Summertime...and the Crepeys are easy

[motherinferior]

With much love to BD.

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

I'm not convinced that gin tasting and narrow boats are cohesive components

I think I mean complementary components BYKWIM.....

Herbs, hooray for ward sister and boo to the freezer fiasco. Agree with Beachy that gin tasting on a narrow boat sounds like something that could result in the occasional challenging moment.

BD, thinking of you.

Thanks for thoughts and good wishes, crepsters, I am alternating between rolling my eyes and gnashing my teeth. I thought I wasn't going to be doing this until next Thurs (Molly, I stand with you!), but it's all gone pear-shaped a week early.

Thanks for all the book recommendations. I am still struggling with getting back into reading fiction. I dunno why. But I do need to rediscover how to lose myself in a good book, rather than being constantly knackered and faintly depressed by all the worky non-fiction I read more or less constantly.

Crem, hope you are knocking back the Vouvray!

Rose, hope you've made it to Worthing.

I need to go and do something useful. Like, um, the ironing or something. Before going to see Jesus again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CREM!

Ta to all those who asked. Mum still in hospital but sterling efforts by younger brother have found a nursing home for her to be discharged to for a short while till she's recuperated a bit so no ongoing panic. Fingers crossed it works out as she's likely to be turfed out of her hospital bed soonish.

Thinking of you Stroppshould in your time of troubles. Large drinks and a good book until results day? Having a blissful year off from the public exam merry go round here but am with you all in spirit.

Delighted to hear about writing happiness MI. It's not showing off, just taking yourself seriously and quite right too.

Sympathy re dd 24/7 Rose... here I'm making mine cook family supper every night. It's proving pretty expensive but as it means zero effort on my part I don't care.

Being taken on a freebie junket to Glyndbourne tomorrow. Will report back.....

Teeny bit of wifi to say happy birthday Crem and strength to stropps, herbs, bd and GGG. Can only see fraction of messages on my phone in the co op!

Having fab time with lovely old friends and two mates of dd who have tippe up and thrown themselves into everything. We

Stropps, I do find a really compelling page-turner gives me time off from stress. Examples: The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (with a nod to Herbs ); Gone Girl (controversial, I know); Her by Harriet Lane. It has to be that I really CANNOT tear myself away.

Oh yes. I cannot exist without a book on the go. I read it in bed before going to sleep, and find it's a kind of air lock between real life and sleep. I can't go to sleep without a book! I'm actually reading my first Jo Nesbo at the moment (macho detective) and didn't enjoy it much for the first 100 pages, but now of course want to see what happens.

One of the most compelling books I ever read was A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell's other name). In fact anything by her is grip-o-rama.

What was the name of that detective from the 50s? In the classic orange penguin books. A woman author. Lord Peter Whimsey?

So I've just bought A Dark Adapted Eye on Amazon, Herbs - it'll see me through the traumas of Thursday. I read Grasshopper by Barbara Vine a couple of years ago, and liked it, so am very hopeful.

Dorothy L Sayers Herbs is LPW author... but Marjory Allingham (same era) much more enjoyable imo. Not wild about Barbara Vine / Ruth Rendell - readable but a bit meh somehow.

Oh, I like Barbara Vine. Especially Asta's Book, which is all about Danes moving to London around the time my Danish grandfather's lot moved to London.

Oh lord Molly. I hope you like it! I feel terribly responsible! I feel I should point out that I was gripped by it in a bleak bungalow we'd rented for a family Christmas in Harlech, and there was bugger all else to do, other than witness the disintegration of my sister's marriage.

Good news on home for DM Giddy and well done on making offspring cook every night. I have had presentable meals served up on a couple of occasions, even surprisingly by DS but agree, they do seem to select things that need a number of expensive ingredients that are not handy at home.

Well done on zero weight gain Herbs - the mediterranean diet would be cancelling out the cake. Hope something can be done for DM and you manage to meet the doc.

Stropps - strength and re DD - hope it gets sorted.

Am I the only one who hates crime novels - I find them too disturbing. I love them on TV though (I am allowed to be disturbed through the medium of TV but not literature apparently).

Crem - I now fancy a glass of vouvray! Hope you are still having a nice day. Very overcast weather in Paris today.

Dorothy Sayers and that ilk have famously been called (way back, by critic Colin Watson) 'snobbery with violence' and alas that is true. But occasionally re-reading one of the novels is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Though certain passages really do grate/shock, even if allowances are made for the different standards of her time. The modern 'continuations' are dire, however....
I do like Daphne du Maurier from that era, though, though...

Sample spectacles frames arrived from Cubitts today. One style will do very nicely, so thank you again for the reference. Showed them to DH, who noticed (and liked!) my choice but recoiled in horror from the others. Actually, he was quite right ...

Lol at snobbery with violence. Hattie, some are far too violent for me, eg Val McDermid, Minette Walters et al. Don't worry, Herbs, I've seen Dark Adapted recommended on MN before, so have been wondering about acquiring it but too lazy. Saying that, if it's rubbish I shall have to kill you.

Congrats on the spex, Flora. Any chance of a pic?

Zero weight gain won't last. I just went and got fish and chips, which DS and I to consumed in front of the Olympics. I'd gone on at him about all the amazing sport going on (meaning the men's gymnastics) and all we could find was archery, shooting or people yacking on about cycling (which is tedious enough just to watch).

I am going to have some wine tonight, just to take the edge off for when DP crashes in, post gin-on-boat. Karma will be mine - he's volunteered to take DS out for the day so I can work. He's going to a museum, and an arduously long series of public transport options.

BTM has posted an amazing gymnastics YouTube clip on FB, Herbs. That woman (Biles) can actually fly.

Jesus is da biz. Though he bloody should be at that price. I shall endeavour not to darken his door again for a while. Am still struggling with all the woo bollocks that goes with chiropractic and have decided to read no more about it. It's for the best. He made my back less hurty, and that's enough for me.

Bursting to be as indiscreet as usual about the latest dd-related calamities, but am restraining self in uncharacteristic manner. And drowning my sorrows in a dodgy bottle of Lidl Prosecco, which seems not as bad as it ought to be.
Vaguely lit-related trivia: my great-uncle was married to Barbara Pym's sister. As he was gay, it didn't go terribly well, and BP made disparaging remarks about him in her diaries. Or something like that. I have vague memories of my granny getting very aerated about the whole thing.

Feel like I am in need of a crepey MU right about NOW

Ps: in my quest to learn to read fiction again, I have been working my way through Steve Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole. The person that sent it to me said that it was about a family significantly more dysfunctional than mine. This is true. It is dark and quite funny, but I am having trouble finishing it as I spend too much time reading books on attachment disorder and how to teech spellingz.

X-posts, loads of people. I'm not ignoring you, I just type pathetically slowly on my phone.

And I am dying to be terribly nosy about DD, but am exercising restraint.

Your gay great uncle story puts me in mind of my only familial claim to fame - my dad's cousin's daughter was married to Kim Philby. That too didn't go swimmingly, appaz.

Collymolly - these, I think www.cubitts.co.uk/womens/cartwright.html#Black The top of the frame rather tactfully follows the line of the brows, the lens is big enough to read through comfortably, and they are wide enough.

Herbs, you totes win that one

Oh, Flora, those are lovely! Now you are truly one of us. And you may call me Molly.

I did reply (to say thank you with a to CollyMolly), but the message has disappeared.
So apologies for repetition if it suddenly appears again. But will now take the opportunity to say much sympathy to Stropperella and Gosh! re relative to Herbs.

Very nice indeed Flora!
You'll have to come to a meet up and show us them in person...