In the bleak midwinter, frosty Crepes may moan

[Collymollypuff]

Earth stood hard as iron, my heart like a stone.

Bonne voyage, mi, and on smaller scale Beachy and btm. We're in heavy traffic heading north to my side of the family having waved off dh's lot.

Thk you to my SS frvlovely eartibgs, particularly nice as years spent wearying huge heavy hoops mean can now only wear small light ones

Nice kitty, crem. Now with you?

Off out for tactical walk (in the dark), having accidentally set fire to Granny's best tablecloth with indoor fireworks. She is Not Pleased. Oops.

She had it coming to her Stropps - mwahahahaha - and a nice walk on your own - bonus!

I did the thing that I thought I should do but did't want to do today - and visited my mother. Dh v kindly drove me and we took dog for the ride but not dss who don't want to see her. She was less badly behaved than usual as she is feeling poorly and miserable - but she rallied before we went and asked me to remind her how old my children are - I laughed and said I think you know - but she instructed dh to write them on her newspaper for her and he did - adding the dog's age for good measure!
Very pleased to be back home after a TERRIBLE journey drinking lots of tea.

GGG - is your mother cut from the same cloth as MrsS's? I can't remember.

at indoor firework catastrophy. It was probably a horrible tablecloth anyway.

Good sales haul, BD. DH, the DDs and I had a couple of hours wandering round the shops today, but I found very little of interest. I picked up some half-priced toot in the Boots sale (useful for gifts), bought some new navy mascara and we collected DS's shiny new iphone 7 which he has been saving for since starting work. It is a heinous amount to be spending on a phone, but hey ho, it's his money and he has been working hard for it.

Well Done GGG. i live in fear that no one will visit me when I grow old. You can at least put a tick in that box, and move onto other festive activities.

DH and I had such an awful row last night. I think he feels better for it this morning. I just feel uber fragile. We swapped some 'home truths' about each other, and I'm left wondering quite how I achieve the lofty expectations he wants of me.

Don't try achieving lofty expectations, Cocoa. Not unless he will pull his weight and step up to the bar as well. Otherwise it will be you doing all of the work while he (metaphorically) sits there with his feet up, criticising.

... or worse still LITERALLY!
What are his lofty expectations Cocoa?

Yes CV, my mother and the formidable Mrs S's mother are possibly sisters from another other / twins separated at birth in the difficult and uber critical stakes it seems.

Just back from outing with friends who treated us to tickets for Lazarus - the David Bowie musical - very kind - it. was. shit. We had to say things like how interesting and inventive it was in the chat and thank you afterwards. I know I sound like an ungrateful cow - but it was terrible. The vodka and passion fruit cocktail I had beforehand was, however, delicious.

Have been temporarily sedated by completion of an afternoon overing 4 winery tasting sessions. Quite nice to know when I saunter into Majestic that I'll know v slightly more than I already do. However, come back with no wine, but nice award winning gin and local chocolates. (Don't ask..)

We have assumed a truce like atmosphere. It's still a week before we fly home.

Cocoa, glad the winery was a success and possibly aided the truce-like atmosphere.

GGG glad you were able to do the right thing even if she was as cantankerous as ever. Sorry the musical was shit - one to avoid!

Here things are shit, mainly due to DS being ill - things are not getting any better .
Journey from hell yesterday taking 4 1/2 hours to go the 100 miles from outlaws to see DM. She was looking physically pretty good for 85 but talking a complete load of nonsense albeit some of it very funny. And she was sad - still knows she is not right and stuck in purgatory.
Terrible, terrible evening last night due to DS. Should have been enjoying lovely night in spa hotel
At least we are going home again today.

Oh BTM, that all sounds grim. I'm so sorry.

I'm not sleeping at the moment - waking at 4 and not getting back to sleep. Today I usefully filled the time messaging a jet lagged friend, and am meeting him for lunch.

Waking at 4 is the pits MrsS, but at least you now have a lunch date!

Yes, and looking forward to it! DH is seeing one of his old uni friends for lunch too.

Period Tracker informs me that it is 42 days since my last period. No sign of impending AF either, but appear to be having hot flushes. And look about 90, but that may just be lack of sleep.

Am meeting friend at midday, so may nip into town early and have a quick whizz round the shops before it gets too busy.

OMG - Have two children with suspected whooping cough - how can this be? Get your vaccines updated ladies.

HERBS - especially check your DS has all his vaccines sorted. Dr reckons DS picked this up crossing Paris in the train. TB another great one for the underground - tunnels of spluttering people from all over the world and no immediate fresh air supply. Have had huge lecture.

Hatty - when do they vaccinate in France? Mine got out of synch with the UK system when we lived in Belgium - they do a booster in U.K. at age 15, whereas in Belgium, the final booster was, I think, at 11. They are out of synch with both UK and Belgian systems now.

How are the DC feeling in themselves?

BTM sorry to hear things have been tough.

Hatty - hope they get well soon!

Cocoa hope the peace and quiet continues!

Stropps I did at indoor fireworks.

Mrs S we have had two viruses - the first laid everybody low (except DD2). The second (poss whooping cough) is DS and DD1. Plus possibly DH. Talked to Dr on phone v early this morning but we need to check the vaccine updates. DS may have missed one. DD2 updated everything before uni and DD1 - again we need to check. I had a friend who caught it a couple if years ago

Oh and DC's feeling not good at all and they are normally a pretty robust bunch.

tilly sorry for the awful time last night. I'm sure the holiday season magnifies everything, including the impact of DS being unwell. Please don't lose hope xx

hatty there is a viral form of whooping cough I have heard. Could it be that? Poor all of you these days I sit in the tube obsessing about being cooped up with germs...

GGG you really did do the "right thing" but didn't make for a happy afternoon by the sounds of it. Sorry about the terrible journey too.

Speaking of terrible journeys, it took DS and I FIVE hours to drive back from the flat yesterday. It was all going swimmingly until we hit the London area and then two collisions, one sarf and one norf of the river had us at a standstill for an hour and a half, and an hour respectively, not to mention all the snarl ups whenever we approached a shopping area or mall. I was exhausted and the only saving grace was having sent DH and DD on the train earlier, otherwise she'd have missed her calls!!! No time to get ready but big annual family gathering for the show...I had to reward myself with an interval ice cream. I feel strangely distant from my extended family. Sometimes I don't think I love them at all.

GGG for visiting m. Boo to Bowie musacle. And it had the potential to be Fab. u. las. Shame.

BTM, continued sympathy you poor things. It's nightmarish when it will not end. I am so sorry

Hattie, holy mackerel! Whooping Cough? Gosh that's grim. Sorry for you all. We have dd here with frightful cough and full on wretched cold. Shes had a rough old time of it. Must get her checked for whooping cough now. It wouldn't surprise me,

Cocoa, glad Things Were Said, but sorry you are being held to ransom. Enjoy the last week if you can and put things aside until you can think things through in the reality of home.

, Stropps , hope it wasn't best Irish linen tablecloth. You have to laugh though.

Continued holiday strength to all Crepes in the twixmas. I am going back to work today. Yes really. Fuvk.

{{{BTM}}} - sorry it was such a crap day overall and especially sorry to hear about ds. Everything is also much harder to deal with when you are away from home and trying to have a nice time. There is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. :(

GGG, how do you feel after visiting your mother? Hope the visit left you with good feelings rather than bad ones.

I am now going to scour the sales for a nasty bright red oval tablecloth. Vintage 1970s viyella. Or similar.

Hatty, sorry to hear about the whooping cough. :( Who has been lecturing you, though? The UK immunisation programme for whooping cough is covered by 3 jabs in the baby/infant/preschool years, afair. The later jabs (teen years) are for boosters for TB and HiB, I think. You can still get whooping cough even if you're vaccinated, but it's supposed to be less bad.

I should have done loads of academic reading and I have done cack-all. I will have to make a start today, but I also want to tackle the business accounts with dh, as there are outstanding matters dating from when I first went on my retraining course (autumn 2014) and told dh that he would have to do all the accounts admin from now on. He claims I never said this and has been pathetically finding excuses for the last 18 months-2 years to avoid actually just MTFU and getting on with it. I am therefore going to sit down with him and do it as a team effort. Because he is, quite frankly, being a pathetic feeble idiot about this, and I want it sorted. If you want a thing doing properly, do it yourself etc etc.

I am also currently annoyed with him about him being grumpy, aggressive and rude with dd. I keep feeling as though we are enacting the "Prodigal Son (daughter)" parable, with me being all "yay, dd is being v nice and normal, let's celebrate her being nice and normal and overlook the less than splendid bits", and him being all "meh, I am going to take control of the TV remote, because IT'S MY HOUSE and MY TV, and she can fuck off with her Kardashians, because her being pleasant to me for 10 days doesn't cancel out her being an arse for the last few years". Even ds told dh he was being a wind-up merchant. Anyway, it's not dh's house. It's mine. And I generously let him move in here some 13 years ago.

Ahh, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Apart from being a wind-up merchant, he has been v good about doing the washing-up and getting on with various small diy jobs for the last week, so it's not all bad. And admittedly he has been feeling pretty rubbish with this fluey cold bug thing. But even so...

And Carrie Fisher. Dh keeps saying it's normal. People die, but it's not is it?

x-posts, Rose and Crem. Rose, sorry about horrible journey. 5 hours? Ugh.
Crem, sorry about you having to go back to dealing with the Ghastly Public today. :(