Small Town Living

One of the things I've noticed since starting the whole school run thing every day is that so many people are related to each other. 

Is it just me that finds this weird?

My eldest son has a 'buddy', which is a boy in year 5 I believe, who comes over to reception occasionally. To be honest I couldn’t tell you exactly what the buddy's role is, but it’s something along the lines of providing the reception class with older children who can show them around the school, help them, be someone they can go to with issues like bullying, help them with their learning, etc etc. 

Anyhoo, on the way to and from school, we quite often have a child walk past us whispering to his mum that my son is his cousin/brother/friends cousin’s buddy. This happens so often, and by so many different children I’m beginning to be a bit freaked out. I'm just waiting for one of them to say it’s his uncle brother’s stepson’s buddy...which could totally happen in this town.

Having thought about it, I know why it freaks me out. My family is spread out all over the UK & I only have a few family members in this town. Everyone in my family either went to Uni or joined the forces, met someone and moved elsewhere. Only a few didn’t.  I have further opinions on this but they are just plain bitchy and ill-informed so I shall jolly well keep them to myself.
What about you? Do you find your relatives are flung far and wide? Do you live in the town you were born and bred in?

Winning Star of the Week

Ed won star of the week at school last month. We were so very pleased (I never thought it would happen, I mean, Ed is of course a lovely boy, but he can be very willful). Turns out he's quite different at school, all helpful and happy to tidy up. Grrr, why can't he be like that at home?
Anyhoo, the winner gets to take the class bear home for the weekend, and they have to fill in Cocoa's weekend diary. So this is ours. I thought it too adorable so decided to plonk it here and immortalise it.

Dreaming

I was just woken by a boy in floods of tears yelling at the top of his voice. 
It's 2:30am. 
Dragging myself to their bedroom I then have to explain to Ed that Bean can't have stolen his book bag as he is in fact fast asleep. 
All of a sudden the tears stop. 
"Oh" he says. "It was just a dream". 
A cuddle & a cup of milk and the boy goes back to sleep.

(photo is of Ed that night when I checked on them at 10pm, spread-eagled)

Book Crossing

www.bookcrossing.com
I've discovered book crossing through one of my son's preschool teachers, who is world book night distributor (www.worldbooknight.org - books are given out to people who don't often read and each one has a BCIN number so it can be passed on and tracked through bookcrossing.com).
It's completely brilliant, and turns the world into one massive library!

Although we visit our local library often, I don’t use it very much for my own reading (my boys always have bedtime story books out). I like to take my time with a book and 3 weeks is never enough, so i often stress about renewals and late fees. I usually buy books, often second hand on eBay, and therefore have a busting set of shelves. The idea that my books could be passed on and loved by one person after another is just fantastic. So I have labeled (with their own BCIN numbers) a stack of my books, just the ones I probably won't read again, and left them at Bean's preschool for other parents to help themselves to. I love the idea that one could find a travelling book on a train or in a park, but that's unlikely to happen to me. In the meantime, I'll just distribute my old books.

While i was writing my profile page on bookcrossing.com, I thought I would put together a top ten type list of my favourite books (subject to change of course);
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Emma – Jane Austen
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson-Burnett
The Remains of the Day – Kazoo Ishiguro
(That was really difficult to compile, and I know it looks a bit like an A level reading list, but these are the books I go back to read again and again).

Dinosuars Bite Back at Chester Zoo

We love Chester Zoo, and we Especially love the dinosaur exhibition. It'll be gone soon, so I thought I'd post some photos and these awesome beasts.

365 Photo. Day 14 - Recipe

I've had this recipe in my scrapbook for years, but only tried last night for the first time. It was so yummy I thought I'd share it.
I belong to the dollop and splash school of cookery, so please bare with me.

Ingredients:
150g cous cous
lemon (to be honest I used lime juice coz that's what was in the fridge)
200ml boiled water
1x egg
15g melted butter
2x large chicken fillets, cut into strips (you could use any meat/fish)

Add the juice of a lemon (or a good slosh of lime juice) to the cous cous, mix then add the water. Leave for 20 mins, then fluff with a fork.
Beat egg, add butter.
Dip meat in butter, then into cous cous and place individually onto a baking tray. Bake in the oven until cooked thoroughly (about 180 degrees c. for about 20 minutes).
I served them with homemade chips and peas. Yummy!

365 Photo. Day 13

Oops, had a week off. On the plus side, I've been busy. I finally made the curtains for the bathroom (fabric has been sitting around for a wee while), which means that it's one more room that's a little closer to being finished. Whoop! I've gone for a tropical escape look, with a fruity colour scheme; purple, lime, pink & teal. It's only a dinky room, but since I live with boys, I decided to make the bathroom a girlie escape where I can have a quick pamper session, even if it's just to throw on a facemask & paint my nails.

Annoyed by other people's statuses...not me

On the radio this morning they were discussing that one issue that just keeps cropping up when it comes to Facebook and twitter; how easily annoyed people are by other peoples statuses about their kids/dogs/jobs, etc.

I understand their point of view, but why are people so miserable?

So what if I go on about whether or not my kids have gone to bed nicely? So what if a friend’s baby took her first steps? So what if someone’s dog had a great walk in the woods? And so what if they are counting down until Friday coz they hate their job? I think these are the things that are important to people, that’s the sole purpose of Facebook/twitter feeds, these are the things happening in our friends everyday lives, and that’s exactly what I’m interested in. We can’t all only ever put cool witty remarks on every single update.

I don’t watch Eastenders or Corrie, but I love reality TV, I love watching real people reacting to real events and situations, and I think that’s why I love social networking sites. I’m not in it for the wise cracks, the constantly shared photos (except the ones that really make me laugh), or the constant flirting on twitter. I just want to hear/read about people’s normal lives. Raw and honest. And if that means that every Monday and particular person is groaning about their job, and every Saturday someone is out on the town looking a tiny bit trashy, and the constant stream of baby talk, dog photos is absolutely fine with me.

If you’re not interested, turn the damn computer off, or just unfriend/unfollow them. Easy as pie.

Arguing with my phone again

I have completely screwed myself over.

I ‘tidied’ my phone contacts.

Driven mad by the idea that there could be duplicates, oh how I hate duplicates, I love it when things are clean and precise and even.

So, I put them all on my Gmail account (most were there anyway) and expected my phone to be clever enough to find them all when I put the contact list in the Gmail setting. Nope. There are a few important ones missing, like my mum, my baby sister, my besties and....my husband. Oops.

So now it’s not tidy. It’s not even. I now just have a very small contacts list (minus all the Facebook imported junk). I don’t see why it had to take out only important people. Must be karma. I deserved it for being so goddamn pedantic.

To top it off, this morning I had a text from an unknown number, telling me they had a dream about me last night. Not exactly what I want to hear from a stranger haha, but thankfully it turned out (as I had guessed by the dream specifics) to be a close friend my phone has decided to ‘forget’.

Only 3 more months until my contract is up and I can get an iphone!! Whahoo.

365 Photo. Day 12

I had a lovely day at Bean's Pre-school today.
When the rain finally stopped, we found a damp butterfly amongst the outdoor toys, so I picked it up, showed it to some of the kids and then we put it up here to dry off in the breeze. Happily it soon fluttered away. It was a lovely moment, and a fabulous chance to encourage anyone small to look after their world. Sorry the photo isn't better but I was on the hop and I took it with my phone.

365 Photo. Day 11

My husband, who has a nasty habit of bringing home junk and cluttering up our very cluttered house and consequently driving my up the frickin wall, brought these home last night.

Normally I would hit the roof (he loves to build bikes and therefore has a few of them already loitering in my garden/loft/anyway he can find space), but these babies have made me a very happy bunny. I’ve been jealous of Ed’s scooter for a while and wanted an adult size one, and I looooove the ladies town bike, I was looking on eBay a while ago, but I couldn’t justify the spend so I gave up. He found both of these in a skip, and yes, they both need a lot of work, but it’s nothing he’s not capable of. And I know it's really hypocritical of me to not be cross this time, I'm so very selfish sometimes. In my defence, my husband is a very busy man, and building bikes is not something he actually has anywhere or any time to do.

I am very excited, they are going to be beautiful and coooool as. I’m so looking forward to when Bean can ride his bike a bit faster and we can all go to school on wheels.

I was riding round the house on the scooter last night and it’s amazing!  Argh! I can't wait!

And yes, today's photobomb was brought to you by Milly.