That's fab.

Mega vibes to all of you who need them. I'll have them back next Tuesday which I'm reliably informed will be decision day (but more about how the chopping is to be done, rather than whether, alas). Hopefully no dicing.

Me@ - tough time. Love to Mr Home, he must be very sad to watch all this happening and feel so powerless. It's good that he has you.

Here, we've been attempting to ease broken hearts with the Downton Abbey boxed set (having missed every episode I threw caution to the wind and asked for the dvd for Christmas). It's bloody fab. And nice to curl up with the daughter for once although she's back to school tomorrow.

I'm going to defend Larkin. It's a harsh poem, but there's truth in it. I'm not saying anything about my parents or my parenting, between the lines, I just think he hit on something.

Art isn't always about being comfy.

But they were ****ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

That speaks to me of human imperfection tempered with forgiveness.

evening girls

Oh, I love Downton too. Enjoy your snuggles x.

Oh goodness, yes, he defnitely hit the nail on the head, just never heard the slightly kinder version before My parents would agree... my mother used to quote the first verse from time to time in that lovely semi-sarcastic, semi self-deprecating way she had.

Downton Series One completed. Series Two tomorrow evening, perhaps.

Morning/evening all

Just a quick visit as I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and I have enough trouble focussing on cooking without adding typing here to the mix Truth be told though it's hardly cordon bleu cookery tonight, sausages, chips and beans My excuse is that........ ok I don't have an excuse but I like sausage chips and beans and it's late because I was watching "zoo days" with YoungPlum.

Anyway, I'm rambling .... dinner is in danger

I wanted to say though how much I respect what Mr@home is doing for Opa and Oma, it can't be easy for him and it's certainly not nice, but it needs to be done and I'm sure he's doing everything with compassion, love and respect and that makes a difference. You married a diamond me@. It still strikes me as funny that I've met him but not you

Hope everyone else is keeping well and happy.... I've missed what is up with you Sad, I'll have to read back, but I'm certainly not in favour of dicing ..... vegetables or people

Batty, if you can move the yorkshire dales you can certainly be in more than one place at any given time. Just concentrate!

All is fine here mainly. Catching up on some sleep as i have 4 days between shifts and YoungPlum is on summer holidays and OH is having a few days off so no early starts - yippeeeeee!!

I better go before disaster strikes! Have a splendiddlyendid day!

I love stuff like that. I'm going through a stage of pasty and beans or pasty and loads of spinach. There's a lot of snobbery about food: I just happen to think stuff such as this sits halfway between healthy and junk, rather than at the junk end of the spectrum.

I'll have to. I'm planning to be here and there for the rest of the week.

I'd rather feel like Adrian Henri than like Philip Larkin.
Not saying Larkin didn't know what he was talking about - his Dad certainly did the job on him - but you reap what you sow, I says.

My evening has involved very tired, incredibly cross tot, pool of wee on bathroom floor, very late tea, pile of cat-sick, and discovering after cleaning the sick up that it was caused by a tapeworm... after I'd knelt on the tapeworm

I'm going to bed now... :sleep:

Sounds as though life's getting dangerously back to normal there HM

I think I feel like a cross between the two poets which is why I find it hard to express a preference... Larkin's original was harsh but oh so true of so many of us, we do it without helping it, after all - it's not deliberate. Henri portrays the softer, kinder side of some of our upbringings - hopefully most, rather than a minority.

Oooh, we could start a poetry appreciation thread... if we had time....

Today, I have work colleagues visiting so we can go through my commitments and have a bit of a reshuffle. It will be lovely to see them but I wish I had a housework fairy.

oh Handy

Houseowrk, Sad? Sorry, I don't understand...

All is much less fraught tonight, largely because Melony has had two naps during the day and is much less like a raging tornado...

And the cat and his tapeworm are outside, as it's quite warm and not too windy. I'm very fond of him, but he's not lying on the settee till he's seen the vet on Monday and had a worm treatment!

I've heard of it once...

Busy times in the batcave but all's well-ish.

Our kettle sprang a leak this morning, so we've been out and bought a new one. M wanted a red one, but was over-ruled and we've got a nice brushed chrome one. Other one was about ten years old, so that's not so bad.

I can hear Mr M telling Melony the story of Robert the Bruce and the spider while she gets her pjs on

Leaky washing machine here.

More importantly, one of our piggies needs your vibes grumpies.

He's had a foot infection and is quiet and withdrawn. Hopefully it's the antibiotics.

Oooh, if she likes historical stories, then you can mess with their minds splendidly.... King Edward the Potato and King William the Orange were two that I told LP, which amuses me because she doesn't quite get the King Edward one as they don't have those potatoes here. Also the story of the lettuce that sank the Titanic is another favourite

I woke up and found that during the night I had missed the poo festival ...... there was crap everywhere! All up and down the hallway that runs the length of the house! It explains why the pup was barking so much in the night though - it was a bit frustrating because I got up to see what she was barking at and let her out and she just chased the cat round the garden a couple of times and came in, so I told her off and went back to bed! It seems I should have left the door open a bit longer as she clearly needed a bit of business and had just been sidetracked by the ever more important cat chase! Lovely start to a Sunday morning though eh

I have to work 4 nights in a row which is a first for me and unfortunately it fits in with OH's return to work so that will be bed at 2 and up at 6-ish Can't complain though because it means I get 15 hours this week again and that makes quite a difference.

Nothing else happening here which is good I suppose in some ways!

KJ - I'm sending positive foot healing vibes to little piggie and I hope he's up and partying again soon!

Sleep well and have a great Sunday tomorrow my grumpy friends

@Mr M - c'mon Posh!

evening all

Piggy vibes flying your way KJ.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ piggies

Thanks grumpies, but the little fella has shuffled.

Really sorry to hear that. He had a happy life though and the family will have some great memories of him. I still remember and talk to YoungPlum about each and everyone of our pets from when I was young. We had a few gerbils and hamsters, in addition to the dogs and cat and even though they had short life-spans they were all memorable in their own way!

Oh KJ So sorry to hear about that. ((((((((((KJ)))))))))))

Sad news. Poor piggy boy.

(((((((((((((((((((((kj and piggy)))))))))))))))))