Tea Room 17 - The Tropical Beach Hut

[amberlight]

Welcome to the 17th version of the Tea Room. We find ourselves on a tropical beach, with the tea room now in a beach hut on stilts, the waves lapping on the golden sands beneath. Palm trees surround us. Our virtual gardener/beach surfing dude/handyman, Mellors, is here to tend to your every need. He looks like the person of your dreams (male, female or otherwise ). There are of course holidaying Bishops and other leaders of faith, the Camels, the Bison, various guinea pigs, the tea room horses, a life-size cut out of George Clooney, the NMBs (please don't ask me to explain how Mohawk Babies joined us, and a wide variety of other virtual followers. We chat, we relax, we share how life is. All in need of friendship are most welcome. The kettle is on...and the distressed chintz sofa has of course made the journey over. Enjoy.

It sounds like you are having a crap time of it. I'm sending you a very big northwesterly in the internet breeze. It should reach you anytime now. It will get better, I promise, it's just going to take awhile.

As for the whining. Kittenito isn't that whiny; I mean he does whine and quite often. But, he's much more into shouting VERY LOUDLY. Gettign him to say please and thank you is a nightmare. Currently his punishment for hitting/biting/carrying on doing what he has been told not to more than 5 times (or not doing what he has been told to do)is being made to say sorry to the injured party. This usually involves many stages. Stage one are the tears for being told off. Stage two is the temper tantrum and NO NO NO at my attempts to point out that he can solve the situation by saying sorry. Stage three are the sulks. Stage Four is the apology. I feel crap with it all, because usually the only way to get him to get to stage four is to ignore him (and tell him I'm going to ignore him becasue of xy or z).
It's exhausting.

Anyway, all of that was to tell you that I understand thatyt it must all be 100 times worse for you with the withdrawl stuff going on. More and more chocolate.

Be gentle on yourself Meeska. Rant away, and be assured, the whining gets on everyone elses nerves too. But when Cmotiddler tries it, he is old enough to know that when I say I can't hear whinging/whining, he stops it pronto. Drives me up the wall

Heres a huge iced coffee with your fave syrups, a box of assorted danish and doughnuts, and an invisible hug blanket from your tea room friends to wear all day, and know we are thinking of you.

I'm very short sighted, astigmatism in both eyes, but the complicated bit is that I have an unstable squint, so have 11 degrees of prism in one direction of my reading glasses (plus a few in other directions). Its odd, and usually adults don't have binocular vision disorders so opticians aren't good at them.

You have reminded me to go to the opticians although my ryes are just disappointingly short sighted no glamorous defects like cmot and mmmm
mmmm heavens alive the whining kills everyone not just you. Go easy on yourself you are doing amazingly and come and rant away here. The nmbs are blowing up an inflatable punch bag for you to hit for stress relief. They're on shifts. It should be ready in about 2011

tyres on cars? We were driving along and thought there was a funny smell and found the tail pipe had dropped off somewhere along the road!!
Amber thanks for email. Sorry not to reply yet. Bit busy but I will!

OOh, another thread commonism/commonality/whatever that word should be! I am viciously shortsighted too - but not as bad as MMMM, only -8. I have a mild astigmatism but not so bad that I needed toric contact lenses, thankfully. I don't wear contacts now - my left eye started to have troubles with them and I stopped being scared of wearing my glasses so I wear them nearly all the time now.

MMMM - as CMOTD says, rant away - here is your space to do so. Grab yourself a corner of the priesthole, it's around under a palm leaf somewhere - nice range of cocktails in there too, I believe.

Whining - the bane of most mothers' lives, I think. Used to drive my mum batshit crazy (love that term!), more than anything else we did - and now I know why! miniThumb has a couple of whine levels - a low basic "I don't know what I really want but I'm not happy and I want you to know that", which is quite hard to deal with; and a much more specific whininess for something he does want. He gets told that whining will get him nowhere, that I can't hear him, that I won't listen until he can ask for stuff without whining etc. etc. etc. - but then he just does it again later. He does at least say sorry if I shout loudly enough.

MMMM=4M=4Mbaby

Sometimes I do wonder however I managed to finish primary school, let alone higher education.

Heck, I rant all the time on here (well, more 'panic and hide' in my case, but it must count...). MMMM, rant all you like. Have the duvet and a spare copy of What Gizmo that I've just finished. I appreciate that this may not be your idea of a good read, so I've taken the liberty of enclosing within it a copy of Men in Wet T-Shirts Monthly, just in case.

Thanks all . What the heck would I do without the Tea Room.

Here, MMMM - have a virtual aspidistra to disembowel, or whatever it is that you do to them.

Note to other tearoomers - it is not the TeaRoom aspidistra - it's a stray I found loitering under the hut

Isn;t that rather cruel to stray aspidistra? Unis removes stray and replaces it with virtual aspidistra.
Hi 4M , sorry to hear your having a b*gger of day. hope teh chocolate helps.

I'm kinda shortsighed too. gave up on contact lenses as toric lens were V expensive and not comfy for a full days wear, while disposable ones didn't make teh world look right and still were not comfy enough for a full days wear. so I just wear gig lamps. Never can remember my persciption tho.

Well it was a feral aspidistra that had gone a bit dangerous, but virtual is good too.

I am running out of answers already for DS - the book of greek myths he selected (very good actually, nice cartoon format) raises far too many questions. As well as the ones about 'how do we know these stories if they are so old' 'who wrote them down' 'why are there lots of gods' etc.

Friend has just posted very worrying status on FB and isn't replying to texts/calls/emails

Am disappearing under a pile of receipts here - it's expenses time again..

4M - rant away - we all need somewhere sometimes... And I think everyone here understands and empathises - although we've not all been in your position. Whining is SO difficult to cope with at the best of times... I must say that I did opt for the 'I'm sorry I can't hear you when you whine' option - and this actually worked from quite early on... Either that or mimic the whining - which tends to have the effect of making him giggle

Cakes and tea/coffee for afternoon tea anyone?

Talking of pharmacies, I really missed the NHS today. Finally took miniThumb to the doc as he still has the wretched cough - and she agreed he had some residual infection and has bunged him on antibiotics. The pharmacy asked me if I wanted branded or generic, so I said generic - and it still cost me $18.60! (About £10.70) Pah.

No cake for me ta - I am getting even fatter and more and more peed off about it, yet still seem incapable of cutting out chocolate and wine! with self.

Found out one of my side effects is possible loss of appetite and weight loss. I used to be seriously underweight but am now around the heaviest I've ever been (not including pregnancy though I am close to my pre-pregnancy weight).

We looked on line to see how much my drugs would cost in the States. BLOODY HELL! Thank you, NHS. AND I still have my maternity card so didn't have to pay (though I think going NHS prescription rate is £7.85).

I love the NHS...

Scout - hope you are not too wibbly about it all today. It will all be worth it in the end, won't it - and at least you're not having to sell a kidney for the cost of the drugs.

(((HUGS))) to Scout. Not exactly the diet you were looking for, hey? Pooo.

I too love the NHS. My medicines for the diabetes currently set me back around 3500 pesos a month (or 175 quid more or less).
We have a friend whose son came by a very serious head injury (it's not clear what happened to him, did he fall, was he pushed etc). He was in a coma for weeks and now is awake but not moving much and can't speak. He is in intensive rehabilitation and goodness knows what else.... it's costing 100, 000 pesos a week (5000 quid). They had insurence, but it has run out. He needs rehab for at least a year.....

Thinking about it, even though my co-pay for my insurance at home was high by most standards ($20 for doctor's appointments and $10 for drugs) I was very lucky because my company paid for my insurance outright, with no contribution from me. It was hard to find doctors (because it was obscure) but the fact that I didn't have to pay anything was brilliant. The one drug alone is a couple of thousand dollars for a one month course (think it's at least a grand in UK funny money). Felt really guilty using my maternity exemption card at the hospital pharmacy, but I've only had to use it once before, and that was during pregnancy. And the government gave it to me to use -- right? (Someone reassure me that even though I've only paid into NI for 5 years I'm not taking the piss by using up so many NHS resources.)

No, not the diet I was looking for. They said they intervene if I lose 10% or more of my starting body weight. Ten percent?!?! Bloody hell that's a diet! Don't get me wrong, I'm not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but I am not the twiglet I once was. But 10% seems like a lot no matter how much I weigh.

But the clinician giving me everything, chatting, etc., is so very nice I met her the last time when I met with the doctor and the follow up sounds really good and comprehensive. And I feel reassured that she's keeping an eye on things and is in touch with my cardiac team and looking at that side of my medical history as well.

It all costs scary money doesn't it ? My parents are certainly getting their moneys worth these days - both on insulin, statins, and metformin/glicazide, mum on morphine and other painkillers/nerve pain stuff, and dad on Warfarin.

Sounds like they are looking after you Scout - nows the time to fill the freezer with icecream and frozen soft fruit so that if you are losing weight and appetite you can do yummy full fat milkshakes with fruit - full of nutrients and calories but easy to drink

'lo ladies.

Hello oxeye (and everyone else)!

Racing pig is a guineapig (at least I think so.... it might well really be a pig, but he was a regular long before I joined the tearoom. He has a ladyfriend: Racingmisspiggy, who hasn't been seen in a while. They both enjoy the TR twiglets in vast vast quantities.

And talking of the racings of this world: what news on Racing Snake?

'Lo Catita! How are you and your little Mexican Bambino/as and the Gorgeous Signor Hatita the History Hero?

Racing Pig is a Guinea Pig, one of the Wriggle menagerie

Racing is off on hols. She was driving the whole way with a SatNav for company while M. Snake sat in back with wriggle. I was a bit concerned. She was looking forward to the peace and quiet!

She name changed having been accosted with her MN in RL!

RacingMissPuggy is the Lady Love of RacingPig who may or may not be an actual member of the Wriggle menagerie. She tends to waft around on the distressed sofa eating twiglets.

Scout, of course Tea Room Bolly doesn't count! Catita swigged it all through Gatita's pregnancy and look! They are all bonkers fine

Thumb just thinking you might be waking now - what is your view (and I know you'll have one!) on children taking vitamins? Oxboy eats normally/ well for a kiddywinkle but I worry he should have vitamin supplements. I gave him some chewy ones at the turn of the season. Oxbloke is dead against. That gives me a clear run for about 3 months of the year when he's away but do you think I should?

(give the vits - I will face the moral dilemma of taking rank advantage of OxBlokes absences to practice my own weird parenting techniques alone)

The babitos are just fine, thank you for asking.
Kittenito has his second op three weeks ago and seems to be recovering alright. He had a nasty fall the week after the surgery though and we are a bit concerned that the aperture may have opened once more. Only time will tell. I really hope not. Hospital is too traumatic for little children.