Tea Room the Fifteenth - The Viking Hall

[amberlight]

Here we are in the 15th instalment of the Tea Room for the One Child Family board. All are welcome, whether parents of a single splendid offspring or any other number.
We are this time in a Viking Long Hall tearoom, complete with optional helmets, roaring log fires (in case of chilly spring evenings), rugs aplenty, and all the usual mod cons of life as well.
Our Viking tea room contains Mellors the gardener/handyperson with a talent for relaxing massage (amongst a variety of other characters including Bishops, camels, bison, horses, guinea pigs, dogs, etc etc for reasons that would take too long to explain but you're welcome to read the other Tea Room threads and prepare to have your mind thoroughly boggled). Plenty of tea/coffee/cake/virtual bolly always on offer.
Join us, relax, chat, enjoy.

[UniS]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/one_child_families/984474-Tea-room-16-welcome-to-Shangri-la?rnd=1276626821755

open for business, float on over at your convenience.

[UniS]

ohh crumbs its fast approaching isn't it. Now how do you spell it ... never mind I can cut n paste I suppose.

Had a disappointing turn out for last nights " come and get involved in designing a skate park for your village " meeting. Me and the lad you won the funding for it. Ho hum. Guess we will have to stick inside the budget we have if no one want it badly enough to come along they won;t want it badly enough to fund raise either.

Flap jack please. virtual one, as I've been very bad in last few days and been eating left over icing by the spoonful.

[amberlight]

Oh go on then - one flapjack. Or maybe two..

Done day's training at Dogs for the Disabled today - brilliant fun but I'm tired!



It's getting closer to the end of the 1000 posts - are we happy with the Shangri-la suggestion/do we have other suggestions and if so is there a volunteer for setting up Tea Room 16?

[UniS]

westons got some good points but it does have the worlds biggest mud beach.

[oxeye]

Oh nice flapjacks don't mention weight. I am trying to love the new squidgy me but tis hard. I need more than a new wardrobe. Hang on I could just wear said wardrobe and be done!

[roseylee]

Oh Bensmum sorry for dissing Weston, am sure it's a lovely place to live and hey you've got the sea on your doorstep all year round which has got to be a great thing, even with the mud! But yes Cornwall is just gorgeous and I really fantasise about moving there one day too, not sure what I would do for a living though... Bath is lovely but traffic is AWFUL!! all these old streets can't cope with all the people who want to live here.

Scount hang on in there, get yourself out to the shops and buy something lovely to cheer yourself up, always works.

Am trying to lose half a stone, it's so hard and not made easier by the flapjacks I made yesterday and can't stop eating, they are calling to me, anyone want one??

[MaryBS]

Hugs scout, and yay to DH. What will you do, go shopping?

[Scout19075]

Yes please to brekky, Small.

Stressful morning. Want to curl up and cry, but I AM the Mommy and I WILL get BabyScout to nap, things packed, car loaded and swimming gear ready for AquaBabies. Oh, and I can't find my tan skirt and none of my work trousers fit, so have nothing to wear for tonight's DH work dinner in London. (He did say go out and buy clothes if my old ones are broken -- gotta love a man that says go clothes shopping! )

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

Woo hoo to the arrival of Ludwig's Ben's play centre. And woo hoo for Oxeye's killer negotiating tactic.



Bristol is another of my fantasy places to live, as it?s urban enough for me not to get disorientated as I would living in the country.

Lo! What light through yonder window breaks?

?Tis just the burglar alarm of the neighbours.

But, as Oxeye says, the downside of urban living is that it takes an hour just to get to the other side of the borough. I?m fascinated and horrified by the statistic which says that the average speed or urban traffic (not sure whether just in London or across the country) has not increased in 100 years.

Toast, muffins and an assortment of jams and honey on the aga for anyone in need of breakfast.

[Bensmum76]

Hi all, loved the comment about my name Racing, is it too late to change my ds name to Ludwig!! I wonder how he would fare in life with a name like that!!
Roseylee - am sorry to say I live in Weston-super-Mud!! My dh and I are from Bristol but moved here for the cheaper houses around 7 years ago. I love living here but only because its less smoggy and busy than Bristol, but for a holiday destination I would not come here.
We are off on our hols to Cornwall next week and I;m soooooooo excited!! I will not want to come home and will start asking DH if we can move to the seaside so that I can wander around a pretty coastal village on my evenings rather than stroll along a beach whose sea is the colour of mud!!
Am wanting to share our excitement too that DS's outdoor play centre arrived yesterday.....but we are thinking we may need to hire a builder to fix it together!! It takes 2 'men' 4 hours to put it together!! Started construction last night, DS even put his hard hat and safety goggles on when he was helping us!!

[thumbwitch]

Oh UniS - you have made me smile re. the ginger beer - my Strict Methodist Teetotal grandma used to have a ginger beer "plant" - Dad reckons that the ginger beer was probably a good few percent alcohol, but she just said "it puts a sparkle in your eye!" We're not entirely sure if she knew there was alcohol in it or not...

lol at womanly wiles vs top negotiation skills - annoying, innit!

An hour's drive here is nothing as well - most things require a reasonable drive to get to.

RS - Wriggle really does sounds like a handful!

[oxeye]

Scout I think the difference in an hour in USA and UK is that in the USA you GET SOMEWHERE in an hour. Here, I can be in the car for a ruddy hour and still within the same ruddy post code (almost!) I love driving Stateside, loathe it here.... but then that's probably sort of also holidayish

Rosey yum to bath too and close to bristol which I love - I go down there quite often for work but reside in the Big Smoke

our kitten is fab. we still want fish too though - Tiddler has logic, but needs to embrace them all a la Wriggle I think!

Yeah, to the tea room being our child journal!

Do you remember (some Old Tea Hands) that about 16 months ago we had a leak under the stairs??? Well, guess what, I think the final stage of the mending will be this Wednesday! YUP! CMOT your husb will not believe it will he! I finally cracked - all my professional negotiations didn't work nearly as well as my "oh but my little boy's birthday party is this weekend PURLEASSSE SOB SOB!"

You see? Womanly whiles/ helpless maternal sobbing versus kick ass negotiation skills? No contest

[UniS]

evening all. Alcohol fused cake. sound s good.

It seems my home brew ginger beer is alcoholic after all. oopps. Teetotal BiL downed a few last week, I shan't tell him. Afterall he didn;t grow extra heads or appear to be possessed by anything nasty as a result.

I'm having to do controlled pressure releases on the current batch, they are bit "excited" on opening. had to wash the kitchen floor and wall today. only just avoided having to wash the ceiling too.

Fizzy pop any one?

[CMOTdibbler]

Gin did you say ?

I have just braved 'new parents evening'. Tell you what, I was more nerve wracked going to that than my own first day at school.

We are a long way from the coast - my grandparents on the other hand lived but the width of a railway embankment from the sea, which was idyllic as a child as their beach was usually deserted. Now it is the olympic sailing centre though

DS proposed yesterday that we could get rid of the cats so that he could have an aquarium. AIBU to be concerned about the way he thinks ?

Happy Anniversary Thumb !

[Scout19075]

Oooh, rosey, I LOVE Bath! (Very envious now!)

[roseylee]

Thanks all for the lovely welcoming messages, what a friendly place this is, yes a bolly would be bloomin lovely. Anyway, I live in Bath, lovely as it is I do wish it was a bit closer to the coast - our nearest is Weston Super Mare, not the nicest of places (apologies if anyone lives there), but at least it's not too far to the beautiful Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

Anyway I have to share, my DS had an 'accident' today at pre-school in his pants, double wammy wee and poo, never done that before. The teacher, poor thing, had to clean him up and get him changed, he thought it was all very funny. Just as we were congratulating ourselves for him being dry at night for the last few weeks.

Scout, that's so lovely about your baby, such a fab thing when they start trying to communicate properly, takes me back...

Anyway, note to self, must watch spring watch tomorrow, keep forgetting it's still spring.

Nighty night x

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

Right, I'm off to bed with a good book.

[Scout19075]

I should say slightly farther away is about an hour. But to me, being from the vast country called the USA, an hour is a 7 mile commute to work! LOL. Seriously, an hour is nothing to me.

Though, that being said, I think I read something once that said no Brit is more than an hour or two from the coast -- is that true?

I'd like to add to the book, today BabyScout not only starfished kicked (a favorite activity) but he started nibbling his toes in a way that wasn't just "Look, Mommy, I can reach my toes to my face" but "Look, Mommy, I can get my whole foot in my mouth!" And he had a proper conversation with me after dinner -- he would talk then stop, look at me, wait for me to say something and when I stopped he'd say something back. Went on for a good five minutes.

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

I am spending more and more time fantasising about living at the seaside. I'll snap out of it in November!

Are you here to claim your gin, Racing?

[RacingSnake]

Alcohol-fused cake! Mmmmm.

I think we should be keeping a copy of these tea rooms. All these things will pass so quickly and we'll forget. (Says Racing, now that Wriggle is finally asleep and snoring, chicks have been rounded up, I have mended the pump in the fish tank, which suffered in the fish-and-scourer incident, and the guinea pigs have been dried and put to bed. (Forgot to mention that while /I popped out to the dentist, DH allowed her to bath the pigs.)

Scout, it sounds as if you live in the perfect location.

[Scout19075]

I live in what I would call "suburbs" on the outskirts of our town/High Street, but loads of houses around, but five minutes down the road farms and rolling hills and country (and slightly farther away the coast!).

Mmmm, drinks...

Poor RS -- These are the days you will look back on when Wriggle is 25 and laugh (Scout says, with BabyScout still immobile and unvocal). For now, can I offer you an alcohol fused cake?

Not sure I've encountered Mellors. And surely, Small, you're no older than 25! My inner child is five and refuses to grow up!

[oxeye]

cripes Thumb, happy anniversary

Welcome Bensmum and hello again Rosey

Yes, to Shangri-la

Wriggle wins points today - you couldn't make it up!

Never heard of hiddenplace in Country Watch but it sounds bliss

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

I am watching SpringWatch as we speak. Do you think Chris Packham might drop in to the tea room at some point, to take us on a nature ramble? (Although I am forgetting that those if us who live in proper countryside don't need a nature ramble as you see it every day).

Happy anniversary, Thumb. Hope you enjoy the film!

Scout - Dinner would be lovely. Shall we get Mellors to serve it, wearing his new uniform? (Perhaps you have not met Mellors yet and perhaps it is only ancient old crones like me who have need of eye candy a skilled handyman and gardener).

Would anyone like a pre-prandial gin and lime? Sounds like you may need one, Racing.

[RacingSnake]

Love the idea of serene hidden valley, especially after the day we have had, Wriggle being particularly elliptical. Among her many ideas today were: letting the chicks out of their cage so that she could hunt them with a butterfly net, catching the goldfish so that she could scrub him with a pan scourer, removing all her clothes and replacing them with leaves, a la Adam and Eve (which led to me bellowing, 'PUT THAT SALAD DOWN' as she attempted to gird her loins with rocket, and then tears) and, possibly the worst, in terms of aftereffects; helping me to wash the floor while I was out of the room.

To move on to matters less surreal ...

Welcome to RosyLee and Bensmum. Rosy, your name is perfectly suited to a tea room. Bensmum, I like to think that your name is a bluff and your single precious offspring is called Ludwig or Claude.

Oxeye, I am glad that relations with Oxboy are back on track but I am sad to say that I knew it would be thus as I am a Most Inadeguate Mother who frequently drives Wriggle to tears and therefore have experience of these matters.

Thumb, thank you for your bottle expertise. I think you have reassured me that platsic bottles are OK. Or is that just what I wanted to hear? I will still buy a steel bottle at some point, but am still not sure whether I can use it for acid/fizzy drinks.

I hope you are all watching SpringWatch as they are today in the most wonderful place in the enture world - Kimmeridge Bay. Rock pools, crabs, sea weed, no cafe or shop, fossils, amzing open-air theatre on the cliffs ... Maybe the tea room after next should be there? I remember the most fantastic day there with my two best friends from teaching college and DH, barbecuing bananas with chocolate, paddling, sitting with our feet in a rockpool with shrimps nibbling our toes, walking over the cliffs to Tyneham and meeting a slowworm on the cliff path and then turning a corner on the drive home to confront a family of fox cubs.

[Scout19075]

Thanks, thumb. And Happy Anniversary!

DH text me and said he'd be home late -- as it is, normal is 7:30-8:00. Anyone fancy dinner?