Would anyone like a cup of tea and a muffin?

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

I'm tired and in need of refreshment.

The tea room is now officially open, serving hot chocolate, tea, freshly-squeezed orange juice and a range of home-baked muffins. Tablecloths and crockery are charmingly mismatched antiques (no Cath Kidston here). We overlook an attractive although somewhat overgrown garden, with a distant view of rolling countryside.

Everyone is welcome but house rules dictate that anyone indulging in fisticuffs will be ejected.

Please come in.

PRTs are basically the same breed as JRTs, but there are a couple of breeding standards that are different - I usually just say she's like a long-legged Jack Russell!

They've also never been quite as trendy as JRTs, so haven't had the over-breeding that sadly comes when a certain breed is "in".
You get a lot of dog in a very small body, which is what I love about her. She does need a good 2 - 3 hours of exercise every day though!

Greyhounds are lovely dogs, I've only ever heard wonderful things about them as pets. How old is your dd? I think it's lovely for children (particularly, dare I say it, only children) to grow up with a pet. My ds considers our dog to be very much part of the family, as do we all (I actually do think of us as a family of four rather than three).

DD is 20 months - and our lovely boy was still around when she was born (although, in hindsight, I think her arrival aged him somewhat!). So I think now, we'd wait probably just a few years before getting another dog - maybe when DD starts at school?

Oh yes, greyhounds make great pets, especially for the lazy! Even when he was young and healthy, he only needed two twenty-minute walks a day and occasional run round the garden. A long weekend walk would knock him out for days!!

Ah morning all!!!

Thanks for the biscuits and brownies! Feeling better already!

sorry to miss last night, was at vey big work do, which went well but seems to have brought back my flu so spent morning in bed (aka working at home) {grin]

JM - lol at your mummy stories, they are NOTHING compared to the "here is your new dog darling" oh dear that almost made me cry to look at it!

I love Parsons Jacks Rebel - it's the long legged original JR isn't it? I guess he eaten something terrible to fart like that

Mistle, don't worry about other people, there are always those who complain/ whine whatever they do!

shall we do mulled wine later???

hugs to all

by the way, glad CTiddler's eyes are good and fingers crossed for Mistlelet's ears

I wouldn't worry about tempting people back to thread, we are here if they want to join!

JM - to make you feel better re dropping DS, my worst? out walking with DS in a backpack, DH and I both thought the other was supporting it, so we put it down and poor little DS, all strapped in, just fell forward CLONK onto nose on path....

he was a little less keen to get in the pack after that!

We don't celebrate our dog's birthday - its a bit difficult as we don't actually know when she was born - we have our suspicions that she was a 'Chrismas' puppy that was unsuitable - we got her the following summer - down as needing 'experienced' owners due to lack of doggy social skills and training - but you wouldn't believe it now. She ate something in the park last week - awful smells and the noise coming from her stomach had to be heard to be believed. She is now on a diet - strictly no leftovers from ds!

Her best friend is a greyhound.

We don't celebrate our dog's birthday - its a bit difficult as we don't actually know when she was born - we have our suspicions that she was a 'Chrismas' puppy that was unsuitable - we got her the following summer - down as needing 'experienced' owners due to lack of doggy social skills and training - but you wouldn't believe it now. She ate something in the park last week - awful smells and the noise coming from her stomach had to be heard to be believed. She is now on a diet - strictly no leftovers from ds!

Her best friend is a greyhound.

we do dog birthday's usually just a card and a treaty chewy bone

so much like any old dog day!

oh, and our dog gives us pressies on our birthdays too!

Glass of merlot anyone - I feel like a glass before doing ds's bath this evening.

Hello MT, glass of Merlot sounds just about right for me, I think I'll join you.

Hi Rebel. Mulled wine sounds an interesting idea - but I think I'll stick to the merlot for the moment. Its been one of those days!!!

Yes, its quite a fast moving thread isn't it - with a lot of byways along the way...

Mistle, poor you, hand over the Merlot!

Wonder why Bocca wants money since we're bringing our own

Rebel, don't worry too much, Racingpig is the guindeapig of Wrigglesnake - child of poor tooth hurting Racingsnake!

maybe racingsnake should just such the mulled wine sachet??!!

DS is abed, poor love has a terrible hacking cough so not sure for how long, and 3 hours 35 minutes until more medised is appropriate!!!

very unhappy - a dear friend died, and it's his funeral tomorrow. I now have a meeting in the morning, was told it's only an hour on train, now looked up and its more like 2 hours so I won't be back in time for funeral, very very sad.... grrr

pass the wine!

Here, nibble anyone?

AHHH, that's a bit better!

Well what a day! Was furiously busy at work - no chance even to have lunch - and now I'm (even more) demented with tiredness. I thought longingly of the soup and lewd rolls at midday, when I was wrestling with my deadlines!

I'm afraid I can't contribute at all to the conversation about pets. Sadly, Boccagoldfish died, probably of overfeeding. My extreme attempts to prevent the inevitable were described - and raised a small laugh - on the pets topic a while ago. I have been tempted to get a hamster, but now we have racingpig here, maybe that'll be enough.

There's plenty of booze on offer tonight, but would anyone like some champagne?

Oh yes thanks Bocca

why was it so bsuy at work? good busy or annoying busy?

Hmmm, decisions, decisions - mulled wine or bubbly ? Think I'll go for the bubbly as I intend to drink mulled wine at the weekend whilst perusing the Christmas street market.

Daisy - sorry to hear about your friend, and not making the funeral.

Bocca- don't get a hamster, they smell and sleep all day. Get a lovely hooded rat instead, they make superb pets.

The dibbler household are on a decorating roll, and have rescued two rooms from their elderly magnolia colour today. Well, DH did as I was working (I love Thanksgiving as its the one day a year that the US are guaranteed to shut up and leave me alone), and we have taped the sitting room ready to paint tomorrow. Now we just have to agree on new lights for the dining and sitting rooms. We are good at finding nice lights, but not ones that a) will fit into our rooms and b)not require another mortgage.
We are enjoying the fact that this house has lovely flat walls, unlike our previous houses which were over the 100 year old mark and both needed having all their plaster removed and starting over. Which we didn't do and therefore should have invested in Polyfilla.

Has anyone noticed that Racingpig seems to be amassing the wherewithal to open his own bar there ? I think I saw the bowl of Twiglets disappearing into his nest

Daisy

Re: The One And Only Tea Room and Art Gallery Charging Policy

MadBad opened this tea room and gallery as a mumtrepreneurial enterprise, as she was hoping to become a bunting and cupcake millionaire. It was run as a fair trade business, and prices were reasonable, but we needed to earn some money so that we could pay our suppliers a fair rate. There was an honesty box, so that customers could pay during the times that MadBad had to leave the tea room unattended while she went to buy supplies or to attend (briefly) to her other job, from which she will retire as soon as she becomes a full-time tea room tycoon.

The tea room has evolved since then and customers have been bringing in cakes and croissants. That's fantastic and we're now running more as a co-operative, but even now we need to make money to meet our overheads - not least, to pay Mellors' wages - so we still need to charge for drinks and the tea room's own cakes. As for booze, we have a 'bring your own' policy, for which we have to charge corkage.

Bocca

on behalf of MadBad (The Management)

What are we paying Mellors for? His cute buns? He doesn't do much as far as I can see...

Some bubbly over here please!

Ooops! Am very slow typist and so perpetually answering the last post-but-three.

daisy - Was annoying busy at work today. I do think that busy is good, but annoying busy - so busy that you can't get off the phone long enough to do anything else - just makes me go WWWAAAAAAAHHHHH!

cmot - we have wonky walls too, in need of replastering. In fact, this house desperately needs a makeover. Must try harder. You have inspired me: what colours did you choose? (You haven't, though, inspired me to buy a rat. The mere thought makes me want to boak, as I believe they say on Mumsnet).

Jacksmama - well, a tea room always needs buns! And, frankly, if people don't stop emptying their dregs into the aspidistra - no names, OK? - Mellors will be working full-time to bring it back from the brink of death again.

We should have just chucked composted the thing...

oh Bocca, I am not your favourite cafe member tonight am I?

questioning the Late Great MadBad's charging policy AND tipping my dregs into the aspidestra

I will pop a little coinage into the honesty box for the sake of Mellors if nothing else I think he has been busy snogging giving the kiss of life to various cafe members and so unable to tend the garden

(might he do a small job on the ladygarden eh? )

Don't get a hamster though whatever you do. A mad woman I roomed with at Uni got one to help her insomnia poor little devil she kept putting it outside (in cage) in winter so she could get some peace and sleep!!

here we are, a lovely spotty draft excluder dog from Oxfam - fairtrade in India I think and good to keep those drafts away

Dear Bocca am I forgiven?

give MadBad a pat when you visit her in the Gentlewoman's Deranged and Strange home or wherever she fetched up

Bocca - in the usual w*nky way of paint colours, the dining room is Egyptian cotton (pale putty), hall is Nordic Spa (very pale green), and the sitting room will have a feature wall of muddy puddle (pale chocolate) and the rest will be natural hessian (slightly browner than the egyptian cotton). We don't do complicated decorating here, but are making an effort. I may be forced to buy some new curtains for DS' room at this rate. After all, he has the curtains I made for our bedroom three houses ago