The One and Only TEA Room: Everyone Welcome (bring champagne and muffins please!)

[Jacksmama]

Wow, we're on our third thread!!!
Previous (second) incarnation of the tea room.

A warm welcome to everyone, whether you have one child, none, or ten. This is a tea-and-muffin or booze-and-sofasorcanapees sanctuary for all. But certain standards of behaviour continue to apply - anyone engaging in fisticuffs will be ejected by George Clooney, ably assisted by Mellors the Gardener.

Cheers all!

Latte and a hanky please, DH dropped me off at work and I could hear Jackbaby howling through the truck windows as he was pulling out of the parking lot... sob...

{{{{{{{JM}}}}}}}}}

Here's the box...

Good job really, I'm running a bit short myself (tissue mountain in all available bins at the moment). achoo

Bocca, DD did inteed have a school dinner, not even an emergency one as such. The dinners are really flexible, we've paid up for two dinners a week for the term (or maybe half-term, can't remember) and no one really seems to care when she has the dinners. Tomorrow is a day when she'd normally have a school dinner, so I can either send a packed lunch or the cash for another school dinner. Mind you, the caterer is changing on 1st April and I just bet they won't be as flexible.

I'm enjoying imagining the DaisyBoy/DaisyDad Mexican recital.

Musical bunch.

Oh, mellors! you really should put SOME clothing on man, you'll catch your death in just those swim trunks. Well, go and get a blanket then, yes, from the charming old blanket box.

Boy occasionally has pretensions of musicality. He has according to UniP ( dh) managed a C and som other note on teh trumpet, but it was fluke. Hes only 2 for goodness sake. I take him to ballet and all he wants to do is watch untill they do jumping... then at home and at childrens centre he wants to show off his " ballet" doings some boogietastic dance moves and throwing shapes on teh floor, finishing off with a bow. Go figure.

My parents coming tomorrow, so I need to frisk teh house and remove all evedance of trying to sell it. sale board is in cellar, now to get all est agent letters filed. ditto bank statements and other incriminating stuff.
Can I borrow mellors to help me? I "think" Amber has finished with him.

Sniff.
Could I have another latte please? Or maybe a mocha...

Sorry bud, I have to cuddle something, I'm taking a brief break from work after talking to DH on the phone. He said Jackbaby is having one of those "I want Mama" days. Apparently he's no really unhappy but he's not all that happy either, he's a bit whiny and cranky which is not really like him.
Sigh. And I can't cancel any of my patients today and just go home.

Maybe I need a hot toddy or something.

Oh, by the way, for those beloved members of the tearoom who've expressed chagrin at the fact that I don't own any plaid, I'm thinking of buying this.
What do you think?

JM, I'm so sorry. Actually, he might have been cranky and whingey with you, mightn't he? And it proably wouldn't have bothered you as much. I'm sure JackChap is very good at whiney babies, too. Do you think he might be cutting a tooth?

Perfect shirt for you!

Thanks... I needed that!
You're right, he could have been just as cranky with me. Don't know about the tooth, will check when I get home. And it does make me feel better that Jackspapa is a pretty great dad.

I do like that shirt, am seriously contemplating it. If only to make you happy and fulfill your mental image of a true Canadian

As long as it doesn't mean that all we English have to dress up in bowler hats or Morris dancers' clogs. Strange, there doesn't seem to be a female English costume.

I always thought bowler hats looked a bit silly. But what is a Morris dancer?

They go round in groups, wearing white trousers and white tops with bells and ribbons on their legs (and possibly arms), sometimes black trilbies with flowers etc, often with sticks (or staffs/staves) in their hands. One of them has an accordian and starts up at which point all the others start dancing, hitting sticks and potentialy balloons on sticks. Oh, yes, they quite often have beards as well.

They are normally seen at village fetes and similar occasions....

There are some female morris dancers, but they are few and far between.

help, not waving but drowning under the pile of filing I've just tuffed off the desk in spare room....

womens morris- quite popular in Devon, waiting lists to join groups etc.

And here we have border Morris, and they dress all in black.

Morris is a particular form of folk dance JM. More info here

If we have to wear english costume, I'll make some proper smocks. I love smocking, and it is my only regret that DS is, well, an S, in that I can't sew lovely dresses for him

UniS - why don't you want them to know about the house being for sale? Why is the house for sale... etc etc.

Dh is at least managing to do a bit of tidying up (and filing) at the same time as applying for jobs.

Oh - I like Neil Gaimon's books too.

re house sale- not telling family till we have a contract signed and exchanged, they would only worry. have lost a buyer already. NOt a good time to sell. howver not urgent as boy has 2 years before he starts school. Just want to live in a nicer bit of Devon, no more to it than that.

Ohhhh border morris- thats serious morris that is, swords and all IIRC.

UniS - approximately whereabouts are you? we've had a couple of holidays in South Hams recently and loved it - we're going to come back provided that we can afford it when it comes to it (ie dh has found anouther job before long)

Yes, they made me think of the dark morris when we first encountered them (me being brought up with Oxford morris, and then the welsh lot) - I rather like them as its a bit more rock than usual

I like Neil Gaiman too. You might like The Painted Man, which DH bought recently and we ended up squabbling over as I felt he was reading too slowly

I bought 2 holiday books which dh and I were both lol at on holiday (in Spain) - if you like Terry Pratchet, Neil Gaimon etc, you might also like these: Matthew Thomas: Before and After, Terror FIrma.

CMOT I'm in Exeter, one of the more deprived areas of Exeter, with a local school in special measures and local teens who like to throw stones at cyclists. Looking to move to edge of dartmoor.

Neil Gainman- I've a major soft spot for the sandman version of A Midsummer nights dream. BUt the I have a soft spot for dream any way it comes almost. Its SUCH a good story its hard to ruin. EVEN a Rap version I worked on in Sept with a constant gansta rap backing track didn't annoy me too much - The backing track did, but the cast lost all concentration if it was stopped. Cast members all had Mod to Sev Learning difficulties. The boy playing Lysander had such a cute smile, he looked like an older version of my son.

jacksmama - Ok, buy the shirt if you must but surely it ought to be red!

As a smog-ridden townie, I am just wondering enviously, UniS, what counts as a less nice part of Devon? Insufficient supply of cream teas? Less than perfect shade of grass?

And I'm having wistful thoughts about smocked dresses. BabyBocca had some beauties when she was tiny (mainly from NCT sales where we bought some very la-di-dah stuff) but I am quite sure she would run in horror from any such garment now. She is quite a girlie girl now but her current style icons are the girls from High School Musical. Left to her own devices, she would dress in the style my friend calls Junior Trollop. What will it be like when she's a teenager, I wonder?

Aaargh! I think I need a drink to calm my nerves.

Would anyone like to share some champagne?

Oops. Cross-post. Now I understand.

The only choices are blue and a sort of oatmeal. At least on this site.

Right , will continue looking for red checked shirt!

Could I have some bubbly to help me look?
[hopeful eyelash-batting emoticon]

Here's the champagne.

Pay no notice to my stereotyped ideas of what a Canadian ought to be wearing. That shirt looks very nice and I'm sure that all lumberjacks don't wear red anyway!

Cheers!

Cor, it's very quiet in here today.