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.

Hello, Racingsnake. I did make a feeble contribution to your food thread. I would also urge shopping in Lidl. Less choice = less spent on fripperies.

Very interesting about the advice from (cough) real people and truckers from Bootle people on MN. Do your friends with grown-up children work full-time? Or are they fantastically well-paid? Is that why they don't get why you don't want to have travel expenses on 5 days a week for the equivalent of (I think) two days' work and pay? Or perhaps they go to work to escape their family - a position with which I have some sympathy.

I was thinking about you today as I was in a traffic jam. I think that you have a large garden, non? So I thought that, drawing on your and your dh's knowledge and skills, you should run Sarah Raven-stylee gardening and cookery courses at several hundred pounds a day. Would be utterly lovely and Wriggle could run charmingly (naked) around the potager while you harvest the ruby chard.

The bill for my unsolicited consultancy advice is in the post.

Anyone else like a glass of bubbly?

Am rolling on the carpet in helpless laughter at the thought of anyone spending hundreds of pounds to look at rows of mottly beans and mildewed pumpkins (although some of the rather beautiful weeds left in the summer are now sporting spectacular seedheads). All our good veg comes from DHs workplace, while our garden is more of a guinea-pig sanctuary. With interesting decorations from summer camping trip - seaweed hanging from apple trees. Although I do find the sight of Wriggle running naked in the garden rather charming.

Racing, darling. I don't think you've quite got the hang of this marketing and promotion lark, have you? Those are not weeds. They are native species growing in your charming meadow. Those vegetables are not motley or wildewed, they are grown using organic and no dig methods. And those apple trees are living sculptures created with found objects. They are your gateway to a bunting cupcake lifestyle.

Anyway, is there any Bolly left?

Gawd, what with Mary and her Alb and MadBad with her Sequins its a bit of a goer sort of night isn't it?

racing I think you should try to ring fence Wriggle time but she is little for so little I would really try to ring fence it but also preserve the relationship at work

Can you look for another job or is that just impossible?

Has Wriggle found her tail yet? That is what I was thinking about, not helpful money making plans at all

Although a Guinea Pig sanctuary sounds only one step away from a Petting Visiting Place. And there are chickens. Though preferably not the dead one in the hedge

Is BFB ok and Alyinoz? Don't want to terrify scare off our new friends

JM so delighted you have found a plaid shirt of such sublime excellence. DaisyBoy got out his plaid again today and I thought of you - though he doesn't have gathers....

Am late again - I was up earlier but actually Working Properly (i.e. not even opening MN) and it paid off as I have finished my chapter.

Should be proofreading now but thought I'd catch up

Hello to BFB - if you name change, do let us know - hope you come back, we're not all insane in here!

Mary that alb is so alba it's uberalba! [showing off my w@nker credentials here so that I can maintain my position on the W@nkers' Thread]

RS - funny how people's priorities change, isn't it. You do what feels right for you and Wriggle and don't worry about what anyone else says - they're not YOU.

well done on the chapter Thumb

Thanks Daisy - hope my co-editor approves it cos I don't think I want to have to re-work it!

BFB - in case you come back - I am in Australia now so post at odd times.

I'm back. Not quite scared off yet
Didn't go online last night as DH was out so I took myself off to scrapbook while dd sleeping. Took ages to settle her as she had apricots after swimming lesson and beans for tea and she was suffering badly from the after effects. First time in weeks I've stayed off the laptop.
I'm now at my desk with coffee in hand waiting to get called to a meeting.

Does that make me "uber alba mummy"?

Washing it will be interesting. I NEVER spill any of the wine at church, am always too careful, but could be fun keeping it clean!

Well done on work, Thumbwitch, and well done on coming back, bigfatbump!

Had a difficult meeting this am (was what I was fretting about earlier on the thread), but it went as well as can be expected, so that's good.

Next meeting to get out of the way is the one with the bishop on Monday, where I get asked all sorts of searching questions, and generally dragged through the episcopal mill ...

Mary good luck with your meeting. Since I have been watching the Bishops using their crooks as little fishing lines this morning out by the charming ornamental pond I find it hard to consider them frightening. But I am sure they can be

Just think og the NMBs and it will help you keep on the straight and narrow

BFB welcome back. I surmise by your recent post you are as hard at work as I am

Here is a lovely pot of coffee for us all to share with hot cinnamon buns that Mellors has just taken out of the aga

I do worry about him cooking in nothing by a Cath Kidston apron, but I rather like the effect.....

Ooo, coffee and buns, sounds good!

He's not a scary bishop, he's a very nice bishop. However, he's nobody's fool, so any meeting with him is likely to be a little daunting I guess. However, I've taken a look down by the pond, and you're right, it does put a whole new perspective on things!

I find it very reassuring that the bishops have returned.

Good luck to everyone with proof-reading, meetings, work, consumption of buns ...

I have just taken off my sequins for fear that they might be alarming potential new tea room customers, but now that I see Mellors in his baking regalia I think I need not have worried!

Amber - We need a health and safety assessment. Quickly!

just leaving a message for JM here in case she doesn't see the one on t'other thread - what it means in context there, is that people are a bit too knowledgeable sometimes, a bit too over-clever - like dragging obscure Czech film makers into a discussion on everyone's favourite Pixar film, either to demonstrate superiority or because you just don't "get" it. Except of course we are doing it with our tongues planted firmly in cheek (or should that be
our linguae planted firmly in bucca )

Mary - glad this morning's meeting went well, hope the next one is good too.

Well, I am off to bed now but no doubt will be back later - still got a couple of chapters to proofread asap.

No fishing in the Episcopal Mill Stream except by order of the Archbishop and whilst wearing an inflatable ring

Thou shalt not cook thine baking products in the buff. This is how things get badly burned (the buns, obviously) (no, not those buns...)

In case of scary Bishops, hide under duvet (well, it works for me...)

if alcohol consumption was health and saftied off the tea room, then I'd simply have to leave this quite bonkers thread.

Almost finished work for the day, got two whole free hours while dd in in drama so off to the gym in a while

Will just finish this kitkat first.

health and safety-ed?
Health and safe-tied?

Hmm, will have to ponder that one.

No, I think we have a special dispensation not to have to kiss their inflatable rings.

bigfatbump, I see you've correctly assessed the nature of this thread. Congrats. Have a large gin & tonic to celebrate

DS is playing in some national rugby competition this afternoon. And the ground is Not Suitable for Rugby Forwards. He likes thick mud and freezing cold and we've got hard dry ground and heat. And half their team are off with this silly coughing bug so I think they're having to throw the tiniest member of the team in the air to catch the ball instead of the Usual Suspects. I suspect they'll be retrieving him from a treetop later on...

I knew Amber would do us proud with the risk assessment.

I feel we ought to be having a Serious Discussion, so as to pull the wool over Bigfatbump's eyes maintain the dignity of the thread. So, the Question of the Day is: does being the mother of one child increase one's propensity to drink? One child = more free time for MNing and real or virtual boozing? Or one child = endless taxi-ing of offspring to out of school activities to compensate for lack of siblings and so less time for these pursuits? Neither? Or both?

Drink? What's that then? Never touched a drop in my life

I would have thought that having one child would be less stressful than, for example, having four, so might lead to less need for a glass of something. And there may be more money. But having four would mean less money to drink with, and less time to drink. Hmmm.

Hmmm indeed.

Actually really laughed out loud (bet most people just say they do) at MadBad and Daisy's contributions to the FindRacingANewALucrativeIncomeSource thread within a thread.

Hmm. You have highlighted the essential ambiguity and inherent contradiction of the situation there, Amber.

I was also wondering just now, prompted by the latest posting on the "I can't take it" thread, whether I have been barking up the wrong proverbial tree. One reason why MadBadBaby does so many out of school activities - apart from the most important reason, that she enjoys them and wants to do them - is that I hope they'll give her a quasi-sibling experience of doing stuff with other children. But is it a fallacy to be trying to make her life "like" that of a child with siblings? Should we just accept the fact that life as an only child is inherently different, in all its positive and negative ways?

For us, the social stuff was essential. DS needed to learn how to play with other children, and didn't have any brothers or sisters to experiment on, so I worked flat out to try to get him good friendships from parents that would put up with us (or vice-versa), and toddler groups that wouldn't mind the rugby-tackling we had to do re him from time to time. Terrifying/baffling for me a lot of the time, mind you.

Plus he was keen on all the sporty things that kept him occupied and channelled his angst into something more productive.
And it worked, too. He's now the unofficial school 'counsellor', sought by a wide variety of his peers as a friendly shoulder to cry on (two more yesterday). He's learned the techniques for listening, co-operating etc. Can be done. Hooray for DS.

Yes, I think we probably should. After all, we don't try to avoid them having the positive experiences like lots of time with adults and not having anyone jumping on your toys.

What about having an exchange child from France or Germany for a summer holiday sometime, to give her the 'sibling experience' for a limited period, so that she can enjoy the best of both. I did that when I was a (not-only) child and it was ... interesting.

Just got my classroom back to do some ater-school marking after it was being used by parents to get all her child's friends ready for a party !

Wow, that's too deep for me this time of the morning, I'm not even through my second cup of coffee. But, yes, what MadBad said... [suck emoticon]

Thumb - thanks for the explanation, it looks like a fun thread. Are newcomers welcome? I sort of felt like I was taking a deep breath before I posted.

Am taking Jackbaby to the paediatric dermatologist today so they can take a look at his persistent baby acne. It's a mild case but surely he ought to have outgrown it by now? Cortisone cream helps but as soon as I stop applying it, the acne comes back.

Ugh, my back is so sore today. Went to yoga class after work and the focus was back bends. Which I hate, as my low back has never been very flexible as far as extension goes. I can do forward bends until the cows come home, but back bends make me ache.

Do we have a jaccuzi tub here at the castle?