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.

will you recognise me? Call my name or walk on by, rain keeps falling rain keeps falling down down down

::Oxeye betrays her extreme old ag::

What's an "ag" when it's at home Oxeye? Soundslike something the NMB would play happily with....

oh yes, my age is such that I can no longer type. Its the arthritis in my fingers. I'm a martyr me...

Morning all! Hi DCMB!!

Donki, outstanding? Brill!! Quite right too.

Here, Oxeye, do have one of my pills for lumbago and a nice read of SAGA magazine - that'll sort you out, dear

Waiting for a chap to fix our washing machine so the washing mountain can return to being a small hill.

Think that means there's just time for breakfast and a decent

Good morning Tea Room!

Hi DCMB, I'm new. Ish. And I don't camp. Just for the record.

Well my sneezy, wheezy, clingy, teary, whiny small boy has been replaced with one who is playing, laughing and running about the house. whew Another illness over, more or less.

Right now he's sitting in his daddy's knee messing with the keyboard of the laptop. I wonder if 2 is too young for some websites...

Morning! Anyone for tea in an enamel mug? Perfect accompaniment to that fry-up I can smell on the morning air

This morning, I'm enjoying a peruse of DD's school's new website. This has been a LONG time coming. I hope they continue to keep it up to date. I can now ask searching questions like 'DD, did a TORTOISE visit your class?' Yes, it did. You'd think she might mention a tortoise visiting the class, wouldn't you? But no, I never hear anything. The website says "the tortoises started chasing and banging into each other" - DD has just elaborated, and I can only surmise that Boy Tortoise was trying to make Baby Tortoises with Girl Tortoise. Very educational.

Morning DCMB!

Welcome back A&O!

Many congratulations Donki!

That's got that out of the way - I need a VERY large VERY strong coffee please.

I knew that I'd either dreamed a phonecall in the middle of the night or it was real - it was real - luckily, at that point of the night I was clearly too fast asleep to come to properly (phone not in room thankfully). I think it was a dodgy call centre probably.

Then MC had a bad dream which meant he frantically needed a cuddle for 5 mins - then I took him to the loo (had to go with him unfortunately) - light on etc - then he went back to bed (beautifully I must say in the circs).

I then woke up some time between 4 and 4.30. I got up at 5 as there was no point in lying in bed thinking. By the time 6.30 and the getting ready for school chaos started, was just about ready to go back to sleep. Do you know what the NMBs have done with the matches? there are lots of empty boxes around but no matches to be found in any of them.

Mistlethrush, there's a very nice model of Kilkea castle, which looks suspiciously like its been made out of small sticks... possibly matches...

Feeling wobbly today :(

What's caused the wobbles Mary - have a and a sit down on the sofa and if you'd like to share we're here to listen.

Lots more for people feeling wobbly or otherwise...

A combination of different things. People treating me differently and it making me feel uncomfortable. People not understanding my needs and calling me sensitive and fragile because how they treat me makes me feel like that. And I guess, looming ever closer, is a new vicar at the church, and as yet no meeting has been arranged with her, despite promises that this would happen.

(am much impressed with the NMBs and their model making - anyone seen the stunning matchstick gazebo they've done out the front yet?)

Mary, aye. There's a heck of a difference between us needing X to happen so we can function, and us being neurotic and needy. Alas, most of society doesn't understand that yet, because they're not used to our 'operating system'. Arrgh re lack of new-vicar-meeting.

::goes outside to inspect the gazebo with admiration::

Morning all. I'm still not entirely over the jet lag and there is no coffee in the house ...bad combo.

When is the new vicar due to start Mary?
Donki - wow! Very impressive.

25 July, AandO - not good re: coffee btw, perhaps a quick shop is needed?

::Goes to explore DCMB's tent, as she feels the urge to buy a new tent::

You can take a girl of the Guides, but you can't take the Guides out of the girl.

::waves to all::

I should feel like I've missed out on this whole camping experience thingy, but my idea of a camping holiday involves a luxury yurt with hot and cold running water, full bathroom and a nice Mellors to bring me three meals a day and offer a massage. My budget might be slightly more like 'drape an old sheet over a clothes line and heat up those beans, dear', however.

Same here Amber! :o

Me too amber!

If whomever runs the universe wanted me to sleep in a tent, she never would have invented indoor plumbing and 5 star hotels.

The idea of sharing a tent with Ds makes me go all faint and wobbly

Feeling a bit miffed for Ds. According to him he lost all of his 'golden time' yesterday because he squeezed (gently) the arm of a girl. When asked why he did this, he said it was because said girl kept on trying to kiss him and his friend (who also lost his golden time too). Said girl, of course, did not lose any golden time. Said girl has, earlier on in the year, encouraged Ds (who is 6 mo younger than her, although significantly larger) to do something else that he got repremanded about. Do you think that if a girl insists on keeping on trying to kiss one of the boys which they really don't want, even if it doesn't hurt them, its effectively bullying?

Its annoying certainly. Bullying? not sure. How do MC and mate handle it when she does things they don't like ( like kissing) , DO they tell the same adult or do they react physically?

Its very tricky for an adult who didn't observe the start of an incident to work out what triggered it and the complainer is often the one who comes out best as they tend to "forget" to tell the adult what they did to trigger the response.

No, Mistle, I don't think it's bullying. Definitions are always difficult but I think bullying has to be a behaviour which, as you say, hurts in some way (physically or emotionally), rather than just being unwelcome or an annoyance, and has to be done with the intention of hurting. The kissing must be very annoying and MC and his friend need to be assertive in saying no (and enlisting the help of an adult if needed) but I don't think it's bullying in the way that name-calling or pinching (say) are. Also, based on my experience of incidents at school ::sigh:: I think you have to remain alert to the possibility that you're not getting the full story. I agree it's annoying to be on the receiving end of unwanted kisses but if MC squeezed the girl's arm so much that it actually hurt her then missing GT may not be so out of proportion.

Some children have great difficulty understanding physical boundaries and what is and isn't acceptable. They may not mean it as bullying, but it would be good to get proper feedback from the staff on what's going on. In primary schools where I work with children with behavioural issues, we do quite well out of teaching a class how to stop unwanted behaviour by clear hand signals and the word 'no', and then getting a member of staff to help them. Sometimes that kind of thing can really help.

Ds due home any minute from playing at a friends after school. I have wasted my afternoon online. Bliss.
Got whacked and sworn at by a kid at school lunch time. Ho Hum. Head did phone up and say she was sorry I had a bad lunchtime and ask for a few details I hadn't put in my write up. No bruise showing yet so hoping it won't, felt like it might earlier- fingers and I bruise big and colourful.

Happy Friday!

Camping? No thank you - I tried it once and didn't like it much. I am tempted to consider 'glamping' if only because I'm sure Small Bean would have a great time but I do feel rather too old (and actually DH's snoring could clear an entire camp site fairly quickly).

Mistle, I can't remember how old MC is but there seems to be a lot of misplaced affection at that age. Small Bean has a friend who keeps trying to kiss and hug him and he is learning to say 'no thank you' rather than just pushing him away. It must be hard for them though as there is also a lot of hugging friends to say sorry.

Is anyone doing anything nice over the weekend?

I will be working tomorrow- probably in the rain. Looking after a generator and stage for a free lunchtime concert in nearest city. early start- yukkkk.
off to pub soon, but will only have the one pint.