Tea Room the Fifteenth - The Viking Hall

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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.

Didn't mean to pry, Scout, I just didn't want to mention things that you might not have encountered if you hadn't been here long. You need to have a Crunchie. They're fab.

So, come on then, what's a s'more?

No worries. I say nothing on here I wouldn't admit to in real life.

S'mores the absolute MUST have of every Girl Scout and Boy Scout camp. Graham cracker, Hershey Bar, toasted marshmallow. a s'more and a lovely picture

So much so that we have them every camp with my unit and sometimes at special events like when the young leaders took their Adult promise they wanted to do their Promise, lead a campfire sing and make s'mores. And since I'm their mentor, we did just that! I was VERY preggers when they did their Promise(like, a week or so before BabyScout was born) so I sat on rock handing out the bits and let the girls get on with it.

Can I add a Curly Wurly and Finger of Fudge to the stash of chocs?

WHSmiths in Paris have started stocking food. Last time I was in there with Milk I MADE her buy and then eat a "Finger of Fudge" and when we got home I even went so far as to show her the advert on youtube for her cultural education.

I was a Brownie and hated it - all the knitting, badge bragging and making tea and cakes... my two after school tree climbing buddies were cubs and oh how I wished girls were allowed too!

Mmmm, Curly Wurly and Fudge. Yummmy!

I feel I should add choccies, too, since I'm eating so many. I shall share my stash of Reeses.

TW, are you feeling any better for a rest? Have a large cuppa and the duvet.

Hello all. I do read, just don't seem to have a brain that wants to work very well this last week or so. I'll say something properly soon, I expect.

I made S'mores at the weekend. Although, being lazy, mine consist of a chocolate biscuit and toasted marshmallow. Lovely

As previously mentioned, I was in GGUK all the way through from tiny brownie to assistant guider. I was a venture scout though - no rangers in our area, and VS was a good social activity alongside being a young leader. I do think theres a place for girls only, boys only, and mixed units - but not the resources in most areas to provide that

What I don't like about the scout/guide changes (not that I ever have been either), is the higher status that boys' occupations/organisations always have. Lots of girls have become scouts; very few boys have become guides. It's the same in so many other areas. At school, quite a few of the girls want to play football (strongly discouraged by both boys and staff) but I only remember one boy wanting to play netball.

Small breakthrough here - for the second time, DH rang up 'just for a chat' from work this morning, having gone off in a state of high irritability to work earlier. I am impressed by the way other tea room habituees manage their spouses; you are light years ahead. Appreciate what you have got.

CMot - I've had a think about Shirburn - I think I went in '78.. Unless I'm misremembering the age requirements and it was actually '80... There you go, that establishes my age somewhat! I went to brownies then into guides but stopped once I had my Queen's Guide award - too much music, horseriding and homework...

Scout - if it helps - I had a mp pre mistlechick - had 2 mc since and both severely affected by worries about reoccurance of mp.. I was told that I had a 1 in 20,000 of having it as severely as I did to start with - but that the risk of it reoccuring was then 1 in 100 - when you've already managed to get 1 in 20,000 that's not great odds. I think dh has decided that he's not prepared to try again - although we still have all the stuff and I can't yet get rid of it all.

RS - I'm not sure about that. I've worked out that DH manipulates me.... he had a list of things to do whilst he wasn't working - 6 things on it. None of them were done - I've done 3 of them so far. Also I asked him to mend the towl loop in the downstairs loo (that his mother had let mistlechick pull off ) - I checked that he knew where the raw plugs were, and said he'd need to pack them into the substantial hole in the wall with bits of wood from matchsticks. What he managed stayed up for a day - he stuck a few matchsticks in the holes and then simply pushed the old rawplugs (with screws still screwed into them) into the wall - then denied me checking that he knew what he was doing or askign about the rawplugs. Even mistlechick has worked out that he bodges things badly if he doesn't want to do it but wants to get me to!

Am hugely impressed that Mistle was a Queen's Guide. I was the most delinquent Guide ever. How I ever came to be a Brown Owl is a mystery to everyone including me.

I'm another one whose husband management skills are not all they could be. My problem, I think, is that I do not nag remind enough. SmallBloke needs about 45 reminders before it will lodge in his brain that some small DIY job needs doing, but I can't bring myself to keep reminding him because my mother is an inveterate nagger and so I've seen the damage it does. All of which means the lightbulb on the top landing has needed replacing for about a month now. If you hear a virtual yelp in a moment it will be me falling off the stepladder.

A friend of mine has just done a bricklaying course so that she can repair her garden wall. I need a similar course for nail-banging and the like, so that I don't have to be such a feeble girlie when it comes to DIY.

Tea and toast, anyone?

Yes please smallbunch, tea and toast would be good.

I have grown up with a father that's very good at diy and is a perfectionist.

In my last (my first!) house, I stripped the paint and varnish off the stairs (wonderful pine!). My first bit of wallpapering was the ceiling of the landing and stairs (Yikes!) where I put woodchip above the picture rail in the hope that it would help stop the ceiling potentially coming down - I'd taken horrid polystyrene tiles off and discovered a crack when I did that. I also tiled and wallpapered the bathroom. THey are MY powertools, not DH's - he's not allowed anywhere near them. However, I don't actually get round to doing that much - at this time of year I'm spending all my available time doing gardening.

I don't like nagging either. I blame his parents for not bringing him up to actually do things, particularly when he's said he will do.

So a s'mores is basicly a toasted marshmallow between two choc digestive biscuits?? according to wikipedia any how. So I've been eatingthem for years at guide camp and never called them s'mores. mostly I'd eaten the biscuits before my marsh mallow cooked and then just pigged out on marshmallow melting and hot straight from the stick.

I have a way of managing my Dh's DIY apathy. I don't ask him to do it. I do it.He has an aversion to power tools. He will make curtains tho. and mow the lawn and clean loos. I won't do any of those things ( unless Forced to by his absence and impending visitors, at which point I will clean the loo, but not mow the lawn).

UniS - if I'm lucky he'll start the lawnmower for the first time for me - but then its up to me to mow the lawn. And make curtains. And clean the bathroom.......

ha ha ha
hello all!
We have a kitten! She is great, and black, and minxy. Despite fears, Kittengate didn't emerge all weekend, we just got one and no pressure!

Racing, and all, I am indeed grateful that my Oxbloke is lovely, I wonder how I managed to bag him, and every day try to thank my lucky stars which is why I was so unhappy last week.

I would love some candy floss and add marathons/ snickers to the chocolate stack

I was at Brownies. The pack was boring. I had to beg to do badges I wanted to be a scout because they looked like they had fun. I get what you mean about single sex, Scout, and Racing you are right about high value on mixing (the same is true of single sex schools/ mixing and single sex university colleges/ mixing) I was lucky to get single sexness at school and through sport

having said that, we have a totaly full on and crazy mixed netball league at our local school. Attracts about 200 people an evening

Quiche , any body.?

Yes please, Unis. I bring tomato soup to accompany the quiche, if anyone is interested.

Three cheers for the OxKitten! Or should that be MinxKitten?

You are quite right, Racing and Oxeye, that mixing once single-sex institutions often seems to mean a male takeover. (Although boys cannot join Brownies or Guides so that is still one bastion of girl power).

And don't get me wrong, SmallBloke is lovely too and most forgiving of my, ahem, foibles. But I'm still not sure that I, ahem, manage him as effectively as I might!

Yay ox! Does kitten have a name yet?

Uni, yes, more or less two digestives, a slab of chocolate and a toasted marshmallow. I do that with Brownies and Rainbows if I'm doing an American meeting with them but for Guide camp I get the real things.

Very impressed with Queens Guide, too, Mistle. I have the US equivilant it was hard work!

I feel quite lucky with DH. He's not big on seeing what needs doing around the house (ordinary jobs) but will do whatever asked. He's also a geek and I tell him I married him for the free tech support. We have the most wired up house EVER! He's also good with the kids (he's a Guide volunteer, too, and does all of the camps, overnights, big events and the odd meeting) and BabyScout, though he still won't do nappies. He is, however, a HUGE packrat and won't throw anything out and it drives me crazy. But I love him and he loves me and I wouldn't trade him in for the world.

I realized today just how long BabyScout is. We won't have a HV check until 1 year, but I think when we go to the weigh clinic this week I'm going to ask them to measure him.

I didn;t do queens guide, think it may have been abolished or made a ranger thing before I was old enough as I remember older girls getting them and its the sort of thing I'd have worked for in them days. I did get as far as my BP trefoil badge. then joined rangers and ignored all badges and awards.

QG - another sign of my decrepitude then!

I was quite lucky on the 'service' side of things - whilst I'd seen the twins that were older than me in the village doing things like edging the footpaths and putting down gravel to make up the 'service' hours, I used to do bellringing (ie the proper, call to church version) - and this counted - so that counted for about 2.5hrs per week which adds up over the year quite nicely! The only badge I struggled with a bit was the camping one - but I managed not to have to do the leaders camp one - can't remember how or why.... But I agree with you a bit Oxeye - Brownies - boring, so joined Guides - which I left when I was 14. Contemplated rangers later - but had other things to do by then....

Oxeye - what's Kitten called? Or is it going to be posykitten for the moment?

Since I'm still new to the tea room, would it be nosey to ask what people do besides taking care of their DC/DPs/Dear Menageries?

Are there pictures of kitten ? Ours mostly ignore each other, apart from fighting, so not sure that they are actually company for each other.

Scout, I travel round the world, trying to avoid getting stuck anywhere for too long. In between I work for a medical company (not pharma), in my home based office. My boss is in Virgina, so he doesn't care where I am

I have lots of random guide badges - I had farmer and dairymaid, which have probably long gone. And bellringer, but only handbells

I'm self employed.. which means I do a random set of stuff around lighting for entertainment, working on average just over 1 day a week. Lots of PAT testing and boring stuff, not many shows as early evening childcare is such a pain to find and we only have one car.
I had an arm full of guide badges, "Europe" being perhaps the most unusual, I learnt a lot about the EU mugging up for that one. Entertainer, cyclist, camper, musician, country dancer... and several service flashes. I was very involved at church, singing and washing up so service flashes were easy to come by. For BP trefoil IIRC ,I read to an elderly lady who couldn't see print any more, she was in a local geriatric hospital and I read "Mill on the floss" to her. Took weeks and weeks and weeks as she would fall asleep after 10 minutes. poor dear, she would buy me a bag of toffees from the hospital shop every week, I was very embarrassed to accept them, but she probably had no other regular visitors.

I am at the moment working part time as a primary school teacher in a smallish village school and slightly less than part time as a Leading Teacher (how posh is that! helping primary teachers get to grips with the fact that they have to teach a foreign language now by law. Although how long that is going to last ...

I also look after Wriggle, 3 and elliptical, MonsieurSnake who is French and therefore has every right to be moody at times, and Aged Parent, who is quite aged and German.

In my copious spare time I look after the menagerie, which is really all my fault anyway and grow vegetables at a local farm in a sort of mini food cooperative. Honey harvest was due this week but rain is putting it off.

I used to do things like reading, drawing, gardening, watching foreign language films in village halls and going for very long walks ....

UniS - that's great work you did there![impressed emoticon]

I was a rotten Brownie - or perhaps we too had a poor pack - our Guides fell to bits before I got there so never went into the Guides. We never did a camp away, although we did go on some good day trips (I particularly remember Longleat, Runnymede, and the Maidstone (or possible Maidenhead) Retirement Home for Carthorses).

Scout - I don't work atm - although I am still meant to be putting my CV in order to get a few hours at the local health food shop. Part of me is resisting this - I like being with miniThumb (who is 2.6) so don't want to miss out on that - but part of me thinks I should do it really. We are in the lucky position that we don't really need the money - it's more for interest's sake than anything else. I have a varied past history though!

Oxeye - surely you'll be calling the kitten Daisy? - although as she's black, perhaps not. Carbonel is a good name for a black kitten... (Yes I know he was a boy but never mind)

Smallbunch - good on your friend! I am considering doing a basic electrician course so I can deal with the wiring in the house - it's not the same as the UK (I was competent there) and I'm scared of touching it without being sure of what's going on with it.

Mistle - also impressed with QG status! And with your DIY skills - mistlebloke sounds a bit of a welsher though, I hate it when men (my bro always did this too) do things badly to get out of being asked to do them again. MrThumb is a bit like this too - professes complete ignorance on how it needs to be done then whinges his head off about doing it, leaves it and leaves it until I'm about to go mad or do it myself.

I have no qualms about nagging - he hates it too but I just tell him that if he actually did what he was being asked to, the nagging would stop so the solution is in his hands

I also have a hardline policy of making him correct his own 'mistakes' - on the principle that it'll learn'im better not to do it again (higher annoyance factor being made to get off his jacksy to put his own razor and aerosol shaving foam away than me doing it and whinging about it - actually if he's not around it goes in the bin)

His mum is one of those "do it all for you" women who ruin their sons. (but a bit tongue in cheek).

RS - I doubt my methods would work with brooding French types - MrThumb is too fairly laid back, thankfully so I get away with it most of the time. Can't say he's perfect though!