Someone left a Crepe out in the rain

[BeachysSandyFlipFlops]

Here we go, ready for the Autumn.....

Teenage party not going so well

NU - have a great hol. Noted about Dublin I'm surprised you can do this in this day and age.

Herbs, obviously a discerning young man (Liverpool Lime Street )

I don't want to think about wizened-ness down there I agree with Lalsy, try sorting it on the phone.

NU, that sounds like a great tip - will tell DH once I have twisted his arm to go to Cali But £150 doesn't sound particularly cheap for a room (thinking about our £25-£50 for 2 rooms in Vietnam!) And no tea!

All of us with anxious DD's (yes that's just about all of us!) should get them all together. They would all probably think all the others hated them...

Beachy and Rudy, how are your DS's getting on?

Picked up 2 free tickets to Childhood of a Leader for DH and I at our new cinema next Tues, only to get an email saying a parent has to go to a presentation for DS's footy at the same time No doubt DD will not be speaking to me refuse to commit even though I think she would love it.

Lalsy, I just melted on the 37 to and from Clapham. But it was worth it to see my dentist for a check

NU, did you go with Ryan Air? Please keep us updated on your trip so I can hear about all the wonderful things to do there again. I told DH I want to go and see the sea otters!

Cold shower, BTM? .

LOL as they say about anxious dds being introduced.

I've said it before & I know it gives you all the horrors but 'wizened-ness down there' can be due to a condition called vaginal atrophy. It is so easily sorted with a pessary inserted 2 x a week of an incredibly low doe of estrogen. The name sounds dire and if you have it it is bloody uncomfortable & makes sex hell but I've been on the pessarys for 5 years now & everything is fine & everyone (including DH) is happy!!

Stonking hot here - had a lovely swim & there were a couple of seals in the water which you don't often see round here. (I was not swimming with them.)

Prawn & avocado sald for supper - too hot to cook.

NU - I really envy you being in California - have a great time.

Hatty, they were actually American Immigration officials over in the Republic on a kind of secondment, either for 2, I think, or 5 years. BTM, we flew with BA on a code share with Aerlingus, so in fact an Irish plane and crew - such lovely, helpful people. Hey, ho, got to go and get the car. This afternoon it's our private wine tasting at, I think, the Deerfield Winery.

Oh yes, MM, I had the oestrogen cream, which had to be Inserted with a Device. But I've run out of the cream. I'll have to steel myself to phone the practice. It can take 20 goes to get through, and then the receptionists are incredibly rude.

Tube boy blind date a great success. He has the same favourite 'tube' t shirt as DS, and the same favourite ice lolly, which they bought from the ice cream van. Overheard snippet of convo - ' I'd really like to go to Beckenham Junction.'

All except DD1, who takes cheery insouciance to new heights.

Herbs He knows how to live the high life!

NU, cheers!

Btw the suggestion one sorts wizened fanjos over the phone did make me wonder if you meant that sort of phone call

Herbs - I knoe I shouldn't be laughing at your wizend fanjo but - it's all in the telling. What with that and the exploits of the Tube boys you need your own blog or something.

NU - I take it US customs are more efficient than the French ones at the Shuttle UK side. He didnt even look up from his newspaper as we drove through.

at wizened fanjo phone calls!

dd once went down to the surgery to avoid discussing her needs on the phone with the receptionist and was greeted, cheerily, by a boy from school who was temping there.

herbs is it the combo of train and tram that appeals?

Herbs, you really must bring the Young Master over here to run about in our garden. He can arrive by going to the very endest of ends of the northern line, then go home via the tramlink. I know our house would only be the boring middle bit, but you could have wine and cake.

Sitting waiting for DH who is in an enormous queue for the car hire. Hatty, immigration is exactly the same: check your passport, match up with ESTAs presumably, fingerprints, thumbprints and photos. Can't believe that about French immigration for the shuttle, although it's a long time since we went over the Channel on either a ferry or the tunnel.

Well the potential shit hitting the fan today didn't happen and it all seems to have blown over. So no idea what that was all about.

Not drinking is not going well this week, although I am managing moderation quite well.

I went swimming the evening! Did 20 lengths! Some of them just with a float! And it was great! Got in with back ache, and now it's gone.

Then watched gbbo on catch up. Me and DP think Paul is mean to Val. We love her.

arf at Molly devising train-related treats for Young Master Herbs with added wine

The Entertainer is great (though DH and DD disagree, to differing extents). Branagh brilliant at the sleazy, tired comedy. Conveys that he knows & loves authenticity when he sees it, but can't achieve it himself. Greta Scacchi warm, touching, funny, sad. Gawn Grainger extremely funny.

We had rude bastards in front of us who talked loudly about how they couldn't hear a word and wanted to leave, so things improved immensely for us at the interval when, thank fuck, they did leave.

Gave DM's ticket to recently-single friend, who has been phoning to rant at us about his DW since she left. He managed most of the evening without actually frothing, though he did apparently have a go at DH for a while. Difficult to be sympathetic, as the more he talks, the more convinced I am that she did exactly the right thing by getting out, & was wise to give him no inkling beforehand that it was even on the cards

Auriga the play sounds great, the audience and your companion less so ..... I embarrassed ds once at the cinema when I very loudly said to a bunch of children 'can you either shut up and watch the film or leave'. They left.....

The argument at work continues - would it be very wrong of me to say 'if your student wasn't such an arrogant little sh*t and had actually come and talk to me we wouldn't be in this mess'?

I am being embroiled in a FB row...are we all 12 or something?

BD you have my sympathy.I have decided, after last night that people are scum. And everything above that kind of behaviour is just a bonus. longest day at the coal face that I can remember. just one 'situation' after another mainly caused by over zealous staff and members of the general public at large on pints of gin and with outrageous expectations. Lovely.
Don't know if I'm just a bit hot flush/ over heated and short of patience, but I just think I'm probably better out of the whole thing. And I'm supposed to be able to fix and explain technology to others who don't understand it. All I could think yesterday was, yes, but It's usually me on the other end of the phone saying I couldn't understand the website/ app/ barcode. Not the person helping. Sigh. Feel ancient today.
The weather has broken here and we have raindrops on the roses. Phew.
Packing my bag now.

What are you rowing about MI?

OH LORD.

In short, whether the school to which I have sent my daughters for the past four years is BU on various issues regarding a child who has only just started there.

I am no kneejerk apologist for the place but one does, inevitably, take it quite personally/parentally when one has invested one's children's future in a school and lots of other people - who don't know it at ALL - start slagging it off quite unreservedly at third hand. I was keeping a low profile, in somewhat cowardly manner, but then was emailed directly about one of the participants...

Cremo mucho sympathy..... Why can't people be nice and get along? My boss has said JFDI so I am awaiting fallout.....

MI I feel your pain. When we had the knife incident in Y7 you'd have thought ds's school was in the Bronx (which is doubtless gentrified now) and not in rural England......

Oh flippin hec MI, walk away. Your girls are doing brilliantly. You are aware of any failings and misgivings. They know shag all. Sympathy that you got drawn in though.

BD, I don't think my hrt is working either. But people can be vile, really. So much for calm walking away from work the Crem way.

Off for bra fitting. Make your bets on the size ladies. Should be interesting.