Tea Room the Thirteenth

[amberlight]

Welcome to the newest instalment of the One Parent Families tea room. As it's heading for spring, we're now in a nice warm orangery surrounded by woodland filled with spring flowers. All are very welcome to join in with us parents of one (or indeed more!), the tea room gardener/handyman Mellors, various virtual Bishops (don't ask) and a variety of other characters from previous tea rooms. Grab a cuppa, relax!...

amber - hope you're all right, get some tigerbalm or ibuprofen gel on your neck just in case you have a whiplash.
I've never mistaken the accelerator and the brake, but I have to admit to mistaking the brake for the clutch before (while learning to drive, heading into Twickenham, suddenly realising it's a rugby day and having to do an emergency turn to get out of the traffic)

Do you think I've frightened Daisy off? I do hope not, that would be a real shame.

UniS - I don't much like your RL name suggestions - who suggested them, some snidey bloke?

A&O - your sis sounds totally over-reactive. Was she pg then as well? Perhaps hormones were involved; however, utterly unreasonable IMHO. The apology-you-felt-that-way is a good idea as there is no need to apologise for going to see someone. By all means say you feel you shouldn't have told her to go to hell but perhaps if she had been more reasonable you wouldn't have been upset enough to say that. Or something like that - but I wouldn't bow down and just apologise, especially since she's asked for one, she clearly thinks she did nothing wrong!

AandO - Because I am far more assertive in my head than I ever am in real life, in your shoes I would say to your/my sister

"I am sorry that you were upset that I told you to go to hell. I was so distressed by [what you said/alleged/did] that I lost my cool and said things I shouldn't have done".

That makes it clear that your words in the heat of the moment were a reaction to her behaviour and provocation. Or would this just reignite the argument?

Amber - Mellors seems to have been busy for ages on the massage table. Surely any whiplash injury has been cured by now? {shock]

Duh. That should have been at the length of time Mellors has been rubbing tiger balm into Amber's neck.

Amber - I hope you're OK.

If you do have an issue with your neck, I don't know whether you can cope with osteopaths - but I recommend them.

And the last 2 crashes I've been in, my insurance has managed to get me some money for osteopath fees due to whiplash.

Although I hope you don't have it.

I think Amber fell asleep under mellors ministering strokes.

Moos was one of the team members suggestion!
Not sure what it will end up with, I'm not playing on sunday as won't get back from work in time, so I'll find out after the event.

Neck stiff but not unduly so thanks to Mellors, tea, gin, rub-on potions and indeed a modest quantity of sleep.

Best get packing...see you all next week...

have a great holiday Amber!

Happy holidays Amber!!!

We are also on our holiday - in dear ol' Blighty!!!!

We had afternoon tea at Marks and Spencers yesterday. Milk had a gingerbread girl and we purchased a few M&S dresses for Milk too - they are soooo cheap and fun looking we just had to! Now we are hanging out in our dressing gowns watching cbeebies. Later in the week I will meet with my old school friends to drink bad wine and talk rubbish.

I am currently driving on the very bumby (bad weather = potholes, potholes, potholes!!!)British roads. I don't drive in Paris - when I read about a car crash involving a blonde lady I panicked that I had had a crash without realising it. I drive so rarely nowadays that when I do drive I really am terribly wobbly.

It is nice to be back!!!

AandO - I find sisters are terribly complex things! My own sister and I have really had some very heavy ups and downs... right now she is being very very nice with me... it is bliss and I am very happy but I mustn't be naive.

In terms of your sister I think you have to take the very good advice in this tearoom while also thinking of it as a phase that is sure to go away on its own accord when somethingelse pops up.

psssst.... Unis - at your yoga class... I really love yoga but my Mum and work life simply doesn't fit with local class timetable.

Yoga class has become a habit. I'm very slack and practise not one jot between classes, BUT I do like the walk/ cycle down to the class. and the class itself, walk/cycle back up the hill not always so nice. but here at least when its clear there are thousands of stars to see in the sky and I don't really need to use my torch. Am lucky that in both places we have lived there has been a 7.30 ish class one evening a week. so I leave Dh putting boy to bed.

I'm not sure falling asleep is something the teacher is aiming for, suspect I'm meant to be focusing on the here and now and not drifting off to the tea room.

Ho hum.
Boiler serviced and working, dish washer loaded, work notes for sunday printed, bed vacummed and airing... no to vacum the rest of upstairs, sweep living room and hall and the... collect boy from preschool.

Thai afternoon we will be potting on our broad beans, now they have leaves and all i think they might prefer compost to damp paper. we can plant some more in damp paper to watch them sprout.

Can I second teafortwo's post - sisters really can be complex things!

I have one who is a simmering pot of anger who had been taking advantage of my parents (using their house as a storage unit so they could keep their home 300 miles away pristine, redirecting mail so that a CCJ got registered against my parent's address and not theirs etc etc) - I tackled her on this early into my pregnancy with dd (think the hormones remove any sense of candy coating and you get the courage to say it how it is). Didn't then see her until I was 8 months pregnant and in front of my elderly father, screamed at me (and I mean that literally) for 20 minutes on how dare I get involved etc etc. Will never forget how sad my poor dad looked, he'd overlooked a lot of the crazy outbursts in the past but probably as I was pregnant, he just couldn't take it any more. Although AandO that's what I meant about tackling it, I'd let it slide for years but in hindsight, it was a constant background niggle of stress. Once I stood up to her (and it's amazing how invincible you can feel when shaped like a weeble!) I can't say we now get on because sadly we probably won't ever have that type of relationship, but I feel so much happier.

Hey, the joy of siblings (should say I have one amazing older sister though!)

I love yoga but find I need the more intense stress relief of running (says more about me than it does about Yoga )

UniS - I like the idea of a Thai afternoon, perhaps Mellors could get working on the next tea room in a Thai spa retreat style

sorry about Thai afternoon, did I get your hopes up.

Sounds like sisters are worse than brothers. we just ignore each other.

Think you are right there UniS - there's 4 of us on our family and crikey, girls are so competitive with each other! Found the same in business as well though, my experience has been that although there can still be tantrums, men tend to be more direct, get on with it and move on. Always found I know where I stand whereas that can be much more difficult to gauge in a more female dominated environment (of course this logic does not apply to the tea room!)

(could have started a nice juicy debate here, sits back on the chaise and enjoys a peppermint tea and slice of tiffin)

Interesting reading the thoughts on sisters. As a girl I always wanted one, but as an adult was quite happy to just have brother.

Am finished working and having a quick online browse before going to tackle the dreaded task of dress shopping for a dinner dance. Ugh, especially as still being way hefty anything is likey to look either brassy or sack-like.

IN my absence is did MBADTK morph into stillcrazy

I am home alone tonight as gymhubby is out, so am spending an inordinate amount of time wondering what to cook myself for tea (the girlie is at a friends and so only my tastes to consider)......

I have a brother and vaguely wanted a sister when I was younger. I do now wish we lived a bit closer to my brother and sister-in-law, as I get on pretty well with my sister-in-law and think we could be quite close with more contact. And because she has had a mid-30s epiphany and decided to learn to cook, posting rather appetising photos of the results to Facebook!

Thinking about it, I might invite DD and me down there at some point over Easter (easier for us to go there than vice versa as they both work odd hours and have two dogs).

Bunny, if I were home alone I would either have a curry, a selection of frozen party food, or cauliflower cheese.

However, I am not home alone, I am at the school quiz having fish and chips! And we found a fourth team member, she is one mum's sister, and AFAIK has no kids, so we have 0, 1, 2 and 3 after all.

gymbunny, yes, Madbad is now StillCrazy.

If I'm "home alone" I tend to not cook and just revert to crackers and cheese (bad person)

My sister and I didn't really get on at all well until her wedding, when we suddenly got a lot closer in the face of adversity, if you like (mum interfering and Bro's bitch GF being a royal PITA) - and since then we've mostly been ok, although there were a few probs between MrThumb and my sister for a while (now resolved). She is hypersensitive though so have to be careful not to upset her. I don't think I could cope with any more!

A bit late now, but if I am home alone, I will sometimes cook myself something that the rest of the family don't enjoy, like lamb chops or duck breast, with green beans and a jacket potato.

Am off oop North today to visit my sainted mother, in Lincolnshire. Am just rounding up the kids

(ps am glad I proofread this before posting - duck came out as dick, would have made for interesting reading )

My post last night offering everyone a TGIF glass of Bolly seems to have disappeared. Huh.

The reason I name change from time to time is because I think I'm probably a bit too free on here with personal details and I'm paranoid that one day I'll go just that bit too far and make myself identifiable. For me at least, the whole point of name-changing is that any deranged stalker shouldn't easily be able to find every post I ever made (must be trillions by now ) and piece them all together. So I never actually say what my old and new names are, as it is pretty transparent to anyone who knows me and for anyone who doesn't know me it doesn't really matter. I know this probably sounds rather poncetastic and self-important but I really cannot run the risk of being identified. So now I'm off to think of a new name.

whopps, sorry, SC!

am at Mary's dick breast, I have to say - but am also a bit at the rest of your family's lack of taste! Duck, lamb chops, green beans? staples in this house! (or rather, duck used to be before we moved out of the UK - too expensive here )

I am obviously far too open for my own good and could be easily traced should anyone really want to - but I can't imagine they would.

Hot chocolate anyone?

Morning all. its beautiful spring like morning/ afternoon here. I see Mellors has the NMBs out in the kitchen garden working hard. little spades digging, and pots being filled with compost and seed everywhere I look.

I have an appeal for help-
I'm collecting cows... from Anchor butter packs. there is number printed on the foil of certain Anchor butter packs ( the spreadable ones and maybe others) which can be entered on their website and turned into cows, collect enough cows and you can send off for stuff.
I just realised it ends on 31st march and I am 9 cows short of a picnic blanket. and we are unlikely to use 5 more packs of butter in a month.

So- do any of you have an unused cow code on a butter pack you don't mind me using?

If you do, I'll pop my e-mail addy up and collect them in. any spares can be turned into a donation to greenspace.

No they all eat green beans, its the lamb and duck that don't go down well... although the kids'll eat roast lamb - which is what we had at my mum's tonight!

Mmmm, green beans and duck.

Had pastawith cabbage tonight as dh had promised to make crepes but didn't feel like it last minute, so had left overs.

Anyone could probably idenify me, but I am not important enough for anyone to want to. Feel very important by proxy being among tea room habituees!

ummmm, duck. we had celery and duck soup for lunch.

Went to a "party" for kids activity club this afternoon, boy loved it, hanging out with the slightly bigger kids - 6 yr olds- hes gonna love the village under 11s disco next month isn't he.

I bring you- sweet potato profiteroles. ... enjoy.

Sorry SC, was just v confused

I'm very identifiable too! Although some people have thought the BS stood for something else

Had roast beef and yorkies today, and now have a bit of peace and quiet as DH has take the offspring to see his mum!