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

Lol, NU, just make sure that 5-year-old doesn't become a poet. Because that would be Awful.

I meant to say, for NU and Herbs that Waitrose Gardening Magazine - free in store if you have a Waity card - has a big feature on the attractions of Northumberland and Alnwick. So tempting. I am hoping to meet you up there sometime, NU.

Safe journey home, BTM.

Welcome, OhCrepe

BD, look after yourself and make sure you take the time off.

CV, your holiday sounds amazing. I have serious holiday envy.

NU, your grandchildren sound gorgeous.

Sending good wishes to all awaiting exam results. I will be thinking of you tomorrow and next week. My children are a way off yet, but I realise that, with 3 of them at 2 school year intervals, there are stressful times ahead

Holiday continues apace. Yorkshire is lovely but weather patchy, Dh wants to go walking when kids want to go to beach, dd1 scratchy and difficult and there are few nice shops / restaurants in walking distance around which to potter. After much pestering I took the DC to pizza express and a penny arcade for half an hour yesterday whilst Dh did his own thing. Arcade awful and not to be repeated. Spent rest of day feeling cross with all of them. Need to buck up. To top it off, we have yo stay with mil overnight on way home. Wtf.

I realise that I am being v self indulgent moaning on - I will have a meeting with myself and return in a more joyful form

Ps Molly, may I join you on the walk round B park? We could take in lunch at Tulse Hill hotel as well ....

Yes, Monty! That would be fun!

Brilliant. I shall mentally park it as something autumnal to look forward to

Feeling much better, many thanks. My own silly fault for eating too many toms!

NUFC - I totally agree re grandchildren*. But isn't that whatt grandparents are for?

Apart from the fact that mine* is a that outshines any others

NU and MM on competitive grandparenting - I hope I am as as good a dgm as you both, if/when it happens.

Glad you are feeling better, Magi.

Another night of being woken by hot flushes, and then lying there worrying about parents. Or, as I have 'rebadged' it, a 'sweat and fret'.

Had a couple of mini epiphanies, though.

1 After the hol, I will stop thinking along the lines of 'I can't go to see parents as I'm doing XYZ', and will try to think 'I can't do XYZ as I'm going to see parents'. If I make it a regular thing, I will feel more that I'm doing my bit.

2 We are in fact doing as mum would have done. She was never big on affection or 'being there', but sorted stuff out behind the scenes as her way of loving. So, that's what we are doing also.

3 Must try and get brother to visit. They're his parents too, and he's got bugger all else to do.

Sorry to hear about the sweat & fret, Herbs.

Epiphanies sound good - especially 3. You tell him!

I have the right fitting but still bulge. Am clearly squat mutant.

Monty, I too need to get over my profound holiday dissatisfaction. I hate the noise here - it is what I want to GET AWAY from, ffs. Kinsale was lovely, though - all bookshops and cafes. DP and I still rowing.

Am also feeling v crap that I don't earn enough to take us away on the sort of holiday I would actually enjoy. Soddit, am booking India ticket on my return and will send them all cheery email from Pondicherry.

I haven't worn M&S bras in forever, however that range that CV mentioned look very good everyday bras...the plain sort that I like, but why do they start at a 34" back? Much as I agree with all the bra intervention ladies on everything...I am not sure that back fat is as easy to eliminate as they say. Fat is fat...it's got to go somewhere after all, and scooping...well some of it just escapes as the day wears on...

Monty but maybe take comfort in knowing most Crepey offspring/DH'd/DP's are vile on holiday at some point in the proceedings. Can you absent yourself with a book and find a nice tea room for a couple of hours.....quid pro quo with DH after all...

Oh MI not you too.. holidays are so bloody overrated.

Magi glad you feel better...diverticulitis can't be much fun

herbs My DBro didn't get involved until very late in the proceedings...when finances became an issue. Didn't do any of the really messy stuff

Going to the optician...me and DD..long overdue for a new prescription. then prep for a new course which starts tonight. However my and DH's emails are down..a server error appaz. Bloody nuisance.

Results, T minus 23 hours

I have my lightweight M&S bra, and it's pretty good at fitting and gathering back fat. But they do have a dearth of large cup sizes. The one I got is 34E, though I think I could prob do with a 32F. Which don't exist in M&S world.

Off to see my T Wells friends for some hose-based fun in the garden.

I note crepeys have not done their usual 'no no Herbs, you're not a bad daughter' to my latest brain dump, but I have rationalised it all to myself anyway so

Re holiday rowing, sadly we don't leave them behind along with the domestic tedium. And sometimes take the domestic tedium too (cf self-catering). Why do we expect things to be different because of hot weather and new scenery?

V glad I have a few years to go before results angst. There was very little SATS-related chat at DS's school this year, which was a relief.

Ok , I have done the bra measury thing and coming up as a 38FF what the actual? I have been wearing nothing like that for years and can't believe I'd be anywhere near that cuppage.
MI you are so not a squat whatchamacallit.i am clearly a humongously mishapen wretch. ( too scared to go to a shop as last experience of being measured was horrific)

Herbs all of your points sound excellent. I like your thinking. Please don't beat yourself up if you can't achieve no.1 all the time. You have a v busy life already.

Waiting for upholstery man to come a get the 50s chairs I have had waiting to be recovered for about 20 years, but never got round to. ( typical of me) I am all go. Carpenter coming tomorrow : tiler coming next Tuesday to finish off fireplace ; man coming to give quote for replacement window in kitchen which is steamed up permanently.
I tell you, I am a complete whizz!! And, I am going to Reykjavik with dsis for my birthday ( a gift from her) I am made up. End of September. I am liking this lurching from one trip to another,

Herbs, you need a balance between XYZ and parents. Don't do total self-sacrifice! You don't know how long this will go on for and/or at what point more demands will be unavoidable.

You'll also remember that for a loooong time DP thought I wasn't doing enough for my parents. He's changed his sodding tune now, though....

Oh soddit. I am tired and weepy and have had enough. ENOUGH.

Herbs, you are doing enough. More than enough. It's just a shit situation. Plus the Young Master really does, must come first - you are his mum.

Re something else you posted - I had a friend who used to disapprove of my parenting - her dd came round our house once and said "My mum said your dd is spoilt rotten." So that was me told. You are bound to feel fragile. And you, MI!!!

I think one has to be so careful about what one says about other parents parenting. People get really defensive and there are so many acceptable levels. My best ones were a friend with her DS who came round to play with DS1 when they were nursery school age. And the mother said "What...do you actually keep biscuits in the house...???" And a mother of a boy and a girl who were contemporary with DS2 and DD who just couldn't compel her kids to do anything...I was the one putting their shoes and their coats and shepherding them downstairs to the front door when it was time to leave...they just kept ignoring her that is was time to go... and she just stood there What I do know is that I am getting way less tolerant as I get older....

Herbs there's no question of your daughtering credentials but what Molly said. You're a mother and partner first and a daughter second. My DM was a carer for her DM and always put her needs above ours. Some kind of weird co dependency, I expect. We didn't suffer unduly but I do remember feeling resentment about it.

MI oh no...can you disappear to a tea room with a book like I said to Monty?

MI {{ }}

Herbs you must get some balance speaking as one who knows. My ds is older but he's had a rubbish 8 months of me not really being there and that's not fair.

You do what you can....

Balance is all, so difficult when conflicting demands. I think your plan is good, Herbs, it sounds like a way of stopping pointless mind-whirring, which is yet another drain on energy.

MI and Monty, sorry hols leaving something to be desired. Monty, we have always walked as a family with much bribing when dc little but then the rest of the time we Did pretty well what the dc wanted. Quite often holidays with other families too which takes the edge off the pain and the feeling of total responsibility. MI, how Is it going now?

Had interview, gabbled but they ended by saying they thought I would probably want more than thy could pay (which is true) so can't have been too awful. Am out of practice though. And I love my shirt!!!

Well done Lalsy. It's a nightmare isn't it? Interviews suck. Glad you got through it!

MI, sorry you are feeling wretched is it Cork or just the family?

On a diverting note, what do we know about Iceland?

Alas, getting away is a bit difficult as we are slightly in the middle of nowhere...with the motorway noise rather cancelling out the usual advantages of this

Also DP js a bit "we've seen that, let's go" on holiday. However, after we'd been to Blarney Castle (meh - but a poison garden, hurrah) we zipped down to Cobh which is all about tragedy and departure - the Titanic picked up from there, the Lusitana survivors were brought back there and the others buried, and over the 19th century millions must have departed forever for the US or Australia. And there is a thoroughly forbidding and imposing 19th century cathedral. I feel all cathartic and drained by the experience and really much chirpier

CV - thank you; will check out.

Have honestly tried bra guru etc and changed sizes, etc, Mrs S and Lalsy. Have come to reluctant conclusion that older skin is looser and there's not a lot you can do about it. Do find it shamefully hard not to hate my ageing body with a passion but am working on it.

Herbs, think you are doing really well and are v good daughter but also think your epiphanies v simple and reframing as in epiph.1 I hope will help clear your mind a bit.

Lalsy - well done. IMO your gabbling is most people's well thoughtout reasoning only considerably faster

Crepeys - FYI - I was recently recommended Jerez for a crepey retreat - not remarkable but small, nice, v easy to get to from airport (!), lots and lots of sherry, and on v good train line for Seville and Cadiz. thought sounded lovely

anyone watching Stranger Things? we are watching as family, 2 episodes a night, which I always like

Addle, Jerez sounds muy sympatico indeed. I must have a look.

MI, Cobh can be full of Titanaraks , like Belfast , but I am glad it had a cathartic effect.