Tea room the Eighth - sun, sea, sangria, and perhaps a sandy Mellors

[DontCallMeBaby]

Greetings, welcome to the eighth incarnation of the tearoom.

The tearoom has been, and will be again, a virtual safe haven for anyone up for rather random chat and a comprehensive range of virtual snacks. Nothing in the tearoom will make you fat, or drunk (unless you want it to) or cause an allergic reaction.

The new tearoom location is a beautiful beachside cafe (no need for factor 50, the virtual sun will just lightly tan you, bring out your freckles or simply warm your skin, as you prefer) with a range of garden swings, hammocks, sunloungers, deckchairs etc (as well as a rather incongruous, but well-loved, chaise longue). For those in need of sanctuary, we have managed to fashion a new priesthole out of woven grasses.

Our fellow residents include Mellors the rugged gardener of few-but-well-chosen words, the naked mohawk babies, a coterie of bishops, various domestic pets, and a selection of others. On the human side, all are welcome - while we live in the One Child topic some regulars have more than one, and we are welcome all (except people who put their heads on one side and tell those of us with one child that it's just not fair to have only one child).

Please help yourself to a glass of Champagne and a canape on the way in ...

Scottishmummy - I thought so - I will tell my Mum...

We are off out now and I will stop talking to myself - between playing Mummy and Daddys with the different sized pencils - Milk's game idea

Anyway - bye or now

waves at DCMB!!!! Have a nice day...

Bit of a post and run as I'm in Toronto, and getting dressed while downloading my emails etc.

Catita - I'm thinking a wrap dress. Always smart and flattering.

Will be back later, but prob only in timezone to JM

Thanks CMOT. I shall peruse on-line and then see what actually makes it to the shops over here. (Remember we're in the back of beyond here....) I'd like ot wait until we actually get to the UK as there would be better choice, but it isn't really very practical since we arrive on the Monday and are off to said conference on the Thursday. Jet-lag and families will not permit a shopping trip in between, I think.

Thumb Until I moved to Mexico I had all my old school books dating back until primary school. Ditto reports etc. When I moved I threw away all those and donated the reports to my mum on her request (as she says "they were always good for a laugh" ). I kept all my history university notes plus the English language teaching courses I had done (just in case noone would employ me as a historian and I'd have to go back to my old standby of teaching English). None of which are much good these days as I do Mexican history (not UK stuff) and haven't taught English (except as a favour to my neighbour's toddlers and other assorted schoolchildren) in 10 years.

Now of course everything is on disks and hard drives. And, I may have to throw out all my notes from the UK to make room for the new arrival. I don't think boxes of notes etc are good decor for a baby's room.

And, I also wanted to send lots of sympathy for the trauma of packing up and leaving. I's hard word, I know. I kept burstign into tears and wailing (to asorted family and friends) "But I might never see you again [sob]".
My Grandma (80+ then, in her 90s now) just looked at me and said "Don't be so soft". I've seen her lots since. Still, I still hate the idea of her or someone else dying and not being able to be there or even go to the funeral

Oops. Sorry, and I meant to cheer you up, Thumb. I've never regretted moving, not seriously. It's been hard work, but great fun. I'm sure the challenge of settling there will keep you busy and happy too.

Excellent CMOT, I'll have a drinking buddy partner in crime...

Thumb, there is no way that any pictures of my ladybits will be posted anywhere - the thought makes me cringe! Repaired or not, they are just not the prettiest part of anatomy.

Welcome TubeOfCanesten, hopefully we'll see you back! Just stay away from my ladybits....

Guess Who was up and awake and steamrollering us at 1:15 am. [oh god I'm so tired} emoticon. DH, who is a star, finally took him out to the living room and shut the bedroom door leaving me to sleep, bless him... but I gather it took much longer to settle The Young Prince than anticipated, as he came back to bed around 4 am and got only two more hours of sleep. So for some reason that I don't understand he appears to be annoyed with me this morning. Am a bit because I thought we were both dozing and putting up with being kicked and rolled upon, and if he'd asked me if I'd get up with Jackbaby because he (DH) is working today, I would have... but I was half asleep and he chose to get up!! So he's got his Dying Swan voice on (which annoys me almost beyond bearing) and is grumpy. FGS, I'm tired, too, and have a rather spectacular headache, and have gotten up with JB many a time!!
Men!!

He'll get over it. If he makes too much of a fuss, just say you'd thought he might like to know how it feels to have to work after a very crappy night's sleep. I'm sure it's normally the other way round and am equally sure (if what goes on in the Jack household is anything like the Catitaone) that should it have been the other way round, little sympathy would have be forthcoming from him either. My DH considers not sleeping for his customary 8 hours a night to be cause for the world to end. He ended up sleeping in the spare room when DS was born.

anyone got any ideas for new toys for Niamh? She has so many but I feel she's ready to go 'up' a stage iykwim

Playdough is a no no LOL

have tried some of your previous ideas but need some more!

scottishmum... remind us how old is your dd?
Tube-o-C hi.
Amber- hi, waves etc.I'v seen conference organisrs with FAR worse than a team of helpers and a cushion to hug. At least you brought the team with you and didn't just expect the venue staff to be telepathic about what was needed. I hate it when we get no forward info from conference organisers using a venue I work in. we just have to guess and chances are their image of the day isn't ours.
Any one seen donk about? I wonder if she is worried by ur beachside location. Wouldn't like her to think we would sell her to teh beach donkey man. Not that beach donkeys have a bad life. Fixed lunch hour, limited working hours and no carrying any one too heavey. Much better than it used to be.

Chocolate pavlova, yes please. chocolate most thigs , yes please. I've just been and bought cricket tea for sunday, so got to spend ages pondering in teh cakes alise

Gt sun burnt today... at a playday in the park, boy tackled the cycling agility test, getting a very credible time even tho he is on a tiny balance bike and all teh other kids were about 7 year older. Also, tennis, large paddling pool and giant sand pit. There was a ton of sand.. and at the end of teh afternoon it was all given away in bags to take home.

Last night DH and I had an evening out together ( with out boy). Rare but much appricated when they happen. we went to watch some cycle racing in town and for a meal.

As for mental images of you lot... ThumbW is easy, ditto RS. Daisy is bit harder, slightly hipyish with floaty tie dye frocks... untill read about teh nanny, now I have t squeze teh hippy into a suit. You may picture me tonight wearing bright Pink T shirt with sunburnt arms that clash.. OUCH.

Hm, searching reveals that Donk was last seen cleaning up cat urine in Chat, and mind mapping in Education, both on Wednesday. I hadn't thought about the donkey-beach connotations ... should Donk wander by, she can rest assured that any donkeys on the tea room beach not only have the working conditions described by UniS, but are fully unionised and make more than minimum wage. In carrots.

I usually have to dig for mental images, I don't create them spontaneously at all. However the 'divine' part of Daisy's name, plus the nanny, causes a mental image which is much the twin of an acquaintance of mine who is tall, blonde and occasionally appears in Cotswold Life. She would be terrifying if she weren't also quite lovely.

Catita thank you for your words - don't worry, the whole "people dying while I'm 10,500 miles away" has always been an issue so it didn't in the slightest bit matter that you alluded to it again

Amber - we are emigrating to Australia in the next few weeks, whenever the Australian High Fascists Commission allow me to have a visa and the packing is for that - but because it takes 9-11 weeks for stuff to get from here to there, we decided to pack up the house and send it a few weeks before we went, so we didn't have to spend almost 3 months living at MIL's house in Australia. As it is, we'll still have to be at hers for probably 6 weeks, which will be hard yards (as DH says!)
So perhaps you'll have to start seeing me as an upside down thumb with a witchy hat on pointing downwards!

scottishmummy - can you lipread Australians ok? Because lots of them don't move their lips much, a feature designed to keep flies out, apparently!
Is Niamh into drawing? Can you get some of those new magic "only draws on the special paper" crayon thingies?

UniS - get some aloe vera to put on those arms! And wear a different colour t-shirt for heaven's sake - we need sunglasses just to look at you!!

Where's Mellors - he should have been growing aloe vera plants in a useful area nearby just for occasions like this....

Scottish remind me of Niamh's age? Sorry to be hopeless. LOL at accents and lip reading. I allegedly hear, but can't understand Geordie's too well either

Tea my thumbs bend backwards, does that count?

DCMB I was pondering you in a pooh (winnie not back bottom) sort of way as in "are you here" "are you there" "are you baking"

JM being told your Wonderful and Fragrant Ladybits are like any other woman whose given birth may be damning with faint praise if the rest of MN is anything to go by....

Also, LOL at your Dying Swan, I bet after his interrupted sleep he didn't have piles/ fanjo problems/ fanny burps and all the other palavar so many MNetters face daily and with such humour!

Thumb thanks for your support. we have a little book. we are filling it in together. We are going to be fine. I wish I could help with your lists?? Don't despair, I find anticipating the start of somehting is worse than it actually happening IYSWIM?

Catita yes, a wrap dress. How about you order or get someone to order you English websites, delivered to an English address. You try on on the Monday and return what you don't like on the Thursday? Good, no? Boden have a sale this weekend and a lovely wrap dress, possibly not preggers enough though tehre is 20% off.... what about Crave online? Or push the boat out with Isabella Oliver person, I always liked look of but never afforded so to speak?

Pino gigglio disappearing down my little gullet

Thanks Daisy I have only ever bought books on-line, so hadn't really thought about actually buying a dress like that. I am however an awkward size being a midgit with a hump back (scholiosis is the proper term) and no bust to speak of. Catalogue shopping has usually left me more than disappointed.

Still, dresses tend to less difficult to buy than trousers (hump means curtailed spine and no waist:just hips straight down to hips), which are generally a nightmare. I shall give it a go.

If memory serves me correctly Niamh is around 15 months old. DS favourite stuff from that age onwards has been cars, a box with shape holes to put shapes through and a toy telephone (with singing and music) (I am assuming Niamh is not deaf on this, so please excuse me Scottishmummy if this last suggestion is no good)

He also like to play with stones and a bucket (he fills the bucket with stones and then tips it out again: hours of fun!) He especially likes it if the bucket has some water in it.

Thumb what I have realised is that you can be a 100 yards down the road from someone and still do less for them than someone who lives 10 000 miles away. It's not always the actually physically being there that is important, but the emotional being there (which can be done over the phone).

Scottishmummy, ds used to have more fun with wrapping paper and an old big cardboard box to hide in than anything else, but that might be a 'boy thing' I guess. We used to make tents out of an old sheet and some furniture and crawl about in those, filling them with bits and then taking it all back out again. (Or in his case, commando-crawling since he never managed the actual crawling - but when he finally managed to stand up, he hit "top running gear" almost straight away ).

At toddler group, many of the young girls would love those things of pretend fruit and food and a big box to pretend to be an oven. (We encouraged the boys to try it too,but many'd use the banana as a gun every time and start launching the apples at each other across the room (arrghh!).)

Hope Donk's ok.

Yesterday evening, the ds rugby club end of season social. So good to see all the parents, but so tiring . As ever, hadn't a clue who most of the lads were even though I've known many of them for many years! Today, I shall brace myself for a trip into town to get some clothes and shoes (help!).

No no no Daisy - they have to look like big toes to count and I suppose they are less flexible than normal thumbs but never having had normal thumbs I don't really know for sure.

Scottishmummy - at that age Milk was very much into taking the washing out of the washing machine, dancing and reading books. Do you have the possibility of getting friends round to play because other children usually older ones but younger and same age would do were so so interesting too!

Amber - you are always up so early - you are quite an early bird I feel!

Now - breakfast.... here are some delicious croissants for everyone and jugs and jugs of well made cafe au lait.

Good morning all!

Oh good, croissants and a large cafe for me please. (Yes, most people with an ASD are appalling sleepers and I'm no exception. Tend to wake between 4 and 6 every day).

Delighted to have been pondered in a Winnie the Pooh fashion, daisy.

Hm, toys for 15mo ... photographic evidence reveals that at that age DD liked her paddling pool, with water or playballs, feeding her teddy bear, and sitting in boxes/washing baskets. Imaginative stuff like toy food and baby dolls start to appeal at that sort of age, and even if they don't they will do within a fairly short time. On the 'artistic' side, how about an Aquadraw? Lots of fun making foot and handprints even if she's too little to manipulate the pen thing yet.

Catita, you've got a scoliosis as well? Me too.

Thumbwitch, I shall see you as a thumb with a witches hat with those little corks on strings dangling from it . Dare I ask which bit of Australia? I have friends in the Sydney bit, which they say is good.

Shopping's in, dog's walked, and very pleased that my new strategies for coping on mumsnet are working so far

I like that visual, amber.
We are going to be north of Sydney, about 1.5 hours drive, still in NSW. The place is called Morisset and it is on the edge of Lake MacQuarie and very nice.

Or it will be if I can ever get through the trauma that is packing - I reeeeeaaaaaaaallly shouldn't be on here and am going almost immediately!
Have just discovered the Aussie fascists customs have put restrictions on light bulbs - I mean, FGS!!! Our mover man is looking into it for me...

Hello everyone. And a warm welcome to Scottishmummyofone and Tubeofcanestan.

We've been away since Monday and there's so much to catch up on.

Fashion tips for the pregnant academic - wrap dresses are always good, but do they depend on a certain amount of norkage, as I believe we are required to call it on MN? I'll be going to sniff out the names that Daisy mentions, too.

The end of ER - Sadly I was in a tent in North Yorkshire, so missed it all. Was George especially lovely? I am now deeply envious of those tea roomers who (unless I've got this hopelessly wrong) live in Yorkshire. It was so gorgeous.

Toddler manners - We too have a resident diva. We do try to define and enforce boundaries but we battle constantly against her unshakeable belief in her own rightness. 'Tis the downside of positive self-esteem, I guess.

Collapsed ladybits - Thank goodness for the post-natal physio, say I.

Anyone for a glass of home-made lemonade out on the verandah?

Norkage?! Decided not to ask

Yes please for the lemonade on the verandah. Want a slice of light fruit surprise cake to go with it?

How was the tenting in Yorkshire?

Nork is a term I have seen used only on MN to describe, ahem, one's bosom.

Fruit surprise cake sounds perfect, thank you, Amber. Camping in Yorkshire was lovverly, especially when the rain stopped.

Best term for boobies I've ever heard was "cheesecake". Said to me when (a million years ago) I was a young and relatively innocent student nurse, and was bent over an old fart's bed doing something or other to his bandages, and he croaks "look at that cheesecake!" while staring down my cleavage. Which, it must be said, was not on display - my uniform had only the smallest V-neck and I was practically flat in those oh-so-young-and-fit pre-Jackbaby days. So I'm not sure what he was actually staring at...

We had a better night last night, thank goodness. Spent yesterday with a gf who had a premature baby - 33 weeks. She's a month old now (so corrected she'd be term now), was born at 4 lbs 13 oz and is now around 6 lbs. Titchy-teeny-tiny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi, Jacksmama.

In the UK, 'cheesecake' also means 'attractive young lady' so maybe he wasn't referring solely to your, ahem, frontal assets.

Lemonade?

Hmmm. I didn't know that. I guess that could have been it!

Could I have wine and lemonade?

[hopeful emoticon]