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.

at fighting over being PAtsy - I had a wonderful moment the other day, I FOUND AbFab on Foxtel! It was the one where Saffy had written a play about her life, and Edina and Patsy came to watch (eventually) and then met up with the actors who played them after. The one playing Patsy being a man gave me the biggest laugh!

God I love AbFab - still one of the funniest shows ever, up there with Married With Children (anyone remember that one?)

oh and Father Ted of course.. remembered it just as I hit 'post'

Haven't been around enough to have seen Amber (what's a dongle?)

MadBad even the Queen is allowed to get a bit blurry from time to time (isn't one?!)

Amber's dongle is a matter between her and Mellors (who is feeling a bit miffed that he was cast aside so quickly upon seeing George in the Haha)

yes, Madbad, that said "miffed" not "muffed" I know you

Now, get you to the Support Pant section and you'll be fine

Daisy slurps the Bolly and pops of to inspect her soldiers on parade

I think Patsy following Saffy and slapping Nicotine patches on her back made me weep with laughter

And Father Ted. Oh Gosh yes, Father Ted. Do you think our Bishops appear in that?

oh definitely! They would have to, it wouldn't be right for them not to..

I'm loving the mental image of Mary in her Snowy Alb backing into the room with a tea trolley.....

(slightly late, but on cue). Cup of tea anyone? Ah g'wan... g'wan g'wan g'wan!

Morning everyone.
Who else has put their heating on!? I'm not loving these dark mornings. Have to keep reminding myself rain is good for my poor old parched garden.

Thank you for the offer Mrs Doyle, Mary, but I think as it's so gloomy I'll take comfort in hot chocolate. Anyone else?

Without ever having put it into words before, I think I have always imagined the Tea Room bishops as somewhere between the bishops in Father Ted and those in ancient Derek Nimmo comedies.

Thumb - I'm not quite sure what a Dongle is, but don't be led astray by Daisy's lewd innuendo. It's some sort of device for getting internet access while on the move. At least, that's what the nice young man on the Home Programme seemed to be saying.

I have just put the heating on. I fear we are entering the season of having to have the heating on, to dry washing indoors. My literary friend likes to say that it makes the house look like something from a Balzac novel.

We haven't got the heating on, but have a dehumidifier for drying the washing, which keeps it all neatly in one place.

A dongle is a device that plugs into a PC to perform a specific task. In days of yore, they were often used as a licensing device, or for security, but the one mentioned here is a mobile internet reciever

Morning everyone. Wet and windy here but still no heating on for us. gymhubby's Glaswegian roots mean he is far more hardy that me, the soft southerner.

Loving the Father Ted references .
Not much happening here today, have a quick meeting in a bit then I shall carry on trying to get through the mountain of work on my desk. Oh the joys!

Dongling is a fine art, you know. The wrong angle is so easily achieved, and then it falls off. Here, best done whilst leaning out of the window, we find.

I'm not sure why people should get the wrong idea about any of this . Seems perfectly straightforward to me.

Was warm and sunny yesterday here in Dorset. Isn't now. Bah.

Talking of bishops, just thought I'd share this pic of a certain Anglo-Catholic bishop with a penchant for lace (not my bishop, fortunately!)

Episcopal tat

Its wet here too.

Have been given details of a job by a friend. It for a management accountancy type role. It sounds SO boring, that I think I'd rather be dead - or perhaps that's a prerequisite of the job? Anyway, I thought I'd go for the tactful response that I don't satisfy the criteria. But UGH! .

Mary - Wow. That's some frock. I once worked in close proximity to some management consultants < again>, who seemed to get paid an awful lot of money to say the obvious (which they had been told by the managees anyway). Could it not be a case of take the money and run, until you find something that suits you better?

I was just dancing around the kitchen listening to this and thought I would share it - I defy anyone to listen and not smile.

Would anyone like a baked apple, stuffed full of raisins and (calorie free) golden syrup? 'Tis the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, after all. Innit?

Ooops. You were speaking of management accountancy.

Mary your on cue tea trolley entrance is still making me smile

Hang on, I just have to get my Drachma out of the Fridge or is it my Lire? I do remember one of our first Bonding in the Tea Room moments was a shared love of MP

I'm saying yes to hot chocolate and tea and stuffed apples. But not to aerial dongling. The very idea

Poor DaisyBoy is unwell. Being sick a lot. I think it is just a Normal Bug rather than the swiney one, for all the difference. He is weakly watching Peppa Pig and saying "Mummy, if my tummy behaves I can have a teeny piece of toast for supper" in a Stoic but Pathetic sort of way.... oh, he looks so little in his jammies...

And another days work disappearing down the tubes, heck, I shall be sacked. Oh, I am self employed, I can't be Maybe I need to turn myself into HR and talk to myself about diligence

ACtually, can you imagine having a 360 review? I'd just be twirling round the room. Bit like MadBad dancing

Oh, and we have the heating on, but purely for medicinal purposes you understand

Daisy - You really must pay attention. You have forty thousand French francs in your fridge, although frankly they'll not be much use to you now. You should have cashed them in when they introduced the Euro, dear.

I always think a 360 appraisal sounds like that torture thing that Trinny and Susannah used to make their victims protegees do, where they went into the room of mirrors to look at their bodies from every angle. That's the sort of thing that has me searching for the jeans with inbuilt girders.

Anyway .... poor DaisyBoy. Big hugs from all at MadBad Towers. Would you like to borrow the tea room bucket and mop? And Mellors to wield them?

Madbad, have no experience of accountancy anyway, so can't see me standing a chance of getting anywhere with an application, not in the current climate!

I think what Daisy and Daisyboy need right now is a rabbit with a pancake on its head.

Crikey, I needed that rabbit! Feel much better now, thanks

yes, I do need to play fast and loose with my £40,000 Francs in my pyjamas....

No, no, no, Daisy. It's ninety thousand pounds in your pyjamas.

I hope Daisyboy feels better soon, Daisy.

How are you Catita? Three more weeks, yes?