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.

Mmm, thanks LO! I'll have some biscuits.

To make a good pass-the-parcel parcel, how many layers would you recommend? (Up to 10 girls playing.)

Good to see you again, Ostrich.

Scout - I think you have to do 11 layers - 10 layers to make sure every girl gets a turn at unwrapping (and you have to fiddle the music to achieve that) and then once more round to get the final winner. The vexed question is whether you put a mini-prize under every layer.

for 10 kids- 10 or more layers. and fast music.

Thanks for vino top up, much nicer bottle than FiLs ones he brought along.

Now settled down with a hot choc. Our road is white with frost again and glass like under that. I may do a little light gritting tomorrow. Its an untreated road and the bin men are threatening not to collect from untreated roads.

Unis waves to Ostrich. and any one else passing through. Pull up a chair and say Hi sometime.

I have loads of stuff to be able to do goodies in each layer. Very silly/childish things (including the final prize) but I know the Senior girlies will love it (love this age, they revert back to five again but with the ability to do things for themselves).

Am watching the weather with interest to see if we actually get any decent snow this week. Have lots to do out and about, though. LOVE driving in snow got VERY good at it living in Minnesota but not used to driving in it with a stick-shift.

SCout - I don't know how au fait you are with cars so this might be Grandmother-sucking-eggs info - but do check first whether your car is front or rear wheel drive - it makes a HELL of a difference to ease of driving in snow. Front wheel drive (power goes to front wheels) is MUCH easier, as the car is pulled through the snow. Rear wheel drive is more dangerous, more likely to spin out because car is being pushed through the snow. Four wheel drives should be fine of course - and if it's optional to have 4wd on your car, make sure it's "on".

We have front-wheel vehicles. Which is good, cuz that's what I had in the States. SOOO much easier to drive.

Ah but its really hard to do a donut in a front wheel drive car :o. Many years ago, I used to drive a Capri, which is rear wheel drive, and that was always fun on corners! The car I wrote off (a Zafira) had traction control, and that was excellent in the snow!

All our snow has gone now...

By e-mail from Donki

And just how is a "recalcitrant old donkey" supposed to reach the island? The Ferry man keeps saying "no livestock" (at least I think that's what he's saying. My Greek is non-existent)

The recalcitrant old donkeys are the beasts of burden who live in the olive grove. The ever-lovely Donki is, we all know, not at all recalcitrant.

I didn't know that Mellors could fly a helicopter - he is a man of many (surprising) talents!

It's a bit warm here compared with home.

Thankyou for the tea SmallBunch - and a big thankyou to Amber and Mellors for rescuing me before I tried to swim for it.

I wasn't really offended SmallBunch - DH would doubtless say the "recalcitrant old donkey" was guite a good description.

He would also confirm my talent for wilful misunderstanding...

Ah Donki! So glad you've made it!

Who's for Greek Soup and/or some nice cheese and fresh bread?

That would be v nice indeed. Am having a Day Off today, so have almost finished the present shopping, have cleaned saddle, and will be decluttering ds's bedroom later. And not before time

Glad to see Donki has arrived in the helicopter!

Am just in the middle of baking another birthday cake. The first one went down so well, I decided I couldn't better it, so am recreating it for tomorrow's playgroup - we are having a party in the park afterwards for miniThumb and his little friend, who was 3 on Sunday. I was going to do fairy cakes but we finished the other birthday cake today and it was just sooooo good and soooo yummy that I couldn't resist!

Will ice it in the morning again, with chocolate fudge icing and edible glitter again. (Why mess with a winning formula? )

Mary - am impressed at your doing donuts in your car! I have always wanted to take a car out on a skidpan, but have never been brave enough to try any dodgy manouevres on the road [wimp emoticon]

CMOTD - perhaps you should be "mucking out" DS's bedroom, no?
Days Off are fab. Enjoy!

Amber - hope you continue to rest until you are actually better! Some Greek soup, with perhaps some genuine feta cheese made from sheeps' milk on bread would be lovely, thank you.

hello ladies. I am having a guilty mum day too, I am poorly so we are still watching cbeebies! I know I should turn it off and do something, but it hurts to move.

LittleMan is happy sitting in his toy box watching!

roslily - there is no harm in letting him have a tv day. Especially if you're not well! Relax and give into it - you'll get better quicker if you stop fretting about it

Have some of amber's soup - it's bound to be good for you!

I am not trying to force BabyScout to grow up fast/early/quickly, but I can not wait until he stops fighting nappy changes!

Yea for TV days, , once in a while they are a treat and VERY usefull. Had to LOL at boy saying of yesterday* " granny MADE me watch DVDs" I think granny may have tired of non stop game playing and she not into craft.

• I was at work, Dh had an afternoon choir practise.

My parents had a fab time at the tennis, hurrah for prize draws.

Donki- NICE helicopter. good to see you.

Roslily, make the most of being able to enforce a TV day when you are not well - far too soon it won't be possible!

LostOstrich, I didn't add to the advice earlier, since it seemed so sage and appropriate without me, but I think we were in exactly your position - several MCs, Wriggle born (prematurely), then another MC, then I decided that we need to enjoy what we have and not make us all thoroughly miserable and possibly risk the life or health of another baby.At first I was very very unhappy, but it doesn get better. I look at Wriggle's friends, whose mothers have all had another, and it seems to be all squabbling, exhaustion and no quality time with the firstborn. In fact, I have the quality time with their firstborn children, as they spend a lot of time at our house doing lovely arty/crafty/playing with guinea pigs type things with us.

I do have concerns about WRiggle, which I wanted to share, but now doesn't seem to be the time. And I don't think it is to do with being an only child.

Very busy at the moment; working nearly full time, AP is ill and I am getting quite worried as it is going on and on, and I am getting upset about the fact that, with looking after WRiggle, AP, M.Snake, the menagerie and work, the house is getting more and more messy.

Long day at work, with two members of our team of three teachers/student teacher/TA) out (class of 37, so need a large team), so it was just me, doing a special arty day which I was also running for the rest of the school.

And the worst thing is .... the bottle in the garage which I though was red wine turned out to be balsamic vinegar. Not the same at all!

ps, Yes, Thumb, the oils have arrived. Wriggle seems to be getting better, but dstill can't leave her in bed and do things for myself - when she goes to bed, I have to stay in the room at least. Oils smell amazing. (But I would love a quick reminder of the proportions. I'm sure it was 7:1:something, and when I have quite a lot of spare minutes I will read back through the last thread to check).

Just marking my place by putting my glass of retsina down here...

I guess the idea of a ski chalet at Whistler was a little too chilly for everyone? :o Me, too! We're frozen here.

KaleeSPERa, JM - Good evening, JM

I know it's not very Greek, but would anyone fancy a hot chocolate on this cold, cold evening?