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

[herbaceous]

As requested!

Rose forgot to say that is very hurtful. Does your Dmum not realise?

Here have 'kondo'd'. Some more - not sure smashing things is how to go about it. But am amazed at the inordinate amount of crap stuff we have accumulated over the years. Thinking of kondoing my FB - if you don't bring me joy you're gone

Actually feeling very very weird at the moment.

MrsS - oven update?

BD, are you alright? Weird how?

BD - ?

No news on oven yet. Will broach the subject later. But have booked a week in Spain for me and DD2...

Does anyone know how to hide the comments on your cover and profile photos on Facebook, so that they are not viewable by Joe Public? One of my work colleagues appears to be FB stalking me and I would rather he didn't. (He emailed me about a comment I had made - we are not FB friends.)

Cremo, I was in my first term working in London, living in Clapham and we had a power-cut in that storm, so my alarm didn't go off. One of my housemates woke me and we all had to fumble about in the dark and trek off on buses!

Rose, that is mean of your DM - does she realise that you are feeling so upset?

BD, I am also worried about the amount of stuff we have - particularly noticing it because of having to clear DM's house. Not surprised you are feeling weird with your DM so ill - it is very unsettling.

Just been for a coffee with one of DD's friends lovely DM and looking forward to a lazy afternoon to myself whilst the boys are at footy and DD is supposed to be revising.

MrsS, go onto privacy settings - you can make them friends only/friends of friends/joe public AFAICR.

BTM - doesn't work. The only option I have on my cover photo is to make it public (which it defaults to, and all the comments become public too) or to delete from timeline, which means I have to do this every time I change my cover photo, which is a bit of a palaver.

Everyone here is asleep. I am half heartedly tidying.

Oh yes - just looked on mine. Perhaps you could do a Fuck Off Stalkers cover pic next?!

MrsS, you need BD to come round and kondo you!

Here the builders are next door. The neighbours agreed that there would be no weekend working. The builders were here Fri and today - clearly bank hols don't count as weekends! Thankfully they are not making too much noise, though DD was moaning. But hey, what's new?

I went to bed late last night and got up late today. I feel this is entirely reasonable for a bank holiday but DP (who went out to see a t'ai chi friend this morning) is huffy. I have told him I'm happy to sleep downstairs next time (I'm not, but I'd rather do that than have to go bed at 10.30 at the weekend).

Spoke to SIL. Apparently DSis was much worse earlier this year. Oh good, more to worry about. And feel guilty that have not been sufficiently supportive to p

....supportive to lovely SIL.

Hi everyone. Sorry I've been AWOL, not quite sure what happened but rl got in the way of MNing - rubbish! Have been reading intermittently but not posting

Auriga - so very sorry to hear about your poor Mum. I can only echo what others have said about your magnificent efforts to care for her. Thinking of you and your family. I love the Long Day Closes - the Terence Davis film as well as the song lyrics. I thought of you on Good Friday when I went with dh to a concert in a beautiful church near us in Suffolk. They were performing Britten's Sacred and Profane and one of the pieces was a setting of an anonymous 13th century poem which was very moving and lovely.

Foweles in the frith, Birds in the wood,
The fisses in the flod, The fish in the river,
And I mon waxe wod: And I must go mad:
Mulch sorw I walk with Much sorrow I live with
For best of bon and blod. For the best of creatures alive.

Monty, much sympathy to you on your loss too and to everyone suffering tribulations of every sort. MI and BD, you're both doing very well in all the circus. Take care of yourselves. Rose, I am properly fuming on your behalf - when I read the latest about you mum I thought of that classic MN retort - "Did you mean to be quite so rude (and HURTFUL)?!". Do you really think she is oblivious? I wouldn't be able to bite my lip - which probably explains something about how little I see of my own mum....

Had a lovely long weekend here. Hanging out with the teenagers - who are (mostly) delightful - and still touchingly pleased at 18 and 16 with their Lindt Easter bunnies.

Love to all. X

Gah. I separated the original words and the 'translation' in my post but it jumbled them together when I posted...

GGG sounds lovely...

MrsS I'd have bought the oven by now. But good on Spain booking!

I was typing up my MA dissertation the night of that storm..... And then had to trek to Kent to get it photocopied.

Weird - not hungover - just whole family circus and its raising lots of thoughts about the shortness of life. Strong urge to bugger off....

Beaut, GGG. I love the simplicity of the poem.
Glad you have had a lovely Easter with the boys. I too would be most delighted with a chocolate bunny.

I can completely understand the urge to run away BD. It's a hateful feeling.I think it means you feel overwhelmed and powerless. And, that you need to rest and go to bed for the afternoon. I honestly believe that a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon is worth several nights normal sleep.
Thinking of you.

Wow, the wind was ferocious last night! We were all kept awake. Damage to our back garden was as follows:

• One large branch off pine tree.
• One fence panel/post now tilting at an angle.
• Trampoline totalled! Looks as if it toppled sideways, then back onto its feet, as the whole side is caved in (it's a 12 foot monster, btw)
• Section of roof blew off shed. Not the old, condemned shed which we emptied last weekend, oh no. No no no. The roof blew off the newer, previously watertight shed, into which we moved all our precious stuff last weekend.

Anyway, on the plus side, the DCs are now big enough for me to delegate roof fixing to, so they went out to help DH put it back on again. It will need a more permanent solution soon, though.

Lunch was brilliant; as expected, DM and DSDad arrived before I'd even got the chicken in the oven, and DSDad was stood at the door jangling his keys by 3.30pm.

Oh dear CV!
Our shed roof is still intact after DH's DIY which consisted of putting 2 garden chairs (wooden, folded up) on top
That must have been the quickest Easter lunch ever!

Oh CV I'm very sorry!
You've had a rough time this last while with home related botheration.

Oh bugger, CV. I am continually vexed by the amount of maintenance sheds require. Both of ours need new roofing and dh claims he will do it. Har har, quite frankly.

I feel it is incumbent on me to point out there was no saintliness whatsoever involved in my behaviour on Sat night/Sunday morning. At 4.30am on Easter Sunday, I was standing in a car park in my pyjamas swearing quite mightily at dd, who seemed massively unperturbed by the fruitiness of her mother's language. I dare say some of it will come back to haunt me at a later date.

You paint a fantastic picture, Stropps Bad damage, CV. It was horribly noisy here and all the windows are now streaked with salt from the sea about two miles away! We've never had a window cleaner here, but this might push us to it.....

I don't want to go to work tomorrow. I need a new job, nearby, where people don't nick your ideas and bugger off with them. And where I don't have to spend all day looking at a white blank wall and geeky Mc geeky man opposite me, while everyone else gazes across the London skyline from a zillion floors up.... There, Sunday on Monday night blues, will revert to

Wow CV - we , it had thunder, lightning and hail here but not winds and not of the magnitude you had. Remarkably it was sunny and warm for the two hours we went to golf which was enjoyable for all. Then lunch with nice but bonkers friends and now sipping the remnants of the wine and waiting for OJ Simpson with plastic John Travolta.

Rose - we've always got our fast passes on the day. I think you can maybe get two per person or something like that. Can't really remember how it works.

Beachy, couldn't you construct a fine canicross x agility course in your garden and start a business with an entertainment centre for over-exhuberant hounds?
Am currently getting the wall of hate treatment from the rest of the family, as I have denied dd access to the car for going out tonight (she could perfectly well walk if she was that bothered) and confiscated ds's tablet this morning to make him tidy his room. And shouted at dh to get him to tidy the office. Being Mrs Nicey McNice hasn't worked, so I have had to go nuclear. Sadly, the hardline approach appears to pay dividends.

Yes, I am royally pissed off with the amount of house-related stuff we're having to shell out for - all boring things too. Who can get excited about a new shed roof?

DDs are off to stay with cousins tomorrow for a few days. It will be very peaceful.

I don't want to work tomorrow either

Stropps - no-one does anything in this house unless I roar. And/or swear.

MI - I don't want to go to work tomorrow either. Or the next day, or the day after that. Have booked a week in Majorca for me and DD2. All I can think of is "The water in Majorca don't taste like what it oughter."