The one and only Tearoom, to be sure , it is.

[UniS]

To pinch an intro from the very first one and only tea room thread. in 2009.

The tea room is now officially open, serving hot chocolate, tea, freshly-squeezed orange juice and a range of home-baked muffins. Tablecloths and crockery are charmingly mismatched antiques (no Cath Kidston here). We overlook an attractive although somewhat overgrown garden, with a distant view of rolling countryside.

Everyone is welcome but house rules dictate that anyone indulging in fisticuffs will be ejected.

Please come in.

2011
We seem to have fetched up in Ireland, this place looks remarkably like a pub,There is even a guiness barrel over there. The NMBs are all sporting shamrocks. The mirror ball is here, but I leave teh rest of the unpacking to someone else.

Hi all. JM: we took both the children to see Cars 2 last weekend (Kittenito had been counting off the days). He was a bit disappointed tbh as the story is not as simple nor as gentle as Cars 1. There are lots of car chases yes, but also lots of shooting. In our context this is a no no as it scares him very badly. He also doesn't like tension in a film and there is a lot of that. We left before it ended. Still, he's still an addict to the first one and the spin off DVDs about Mater though.

Yesterday I waited more than an hour for Mr. H. It is quite badly flooded here and the traffic was terrible. We have electricity at home and no broken windows or felled trees (unlike after the hurricane last year), but the water supply system was flooded with rain water and so we have had no water in the house since Thursday morning. We're lucky in that we have the means to collect rainwater that falls from the roof, but most people have flat rooves and are now also facing the water dripping through the ceiling.

GOOD NEWS ALERT. To finish on a high. Both mine and Mr. H's applications for sabbatical years have been given the official go ahead. This means we are off in August to Mexico City, even if for just a year. Hopefully one of our job applications will be successful during this time and we won't have to come back.

Yes, Mistle, I have the same problem with Wriggle - she just drives me mad. Then I am so sorry when she is asleep or out.

Today she has been both wonderful in an off-the-wall type way; wandering through town while we were shopping insisting that she was a grape-operated duke box (you put a grape in her mouth and she sings, very loudly, an 'appropriate' piece of music), which was better before she suggested I dance to it, although I do think that my flamenco in the bandstand was a minor classic ... M.Snake was ordered to be very very quiet.

Today she has been both wonderful and appalling. When we got home M.Snake went out to lay some more bricks. He always insists children must be kept away from the concrete mixer or they would put their hands in it. I obviously scoffed at this (Wriggle is, after all, 4, and he still hides all the knives in the house ) so I let her go out and play where he was working and within about 2 minutes she tried to put her hands in the concrete mixer ....

Mistle, what I wanted to say was, find a friend with similar age child and combine them. Wriggle is angelic for other mums and, as Rabbit can confirm, Friend-of-Wriggle is far better behaved than she is when they are with me.

Cat, that's fantastic news! So glad you are getting to move!

Had a lovely day by myself although LCT was impossible when I got back. He's such a mummy's boy. It gets tiresome although I am sure it will break my heart when Daddy becomes number 1!

Wonderful news Catita!

Tee - why should it change - I'm definitely still No1 with mistlechick - not that Dh doesn't get cuddles etc - but I'm the No1 choice. Most of the time at least.

Unserp - yes, mc can be very well behaved for other mums - and I've had his behaviour and manners commented upon (positively!). However we had another bad day today to start wtih at least - although the afternoon onwards was much better - so he got a lot of positive comments this evening about the improvements.

Catita, hooray!!!!

Catita, that's great news!

anyone? And sausage sandwiches?

Small Bean slept until 8:45 this morning. Can't quite believe it, we knew he was very tired but it doesn't usually equal a longer sleep. What a treat to wake up rather than be woken up!

Bean - we thought the same - about 7.30am! Transpires that mc had been reading various books in his room quietly

hello all, again!
catitat - I am so happy to hear that you have managed to get a year away from the drama and really hope that you manage to find jobs in that year so you won't have to go back again. Fingers crossed for you. :)

We went to see Cars 2 today - miniThumb was very well behaved and watched the whole thing without too much problem. I had a few ishoos with the child behind kicking my chair; I coped until he started pulling on it as well (the seats here have some kind of minor recline thing going on, so him pulling on it was moving me around) and I cast an angry glance over my shoulder to see what was going on. Had to do it twice before any effort was made by the parents to get him to desist but once he was stopped it didn't happen again.
We enjoyed it but we didn't go 3D - too much to expect miniT to wear the glasses through the whole thing as well.

We saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D the other week though, for our wedding anniversary - that was good!

Hope you are all well, will try to keep up a bit more.

I'm checking out the final Harry Potter film in 3D in a couple of weeks - got to make sure it's suitable for DD (nb it better had be, my life will not be worth living otherwise).

I did Race For Life this morning. I am SHATTERED. Now to start chasing up the sponsor money!

When does it open in the UK, DCMB? We have an opening datae of 13th July - I'm hoping to go and see it the following week with MrThumb (not miniT, he's waaaaaay too small for it, he's seen films 1-5 though and keeps asking to see the last one whenever tv ads come on for it)

Congratulations on doing Race For Life. :)

I'm going on the 15th, might be general open date with previews before, but I have no idea really!

Hello all, took Jack to see Cars 2 yesterday and he loved it! Didn't quite last through the entire movie, but mostly. It was very funny but Catita, you're right, it wasn't as gentle as the first one. Very very funny though.

Catita, I'm so, so, so glad you'll be getting to move!! And I will keep every appendage crossed that you'll find other jobs during the year. When will you be moving?

Harry Potter opens here on July 15th. I'm looking forward to seeing it, but more in a "ok, so that's completed then" kind of way. I found the seventh book so complicated - the whole elder wand, and number of horcruxes, and all that, made my head hurt. I'm not normally a stupid person, I don't think (or maybe I am, who knows) but I just couldn't get my head around it. I posted a thread about it on here, and got some good answers - so I may print out that thread, and keep it close by as I re-read the seventh book in prep for the movie :o

How's everyone today?

Hi All

Well LCT had yet another fever today after being fine for a few days. I'm at the end of my rope and taking him to the GP ASAP for a referral to Pead. I can't believe there isn't anything underlying all this.

At what age did you first take your toddlers to movies? I think 2 is too young but just curious what y'all did!

Hello everyone!

Am and lonely in a hotel room tonight as I have an early meeting at the other end of the country in the morning and couldn't face getting up at 3am. So, room service supper and Pride and Prejudice on the tv - feels rather decadent!!!

Tee - I think Small Bean was about 2.5 when we took him to see one of the Thomas films. It was just an hour and he behaved impeccably. Not sure that he would have sat still for much longer than that and we probably wouldn't have risked it before then but I guess all children are different. He is desperate to see Cars 2 and already recognises half of the new characters from the yogurts :: mummy is a pushover emoticon::

Tee - forgot to say that I hope you get some answers about LCT - it sounds very odd - I do hope they do something quickly for you.

Tee - we first took RBoy to the cinema (to see Toy Story 3) when he was 3 and a couple of months. I would say he was still a bit on the young side even then, although he did enjoy it and sat through it all really well, but when asked he says he prefers watching DVDs at home to going to the pictures!

So I would agree that two is a bit young, but of course it all depends on the child ultimately. The show we went to was a Saturday morning cheapie btw - only £1 per ticket as it was a while after the film came out - and I think we'll stick to those showings for a while yet, plenty of time to splash out on outrageous cinema ticket prices in the years to come!

Serpent - while Friend of Wriggle was indeed extremely well behaved at the zoo, I can't honestly say I noticed anything amiss with her behaviour either! But I do know what you mean, I think most children are on their best behaviour when being cared for by a friend's parent. I of course was more concerned with RBoy's behaviour on the day, was just glad he didn't get into big time roaring as he sometimes does!!

On the mummy being #1 front, I know I am and I do like to think that doesn't have to change, ultimately - they do always say about boys and their mums.... He does get more and more into Daddy the older he gets, and Daddy being at home is a very precious commodity, but I know that when the chips are down, it's Mummy that he needs more than anyone else.

Maud, I hope very much that you can make the next meet up too - well, and that I can myself, for that matter. Is it worth thinking about trying to do something in the summer hols? Could be tricky of course with people's different travel dates, but might work.

Lovely family day today. Brunch out together and local festival/funfair this afo. We should all sleep well tonight....

Oh yes and meant to say great news, Catita - really, really pleased for you that you'll be able to get away from that place for a year at least, and hope very much that new jobs will come up in that year.

Sorry to hear you're on your own Bean, but hope you enjoy P&P! (Which one is it?)

Tee - wishes for an explanation/solution to this coming your way. Must be so hard for you and for LCT.

Rabbit - it's the Keira Knightley and Matthew McWotsit version. Not as good (in my mind) as the Colin Firth BBC version but still pretty harmless Sunday night viewing.

I agree, Bean. There is only Mr Darcy.

Girl's first cinematic outing was to the Incredibles, when I guess she'd have been about 3. She sat through it impeccably, although she hated Cars and we had to leave after about half an hour.

DD was 2 when I first took her to the cinema - the weather was stupidly hot so I decided we would go to Cribbs Causeway for marauding around an air-conditioned mall (shopping? with a 2yo?) and thence to the cinema for more air-conditioning. She was absolutely fine. Awestruck in fact - 'biiiig televish!' I think the second or third time I took her there was a meltdown regarding pick'n'mix but that was the only problem I've ever had with her in a cinema.

Well, yes - or, more to the point, there is only one wet shirt Mr Darcy - but I actually really liked the Keira version, much more than I expected to. Think partly because Jennifer Ehle didn't really do it for me as Lizzie. Happy viewing! (Marvellous pic, Maud, very good work.)

Must turn in. Am another owl who really, really struggles to get to bed early, but I really, really have to. Lack of sleep is getting critical. Someone please shout at me to go to bed if I show my face on here again tonight!

Oh yes, the torture that is negotiating the pick and mix counter.

First took miniThumb to the cinema when he was 3 and ~3m to see Tangled. It was towards the end of its run, in the morning (cheap tickets) and there were 5 people in the cinema, including us. He was less entranced by Tangled than by Cars 2 - but it was his first visit, so he's forgiven.

Keira Knightley's poor posture offended me in her version of P&P. No young lady in Eliza's position would have been allowed to slouch around like KK does.