Accelerate Your Child’s Mental Development Using Brain Teasers — AD

Brain teasers    Humans have toyed with brain teasers since the dawn of recorded history. The oldest surviving brain teaser can be found in the Rig Veda, a book of Sanskrit hymns which dates back almost 3,800 years ago – though no one alive today knows the answer, which is quite frustrating, to be honest. Almost everyone loves a good brain teaser, regardless of whether they are in in the

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My line in the sand

I feel I need to draw one, you know, a line in the sand.  A full stop has a finality to it and, well, there is no finality here.  But there does need to be a line drawn in the sand. For me, if nobody else. The past few months have been tough, if I am honest.  Sliding into Christmas always leaves me feeling, I don’t know really but it

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How to protect your small business from disaster — AD

How to protect your small business from disaster When you run your own small business, you give it everything. Getting it up and running requires intelligence, excellent communication and lot of grit. So once you have it going, you need to ensure that you protect yourself from the risks a typical start-up might face. Here are just some of the things you can consider to protect what you’ve worked so

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5 Top Tips for Keeping Your Kids Safe Outside — AD

5 Top Tips for Keeping Your Kids Safe Playing Outside As a child, you probably spent time outside building dens, making up games with friends, whizzing around on a bike or a pair of rollerblades – such fun memories! While playing is an important part of childhood, as parents, it can be worrying when your kids play outside. This fear, combined with our children’s obsession with tech, has resulted in

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My 2018 word of the year

I saw a friend sharing a post recently about her word of the year and I immediately started writing a blog post in my head, outlining mine.  I have lots of blog posts in my head.  All the time.  Some never see the light of the day.  Actually most never see the light of the day at the moment as my head is a mess and more often than not

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Be Happy. Do Good

Those of you that know me will know I am not particularly religious.  I was at one point.  Vaguely.  My parents decided it should be my decision as to whether I wanted to be christened, not theirs (it was the late sixties so yay for hippies).   I decided at about 13 that I did want to be christened so took myself off to Sunday school, got christened and then the

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Books to read this Christmas

  Books make great Christmas presents and I am firm believer in adopting that Icleandic tradition of Jolabokaflod “The Christmas book flood”.     The joy of an annual in a Christmas stocking on Christmas morning is one of my strongest Christmas memories, and I so I love to give books as gifts.    Here is a little selection of some of my favourite books of the moment which might be

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Changes to the driving test

Yep, apparently there are changes to the driving test in the UK coming into force today and examiners “are up in arms”. I can see why. First of all I agree with the ditching of “reversing round corners” because that always struck me as being  a ridiculous thing to do.   Why on earth are we reversing around a corner, ie off a main road onto a side road, in the

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Mum what do you want for Christmas?

Mum what do you want for Christmas? How many times have I heard that in the last week? Lots.   That’s how many.  As my three teens and twenty somethings are all in full time work they are able to buy their own presents for other people now, and have a habit of spoiling us (I know, don’t hate me).   Last year one of the best things I got was a

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The Lexicon in Bracknell — A review

I have to hold my hands up and say that I don’t do a huge amount of shopping on the high street anymore, because our local one is ummm  <insert unkind words here>.   On the odd occasion we do need something we head off to Guildford, and wonder if we park at the bottom of the hill or the top, or Reading and then wander around lost for hours and

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75 Reasons to love Thermomix, part 4: Warm gin and ginger cake

Did you know that gin used to be served with ginger cake?  Well I can assure you it did, and if you haven’t tried it then you really are missing a trick.  It is the perfect combination for a warm evening warmer. To encourage you to try them both I thought I would share a recipe for a warm gin toddy, and a great tasting ginger cake. First of all

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Why the HP Sprocket is a must have for any event

Take a printer on a night out.  Are you mad?! Nope. Have you seen the HP Sprocket?  It is tiny.  It literally fits in your hand, and therefore your handbag, making it the perfect accessory for any night out.   I first saw them last year but as is typical with me, by the time I saw them on line, they had sold out and I was kicking myself that over

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