Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe when meeting people from online, a new name needs to be agreed for the group, that's not "embarrassing" if you ask a stranger. So you can ask if strangers are meeting some group that sounds exciting.

Initials are always safest. "Are you here for the NPT meeting?" leaves strangers none the wiser if they aren't actually us.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

My Dad doesn't tend to use cash machines - or rather, the cash machine he tends to use is Mama's purse. She sometimes finds that a bit irritating, if she thinks she has £200, and suddenly only has £40.

DS does that to mine.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I love the idea of BBQ food, but I've rarely encountered any BBQ parties. Probably been to 4 BBQs in my life. It's not the sort of thing I'd do for me - buy a BBQ, set it up, learn how to use it, use it, pack it away, store it, keep it clean .... to be used 2x a year tops for one burger

Although I have been thinking of creating a BBQ-4-1 solution out of some bits and bobs....

I am going to a BBQ next week. I'm down to take a (cold) pudding. Someone else will be bringing a "healthy" pudding, and I'm to bring a "fattening" one. So far with this bunch of people I've done chocolate orange mousse, Eton mess, and chocolate cheesecake. Do the NP have any suggestions of something I could do this time?

silvercar

LydiaJ wrote: »

Initials are always safest. "Are you here for the NPT meeting?" leaves strangers none the wiser if they aren't actually us.



DS does that to mine.



I am going to a BBQ next week. I'm down to take a (cold) pudding. Someone else will be bringing a "healthy" pudding, and I'm to bring a "fattening" one. So far with this bunch of people I've done chocolate orange mousse, Eton mess, and chocolate cheesecake. Do the NP have any suggestions of something I could do this time?

Pavlova (and if it fails call it Eton mess )

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

I'm to bring a "fattening" one. So far with this bunch of people I've done chocolate orange mousse, Eton mess, and chocolate cheesecake. Do the NP have any suggestions of something I could do this time?

I've a collection of 140 desserts that look yummy, collected here and there from online and watching telly in the past 18 months.

Having dismissed most for a variety of reasons, I was left with:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheesecake_brownies_01372
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2245/tuttifrutti-rounds
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2044/dorset-apple-traybake?pager.offset=100
http://gonnawantseconds.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/lemon-coconut-bars.html

Most of my saved recipes are hot puddings, or quick microwave things or too gooey/sloppy to be realistically transported.

I've never been to a BBQ that had afters... so not sure if those are posh enough.

I also discounted stuff like this, which I felt would be "too much faffing about"
http://www.makeaheadmealsforbusymoms.com/mini-cheesecakes/

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

When I was small my favourite (and possibly only) ' pre cooked' meal was fishmongers. I liked them with peas and mash. Beans and chips would have made me a little glum.

Edit.....fish FINGeRS. Not fishmongers

Drat ... you noticed. I was really enjoying the thought of a very young lir eating fishmongers.

SingleSue wrote: »

Still all kicking off here with youngest, so not had much time to check in....

Sorry to hear.

PasturesNew wrote: »

There's a posh alert. When I was at school, there were about 2-3 kids/school year that had the money to buy a violin. I doubt I've ever even touched one.

You don't buy the violin at that stage. You hire it from the LEA. It's only a bit more on top of the cost of the lessons.

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

You don't buy the violin at that stage. You hire it from the LEA. It's only a bit more on top of the cost of the lessons.

Never heard of that. I just know that at school there were a few people that brought violins in .... never knew what that was all about, nobody speaks to the posh kids at school do they because they're odd.

Masomnia

LydiaJ wrote: »

Belated congratulations, Masomnia. :T

Thanks Lydia, it's good to see you back and well

Still a bit ecstatic about the internship, had a great day today. Finally feel like my potential is being recognized, and the staff are wanting to get the best out of me. It's a bit of a strange feeling for me, to actually enjoy my 'job' and feel like it's on the right track. So hopefully the experience and reference will get me a decent job in the end.

I'm starting a Masters in HR management in September, and I have been a bit iffy as to whether I'm doing the right thing, but after the past week I'm convinced I am. Great feeling.

I may just turn out to be a nice person after all

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Drat ... you noticed. I was really enjoying the thought of a very young lir eating fishmongers.

I need to find out why you can only ever mong fish or iron.:o

LydiaJ

Spirit wrote: »

Just read an article in teh Telegraph on increasing numbers of wives retaining their maiden name...What is it like in other NP households?

I took LNE's name when we got married. We were among the first in our peer group to get married, so changing my name was a bit of a statement. I was very early in my career too - even if I'd stayed in academia it wouldn't have done me any harm to have my first couple of papers (in which I was only a co-author anyway) in a different name.

I was very happy being Mrs J when we were together. When I got my PhD I became Dr J at school (I had already given up on the research career by then and started teaching), and randomly used either Mrs J or Dr J outside of work.

When he left, I became uncomfortable with Mrs, so I call myself Dr J for everything now, although sometimes that feels pretentious - as though I think my PhD is relevant when I'm giving my details to the sales assistant in the mobile phone shop, for example, so I often explain it away...

Her: What's your name, please?
Me: Lydia J
Her: Is that Mrs?
Me: No. Dr. I stopped using Mrs when he walked out.

In the particular case of the phone shop last week, the conversation went in a direction I hadn't anticipated:

Her: Well, good for you!
Me: Thank you.
Her: Address?
Me: <gives address>
Her: And your current marital status is ...?
Me: Err... widowed, actually. <feels this will give the shop assistant the impression that things are not adding up here> Um... he tried to get his divorce but he died before it could happen.
Her: <with smile> I bet that makes you better off, doesn't it?
Me: Yes, much better off, thanks. <wonders how I come to have told my life story to a total stranger while getting a quote for a phone>

Both kids' schools always call me Mrs J in speech, although their computer systems do manage to address me as Dr J when they print stuff out for me. It bugs me a bit, but not enough to make a fuss over. I was a bit surprised about it at DS's parents' evening recently. At every school I've ever worked at, they print out sticky labels for the parents' evening, with the name (and tutor group) of the child and the name (and title) of the parent. Parents collect their labels when they sign in, and wear them as they go round talking to teachers. Thus the teachers know which child to talk about, AND how to address the parent(s). At DS's school, however, they don't do that, so each time I would sit down at a teacher's desk, they would ask who I was there for, I would give DS's name, and they would address me as Mrs J.

I don't really like being J any more. I was happy with it when we were together, but now it feels like his name, and I want my own back. But I think it would unsettle DS and DD, and I don't want to do that to them. Besides which, I do like having the same name as them, and changing back to my own name would feel like pretending that LNE and I were never married, and that wouldn't feel true. Or else it would feel as though I was trying to expunge his memory from the planet, which feels weirdly as though it would be taking unfair advantage of the fact that he's dead. If I didn't have any kids I would change back without a second thought, though.

Masomnia wrote: »

Loving the internship. Can't go into too many specifics, obviously, but when I've finished I will a bit.

The woman I'm working under is fantastic, brimming with enthusiasm, similar sort of background to me. She's very keen that I enjoy it and get a lot out of it, so it's great. Certainly not just photocopying and filing Been there three days, and already I've got loads I could talk about at interviews in terms of projects I'm involved in, meetings attended and the like.

Feel more positive about my career now than I ever have I reckon!

:):)

lostinrates wrote: »

Lydia.....ploughing through old news is all well and good, but how are you and the sunshine kid and the brilliant boy? Gosh.....it's just stuck me he's nearing his end of first year at the new school. Has it been a successful first year do you think? How is he feeling about it?

We're OK, thanks. I am much much better since about the day before yesterday. It took a whole week of doing nothing to recover from the end of term, but now I am beginning to have some motivation for some things. DD is mostly OK, but finding the heat makes it hard to get to sleep, and then getting sad and lonely and wanting to be with me instead of staying in her own room however long it takes to get to sleep. She's still struggling with some dad-related stuff. DS has had a better year than expected in some respects - he's joining in with things instead of isolating himself as he did at primary school - but the dyslexia thing is still getting him down. He's just had a special (ie non-NHS) dyslexia-related eye test and is due to get new glasses which may help a little.

LydiaJ

Nikkster wrote: »

Ok, so it sounds like the surgery is being rubbish - are you on the meds indefinitely or for a defined period of time? Can you contact the private Dr who prescribed them originally and tell them how you are feeling? No need to answer on here, but might be worth thinking about.

I agree. No matter whose fault it was - and even if it had been yours, which clearly it wasn't - there was no call for her to be so rude.

silvercar wrote: »

LydiaJ gets a medal for ploughing through pages of conversation rather than missing a chunk out and carrying on.

Got to the end.

Thanks for the medal. Not quite sure whether reading it all was medal-worthy or insane.

michaels wrote: »

Thanks - it was remembering the relationship between joules and watts where I was a bit shaky, once I had that the rest became easy....

A watt is a joule per second, so a joule is the energy you get if a 1watt device is running for one second.
A kilowatt-hour is 1000W for 3600s so that makes 3,600,000 J.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've a collection of 140 desserts that look yummy, collected here and there from online and watching telly in the past 18 months.... <lots of helpful recipe links>

Lovely. Thanks PN. I'm too tired to read them now - it's getting late, even for me - but I'll have a good look when the kids are at school tomorrow.

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

Lovely. Thanks PN. I'm too tired to read them now - it's getting late, even for me - but I'll have a good look when the kids are at school tomorrow.

I think you should cook a batch of about 20 of each, then post one of each to the NPs and we can have a vote.