Welcome to the Seventh Heaven Tea Room (BYOB. Biscuits, crisps and cake provided)

[Catitainahatita]

Hello and welcome to the seventh incarnation of the tearoom.

If you have found us by chance and/or curiousity you must know that the tearoom is a virtual safe haven for all those seeking a friendly word, a good cuppa and plenty to snack on. By virtue of its magic nature, no food can cause any physical damage, so chocolate, alcohol, transfat and all such can be consumed guilt- (and magically calorie-) free.

We have a wide range of soft-furnishing to relax on; a lovely garden with a swing and a ha ha; a variety of animals; a spa and (for some unknown reason) an apidistra.

Everyone is welcome, if you have one child, ten or none at all. We are a tolerant and fisticuffs-free zone. Instead we employ our energies swooning at Mellors the Gardner cum handiman thinking a silly things to get up to.

Please come in and say hello. You never know, you may end up joining us ...

Amber - well said indeed, it exactly says what I wish I could have said, what I was reaching for with the X men metaphor

Thumb I know what you mean re genes in total - and I have read a little about epigenetics which makes it all even more complicated

Racing- great thrush story. My housemate once raised a pigeon (long story) it used to climb up her leg. It was disgusting

Hot chocolate? yum!

X-men?

Yes, I think there's more similiarities than people realise, from our point of view, though without the dangerous mega-abilities!! And an x-men style of 'school for the gifted' is certainly not the reality for the good number individuals who do not have particular gifts. Nevertheless the level of fear in society can be the same, for some reason.

Anyway, think I'd better apply myself to a bit of book-filing and accounts-adding-up

oh Amber, it was in the context of having seen the last X men film that was on tele the other day - they had discovered a "vaccine" to take away being mutant and the X men were divided as to whether it was a good or a bad thing - "cure" versus "power" - just what you were saying earlier but with more Hollywood pizazz (and destruction of the Golden Gate bridge)

right, quick slurp of coffee and away!

Do I get one of those fancy uniforms?? And a figure like Halle Berry?! Excellent! If they can throw in the plane as well...

I am sure that can be arranged

Actually, my soppy mummy moment came to a fore. Near the beginning of the film a little boy is standing in his bathroom cutting off his wings I was just sobbing and saying "DH, if DaisyBoy grows wings we will just love him for who he is!!!" DH was understandably a bit

Of course, in the end Wing Boy embraces his inner bird and saved the day (and his rather yuck Dad)

The NMBs still have their teeny tiny tomahawks then....

at daisy - you want to watch those hormone rushes!
Don't for the Lord's sake read the Nanny Diaries - I read them whilst pg and was in bits over the poor little boy in the story. So sad! And it's supposed to be a lighthearted peek at the life of a nanny - HAH!

I was very anti the whole vaccine-cures-freaks thing in X-Men 3, but did totally understand why Rogue went for it - but she didn't do it for social acceptance, she did it so she could touch her boyfriend without sucking the life out of him, so fair play to her.
(can you tell I take this all a bit too seriously? )

I think looking for things that will shorten life like the breast cancer problem that some families have is just about acceptable -but I agree that starting on other things which are in a different cateogory is very different and unacceptable.

Anyway, enough about that - am contemplating rushign out to help another mn on a bf thing where her toddler might need shepherding whilst she gets interviewed whilst trying to bf her 6mo... I know that if I ever tried to bf my 6mo in those circumstances he would have not been interested - too many other interesting things to do - including baring all (mine) to the world and possibly getting let down going then poppping off to have a good look round (cue milk everywhere)

Thumb I know, it's a tricky choice - keep your individuality and suck the life from your bf or not?? the dilemmas

Mistle sounds complex but good - who's interviewing the bf mum? Good luck!

Didn't get there in the end - got caught in the office - you know what its like...

Hello there my hearties (plus NMBs, Mellors, Bison etc.)!
This lovely, thanks Racing

The snails sounded like a lovely gift for Mistle Donk. They also seem to have made very useful mounts for our NMBs.

I also agree with Amber and Daisy et al on the whole "gene therapy" front, it sounds much to much like Brave New World to me (there's a Sci-fi book that hasn't aged much; still relevant 70 years later!)

Good news: we're all still healthy here.
Bad news: our town is the one with the most cases in the state (10).
Good news: DH wne out to get an A/C unit for the study to help me in this working from home thing in this crappy heat.
Bad news: It needs to fitted by an electrician. No bugger wants to come and do it for fear of entering strange and possibly swine flu infected house
Still, it looks nice in the box.

Oh, Catitat! my sympathies!

Mistle I so know what you mean hope bf mn managed ok! I'm sure she did

I had missed the tea, by jove it is good isn't it?

Fe de errata

et al and Brave New ^World

Apologies.

It tastes even better with a wee drop of this!

Shame we can't lend you Mellors to put that unit in, really

Yes, Mellors would be very useful. Never mind, DH is going to phone round some friends and see if he can find someone with the necessary DIY abilites (ie NOT US) to be able to do the job.

Lots of deep and relevant things I could possibly say, but the first things that leap to mind are

a) how can a pigeon be disgusting?
b) going back a long way now to Daisy saying that as soon as DaisyBoy sees her his legs seem to stop working, have you thought of a Hippychick hip seat? Wriggle has the same leg-crumpling tendencies (in fact nearly all of DaisyBoy's tendencies seem to be reflected in Wriggle's behaviour, viz eating and sleeping habits) and I find the seat a boon. She is still being carried around, so she is happy and seems to weigh nothing on the seat, so I am happy. She can even go to sleep on it with her head on my shoulder while walking.

Congratulations Justa We are firmly welcoming of all but the judgemental here, and I think that every wanted pregnancy needs to be congratulated on - a mc would hurt just as much if everyone sucked their teeth and didn't acknowledge it.

Where are you off to on holiday ?

Hiya Justa,

Having been in your position a couple of months a go, I can tell you two things.

1. The tearoomers will be very happy for you and supportive of your (very understandable) fears.

1. Be positive. Just because it has gone wrong for you a few times it can go right too. Actually, I could do with taking my own advice here since I have spent the last 8 weeks convincing myself that I mustn't get too pleased or excited about this pg. Instead I have been listening to a mantra of doom and gloom. This didn't help me and probably made my ms much worse.

I'm sending a very Jackmama-like supportive (((HUG)) and my very best wishes. I'm very pleased for you.

PS. Its good to see you here again. Dare I ask how the thesis is getting on?

OOOh Justa!!! what news to be keeping under your surplus (or whatever is the attire of your choice ) All things being well, we'll congratulate you properly when you've had a bit more time to confirm things are going right this time.

Muted (at your request, not from any sort of begrudgingness) congratulations from me too, Justa!

It is, I think, just as Catita and Cmot say. Because so many of us know from experience how hazardous the path to motherhood can be, we are very glad to hear of wanted and cherished pregnancies. Even if some of us can barely cope with one child. >

I am now entertaining myself with images of Justabout packing an assortment of ecclesiastical vestments for her holidays. And wondering whether suppliers of said vestments offer a maternity range.

And I had meant to say that I am also bothered by the amount of genetic determinism that gets bandied about these days. In the 19th century, when I was at university, we were taught that the very most that (say) a gene for intelligence can represent is a tendency towards being more intelligent than the average. Whether someone is more than averagely intelligent, though, will depend rather more on other factors such as interest, encouragement, opportunities for learning and so on. This genes = destiny thing is very alarming and, scientifically speaking, a load of tosh (as they say in The Lancet).