Tea Room the Eighteenth - the Cricket Pavilion

[thumbwitch]

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.

UniS, I'm going to say that Twilight is a huge waste of time... trash fiction for teenagers. Having said that, I read all of them :o and saw Eclipse with some girlfriends and did my share of ogling :o

Serpent, arnica is definitely a good idea. I'm glad Small thought of it as I'm so tired today my eyeballs are about to fall out of my head. You can do a hot arnica compress - smear gobs of arnica cream on the bruise/clot, cover with plastic wrap, then put a hot pack on top. Let sit until the hot pack cools. Follow with some ice to decrease swelling. You can also try to massage out the clot. It will hurt!!! And when the clot breaks up it can cause the most amazingly-coloured bruises to come up, so don't be alarmed. I've found if I can't stand using my hand to massage a clot out, a rolling pin, with very gentle pressure, works well. Also one of those hand-held "personal massagers" - for your back, of course!! - the vibration can help to gently break up the clot.

I have read three of the four Twilight books. I can see how they can be addictive, but in terms of literature quality they don't rate. Then again, neither does the Harry Potter series and I'm a huge fan of that one. I have not seen any of the Twilight films (no desire to!) but have seen all of the HP films, have them all on (American) DVD and have two copies of the books -- the American hardbacks and the UK paperbacks. [sad/pathetic emoticon]

Suddenly seem able to get little jobs done, but still not getting the big things done. I'm usually very good at prioritizing but just can't be arsed right now.

Lots of aches and pains in the tea room -- my hands are killing me. Thumbs and index fingers regularly split in the winter, but three fingers on each hand have been split for a few weeks now and have cuts/cracks on all of my digits. Like papercuts, but more of them in random places on my fingers and hands. Think it's a combo of all of the handwashing, fingers being gnawed on (BabyScout's teething) and the medicine (which makes me dry/itchy). I've been using breast-cream on my hands since BabyScout chews on me regularly. Sooths my hands (at least temperarily but makes them a bit sticky. Have noticed my pinky seems a bit swollen (around some of the cracks) and doesn't want to straighten out. HubbyScout thinks I should go to the GP to see if they can give me some sort of medicated cream but normal cream (a la E45) hurts so am scared.

AquaBabies and Guides tomorrow -- YAY!

I'm glad that Boy enjoyed the space poo!

I enjoyed Twilight in a so-bad-it's-good way. If you were to design a template a book which would sell in millions to teenage girls, it would be Twilight. I read it on the beach in a day but left it behind there, otherwise I'd send it to you, UniS. Together with some lavender foot cream.

And does anyone want my copy of Can Any Mother Help Me? I doubt I'll re-read it and I Need To Declutter.

Oh UniS you were so close today! Can't belive you thought Science to Diana was long walk when you regularly post about yomping through the country!

Don't mention the hot and cold! Serpent, it works like a dream but it HURTS a bit! Whenever I complain of sore anything (back/ arm/ leg) OxBloke mercilessly shoves me in the shower and hots and colds me until I promise never to complain again!

AandO so sorry about your fried - and Amber am about your experiences

Wait... space poo???????? What???

don't ask JB. There is a lecture about spacemen. The lovely demonstrating lady has a space nappy. She explains how the astranauts relieve themselves in space

IT is all any child remembers from teh whole 18 floors of majestic science stuff

Ha. The thread about shuffling us off into "Quiche corner" annoyed me a touch. Too bloody bad for people who find it irritating to see the threads on their Active Convos list - I mean, it's not that much of a drama to hide them, is it!! And it leaves them available and obvious for all newcomers. Pah. Hope MNHQ don't pander to lazy people.

Not sure about breaking up leg clots - think arnica and hot'n'cold treatment = very good idea; think clot-breaking with vibrational tool = less so. Just in case. Don't want random bits of blood clot floating around bloodstreams.

Space poo - we never had that when we went to the Science Museum [deprived emoticon]

I cannot for the life of me understand why I have resolutely avoided the Twilight series. I like vampires, I like the genre, I like HArry Potter and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (both technically series for children)... and yet somehow I CBA to get involved in the Twilight thing. I looked at the Twi-sluts thread once - it was silly. I may even have posted on it (not to say it was silly) but I couldn't get into it at all so left again (and was probably not missed)

Scout - what you want to do with your hands is to soak them for 15minutes or so in warm water, and then slather them in aqueous cream (just ask the pharmacistm, tis dead cheap, and no lanolin, unlike E45), then pull on some cotton gloves and leave them overnight. Waitrose baby bottom butter is also v healing and moisturising used in the same way.

DS is off on his first school trip today, to a farm in support of their harvest topic. He is v excited.

I went to physio yesterday - she was totally lovely, and really seemed to care. I have lots of exercises to do, for finger movement, skin desensatisation, and nerve glides. She is also trying to prise more details out of the surgeon - as she said, I'll be having a long term relationship with them, so they need to know as nuch as possible. Feel much better that a health professional seems to actually care about me as a person

Swimming today -- YAY!

CMOT, so pleased you've found someone good!!!

There's a thread or section about quiche somewhere? And we should be on it?

Do we have to make quiche?

VERY stupid question -- how long does unopened wine last for?

not stupid at all but completely unanswerable in a general way! Some wines will last for decades; others will last for up to 10 years but then go off quite fast after that; and others need to be drunk young and don't keep at all well.

And that's only assuming that the cork has actually done its job and kept the bottle airtight; if it hasn't, all bets are off and the wine is likely to be undrinkable anyway.

I have about half-dozen unopened bottles of red "Vintage 2004 Merlot Pinotage Shiraz". Seems a waste not to use them, but don't fancy giving anyone alcohol poisoning.

ah now they should be fine. I recently opened a silver medalled merlot from 2001 and it was gorgeous. LMAO at you giving anyone alcohol poisoning - only if you tipped all 6 bottles down their neck at one sitting! Which would be a shocking waste! Seriously though - they should be fine but if you are really concerned, can you not keep them and drink them yourselves?

Well, I was going to make some homemade mulled wine kits for Christmas (for those "hard to shop for" people that I know appreciate nice, homemade and/or food gifts). I thought rather than go and spend more money on wine I could use what we seem to have stock-piled that we'll never open. But I don't want to give them something nasty/that could damage them.

Personally, I'm not a big RL drinker and my wine of choice is white, not red (will drink red, but prefer white if given a choice). I figure, waste not/want not and might as well use them/pass them on.

(Goodness knows why we have so much freakin' wine in our house!)

Am also going to include a homemade Christmas pudding, a couple of homemade mince pies and a bit of nice chocolate in the basket/kit.

Blimey, sounds amazing!!

Scout - We have something called (I think) Epaderm which is left over from SmallGirl's only outbreak of mild eczema and is fab for cracked hands. Could you try that? It's non-prescription at the chemist's.

Thumb - It has been niggling away at me all day and I've finally pinpointed why that 'shuffle off to quiche corner' thread is so annoying me. It's the egotism of saying 'because I find those threads disproportionately annoying they should be hidden away so that they don't offend my delicate sensibilities'. Reminds me a bit of Victorian matrons putting skirts around piano legs in case they arouse unnatural passions.

Kettle's on, if anyone would like a cuppa.

CMOT, thanks for the advice about the gloves. I forgot about that trick. Need to go and find some. Hoping Boots or one of the grocery stores will have some. My hands, especially my right as it's my dominant one, is really sore. When I washed my hands last night before bed it looked like some of them were infected. They're really stiffening up and I keep moving them to keep them from seizing. No idea what's caused it (though I'm sure the constant hand washing from toilet/nappies/cooking isn't helping).

Had a BRILLIANT swimming session today. I really do think it's one of my favorite half-hour blocks of the week.

Bloody bastarding hell! that's the second time this evening that MN has gone offline for 30 secs and lost a great big post of mine!!! ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!

So

Small - I agree with you. I don't see why our thread, and other "quiche" group threads, should be shoved in a corner out the way like some smelly ol' great aunt who no one wants to talk to just because a few people are too lazy to hide them individually or get frustrated by seeing them. Tis very foolish of them and I hope MNHQ do not pander to them.

I've already made one batch of homemade mincemeat (in nice jars, for gifts), made a batch for my SiL (as a thank you for taking us up for a joy ride in her plane since she makes mincepies with my neices every Christmas) and want to do one more batch (for me to use). Not good at making pastry, though, so will cheat and buy pre-made pastry. As for Christmas puddings, my house has smelled like Christmas for at least a week -- I'm averaging a batch every day to two days, which means about 7 hours of steaming (one batch makes two 2-pint puddings per day). Once I finish the 2-pint ones I'll start on the smaller ones.

Thanks Small!

So, does that mean all of the ante-natal and post-natal groups are "quiche" groups? I use a post-natal one (joined MN after BabyScout was born) and find my group wonderful and supportive and very helpful/informative.

Silly people.

And yes, MN seems to be hiccuping today.

Jeez, Scout, however many are you making??!

And I suppose I could think about making mine a bit earlier than I did last year... (2 days before Christmas, but in my defence I had been in hospital, not that it's much of a defence but I would have got an extra 4 days of maturing in! )

Um... do you really want to know? Honestly, I have a list and don't know without consultanting it. LOL I do have a couple of people buying them from me, and one or two I'm doing as a "thank you in kind" for something they've bought for me but wouldn't allow me to give them the money for (but have agreed to my making them a Christmas pud in exchange). But it's hard to time them with BabyScout or I'd probably have them all done by now (the 2-pint ones need about four hours (30 minutes steam, three hours pressure cook, 30 minutes cool down before opening pressure cooker)).

Fancy one, thumb?

Scout - Perhaps you should try making quiches?

As to the plan (not that it is a plan) then, yes, that seems to be what's being suggested. The oddest thing is that you see people complaining that particular threads are cliquey, but there's nothing more likely to make a thread cliquey than showing it where only the regulars know where to find it and there's no passing trade of people who might droop in on the offchance.