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.

:: uncorks some Saturday night fizz and offers around the canapés ::

I often use 'brassic' but didn't know it was cockney rhyming slang. I had thought it was a northern expression along with 'coppering up'!

Unis - I am in awe of people who can go away for a week with only hand luggage. I take more than that for a day trip (and have been known to be close to 20kg for an overnight stay ).

JM - how are you feeling now? And Maud?

Serpent - lovely to see you, hope you are ok, I am also awaiting a Menton update!

I need to make some biscuits/cakes for a nursery bake sale thingy next week. Does anyone have any experience of what sells or is popular? I had thought about some decorated gingerbread or shortbread biscuits and maybe chocolate fudge. It all has to be done the night before so nothing too complicated and all ideas will be gratefully received! (the Bean family eat almost anything but this is my first experience of baking for 'public consumption')

Menton was lovely - although I didn't totally appreciate it at the time. It has left me with somehow more space in my head and a feeling of calmness. (Which is rapidly eroding.) When I look back, the bit I remember most fondly is a day of torrential rain, when Wriggle and I sat in MIL's ironing room, she watching Charlotte Aux Fraises on You Tube, me reading a novel I found in the hotel, for hours. Actually, for more picturesque, was La Mortola garden (Maud would love it), a lunch in Italy (best food ever and right on the beach, walkimg up to the guilded chapel on the hill with all the graves of all the hopeful tubercular patients who died there in their 20s ....

Prizes to those who spotted the use of cockney ryhming slang take your pick.
I'm also mildly in awe of DH and his hand luggage only policy. Can;t do it with kid in tow tho. and I always pack more than he does, I like a fresh T-shirt in the evening... while he will wear a shirt all day then wash it in the shower, dries it next day, irons , wears it again. I believe he took ( including what he was wearing) 4 shirts, 2 pairs trews, 1 T shirt, 4 sets of underwear/ socks, I jumper, I waterproof coat , 1 pair shoes. 1 book, 1 note pad, 1 netbook, shave soap and brush , razor, toothpaste & brush, de-oderant. Work triband mobile, wallet and passport.

Busy day today, keeping boy to busy to notice teh absence of daddy. Bike club, kids carnival fancy dress thing ( he came 2nd, won some sweets and a few quid) then we went off to watch the evening carnival and go to fun fair with a school friend and their parent. A good evening all round. dodgems, fun house and hook a duck. Chips and haribo, a well balanced supper I feel.

Bonsoir mes amies!

You went to La Mortola, Serpent?

::beyond [jealous]

::And your MiL has an ironing room?

::imagines that la famille Serpent inhabit a charmingly-distressed chateau nestling in the foothills::

I can travel light, I think, but I seldom choose to!

Bean - Cookies always sell well (I often do coconut kisses) and make sure you label both the cakes for people who like to ingredient-check and the tin if you ever want to see it again.

My cake sale vote for a nursery sale would be gingerbread men. They make less mess in the car/ bus/ bike trailer whilst being eaten on the way home.

Serp, sounds like you had a good time! Shame the headspace is being eroded now.

Bean - I dunno but would consider macaroons to be simple, effective (and wheat free, always a bonus at any event in my book!) The RHS sell them for 99p each!! Horrifying price.

I have managed a week away with just hand baggage before now - it was because I was going on a hen week away in Portugal and then coming straight back to a wedding in Oxford. I was never going to make the actual ceremony, there wasn't an early enough flight - but I took hand baggage only so I could leg it off the plane and into my car and drive straight there. I even wore my wedding outfit on the plane in readiness! but a summer hol in Portugal doesn't need many clothes so it wasn't a big issue.
My most impressive packing ever was going to Hong Kong and Australia for 5 weeks - on half a backpack's worth of clothes! I needed the space for all the other stuff I was going to buy and bring back.

Well done to the Boy for his achievements!

Scout - hope your journey went well and that you all arrive safe and well.

Minithumb and DH have gone fishing this morning - hurrah!

The ScoutTroop is officially camping at Scout Camp.

More later when I read back and TS is more adjusted to the timings of Scout Camp.

Excellent Scout! Woke up a little while ago and in my half-doze wondered if you'd arrived safely. :)

Cab't wait to hear what you think of your parcel.

Hurrah for family scout. what state are you in now?? I only ask coz DH flew out to Seattle yesterday don;t suppose you were on same plane tho.

Evening all. any one for a bowl of twiglet du jour ?

Agh. Lovely tea ladies . Well. Oxbloke is off down the Limpopo with Barry more than a knotted handkerchief. He has books on packing light. Under his influence we travelled this summer with one large rucksack and two small ones. That's it
Am channelling UniS while trying to make OxPox his (Arch)angel costume for the nativity. Glad he's not a donkey
I always do cupcakes for school sales. 30 mins to cook from start to finish and boy decorates them so the other kids always clamour to buy. But not very smart. Also possible to bind up bike friendly for travel. But that may not be a consideration for any other than UniS and me

Oh yes to olga da polga and bottersnikes, the first book I chose myself with a birthday book token. Was it fumbles that got squashed flat and giggled wildly?loved it will still have it, is it rare now?
Also talking parcel fab. Parrot and dulcibelle the sulking spider iirc. And rue and weasels and cockeryrices. I must find those books and read again...

I do cupcakes too - Betty Crocker icing is my secret weapon in the ultrafast and attractive stakes. Also. I do mini cupcakes as you get loads and they cook in 5 minutes. This week requires pink ones for the school council fundraising day.
We have had a fun day - went to huge horse event where ds enjoyed talking to people about stuff. He shows a worrying tendency to wish to know everything about vetinary things. I confess to telling him I don't know and that nice lady there might be able to help out

now I struggle to get decorated cupcakes anywhere intact by bike UNLESS I use the trailer , but that is only worth doing if I have a lot of stuff to shift. You have reminded me that there is cake sale at school on friday. part of teh " non pupil day " as boy insists on referring to it as. I'm pretty sure he means teh non uniform day they are having for Children in Need. Thus far boy intends to wear his purple trews, an orange ( or maybe neon green ) top and wants his hair spray coloured shocking pink.... I think I'll say yes to all that.

I use flat icing not royal or butter and then bind the cupcakes to a cardboard covered in silver foil base and the pin down with wrap after wrap of cling film. Then you can upend cup cakes and they're fine

Thank you so much for baking answers. I will be back on here on Thursday night, no doubt covered in flour, icing, cookie dough and cupcakes (I really like the Betty Crocker recommendation ).

We have had a lovely Sunday. Met up with Small Bean's nursery friends and parents this morning at a not too hideous soft play place and went out for tea tonight (according to Small Bean we had "Dinner Roast Pizza" ).

Yay to Family Scout making it to camp!

If you carry the fairy cakes in their original baking tin, doesn't that stop them from shoogling around and getting squished?

How long is Oxbloke gone for this time, Oxeye? Will he be back for Christmas?

UniS - that sounds startlingly like clothes I actually had and wore in the 1970s. Not the pink hair though, although I did end up with a neon magenta patch on the back of my head once thanks to a home dye job with Inecto hint of a tint (copper) that went a leetle bit wrong!

CMOTD - do you think Tiddler might want to be a vet?

Scout - glad you reached forrin parts successfully - hurrah!

Its tricky to fit teh baking tin ( 12 cup cakes) in to bike pannier with out turning it sideways...
I normally decant them into lunchboxes in 6's.

Hope you have fun baking bean. will you then be a baked bean.

You know, boy does have somewhat retro taste in clothes...normally he looks a bit on teh Victorian urchin side of things in his school uniform, thanks to his habit of rolling his trousers up almost to teh knee maybe he's hitting a 70s/ 80s phase.

Heh thumb, cup cakes are fine if strapped to board - think of little inuit babies on parent backs - but cakes and in a pannier.

Oxbloke back 2 days before christmas, so it's nativity, parents evening, end of term, cards, present buying, tree getting, children party hosting, work do oh yes and full time job for me alone.....

::Clasps Oxeye to her ample bosom, Serpent's departure therefrom having created a vacancy::

Oh lawks, Oxeye. That sounds like a tough assignment. How is your new OxTreasure working out?

Thanks bean, much better. Managed to teach my yoga class today without a single sneeze :o

How do you make royal icing? Or boiled icing? I suppose I could just Google it.
lazy cow

DH coming home tonight. Finally. It's been a long three weeks as a single parents, but I'm finding myself with oddly mixed emotions too - it's also been a stretch of time when I got to run things the way I wanted to, without taking into account anyone else's preferences. Except JB of course. Who obviously runs the show :o I haven't been able to do that since before we were married, and I have to say it was kind of nice. Not that DH is a messy guy, he's amazingly housebroken (thank you MIL!!), but it's been oddly freeing not to have to worry about anyone else's crap lying around. Hmmm.

::hugs everyone::
bloody MN swallowed my post. Can't do it again. bother

I have discovered a Useful Trick with swallowed posts - if you hit post and things go wrong, wait a few secs, then hit F5 - it will tell you that to refresh the page the information has to be sent again, is this ok? You say yes and ta-dah! your post appears. Once or twice I have had to do this more than once; but it has always worked in the end.

If MN says it has gone offline for a few moments, then the same applies but wait much longer, more like 15 minutes to be on the safe side - then hit F5 and it will re-send your post.

This has reduced my stress and frustration levels eNORmously.

I did :) at the idea of papoose fairycakes too... reminded me somehow of the NMBs, who have been rather quiet on this floating tearoom - are they stoking the engines or being quietly unwell below decks?

JM - I know what you mean about having your own space - I rarely miss DH when he's away with business because it's just one less hassle-component!

UniS - I like the urchin aspect. I hope Boy grows out of the 70s stuff before he goes all brown and paisley though - stuff of my childhood nightmares!

Oooh, will keep the F5 option in mind!!