Episode 34 - The Tearoom moves to New England

[beanandspud]

At this time of year New England is famous for its glorious foliage as billions of leaves change from green to a kaleidoscope of colours. The air is crisp and cool ? perfect for hiking, biking or a drive along back roads, where farm stands are piled high with crunchy apples and orange pumpkins.

Everyone is welcome. There are tea, cakes and wine aplenty so pull up a comfortable chair and join us.

The usual rule applies - no fisticuffs please!

I offer you the choc box of requirement? what would you like to find in it. I'm going for mint creams in dark choc to start with.

Oooh. May I have a nice sugary fudge?

Is there any nougat in there ?

of course there is, just the way you like it.

I took boy for a bike ride in teh dark this afternoon, he enjoyed it . just 2 or 3 miles each way on a traffic free park, but it was proper dark.

Anything coconutty?

We are home . Have had a great week though and a bit of winter sun was so, so good. Small Bean has been a joy and has thoroughly enjoyed himself. Back to work and school tomorrow.

yep, there is coconutty one just there, and a slightly different but just as nice one , there.

SmallBoy got a tour of the flight deck of our plane. &

You got there safely! Yay!!!! I know what you mean - JB has these smiling brown eyes that get him on the flight deck every time

Oh wow, Scout! The flight deck! But weren't you invited?

Well, SmallBoy has one of those airmiles books that we get the captain to sign every time we fly. The First Office brought it back to him mid-flight and was chatting to him. After he left we noticed that SB should have had one of the "certificates" in the book signed and so on the way off the plane we noticed the F.O. sitting in first class putting things in his bag so I asked him if we could have the certificate signed, too. He said "Sure! I'll have the Captain do it since it's a special certificate" and then asked SB if he'd like to meet the captain and see how the airplane was flown. So off SB toddled, down the rest of the plane, happy as can be. I stood in the doorway -- I already had my carry-on on my back and me and the bag would not have fit in with SB and two grown men. Hats off to the F.O. who was fab with SmallBoy.

What really made my night was the fact that SmallBoy, who hasn't seen his American grandparents in a year, kept saying "See Grandmom and Grandad." As soon as he saw Mom hug MrScout and then hug me (it's just the way we were positioned coming out of the controlled are, not a preference of MrScout over me ) he SB ran over shouting "GRANDMOM!" and gave her a huge hug. He's been running to her, hugging, talking to her, etc., as if he sees her every day. Same with my Dad (who couldn't pick us up because he works overnight and had to go to work before we would have got home). I thought for sure it would take a few days to warm up to them (it did last year) simply because of his age and the fact that we don't see them often.

We're off to Hershey and Lancaster today to buy chocolate and go to the outlets (watch out OshKosh outlet store, here comes the Scout Pack!). Tomorrow we're off to The Please Touch Museum. I've never been, even when I was younger, so I'm stupidly excited about it. I think Small Boy is going to love it there.

What a great start to the visit! Have a great time

Hi all - I am still here but haven't been keeping up. But I'm currently struck down with a winter vomiting bug so will be able to catch up on everyone's news later on! Does Mellors have any magic remedies? So far I'm struggling to keep water down - at least it's good as a pre-Xmas diet!

Good as a diet ! well yes I supose so, but not much fun while it lasts. I'm sending Mellors over with fluffy blankets and a hot water bottle for your feet.

Thanks UniS. Today is better than yesterday because (a) I am not actually being sick and (b) Banderchanglet is at nursery so I can rest a bit more. Still only drinking water though. Tried some toast and felt rubbish again. And DH is moping around saying he thinks he feels sick and that feeling sick is worse than actually being sick (typical male approach to illness!). Luckily he is at work now too so I have the house to myself!!! That never happens.

Hope the rest of you are all well and not struck down by winter vomiting.

One of my clients was in yesterday and her family has the norovirus. I disinfected everything after she left. We had norovirus nearly three years ago and although it didn't last long it was a vicious little bugger.

It is indeed a vicious little bugger Jacksmania. Hope you don't catch it from your client. I either got mine from DS via nursery (most likely) or from one of my students. Still, I guess now I've had it and shouldn't get it again this year

I'd bloody better not. I'm supposed to teach anatomy to a bunch of yoga-teacher-wanna-bes all day Sunday, and next Weds we're off to Toronto for Grey Cup. I have no time to be ill!!!

DH has curious approch to avoiding sickness bugs. If I or DS are smitten with such a bug DH doesn;t eat for 24 hours. His reasoning is that he won;t BE sick if there is nothing to sick up.... not convinced me self,but he seems to take no harm from it.

Eh? That's.... erm... unique.

:o

Scout, love SmallBoy running up to GrandMom ... Wriggle ran up to her grandmother on the platform in the South of France when we arrived after 19 hours on the train .... and ran straight past her because she hadn't seen gp's for a year.

Have painted the rabbit's cage pink and put it in the kitchen for company for rabbit ... AP needs me to tell her every step of the day in the morning but is almost like normal in the evening ... with a new HT at school I have never worked so hard; great fun, but I am getting up at 6 every morning to get something done at home but still not unpacked from half term in France.

LBD, lovely to see you. Packing - as long as dirty clothes are in the washing pile, the rest can wait. There are other more important things to do at the moment! You could always get Mellors to lend you a hand.

Sickness - I hope everyone gets over it asap and no one else goes down with it.

Worked at home yesterday with foster dog - she is a delight.

Mmmm, real cheesesteaks. YUM!

:o

Tell me about FosterDog?

After the last two days of running around today we've had a quietish/at-home-ish sort of day. Ahhhh. And when SmallBoy is in bed MrScout and I are off to the bookshop for a drink and browse and an hour or two alone. Bliss.