The Nordic Tearoom (Number 31)

[beanandspud]

We have moored the barge for the winter and have moved to a beautiful, cosy log cabin in deepest Scandinavia overlooking a frozen lake and surrounded by pine trees.

Mellors has lit the log fires and candles, it is snowing outside and there are comfortable seats for everyone and fleecy blankets to snuggle up in. For the more active tearoomers there are skis and sledges outside as well as a steaming hot tub for winding down after a busy day.

So pull up a chair. The kettle is on for and there is always plenty of depending on your mood and time zone. (Alternatively there is schnapps, smorgasbord and smoked fish).

Everybody is welcome ? share as much or as little as you like ? but no fisticuffs please!

What do you call those round about things in a playground that you stand on and get spun around?

mini roundabouts?

Or maybe it's a dizzy disc

Great name..
UniS spends next 30 mins wondering around playground website saying " I want of THOSE in teh garden.

JM, thinking about your course - even though the Anatomy is beneath your standards by a looooonnng way, be grateful that the know-nothings in your class are having to go through it - it can only help their knowledge and improve their practice, hopefully. :)
When I did my A&P course, the lecturers knew my background (from my application form) and realised that it would be fairly pointless asking me to sit through the blood and immune system lecture. So in fact they asked me to give it instead (hugely better!).

I definitely didn't invoke any deities during labour - I was mostly asking for someone to shoot me and make it stop.

Scout - sounds like Toddler is having Trying Times at the moment - I have much sympathy, miniThumb is going through a bit of a Phase as well, I've been told it's likely to be 'is 'ormones but I hope he grows through it soon!

CMOTD - hope improving your mum's Hb level will help her with the doziness at least. Have they any other ideas as to what's going on?

I made scones today. Someone was discussing cream teas on another thread and I thought "why not? it's been a while..." They look yum, hope they taste that good too!

What's a cream tea? Sounds yummy.

www.backtotheroots.co.uk/2011/09/classic-cream-tea.html
It involves a scone (or two), usually without fruit (although I prefer mine with), clotted cream and some form of red jam, classically, strawberry (although raspberry is very good too). Served with a pot of tea, pref a nice light Darjeeling (or Assam, or Ceylon), in porcelain cups, dahling. Do read the blog post - it explains the different styles, as in whether you spread jam or cream first. When I'm being really bad, I start with butter, then jam, then cream on top - but I have taken to excluding the butter and putting the cream on first, then splodging the jam on after. Sadly this usually means using more of both...

There used to be a fabulous little teashop in Woodstock, home of Blenheim Palace, that served excellent cream teas (amongst other foods) and gave you a choice of tea, explaining which tea went best with what, so if you were having a savoury snack, there was one type suggested; or if having tea on its own, another one; and so on. Fabulous place! Bet it's not there now :(

JM, cream tea is fabulous, dahling. You would love it. I do. So does Toddler. You mention "cream tea" to him and his eyes light up and he nods (a lot). He has his with squash or juice, though.

I think I now understand why soft play is some mothers idea of hell. Mean, nasty little girls with their ineffective mother. Oh well, TS seemed to have a good time and liked having a treat while we were there.

thumb, I just looked at your tea link -- I have a picture of that tea house from my first trip to the UK.

I've just re-read my post from 12:49. I didn't mean it the way it sounds.

Not just soft play though Scout - play groups can be just as bad when mothers ignore their less-than-lovely children's behaviour. When I started at the playgroup here, there were a group of little girls who were quite mean - they were 3 or 4, so had gone by the time we went back in February; but it shocked me how cliquey and mean they were at that age! Mind you, I could be really cowish and say that they just took after their mums, who were just as cliquey and unwelcoming. :(

that's quite funny about the teahouse - I'm ashamed to admit I lived quite near Windsor and never knew about that street!

These girls were four (twins). I know they were four because of the sign in sheet at the door (you list the child's name and age so checked on the way out). Mean little things. The mother would rarely occassionally decide to shout at her children from her seat but wouldn't actually DO anything. TS and I were there for two hours and I swear I heard her threaten say varitions of "We're going home!" at least eight times (I lost track) from her seat and she never did. They were there half an hour before we were and were still going strong when we left. They kept touching Toddler, rubbing his head, trying to knock him over (sometimes succeeding), shouting "NO" in his face if he dared to even look at the balls they lined up in the ball pit,throwing balls at both him and me, kept yelling at him that he moved something they weren't even playing with. I told them several times to leave him alone and a few times had to persuade TS to follow me elsewhere even though he was happy where he was and wanted to keep playing. Some other children came in and they started making fun of them -- calling the one a baby (yes, he was diddy but I found out he's 4-6 months older than TS!) and the other "boy with a fat tummy" (and trust me, this girls were not sticks themselves). I'm not one to hover normally, unless TS is the only one with a bunch of babies and then I do more out of concern for the babies (with TS being tall he's a bit gangly and doesn't realize how much space he takes up sometimes) but hover I had to today. I think TS would have liked being able to do his own thing without me always there.

That was a bit moany. In a lot of ways I don't blame the girls but the mom who couldn't be bothered to get up off her bum and either play with her kids (they were craving adult interaction because they kept following me around trying to get me to watch their "Bob the Builder show"), sort them out or leave (as she kept threatening to).

:( isn't it. Once I went and there was a little boy who was playing a bit roughly with miniThumb, but not too badly. He was there with his Dad, who was mostly completely ignoring him and playing on his Notepad instead. There was a contretemps over the ride-on cars with another child, and the little boy was upset - but his Dad still didn't do anything. Then when he lost his spiderman hood, his Dad just stood there helplessly because he had no clue where his son had been; I was the one who looked in the ride-on cars, as that's where the boys had spent most of their time! and yes, it was there. But that little boy was a prince compared to one little brat who hurt the other children - pinched miniThumb on the chest (that stuck around for ages) and bit miniT's best friend's finger, making it bleed. His mum was just too busy yakking to her buddies to bother about what her DS was up to.

The nearest city to me is home to teh narrowest street in England, Parliament St, narrows to 21 inches wide and even at its widest these days is only about48 inchs.

Its sis siad that in Devon, dairy maids made clotted cream more often than butter, butter was only made (and used) for cooking. for spreading purposes one used Clotted cream. Hence Devon Cream Tea being scone, cream, jam.

Cream teas... Yum! Reminds me of holidays in Devon.

Hope everyone is ok? Hang in there JM, nearly half-way through! I'm not sure that I would have the patience to sit through your class and bite my tongue but TW makes a good point that hopefully it will improve their practice in some way.

Scout - soft play can just be one of those frustrating experiences sometimes. You do seem to see a lot of examples of 'lazy parenting' though. If it's any consolation it won't be too long before TS just races off, you can't even get to where he is climbing even if you wanted to, and you actually get to sit and have a cup of coffee without having to supervise! We seem to be at a different one every week at the moment due to a string of birthday parties. Not really my favourite way to spend time but Small Bean loves them.

Can't believe my 'baby' is going to be 4 in three weeks. Amazon delivered his birthday presents today - very exciting.

Oooh, bean, what's SmallBean getting for his birthday?

Scary isn't it, Bean - miniThumb turning 4 was a bit of a shock to me too! Especially as he seems to have entered the Fearsome 4s - this is the worst age so far for us. He's still mostly lovely but the 'attitude' is more pronounced, the rebelliousness, argumentativeness and the tantrums. Apparently it's testosterone - hope he doesn't keep it up all year though!

Can't believe I seem to have yet another URTI. :(

That road sounds mad, UniS - does it have a sign at the start to warn people of the larger girth that they may not fit down the whole road?

Scout, he's having a few bits for his brio train track that he has asked for (level crossing and a turntable) and a remote control Lightening McQueen that I bought at Christmas. He has a few books etc. but with his birthday being so close to Christmas I stash a lot of his presents away (mean mummy) and then bring them out as surprises during the year. Otherwise it's a long time until Santa comes back!

I know that some parents think he is spoiled because during the year he will often talk about having new things but actually they are birthday presents that have finally made an appearance in September!!

JB is going to be 4 next month
I have no clue what I'm giving him yet :o

I am so tired. Thank god I can sleep in tomorrow. Don't have to leave the house until just after 10 am. Even 6:30 would be having a lie in but I think we're going to keep JB awake a bit later so he sleeps a bit later. This business of getting up at 4:30 is wrecking me. I am grumpy as heck. And there is so much fluff in this course, it's making me stabby. We could literally cover everything that's stretched out into a full day, in about 4 hours. Gahhhhh!!!!

I hope there will be an evaluation form at the end of this course, JM. Don't hold back!

JM, it is a PITA - but remember that they're catering for a level way below your capabilities. At least there's no problem with you passing the course at the end! And you'll have your qualification and you'll never need to do it again. the 4:30 get-up sucks majorly though. :(

Bean - that's a good idea - miniThumb has all his presents out from his birthday and Christmas (he didn't get all that much really) and he is going from one thing to another in turns. Some things he'll play with most days; others he plays with as and when. But he goes back to stuff; so I'm not worried.

Thunder and rain today - put paid to our plans to go to the zoo! :(

Morning all, blissful sleep-in until 7:15. Aaahhhhhh. JM is in a much better mood. Also had a lovely dinner with DH last night, so nice to have time just the two of us.
Maud, yes, there will be an evaluation at the end if the class and no, I will definitely not be holding back. I'm happy to say, however, that yesterday afternoon's information was a lot more useful.

Is it just me or have we been very quiet lately? Less than 30 posts to go before we have to move. Normally we'd be filling that up in a day. Where us everyone?
Apologies if the move occurs while I'm in class. Shall I start by lacking up the heavy stuff and magicking it into a small, easily carried parcel? The spell is "reducto!" - stand back, everyone.

Well, that looks like it worked. When you're ready to unpack at the new location, the spell is "expando!"

The only problem I see is that I've packed up everything, and there's nothing to sit on.

UniS sits on a small parcel of everything and waits for some company.

Yes, it is much quieter here these days.

::Drones on in nostalgic fashion about the early days of the tea room and sends everyone to sleeeeep::

::While everyone is sleeping, wraps the Sacred Plant in bubblewrap and entrusts it to Mellors for safekeeping. We wouldn't want it to be lost in the move, would we?::