Tea Room the Fourteenth

[amberlight]

Welcome to the 14th instalment of the Tea Room. It's now officially spring, and we've moved the tea room to a Gipsy caravan pulled by the tea room horses, which is making its way up the countryside in an effort to follow spring. There are of course hedgerows filled with spring flowers, Mellors the handsome gardener/driver/handyperson, the usual virtual Bishops, and the assorted animals and characters from previous tea rooms. All are very welcome to join in with us parents of one (or indeed more!) for general chat and the occasional very odd conversation. Climb aboard, grab a cuppa, enjoy the view, relax!...

Hi! I'm finally back in Ireland! I was due back last friday but instead was trapped in Spain and only got back yesterday!!!! It was horrible being away from littleO for so long, and he was not at all happy, crying for me and things.

The laptop is playing up so it might crash soon, if not I'll try and read through the last few pages to catch up a bit.

Hope you are all well.

Thanks RS . DS survived, although he had a major tantrum about 1/2 hour ago about which secondary school he would be going to , where that came from, I have no idea, he is only in year 3!

Carrot cake sounds delicious, yum yum yum.

Well done to everyone who has made it home...

Hello all. Anyone want a medicinal Bolly?

Just what the doctor ordered

Have just returned from a RL MN meetup, and had a great time

Glad to see you back A&O

Hello Carnation, come have bolly with me

Donk, if you are still awake, have you thought of Marie Curie? They were wonderful for our family - we got a mix of care from district nurses/ marie curie/ local hospice/ paid a bit (only 3 days in fact) all seemed to meld together, compare shifts and work together, seems they do it all the time. Wonderful

CMOT how was real life MN? You are brave

Milk, I am almost too that your exhaustion is from playing and painting by the Seine to remark on coffee sipping at the esplanade....

DMC you make me laugh. I have had a week of frantic busyness with nothing to show- makes me think of Macbeth

Went to the St George's Day Parade today, twas a hoot!!!

I'm going up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire now. To sleep perchance to dream.

Have been pondering whether to deregister. I spend too much time dibbling about on here and wonder whether deregistering would force me to go and do some dusting.

Carnationlilylilyrose - love the allusion to one of my fave childhood book series! Have more bolly!

Deregistering would be too annoying - you'll end up lurking instead, and then you'll get sucked back in when you REALLY REALLY need to post a REALLY REALLY important post in answer to someone else's point - and you'll have to use a new name or something. But as you are a namechanger anyway that won't matter.

CMOTD - who did you meet? Were they like you expected or completely different? Glad it went well anyway#

A&O - glad to hear you're home safely.

DMC - students these days aren't taught to think for themselves any more - when I was teaching on a degree before I had miniThumb, it was disturbing how much they thought they were entitled to be given in terms of information, what's in the exam, help with assignments etc etc. In other words, you told them what to do and how to do it and then let them do the rest. We never got such a level of hand-holding.

Mary - sorry to hear about meltdown, hope he was all right when he came home.

Still no news on banjaxed laptop - but the nice 'puter man did say give him a week or so,

It was great - I had met a couple of them before at a previous meetup, and as my local ones are dinner based, by the time we have caught up on someones major, major house renovations, talked about playground politics (I took notes), and taken the mickey out of someone elses caravanning aspirations, the evening is almost over really.

Please don't dereg CarnationLilyRose - I'd miss you

Off on holiday as of this morning - hurray !

Eeek and argh, unexpectedly saw today the woman who caused me to disappear into the priest's hole a few weeks back. Felt very awkward, but fortunately was in a room with a number of others and so was able to avoid her

Carnation, yes, please don't go. Why would you, anyway - have I missed something?

Donki - sorry, don't know where to find research online. I heard about it on a recent course held by Dorset Primary Strategy Team, where they mentioned in passing, 'As we now no longer do spelling tests in this LEA ...' Being part time, I had missed this altogether, as my school no longer wastes much in the way of precious resources on keeping me up to date (maybe it is even my responsibility ...?)

Tea, I have just received a parcel in the post - one I sent to you in February! (Not Charlie and Lola, which is no doubt still underway.) Where has it been??? And why was it 'not deliverable'???? Am also at your day, although mine was also lovely. Just not as glamorous.

Have just bought 6 fertile eggs to put under our broody chicken in the greenhouse, much to Wriggle's puzzlement - she can't work out how the chicken will get the eggs into the incubator. Not having hands. High time she learned where babies really come from.

Carnation, I now see why, but reiterate - don't go! Stay in here with us! And please explain your name. 'Carnation' makes me think of canned milk.

MaryBS, would a sympathetic arm rub be appropriate? Or a large stick-on moustache and dark glasses?

It's from the Family From One End Street, RS - the mum sees a picture by Malcolm Sargent, called Carnation Lily Lily Rose and wants to call her first daughter that but isn't allowed to, so ends up calling her Lily Rose anyway (and she ends up being a portly child with robust colouring, nothing like her name would suggest!)

I haven't seen why yet - will go and try to find out now.

CLLR - stay, please!

Mary - well avoided and well done for staying put despite the horrors on the horizon.

Arm rub is fine, as are dark glasses, so long as they are prescription!

Agree, don't leave Carnation, if you must, see it as an exercise in self control and don't go cold turkey, but ration yourself!

Spelling tests don't seem to work anyway, my daughter's (Yr5) spelling is appauling , and I think much of that is to do with the fact they don't correct her spelling in Literacy.

Anyone watching the London marathon? Looks a little damp out there...

hi all

am a catalogue of woe this morning - opened the living room curtains and swept the seed tray off and into the sewing machine...wanted to go for a run, but trod on a nail in the garden and have a very sore foot and the day holds a load of research applications and drilling 33 holes in the wall to move the shelves from the study to what was DD's room (but will then be the study IYSWIM). House is a tip, as always, and I just wish that one day we could get on top of the mess, dirt and chaos. How do other people do it??

Also very irritated - had 2 offers to do the allotment with a machine, neither of them has turned up and are vague as to when they might. DP is philosophical, I am - if you ask someone to do something, and are going to pay them, then why don't they just do it? Surely they know there's a recession on....

me, me, me, glum, glum, glum. Hope others have started Sunday in better moods

Aw, DMC - have a tearoom manly pat on the shoulder! Hope your foot is ok - are you up to date with your tetanus? (Or had your 5 lifetime ones that should be enough)

Twas ANZAC day here today - MrThumb was going to get up and go to a dawn service but it rained for the first time in about a fortnight (and it really went for it) so he didn't make it - we went down to one about 10:30 instead. Very similar to Remebrance Day parades/services I used to go to in the UK (even down to the rain!)

Didn't tell you about my super duper bargain of the week, did I - I found a really nice rug that matches another one I have, only is much bigger (6ftx 8ft), in the Salvation Army shop for $40 (£24) - excellent condition, barely used but a couple of darkish marks on it (it's burgundy so they don't really show). MIL saw it today - she was very impressed!

We had a near miss yesterday with spiders - started a thread about it - redbacks in miniThumb's outdoor toys! Scary. ONe of the real drawbacks of living here

• Thumb - sounds scary!!!!

• rs - we really have had bad luck with the French-English post!!!!

• Carnation - I am quite sure the only child topic would malfunction without you!!!!

What a week. My busiest ever at work. May the trend continue, please god...

And the tea room will not function without you, CLLR. We need you here, even if you stay in for a bit and just get Mellors to venture out on your behalf for supplies (twiglets, bolly).

Have had a lovely day. I did some weeding in the polytunnel we share with friends, while Wriggle built an assault course for Mint leaf Beetles, which are the most beautiful things, like tiny iridescent green jewels. Very irritable tiny iridescent green jewels by the end of the afternoon, I would have thought.

Eek, thumb and driving! , words do not exist for it all!

G&T anyone? I am feeling civilised this evening...

yes, please, to G&T Mary, hope you are offering it from the room not the priest hole - ie that Woman didn't get you down too much?

DMC - oh, come moan with me. I am still tripping over boxes and we moved 5 years ago I like to think it's cos I'm Bohemian, I think I'm just lazy, and don't start me on WorkMen not Performing (Mellors excepted)

Thumb, yuck to redbacks and I always loved Anzac day - rather more trad to my mind that Rememberance Day - were your folk in shorts and long socks?

CLLR - just back away. Don't think about it. We're your friends you don't just waste time, you spend it well. I have had a few breaks and I miss you guys when I do. Just try to ration. I find the most times I piffle on MN is when I am disconsolate with RL - but that's not MN's fault - am I right? What makes you disconsolate - are you feeling as if you are strutting and fretting your hour upon the stage?

Ok, what have I missed? CLLR, I went to the contentious thread... isn't that our friend from AllyinOz's thread? Can't rememmber her name but wow, she's a piece of work. Anyway... what's been happening that's upset you?
Don't go anywhere. We need you. In a very real sense, you are the Tea Room.
xxJM

CCLR - come back and tell us you're alright!

oxeye, no am not down the priest's hole, been too busy for that! Had a very busy day yesterday, but lots of praise came with it too and that is always nice when people appreciate the work you are doing!

Anyone fancy a full English? Am feeling rather peckish...

Bleurghhh to full English - sorry Mary, feeling rather delecate here still - felt awful on Friday - sick and really bad headache - was meant to be travelling south ready for concert, but not fit to drive. I felt OKish Sat, so did make it and the concert went well. However, still feeling a big nauseous and dizzy. Must have been a virus thing I think.

CLLR - I take it that the small garden implement was a clue? Please don't go. I'm mostly restricting myself to here with the occasional sortie and that cuts down the fritter time considerably. But I do like it here and I miss it when I'm not keeping up wiht the tearoom exploits...

Our grass really needs cutting now... I've asked MrMT to get some petrol for the lawnmower - I haev to cut the grass (although I quite often can't get the lawnmower to start first time!) so really its the least he can do... but apparently not on his list of important things to do. Having said that, at least he managed to get mistlechick to a party with an appropriate gift at the weekend, all on his own. And he had to give mistlechick a hairwash as he got so hot running frantically around the softplay - big one, ideal for his current age!

Back from the wild weekend. It was very good indeed.
Exhausted. Not a nice sort of exhausted either: the sort where you dread going back to work.
Need tea.
Anyone else?
CLLR don't you dare go anywhere at all - the tea room is for just 'being in', and here we all are. The priest hole is always available for those finding MN a bit too scary...