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.

nuts nuts all of you are banananas . Evening all.

what do get if you pay peanuts??? monkeys...

boom boom.

Hi Chivers, is that teh marmalade type of chivers? which is your favourite flavour. Sorry I can't type "the" proper, so please excuse teh on occasion. Every one else round here seems to cope. I've read that in english one can generally make scents of a word so long as it has all teh right letters even if the they are in rwong odrer

May I have a slightly late bacon buttie. my meal times are all over teh shop today, so breakfast part 2 at 9pm should be fine.

I think I may make soup tomorrow, sprout and stilton. And maybe lewd rolls too.

Good evening everyone - and welcome to Chivers!

It sounds from your posts as though you all survived Christmas.

I hae some special carrot mincemeat pies here for anyone who is in need of more Christmas Fare (I think I am in imminent danger of exploding from all the food)

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Hogwarts Express finished.

Just arrived back in the espresso drinking corner of the tearoom... feeling quite deflated really. Found myself daydreaming about living in Southwold...

I also just picked up on how poorly oxeye and unserp were over Chrissy - How ya doin' now? Are you managing to eat? - and unserp I didn't take the banter from your nephew as rudeness at all.

Hello to our new gal! I am teafortwo. I was told I probably couldn't have children without IVF and even then... etc etc I then had a VERY BIG surprise when I discovered I was expecting a baby completely naturally (when I told DH he said "Wow, that is (pause) am - az - ing, do you mind if I phone my sister NOW..." ). SO... fast forward 4 and a bit yrs and ... well we feel so lucky and happy to have one lovebug (called Milk) that we think sticking with one is probably best of all... although DH does wobble from time to time...

Scout - :( re your friend.

UniS - true but apparently only if the first (and last in longer onss) letters of the word are in the right place. So I could write ayntinhg lkie tihs and it wulod slitl be lgeible; but not so easily if I tasrtde iwht hte rowgn tleter.

JM - you are both a banana and a nut!

Serpent - I think we'll be looking more at blood tests to see if I'm still fertile and then possibly clomid; don't think we need to start the internal exam stuff yet but as you say, it's only the same as if any other part wasn't working so won't really bother me (except that I find it very physically uncomfortable.)

Oh, Tea, do your fambly live in Southwold? How utterly utterly envy-making.

Has anyone opened the Bolly yet? Being made of fruit it is medicinal and very good for all ailments.

arrr haa, fruit juice, go on then , top her up. Unis proffers her tankard...

uggerb about teh first and last needing to be correct, don't always manage that, sorry.

boy is an only by our choice. I rather like winding up up Mil ( and so does Dh) by saying we can't afford the carbon footprint of another child.

OH NO no no, small, we visit Southwold for a few jolly ups most summers (last time, at a crabbing comp I happened to bump into Richard Curtis ) but we aren't rich Londoners and none of us wear floral wellies or Boden bikinis thus alas we don't own property there - it is simply somewhere I often find myself daydream about.

I'd be sad/pathetic/a geek getting this for BabyScout, wouldn't I?

BabyScout (aged 14 months today) was a whoops baby. A wonderful whoops, but a surprise none the less. MrScout never wanted children ("Babies are born too young.") but we never ruled one/a couple out. He was using the line about money (never having enough though we're certainly in a better position than a lot of people I know). I found out I was pregnant very far along (about 15/16 weeks by my guess cuz it took about a month to get through the system and my dating scan showed I was 20.5). Then, between my exisiting medical condition/s and those that came up during pregnancy, I can't get preggers again until 2012 at the earliest. At that point I'm not sure I want to try again because of my age and medical issues.

I am getting more and more comfortable with the idea of one. And watching my SiL reinforces that one/small family is the way for us. I also find it easier the older BabyScout gets to revel in one and not long for another (especially as he's now more-or-less sleeping through the night and eating real from-the-table food).

Now if I could just get the inlaws to understand/respect all of that....

David Attenborough, when asked what was the most important thing anyone could do to save the planet, said, 'Only have one child.' I paraphrase, but totally believe it. Although some of my more earnest, deep-spinach-green friends have two or three ...

Floral wellies? Who wears those? (eurgh) I have a fab pair of children's hooker-red ones that need replacing -- I quite fancy a pair of children's bug ones (yes, my feet are that small that I wear children's shoes).

(Wonders if it would be piggy to go and have a second mini magnum ice cream...)

Those blocks look cool to me, Scout.

Serpent - I fear DA was right. No amount of recycling newspapers and knitting one's own yogurt can alter the fact that bringing another person into the world has long-term implications for the consumption/preservation of the world's resources. That said, my cunning (but failed) plan was to have two children. And I have heard it said [on MN] that concerns about world population, as expressed by Jonathan Porritt and others, are all part of some sort of conspiracy against women and their reproductive freedom. But I don't want to get stuck into that debate.

Bolly?

I have psychedelic spotty wellies. Do they pass the tea room style test?

I'd actually wear floral wellies. Mine happen to be fire engine red, however.

I've seen some scary floral wellies. Like very unnatural flowers. I'm sure JM's floral wellies are cool and she carries them off with pizazze.

How about these to play with/chew on?

Can I have a proud mommy moment?

hands scout a second magnum ice cream.

come on lass, eat up, your wasting away.

Blimey your feet are small aren't they. I have green wellies, but not hunters or muckboots AND I have black steel toe cap wellies. Boy has green ones as does DH. All from farm supply shop.

Boy is VERY happy with the toy trailer he bought at said farm supply store today. currently his telehandler is hitched up to a large trailer and behind that is a bale wrapper.

Carbon footprint is a reasonable excuse for our choice, but the choice was not made on carbon footprint ( or age or money or tamdem size )alone. more just what we wanted to do with our lives and when. I like being a mum of one, I like being able to be child led on days out and not having to negotiate between differing desires and ages and expectations.

(apologies for the appalling spelling/typing)

Whats you proud mummy moment then??

My current wellies are a child's 1, though I could have gotten away with a 12 but wanted to be able to layer up on the thick socks. My work shoes are child's 2.5. I save LOTS of VAT money.

do you like these ones

mine are more like these

We don't have any pets (unless you count MrScout and BabyScout as pets) but all week BabyScout's been chasing the cats calling "At, at!" You ask him "Where's the cat" and he looks around for them then makes a beeline for them (there are five here, four are black). He hasn't poked/slapped/pulled them but offers his hand/strokes their backs/tummies (stupid cats offer up their tums regularly) or "gives them cuddles" (leans forward and rests his forehead on their fur). Unfortunately the fluffy one still doesn't take kindly to his offers of his hand/strokes, but he's not been mean to her.

He's also started giving cuddles on demand/request. I really like that one.

Proud Mommy moment over.

I fancy these for Guide camp/Jamborees