Firk me. I’ve a blind mother who insists on ‘helping’ in the kitchen, so far that has cost me 3 teapots and an induction cooktop she smashed ! So far we’ve had 2 testy interactions between my wife the in-laws abs my mother who all insist on cramming in to help ! It’s fuxking brilliant. Then my mum seems to have obtained a medical degree off Facebark. A self proclaimed expert in virology and Covid. My sister then added insult to insult by whatsapping me half pissed eating a curry 😂 She deserves a day off as she runs an ICU but wasn’t quick to put her hand up to host. I’ve been for a run and a bike ride with mrs nzcol and I’m on my second massive g and t !
I'm hiding in the bedroom. Nanny got covid on Thursday and my dad is vulnerable so despite negative LFT we couldn't go see him (planned to be in the park, first time in months). The missus bought loads of presents, spent half the night wrapping them. The kids are now massively over stimulated cranky and fighting constantly over each others toys. Assuming negative LFT we'll be off to my sisters tomorrow, then the kids and missus are going onto the "women should know their place daily mail reading its the immigrants fault" MIL (I've got 4 daughters). Fortunately I've been excused due to some last minute "work" that's come up as men sometimes have to work and that's OK. We don't call her the Wicked Witch of the West for nothing. At least I'll be in the shed with a beer and some bikes.
Just the two of us. We sacked off most of Christmas years ago, don’t even bother with presents. If we want something we buy it when we want it, not for baby Jesus.
Same for me and OH. Quick blast out this morning (brrr), back for coffee and a load of muddy bike stuff in the wash, daal for tea tonight. We 'did' the solstice on the 21st with a pheasant breast kiev, chips n peas and a nice bottle of red 😎
As for spending time with people you can barely tolerate- eff that shizz!
MIL is currently reading all of her emails out loud to everyone. Not telegram type messages from overseas relatives but MSE weekly top tips and offers from M&S
****. M6 here we come. Still, should be quiet at least.
What's everyone's thermostat stats looking like? Couldn't remember if there's usually a seperate thread for this
Anyone 25c+?
Quiet one here, had our Xmas dinner yesterday so we could concentrate on the toddler as he is now aware of Christmas. I've never seen presents opened so quickly. My family tomorrow where I will try not to respond to any eyebrow raising comments on covid etc. It got loud last time and it's just not worth the confrontation.
What’s everyone’s thermostat stats looking like? Couldn’t remember if there’s usually a seperate thread for this
Anyone 25c+?
I wish. I'm sure the MiL lives in an Igloo
What’s everyone’s thermostat stats looking like? Couldn’t remember if there’s usually a seperate thread for this
Anyone 25c+?
Usual 17.5c here. I’d usually whack it up a bit when sitting around but leaving it low just out of stubbornness. A small, petty victory but a victory all the same.
21 degrees and obligatory STW woodburner going here at the moment. And the other half has a blanket. She’s happy though which is the main thing!
I've been informed I have to go to the in-laws tomorrow afternoon.
MIL & AIL compete to see who's vapid conversation can be loudest.
BIL will bicker with everyone, the level of severity depending on how many arsehole tablets he had for lunch.
Mrs_H is on day 2 of a row of night shifts and won't have slept properly & I'll be in a mardy because tomorrow afternoons forecast is good and I won't be out on my bike.
I've had a lovely day. Wife left early for Christmas Dinner with her daughter and grandsons. I took the dog for a long walk by the sea, then had a huge plateful of spaghetti carbonara with a bottle of prosecco, followed by eclairs and coffee with calvados! Now curled up with a good book. Perfect. The dog seems happy, too.
No arguments here, but sister in laws family have been messaging her to say they’ve come down with covid, they visited SIL this last week and now SIL is with us.
Very brisk walk along the sea front this morning, just finished dinner, now on second glass of wine, and dilemma of what book to start in on.
Happy Xmas.
Got to say this thread has been a bit disappointing this year.
Having said that I don't think the dog pisses in MILs garden and we go straight home post from a few years back will ever be topped.
Glad I don't have to suffer any of it though.
Life's too short for that kind of shit.
Was delighted to hear my father in law getting shut down very quickly by my mum and sister when he tried repeating a few very lazy Daily Mail tropes (apparently Boris 'got Brexit done').
He's a nice enough gent, he might just have been bored since he was driving and couldn't have a glass of fizz 😁
Got to say this thread has been a bit disappointing this year.
Having said that I don’t think the dog pisses in MILs garden and we go straight home post from a few years back will ever be topped.
Well said! That post was hilarious and can't remember the author but would love to know whether they're all on speaking terms now.
I tried looking for it earlier but Google-fu failed me before conf-call ended. Please someone find it.
Does anyone else ever wonder if they are the objectionable FIL, BIL etc that gets written up on these threads?
You’re wondering now aren’t you. 😉
Mrs Spekkie and I have had a quiet day at home. Spoke to her daughter in Colorado this afternoon - it was 8am there - without issues and her son in London this eve. Then spoke to my son in the UK after that - we're flying over to visit him and his family in the UK on Monday and having a "proper" Christmas Dinner later this week which I'm really looking forward to . . . .
We've just done a Covid tests each and we're both negative.
I am going to put new discs and pads on my truck to get outside tomorrow. Mtbing Monday 🙂
I tried looking for it earlier but Google-fu failed me before conf-call ended. Please someone find it.
Oldschool was the hero in question.
Well said! That post was hilarious and can’t remember the author but would love to know whether they’re all on speaking terms now.
It was me, and yes. We are on speaking terms now. Think that was the turning point, 😂
Get on great now to be fair.
head back home to eat nothing but pigs in blankets and pizza
That must be a serious numbers of PIBs, into 3 figures almost. 🙂
We had 64 between 8 of us, along with a turkey, 4 trays of stuffing, 5 trays of roast potatoes, roast parsnips and loads of veg.
Getting that cooked in a standard oven plus top oven was a serious feat. First tray of roasties was ready at 11:00
Gnommm
head back home to eat nothing but pigs in blankets and pizza
You can now do both of those simultaneously with a pigs in blankets pizza. We had one from Aldi the other week.
It was ok till the end then my mil called her daughter a miserable git then walked out .
Daughter was on form with jokes that would make jimmy Carr blush.
Alone now with Harry Potter on the tv *happy face*
Oh the dog is here and I'm fine with that
It was me, and yes. We are on speaking terms now. Think that was the turning point, 😂
Get on great now to be fair.
Wow! Pleased that you're on good terms now, a relief all round I should think. Families eh?
Oh and thanks soundninjauk for retrieving the original thread.
You can now do both of those simultaneously with a pigs in blankets pizza. We had one from Aldi the other week.
*checks Aldis opening hours*
Some familiar names in that thread from 8 years ago!😁
Awesome. Thanks @soundninja.
FrankSinatra still living his best times at Christmas after eight years.
You can now do both of those simultaneously with a pigs in blankets pizza. We had one from Aldi the other week.
We had one of these yesterday but with pigs in blankets from Higginsons of Grange butchers and roasted onion - on homemade 72hr fermented sourdough bases and cooked in the Ooni outside. Bloody delicious!
We had one of these yesterday but with pigs in blankets from Higginsons of Grange butchers and roasted onion – on homemade 72hr fermented sourdough bases and cooked in the Ooni outside. Bloody delicious!
Peak STW.....
I try my best! Also peak tastiness so... 🤷🏻♂️ 😁
The bonus was that I was making the pizzas so a pig in blanket or two may have ended up as a topping 😁
I really did eat too many yesterday...
The visit to my mother's didn't go too badly though, stepfather was actually on good form, it was my sister I had to pull up for being racist, thankfully my other sister backed me up and it was nipped in the bud very quickly.
No arguements but OH was on the edge of exploding by the time my mother left. The one day of the year when OH will just about tolerate my mothers company.
Mother arrived at 12.30 for dinner and didn't stop to draw breath between then and leaving leaving at 3.30. even eating didn't stop her. All totally nonesense and gossip about people we neither know nor care about. OH unwrapped her gift from mother to find a tin of John West(other brands are available) Tuna!! We just rolled about laughing, some kind of tension relief I think. Mother looked confused and said "but you eat tuna don't you?" I could tell from her breathing that OH was on the verge so started talking about needing a nap until mother eventually took the hint and I walked her out the door, still talking as she went. OH spent the rest of the day with a headache so we gave up and went to bed around 10.
Off to her parents for dinner today who are both totally OK people.
FYI when the other half tells you it’s “fine” to take the two older boys out to to test their RC cars whilst she cooks Xmas dinner and feeds a newborn, it’s actually NOT fine.
Reeeeeally not fine. Not fine at all😐
You clearly have no idea what the word fine means when uttered by a partner! 🙂
OH unwrapped her gift from mother to find a tin of John West(other brands are available) Tuna!! We just rolled about laughing, some kind of tension relief I think. Mother looked confused and said “but you eat tuna don’t you?”
I mean... As presents go obviously it's shite but it's better than something that's going to end up in landfill bought for the sake of it.
You clearly have no idea what the word fine means when uttered by a partner! 🙂
I mean, I know 😖 . It felt like a trap but you know, it’s Christmas so I thought maybe just maybe she meant it ..
We don't really have family arguments but there's a lot of frustration.
My Mum (now in her 70's) has lived on her own in the family house now since the early 80's (parents are divorced). Obviously we (me and my sister) were there throughout school / uni but we were gone by the early / mid 2000's. So there's nearly 40 years of accumulated clutter and tat in the place. Some of it is old school / uni work from both of us, the vast majority is just "things" that accumulate.
Books long past their use-by date ("how to use your digital camera" from 2005 anyone?), chintzy tat, "posh" crystalware that is anything but, trinkets, boxes and boxes of photos, stacks of magazines from long-expired subscriptions (there must be 7 years worth of National Geographic from the late 90's), piles of soft furnishings over and around everything... It's endless.
Every time I come down, I try and do stuff to help out - gardening, moving anything heavy, putting stuff into the loft etc that she can't really do easily. But I'm trying to tidy stuff up, throw things out, ebay some of it. And every time it's met with:
"oh just leave it for now, I'll sort through it"
"well that can go in recycling, just leave it for now"
"oh I haven't got time for this, just leave it there for the moment"
Stuff comes out, gets strewn around and is never put back. Tidying up is basically moving one pile of clutter from a to b or splitting it into two smaller piles. By the time she comes back to it a week later, she has no idea of what is what. It needs an absolutely ruthless clear out and there's some intention there because occasionally my sister or I will get a call saying "I've found [thing], what do you want me to do with it?"
[thing] will then be left out for all eternity or until another Useful Box To Put Things In is purchased and filled with more tat. Part of it is that I think inside, she's overwhelmed with how much there is to do but won't admit it. She also gets tired and distracted very easily - she'll start on something and then need a rest or decide to have a cup of tea or start reading something she's found and that's it.
My sister and I are both dreading the time when we have to clear this out - I mean there's potentially another 20+ years of this to go!
Get her away for a weekend. Gain access and gut the place. Tell her she's been done over by Swedish minimalists.
You clearly have no idea what the word fine means when uttered by a partner! 🙂
See, I've no patience for this sort of passive-aggressive asshattery. It took me years (because ASD) to work out that "fine" meant the opposite, and years more to come to the realisation that I shouldn't have to put up with people who claim to love me and yet lay traps to intentionally trick me.
You tell me it's fine, I'm going to believe you. If it's not fine, just tell me that instead. If it's broadly fine but you'd rather I did something else, open your goddamn mouth like a grown adult rather than acting like a petulant 12-year old afterwards for doing exactly what you said I could do.
And whilst we're at it, "if you don't know then I'm not telling you" can get in the sea as well. Fine, to coin a phrase. You stay mad at me for who knows what, then. Watch me not list half a dozen things you haven't even thought of yet just to incriminate myself even further.
there’s nearly 40 years of accumulated clutter and tat in the place.
If it's not a health risk and it's not making her unhappy, why would you care?
Anyway,
By the time she comes back to it a week later, she has no idea of what is what.
That being the case, could you ask if you can 'borrow' it? "Hey mum, I'd really like show the kids all my old schoolbooks!" Would she remember that you'd taken them?
For what it's worth, I was in a similar state, I was the world's worst for "that might come in useful someday" except I could immediately lay my hands on something last seen 20 years ago. What (ahem, mostly) cured me was moving house. Some of it hurt - leaving my Laserdisc collection and last-gen A/V gear behind for instance - but a lot of it was just "why have I still got this?"
I've just been summoned to the room by my girlfriends grandad (whom I do get on very well with) after hiding away from the annual 'racist friends of their age gathering'.
Racist posh weirdo with whom I share a mutual hatred: "Did you know that ALL Gospel music is played on the black notes on piano". Me "Well I mean some of it is....the black notes on a piano broadly give you Ebm...."
Him "No, all of it is....Amazing Grace is all on black notes....and they accuse us of prejudice yet they don't use the white notes"
Me....I walked off to avoid an arguement. I've got a masters degree in Musicolgy, and last year studied Gospel guitar with Isaiah Sharkey....the first song that we talked about was the Mahalia Jackson version of Amazing Grace.
