30 up The tea room afloat

[UniS]

Welcome aboard.

The first rule of the tea room is - No fisticuffs.
The second rule is - Put the kettle on and lets have a or open a bottle of if its that time of day. Pull a sofa and relax. Parents of one, more (or less) children are welcome to hop on board and chat about anything and nothing. Introduce yourself if new and if you name change give us clue please.

Afternoon ladies! Had a fab day today down in Sydney, meeting up with other lovely Sydney MNers for lunch, dahling, at the Opera Bar. I felt quite at home walking through Circular Quay - the street performers reminded me of Covent Garden - it was rather a warming experience!

Hope you've all had good weekends and remembered to change your clocks! [hsmile]
And are all set for Hallowe'en, those who want to be [hgrin]

that sounds like a lovely day out Thumb.

more anyone.

The UniFamily spent ,much of today cider pressing ( pressing apples to make juice which will make cider ) got very sticky. drank lots of VERY fresh apple juice, ate sausages. Boy was a very helpful child, wondering about with a mug of juice and "helping" move buckets in and out of the way at appropriate times.

Then came home and had a fight with teh upstairs loo door. Changing teh handle seems to require gouging out half teh inside of teh door, which turns out to be made of chipboard, horrid stuff to try and chisel. Still, project is half done, door can't be locked yet but one can use handle to open door. should get the lock sorted before SiL , BiL and small niece come to stay next weekend.

Yes please for

Yes please for as well.

Yes please to !

A weekend of ups and downs here. We have done some nice things - walks and bike rides. Then I took Small Bean to a birthday party today and he was very, very sick after just picking at the birthday tea.

Fortunately he had said he had tummy ache so I had made it to the toilet with him before... well, you can guess the rest... And we left in a red-faced hurry.

So, we have a day at home tomorrow which is a bonus. I do however worry that I will be judged by the other parents who might think that I knew he wasn't well (I didn't) and brought him to a party anyway.

I doubt other parenst will be too judgy. not teh first child to throw up ( or worse) at a party. oy was sooooo determined to go the royal wedding party in teh spring, he had had a shit night, temp, delirious etc. I left for work leaving boy in DHs care thinking boy would miss a day of schoo, but NO, boy awoke fresh as daisy and ASKED to go to school, so DH took him to school. NEXT day, boy and DH went to street party ( I was at work again), boy picked at tea then threw up in the park.

Thanks Unis! The rational part of me knows that most people will understand but the slightly paranoid part still worries far too much about what other people think and whether I am doing this parenting thing right!

Anyway, the kettle's on and secretly it's rather nice having a day at home with Small Bean instead of working. anyone?

Yes please!

Yes please to .

I hate the effect clock changing has on small people. Ugh, WAYYYY too early this morning, Toddler!

This is the first time I've been home on Halloween night since moving to the UK. Am I missing something in the ettiquette of Halloween? At home if the front light is off you don't knock. I swear if one more group (with parents!) pounds on my door/practically takes my mailslot off the door/kicks my door I will go out there screaming. Especially since TS is in bed (this time change has knocked him for a loop, as well as teething, and he's a mess).

Round here, the etiquette is as you say - you don't knock at houses which don't have a lantern lit. I very nearly said to the mother of the two boys who just called that (as far as I know) the etiquette is also that you take a few sweets - you don't treat it as a competition to see how many you can get in your fist and take half the bowl between you. The yoof of today, eh?

Most people at home will leave a light on and will open the door to trick-or-treaters. I don't think I've ever encountered leaving a bowl outside. A former neighbor, who lived in the house behind my parents, gave me a full-sized candy bar one year "to keep me going" as I chaparoned my brother and sister around the neighborhood. I wasn't trick-or-treating but he liked me and insisted I should have candy, too.

I thought that the etiquette was to leave a light on and a pumpkin out if you didn't mind people knocking.

Scout - I'm with you - DS was in bed at 6:30pm (fortunately much better after yesterday's sickness) and needs a good night's sleep tonight. What he didn't need was people hammering on the door/ringing the bell.

Perhaps when he is a bit older he'll want to get dressed up and go out but tbh I'm not a huge fan of tricking and treating.

I find all of the "scary" costumes a bit disturbing. I'm used to being able to be whatever you want to be whereas here it's all witches/vampires/zombies.

Hello all! Have some unwonted energy tonight so am dropping in quickly to say hello before I'm an exhausted wreck again!

Re Hallowe'en - I would say that celebrating it the way we do now is a relatively recent phenomenon, and basically something we've copied from the US, perhaps missing some of the nuances along the way. DH and I were just saying how when we were kids (back in the mists of time), no one really did anything for Hallowe'en. We knew it was there but it wasn't an event; the thing that was an event was bonfire night. Actually maybe that was changing a bit by the time I got to my teens.

And I have to say I had no idea there was any etiquette for trick or treating - this leaving the light on etc is all news to me. Could be something to do with having lived in flats for all of my adult life? One day, when we move to a house, I'll have to get with the programme... but we don't get a lot of trick or treaters here, being as there are just a load of numbered buzzers rather than doors to knock at, and obviously no way of knowing if people are in/welcoming or not.

Anyway, Scout, you might like to know that at the Hallowe'en party we went to today, the kids were in loads of different types of costumes, including Sonic the hedgehog, pirates, faries, Superman and a fair few Spidermen - including my own dear darling boy, who won't dress up as anything else! But I get your point, I guess here we do think it's about the scary stuff whereas (from what I've seen on the telly [hsmile]) in the states it's just about dressing up full stop.

Bean, glad to hear SmallBean is doing better, hope he and TS both get a good night's sleep! SBoy had such a busy, active day today that he must sleep well tonight... he must.... [hconfused]

Big waves to all. And Happy Hallowe'en to them as celebrates it!

::Waves to LaRevenante::

I do like to see words like unwonted being bandied about.

::Geek::

the joy of the tea room - being able to use words like that in the knowledge they'll be understood!

Energy gone now so creeping off to bed. Night all.

WooooooooOooooooooooh

Good night!

Why oh why had I never thought of using Amazon wishlists before? Just created a fab little list of wishes on behalf of TS so everything's in one place for Mom. Even found a couple of fun Snoopy books for me.

As a kid, one year I went out trick-or-treating with some friends as the sauces of a burger -- ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, mayo. Mom made the costumes. Another year some friends and I, along with my brother who was a toddler at the time, went out as a team of clowns (again, Mom made all of the costumes). When I was teaching 3-year olds I went to our school party/parade as a life-sized M&M (Mom made that costume, too).

wooooooah hooooooooo

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BOO

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:;Unis join RS in a little light haunting.::
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Boy dressed as ghost tonight and inflicted a bad (what do short sighted ghosts wear? Spooktacles) joke on people in exchange for sweeties. Village etiquette is primary age kids, visiting houses were there is some Halloween decoration visible OR where parents know the homeowner and are sure a visit is welcome. As we live on an edge of the village we only get about 2 groups anyway but in the middle of the village we saw 5 or 6 small groups doing teh rounds. At three houses the kids who live there were in costume waiting to see who called by.

I grew up in London (very) nearly 40 years ago and ToT was a popular teen age halloween thing back then. eggs, flour and paint were all used to "bomb" houses where no treat was forthcoming. Costumes were rudimentary but based around "scary" , lots of black bin bag clad witches and the odd monster mask. My Mother being mask phobic, I was not allowed to go out ToTing, nor would the door be answered BUT I was allowed to water bomb any ToTers who came to our door. I remember Dad cleaning flour and egg and, one year, paint off our door and the next door neighbours. Buses would get "egged" and occasionally "rocked" . Younger children would "do" halloween at cubs or brownies with a "scary" story and spooky snacks by candle light, probably also dressed in bin bags as "witches".

I don't remember getting any TorTers round our way - but I do remember the egging as a "thing" when I was a child. We certainly didn't do TorTing, but we used to have Hallowe'en parties - and yes, it was primarily ghoulish, so witches, ghosts, vampires, zombies, devils, skeletons etc. - that was the theme really. Someone turning up as Princess Barbie would have been covered in slime, I expect!

Nothing happened here last night - but our undergrowth is an effective preventative - it's a long walk to the house from either end, dark paths and low hanging trees/palms that brush the face - it'd be a BRAVE TorTer who managed it! I did do my pumpkin though - quite happy with it too. :)

We had three lots, and ds went to a neighbours house with whom we had prechecked it was ok. But v few children in our area.

Amazon wishlists are great Scout - we use them for me dh and ds as then we can add stuff as and when and its still a suprise.

It has been a bad pain day again in the CMOT house. I am reduced to drinking tea in a cup as I can't hold a mug

Hi everyone
am a newbie to this thread-didn't even know this was here! Nice to see some names to recognise from my desperate plea on chat
I shall introduce myself? I am Balletpump, 30 something, and one DS age 3.
Can't stay long tonight but just wanted to mark my place!
Will bring wine next time!!

Hey balletpump, so glad you joined us!!

Just have half a sec between patients at work, just wanted to say hi. We went trick or treating last night, JB was dressed as Pirate Jack. He didn't like the scary houses, would only go up to the ones that were very tame and even refused half of those, poor little scared mite. But he found it very exciting overall, and was so exhausted by the end that when we stopped off at the supermarket and he stayed in the car with my mum, he fell asleep in the five minutes I was in the store :o
Getting him out of his pirate costume and into PJs whilst making sure he stayed asleep was interesting :o

, anyone?
My mum left this morning. I'm feeling very blue. :(

Aw, Jacksmania, have some Twiglets a la Mode and an illicit (((hug))).

We had one awesome house on the street where (I discovered) the residents are American and had had stuff shipped over. The whole house had been decorated to look like the Addams family house, complete with skeletons in the front garden. It made our tiny pumpkin (the best one on the allotment having been nicked for the third year running) and glow in the dark rats look feeble by comparison!

Nice to meet you, Balletpump. Why the desperation on chat?