The Fourth and Only TeaRoom! Tea, Champagne and Muffins at all hours! Racing Pig get moving!

[daisy99divine]

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!

hello cmotd - you in the States now? How's the jet lag?

JM you are probably asleep again, but CMOT is ready for a chat being state side and all!

Thumb, I know that star fish sleep! DB sometimes turns so he is horizontal across the bed!

I dealt with fear of rolling by investing in bed sides - like the ones you get for kids on their big beds but made for adults in double beds! Really cool and keeps the pillows in. I loved it, particularly when DH away, but you have to remember or in the middle of the night when you nip out for a wee, well, you don't nip, you hurtle, fall on the floor and make mucho noise

I di dthink of those Daisy, but half my problem is the little perisher darling likes to get up to his feet as well when half awake and launch himself around the bed, so the bedsides would only add to the height he has to fall! He'll be ok if he goes off one side, there is a beanbag and a soft play mat just below the bed level - it's the other side that bothers me. Mostly I keep him on the safer side, but then I have to turn over or my hips go mental, plus he's still bf'ing - aarrghh!

Anyway, he's currently still asleep! but almost certainly for not much longer, especially as I just hear DH getting up for one of his nocturnal pees.. oh yes, there he goes (DS)

yes, here in sunny Virgina. Fortunatly I don't really get jetlag, since I can sleep anywhere and anytime

When we coslept (and on the odd occasion that we still do) I found that I was so stiff in the morning as my usual fidgeting was suppressed. DS likes to sleep on top of me or cuddling me, which is a bit of a pain since I don't like being touched when sleeping

Glad to see that things are looking up for the inhabitants of the tearoom.

Good news today - old friend who I had lost touch with made contact via Facebook, and after TTC for 7 years is pg with twins

Hi CMOT - where in the States are you?
I just woke up again from another nap... sore, ouch... had to get up and reheat my bean bag to get comfy again and detoured to the computer. Anybody want to know which part of my anatomy the bean bag is on?
Actually, the heat feels blissful and it replaces having to have four daily sitz baths - which are nice, too, but I don't have an actual sitz bath thingie that goes on the loo, so I actually sit in a steaming hot bath, which is great, but four times a day... a bit much.
Thumbwitch, I know what you mean about having a warm house. We don't have central heating, rather, we have a gas fireplace in the living room that heats (almost) the entire place, and when it went out a few weeks ago, it was miserable. BTW, I read on another thread (the Style and Beauty one about "do you paint your fingernails") that you are a massage therapist and do deep tissue work. Cool. That's my area of specialty too. I do Active Release Technique (A.R.T.). I love it. It's hard work but it really works. So I have no fingernails either.

Hey CMOT, that's great for your friend with the twins!! When is she due? How lovely for her.

Jackbaby has recently started to sleep on us, too. I don't usually mind it but since the op I've been in a bit of pain so it's not great. Oh well. He can't know - he just knows Mama was away overnight and came back and has been lying down a lot, and he's not sure he likes it, so he wants to get as close as possible. Plus, he's teething. Molars. Ugh.

Why are you in Virginia? And how do you like the accent? ;)

You know who I just realized we lost since the first incarnation of the tearoom? BBpants. I think we should try to track her down. And Cuddly hasn't been around either.
Is it rude to pop into other threads and try to get people to come back to the tearoom? Well, we know Mulanmum thinks so but I'm not sure I can be arsed to care - but do you think other MNers think we're being obnoxious? I hope not.
And where has Rev been????

Sheesh. I go in hospital overnight and sleep for a week and people fall off the radar screen.

Is it me???
[quivering emoticon]

I think I need more drugs.

I'm in Charlottesville, VA

I think 4 baths a day might be a bit much too. Glad the bean bag is working - careful not to over heat it [ouch emoticon]

After being jammed into the middle economy seat for 6 hours yesterday and hemmed in by a very elderly man on each side so I couldn't move, I could do with a massage too. Instead I shall lie on the bed with laptop, do some more work, and watch bad TV

Oh, nothing good on TV on the East Coast? we have three recorded episodes of 24 to watch if you want to head a bit further west. We have lots of wine, too...
So how come you're in VA?

Somehow, I always end up watching terrible tv when on my own. I'm also channel flicking whilst I should be doing work (too many meetings during the day to get anything done). It would be sooo nice to drink wine with you instead of drinking decaf coffee

My section of the company I work for has it's head office here, and I have a whole load of meetings that are easier to do face to face, plus it's good to catch up with my engineers based here and the rest of the team. Our main conference season starts in mid May so we have a lot of things to organise before the mania that is then

On the upside I get to go to Whole Foods Market and my favourite health food store. And the really good sushi restaurant tomorrow for dinner

Oh, I heart whole Foods. There is one in North Vancouver, not too far from me. (If you ever need a treat with no US trips in sight.) May I also point you in the direction of Trader Joe's? They're like whole Foods but not as pricey. They have a store locator on their web site.
We're off to watch 24 and drink wine. Have a lovely night!

Good morning all!

So hard to get my eyes open when WS wanted to get up at 3.15 this morning. They just wouldn't open! Still, hasn't been sick for 12 hours. (Had to move, of course, just in case.)

Has anyone heard about Mr Amber?

Wonder how MistleChick and MistleInLaw are getting on over breakfast.

MJ is happily watching scoobydoo with breakfast in the sitting room. Dh is asleep. MJ is under strict instructions not to let anyone in any of the doors, and if the phone goes, to answer it and take it to daddy! Dh is entitled to a bit of a lie in I think - MJ decided at some ungodly hour to rush into our room and climb into our bed. He did lie amazingly still for him. However, it was like trying to sleep next to a small generator - odd twitches every now and again, but more importantly, huge quantities of excess heat. Added to that the fact that I was practically falling off the bed, I wasn't getting any sleep. So gave up and said to MJ that he'd have to go back to his bed (had contemplated going there myself, but was worried that MJ might fall out of bed). It was about 3.30 when I put him back. I think I might need some coffee today...

JM - glad to see you're looking a bit more perky. I don't do well on g.a. - I think I take at least 3 weeks to get over the effect just of that, let alone what else might have happened... Glad that the birthday went well - MJ discovered strawberries on his 1st birthday - and scones and jam - and cake - lots of each was stuffed into his mouth that afternoon!

Amber - hope the news is positive.

I am SO BORED! WS has just been sick again and dh home so dr visit booked. (Dh wanted instant hospitalisation.) Since in RL I am trapped under sleeping, grizzly toddler swathed in towels and surrounded by dust and clutter, I thought I'd come and spring clean the tea room. Miraculously, here she is tucked up neatly on the sofa with her towel and I can move about.

I just read through the whole current incarnation from the beginning and spotted Rev's comment about ds ending up in hospital with dehydration, but WS just won't drink anything.

Thinking of the Rev made me decide to turn out the priest hole while she is away, but it seems to have mysteriously sealed itself up. Obviously a Priesthole of Requirement.

If anyone is passing, please talk to me!!

RS - MJ nearly got hospitalised through dehydration - only kept out because nice Dr round the corner came round (before surgery) (he had said that if there was ever an emergency with MJ to call him, and this is the only time in nearly 4 yrs when we have taken him up - so I think he realised it was rather urgent). MJ and I had seen the Dr (different one) on the Friday (antibiotics for ear infection) and the Monday (give up on Calpol, keep going with antibiotics) and he'd gone from a robust not quite toddler (10mo) to the stage where he couldn't even hold his head up. He was desperately thirsty - but just threw it up, or what little went down came out the other end almost immediately.

Anyway, the advice that stopped us getting admitted was 1floz every 10mins - no more. If it bounced, just try again in 10mins. and it was the diralyte rehydrating stuff - you can get sachets of it.

Would an ice lolly work? What is WS favourite drink? Dilute a tiny bit of that? The dyralite (no, it looks wrong that way too ) comes in different flavours - at the time MJ prefered the raspberry...

Hope WS soon back to normal.

MT what is it with small children generating heat?! The last two nights when I've been to check on DD before going to bed she has been absolutely baking under the duvet - and she's definitely not ill, just pumping out the heat. If only there were some way of harnessing it.

I've been away too long, got nothing to talk about ... I might be back later with a maple cheesecake though. That's provided it doesn't go horribly wrong - recipe calls for a layer of 'special ovenproof clingfilm' and two of foil to protect the cheesecake in its bain marie, needless to say I have no special clingfilm, so it's just in two layers of foil.

Just before I read your post, Mistle, WS woke up, guzzled down 4oz diluted pineapple juice and fell asleeo again. I have rearranged the towels in case it bounces.

Off to wash the tea room windows - remind me, do we have curtains?

DCMB - I think foil much less and don't like cooking with cling film due to potential leakage of stuff from it to the food during cooking.

I agree about the duvet - can't put a 4.5 one on MJ as he wakes up soaking wet.

Perhaps we should bring back the wheelhouse power and each have a large hamster wheel in the house that children could run on (mind you, dog might give it a go too, and one of the chincillas would certainly give it a go )

Rs I thought that we probably had nice muslin curtains at the windows (up to the sash middle) to stop over bright sun coming in and prevent prying eyes (never know when someone going to be bf for one thing, or if Mellors is going to do some more posing at some stage ), but then I think there are probably thick curtains to draw in the evening to keep it nice and warm...

Glad WS has had a bit to drink. Towels are a great invention aren't they. On our session ds was basically wrapped up in them with a spare on my lap, and a big pile of clean ones nearby...

Yup, that's exactly what we look like.

You're right about the curtains, too. I've taken the muslins down to wash and was just hanging the heavy curtains out on the line to give them a good beating in the fresh air.

I have just noticed that someone has been writing in the dust behind the aspidistra. It seems to say, "Die, scraggy plant, die!"

Suddenly reminded of Bocca when dh started to hang freshly-washed towels over the wood burner as it is drizzling outside. As she once said, it's like sitting in a laundry.

Luckily there is a good stiff breeze in the tea room garden, so I have hung the muslins outside. About to clear and polish the bookshelf and the dvd shelf and also that shelf above the window with all the novelty teapots on it. I wonder who collected those?

Was also wondering about Bocca's sudden disappearance without so much as a note. Sudden windfall? Tracked down by avenging figure from the past? Loss of memory? Must ask MadBad if this is a pattern or if it is out of character.

Which page was it RS?

Ta-da! Cheesecake! No leakage!

Now, it says here that I have to pour maple syrup over it, and then pour more maple syrup over each slice as I serve it. So I'll just pour this bit over, then leave the remainder of the immense vat for you to help yourselves.

I'll just take a bit for me, a bit for DH, a bit for DD, and a few crumbs to offer up at my portable shrine to St Nigella.

DD is currently somewhere with my next-door-but-one neighbour (and her two kids, and another neighbour's son). I had a call whilst in the audiologist's waiting area to say she was okay, but dawdling around while everyone was running, and had said she thought it was all a dream. She is shaping up to be a rather odd child, I think, just like her mother before her.

Is there any soup left? Of course there is, the magical tea room soup tureen is never empty!

When I look at them, the tea room curtains are an attractive William Morris print in pleasing tones - definitely not the 70s brown and orange pub version. But they probably look different to others!

Racingsnake - you asked about Bocca. Yes, I'm afraid that - once she knew I was well enough to leave the MN State Home for the Bewildered - she packed a few things into her backpack, grabbed her and BabyBocca's passports and headed for Heathrow, muttering something about never too late to take a gap year. I didn't realise she hadn't left a note. I guess she just assumed I'd explain everything.

I'm glad to hear that all the invalids are turning a corner but have we heard from Amber recently?