Summertime...and the Crepeys are easy

[motherinferior]

With much love to BD.

(We are going to county cork btw in frugal manner.)

Hey Rudy, guess where I am?

I'll give you a clue - I can hear the sea!

Rudy would be so lovely to see you.

Re trip with DD - depends wether you are thinking city or more rural.

York is lovely and great to just mooch around. Likewise Edinburgh or Bath, Bristol? Everyone says Cardiff is lovely too.

Rudy, how far/what kind of thing? My DD loves spas (and so do I!) so I know a couple of decent spa hotels but might be too far for you? Or is it more of a citybreak/abroad you want? DDs friend and mum had a fab time in Berlin recently.

We have been sightseeing enroute to Hoi An - beautiful beach, high pass and marble caves. Very hot but the car was big and aircon! Now at villas with pool, etc and it looks like we are the only ones here atm!

Hardly any internet so not caught up properly....

Herbs I am so sorry you returned to this. As MI says, it is all uncertain now, try to put one foot in front of the other (and on a side note, unless the feature is very well paid - ha ha - or will lead to more could that be binned?). It must e very scary.

Crem, what a shock. But your holiday sounds wonderful.

Turn up for the books here - we all got sunburnt yesterday. Swam twice and managed to take so long having tea in orchard by the sea that tea place set up a grill and a band arrived. In bed by ten.

MrsS, subway, meal deals, chicken joints and occasionally weather spoons are where my dc eat. Also ds scours wherever he is for pizza leaflets with discounts.

Feature is £250, so not to be sniffed at. And for old client, for whom I hope to work for again, so good to resurrect. And it needs to be finished by 15 August, so has a finite limit.

Lay awake last night during a hot flush wondering ow I could persuade mum to try a chiropractor.

Things should improve once the UTI is tackled. I hope.

Re meal deals: my two also adore them. They are apparently being kept busy doing kayaking and outdoor pursuits. Ha.

I think I might have missed some stuff so sorry if repeating but Herbs, does she have a trapped sciatic nerve? Quite common after replacements. My mum has sciatica but not the level of pain yours has. I hope that in a while you'll be able to look back and see this episode as a horrible chapter in a book that has many more much happier chapters to go.

SO sorry to hear about your miserable return from hols, Herbs.

BTM - I have the Times Vietnam article sitting here, having just read it. PM me your address & I'll pop it in the post if you want.

Mrs. S - DH has seen the dermatologist & she is conviced that it is an infection (not fungal) & not excema (sp??). She suspects this could be the culprit & will be doing another biopsy in 10 days or so. If it's not that it could be another infection that I can't remember the name of! She is positive it's easily treatable. The first infection was v likely to have been picked up in Turkey, where we have been most years.

MM - that looks horrible - well spotted by the Dermo though.

Here - we have gone from 28°C to 14 overnight and it looks as if it's about to toss it down.

DD1 has contacted me to say she failed her written driving test paper by 3 points - apparently she shouldn't be allowed to drive on ice!

Have had blood tests as I'm losing quite a lot of hair at the moment - I've put it down to the menopause but want to just make sure. I was scared to death by a poster on another thread who put photos of her thinning hair. I am nowhere near that but thought I'd take action just in case.

Hatty, sorry to hear about the hair loss and hope that it's not as bad as you think. Good luck with the results.

MM, it would be good if one visit to the dermatologist sorted out two Crepey husbands.

Well the DGC have gone home, until they return tomorrow morning (DGS did remark that they might as well sleepover tonight). We had our usual lovely time but we're both enjoying the peace now. Breakfast out was a good idea, although I do think the waitress was a bit at their appetites. (I have two GC with fantastic, healthy appetites who will almost eat anything, and two who hardly eat anything unless it's rubbish - I will leave you to work out which children belong to son or daughter).

Rose, DD and her DH enjoyed Dalhousie Castle, particularly dinner in the Dungeon.

Firstof all this
Is the bereavement organisation
Who helped me. Others may be available.

Herbs,so sorry everything feels a bit pear shaped at the moment, but i think Waf is right. Also just to say, dont give up fighting your mums corner in the hospital. Demand to see her consultant if you feel you aren't getting anywhere. Sometimes you can provide background information they wont be aware of. With Dad , the hospital had him down as just another wee old man and not someone who played tennis three times a week. Do speak up and fuss-make if necessary.

I too have limited wifi so better love you and leave you.
We have overstayed our coffees at the Port Creperie.

Ho ho ho

Thank you Crem, on all fronts. I'm trying to press upon the hospital what the situation is, but have yet to speak to anyone who is a) medically qualified and b) over 12 years old.

Poor you, Herbs. Hope you get somewhere.

It is some comfort to me, at least, that Poldark is back on our tellies in September. I know this is frivolous.

Is that in St P, Crem?

Herbs, let me know if I can help!

Molly, I have an entire character who is a dead ringer for the divine Aidan T. I have imagined him in very close detail. He sets up home with a cunning, amoral half-Indian girl who looks white and is obviously purely imaginary. Ho yes.

There's going to be a heat wave in the UK next week. NOT in Cork

herbs I'd be inclined to stage a sit-in at your DMs bedside until someone speaks to you. The UTI can't be helping matters. And everything wot waf and cremo say.

rudy what about the Mersey experience, Beatles etc in Liverpool... Failing that come to see beachy and I on the south coast...

lalsy tea in an orchard and a band later sound like my kind of afternoon!

cremo I'm sorry your parents place has been sold was there no way you could take it over?

hatty could it be thyroid? Is that what the blood tests are for? My hair is thin above the fringe toward the crown and I'm very self conscious about it. It hasn't got any worse after the initial shedding though...I think it tends to plateau after a while.

Quiet day with DD in surprisingly good weather, with gentle shopping trips to replace some essentials...realised we've been here getting on for seven years and some of the linens and towels are wearing out. Lovely walk to the seafront later on. Back home DS2 has started his short term temping in an office in molly's neck of the woods and has already been offered overtime. I am concerned however that because of southern rail's ridiculous four day strike, he and DH will struggle to get back down here later on this week

I am looking forward to being comforted by GBB, and the bun-based double-entendres of Mel and Sue. Chewing gum for the soul.

I think my sis is also on the case re mum and doctors, as is her physio, and the carer, so I need to find who has said what to whom.

Met friend in the park today, and we talked about the sitch. She said it might be time to look at homes, if things don't get any better. Best all round, probably. And mum did kind of give us the green light last time I saw her...

It's at times like this that once again I realise that while I have many good friends, including my lovely crepeys, I don't have a BFF. If that matters or not, I don't know. I have lots of old friends, that I could probably dump on, but somehow we don't do that. Just stick to fun stuff.

MM - don't think it is leishmoniasis as have not been anywhere it can be caught. A friend of mine had that from Israel and had to have a bit of her nose removed, but I think she had a particularly nasty strain of it. I don't think GPs are that great with dermatology. Think I might ask to be referred to a dermatologist as I have now had it on and off for four years.

Herbs - do people really have BFFs? I don't, although I do have quite a few people I could call on in an emergency. I think my first port of call would be my cousin, Z. The daughter my mother never had...

Herbs, that does seem like a huge amount of painkillers - I can't imagine that after a certain point, additional ones would add anything to the equation. I can imagine them trying certain different ones, but not all at once (but I am clearly not a doctor at all).

I have had a trying day here with ds......no action at all from him until after 4pm when he was still in his pj's and quite distressed. I'm afraid I forced him out on a dog walk, but the forcing, constant cajoling, pleading etc, is quite exhausting. It's also hard to explain to dd1 why we can't go out and do lovely things now she's back because I don't want to leave him here, on his own, in a mess. Anyway he's had a good supper, slow, but he ate it, and now I will try to engage him so he's a little bit tired at bed time. Appointments due this week and next, so I'm hoping we start on a new track.....

Other than that, it's heaven having dd1 home - busy sorting out her uni accommodation, new phone contract etc. She is also quite happy to tell the other dc how it is - 'why do you think it's mums job to make you a cup of tea???'

I've just finished Sue Perkins book which I went through in about a day and now greatly looking forward to GBB. Could I have some more book suggestions please? I've done two Isabel Allende's this summer, A girl with a Pearl Earring and Moving by Jenny Eclair, all of which were good.

Off to the large Swedish store tomorrow. Meatballs a go go.....

Herbs - like the others say, feel free to vent here.

I'm don't really have a BFF either but I do have two or three really good friends I know I could rely on which is nice.

Beachy - DD1 is also very good at telling the others off - I think once they've lived away a bit they finally understand what we run round doing for them. Here's hoping for DS's appointments and a positive outcome.

On hair shedding - blood tests, including thyroid seem normal. It must just be general middle agedness.

Have been watching Tom Daley diving - we were happier with our bronze medal than the Chinese seemed with their gold!

Forgive me Beachy but I've lost track - how old is ds? Sounds v worrying for you lovely.

Hands up from me too on the thin hair bench. it's horrid isn't it. I forget about it then suddenly notice if it's wet or not sitting right... Not sure what can be done though. I swallow handfuls of vitamins which makes me feel better but probably does absolutely nothing...

My mum is still in hospital but better than she was. I was all set to visit on my return from hols but according to younger brother who's nearby and seeing her she adamantly doesn't want me to. So not sure what to do for the best now...

Here the loafing teens are generally lovely but with random outbursts of jaw dropping selfishness and unhelpfulness. Then lovely again... keeps me on my toes (in between occasional shrieking fits).

Nice to be home again in my own bed with lots of cups of tea on hand