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.

Unis - your ice-cream is now legendary in these northern parts .

I think UniS's ice cream is legendary across the world, or at least that part of it that reads this thread!

::joins in group bosom clapsing hugginess::
hello my dears
my lip doesn't feel frightfully stiff - but thanks for thinking so iyswim

yummers to UniS icecream and Happy Birthday UniBoy!

yes, CMOT definition of being a mum is sleeping anywhere! I went to sleep in a meeting last week. Embarrassing enough but I was leading the meeting and talking at the time!

oxeye - that's pretty good going. I have fallen asleep at my desk quite a bit.

Happy birthday to UniS's boy!

-V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V--V-

Happy birthday, Boy!

Happy Birthday UniBoy!!!

Hope you have had a great day.

I think he did.
He got to play on his new ( to him) climbing frame with his best school buddy this afternoon, and they had great fun. After a morning of very enjoyable birthday treat activity with a few friends and lunch at a cafe.

Thank you for bunting and best wishes.
What a difference 6 years makes!

Aww! To me 6 now seems verrrry young! I've been wondering whether Boy enjoyed the climbing frame - it sounds fabulous.

::Would quite like a go emoticon::

A slightly late Happy Birthday to Boy
I'm glad he had an enjoyable time.

I think I'm slightly tipsy. [hic]

So those that know, Toddler has a slightly unusual (as in, not in the top 50) name. Toddler's best friend, the one who's three weeks younger than him, also has a slightly "unusual" name. Was at Waitrose today, farther into Scoutshire than I live, and hear a mum call to her two school-aged children and they had the names of Toddler and Toddler's friend. I was and and so wanted to laugh but the refrigerated aisle was packed of people and I knew they wouldn't appreciated my giggling.

Why have you been over-indulging in the , Scout?

I decided that I wanted to move to YOUT the day I heard a mother say to her children in the Big Museum there "Finbarr, hold Agatha's hand, there's a good boy". I've often wondered whether the mother of Finbarr and Agatha is a MNer.

Maud, I'm still on my first glass. [light-weight]

Oooohhhhh, Agatha. That's a good name. Never heard of Finbarr, though.

Yes, I rather like Agatha as a name. I tried to convince The Bloke on Ursula, but got nowhere.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finbarr is an Irish name. I rather like it - my friend has a Finbarr - but, to naughty girls like Oxeye and me, the name conjures up images of Finbarr Saunders and his double entendres.

Not so fond of Ursula (though do have an Ursula in my lineage) -- makes me think of The Little Mermaid a bit. (Then again, so could Toddler's name.... ). If you look at the map of where Toddler's name was popular the year he was born it was here in East Anglia (by a wide margin). Guess I wasn't so different after all. However, the year TS went to see Santa in the US Santa told me that TS was the first of his name he had ever met (and he had been Santa for a long time).

I learn something new every day!

Ah, I don't know The Little Mermaid so that one escapes me!

Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Yes, I know the film exists but somehow we have never seen it. The closest I've got is the Ariel flannel that someone gave The Girl for her birthday!

HOW do you have a daughter and miss The Little Mermaid? The mind boggles.

Maud, does that mean Girl skipped the whole "Disney Princess" phase? (I admit to being sooooo glad for a boy to miss that phase..... )

Exactly. It's inexplicable.

::Surveys pile of Disney dvds and weeps::

I'd loan you my copy but you'd need to fiddle with your DVD player (US version)....