Our Holiday in Tweets

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I thought rather than go for the bog standard recount; I'd present my week in an alternative manner! (I may have used selective editing)

Saturday 30 July 2011
07:05 Morny. And so begins the mad panic of 'it's 2hrs til wr go on holiday', only I'm too tired, so sod it
07:15 Oh God, I'm so tired!
12:46 Stressed hr in the M5 service station. Didn't know we were going to be stopping, least of all for lunch. Could have been there by now!
14:28 Yeah baby! Holiday!

16:22 Trying to not be ungrateful but finding it very hard. My mum has already done the food shopping without consulting me.
16:23 Including buying jars for 10m+ for my 2yo. Incredibly p*ssed off that she's done this when we said we were going to go shopping together!
16:25 I know she's trying to help but I run my own family my way, 10yrs since I lived at home. I do things differently now
22:15 First day of holiday has seen so many mini-strops, it's like bloody Dynasty around here. Tomorrow I don my best Krystal Karrington smile!
22:29 Off to be sociable with the Grumpy Bunch for half an hour.

Sunday 31 July 2011
00:07 I have my dad inordinately happy by spending 3/4 of an hour playing dominoes #gooddaughter
00:17 There's moths. Everywhere. And bloody bats. I don't like flying things…
00:18 Night twitter
00:18 Can no longer type straight. I give up
06:13 Worst night ever because of not being our bed, cot, rooms, temperature etc. Knackered
06:57 Sod it, may as well have brekkie in peace and quiet


07:10 I'm sat in the conservatory on my own. No other bugger is awake. Grrr, getting bored
10:55 God my mother is touchy! Never realised how much. Now how would I cajole a 10yr old? Will it work on a 66yr old?
17:37 Chesil beach
23:25 Off to see a certain little lady pig and her family tomorrow. Return visit for us, let's hope this set of grandparents behave themselves

Monday 1 August 2011
06:49 Morny. Peppa Pig World today, wahoo
07:09 The Boy woke up at 6.30. He wanted Nana and Grandad so I may have quietly shown him the way…
10:47 Thanks everyone. I don't understand why my site won't load when it is on my phone @maft
16:19 Peppa Pig World is serious fun when you have grandparents who take part
23:41 Right. 2bed/2bathroom apartment aimed at families? You'd expect one of those 'bath'rooms to have an actual bath? Yes? No? Just me? Ok then

Tuesday 2 August 2011
14:33 It has just taken four men to fold down our pop-up beach tent. Hilarious! I think this should be a new form of beach emtertainment!
14:36 A saxophone was playing on the promenade in Lyme Regis while we built sandcastles, ate chips and got sand everywhere. Very atmospheric
14:40 The Boy is sat in his car-seat very seriously. He has just declared, "I eaten my ice-cream." I agree sweetie.
14:49 And now he's asleep
19:15 Eating his tea al fresco watching people on a picnic bench "those people are eating their tea" shhh "they can't hear me nana! Those people sing twinkle, twinkle little star"

Wednesday 3 August 2011
07:10 #badnightcoffeeclub That is all I have to say
14:41 Spent the morning in the local market town's market. The Boy refused to eat his lovely lunch and is now comatosed on the bed.

14:42 Why don't toddlers eat as well when on holiday? It's the most stressful thing! I feel like my mum is glaring at me when he refuses
15:02 Can I just commend @maft? My blog may have gone down on & off due to transfer from server, but he has worked relentlessly to fix it!
17:55 Things that annoy me: PRs who will not get the message that no I will not host something for nothing
21:10 The atmosphere this evening is horrendous; you could cut it with a knife. No-one's talking to anyone, might bugger off to bed in a moment
23:33 It is widdling it down here. That's fine as long as it's finished by morning!
Thursday 4 August 2011
00:07 It is really widdling it down here. Our bedroom opens out onto the conservatory which is really noisy from the raindrops on the roof
05:35 Morny. It's torrential outside & so windy. Not sure if it's rain or the sea pelting againat the conservatory #coastalcottage
05:52 I'm starving! Have eaten 3 crunch creams but they've not taken the edge off it
06:00 I might attempt this sleep nonsense again.
18:30 "I've got my seat-belt on". The Boy's understanding of grammar is developing daily and astounds me.
22:26 I have spent an hour trying to get a connection on the laptop through the wireless tethering & 3G on my phone! Grrrr! I miss wireless
22:59 Finally I have a connection to the Internet! I am currently sat on the toilet (don't worry the lid's down!) editing my 365! #dedicated #mad
23:11 Last night, The Boy looked out at the stormy sea highlighted with Neptune's waves & shouted 'Iggle-Piggle!' He could see him sailing to bed

Friday 5 August 2011
06:52 Morny! A beautiful penultimate day here in Dorset (but I still haven't had a cream tea!)
10:37 "The sky box is open mummy!" He means sun roof!
17:15 I kid you not, my mum has just phoned from the car behind to tell hubby to let the car coming up to overtake. Seriously!
17:58 I need a holiday to recover from this one #extendedfamilyholidays
20:53 I love her, I love him but God I've had enough of them. I don't think I can do this holiday again.
21:06 See that's what happens; you go away for a week on holiday and no-one tweets you.
21:58 I wish the child upstairs who is screaming about wanting a story would be given one. If he wakes The Boy up I'm going to clock his parents.

Saturday 6 August 2011
06:32 Morny. It's too early but this is good in a way: got to pack up & get out by 10.30!
07:45 Right, toys in car (most of them) cotbed down, duvet/pillows folded, clothes packed. Time to shower then try fitting it all back in my car
07:46 If we ever have another child, we're going to need an Espace not a Scenic. Some MPVs aren't as big as you'd think!
10:18 Family friendly cafe/restaurant in Bridport. Has an indoor play area and everything! 'Generations'
10:43 It is so hard to find a coffee shop where people don't sneer at your little one playing, to find one that has a play area.
14:21 Right settle an argument for hubby & me: pleb or plebb? #trafficjamonM5 #bored
14:25 Worried now that pleb/plebb is an un-pc term… off to check t'Internet
14:27 Phew, ok. Not.
14:40 Oh my word, 4th gear & 50 miles an hour #excitement #trafficjamonm5
16:59 Ha, take that motorways! You shall not defeat me
18:50 We have feasted on cheese, french bread, dough balls and onion rings. #comfortfood #knackeredaftertravelling #needaholidaytorecover

Colour and Win with Orchard Toys.

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I am a massive fan of Orchard Toys and have been lucky enough to review several of their products, as well as buying them or having them passed down to me. The Boy has learnt how to do 24 piece jigsaws because of their progressive jigsaws (like the Nursery Rhymes jigsaw), and as well as being bright and attractive, they are robust, made from FSC cardboard and are British made.

They are currently running a competition to win one of their most popular products, the beautiful Teddy Bears' Picnic jigsaw. This 15-piece jigsaw is a really lovely example of their work and they are running three classes of the competition: 3 and under; 4 to 5 years and electronically coloured (in a paint programme) 4-5 years.

If you pop over to the product page, you'll find a colouring page which you can print off for your children to colour in. Alternatively there is an electronic image that your little ones can colour in and send back to them.

For more detailed information about the competition, click here.

Closing date is August 31st 2011, so you have plenty of time.

A FABulous Offer

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A few months ago I reviewed a new range of skincare products called First Aid Beauty. First Aid Beauty is the sell-out, must-have, chatshow-loved brand created by a hugely competent and well-known beauty expert Lilli Gordon, and is available in Boots stores nationwide and online at www.boots.com (has a growing waiting list).

What's different about this range is that it is a fragrance free brand which is suitable for universal beauty concerns as well as the needs of sensitive and problem skin. Now trust me, I have hyper-sensitive skin; treatments from doctors have seen allergic reactions before. I used to clean my face with a baby wipe and water. Since reviewing FAB, I will only use the FAB Facial Cleanser (£13) to wash my face with. And it lasts and lasts! I use a pea-sized amount which when mixed with a little water creates a lovely creamy-wash, leaving my face feel refreshed; not taut, not dry, just clean.

The other item that I use relentlessly is the 5in1 Face Cream with SPF30 (RRP £28). I suffer from Chloasma (that lovely brown discolouration usually associated with pregnancy and hormones) and this can be made worse in the sun. I know we're not inundated with it at the moment, but I wear this every day at the moment as a precaution. It's not oily and is absorbed well, allowing my make-up to sit on top of it with no problem. I usually burn around my hairline and it's not happened once since using this. Again, you only need the slightest amount of this, I use a half-pump and it does my entire face and ears!

I'm not able to offer a give-away for these at the moment, but I can tell you about a Fabulo (no, I can't do it!) really good offer at the moment! If you pop over to the First Aid Beauty UK Facebook page and 'like' it, then you will receive £5 off when you spend over £20 on FAB at www.boots.com. It's a great opportunity to stock up on some of the other products in the range, I'm beginning to feel like I need the Detox Eye Roller after the last few weeks lack of sleep!

Go 'like' and shop!

Offer ends on 14th August 2011.

Ten things you don't know about ME…

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I think I've done one of these before, certainly something similar. However, Helen from The Crazy Kitchen has tagged me because she wants to know more about me. Who am I to refuse such a fantastic friend and baker extraordinaire?

So ten things you don't know about me! Um…

  1. I've been vegetarian for 13 years. I've always maintained that I miss tuna mayonnaise a great deal, until I accidentally bit into The Boy's sandwich last week and had to spit it out pronto. I'm not going to test my memory of steak or cold turkey sandwiches in Christmas Day; I like to have that memory of the turkey melting the butter into the bread.
  2. I sat the entrance exam for, passed and received an assisted place to go to a private girls school. I spent seven years there; six of them were very happy, the final was hell on Earth as I was bullied mercilessly. I sat my 'A' levels in a room on my own as I refused to go back to school from the Easter onwards.
  3. I once tried smoking but had no idea how to inhale so held the smoke in my mouth before slowly releasing it. It came to a head one night when I was so inebriated that I couldn't understand why the cigarette was on fire. I'd lit the wrong end.
  4. I now teach in the same primary school that I went to as a child.
  5. I will have been married ten years in November.
  6. I got married in a castle.
  7. I once scratched an apostrophe into the sign of a local wine bar.
  8. I descend from a Polish Jew.
  9. I'm incredibly insecure and lacking in self-esteem.
  10. My name! Ha!

I now tag the following lovely ladies:

MotherGeek

Not My Year Off

Mum's The Word

Diary of a Lagos Mum

Life & Motherhood

This originated at  Me and my Kiddywinks

Things The Boy Learnt On Holiday

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When we were away on holiday last week, my little treasure learnt a few things!

Hide and Seek

A new catchphrase courtesy of Nana.

Early mark-making

How to do a 24-piece jigsaw

  • Imagination: One night he raced to the door of the conservatory, looked out at the sea which was rough and tipped with Neptune's horses and declared that he could see Iggle-Piggle sailing off to the Night(time) Garden. My heart burst with love and adoration for my clever little boy who had just displayed his first twinge of imagination. I milked it and built on what he could see. We now regularly discuss it.

He walked onto the beach, picked up this pebble and tried to unlock the big rock on the beach, "This is the key mummy!"

  • Role-playing: after visiting Peppa Pig World, one night The Boy started shouting out "Daddy Pig, daddy pig where are you?" He then looked at me and said "you Mummy Pig!", when I asked him who he was, he said "me George!" Love it.

Maybe I was more aware of this because I was spending so much time with him than I normally have a chance to. Maybe it's because other people were having an input to his development. Either way, at the age that he is now, his capabilities are developing day by day. And he is the biggest form of entertainment and wonderment around

Anatomy

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It was only a matter of time really. And at 26 months I suppose that we're quite lucky that it hasn't happened before now, but he's definitely made up for it this evening.

The Boy has discovered his willy.

Sat in the bath this evening, he started pouring cups of water into his lap (and counting at the same time, thus proving that he can have a fiddle and use his brain simultaneously; a first for mankind) and was asked what he was doing. "Washing my wiwwy away!" Daddy winced and highlighted that it was not a good idea to do that. He then recounted that earlier, The Boy had been sat on the potty, pointed his willy up to his face and declared "You going to do a wee-wee in minute".

After hubby lifted him out of the bath for his usual big-towel cuddle, and laid him down to dry off, he declared "my wiwwy is so much fun!" (The Boy, not daddy. Daddy has learnt not to verbalise such matters). I've just come down stairs to get The Boy's milk and all I can hear is "NO! Leave it alone!" closely followed by "It will never get better!" Just this once, I hope that daddy is referring to the scab on his knee, not his willy!*

*Again, The Boy's not daddy's!

ShowOff ShowCase: The One About The Holiday

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As many of you may well be aware, this week we have been on holiday as an extended family to Dorset. It's a usual family jaunt and haunt, as my great-aunt used to live down here. However, this time it's been different. Strained. Tetchy. Awkward. There's been a battle of wills in the house, and I don't mean between The Boy and me. My mum and dad have been at each other's throats all week, while I've been refereeing. Mum and I have been squabbling because I clearly don't know how to care for my own son (this is the difficult bit; she looks after him while I work but she hasn't been able to switch off from that with me here now). As a result, hubby and I haven't been able to relax properly because I've been fraught and he's been irritated.

It's not been the best week and I'm not sure I can do it again. In light of that fact, I am going to set the ShowOff ShowCase theme to be:

The One About The Holiday

I'm sure that we've all got a post about a holiday or day out that we'd like to show off again. So dust down that suitcase, look out the travel-locks, panic about your passpost and link-up your blog-post about a holiday (or day out) below. I'll close the linky at about 10pm on Sunday evening. Please add the html badge to your original post so that people know how to find the others in the linky.

ShowOff ShowCase

 

Guest-Post: Comments

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Today's guest-post comes from the lovely Fay over at Glass Half-Full.

I was having a chat to someone the other day about comments, or in this case the lack of them on their posts.

I'm new to this blogging lark and I am just chuffed to bunnies when I take a look and see a figure which represents more people than are in my immediate family have looked at my page. I'm at the stage in my blogging hobby, that I'm just pleased I get posts out which seem to make sense and the odd person enjoys them. But it is pretty impressive when you see a post with a lot of comments on it!

Makes me wonder how many hits it must be getting, because I'm sure there is a 'golden ratio' number.

X amount of hits = Y percentage proportion of comments left

So if I wanted to grow my blog, is this something I should be aiming for rather than figures alone? Or is it simply a 'look at me, I've a lot comments, so I must be great at this' exercise?

The conversation got me thinking too, how do I know someone has enjoyed the post by looking at the stats. Did they just look at it, or was it actually read & understood? A bit like the difference between hearing and listening!

Is there a connection between me and the reader or is it a case of speed read and move on. Is that why some people care if there are comments or not? Is this a measure of someone actually reading it, and getting it…getting what we were trying to say, the message we were sending out into the bloggersphere?

Now, I just want to point out, I always try to add a comment on a blog, but sometimes its just not possible!

  1. I can't blumming sign in properly to validate something or other.
  2. I can't read the 'type this word in so we know you aren't a bot" safety feature.
  3. I haven't got the time.
  4. The iPad messes up with the settings and won't let me physically post it.
  5. I'm using my iPhone, its just too fiddly.
  6. I literally have nothing to say or add!

But the reasons for leaving a comment?

  1. They've triggered a memory, one which means a lot to me, and I want to share it with them.
  2. I feel they need some support, some virtual hugging and/or validation of the message.
  3. I feel incredibly strongly about the message or purpose of the blog, whether I am in agreement or not.
  4. I think I can maybe add something to the debate, a new angle or clever observation.
  5. I'm offering a possible solution to a problem
  6. Just a simple, 'Well done! I liked that!'

Reading through the two lists, I can see one is very task orientated, the other is more emotional.

So maybe this is one reason why some people care if comments are left or not. It's not only a possible validation exercise for peers; 'a lot of people read my blog and care enough to comment' but also the difference between listened to and being heard.

Do you agree or is my argument too simplistic? There has got to be lots of other reasons for comments being added or not or why we should or shouldn't be bothered by it. What do you think?

Can you see what I did there? Don't let me down!

Guest-Post: Subtitles are Educational too!

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Guest-blogger Jo Berry is a film critic and mum of one who runs the website movies4kids.co.uk. The site has a database of over 1000 reviews of films aimed at kids, teens and families, and also reviews the latest cinema and DVD releases.

Until the birth of my son D in 2005, movies were my life. As a film critic, they are also my bread and butter, but I have always loved movies so much that they are a big part of who I am. I can remember my dad taking me to movies when I was little (the first was Lady And The Tramp, age five) and my mum sitting me down in front of the TV whenever there was a film starring one of her favourite actors – Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden – being shown. (I also remember her telling me that weepie Love Is Many Splendoured Thing had a happy ending so I would watch it with her, but that's a subject for a whole different blog, or perhaps a therapy session). Name a movie from the eighties when I was growing up and I probably have a memory linked to it – Ghostbusters (I nearly killed the mum in front who loudly opened a pack of Mr Kipling tarts during the film then asked each of her kids at the top of her voice what colour jam tart they wanted), An Officer And A Gentleman (the first 15 certificate film I sneaked into, aged 12), The Evil Dead (watched on video at a friend's house while another pal hid under a cushion), Batman (the first press screening of a movie I ever went to).

When I met my husband, we bonded over a love of Steve Martin, GoodFellas, Star Wars and big budget Hollywood movies; so much so that my dad's speech at our wedding was made up of movie titles (he finished by saying he knew that together we had found our 'field of dreams', at which point I started blubbing into my champagne). So it's not surprising that, whether he likes it or not, we're both passing our love of movies onto our son. Obviously in my line of work, this has been quite easy; film companies screen their movies to the press a few weeks before they open in cinemas, and if they have a family movie they show them to us on Sundays so we can bring our kids. By the time D was 18 months old I had taken him to his first screening (of Happy Feet) and showed him tons of DVDs at home that I thought he would like: Elmo In Grouchland, Thunderbirds and Cars becoming firm favourites. (He wouldn't watch Star Wars, though). He even loved The Iron Giant (based on the Ted Hughes book) so much that I had to write a 'sequel' one evening as he didn't understand why Hollywood hadn't ever made one.

Of course, there have been slip-ups along the way. I carefully started the DVD of Finding Nemo after the first scene in which Nemo's mummy and sibling eggs are gobbled up by a predator so three year old D wouldn't be traumatised… only for him to pick up the remote a few days later while I briefly was out of the room, select 'deleted scenes' (he has always been a whizz with TV remotes) and find a longer, even more upsetting version of the scene. Cue a week of bed time conversations in which I had to reassure him that his mummy wasn't going anywhere, and certainly wasn't going to be eaten by some nasty fishy.

More recently, he came out of a press screening of Kung Fu Panda 2 and loudly announced (in front of the PR handling the film) that it was 'the worst movie ever.' It isn't, of course (it's actually pretty good), but D had been scared of the bad guy peacock throughout, hence his reaction. (I have always told D that if he doesn't like a movie he should tell me so I can take him out of it, but during this one he had stayed silent because, he tells me, he wanted to know how it ended).

Cementing my reputation as an irresponsible mummy, I let D watch the first two Transformers movies on DVD despite being 12 certificate movies (I did vet them myself first). He loves the toys (what six-year-old boy doesn't?) and the violence in the films is robots smashing up other robots, so I thought it would be ok. I skipped a scene from the second one in which a woman turns into a robot with a snaking metallic tongue (really didn't want to explain that one to him) and decided that, although there are a couple of swear words in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen they are uttered so quickly they would pass him by. Oh no. A few weeks later, D comes home with a 'comic book' he has drawn in class (luckily during a wet lunchtime, rather than a piece of work seen by his teacher). This collection of stick images with speech bubbles including one page of transformer Bumblebee under attack, a predicament that has him yelling "SHIT!" in his speech bubble. Apparently D had once turned the subtitles on for a few minutes while watching the movie, and in doing so had learnt a new word (credit to him – he did spell it correctly).

Needless to say, I never leave him alone with anything more controversial than Toy Story in the DVD now. I know in a few years time we'll be arguing over whether he's old enough to watch Reservoir Dogs or The Godfather, so in the meantime I want to enjoy his childhood and his love of movies featuring animals that talk (Zookeeper had him in stitches), cars that can fly (Cars 2) and tank engines named Thomas. And maybe one day, in the not too distant future, D will finally let me and his daddy show him the classic that is Star Wars…

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