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!...

oh amber, sorry about DH's uncle, so sad.

Trowel&error - good name. No mistakes this time.

strawberry and twiglet fondue? Interesting...

how about some carrot cookies as well?

It is almost cold here today - there is an evil draught coming in under the back door. Must remember to get a door ledge to block said evil draught before it gets much colder.

Didn't...have...plumber...in....the...Biblical...sense...

Morning all! I'd quite like the herring and pineapple for breakfast, if there's any left over?

Kettle's on for those in need...

AandO, I "stole" her nintendo. She doesn't know when she is going to get it back, although now she has stopped asking for it, I ought to let her have it back...

Not sure about herrings and pineapple.

Amber, watch out for plumbers who want to uncover your feet. In the bible that was a euphemism for having someone in the biblical sense . Its amazing what you learn on ministerial courses!

T&E - you look somehow familiar... I can't quite put my finger on it.... its almost as if you've been here before ...

Amber - sorry to hear about your uncle-in-law - but glad you had some time off before that.

Unis - hope cold goes - its bright and sunny here - much better than foggy and misty for helping to clear colds (although you'd never believe it based upon my cough - still here, and now had it since Nov...)

Mistlechick is finding that the effort of trying to be good at school is EXTREMELEY tiring - he had naps on both days at the weekend - and its only just after half term. Hadn't realised until now how important halfterms are - he really needs them by the time they come around.

DH has another interview for a different job today - two yesterday. There are definitely more coming up, and some at the right sort of level which is encouraging. He just needs to get one now.

Hurrah for half term. they do really need it at preschool and infants age. I'm liking the reality of monday afternoon preschool, we have monday morning chilling at home to recover from weekend, then off he goes and I get an hour or two to my self. during which time a customer phones up and talks at me for an hour ... grrrrr. if he does give me a weeks work off all these consultations I shall have earnt most of the fee before the week starts.

Herring and pineapple porridge coming right along amber. may I recommend you do not add cream.

off to Drs for an asthma check up soon. I shall cycle there and I have a cold.. my p[eak flow is going to be well messed up. ho hum. no car today and don;t wish to hang about for a bus as boy is being fed lunch by another preschool family.

at the versatile use of twiglets.

Toast and honey for anyone not keen on the herring and pineapple porridge?

Mary, shall make an extra-big note of that too, thanks! I've always been equally worried about the Biscuit Code as revealed on the tele a couple of years back. Never offer a plumber or other tradesman a chocolate biscuit, it said, as that's an invitation to some, er, horizontal walking! Do we think Rich Tea are safe, or do they mean something else again??! Aspies worry about this sort of thing...

Fingers crossed re jobs, MT...

I gave an electrician a sandwich once, perhaps that was too much then? Admittedly he was an old family friend, but you can't be too careful!

Eek and argh. Have just gone to vacuum up the living room (not the whole room Amber), and the cleaner seemed to lack suck. So I replaced the bag, in the hope that would help, and it didn't. So I ended up cleaning the floor with a dustpan and brush! I then carried it into the kitchen, and dropped contents of pan on kitchen floor, so more time spent on my knees. ARGH!

(note to self, don't take apart dodgy vacuum cleaner on carpet that you are about to clean, with the reasoning you're going to be hoovering it anyway. If said cleaner is faulty, it just creates a BIGGER mess to pick up!)

A sandwich? You gave him a Sandwich?!

Oh my!

Arrgh re hoover. Glad you didn't hoover up the whole room...it would have left a hole in your house.

It would have made a useful carport though... although the rest of the house would probably be more draughty than usual.

Amber - I think Digestive biscuits and or hobnobs are probably both a 'safe' choice. Or if you've got the builders etc in for ages, any biscuits that you can get at a discounted bulk price!

Last time the 'suck' went on the hoover I found that a pencil had got wedged at the top of the hose, adn stuff had got wedged around that - virtually blocking the tube... took about 30mins to unblock due to problem actually getting there!!!

Ok, read through the posts. Thanks for all the advice about my sister. I went for the dontcallmebaby advice, said sorry (for the go to hell comment but nothing more, said that I should have walked away at that point instead) but then asked for an apology in return. Was otherwise very friendly, asked about pregnancy, told her how ds and dh were getting on. I sent the email on Sat night, no reply yet! Oh, she was not pg when we had the argument...so no hormone excuses.

Sorry to hear about your dh uncle Amber. But glad you had fun until that point .

Yes, sorry about the uncle, Amber.

Daisy, herad a rather worrying R4 programme about halal abbatoirs, too. Too much BBC, perhaps? However, none here, of course. Also I could not tell you where there is the nearest supermarket with a cafe in it! Life is different down here! Although we were sitting outside a cafe, actually, close to the supermarket. And it wasn't raining, which was lucky, since there was a 'no mobiles' rule and I had to sit outside so that I could wait for the AA call.

Mrs Cropley is one of my favourite TV characters, UniS, from The Vicar of Dibley.

She has been referred to in the tea room in the past, although I think this is the first time that she has helped Mellors in the kitchen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vicar_of_Dibley#Letitia_Cropley

many thanks RS, a bit more explained. I didn't watch VoD. I kinda missed a lot of TV over the last 20 years which may be why I don't miss it all now.

Unis also twirls a possible new name, what do you think of replacing the i with a 1 so Un1S or does it look tooo much like a lower case L , maybe Uni5 would read better.

Any one wish to stir and make a wish, twiglets are to hand if you do. beetroot and banana cake in the making.

Maybe if the beetroot and banana cake had twiglets on? Although personally I think you can't beat a nice chocolate and marmite filling!

Eek I'm tired... think I might nod off on the couch. Wake me if anything momentous occurs...

Ok, B&B cake with Choc and Marmite filling and a Cream cheese topping with twiglet pattern. I think it'll be a winner in the village show inventive cake section. The twiglet pattern will echo the Marmite hint in the centre. Or do I mean that the other way round.

Hmm, interesting cake idea!

Mary, bummer about the vacuum cleaner - they are loathsome things when they go wrong.

UniS - why do you wish to make such a subtle namechange? are you afeared that someone will stalk you too?

A&O - good move - hope it works out for you with your sister but I guess you shouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.

MT - heaps of good luck to MrMT for job interviews - he's bound to get one sooner or later

I should be so lucky... a stalker, that would mean someone wanted to admit to knowing me.

nope, just wondered if it was time for a change.

Morning all! Coffee, toast anyone?

So an update on the argument/apology with my sister. So I apologised and asked her for an apology, she replied:

'I'm sorry that things got so out of hand at Christmas. I just think it's very sad that we can't seem to spend any amount of time with each other anymore without arguing. It shouldn't be like that, we're both adults with children!'

I'm happy but also think she copped out and did a I'm sorry you're upset kind of thing. But perhaps we should just move on now.

Thoughts please !

MT, your husband has job interviews! That's great news.

I'm no expert in the finer points of apologies, but can offer large bowl of soup to go with the contemplations...?

A&O - from what you said, it didn't sound much like she was behaving like an adult but hey. I would let it go and move on - she has included the "sorry" word in the same way you did (clever, that) so you've both got what you wanted but not actually accepted the fault was yours - result!

Soup please amber (although I should be asleep) - oh look, it appears to be butternut squash soup! Yum, one of my favourites.

TW - what were you doing up at that time of night???

Bowl of soup would go down well here - out at a meeting all morning that got rather out of hand length wise - they've gone on a site visit and will be going back to finish off the meeting later - however, I've done my bit and can't say anymore, so no point in me being there any more...

Dh has come back saying that he thought yesterdays's interview went quite well - although difficult to say - and that all 3 jobs that he's gone for this week would be completely different and all interesting and challenging. Which is SO much more positive that I have heard him in a long time. So, hopefully if he keeps on getting interviews for jobs that sound as though they'd be actually right rather than 'do', he will start feeling a bit better and, you never know, might get offered one one day.

Unis - I don't think your name needs to be changed unless you're worried about someone tracking you down in rl. Talking of which, who is that person sitting at the table in the corner, reading a broadsheet, with a long mac, trilby and dark glasses? Somehow looks familiar....

Fingers crossed for another 3 smilie day...

tired, tired, tired and writing stupid sentences that make boooo sense.

Might have a little snooze and choccy biscuit on the tea room couch.

MT - fingers crossed on the interview front with MrMT, close friend of mine's hubby has been out of work for almost 12 mths and its the motivation and confidence knock that's the worst. So glad he's sounding much more positive and I do think the signs out there is it's picking up and people are recruiting again.

Unis - in a funny way, I was quite glad I had to change names, was getting a bit bored. That's the beauty of the virtual world, you can reinvent yourself at the drop of a hat

AandO - so many bells are ringing! tbh could be time to accept things will be cordial but that wouldn't regard it as a quality relationship. Sounds a little harsh I know but I battled on for so long to make a relationship that wasn't possible that I would have saved a lot of heartache accepting for what it is.
Foolishly training for my first ever sprint triathlon (or any triathlon for that matter!) and would like to vote for a high energy chocolate, glucose and horseradish bar with marmite glaze!
I promised my dear dad (R.I.P.) I would do it so cant let him down but bet he's laughing at me struggling to walk after reintroducing my bottom to a bike saddle! In his youth he'd finish work on Saturday midday in Battersea and cycle to the New forest for the afternoon, with none of this gear nonsense. My legs were so gelatine like after 10 miles, I could have sworn my bones fell out somewhere near Chipping Sodbury!