All about me

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Christmas 2020 - the year of change

Christmas 2020 - the year everything changed.

So here I am writing at Christmas 2020. It’s been the strangest of years and to be honest I haven’t been able to keep up with writing about the constant changes we have had to adapt to in our lives. But essentially since I last wrote in here we have come out of the three month lock down we had from March, summer was ok. We could mix with other families and travel within our country, so we had an…

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Travels to North Wales 2020 style

So we are nearing the end of what can only be described as the strangest summer ever! Certainly that I have experienced. We can’t go on holiday because we are either advised by the government that we can’t travel to a certain country ie Spain or Portugal because they have higher rates of Covid 19 infections. Or if you do decide to go away some considered safe, they then change the restrictions at…

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12 July 2020

We are now finally emerging as a country and a world out of the four month lockdown that we have experienced as a result of coronavirus. And it’s strange. I feel like the whole experience has effected me more than I imagined it would. When we went into lockdown and schools, children’s clubs, swimming pools, parks, the list goes on we’re all closed. We were only allowed out of our houses for…

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Slowly slowly coming out of lockdown..

The last few weeks, 8 to be exact have certainly been one of the most challenging and surreal experiences I’ve experienced as an adult, more marathon than a Friday night drink down the pub. Not one I ever thought we would experience in our lifetime. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions where one day or even one hour I have loved being in my bubble with my family and being at home. Not having to…

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UK enters lockdown due to COVID-19, survival plan with a young family!

Lock down with these beauties

So today I am writing from a very different world to the one we have been used to, ever! I know this sounds dramatic, but in the last month we have been hit by the pandemic known as coronavirus or covid-19. It originally spread from China across the globe, Italy has been hit massively as is Spain and France, with thousands of people dying (800 in a day in…

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London bombing remembered - 1942

London bombing remembered – 1942

This is a slightly different angle to my earlier posts, but one I wanted to include as we have recently lost both my Grandma’s, so have had two funerals in the past six months. Although sad, I do find it fascinating as you find about aspects of someone’s life you have usually never heard about before.

My Grandma Hilda was a true London girl, hailing from Walthamstow, East London and she would…

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Best ever banana bread..

This is a repost, but it’s my favourite cake recipe and I have just made a batch of muffins, 36 to be precise, to fill up the freezer for the summer holidays! These cakes are simple, healthy and taste fab.

My son’s are the fussiest eaters going, Seth at one point would only eat sausages for dinner, over the years he’s expanded his diet and is quite a healthy eater now (10 years). To get fruit…

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Staycation Summer 2019

Staycation. This I something I struggle with! I love a holiday.

It doesn’t need to be fancy, all inclusive or luxury, but it needs to be abroad and include a foreign supermarket. This is ridiculous I know as this year I have spent hours looking at other people’s holiday pics, planning holidays abroad, costing it up and then getting that feeling that you get when you can’t really afford something.…

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Book review: Kristen Hannah: The Great Alone

Book review: Kristen Hannah: The Great Alone

This is the third of Kristen Hannah books I have read and each one seems better than the last, but I don’t think it would have mattered which order I read them in they are all amazing and all about totally different subjects.

Her most recent novel is “The Great Alone”, based around a small family of three dominated by the Dad’s PTSD after spending time in the Vietnam war. Although the family…

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The trials of being a mum, teacher and daughter of a father with dementia...

The trials of being a mum, teacher and daughter of a father with dementia…

I can’t believe it’s been such a while since my blog. I’m going to try and reignite my blog mojo over the next few weeks. Anyway one of the main reasons I haven’t written for a while is I just haven’t had the time. I started to write as a way of dealing with the stresses and hastles of daily family and work life, and as a way of documenting a of the things we have been getting up to.

However…

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London day out, all three kids and husband in tow!

February half term is upon us and it is notoriously the worst half term! October has halloween, May has early onset of summer, but February is usually cold, wet and often hit by illness. Anyway not one to ignore a challenge I like to take the opportunity to take the kids out and keep them off an ipad as long as possible. Full success on that part as Seth reminded me as he crawled up to bed at 8pm…

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Can we really achieve everything?

I’ve been thinking a lot, (well actually for the last year!) about the amazing changes women have made in the last 100 years since getting the vote. I know this already sounds a little like a history essay, but essentially my focus is really on the way women have changed their opportunities in the work place and as a working mum, do I think it’s working??!

Having returned to work nearly a year…

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Happy 2019!

Hope Christmas went well for all of you around the world! Ours was lovely and I have tried to spend the week a little bit like a staycation as it was the first time hubby had been off for a full 10 days since I’ve known him. The downside of running a ski shop means he used to work pretty much through Christmas and new year. Anyway no escape for him this year and it’s been a perfect chance to…

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Christmas mince pie dish

This is the Christmas recipe to end all Christmas recipes! The best mince pie/desert you will ever eat! Even on boxing day after all of the indulgence of Christmas and the run up to Christmas I can’t stop sneaking off to eat some more!

Ingredients:

Shortcrust pastry: Enough to fill an 8inch pie case. I cheated and bought some, but if you have time then home made tastes great.

Mincemeat: 1 x 500g…

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Clothes overhaul

Here we go, following from my post the other day regarding how to be a little but more eco friendly I’ve been thinking more and more about our impact through clothes and fast fashion. Now before I get started or you get bored, I love fashion, I love clothes and especially the buzz of buying something new and introducing it to your existing clothes and updating the wardrobe. It’s addictive and an…

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Time to save the planet

Time to save the planet

I may be a bit late to the party on this, but I’ve recently become massively aware of our imprint on the world and what we can do to make a difference and just lower our own affects on this wonderful planet of ours. I think it’s part of getting older as I know I used to think what one individual does can’t really make a difference, but now I’m aware that one person really can. And the more they…

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Back to the old routine

This has been one hell of an emotional week. It started off fine with Felix starting school and being happy with his new class and making new friends. Until Tuesday. Charlie had to drop off and Felix saw some friends from other classes and other children crying and that was it he started to cry louder and then clinging to poor Charlie, who had to end up handing him to the teacher and running off.…

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