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Once in a lifetime....

We're heartbroken. I knew it was coming, but I didn't know when and I didn't know how.  Yesterday, we lost our beloved Chubba. Now I know he wasn't human, but we loved him...and he loved us and this makes it easy for me to say. The kids keep crying. BH wells up constantly, and me...well, I'm next to useless at the moment.  I know it'll pass.  I know we were lucky to have such a faithful friend.  I know we gave him a loving home, but I'll miss his head on my knee. I'll miss the feel of his soft head under my hands, his silky ears and his thumping tail.  I'll miss having to step over him at every turn, I'll miss the black dense hair on the floor, I'll miss walking peacefully with him. Chubba was that one of a kind dog.  The one you know that only comes along once in your lifetime.  That perfect fit. He gave love fiercely but never demanded. But I'll miss him. My special boy. My beautiful boy.

Order! Order!

I feel like I'm riding against the waves. The harder I push the further I fall behind and it's an awful long way to get past the foaming peaks...and my arms hurt!  Everything needs doing but my priority is to sit down, smoke a fag, and look out of the window at the blue sky....is it any wonder I'm being pushed closer to the shoreline? This morning I've been trying to sort out my google reader.  I have a zillion blogs to read and I'm trying to get them in some order.  The first few I've looked at haven't posted since 2009.  Do I un-subscribe or do I keep those little gems in my little gems folder? I know google reader is so passe but I reluctant to change, and anyway I have no idea what to replace it with or how to do it!  I'm loath to do anything that means I have to think and when I do...brain freeze! I really don't want to offend anyone. Considering I don't know any of them personally, it's all getting a little bit too deep for my liking

Beauty on a Budget - Home made bath preparations

I've had quite a few messages asking for more of my home-made preparations....who'd've thunk it! Apparently they're getting more hits than my titillating tales of the yuckymum homestead! Funny thing though, just as I was flicking through my books, out dropped a picture of Simon le Bon!  I did have a penchant for him for a while, but I had no idea I tore out paper cuttings of him. I'm pleased to say I outgrew him! Home-made Bath Preparations Grain Bath -  for rough skin 1/2 cup barley 1/2 cup rice 1/2 cup bran 3/4 litre of water Soak the grains for approx one hour, then simmer for 1 hour, Strain.   Use approx 2 cups for each bath. Mint Bath - to refresh 1 cup of pine needles (you can pick these up on your walks) 1 cup of peppermint leaves 2 drops of rosemary oil. Mix the dry ingredients. Add the oil and stir well.  Put into cheesecloth bags (or even a tied jay-cloth) and let it bob around in the water.  This should last for a few baths. Let me know how you

What about PMS or T - just don't f*@#ing ask!!

OK, so I haven't been around for a bit....sorry!   I've been uber busy organising life, and my little corner of me has suffered.  I've been lax and lazy. How I've missed my space! When stuff gets tough I tend to batten down the hatches and do a disappearing act.  I'm constantly berated for my lack of visibility (by my family), but it's the way I do it. I'm lucky, though. I don't suffer from depression. I don't suffer from that overwhelming sense of despair, and I don't have the feeling  of continual impending doom.  I suffer from anger.I suffer from irritation. And I suffer from compassion fatigue...and for a short time every month I become irrational. I cry. I'm angry and I blame the world, BH and the kids. A simple question or request becomes the most arduous of tasks.  I moan and groan about it and everyone wonders...for a short time...whether I'm completely bonkers. In short, I suffer from PMS or PMT or what ever the fcuk it'

Mummy Porn??!!!

Mummy porn or Fifty Shades of Shite?  It's never going to win the Pulitzer Prize (nor am I!), nor is a great work of literary fiction but it's the fastest selling book...ever!  Beyond Harry Potter and the DaVinci code this book has got our nation of women chattering, reading and debating. Fifty Shades of Grey has taken the nation by storm. Hmmmm...are we repressed or do we just like crap books?  To be honest I can't understand what the fuss is all about.  I know I'm going to get a slating here but after reading the first few chapters I've put it down and can't be bothered to pick it up again. Sam Brick ("godI'msobeautifuleveryonehatesme") is at it again but this time I kind of agree with her.   "Giving it this name of mummy porn, using this kind of safe, middle-class word, makes women think it's okay to read it." Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2167800/Samantha-Brick-slams-Fifty-Shades-Of-Grey-This-Morning

Fashion Friday - What to wear?

I've been looking through magazines for guidance on what to wear this summer.  It's all brights and colours, which is a bit annoying as I only do black (or grey at a push!). It seems like the 90's  80's and the 50's are back!! What?  Do we take our pick? Can we mix and match?  Some of the advice was to use what you already have with one stating we should "wear your cardigan backwards, or wear your coat as a cape!  A good idea, I thought but when I tried it this morning on my jaunt with the dogs, the Caped Coat not only made me look like Superman, it also made me look as if I had no arms, it slipped off my shoulders and fell in the mud!  Just how practical is this advice, when you're hacking through the undergrowth with two bounding mutts or  with a trolley full of Cheerio's , toilet rolls and three rugruts screaming for sweets? One useful tip was to "Revamp Old Faves".  I could certainly pull out my mothers old stuff, but I'm not sure he

Flying with the kids

Image: Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I do a fair amount of flying, and  having travelled over the holidays and watched parents struggle with their children in confined spaces think it's about time I offered some of my expertise and experience. It's worse than hard for many....it's a nightmare!!  On many of the flights I do, parents cope admirably, but here are a few tips I can offer that would make your journey all the sweeter and help you enjoy your journey. Travel light.   It's all very well being laden like a pack horse, but do your self a favour...travel light! Take a light weight pushchair. The cheap telescopic ones can be pushed right up to the aircraft door. The larger your pram the less likely it will be loaded into the cabin. If your child is awake on disembarking, you can use the pushchair as a luggage cart, and if they're asleep...well, you have your pushchair. Bulkhead Seats. Very often when you're travelling with an infant, under 2 years you

Silent Sunday

Beauty on a Budget - Homemade Cleansers

Right, you lot, I'm on a roll here!  Here's another couple to try. Most of the cleansers on the market these days are made mainly from water.  The other stuff printed on the label I have no idea about, but it all looks pretty dodgy to me!  I have a drawer full of cleansers but rarely use them as sometimes, something in them makes me break out in all kinds of skin allergies. I've started using my own recipes now, and for the most part they're easy to make and I soak them in cotton wool and leave them in the fridge. Lovely and cool to use when you need them.  They seem to make a difference and clean off most of the make up, although I'm going to have to try and find one that removes the dreaded mascara.  If you're a vegan or have an allergy to dairy, you could use almond milk, or any of the non-diary products you normally use in your tea! Homemade Cleansers Herbal Cleansing Milk 2 tablespoons of elder flowers 1/4 pint buttermilk Slowly

Beauty on a Budget - Homemade Hand Cream

When I was a kid I would be found either plucking all the petals from my Ma's prized roses or breaking off huge swathes of blossom from the most fragrant bushes I could find and mixing them with pond water in an attempt to preserve and bottle their scent. I would crush the dandelions and buttercups into pastes and mix them with flour and pummel the fallen apples from the trees to make apple juice.  As I grew older my Nan would share her tips with me, and as she was from an era of austerity, her "make do" regime stood her in good stead.  Even in her eighties her skin was creamy, with very few lines and she swore by her natural remedies. Sorting through my old notebooks and papers from days gone by I found some old skincare recipes that I had collected. The plan was to collate them into some kind of book.  Well, they've been sitting there for donkeys and I still haven't shared them and I think it's time that they saw the light of day. Most of the thing you

Silent Sunday - 8 April 2012

Hmmm... These boxes held two beautiful handmade Easter eggs....the boxes look empty....take a closer look...the bleedin' chocolate melted!

Am I gawjus? Yo betcha yo ass!

That Samantha Brick is a girl, isn't she?  I don't mean girl as in "girl" (but you know that, don't you?) but as in a girl who likes to stir up controversy. She's got the whole of the nation gabbing about her bit in the Daily Wail;  her follow up piece clearly written in haste (not!) and I wonder why the nation can't see that this has probably been one great, big PR stunt?  The Daily Wail had warned of the backlash (mentioned on This Morning), yet it wasn't tempered to suit the readership but to ensure that a campaign followed that would ensure her theory was proven correct and her profile elevated. And....reading between the lines I know it was more to provoke a reaction...the girl ain't that stupid....surely? In another of her pieces she's spoken of her agony of acne and how it's blighted her life and lost her a chance at success, so it strikes me as a bit odd that her current popularity (or unpopularity) is concerned with why women d

Domestic Godess? Me? I think not!

I really don't think I could even compete in the tidy stakes, but what I do love is a gadget.  I'm not sure how to use them all, but I'm certain most of the time that they come in pretty handy for something, sometime..if I could find them.  I'll jump on the bandwagon the moment I see a new toy.  I'll play with it for a while; create some masterpiece then lose it somewhere in the depths of the homestead. At the moment my lifesaver has got to be the vacuum cleaner... and an air freshener!   Vacuum up the dog hair, the bits of food, and the Lego blocks lying around...squirt the air freshener..then hey presto...smells as clean as a whistle....shame about the clothes lying all over the floor!  Those, I just kick aside or hoover around them! I've heard that having a de-clutter is the way to go! De-clutter?  I need every last gadget I have! So, my tips for a clean and sparkling homestead: Don't wash the windows on a sunny day. Iron when you're angry...I

He's flippin' well done it again!!!

He's only, bleeding well done it again!!  PeeWee...I mean.  He's eaten his bed, yet again!  You'd think that now he's grown (in dog years, I'm guessing he's about 10), he'd have come to terms with what he can and can't chew, but this is now getting ridiculous.  I'm loathe to chuck all the beds out as poor old Chubba would have to sleep on the cold hard floors and the poor old boy has difficulty enough raising himself from the floor as it is. Poor old Chubba shouldn't have to suffer because Pee Wee is a sh*te!! He's chewed his plastic bed to buggery and his "bruva from anuva muva's" bed, but that's old news.  PeeWee's Bed I'd hoped that he'd have gotten over it by now.  It's not as if he doesn't get enough romps in the park...he does and if he doesn't he soon tells me all about it! Apart from taking his lovely gnashers out, I'm not sure there is a thing I can do about it.  It's no use t

This is England - 2012

Daisy phoned me the other day.  She couldn't make our walk as her 22 year old son had been "beaten up" the night before and she had to take him to the dentist that morning.  She didn't go into much detail at the time as she was in a hurry.  The story came later. Sam had visited a petrol station the night before. He and a couple of his friends had stopped off after a night out to get try and find something to eat.  Outside, were two girls who had also stopped off to stock up on chocolate and the boys stayed and chatted while they ate their sandwiches.   While they were chatting a car pulled into the forecourt and two young men got out. "GET IN THE CAR!" the first male shouted at the girls. The girls said no. They said no, because they didn't know the two men. "GET IN THE EFFING CAR, YOU BITCHES !" he shouted again. Further abuse followed.  The boys had no idea what was going on.  The men from the car were shouting and made to grab the

I was once called by another name....

...quite often I'm called by other names. My Dad runs through the whole list of family names before he remembers mine.  Sometimes I think he just can't be bothered to look at me and work out who I am.  I shouldn't be offended but when he calls me by the dogs names I can't but help be a little irritated.  Sometimes I jump in before he reaches the third name and proffer my own...spoils the fun of watching him struggle, but hey...I always remember his!  BH, doesn't always call me by name and often substitutes it with "Babe" or "You bitch".  I've been called worse. A naughty Girl! On Parents Day, (many moons ago, in those halcyon days of the past, when the sun always shone and you had time to smell the sweetness of the hedgerow...) off my parents trotted to hear what evils I had done throughout my year, and they were never disappointed.  In those days we were left at home so that the teachers could talk frankly about our behaviour and

Uncomfortable Episodes....

I'd always thought I was a popular soul, but now and again I get the feeling that sometimes people uncomfortable in my company.  It's happened on a couple of occasions  and all I want to do is hide in a hole.  I've placed myself into he vulnerable position of being in their company, and they just turn away and talk to someone else!!  Sheeeet!!  I'm not that odd or boring but when it happens find myself at a loss at what to say and just stand there hoping that something will pop into my head...and the more I feel uncomfortable the more I see the discomfort in their faces...not a pleasant situation to be in from where I'm standing. The other evening BH and I went out for dinner with the family of BB's (beautiful Ben) girlfriend.  She's wanted us to meet them (as she loves us so!) and to thank us for putting up with them over the past year!  Girlfriend "kind of" moved in with BB and us all, making it a very jolly and noisy homestead.  Lots of screa