The Crepe Escape

[herbaceous]

New thread!

Title can refer either to our upcoming holidays, or our upcoming fleeing from the Bojo-led charabanc of doom.

be sure to wear some in your hair.....

Free LA

free arty stuff in SF

Cheap SF

Napa Valley cheapies

Right, I'm assuming that Stropps has been magically put back together by some firm handed French chiropractor and I'm recommending this reggae bar on the Ile de Re. South Coast on the lighthouse side of Bois..... We cycle there from our campsite every year - they sometimes have live music and OK food.

I would also highly recommend the cycle path on the north side of the island to the west of St Martin, which goes past oyster shacks, where you can sit and eat oysters, drink Pineau and watch the mussel pickers.

Plus there's a shop in St Martin, or maybe Flotte, where you take your empty Tango bottles and you get about 2 litres of vin basic for about three euros . There's always a cheer when the bikes arrive back in the campsite with that in the basket......

BD, thanks for the hilarious Game of Thrones newsman post on FB. My lot love it.

Beachy, don't suppose you'll still be sur lÎle after 5th August? I will be nearby. Or are we playing tag team in Charente Maritime?

Folly - my pleasure - made me laugh too...

Stropps hope you get lots of nice meds to numb the pain.

Here dealing with friendship fallout with ds not helped by the other party not telling ds what he has done which is so hideous....

Ahh the joys of teens. But I did have a wave of 'crap mother syndrome' this morning as it reminded me of him in y4. At least he's more able to tell me things now.

Crem, thanks a million for that, what lovely ideas

I'm into my fourth month of severe sciatica, so I do sympathise. I would go to almost any lengths to avoid surgery, though. I've shelled out for private physiotherapy as I know only too well how long the wait is on the NHS round here. If I'm honest, though, I doubt if it's doing any good. I'm still severely compromised, can't risk driving for instance, & had horrible relapses from minor indiscretions such as changing the duvet cover or washing the dog. It's a horrible condition. And my first episode was also in my first pregnancy, Stropps, it definitely has a big hormonal component.

Sorry, will shut up now. You have a good point about perspective CV, and your friend sounds like an inspiration.

Evening All.
Sorry to hear about holiday blighted by pain Stropps, that is truly unfair and awful. Really hope you have powerful drugs and can enjoy something of a break.
Auriga, MI, Rose and Monty be kind to yourselves and don't do too much (as if there is always a choice!)
Crem, if you could turn your travel advice into a money making venture you'd be rich... like a bespoke service for folk who have more money than time, or more money than taste, or more money than common sense... you get the idea.

Here we had a child free weekend - both nice and odd in equal measure as the dss were off separately doing their own thing - one in E Anglia (with a GIRL!) and the other in Berlin with 3 hapless friends... can you join me in crossing my fingers for his safe return in one piece? We lived it up by shopping for bath towels. The future looks good then!

Oh and Auriga, I think it would be very hard indeed not to enjoy yourself in Rome. take some good comfortable shoes - if your back is up to it lots of walking is the best way to explore - some of the nicest things we did / saw / ate we came across wandering about. Beautiful city. We went there for a few days when we got married 500 years ago before going to Ravello. Would love to go back.

Auriga, you poor thing. It's the living end. Three years for me, in absolute agony, utterly determined not to spend the rest of my life on a stick. After the pain was vaguely sorted out chemically I did see a physio for 12 weeks ( good old nhs) who then suggested Pilates. After 8 months of singing the praises of Pilates I am now mostly normal, and more flexible, and I have a strategy to deal with twinges. ( hallelujah)
I've had two fairly major setbacks , collapsed putting a shirt on the clothes line ( it's those small thought -free things that'll do it) and once in the street when my leg vanished from under me and I screamed the house down.
I also saw a chiropractor ( waste of money) an osteopath ( fixed it for 4 glorious days) and a reiki healer, whose bench I could not get off afterward having lain down on my face.i have wept a lot, and sleep walked through months because of the ruddy sleepy properties of the PKs.
It's all the fun of the fair isn't it? Like a proper medieval pestilence. And interesting about hormones actually as all this started with you know what.

Sorry, as you were

Tag team, I'm afraid Crem. We'll be back by then.

My back pain reduced a lot when I had my boob reduction. I know it's a bit drastic, but it did help!

Before that, I think it was the uncertainty that really killed me. You just didn't know when it was going to go - just swivelling my head for a train could send a shudder to my toes.

Now I'm just dealing with dog induced tennis elbow

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Beachy, 'fraid I have been issued with more Naproxen, some scary Tramadol and told to do bugger-all. No manipulations for a while. No cycling :( ds is not happy. Thanks so much for the bar recommendation - dh is most enthused and we will look that one up.

I had an acute episode of sciatica last year from about Feb to May, but that one was managed with only Naproxen. I went private for physio for a couple of sessions before my NHS referral kicked in and essentially ended up seeing the same person for both. Not convinced she was very good, as she was insistent that my probe were in S1 or thereabouts. I did my exercises religiously twice a day for about 8 months, but I don't think they did much good. In the spring, my GP recommended that I go privately to visit a medical osteopath who he reckoned was good. Osteopath said SI joint was the root of the problem and he is right. French doctor agreed, but couldn't understand why I hadn't had an x-ray at the very least. So Crem, I completely understand how hard it is to get anyone to take it seriously. I am going to go back to the medical osteopath when the inflammation has settled a bit. He costs £35 a throw, but at least it bloody works and he was employed in the NHS until a couple of years ago, so isn't some weird crank. Dm is v insulted that I visited an osteopath rather than allowing her to deal with my back for free. Er, something to do with you being retired for 20 yrs, mother. And never being a sweet and kind practitioner in the first place.
Auriga, think you are completely right about the hormonal component. I have just started some random bleed, merely 10 days after the last time, just to add to the joy. Sorry if tmi.

Anyway, on the positive side, my linguist brain has really enjoyed my first ever visit to a French doc and pharmacist and I have been quacking away in French like anything and remembering all sorts of stuff I thought I had forgotten forever.

Dd was v difficult for the first while, but is warming up gradually and I am simply ignoring the shite and letting her get on with it. After all, she is an adult now. Arf Arf.
Soz, v self-centred post. Oh poor hurty me etc.
Dsil sent Fb message last night to say that dm was worried we might not have arrived ok, so had to reassure everyone that we are all still alive, just.
Blimey. I will try to bend down low enough to get back under my stone now after sharing all that enlightening info.

Ps: my dm is a retd physio and thinks that osteopaths are a waste of molecules.

Thank you all for firm instructions. I can't take time off but will try to get a bit of sleep.

I am beginning to think I am perhaps not entirely well as I am in a state of self-dislike - physically, I mean, about the way I look - which I haven't been in for some years. It is probably not unconnected to stuff around my mother and her extreme good looks. It's quite wearing. Rationally I know I am probably not as grotesque as I think l am but it's not a lot of fun.

Oh MI. That sounds v hard. What helped before?

Not v much, in all honesty - I was like this for most of my 20s and early 30s. I'm sure that a bit of sleep and tomorrow's haircut will help, though. And a Ladyjog. Exercise is very physically affirming.

Do you think that it's all part of being bereaved - losing your Mum knocks everything out of kilter - and this is the form it's taking for you because you're vulnerable in this particular way? Wishing you feel a bit better soon. This too shall pass. X

Gosh, I just realised my eulogising of my positive one-legged friend might have come across as a bit tactless - i.e. "buck up, people, it ain't so bad"......that's really not what I meant by it.

I was comparing him to me as, I truly have nothing to complain about, but something I forget, and make huge mountains out of very trivial molehills. It was very humbling to see how he was dealing with something so life-changing when I get so wound up about pointless stuff.

I wasn't in any way minimising what some of my lovely crepeys are going through - losing parents, chronic pain, difficult DCs are some of the very worst things to cope with - sorry if it came across that way.

Oh gosh CV , I didn't take it that way at all. I thought it was a beautiful account of someone who sounds rather wonderful and has made you count your blessings. All good.
Now I'm worried my sciatic rant has annoyed. Just getting something of my chests ( still annoyingly oversized )

Be well everyone.

It was a good story CV, agree it's good to be reminded of the things there are to be grateful for (whatever else we may be having to deal with).

CV I found your post v heartening and helpful and I meant what I said about your friend being inspiring.

Agree with Crem re your one-legged friend, CV.

Sorry for all those of you struggling with bad backs. An osteopath sorted me out when I had a slipped disc, even after the physio had made me worse. I went in bent double and left upright. Have sadly not played squash since then though.

I am awash with cold and work is not going well. Fortunately it is not just me - one of my colleagues is being subjected to the same treatment and thinks it is a diktat from on high. My boss is now barely speaking to me, apart from to bark instructions as if I were four, and scheduling "catch ups" so that I can "talk through my strategy for the meeting." A member of my team asked me today if we had fallen out over something. Atmosphere in the office, which used to be really good and fun, could now be cut with a knife, with people barely speaking to each other, apart from to mutter and bitch about the senior management team.

MI - you look great. Your carrot and turnip hair looks fabulous, your new glasses suit you beautifully, you are bright, funny and have great tits. What's not to like?

You put it so much better than me Mrs S! Yeah MI, what's not to like?!

Thanks all, you are lovely, sorry I can't explain on here (I am OK, as are dh and the dc) and can't keep up either. And also cannot talk sense. CV, liked your story. Hope invalids feel better, and MI I agree about exercise.