Tea Room the Twentieth: The Greek Island

[asmallbunchofflowers]

Welcome to the twentieth (yes, really) Tea Room.

We find ourselves on a sun-kissed Greek island, where our whitewashed, blue-shuttered house nestles in the dappled shade of a gnarled old pine tree. In the olive grove, Mellors the gardener/handyman/factotum is tending the tea room menagerie of horses, camels, bison and guinea-pigs, recently joined by some recalcitrant old donkeys. The distressed chintz sofa, aga and cardboard cut-out of George Clooney have survived the relocation from the south of France and the aspidistra has pride of place on the mantelpiece.

Come in, put your feet up and join in the conversation. It may not make sense, but that's not important. What matters is the lovely people here and the chance simply to relax.

What was I thinking giving BabyScout such a long name?!

Um, why? :o

Oh and thank you Catita, I did see the article, someone posted on the Arse-onists' Thread (otherwise known as the Ragged Bits thread :o) and several of us have either commented or emailed. What a thrill to know that the issue is getting some attention!! :o

Because I want to get letters of some sort for his room on a train, fabric, blocks, something but I want his proper name, not his nickname/s. And every place is either out of a letter (or two) or so darn expensive because of the number of letters.

Interesting article and about time someone drew more attention to the situation.

JBM - glad your stitches are mostly ok/removed now - are you using lavender oil in your bath/sitz baths? If not, you could do that to help.

Scout - yes, I have the same problem with miniThumb; worse still, he has two middle names, neither of which are short - filling in forms is a nightmare!

serpent - hope the Bach flower remedies achieve more for Wriggle. Agree with the others re. bladder infection; many residents of old people's homes go gaga because they have some level of urinary tract infection and they are renowned for increasing gaga-ness. If the antibiotics don't improve the situation by the time the course is finished, go back to GP. It is also possible she is having mini-strokes, but I think he probably chose the right course of primary action.

had a bit of a hangover this morning - we had MrTHumb's works Christmas party last night - a cruse around Darling Harbour on a rather posh catamaran! There were only about 20 people on a boat that caters for 150, so we had plenty of space and I will be posting some pics in the Other Place shortly. V. tired though (lack of sleep and hungoverness) so might not be until tomorrow.

Morning all. Hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls on the aga.

Look what I found! [fbear] - it had been left out before but it's been added now! Yay!
(simple things...)

A [fbear]? Well I never!

Wriggle's full name is so long and so complicated - 4 accents of two different kinds, two surnames and a middle name which belonged to the Sun King (not Louis!) - that is crashed the computer at the registry office. Will she enjoy having to spell it? Obviously no question of letter trains, etc.

gah! just noticed that I spelt 'cruise' wrong, I do apologise.

SmallGirl is also well-endowed in the name department, having five in toto.

Scout - I think you can buy plain letters from craft shops. Could you then paint them yourself? If you work your way through the colours of the rainbow it can look very jolly and easy to do.

What is the teddy bear emoticon for???
Someone clarify please before my head explodes...

I'm not sure that it is for anything. I think it just is.

[fbear] [fbear] [fbear] [fbear] [fbear] [fbear]

Umm... ok [fbear]

Just posted a question in the other TR, in re children's names. Just idle curiosity on my part.

Have replied over there too.

Gatita has whooping cough. Oh joy. Poor wee lassie has a horrible temp since Wednesday and was finally diagnosed yesterday. She won't won't won't take medicine ... all must be forced upon her as if were poision. Her new med must be taken with 2 onces of liquid. I have tried juice, milk and she will not take it AT ALL. You can't force 2 onces of liquid down her throat like 18 drops of calpol. Darn it.

Well, to clarify it is a mutation of the whooping cough virus since G is fully vaccinated... the Dr. says it is new and is sweeping through my town's nurseries.

Poor little Gatita. Sympathise because Wriggle has a terrible sore throat and won't take calpol. Wish I had a cunning trick to share ...

Have posted in other tearoom re names.

UnS: There is www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_health/1102908-HOW-ON-EARTH-do-you-get-medicine-into-a-16-month-old-who-point-blank-refuses-to-take-it-DESPERATE this thread going at the mo. I know Wriggle is older, but there are some suggestions here for toddlers/preschoolers.

With Sam I have put calpol in all manner of his favourite things that have strong flavours to mask the meds: chocolate and banana smoothie is one of the best.

JB is one of the meds refusers too. Grrr. Fortunately he only rarely needs any.

The trouble is, Wriggle can resist any food - I wish I could! Today she has eaten 3 chicken satay sticks (bought while shopping) and half a sausage. Very hard to introduce medicine into any of that. Off to look at the other thread, though.

A pin??????????

Goodness, is someone suggesting sticking a pin in a child to get them to take their meds?

When miniT was being a PITA re taking his meds during the Evil Virus from Hell, I was putting it in diluted ginger ale (aka Rocket Fuel) as it is his most favourite drink. That seemed to work - does Gatita have a favourite drink? I think when they're not well, the extra sugar is probably more beneficial than otherwise (up to a point).
I hope Gatita recovers soon, sounds horrible! If it's a mutation of pertussis, no doubt they'll be trying to bring out yet another vaccine for that too.

JBM - there was a whole thread regarding the bear emoticon. It is supposedly a "pom bear", which I freely confess I didn't know anything about until I read the thread. Anyway - it was all down to the thread where a couple went to another couple's house for evening dinner and were served tinned soup, macaroni cheese and I can't remember the dessert but it was in similar vein. All with the best china/silver/glassware and dressed for dinner - most peculiar. So - a return visit had to be achieved and there was some debate as to what should be served in retaliation return. In the end, the DH bought some pom bears to go with a generally normal meal, and walked in with them, saying "Pom bear, anyone?" Which nearly set the hostess off in fits.
So - what is it used for here - I guess it's a sort of "let's deflect the conversation into more humorous channels" way.