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!...

Tea for me please Amberlight,
Lovely weekend with MiniMindy and think a bit of a milestone in the 'very happy with 1' stakes. MiniMindy at friend's party where she was the only one without siblings and all other 12 mums had 3! But first time I felt no self conscientiousness in saying we have 1, felt very happy about the swanning around me and MiniMindy could do for the rest of the day! Did have one ' oh and she's so good at sharing too'

Really do believe I am the only one round this neck of the woods sticking to 1 but feeling more and more confident in it every day.

But that's not to say I will sticking to no one else in the house...opinions please on cats and dogs! Only thing stopping me is when we pop away for the odd weekend - in laws have a place we use in Devon but no pets allowed.

Cats and dogs are brilliant, and you can always bung them in kennels whilst you're away/find a friend to animal-sit them. OK, there's mess, costs, hassle, but they are seriously good fun if you like that sort of thing. And we do.

Good morning!
JB and I had a little sleep-in this morning... bliss. Haircut today (for me, not him). Good thing my gf owns the salon and they are very child-friendly, he loves going there as long as it's not he who's having his hair cut.

Amber, welcome back from your wild weekend , here, have a chaise to relax on. There is even room on it for mistle if she's still feeling .

What else is new?

Hi. To prove I have more willpower than I thought, I have come back very briefly to say that I am fine (thank you everyone who asked) but I have checked myself in to the MN State Home for the Bewildered to cure myself of my MN addiction. Hitting the deregister button was actually very liberating and I'll be hitting it again in 5 minutes' time. I am currently going cold turkey (but have sneaked out for one illicit post, as you see). The staff are being very kind to me, especially Dr Mellors and his unusual range of distraction therapies. I?ll be back once I 'm cured.

But please, do not say that the tea room or the one child topic won?t function without me. They will. Especially as Mellors has just filled the wine cellar with Bolly and the larder with a big batch of Twiglet Surprise.

May your God bless the tea room and all who sail in her.

Blimey, are we at sea?!

Come back jolly soon please. Hope you're ok...ish.

Smallbunch, we will keep a special distressed armchair waiting for you. Be back soon; your friends miss you. Hope your stay at the MN State Home for the Bewildered is pleasant - I seem to have heard that several earlier tea roon habituees have had to check in.

Mindy, all pets are great, and I probably have more than most! But I do have an Aged Parent who can feed them when we are away. Before Wriggle, we used to take our dog to Youth Hostels, where pets are not allowed. The dog happily slept in the car. Our present dog is also happy to spend hours in the car - it is a safe space that belongs to her.

Just had my own 'happy with one' momment. We spent the afternoon with a friend who has a 3-year old and a 1-year old. We left at 7pm, when the stereo screaming had just reached a peak.

A&O hope you enjoyed your weekend back home and are starting to heal the wounds of absence

Small Bunch the rocker awaits your return...

Yes Mindy - get pets. You have chaos, noise, warmth, love and less screaming.

Racing and Mindy I am loving one. Having one and loving being a mum of one. Truly. Is it entirely separate from the feelings about being able to conceive, carry and birth children. That is an abstract. But as a family unit, one is great. Heaven knows how I would cope with two on a bike

don't want to be at sea!

(am also testing a new Firefox app to resolve another issue - java clashes with MN!)

I need advice - I am putting together a set of images for the class on wed on the theme of 'What is important to you?' and I need a background music track. Prefereably something with words, a bit thoughtful, but not totally inaccessible to 11-year olds, that I can download tomorrow. Any ideas?

Smallbunch, come back soon please!!

Mindy... I'm so sorry but I've totally spaced on who you were originally before name-changing. Could you give me a small clue? Thanks...

was Mindy not always mindy??

Racing, what sort of thing are you wanting - old git music or something for the young lovelies that you teach? I remember when Haydn was top of the pops you see, which might be a bit out of the range you were looking for

Oh crap, maybe she was... I'm so confused. I can't keep up with all this name-changing. Thinking of changing my own name... just to keep up

Hi Jackmama, I will happily out myself here as LJHooray!

Thanks for the pet's advance and loving all the little hoorays for one and Oxeye here here on the bike - crazily training for my first triathlon at the moment and miniMindy is helping the training tremendously!

RS, not a clue I'm afraid. Brain's no good at that sort of cross-referencing.

I notice by the way we're getting close to the 1000 Post limit.

Who wants to set up the next tea room in the next day or two, and are we decided on what form it takes? I think a Viking Long Hall was suggested - any other ideas or are we happy with that one??

Have leapt in the long boat, donned my ceremonial horned norseman helmet and got teh mead up to room temperature.

RS - You've now got me singing 'you to me are everything!' I have this sonos music streaming gubbins here so now my kitchen is a 70's disco!
What about Little Things by India Arie?

Alas, I mis-ordered mine and got one with the horns on the inside

Never mind Amber, if you position the interior horns just right, and smooth off the ends, they form very effective ear plugs!

I fancy a sumptuous lunch, anyone else fancy checking out some massive banqueting halls, in preparation for our move? Perhaps a mediaeval banquet would be in order, complete with lashings of mead, swan roasts (including vegetarian swans for those who don't eat meat) and jesters and jugglers to entertain?

"What a wonderful world"???? quite familiar - is in plenty of films - but quite good lyrics!...

Smallbunch - come back soon! We'll have to leave a trail of white pebbles for you to follow, but I'm sure you'll know where to look.

I'll get Gotterdamerung out of the cupboard and start learning it so can sing the right notes when I gallop to the the new tearoom on EarlGrey with horned helmet and dubious armour cladding....

Its much easier having an only in terms of doign stuff - eg mistlechick's new bike will still fit in the car, even though its got 18" wheels - so we can take it to the park so he can ride it really regularly - but if we had to fit a buggy in too, we'd not be able to take it. Similarly, I can keep (a bit of a worried) eye on him when he tackles the age 10+ sections of adventure playgrounds (when they're a bit quieter) and goes to the top of the 14+ rope climbing frame - with a toddler I wouldn't be able to do that and he'd be more restricted to the 'correct' age bits...

Have picked up new car today - much the same as the old one but a few more toys. Will need to get to grips with the new heating controls - all digital, and also dual...

Nice day here today - could do wtih a picnic...

Oh go on then - a small longboat full of mead for me please, and perhaps a quarter of roasted ox (or vegetarian ox-substitute)?

Ooh am looking forward to the Viking bit! Valhalla and all that.

I had a silly thought today - if you had to be any Magic Roundabout character, which would you be? I am Dougal, without a doubt. Except my "thing" would be chocolate, not sugar cubes or pies (it's pies in the new one, did you know?)

Our new home makes me think of this. (Yes, my inner child is 5 years old!)

'New' magic roundabout is AWFUL! Yes, I too would be dougal, possibly with a bit of zebidee thrown in for good measure. And my 'thing' would have to be tea....

Good morning all!

Mindy - thanks!! Much appreciated.

Hmmm... what will the next tea room be?