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!

That looks really good DCMB - can I have a slice please. I do like maple syrup. I saw a thread earlier on commenting on extortionate prices - but its worth it isn't it.

I will really have to get sorted out. Dh has a tendency to use expensive, really nice honey (ie for bread or toast) as cooking honey. It does make nice cakes, but I'm not convinced that it wouldn't be equally nice with the basics honey that is about quarter of the price.

Good morning!
Someone catch me up, what happened to Amber's husband?

Maple syrup really isn't that expensive here for obvious reasons. We could probably post you some of the really good stuff!

Good idea. Parcels of maple syrup.

My father spent part of his boyhood in Canada, JM, as part of his father's plan to go bankrupt on every continent, so we always had a bottle of ms in the house.

MadBad, what a relief to know that Bocca's sudden absence was planned. Unfortunately, as I completely failed to notice the trekking book, I also completely failed to see the marked page, so we will just have to wait for the postcard.

How lucky you are Mad, to have been able to get out into the garden. Was MadBaby involved?

Baby - a bit confused - who was dreaming they were at the audiologists with their neighbour?

Off with WS now to the doctor. Hope many things become clear on our return.

Particularly how Amber, Mr Amber and Fine Lad are getting on.

oohoohooh - maple syrup cheesecake - YUMMMM!

Afternoon all - I am pleased to report that DS, despite sounding like he'd woken up at whatever time it was last night, actually slept through until 5:30am!! I have come to the conclusion that having a warm house again is the reason why - although he was always covered with blankets etc to keep warm, his head was uncovered and I bet that used to get cold and wake him up.

Our house last night was unfeasibly warm - I turned the thermostat right down, switched it back to timer instead of on 24hours and it just kept going - I suspect the boiler was just so excited that it had anew pump that could actually take all the hot water all round the house that it was hysterically heating... It didn't sort itself out until this morning when I switched it off at the mains!! (the equivalent of a sharp slap?)

Yet again, I wish that someone would get on and invent FoIP (food over IP) so JM could just email us some maple syrup. I didn't realise there was a thread about (disclaimer: I really should know by now there is a thread about EVERYTHING on MN) - it is quite pricey though. But worth it. It is a natural product, and therefore healthy. My cheesecake contains digestive biscuits (which everyone knows are, as the name suggests, good for your digestion), butter, soft cheese, eggs (free range), maple syrup (ditto), cornflour and very little sugar (golden caster sugar at that, so less process than normal). So healthy it practically qualifies as a fruit.

Disclaimer #2: this cheese cake brought to you by someone who has been known to argue that Jaffa Cakes are a fruit, procede with caution.

Amber has been on SN and philosophy/religion/etc boards today - possibility of her DH having a scan today, so if that has happened that would explain absence for the bulk of the day.

Jackbaby woke up this morning when Jackspapa had to get up for work. This was much earlier than he usually wakes up, and much earlier than I had planned to be up [grr emoticon]. But he had a better night than the last two, because I kept the bottle of Hyland's Teething Tablets by the bed and whenever he woke up with his "my teeth hurt" cry (which is a real painful cry rather than has sleepy "I woke up but I don't know why" grizzle), I'd give him teething tablets and nurse him a bit - so he only woke up twice! But then 6:30 am came around [repeat grr emoticon]

Something funny that I just remembered - the first time Jackbaby woke up, he rolled towards Jackspapa who started to pat and comfort him. I reached for the teething tablets and then tried to give them to Jackbaby who was wrapped around DH. I was feeling in the dark for Jackbaby's mouth and trying to peel his lips apart rather insistently, when suddenly DH piped up, sounding very annoyed, "that's my ear!!!"

Anyone have any idea how homeopathic teething tablets affect the male ear?

Oh - just remembered through post-GA fog - Amber's DH had a brain bleed or something? Oh my. Hope he's ok. I did briefly read a post of hers where she said he was well enough again to sleep starkers in the hospital ward to the of the other patients?

DCMB - I think I just have to disabuse you of the notion that there is any health benefit in using golden caster/granulated sugar. It is just as refined as the white stuff but taps into the consumer belief that "brown is healthier" and in fact is simply white sugar coated in caramel colour. If you are very careful (with the granulated sugar, too hard with the caster) you can actually wash the colour off. (damp tissue and much patience and finesse required)

The least processed sugar on the market is dark brown muscovado, then light brown muscovado. Muscovado is a protected name; unlike demerara, which should be the next least processed but anything can be called demerara if it conforms to being brown and sticky.

I hope Amber's DH is recovering and that the scan news was good...

LOL at "nerd alert" and washing the colour off sugar... I thought I was a bit OCD but that really takes the biscuit [affectionate teasing emoticon].

it's the old food scientist in me - before I took up bashing massaging people for a living, I was a scientific type - although I admit that I never worked in the food industry as they were entirely too corrupt for my liking, having done a degree in Food Science and therefore having insider info. So I went to work for the NHS instead! Much more ethically sound and hugely less financially rewarded, but I felt good about myself.

Isn't it great to hurt bash people for a living? [kidding]

Isn't it great to hurt bash people for a living? [kidding]

Having been a food scientist must really give you a unique perspective on baby formula makers etc.

gives me a unique perspective on lots of things, jacksmama, including complementary nutrition. S'funny - when I was looking at career choices, I wanted more than anything to do some form of applied Chemistry - so I applied to do pharmacy. Didn't get in (thank GOD!) so switched to food science, thinking that would be ok, I could work for Mars Inc. But, as i got older and realised the appalling corruption in these industries, I knew I couldn't do it. I wanted to get into biotechnology and took the NHS route as a stepping stone initially, but soon discovered that biotech was just as corrupt so stayed with the NHS. Whatever else you can say about it, it ain't corrupt (well, not at base level anyway, and the corruption that exists is from external sources - i.e. big pharma)

I love my job! so do my clients! but they do laugh when other people say to them "ooh, you're going for a massage, how lovely!" - errr, no - not lovely, but effective!

TW - I do like muscovado sugar - I like the molassesy taste of it. How refined is molasses by the way [ignorant].

I dropped chemistry etc asap - I just couldnt' get my head round learning which bits went together in what quantities... Cooking on the other hand...

DCMB - of COURSE jaffa cakes are fruit. I mean, there's the orange - that's a fruit, and then chocolate is good for you (well, actually, not for me, but for most people)

I do like the idea of emailing maple syrup. Can you just imagine all the little smears of sticky goodness in very fine threads all the way between Canada and here... It might, of course, be a hazard to birds, and probably aircraft if there was a lot of call for ms in one direction....

JM - surely it 'takes the digestive' - much healthier than standard biscuit dyk!!!!

molasses is actually the by-product of the first refining process, it has all the oligosaccharides and indigestible bits in it that are great for your gut bacteria, so it is a good choice. But it doesn't contain much actual sugar cos that has been refined out! So it isn't as sweet.

chocolate comes from a bean and is therefore a vegetable, I thought everyone knew that?

TW - that's probably why I like it! My tooth has got less and less sweet as I get older, although I do like the occasional sweet thing. Lemon particularly.

Chocolate - yes, clearly a vegetable. I still can't eat it though - I have to go for another bean - carob - and not try to pretend that it is a replacement!

of course chocolate is a vegetable. it comes from the cocoa BEAN

so is sugar. it comes from the sugar BEET

i am starting to send a thin thread of maple syrup along the great circle route. it shouldn't interfere much with birds.

(if we suddenly see an increase in the bird obesity rate i will have to think of something else)

someone tell TW to stop using such big words before we've popped the first bottle of Bolly

she's making my head hurt

• sorry, got carried away!

Stop that this instant.

The only "carrying away" to be done in the tearoom is by Mellors.. of whomever he feels like showing the stable to at the moment

BTW - 'twasn't me who put the "die, ugly plant, die" sign on the aspiwhatsit. I've been in bed.

better still, let's get that Bolly open and on the move

• anyone?

Of course chocolate is a vegetable. And sugar, beet or cane. And champagne is made from grapes. And cheese straws are made from cheese, which is made from milk, which is made from grass. So I think it is nearly time to work on upping our five a day.

Doctor quite worried about WS. Hospital for her tonight if she does not a) drink more b) refrain from being sick again. Have achieved a) to a certain extent by bribery with sweets; this, however, may be incombatible with b). Am hoping for the best - a night in Kingfisher Ward sitting holding toddler on drip is probably to be avoided.

It was written in very old dust, JM.

Oh dear about WS. Will keep fingers crossed. Would a ((HUG)) or pat be welcome?
I'd be worried sick.