Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where those Crepeys is?

[GiddyGiddyGoat]

Ha!

Beachy, my ds got very upset about all that, too. Maybe we could compare notes about it sometime...

Oh gosh, they do get in deep at that age Beachy. Everything seems very heightened in their worlds. And if ds has raw feelings here is going to end up sucking up all the injustices of the world , as if to confirm their own views. I do think it's a phase though. I'd reward the standing up for the girls thing, while making sure he knows that it's not his responsibility either. Those boys are influenced by group dynamics and being immature I guess. It sounds like your ds is a lot more grown up. Lovely boy.

Herbs, poor dp , and poor you having to prop him up. Counselling and ads do go together well. Bit he could try the counselling . It helped me deal with the feeling vulnerable alongside wanting to smash things up. It's good to have a safe place to say the things you can't tell anyone else in case it upsets or angers them. I also got counselling myself when dh was going a bit bonkers a few years ago. It was unbelievably useful.

What lovely boys you both have. I think it's marvellous your DS is standing up for the girls, beachy - could his sisters back up this view too?

Re DP, bereavement counselling is probably the way forward. I guess with the ADs, he's afraid they'll mask the real feelings so he won't be able to 'get them out', IYSWIM. But I think he just needs to feel a bit better, and it will be easier to bear and work through the awful stuff.

I know all about the difference between sadness and depression - have had both, and they are not even in the same family.

Sorry that was gobbledegook. I cannot type on buses.

Farrow & Ball should make a paint shade called "Cat Sick". It would be a sort of pinkish yellowish brown, and with a slightly gritty texture. "Fur Ball" would be a mid grey, and would never quite dry.

Herbs, sorry your DH is having such a tough time at the moment. Bereavement counselling would probably be a good starting place.

My mother is still in hospital and on IV antibiotics. She was pleased to tell me today that she managed to have "a huge poo." And she is still being nice to me.

I have made some delicious spiced gin and am just having a glass - I have to sample it - with tonic and lemon. This one is better than the last one.

Not remotely gobbledegook. Your usual good sense. We cross-posted - you're so right about counselling being a safe place where he can say stuff he doesn't want to upset me with, and can lose control a little bit.

I'm also going to ramp up the nagging re exercise. He bought a super-expensive Brompton bike a few years ago, all the gear, many different cycling trousers to suit every possible weather condition, and rode it about three times. Exercise (i.e. cycling to work) would cure, or help, just about everything he complains of: depression, being overweight, being stressed, horrible commute on the bus, his increased risk of heart disease (dad) and cancer (both parents), etc etc etc. Instead, he comes home and cracks open some beer.

Exercise is good for the soul, Herbs - you are right. Get him on his Brompton! Can DS ride? Could they go for little cycles in a local park?
And yes to bereavement counselling and AD's. It is a relatively modern thing to think that mourning only lasts a few days/weeks - it can take a long time.

MrsS sounds good. Can you strike while the iron's hot and get a doctors permission signed? Or even POA?

Beachy, how lovely that your DS is not joining in with the sexist "banter" I think it is an age when some boys behave very badly towards girls, and when others can feel very strongly about moral issues - definitely was true for DD!

Beachy, good for ds. I agree with others. I spent my university years and some jobs being humourless and alternately ferocious and wearied about sexist crap and power games badly disguised as humour (because of my subject) and am delighted that ds and his friends discuss this stuff.

Herbs, sounds like a good plan.

MrsS, being nice to you?

Lalsy, well she is not calling me "shit as a daughter", which is nice.

Mrs S has your mother suddenly realised that her future might, just might, be in your hands at this point in time. -hence uncharacteristic niceness? snort at just the one gin -you norty girl, and on a school night too.
I have done 'playing with The Cat' for an hour and am exhaustified. An early night beckons.

I wondered what sort of euphemism "playing with the Cat" was .

She so doesn't deserve a daughter like you, MrsS.

My experience is in fact that there is an overlap between intense sadness and depression - the bit where you can't just 'snap out of it' and just want, quite literally, to die, for weeks on end. I wrote a feature on it once.

DP is huffy because I've borrowed blankets for my father off a friend and he's insisted we have blankets and he apparently feels "embarrassed at being thought so infantile we don't have blankets". I quite want to tell him to fuck off and get over himself.

Still pondering shoes. Tempted by a pair of Adidas gazelles. DD1 says they are peng.and I can get kids' ones. Do I want dark grey or pink?

Dark grey. Well peng!

I'm not allowed gazelles. Well

Pourquoi pas Beach

Lit, GGG. They're quite prestige.

Pic of the gazelles please MI - no no the David Attenborough sort...

SIX (VI, 6) POSTS TO THE END OF THE THREAD! Someone get going with the clever crepertoire title?

well peng

Are they a fashion shoe or do they offer support like Crepey threads?

They is well sick blad.

Herbs - I got a colleague and a friend to recommend excercise to DH. It is 'sort of' working for him, although I think exercise bike is rather boring.

For me, it's the backbone of my mental health. I feel truly rotten if I don't have my dancing! Started to do Pilates x 2 a week, too.

I'm also having counselling after my fathers death. I'm finding it hugely helpful. My counsellor tells me that he has about a 50/50 split between men and women, which I found surprising. Nice to hear that the stiff upper lip is being replaced. (Although there are times when a stiff upper lip is what you need...).

Yeah, they do look a tad flat for my poor old feet...