...is the coming home. I grew up overseas, which necessitated Boarding School and long-haul flights lugging my incompetent less capable brothers behind me. We flew to Cairo and Tirana, Larnaca and Brussels for every major holiday then back to Giggleswick, via Manchester or Heathrow or Leeds/Bradford. When I went to University, the travel continued, to France and Germany, The USA and Caribbean, until I found myself travelling for a living, … [Read more...]
Ten signs you have become Middle-aged
For the last few years, I've still somehow felt that I was pretending to be a grown-up. Sure, we got married, but we were still too young to have children. Yes, we had a dog, but that was for health reasons. OK, so we've got a mortgage, but we can always sell the house and go off round the world whenever we choose. Thus the path of denial into parenthood. Yet even at playgroups and Doctor's surgeries, whenever I've had conversations with other … [Read more...]
10 ways to play: pasta
I know that if I had my time over I’d ban all toys that require batteries. Particularly ones made by large American toy companies that have irritating yet catchy tunes that you find yourself singing long after you’ve bestowed said toy upon the nearest frenemy, or charity shop. Entertaining your children doesn’t have to involve masses of mass-produced garishly-coloured toys. Take pasta, for example. It’s inexpensive, easy to find, and a great … [Read more...]
And the Pabobo Nightlight winner is:
Carolina J. June 18, 2011 at 3:43 pm I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed. Congratulations, and thanks for entering: please contact me with your details and I'll get Pabobo to send you your new nightlight. A big thanks once again to Pabobo for such a fabulous giveaway! … [Read more...]
Grandparents, benches and a proposal
We’ve just spent the weekend with Grandparents and PD has been in heaven. Mamma and Daddy were merely servants: seen but not heard. PD did craft with Grandpa and sat next to Granny at mealtimes. She’s really starting to understand family connections and talk about people when they are not there. Skype has been a big help with this, enabling us to talk to the GP’s every Sunday, see Uncle Neal in America and Uncle Wilbur in Australia. To help with … [Read more...]
Love a Book Club: Water for Elephants
The week that I was sent a copy of Water for Elephants (thank you to the ever-generous Appliances online who funded Cara’s giveaway) I caught the trailer for the film. Despite featuring Reese Witherspoon, who I just know would be perfect to play me in the film of my life, in one of the leading roles, it did absolutely nothing to sell the film to me. If anything I rather thought that it looked rubbish. The book I read in 48 hours. I … [Read more...]
Inspired by….June
June has been an odd month, primarily because I sent two weeks of it tucked away in a sunny corner of Mallorca without adequate internet access, but that didn't mean we didn't get things done. To keep the girls busy en route, I took a leaf from Activity Mom's book and printed out some fabulous Mr Potato Heads. It won't shock you to learn that the actual potato head was quickly forgotten in favour of making a Mr-Bunny-Head, Mr-Fridge-Head, … [Read more...]
