Tea room 16 welcome to Shangri-la

[UniS]

Shangri-la = a hidden valley with beautiful views and crystal streams of course, and some inter-far eastern type of chalet things set around a Serene Courtyard with ever-blooming Japanese cherry trees, lots of refreshing fragrant teas, silk cushions, tinkling tiny waterfalls and bonsai trees, Gardens of Tranquillity etc.

Home to teh 16th Tea room, a haven for those with one or more or less children who like cake, tea, talking nonsense and oggling Mellors ( our handyman/ butler). If its your first vist, pull up a cushion .Mind out for the guinea pigs and other pets and do take care not to squash the teeny tiny naked mowhawk babies ( nmbs
, no longer naked and now toilet trained you will glad to hear)as they go about their duties helping Mellors.

Confused... come on, jump in and have a hot chocolate.

(Cadbury's anyone?)

A bit of drama here. LittleO locked himself in the bathroom, it doesn't have a window and he couldn't figure out how to unlock it so we had to call the fire brigade!! About 8 firemen piled into our house and forced the door open. LittleO was really calm and content in the bathroom, which was surprising but really handy. He was then excited to see the firemen, hopefully it won't encourage him to do it again!

Mmmm chocolate!! Thanks Scout. I frequently think that I don't eat enough chocolate and should perhaps consider eating more !

(Were any of them nice looking firemen?)

Chocolate should be it's own food group!

Tea knows my e-mail address, as does CMOT.I will try to emaol other people o they will have it too. It is a bit too obvious to put on here (which is also my school laptop.)

Scout, yes and I have to admit I started to play a mini porn version of events in my head for a split second . Then I thought damn, they probably realise I'm thinking mmmmm firemen, so I stopped!

RS - I'm also emailing people because my email address is my very distinctive surname!

Aando I feel for you! Oxboy locked himself in room at his grandpa's funeral. He was very good but a bit spooked. We ended up forcing the window and hauling him out. He was reluctant to leave the door which he knew was the way out. No firemen hunky or otherwise just one room of frenzied rescuers and one room of oblivious old fools dears sipping sherry and swopping anecdotes

Oh the joys I have to look forward to!

When in September are we meant to post our packages?

Has anyone opened the Bolly yet?

Unis - I'm glad the badge has arrived! Yes, it's very urban here. But I have spent today surrounded by greenery so am feeling revived!

MT- Yay to Tuesday, you can check out the new hearth stone and stove. If its binning it down with rain we will see how boys do in the house or head to soft play 10 miles away or just go and get wet and muddy.

erm, is hotmail case sensitive? if so use lower case u for me. sorry .

UniS of course you are meant to be part of the list! AandO said she may have forgotten people!

We could just slot you in, no probs at all, but I'll leave that to AandO so there's no unholy cock up. JM is to be slotted in too

AandO sorry to hear about your horrid Christmas, sounds yuck

Tea, did my liability answer suffice? Poor Beer and the civil war. How come he was on the last flight in, was there no clue about impending war? Of course, it does just highlight what we don't know being no concern - I love listening to the world service it's such an eyeopener from the parochial nature of R4 and even that is so much better than most!

JM I am never going to guess your email!

Small, your Twiglet obsession is getting a bit concerning, I am not sure you and RacingPig should be dancing so, well, so cheek to cheek = MrsRacingPig is looking a bit put out not to mention Mellors!

thank you oxeye. Twas just teh end of a long day.

Boy being a brat this morning, cricket tea, LOTS of washing up, DH damaging a toe and hurting lots... But its over. Now I just have to get through tomorrow ( chimney being swept, stove and hearth being installed All before 2pm) and then It will be Tuesday and Mistle is coming for tea. Hurrah.

Boy is now asking for stories about Spit and Spot And Mistledog going for walks on the moor and finding pools to splash in.

not right now obviously, he's asleep RIGHT now. Thank goodness there is no preschool tomorrow, he didn;t get to be till 8.30 , he did enjoy cricket tho.

Oxeye - Thanks for the explanation. It did very nicely.

And...things had been wibbly then seemed ok then suddenly at the wrong moment for Beer it just went mad very quickly in Beirut.

UniS and Jacksmama - AandO will use her special fairydust nmbs dust
to get you on the parcel list or I will eat my hat fascinator!

AandO - ....

Oh look, they are tossing the names up into the air and using their little fascinators to waft them up and down until the names fall like autumn leaves onto the floor whereupon the NMBs will select names/ people/ parcels.... unless RacingPig runs in and eats the names first

Damn, so so sooooooooooooooo sorry UniS. I'm so crap at this type of thing. I hope I haven't caused offense.

So JM is in for real parcels? If that is that case then is Thumb also in?

I will redo the list.

I'm definitely in for parcels. I don't care about posting cost.

(Very excited about this.)

Ok, if oxeye can't guess my email address, then here it is in plain:

dr

underscore

anuschka

at

shaw

dot

ca

I put my Gmail addy upthread but realized I mixed it up, it has a dot instead of an underscore in it and I always forget. The only reason I have a Gmail account is so I can get email on my iPhone.

UniS - mistlechick has been annoying too - please excuse any whingeing or whining. I think that it might partly be to do wtih dh working away and not staying all holiday....

Looking forward to tomorrow though!

Is it too late for me to opt out of the parcels please, I'm not very good at sending/receiving stuff

Or otherwise people could do a swapround so you and I send each other a small something, Mary? Virtual or otherwise...in case of panic? Entirely up to you. Don't mind.

Here, dh jolly unwell with some virus. Need tea. Anyone else for a hot drink?

Yes, very nasty chesty cold has struck down AP here as well. Not good in July.

Wriggle is also being an absolute pain, whining and clinging while I try to panic about foerthcoming road trip (DH has just informed me that he will be sitting in the back with Wriggle for the trip). MiL phoned up to offer to buy me a SatNav (I think she knows her son!) but I had just bought one. That way I get a friend to help me with the trip.

Small, tried unsucessfully to email you; will keep trying.

Better try to explain the Mysteries of the Present Swapping Panic in case people are wondering...

a)...presents are a very personal and highly social gift, involving extraordinary use of the brain to calculate what's good, what's not good, what's rude, what's too much, what's too little or otherwise. Other people's brains pull together extensive info about people and come up with things suitable, amazing, joy-bringing. Ours very often come up accidentally with things surprising/insulting etc and people get shouty or stop being friends. Or we can't work out the exact nice thing to say when we receive one, and the person gets horribly offended by our social clumsiness.

b)...many of us have had group present-swaps used as a weapon in the past by people with a grudge against autistic people. I entered into two in the last few years with people who were really friendly on message boards. Both times the persons chosen just didn't bother to send anything at all in the timescales given. All the other people (none of them on the autism spectrum) got their gifts, both times. It doesn't stop me having a go at mine, but I end up sad.

Another friend elsewhere on the autism spectrum was sent an abusive 'gift' with a mocking note in it for a works present swap.

Whilst this doesn't apply to the lovely mumsnetters here, it's all part of our pasts and why we get nervous at how to get it right when receiving gifts from strangers. Can't help it - it's an automated panic after that point. It doesn't mean we think people here would do it. I know that's difficult for other people to understand. It's not meant nastily, we're just often spectacularly bad at present-things.

embarrassing but true.

Preent giving/receiving can stress everyone; not just those on the spectrum. I know both my mother and my sister hated the communal Christmas present opening of our childhood.

I have received a tea towel with a hole in it as a Christmas present; I could never be offended/shouty about a present.

(Although I was suprisingly at going out with good friend yesterday for lunch who kept saying, 'Racing will choose something hearty. Racing has a very hearty appetite.', which made me feel both fat and greedy. As it turned out, Racing chose salmon in spinach sauce with salad, with chips on the side. French Niece gobbled the chips, Wriggle was giving half the salmon by DH and the salad dressing was used up on others' salads. I must be thinner after that!)

I agree with RS, presents can be stressful for everyone. I try very hard to find something a person would like but find it difficult in group situations where I don't know the person very well (read: Secret Santa at work!). I had already been thinking about what to do for my person and worrying that she wouldn't like it/would think I was weird/would wonder what on earth was I thinking doing that for her. And don't worry, amber, I didn't read your note as an insult -- it's very good to have insight into what others are thinking/feeling!

I should be baking spaghetti cakes, but a certain young one is still awake and if I go in the kitchen and turn on the blender I won't be able to hear if he starts to wail (like he did the other day when he got his foot stuck in the bars of his cot). Go to sleep, BabyScout, I know you're sleepy!

Someone has turned summer back on -- YAY!