Crepes, Cats and Calamari

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Here you go.

And bargain bra ordering and wearing

MI - you need to look at the fun threads like "do you wear knickers under your pj's?"

Some of them wear bras in bed!

My bra is lacy but the colour of my skin (I wear a lot of white tops in spring//summer and want to chuck out some of my greige garments). DD1's is raspberry pink which should shut her up for a bit.

Brastop is well worth checking out, as is the Figleaves clearance, for those afflicted with having to pay for Enormous Bras. Once DD2 expands I shall be bankrupt otherwise. I feel now DD1 is set up she can pay for her own now out of her allowance (at which point she will rapidly discover the joys of discount lingerie for herself).

In thrilling bra management news (for those missing the tight management discussion), my nice bras are lasting a lot longer and stabbing me less often with roving underwires now I wash them much less by dint of wearing sports bras for anything vaguely sweaty even if not bouncy. TMI?

I will have a look, MI, nonetheless .

Ah, for those hankering for tights management: where can I get thin school tights for DD2? She is tiny - adult tights won't do. But says she needs new school tights that aren't opaque. Can I pack her off to primark?

Lalsy, Bianco43 sounds fab

Herbs, result! Now you need to keep up the assertiveness

I am going to make a pile of pancakes!

DP made us some at breakfast as he is now out doing Guess What. I shall produce some sort of supper but after making quite an effort last night I suspect we may dine on hummus, pitta bread and Greek salad.An Inferiorette may also be prevailed on to make pancakes.

DS and I are having an entirely pancake based tea. First savoury - involving tuna, sweetcorn and cheese sauce - and then sweet,,involving some kind of fruit and refined sugar. Nom X 3.

Re assertiveness I am planning on telling him that I will no longer out up with him ignoring me, or looking at me like a disliked piece of furniture. For example, saying hello when I come in would be a start.

So are we Herbs - chicken and mushroom creamy sauce for mains and then lemon and sugar/syrup for afters

Go Girl!

Hattie, re the viscose dress, I've not tried unshrinking it yet - the weekend just disappeared somehow and I can't do it midweek because I need to do it when my cleaning lady's not in. She does almost all our laundry and I don't want her to think I don't want her to - I'd rather buy new dresses to compensate for the odd tumble dryer malfunction than risk having to do my own laundry again!

I feel like that about not handwashing bras, MrsW. Pricey though they are, I'd rather put them on a delicate wash....

There is a thread about what to feed a party of 13yo girls. I feel the people suggesting salad along with the pizza and fruit along with the breakfast may not know any teenagers...

Pizza and ice cream usually goes down well with that age group. i've noticed the late teens, early twenties are now health concious and quite snooty about what they eat.

I wash all bras in the delicate wash. The weird thing is the viscose floaty shirt was in with them and still shrank! I don't handwash anything on the grounds that the washing machine temperature control is better than my estimation of hand hot.

I am once again awestruck by Mrs W's 'staff'.

Have just finished inhaling pancakes. Some of them were even quite nice and lacy at the edges. Irritating how they get better as you near the end.

I put a tablespoon of melted butter into the mix, as recommended on Radio 2.

Re bras, I stick them in the machine. Life's too short.

Ive had success with Brastop in the last few months, although I ordered about 12 and kept 2... I also went back to Bravissimo after a long absence, and found a bra style I quite like. The staff in their shops are generally lovely.

A lot of bras seem to give you quite a 'shelf' these days....

I save them up and hand wash them all at once, with DHs cashmere socks - so only about a 10 min jobs every 10 days or so.

Magimedi - I do hope you have a lovely supper and don't have to drive home after either!

MI - don't look at fat threads. Just don't... (Thats my job)

Yes Herbs, the first ones are always disasters that have to be snaffled up before anyone sees them

Bra-wise, I'm a total minger and wear them for ages before washing. I also am a cheapskate, and don't spend much. And they go in the machine with the normal washing. Surprised they last as long as they do!

As a 30GG spending is hard to avoid

I jave improved in my attitude to bras since I came to France and also since I discovered Primadonna bras which I love. I think they are for well endowed ladies so I take the smallest size which I believe is C. I wait for them to go on sale in the lingerie store in town then swoop.

My (ridiculously costly) bras go on a 30 degree wash in with a whole load of other things - and dh's precious cashmere socks then both dry on an airer. All goes well unless I put them in the dryer by mistake... and they last ages.
I used to be a Primadonna fan Hatty but have defected to Empreinte - I like to look rounded rather than pointy... TMI?!

No pancakes for me but ds2 has eaten enough for all of us... he said he didn't want 'proper boring supper' - just pancakes...

I put them in the washing machine in one of those bags, along with delicate shirt which may well be viscose. I bought a sports bra in Bravissimo recently - long and immensely satisfying conversation with lovely assistant. They really know their bras. Hark at us S and B types

Lalsy - we are being veeery S&B this evening. Will look into Empreinte GGG - haven't heard of them before.

I'm a 32F (when less grossly fat), so not in the 'easily available' category. Though I note that Primark has started doing bras for big jugs. Might have to investigate. My last few have been from discount sites, bought online, with varying degrees of success. But as my clothing budget is approx £5 per month, anything more advanced will have to wait.

Can't believe you're still so unwell Crem. It puts me in an unhelpful fury.

Mum is OK. Up and down. Home maybe end of the week with lots more care needs. Sis feeling anxious/on edge of despair. Its v complex.

My laptop is mended and my jumper unshrunk with BTM's top connditioner tip. I've got DKNY bras I found in TKMaxx that are The Answer for the Waf rack.

V proud of DD1 who followed up an email with A Phone Call (a phone call, imagine the fear!) and has scored some really decent music based work experience.

Herbs, I am awestruck by my 'staff'. Dh and I live in fear that she will leave us. And this gets worse every year as the dds leave home. We are at the stage of have no to make a mess just to ask her to clean it. She is truly amazing and if/when she leaves us I don't know what I will do. I have got used to, and liking, having everything ironed - and I'm not just talking sheets and duvets here but knickers and socks as well. My cleaning lady is my biggest source of guilt - she is a qualified language teacher in her home country - but makes my life so much easier. I hope I never stop appreciating her.

Thinking further, I can say that my appreciation for 'my staff' is such that at my fantasy second wedding (which dh is unaware of) I would have a table for the women who made my life possible and that would include my cleaning lady, my nanny (from years ago but she stayed with us for 10 years) and my 2 (I know I'm spoilt) secretaries. I am very aware that I could not have had the life I have without their support. I hope they realise it too.