Tea room 22- A Farmhouse kitchen, anyone for a cuppa?

[UniS]

Welcome to the 22nd incarnation of the tea room. This time we are watching for spring from a cosy farmhouse kitchen. There is an aga for baking virtual cakes and an inglenook with toasty fire and settles to rest weary bones on. The distressed chintz sofa and footstool have arrived safe and sound and the priest hole is around here somewhere. On the Window sill is an aspidistra its pot surrounded by a hand holding circle of nearly naked mohawk babies, they have placards and a brazier.

Outside in the surrounding fields can be found the tea room horses, Earl and Lady Grey, also a herd of bison AND a Ha Ha to keep the bishops from invading.

Usual rules apply, no fisticuffs, if you want an argument go else where. Mellors the butler / game keeper will supply all sorts of things on request. Welcome Mums of one, none or many to the tea room of requirement.

Thank you for teh thoughts Donki, Xposted. We all be well, Dh has been expecting the death of gran for some weeks now. Boy doesn't really remember her, we didn't take him to visit after she got so she didn't recognise family. Care home was Ok to visit with baby, other residents liked cooing over but was no place for active chatty wee mite.

Hedge laying? That sounds incredibly cool and romantic and lovely. Have you got a good hat? It's going to be cold tomorrow.

How is your dh, UniS, after the news about granny?

Hta- thank you for teh reminder. I think it will need teh hat that is both warm AND waterproof tomorrow. forecast is for drizzle.

Dh is being his usual calm unflappable self.

Oh, sorry.... I think I just fainted swooned a bit there... the combined effect of Daniel and George proved to be a bit overpowering :o

JM - I hope you left the picture of the cute man with puppy there, ready for Oxeye when she next pops in!

Good night all!

::blows kisses::

Nice Man with Puppy thanks

UniS sorry for your loss

Techno, my dear, I think it is time I stopped teasing you about being a pushy mum. I kno you are entirely sensitive and sensible, sorry if I have taken the "joke" too far

UnSerpent ditch the doberman lady. Get DH a kilt - nearly a skirt and job done

Yes, help in future very likely. I am trying not to think of what is going to happen when DH goes away - it's hard enough coping with two afternoons a week

love and support to others - Tee what a big baby!

Hello all. Condolences to your man Unis. My grandma died last year st nearly at nearly 100. It's still a loss, even if you were expecting it.
Oxeye get help now, if you can. You sound as you are struggling enough already. There's no point wearing yourself out.
And unS I'm also of the opinion that smug friend ain't worth it.

Hope you sleep well again Tee.

Full cooked breakfast available if anyone wants it...

Yes please for the full English, especially since in Real Life it's marmite on toast.

I slept almost 8 hours, which probably won't be replicated tonight as I await tomorrow's Very Scary Test Results part 3. I'm thinking of writing a book entitled "my life is spent waiting for doctors to tell me what they've bloomin' well found and what medical amazingness might resolve it'

::waves at everyone, nodding at each of the things they have written, even if her brain isn't being especially good at responding right now ::

Oh god yes full cooked breakfast please!

Not a good night. LCT slept fine. Mama awake with mucho pain. At least he's in daycare today (last day in babies, sniff) until 2 and all I have is a meeting with my financial advisor and a bit of work that I actually get paid for. Poor wee mite was sound asleep when I had to wake him to get ready. I told him he can have a nice long lie in tomorrow.

::holds Amber's hand::

I have to join the 'smug friend on worth it' brigade.

Right. Shoes would be helpful if I am going out. I wonder where LCT has hidden them....

Shoes are helpful, this is true. Or boots. Or roller skates.
Arrgh re night of pain. I reckon you need something a bit stronger/more effective. Hope there is something...

::hands over breakfast before heading for the hills::

Tee, is LCT walking yet? I can't remember, but never worried about shoes for Wriggle until she was walking. Although that could be why she will not keep them on her feet now and has a very good line in sneakily throwing them out of the car door as we set off.

Amber, we are all keeping our fingers/thumbs/hooves crossed for you.

UniS, kilt may be necessary (obviously if such a thing can be found in a charity shop near us) but I feel it would languish unused afterwards.

Everyone, I know that SmugFriend is not worth it, but then I remember occasions like the whole afternoon Wriggle spent sitting on a Shetland pony in her garden, riding round and round, saying 'Come on, little Snowdrop, I love you' and gaining a bit of confidence. There's not much she can do well. And SmugFriend is determined to be friends - I did try very hard to shake her off at first.

Although, on a more positive note, she is starting to learn German, just because she wants to (her grandmother is German) and is asking me the French, German and English for everything all day, so that must be a sign of something.

Oh yes, Serpent, LCT's been walking for a few months. It was my shoes he had hidden! His were on his feet at daycare when I wrote that. His daddy took him up today so I could get an extra hour of work done!

I'd be very impressed if you managed to find a man's kilt in a charity shop, Serpent - but if you can't, you can always try ebay - there are some cheap and cheerful costume versions in among the expensive real ones.

Amber - everything crossed for you this end of the world as well. Hope you have a good day today - try to take it easy and only do really really easy stuff that doesn't require a lot of concentration.

Tee - ouch. Do you need better meds? Can you get some?

Thumb I am starting acupuncture at the end of February and if that doesn't work I will probably be given an opiate drug in a patch. Which I am trying to avoid like the plague. I've also finally gotten my referral to Ortho, so hopefully they can do something. Like replace my entire left leg!

::speculates on becoming BionicTee::

I've had some great pain relief from acupuncture, and am going to be trying TENS - the NHS physio is being v good at trying these things out.

A pain clinic referral would be a good thing too

::Rushes in with a large carrot and orange cake, available by the slice or by the bucket::

Yes, acupuncture can work really well for pain. Not always, but worth trying. And, yes, your shoes could be more of a problem.

I just had the sad realisation yesterday that I am now too old for bare feet. While I was going through the years of ttc I was having acupuncture and the Chinese wisdom is that you should conserve your energy and not waste it by walking barefoot in winter, which I always did. I put up with it because I thought that I could go back to barefoot walking once I had reproduced ... but hadn't realised how long it might take and that old, varicosy feet are not really socially acceptable.

CMOT I've never considered TENS. I think of it as a labour thing! Are the machines expensive?

Serpent I used to be a barefoot person. Now I am a slippers person!

TENS is quite cheap, and it does work pretty well for many people. Local physio can probably provide a sample one for a while to see if that works?

::grabs slice of cake::

Man oh man I'm tired after 5 hrs of driving today to get FineLad to Uni. But he enjoyed it, which is good.

Hurrah for fine lad. May he find a course that suits him at a location you are happy with.

Slippers here except in high summer. I dislike cold feet and my feet get cold if i don't insulate them.

Arrrgh- planning application has been received and they now want about 6 pints clarifying. boring. I'll have to copy e-mail to nice draftsman at skatepark builders and ask for YET more changes to the drawings. And do a flood risk assessment .

Today I have been laying a hedge. got rather cold, but quite satisfying work.

I'll be trying the physios first, but they aren't expensive. She lent me an excellent book on using tens units which goes through how to adjust them for best results - apparently you do need to fiddle with them.

Great that he enjoyed the day Amber.

Being 2 hours ahead of UK time today, I've just had a lovely dinner with my engineers and am stuffed

I seem to remember not that long ago that my local branch of Boots were hiring out TENS machines - a way of trying it out.

Slippers are wonderful.

Some NCT branches hire out TENs machines - I assume it's the same machine, whatever the purpose.

I love my sheepskin slippers.

I've just had a rather fine glass of sherry. Perfect for a cold dank evening. Would anyone else like one? (Sherry, that is, not cold dank evening, which you may already have).

::Realises that these last two things reveal my inner granny::

The maternity tens are different to the pain control ones apparently.

Ooh, a sherry would be lovely