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.

hey madbad, thanks! mine's a gin in that case

hi linserella, hope you're enjoying the gin. I keep thinking it's Thursday and being grateful I only have one more morning ahead, but bugger me it's only Wednesday!
So i'm going to head up to bed and for once get a semi early night in.
Enjoy the bolly ladies!

Bottoms up, Linserella!

I've just found http://www.freerice.com/subjects.php?t=12045354360 this on another thread. It's addictive. Let's get clicking and send some rice!

Having earned a heap of rice through my art historical skills, I too need an early night. I've been reading the same book for fortnight and have got six pages to do, so am determined to finish it now.

RS- are you claiming its NOT olive oil but Linseed oil then? obviously an essential part of any wood work project... arrr, maybe a i jumped to compulsions conclusions too soon. Sorry. Am I allowed to go and visit the " petting " corner yet? is mellors still there >

Yes... christmas cards in september, I like to be ahead of the game, no guarantee when boy will next be willing to spend any time on a crafty activity that doesn't involve cake or biscuit mix. And he still has 6 cousins to make something for. I'm aiming for christmas place mats this year. bit of A4 paper, stick on cut outs from last years Xmas cards, laminate it. bingo, quick kiddy Christmas present.

Oh poo. Should have used preview.

I've just found this on another thread.

you work gymbunny? or is it the school run? got dd to playgroup this morning half an hour late she has a late running mum poor child, must improve!! me too for the early night..

wow that was like being back in art history lectures! i got 1000 grains of rice, that'd be a saucerful i suppose, strangely addictive... thanks for that link madbad, i liked that! i really am going to bed now

Have made a decision, I am going to DARE TO BE DIFFERENT. I have vowed not to be afraid of who I am, I will be true to myself, and not let others walk over me! You heard it here first!

(if that's OK with everyone )

Welcome Linserella.

Have done the rice thing before. I warn you, it gets seriously addictive and is the cause of much distress over a wrong answer!

Anyone like some superduper coffee from the Gaggia coffee machine I picked up yesterday, when I went virtual shopping? I've had some coffee blended specially for the tea room!

linserella, I do work, 5 short days a week so I caqn do the school drop off and pick up. Perfect really, apart from trying to cover all the holidays.

Could I have a cup of tea, please? Here are some freshly baked rolls - still warm from the aga - and a selection of jams and honey. Tuck in, everyone.

Mary - Well done on your resolution! Let us know if ever you start to waver and need a virtual pep talk!

Linserella - You've been to art history lectures? Am very .

Thanks Madbad, I already feel happier

(Mellors was just helping me rub olive oil into my ever expending tum. It gets rid of the stretch marks, apparently)

Anyway, morning ladies. Or afternoon, depending on your location. A special welcome to Linserella (whose name I like very much, I'm not sure why you feel you should change it).

I have particulary fine "chilaquiles" to offer you today. These are panfried tortilla strips smothered in spicy chily green tomato, sour cream and two fried eggs (with runny yolks... mmmmmm). This is my fave Mexican breakfast ever. Also thanks to the magic of the tearoom it contains no calories nor fat, despite its ingredients.

Please help yourselves.

Oh and, big cheers to MaryBS for her resolution . You go get 'em!

Daisy wanders in and sits on the blow up sofa. She instantly slides off

HEH - who got olive oil all over that sofa, and what's mellors doing in a linseed oil cage in the garden?

Mary I am impressed. You should maybe print it on your alb to help you remember

Ginbunny I like your name, well done

Linserella welcome and also Littletortie
how nice to have some new faces around

pass the gaggia coffee, lovely machine. I am having another totally fruitless work day, this has to stop

I fear I may be a totally over achieving although I try to hide it mum. Asked nursery worker her view on the two schools I have visited for DaisyBoy and she said "oh, X because Y is so academic" and I had to stop myself picking her up by the lapels and shouting "what, you are saying DaisyBoy is stupid?"

(he is 3 for those of you a little newer than others)

LOL, if I put it on my Alb, it'd ruin how dayglow white it is!

chilaquiles sound absolutely heavenly. Large portion of please!

Well we have worked, schooled and tapped and now dd is playing happily in her room -talking to herself as usual -is that an Only thing? It's the only bit of her character that isn't me to a tee.

I'm going to book group tonight so am hoping to squeeze in a 10 min power nap beforehand. DD is cooking dinner tonight - her and dh are having jacket spuds which she is very portectively checking every 5 minutes .

This Mexican breakfast is very, umm, interesting - especially with a bucket glass of sherry.

GinandGymBunny - Aww to DD cooking dinner. I must encourage mine to exert herself in the kitchen! I think talking to oneself is an age thing more than an only thing - it's a way of helping the game along (if you're a child) or getting a decent conversation (if you're me when I'm not here)! What book will you be discussing at book group? Mine always chooses rubbish books except, of course, when it's my turn to choose.

Daisy - Welcome to the Thinly-disguised Over-achieving Mothers' Club! I would have been fighting the urge to grab her lapels too!

Mary - I have been thinking about your resolution. I hesitate to quote the Bible at a Woman Who Owns Her Own Alb, but some time ago I came to the conclusion that the meek do not inherit the earth. What they generally inherit is an elbow in the face from someone more pushy. So one has to stand up for oneself. Here endeth the sermon.

So, does anyone want a sherry?

What is all this noise?

Who are all these people?

Where is all the Bolly????

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JrJez7xiKA&feature=related

MaryBs - Go for it!!!

RS - (to be filled in with your favourite bad four letter word) regarding your current work problem!!! Grrrr!!!!

Hope your tatties are good, Gymbunny. Your DD sounds like a wee star. At this rate you can have her doing the sunday roast by the time she is ten.

sorry and

loved the eagles link -my Irish cousins educated me into Eagle-ness back in the mid eighties, they taped the Hotel California LP for me one night using the tried and tested 'put the tape recorder right next to the record player' method so as well as the music I had a wonderful memory of us chatting in the background

The book for tonight is the beach house by jane green. Usually the books have a bit more to them but it was the summer read so we went for lighter. i read it by the pool in Ibiza, can't really remember much about it but no doubt I'll blag it well enough.

Spuds were delish, I'll make a chef out of her yet.
Have a good evening ladies.....

ah Jane Green - she's all right for light'n'fluffy. I liked Wife Swap.

I think I too belong to the Thinly-Disguised Pushy Mum club - or will when I mini-Thumb gets older, anyway. But I have his Not-So-Thinly-Disguised Pushy Dad to contend with, so I escape notice.
We already have mini-Thumb lined up to be an international tennis/football/rock star - all 3 would be a bonus but we'll let him choose

Welcome Linserella - I missed your stream of consciousness, will have to go and find it..

[doh] - I believe I meant Life Swap there.

And just to add - Good Choice Mary! Don't mess with your alba though,get it embroidered on your blue scarf thing instead, in bright pink!

Yes, well done to Mary.

Bonjour to Tea.

I tried the rice thing in 'French' and managed to donate a small sackful.

I am the opposite of a pushy mum. Yesterday one of the classroom assistants, when I commented on her six-year old's neat handwriting, said, well, she's been writing since she was one, and I thought what is the point?? Wriggle has not yet written one letter and NOR WILL SHE UNTIL AT LEAST FIVE, (When, of coursem she will be corresponding with Milk in Franglais.)

Writing has not been an issue yet; the big thing over the last year has been toilet training. SmugFriend has been pointing out that her daughter has been using her pot for well over a year (same age as Wriggle). Wriggle refused to sart until this August (about two months ago) - and is now the more reliably house trained of the two. We waited until she was ready.

Book clubs always remind me of the scene in Vicar Of Dibley when the Dibley bookclub ended up discussing Winney The Pooh because it was the only book they had all actually read.

Oh, and MadBad, please don't stop thinking of alternative sources of employment for me. I haven't laughed so much for some time!

Chairman of Governors has just rung me at home to get my viewpoint on situation at school, rather than just listening to the Head. Nice to have someone asking for my side!