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.

Not a good day again Mary ? Do you want to unload ?

Awwww , BabyScout

Not for me, I'm fine, its for Amber, she had a bad meeting

Sorry about whingeing yesterday. Also sorry that I might have given the impression that I have a cleaner, when I am the cleaner. It was the school cleaner.

Also I was being unfair - Aged Parent is always helping with housework and cooking. It's just that she wants very precise instructions given three times and then always forgets something.

Amber, you are mechanically minded; I have a question. While I was being re-educated today about my speeding habits , the instructor talked about fuel economy. Apparently it is not economical to keep the revs low and coast down hills. I should be keeping the revs at about 2000. Can this be true? I can't believe it - it's counter-intuitive.

Relaxing now, having driven home well within the speed limit, watching hundreds of cars whizzing past me.

Let's all settle down outside the tea room and look out over the valley in the evening sun.

Oh, and I love the sound of the bird life, Thumb!

DH STILL not home from work, so about to sit down to a very late dinner alone. Would anyone like some stir-fry while we gaze at the sunset?

Mmmm, good plan. Have just stir fried one fillet steak to feed four in RL. Steak came from bullock on friends' farm which had lost its passport.

RS, that sounds counter-intuitive to me too!

Passport, RS? Was it foreign and therefore couldn't get home?

yummm, un declared bullock, sounds good and local then. I'll be off to farmers shop in morning to pick up a joint of beef and some BBQ supplies, and cheese ( they sell ridiculous good valve cheddar) . Weather I cycle or drive will depend on how stiff I am following tonights yoga class. I hadn't yoged for ages and it showed.

In law invasion at weekend. FiL and MiL, so I may not be about much. Mines a large glass fo melrlot and a pint of beer, along with twiglet suprise when ever its on offer. Wish me luck.

Amber- teh priest hole is all yours, I put a ratchet ring spanner on the shelf for you to fiddle with.

Re- shareing with DH, hes not bad, actually hes pretty good. he does bathroom cleaning, I do vacumming, he washes up, I dry up. I do laundry, he mows lawn and trims hedges. I water plants, he weeds. I deal with boy day time Mon-Fri, He does bedtime most nights. Weekends we sort of juggle boy between us and our respective commitments.

HUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!

ALL is sorted!

I am going to start my even newer job (got it today) in September in a so far seemingly well organised, professional, caring and respectful school whose timetable seems virtually designed for teachers who are also Mums(read between the lines if you please)!!!

And... based on quite shocking evidence from various people in a rather heated fortnight HM is in a different building from us (and other people including memnbers of staff ) next year. Her dd has been placed in a class next to HT office so HT can keep a close eye on her!

And... Beer has finished his very stressful conference and got a payrise, he has bought tickets for us to go and listen to Mahler's 8th symphony and promised to take me out for dinner at the weekend (rbtl).

And... the sun is out!!!

Actually... I really have a deep felt urge to go dress shopping now. A stressfree mind IMHO is never ever any good for the bank balance!!!

tea that's excellent! not sure which bit we;re supposed to take from between the lines, unless it's that you are now a teacher but I thought you were anyway so am - but at least horrid mum and horrid daughter are out of the way! Yay!

Amber - hope you're ok after Bad Meeting.

I presume the beef is from a bullock whose papers/registration has been lost so he can't be moved to a professional abattoir and sold commercially?

RS - am quite sure that coasting down the hill with engine at idle level will use less fuel than driving down at 2000rpm - I used to do this when my fuel was low and when the tankers were on strike. But then am not engineer so could be wrong. I do remember that the Honda Accord I had some years ago had a maximum fuel efficiency at 56mph in 5th gear, revs about 2100rpm though - maybe that's what this guy was on about? Given that you can't coast around on flat roads and it might possibly be illegal to coast on roads, not sure

Well that the current place I have only been working at for a few weeks that I thought would be rather cute and friendly actually... ahhherrrrmmm... (whispers) does not excel in these IMVHO crucial qualities... !

oh ah, I think I see. So your new job is in a different place that actually does have these qualities?

TW -oui!!! I think so...

Tea, what exactly do you teach? I mean, obviously you teach children, but what age, what subjects, in what language? Just curious.

Amazing how un-parent and child friendly some schools are. My school has several members of staff who do not like children or respect parents. I think one of the biggest disadvantages of working in your child's school is that you might get to hear what they say about you.

RS, there's truth to what the driving person said. Thanks to modern computer fuel management, cars just get confused about people coasting them down hills or messing about with revs too much. It's better to drive smoothly and consistently with revs at a modest level, otherwise it keeps bunging more fuel into the engine than it needs, just in case. Weird but true.

Tesco was busy this morning...

Can't seem to be able to breathe properly with the overwhelming amount of work I have to do before the end of my contract in a month, plus housemoving this month, plus LittleO no longer at childminders and so now at home with dh running in and out of the kitchen (where I work from). Need to run away and hide.

RS I am primary trained but in France I teach English. I had/am still doing this domestically with groups no bigger than 1:4 for a vey good, well structured English home-school.

Recently I got a job teaching in a bilingual school and because I found the ambience so eeeekkk then quickly got a job in another bilingual school. Generally the bilingual schools are state schools where the parents pay a fee for English teachers. As many English teachers are not legally French it is one of the only ways we can work and French and bilingual children can have access to our skills.

The English teachers in bilingual schools generally move from class to class and teach the same classes each day. The children tend to be streamed for English at quite a young age. Next year, at my school, I will be teaching five classes ranging from reception - yr6. Next year, in Milk's school, at the age of four she will be streamed for English.

Does this sort of make sense?

Eddies in the space-time continuum... just thought I'd mention that...

Cocktails anyone?

oh yes, that would be good. After my last comment, perhaps it should be a pangalactic gargleblaster :

How strong would you like that, Mary?