Cruise Holidays: Why Are They The Perfect Get-Away For Families? (Guest-Post)

by 1 Comment

Cruise ships are much more advanced than they used to be. Most modern ships now have a vast array of innovative activities including climbing walls, large cinema screens and waterparks with huge slides on-board, but this does depend on the individual cruise line you choose. As well as these interesting activities, there’s also many clubs that cater for children of all ages.

According to a recent survey by the Passenger Shipping Association, it has been revealed that around 1.5million British holidaymakers are expected to take a cruise this year, which is up 13% on the same figure in 2007.

Although this figure is not just specific to families, it shows that many more people are interested in booking a cruise to experience the great value for money, wide ranging activities and the opportunity to visit many different cultures over the course of one holiday.

But why are cruises a great idea for families?

  • Nearly all of the cruise lines now cater specifically to the needs of children, unless they are adult-only cruises.
  • As many cruises now provide kids clubs, there’s also the opportunity for mum and dad to have some well-deserved time together.
  • A cruise holiday will give your children the opportunity to interact with children from other countries and experience many cultures.
  • The dining facilities have also advanced, offering an array of cuisines that will even be suited to the fussiest eaters!
  • Worried that your teenage son or daughter might be bored? Many cruise lines now also cater for teenagers offering special shore excursions, film screenings and youth centres.

As a parent, you can often come back from a holiday feeling as though you haven’t really had a break at all. One of the main benefits of cruise holidays is that the children are catered for in every way, ensuring you have the most relaxing and enjoyable stay possible.

For instance, a cruise holiday will allow you the privilege of not having to cook three meals a day for your family. As children can often be fussy about their food, you can avoid cooking numerous meals as their will be a great selection of food already prepared for them.

With the great facilities available, you will also save money on additional excursions you might pay for with a standard holiday. When you pay for a cruise holiday all the activities are included in the price, allowing you to spend more when you step off the ship to explore!

 As cruise holidays offer varied activities and facilities, a range of fantastic cuisines and destinations, you are sure to find a cruise deal that is best suited to you and your family.

This article was provided by Cheapcruises.com; one of the leading cruise retailers in the UK offering family cruises and exclusive family cruise holiday deals.

Flashback Friday: The One About Friends

by 15 Comments

This time last year I was preparing to reveal myself to a bunch of people that I'd never met before.

I'll be honest, I was wetting myself with nerves.

Last Autumn, Tots100 announced that they were going to be holding a bloggers' party down in Butlins in Bognor Regis. Very quickly Multiple Mummy, The Crazy Kitchen, Mummy Mishaps and I decided that we had to go and booked our places. We started making plans to have a fantastic family weekend; celebrating Christmas with a bunch of like-minded people and meeting new friends.

Messages to the aforementioned ladies let them know how worried I was about 'coming out', especially as I'd only met The Crazy Kitchen beforehand. Kerry and Jenny reassured me that everything would be ok and they'd hold my hand, metaphorically and literally. Mobile numbers were exchanged and I looked forward to meeting them both.

The weekend arrived and I really need not have worried at all. All of the bloggers I met were friendly, genuine and warm. Meeting Jenny that weekend ensured the start of a real-life friendship that has seen us get together several times over the past year, on our own and with our families.

However, I want to focus on Kerry here. Meeting Kerry was a joy. From the moment I rang her mobile in the hotel foyer to find out where she was, it felt like I'd known her for years. Blogging is a bizarre world; we read about each other's lives, we see photos of our family and we natter away. By the time we meet in person, the inital small-talk is out of the way. Kerry and I had been chatting since she first started blogging and had asked for some advice from me; we also have similar age boys and we both live in the world of education.

We sat next to each other during the Tots100 meal and had a good giggle and very indepth conversation. We may have also both partaken of numerous glasses of Tia Maria and cokes…

Due to our geographical locations Kerry and I couldn't meet up many times, but we did see each other at Britmums in June. I might have been utterly bored rigid during one of the sessions in the main hall and was openly tweeting so (sorry Britmums!). At one point when I hoped the session was ending, the speaker opened up the floor to questions and I might have sighed a little loudly. I realised I'd been audible when I heard a few giggles from my left. I glanced up and was greeted by the sight of Kerry laughing her head off at me .

That image is the one that has stayed in my head since the beautiful and joyful Kerry suffered a brain aneurysm in August. I had just finished reading about her day out to Peppa Pig World with her gorgeous family when I received a message to tell me about the terrible news.

Kerry is battling valiantly to recover, but is suffering setback after setback on the road to returning to her family. On Saturday 24th November 2012 at 10pm, the blogging world will unite to think about Kerry and send her positive healing thoughts to aide her recovery.

Thing is, I haven't stopped thinking of her every day.

—
Linking up to Flashback Friday at Mummy Mishaps and The Real Housewife of Suffolk County

With thanks to Tots100 for two of the photos above

Sadly, the beautiful Kerry died on 14th December 2012. She fought so valiantly for so long, but the infections kept on coming and in the end she couldn't fight anymore. Ever since I heard, I had felt so inordinately sad about the loss of such a fantastic mother to her children, especially as they are so young, and that her soulmate no longer has her to cherish. The memories I've described above have stayed with me and I know that all of her friends and her family have a multitude of happy memories of such a special person.

The Perfect Roast Potatoes

by 7 Comments

I love roast potatoes; they are the best thing since sliced bread (and in my estimations, that's quite high!). The perfect roast potatoes have a golden, crispy skin with the slightest sheen to them and crunchy bits hanging off the edges, while the inside is melt in your mouth soft and fluffy.

My mouth is watering…

So how do you turn the common potato into the above? By using these:

good natured vegetables

  • 1.5kg white potatoes (I used Good Natured Splendid Spuds)
  • 100g butter (or 50g goose fat and 50g butter if you're not a vegetarian like me)
  • Cornish sea salt
  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Peel the potatoes and cut into big chunks. Par boil them in boiling water for ten minutes.
  2. Drain and leave to cool for ten minutes. Scratch the surface roughly with a fork (this gives crispy potatoes) all over.
  3. Melt the butter (and goose fat if used) in a saucepan, remove from the heat and add a teaspoon of Cornish sea salt. Place the potatoes in the pan and roll them around to ensure they are coated evenly. Pour it all into a baking tray.
  4. Roast for 40-60 minutes, turning half way through.
  5. Serve immediately (serves 4 people).

good natured vegetables

—

I was sent the potatoes and the sea salt to try the recipe.

Country Kids: Goes Stately

by 18 Comments

This past eleven days for me have been rotten with this food poisoning, and in the last day or so I've really dropped down into the doldrums, especially as it is so cold and grey. I hate being ill (who would honestly say that the like it?!) and I hate not being able to eat comfort food when I'm poorly. I am desperate for a coffee and a mars bar, next week perhaps.

However, Saturday was a beautiful Autumn day and after an incredibly lazy morning, we togged ourselves up into fleeces, scarves, gloves and a bobble hat for The Boy and nipped over to Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan. Aside from the stunning stately home there, it has amazing Grade I listed gardens divided into secret 'rooms' with extravagant designs, bizarrely placed follies and temples, vegetable gardens and a greenhouse, and an amazing arboreteum.

Dyffryn Gardens is great fun to explore at different times of year, especially Spring and Autumn, but not too often at £7.00 a head! It also unfortunately doesn't allow children to take in scooters which is a huge shame. Apparently a few elderly people complained so everyone has to miss out.

Luckily, The Boy was more than happy to go exploring and we let him lead the way through into new and ever more exciting secret gardens.

—

coombe mill

Testing The Teaching Territory (Sponsored Post)

by 4 Comments

I met my husband at a house party near Swansea. Turned out he wasn't from around there but lived in the heart of Hampshire, which caused great fun for our developing romance as every weekend we took it in turns to travel to see each other. I was in the second year of university at the time and halfway through my final year, we had to start thinking about what would happen when I graduated.

Where would we live and work?

We decided on a halfway point, meeting in the middle metaphorically and literally right from the word go. Reading was a good place for him because of the proximity to London and the dotcom boom, and it was only just under two hours back home again for me to see my family who I'd lived with for the previous 23 years.

And so in the March before I finished my degree, I started looking for jobs in Reading. The very first job I applied for I received an invitation to interview for, and consequently got the job. I was the first person on my degree course to get a job and I happily started in the following September.

Right, now for the ridiculousness of the situation. Prior to having the interview, my (then) boyfriend had been living in Reading for three months and during that time I had visited it half a dozen times. Before he moved there, I'd never been to Reading. I applied for the job not knowing where the school was. In fact, I called a taxi to take me to the school and it drove across the main road, turned left and left again and we were there. The fare cost £2.70. That's how close it was to his flat and I had no idea. I moved to a city I didn't know, to work in a school I didn't know, and completely changed everything in my life.

For the three years we lived there I was beyond homesick and couldn't wait to come home. I hadn't done my research you see? And despite loving the school I worked in, I knew nothing of the town or the area, it was as far removed from my home town as it could be. I should have visited it properly first and researched the way of life there, and the schools in the area. I did like living there, the proximity to London and easy access to most major cities was a bonus, but it lacked the seaside and lush landscapes that I was used to, the hustle and bustle was extreme.

I do recommend that teachers branch out and explore working in different areas of the country; it gave me the best experience and working in areas closer to London really opened up a range of cultural experiences. The key is to researching the area first though.

Kent County Council Schools have realised that before teachers make life-altering decisions like I did, that it's wise to test out the area first and see which lifestyle opportunity suits. They have launched a competition on Facebook to provide teachers with the opportunity to see what it would be like living and teaching in Kent.

Kent is often referred to as Garden of England with beautiful countryside and coastline, but at the same time provides easy access to London and the Continent. That close to the capital city of the U.K. provides a wealth of career opportunities to choose from one of the largest local authorities in the country. Kent County Council Schools are committed to attracting new, experienced and talented teachers and the competition on Facebook allows for teachers interested in living and working there to find out about the county by potentially experiencing an all expenses weekend away in the county.


Entrants are invited to submit a story on My Perfect Kent Day, for a chance to win a weekend with all expenses paid in Kent. The stories will be shortlisted and introduced to a public to vote for the favourite one. The story that receives the most votes will win.

I wish I'd had that opportunity before I moved to another county!

Sponsored Post

Slow Cooked Gammon In Coke

by 7 Comments

Since I've had my Morphy Richards Slow Cooker (48701 'Sear & Stew') I have been far more happy to cook meat than I ever was before. The fact that it can be used on the stove to sear the meat, then transferred to the slow cooker, and even placed on the table as a serving dish means it's quick and convenient to use. My husband reports it is also one of the easiest things to wash up as well!

For a vegetarian, it means that cooking meat is easy: minimal handling is necessary, a few extra flavours are popped in and the meat-eating members of my family (all the men bizarrely) are over the moon with the results. I tend to buy quality joints from the reduced section in the supermarkets and then freeze them until needed, and I've picked up some real bargains. This gammon joint was less than £2.00!

Ingredients:

  • Gammon joint
  • Half a can of coke (about 150ml)
  • Mushrooms
  • Leeks
  • Salt and pepper
  • Stock cube
  • Cornflour
  • A knob of butter
  1. Place the inner pot on the hob and melt the butter. Add the leeks and mushrooms and sweat them for a few minutes until the leeks turn almost translucent. Stir in the stock cube.
  2. Cross the fatty side of the gammon and sprinkle on salt and pepper, this will help it to crisp up.
  3. Put the gammon into the pot on top of the mixture and sear each side for thirty seconds-a minute, turning once each side is done. This helps keep the 'juices' in the meat as it's cooking.
  4. Transfer the pot to the slow cooker and pour in the coke. Place the lid on top and leave to cook on medium for five-six hours or high for four hours.
  5. Once cooked, remove the gammon and set aside to rest for a few minutes while transferring the pot back to the hob. Add a teaspoon of for flour and stir in with a wooden or plastic spatula. This will thicken into a gravy to use with the gammon.
  6. Serve with the usual roast vegetables!

20121111-125703.jpg

—

Linking up to Mediocre Mum's Slow Cooker Sunday

Being Organised And Saving Money

by 4 Comments

Before The Boy was born when I was a full-time primary school teacher, I found that I had to be ultra organised when it came to Christmas. While the vast majority of the second half of the Autumn Term is given over to preparing the children for the magical events with cards, calendars, concerts and chaos, it was very easy to completely dismiss the event when 'off-duty' in the evenings and weekends.

I discovered that I needed to be über organised to avoid the festive season completely passing me by; I always wrote my (January sales) Christmas cards in the October half-term, bought the special edition stamps as soon as they were available and made a note in my phone to send them on a certain day. Wrapping paper and ribbon would be bought and set aside with scissors and sellotape ready for the evening of gift-wrapping with a sneaky Baileys. However, the actual present buying invariably happened when I 'broke-up' from school and I'd end up buying anything and everything, spending far too much money.

Now that I'm working part-time and I'm able to spend more time thinking sensibly about the whole malarky, and I get a chance to enjoy it through The Boy's enthusiasm. We've started making Christmas cards and talking about the special things that we'll do together as a family. I've also got all of his presents sorted out in the spare bedroom, bar small stocking fillers, etc.

The one who I have nothing for is Mr. TBaM! Whoops!

Problem is, that I have no idea what on Earth to buy for him. I know he'd love a Kinect thingy but I'm on a limited budget now and he can carry on dreaming about that. It's at times like this that I settle down with some of the money-saving websites and start scouring them for presents that would appeal to him, buying electronics online is so easy. As he's just upgraded his phone to an iPhone 5, I think he'd really like this iPhone controlled helicopter, that is if he could wrestle it from The Boy (a technical genius in the making!).

However, maybe I'd be better off getting him something that benefits me instead of annoying me? As he never seems to cook anymore I think perhaps this personalised cookbook would be a good idea; lots of easy recipes for him to surprise me with when I get home from work after him!

Let's face it, I'll probably end up buying him a yard-long Jaffa Cakes tube and a packet of Toffifees like last year!

This post contains sponsored links.

Naughty Or Nice?

by 6 Comments

Every Christmas with The Boy brings new magic and wonder.

His first Christmas was awash with wide-eyed wonder at the lights and sounds. It was a riot of colour and he couldn't get enough of it all. He also crawled for the first time within days of the big day. On his second Christmas he helped me to 'decorate' the tree, even though it had already been done, and the 'ope' (-ning) of presents was a magical experience. Last year was the first year that he understood the concept of Father Christmas coming and bringing us presents, and that it was a special day.

However, this Christmas?

I can't wait.

The Boy's started to ask when it is and we've talked about it being after Autumn (which is lasting an awfully long time in this house, all the way up until December 1st!). With the shops all decked out in tinsel and goodies to buy, it's hard for him not know that it's going to start happening soon. With our involvement in the 'Countdown to Christmas' in the craft blogging world, we've already been making cards and pictures, I have no fear that my son does not understand the concept of glitter!

The 'carrot' that is used by so many parents of Father Christmas bringing presents to good children is one that I never thought I'd use, but there has been occasion over the past fortnight when I've had to once or twice! I'm very keen for him to understand that he's not just going to receive a load of presents just 'because'. This is the first year that we're going to attempt to create a letter to the jolly man himself (who can of course interpret a whole load of squiggles into the toys that The Boy means) and in return he will receive a letter from Santa Claus himself. The fact that it will be a video with Santa actually saying his name and referring to events that have happened throughout the year will completely delight The Boy and drive home that Father Christmas is always watching!

Do you write letters to Santa with your child? Does he write one back?

This post contains a sponsored link.

Photographing Sparklers

by 24 Comments

I'm not an expert at this, in fact I am as novice as novice can be at using the manual settings on my dSLR. Something in my brain fails to comprehend all the technicalities and as soon as I've remembered what ISO is, I've forgotten about aperture. My poor husband sits and patiently explains it to me over and over again while I hold my head hoping to keep the information in, but it all just seeps out.

Thank God my Canon has an amazing selection of automatic settings.

However as good as it is, it can't photograph sparklers properly. Especially not if you want to write with them (like @babberblog did).

And this is where several amazingly tolerant people and twitter came in handy last night. Thanks to this post on the Tots100 by the über clever Becky, I found out the settings that I needed to use to photograph moving sparklers. But then on my EOS 300D there's about eleventy billion manual settings which confused me even more than I thought possible. So I took to twitter sobbing and found in my favourites a tweet from the fabulous @Doobietots (who is a bit of a wizz at photographing things at night) who had gone to the trouble of finding an online manual for my camera.

Out we traipsed onto the patio for The Boy's first ever experience of sparklers, which is where I managed to take these. (The top one is the first sparkler lit, hence the delight on his face as he'd never seen one before)

long exposure photography

We had so much fun drawing patterns and writing our names in the air, The Boy's face was an absolute delight all the way through; sparklers are such magical things!

Settings I used to photograph sparklers: ISO = 100, aperture = f/11, exposure = 20 seconds.

(Becky has since suggested an external flash set off in the last second before the lens closes would freeze The Boy's movements and effectively 'over-ride' any other movements he has made.)

After I'd uploaded them onto the computer and The Boy had gone to bed, I realised that the photos I'd taken with more than one word written were difficult to read because it was all joined. I had a brainwave from a tweet that @cakesphotoslife had sent me about using black card over the lens during the shot to black out additional light. I decided to try it over the lens when I'd got to the end of writing a word in order to create a space, and enlisted Mr. TBaM's help.

(For a while all you could hear from the patio was, "Now! Now!" and thinking on it now, I'm sure the neighbours thought something dodgy was going on!)

Anyway, five sparklers later and this was the end result.

long exposure photography

What do you think?

Getting Piggy With It! #PigsByKids

by 7 Comments

Remember the Natwest Piggies from when we were children?

When a child's bank account was first opened they were given Woody (the baby and incidentally I still have him in the attic!) and for every £25 in the account the children would receive another member of the family. They were designed to encourage children to save, and were much sought after.

Natwest are relaunching the Piggies to encourage children to start saving from a young age. The #PigsByKids competition enables children (13 and younger) to have the chance to make history by designing the new NatWest pig. Entering is simple and requires registering, choosing a pig, designing a pig and creating a story, and then submitting a picture of him or her through the site.

Natwest kindly sent us some craft materials to have a go at making our own piggy bank.

pigsbykids

We started doing one together but my son is a little… independent and decided to make his own instead! What do you think? (And yes I know the saving hole is on the side!)

I think he'd be a great new pig on the shelves of children all over the nation, don't you?

PLEASE NOTE:

  • The competition is open to children up to 13 years old;
  • The winning design wil become the new Natwest pig;
  • Closing date for entries if 12pm on 11th November 2012;
  • Terms & Conditions apply (see website for details)

This is an advertising promotion for Natwest.

We were sent a box of craft goodies to help us make our own piggy bank and advertise the competition.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...