The Gallery — Drink

oh lordy.   I wonder if Tara knew we had planned a party on Saturday night when she plucked this theme out of the ether on Friday for The Gallery this week. Drink.   Drink I did.  I am ashamed to say.    Well it was for Mr B’s birthday and also because Eurovision was on and I was trying to avoid it.   And because we had been sent an amazing blender to

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London Dungeon — A review

London Dungeon — A review When I was asked if I would like to review the London Dungeons I wasn’t sure I could. Not because of any constraints on our diary but because I had heard it was super scary.   So scary that grown women had to leave via the nearest “emergency exit”.   Hmm well that sounds like a challenge to me and having done Thorpe Park scary rides, well

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Ranty Friday — Dolce and Gabbana

As so often happens with Ranty Friday, this isn’t the post I was going to publish today.  I have five Ranty Fridays in draft as lots of things recently have annoyed me so I start the posts and then publish them in turn.   This week’s has been bumped.   Because yesterday I saw the above picture.  Okay a picture that was taken in 2007 but that doesn’t make it any less

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The Gallery — New

oooh new…. new shiny shiny things.  I love new things.  Who doesn’t? What to show you that is new?  The new things I have been sent to review?  Do you want to see a tube of hair removal cream?  No, thought not. Ummmm…. how about the face cream that I was also sent to review? Ah no, I know.

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50 things to do before you are 50

Fifty feels like a real landmark birthday, more so than any that precede it.  And so I wondered what might be on a 50 things to do before you are 50 list.  After all I have written a “50 things I have learned as I turn 50” post, so this the list of things I should have done rather than have done.  And maybe shouldn’t! This isn’t my list, it is

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Brilliance in Blogging awards

Yes I know, this is a post about blogging…. I know… I know… a blog should never talk about blogging.   I know the rules. But do you know what?  I don’t care.  Today I am breaking the rules. It is just two years since I started blogging and I think you all know how passionately I feel about it now.   How much it has become a part of my life.  

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Ranty Friday — Drive Like a Girl

“Drive Like a Girl”  what does that make you think of?  What does it conjur up? Sounds like a derogatory comment, doesn’t it?  “Oh you drive like a girl”.   As if driving like a girl is in someway any different from driving like a boy. And now you are going to ask me why I am asking you this in my Ranty Friday this week, aren’t you?  Aren’t you?  Well

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The Gallery — The Weekend

Ahh who doesn’t love the Bank Holiday weekends that May gives us?  And so soon after the long Easter Weekend.  And that is the theme for this week’s Gallery Our weekend was a mixed bag.  A 50th birthday party on Saturday night with a Land Rover converted to a pizza oven (yes really), an old water tank that was now in a garden and used to burn wood, and a

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The Benefit of good customer service

Why does Benefit have a capital B I hear you ask?  It shouldn’t, should it? Well actually it should because this is a little story about how great customer service from Benefit made me a customer. It all started with a last minute day trip to France last month.   “Shall we go to Calais for lunch?” said Mr B.   Realising he wasn’t joking I jumped onto the P and O

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Girl Reading — May 2013

This month’s book selection is one I have grabbed off my ever growing pile of books that I have yet to read.   I like the title though as it tells us nothing of the book or story.    It is a debut novel by Katie Ward who you know must be good when their is quote from Hilary Mantel that says Ward is wise, poised, and utterly original.  Her eye and

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Online friendships and why they matter

It’s been a horrendous week.   Truly.  I cannot tell you how stressful this week has been.  Monday evening particularly where two things were happening simultaneously that were tipping me over the edge.  One had been bubbling for awhile.  One was a medical emergency.   Phone calls with two completely separate groups of people whilst trying to deal with two stressful events, whilst in the car, doing the school run with four

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Ranty Friday — Drivers in corporate vehicles

Odd title I know.  But you know the ones I mean.  The drivers in vans / cars / lorries that are sign written with their employer’s logo.  Those drivers in corporate vehicles are the subject of this week’s Ranty Friday. Why?  Well you might well ask This week three incidents have happened that have infuriated me and made me question if these drivers forget they are driving great big adverts

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