Spring is sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the crepeys is

[herbaceous]

As requested!

Yes, I am sure this one would, and that shitface could fit it. But if I suggest it, he will just go off on one again.

Christonabike.

Can't you just let him fume and rant, and do it anyway? Remove his power?

MrsS, this is awful - he seems to be punishing you. You are both working, you need a sodding oven that works and is safe and it doesn't need to be stressful .

Addle, hope you had a lovely afternoon!

CV - dress looked gorgeous in photo and I'm glad such a fabulous time was had.

Mrs S - cannot understand oven saga - I assume your DH loves to eat. Our delivery guys slotted in the oven - I think it just slides in and plugs in. We have a Bosch and I'm very pleased.

Had lovely dinner with friends last night although there was much ranting about Donald Trump. We got back at 2 am - have felt fragile all day and DD2 has informed me that she has to be at school by 7.30 tomorrow.

DD1 back and looking exhausted - am feeding and letting her sleep.

Crem - I love James Norton.

Herbs - sorted all the coloured pencils in the classroom and the little buggers rearranged my efforts within the hour!

The end in question were part of the school stationery supply, so had to be sorted after use back into their colours. Mmmmm.

Wardrobe question - I'm being taken to Roka (fun Japanese restaurant) for lunch tomorrow by my sis, and haven't a clue what to wear! Whatever it is needs to allow considerable expansion at the waist.

Collymollypuff , not sure I've ever knowingly watched a Cocteau film all the way through but it's certainly a strange world I'm living in.

MrsS, MrAuriga is (usually) consulted about refurbishments and is free to agree to whatever I decide. I'm the one who will make calls, place orders, wrangle tradespeople & effect changes, whereas he'd still be looking at the broken dishwasher from three houses ago & watching the paint peel off the walls.

He gets to assemble furniture & take useless stuff to the dump. It works for us.

He's being fantastic at the moment , though we're hardly seeing each other except when he fetches something essential & hands it to me. He's at DD's symphony concert tonight.

Addle, love the sound of NPG once I'm released from house arrest.

By the way, I've cancelled pillockswife cousin. She's now texting regularly to say she'll phone at various specified hours (but then not phoning) and asking me to let her know what kind of flowers to send to my DM.

On a happier note, both sisters arrive tomorrow

MrMolly sounds similar to MrAuriga, in that he is free to agree with whatever I decide. I had a mad pash on Cocteau as a teen, and I still have not got over the fact that he very dodgily pretty much collaborated with the Nazis, which I was oblivious to when studying him for A level. I think I should have been told.

Oh FFS, I think he needs a shrink or something. Said to him quite calmly, that I had found an oven that would fit, had good reviews and was cheap, delivery in 7 days. Having earlier treated me to a tirade on how I only use the oven to bake cakes for the office, he said "I'll look and see if I can find somewhere that delivers quicker than that - we don't want to be without an oven for over a week."

DD2 has declined a trip to New York over the Easter break, on the grounds that it is too long a flight, has said she would be happy to go to Spain or Italy. So that's good. It will just be her and me, and once I confiscate her phone, she is quite good company. Am going to go for a cheap package as it takes all the stress out of it, and all I have to do is turn up at the airport. Will take lots of books and sit under a palm in the sun. Do not want to go away with DH at the moment.

We use that system too, Auriga and Molly.....

Auriga, I am glad your family is arriving.

We had a similar 'oven stand off' over the family bikes, which are clearly a DH job, if ever I saw one. Every time I suggested a bike ride, it would be 'oh the green one has a flat tire and the red one's brakes don't work etc etc ' Drove me insane. So a phoned a bike shop, a bearded hipster arrived, took away some bikes to be mended, wrote off two to be taken to the tip/charity and sold me a 'new' second hand one for dd2. They should all be back by Tuesday this week Job done..... Annoying that I had to do it again, but at least it's done....

We've had an odd day. We cooked at the crack of dawn and delivered food to the dmum of someone in ds class who is struggling with ill health at the moment. I've never met the mum, but her teenage DD is acting as her carer, is ill as well and is really not coping. It all seems very messy and I'm sure there's a back story as long as my arm, but I'm not asking. Just 'being there', as my wise old mum used to say.

Then we had eleven teenagers shooting bows and arrows at each other in the garden for ds's party. It's called Archery Tag and was a great success. Certainly no home made food or cakes here.... Pizza followed by two Colin the Caterpillar cakes

Mrs S, just order the f@@king oven. Ovens are your department. Dh gets all misery faced and downtrodden when he doesn't get to make decisions, but we all just ignore him, so he has to forget about it!

Looking forward to the Tom Bot tonight at 9pm

Beachy, your DS and mine are the same age I think - mine turns 15 on Tuesday - just been out for a lovely chatty low-key family meal (which was his choice of celebration)

MrsS, WTAF? He will probably faff and not get anything sorted for a week I would do the same as Auriga and Beachy and not bother to involve him in any decisions which directly affect you. Just tell him what is happening. And if he doesn't like it, he can FTFOATFOSM
Not surprised you would prefer to go away with your DD. but is she mad, declining a trip to NYC?

Auriga, you sound like you are doing so well - glad to hear your sisters are arriving tomorrow and that your DH is being supportive.

Beachy me too

Argh. Various people doing the 'how is your mum' enquiry - and given that these are role who've come across the planet to visit her I feel I can't fob them off...

MrsS I'd be VERY stabby by now.... What's his problem?

Have to say on domestic appliances dp just orders and gets done.

I
Is he hormonal?

Sorry to whinge just now, btw, will sort out workable system tomorrow. And in all honesty one text to darling cousin not onerous.

Jeez, MI - you can come here & whinge all you want.

For pages & pages.

PS You are so not a whinger & I so admire your fortitude in dealing with everything.

at "free to agree to whatever I decide"! Same here.

MrsS, suggest you just work around him, and order the bloody thing. He had the chance to do something, and did fuck all but moan.

Here, DH cooked dinner (a most unusual occurrence). It was only sausages, but the DCs complained that the spuds were cold and the broccoli tasted of "farts". DH looked quite aggrieved.

Damn, lost post.

Summary - DM has suddenly turned angry and hostile. Doesn't remember she's been ill or I've been helping her. Demands to know why her bed's been moved, why I have a mattress in her room. Incredulous when I tell her district nurses are on the way. What for? Doesn't believe me. Speaks to me as though I'm an imbecile (though I like to think I'd be more civil than that to an imbecile, if I ever met one).

In the lost post, I asked "How long, d'you think, before she accuses me of trying to poison her?"

Turns out the answer was "about 10 minutes"

Oh, Auriga, how awful for you! Could you up her morphine a bit ? There's no point in her suffering in this way, surely, let alone you? My ddad loved his morphine, having spent a completely abstemious life.

Hugs for you.

She refused to take the morphine from me. The nurses fortunately arrived & gave her some i.m. (She was deeply suspicious but acquiesced in the end). But that was a one-off visit.

Let's see what the night will bring.

So tough for you. I hope reading War and Peace helps. I read a load of books about dying (while dad was dying), which I felt helped - there was something about the whole surreal nature of it, and the books did at least acknowledge that, and give me words to make things more real. But maybe that would be busman's holiday for you. I certainly used to bury my nose in a book when mad rellies misbehaved.

Thinking of you tonight, Auriga.

I don't suppose music would soothe her if she gets troubled again? We had Baptist hymns belting out.