Those of you who are regular readers (yes, both of you!) will know that I am wont to a few fads, normally connected with trying to make my 40 year-old body defy the odds and look/feel like I don’t drink too much wine and turn to carbs in times of need.

Anyway, it is 6 weeks to go until Britmums Live (and a HUGE thank you for everyone who voted for any of my blogs in the Bibs.  Voting now closed and everything is crossed.  Yes, including my eyes…).  So, I thought that would be a great target time to make a few changes. Again, I know. Still, perseverance and all that…

6 weeks is about 40 days, so it is like my own personal Lent and I usually am pretty good about sticking to that. And it’s the usual stuff, less alcohol, more exercise, less carbs, more healthy stuff and I am trying to implement some yoga stretches each morning to de-creak myself. Honestly, sometimes I can audibly hear myself crunch as, bent over like on old crone, I shuffle my way across the bedroom.  So I have positioned my yoga mat by my bedside with the idea I can just sort of roll/fall out of bed straight onto it.   If I’m clever I will do so in that scrummy state of slumber when you have sort of woken up but give it 5 secs and you’ll be resuming your morning dream. Yoga with your eyes shut….I can say I am meditating.  Might work.

Yoga is a new thing for me.  I have been looking into classes but can’t seem to find any at the right time. So I did the next best thing and turned to YouTube.  My first attempt at some ‘wake up your body stretches’ involved me on my yoga mat with the iPad perched on the kids step stool and my son and daughter trying to join in with me. On the mat. Which resulted in small feet in my face and me being sat on in quite an awkward pose. To top it off, Fergus, our cocker spaniel, joined in and laid next to me with his front paws on my arm.  It was not a successful first attempt.  The woman on YouTube had her leg over her shoulder and I had everybody else’s legs over mine…

Anyhow, I did a 5k run this morning and even drank some rooibos tea which tastes a lot like normal tea, but with a dentists’s mouthwash aftertaste. So a good start.  If you are coming to Britmums, I’ll be the one with the healthy glow. Failing that, I’ll be the one with Pinot Grigio glow.  Similar effect actually….

Link up with the Monday Club below and don’t forget to link back to me purleeeease and read the others too! Also joining in with A Party of Seven’s Motivational Monday.

A few weeks ago I conceded that, despite signing up with the best of intentions, I would not be doing the Moonwalk this year. I had severely underestimated how much time would be needed to train and how little time I actually have.

However, I have, once again, signed up for the Race for Life.  But, this year I am doing it with a team from work and, more exciting, my 8-year-old daughter too.  No surprises that I’m not on for a pb, but to be able to run/jog/walk with her and help her understand its importance is a huge privilege for me.

So, this morning is the time to finally admit that I am out of excuses not to run (I always enjoy it when I’m out there, but it’s getting out of the house in the first place). I’m aiming for 5k and hoping I won’t be too red in the face for too long afterwards. Being a ginger, I go a weird shade of lobster and remain that way for about 2 hours. It’s not a good look. One year I wore the expected pink to run in and by the end if it you couldn’t tell where my T-shirt finished and my face started…I’ll stick to white this year.

In other news, my weekend has been filled with sunshine, gardening and cooking. To balance this my kids have been off the scale with trying behaviour, tweenage mardiness and generally ignoring everything I say. By the end of Saturday I decided ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ and had a tantrum of my own. Not that anyone noticed. And this, dear reader, is why I talk to the wall.

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It’s going to be a busy old week, this week. Last week of hols before the kids go back and we are finally getting laid!  The floor, you dirty minded lot, the floor! Away with the smelly, balding carpet and in with a lovely solid oak floor. I cannot wait, although we have a floor to ceiling bookcase that takes up nearly an entire wall and it needs emptying. Perhaps a chance to sort through some of my books….I rarely give away books, only the Christmas Special sort (Yes, Trinny and Susannah, the time has come to visit a charity shop). I prefer to keep books. They are like old friends and remind me of the beauty of paper over technology.

With the impending ripping out of skirting boards comes the daunting task of redecorating. I have a picture from Pinterest which is my springboard and I am hoping for a lovely lounge that looks a bit like this:

I know, I know….in my dreams, but time will tell, and I promise to post a piccie when it is all finished. It’s a lovely light room with patio doors to the garden, so hopefully I can capture the fresh, kitchen cum lounge look.

I also have a lot of sorting to do. We have recently had to move my mum into a nursing home and with this comes the rather sad task of sorting all her stuff. Nobody wants to end up in one room with a few boxes of bits to show for their life but, alas, this is what has happened, despite our best efforts to keep her independent.

I have a pile of photos, letters etc to go through and I have the feeling there will be laughter and tears as I sort.  Old age can be a wretched thing.  Or, like Mum’s older sister, you can grab it with both hands and kick its butt.  My Auntie Ro is a wonderful woman.

Another task this week is to find a childminder.  Ridiculously, it is for 6 days a year but as my husband and I are both in teaching, inset days are a bloody nightmare.  I cannot be doing with any more last-minute desperate favour-asking or palming them off into my classroom with screens to keep them amused.  So, on Tuesday we are meeting a potential childminder and hopefully all will be resolved.  Eight years into parenthood and I still find the idea of handing over my kids to someone else difficult.  Ridiculous, isn’t it? I also note that when spell checking ‘childminder’ was highlighted, but had ‘no suggestions’.  Hope it’s not an omen….

The Monday Club is open for business!  Link up below and do try to visit some of the others. xx

Yesterday I found myself on Upper Street in Islington, London.  I had won some tickets via the Country Wives blog to the Country Living Show in the Business Design Centre.  Now, in itself this is very nice for me but nothing to blog about….except I used to work on Upper Street and it was (shockingly) 15 years since I’d been back.

It’s funny how memory works…I could completely recall the ‘layout’ of the roads and passages around Angel Station, but the street itself was almost unrecognisable.  Most of the shops had changed, restaurants had transformed into Jack Wills and, although it was a VERY cold and grey day, everything had lost its vibrancy.  I remember Upper Street in shades of orange….the carefree days of my 20s, late night, all of us piling into Cuba Libre after work and dancing (and drinking) til 3am. It always seemed to be bustling….the Islington of Blair and bang on trend in the 90s.  Yesterday, it was altogether a different picture.  I know it was a Sunday and bloody freezing, but there seemed to be no life and Upper Street is morphing into a doppelgänger of so many main streets…same shops, same cafes, same ol’ same ‘ol.

Me, yesterday. Looking and feeling a bit blurry…

As if to confirm this I went to the restaurant I used to work at.  I was trying to be an actress but earning my living being the hostess with the mostess at Frederick’s a beautiful old restaurant which was at the height of its trend in the 80s but still enjoyed a lot of famous faces when I worked there: Schwarzenegger, George Michael, Julian Clary,  John Nettles, The Blairs…to name a few. In my day, on a Sunday it was open for coffee and cocktails before the lunch and awash with perfectly coiffed Italian women who were taking a break from buying lots of very expensive antiques on Camden Passage, where it is situated.  But yesterday, it was shut.  I peered through the window and it looked exactly the same inside but surprisingly not dated.  Memories flooded my mind as I peered at a place so familiar to me, which I had not seen in 15 years.  I wondered if any of the old staff still worked there?  Was it still owned by the same family (it was a family business)? Alas, its closed doors buffered my many questions but it was with great satisfaction and a lot of love that I went on my way. Great memories were formed there and an awful lot of champagne cocktails ‘sampled’ by me and Max, the insatiable italian barman. My sister still blames him for ‘being the most drunk she’s ever been in public’.  That was Valentine’s night and a LOT of ‘on the house’ drinks sent to her and her husband’s table! Then there was one of the managers, from Madeira, who was called Jesus (pronounced by all the English way).  It took a couple of months before I realised why I was getting funny looks from customers.  I would confirm their booking, check their coats and then hail Jesus to take them to their table.  As he approached I would smile and say ‘If you’d like to follow Jesus….’

Good times.

These are news clippings from an Evening standard review of it back in 1997!

That’s me on the right!

The Monday Club is open for posts below…just blog and link up! Any blog, any topic, any time (well this week).

A short post this week as I am sitting in a coffee shop waiting for a hair appt.  I know, get me. Living the life.

Today I wanted to share, what I think, is a great idea that my kids’ school is doing for Comic Relief.

On Friday, my daughter brought home an unpainted cupcake money-box – with a big cherry on the top – to be painted at home over the weekend.  You will see from yesterday’s Silent Sunday that we had quite a crafty weekend…my son had to make a dinosaur musical instrument (balloon and two bits of tube.  Come on, thumping dino steps!) and E needed to do her painting, which meant I had all 3 of them painting….Imagine the scene. Worsen it by two and you’ll have a reasonable idea of the carnage.

Anyway, what they have to do is paint the money-box, do chores all week at home to earn money to go in it, take it in on Friday, empty it for Comic Relief. And then they get to keep the money-box.

I just thought this was such a good idea.  Raising money, but making them earn it too.  It is so easy to ask for a few pounds for a donation, or getting me to make cupcakes for them to sell….all great, of course, but the idea that they have to forfeit their time and pleasure by doing jobs seems much more worthwhile somehow. And GREAT for me! I have been sending her off on tasks all weekend!  And there are still four days to go….

Link up your posts for The Monday Club below….any post, any subject, any time….(well, so long as it is before Friday)

One of my birthday cards – made me :)

On Saturday night I celebrated my birthday.  Family and friends came from near and far to spend the night in the pub with me and catch up, have a laugh and drink some wine.  The night flew by, and I left in high spirits, wishing I’d had more time to talk to everyone and appreciative of the effort they had made to be there.

And now, I PROMISE I will not talk about turning 40 again.  I am sure everybody has had quite enough of me and my insecurities, so I faithfully swear to shut up about it.

And, by the way, you were all correct.  It’s fine.

So, what now? Well, I have decided how’s the time to make a few life changes…nothing big, just small things that might make a big difference in the long run.  I am adding a page to the blog to chart them…and plan to start by finally cutting sugar out of my tea. I went from 2 spoonfuls and over the years have got it down to a ¼ spoonful. I could never quite surrender that last little bit, but have put it on the list.  Well, presently it’s the only thing on the list, but I shall add to it over the coming months and try to give myself a bit of an overhaul.  A human spring clean. I shall wipe the skirting boards of my soul and brush the cobwebs from my brain. A lick of paint will be given to my exterior and my bad habits will be boxed up for charity.  And I will stop using so many bad metaphors. I hope.  Can’t make any promises on that one….

Link up your posts for The Monday Club below and do try to read/comment on others.

Have a good week y’all. xx

Not the best weekend.  Not for any specific reason, just one of those ‘it’s all a bit crappy’ few days.

My  mum has been moved to another hospital 50 minutes away from me with opening hours restricted to school pick up times and kids’ supper/bed.  Absolutely no use to me.  Plus they’ve had norovirus which shut the ward for the first 3 days.  So I can, in all honesty, only visit her at the weekend, which is not good for her or us.

Without being too cryptic, something I had set my heart on – something that would have changed everything for the better, has not come to fruition.  So I felt sad about that and a bit lost as to what to do now.  Carry on regardless I suppose.

My older daughter seems to have embraced being eight with not doing her homework or giving two hoots about her grades or behaviour. OK, she hasn’t gone completely off the rails (she is only 8), but those glimpses of future teen are getting more frequent and it makes we want to peek from behind my fingers to look at it.

On a positive note, I did reach my diet goal two weeks early, although last night’s chinese take-away (HAD to be done on Chinese new year – 新年好 by the way) and half a bottle of Beaujolais Villages has probably restored a few pounds.  I was going to go for a long overdue run this morning, but we had some snow last night and I really don’t want to run in it, big wuss that I am.

So, on my one child-free morning of the week I plan to write some book reviews I need to submit, mark a whopping great pile of books and change all the beds.  It’s a thrill a minute, isn’t it?

To end on a positive note, I did get some amazing bargains at John Lewis yesterday, I mean a cheeseboard £30 down to £4, metal hooks £12 down to 50p, biscuit cutters for 5p each and napkins for 25p.  I do love a bargain!  Especially from JL.

Cheer me up and join in with this week’s Monday Club….link up below.

I’ve had a tough and upsetting weekend. On Saturday morning a friend and I were on a 5 mile walk as part of our effort to start training for the Moonwalk in May. It was a glorious morning, sunny and crisp and the mud was deep, ensuring our boots and the three dogs were suitably plastered with it. On the homestretch there was ‘phone call to say that my mum had fallen and pushed her emergency button. To cut a long story short, she has fallen quite a bit over the last few years and isn’t very mobile or well, but this time she has fractured her shoulder and her hip, meaning an operation when she is well enough.

While I was letting the ambulance crew do their job, I felt enormous gratitude to live in a country where we have a national health system. Yes, there is a lot wrong with it, but to be able to call out trained men and women to take care of and transport mum to a clean hospital where treatment is readily available is a precious thing. There is no worry about cost and there is the assurance that everything that can be done for her, will be done. I see the images of Syria on the television or other desperate countries, their peole struggling to survive and I thank God that I am lucky enough to live in the UK.

I am actually sitting in the hospital now, whilst Mum is sleeping and I feel sad. She is frail and frightened and everything is so unsure. I feel a bit useless. What to say? What to do? How to help? I can’t think of any answers, so I will chatter inanely about the kids and the dogs and try to talk about the future, which seems a million miles away at the moment. It’s quite a surreal place to be and not one I would wish on anyone.

So, a rather doleful post from me today. Do link up some happier posts below and cheer me up! I am sure many of you have had a much more joyful weekend. As for me, I shall be glad to see the back of January. It has been the bearer of nothing but bad news. Next month is Valentine’s, Pancake Day, half term and *gulp* my 40th birthday.