The Crepertoire - put on your peignoir and get into the boudoir

[MrsSchadenfreude]

And out of the armoire.

We also have a baker 3 minutes walk away - warm croissants on a Sunday morning - mmm. We have never got there early enough to know when he opens as he bakes on the premises.

I have also decided to rename the utility room the boot room as that's where the shoes and boots are stored, along with wine, the microwave, cookery books, bread bin, assorted cycling bits which DH abandons, the extra fridge, and sundry cleaning materials, appliances, etc. When we built it ten years ago it was just going to be somewhere for the washing machine; in fact it's almost as big as the kitchen and it's nearly the most used room in the house. Love it.

BTM, good luck with DS today, and I am also thinking about your DS, too, Rudy. Fingers crossed there are no more falls, MrsS. I was so sorry to hear that you are still suffering, Auriga.

We had a lovely day with DGD yesterday and visited Seaton Delaval Hall which was great. The NT volunteers were brilliant, so friendly and hard working. Was particularly impressed with one lady, who was going round the grounds polishing(!) notices, and wiping the dew off the benches. We sat in the sun in the courtyard basking in the sunshine, drinking hot chocolate and eating cake. Bliss.

Please adopt me, NU.

OH GOD I MUST START WORK...

Our "boot room" is still called the playroom...I am a dragon about shoes being left in the hall but can live with them at the bottom of the stairs. And as Crepeys will know I don't do mud, And if I lost my cleaner I would just resign from ever getting out of bed, I think. She is my hero, my wife and has stood between me and madness on many occasions.

Best of luck today BTM. I hope it's a positive appointment for you and DS

I am seething that I couldn't get tix to see DT in Don Juan. I want him to play Jonno (for the Crepeys that have seen my script).

Am loving the cheerful flower updates from addle and others. My camellia has flowered for the first time in 10 years and there are flower buds on the Wisteria I planted almost as long ago, which also has nerve flowered to date. My new gardener is ace. She isn't the Mellors eye candy that the previous one was but she does know something about flowers!

Re Next cigarette jeans...they are indeed sold out online, bummer. I am hoping they still have them in store. In fact I got my first pair in store now I think about it.

Thinking of Auriga and BD

Thinking of you, BTM. Good luck for today.

Auriga I hope you are feeling a bit better.

Our boot room is half of the garage, that the previous owners redesigned. It holds a rack for washing, dehumidifier, freezer, boots, iron & a lot of assorted crap!

I used not to enjoy hanging washing on the line, but remember the first load I did after my ex had left & being so overjoyed that I would never have to peg out his socks again that I have always enjoyed it since.

Lovely day here - think the sea beckons (a walk, not a swim!).

Made it to Paris, thanks Hattie & everyone. Had a couple of panics caused by my toxic brain fog: like transferring my stuff to a smaller rucksack but forgetting the passports that I'd carefully zipped into a concealed pocket But DH calmly & cheerfully went back for them. Likewise, I had somehow only printed three tickets for the concert, but had the order number, so it wasn't a problem (phew).

Amazed at the beauty & the acoustic magic of the Philharmonie. We were way up on the second balcony and I can't believe the sound could have been better on the stage itself. Beautiful concert, & he played one of DD's pieces Salut d'Amour as an encore. She cried with joy. The girls loved everything about it - would have been worth the effort of coming just for that.

Hope today at the hospital is helpful, BTM, & that your DS stays well on new regime Rudy. Beachy, how is your DS getting on?

I need a boot room. The clutter of boots, shoes, cleaning stuff and muddy dog towels in our front porch is not a good look

I will get a diagnosis eventually, no time is being wasted, just have to be patient.

Off to lounge around in the Musée D'Orsay

Magi, love the sock detail, that must have been quite a feeling.

No boot room here. They used to live in the car and now we have no car they live in the living room. I am going to do a Great Boot Audit and get rid of some.

Socks and the Newly Single Girl, Magi?

Glad you are enjoying it. Auriga.

Sorry, Auriga, crossed posts. That sounds simply wonderful.

I am feeling very inadequate, having neither a boot room nor a cleaner. Or even a porch. I do have a cupboard under the stairs which I could repurpose.

I think having a house with a boot room, next to a large kitchen with scrubbed table in the middle, and various comings and goings of horsey yet nice people is how my life is supposed to have turned out, rather than this, er, shambles.

Flowers-wise, since I had a huge purge of a zillion tiny bluebells in the garden, a few of the stronger specimens have actually bloomed, which is good. Daffodils already over, berberis looking good, before it just becomes death in plant form, and the white quince is particularly fine this year. It seems to have taken over the red one, in the manner of squirrels.

"'horsey yet nice'" Herbs? How can anyone horsey not be nice? [OK - Princess Anne and her ilk...but still.]

I think you have just trumped us all with your quince

On a completely different topic - what does one wear to DD's graduation? I do not want to look like the mother of the bride and I probably do not want to wear a dress but will consider.

As you can see - I need a long run in for this.

MrsS, great news about your dm's care package and alarm. Hope that takes the pressure off you a bit.

Auriga, I'm very sorry to hear you're feeling so poorly. The Paris trip sounds like a triumph so far.

Rudy, lovely to hear from you. Hope ds responds well to his new meds.

Thinking of you today, BTM.

Colly, how are things with you and yours?

MI, I'm glad the work sitch has picked up. And the thriller editing sounds just up your street!

Ah, Herbs, I am willing to bet that your life is a helluva lot less of a shambles than mine. Sometimes I feel awfully out of place on this thread and can't contribute really on many topics without sounding completely miserablist. Cf: today's crop: I don't like horses, or horsey people (used to be pony-mad as a child, but went off them big-style as a tween); I live in an ex-local authority redbrick semi in a small West Country market town and do not have a boot room, or a utility room, but do have quite a bit of mud and dog hair; there is more likelihood of me ending up working as a cleaner myself than ever employing one; don't like live theatre and have never been to the theatre to see a Shakespeare play, if you don't count sitting on a straw bale in a field near Salisbury in 1979 watching some people shouting MacBeth and waving swords; I am unlikely to ever be going to a graduation ceremony for either of my dcs.

My only qualification to be on this thread is my age, the state of my neck and the fact that I'm perimenopausal. Or possibly menopausal. I don't really know how you tell.

Oh, and I've failed in my FB Lenten fast, as I've just shared an article from today's Guardian about Brexit and Trump making the poor poorer and the rich richer, aside from other things. On the whole, though, I've felt rather lighter for not checking 3 times a day and noting how much better everyone's life is going than mine. Comparison is undoubtedly the death of joy.

Boot hall recently tidied by me - Stropps no cleaner either although I do like a bit of theatre.

I always hope its the diversity of us all that makes the Crepey world such a great place, Stropps. I often feel I shouldn't be a crepey as I have adult DCs, don't live in London, have never made a meet up, don't wear make up & am fairly uninterested in fashion!

Boring alert - T K Maxx have vacuum storage bags @ £4.99 for 2 ( the same in Lakeland is £18.99) & I have solved the problem of our big winter duvet. Watching the whole thing collapse to a quarter of its size was strangely satisfying!

PS - Have never had a cleaner.

Ooh, MM, how tough are the storage bags? My last lot were a bit useless as the valves gave up and let all the air back in after a short time. Am on the look-out for affordable duvet-squishing solutions!

Have never used them before, Stropps. Have only just done this. Will let you know if it all gets airy!

Stropps What MM said. Crepey thread doesn't IMHO seek to prescribe the detail of our lives. Whilst there may be threads in common in our lives and things which bring us together, the strength of it all is empathy and in appreciation of the richness and diversity of the group. And for the record I have lived on a council estate too.
before I remarried and become a virtually kept woman and got a cleaner I love theatre but do not have pets so can't join in as much with all the feline and canine related love on this thread. But I like to read about those who do...same with charity shops...I haven't yet bought anything from one (live in hope of finding a Westwood), but I like hearing about it. We are all different and wonderful.

Hatty I wore a dress and cardi to DS1's graduation...I think I looked rubbish but I was stressed because I had to manage DM and DDad...and exH. Another time I might go for smart trousers, a crisp shirt and a jacket....

Oh I don't live on a council estate. I live in an old police house. As in housing built by the council for housing police officers. Solid post-war redbrick perfectly sufficient unto my needs. And with a v big garden for a town house. I consider myself extremely lucky.

I once spent several months working as front of house staff at the Theatre Royal in Bath. Including running the bar for the cast after the first night of every production. We had Charlton Heston in The Caine Mutiny, Lauren Bacall in Sweet Bird of Youth and er, Davy Jones in Godspell. I trod on Ms Bacall's foot when collecting glasses and she was v gracious about it, even though I was quite fat and squashed it quite badly.
I didn't appreciate the productions much (all free to me, obvs), but did enjoy the parties.

Hahaha - I am just out on a dog walk and have walked into the middle of a film set and seen a famous person.

I am only obsessing about horses because things are shit here. And one of dh's very few qualities is that he can ride them, and pay for me to ride them (cf Rose re kept woman). Otherwise he is a fucker and we are rowing a lot. I am also not feeling very well (could be related). And I am very fat, too fat really to burden a horse without immense guilt. Possibly a Belgian Draft horse would not complain.

So that is my life, and my dreams of saddle soap and young amours in the boot room.

Stropps I see and raise you dog hair and mud. Flash moults like a very moulty thing. I have permanent hair balls like tumbleweed.......

I thought the last dog was bad but he takes it to a whole new level. No cleaner (had one once when I had a smaller mortgage and more money...).