Tea Room the Nineteenth

[amberlight]

All in need of a restful break and a chat are more than welcome to the nineteenth Tea Room.

We find ourselves in the South of France, where the warm sunshine is just the thing for those who are missing the summer. The tea room has its aga and its distressed chintz sofa...and its potted plants. The usual fictional tea room inhabitants are here, as ever: Mellors, the gardener/handyperson with the handy ways with massage; the collection of tea room animals including the horses, camel, bison, guineapigs and sundry others; the Bishops and other faith leaders who joined us a while back and potter in for the occasional cuppa. It may not make sense, but that's not important. What matters is the lovely people here and the chance to just relax.

I've just started The Apprentice.

Have a three-hole Winnie the Pooh picture frame for my best friend for Christmas. She is BabyScout's Godmother, so the frame is going to be from him, and I was going to put a picture in from the days he was born, turned six months old and turned one. Looking at the pictures I have from those dates I've realized BabyScout has LOADS of hair now compared to age six months!

Caught a glimpse of an interesting squash recipe in passing while taking my poor unfed daughter up to bed, where she fell asleep with chocolate yogurt still around her mouth. Not a good and organised Mummy at all.

I'm just about to turn off The Apprentice! Yeuch. I may release my inner teenager and spend some time on Youtube.

Hmmmm....

Nigel Slater...

Yes, he is as scrummy as the food he prepares. I do like a man who can cook.

Well done Scout, I want your evening! I am cooking proper food tonight, well it is a pie, from a Large Supermarket that seems to polarise positions on MN - so I am heating and eating but that is good for me atm!

Unquiet - what about the poem The Night before Christmas? that is good with Jolly St Nick - I have a version with the poem read and possibly even sung on accompanying CD?

Also what about St Nick in other countries? He's more European than us, so clogs in Holland/ Germany etc and also comes with a little black elf/ gnome/ figure of mischief in some places which might lead into an idea of good/ evil/ moral etc?

Small - you have hte oddest crushes my dear (I mean that nicely! have you found the dress yet??)

Yes, Oxboy will be sad as and when oxpoppins leaves but I am positive she will stay in touch, I am hoping may even help with odd holiday/ weekend/ babysitting cover - she is blessed as a person with an endless kindless and no "side" at all - but kids are bloodless- he will mind but less than you might think / hope he is "coping" with his Dad's absence, for example.....

I should be doing lots of jobs and chorse, oxeye, but I can't be arsed bothered. I'm tired and my body is shutting down. It's happened before -- I've gotten so tired/run down that I literally can't do anything but lay on the bed watching tv. Hasn't happened in ages

I don't know who Nigel is..... And I agree, I'd LOVE a man who could cook (a chef MrScout is not). I've been saying since BabyScout was born that he will learn to bake and cook at a young age. I remember we were all baking with Mom by age three.

My crushes are not odd. Although perhaps I can see, ahem, potential where others can't.

Who else do you like, Small?

un - I very much want to help you with your lesson plan but for a moment at least if it is impossible for me to think of anything other than possible lessons on chocolate brownies, calling the pizza delivery company to say "thank you that was nice" (imagine!!!) or the wonders of a kit kat wrapper... that is without even mentioning THAT garden and kitchen and tomatoes, apples, courgettes and, and...

My DH is also a big fan of cooking and spends every night cooking long complicated dishes while I laze around mning he is currently doing something clever with a turkey for Eccles super (I kid you not).

We watch Jamie Oliver and read Nigel Slater together... which probably makes me as bad as those Dads who... you know... watch Blue Peter...

small - what is your dress for?

I was just thinking we should play this as a game. So, my list is

Fantasy next door neighbour for witty banter over the garden fence: Stephen Fry

Fantasy next door neighbour to help next time a pipe bursts: Daniel Craig (he looks the practical type)

Fantasy next door neighbour to bring spare cake: Nigel Slater

Fantasy best friends to drink lots of wine with: Sue Perkins, Emma Thompson and (having seen tonight's web chat) Dawn French

Miscellaneous swoon objects : George Clooney, Robert Redford, Gerard Depardieu, Jean Paul Belmondo, Shahrukh Khan and Richard Armitage

True love of my life: The SmallBloke

So, who's on your list?

What is the appropriate English/British term for a plate/bowl/cup set and a fork/spoon set? Is there a term that encompasses all? (I am writing thank you notes for BabyScout's birthday presents.)

Crockery or china set and cutlery set, I think.

Am I the only one exposing my crushes to public ridicule then?

Ooooh scout good question my initial response is...

plate/bowl/cup set = crockery or tableware set

a fork/spoon = cutlery set

I am impressed - What a fab idea for a 1st birthday prezzie!!! Pretty, fun and so so useful.

I'd call it all cutlery set (think Guiding cutlery or plate bag), but thought MrScout once told me that was "wrong." But if I were to write "Thank you for BabyScout's Bunnykins Plate Set and Cutlery ...." it would be understood?

As for crushes, I've been having a think on how to best answer your questions.

Feel free to adapt the questions to suit your answers, IYSWIM!

The thing is your list is so very well thought out and impressively long.... it is going to take a lot of thought to come up with a list that sits comfortably alongside it, small!!!

BabyScout received some really fun presents from my inlaws including, but not limited to, the Bunnykins tableware and cutlery sets, a spaceship wall clock (to go with the solar system mobile and constellation sheets he already has) and a Buzzy Bee (one of my SiL is in a long-term relationship with Kiwi and so they bought him a typical young child New Zealand toy).

Along with thank you notes, I'm sending a photo of BabyScout either opening the present or using the gift. AND BabyScout's been busy drawing pictures which will go with the notes and photographs.

A bit OTT, I'm sure, but I know at least the family/friends in the States will appreciate the effort since they weren't here to watch him open his presents.

It's only impressively long, Tea, because I am very old and have had a long time to acquire these, ahem, interests. I first swooned over in 1974, when many of you hadn't been born. I didn't mean the list to be prescriptive, merely indicative.

Just .

Not OTT at all! It sounds lovely. I like to take time with Milk doing stuff like that too. I maybe being a bit old fashioned here but I think taking the time to send thank you letters, hand made gifts and sending drawings in the post are all important part of childhood.

Milk has just started to walk towards the end of our street solo (with me hanging out the window waving) to post her letters to her Grandparents. She has to take her little plastic chair to stand on so she can reach the postbox !

First swooned over Robert Redford in 1974. Was so discombobulated by that thought that I couldn't type properly.

Pretty good small but this is still my favourite...

Ah, but I think Saturday Night Fever and Twiggy vogueing are even better than cute ducklings and puppies!

How I miss the thrill of that ad being on the telly and I still miss the pure delight and joy of the bbc snowflakes from time to time too...