Tea Room the Twelfth

[RacingSnake]

Come in, come in, to Tea Room the Twelfth! We now inhabit a rambling log cabin, surrounded by mysterious pine forests and mist-covered mountains (but also, strangely) easily accessible by regulars, new-comers and passing bishops, ferried in by Mellors driving the troika. All the usual rules apply and all are welcome!

I think I am officially turkey'd out... I don't want to see either turkey or mashed potatoes for another month, at least. Rice and vegetable stir fry for me, please.

Had quite the busy day - went to a yoga class this morning (gruelingly hard, I am very sore and have bruises on my arms from trying to do an arm-balance pose), and then took DS to Chuck E Cheese's to meet some friends of ours. It'ss a sort of children's party restaurant-and-play centre. DS ran around like a mad thing, and then our friends came over to ours, and their two boys, who are 5 and 7, ran little just under-2-year-old DS around some more . They left at quarter to seven, and DS was asleep ten minutes later, poor little man.

A friend gave me several bottles of home-made Okanagan wine... would anyone like some? I can't vouch for its quality but it is nicely chilled.

Why not ? I quite like home made wine actually.

Stylish NYE here - DH is playing his new game, I'm on here, and will go to bed before 10 probably. Have been reflecting on the last decade - it's been interesting I suppose - we've moved 3 times, DH has had 6 jobs etc.

DB and his fiance came to visit yesterday - wedding does include children, so thats a relief

Have a totally splendid start to your New Year, lovely people. I see Mellors has already got into the party spirit

Wishing you a very happy New Year. Whispers: Amber and Cmot - as you are both fond of precision, do you agree that the next decade does not really start for another year? Anyway, peace and love to you all.

It's still 2009 here ladies. For another 5 and half hours to be exact. But I'll wish you all a happy 2010 the now, as not to forget later.

The jumnpers? For the bloody artic weather we are enduring in sunny (ha-blimmin´ha- emoticon) Mexico. Rain and overcast weather with the temperature not reaching double figures is nasty in a house with no means of warming it. It's like being at university again when I wrote me thesis swathed in a three jumpers and a duvet with a hot water bottle at my feet to ward off the chilblains. That we due to poverty, broken windows and general crappy east coast Scottish weather. Here it's because we have no fire, electric or gas, no heating and no double glazing. Fine in summer, a disster at the mo.

at least it's warm in here, and I see you lot in 2010 have been generous and left me some whisky. I'll just have the one wee dram I think....

Happy New Year, everyone. Went to bed at 9.30 due to rubbish TV and the fact that M. Serpent was using the laptop to research the French property market.

Hope that Mellors remembered that we are actually above the Arctic Circle at the moment and any haha is under several meters of hard-packed snow ....

Catita, when I lived in the South of Spain, any heating there was was in the form of little round trays of charcoal which burnt under the dining table. Everyone sat around the table with the heavy tablecloth over their knees, so that at least your legs were warm. If the weather was even colder,the table cloth was pulled up around the shoulders, so that a circle of disembodied heads sat round the table. Strings were stretched between the table legs for the drying of small items of underwear, which would occasionally catch fire ....

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to one and all!

My washing machine was fixed yesterday, I have a backlog of washing, only DH won't let me get on with it, as he says its "washing the new year away . Anyone else have this ritual?

We spent last night at a Beer's good friend's place in Montmartre watching a children's opera that the children at the party had organised. It seemed to involve lots of singing about a fish who pees the bed!!!

The transport back was a nightmare - All but a couple of Metro lines closed at midnight cue lots of yoofs hanging around drunk, cross and unable to get home... allors - busy night for the police!!!

Did you know that we picked up dear little Eccles (our Cocker spaniel puppy) over Christmas? She is a daaaaarling and has decided although the bed we bought her is very nice she much prefers to sleep on Milk's head.

RS - GGGGRRRRRRRR about prezzie! - what was he thinking??? Really - have you asked him about the thought process that lead to... no present!

Madbad - My MIL, neice and a friend travelled three hours from the countryside to Paris and then took last minute flights in a panic because of Eurostar conking out to get to London to see the ballet you went to!!! They luuuurved it too!

Mary - we have been upto our ears in countryside mud for the past week - I am now upto my ears in washing too...

I am certainly joining you in your ritual too!!!

Happy New Year to you all. Any pictures of Eccles Tea ?

Our washing machine is on. muddy trousers need washing and tomorrow we have a party.

Happy new year all. we wondered down to teh pub this lunchtime to watch Morris dancers and a mummers play. Guess what- ST George won and the Dr made it all better. who'd have expected that outcome!

CMOT - Thanks for asking - I put a pic up for you!

Eccles is sooo cute . I feel very animal broody at the moment for some reason.

The Ernest and Celestine book I bought is lovely btw - although I had to do some word checking to read it

Thanks Cmot - Funny I have a job, morgage and a child but since having Eccles I feel like at last I am a REAL grown up! Like somehow spooning out dog food and taking Eccles for a walk gives me real gravity. Although when I got my tea-set out for our afternoon tea party with friends today I did feel like I was 5 and just playing at being grown up again!!!

I am glad you like the books - every other French child we know got them for Christmas from us. I am quite passionate about Ernest and Celestine at the moment although I too have trouble understanding some words!

Oh very sweet puppy tea!

Happy New Year everyone. In case you didn't see the thread, Justabout had a baby boy by C-section on the 29th.

We didn't do much yesterday - went to MIL's for dinner , home by 8:30 pm (so as to get off the roads as it was pissing down with rain - Not A Good Thing on NYE with drunken idiots on the roads), in bed by 10 pm. [old fogeys emoticon]. DH got up with DS this morning (not tragically early, around 8 am) and let me sleep - until 9:45 am!! Aaaahhhh!! BLISS! In exchange, he is off watching the football with his friends, and I am home with DS, who is currently snuggled up sleeping between pillows on our bed.

I was contemplating taking the tree down, but it is rather a job for one person, so will probably wait until DH is home to help.

Catita, did those ginger nuts ever arrive? And I saw the weather in Mexico - what the bleep is going on, it's rarely that chilly there, isn't it?

Warning: JM is in an inquisitive mood.

I have a question about the Deceased Wife's Sister Act. I understand that when it was passed, it allowed a widower to marry his (presumably ) single sister-in-law. I assume to have someone look after his children who is their blood relative.
Why was it illegal to do so before the act was passed?
And also, the act having been passed, did it mean that a man was merely allowed to marry his SIL, or that, if there was a single SIL around, they were obliged to marry? What if they hated each other?

And one more question. Someone started a thread about being in trouble because she hadn't charged the electric meter, and didn't have any money at all and no-one was able to lend her any until the next day... I assume she is somewhere in England, so I was wondering - is it common for people to live in houses where you pay for heat kind of like you'd feed a parking meter? I have never heard of such a thing. Someone else gave her advice and said to turn off non-essentials such as the fridge and set everything outside as it was so cold, and the OP replied that she had neither fridge nor freezer - I'm confused... and feeling a bit naive... is it possible for people to live in such primitive housing, but yet have a computer to post on? I am feeling shockingly ignorant about poverty in developed countries. I mean, there is poverty here, we have homeless people, and conditions in our Indian Reservations can be appalling even though the government chucks gobs of money at them... anyway, I'm waffling, but could someone clue me in? Thanks.

Yes, Eccles is lovely. Funny, I have a whole menagerie and I don't feel like a grown up ....

JM, just read your post which suddenly appeared.

Yes, people do have meters for electricity, generally I think those who don't/can't pay their bills. They end up paying a higher rate than anyone else ... I think it is probably perfectly possible that you can have a computer but no fridge or freezer - it is a matter of choice, after all. A second-hand computer is probably cheaper.

At school I remember one family where they could never 'afford' school uniform, trips, etc, but when a teacher wanted to meet to talk about their very disruptive child, the mother said that she couldn't make the appointment because she had to stay in to wait for the cleaners who were coming to clean her oven. None of us teachers felt that we could afford to pay for someone to clean our oven.

Incidentally, I have turned our fridge off to save money in this cold weather.

And it looks as if clicking on this site gives free food to hungry people.

Interesting questions, Jacksmama.

Happy New Year all! We have been away.
It is still peeing down with rain here but it did stop while we were away, just long enough for miniThumb and myself to obtain a roseate glow.

I didn't know about the Deceased Wife's Sister Act but I believe it is still illegal to marry one's MIL - a law that many feel is totally redundant!

Didn't Henry VIII rescind the Deceased Sibling's spouse act when he married his brother's widow? Or is that different?

I think people use computers in libraries or friend's houses sometimes, but don't know anything about that thread. We certainly used to have an electricity coin meter for years - always exciting when you got to the key point in a program on the tele and the whole house went dark and we had to stumble about trying to find a torch and 50p to put in the meter

Certainly no computer-equivalent for us back then.

It's sunny and lovely here. Might hop round the garden later.

Madbad, a man marrying his brother's widow is known in Judaism as a Levirate marriage. It comes from the Torah (and hence the bible)

Lots of info here

In the bible, Deuteronomy 25:5-10:

"When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband?s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband?s brother to her, and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. But if the man has no desire to marry his brother?s widow, then his brother?s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, ?My husband?s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother?s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband?s brother to me.? Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, ?I have no desire to marry her?, then his brother?s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, ?This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother?s house.? Throughout Israel his family shall be known as ?the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.? "

A man marrying his MIL? Eeeewwww...

The mind boggles, doesn't it?

Thanks for the explanation, Mary.