Embarrassing outfits or ahead of my time

When I think back to my teenage years my memories are littered with ridiculous outfits.   The worst offender is a pair of burgundy knee length “pedal pushers” (the term thankfully doesn’t even exist anymore and nor to those ridiculous trousers) that my granny made for me.   Teamed up with a little blouse with a burgundy ribbon, and burgundy lace up shoes.   I looked like a right idiot.

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Five Most Beautiful Small Towns In Europe

Five Most Beautiful Small Towns In Europe When it comes to visiting Europe, most people spend all of their time focusing on the major cities, as opposed to going off the beaten path. You can save money on your journey to these secretly awesome destinations or your luggage and necessities by using coupons from Discountrue.com – there’s many popular shops and services such as JCPenney or Expedia, so you’ll find

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Window Wednesday — Orvieto Duomo

Quite how we ended up in Orvieto we still aren’t sure.  Mr B had suggested Ostia which I had mis remembered and said “It’s Orti something” when Jonnie asked where we should go the following day.   Google produced Orvieto and once Jonnie had read the Wikipedia page for the town we were sold. It was just under a two hour drive from Camping Fabulous where we are staying with

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Alternative beach activities

It might strike you as a bit odd but last year when we visited Barbados we didn’t spend a single day on the beach.  Not one.   When I think about it now it does sound odd but at the time it didn’t feel odd.   You see, we aren’t the “lying on the beach” type of family.   We all burn.  We all get bored quickly and it somehow

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Is this how we should use social media?

It is safe to say that social media has changed my life.   Without it this blog wouldn’t exist because it started from Twitter.   Without social media we wouldn’t be packing for a week away next week on what is known as a “press trip”.   Time away arranged via a travel company (in this case Canvas Holidays who are arranging accommodation for us in Italy which we are

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The kitchen appliance you can’t live without

I don’t mean the small things like the kettle (or in my case the toaster, tea maker, coffee machine, waffle maker or Thermomix.   Blimey I am not sure I could live without any of them).  I mean the bigger things, the “white goods”.   Beko recently commissioned a survey to find the kitchen appliance people couldn’t live without and a resounding majority said the fridge freezer. My knee jerk

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No more school runs

that is it.  There are no more school runs. Today is the start of my first week where I don’t need to leave the house and take children to school. I have been doing a daily school run for 18 years.   Initially juggling a school run with a toddler and then two school runs with a baby.   From being able to walk over the road and stand at

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It’s the insignificant things

I saw this picture on a friend’s Facebook wall this morning and had a lovely few minutes as I scrolled through what people had said (the friend by the way is Zoe who runs Saying Goodbye, if you don’t know the charity do look them here:  Saying Goodbye  They do the most extraordinary work) My response on Zoe’s thread was that I only like eating whole peanuts.   I don’t

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Like magazines? You will love Readly

It’s like Netflix for magazines I was trying to explain to Caity just what exactly Readly is.   “It’s an app and you can download all the magazines you like.  And you can have up to five profiles on one account so different people can have a virtual shelf of different magazines.  And it is only £7.99 a month”. I was waffling because I was so excited about such a

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Dear Kids. I am sorry

I don’t know what else to say, really. I am so sorry that your future has, effectively, just been ruined.   Everything we have worked for in the past thirty years towards your future has been destroyed by a pencil mark on a piece of paper. I went to sleep at 2am proud to be European, and I woke up at 5.30am ashamed to be English. As I was walking

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Window Wednesday — Kings College London

It was only a quick trip to Kings College in London this week but it could have been the first of many so I felt I needed to document it! A couple of weeks ago I stepped inside a university for the first time. I didn’t go to uni.   None of my friends went to uni either. Caity and Jonnie decided not to go to uni but to walk

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My head hurts

like really hurts.  All the time.   And I just felt I should explain as it means I can’t think.   Can’t think to put words onto here. For a few months now I have been suffering with up to 18 headaches a day.  Think ice cream brain freeze and you are pretty close.  Not cluster headaches according to the consultant who looked at MRI, but something similar.    And

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