence! It was an ill-thought-out throwaway comment, reflecting no doubt my conviction that my life is tedious and inconsequential compared to those of my forebears. No accusations of tediosity on any other crepeys intended...

Sorry for terse post, was called for Eurostar at that moment. Lovely w/e in Paris for our anniversary, DD brilliant company and we finally got to the Rodin museum. Ate at Chartier again, went on the Eye & spent a happy afternoon in the Louvre

Herbs - don't worry - your Waitrose comment made me laugh.

Lalsy - I've found it quite difficult to assess when the DC's could use the underground/metro. That is a whole different dimension to the village bus which I had.

Sad about David Bowie - starting to feel old now our idols are dropping dead.

Herbs, your Waitrose comment also made me laugh.

I had a very free range childhood. Was bought up by the sea & by the age of 9 was allowed to go off swimming with friends.

Endless rain here but am happily sorting out stuff for taking with me when I go & visit DS, DIL & (above all) PFGC. Only 2 days to go!!

V sad about Bowie. He was a hero of mine. I met him once and he was very gentlemanly and polite. He even made me and his costume designer a cup of tea while we finished of a costume for him.( I was working for my rent with costume designer at the time)

Herbs, your Waitrose comment made me think of the time I got our car wedged in the local Waitrose car park, when I forgot the roofbox made the car too tall to get into the car park. Well, as it turned out, you can get in, but you get stuck very soon after the entrance.

Sorry all you Bowie fans are sad. But as I'm the opposite of a fan (pictures of him gave me the creeps when I was about 8 and I never got over that, or liked his voice), I actually had to turn off Radio 4 this morning when they kept banging on and on and on about him. I always feel a bit "dislocated" when things like this happen; I often find myself entirely unable to appreciate cultural phenomena that are deemed very important by lots of other people. I reckon it is because I am a complete philistine. Or have a weird disorder. Or both.

I know that feeling of dislocation, Stropps, and I'm a Bowie fan. It's sad, but his music is still here, and always will be. I didn't feel a particular connection to him, as a person, which I guess some people did.

Actually, Stropps, I frequently feel like that too. Vast swathes of popular culture – not literary – have often passed me by.

Me too. But at least I have heard of him, which is not always the case as I seemed to grow up in a cultural vacuum. R4 man today cut off someone describing camps at Calais, saying he knew she would understand but Bowie had died. I know it is news and I understand but...

at Waitrose car park trauma Stropps. Think some stories are more easily told than others and the war generation had their share of mental health problems, family issues etc etc, perhaps more. I hope our generation and our children's will benefit from greater openness about these things. Our dc are facing a tough future, I think, in a different way from their gps, and I get the impression they know it. I know many hard-working, resourceful and open-minded teens even if they never clean a toilet.

Hatty, it is funny isn't it? I grew up using tubes and buses and felt fine(ish) about my dc doing it - less so about empty beaches and rural roads!

I felt far more upset when Mandela died.

Ah, at least I'm not alone with my feeling of "eh?" And Lalsy, yes, that was the exact point when I decided that The Today programme had completely lost the plot and reached for the off switch. Personally, I am more saddened by the departure of Jim Naughtie from the aforementioned programme, as he's been much more of a fixture in my life than Bowie ever was, but that's because I was clearly born middleaged

I'll also be bereft at the loss of dulcet tones of mr Naughtie.
The Bowie thing is weird and attached to great and lovely memories of a certain first boyfriend in my mid teens.

When I said to DD that Bowie had died, she was appropriately shocked. When I said the same to DS, he said "who even is he?" and "what songs?" I feel there will be some enlightening to do tonight

Am I the only Crepey that never, ever listens to R4? It's music all the way for me, and that doesn't mean classical or opera

Radio 4 in the bedroom, radio 6 in the study and kitchen, radio 2 in the car. Well-rounded, me.

Joins Stropps, and others on the bench. I quite liked Bowie but can't understand the outpouring of grief. I quite often find myself separate from things like this, and then wonder if I lack empathy. I do think this all started with the death of Princess Diana, and now people are too reticent (usually) to say "yes, it's sad, but...'

We listen to R5 in the house and normally music in the car. I am a bit of a news junky, though, and am always turning on the tv to catch up with Sky News, although I frequently have a go at the idea of 24 hour news channels.

There is an unexpected occurrence in the north east - the sun has come out for the first time since well before Christmas. The wooden fence by the back door is 'steaming'. DH is upstairs putting the final coat on the bedroom walls, we have chosen the curtain fabric, just need to order now. Oh, and we have started discussing holidays. CV, where did you decide to go in the States in the end, or are you still talking about it?

We don't listen to any of the BBC channels. Well, I think DH listens to the one with sport!

NU glad to hear you have sun

We haven't done anything about summer holidays which is very unusual for us. DD keeps saying she wants to go away with her friends, so I think DH needs to come up with a much better option

I do stretch to Classic FM or Magic occasionally, but the ads drive me mad.

Well, it looks like the course I was employed to teach isn't going to happen this term. So I might be teaching something else. All a bit up in the air, but will find out more on Wednesday...