In Crepey Remembrance Of CremCat Past

[GiddyGiddyGoat]

Hope that's an OK unilateral decision!

Quick question MrsS - why is it your problem that your team is under resourced and not your boss's?

MrsW - he seems to have made it my problem. Our relationship has not been brilliant in the past few weeks, since his boss did not anonymise the feedback I'd given on him, but simply printed out my email...

I am in friend's posh spare room in Norwich. Been attempting to write. Main conclusion for today is Scrap This Chapter. Arse. Thought it was quite good. Am going to shut down computer, eat breakfast, visit dad and see schoolfriends in pub. Various people coming to dinner here tonight. It's all very grown-up round here in manner which makes me realise that at 53 I am still a scruffy bohemian type. The sort with badly-behaved cats, too many books overflowing the shelves and shabby towels.

MrsS - that doesn't make it your problem - don't accept it. And the feedback incident is actually helpful even if initially awkward (assuming feedback was factually justified). You both know what you think so can deal with it rather than pretending everything's ok.

I'm not suggesting it's an easy conversation but if you are close to breaking point what have you got to lose? And he probably has far more at stake in your team's success than you do which puts you in a stronger position than you think.

(I'm speaking from experience here btw)

I hope you're ok this morning, Addle, and that DH is ok? Enjoy your time in Norwich, MI, and don't fall out with your DDad. Sorry about the chapter of your book. Stropps, enjoy your trip to Bristol: and good luck with DD. MrsF! Enjoy meet up with your cousin and try to put work related things to the back of your mind.

I have already been shopping: all the family are coming to breakfast tomorrow so I have been stocking up with pastries and bacon - there are already a Christmas trees in the shops (I also saw the first 'logging' truck today carrying Christmas trees. ). I have also been to the chemist at last and had my flu jab.

I liked Robert Vaughan, too: so suave and sophisticated in the Man from Uncle. And his sidekick (mind has gone blank) who played Ilia Kuryarkin - just looked it up, David MCCallum, who is still going strong in NCIS.

So sad about Robert Vaughn too. But yes he did look frail in recent telly things. Leukaemia apparently , so he must have suffered for some time.
GGG I like your idea of a LC farewell dinner. That would be amazing. You are right about the songs.

Reasons to be furious:
1- trump
2- trump
3- biometric clocking machines being installed in work without consultation with staff. Don't feel inclined to part with my fingerprint.

Reasons to be cheerful:
1- am off until Tuesday
2- sun is shining
3- dh is feeling spendy so going into town.

Oh god dad is weepy and bonkers.

Oh no, MI. How bonkers?

CV - you use MyHermes - they claim to have posted a Boden parcel through our letterbox this morning but there is no sign of it. I don't appear to be able to contact them to complain, given that I am not the sender. Do I have to get Boden to take this up?

Sorry to hear that MI - difficult here too. At least I (and you?) had a good night last night.

Stropps, thinking of you - hope it's not raining on your lovely day out

Clearly lovely weather in Cremo-shire - hope he buys you something nice.

I went on the M&S website to do some shopping and it appears that all the advent calendars have gone. Saved myself £35 then!

BTM - the M&S advent calendars sell out much quicker online than they do in store (she says smugly, having bagged one on Thursday; yes, Rudy, I was stalking it for weeks). Sorry to hear things are still tough, but DS's prize-winning news did put a little tear in my eye - how lovely for him.

MrsFP - I think you have to take it up with Boden, as the sender. I have only required the MyHermes Help once, and they were worse than hopeless. If it's anyting to do with a retailer they wash their hands of the problem.

I hope you've all seen the new John Lewis ad by now? If so, watch - it might provoke an ironic chuckle, at least!

GGG - I'm sorry to say I wouldn't know Leonard Cohen if he passed me on the street. What a philistine I must be. I only know the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah. And I didn't know who Robert Vaughn was either. I quite understand if you consider our friendship over.

Today, I am mostly putting stuff away. And washing clothes. And shopping on eBay for bedroom furniture for DD2. I am planning to sort out the cupboards in our playroom, which are groaning with dusty old board games, sticker books and other childhood detritus, thereby freeing up some room for teenage detritus, which I am determined won't be going back into their pristine new bedrooms. DM came over yesterday, and she and DH laid a carpet in DD2's room, which looks miles better than the scabby cigarette-burned green carpet it replaced. DH even managed to saw a centimetre off the bottom of the door without incident, although he did nearly knock DM down the stairs while they were getting the carpet out of the loft.

Good advice from Mrs W, Mrs F-P

Great ad, thanks CV - and also WAF - I've broadcast the lovely Leslie Knopes to likeminded friends

DH adamant that I'm over dramatising and making it worse for him by 'running to the doctor'. I've backed off and managed not to row after few glasses of wine last night but just reiterated that it's important for me when I am worried to be able to ask for advice. He hates the loss of control and when I'm talking to him I see why and feel bad for placing him in the position but I also feel silenced

Crem - could you PM me with roughly where you are so that we can suggest meeting place?

Reasons to be cheerful:
DS has had couple uni offers which lessens stress
Beautiful leaves
Making pear and ginger cake

CV good job you weren't at the actual ceremony, I was blinking back tears as some amazingly talented girls opened it with heartfelt acapella songs!
And so lovely to see a complete range of DC from all cultural backgrounds getting recognised. Makes me when discombobulated locals whose DC "didn't get in" (bearing in mind there are many v good local schools) try to make out that it is all handpicked white MC kids there. So. Not. True.

And I'm also on the not knowing bench, CV.

Making the most of having the house to myself for an hour - doing nothing on the sofa

Addle, great news on DSs offers! DDs UCAS has now apparently gone off so fingers crossed!

Sorry your DH was cross, but you were quite right to do it - your worries need to be addressed too. And he does need some help, whatever he says.

What ho, crepeys.

As it was raining today, we thought we'd have a jolly family trip to Westfield to go to the cinema and have a bite to eat. How Wrong We Were. Firstly, DP had booked tickets for the Westfield in Shepherd's Bush, not Stratford. The film started an hour later at Stratford, so we had time to kill. Joined the bovine masses in M&S, where I queued for 15 minutes to get a coffee from a sclerotic sloth. (Many advent calendars in evidence, btw.)

Then to the cinema, where we queued for HALF AN HOUR to buy some pick and mix. Yes, half an hour. Someone at the front of the queue was buying popcorn, sweets and drinks for nine children and two adults. Each of the 11 people kept changing their minds about whether they wanted oreos, haribo or minstrels, or fruit shoot or coke, or JUST BLOODY DECIDE OR I WILL KILL YOU.

Then we watched Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children, rated a 12A, and had the pants scared clean from my body by eyeless cadavers that sat up and talked, and tentacled monsters that removed your eyeballs. If DS doesn't have nightmares for years I'll be very surprised. Then all the restaurants were full. Then we missed the bus home.

Still, we have wine. And will watch HIGNFY.

Good day here. Dh and I ventured north and bought a car. Salesman was a very nice young man - not that that had any influence as we had already chosen the car but it made it very easy to give him a 5⭐️ resting when he blushingly had to ask us at the end of the transaction.

Dd1 has just phoned - she is her uni yachting captain and they are currently 5th in this weekend's regatta - which I believe to be a good outcome.

Dds2 and 3 called in the week and both are well. So no reason for concern in the Wobble house this week.

(I'm afraid the cats' wellbeing has no bearing on my happiness but they do both seem to be content)

I thought we were friends BTM and CV - and all this time you had no idea of who Leonard Cohen was???!!!

My favourite Leonard song

Leonard's last song
Both rather relevant to these terrible times.

Well, I'd heard of him, GGG, but that's about it. Couldn't name a song or put a face to him. Will listen to those links.....

HOW CAN YOU ONLY HAVE "HEARD OF" LEONARD COHEN, CV????

"I can't run no more with that lawless crowd
while killers in high places say their prayers out loud".
Gulp.

Off to ds last Remembrance Sunday parade to watch him lead his troop. Another gulp.

And Rose, what was wrong with the M and S cords? I need some plain warm trousers for my volunteering but tweed culottes or things made of old blankets are everywhere, which WILL Not Do.

Addle and BTM, I hope today is better - thinking of you both.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Tho ds coming to the end of school (see gulp 2 above) he has had a happy time, made some lovely friends, and learned how to commit and work.
2. He is nearly ready to send his UCAS off I think.
3. We have a working dvd player (unless i can muscle in on addle's ds' offers and cheer him for no 3!?).

Managed a splendidly low-brow day of shopping and street food with the dcs in Bristol yesterday. Ds was deeply unimpressed with dd's accommodation and said he had now decided against going to university "because the rooms are too small". Dd told him she could have had a bigger room, but then wouldn't be able to afford to eat. Ds was also disappointed about how quiet the campus was when we came back from town just after 9pm: he thought it would be a riotous mass of partying students. Dd said everyone has "gone into overdraft" and is just staying in working. Certainly all the others in her house were in.

Dd has completed and handed in all this term's coursework on time and has been in contact with her old HoY and the exams officer about resitting her Maths A level as an external candidate, and she is already revising (!!!). It would appear that my slew of fierce messages to her at the beginning of last week about sorting these things out has borne fruit.

We had a lovely time trawling various markets in Bristol, and going to all sorts of nice shops, which you urban-based crepeys take for granted, but which are a source of immense excitement to us. At some point, dh sent me a text, asking me to give his best to dd, using a pet name he hasn't called her for years. I showed her the text and she immediately said she wanted to come back with us for the night. I resisted initially, but then decided it was unlikely to do any harm, as long as she buggers off back to Bristol this evening or early on Monday. She looks a lot healthier than she did 3 weeks ago and is talking sense. She was vvv pleased with her M&S advent calendar.

We didn't get home until midnight and I was knackered, and my back was Not Amused by 4 hours of driving. And then I woke up and 6am this morning. On the plus side, I have already done 2 loads of laundry and a lot of cleaning (while the rest of the household slumbers on, natch).

Lovely news stropps Long may it continue xx

addle sorry things are so up and down with DH but it does sound like some progress is being made particularly in respect of your needs being heard as well.

tilly DSs award was really heart warming to hear about. Sorry that days in between aren't so easy

lalsy they don't fit! I'm finding it hard to determine if they are very fine needle cord or actually velvet but the fabric is very thin...poor quality. The boot cut is way too low waisted for me unfortunately. So they're going back. Does anyone remember Kew? I do miss them...their cords and velvet straights and boot cuts were brilliant for my shape.

rudy that's optimistic news...we all need some of that...

Yes BD come back to us...

monty any progress re DD?

I have to admit to liking very much LCs words as a poet/lyricist. But his voice grates on me, so actually I'm not a fan of his performance. Iyswim.

Sorry not to catch up properly. It's a mad weekend with a function for DAmericanSis's boy, and trying to work DDs extra calls around it is defeating me. Fri night was not without its stresses, with everyone late due to snarled up traffic, including the waitresses (only one turned up...) so by the end of the evening I was wrecked. And it's all still going on...

I also feel an undercurrent of next week encroaching, which is the anniversary of Ddads death and I'm not sure how to mark it.

Wow, Stropps, what a great update! So glad that it went well. And very sweet about Dh's text message. Hope you can have a gentle day.

Addle how is Dh today?

Anyone heard from BD?

In Dd news, MI put me in touch with a PTA person with a Dd in year 7. We had a good chat yesterday and she was v reassuring. Hurray. Also have a friend coming over for a couple of hours this pm to view hamster etc. Baby steps but a bit more positive than Friday.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1 Dd a bit happier

2 off to Dul park to view Autumn splendour and get a good walk in

3 made gallons of sloe gin and blackberry vodka at a friend's house last night.

Have a good Sunday crepeys.

Wrote a long post and failed to post it! Dad now presumably on first stage of India trip, so I hope some of his anxieties are shelved. He is going to cousin's wedding (in a Zen meditation centre conducted by Jesuits). He got v upset when I was sorting some of mum's saris for him to take AS HE HAD ASKED ME...I am sorry but I can't deal with his outbursts, I just can't.

Then after lunch I met old friends in the pub, did a bit of shopping including first Christmas shop (pants to go in stockings) and came back to friend's house for dinner with guests including mum's lovely GP. Still feel Not Very Grown Up in this house.