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.

Sympathy T42 . Not nice when they wriggle off, but their own fault and don;t we wish they would learn from it.

mines a hot choc and some cake, coffee with thick iceing but NO walnuts .

Thanks - Your post has really chered me up UniS. Actually I just posted a question for Mr Brown and that has cheered me up a bit too... I wonder if he will answer it?

I'll have your walnuts!

Poor you, Tea. How dare that woman judge you and fly in without finding out the situation. Maybe she had been traumatised as an infant by falling from shoulders of a relative? Or indeed traumatised by being hit on the head by falling infant?

For future reference, have you tried the fantastic hippychick hip seat? Carry child on hip in an almost effortless manner. Of course, the problem is that you would never have it when you need it for impromptu lie-down protests.

Wriggle always claims exhaustion when it comes to tidying up her toys. Papa will never allow any consequences, so the scenario goes: Maman, 'Help me tidy up your farm/cars/dinosaurs.' Wriggle, 'I'm exhausted.' Maman tidies up. Papa accuses Maman of hiding toys and spoiling the fun.

Hi RS -

I have ummmed and aaaarrrred over buying a hippychick seat before (actually it is you who recommended it!) but am afraid it will make me even more likely to carry her and I must encourage Milk to walk... but... it is such a long way to school and my back does ache so much from all that carrying... maybe I will give the website one more peak!!!

Ha ha ha - That reminds me. My own Mother closed a Mini Metro car boot on my head when I was a child.

Somehow this suddenly makes me feel 100X better...

Or maybe it is the chocolate and red wine effect!

Madbad - Annie Get Your Gun!!! How exciting - Do do do tell more!!!

My father dropped an electric drill on my brother's head and my mother somehow managed to get MadBadbaby's head wedged in the turnstile at the entrance to the supermarket!

What more can I say about Annie Get Your Gun? It's a long time since I saw a musical on stage and it was a hoot. I may well take Gymbunny's advice and book for Priscilla. And I wonder whether Mellors would look good in a stetson?

I hope you have recovered from your nasty shock T42. And don't let random interfering women get you down. My theory is that they have probably done worse things in the past and are seeking to ameliorate a sense of guilt by projecting onto you.

Racing Kittenito is back to his bouncy self, thanks for asking. He's had me up at 5am every day this week. Today he had the audacity to fall back asleep at 6, just when I would have had to get up anyway.

Eek T42, you must have felt bad enough without that woman charging up to you like that! Wonder if she were a MNer?

I sat on daughter's arm once and fractured her wrist . AND told people about it in a sermon (we now have an agreement, she gets 10p for every time I mention her, for whatever reason - she doesn't realise this isn't the going rate for offspring mentioned in sermons, and actually amounts to 'slave labour' )

Coffee anyone? Just made a pot...

In the spirit of 'things our parents did to us', I once fell off my bike when cycling into town with mum (we did the weekly shop on our bikes at that time, so even my 8 yr olds bike had front and back baskets). She thought I was making a fuss, so made me continue on, go round the supermarket etc. When we got home, my jeans had to be soaked off my knee, and it had to be dressed for weeks and weeks as it was so yucky.

I use a sling with DS still - a ring sling works well for emergencies as they fold into your handbag. He can walk further, but much like a small dog, the cavorting round your feet means he walks 5x further than I do

Here's some hot chocolate and yummy muffins (the bread type) to serve with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon.

Cmot - How does a sling work with such a heavy child? I could barely stand up when carrying MBB at about the age of two! But then, I am a wizened old crone.

Mary - Who sets the going rate for mentions in sermons? I like to imagine that this is an item on the agenda at general synod!

Catita - Phew that Kittenito is better but commiserations about the sleep theft.

Wish me luck - just off to a difficult meeting.

Sounds good, plus I'm just preparing some bacon butties!

As for the going rate in sermons, I've compared notes with other sermon givers, and I'm mean and stingy . Still, so long as DD is happy about it - prior to the fee fixing, she didn't like me mentioning her! But family are a great source for inspiration!

I loathe World Book Day with a vengeance. It causes real hassle for DS with his ASC. He didn't want a ready made dressing up outfit, but one put together from 'normal' clothes. Only unless the clothes were exactly the right colour/shade, he didn't want to wear them. So we had a tantrum. In the end he went in his school clothes, but didn't want to wear them either. Better than last year when he wanted to stay at home and avoid WBD altogether!

I suppose I've just been carrying DS since he was teeny, so have strengthened my core muscles to carry him. But if carrying for a length of time, he'll be on my back, so weight is all spread out. Ring sling is for up and down.

Good luck for the meeting - have a virtual take out cup of hot choc with a flake and marshmallows

Good luck with the meeting MadBad, I'm just back from one, and have stuffed myself on couscous feta and falafel sald from M&S. We're taking gymhubby to Chessington tomorrow as gymgirlie decided that's what daddy would really like for his birthday day out and I filled up on snacks in order to try to save a bit on food.

gymgirlie's toys drive me to despair sometimes, but she is slowly beginning to try to put a few things away now and then, thanks to some Draconian measures (like no pocket money on a Saturday if her room is a mess)

Have wandered over to wave back at MadBad, didn't really want to socialise on other thread. I'm not posting a lot because: 1) kittens like to sit on laptop 2) So I use my iphone 3) it's not much fun for extended posts.

Just of for a soirée of Canadian ice wine and Waitrose snacks!

Well, my meeting was dreadful. Took 4 hours and we had to plead for a biscuit to keep us going to the end. Never like that in the tea room, where there is always a plentiful supply of carbohydrate, eh?

MadBadBaby didn't want to dress up for WBD either, but then got to school to find that she was one of the very few who hadn't. Ho hum.

It's almost dark here and I've had a trying day. Sherry anyone?

ooh lovely - a quick sherry before dinner is just the job.

4 hours with no biscuit ? Disgusting I call that

4 hours with no biscuits!!!!! That has to be against some euro working directive or another surely?
I'm putting off reading about teh " new vetting and barring scheme" tonight. It looks like I will have to register, as the school I work in for 10 days once a year are rubbish at getting supply teachers , so we have a steady stream of classes " sat at the back to watch" un supervised ( and unruly) while we are working with their teachers who are working with the performers.

That coffee cake last night was very nice, I see tonight we have a chocolate sponge with choc iceing and JAM inteh middle, and more iceing on teh top with Malteasers for decoration. I'm helping my self to a large slice.

In RL, DH liked the bread and butter pudding I cooked for his birthday tea - tho I say it myself- it WAS fab, just teh right amount of cookedness.

Evening all.
Thought I'd pop in to say hi and grab a handful of twiglets and a drop or 2 of Bolly. No news in Orange Land to speak of.
T42 poor you to have some narky woman bark at you. You did well not to shove your groceries somewhere unpleasant!

To join in on the how-your-parents-unintentionally-hurt you thread, my Dad parked his car on my foot once (luckily I was wearing a fake leather 80s pixie boot which protected my ankle) and I also passed a drill up to my Dad in the attic which swung round and scratched my cornea (he still feels guilty bless him)

Hope everyone else is dandy? Any plans for the weekend?

I'm planning on eating to build up my winter flub to save on heating bills.
x

Evening all, I'm having a quiet night in preparation for military style departure for Chessington in the morning. SO am sipping on a solitary glass of wine and watching Benidorm , quite far from high heels in the Lanmark Hotel as last week. Hope you are all having a fun evening.

Good evening. A small sweet sherry would go down very well .... or maybe a large one .... and I should probably try the dry sherry too, as being far less naff ... just a drop more to be sure .... zzzzzz

Behaviour with no consequences can be awful . Not what I had in mind. Apparently Inuit children do not hear the word 'no' until they are 11. I wonder how many reach the age of 11 ..

Has everyone heard the news about the survey on education and the gov't's reaction to it? I have rarely been so angry Please let's have the education minister to tea in the tea room. I know just where we could drop him in the oubliette.

Orangehaze - Have you still got your pixie boots? If so, switch on BBC4 now for the programme on 1980s synthesiser bands!

Racingsnake - Are you thinking of the Cambridge review? I haven't read any of it but it got a mention in today's webchat with Gordon Brown. What's making you angry? The report or the response?

I am now officially trying to shed some flub, even if winter is fast approaching. Oh gloom. My weekend plans therefore centre on washing, ironing and chocolate avoidance. Deep gloom.

I didn't say your taste was naff. I am sure that you are sipping the driest of sherries. The trouble is, I really like sweet wine.

It is the government's arrogant dismissal of what every educator must know is true and the untold harm done to generations of children that makes me angry. Obviously not every child; some are fine with formal learning at 4.

Could you cheer yourself up with delicious baked fruit, for example?

Baked fruit? Tell me more. Although I think baked apples filled with raisins and golden syrup may be what got me into this blubbery mess!

I think you might need to leave out the golden syrup! I was thinking about ripe apples and pears cooked in organge juice and eaten with plain yogurt, for example. (One of my favourites.)I only wish I didn't find so many excuses for myself (too tired, too stressed, just getting over tummy bug) to eat biscuits and chocolate instead. In fact, with M. Serpent away for the weekend, this could be the perfect time to reform my ways!