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 ...

Good luck with the camping Daisy.

I will have to pinch my school reports from mum to see what they had to say about me. I fear they were not always positive. DH once got an A for achievement, and an F for effort in History - which sums him up completely.

Good morning all!
Long tiring day yesterday AND I had to miss yoga. [grr emoticon] Right now we've got the plumber here because JB threw something down the loo and it's been blocked... for a week! We do have another one and Jackspapa and I both assumed that the other had rung the plumber... which we clearly hadn't.

thumb, this is for you - a patient asked me yesterday if I could email her something to tell a friend suffering from arthritis why manual therapy would be good for her. Said friend is apparently terrified of chiropractors. So here's what I came up with. If that other thread is still going, feel free to cut and paste and post this on it - you can even take the credit for its undoubted clarity and brilliance but as I said I've offered my professional thoughts before and have been shot down for it so now I stay away from that sort of thing.

Feeling a bit peckish - could I have some soup and a lewd roll, please?

When someone develops arthritis, whether it's in the spine or any other joint, the first thing that happens is that the cartilage in the affected joint breaks down. In the knee, that would be the meniscus. In the spine, that's the discs between the vertebrae. The discs act not only as cushioning, but also as a sort of strut to create space between the vertebrae. This is very important because there are also large spinal nerves that run out from the spinal cord at each vertebra. The spinal nerves pass through "tunnels" created by how two vertebrae sit on top of each other, all the way down the spine. When the discs between the vertebrae break down, the amount of space in each nerve "tunnel" is compressed because the vertebrae have lost their "struts". This compresses the nerves, too, and causes pain and muscle spasms and stiffness (because the nerve being pinched irritates whatever muscle the nerve goes to).
A further complication is that when cartilage or discs break down, our bodies try to contain the damage by laying down new bone. This is actually not entirely a good thing because these bone spurs tend to stick out in inconvenient places and irritate the compressed nerves even more.

Now, here's the thing: no one, not a chiropractor, massage therapist or medical doctor, can reverse the process of arthritis once it's started. If we could find a way to do that, it would be brilliant - so much suffering would be alleviated. But we're limited to prescribing anti-inflammatories to decrease the pain of arthritis, and manual therapy (chiro or massage). What manual therapy can do is keep the spinal joints moving well, which helps with blood circulation to get rid of inflammatory waste products that irritate the joints even more. It also helps get rid of muscle stiffness and spasms and so decreases pain. Increased circulation also helps decrease the formation of scar tissue (which is always an undesirable side effect of inflammation). The best effect of manual therapy is that it can prevent the progression of arthritis, or at least slow it down. Nothing can reverse it. At best, manual therapy is "maintenance" to keep a body feeling good and moving well. At the very least, it's "damage control".

Having spat my tea out on the keyboard at the comment from Daisy's teacher about Art, I shall attempt to compose myself...

I am managing without Mrs C in a particularly badly organised way. It's not that I don't know what the time is - I'm very good at knowing what the time is. But I'm much better at getting totally absorbed in whatever I'm doing. Then because I hate being late, I rush and get stressed out.

Daisy, you're not (whispers) a Barrister, are you?! A fine profession, if so. I know several, and just about every solicitor in the SE region from my Other Work and Charitable Activities. Many's the happy hour spent reading magazines with the Bar's finest whilst waiting for court cases, not to mention sharing boiled sweets with the Ushers and being sneaked into cases so we could have a listen. Dad was a JP, so courts etc are something I've grown up with in one form or another. Absolutely fascinating work. DH is an Expert Witness, so gets to spend a fair amount of time giving evidence and arguing with the Barristers, often to their dismay. They should never argue with a pedantic Aspie with a photographic memory for detail!

What a quiet evening!

Fell asleep in RL fter Gardeners World and have just woken up. Wriggle still asleep. Think it might be my subconscious dealing with the stress of dh being back from his trip to Amsterdam and developing at least two new maladies (!)

Wriggle happy though with papa firmly back under the thumb and following orders!

Off to bed now. Thank you for constructive comments about reports - have been trying the Mistle method.

JM - my Aged Parent suffers dreadfully from arthritis in her knees, as did her mother. I am hoping for a Miracle Cure to be invented by the time I get there, since the prospects don't look good. I don't know how good I will be at dealing with constant unalievable pain. On this sobering though, definitely off to sneak me and Wriggle into bed.

I have had a lovely day. I bought plants. It's like a disease with me. I have a 12 ft x 2 ft flowerbed in front of our town house, and it's the show piece of our complex.
I got two new lavenders, two hot pink and white dahlias, and two salviae. And several red snapdragons to put in a bowl by the front door. Jackbaby obligingly took a very long nap so I could get the weeding and cutting back done, and then woke up as I was planting. So I had to chase him around as well as dig holes. Apparently we looked v amusing to the neighbours. We then mulched the bed with lovely fragrant cedar mulch and then were filthy and took ourselves off to the pool. He is now napping, and I am enjoying a glass of Prosecco.
What a beautiful day!

Racingsnake, if they're in 'orrible pain, someone's got the pain relief wrong. I have arthritis in many of my joints including back and neck - have done for many years - and I find I can sort out most of it. Actually if it's sort of there most of the time, you learn to ignore most of it anyway, I find. Could do with someone finding a cure, but it doesn't stop me from enjoying life.

Jacksmama, that sounds really lovely! I was about to plant out my marigolds and pansies, and a couple of large ornamental daisy plants, but it's pouring with rain. Even Mr B isn't too keen to go outside. I suspect he'd had enough of the Irish rain before he was rescued, bless him. Think we might head over to the horse trials near Henley if the rain stops. That's always good for a bit of entertainment.

Ah! Tea!
Mmmmm lovely... thanks Amber

Sprog woke up at 6.00am and has been bouncing on me ever since - now he has gone to bounce on our guest [bad host emoticon].

I think we are going to York today for breakfast!

That's a long way to go for Breakfast! It's about 300 miles!! Oh hold on, that's from my house

Is your guest now awake and looking at you in a particularly way, by any chance??

JM - thank you so much for the info!

I had to go to bed with DS last night again - we buggered up his nap in the afternoon so he had it too late and despite looking like he might go to sleep after his bath and bedtime feed, no go. So off to my bed in the hope that he would drop off and I could get up again - nae luck. I mean, he did drop off but so did I and when I woke up so did he so no chance of getting him into his cot.

lol amber - that's funny about the breakfast thing.

Daisy I think the worst report I had was from my maths teacher in Lower VI - something along the lines of "I would love to be able to comment on Thumb's work but as I haven't seen any of it, I can't say how she is doing" . She also told my parents at Parents' Evening that she would like to bang my head against the wall, a laudable sentiment that my parents wholeheartedly agreed with - because I was more than capable but didn't apply myself (i.e. was lazy!)

Breakfast this morning was extremely soggy oatibix minis - Dad phoned just after the milk had been put on and by the time I got back to them they had absorbed it all - not my favourite way to eat them! Still, DS didn't mind, he was sharing mine.

Well, the horse trials was indeed entertaining! One horse jumped out into the bit with the shops instead of turning the corner to the fence, much to the embarrassment of its rider and the indignation of shopkeepers , another managed to make a bid for freedom on the lorry park , and I spent a good bit of time at the dressage with a young lady with CP who was having a brilliant time watching her mum's friend on her huge horse . Got chatting to a couple of people with massive Leonberger dogs, and consumed a very nice choccy ice cream. That's what I call a nice day.

My low back is not-so-subtly suggesting that I have overdone the gardening.
Ouch!!

Hot bath, I'd say. Or a nice back rub from Mellors...

Hello,
I was some what disconcerted to wake up this morning to discover that Mexico is in the grip of a flu crisis.

see this link

However on reading the numbers I am not quite so convinced I should start buliding a safe house and hoarding basic essentials. 20 deaths from a 1000 cases seems harsh but panic level quite yet. Still it is quite worrying in a Mexico City context where appproximately 20 millon people live cheek by jowel (sp.? I have no idea)

Long and breezy day out with Wriggle. Really tired now and she was at her most irritating - tired and badly behaved but for some reason not able to fall asleep for her nap. Never mind, I totally forget those days when she is being charming and lovely. She is at the moment sliding Racingpig down the slide in a washing up bowl.

Was in the library today when I overheard the librarians talking about Wriggle: "Isn't it wonderful she is bilingual" etc, then one said, "And her father is so good looking. We always lech (sp) after him when he comes in."

Have been trying to squint at him in different lights ever since we got home!

"jowl"
But [oh dear] at flu epidemic!!!

And at comments about Mr. Racing!! Ohhhh la la!!!

Hey - rs - I think you might be able to offer some advice over here....
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/743416-bilingual-kids-keeping-other-language-up-to-scratch-especially -written

Hmm. Some of my best friends are librarians and they spend their time going to California for conferences on preservation of electronic archives. They don't smell of cats or dust.

Perhaps Racing should post a picture of her dh, so that we can give him marks out of 10 for Gallic handsomeness ? Or perhaps we should offer a multiple choice questionnaire: does he most resemble

A. Daniel Auteuil
B. Gerard Depardieu
C. Alain Delon
D. Jean Paul Belmondo
E. Nicholas Sarkozy

And the penny has finally dropped (I think) about how Daisy earns a crust. A silken crust, perhaps?

So, it's Saturday night. Anyone in the mood for a party? I've found another magnum of champagne in the fridge. I'll start with a bit of ooh la la on the juke box.

DS and I ventured to our favourite farm today. Rather worringly (we have only been there twice) the very nice lady who does the tour remembered us. Am not sure if this is a good thing or not.. But it is really lovely and very hands on - DS's favourites are feeding the lambs and milking the cow. There were loads of baby guinea pigs and I was thinking of RacingPig.

I had the opposite problem to RS - DS fell asleep at 3.15 in the car on the way home, slept all the way home, I put him in his bed, at 5.30 when I tried to wake him he did not want to wake up at all. 30 minute crying and sobbing until I understood that he wanted a drink of squash out of the animal cup and a pink straw. He was too tired to make sense

AMber - your horse jumping out reminded me of going to a sheepdog auction. At this particular one they had to pen 7 sheep within an arena. Young dog was making a total mess of it, finally this old dog (who was supposed to just be sitting by it's dad) jumps the fence, goes in, rounds the sheep up, puts them in the pen, and jumps back out with a distinct look of 'look, can we go now, I showed him what to do'

CMOTD - that is very funny about the old sheepdog. It probably is exactly what it was thinking too!

Err, err, where am I?

You are right madbad - all the librarians at our local library are funky, fun, young and interesting.... Once I bumped into one at a rather wonderful art gallery in Paris - so they obviously know all the cool hang outs too!

However, right now we are reading this book at least three times a day and... I LOVE IT!!!

www.amazon.co.uk/Library-Sarah-Stewart/dp/1845074947/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240694994&sr=1- 3

Elizabeth Brown is really becoming my hero - 'tis why I am wearing this outfit!!!

... I had no idea Mr RS was going to be here... ha ha ha ha !!!!

• madbad - REALLY .....

Well I never!!!! Don't you think you might look a bit prettier if you put your trousers on your eeeeerrrrrmmmm - legs...

Now here is a good rule of thumb....
Head for fascinators legs for trousers!!!!!

Yes, that is nicer.