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.

ta, yes - atm, mini-Thumb sleeps all ways over, includig on his side but I haven't noticed his head sloping - he looks quite comfy without the pillow. I shall wait until he stops looking comfy then!

Mine started using a pillow when they grabbed a pillow for themselves from the spare room, aged about 3 or 4.

I received a very exciting package in the post this morning, its my cassock-alb and scarf! Very white and bright it is too, I shall positively GLOW in church whilst wearing it, looking like an advert for Daz! . The scarf, is of course, blue...

Anyone got any cake, I have a need for cake...?

Hi there, can I say hello. After a couple of years here I've just today discovered this topic, and it has proved really interesting reading!

I have an only dd (6) and I have been able to identify with so much I have read. We had always assumed we'd have more than one, but had a mmc in 2006 and no luck conceiving since. So we're slowly coming to terms with our smaller than expected family.

I have been through (and still go through) stages of worry, sadness, frustration about dd not having siblings, but having two close friends go through the agony of not being able to have any children has really made me grateful for what we do have. As dd is 6, life is getting quite easy, and although we are still vaguely 'trying' for another, I do occasionally get these flashes of 'do I really want to do it all again' when I remember with toal clarity what life with a newborn is like. I am also slowly starting to thin out out baby stuff from the loft.

DD is wonderful, she loves company and being out and about with activities and friends. What I had pegged as her only child traits, I now think may well be the effect of being my child - she doesn't handle arguing with friends well and tends to cry easily, but then so did I, and she can be a little bit shy in new company (but so did I). I didn't have an imaginary friend or talk to myself though .

Looking forward to reading more, it's been really interesting.

How lovely to see you, Bigfatbump - although may I say that your name does not suit you, as in the magical tea room we are all (ahem) slim, lithe and long of limb. I am often mistaken for Claudia Schiffer.

Would you like a cup of tea? And we still have some date and walnut loaf or fruit crumble, if you're feeling eleven o'clockish.

I've just partaken of a banana muffin, thankyou - made on Sunday to entertain a bored only . I actually must change my username as I joined when pg with the baby that mc'd. Bigfatallover would be more appropriate, sadly.

Hello bigfatbump! Have a cuppa and a bowl of soup to go with that muffin. Interesting is certainly one word for this thread. Raving mad is another, but it's a good sort of mad I think (not that I'd know for sure )

MadBad, are you mistaken for Claudia Schiffer in here? Can I be mistaken for Cameron Diaz please?

I'm still mistaken for Kim Raver or Sandrine Whatshername

Welcome bigfatbump! Coffee? Tea? Mimosa?
It's nice to see you, I'm always happy when people jump in because it makes me feel that we aren't a scary cliquey group (plus it leavens madness a little ).

Hopefully you read back far enough to get some of the introductions... I'm the Canadian resident of the Tea Room and as such am 8 hours behind... its currently 6:20 am, bleurgh, and I have to get in the shower and to work for 8 am. Double bleurgh.

Will pop in from work, hope everyone's had a lovely day so far. Mary, take off that alb, it's blinding me .

Soup? Yes please!

Amber - Being extremely old I cannot remember who we decided would play me in Tea Room: The Movie (a project which, sadly, seems to have stalled). I think it was Judi Dench. But we have since agreed that everyone in the tea room is lissome and gorgeous - I think that was at the time that we were strutting around the beach hut in our bikinis - so, in that case, I'll ressemble Claudia Schiffer. You may indeed bagsy Cameron Diaz.

Bigfatbump - Before you think we are all complete fantasy-prone loons, let me point out that we do quite often chat about life with our onlies. It isn't only about muffins, Bolly and ogling Mellors the Gardener. Well, not always.

Not only about muffins, Bolly and ogling?

I never know who's who anyway so ignore me if I confuse you with someone else. Faceblindness is not handy, even on message boards.

Jacksmama, only because its hurting your eyes... ... believe it or not, I'm sitting here wearing it as I type this! DD has taken a picture of me in it, if you have a look at my profile, you'll see it! Does anyone remember that Friends episode where they try on the wedding dresses? I feel a bit like that

Love the alb, Mary. Great picture!

Ooo, you look totally splendid, Mary!!!!

Hello all! here is some carrot cake. It was my birthday at the weekend I am now 36. Again.

Hello Bigfatbump and welcome to the tea room - budge up on that charming Mellors sofa will you? I need a cuppa!

DaisyBoy started a pillow about 6 months ago when he got a bed. But he tends to sleep under it or beneath it, not "on" it like a boring adult. I got a very flat natural fibre but non-feather on so it's not a neck cricker

Happy just-past-your-36th-again, Daisy!!!

Happy Birthday Daisy!
Welcome BigFatBump!

I'm the Mexican correspondent for the tearoom. Margaritas, tortilla chips and the like are on me.

sorry about that Catita - I slipped on a trail of feathers left by the NMBs. I'll just wipe those tortilla chips off you...

Here, get the salsa, too...

Happy birthday Daisy, and sorry for not welcoming you earlier, bigfatbump! I'm an interloper because I have (gasp) TWO children . However I like coffee, and cake and gin and bolly, and these ladies have graciously allowed me to hang out with them!

It's because Mary adds such a blinding whiteness in that alb sparkle to the Tea Room .

Daisy, I just wanted to tell you - remember last year (several Tea Rooms ago) you always pictured me in plaid?
I was shopping across the border with a girlfriend yesterday and at the Bellingham Wal-Mart [snob emoticon - I don't usually shop there because I detest Big Box type stores, I'd rather support the independents) they have plaid shirts with gathered backs and three-quarter sleeves! ROFL! They came in purple and red. (Not together, you understand... I mean purple plaid and red plaid!) I almost bought one to take a picture and post on my profile - just for you!!

Tis VERY white isn't it Mary! how on earth will you keep it that spotless, no more spilling communion wine for you me girl.

Yo BFB, or what ever you fancy calling yourself next. nice to meet you.

Saw a house for sale today, right sort of area, right price, right number of bedrooms, BUT VERY small and in need of very much doing to it to make it habitable. So probably a goes no further I think.

Pillows- Boy is using a small ( 20x20x4 cm) firm cushion he likes. I might try him with a regular pillow sometime soon tho

Any chance of a beer, ladies?

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if hes just ttackled teh tea room lawn he Can have what ever drink he wants, it was getting almost unmanagageable out there..

Well, Mellors, since you've got your shirt off, and since I'm wearing my favourite school run dress, shall we show them what we've been rehearsing in the potting shed?

Hi to BFB, lovely to see you here. I think maybe changing your name to something aspirational and positive might be a good step forward. (Does anyone really think I look like a racing snake in RL ?????

Please go and look, everyone, at my request for help in the 'food' section. It is one of my feeble ways of preparing for possible unemployment.

Have noticed a clear divide in advice from friends consulted about my problem, both in RL and here(surely you are all real too??) Those with young children all say that I should stick to my guns and ringfence my time with Wriggle; those with grown-up children wonder what the problem is. Interesting.

Pillow question - Wriggle sometimes has a pillow, if I remember/feel like it and, if she does, sometimes uses it. Not really helpful!