If you have read my blog for a while you will know that last year I tipped Wincey Willis off to a competition that Absolute Radio were doing where she could win £10,000 for a charity of her choice. I picked Wincey because I knew from Twitter that she was heavily involved with raising money with Harry Moseley’s family. We never expected to win, but win we did and I
Musings
The Gallery — Family
There has been a little break in the Gallery posts as Tara, the host, has been off on a fabulous holiday that she won. Seems appropriate that the first theme since her return then is Family. Not many pics of us as a family exist. Primarily as I have never seen a pic of me that I like, but secondly the three smaller Bs don’t like having their pics taken
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Musings
I have never…..
Whilst driving into London on Saturday we drove past Harrods. “There it is kids” I exclaimed, as they had been talking about it a few miles before. I have never been to Harrods exclaimed Mr B. I was dumbstruck (note that in your diary. It doesn’t happen very often). Mr B had never been to Harrods! I don’t know why it surprised it. I am sure millions haven’t been, even
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Exploring
The Malmaison Oxford
The Malmaison Hotel Oxford I told you the story this week of an afternoon I spent in prison last year, having tea with a murderer. Well this year I went to prison again. This time overnight. It went something like this between J and I: Mum I have been invited to a party in Oxford on Saturday night Quick mental calculation in my head that Oxford is an hour and
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Musings
Celebrity Dad of the Year award
Earlier this year I blogged about the Mum of the Year award and how farcical it was that Natasha Giggs had won. It was and it still is. Then today we hear announced that this year’s Dad of the Year is Gary Barlow. Now. I have nothing against Gary Barlow. He is a perfectly pleasant chap who can write a nice tune. He does an awful lot for a
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Musings
Travel ban for mothers who defy court orders
I heard this story on the news this week and immediately wanted to write a piece about how absurd this is. How shocking and how it once again punishes single mothers. But then I saw a friend commenting on it on over on Facebook and asked her if she would do a guest post as she has first hand experience of very important issue. Sarah puts into words exactly what
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Musings
The business of Tweeting
Two things happened last week that demonstrated perfectly to me just what it is to Tweet on behalf of your company. How to do it, or how not to. I was followed last week by a company who shall remain nameless but who provided a service I happened to need a couple of days later. So I tweeted them and asked for a quote. No repsonse. No response for five
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Musings
The day I had tea with a murderer
Yep. Exactly that. Not me being funny or playing with words and saying “oh yes, my cat, the murderer of several mice” etc etc. But in March last year I posted this on Facebook: Shared a Kitkat this afternoon with a chap called Simon. Divorced, father of two doing an OU degree in psychology and criminology. We talked about love and forgiveness. Nothing terribly extraordinary in that. Except he was
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Musings
Annoying Noises
I signed for a package recently. Nothing unusual in that. Except it was something Mr B had bought from the US because he thought it was funny. Something called an “annoyatron”. The idea being that J would take it back to school, hide it in another boy’s room and wait for the annoying thing to beep. Yes all very hilarious. Trouble is for me, it wasn’t annoying. It was
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Musings
Jubilee Jubilations
There are lots of things that we do well in this country. Standing around in the rain for instance. We are good at that. Well, we have had a lot of practice. Getting up early to get the best spot. Either first in the queue outside Wimbledon four days before the Men’s Final or outside the Apple Store before launch day. Pomp and ceremony. Opening of Parliament / Last night
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Musings
Why I am pleased I didn’t get my Olympic tickets
I did apply in the first round. For quite a few (about £800 worth) and during that process I got quite irked about some of the rules around the application. You had to be able to afford all of the tickets (well, derrr, obviously) BUT they would not tell you if you had “won” any for about eight months. So you had to remember to keep that money clear on
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Musings
Will you look away?
I blogged earlier this week how sickened I was that there was little coverage in the press of the massacre in Syria the day before. A massacre of innocent women and children. That post is here In an article in the Times on Wednesday they said: The children of Houla were not killed by random shelling. The UN yesterday revealed that they were murdered one by one. The militia came









