How was your day - Après Spring Fling

[Sandra]

Just remember at some point - THEY BECOME PARENTS TOO!!!

Then you get to be grandparent - the person who is allowed to say 'I can't babysit tonight - I'm off {insert something that they find obtuse and pointless}', spoil the little snot-nose silly and HAND IT BACK, and wait, remember the grandchild will be a teenager in time...

Drink the brandy and start plotting - in a few years you get to start asking where the grandkids are - and that'll make the (granted older) teenager run for the hills (assuming you have taught them enough that they aren't the ones who make that mistake - in which case teenage revenge just comes quicker). Work out your 'spoiling' tactics - too many trips to Disney? That expensive thingy that their parents don't want them to have (such as a love of real books - think how hard storing paper is?), the masses of hand knitting they have to get the grandchild to wear at least long enough to pose for photos... You have options

Good luck in surviving the next few years - you can always do what my Mum did. I made the mistake of complaining laundry took soooooo long to get back...I found out the next Sunday afternoon she had stopped doing my laundry (I had asked where my school uniform was - my Dad was ironing my brothers' and not mine). I had an interesting afternoon working out the washing machine etc before school the next day.

[Nonny Mouse]

Thanks Sandra

My son praises me to my face and then complains about me to his friends, tries everything possible to get out of chores, snuck a way to get on the internet while he was grounded from it for having 5 missing assignments at school, nods and mumbles that everything's fine when I try to warn him that he's about to get into real trouble, and then chastises me later for not talking to him properly about it, etc.

Very typical teen stuff, just.... aRGH!

[phazedout]

Thanks Sandra

My son praises me to my face and then complains about me to his friends, tries everything possible to get out of chores, snuck a way to get on the internet while he was grounded from it for having 5 missing assignments at school, nods and mumbles that everything's fine when I try to warn him that he's about to get into real trouble, and then chastises me later for not talking to him properly about it, etc.

Very typical teen stuff, just.... aRGH!

My wonderful partner Essi (whom some of you lot have met) has *three* of the darned things. I honestly don't know how she copes, the woman is a real wonder.
Stick in there Jonny, utlk get better, in a decade or so...

[Nonny Mouse]

Okay, those of you with adult children, how did you survive their teen years without eating them?

Who says we did? You've only met the survivors.

Thanks everyone, you have really helped me today.

[chrisboote]

You could just ask your mum how she coped with you ... I'm guessing you were not 100% compliant sweetness and light?

[Nonny Mouse]

You could just ask your mum how she coped with you ... I'm guessing you were not 100% compliant sweetness and light?

I had few moments of exasperated sass, but on the whole I was extremely supportive of her - I cleaned the whole house so she wouldn't have to and my sister was always skiving off; I made dinner most nights from jr high to high school; I worked 35 hours a week and had excellent grades. I was really focused on getting out of there and making a better life for myself. I did break curfew a couple of times (and got caught) but in general I was a well-behaved kid.

My sociopathic sister, on the other hand, was a daily nightmare. I guess a big part of the reason I was so good was because she was so bad (which is one of the reasons I love Witches Abroad so much).

[Alan]

Mounting for the toilet cistern gave up yesterday leaving the thing held up by the mains water inlet,overflow and the outlet to the pan
Managed to get the damn thing disconnected without too many problems,did notice that all screws were straight into the brickwork without rawlplugs.......
Got a nice new cistern to fit,after the soup has gone down,some minor mods are needed,such as a batten to line up the water inlet and cut the pipe to the pan down a tiny bit so it clears the bath drain.
Then comes the nerve shredding moment when the water goes back on......

[Grace Speaker]

Mounting for the toilet cistern gave up yesterday leaving the thing held up by the mains water inlet,overflow and the outlet to the pan
Managed to get the damn thing disconnected without too many problems,did notice that all screws were straight into the brickwork without rawlplugs.......
Got a nice new cistern to fit,after the soup has gone down,some minor mods are needed,such as a batten to line up the water inlet and cut the pipe to the pan down a tiny bit so it clears the bath drain.
Then comes the nerve shredding moment when the water goes back on......

Good luck and hope you've got a bucket handy just in case! It

[Alan]

Mounting for the toilet cistern gave up yesterday leaving the thing held up by the mains water inlet,overflow and the outlet to the pan
Managed to get the damn thing disconnected without too many problems,did notice that all screws were straight into the brickwork without rawlplugs.......
Got a nice new cistern to fit,after the soup has gone down,some minor mods are needed,such as a batten to line up the water inlet and cut the pipe to the pan down a tiny bit so it clears the bath drain.
Then comes the nerve shredding moment when the water goes back on......

Good luck and hope you've got a bucket handy just in case! It

Thank you and yes,i did,and it was full of water for leak testing purposes,which saved me a lot of messing about with turning the mains on and off.
It`s all finished now and seems to be working fine without leaking,seemed to have needed a phenomenal amount of tools to do this,small bedroom looks like a workshop!
Just got to empty the wet dry hoover and remove the old cistern from the bathroom,i`m feeling a bit tired and unhappy that i`ve had to miss a days work to do this.

[steeljam]

I had enrolled in two courses at the local night school; Glass Fusing and Bookbinding.
I was looking forward to these courses.
Then I got a call from the centre. They couldn't get a tutor for the Glass Fusing course so it was cancelled. I would get a refund.
Then I got another call saying that the tutor for the Bookbinding course had passed away so this course was cancelled! Another refund.
I tried the alternative Glass Fusing course but it was fully booked.
Finally, I discovered that the Japanese course I was interested in had been cancelled due to low enrollment!
I have a lot of free time.
Thankfully, I can play at home using my own kiln.

[Grace Speaker]

Steve - that's awesome, I love it!

What a great place to put your rings & jewellery - you could sell those!

[Sandra]

lovely glasswork!

For myself...

Adrian got the new Spider-man game - and went through it very fast... I thought that would be it but reviews from the US informed him of that the pre-orders there were getting a month of free access to the Marvel comics archive.

Not available in the UK - but the House of Mouse is currently offering subscription of buy 6 months get a year...

He's about two years into Spider-man. In the 60's he was a very unpleasant young man (occasional hilarity where Aunt May tells him to remember to wear his rubbers!). I'm not sure if he's decided who to read next, but there's decades to catch up with.

[Cara]

Steve, that’s stunning. Such a shame about the courses though. In their wisdom the college here decided not to continue the drawing and painting course I’d been doing for a year. Oh well I thought, the same tutor who is lovely was running a mixed media course this term which is right up my street. The college website was a total nightmare and wouldn’t let you view details of half the courses and wouldn’t let you enrol online. Eventually, after emailing them they called me back, apologised for the state of the website and enrolled me on the course. It was then cancelled due to low numbers and I got a refund. No doubt in response to no one being able to find out about it. Hmm, after some debate I decided the only other option was Illustration for Beginners, although it wasn’t my ideal course it would get me out of the house. First class was last Monday. There were only 5 of us and they need 8 to make the class viable. Apparently they are running the same course at a different time in a different area and they were going to try and persuade the 3 people in that class to join us, so we’ve got a class on Monday, but it may be the last one if they can’t increase the numbers.

[phalarope]

Have arrived in Llamedos. It is raining.

A little review of prior adventures - London.

To set the stage - While I am not jet lagged, my body still cannot comprehend that sleep should occur in increments greater than 2 hours. To encourage slumber in the wee hours, I've been listening to Kobna Holdbrook-Smith reading the audio book of Midnight Riot. (While Kobna is brilliant as the voice of Peter Grant, he's also wonderfully soporific, like Stephen Fry)

Last Saturday, while searching for someplace to get late lunch / early dinner before a 4pm matinee in Covent Garden, I poked down an alley near the theatre after deciding the pub on the corner was meh. And touristy. Lo! J Sheekey Oyster Bar. I insinuated myself at the bar, ordered a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell followed by ceviche and fish stew, and chatted with the shucker. Departed repleate, and well pleased with karma and serendipity.

Later that night, at o'dark thirty, I listened to Peter / Kobna describe the fight and Michael Smith's head exploding outside of J Sheekey's. Words fail me.

[Nonny Mouse]

Glad you're having a good time!