WWW's 10 years older slipper camp for middle aged frumps

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Hello everyone, old and new.

This is about feeling better about yourself and looking and feeling better etc. But mainly we chat and laugh quite a lot, which has all got to help towards happiness etc.

The rules (anyone can join):

• Sunscreen at all times

• No or little booze. Wine or Champagne or whatever at the weekend is allowed if you want it

• Walking is important, a small amount every day if possible. 30 mins if you can

• Lots of water, aim for 2 litres a day

• Apply body cream as often as possible

• Use hand cream

• Go to bed early, by 10.30pm if pos

• Eat healthily

• Be happy

The idea is that we all feel happier, healthier and glow with the good food, sleep, exercise, water and lack of sun damage.

Some people are doing India and Neris's Idiot Proof Diet (Atkins, more or less), others are doing Slimy World, others are just being as healthy as possible.

Welcome everyone, have a good week.

We're back - long enough for me to get halfway down a bottle of wine.

I remembered why we stopped going to Birmingham on the train - bloody points failure, crap timekeeping blah de blah. The cloud of the afternoon's appointment didn't prevent dd going in to full on shopping mode in the Bullring though.

The appointment itself wasn't fab but not too grim either. The MRI was inconclusive so she has to have another cardiac catheter. I'm not wholly unsurprised but relieved that he doesn't feel the need to go full steam ahead to surgery just yet. We had a long chat about the difficulties dd might face as a young woman with heart disease; alcohol, contraception etc. and also about the transfer to specialist adult services. Again relieved that this won't happen until after this cath and surgery if it comes to that. dd said she felt really well informed when we came out so that was a real positive.

Thanks for thinking of us. It's much appreciated.

Sending you positive vibes, Saggar

Saggars you deserve the wine. Glad to hear it wasn't grim although not conclusively ungrim.

Blackduck heartfelt sympathy on the commuting

I have an interview tomorrow for v v local job, don't care at ALL if I don't get it, which is nice way to go into an interview

Have eaten
Mcdonalds sausage and egg muffin en route to London
tuna salad
rare roast beef, potatoes, green beans, peas, carrots, gravy, parsnips, yorkshire pudding, red wine, pink cava (while watching Enchanted for the 2nd time, I do like it!)

and vitamins and some water but no exercise. Still feel terribly, terribly tired, to ther extent that I'm still worried there's something wrong with me to feel this shite but hey, I guess I'll give it 2 weeks and see if it's better. Hope everyone's having a lovely half term.

Aaaarrrggghhh - I am back at my parents and it all kind of blew up yesterday and this am. Not entirely sure why I am still here. But I do have an excuse for my terrible alcohol consumption.

And had a fab weekend before this, away with dh for 10th anniversary at Holkham hall (which really is not a good as it's made out to be, but the bed was very comfy!)

Will e-mail you when I get home marina - I am seriously in need of some dodgy women action (oo-er missus)

I do hope the brian OP came back in a different guise - and realised we were laughing because she was funny, not laughing at her.

WWW in my experience the terribly tired is normal.....I could have slept for a week when I gave up working this summer. It was likehitting a brick wall - give yourself time (I am FAB at handing out advice to everyone else

Thanks Blackduck, I feel a bit better today, went to bed early but was also up early with dd but feel a bit better today, it's exactly like hitting a brick wall, I think maybe I didn't realise how much it was taking out of me until I stopped.

Prufrock sympathy on parents, understandable drinking I think!

WWW, I find that my body can keep going whilst the stress is ongoing but then I am walloped for weeks. It's as if it knows "just 3 more weeks, just 2 more weeks etc" but once the stress is over, I feel as though I have been hit by a train. I did nothing but sleep for a week after my law exams in 1993 (when I was 23!) as I was so knackered and when I left a crappy job aged 28 I took about 2 months to feel properly better. You have had many, many months of the physical effort of commuting, plus the other stresses of money, family, parents etc and I think it's not to be underestimated. Take it easy on yourself and perhaps see a Dr if you are not significantly better by, say, end of Nov? Lecture over

Saggars, what a stressful time for you and your DD. I am glad that it's not all doom and gloom but understand your unease at being left in limbo. Wine medicinal in these circs I think.

Marina, huge sympathies on the back. How are you now? I'd love to a Dec meet, shabby and errant bootcamper that I am, but will have a small baby in tow. Could you possibly CAT me (as it never works when I try it) and I'll try to waddle along if at all possible.

Pru, I don't know your situation but it does sound awfully difficult. Take care.

Mavis, sorry things are so hard for you at the moment. I remember you announcing your pg and now you are over half way. Thinking of you.

Glad you had a good time with DD Cam. SOunds a very civilised lunch. Resisting profiteroles is very laudable but at least you had wine.

Duchess, am at the chickens but very pleased that they have had good healthy lives and been turned into delicious suppers. It's what they would have wanted . I also think back to the end of your pg when you were doing carrots, apples and water and then compare it to my poor pg diet (sausage and egg muffin and builder's tea so far) and feel ashamed. I won't be a sixe 12 after birth alas.

L and S, have you started settling DS into childcare yet? You are back to work quite soon I think - hope it goes well.

Hello everyone else, hope all is well.

Am at work and just about to start. Had a huge row with DH today about taking the kids to nursery and stomped out, moaning that he had robbed me of an hour of work time which I really need at the moment. So I'd better do some, to reclaim the moral high ground at least. Back later.

When I gave my notice for my 2-day a week job I found that I left mentally at that moment. However during the 4 week notice period I still had to pump up the adrenaline to keep going in, which I found physically totally exhausting.

The day I finally finished (which was 2 weeks ago) I started to relax bodily which did indeed feel like being hit by a train.

I know my p/t 3 years doesn't compare with your ghastly commute www but tbh being a decade older than you doesn't help

Ha, I just mailed you saying exactly the same as everyone else www! You are going to be exhaustipated, as dd says, for a few days yet my love, as your multi-tasking bod gets used to not rushing everywhere.
I'll CAT you chutney, we are looking mid-December, central London, and modest costs as many of us on here are currently a bit strapped. Will ensure it is a suitable venue for small babies. (Crosses Peppermint Hippopotamus, TGI Cholesterol and Claridges off the list).
Must go, have WURK to do, back is better thanks and have power-walked every day this week, and eaten too much cottage cheese, blech
more later

Hello everyone,
Sorry for my absence, this and that, you'know..

JJ - must reply to your e mail....it's all fingernail-biting time, isn't it? Huge sympathies.
Saggar - mmmm, sorry it wasn't a cheery wave and 'see you at next routine appt', but it sounds cautiously ok? When will she have the operation?
WWW - relax woman! You'll perkup when rested. But sorry you're feeling so weighed down.

I have managed to get to the gym, which has done my mind a lot of good - body may take a while to catch up. And despite some dates with dodgy women, I'm not doing too badly on treating like a temple - or at least the temple car park.

DS is very perky and doing better and better now that he can bend his knee a bit - but we have a 2x45mins a day physio regime to maintain! I am not on half term duty, so life as normal, at work.

Glad your ds is doing well, blu.

Hope you gradually feel more a bit more lively www. You've been planning to step off the treadmill and it sounds like your body is making you keep to your word. By christmas, when many of us will be all frazzled by work and last minute preparations, you will be full of energy and totally chilled

Sagggers, I don't follow these threads closely so had no idea of this stress with your dd. Sorry to hear about it.

Marina, I will email you about dates. And where is batters?

Hey all, back from parents', oof, lots of catching up to do.

Saggars, goodness, that sounds stressful for both of you. Glad DD is coping so brilliantly with what must be fairly heavy stuff for q youngster to deal with. Free pass on the wine for you, at any rate.

Blu, glad to hear DS's knee is mending ...

WWW - I think it's like that thing of the end of a university term - where you steam through to the end and then just collapse when you get home. Or getting ill as soon as you're on holiday . Your body and mind need time to recover. Just keep doing what you're doing and you will begin to relax. Early nights and hot baths and walks and so forth (just the weather for the latter).

Marina, I would be so up for a Dec meet. Are we to CAT you? Is that right? Glad back is better .

Chutney, I start back at work in a month, and begin easing DS into childcare in - gulp - two weeks (and am moving to Dsis's the weekend after next). In two minds about all this; on the one hand looking forward to getting back to work, on the other, really a bit wobbly-lipped about leaving DS in nursery, which tbh I hadn't expected [duh emoticon]. But I think I'll feel better about everything when the move is out of the way and paths have generally been embarked upon. This final bit of being at DP's is taking its toll emotionally .

Had a good time up north though. Much walking in freezing temps (hills and beaches!) (and - ahem - for hours around the Metro Centre - massive northeast shopping centre, remarkable both for its size and the earliness and garishness of its Christmas decorations). Did a bit of Christmas shopping, bought a couple of nice jumpers for me (my bank account is being MOST unforgiving ) and also managed to pick up some Clinique Super City Block (spf 40! egads!) - a supremely bootcampy product. I thought of you all as I handed over my £12.50 .

Must go as a) DS needs feeding and b) this post is reaching gargantuan proportions.

I am officially joining you all at bootcamp if that is okay?

I have been doing the one small change at a time since the beginning of Sept and so far have:

Weaned myself off of a horrendous coffee addiction - drinking only herbal cat's pee tea.

Lost 9lbs by eating more sensibly and reducing portions. (But 4lbs of those went back on last week on holiday - arrggghhh).

Took my sorry ass back to the gym and had a new program set. This bizarrely seems to involve sessions that are 1hr and 45 mins long, which I am to do at least 3 times a week. I had a good week (first week of being back) before holiday and will resume next week when the children are back at school.

My challenge for this week is to drink more wine water!

Next week, when I am back at work, it will be to only drink one night a week on school nights and resume my gym program.

I need to manage my social life better - so not so many work lunches, followed by evenings of drunken debauchery with friends

After much discussion the op will be February time Blu - am trying to avoid more time off school so hopeful for a half term schedule - much to dd's disgust.

www - I'd say you've been on autopilot for sometime now and it will take a little while to recover from. Take it easy

My fave gym session is a long one soapy. It's surprising how quickly time passes.

I'm off to quaff force down the rest of my bottle of wine.

Hello all.

Saggars - seconding the free pass on the wine, what a terribly stressful situation. How old is your dd?

Marina - Would love the CAT you re meet-up although as I'm based in Scotland I think I would be being a little over optamistic re my ability to attend. Oh well. Another time perhaps.

WWW - Hope you're feeling rested, how did the interview go?

Prufrock - When I visit my parents I have to go armed with a very thick jumper and extreme left wing views. Wine is always required.

Duchess - how do you make your chickens die (note Withnail paraphrasing). I feel I should be able to 'off' a chicken now I am no longer veggie but so far I have resisted all temptation.

Well, I had my 20 week scan today and all is fine and dandy. The picture was exceptionally clear - we could see baby Mavis gulping down amniotic fluid and flexing tiny fingers. We don't know what 'sort' he/she is but thankfully everything seems to be going ok. Discussions with DH are still ongoing but it is a slow, slow process.

Hope you're all enjoying half term!

I'm home, feeling better. I finally told my stepmother that I didn't like her - it didn't go down too well. Hey ho.

www - I'd just like to echo everyone else. Your body is finally giving up on you simply because it knows that it is now safe to do so. It will get better.

sagger/blu/jj - sending positive healthy vibes to your offspring, and positive coping with crap vibes to you.

L&S - I left dd at 14 weeks to go back to work. I was a bit wobbly, but the nursery was so lovely that I knew the care she was getting was probably better than she was getting with me. And I can guarantee you that the ability to drink coffee whilst it's hot, go to the loo in peace and focus your whole attention on something you are actually quite competent at soon compensates for the wobbliness!

Hello all, welcome Soapbox!

You're all so lovely and have made me feel much better about feeling so crap iykwim, you're all right too.

interview didn't go well, only 40 minutes which means they didn't like me ime so never mind, it was 11 minutes door to door so that bit would habve been good but in a lot of ways I'm glad I'm not going to get it as I think I do need the 2 months off tbh.

Prufrock, sorry to hear of stressful stepmother situation.

L&S, I buy that Clinique super city block! Or did, when I was working, no longer! It's good imo and makes your skin look good too.

I am up early as have terrible teengage type period pains so woke at half five, will go back to bed shortly.

Ate loads yesterday including a curry with dh and dd after my interview, which was a lovely way to end the day.

Hello all. I have been absent of course because I'm having to work at my new contract. Early days of course, but horrors - mumsnet is blocked .

Glad everybody is well and hurrah to the end of WWW's contract. Shame we weren't off at the same time, alas my cushion plumping days are over for now.

I am hardcore juicing. Only juices and hot water with lemon. 4 days in to the 7 day juice plan. I feel good on it, no processed food and plenty of super nutrients.

I am starting to daydream about English food and am really looking forward to coming home in December. Oooh yes, pub roasts

Hi everyone,

Have signed myself off sick as I'm so fed up with losing precious holiday time. Taking it easy, helping dd with holiday projects and pottering to shops with Mum.

This thread is like a refuge from the wild frontiers of Mumsnet - quite a few of us 'dinosaurs' here (which reminds me - is Bossykate around under a new name?). Nice to see Brian hasn't been forgotten.

Losing sleep over the house again - should I let it? But thank heaven we moved dd when we did - the new school has picked up her dyslexia. It had been a vague, niggling worry in my mind for a while but they've brought it into sharp focus. I'm busy filling in forms for the psychology assessment now.

Think I'll go and dust off my juicer after reading your post arfishy. I need something more interesting to keep my mind off wine!

screemie, I must reply to your e-mail (and CAT you too chutney)

Dd back at school today.

Have decided to go on serious health kick as 1. No WOH to get stressed about

1. Time to exercise and cook healthy meals
2. Am ancient

So.....no wine yesterday.
Today ate organic muesli with natural yogurt for b/fast
Ate mediterranean veg cooked lightly in olive oil and garlic with organic brown rice for lunch
Some water
Half an hour aerobics

Hello all. Having a generally crap day although it does promise to get better. We have visitors arriving for the weekend late tonight and in my hasty preparations I managed to burn a batch of biscuits, a banana loaf and a loaf of bread. Ds is refusing to eat anything but toast and marmite and is generally being 2 years old and whiny and I managed to break the exhaust on the car. It's probably just as well I can't drink at the moment.

Arfishy - nice to 'see' you - I figure Sydney is just nicely hotting up by now?

WWW - it sounds like you could do with/deserve the break so probably best the interview didn't fly. I too have the Clinique City Block although I will save it for a day when it won't get washed off in the rain..

Marina - how's your back?

Right, off to up my water intake and disguise the smell of burning sugar before my guests arrive. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

I am NOT a middle aged frump . I am a chic woman of a certain age .

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it .

I have little to confess from the holiday, (well, you know, considering I was on holiday), although damn Morrisons for selling Ben & Jerry's at half-price (last night's faux pas).

Had a lovely few days with my friend and her adorable baby. The boys are off this week, but I'm back at work.

Now off to read everyone's half-term tales.

Mavis - Yes indeedy Sydney is going to be 36' today. We're due a looooong, hot summer.

Screemie - I have lost 5lb in 4 days . On the juicing thread the weight is just falling off people. And we're getting phytonutrients don't you know