Tea Room the Eleventh

[amberlight]

Goodness, we seem to have run out of space on the other one!
I shall assume that we are still in the same premises as for Tea Room Ten for the moment until wiser people tell me otherwise!!

Ah. I did spend rather longer than I should failing trying to work out how to spell husband with a Cod Viennese accent. I have an O level in German, doncha know.

Am off to make a batch of prawn and vanilla muffins .....

And of course it should have been

"I zink zat feelinz for Husbant zere are, nein"

MadBad those prawn and parsnip pancakes are really curious

Tea I love that I am rehearsing your 6th form fantasies

Racing at dream and I think a little sea shanty to your fried will work wonders. She can't be that unforgiving?

Funnily enough I always see your home as rather Dickensian and am in high envy of it

I dreamt that the heels fell off my wellies last night

GO CATITA! GO GATITA!

Friend of course. I think if you try to fry her she will naturally be a little less keen to stay chummy

Haven't had a chance to sort out the appropriate aromatherapy oils yet, hence am here again.
Can't do it now without waking everyone up because I'm not sure where most of everything is - and I have no matches, that I do know.

I tried so hard to get miniThumb to go to sleep before me tonight so I could just put him to bed but he managed to stay awake throughout Shrek III, which is more than MrThumb managed!

Has Catita gone into full sprog mode? Did I miss something (again) ?

LOL at all the "go Catita" posts - just a gentle reminder that, I believe, there will be no "go go go" and "push push push" as she is scheduled for a section tomorrow?

Well, I've been to a Cathedral service extraordinaire with one of our tea room inhabitants and another mumsnetter or two, stayed in a haunted house for Halloween (not deliberately - and not a sign of a ghost anywhere) and returned. Am knackered. Anyone for a nice bit of choccy shortbread?

Oh JM I know she is having a scheduled C-section tomorrow but the GO CATITA is a symbol of encouragement at the Huge Journey into Life upon which Catita and Gatita are about to embark together rather than thinking she is lying/ standing/ bouncing/ pushing somewhere in Darkest Mexico

I have been to .......... Ikea. If I just slump here on the chaise longue, would someone be kind enough to summon Mellors and a cool flannel to soothe my fevered brow? I know that Mellors is currently providing moral support and resolve to Racingsnake, but as this is the tea room of requirement, the normal rules of physics do not apply and so he is very capable of being in two places at once.

Amber - Please tell us more. It all sounds very splendid. Did the bishops mention the tea room, perchance?

Thumb - Here have a sniff of my pillow spray.

I agree that we should be sending Catita lots of positive vibes, even if Gatita is coming out through the sun roof!

Do you think the NMBs could hand round the Bolly?

Mmmm. Chocolate and gammon shortbread.

MadBad, allow me to hand over the comforting cashmere wrap. What did you buy at Ikea? I have returned Mellors, thank you all. I think the NMBs would be far better occupied handing round twiglets than any more knitting, unless Gatita turns out to be a centipede.

Was tempted to get him to do some spring after holiday exorcising cleaning, but thought I had monoploised him long enough. I rushed around cleaning as darkness fell (more of which anon), with Wriggle following me around with her magic wand, hissing 'Pssst, tidy! 'Pssst, tidy!' So far so cute, but then she started standing on the hoover tube until she got a light tap on the nappy (she frequently puts herself back into nappies when life gets tough). She went into hysterics, I felt terribly guilty and she is now fast asleep on my lap.

Sitting room is looking very Dickensian, being lined with bookcases and dark wood wiggly furniture inherited from great uncle and having tiny windows. Night falls in here at least two hours before anywhere else in the South of England. It is also Dickensianly damp (I am sure Dickens is damp) and with our laissez-faire attitude to cobwebs, often looks like the dining room scene from Great Expectations with Miss HaveringWotsit.

Oh, and I meant to say that I am very envious of your cathedral visit, Amber. If they are not havens of peace and serenity, washed by distant choral music and redolent of past tribulations overcome, please don't tell me.

Your sitting room sounds delightful, Racingsnake. Because we are common (pace Alan Clark and Michael Heseltine), we bought nearly all our furniture, although we do have some with wiggly legs. I do not have an attitood to cobwebs as such, but degenerating eyesight means I sometimes don't spot them until they are, as you say, quite Havershamesque.

As for Ikea, I bought a few bits and bobs for Brownies and a designer waste paper basket for MadBad Mansions. We do have some Ikea furniture, but I am trying not to buy any more as I'd rather buy something old and solid wood than any more mdf.

I too would like to be sitting in a cathedral listening to uplifting music. Instead, we are watching the goggle box.

MadBAd, I feel for you, I really do (thanks for the wafting btw, it worked very well!)

I have never gone to Ikea myself because I had heard enough trauma stories about it to decide I could live without it. Apparently it is here in Australia too though so I may yet experience it for myself... [shudder]

JM, ta for the reminder that Catita is having an el CS - I had forgotten that

Amber, I do love a good cathedral. I have been to many lovely ones and then Guildford. Which I suppose is lovely in a modern 1952ish sort of way.

RS - am of your Dickensian living room, it is my sort of place for sure! Now I live in a fully open plan house (apart from the bedrooms) so not much place for dark little nooks and crannies; plenty of room for cobwebs though!

at "many lovely ones and then Guildford". I have a very dear friend who comes from Guildford.

Would you like some Bolly?

And you might have noticed that I've ditched the axe for another year.

And the film buff part of my brain is telling me that Guildford cathedral is the one in The Omen where Damian's tendencies become apparent.

Funnily enough I rather like Guildford Cathedral and it is a heck of a location and certainly that great golden angel is never going to look the same to me, Damian

Look, here come the NMBs with twiglets and gosh, here comes mellors wrapped in nothing but a cashmere wrap and a cheeky smile leaping across the haha ready to massage MadBad's feet

I have to confess, I rather like IKEA if one is selective and it's unbeatable for bits and bobs but MadBad I admire your restraint. Last time I went for a waste paper basket I came home with a sofa or some such nonsense for me, it is the journey there that is killing

Now, as for a good cathedral, I agree, ideal places for toddlers. We went to a Cistercian one on a too hot day in Provence this summer and it was bliss. That Henry VIII has got a lot to answer for....

Racing LOL at Gatita being a centipede and at Wriggle magicking the cleaning

Don't worry she needs to learn even Ellipticals can't stand on hoovers. I am still haunted by DaisyBoy's quavering voice "Mummy it is never ok to push" when I pulled him a bit more smartly than required after having had More Than Enough....

Tee hee! I thought the name Damian lost all credibility when it was the appellation of Del Boy's baby. But clearly La Hurley thought differently.

Funny that you should mention sofas. We badly need to replace ours and they do have some quite nice looking ones in Ikea but I worry that they are so cheap because they are made of cardboard and will collapse under my MadBadBloke's weight. My friend's wise granny says "buy cheap, buy twice", which offends my frugal principles but is probably sound advice. Hmm.

Now, let's talk cathedrals. They are indeed fantastic places for letting toddlers off the leash - no, Your Grace, I was not suggesting doing that during a service - although MadBadBaby gave us all a fright in Wells cathedral when she slid silently over the back of a bench while watching the clock and whacked her head on the floor. Where was your Cistercian haven?

This foot massage is marvellous, Mellors, but I do feel that you are not appropriately dressed for the job. I think the choices are fitted white tunic like the girls on the Clinique counter (you could channel Robert Redford in The Way We Were) or your usual tattersall check shirt and corduroys. After all, pashminas are soooo last decade.

The Cathedral was in Provence. Can't really remember more than that. Near Draguignon. I think

It wsa hot outside. The cathedral was blissful inside. Cool and quiet and there was a fine cafe outside, in the car park. In England it would have been hideous congealed mayonnaise and microwave chips with bad grace. In france it was heavenly omelettes and salad and fragrant coffee....
twas a good day

MadBad I am a little peturbed. Now that you are wearing the pashmina what on earth has Mellors got on.....

.....

oh I Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......

The cathedral service was enlivened by the Organ only getting part way through the grand and majestic service before emitting a giant Burp and giving up entirely, closely followed by the PA system deciding to sound like a set of bagpipes and the Bishop's staff having to race off to hit it with a hammer.
Meantime, the Organist had to bail out onto the piano in the side aisle, out of sight of the choir and the conductor, who were keeping an entirely different rhythm to him.
The Bishop was trying to compose himself as best he could, but I feared he might run amok with his Crozier at any moment

Then there was a Baptist service on Sunday where we got to play with the playdough and draw things. Brilliant

Anyway, good morning all - I am reading, but my brain doesn't seem to be piecing things together quite well enough to say something useful about each situation. But I do read and care. Plenty of tea and toast available. And Mellors, DO put something on, man! You'll catch your death of cold polishing the armour wearing nothing but a small pinny!

Morning all.

Amber - What a splendid service!

May I please clarify? Mellors is wearing a beauty therapist's outfit borrowed from the nice ladies at Debenhams and today looks just like Robert Redford in The Way We Were. I never wear pashminas, as being short and dumpy petite, they make me look like a badly-wrapped parcel.

Anyway, hot drinks and toast on the aga now.

oh Amber, it sounds wonderful!

thanks for tea and toast

Yes, Amber, English church music at its best. I recently took Wriggle for an all-too rare visit to an Angligan service in our village. Congregation of 9, organ played by the very enthusiastic grandmother of one of Wriggle's friends, obviously missing some keys or stops or bellows or something, since the music was interspersed with random squeaks and silences, played at a totally different tempo to the singing, which was led by one lady corrister at a pitch only accessible normally to bats and dolphins, which was a shame because she was apparently the only person present who knew the tune, leaving the rest of us to mumble behind, occasionally finding a coupke of notes we could all agree on. "Mmmmm mmm mmmm HALLELULIA mmmmm mm mmm AND THANKFULNESS".

Am trying to work out logistics of a meet up with MadBad and a furniture van to transfer some dark and wiggly furniture.

MMMM. Just tried the latest culinary offering. Inspired, I feel.

I imagine a 'coupke' of notes to be a small birch-bark container.

Good afternoon, ladies.

Amber and Racingsnake's encounters with the C of E sound so much more eventful than mine. Our church has such a fine organ that people come from far and wide to admire its dulcet tones - I have yet to see any Bishop's representative hitting it with a hammer. On the other hand, the director of music's taste in hymns tends towards the adventurous and obscure, which means that we too are often in the situation of having only one person present who actually knows the hymn while the rest of us, ahem, improvise as best we can.

Racing - The offer of a vanful of furniture is very kind but I fear I must first burn our existing furniture declutter the house. Is this one of those grass is greener scenarios where you, with a house full of lovely antiques, are dreaming of wipe-clean MDF?