Advertisement feature in association with Yoopies

If you thought Yoopies was just a babysitting service then think again. Yoopies can help you find flexible, affordable care for the whole family, whether it’s a babysitter, petsitter, cleaner, tutor or carer. Read on to find out more.

For over 20 years my life revolved around primarily one thing – childcare. Where would the children go to preschool? Could I work around the hours? What about the ‘settling in’ period at school? School holidays?? All of these were the basics that enabled me to work and earn a living, without even factoring in potentially wanting to have a social life as a single parent.

And then, as I was just about off the hook, (apart from becoming a Granny), I decided to get a dog. I sometimes wonder what goes on in my mind when I’m making decisions like this. (My motto is ‘Ready, fire, aim’ – it’s meant to avoid overthinking, but perhaps underthinking is more of an issue?)

The whole dog situation was fairly horrendous to start with – I felt trapped and overwhelmed by the responsibility and was sure I had ruined my life forever. Spoiler: I hadn’t, I now love her to pieces. It was touch and go for a while though.

Mucky puppy

View Post

Follow:

Advertisement feature in association with Nightingale Tuition

If you have kids approaching GCSEs who have been struggling in lockdown then read on as I have an hour of free tuition to give to everybody!

It’s one of those fun, little known facts about me that when I was doing my degree, I earned extra money doing private one-to-one maths tuition.

Bee was a toddler at the time, and I can’t remember exactly what she did while I was teaching small children about fractions through the medium of Lego, but private tuition brought in much needed extra cash for me at a time when I was cooking by candlelight because I couldn’t afford to replace the striplight in my kitchen.

Private tuition was a very different thing back then of course – I used to make my own maths board games out of bits of cardboard I cut out of the side of boxes and coloured with felt tip pens. The height of decadence was when I splashed out on a new workbook from WHSmiths and photocopied pages from it in the library for 10p a go.

As much as I enjoyed making my homemade games, it’s a good job that private tuition is more high-tech nowadays, particularly during the coronavirus outbreak. If I was doing it now I wouldn’t be allowed to even show up at someone’s house, let alone get into the library to make use of the top notch copying facilities.

One of the things that working one-to-one with students allowed me to do was to really get to know them and to tailor our sessions according to their needs and how they worked best. This is something that schools inevitably struggle with – it’s just not possible to cater for everyone’s individual needs in a class of 30 kids – and it’s one of the main reasons that parents seek out extra tuition for their children.

This personalised approach is the ethos of Nightingale Tuition, an online one-to-one tuition provider specialising in support for GCSEs.

(Another fun fact – my Brownie leader name is Nightingale. We all have bird names and the girls choose one for us. I wanted to suggest cock-of-the-rock but Brown Owl wouldn’t let me.)

Here’s a little flavour of Nightingale Tuition: View Post

Follow:

We were gifted spaces on this Boo Cottage Botanicals workshop for the purposes of this review

When I was little, I used to make my own perfume.

I say ‘make my own perfume’ – what I actually used to do was collect up scattered rose petals that had fallen off the flowers, (or pick them off if I thought no one was looking), and put them in an old jam jar of water. The petals smelt so beautiful, I was sure if I could just gather enough that I would be able to turn my jam jar water into rose scented perfume.

As anyone who has tried this, (and I’m imagining it’s a lot of you), will know, it doesn’t work. You just get rank old petals in a jar of water. Still, it’s fun to try when you’re eight years old or so.

It was with with kind of ‘anything is possible if you have enough rose petals’ attitude that we rocked up one Sunday morning a few weeks ago for a workshop with Boo Cottage Botanicals. We were doing the ‘natural skincare workshop: balms, bombs and body butters‘ and it promised that we would leave with a whole range of skincare products that we’d made ourselves from scratch.

I’d taken Belle along with me because she loves skincare and is always mashing avocados late at night to smear on her face. She told me she only does that out of poverty (not sure where she thinks the avocados come from) but regardless she DID enjoy it. She has a certain way of being when she gets really engrossed in an activity – a serious, efficient look on her face and a nice straight back – and she had this throughout the morning.

Make your own skincare workshops View Post

Follow:

Advertisement feature in association with Kally Sleep

It has ALL being going on in my bedroom this last week.

(Not like that, rude.)

First I closed down my neighbourhood one woman peep show by getting the new blind, and now I have a NEW PILLOW. I know, I know, it’s pretty racy. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone ever complains about being fed up or lacking a purpose when there’s excitement like this potentially around every corner.

Kally Sleep side sleeper pillow review

Perhaps this pillow will be the thing that stitches my midlife unravelling back together? Okay, so that’s unlikely, but still, it’s nice to at least be comfy in bed while you wrestle with your existential thoughts.

The pillow in question is the ‘ultimate side sleeper pillow’ from Kally Sleep.

Here’s what the website says about it:

‘The Ultimate Side Sleeper Pillow has been designed to give side-sleepers balanced support, helping to prevent neck and back pain during sleep. Its walled sides help to align your head, neck and spine and offer an extra level of quality comfort, maintaining its shape over long periods of use.’

And here’s what I say about it: View Post

Follow:

I was sent a blind from Make My Blinds for the purposes of this review and to spare my neighbours

It’s been about three months now since I had to take my bedroom curtains down because they smelt of bolognese.

I’m not quite sure what happened – smells from the kitchen I presume – but every time I went in my bedroom I was noticing this horrible old food smell. I changed the sheets, I made sure there were no ‘gifts’ from the cats decomposing under the bed, but I couldn’t shift it. I sniffed about, and traced it back to the curtains. I took them down, washed them, but it was still there.

Fortuantely I hated the curtains anyway – they were a ‘temporary’ measure when we moved in two years ago – so I took it as a sign from the universe that it was okay to sell them at a car boot sale to a nice lady who was going to cut them up for something.

I’ve not minded too much being without curtains, because I love having the window open and feeling the breeze on my face and waking up to the sunshine and the sound of the birds. It has been lovely and bright without curtains and I’ve liked not having vast widths of fabric breaking up the clean lines.

Over the last month though, as the sun has been coming up earlier, it has been catching me on the face at about 5am, it a kind of intrusive, burny way, which isn’t so idyllic.

I also have a bright street light outside my bedroom, which has been a bit annoying, plus my bedroom window is pretty much the full width of my room and is at the front of the house, so probably not ideal for the neighbours.

This is what it looked like without the curtains:

Review faux wood blinds Make My Blinds

I may have been confused as to what was meant to be the focus of this picture.

I’ve been umming and ahhing then about what to do next. View Post

Follow:

Advertisement feature in association with Ring Automotive

Pretty much every single time I put petrol in the car I look at the tyre pressure machine in the corner of the forecourt and think ‘I really probably should pump the tyres up’. Then I remember that I don’t have any cash, or that it’s pouring with rain, or that I can’t be bothered, and I pay for my petrol and drive away.

In the grand scheme of chores, keeping my tyres properly inflated ranks way down alongside ‘wash the inside of the outdoor bin’ and ‘fix that bit on the banisters where the screw keeps coming out of the wall’.

I.e. it never happens.

It’s silly really. I am a grown woman who owns a box of greetings cards for all occasions for Christ’s sake. I pay into a pension and I once made a hanging basket – I AM CAPABLE. I shouldn’t be neglecting jobs like tyre inflating, jobs that actually have an impact on things like safety and fuel economy.

I’m assuming this isn’t JUST me, which is why I agreed to test the Ring RTC1000 Rapid Digital Tyre Inflator AND managed to wrangle an extra one to giveaway as a competition prize. No more wistful stares across the petrol station forecourt for the winner of this sexy giveaway!

Ring digital tyre inflator review

It’s a pretty straightforward gadget really, but let’s have a quick talk through what’s involved. View Post

Follow:

We were loaned the Skoda Karoq for a week for the purposes of this review. No money changed hands. All views my own.

Skoda Karoq review front profile

That’s a lovely big growly car face isn’t it? This Skoda Karoq is saying ‘I’m going to get you to the supermarket and to school and on holiday goddammit and I’m going to do it in comfort and style.’

 

As I’m sure you’ve realised by now, I love a cheeky car review.

Not that I really KNOW anything about cars, but I like to think that’s a good thing, because it means I talk about them in a way non-car people understand and appreciate. I focus on the important things, like the number and size of the cup holders, rather than the stuff no one actually cares about, like the engine size and power. (Yawn.)

Also I love that for a week or so at a time I get to drive around in a car that fools other people into thinking I’m a grown-up, rather than in a 12 year old Renault Clio Campus, which looks like it should be parked outside one of those student houses where you can barely see the front door for the stacked empty Papa John’s boxes. Belle likes that she gets to connect her phone and play decent music instead of listening to my mid-90s folk CDs.

A couple of weeks ago then, I drove around for a bit in the new Skoda Karoq. To be completely accurate, it was the ‘Karoq SE L 1.5 TSI 150 PS 6G Man’, according to my booking confirmation email.

I’m not sure what most of that means.

Did I mention the cup holders? View Post

Follow:

In association with Thomas Sabo

I have this thing with rings.

I’ve always liked them, generally, but the thing started about eight or nine years ago one day in Glastonbury. I’d gone over to meet a friend for breakfast and we were talking about something rather exciting for me that had happened the day before. I’ve always had a terrible memory, but I knew I wanted to remember this particular thing, so I decided to buy myself a piece of jewellery to mark the occasion.

I bought myself a rather lovely silver ring made with abalone shell, which I love. I bought it to fit the ring finger on my left hand, not especially out of any kind of marriage related principle, but just because it looked nice there and I’m a grown up person and can wear a ring on whatever finger I like, thank you very much society.

(Gosh, that came out a bit stronger than I thought it was going to – maybe it was principle.)

Ever since then, every time I have wanted to celebrate something good happening in my life – like the first time I had a feature published in a national newspaper – or just wanted to remind myself why I am super cool and generally awesome, I’ve bought myself a ring. I wouldn’t say I’m especially materialistic and I’m definitely not one of those people who spends loads of money on clothes and shoes and handbags, but just now and then it’s nice to treat yourself. In fact, it’s somehow more special when it only IS now and then. (Plus you can spend more and feel less guilty.)

Jewellery is a bit of a funny one, as it’s often something you feel you have to wait to be given, especially women’s jewellery, which is strange in a way as it’s so personal – who knows what you love better than yourself?

Which is why when Thomas Sabo got in touch to ask if I would like to take a look at their jewellery, just as I was sending off the final draft of my debut novel, I had a browse through the ladies rings and chose this crown ring from the Kingdom of Dreams collection:

Thomas Sabo ring View Post

Follow:

Designed to stand out from the crowd, just like you.

That’s what the website says about the SKODA Kodiaq SportLine. I look down – I’m wearing red tights and a dress covered in red, orange and blue flowers. You’d spot me in a busy Tesco, that’s for sure.

The SKODA Kodiaq SportLine isn’t wearing red tights when it’s dropped off at my house on a sunny Monday morning, but it certainly stands out next to the ten year old Renault Clio I normally drive. I think it might be genuinely twice the size. It’s a beast of a car, demanding you look at it in all it’s shiny, four cylinder turbo diesel glory.

It reminds me a bit of one of the cats when they really want my attention, and they sit on my lap and nudge aggressively at my hand with their face until I stroke them.

SKODA Kodiaq SportLine review View Post

Follow:

I once had a boyfriend (shocker) who was obsessed with watching television in HD.

Okay, ‘obsessed’ is a strong word, but if I was watching something in regular old standard definition he would make me change the channel. (Okay, not obsessed at all.)

‘How can you not even tell?’ he would ask, clearly appalled at my stone age ways.

‘Oh,’ I’d say, ‘I don’t know, I just don’t really notice the difference.’

And I didn’t.

When Belle and I opened up the ACER Swift 3 though, to watch a film in my bed, (White Chicks – 4/10, would not recommend), the first thing I noticed was the quality of the screen.

I noticed it in this really annoying way I have of noticing things, where I feel the need to say it several times to Belle at what I think are long enough intervals that she will be interested all over again – ‘the picture quality really IS amazing though isn’t it?’ – until I imagine she wants to close the laptop and use it to hit me. (Also would not recommend.)

‘The picture is just so sharp though isn’t it?’

‘So much better than our other laptop don’t you think?’

SHUT UP WOMAN.

You can find many good reviews about it online or on some reputable laptop review websites like GuruVerdict. However, I just want to share with you my personal experience on using this laptop.

Acer Swift 3 review View Post

Follow:

We were invited to visit NAUSICAA as guests for the purposes of this review. All opinions my own.

As a single parent of two kids with a seven year age gap I have spent my fair share of times in aquariums. There aren’t a great deal of activities that both a 13 year old and a 6 year old will enjoy, but looking for fish that look like Dory and then saying ‘I found Dory!’ is one of them.

That said, my aquarium experiences to date have always been disappointing. You pay about £40 for three of you to enter what promises to be an ‘under sea adventure’, to spend around 25 minutes, if you’re lucky, wandering around a dank basement that feels like it could do with a bit of a scrub down. You see some jellyfish – check, you spot the clown fish – check, and then suddenly you’re in the gift shop and both children want you to spend another £40 on a plush starfish.

NAUSICAA is NOT like that.

Imagine an awesomeness scale of all the aquariums I’ve ever been to. At one end of the scale is a sad looking goldfish and at the other end is a hammerhead shark. Most aquariums hover around the small, solitary octopus level. NAUSICAA is basically a mermaid, sat on a rock brushing her long hair while dolphins leap out of the water and a group of sardines performs a barbershop quartet style rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Do you get what I’m trying to say?

It’s really good.

Visiting Nausicaa

Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s in France as it’s really easy to get to. We took the Eurostar from St Pancras to Calais, which is only an hour, and then it’s around a half hour drive to NAUSICAA.

If you’re within a reasonable distance of London then it’s totally doable as a day trip, or as an excuse for an easy family weekend away. If you’re heading to a different part of France for a holiday it would make a great stop on the way – maybe spend a night or two and explore the area? (I’ll be doing a follow up post about other things to do nearby.)

So then, the fishies.

Even from the outside NAUSICAA scores points – the addition of the new extension was designed especially to make the whole building look like a manta ray. It’s tricky obviously to see this unless you’re in a helicopter or something, but keep it in mind.

View Post

Follow:

April 30th was a sad, sad day for Belle.

It was the day we had to give back the Hyundai Kona that we’d been test driving for two weeks, having covered around 800 miles in 14 days, three of which I was out of the country for. At a stage in her life, mid-GCSEs, aged 15, when not much in the world feels designed to bring joy, there is apparently one thing that does – driving around in a nice car, listening to Cardi B very loudly and switching on my seat heater every few minutes and seeing how long it takes me to notice.

As you can guess from my mileage, I made the most of it.

Hyundai Kona

Over the course of the fortnight I did test out all the important little things, like the size of the cup holders (key), and all of my finding are in this Twitter thread if you fancy looking back through.

There were loads of clever little features that I loved, like the fact that it turns the music down a bit when you’re reversing and the blind spot detector for motorway driving, and I really enjoyed the high seating position. It was very spacious and the back seats were SUPER easy to put up and down – fiddly seats are a pet hate of mine, but these worked in one movement and were easy to put down from the boot side too.

I feel at this point that I should say something authoritative about the ‘handling’ but to be honest I’ve never been entirely sure what that means. It went round corners, and no one threw up, so I consider that a win. Have a look at the website for all the techy stuff. View Post

Follow: