Someone left a Crepe out in the rain

[BeachysSandyFlipFlops]

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

Teenage party not going so well

Strops :(. So sorry... but you are doing the right thing....

Dog from Greece - its cos I is a sucker innit.

A friend has several from there and said this one is yours. And no one there will ever take them (tiny island) - as the re-homing guy said 'dogs here have a way better chance'. So no logic, just a sucker :)
Another friend said call him tzikia (so). I reckon !

Sorry should say stifado!

How does he get here, BD?

Christ Stropps, does she even have things like lectures timetabled with no registration? Would she like you to visit her, now you have so wisely put her off coming home for a visit?

ds and dd both in admin bogs re part time work and volunteering. dd seems to have to apply for two new dbs checks even though she has a current enhanced one from the same organisation. Or possibly not, depending who she asks. And ds has to fill in vast numbers of forms to keep his existing very part-time job at his school (events company). Personal statement not a twinkle in his eye as yet. And we still have no proper internet. Joy. Anyone recommend some good telly on ye olde television as Netflix etc all out of bounds?

Crem, have a crackingly good time. Look out for the glacier mice .

Rose, how extraordinarily rude and peculiar.

MI, once again I am impressed by your iron self-discipline

Stifado, BD? What, his name is Stew? Because he was destined to end up in one? Yup, Flash is better. Although you can pretty much call him anything, I guess. I ran around after my old dog when I first got him shouting Welsh names at him (from a pound in very Welsh Wales), but the only thing he ever reacted to was 'Oi!'. So we called him Henry. Because he looked like one.

x-posts, Lalsy. I have no clue about her timetable. She alleged before she went there that she had one. But I am unconvinced. I don't think she is exactly prioritising the learning experience. And I am quite sure she wouldn't be very pleased to see me if I pitched up, unless I had brought along my fantastic magic wand which would enable her to get all the tedious things in life done from the comfort of her bed, whilst giving her maximum time for fixing her eyelashes and batting them at people.

Do I sound a bit pissed off? That'd be because I am. I am deeply, deeply unimpressed that I have failed to produce an even half-competent pretend adult. And I am fed up with making excuses for her and being nice when I feel really bloody angry. I am also busy making plans for exactly how we're going to cope when she lands back on the doorstep having failed to even get as far as getting off the starting blocks at university. Feh. Am also bloody fed up with her emotional blackmail. It's all getting a bit old.

Crem - have you read Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness, translated by Magnus Magnusson. A work of special Icelandic oddness.

God Stropps - . I really don't know what you can do except refuse to engage in the hope that she understands this is real. Is there any system on the Uni whereby older students mentor younger students and help them to sort themselves out - eg finance, registrat.

ion etc? I know DD had a Uni mother and then was a mother in her turn.

Crem - have a great visit to Iceland.

I've been to yoga and have been bent into all sorts of unatural positions.

Sorry about the weird half sentence there.

Stropps - both my DD's have had their timetables in advance, through the uni website, so it is possible your DD has hers.

Stropps I have no answers, only wish I did. I get the anger and frustration. And maybe she can't come back, maybe that's where you are. I am not saying that is easy - I watched my administrator go through it and it was absolutely crap, but there was no other choice, because any other route would have destroyed them all. In the end, despite being a mother, it's self preservation, and the protection of the others - DH and ds..... She isn't the only one in the family.

The bed is always here if you need a break (and a Greek dog)

We arrived in Vegas yesterday after a great time in Death Valley, we particularly liked the Artists Drive and I thought of Stropps and took a photo of a wagon for her. when we were at Mormon Station in Genoa the ranger there told us not to get a rosy view of the settlers: yes, there were wagons, but the people actually walked all the time. Can you imagine walking all the way across the US.

BTM, sorry about you mum, and how lovely of DS.

Crem, enjoy Iceland.

Rose, sorry about the problems.

I have just been listening to Donald Trump; DH and I are just aghast.

Yay , thanks for the book recommendation Stropps. I haven't read that, but will get it for my trip I think. thanks you. I have already downloaded a couple of Michael Ridpath mysteries set there, and have read bucketloads of Arnuldur Idraiasson.
Don't know what to say to about dd. It's sink or swim really. I think I'd hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Maybe start planting the idea that coming home is not an option. Has she any friends up there looking out for her Stropps. So hard on you Stropps.
Flash is a greAt name. Can't say I'm keen on stifado or tzatsiki or Taramasalata for that matter
Have you got a picture of him BD??

Oh dear, so much sympathy needed for so many Crepeys. BTM, how awful for you re your mum, but how lovely is your ds?

Crem, have a great time in Iceland.

Must just do this:

26th November
Monty
BTM
MI
BD
Molly

Taramasalata seems a fine name for a dog.

Cremo have a fab time!

I will try to get pic to post at some point.

Here I'm having the work pattern/hours debate that I seem to go through about every 6 months with one member of staff. She does seem to think the job is here for her and not the other way round and when something changes in her personal life it's work that has to accommodate it. So visit to HR this morning....

Stropps I hope you are feeling less angry. Although like MI I'd be incandescent. Really is time for her to MTFUP....

I havr a question - if a guy is gay - is a generally condescending and rude attitude to a younger female colleague, including the use of the word "honey". Is this "mansplaining" or are we in some sort of murky halfway house here?

I think any kind of condescending behaviour only meted out to females is equally unacceptable, wherever the protagonist chooses to insert his penis.

DP has gone off to NYC. I have stuck a sign on the inside of the front door saying 'KEYS'. We have no spare set, and being locked out would be no fun whatsoever.

And yes, Stropps. Agree with everyone else. Time for her to MTFU. She wanted to go to uni, now she has to actually BE there.

You could call Taramasalata Tara for short.

Or Masala, for a pleasingly Indian touch.

Herbs - can you not leave a set of keys with some trusted neighbours?

Am enraged for female colleague but difficult to intercede because of my lowly position and also because I'm not supposed to be privy to what's going on.

Annoyingly, our lock is very narrow, and no key blanks will fit. We've tried having keys cut, but they are too wide. We could, of course, get a new lock. And, in fact, DP could have left his keys behind, under a bin or something.

I have sent him my duty free wish list. Not sure it went down too well.

Eeek Herbs, I would seriously consider getting a new lock - what do you do if you have builders/people to stay, etc?

Hatty, I guess it's tone of voice as well?

BD, Flash sounds hugely more appropriate than Stifado or is that just my mind?

Cremo, do you go tomorrow? Happy, happy hols!

Stropps, you are doing brilliantly. Do whatever you have to do to make it clear to her that she cannot just come back. She needs to Woman TFU and get on with her own life!

We don't have people to stay! And when we have builders or other tradespersons, we do a key juggling between us.

Re Greek dog, he could have a God name. Such as Apollo or Zeus (as he came through the sky). Or, at the other end of the scale, Doner, Shish, Pita, Feta, Baklava or Galaktoboureko.

God Herbs what is that last one? I can't even pronounce it! Suspect he may stay as Flash. stifado was a joke :)

While we're on names - NU, do you know the name of that gorgeous geranium please? I would love to get one. There is one called Roxanne but I think it's a bit different from yours.

Molly, I am dealing with the Organisation Where We Met

I am trying to Establish Boundaries with my adult learning organisation. I am teaching 2.5 hours each on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I am paid for 7.5 hours a week. It would seem reasonable (as I'm new and learning the ropes) to work the whole of Mondays and Wednesdays, plus a little bit of an evening. Say, 12 hours.

However, such is the creaking incompetence of the place that I have spent all day today so far just trying to find out some tedious IT stuff to enable me to do 30 minutes of tomorrow's lesson. I could quite easily spend all week working for the place, for the princely sum of £350 a month. Yes, really.

Strops - what you wrote last night about DD and your exasperation - have you said that to her? Does she KNOW this? Or comprehend the effect she's had on the whole family? Or does she still believe that she can just revert back to her former life whenever she wishes?

DS has been to the doctor, who has prescribed an industrial amount of penicillin for his ghastly tonsils. But also muttered darkly about the possibility of it being glandular fever so if the drugs don't work, then he will go back for a blood test. Meanwhile I'm getting hourly updates from the bedbound patient on his various symptoms. He has pointed out that the last time he went to the doctor he was three, and suffering from impetigo. He really doesn't do ill.

New thread approacheth...