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.

I'm a .com for both my hotmail and yahoo accounts because I set them up in the States close to 15 years ago.

Spaghetti cakes are cupcakes pushed together and decorated to look like a giant plate of spaghetti & meatballs. I haven't tried it before. I've baked the cakes tonight (last batch in the oven now) and will decorate tomorrow for Wednesday's meeting. If it turns out I'm going to take pictures. I'd upload them to my profile if I knew how.

I have the taster sessions for BabyScout's nursery set up -- for the two days before my treatments start. Then he starts at nursery for a week and a half the day after it starts. Then Guide camp. Then a few days to recover from camp, wash clothes, air out the tent and sleeping bags, then off to Devon for our annual holiday. BabyScout's first nursery experience, camping in a tent and family holiday by the sea all in the same month! He is going to have a very busy nineth month of life!

RS -- Are there any other family locally? How about some nice young people near you who would "Adopt an Aged P"?

Small -- When are you making your s'mores?

Tomorrow.

I love Scout that you are always making things that are other things, I love the idea of sitting down to supper for spaghetti and getting cup cakes or warming hands by a fire and eating it - it's very not what it seems in Scout's world

Do you remember that film Mermaids (?) with Christina Ricci and Cher falling in love with Bob Hoskins? Cher always made fancy food - teeny tiny maraschino cherry sandwiches etc and when Christina Ricci is turning Teen she wants to make Proper Food for the man she fancies, makes hunky sandwhiches, which Cher then presses out with a biscuit cutter into cute duck shapes etc?

Anyway, made me laugh and think of Scout House (in a good way)

Hi, me again... just wanted to say of course I don't mind if a parcel to me is too expensive. International postage rates are ridiculous anyway, I just love sending parcels and anticipating the recipient's reaction. I can be a virtual recipient. I may actually be able to send the parcel with a patient who will be traveling to the UK/Europe in Sept.

I'm making birthday cakes at camp (can't remember if I've mentioned that before) and am thinking of decorating them to look like coals (of a fire). You're right, all is not what they appear in my house! Wa-ahahahahaha!

Seriously though, if someone can tell me how to upload pictures I'll see if I can get them up.

And yes, I LOVE Mermaids. Great film. Lots of fun!

You'll be fine, Small! I'll send s'more making thoughts your way! What time (approx)? We have our camp prep meeting tomorrow night, so will be full of outdoorsy things as well! Have you done the fires yet or are they tomorrow as well?

JM -- If I'm doing your parcel, I don't mind sending it to you internationally. I have some ideas and none of them will be very heavy, so can do it on the not-so-expensive.

oh those spaghetti cakes. I was intrigued by the other recipe I found for a sweet cake made of ( pre cooked) spaghetti with dried fruit and and sugar and a sort of egg custard. It reminded me of my mums macaronni pudding.

Is mint julep nice??

After the second bucket, UniS, it certainly is.

Your cake sounds intriguing, UniS.

Never had mint julep before but slurping loads tonight.

such film buffery that I possess is born out of a unique combination of idleness and too many nights in

I was suddenly strike by "if I don't go to bed RIGHT NOW I shall collapse on the spot." So I went to bed.

I remember sweet macaroni pudding. My mother used to make it. I haven't heard of it for a long time though.

Apropos odd - I don't think that there is anything my family does that isn't a teensy bit odd, sometimes in a good way, but not always.

My father had one hand and a hook, a la the eponymous Captain. French niece can't believe it could happen in RL.

My paternal grandmother features apparently in a Somerset Maughm story about the awful English in Malaya. My maternal grandfather was a hypnotist and conjuror and hypnotised people who could not have anaesthetic when they needed operations.

AP Does Not Do Strangers of any kind - friends, neighbours, Age Concern, etc. We have a freezer for food and I have asked the neighbour to take out the dog, which means that AP will have to see a human every couple of days, like it or not. She will hate this.

My sister does have, I am sure, MH issues. When I last saw her, three weeks ago (she had been working at Glastonbury), she was happy and positive and full of suggestions how she could help. When I telephoned her yesterday she is depressed again and 'too busy' (which usually in this case means doing nothing ) to do anything for us down here.

DH always sits with Wriggle in the car, so that she is not lonely. This is why I am so happy with my SatNav - it is like having a friend sitting next to me. Driving gives me lots of thinking time.

Surely the rest of you have slightly mad families? Please don't let me be the only one!

Small, I have lost track. Are you involved in the Devon meet up too? What are you doing today that is causing such trepidation?

Ahh, no, we're a bit odd, too. After all, we are American. My siblings both went to the same art university. My brother is a painter and has a bit of that "come what may" artist attitude. My sister is a writer and a moody cow darling.

My family's claim to fame, if you like, is somewhere down my mom's branch is we had someone fighting in the revolutionary war (on the colonolists side), was captured by the redcoats and shipped to England as a POW. The war ended, we won and he took another ship from England back to the States. So he survived the trip not once but twice. And here I am, just over 200 years later, making the trip to LIVE in England! Great-Grandma (also American) married an Englishman, straight out of England Englishman, not Englishman in the American four-generations ago sense. She outlived him. Married a Welshman, straight out of Wales. Outlived him. Married a Scotsman, straight out of Scotland. Outlived him. Died before she could find an Irishman. Could explain why my Grandma LOVES DH and all his Englishness.

Seriously, people wonder how I ended up in the UK!

My downstairs smells lovely. So tempted to have an un-icinged cake, but what sort of example what I be setting?

Hello lovely ladies! I have taken a while to catch up since being away all weekend - we went to the Blue Mountains, spent first night in a cheap motel right by Echo Point (overlooking 3 sisters) and then next day went on the Sky Cable, the funicular Train and cable car; then moved on to the ZigZag railway and ended up in Leura at the Megalong Manor B&B, which was lush - we were in the Windsor suite (I'm sure I mentioned this before actually) and it was glorious, they even provided a half decanter of sherry!! Then yesterday we went to Jenolan Caves and that was great too. Finished up with a lovely posh meal in a restaurant that didn't appear that child-friendly but they produced a cup of crayons and allowed miniThumb to draw all over the paper table cover! They also said he was so happy and lovely that they'd love to have him come again.

Ahh, a lovely birthday weekend - great fun.

Now to all of you:
I will please remain out of the parcel swap - it really is stupidly expensive both to and from Australia. A single 200g bar of chocolate was going to cost me AU$19.80 to send, which is about £12 - way too much. It appears to be a bit cheaper from the UK but I would much rather stay out of it, please - I will vicariously enjoy your parcel pleasure.

RS - am at the situation you find yourself in wrt AP - is your sis likely to change her mind? Terrible shame that AP is so stranger-resistant or you could get a house/AP sitter in

Tea - am again at Beer's loss of innocence in such a way - that must have been quite hard to live with for some time.

Scout - quite the history you have there!

Mermaids - great film - the bit I remember best is the lantern that Bob Hoskins makes for Christina Ricci's room - I love that and wanted similar for miniThumb but couldn't find anything like it.
I also really wanted Cher's mermaid outfit

I am a bit overwhelmed with how much the rest of you have conversed so will catch up slowly, I think!

When I lived in Germany I had a Lebonese boyfriend, who lived through the Civil War. He had a huge scar on his stomach, from pubis to sternum, in the shape of a cross. I was very naive and found the whole thing romantic and tragic, which he no doubt played on. He was very good looking.

Was listening to the news this morning, where we were being snobby and English about the American idea of rent-a-friend. I decided I would rent one like a shot to help me write a list of essentials, pack, listen to me moan, spring clean, play with Wriggle so that I could have a proper shower, go to the feed merchant for me ... actually, what I am looking for is a slave. When Mellors has a spare moment, I have a little list ...

Have never seen Mermaids. Obviously must do so!

Is rent-a-friend like Adopt-a-Grandparent like we used to do in school and Girl Scouts?

That sounds amazing Thumb!! Glad you had such a lovely time.

RS - My sister also appears to have some MH issues. Not sure what it is but she suddenly believes random things and freaks out and becomes obsessive about them. For example she has spent the last few years sporadically thinking she may have contracted HIV (and she is married for years and not doing anything else that may lead to her contracting it). She repeatedly takes tests that are all negative but then spends alot of time in a panic that she is going to die of AIDS soon. It is all very very worrying. When she is like this it is like she is a totally different person and at the those times I miss my sister terribly .

Oxeye - Mermaids is a great film! I felt so mortified for Winona when Cher messed up her manly sandwiches .

My family is odd too, remind me to elaborate later.

What is rent-a-friend?? V curious.

OMG!!! You'll NEVER guess what I saw as I was taking BabyScout out about 45 minutes ago. People doing the deed right outside, in the green/grassy space directly across from my house. I guess they thought they were being sheltered/hidden by the garage there, but they forgot about my house (end terrace) and the houses next to me. EWWWW!!!!

ohhh errr missus scout. did you laugh loudly and point?

Mistle and I have met, and it rained lots and the boys did not quite kill each other and some of the time played nicely together and shared things in a manner reminiscent of very pleasant children. Mistle dog is a cutie and VERY well behaved.
I dragged the Mistle family out to the wet woods for a little light geocaching, letterboxing and dog walking. Hope MT forgives me for taking her child scrambling up a Tor.

emoticon. Can not change Wriggle's name - it just is her! (I know it should be she.)

AandO, from personal experience I would say that your sister is heading for big problems. Can you suggest a psychotherapist/any other kind of therapy? Sorry to be scarey.

What?! Someone you know in RL called you by your MN name?! How did you react?

I know, it is very worrying. She is some kind of medication and was going to therapy for a while at least. She has always been a bit that way. Well, she would always blow up over things and veer on the hysterical. But now it's over everything and has got really really obsessive. She won't speak to us about it. Mainly we know about it as her husband calls my mom worried about her. Also her husband has spoken to me about it on a number of occasions. He seems to believe that something happened to her in our childhood to set this off. I keep trying to tell him that as far as I know nothing happened and that she has always been this way, but that it just seems to be getting more extreme as time goes on.