I remember Furby the first time around. They were the MUST HAVE Christmas present one year when my three were small. It had to be a red one. The red ones were sold out. The only parenting issue worse than a sold out Christmas present on Christmas Eve is stepping on Lego at 3am. There is nothing else. There was nothing else that Santa could do that year we
Random, as it suggests!
Musings
Barrow Towers Bingo
Sport in this house is a case of love it and embrace it, or, well, leave the room. We have all the sport packages Sky can offer with all the additional sport channels you can find. We have online betting apps (always bet responsibly kids) and it is a huge part of our weekends. Not playing it ourselves, don’t be ridiculous. Watching it on TV though. If
Read More
Musings
First Time Mum? 5 Things You Need To Know About Maternity Pay
You are expecting your first baby? Congratulations! You have a lot of new and exciting adventures ahead of you. But at the same time you are also heading into the unknown – while you may have cooed over your friends babies and waved many colleagues off on maternity leave, actually going through these things for yourself can be daunting. While you have your nose buried in every baby book
Read More
Musings
Amazon dash buttons — genius or most stupid thing ever?
Have you heard about Amazon Dash buttons? They started out as Amazon’s April Fool’s Joke but so many people said “That is genius, we want them” that Amazon put them into production. But what are they? Well they are small wi-fi enabled buttons that are branded and paired to a certain product. By pressing the button that product is delivered to you via your Amazon Prime Account. Just like that.
Read More
Nurturing
75 Reasons to love Thermomix, part 11: Lemon Meringue Pie
Before we go any further I have two things to say about this incredible pie. The first is that this was made back in March, as there hasn’t been a pie window of opportunity this week. So this exceptional pie made back in March is being blogged about this week as I haven’t blogged it before. And secondly I can sing its praises as I didn’t make it. Jonnie
Read More
Musings
To uni or not to uni
To uni or not to uni that is the question that my youngest is now asking herself. This is not a new question in our house though, my eldest two asked themselves the same question when they were deep into their A levels. Caity wanted to be a paramedic and Jonnie an accountant, both of which need degrees to enter the profession. The more they looked into it
Read More
Musings
Dear Sam
I am not sure if you were there when we arrived, or if you came along after us. But as we sat and waited for our drinks to arrive I noticed you further up the street, just over Mr B’s shoulder. You were washing your neck, using a cloth being dipped in a bucket, standing in the gutter in your socks, and shorts. I thought you were the
Read More
Musings
Four Sports You Can Do with Your Kids to Keep Your Whole Family in Shape!
Kids generally get a lot of opportunities to do sport and exercise in school, but not all of them take to the lessons on offer and some can actually wind up disliking physical education if they feel embarrassed or aren’t very good at the sports they try compared to their classmates. This is one of the reasons why it can be a great idea to do some sports activities as
Read More
Nurturing
Tea without bags or in fact tea
I know. I don’t really know where to start with this one but when I heard about an “innovation” in the making of tea on the Food Programme on Radio 4 last week my ears pricked up. As you know, I am a huge lover of tea. Our Sage Appliances tea maker is one of my most treasured possessions. This time a year ago I was breaking my ankle falling
Read More
#HDYGG — Chawton House Library
Yesterday I took you around Chawton House Library, former home of Jane Austen’s brother, and today for How Does Your Garden Grow (#HDYGG) I am sharing some pics from the garden. One of the most fascinating gardens I have ever visited. Andrew, the garden manager, arrived less than a year ago but has already made his mark on the place, whilst still ensuring that the garden stays authentic.
Read More
Canon 1300D — A review
The Canon 1300D is the perfect camera for a blogger. There. That is my review of this camera. The shortest review ever. But honestly, it is. When I got the email from Mumsnet asking if I wanted to apply for the chance to review the Canon 1300D I couldn’t reply quickly enough. You see I have a camera, one I am very fond of (it was a wedding present from
Read More
Nurturing
75 Reasons to love Thermomix, part 12: Jaffa cakes
I don’t even really like Jaffa cakes if I am honest. Not since I worked for a VAT consultant in 1991 and the whole “for VAT purposes are they a cake or a biscuit?” debate kicked off (biscuits with chocolate on them are subject to VAT, cake is not and McVities claimed they were a cake. HMRC were not convinced). And since then they have got smaller so I am