All I Want For Crepemas Is Youth

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Phew

Abut Cremo 'you can do more with less!' (Runs and hides)

Gozo GGG - barginous flight and whilst not blisteringly hot it is 'away' and I need that right now. Dp and ds will go diving. I will read......

Have a good trip, BD. Very jealous......

Hope your stay is going well Addle.

Here we have been mostly reorganising the house and swearing we will never have multiple families to stay endless nights.....

Still on ddad duty. Had a wonderful time today when I was testing my new speaker and introduced him to the back catalogue of BBC radio. First time he'd listened to The Goons for about twenty years. Lots of chuckling from the sofa

NYE... We're in and dad sitting. Think a take away will suffice!

Oh yes, fig jam with cheese is divine. Even better than Branston.

Had some of my team round for dinner tonight, went quite well, and they have all just gone home.

Am tired of being "put down" all the time by DH. To hear him talk, you would think I was a hideously ugly moron, incapable of doing anything much at all.

KICK HIM IN THE SLATS.

I agree with Herbs.

Just caught up -
Hatty, hope you're enjoying your turkey
Addle, country hol sounds lovely
MrsS, banter ' s one thing, but deliberately putting you down? He needs to open his eyes a bit wider
Stropps, hope you are continuing to sleep better
BD, happy hols - are you off now?
Cremo, when do you go?
Monty, hope your DD is improving.

Here we had a fabulous spa day - best place I've been to I reckon. So relaxing with my bestie, DD and besties DD (who is one of DDs besties!) - the boys went Paintballing (thank god they had a lovely sunny day!), so no moaning about being bored!

MrsS, I think that is horrible. I would be telling DH to get back in his basket if he spoke to me like that in front of colleagues / friends. So sorry

Crem, I love huile prodigieuse and it has a multitude of uses. I really love the smell and have the matching perfume and shower gel. A real treat. How long til your trip? Hang on in there.

BD, Gozo will be lovely - just a book, a drink and a view. Heaven!

Rudy, I love printing out photos and putting them in albums. It is so easy never to do it, but it is fab to have them to look back on.

BTM, spa sounds fantastic. Glad you are having a restful time.

Beachy, great news about the radio and your dad. I hope that that has provided a bit of a lift for him. Your NYE sounds heaven. Can I come?

In S and B news, the You advent calendars are now reduced so I have bought one for my office to share with my manager. We are both a bit down in the dumps re work, so I thought this would be cheering. I loved the M and S one so fingers crossed this one is as good.

We have DH's mum descending on us tomorrow. She wanted to stay til Monday but DH pointed out that we have work then. He and I are arguing already, as is tradition when she is in town. I am very conscious that I might be a MIL one day and I want to avoid most of her behaviour. She is so horrid to her son and puts him down dreadfully. For example, she spent most of last year's Christmas eve party at ours telling people she'd never met how she thought DH would never amount to anything and keep down a job, let alone find a wife! This is in spite of his degree from Oxford and the fact that he was a journalist on a national newspaper for 15 years! Ha ha ha! It just made her look mad. He is very hurt by it though.

Right, I am taking kids to B Park for an airing. Am meeting a friend for a post Christmas catch up. Have a good day

PS Thanks for all the kind thoughts re DD1. Still coughing but possibly a bit better today and very cheery

MrsS, he is an utter arse.

Have managed another seasonal row with DP. Maybe I should escape again.

I have bought the Kondo de cluttering book. I am going to have to Kondo secretly though. If dh finds out, he'll just chuck everything out, regardless of worth, ownership or anything else! He has form for this!

Over Christmas, relatives had to guard their possessions carefully or they got thrown or put away or washed up. We lost the remainder of the brandy butter, Dad lost his coat repeatedly, shoes were all carefully incorporated into our cupboards etc.... All accompanied by lots of huffing and 'if I didn't do this, no one would' noises. It's going to take a long time to find everything again.

Has anyone else Kondo'ed? I know there's a whole thread devoted to it and there's a mum/life coach at school who helps people Kondo. I'm quite tempted to use her, but not sure I know her well enough to turn out all my drawers in front of her!

Hi Beachy, I've never heard of Kondo, is it like Flylady? Am interested, although Dh would divorce me.

Lovely break thanks. Can recommend place we stayed near Petworth. Lots of happy looking dogs, Beachy, hope to meet up if we make it down this way again. We always turn v insular when away as a family.

MrsS, that's rubbish, don't let him get away with it. Soul destroying.

BD have a wonderful holiday.

I think it's more 'spiritual' than fly lady and has associated woo.....it's more about the one big declutter and then you never have to declutter again, ( I'm only about one chapter in though )

They also have write ups saying once you've sorted your possessions, you make other big changes in your life. I'm a bit worried I might jack it all in and live in solitary bliss with one large kaftan for comfort!

I do keep threatening Dh that if one more cable or connector or power source enters the living room I will move into a flat of my own. Which I suppose is Uber Kondo. I would live with one fork, one knife, and one spoon. Marie would be proud of me.

I am looking at Xmas decorations and wanting to rip them all down. You get sick of it don't you?

I have done some kondoing. I ignore the touchy feel stuff (not my bag) but the book is full of practical tips for the domestically challenged (most definitely is). I now know where my sellotape is.

We havare had a lovely time away too, your neck of the woods NU I think.

My boden sale tankini has arrived and I've never see such giant pants. They are supposedly my size. Not. Grr

New year in your pants
Seriously Johnnie Boden could open a shop in them

Crem -my first question to DH when he wants to buy something now is about how many wires it involves. At one point he actually wanted permanent wires going across the living room - he didn't seem to think this disfigured the room at all.

I have also had this experience with Boden pants - you can usually size down quite easily. I don't know what this says about the arses of their demographic!