Tea room the 5th - welcome to the yurt

[UniS]

Welcome to 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.

You have found us- did you like teh slide/ bridge over teh HaHa. Teh priest hole is still available, its just over there.

Mellors and I have erected the yurt, strewn rugs around and good a good fire going in the wood burner. The place is feeling toasty and warm with not a draft to be felt.The kettle is now singing away on the hob. selection of teas for all taste on the shelf along with the hand made by potters mugs. Mellors very ably fitted teh yurt window with a window sill onto which can be placed a selection of pot plants and george.

Can someone sort out RP ( who I think came over with the sofa) and plump up the hay pile for donk.

A Previous incarnation of Tea room may be found here

Good evening, all.

Haven't been on for a while, because I am rapidly approaching 87 and will now need to be played by Margaret Rutherford.

WS still has awful cold and can cough solidly for 10 mins. DH still rather tetchy and Aged Parent rather down at the moment, so between them all, I've been quite busy.

Have been thinking back to a book that I used to read when depressed (not that I am, at all). It was maybe rather twee and mannered for today's taste, but it had as a theme living life as if something were true, until it finally becomes true. I think it was by Elizabeth Gouge.

The other book I used to fall back on was 'The Devil's Advocate' by Morris West. A lot of very disfunctional unhappy people sorting themselves out, sometimes by giving up what they thought they most wanted.

Does anyone else have a favourite bad times read?

RS - was it City of Bells ? Lovely book.

Sorry to hear that all your family are still ill.

My favoured bad time books are The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (in fact most GHs, truth be told), and the Little House books. Soothing, undemanding and familiar enough for my brain to sort itself out whilst I am not paying attention.

We went to the zoo this morning. And got very wet and cold as it chucked it down. DS totally delighted by the divers cleaning the aquarium tanks though

Racing - Lovely to see you again. Have an illicit ((hug)).

I'm not sure what my favourite bad time book is, as I so seldom re-read. I'll have to say Brideshead Revisited.

On this charming oak table made by the local bodger, I have arranged

crystal flutes of bolly
crystal tumblers of mineral water
hand-thrown by potters bowls of twiglets, crisps and olives

What will you have?

Ooh, twiglets, crisps and olives, please!

I'm sure it wasn't City of Bells, but I agree that is a lovely book. No longer to be found in libraries, though. The one I was thinking of was about a family, with a matriarch called Lucilla, two dogs, a beloved grandson having an affair and a vicar son whom the mother had never loved.

There are three with Lucilla - The Bird in the Tree, Pilgrims Inn, and The Heart of the Family. All nicely available on AbeBooks, but I have a spare of City of Bells if you would like it.

MadBad - how can you not reread ? This is a strange concept to me

Bolly, crisps and olives please

Cmot - I barely find time for all the books I want to read for the first time. I have this sort of guilt that I can't (say) read Brideshead for the fourth time when I've never read (say again) Northanger Abbey.

Although, shall we have a trashy reading confessional? Last week I read My Life On A Plate. A while ago I read Notting Hell.

I like Northanger Abbey. Mind you, I like them all - you can read more details every time you read them. Hard times read - Terry Pratchet disk world (up to Mort) although they take me rather a long time to read now as I manage about 5mins before I go to sleep...

MJ did have his nap - but we still had a bit of a melt down at supper time which meant that he went to bed not having eaten very much - never mind, he had had a huge lunch...

UniS - vouchers, yes please, sandals - fine - will look back and find your address again when I'm feeling slightly more organised and email you!

CMOT - thank you for the offer, but City of bellsis one of the two I have got. The other is The little white horse.

When I want a trashy read I like Elizabeth Pewsey.

I am constantly suprised that other tea-room regulars have read books I thought only my family had read.

I spec you;ve all gone to bed by now .
Sorry, I'm not going to read back before this page as am too tired etc.
Hope all is well with those I haven't read of.

RS - sorry to hear WS is practising olympic-level coughing - hope she gets over it soon!

CMOTD - my fave re-reads are Georgette Heyer as well - recently got re-hooked into them by a thread discussing the merits of crushed strawberries - found the passage in the Grand Sophy and thought "why not, it's been over a year" and am off and running with them again (currently on The Unknown Ajax)!
I like Pride and Prejudice as a comfort read as well, and Terry Pratchett - for some reason, specifically Good Omens and the Johnny series.
I'm also quite fond of Marian Keyes' stuff (but that's a bit like chocolate - after too much you feel a bit sick of it!)

MadBad - I like My life On a Plate. It's quite good. I quite like Don't You Want Me? as well.

Evening all!

I'll have the bolly please MadBad and drink a toast to Catita! who may now need to be remained CatitawithaBunita. If you're happy my dear, we are happy

I think it's a bit too soon to tell whether your DH is happy or simply in dark glasses with a headache

I was just concerned about the risk to you during the preg. You mention insulin dependency and risks of m/c etc and I know little, but am here to gird my loins for the ride so good luck my friend

and GRRR to your rude other fried. I never have a conversation about anything. Even DS. I start and then run in the other direction. Frankly if another mum with a childee of similar age doesn't understand that heaven help us all. I don't think I have spoken about anything other than wee or poo this weekend because we are potty training. My mind is full of Big Boy Pants and my washer is full of trousers

Kickassangel - life sounds top and jolly for you and CMOT I envy chocolate brown toes.

My best stress re-read is The Great Gatsby. When I was doing exams I read it from start to finish and start to finish. About 50 times

My best bad times re-read probaby Pride & Prejudice or Harry Potter

My best I'm too tired and my brain is boiled read - either funny chick lit like Sophie Kinsella or Adele Parks or Armistead Maupin for some action in San Fran

a day too late? PAH!

oh, I have never heard of Elizabeth Gouge, feeling very intrigued!

not much of a Pratchett fan but love Philip K Dick

can I have one too please?

Sure! Help yourself!

Thumb
are you still there? I was reading about your breeze block debacle, and didn't realise you were actually Kate Winslett can't you just bat the Jewson's lads off with your Oscar?

DCMB good luck with the eggs. I'd eat 'em but then I have no awards for food hygeine! Unless they are totally rank and solid I'd give them a whirl

It's a top moon tonight, very bright and shiny as a good moon should be

Need to finish work and get to bed - speaking of work has anyone seen Zazen lately? Following her "outing" as M16 agent she's been strangely quiet ...

Books? Anything by Pratchett, definitely. Other than that, it's non-fiction for me, on account of how I can't follow complex plots that have lots of characters very similar to each other, and don't understand the social dynamics anyway. All very mysterious...

Have you seen that they've made a film of the Little White Horse? Not sure I want to see it though - read that book so many times that I have my own pictures of how things should look and I'm sure that the film won't get them right! I mean, how can Rolf be both a wolfhound and a lion...

Amber - I find it very interesting that you read Pratchett but don't like books with complex plots... I think some of the Pratchett books have the most amazing 'plots' - particularly the ones where Time is involved or the History Monks.

Something smells good - what's for breakfast? Would you like a cuppa?

Good morning, good morning!

Can I have egg and mushrooms (cooked in non-bacony pan) instead please? I am of the vege persuasion, but really can't get my head round things that are meant to look and taste a bit like meat - I mean, I gave it up because I really don't want to eat it, why on earth would I want to eat something that looks and taste like it! I am, however, quite blase about other people eating it (which is a good thing for dh as he likes his steaks so that a good vet could get it back on its feet ...).

Coming right up, Mistle!

I don't see the point of pretend meat either, but on the other hand I have heard it said that the worst aspect of being a vege is forgoing a bacon sandwich!

In my vege years I never did pretend meat either. Then I became coeliac (well, got diagnosed as such after 5 years of symptoms) and found that I could be vege or gluten free, but not both successfully.

MT - I won't be watching the Little White Horse film - in fact I rarely watch adaptations of anything I love as they are almost always a huge disappointment.

I think I know what Amber means about the plots - in TP, all characters are very different and well defined. In a chicklit (for instance), you have to remember that so and so is the one with the weird boyfriend, such and such is in unrequited love etc, but there isn't a lot else to define them by.

Ah, I see - thanks CMot. Well, then, Amber, have you tried Tom Holt at all? I really like 'Paint your Dragon' (or it might be Paint my dragon) and Beowulf - very well defined characters - lots of references to historical/traditional story references though - would these be OK?

MT, CMOT's right about the Pratchetts and about why I find most books a complete mystery.

For me, it's just a mess of identical -sounding people talking to other identical-sounding people about emotions I don't have, and can't experience, so it's a bit like you picking up a book of characters all called Fred and all talking about SnozzWotsits all the way through and you don't even know what a SnozzWotsit is.

In the Pratchett books, everyone is 'larger than life' and really easy to picture, especially with illustrations on the front covers. I've never tried a Tom Holt, but I will have a go, thanks

Morning!
Bacon sandwich would be lovely. Unless it's Pinky and Perky. No, I can see them by the haha.

Oh look, they are having a little protest march, they've strapped signs to their backs saying "No Snorker from your Porkers" and "Keep away Death Squad" - I think they'd like us to be vege

CMOT and Amber I know that book feeling. I get it reading Tolstoy - it's all Androyex Andrex Milton son of Milton Andrexya etc etc. Or Japanese books. Just reading Half of a Yellow Sun and I am afraid I find the names really hard to differentiate

I am not Aspie, just not good with foreign names (but that's the only Daily Mailish thing about me I like to think )

Here's one and here's the other one The first one or two TH books I read didn't really click - then I read these two and the rest made sense ifyswim... Both are great fun, and I would hope that you would have no problem with the characters - they are very different and I don't think you'll get them mixed up. And there isn't lots of discussion about feelings... Quite interesting that both have female 'lead' characters - although how 'lead' they are is questionable when the rest of the plot gets going.

Would anyone like some soup? We've got carrot and tomato today, with some more lewd rolls. I think ds was modelling ballons when he made them and stuck them into random groups (I remember helping to decorate a village hall for a friend's wedding and deciding that it was important that the bunches of balloons either had two long balloons or none at all