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
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
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Musings
Fifty Shades of Grey — A review
Fifty Shades of Grey — A review Oh my God, T, you have to read this book What? You haven’t read this? Oh you really should, it is amazing Just two of the quotes from friends recently about a book that has caused quite a stir internationally. Written by E L James it tells the story of a young woman embarking on a love affair with a successful entrepreneur
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Musings
My favourite time of day
Do you have a favourite time of the day? I certainly do My favourite time of day is very specific. It is between 6.50am and 7.14am. The minute the alarm goes off, any time between 6am and 6.30am (except on a Monday when it is 5.30am) my first thought is “what am I doing today and can I squeeze in an afternoon nap”. Not that I ever do
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Musings
The Gallery — Sunshine
The theme for The Gallery this week is Sunshine. What a gorgeous theme. Having basked all weekend in record temperatures I debated posting something full of sunshine and then thought that nobody wanted to see my pasty white bits so I decided to hunt through the archives for something a tad more appropriate. With sunshine, comes sunset. And this particular sunset was last year in Holetown, Barbados.
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Musings
Why invite a guest onto a show and then not allow them to speak?
Mr B and I caught Watchdog on the BBC recently and both remarked how pointless it was for Anne Robinson to “interview” anybody. All she does is talk over invited guests. She was putting questions to a top bod at British Gas over claims engineers are condemning boilers that don’t need to be, possibly as they are on commission for sales of new boilers. The poor guest had no chance