I’ve been living in Taunton for nearly six months now (six months!) and although I’ve been pretty good at things like getting all of my post redirected and ensuring Belle goes to school most of the time, there is one thing I have been putting off – finding a new dentist.

Unfortunately this isn’t because I have super strong, brilliantly white teeth that need no care and attention at all – anything but – it’s because a) I am a teeny weeny bit scared of dentists and b) I have no idea how to do it.

Find a dentist

Definitely not me

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Today my blog is five years old. Can you even believe it? In internet years that makes it about 27.

Five years ago today* I was living in Bridgwater, a single mummy to a 14 and a 7 year old, having recently quit a full-time job I hated to work for myself. It was pretty scary but I had a desk I had bought on ebay for ten pounds and a nice little office space at home, so as far as I was concerned I was good to go. Who needs relevant experience or qualifications when you have a nice white desk and a wall full of inspirational postcards?

A lot has happened in the last five years including three house moves, one child leaving home, becoming gay and changing her mind again, various men putting in appearances, including one with an unsightly mole, a trip to Ethiopia, attempts at skiing, a milkshake in a diner in Arkansas, over 35,000 tweets and very nearly 1,000 blog posts. This one is number 979 I think.

That’s a lot of words.

I really can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for you continuing to read; sometimes I feel I’ve been suitably witty and entertaining, sometimes I’m a bit melancholy and often times just a bit boring. That’s a probably a pretty fair reflection of life as a working single parent though.

As a thank you for hanging on in there I thought I’d hold a little giveaway and what better prize than something that has remained a constant in my life during these five years of change – gin and chocolate.

Hoorah!

*refills ice tray expectantly*

The chocolate for your prize has been kindly donated by Mackie’s and the gin comes to you courtesy of ME as I couldn’t get any gin brands on Twitter to give me any freebies in the two days between deciding to do a birthday competition and hitting publish. I actually went to Tesco and bought a bottle with my own money, that’s how grateful I am to you for you reading.**

And there you were thinking I never paid for anything.

gin competition

Mackie's chocolate(If you win you definitely need to fan out the bars like this and crumble a bit of chocolate next to them seductively.)

To enter just have a fiddle with the Rafflecopter widget below before Big Ben chimes midnight at the end of 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*My first ever blog post includes an interesting comment from ‘Boz’.

**Definitely don’t think of this as a bribe. It’s just an innocent thank you…

 

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Anyone who knows me AT ALL knows that I love a quiz. Seriously. I LOVE a quiz. My whole sense of self-worth comes from doing well in tests.

When Totally Money asked me if I’d like to take part in a financial literacy quiz then I was on it before they even told me there was the chance to win an iPad Air; a place on the leader board was prize enough for me. I know about money right? I have an economics degree for God’s sake, I felt sure I could smash this quiz.

*pumps fist*

Hmm…

Turns out that having studied economics in the previous millennium doesn’t guarantee top marks in a finance quiz. I was a little flustered knowing I was against the clock but still, it was really no excuse for only getting 9 out of 16. I should probably hand all of my credit cards over to a grown-up right now, just in case.

Fortunately you don’t need to score top marks to go into the prize draw, so there is always the thought of that to make me feel better. After you’ve done the quiz just click the ‘Win an iPad Air’ button to enter. It’s with all the sharing buttons near the top and looks like this:

TotallyMoney.com - MoneyMasters.clipular

Take the quiz now by clicking on the image below and let me know how you score! 

I will sit and wait nicely.

All done? How did you do?

In collaboration with Totally Money

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Even though we’ve moved away from Bristol now I still love a shopping trip to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway. The Christmas decorations are always beautiful and it has a Marks & Spencer AND a John Lewis. Two of my best things.

A couple of weeks ago we actually went to a special event at M&S to take a look at all their lovely Christmas things, and they are lovely.

Mars and Spencer Christmas range

Mars and Spencer Christmas range

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I read an analogy the other day that compared the human condition to an airplane’s flight path. It had a picture – a straight line overlaid with a wavy line, so that although both lines ended up at the same place, they only crossed briefly on certain parts of the curve. Flying a plane apparently is a constant series of adjustments; watching the monitors, being aware of conditions around you and tweaking your direction. You end up in the right place but for around 90% of the time you’re actually heading in the wrong direction.

The important thing though is that this is OK. This is a normal way to fly.

Life is like flying a plane

I loved this analogy as I’m currently coming to terms with the idea that this is also a normal way to live. It may sound a bit stupid and naive, but I’m not sure I have ever really accepted it until now. I feel like I’ve always been striving for one ideal state, and not even always the same one. Sometimes I’ve wanted simple contentment, that feeling you get occasionally when you are washing up and you look out of the window whilst drying a cup and smile, just because you feel pretty pleased with your lot. Sometimes it’s more extreme and I crave an all-absorbing happiness, an overwhelming something that comes only fleetingly and often isn’t really happiness at all. Those tend to be the times I end up doing something stupid or falling in love with someone inappropriate because I decide that the dream state is one full of intense emotions and feelings, that contentment isn’t good enough. View Post

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Today I’m giving a plug to a relatively new Bristol based business called Cardnest. I met one of the founders of Cardnest when I was delivering some blogging related training, so when he came to me saying ‘Your training was ace! Can I tell you about my new business?’* I could hardly refuse could I?

Cardnest are, in their own words, a bit like a cereal variety pack, bringing you a mix of different cards every month. Unlike the cereals though there is no cornflake equivalent, no dud card you tolerate just because you want the Coco Pops.

Cardnest card subscription service

It’s very simple. For £7.50 per month you get three beautiful cards delivered to your door, plus three first class stamps – surely less than you’d spend in a decent shop? All the hard work is done for you, so next time you have a birthday, a special occasion or just want to write to a friend and say ‘thank you for being awesome’, everything you need is ready and waiting. View Post

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You may remember a little while ago I posed a very important question – should I get my new Servis Hydrodrive washing machine in black or white?

Sensing the urgency of my dilemma, many of you responded and in true ‘I will let the internet tell me what to do at all times’ style, I listened. My black Servis Hydrodrive is now making itself at home and I hope you’ll agree that it looks like it’s settling in nicely. I love the black; I think it adds a nice touch of space age chic to my kitchen.

Servis Hydrodrive washing machine reviewI have to confess that I tend to be the sort of person who looks for the one programme on a washing machine that covers as many bases as possible – ‘mixed load 40 degrees’ normally – and then just keeps the dial permanently pointed at that, so I have been making an effort to get to know my new washing machine a little more intimately. (Not like that.) View Post

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As you know, I recently left Bristol and moved back to Taunton. I lived in Taunton for a few years around the time Belle was born and throughout my teens lived just down the road in Bridgwater, making Taunton my nearest town with non-crap shops.

Despite being sad to leave Bristol behind then, there is something quite nice about being back in Somerset; a feeling of coming home, the comfort of the familiar. Taunton has changed quite a lot since I left, and lots of new high street shops have appeared – big brands that although convenient, lack a little in the personality department. One part of Taunton though that has retained its character and charm since I was a girl is Bath Place.

Bath Place Taunton Small Business Saturday

Bath Place has held a special place in my heart for a long time. As a teenager it was Peaches in Bath Place that I would visit on a Saturday, having spent half my pocket money on the bus fare from Bridgwater, to buy little tubs of hair dye and gaze in awe at the stripey tights. At 16 I sported hair in a lovely shade of green. I never did have pocket money left over for the tights.

20 years later and Peaches is still exactly the same. Even the pots of hair dye are in the same place.  View Post

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Would you eat a poo for a million poundsI love having children. As a parent you are forced to face those great philosophical questions that only children can pose.

“Mummy,” Belle asked me last week, “would you eat a poo for a million pounds?”

“My own poo or someone else’s?” I asked, as clearly there is an important difference morally.

“You own poo,” she reassured me.

“Yes,” I said.

She looked horrified. View Post

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Fancy getting creative this Christmas and making your own wrapping paper?

I’ve cracked open the paints already and have been putting Belle to work making our own printed robin gift wrap. Fancy making your own? Find out how over on the Robert Dyas blog where I am guest posting today.

Robin wrapping paperIf Christmas crafts tickle your fancy you should also check out my post on personalising your baubles. View Post

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Today’s post is written by Bee.

I am writing this post now because I have been blocked from my Driving School online account for 15 minutes for entering my details wrong too many times, even though I KNOW they are right, because I just changed my password.

This happens every week when I try to add money to my account for my lesson. Bloody technology. Whatever happened to cash in an envelope, or cash rolled up in a video tape, or trading 4lbs of goat meat for a driving lesson? Those were the days. It’s like they don’t want my £60 (which I don’t even technically have.)

Now I’m sure you are all whispering to each other, ‘she can’t even get onto the internet, how is she supposed to pass her driving test?! Duuummbb!’

Well you would be right. Because after much money and many hours screaming at buses to ‘get out of the bus lane’, I still don’t know how to drive.

The conversation at the end of each lesson with my instructor goes like this;

“So, have you booked your theory test yet?”

“No.”

“Well if you don’t do your theory, you can’t do the practical. Best just to get the theory out of the way as soon as possible.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t answer the questions.”

“Have you practiced?”

“Yes. Every day.”

“And you still can’t do them?”

“No. I can sometimes do one. I don’t think one is enough.”

Then I am thrown that look which is specifically reserved for use by a man who is pitying an apparently useless and helpless woman.

It also doesn’t help my usually extremely high levels of anxiety that I have to learn to drive in Central London. With my last instructor, I was learning to drive in the quiet residential back streets of my small home town, and he described my driving technique as ‘fast and furious’. I had a lot of confidence because there was nothing to crash into apart from the pavement.

Now at the wheel in London, it tips my anxiety over the edge, to a point where I’m not even thinking and I’m just blindly gliding through traffic, unable to blink. I go round a roundabout with 10 buses, 8 bikes and 100 cars thinking ‘this is what it must feel like to be dead’, because I’m so anxious half of my brain has shut down and I actually feel calm. Then after two hours I get to go home and have a cheeky chocolate soya milk. View Post

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I’m not super awesome at cooking, but I have this one soup recipe that I have been making for about 15 years. (Not constantly – on and off. I’m not that crazy.) I don’t know why this one has stuck, but it has – there is just something very tasty about it, plus I have been making it for so long now that even the smell of it makes me happy.

I’ve always made it in a pan as I’ve always imagined that frying up the onion in the butter adds something to the flavour, but in the interests of saving Belle a little bit of washing up and saving myself from splattering hot carrot all over my face when I try to use the hand blender, I decided to give it a go in my new Tower soup maker.

Putting together the recipe was hard as normally I just chuck in what I think are roughly the right quantities and see what happens; I had to pay proper attention and try to figure out what I was actually doing so that I could tell you. View Post

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