It’s all gone past in a bit of a blur………………………the last month or two!
I hope I am not the only one who feels like this. Thankfully I have photographic evidence to prove that it all took place.
Where do I start?
There’s been a bit of this:
A bit of that:
Oh and a LOT of the other:
So there you have it, my life in pictures- and if you flick through them really quick it’s like one of those picture books!!
What have you all been up to?
Butlins has a certain reputation. It’s a bit like Marmite, you either love or hate it.
So for those of you who may need convincing check out this new fab Butlins hotel in Bognor Regis complete with all the mod cons of the 21st century!! Have a sneak preview on tomorrows show at 2pm!
Join Angela Griffin as she takes an exclusive look around Butlins’ newest hotel
Log onto our WebTV show where we’ll be at the opening of the iconic British family holiday resort’s Wave Hotel and Apartments in Bognor Regis
Show time: 14:00
Summer holidays are something that we all look forward to – they are a chance to get away from the madness at home and they give us the perfect opportunity to unwind and enjoy time with our families.
Holidays give both children and their parents a chance to relax from the grind of everyday life, and research shows for kids, the best holiday is one in which they can simply spend time with their family and where everyone is happy and relaxed.
Butlins recognise this and has played a massive part in the history of our nation. For many of us as kids, summer was not complete without a trip to one of their seaside resorts where the iconic Redcoats would greet us at the gate, signally the start of an exciting and action packed holiday.
The resorts have come a long way since their beginnings in the 1930s and this summer the quintessentially British holiday company will open its newest hotel in Bognor Regis.
The Wave will stay true to all of the qualities that have made Butlins a household name for 75 years, but will also reflect the changing world we live in with all the mod-cons such as dedicated games room with Wii, PS3, DS or Band Hero games, a Kindle library and iPod docks in every room a big part of the new hotel.
Log on to our live interactive WebTV show where Angela Griffin will join Jae Hopkins from Butlins and mummy blogger Antonia Chitty at the opening of the Butlins Wave Hotel in Bognor Regis for a sneak preview of the nation’s newest and most exciting family holiday resort.
Angela Griffin and Antonia Chitty joins us live online at www.studiotalk.uk
Click here to submit questions before the show http://www.studiotalk.co.uk/show/join-angela-griffin-as-she-takes-an-exclusive-look-around-butlins-newest-hotel
Well, relatively speaking anyway.
My son has now finished his run in panto this season and my body is very, very thankful it is all over.
The last few days have been spent looking through all the presents again. Taking time to read through books and listen to CD’s and actually play with some of the games that the boys got.
The decorations have come down and have been put away until next Christmas, and the house has resumed it’s normal look and feel. It has been the boy’s last day off today before they return to school and Mr B returns to work. So tomorrow will be blissfully quiet for me.
I managed to enjoy a fabulously chilled Christmas day with the family and my Mum and brother who had come to stay.
That was until my cat made a quick escape past us and caught my mum on the face millimetres away from her eye. These events are not unusual in my house as a few years ago she came and fractured her pelvis trying to play tennis with the boys. Last year we were all ill with ‘Swine Flu’….. I’m sure you are getting the picture now.
Anyway, the last panto show was on New Years Eve. After, we headed off to Bluewater for a nice meal and a cinema visit before returning home to see in the new year and let off our lanterns with 2012 wishes on.
I haven’t caught up on all my blog reading and Twitter following yet so haven’t seen all of your New Years resolutions. I’ve decided to learn new skills this year and get back to my knitting, something I really enjoyed doing many years ago. But also to learn how to crochet as it’s something I have never attempted.
I cannot go down the route of exercise and diet as my body is taking a long time to recover from the panto schedule. Conventional exercise for me is out of the question at the moment as I suffer with chronic pain and chronic illness.
I’d also like to do more reading as this is something I have neglected for some time. I’ve been given a copy of ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ as one of my Christmas gifts and I’m really looking forward to starting that.
So, that’s me back to normality, with a regular routine about to start from tomorrow.
A New Year.
A New Start.
A New Skill.
How has your New year been so far and what are your resolutions?
Panto’s are like marmite…………you either love it or hate it. I LOVE it and always have. I have been taking my boys since they were little and this year they are 11 and 13 and are still very happy to go.
This year we have Panto overload. Not only are we going to see our usual one ( this time it has Craig Revel Hall and Ann Widdecombe so should be a giggle) but my youngest is now in one!! Yes, he is a lost boy in Peter Pan down in Chatham with Mr ‘Ice Ice Baby’ himself.
Rehearsals started at the beginning of the week and are in full swing, but thankfully we have a day off tomorrow…….YAY!
It opens next Thursday and at the moment it’s hard to see how they are going to get the show together in time. It’s interesting to see it from the other side and therefore appreciate how much work goes into it.
So we as a family have booked to go see him in it over the Christmas holidays and my Mum is up over Christmas so I have booked more tickets to go on Boxing Day too!!
So by the end of it’s run I think I will be shouting ‘BOO ‘and ‘Behind you’ in my sleep. The jokes will no longer be funny and I will probably be able to act all the parts myself ( OK maybe not the singing as I am rubbish).
So wish me luck to survive the experience, and ‘break a leg’ to my son as I’m sure he will be a fab Lost Boy……………………………………..OH YES HE WILL!
Ever had one?
I must admit I’ve been lucky enough to have escaped my own Christmas dinner disasters as I have only been doing the dinner myself for the past few years. Fortunately while my boys were very young we always went to the in laws (no cooking required on my part……..result!).
However, there comes a time when the kids want to stay with their toys for the day and enjoy Christmas at home. This means all cooking required by me!!
Luckily for me my mum stays at Christmas so she cooks the turkey for me with years of experience under her belt……again a result!
However, after talking to a few people the stories started to come out. Things you can imagine and things you can’t.
*turkey doesn’t fit in the oven
*turkey not cooked properly
*cases of food poisoning
*oven breaks down while cooking the dinner
Or even in the style of Only Fools and Horses where the coffee gets mixed up with the gravy and they pour coffee all over their dinner, or the time Grandad left the giblets in the turkey!!
Top tips on how to avoid a Christmas dinner disaster
Let’s face it, Christmas dinner disasters are far from rare in most households. A poll just released shows a quarter of us have first-hand experience of something going badly wrong on the 25th December.
The most common mishaps are dry meat, turkey that is uncooked or hasn’t defrosted properly, people buying the wrong size bird and those that have simply left it so late that the shops have actually run out.
Cooking a feast of massive proportions for extended families of aunties, uncles, grandparents, and children is a task daunting enough to even make a top chef break into a cold sweat, so it’s no surprise three quarters of the great British public suffer stress as a result of buying and preparing Christmas meat.
But the survey commissioned by The Q Guild of Butchers to launch their ‘Meat Your Butcher Sessions’ found an overwhelming 95% of the nation has never asked for expert advice about cooking Christmas dinner whilst more than half of us just head blindly go to the supermarket, and pick meat off the shelf hoping for the best. That’s despite the fact that there is usually a butcher’s shop right round the corner, who can offer quality advice on choosing, preparing and cooking meat.
So how can a local butcher help to reduce stress, focus on value and give fresh advice for your festive feast? When should you have ordered your meat by? What’s the difference between a corn-fed turkey and a gold turkey? How much do you actually need to buy so that you don’t get stuck with masses of meat, or even worse don’t have enough to feed the family? And if you don’t even like turkey, what are the great Christmas meat alternatives?
CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS BELOW FOR THE BEST TIPS:
Advice on avoiding Christmas dinner disaster
I would love to hear your worst Christmas dinner disasters……………………….feel free to share!!
Tell me, am I the only horrible mother in the world that has breathed a sigh of relief now the kids are back to school?
Surely I’m not on my own here. Yesterday was like heaven in the respect that I had no TV on, no radios or Ipods blaring, and most of all NO ARGUING! ( Well that was until they came home from school to get organised for Halloween. Which truly ended up as a ‘Benny Hill’ style fast forward video as I had friends round and needed to feed everyone, play games, take kids trick or treating and then have them ready and changed for Scouts by 7.20pm!!!
No easy feat I can tell you……………………….
Before we knew it we were off trick or treating and then the boys were whisked off to scouts for more mess and games!!
All we needed was some comedy music and it wouldn’t have been out of place on a Benny Hill episode.
But after a hectic week over half term I’m kind of glad it’s all calmed down a little………….well for this week anyway. I’m totally enjoying ( rightly or wrongly) the peace during the day. Now I may be able to catch up on all the stuff that’s been put on hold since the start of the holidays.
So am I the only one?
So that’s week 2 of summer hols gone and we survived again, although kids arguments and petty nit picking (not literally) almost got the better of us and nearly tipped us over the edge!! However, all four of us are still in one piece and miraculously still talking…………only just!
We decided pretty last minute to make use of MIL’s caravan along the North Kent coast for a few days. We arrived Wednesday in glorious sunshine, unpacked, had lunch and then headed to the beach for a while before attempting a food shop with the boys (honestly you would think they would get better as they got older……..do not be fooled). After dinner the evening was still lovely and warm so we headed down for a last walk along the local Leas, and as the boys took their skateboards they were well worn out when we got back to the van.
We woke up Thursday to this…..
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| Grim!! |
However we were undeterred and played games until the afternoon, who would have thought that playing Bingo and Charades for sweets could be so much fun……….honestly, what a giggle we had!
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| Yes really….Bingo for Maltesers and Lemon sherbets!! |
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| That’s 2 words!! |
Then when the weather cleared we thought we would have a mooch around the local shops and check out the docks to watch for the enormous ‘tanker’ ships coming out!
Friday we headed off to Whitstable and Herne bay for the day. We made an early start and had a yummy picnic on the beach at Whitstable watching the little sailing boats going in and out from the club there.
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| Yes you read it right…………’ginger nuts’ ………and he is……ginger and nuts!! |
After a wander around and the biggest ice creams I have ever seen and eaten, a picture of which is on my phone for proof, but for some reason I’m having difficulty downloading!!! Anyway, we headed off to Herne bay for the rest of the day.
I love the pier and the pavilion at Herne bay and this time we decided to try our hand at a bit of crab fishing!
However we were not very lucky or the crabs knew something we didn’t as we didn’t catch a thing!! Next time I’m sure LOL
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| It can be a very serious business this crab fishing! |
But we had a great time and finished our day off with the best local fish and chips…………….YUM!
Saturday we drove down to a ‘blast from the past’ and visited our old RAF camp at Manston. There are two great little museums there, one mainly for the adults and one definitely geared towards children with aircraft they can climb about on and lots of other RAF stuff that brought back great memories for me and the OH!! We had a picnic overlooking the airfield and the old Air Traffic building I used to work in and we can see both our old rooms from the front of the camp ( our boys love this…..sad but true!)
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| No you can’t take it home!! |
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| I used to be winched in and out of these things for fun…..no rephrase that…….for work!!!! |
However, the weather was not very kind to us that day and so we ended up in a very rainy Margate in the amusements, much to the boys delights.
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| This lucky player can make a pot of 2p’s last a very, very, very long time!! |
By Sunday I was completely shattered and so a lay in was had by all!! It was also the 9th anniversary of my Dad passing away, so the day was never going to be brilliant anyway.We had planned to pop along to Leysdowne ( not the loveliest of places but the beach there is fantastic) to have a BBQ on the beach but the weather was grim and we contemplated coming home! But by the time we were ready it was like a new day………..sunshine………hooray. So we took our chances, and so glad we did, we had a fantastic afternoon on the beach there complete with BBQ burgers for our lunch!
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| The chef…………..and very nice they were too. |
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| The water was surprisingly warm. |
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| And the tide went out amazingly far!! Can you spot the 2 dots that are my sons????? |
Although there was a small fair there, we had been playing Bingo in the van when it was raining so the boys opted to play the ‘proper’ bingo inside the amusements instead!! We had a blast for about an hour and 3 out of 4 of us had a win!! Sorry OH ………but you were rubbish.
Anyway we headed home for tea and a few card games before bed, and although we had a great day my ‘sociableness’ had worn off and I was glad to head to bed as we were going to leave fairly early the next morning.
So, today is now Monday and another week of the hols has past and so far we have had some great days. Yes there have been arguments, tiffs, tears, tantrums ( and that is just me!!) but overall it has been fab!
Here starts a new week, I have returned and unpacked, washed and ironed and re- packed as tomorrow we are heading to Devon to stay at my Mum’s!! OH is staying here as he has to work. This will be the first time I have attempted to drive the journey on my own since being diagnosed with M.E!! I am not looking forward to it as I normally sleep for a few hours when my OH drives so not quite sure if I will make it!!
So wish me luck as it is going to be a very long journey. And I am already kissing goodbye to Wednesday as I know most of that will be spent in bed!! However, my brother has planned to take the boys on a 10 mile hike along Dartmoor on Wednesday……………………………………so I can sleep to my hearts content and enjoy the peace and quiet when I am up!!!
I thought that with the start of the school holidays I would have so much more time to do…………things, chill out, catch up on a bit of telly, blog amongst others.
HOW WRONG COULD I BE!
I cannot believe that we are into the second week of the school holidays already. In fact a slight panic has set in, have I actually got enough time to do everything. My eldest has already been and returned from his week long scout camp!! We are heading off tomorrow to my MIL’s caravan along the Kent coast until Monday, as hubby now has a few days off work (thank God!). Now my boys are pestering me to go to their Nanny’s, who happens to live in Devon, which would be fantastic but I’m not sure I can drive that long on my own ( due to the M.E sometimes my muscles are extremely painful and an almighty fatigue can set in). We also have a festival in the middle of August and I haven’t even thought about uniforms ( apart from my eldest’s new blazer……….which I never forget after leaving it into a dry cleaners once only to wake up middle of the night on the day he was due back to school, in a total panic about what to do!!! Believe me my OH was not best pleased as I almost gave him heart failure thinking someone had broken in!!)
Anyway, last week was great with one child away it was great to spend time with the other on his own, and boy did he have his week planned out. OH was off Monday so my son decided he wanted to visit St Paul’s Cathedral in London!! So naively we thought great a little afternoon up there, we would listen to the tour gadgets and take a few pic’s and then home….
Oh no were there for 5 hours!! Yes you read it right………5 hours. They convinced me to go up the stairs to the Whispering Gallery, which I really wanted to do anyway. However, then they persuaded me to go further to the Stone Gallery! Which turned out to be fantastic as it was a beautiful day so we sat and had our lunch there!
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| That’s us on the stone Gallery |
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| View from the Stone gallery |
Then they persuaded me to go a bit further, to the top in fact. From there we had just the most fantastic view across London, so I felt it was worth it in the end.
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| More steps!!!! |
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| View from the very top! |
However, I started to struggle coming down and after several rests I got to the bottom only to find my legs started shaking uncontrollably and I was stuck to the spot for about 15 minutes!!!! It was sooo not funny, bad enough when people pass you on the stairs and look at you as though you are a complete pleb for not being able to get up there, let alone how people look at you when your OH is practically holding you up in the middle of St Paul’s!!( M.E is invisible so people look at you as if your are an idiot when your OH helps you up or holds you up for whatever reason). We made it to the cafe to recuperate …………a cuppa and a chocolate crispy cake is like a miracle cure.
Then a purchase in the shop ( I very sadly collect fridge magnets from wherever I go) and a snoop in the Crypt and we then being practically thrown out we had been there so long.
When I thought it was all over my son casually mentions going across the Millennium Bridge ( which is practically in front of St Paul’s) so I plodded on.
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| That’s us heading towards the bridge…………..slowly. |
The day was fantastic although I knew I would suffer the next day.
So on Tuesday my OH took over and the pair of them built a ‘den’ in the garden while I watched from the sidelines taking pic’s and drinking tea.
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| The finished product! |
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| Complete with warning. |
Wednesday my Oh returned to work so I promised my son that we would use our prize from a competition and go play our free round of mini golf at Bluewater. That was great fun until my son beat me by 2 points!!! I was so not impressed………I’m not one of those lovely parents who let their child win at things. I don’t know what happens to me but a competitive streak takes over and not an inch is given.
However, I consoled myself with a Krispy Kreme and a coffee before letting my son window shop around Bluewater to get a few ideas for his birthday.
Thursday, I had a lovely invite to HMS Belfast which you can read about in the previous post. So little ol’ me and my son and his buddy spent a fab few hours on the ship before returning home. He then was invited to his friends for the afternoon ( his mum is a start and knew I would be heading to bed after a busy morning out) and didn’t return until dinner time!!
Friday was a meet with a friend at the pool, boys went swimming we had a coffee and then went back to hers for lunch and a great catch up in the afternoon!!
By then I was completely drained so Saturday was a complete blur to me and spent most of it in bed. But my eldest returned from his camp very happy but tired!!
This week had already started with an impromptu water fight yesterday afternoon and a swim ‘play date’ with their friends this afternoon.
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| A make do water spray!! LOL |
We will be off to the caravan tomorrow but I’m yet to get everything packed and I am sitting on the computer doing this!!!!!
I’m waiting on the magic fairy to come in the night and sort it all out for me……………….OK that means I will be up late and then not sleep as I think of the things I have forgotten to pack!!! Meanwhile my lovely boys (including OH) will sleep fantastically well as they only have to remember to put on clean pants……and sometimes that’s a struggle.
So here’s to a few hopefully relaxing days away where I am hoping my OH will take over the ‘entertaining’ of the boys for a while as I sit on the sidelines and recuperate a little in readiness for the next few weeks!!!
