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.

WAHOO! to JM for Galaxy restraint.

warming pans are surely suposed to be placed in bed BEFORE teh sleeper embarks and removed AS sleeper clambers in. Mellors seemed to be playing pop up pirate with it. pointy end first.

May be this tea room cold is a computer virus.

boom boom .

Dh is stuck on stupidly late train back to west country, MIGHT get here at 2am ish Taxi willing. I have waved bye bye to friend who came over to eat chocolate and drink beer and play board games. now settling down with a lespi. ANy one gonna help me finish off chips and dip? A few slices of dark choc orange remain if you quick.

'lo. No much chatter here but wanted to share the love. .... And the bolly

Jm you made me laugh. Good you posted here not fb
Amber I am aghast
Mary I am surprised
all sniffles and sneezes and flu poor you
racing my heart to you babe is hard indeed but I think aged p needs more and better drugs for infection xx

surprised, oxeye?

Was at church this morning, and was witness to some "360s" being done with a thurible (not as rude as it sounds, but fascinating all the same!).

:)

Am having Interesting Times at the moment and causing my poor father waaaaaay too much stress. He is a Top Bloke though for helping out.
My bf is coming to Oz this weekend and she is supposed to be bringing me 6 packs of Oatibix bitesize with Cranberries, about the only cereal that miniT eats consistently (that is wheat free). So - bf goes shopping yesterday - she leaves today at 5pm to go to the airport. She can't get them. They're not that easy to buy, but when I was there in August they had appeared in a few new places - who have since dropped them again . Soooo - poor Dad is going to a town that has a Waitrose, to do something entirely different, and has been coerced into phoning them to see if they have relevant product (they do) and buying several boxes, then conveying them to bf who hasn't even packed yet. Now, I know I am disorganised (understatement of the century) - but even I would be packed by now! Mind you, that is because I have to get the weight right - they are coming out with half empty cases because they will be visiting family and bringing presents home with them. So. With a bit of luck, St. Dad and bf will be able to meet up and do cereal handover and poor miniT will have cereal for a while longer. What a palaver! and could all have been avoided if bf had shopped a bit earlier - if I'd known she was leaving it to the last minute I would have told her to go to a Waitrose from the word go!

Am not ungrateful, btw, just frustrated that a fairly simple request has turned into a major production, involving lots of extraneous running around by my aged Dad, because of lack of planning. It's bad enough that he's having to deal with the OVen Saga From Hell at my house, poor man - without this as well. He's going to start dreading my phonecalls...

Bolly, anyone? or too early for you still?

Never too early for bolly, thumb!

I would like to know if it's in the HV Code of Conduct to make you feel rotten?

Definitely not, Scout. IF your HV has made you feel rotten, phone up and complain.
My HVs were all lovely (I was sooo lucky), one was a bit vague and airheaded but apart from that they were fine!

What did she say?

Well, we had BabyScout's one-year check today with his HV (keep in mind he's 13.5 months and we don't have a 6/8 month check in our area). She was full of praise at how well he's doing (growth, development, etc) and how I'm doing (especially juggling my treatment and the extra illnesses), she's glad I'm still involved in Guides, that we take BabyScout on lots of adventures, etc. She asked me about baby groups and (probably very unintentionally) made me feel bad/guilty because we utilize the SureStart activities frequently (okay, probably a lot, but they're at a good time for BabyScout's routine and the different groups have different themes so lots of variety of activities/toys/experiences). We go to other volunteer-led groups as well, and we have baby-swimming at the leisure center every week (she was very impressed with that, especially when I said I've just paid for our third term). But aren't SS there to be used? I know there were times when I'd be one of two or three parents at a session/activity and if they don't get utilized they'll lose the funding.... And I've said before, the staff at one of our SS centers (tend to go only to the one of the two in my town) are lovely -- very helpful, friendly, full of fun ideas, etc.

As it is, we could be at something twice a day every day of the week. And a lot of the volunteer-led groups meet at the same day of the week/time of day.

ARGH!

On a positive note, BabyScout has a way of making people of a certain age smile, especially at lunch time. One older woman was full of praise at how lovely his chatter was and at how nicely he ate his lunch (he'd point to what he wanted from the plate then sit with his mouth open waiting -- he'll finger food what's meant to be fingered, but things like lasagna or pie he'd rather be fed).

Umm, am a bit that she thought you were over-using the Sure Start facilities - why? She sounds a bit strange, tbh - I wouldn't worry about it. :)

MiniThumb is like that as well (or he was whenever we last took him anywhere, not so sure now!)

She comes across to me as very old school. She is a woman of a certain age/generation (as much as I hate that phrase). She was also asking me what nursery/preschool we're sending BabyScout to. Um....

I think DH's cold finally got me, too. Have had mildly irritated throat for a week or more, noticed it frequently but wasn't really bothered. Now I'm stuffed up and sneezy. Great...

The computer virus got you too, eh JM?

Anyone else care for tea while I have the kettle on?

Just saw the strangest non-ginger ginger cat ever!

Non-ginger ginger cat? That's very odd indeed. What colour is non-ginger??

Here, wrestling with insurance renewal forms for the business, which involves 22 pages of statistical mindbogglingness. Yes please for tea.

Well, it looked like a ginger cat dipped in peroxide. So a very pale ginger, almost straw-color. Very odd.

ooo, sort of albino meets ginger...

No thanks for the sugar. Decent splash of mild will be great.

Pondering today...they sent me a new advocate to work with me. She said she finds people jobs. I explained I have one. "Oh", she said. "I'm no use to you then". Indeed.

We ate some chocolate biscuits and contemplated the weather.

Of course Sure Start facilities are meant to be used! Or they will disappear. In my nearest town I think our breast feeding group was only used by middle class teachers, doctors, etc. But why not? Anyone else could have gone if they wanted to.

Anyone got any ideas of lovely and traditional hymns to teach the children next term? We have decided that they do so much bloody awful embarrassing My God Is a Great Big God that they don't know the classics such as The Lord's My Shepherd, etc.

Off to staff do now.

"immortal invisible", fab hymn. big words, big theme, memorable tune and words.

Working towards Easter such standards as "sing hosanna" and "there is green hill far away" may be appropriate.
If thats tooo blatantly Christian for school, how about Sunday school classics like "will your anchor hold".

Shall I say yes to a piano? been offered one if I can collect it. even doing it proper proper with removal company will only cost 120 ish, add a tune and that not MUCH for a piano is it. Piano lessons for boy and I ... I used to play but have forgotten.

Hymns? I tend towards the muscular Christianity end of things. How about At The Name of Jesus, but not the tinkly tune, the one that has the stonking great chords at the beginning? Or Jerusalem? But I do have a soft spot for Lord of the Dance. (I must say, though, that my knowledge of hymns is distorted by the fact that at our church the Wesleys are about as modern as it generally gets for hymns. We don't do My God Is A Great Big God, hymns on an OHP or anything necessitating a tambourine. ).

UniS - One of my biggest regrets is not taking a free piano when it was offered to me. Take it. In the unlikely event it never gets used, you can always freecycle/sell it.

Would anyone like some mulled wine?

Yes please to the mulled wine.

I know we're not ten any more, but would anyone fancy a sleepover? MrScout's very late tonight and I'm lonely.

Apart from holidays, I've never been on a sleepover. How exciting!

Can we have a midnight feast with sweets and fizzy drinks?

Midnight feast is required!