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!

Oh, good for CMOT Tiddler saying sorry. I try not to make DaisyBoy apologise in the heat of the moment because I know that when I am all discomfobulated being urged to say "sorry" when I still want to lamp somone is very very very hard indeed.....

So we have a "move on, don't gloss over" policy and it seems to work - sometime later DaisyBoy comes up with really heart felt "sorries" which (of course) make me want to weep. perhaps my Parenting School of Least Resistence is simply indulgence on a grand scale and I will have Attila the DaisyBoy in a few years time, but it does make life more peaceful and curbs my shrieking harridan tendencies

We have our Christmas Tree up!!! [excited emoticon] my excuse is because we are away from Christmas Eve so only have it a short time, but the truth is i am just EXCITED!

And I have a great new policy for managing work - leave work at work. Bring home small amount. Amaze self with small amount of work to do. Do it. Feel smug.

I think this is going to be a great policy for about 2.3 days!

when are you all stopping the paid out of home work for Christmas?

JM - you could still put iodine on your gooey leg, honest. It would still help. Or the vodka works quite well too (surgical spirits even better, but I don't know if you have those in Canada?)

Hurrah for CMOTtiddler - what a lovely boy! Awwww.

Daisy - yay for the Christmas tree being up - we are going to start putting up decs this weekend, we might buy a cut tree from a dodgy bloke wot sells them on the corner on Saturday mornings this weekend, but if they're still too expensive then it's the fake one, sadly.

Tonight we have been to the Hunter Valley Gardens Light Spectacular. The gardens are fairly special in their own right, but for Christmas they deck them out with thousands of feet of ropelights, all over the bushes and trees and with lots of figures and shapes dotted around as well. It's very exciting for a 2yo boy - he was skipping so hard with excitement! I had to put him in reins though as it was impossible to keep hold of his hand - and I got a few smiles from passers-by as I was towed along the paths to each attraction! A few wee tantrums occurred - especially on leaving the pony arena after only being allowed to ride one of them. But overall a lovely evening and miniThumb is now spark out in bed, bless him.

Day on sofa today. Feeling worse than yesterday, despite starting antibiotics yesterday... Anyway, hope things improve soon - big piece of work that only I can do next week.

We have the opposite problem with 'sorry' here - its all too easy to say sorry after you've done something that you know you shouldn't have done. Its just a bit too easy, to the extent that it almost feels as though the naughtyness is being viewed on the basis of 'I know its wrong, but if I say sorry immediately afterwards, it'll be OK. We're trying to get to the next step which is to realise that you shouldn't do the naughty thing in the first place - but restraint is quite difficult at the mo!

Mistledog is with the vet at the moment - we're calling at 2pm to find out how she's doing. Hopefully having lump removed - and hopefully its nothing to worry about...

Not sure that we'll bother with a Christmas tree this year - don't have one in a pot outside that we can use, and elsewhere for most of the holiday season, so doesn't seem too much point.

MT, large cup of something soothing for you, and keeping your dog in my thoughts. Hope all's ok...

Tantrums? Ah yes, we've had some spectacular ones over the years. Thank goodness DS keeps his to the rugby field these days, because a 6ft+ rugby player in a strop is quite a handful and I can only see as far as his chest these days without standing on a box to shout at him.

We're never really closed in our business. One of the perils of the work we do (which applies to both the church work and to our business!). But in theory the staff in the business slope off at lunch on the 24th and don't return until the New Year. Many choose to work anyway, as they say it's more peaceful and cheerful here than at home

THanks Amber - for the drink and the dog well-wishes - ringing for news at 2pm.

So, what are we having in the tearoom for lunch?

ooh, well despite the fact that it's gone midnight here, I think perhaps a really nice butternut squash soup with lewd rolls might go down well for lunch - sound ok?

Sorry you are still under the weather MT - have a nice hot toddy with lots of honey and lemon and brandy in. Hope the dog comes out ok.

I think (although I could be wrong of course) that part of miniThumb's tantruming tonight was partly due to MIL suggesting that he should come and follow the other children - this meant if we were ever in danger of overtaking a group of children, miniT had a bit of a meltdown and wanted to go back again. I sometimes begin to see where MrT gets his "speak before thinking" ishoos from...

TW - MiL - sometimes, who'd have them!!!!

Recent experience - 'Oh, I didn't know that mistlechick had mainly oats for breakfast with just a sprinkling of 'normal' cereal - I just gave him a bowl full of sugar laden cereal so that you can deal with the consequences once I've gone...' or words to that effect. And I don't know how often she's been told, and if she'd asked mistlechick, she would have received a reasonable answer!

Mistle, at the risk of sounding as if I am siding with MIL (which I am not), she has her way of doing things and you have yours. Of course MistleChick is your son and she should listen. But obviously she isn't going to. You can choose to get frustrated and upset and have arguments or you and MistleChick can roll your eyes at each other and say, "Grannies! They have no idea. But she is lovely when she ....(fill in blank)." Maybe next time MistleChick could ask for what he wants?

Thumb - what time does it get dark there? Finding it hard to visualise two-year old in daylight in floodlit garden, but if it is midsummer and dark at 10.30, how did he stay awake?

Racing: I've now taught him to say 'No thank you, I don't want a whole packet of crisps, that's too much salt for a child, I'll have one of the crunchy bars that mummy gave you to give to me for snacks...'
(When I said that a packet of crisps wasn't suitable, she said it was the only thing she could get him as she 'didn't eat biscuits', so next time I sent crunchy bars - and found out that she had those anyway...

Jacksmama - I am the least medically-qualified person here, but have you checked that you haven't got a splinter in your leg? When MadBadBaby had a horrendously gooey leg after she "tripped over the waste paper basket", after a fortnight of antibiotics, I was bathing the afflicted limb when a mahooosive splinter emerged which neither I nor the GP had spotted. Turned out she had, in fact, been standing on her rattan dressing-up basket and had fallen through the lid, picking up a huge splinter in the process. >

We seem to have more of the pinot gigglio. Who'd like some?

Yes please, and some twiglets if there are any left from the raid of the NMBs

Thanks MadBad, that's a good thought, but unfortunately, no foreign objects in the wound... only yellow goo surrounded by a large patch of iodine-brown which I tried, following Thumb's advice. I soaked a gauze pad with iodine and put it on the cut under the bandage and left it there for a bit. I'm sad to report it stung like fire and has made no difference, except to the colour of the skin around the cut. I'm going to ring my GP's surgery and ask if the lab report has come back yet and what it showed.

I'm afraid I have nothing to add on the leg saga, apart from the fact that if I scrape myself, it always goes gooey and horrid, but heals fine eventually. If nothing specific on the culture, maybe you could, um, express onto a dressing and try that. The ability of bm to degunk and heal is amazing

Hey - why haven't I thought of that?????

JM - poor you!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww - I also have wound. It is an mn wound. I told a Linda Smith joke and killed a thread... booo hooo!!! And on mn I do feel one is only as good as their last post (excluding the tearoom of course where whether you are good or not is not the issue!).

RS - We went to a pirate party last year - it was fab and I was so PROUD at Milk being the only child with a home made costume... she looked fab!

I think with angels the secret is to keep it simple.

Mistle - Milk has an adopted Algerian Nanna who on occasions has filled her with Haribos (sp)... I feel this is a small price we have to pay for all the good Milk gets from their quite beautiful and very special relationship. Is it the same case with MIL or is there more to this than just the wrong cereal and salty crisps?

Tea - did the books arrive?

AP was feeding Wriggle raw bacon the other day when I came home from work. Was pleased to see them doing their own thing.

RS - Not yet ... I am hoping that running to check the post quite often will make them arrive faster...

Tea - what was the thread/joke?

• I have an unbearable urge to try to tell a great Linda Smith joke excuse me if I muck it up:

I'm from Greater London... You know, the edges!!!

Weird name for that area really...

You see if you think about it the further away from Central London you go (Covent Garden, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square...) well the less great it becomes really...

It was on the thread about London being the only city!

Do you know the one about the scissors madbad...? I was trying to remember exactly how it goes...

Also on the side at this time of year I NEEEEED to listen to Aimee Mann do you want to join me???

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymzLDBF5RM8

Aaaaah yes - I think I sort of remember - the scissors one is something like...

I can really understand Bush and Blair on the weapons of mass destruction thing. You see I'm like that with scissors...

except of course I know I had some scissors in the first place.

Ah yes. I saw that thread but felt very so didn't read it all. Although I used to howl with laughter at Linda Smith on the radio, I don't remember the scissors joke. Shall we google it?

Was it this one?

.... I sort of sympathise with them looking for weapons of mass destruction, because I'm like that with scissors. Honestly, I just turn the house upside down. Of course the difference is, I know I have got some scissors.

Those of us who live in the less aesthetically splendid parts of the kingdom may feel a frisson of recognition at this one

.... Erith isn't twinned with anywhere but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham.

I have no sound on this 'puter so can't appreciate Aimee Mann, but offer you this bit of superlative Christmas schmaltz.

Drat. I was just 23 seconds too late.

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At suicide pact!

The town I live in and all the towns around are twinned with five to ten other places which somehow seems pretty tarty to me.

The nextdoor town is, amongst many others, twinned with Hackney! I don't know how aware Hackney is of the other twinnings in nextdoor town's life... but strongly suspect poor Hackney is being strung along rather .