Crepeys who try not to look like creepy clowns....

[BeachysSandyFlipFlops]

Would that be OK?

Must try to avoid a thread switch on a Friday night

I love the photos of the cats: it's making me quite sad, though, as I remember my two sleek black cats. Like MM we have decided that as we are away such a lot it is not fair, although the DC have both offered to look after them for us.

So we survived looking after the two DGC in a caravan for four nights: in fact we all had a lovely time, the only slight hiccup was when our older DGD (aged 4) joined her cousins, and the two girls decided to have a love in and walked around holding hands and vowing undying love, thus excluding DGS, aged 5. It has made me think again about taking three of the cousins away, tbh, I will stick to siblings in the future.

Way back upthread hospital car parks were mentioned: it's one of the reasons I am having my knee replacement in Hexham General as opposed to one of the hospitals in Newcastle: parking is a doddle and relatively cheap (under £2 for the day, if I remember correctly) and I will have to go there for physio after the op. Knee has been awful recently so I have rung the consultant to let him know, as per his instructions. I don't know if it will make any difference, but hopefully it will mean I don't drop down the list.

Auriga, your back sounds dreadful, I do hope they do something soon.

Morning Crepeys,
Sadly Cremcat on last legs.They found a ruptured tumour in his kidney and ensuing peritonitis. Outlook terminal.. Am sitting with him ( dh was up all night with him) and very leaky, it has to be said.
Fwiw, this seems to have broken my well constructed dam for dealing with difficult things. Am in small, very damp pieces.

Aww no, Crem. I am very sorry to hear that.
{{{{{Crem}}}}}

Oh Cremo so sorry to hear that.

NU, sounds like you did a great job with your DGC. Again. I hope I'm as good as you if I ever get the chance!

Cremo it is the last sodding straw. I'm so sorry.

So sorry, Crem. Lots of love xxx

Awesome Crem. So sorry. Poor lovely cat.

BLOODY PHONE. Sorry all over again. Aw was the first word I meant to type.

So sorry about your cat, Crem xxxx
Ours vomited lavishly and copiously all over the hall last night. DH trod in it this morning. There was much effing and blinding. I do love him though (the cat, obv).

I have been up west and back on the bus already. Cheese from JL, Converse for DD2 and an under eye concealer for me as I look about 90. Got a Laura Mercier one as had voucher.

Cocoa, hope you can enjoy a relaxed weekend after your recent travails. So glad that yesterday went well.

It was dh's birthday yesterday. We went out for a pub lunch in one of the picturesque villages near here. Dm also came and presented dh with a bottle of single malt and a sign saying "Man Cave. Enter at own risk". He has attached this sign to the garage door. This obviously means that he will have to also take responsibility for the tumble drier and the large freezer, which are both in the garage. Told him he can start by defrosting the big freezer.
Dd didn't even bother to send him a text for his birthday. I am not bothering to send feedback about what I think about this. I don't think I can be arsed with trying to mediate between them any more. It just gives me the rage and achieves nothing. Maybe when she comes back in December, he can move into his man cave and she can move into one of the sheds. And ds, Stroppdog and I can enjoy the festive season with no familial unpleasantness (fat chance).

Quick S&B question to anyone who has bought from Woolovers recently: how is their sizing these days? I haven't bought anything from them for several years and I remember that I bought something in a Medium back then and it was huge. I have a discount voucher and am perusing their website, as most of my jumpers are too old and tatty for work now. Or somehow the wrong colour for my pasty old complexion sprinkled with gin blossoms.

So sorry Crem - I have always cried buckets when I've lost a cat.

I never went inter-railing but I did take the 'Magic Bus' to Turkey - man

Cremo :( :(
They break your heart don't they.

Stropps everything from woolovers is big in my experience - even more so if it's unisex style...

Oh poor Crem. And poor CremCat. The poor things do act as a lightning rod for emotions we can't express elsewhere, don't they. Hence me constantly yelling at ours and 'helping' him across the floor with my foot.

Re Inter-railing, I did it as a student with four others. We camped most of the time, though that meant various arguments about who was carrying what part of which tent. Went to Paris, Venice, Rome, Naples, Brindisi, ferry to Pireaus, Athens, boat to Naxos, train through the then Yugoslavia, Vienna, Munich, home. No clubbing for us, as on super-tight budget. We splashed out on a youth hostel in Vienna, and it seemed like unspeakable luxury.

Have been back to vet to acquire pain killer for cat. Can't watch him suffer. Dh is still holding on to hope, poor thing. Can't bare any of this tbh.

Inter railed with two gay men friends DM didn't really know as bf dropped out as had appendicitis ( we were lovely friends and went without her) and had a crazy time. We did Ireland -France by boat then Paris, Stayed with friend, central rural France where we stayed with more friends, Lyon, Interlakenhoheweg, ( the most gorgeous train journey) Florence , Milano, Venice , Rijeka, met a local and on to Istria, Optija, Krk and then on to Austria Salzburg, Munich, Wurtzburg, and then Amsterdam and back to Paris. It was completely memorable, down to the last detail. Only have appalling photos, but it doesn't matter, the memories are vivid. Have returned to many of the paces since and relived the memories. Still great friends with the 3 others.

Crem - so sorry to hear about poor old moggie. So hard - especially on top of everything else.

Coca - glad DF is successfully installed and at drinking gin in the dark and hiding cars to avoid the neighbour.

Am going to spend the afternoon getting together papers for French nationality and then out with friends this evening. It's getting to the time of year where I want to hole up with wine and telly rather than go out. I am definitely a summer socialite.

Am amazed at the detail with which the interlining itineraries can be recalled! I never did that but after A levels went to France with 3 friends in an enormous grand 50s car (can't recall the technical details like what make!) and a tent. We went all over the place for 4 weeks living on porridge and cheap wine (maybe that's why it's a bit of a blur). Happy Days.

I was only 17 - what were my parents thinking? Were they thinking?

A A Riley! it belonged to one of the boys grandmothers and had been mostly kept in a garage for the last 20 years!

We had a portable cassette player that ate all our tapes. By the time we were halfway through the holiday only one tape remained - Bob Dylan with 4 different versions of Tambourine Man on it - it still makes me want to scream if I hear it - like Pavlov's dog, or not being able to drink something ever again if you once drank far too much of it... (Grappa in my case - no big loss).

Wow more interrailing stories! I never did it. Not sure why, but I have caught up now!

Don't think DD and mates would contemplate camping though!

I cannot drink Cointreau (or even smell it) having got very drunk on it in Majorca when I was 17. Didn't do interrailing, but spending my early 20s behind the Iron Curtain, used to go to West Berlin for the weekend quite often. Left at 4, got to West Berlin around midnight, dumped stuff in room, went clubbing on the Ku'damm, got in at 5, breakfast at 9, round the German shops, which only opened on Saturday morning, back to hotel for a bit of a nap in the afternoon, quick whizz round the Naafi for tea bags and cheese, then dinner, out clubbing, back around 3, bed, breakfast at 8, quick shopping frenzy in the American PX and greasy American lunch, before getting in the car and heading home. Needed the following week to recover.

Also had a memorable camping trip on the Russian border in late October. I have never been so cold in my life.

Not caught up but for lovely Crem and her poor dcat. Sorry it is upstirring for you.

And for Sister's representative on earth - Auriga, I am so sorry about your back.

And for NU. Such inspiring grandparents on this thread.

Stropps, quite right about birthday intervention. They have to find their own way through this and some people (my dc) are terrible about birthdays. My dsis is very focussed on al anniversaries and birthdays and things like that but for me, they carry little emotional weight.

MI, you are a great mother. The dc will find their way. FWIW, I think working at home makes it harder as at some level because you are in the house, in the dim recesses of their sleep-filled teen heads you are In Charge and Everything Will Be OK. It makes the boundary setting more complicated IMO and IME. When my dc were younger, I would help them draw up a fairly detailed plan for holiday hw (they had a fair bit as long hols) - this did seem to lance the boil on day 1 (and let them stop each day feeling good which is also important I think) and they have both let drop that they still do it, to varying extents.

GGG, what a cool car to travel round in! Tape players had a habit of wrecking tapes IIRC!

I went on a driving holiday from France to Belgium with 7 of my French friends when we were students - one of those old 3 row Peugeots which they took turns to drive. I don't remember that much about the holiday - probably due to the many visits we made to Trappist breweries

crem so sorry it's bad news about your lovely cat. I was distraught when mine died....he was 15 though.

auriga I do hope the epidural will make a real difference. Chronic pain is so wearing.

Cocoa I'm glad things went reasonably well and that you feel a bit more positive re your Ddad.

I also didn't interrail. I was spending long periods of time over that summer in the Middle East....plenty of sleeping under the stars and beach time. DS1 I think did something awful like going to an 18-30 clubbing resort. DS2 and friends couldn't afford interrail so they chose a small number of destinations including Berlin and Amsterdam and did it with low cost airlines, overnight coaches and hostels. We sound very boring compared to some of the intrepids on here!

stropps I don't know if it's any comfort but DS1 was like that until he (and DH!!!!!!) hit true adulthood. Then they related to each other as one adult to another rather than the troubled step relationship. They even quite like each other now but it took until DSs mid 20s.

I still feel lousy. Like a huge cold which just won't come out but has endowed me with an irritating cough, and with a huge air filled stomach that won't deflate. In other news, DS2 is back for a couple of days and seems to be loving uni. And the LBD is going back to JL as it's too frum looking and as usual too big on the waist and too snug on the hips. Back to the drawing board.