Tea Room the Tenth: Tea and cake and rock and roll

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

Welcome back to the tea room.

In the search for the perfect venue, we have now decamped to a rambling country estate. The once-decaying castle, now restored, is a boutique hotel, popular with rock and roll gentry and visiting bishops, and the tea room (which never closes) is located in a tastefully converted barn. The charming garden contains a duck pond and ends in a haha. We need the haha, of course, to stop the bison trampling the herbaceous borders. Mellors the gardener is, as ever, in charge of the grounds.

Please come and join us for a celebratory drink.

Well done MadBad - it looks lovely!

Now, what suits this castle best for the tearoom-warming drink... How about a bottle of extraordinarily expensive Petrus?
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........

Cheers everyone!

[grin[

Well this does look lovely... if only I understood enough about utube to post a link to "To the Manor Born", which I think should be our theme music at this point.

Penelope Keith, can you imagine her as a MNetter?

(JM: It's a sitcom about a lady of "the manor" who has to move out when her husband dies and a business man buys her stately home. P.K. is the leading lady).

Have managgd it. Here is the theme music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAUncZYWa8Q

I also realise now that there was a remake a couple years ago. I had no idea, I am off to have a giggle on youtube (having consulted with DH on how to search in it) and watch the clips posted.

images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/19880.jpg

To The Manor Born? I think Amber was hoping for a bit of rock and roll excess! But I daresay that we will discover more about this tea room, the longer we are here.

Tea and a hot buttered crumpet, anyone?

The Rock 'n Roll section is at the back, just next to the Gracious Drawing Room* (as featured in Hello magazine of course). Its location has been positioned to cause the least possible problem for the Bishop and his guests (well, unless we open the windows, of course, or spill out onto the manicured croquet lawns for a bit of a rave).

Tea and hot buttered crumpet sounds wonderful. Anyone for tennis?

• how the heck do you know if a drawing room is gracious or not??

gracious = no jelly or pizza stains on the carpet

I don't do tennis - no hand eye co-ordination and poor depth perception don't work with it. I was forced to play it at school, but teamed up with friend who had spina bifida - I couldn't hit, and she couldn't run, so all we did was serve at each other.

You sound really down Racing. Forgive me for being intrusive, but is this just about Wriggles nursery ?

Thank you for the offer, Amber, but tennis is not my forte - although I do have an astonishing backhand. I'm looking forward to playing croquet with the bishops (or even with a mallet .

And are there any flamingoes on the duck pond?

Oops. Only just saw Racing's post, which crossed with my earlier one.

Am sending another ((((clandestine hug)))). I am quite sure that you have absolutely no witch-like characteristics, but as an occasional visitor to style and beauty I have to say that the green foundation (although v v effective in minimising redness) seems somewhat overdone in that picture. The nipped-in waist is good but otherwise the dress is gloomy. Have you had your colours done?

Apologies if that sounds too flippant but I think Cmot's right. You do sound as if the start of term - yours and Wriggle's - is getting you down so perhaps we need to lark about a bit and distract ourselves.

settles herself in nicely in the corner, after depositing sick son in the creche...

Oh dear, Mary. Has DS got a lurgy or is he showing the way in rock and roll over-indulgence and its after effects?

Would you like tea and a crumpet?

This is a magical tearoom, therefore we can all play tennis to international standards, which is remarkable because I've never been able to win a game of it in my life before now

Poor sick son, Mary

He keeps complaining of a headache and high temp, brought down again by ibuprofen.

I'd like to play tennis at international standard, can I play with the men though? Some of those women players scare me!

Ladies. I have just repainted the lines on the grass court, which is down near the haha. Have I ever mentioned that I was once county champion in the mixed doubles? I will be offering tennis lessons in twenty minutes, if anyone should be interested.

Ladies. I have just repainted the lines on the grass court, which is down near the haha. Have I ever mentioned that I was once county champion in the mixed doubles? I will be offering tennis lessons in twenty minutes, if anyone should be interested.

Oh, TENNIS lessons Sorry...! Slight mishearing...though you said...oh nevermind...

i'll swing by later for a read. C U soon.

Have I missed the lessons?

Well, it looks as if Amber is receiving a lot of help with her serve. And there seems to be a crowd of swooning ladies waiting in line for their own personal tutorial, so you'd better get over there quickly.

By the way, that's a lovely tennis dress, Mary, although I hadn't realised they were being worn quite so short this year.

I couldn't afford a new dress, so I had my surplice altered (altared? LOL) so it was a little more fitted... I thought I'd get changed just in case...

(realises she hasn't thought this through, and what will she do when she has to lead evensong in a tightly fitted surplice? )

Just hoping that the bishop won't drop into your church on the evening you're leading evensong in a micro-mini body-hugging surplice, Mary.

I'm keeping a lookout for zazen, who kindly turned up at the previous tea room to help with the tidying-up and packing.

Actually, I've got a meeting with one of our bishops on 5th October. I hope its not one of the ones who wander in and out of the tea-room! (I've never seen him in speedos?, so I MAY be safe!)