Tea Room the Eighteenth - the Cricket Pavilion

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Welcome one and all to our new abode - a lovely old-fashioned Cricket Pavilion, with decks outdoors and a rather lovely Members' Bar, complete with deep-seated leather comfy chairs and any drink you care to mention.

Our outdoor amenities include the well-tended cricket pitch, kept immaculate by Mellors, our multi-purpose man; a couple of tennis courts round the back for those who prefer the Wimbledon scene; and another multi-purpose pitch (can be used for hosting Fine Lad-style rugby matches, or Little Kickers' football, or the occasional All Comers' Lacrosse Tournament.

Bishops abound, mostly snoozing in the leather armchairs; there are sundry animals around - guineapigs and bison mostly - and of course the Naked Mohawk Babies, fetchingly attired in cricket whites (most unusual for them!)

The cricket pavilion tea room is open to all - those with only one child who need a safe haven predominate but having more than one child is fine - come in, have an egg'n'cress sandwich and a glass of Pimms!

*other fillings and beverages also available.

awww, have just found out my brother has his first serious girlfriend since his wife died. Am very happy for him. (AND I might get to meet her at Thanksgiving next month.)

Mary, hope the doctors can figure out what's wrong. Stomach pains are no fun.

Bolly, tea?

Looked at the snoods didn't know that's what those things are called. And in 1987 I was 12/13, so remember the MJF movie (he was very good looking hell, he still is a cutie). Speaking of MJF, did you know it's the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future and it's been re-released in the cinema?!?! I never did make it to Toy Story, I soooo want to go to see Back to the Future -- I saw the first one in the cinema as a girl.

Just popping in for a quick remark otherwise the tea room casts me out into outer darkness due to non attendance.

Went to A&E this afternoon to have my ring cut off because my finger had swollen up after being slashed with my new Sharp Knife while attempting to make pumpkin soup. Got back to find AP bleeding from the thumb ... the knife having slipped while dicing the same giant pumpkin. Beware Pumpkins, I say.

No time to post as DH needs laptop for translation about abattoir standards he has been asked to do for Tescos. We don't even shop at Tescos, due to my no doubt deluded objections to Big Bad Supermarkets. Quite impressed by their high welfare standards, but a bit to listen to him muttering about in bed at night as I try to go to sleep and he googles the kind of vocabulary one hopes never to have to use ...

And ((((lots of hugs and sympathy))) to all with bad days/digestions/heads, etc.

Would I be a bad Mommy if I went to baby swimming but skipped Guides, even though two of my YLs/Seniors are doing activities towards their qualifications?

Nah, have a night off.

CMOT, I've hardly eaten since Saturday. I guess I'd better have toast or something in the morning...

phones BabyScout loves phones (they taste yummy, have buttons to push, light up and flash, make funny noises), but wails the house down when he hears my voice coming out of one. However, I will no longer use my phone to take his picture and then show him. Don't do it often anyway, but that's just a bit freaky!

Mary - agree with CMOTD that, if you are having the test for coeliacs, you MUST NOT remove gluten/wheat from your diet until you have had the test. Otherwise your gut will start to heal and the test will be at best inconclusive, and might even be negative. Still, having just noticed you're having the test tomorrow, it's not going to matter that much!
Coeliacs disease is pretty common (at least 1 in 100 people), more so than many doctors realise, and the symptoms are quite wide-ranging. BUT if you do get a diagnosis of coeliacs disease then you will have to cut gluten out of your diet, so it would be a good idea to familiarise yourself with the Free From area of your supermarket, so you can see the alternatives that are available should you need them. Even if you get a negative result, it might be worth you trying them out - just because full on coeliacs isn't diagnosed, doesn't mean you don't have a problem with wheat, iyswim. Anyway, let us know the result of your test. :)

Small - already told Mary to go to the docs - she said she already had been, hence further non-conventional advice. I don't advocate giving such advice without going to the GP first.

Scout - you would be a good mummy if you went to babyswimming but skipped Guides - you'd be a not so good mummy if you did it the other way around :). Hope your headache goes away - side effect of the meds, is it?

Serpent - boo re cut finger/thumb, ring removal and bah to pumpkins! they're obviously set to "evil mode" at the moment - JBM had some troubles with her pumpkin bread which turned out horrible - give 'em a miss for a while. :)

Oh heck, as if I didn't have enough to cope with... tempted to disappear down the priest's hole...

Thanks for all the support and advice.

Scout. You win. You are chaste and modest and wouldn't dream of peeking even if he was stripping right in front of you
Mary sympathy is about all I have to contribute. But you have that in fullmeasure

racing it seems to me your problem is the knife not the pumpkin

Amber special acknowlegdemebt of your creep from the priest hole. Hope you feel safe

cmot how's the hand?

oxeye, very confused.....

thumb, dunno the cause but wish it would go away. I had a low-level background headache for three/four weeks when I first started, but it would go away with pills. This is not going away and is a full-on migraine -- aura, light/noise sensitivity (though it's varying and not all the time), nausea (again, varying degrees and not full-on all the time). But the head pain is there. ARGH. MrScout (aka HubbyScout but sounds much nicer) thinks I should go to the GP "just in case."

Have decided to bail on Guides tonight. Is just a Guide meeting, with lots of other adults, not like Seniors where I am the only one. Can't face a hall of 30+ screaming pre-teen and teenage girls. I think my head would then explode.

mary, have a non-threatening hand to hold while you're at your appointment today.

Serpent and CMOT, how are the hands?

Speaking of pumpkins -- can you go to the pumpkin patch and/or the apple orchard and pick pumpkins and apples this time of year? Tis a very traditional type of thing to do at home, especially with groups of small children (ie, when I worked as a nursery school/day care teacher for the 3-year old class). Would be fun to take BabyScout pumpkin picking, I think. And a hayride.

I couldn't tell you - I don't know where you'd go to find pumpkins! Some orchards may have pick your own for the apples, but I think you'd be hard pushed to find the pumpkins.

Pumpkins - can I recommend the P ampe red C he f 'My safe cutter' for cutting them? I'm giving up (although I am going to stick one last order in) so I don't mind bringing them up (although I've added spaces so hopefully it won't google) - its a knife for children (mistlechick loves his) which somehow you can't cut your skin with but you can cut potatoes, apples etc - ds likes helping to cut things up for the cooking and at least this way neither of us have to worry too much and he's getting a lot better at cutting. But it also works well on pumpkins.... I think the only 'dangerous' thing about them is that they are relatively narrow at the tip - so if they go in for stabbing outwards or towards themselves they might hurt themselves (its not a sharp tip, but even so....).

We do a nice pumpkin risotto - got the recipe from the bbc goodfood website - one of Hugh Fearlessly-eats-it-all's recipes. Has sage in it.

We do apple picking in the garden, but haven't got any pumpkins.

You can do apple picking and pyo pumpkins sort of round here, but it's not the sort of thing you are thinking of Scout. A few places do make it more of an event though.

I do that rissoto too Mistle. Can I recommend the Lakeland tomato peeler to peel them though - is supersharp and deals with everything

Hand is still painful, but have really improved movement in all but the mcp joints which don't do anything. Physio is doing acupuncture tomorrow to try and deal with nerve pain a bit

Two slices of toast a day Mary - thats all you need. I've been diagnosed with cd for 12 years now, and although it was hard at first, now it doesn't stop me doing a thing

Had my blood tests... were for Coeliac, thyroid, liver, kidney and bone density. See Dr again on 19th, which might be a little soon, but it was either that or Nov 5th!

Had bad stomach cramps again this morning (relieved by visit to the loo).

Sorry to hear your hand is still bad CMOT. Have just figured out what MCP joints are. My first thought was it was something you smoked! :o

Pumpkins are plentiful round here, you could probably find a farm where they let you PYO, but generally they're for sale either in farm shops, or roadside kiosks.

Fingers crossed they find something Mary and that it's relatively simple to deal with.

CMOTD - bummer re the hand - hope the acupuncture helps.

AquaBabies seems to have slight medicinal properties and I don't feel as poo as I did. I dlo enjoy AquaBabies.

I'm not sure I could EAT a whole aquababy though, even if they do have medicinal properties!

LOL at Mary. Nom nom nom.

Oh BabyScout does love his swimming time!

Feels so naughty and so nice not to be at Guides.

BabyScout was miserable tonight and wouldn't have been aminable to going, anyway, and MrScout's trains are messed up so he's very late. Would have been a llloonnnnggggggg night.

Scout you did the right thing avoiding guides

sorry to confuse, my message yesterday was for Small and her perving or swooning at Lucas North

Scout you did the right thing avoiding guides

sorry to confuse, my message yesterday was for Small and her perving or swooning at Lucas North

You did right to miss Guides, Scout. How I would love to miss Brownies occasionally.

Oxeye - I had realised your earlier remarks were directed at me. I freely admit to swooning at Mr Thornton (and look forward to swooning at Guy of Gisborne) but hesitate to swoon at Lucas North, as I think he probably has Too Much Baggage and I gave up on Tortured Men who wanted me to Help Them With Their Issues a long time ago. Even so, Spooks is compulsive viewing in the SmallHome and has been since episode one.

I am feeling very down. Middle age, pah! Would anyone like to share some Bolly?

Oooh, I love Spooks!

Yes, Spooks is the highlight of our Monday evening, although I do so hope that it isn't like that in RL - I was speechless as Harry poisoned the former Home Secretary and watched him die.

Twiglet surprise?