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.

UnSerpent, I'm sorry, but I had to laugh out loud at your bottle of red wine turning out to be balsamic vinegar - oh dear, what a disappointment!
But what concerns about Wriggle? Do share. (((supportive hug)))

Ostrich - haven't had time to say "welcome" before, but will say it now. Can't add anything to the advice you've been given. (((another supportive hug)))

The temperature reached a balmy -7 degrees as its high today... and the boiler still isn't fixed.

Serpent - sorry, I should have PM'd you with the ratios so that you could find them easily!
Will do so now. :)

Getting worried about Wriggle's increasing anxiety every moment that I out of sight, in case she is 'lost'. And, after a whole year and a term, the heart-rending silent tears on the way to nursery. 'I didn't make a fuss, did I, Mummy?'.

But need to talk at more length when I have not got 35 assessments about 'What is important to Muslims' to mark before 6 am tomorrow. Some are decorated with crosses, more than one assures me that mosques always have five noble pillars, one has decorated his prayer mat with a cheetah because 'they arent aloud animals' , many tell me that 'Islams write in muslim' ... I spent a term doing interesting and memorable activities based on this!!!!

Anyone like to join me in drowning my sorrows in a glass of balsamic vinegar?

OH dear Serpent!
Well, I hope that the oils start to ease the anxiety that Wriggle is feeling during the day as well. Have you sat her down and asked her why she is so anxious about losing you? Have any of her little friends at nursery "lost" someone? Poor little lamb, that would break my heart too.

Think I will give the vinegar a miss US - but I ahve found a very nice bottle of vintage port in the cupboard. Want some?

US - I'm probably trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but a friend with a similar predicament found that giving her DS a special treasure from Mummy that he could hold to help him remember her when he needed a kiss/cuddle helped him a lot.

I share your pain. I have just marked my year 11 mocks. The students have a lot of language problems, and although they have understood the science involved, they have often not understood what the question wants them to say... 'tis heartbreaking marking their work.

Oh serpant, that would break my heart too. If it helps my A* year 11s sometimes say to me are Islams and Muslims the same then? And no matter I try one of them always writes that Catholics are a different religion to Christians!

Well if I am playing to my strengths then stopping at one is a good idea. He has done my head in today. He is really clingy, I am ill. He doesn't know what he wants to cries. Wants to be on my lap, doesn't, wants to play, then doesn't. He doesn't do well staying in all day.

Do you think it would help to point out that Islam and muslim have the same root (salima - to be safe and sound)(Can't get mumsnet to do Arabic letters)? Maybe they would remember the link? (hopeful emoticon)

thank you donki , i have learnt something today. managed to miss that nuget during my RE gcse days. it would have appealed to my way of remembering stuff too. I got a B or c so maybe not as hopelessly flundering as your Yr 11s.

how many aspidistras do we have now?

Whats a greek urn?

Oi JM. you were seen . leave the plants alone woman.

50 drachmas (or, now, Euros) an hour.

Doesn't JM know that you must never blaspheme the aspidistra as it will bring bad luck? (DL Sayers reference for non-Wimsey fans)

maybe she doesn't believe in the power of aspidistra.

gronga gronda.

I have no idea what you're on about, but you're quite right that anyone meddling with the aspidistra will feel the full force of Mellors' wrath (and not in a good way). By some quirk in the space-time continuum, we now have two aspidistra, as I bought it with me when we moved and yet JM also slung it on the compost heap, whence Donki rescued it.

thanks donki. I do a lot of word routes with them, but their misconceptions are wide! The thing with teaching is sometimes it seems to go well in the lesson, you talk to them, they seem to get it. Then you mark their work and wonder if they were even in the same classroom as you!

Another early morning, and possibly another day stuck inside. The pavements are still so snowy and icy it is ridiculous trying to get pushchair anywhere. Is it too early for a stiff drink?

I'd settle for a stiff cuppa?

roslily, I think its the same as preaching from the pulpit. I wonder the same with our congregation sometimes :o

I never had a clue what the teachers were saying...I always hoped for pictures drawn on the blackboard to explain things, or a handy book so I could read the info in my own time. But I was good at sitting very still and appearing to be awake.

Brrrr!
Still at home today - waiting for the British Gas engineer, and trying to keep warm.

Our third (I think) night of -14C. Indeed, the highest temperature reached over the last 48 hours has been -7C.

I know it's not world shattering - but I don't live in a place that is accustomed to such temperatures.

The Ouse is frozen right across in York
www.ycrc.co.uk/webcam
I've never seen that happen before...

wow a frozen ouse. that sounds painful.

Stiff cuppa needed over here too mellors. Thank you.

A mere minus 6 here in sunny devon. Or rather here in a shadowy corner of devon, I expect its warmer on teh other side of teh valley where teh sun is shining brightly. Field still white with frost tho.

CMOT, mitten is part way knitted. I had a good run at it last night. I'm using double wool, so it will be thicker and hopefully warmer than the wrist cozys. My plan is to knit you a thumb but not sew it up or attach it, can you get someone locally to stitch the whole thing together to get thumb etc in right place? DH?

Random question to all the ladies of the tea room, maybe I'll ask this on education as well. Do yo think... that having been educated in state or private or faith school makes you more likely to make same choice for your child? discuss.

UniS, not sure. I was educated in a very Christian Grammar school (heaven help them) and DH in a very secular private school in the USA. We'd wanted our son to go through an excellent state secondary, until they decided they didn't want him after 18 months, so he ended up in a lovely private faith school.

As long as the school is right for the child, that seems to be what matters. I guess if people had a rotten time in their school, they'd choose a different sort?

If we could afford to have ours educated privately, I would have picked private (I got a scholarship to the local girls' minor public school), and DH, who was state educated, said state. Daughter will hopefully be going to the faith secondary school, which is a bit of a trek, but miles better than the local state school.

UniS - I don't know - I think it almost entirely depends on whether your school experience was a good or bad one, rather than the type of school, no?

I was educated in state primary and private secondary - it worked very well for me and I would probably choose the same for miniThumb, although if there is a good state secondary (high school here) available then I would happily consider that as an option.
MrThumb was, I think, Catholic primary and high school - the high school was definitely private, not 100% sure of the primary. He probably wouldn't choose the same for miniThumb but then he had to spend too much time going to Mass/religious classes, and his high school was extremely poorly equipped in sporting ways (not even a football field!) so he had a poor time of it at high school and left when he was 15 because he'd had Enough.

Here where we live, we have one of the best state primary schools in NSW on our doorstep. There is also a private Catholic primary - we will be doing our best to make sure miniThumb is in the state school (although I have been told that as we are in catchment, there will be no problem with it - things are a bit different here). Sadly, the local high school is worse than shite - so we will need to look elsewhere in 8 years time.

HTH

DH and I were both state school all the way, I went to a faith secondary. Its dawning on me that we are assuming boy will do likewise. tho not the faith bit as our local high school is not faith.
BUT not all his local contemporaries will do like wise, some parents are thinking about private even tho it will mean a long journey either side of school. Just idle curiosity about why people make the choices they make.