Hot town, Crepes in the city

[bigTillyMint]

I think Jamie Bells ears are bigger! And DSs hair is lighter (though he is sporting a 1980s barnet!), and his jaw a teeny bit widea, but he looks a bit like him in the pics of JB aged about 18 which I am incapable of linking to

Scuppered on sundowner front as it is raining Though still hot However no we get to try the huge complimentary umbrellas! Not sure how we'll fit them down the street with the mad traffic/pedestrians

DP has announced he is in fact coming home. I am of course thrilled

Thanks all, lovely Crepeys for your kind and affirming posts. I have just made the fatal mistake of logging on to FB .....it reads like The Norf London Pushy middle class parents Hall of Fame...and they are my friends. .

Well done waf and hooray for Crepeys who "Crepe" away (groan) from annoying DC to a refayned tea room and eat cake in splendid isolation

DD and I are cosily esconsed at the flat watching Come Dine With Me, with sushi in the fridge for supper. No one talking about results here well most of the neighbors are 90 plus

Oh botheration MI.

WAF I didn't even know we had a Gregg's in town. That's new. I was in fact working on Monday afternoon , but yes, many tourist visitors assured me of the sunshine outside. Wish there had been time to meet for a coffee, but an hour in Belfast is a bit slim. Loos, very thin on the ground, infuriatingly.
But soon, we will meet in September.

I have dyed my hair a calmer side of beige as it was getting a bit straw like from too much sun. Style is improved as a result. I have also been up IKEA to get frames for some nice little paintings I bought in La Belle France.
Tonight I am meeting our little band of Crepey Pilates girls for coffee, which is lovely . First time for this, so am delighted that it was not just me who felt the camaraderie. It will be interesting when we start back next week, as Dh has committed to join us. he is v self concours of his waistband at the minute. Not for one nanosecond does he relate it too the constant cake baking. Oh no.

Cremo, who gets to eat all his wonderful pastrywork? I bet he is very popular!

Re crepey hair, someone I know has dyed hers that fabulous silver-grey - it is an amazing colour and she looks great.

MM, planning to set off early

Him mostly MI, his office and my office are also growing fat on cremeux and ganaches. I don't touch any of it except the odd bit of airy sponge.

Rose, your DSs are lovely. And hoorah for the Rosebud - I am a big fan of her art and style. It does actually quite reassure me that not everyone gets a great string of straight A*s, as people seem to forget that Bs and Cs are perfectly respectable grades. One of the reasons that I am pleased DD1 is doing the IB is that she has a horrible friend who has always been overly competitive (backed up by her mother) and only too quick to put DD1 down - I could see them getting very competitive over GCSEs.

We have a "motivational form" to fill in for DD1 regarding her achievements, and it seems that they want to know ours, too, as we are required to put down our first degrees and postgrad qualifications, and where we got them. Mine will be resoundingly blank, and DH will have North London Poly in his. I am tempted to leave both blank as a protest.

In other news, DD2 was a witness to an alleged sexual attack on a friend of hers, by a boy at her school (this happened at a party after term broke up) and the head of pastoral care called me today to say that the police want to interview DD2. She seems unfazed by this. Hopefully she can have someone with her?

Hmm, she might not be able to have you in the room. But usually witness interviews with minors are 1-1
Sorry she has to go through this Mrs S. Is the girl alleging the assault a good friend. Very sad.

Very well done to all dcs today . I am delighted for them all. I wish them all well on the next step.
The stealth boasting that went on here was unbelievable, so much so, I didn't answer the phone for a month.

MrsS I went to North London Poly - nowt wrong with it :)

We had the opposite recently: DD2 was in the potential cohort for getting onto a G&T thing specifically aimed at encouraging kids to apply to university. Detailed forms covered her parents' education. When we got to our gamut of postgraduate qualifications (DP has three (3, iii) MAs for some bonkers reason and I've got one) it was clear that she wasn't going to get onto it...

BD - maybe you knew DH!

I think I need Crepey Pilates!

Thank you MrsS. Why do people think there's anything wrong with the Polys...? dS1 went to Leeds Met which was Leeds Poly in a former life where DSis started out also many years previously....( is it Leeds Beckett now?) It was excellent imho. And I did my teaching dip at Luton

I'm a proud Sheffield Poly graduate. Most of our (successful) friends are ex Poly graduates.
I think it is Leeds Beckett now.

MrsS, good on your DD for being brave. I expect they will have a specially trained police officer to do the interview? But if you feel they aren't up-to-scratch or she falters, perhaps insisting that you are there would work?

I went to Bath, which my father always disdainfully referred to as a "jumped-up polytechnic". And it looks like dd is going to Bristol Poly.

MrsS, very sorry to hear about dd having to have a police interview in those circumstances. Poor friend :(

I am just affecting not to notice all boasting, stealth or otherwise here. If anyone asks how dd did, I just say 'horribly', which usually forestalls any further boasting.

Well, my evening has turned into BOTH DP and DD2 at home and DP wangling the episode of Star Trek he has yearned to watch for years.

Rose, what lovely dss you have!

And Lalsy, yes, know exactly what you mean and I agree

BTM, have a fab dc-free weekend!

Ah, commiserations, MI.

Well,done all crepey offspring for surviving the exams, and to all crepeys for surviving the aftermath. Not looking forward to this bit. If we still have such things in the post-climate-apocalypse world, that is.

Bloody bushed. Traipsed in the determined drizzle to Holy Island, to the priory and to the castle, and back. All very atmospheric and mad. But if I see one more damp ill-fitting cagoule it will be too soon. Then t Berwick-upon-Tweed, which I'd managed to convince myself would be our next home. I have since rethought this, as apart from a couple of streets it was mainly charity shops and e-cigarette outlets. I'm thinking Rothbury is our future home. Though it will be a nightmare with my Jonathan Ross type speech impediment.

NU - do you have any tips for our last day and a half? We're leaving here at 10, and have a hotel and morning in Newcastle. I'm thinking potter down coast, via Amble and its 'retail pods' and some beach, get to Newcastle mid-afternoon. Then farm and stories centre in Ouseburn, dinner in dear little bistro (recommendations welcome) and Baltic in the morning. Or is the discover centre good?

I'm not dissing polys! It's just that the school governors all have their CVs on the website and it is all Oxbridge and Ivy League, film stars and captains of industry.

Aww, Rothbury. I feel quite of you Herbs. DM's lovely, lovely BFF lives in Alnwick (farming family) and I do love the area. Amble has a lovely beach. And Boulmer (her large & extended family live all about) - very unspoilt.

MI - your question about when DS needs to make a decision had me leaping off the sofa to examine my DS's paperwork. From what I can make out, he can keep both establishments dangling for another few days yet. He's now enrolled for School sixth form but is still going to attend "choices day" at the College on 31st August (when he'll find out exactly what they'll let him do), at which point he will be firmly pushed off the fence, because if he chooses School, term starts on the 1st. Neither place can accomodate all his choices (School due to timetabling constraints, College because he didn't meet the entry requirements for one subject) so he needs to decide which of the compromises is better. Ohhh....exhausting.

CV, that's exactly what a few DC I know have done - last minute dot com But it has worked out for them.
It sounds like you are being very sensible and letting him take the lead on it all

Was it this stressful in our day? I had a place at an excellent sixth form college, but because it was out of county, my headmaster had to agree for me to go, and he wouldn't do so. (Apparently the sixth form college had a gentleman's agreement with the school, not to poach pupils.)

MI, pah. To be so close to bliss and have it yanked away......

And pah also to all this nonsense re exams and boasting. I feel we have got off very lightly - no one has asked me about grades at school. Without context and history, that question is so blatantly about the questioner.

CV, glad he has a few sleeps to mull it over at least.

MrsS, so sorry to hear that. Is dd2 over 16? When dd1 was little, she witnessed a serious assault. I told the DCI that she thought she could ID the blokes if she did it quickly and he said that because she was under age they had to get specially trained people in, get screens set up etc, and sent us home. He was an arse but the other more junior coppers were absolutely lovely to dd. (They then took weeks to get sorted and I refused permission as dd said she couldn't remember any more.) I have a friend whose (underage) dc also witnessed a serious crime and they were interviewed with her present, and in their own home.

Stropps

There wasn't even any choice here when I was at school. It was Belfast in 1983. You either did A'levels or went on the dole. Gosh, do you remember when you could sign on in the summer holidays? Bonkers.
So Pilates crepey coffee meetup was naice. Sadly we are going to be in different classes next term, but hey ho, might get together for tea and cake again anyway.
Dh's Genoese sponge this evening is a triumph! Just thought you'd like to know that.

No to Berwick, Herbs, but yes to Alnwick. I like Rothbury, but DS's first wife comes from and lives there, so we don't go there any more (would probably give her a good slap if we saw her!). A drive down the coast via Alnmouth, Warkworth and Amble would be good, but a mile or so south of Amble is Low Hauxley which we love - Coquet Island just off the stunning beach (nothing there but a few houses, and a caravan site). As you drive down you might want to consider stopping at Blyth as the tall ships are coming in atm ready for their race on Monday. Not sure what it will be like, though.

Regarding Newcastle, the Centre for Life is fun for children: ours quite like the Discovery Museum (free) which has a lot of the history of Tyneside - both are relatively close to Central Station. It's lovely to walk on the Quayside and across the Millennium Bridge to the Baltic and the Sage. I particularly like the views from the Sage - both places have decent cafes. They open the Millennium Bridge (well, tilt it) at certain times, so you might want to check on line to see if it's going to happen whilst you're around. DH says if you are interested in Georgian architecture you might want to walk up Grey Street to the Theatre Royal - stunning.

Can't help about a bistro as we rarely eat in town, apart from taking the DGC to Za Za Bazaar, which is fun, but hardly fine dining. MPW at the Indigo Hotel was good this week, though. Have a lovely couple of days.