Unbeknownst to me

Well as you all know (or don't) I've been on holiday. And as always on holiday I try to take loads of pictures. And luckily for me, then that the Gallery Post (I'm still trying to catch up on some of the posts!!) is all about something fancy callled Blipping ( nope never heard of it either - try Google!!).

So, in her own words , this was the task

"Yes, this week's theme is: One Day in August

Just like the Blip journals, I want you all to take a photo on the same day - OOOOO!

I'm trusting you to be honest here (as I often say to my children!)

So, on Sunday, August 29 (Bank Holiday Sunday if you're here in the UK) I want you to take a photo. Of anything, doesn't matter, you just have to take it on that day.

And you don't even need to use your camera: Take it on your phone while you're out and about?"

 

Luckily then on Bank Holiday Sunday we went for a walk up and around where we went on hols.. This is my favourite picture from that day - an artisitc type one with my new camera!! 

This is a mismaze (used by monks for penance!)

 

Back to Bedlam (and I love TESCO)- Review

Hello everyone - Yes I'm back, did you miss me - I'm sure you did!!

Anyway here I am, back in work after my lovely break, (more details will follow I promise!) and it seems that everything has fallen down!!
So before I get stuck back in to the madness I thought I'd better thank the lovely people at Tesco for the school uniform bundle that arrived before I went away. Bel is back in school on Thursday (yeah, thank god for that!) and luckily for me and also SuperLittleMen (who am nominating for some free uniform too) I don't have to spend money on uniform. The box which arrived before I went away was stuffed full:

(this is the box outside work!! - we are hoping to use it as a dressing up box now!!)

(many pics of the clothes - Bel was well happy!!)

And not only did we get these to make Bel all pretty for school, I also received a voucher to spend online
(am looking forward to doing that!!!)

Anyway, as my big boss has walked in I better put my nose to the grindstone!!! I will post more soon, have so much to tell you all!!

Disclaimer - the above is a sponsored post for Tesco

I've gone

I am still here - honest - well am not here, here but down a bit, down sarf!!

See you all next week - please try not to have any meltdowns while I'm away!!

BNM

There are 123 days until Christmas....

Ha Ha , I know I am so funny aren't I - kids aren't back in school yet and here's me going on about Christmas.

Image: Clare Bloomfield / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Anyway before you leave, I'll explain why I thought I better let you know.

I have already bought a Christmas present for Bel.

Last year,as money was tight (and so it will be again), I started buying bits in October. And when I mean bits, they were meant to be stocking fillers but when it came to emptying my filing cabinet drawer (in work) and bringing them home, we realised that we had plenty to have as stocking fillers and as also extra presents. The girls were amazed at how many presents Santa had bought them and were bouncing for days.

So anyway, having less places to shop around town this year (recession has hit town centre hard) I have decided to start early and try and get a few things when I see them. Luckily for me, the Book Club people, come to us in the office and the first small present/stocking filler I have bought Bel is the following:

The Magical World of Milligan by Spike Milligan which contains funny poems and stories. As Bel's reading has improved dramatically her thirst for reading is getting stronger. She loves poems and will when reading them remember them and then recite them back at you!

Another good thing that has happened is that Car has understood that Christmas will be coming soon, and so know after looking at her favourite book (read Argos catalogue) she will sit there and say :" When I'm a big piggy and its Cissmass I want...." So far we seem to have a got many I wants sitting on the Cissmass list!!

BNMx

It's my blogversary!!

Hello

Today is a special day for me, you , somebody, whoever reads this as I have now been offically blogging for a year. One year ago, after reading some blogs, I decided to put fingers to keyboard and write my randomness down. My randomness had always been there (inside my head) but noone had ever read it before. Now 1 year on there are 96 followers and according to my reader 104 subscribers (now why can't you all just follow too so that I can hit 100 followers!!).

My blog has been a place for me to vent my randomness and feelings especially when things got bad with OH. Things are better, not quite there just yet but we will get there (maybe sometime eventually at some point!). The girls have grown so much over the last year with Car now showing her independent streak (no idea where that would come from!!) and Bel growing into a little lady (I can't believe she is now 6 1/2 - yet she acts so grown up!). It has been a year where Car has started nursery, Bel has found a pen friend and realised that her job in life is either to a) wind up her little sister or b) make her little sister laugh until we are all crying. Things have got easier for Bel with Car as she can now understand and join in in games ( even though she is very bossy and will not always follow Bel's rules!)

I have found by blogging that there are many other kind ( mad and drunk) people out there like me who will call a spade a spade and not take any backlash (or shit) from people*. I have made true online friends whose comments will make me cry when I'm feeling down and whose blogs make me laugh out loud splurting coffee onto my computer.

I was wondering how to celebrate my blogversary and have decided that the best way to do it is by asking you to do me a favour. I have added many new pages to the blog and one of them is a comment page. But , sob, noone has used it as yet so the best comment sent via that page (i.e one that'll make me laugh and cry at the same time) will get sent a prize of some kind (maybe something Welsh related, or a random gift that I find!). So what do you think? You fancy a go? Go on, I'll close the blogversary celebration on Bank Holiday Monday - 30th August(as I'm away from Wednesday and back then!). Everyone can have a go, even if your in the US!

Anyways hope you have a great day - am planning on doing ?? as it depends on the weather which is dry at the moment but knowing my luck it will rain!!

BNM

AMENDED - Its been pointed out that by comments page , I do in fact mean the contact me page...oops!!

* If you believe in blogging honesty and want to revive your faith in humanity then check out The Life of The Twentysomething Mum who has decided to blog about it and asks you to join her - please do as if you don't she may get very drunk and decide to pack the blogging in!! It would be a shame if she did as she is one cool dude!

fiddledee dee

Hello everyone, old and new mwahhh x

As you can see I've changed the colour of my blog and the layout. There are new pages to investigate - there will be more coming (honest!!). If you like it let me know, if you don't TOUGH.

Honestly this is what happens when you leave me home alone with a half pint of cider, nothing on the telly (well there might be, but we are Sky+ TM two things at once so can't watch anything), twitter driving me insane (small voice, big crowd scenario), fed up with FB (read - no energy in Treasure Isle/Madness (yes I'm that bad!) ) so basically I thought I'd have a fiddle.

So how have you been? Good, sit down tell me all about it... 'cept don't talk to me if your having really sunny holidays because to be honest its raining her - it was nice but now the heavens have opened and its not nice walking from supermarket car park to supermarket in sandals which are sopping wet!!

The week has gone quite fast, I have promised to mend broken bridges after yesterday and today at work wasn't as traumatic as I thought (Alevel results day and I work at an uni)!

Nothing much else to say except Toodle Pip ... I really should go to bed now and stop waffling at you all


Bye xxx

BNM

Am I allowed an opinion (and what happens when I do!)

This is my two girls - and they have an opinion on everything.
I don't quell or quash their opinions as I believe its a part of growing up! I know for a fact that Bel loves crusty bread but is of the opinion that all other bread is horrible. Car is still getting into opinions but I know that at the moment in her very vocal opinion Sam Sam (thats Fireman Sam) to you and me is better than anything else on tv (even Peppa Pig!).
So what would you do if you weren't allowed an opinion, a voice to let them be heard by. Apparently as a blogger my opinion doesn't matter as long as it is the same as everyone else. I am not allowed to be different because I am then called a freak.
But according to the European Convention of human rights I have the right to hold my own opinion, I don't think that by blogging I need to upheld any law. I only uphold what I think is fair and just and you know if this upsets or annoys you don't read it. I have a right to my own voice, I am an individual. If I don't want to read about what you are up to today - I can check read all in my reader (this doesn't mean I will it just means I can).

There have beeen times when I have got irate about something and I have started to write it out, then saved it in draft, had a drink and come back and not published it. That is my right, my choice and today this is my choice - it is my choice to publish this, it is my opinion and if that means I alienate some of you then so be it. Today you have upset the wrong person and if it means you call me a Bitch then so be it. BTW Bitch in our house stands for Beautiful, Intelligent, Tall, Cheesy and Happy!
I will not be intimidated - I will not get upset by this. You wanna bully me go ahead but let it be known that I will blog it all.

BNMx

Black Sheep

Yes, that is me, I am officially the Black Sheep of my mother's side of the family.

You see, my grandmother died today and I feel numb.

Shall I start from the beginning, my dad was 60 in December and everyone gathered together for his birthday party which he organised himself. All were having a great time at the party, all that is until my aunts came over and started shouting and having a go at me because I hadn't taken the girls down to see my gran. I was a bit drunk(!) and took offence to this. I explained to them that with money being short we couldn't afford to go and see her. Weekends were now being spent by taking the girls to the park and other nearby free attractions. I also said that as my gran was at the time very weak and feeble and unsure who anyone was that I didn't want to scare them. I said when we'd saved some money, I would go down, me and Neb but that I wasn't taking my girls down. They took offence at this and were saying things like "Well my daughter took her new baby down" and "We'll give you the petrol money". To be honest, if I had been sober they'd have probaly got off with worse and now I would've turned and said to 1) well baby fine, but Bel is a sensitive 6 yo and 2) go on then. But I was drunk and worst of all I was sat with my dad's brothers and sisters, ( his sisters who I'd explained how skint we were in the loo) and they got assy and jumped into the conversation saying that making me feel like a charity case was a sure way of me not going down.

Since that night I have spoken to my aunts once (if that) and feel that they don't understand where I'm coming from. If truth be told I didn't really myself want to see my feeble, dying gran. I went to see my grandad (dad's dad) before he died and now all I can see when I think of him is him like that. Not him when I was growing up, not the man we had laughs with!
I don't like death - ever since my mum died, I can't face it. I can't watch funerals on tv (pretend or not!) and I just break up. I didn't like seeing my dad at the funeral of his dad and I tried my best to be brave for him.

I suppose it makes things worse becuase she was my mum's mum. If mum was still alive this argument wouldn't have lasted so long. I know that but I don't know how to get out of it now. I'm stubborn and now scared.

She's died and yet I don't feel sadness. I feel she has been released and is hopefully reunited with her daugher.
But I know that I now will have to venture to the funeral. But do I dare. Will they hate me. I hate me. We could've probaly visited before now but we haven't. I don't know what to say, how to behave. I've dug myself this hole and now I'm stuck in the bottom of it with no way out.

The only thing I've got is that my dad understands the situation. He understands whats happened - I explained everything to him on Thursday and he was going to find out what my aunts feelings were before now. But he didn't and now I'm a black sheep in limbo.

BNMx

CHEESE

I thought it was time I owned up.

I love cheese. If you asked Neb, he'd tell you its not just the eating stuff either. He says my music taste is cheesy (read 80s music).

Anyway I digress, bet you didn't know that I used to work in a cheese factory either. Well Wi and Wa will but you all don't. My Aunt used to work in the same cheese factory and used to get cheese as well as pay. I remember one christmas she gave cheese to my grandmother - main present was coming from all the sisters together - and my gran got very upset when she told my mum "Cheese, that's all I got you know, the bitch!!"

I'm very lucky (or unlucky considering bank balance) in that I work opposite a deli which specialises in all sorts of cheese. This is a shop that when pregnant I could 't visit because as I found out all of their cheese is produced from unpasteurised milk . I was so sad. Anyway, I have just been over there and spent about £20 on cheese. All kinds of delicious cheese from this one:

This is Bleu De Causse - which is known as the poor man's Roquefort as it tastes similar but is made from cow's milk. MMMM

Some Brie (Brie de Meaux). This is one of the finest Brie's available.(apparently, according to man in shop!)

And also some of this - Hafod Cheddar - this is made in a town near to me and mid wales and is a distinctive rich, buttery, nutty flavour.

Salivating now - I also bought a heart shaped cheese but which I can't remember its name.Mmm, am so looking forward to supper tonight with Neb. Girls are having sausage meatballs and spaghetti while we will be having grown up cheese, bread and wine.

Before you go, if you haven't gone already as I know this is an odd post but its Friday 13th, there is one cheese that I would never eat. There is a Sardinian cheese that if I ever saw it  (personally) and not on the web I may never eat cheese again. You can google it if you want but I'm not showing it here - its is called Casu marzu or Maggot cheese.

Oh and just in case that grossed you out - look its not just me who is mad



BNMx

Holiday post - part one

Ok so as not to bore you about our holiday too much I thought I'd cut it down into bitesize pieces. If you get bored don't worry am sure that the endless madness of our holiday will cheer you all up.

So day 1 of holiday arrived, and after spending not such a good night sleep (Car waking us up at 1 and coming into our bed, and Bel then quickly followed - so 4 people on double air bed not much room to move!!) we were all up quite early. The kids feasted on coco-pops and nutella on toast for brekkie (always a good idea to start them on a chocolate high me thinks!!) and after traipsing across the field for a pee and a wash (no showers for us, queue so big and didn't want Car screaming place down - yes folks we were smelly and dirty campers!) off we went in the car to Dovedale.

Now, I've never been to the Peak District before but can I say it was beautiful, the small roads I made Neb drive down ( I love small roads, if I'm going somewhere and Neb lets me I would make him drive down white roads all the time - even better if they have grass in the middle!!) took us passed fields with stone walling and lovely houses. Neb being bought up in West Midlands had visited Dovedale and the Stepping stones many a time before and he was elated to be back in a favourite childhood walk.

 Unfortuntaley not many of my pictures take advantage of the peacefulness of the place .. well it would have been peaceful but for the busloads of holiday makers, school kids and Car screaming!! She had decided that walking was not something she would be doing, so tantrums and huggie mummy were what we had. I gave in after a bit and carried her until we could let her stamp in the river!!

As you can see from the Stepping stones they have been fixed which was causing bit of an uproar in the area (you can read about it here). I can see their point as they now look a bit like a sandwich and the water isn't that deep so falling in would just have left you a bit wet.



Anyway as we walked on from Dovedale toward Milldale, Car got worse at the "Not walking Mummy, huggy" so we only made it a bit up the path before we turned round and came back. We wouldn't have walked all the way anyway as I know that both Car and Bel would have been too tired to walk back. While Neb was taking Bel to the loo, Car and I wandered towards the car(!) and some woman asked if we could give her husband a lift to Milldale as their two young toddlers were to tired to walk back. Now, some of you may think I was nasty as I said that we had no room and were unsure as to which way we were going. She looked at me, and I did point out that with a booster seat and a child's car seat in the car there would be no room for him unless he was very slim. Is it me or should they have thought about the long walk before doing it all? Or am i just a cold hearted bitch.. who knows? (if your worried about them they managed to catch a bus up the road - and if you know her then sorry x!)

So after our pleasant walk in the dovedale area and having half a day left we decided to carry on up to Buxton and so we did. We wandered around and realised that we had parked on the top end of the hill and so after having lunch we had to drag (and carry) the kids back up the hill. As we left Buxton, the grey clouds set in so we decided to visit Poole's Cavern.

I had emailed the cavern before we had left on holiday as many such places don't let you take small children in (there are two mines near us who don't allow children to be carried / pushchairs due to uneven grounds!). Poole's Cavern though was fantastic. They replied to my email straight away and can I say that even though I had to carry my annoying child around - the place was fantastic and well worth a visit! Here are some of the pictures that Neb took of the caverns (as I obviously had hands full again!!!GRRR!)

After our lovely trip to Poole's cavern we decided to treat ourselves and take the kids to an italian restaurant that we'd seen in Ashbourne. They were (god only knows how) impeccably behaved and I'd like to thank the staff for putting up with us ~ putting us on the top floor with noone else there was a definite good step, as was giving the girls traffic light lollies to end the meal. If you fancy an italian then why not pop into Da Carlo if you are in the area!!


Anyway thats probaly enough rambling from me for now - part 2 will be written shortly....

Its a clown mummy - REVIEW

Just before we went away I received a parcel from Hello Baby. If you haven't heard of them they are an online nursery for people who care. The website stocks a range of top brands and we were lucky to be sent a Stacking Clown made by Brio. I love wooden toys and the Brio wooden toys are a fantastic range. The clown is suitable for ages from 19months and as Car is now well over this age she loved it. We had fun playing with it this evening (after my first day back in work) and as her hand eye coordination and grasping skills are now well developed but with her naming of colours now nearly getting there she enjoyed putting colours down in order. She also thouht that the best thing to do was to make a sandwich and go to work with a piece wrapped up in the packing material that came with the clown.

As you can see we had  a whale of a time (please excuse the lovely dining room carpet!!) (ooh and apparently you need to click on the picture to see them all!!)

Having looked at the website, I find the design very pretty but it needs to be reorganised as new parents may not know names of brands - maybe it would be easier to look for items and makes.

But if you are know what you are looking for then this website will have it!

(Thank you Hello Baby for our clown - sorry for the lateness in the review)
(Thank you also to Car for helping her mummy out x)

BNM

Things I have learnt after being camping

• Don't take 2 hyperactive children who have been stuck in a car for 4 hours into Waitrose, they will surely embarass you and run amok! (plus I'm definately not posh enough for this supermarket as the looks I got when I didn't keep control of my children were withering!!)

• When checking weather forecast before camping and you see sunny spells - don't believe it and take more than one pair of trousers for yourself, plus more than one jumper for children!!!

•  Also, as weather is so bloody cold remember to take pj's for yourself and hubby so you don't freeze your asses off.

• Remember also to let kids get to point of tiredness and nearly fall asleep on you before putting them into beds as you will only end up with 4 in a double air bed (which is not very comfortable) but you will at least then be warm! (we didn't do this the first night and so 4 in air bed it was!!)

• Remember that Car is a clingy so and so, and any hope you have of taking photos or having time to walk by yourself will not be happening. Try and pack pushchair next time! 

• Enjoy yourself at all times, even if it rains and you are looking extremely attractive in wellies and dirty jeans!

These are just some of the points I learnt from our days away - we had a wonderful time but it was a tiny bit cold and we will go again but earlier in summer!!  More details of our days out will follow soon.

BNMx

I'm back

Hi all,

Well we survived the camping and I'm currnetly reading all the posts in my reader - you have all been very busy I see. Will post lots about my trip soon

BNMx

I like driving in the car

Hello, yes I haven't gone just yet. I'm currently having a rest from tidying/packing. I have packed my clothes, Car clothes and Bel clothes, hoovered the hallway (on hands and knees due to cat and my hair!) and am thinking of what to put on ipod for car journey tomorrow. Now, we normally have the radio on and then when we lose the signal (yes in Wales somewhere over the mountains) we turn to the ipod.

So, there I was thinking of what new songs to add to my ipod and I did ask you peeps on Twitter for advice but it seems that noone was listening so anyway I googled it. There were a load of songs to pick from and so in my madness this morning (and probaly by spending lots!) I downloaded the following:

Little red corvette - Prince



Free Falling - Tom Petty



Mercedes Benz - Janice Joplin



Leaving on a Jet plane - Armageddon version

(except this is not that one - it wouldn't embed)





I also added the committments album to my ipod as I love that film and I have it already on tape somewhere!!



That is it folks, I must now leave you all but I will see you on Friday next week (sometime!)

If you are short of things to read - don't forget the two blogs I've already named or why not go back and read some of my old posts (always worth a laugh!!)

BNMx