Mrs Tara Plumbing

It is only fair that I tell you there is indeed a fault with the plumbing - not with the shower operators.

That is, further to my last blog, the good people in Pegwell have had to telephone Mr T.P. a couple of times wanting to know about the technique of his magic fingers - that’s another story. Sure enough, he could turn on the shower, but as soon as he left the owners could not.

It turns out it is due to blahblahblah and Mr T.P. will go there on Thursday to do this, that and the other.

My mind switched off when he went into plumbing speak.  Don’t tell him, of course, I let him think I hang lovingly on his every word.

It is the key to a long and happy relationship, apparently, that and something which I cannot mention on a site which might be viewed by minors before the watershed.

When it comes to relationship advice: my mum was adamant that no man would stay with me unless I did his ironing.

My own advice to any woman and man would be that private intimate times are more important than any domestic chores.

We don’t do ironing in our house - we go for the happy but crumpled look!

(Drip dry and slow spin do help).

How many people did the same thing as me - lean against wet paint at the weekend? The black tar-like substance which coated my arm was on the gate entrance to the Ramsgate Croquet club (see below link), on the Royal Esplanade.

OK my posture should be better, no excuses, I bought it on myself by leaning against a gate… My slouching took place, however, on a busy Sunny Saturday afternoon when the whole area was packed with people - even the Croquet Lawns were busy - which must be the first time I’ve ever seen that. Surely whoever painted the gate would expect lots of people to touch it or brush up against it.

I was trying to explain just what the game involved - but I’ve never played it and my own knowledge is limited to the account in Alice in Wonderland.

I was with my 6 year old - do not touch that gate!

He and others around laughed at the black stripe on my arm.

“Is it still wet, mummy?”

He did not touch the gate but could not resist touching my arm.

“Yes it is still wet and now on your fingers - do not touch your clothes!”

Fortunately, we were minutes from home where we scrubbed up nicely and fortunately our clothes were not ruined.

http://croquetramsgate.co.uk/

You never know when they will come in handy. Our washing machine died over a week ago - no panic, we’ve so many pairs of old pants, socks and towels… and more, we could probably go for a months with clean undies every day and no need to launder. Replacement machine has arrived.

Just as well - as I do not have an abundance of maternity smocks and I always manage to throw my dinner down the front of whatever I am wearing.

xxx

I am no domestic goddess. I don’t like cooking but I do like eating. My dinners might often look like a plate of red-brown-green slop but hopefully taste delicious. Most of the time that is OK but what about on my son’s 6th birthday?

Whilst the vast majority of parents (it seems) are happy to serve up a plate of chemically treated sugar as a so called ‘treat’ it is something I am simply not comfortable with. I really avoid food colouring, flavourings and artificial ingredients I just can not see these things as being a treat.

Every time he goes to another child’s birthday we come home with a bag of sweets and sponge cake covered in red & blue… We put them in the bin.

No I’m not being cruel, he doesn’t cry for them and want to eat them - because we have ALWAYS done this he takes it for granted. Once or twice he had tried a few shop bought sugary sweets - he doesn’t like them as they’re not part of our diet. As he is growing older I am encouraging him to make his own decisions, if he seems unsure about disposing of the cakes or sweets I tell him he can try them if he wants to. He is not tempted, he will ask me if I want them, I make it clear I would not dream of eating such a thing.

Having said all that - much as I strive for healthy perfection in our diets, in fact we do consume a fair amount of food that is ‘unhealthy’, biscuits, sugar, chocolate, chips, cakes, and even the occasional fizzy drink. These things, however, can all be free of chemicals, made with more healthy ingredients and eaten in moderation.

It was the young Tara Plumbing son’s birthday. I made chocolate cakes - lots of them. He loves Spongebob Square Pants who fortunately happens to be yellow and square-ish. It was very easy to make a marzipan figure with icing for big teeth and whites of his eyes and licorice for the black of his eyes and boots. I made his shirt and trousers out of paper. Our son loved taking his clothes of and seeing Spongebob naked! Didn’t want to eat him though - no artificial chemicals - but tasted far too sweet. Personally, I love the taste of marzipan.

Our son chose the menu for dinner - his choice - pizza (that’s home made just tomato and herbs), grapes, pancakes (with maple syrup), and the cake, of course.

All being well there will be many more birthday cakes to be made. 

There has been a good reason for my lack of blogging this year - the same reason that I look like humpty dumpty.  The double chins are because I’ve eaten too much chocolate.  Appart from that I’ve been feeling terribly ill as I am being the human incubator for twins.

Should you happen to have a lovely twin pram for sale, or infact most other baby items in good condition, please email me.

xxx xxx

It is hard to believe it is Easter this weekend. We are just not prepared for Easter in March and it wasn’t so long ago I was indulged in a chocolate breakfast in bed for Mothers’ Day.

Schools, offices, and businesses will be closing for Easter so it is surprising that a few people have assumed Mr T.P. will be working on Friday and Saturday.

We value our leisure time. We often go away for Easter (not this year, though), last year we went to Hastings and remember it was glorious weather.  Not really sure what we do this weekend, Mr T.P.’s golfing buddy has let him down.

You may have heard the expression, “it’s a jungle out there.” I can tell you this is a specific reference to our front garden.  I don’t really share the nation’s passion for gardening (or any form of hard work). - I like gardens, but I think of my own as an expensive, time consuming burden.  I like the work to be done by someone else,  I’m a great fan of public parks!  So, it is extremely unlikely that I will be found weeding at the weekend, but you never know.

Half term is almost up on us, the children need entertaining, here is my own personal list of suggestions for the week ahead (depending on weather, etc…). Many places to visit are closed this time of year. We certainly will not be able to do all of these things: there are only so many museums we can visit and, of course, if we go out every day it does get quite expensive.

Sunday 17th - FREE! A 26 minute film by Andrew Cross commissioned to mark the opening of St Pancras International Droit House, Margate screenings every hour from 10.30 until 15.30.

Visit the Thanet Museums:

www.margatemuseum.org.uk Mon- Fri 9.30-4 £1.50/75p

Ramsgate Maritime Museum Thursday- Sun 11-4 (small fee) www.ekmt.fogonline.co.uk/page7.html

Travelling further afield:

Near Canterbury

if the weather is good? £9.50/£7.50 www.wildwoodtrust.org/

At www.discountbritain.net/ you can get money off vouchers for many places including our local zoos (Howletts) which open at 10am every day and Chislehurst caves.

Wed or Thursday: £6.50 www.sciencefestival.org.uk/

A day out visiting the museums of Canterbury? Consider: museum passport for discounted entry to Canterbury Roman Museum, Museum of Canterbury - with Rupert Bear Museum and West Gate Towers! Full price £6.20 Concessions £3.70, Family £15.00 www.canterbury.gov.uk/buildpage.php?id=120

I have heard that there is a week of golf lessons for children. 10am every day £75 for the week at www.manstongolf.co.uk

I think we will go swimming, perhaps to the park, for a walk, and riding his bike… and, of course, we will stay in.  I’ve invested in some new paint and paint brushes!

Any other suggestions  are welcome. 

P.S.  I have just read in the Thanet Gazette that the Quex Powell- Cotton museum at Birchington is open - with special stuff going on.  The website says it opens in March… 

xxxxx

“The tooth fairy gave me 40 pounds.”

My son was very excited about loosing his first tooth at the weekend. £40 wow - no it was 40p.

My friend laughed and told me the tooth fairy in Ramsgate sounds a bit mean (it’s OK for her to say that - we’ve been friends for years).

I said there are a lot of teeth - I thought the rate should be 20p, Mr Tara Plumbing thought it should be 50p.

My friend has been giving £2, but I guess that includes an element for London weighting.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Panto, Aladin, at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (sorry - the local offerings were less appealing) - there are shows for 3 more weeks. The actor Lloyd Hollett was really good and apparently he is from Margate. I got quite close to him as he fell off the stage, into my lap - we were in the front row - was this a part of the show or and accident?

www.lloydhollett.com

The ticket price was a little scary - no wonder the theatre was half empty. When we saw the show, however, we thought it was actually excellent value for money.

Far better to spend the Christmas budget on trips to the Theatre rather than presents no one wants and too much food - I think.

The show was more than 2 hours long (excluding interval). As well as the usual jokes, songs and banter. There were:

acrobats;

amazing magic tricks throughout - I was in the front row, I watched carefully and I don’t know how they did them;

very good impressions.

There is a lot to be said on the subject of unwanted presents - such as how they are upfor auction on ebay - some not even opened! http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3108159.ece

What about the morality and economics of such waste? To quote another Times writer: Kate Muir “the British nation, have given around £1.1 billion worth of unwanted presents to each other over yuletide. That’s the GDP of Malawi..” http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3068426.ece

I have very rarely left my home for new year’s eve celebrations. I’m not keen on crowds, inflated prices, or wondering how I’m going to get home when I’m tired, it’s cold and there are no taxis for hours.I lived in London for more than a decade and never joined the mad crowds in Trafalgar Square. Of course, it was a lot colder on 31 Dec in the 20th century. I did venture into the centre of London only once on New Year’s Eve (1999) - this was only because I had an exclusive invite to an apartment by the Thames, we were able to stand on the roof to watch the River of Fire, away from the crowds and with the warmth of the sitting room near by and no queue for the toilet.

Mr T.P. put on the chef’s hat, assisted by our son - Big Cook Little Cook. They locked themselves in the kitchen where they made vegan Chocolate Truffles - yummy.   It is very simple.

As we wheel in the era of recycling household waste - many local people have been complaining about a multitude of inconveniences arising from having 2 wheelie bins.

I for one do not long for the bad old days of leaving my rubbish outside in a black bin bag - to be shredded and scattered by seagulls - who would also leave their calling card over the cars and the washing whilst they were in the area.

The old refuse collection method was not perfect.

This week the Tara Plumbing family felt the benefit of putting of putting CLEAN paper, etc. into the ‘blue’ bin.

When I was indisposed for a few days (not just due to the hangover - but that was a part of it) the post opened and unopened piled up.

Mr T.P. thoughtfully tidied it all away -

after 25th I started to think about why I had dropped off so many Festive Card Lists this season. I also wondered where various bits of post might have been hidden by Mr T.P.

After a few days of searching - just after the weekly refuse collection had taken place in this street - I thought of the bin.

Luckily, this week is land fill week.

I emptied everything from the recycled bin - all that wrapping paper, etc. to find a pile of unopened Christmas cards from the friends of Yours Truly and enough official evidence for anyone to steal our identities - not shredded - and in the ‘blue bin’ - so not covered in rotting food.