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.

I just bit the ropes off with my own teeth to post.

Wow! I just came back, tittering at your post, Bucharest, and determined to leave a glass of champagne on the Arts and Crafts oak sideboard for you ... and here you are!

Ah, THAT thread.

MadBad, you drove a car round Brooklands?!

I can honestly say that we didn't drive any cars round the Revival, though our mate with the Very Ancient Jag managed to coax her all the way there, before the clutch clutched its last and expired. He spent much of the day hitting it with a hammer and muttering darkly, whilst his clients amused themselves on the helter skelter and staring at the ladies in their '50s wear.

It's just magical being there every year on the Friday when people take the dressing up thing seriously and you don't get crowds turning up in their Nike sportswear, wondering why people are dressed in period costume (and why people are driving old cars, for that matter). Anyone can get 'the look' with £20 down the charity shop, so it's so good to see people making an effort. Spent far too much time drooling over the C and D series Jags again...alas.

Am I too late for the Champagne and a quick shoulder rub from Mellors? We do seem to be fully dressed, which makes a change! He looks quite fetching in the 1950s flying outfit...then I can get going with cleaning the drains.

Daisy - lovely to see you back!

DCMB - no no no no to free-range gps and rabbits. It doesn't work and you'll be worn to a frazzle! Esp rabbits which will dig as well. Enormous and imaginatively-furnished run, yes, free range over the Home Counties, no.

I am dreading first day at school. Starting nursery is bad enough. Appropos, I have found what seems to be a lovely one, lots of outside all year round, lots of free choice, no uniform, beautiful garden ...

Off to see this other thread (but I know I shouldn't).

Amber - Yes, I did. I had a friend at uni who collected old cars - too long ago now to remember exactly what - and we drove one to Brooklands for some sort of owners' club rally and took it for a few circuits of the track. Mine was probably the slowest lap ever recorded but by the end of the day I had got the hang of double-declutching.

I had wondered why Mellors was dressed as Biggles ....

It's definitely champagne o'clock.

Mellors as biggles, woooot. love the wired scarf to give that windy day look ALL the time.

The tandem conversion project is under way. new stem arrived and was fitted along with handle bars off an old kids bike, so now boy can reach his handle bars. We have established that he should be capable of climbing up to saddle on his own while I hold bike steady. And DH has ordered teh various bits of mechanical stuff required to fit kiddy cranks. So yesterday was probably my last ride as Tandem stocker for a few years. next I will have to learn to be a captain- to a 3 yr old stoker.

I was at one of those tea room in RL type parties this afternoon. community hall committe and helpers plus partners and children. pizza, garlic bread and wine, then much cake. Bliss. I managed to snaffle someof teh cake for you all, SO I bring you.... Phil, the new treasurer's Dh's Choc cake, more topping than cake I think you will find.

I shall fortify myself with a read of the Lakeland Christmas catalogue before visiting the other thread...

at going to the Revival. When we were in Sussex, we went to the festival of speed a couple of times - in fact I rode my motorbike down there one time while DH went with BIL in his sports car. But every time we talked about the revival, DH got a freebie outing there without me.

DH busy today, so DS and I went to the zoo, and then sushi dinner. He fell asleep in the car after enquiring as to why cars crashed

May I show off my Strictly Come Dancing name?

Am loving the idea of Cmot on a motorbike and UniFamily on a tandem going in a cavalcade to Goodwood!

RS - gran and kids back in charge now, and assumed bun would be safely in the run, but no, about 10 the doorbell rings and there's a chap from round the corner asking if we know whose rabbit this is ...

No longer our problem, parents are back and DD has a huge bag of sweets for her pains.

Can you dance, Madbad? Am waiting for you to twirl round the floor...

Wine is flowing freely, anyone else joining in?

Yes, please, to the wine.

MaryBS - A few tea rooms ago, I had an intensive course of tango lessons with Mellors in the woodshed. He is an excellent teacher and I can now dance extremely well. Just wait until we next have the glitter ball spinning!

Bacon sarny anyone?

Ooh, yes please! Any fried tomatoes to go with it?

Of course, and mushrooms too if you like? I've some rather tasty Portobello ones...

ohhh, yes please to bacon buttie, even tho the sun is rather past teh yard arm now. I do like a good bacon buttie.
We took boy for a little walk today. maybe 5 miles, up onto dartmoor to top of teh big hill at the end of teh road, and back again via some standing stones and a squelchy bit.
Boy picked up 2 ticks, so did I. Dh and I had forgotten about ticks, Its been 10 years since we were regularly up on moorland. I'm now just slightly itchy all over, tis in the mind, I've been checked over by Dh VERY carefully.
Mellors, would you please run me a large deep hot bath with extra bubblyness and nice smelling candles please. be back in "tick" girls.

Why are you covered in sequins at 10 o'clock in the morning, MadBad? Not that the effect isn't rather fetching, although rather startling on a Monday morning.

It's my new Strictly Come Dancing name. I don't get out much.

There's some freshly made tea. Would you like a cup?

oh WOW! I have almost met Amber!
Quite to my surprise I went to the Goodwood Revival yesterday, not planned but complicated family thing

What a Hoot! (Although I suspect I would count as one of those people in NIKE lycras) Not that I was in lycra you understand but I wasn't entirely in 50s wear

madbad - respect for a turn around Brooklands. Lady, you rock, and in sequins too!!! and, if it's not too long ago, I would go against the prevailing wind and invite the little MabBaby accolyte to tea. I think it might be quirky and it might be fun, and she may be lonely....one off I would go for it

DCMB sorry about the rabbit trouble. I back Racing - no free range bunnies, ever. When I was a mere DaisyBud I had a rabbit. It ended up in a Colditz style bunker run - with wire mesh on the ground as well as sides - dig for britain was an apt name for my Fluffy

racing have you found a new nursery for the wonderful Wriggle? I hope so- I feel I wasn't very supportive last week of your travails - imagination and fun should not stop at the school door - Wriggle's elipsis should be supported and nurtured, in my humble view

tea - what kind of puppy is yours? I saw the photos but didn't click the breed? I have big snuggle envy

dead pets was also a topic last week - we had to deal with DaisyHound's untimely demise and I told DaisyBoy he had gone up to the sky etc and we still talk about him a lot but with no real scarring that I can detect

Amber sorry not to get you from the battlements

MaryBS tra la la and congrats for your daughter

UniS yes, I loved being chased by teh policemen - didn't you see I let myself be caught in the end and wow re the tandem feats of your childee- I still haven't tried a balance bike!

bucharest have you recovered from your DD at school? I think you are right, they should be delighted and you should be devastated - I am starting to look at schools for next year, and tear up just going on the visits....

JM hope you had a wonderful weekend away - where did you go? Were there mounties

wow, that was possibly a trifle too long

if you get lost or lose the will to live part way through my post, it condenses to
(1) I love you all
(2) have a coffee
(3) no, make it a bolly and let's get the glitter ball out

What? At lunch time?!

Paaaarty time !

Am in preparation to go on holiday next week, and am girding myself to ring up about school visit. I feel distinctly unBodenista looking round, and it will be difficult explaining to DS that he can't stay at school. He wrote his name independantly and spontaneously yesterday for the first time

SIL phoned yesterday to tell us that other brother has announced that he will be getting divorced. Although sorry for him, we all find it hard to feel sad that we will no longer have to put up with STBX SIL