Episode 32 - The New Zealand tea room

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Well folks, here we are, beside the hot springs of New Zealand.

The tea room (with the customary distressed chintz sofa) overlooks the steaming, bubbling lake. For the bold and sporty, hiking, biking and sky-diving are on offer. Personally, I'm not planning to leave the spa.

Please come and join us for a celebratory drink and conversation ranging from the profound to the profoundly silly. The cardinal rule remains: no fisticuffs.

Ah scout, that's sad!
I remember the first time miniThumb went in the snow - he was only teeny and could only just walk and I, like a complete IDIOT, hadn't realised that his shoes were going to let ice-cold stuff melt onto his socks, making his feet ice cold too. Can't believe I did that - so for about a minute he was all "yay!" and then he was all "WAAAHHHHHHH!!!" until I managed to chafe his feet warm again.

Very of the snow - bet there's none in March. Mind you, I wouldn't want our flights to be affected by it so perhaps I'll not worry too much!

We went to the beach this afternoon and the waves were amazing - mostly way too dangerous to swim in, the No swimming signs were up and only a small flagged area had people allowed in. DH and miniThumb jumped in and out of the wash and had a fine time, but the rips were almost visible, the contrasting currents and wave directions - quite scary if they had gone any deeper than knee-deep!

Hope all bumps, bruises, muscle strains and other aches and pains are sorted out ASAP for everyone :)

He's not the only one -- several other under-3s on my road/the closes off my road were wailing this morning, too. He didn't even want to go for a ride in his sled where he wouldn't have to touch it. Oh well. My brother hated it until he was four and now loves it so there's still hope.

Warning... self-indulgent post coming...

We had Small Bean's party today, despite a few hours this morning when we thought we would have to cancel due to snow. He had such a great time, just smiled all the way through, was so polite to everyone, and his little face when he led the 'birthday parade' and sat in his 'throne' for tea was a picture. I am a very proud mummy (I am sure this phrase is forbidden on mn) - especially when he took it upon himself to introduce his nursery friends to his other friends "Boris, this is Donald... Donald, this is Boris from nursery" .

Scout - I'm sure that Small Bean wasn't keen on snow when he was TS's age - this morning he spent an hour flinging himself into the piles of snow as were clearing the drive so it does change!

Unis - so glad that you had a good holiday - I vote for for going to the chalet that you posted!

TW - do you have a plan for your time over here? Will you be traveling or staying in the same place?

, party and birthday cake for all!

Thank you for the birthday cake Bean. I love the thought of smallbean doing formal introductions.

Today I faced my fears and went to scope out Pony Club - the thought of the horsey mums was terrifying. But they were v nice.

Blasted tennis elbow is back. 3 steroid injections and a vast amount of physio don't actually seem to have worked long term. Am rather despondent about it tbh

CMOTD - did they work on your shoulder as well? Although it's likely that the elbow stuff is coming from your wrist and may never be fully treatable because your wrist isn't fixable. :(
I had a client who broke her elbow in a foreign country, had it pinned but the pin slipped and she couldn't use her elbow properly - the knock-on effect up into her shoulder was dramatic and although the docs treated her shoulder, it didn't do anything for her until they sorted out her elbow - once we got working on a joint program (no pun intended) where the physio worked her elbow and I worked the arm muscles up into the shoulder, improvement happened. Treating her shoulder in isolation was useless (they gave her steroid injections too).
Ditto a lady with a collis fracture of her wrist - her whole arm went into spasm but she didn't really complain until it reached up into her shoulder, when she was referred for physio for her shoulder, they told her she had a frozen one and suggested an osteopath, the osteopath said it was muscular and moved her on to me. I worked on her hand and helped her wrist get more mobile and her shoulder problem disappeared.
So my point is perhaps you should have the muscles in your whole arm treated, rather than injecting the joint, as the chances are that they are spasming because of the wrist injury.

Glad the Pony Club went well :)

Bean - glad smallbean had a great party and love his social skills! :)

Cake - mmmmmmm.

Thumb - tennis elbow is on my good arm The other arm is stuffed from shoulder down.

OOHhhhhhh - that's no good, sorry to hear that :(

:( at the Tennis elbow CMot. Just a quick check on it - do you drink much coffee or have high caffeine drinks - sounds peculiar but my father can't drink normal coffee because the caffeine in it puts his back muscles into spasm - my uncle scoffed at the idea until his shoulder got bad - then he changed from normal to decaff coffee and it helped significantly - and he stopped scoffing.

Glad the ponyclub parents were friendly. I have quite a few of them on the school run every morning / evening and parties - and it can be quite daunting!

MC had an awful time in snow on sunday morning. I think he was tired - and he was trying out his new (christmas present) saucer - found it difficult because he's used to going down definitely fowards and able to steer to some degree of accuracy on the toboggan - and this needed you to hold on and not worry which way you went.... so when he was using his hands to try to steer and brake he wasn't holding on so he didn't feel stable ... any way, vicious circle that didn't end well. Might take it to a different part of the park if there's a next time this winter.

Happy Waitangi day.

As the tea room is currently perched in the NZ alps it seems appropriate we should celebrate .

The NMBs have been practising their and Mellors is on standby to rub noses with any one who cares too.

In Toronto at mum's. Jet lagged. With jet lagged nearly-four-year-old. Sitting on couch with him watching Mickey Mouse DVD in hopes he'll pas out any second now. So I can, too. Flying with a cold + getting in at 9 pm when 4-year-old has sat still for 4 1/2 hours (he was bloody amazing on the flight) and his body thinks it's only 5 pm or so + having to get up early next morning for eye appointment = barely holding it together by 6 pm the following day.
Love to all of you, especially those injured and in pain of whatever kind.
Back tomorrow.

I love watching the haka. I particularly like the flash hakas that occur in shopping centres occasionally. :)

JM - that sounds rough. :( Hope you got some sleep!

chilly this morning, who would like a to warm them up?

Oh, yes please UniS. ScoutCamp is f-f-f-freezing!

Maud, would Girl like to take Toddler babysit tonight while I go to Seniors. He's a right old whingy boots today and I'm just not sure I have the strength to cope with Seniors (as lovely as they are), crochet lessons (tonight's activity) AND Toddler.

:: snuggles up in a comfy chair with a , a blanket and a book ::

This has been a very long week, is it really only Wednesday? I am clearly getting far too old for two nights of being away and socialising with much younger work colleagues. I think I remember now why pleading a headache/work to do/desperately needing an early night is a much better option.

are you crocheting a blanket or a straight jacket scout?? Sounds like toddler may benefit from the later at seniors.

Cake- I have cake, would you like some? Chocolate with choc butter cream, hundreds and thousands AND choc butons. Or if you prefer, something quite other....

We had breaded chicken strip things for tea tonight! in wraps with a winter salad* and ( for DH and I, boy disdains sauces) mayo and sweet chilli sauce. They were very yummy and a nice easy tea.

• the frost has killed off the lettuces ( finally) and the chard is drooping but hid some nice young perky leaves, perpetual rocket in a tub in green house is going strong, greenhouse tub of chives had a few. other stuff from fridge was red pepper, cucumber and celery and carrot. all sliced fine.

Think I'll take advantage of teh alpine tea room and bundle up for a bit of night time skiing with mellors as my flaming torch bearing guide.

Whooosh.

at UniS. Didn't think of crocheting TS a straight jacket. Maybe next time. We learned two different stitches and made flowers. Well, mine's only partially done -- TS kept climbing all over me and needed a nappy change and wanted me to read. It's definitely a thing to do when TS is NOT around since I have to concentrate on what I'm doing. Found it enjoyable, though, so I might have to get some cheapy wool & hook and practice.

Actually, I think a trip to the craft store is in order this weekend. I want to make Toddler (and have him make) some puppets for his puppet theater thingy so we can get it out and start playing with it. Maybe some wool and a hook to practice crochet and I want to get back into cross-stitch -- it doesn't take up much room, it's easy to put away at the end of a night, and I can pick it up and put it down again with ease.

bean, I agree, it's been a very long week.

CMOT, how are you feeling. Such a downer about your elbow.

Enjoy Mom cuddles! And hope JB's jetlag is over quickly. Nothing worse than a jetlagged little one. Hopefully when you return home you'll have a package waiting for you.

Oh, bean, I kept meaning to say that I loved your stoy about smallbean at his birthday party.

A group of us meet up in a village hall to run around, play games, do activities, etc., but we cancelled it because of the icy conditions to get to said village hall. One of my friends said "oh, well let's meet at my house, it's big enough for everyone." She lives in a converted pub and it was FABULOUS! Oh did I have house envy. I know I shouldn't but I did and all I kept thinking was "We could live in a house like this." Her daughter, who's 3 1/2, LOVES toddler so from the minute we were in the door was "Toddler, let me show you the toys" and "Toddler, do you want to play with my trains" and "Toddler, let's go into the playroom." They sat on the floor in front of the train table playing and she kept putting her arm around him in a very content "I have a friend and he's here playing trains with me" sort of way -- and he sat there and let her. It was so adorable.

MrScout's still not home -- would anyone like his dinner before I eat it?

&$(£!%$&(!&%)(%&$&!(%!&%(£!!! STUPID BOILER!!!

Again.

It's packed it in AGAIN.

A couple of weeks ago. Last week it thought of packing it up but it came to life. Now it's kicked it again. Always, always, ALWAYS on a Thursday overnight.

When they came to fix it last time they were supposed to come back and service it (at least that's what MrScout asked them to do). They never did. Damn [bleep bleep bleep] boiler.

It's so cold and we have no hot water, either. There goes the lovely shower TS & I were going to have before meeting up with friends.

ARGH.

The plumber can't come until next week so ScoutCamp is decamping East Anglia and heading to the Thames Valley to be warm.

Gah for you Scout. Why do boilers do that ?

Back home after little trip to Germany. Am tired after an early start this morning, only to get to the airport and find a 90 minute delay.

That must be really annoying CMot.

Scout - i hope the boiler gets fixed soon. They always go wrong in the winter - normally at the worst time of year. Ours went wrong three years running at Christmas. Current one (although older) has been slightly better behaved - although it has a tendency to go out and sometimes refuse to produce hot water - never in front of the boiler repair man though - that would be just too convenient.

Cold here today, but haven't got the snow that was forecast for last night.

Some snow here. Melting a bit now though. FineLad is playing national rugby again at the weekend so we're hoping it's at least warm enough for the match to happen.

in honor of the new Muppets movie, opening in the UK today.

mistlechick was asked what his favourite pop group was at school. He said The Commitments and Queen. Something tells me that that was possibly not the most expected response.

MT. Very popular here too.