London

My 50 things before I’m 50 list

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                 50 things before I’m 50 list

50 things before I'm 50

**UPDATE** Due to the lockdown I have extended the time limit on my 50 things before I’m 50 until the end of this year for obvious reasons……….and I hope I will be able to achieve a lot of what I have listed (fingers crossed!)

This is a 50 before I’m 50 list with a difference. Not a fantastical bucket list of amazing things to do, but rather a ‘make time for the smaller things’ that will make your day or weekend special list. I’ve also added a few extra special events thrown in that I wont need to win the lottery in order to fulfil them.

I’m due to turn the big 5-0 in July this year. Most of the lists I see for people hitting milestone birthdays are pretty epic and in fairness they give themselves a year or more to do them.

I, on the other hand, only really thought about it recently when it dawned on me that my 50th birthday is in fact this bloody year……………I still can’t quite believe it.

For me though, I feel I have a lot of things I could easily do at any time and yet I don’t actually set the time aside to do them. I’m not really talking about big holidays or jumping from a plane, my body could no longer cope with that. In any case, I have wing walked twice ( on the original Crunchie plane, one of which was at an International Air Display). I’ve also been dangled out of Sea King rescue helicopters too many times to count,so I think I’ve done my daredevil bit when I was much younger.

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Gutted – Fringe Theatre review

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Gutted – Fringe Theatre review

Gutted

Gutted is a black comedy that is set in a fish factory in 1980’s Dublin written by Sharon Byrne and directed by Chris White. It explores the lives of three strong women who are friends through working in the same dead end job. Yet all have dreams of something bigger and better than what their lives are at the moment.

The stage is sparsely set with nothing but a plain white backdrop with strip lighting, standing lamps and ceiling lights. However, the lights are cleverly linked and used as extra characters throughout and this is incredibly well presented. The story is told in interlinking comic monologue from the three women Deidre ( Niamh Finlay), Delores ( Sarah Hosford) and Breda (Eleanor Byrne) covering just one particular night of their lives.

It is Irish storytelling at its best with comedy concealing a powerful undertone of hurt and heartache that is hinted at throughout. It’s raw and relatable and immediately transported me back to my teenage years with the girls singing excerpts of some songs of the time. Notably Tainted Love (oh the memories!) and yet tainted love can totally sum up the underlying theme of the play.

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London Escaped Vampire Slayer Review

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London Escaped Vampire Slayer Review

First of all I want to make it clear that this was my very first time in an escape room ever. So this review is based solely on that one experience rather than a comparison to other escape rooms of other styles. I was lucky enough to be asked to go along to London Escaped Vampire Slayer to review.

London Escaped have a couple of different rooms to experience such as the Da Vinci and The Prisoner. I went with a lovely group of escape room veterans via Love London Pop Ups to give their new Vampire Slayer game a try.

As someone who hasn’t been to an escape room before I was literally going in blind with absolutely no clue of what to expect. I knew there would be clues and puzzles to work out and obviously you are under a time pressure to ‘escape’. We were a group of 7 people and for this game they advise between 2-8 people. But it can accommodate up to 10 people if necessary and it lasts for 60 minutes. We were there for a 4pm start and at that point in the reception area it wasn’t busy. It was great opportunity for a novice like me to get a sneak peek into some of the other rooms.

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Phobophobia, The Ventriloquist Nightmare Show at the London Tombs

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Last week I had the bizarre pleasure of visiting the opening of the Phobophobia , The Ventriloquist Nightmare show at the London Tombs. I hadn’t been at the tombs before and to be honest I wasn’t sure of what to expect, however, this show has been put together especially for the half term and in particular the run up to Halloween.

Now I love my ‘jump scare’ horror films and to be honest any sort of horror film, as does my teen son, but that does not mean that I wouldn’t be scared. My husband does not ‘do’ horror in any way and looking back I cannot believe I actually got him to go first in our group when we entered!

The evening started with drinks ( which were definitely needed before entering the show) and socialising with large reptiles, so look away now if you do not like snakes……….

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

- TracyB Leave a comment

This year I vowed I would be super organised and to be honest I have been ‘more’ organised but still find myself sitting now a week away from the big day with a huge ‘to do’ list and the panic is starting to set in.

I know this year a lot of people seemed to be putting their Christmas trees and decorations up towards the end of November and although it was nice to see the pictures I am a true December girl and mine always go up in the first weekend or week in December. However, I did start present buying mid November in an attempt to get ahead.

At the end of November I was lucky enough to attend the Ideal Home Show at Christmas which was a first for me. My friend and I had a fab time, bought lots of Chrismassy bits and pieces and had our first mulled wine of the season. It really did get me into the Christmas spirit and gave me lots of ideas for pressies along the way. The place was beautifully decorated and we had groups of carol singers and performers helping with the Christmas spirit.

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The Ideal Home Show at Christmas in London

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This I am very excited about and thankfully only have a week to wait. This years Ideal Home Show at Christmas will be taking place at Olympia London for the first time ever. The UK’s biggest Christmas exhibition will be open from the 25th – 29th of November to provide everything you could possibly need in the run up to the festive season, from over 600 exhibitors showcasing top Christmas shopping inspiration, a plethora of celebrity appearances and a Christmas bandstand hosting live entertainment……………c’mon you Christmas lovers what more could you need?
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Popping my Britmums Live cherry

- TracyB 3 Comments

Popping my Britmums Live cherry- 2014

First of all this post is really, really late but I will explain that in another post!

Anyway, on to me popping my Britmums Live cherry.

After listening to all the talk on Twitter last year, looking at all the fab pictures and generally feeling like I had missed out. I decided that 2014 was definitely the year I was going to go to the Britmums Live event in London.

An amazing venue
An amazing venue

The venue was fabulous even on the outside.

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Day 4 in the Half Term House

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Warning: this post works best spoken in a strong, slow Geordie accent.

Day 4 in the Half Term House

* C and A have spent all day bickering over nothing, something they are quickly becoming experts at

* Dad has emerged himself in all the challenges set (wallpapering, grass cutting) in order to bring peace to the house

*Mum has spent days wondering around endlessly searching for the Diary Room to go in and have her rant and be soothed by an unknown voice whilst hitting the wine bottle earlier and earlier each day

*All 4 housemates took part in today’s challenge of a drive through the city to the London Motor Museum without any major arguments- after completing the challenge they earned time away from each other on the consoles/ technology of their choosing

Who stays? ……………………….YOU DECIDE!

 

 

Life since my trauma!

- TracyB 2 Comments

So I haven’t posted for a while since my trauma in London a few weeks ago- if you haven’t already then check it out here . It has taken me a while to get over the shock.

But I have also had a lot of mundane normal stuff going on. My youngest is in yr 6 and due to leave so we have been organising the Leavers party

We wont mention the Ralph Lauren Polo top I had to drive to Ashford for on my birthday!!

CD photo books and after school picnic’s and water fights!!

In between that I had my birthday. Yes *groan* another year older and wiser. Although I had to drive to Ashford designer outlet for my son’s Leaver’s party shirt (typical) I had a great day. It was very chilled, me and the OH had a lunch out and did my pressies when the boys came home from school.

A nice roast dinner out with the boys!
Complete with dessert

Sorry for the bad pics they were taken on my phone by my youngest in poor light!!

Anyway, moving on I came home to these…………

I also managed to squeeze a relaxing day fishing with the OH ( YES I DID SAY FISHING!) and I caught………………………………….wait for it……………………………….57 fish!!! AMAZING!

Ok I will admit some of them really were tiddlers however I was pleased to be catching some slightly bigger ones too.

Now concentrate on the size of the fish rather than the state of my barnet!! It had been raining people!!!

Sadly, I really have got into this fishing malarkey- even to the point of taking the hooks out after the catch!!! Something I thought I would never do.

Then we had some Groupon vouchers to use up for Namco up in London. I must say the deal was fab as we got over £50 in tokens for only £14!! Now I wasn’t expecting too much of the place, never having been there myself. I thought we would be in and out in an hour. How wrong could I be we spent several hours in there enjoying bowling, bumper cars, and arcade games!!!

The boys racing each other on the bikes!
The 3 of them gearing up for the race!

So that’s me caught up I think. I’m now preparing myself for an emotional week as my youngest goes through the traditions of the last week of primary school!

Cue the tears……………………………….

What have you all been up too??

Lost in London…….aged 11 yrs!!!!

- TracyB 6 Comments

No not a story about me as the 11 yr old but my own son.

Monday saw us heading back up town for another audition (remember my youngest is a ‘luvvy’ at heart and wants to be an actor). Anyway this really is nothing out of the ordinary for us. A short notice call a few days before with address details (normally quite obscure tiny offices in London’s backstreets) so we headed off as normal.

Audition done and return journey in process until…………….

Yes we went to get on a tube when my son walked on and the doors closed!!!! Leaving me on the platform…………OK PANIC NOW.

So told screamed at the guard that my son was on his own only to realise the tube he got on was going in the wrong direction that we were going! CAN THIS GET ANY WORSE??

Again the guard seemed a bit too chilled for my liking when he said I should go to the operations room WTF????? No you take me there and bloody tell someone my 11yr old son is on the tube going in the wrong direction…….EXCUSE ME IS ANYONE LISTENING TO ME ( i’m the mad shouting, hysterical lady crying down the phone to her husband telling him she has lost her son!!!- I know not a pretty sight)

However, by the time we got to the operations room they then had to calm me down to tell me they had my son at the next station with the guard!!!! OMG OMG OMG

So went back down to platform and got on next tube, still bawling my eyes out ( what a bloody picture) with people looking at me as though I was a complete loon (understandable I think).

Turned up at the next station and burst into tears again as my son came up and gave me a huge hug!!!

He was calm, and I asked him what he did.

‘Well I thought I would get off at the next station and wait for you to come along. But a nice young man offered to get off at the station with me and tell the guard what had happened’ ( there are some nice people out there! but we still warned him afterwards of the dangers).

So 11 yr old is calm, and 41 yr old mum is a complete wreck?????

He told me that he wasn’t panicked but he was worried about me because he knew I would be having a meltdown- talk about role reversal!

Anyway, all’s well that ends well and all that. For me I don’t think I have ever been so stressed in all my life. My M.E is affected considerably with stress and for the last few days I have been unable to do anything or eat properly so I know that is definitely the fallout from Monday!

However, everything happens for a reason and now we have at least got a contingency plan- if separated go to the next station and the other will follow!!