Sent to Coventry

I'm been off on my virtual travels again, this time popping up in the West Midlands at the Coventry Telegraph where the lovely Tara Cain has invited me to write a guest column for her wonderful blog From Dawn till Rusk.

You'll never guess what it's about this time...

Okay...you've got it out of me...rubbish, blogging and book deals. If you fancy a peek at the inside story, you can find the post here.

Huge thanks to Tara for sharing some of her blog space. While you're there, do have a gander at some of her other posts, her blog is an excellent read.

________________________________________________________

Read more ►

Carnival of Trash Time

Here's my gorgeous blog friend Jo Beaufoix who writes a very funny and often poignant blog over at www.jobeaufoix.com. I've known Jo for what seems like years but has only been a couple since I started blogging over at my other blog 21st Century Mummy. I've hardly hung around there since I've been talking rubbish over here, but we've remained good friends and I even had the pleasure of meeting her for real just recently.

Anyway, before I lapse into one of my Ronnie Corbetts you might remember Jo from when she did The Rubbish Diet challenge earlier this year and managed to get her bin Stinky Simon back on track and slim him down a bit.

Well having since enjoyed adventures with composting, Jo is now really getting into this shrinking rubbish thing and is hosting the Carnival of Trash this month.

Apologies for the late notice, but the deadline for submissions is Monday 10th (which is next week), so for all contributors it's time to get your thinking caps on and submit your favourite article over at: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_4478.html

And don't forget to pop over to Jo's very funny blog on the Thursday 13th to check out the entries.

....oh and before I forget, if you're up for hosting December's carnival or even an edition in the new year, then do let me know.

In the meantime, hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you next week.

P.S. Huge thanks to everyone who left me some wonderful comments yesterday, I've put a proper thank you at the end of the last comment on yesterday's post. x

________________________________________________

Read more ►

In Remembrance

I'm finding it really hard to get going today, because yesterday was the funeral of a very special lady, Mr A's Grandma, who recently passed away only a few weeks after her 95th birthday. We travelled over to Bristol, where we gathered with family and old friends for what was a very emotional service.

So my usual topic of conversation is far from my mind. Instead I'm finding myself thinking about my elders and in particular Rose.

Grandma Rose as she was known to our children was a beautiful and gentle woman, full of kindness, consideration and spirit of fun and yesterday was a celebration of her life as well as mourning her passing.

Born in 1913, she would have reached the same age as my eldest son in 1920, almost a century ago. Sat here at my laptop in 2008, that seems such a long time ago.

I can't help wondering what life was like for a seven year old girl in those times and how it must have been to be in her shoes, witnessing all the changes that took place through the 20th Century.

After all, she spent her early years growing up through the Great War and her thirties living with the second world war and then bringing up a family through times of rationing. She also witnessed the emergence of technologies and the mass penetration of televisions, phones and cars.

With each grandchild came new developments in toys and Christmases and birthdays must have looked so different to how they once were. After the grandchildren, came the great-grandchildren, who now belong to a different age altogether, with different expectations to how things were when she was their age.

Like my own grandparents who passed away in the 90s, Grandma Rose wasn't green. Like many things back then "Green" hadn't even been invented, yet by modern standards she was as eco-friendly as they come. In the sixteen years that I knew her, she grew her own fruit and vegetables in her back garden and home-baked. She didn't have a car, wanted for very little, but had fun. Indeed she had masses and masses of fun, until a stroke sadly crippled her a few years ago.

I really wish I'd known what she thought about modern times, but I never took the opportunity to ask. It never occurred to me. Instead we would happily talk about family, her church, her friends and her love of dancing.

And as I now try to capture the spirit of old-fashioned values, I can't help feeling regretful that it's taken until now to find my feet, at a time when it all feels too late.

I feel like I've spent the last forty years partying, and running away from anything that was deemed old-fashioned. Now, I find myself turning my back on the party and grasping at the traditional, like an old comfort blanket to keep me safe, to protect our children and to keep the world from harm.

But as I try to leave the big party behind I realise I don't really want to be green. I don't want to be eco-friendly either. I just want to live lightly in a world where that's the norm, where such values aren't labelled as different. I want to be like the generations that are gradually leaving us behind.

I also want my children to follow suit and their children too. I want their actions to be our grandparents' legacy.

I want old-fashioned to be the latest trend, in a way that outshines retro.

But most of all. I want us to remember our ancestors for what they did and how they were, whether it was at war or peace.

And of course this Sunday is Remembrance Day, a day to remember all those who fought for our country through the terrible wars, a time to remember that the past wasn't all rosy.

All those people who have trod our earth and have now gone, many of whom were too young to have fathered children of their own and didn't live to see the modern days that came.

Oh dear, I apologise for these ramblings but I suppose, after all this outpour, you can probably guess I'm just an old-fashioned girl at heart. So thank you so much for listening, while I just get things off my chest.

We'll miss Grandma Rose now she's gone, but what we won't do is forget her special gifts, not things, but her smile, her kindness, her gentleness, her traditional values and her dancing.

___________________________________________________

Read more ►

Mrs Smith and her rubbish proposition

I'm afraid I'm away today, got important things to do, but while I'm off on my travels our Tracey has popped over to show her face and has a wonderful proposition for you. Do you wanna see what it is?...then click on the button and find out what's in store.

____________________________________________

Read more ►

I'm obviously a latecomer...

This did make me smile. A beautifully packaged message.



The observant ones amongst you will have noticed that the clip was created for Buy Nothing Day 2006. If you think you've missed out on a fantastic event, then you'll be pleased to hear this is now an annual occurence and you're just in time for Buy Nothing Day 2008, which is taking place around the world on 29th November (or 28th November in the U.S. and Canada).

According to the U.K. based BND website, the rules are simple. "For 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!"

What fun! I can't wait. It's a good job I'm getting in a bit of practice over the next few weeks or I might be itching to hit the shops. Synchronicity eh, it's a beautiful thing.

So if you fancy a day off from splashing your hard-earned cash, pop over to www.buynothingday.co.uk to see how you can get involved.

_______________________________________________

Read more ►

Green cleaning: quite literally!

"Mummy look what Little T has done!" announced my seven year old prefect, rushing up to me with photographic evidence to prove it.

I had suspected the silence was a sign of creative genius, but when I last looked, little T was sitting in a very angelic position,at the dining table ready to turn a toilet roll tube into a green train. I certainly hadn't expected green footprints and handprints to decorate our beige stair carpet.

Mr A was sleeping off a late night at a Halloween party, while I was up early to finish an article. I wasn't feeling particularly well, I had a cold coming on so I was pleased that little T was happy to occupy himself for 10 minutes while I got the job finished.

And occupy himself he did, whilst Little J took photos of him in action. But how could they have been so quiet about it, surely a snigger might have been in order, a chuckle perhaps or even a shout of horror from the prefect himself.


So there was nothing for it but to put the green paint monster in the bath and wake Mr A from his slumber to supervise. Meanwhile I rolled up my sleeves, grabbed the bottle of vinegar,the tub of bicarbonate of soda and then got scrubbing.

I wasn't quiet sure if it was manna from heaven, sending me a research opportunity for the next chapter in my book or whether it was punishment for wanting just 10 minutes to myself.

Whatever it was, it was a big job to clean up.

Anyway, the interesting news is, I attempted to clean some of the stains with the product that promises carpet stains to vanish...but even after scrubbing like a madwoman the green prints remained very much in their original form.

For the rest of the handprints, I brushed on the bicarbonate of soda, then poured on white vinegar, watched it fizz and scrubbed at it again like a madwoman. They started to lighten and gradually disappeared. I topped off with a dose of Ecover washing liquid and eh presto, most of the stains were gone.

Admittedly there is still a faint hint of green, but that's only the real hardcore stains. Thankfully, the rest have lifted.

When I'm over my cold and my inner domestic demon returns, I'll tackle it again.

In the meantime, I'll be thankful I don't need a new carpet. After all, with the challenge I've set myself this month, it would be a bit of a blow-out so soon in the first week.

_________________________________________________

Read more ►

NOTHING NEW!

Apologies for the behaviour of that naughty Delores yesterday. Fancy packing me off to landfill with a flea in my ear just so she can sort out my cleaning affairs. Tsk - as if I haven't got anything else to think about. It is nice to have a clean bathroom though!

Now it might seem extreme but I have officially named November as my BUY NOTHING NEW MONTH, which means, apart from birthday gifts for family members, food and other household essentials, I shall not buy anything new for the next 29 days!

It all starts today!

And I can tell you, it's going to be blimmin' hard.

Not only have I got a wedding to dress up for next weekend, but I've also been invited to a Pampered Chef party this week, you know the kind, where the salesperson cooks up something really tasty before your very eyes using gadgets that promise to turn you into a domestic goddess and your resistance weakens.

However the hardest part will be avoiding buying a new teapot to replace the one that I accidentally boiled on the stove the other week.

I'd turned on the gas hob to boil the kettle, just as Mr A asked me to check something on the computer. Minutes later, he lifted his nose in the air, took a sniff and helpfully proclaimed "There's something burning!"

And yep, it was the teapot! My gorgeous blue one that I'd bought from Whittards about 10 years ago. Like a twerp, I'd turned on the wrong knob. The kettle was still as cold as a cucumber but the teapot was hot and cracked, resting in a bath of hot tea. As it happened the Twinings breakfast blend turned out to be a fantastic hob cleaner, but that was no silver lining to the black cloud that was beginning to brew.

So why am I doing this "buy nothing new" month?

I suppose over the years I've got to know my habits really well and because I've got the willpower of a cat tossing a bird, November has become a dangerous month in both the financial and clutter departments

You see it's the Christmas shopping that gets me every time.

It's like "One for you....one for me...one for you...one for me", and by the time I've bought my Auntie Dilys her regular Thorntons chocolates along with a box for my Auntie Pat, I'll be heading home with a new book and a pair of boots I couldn't resist along the way!

...Which brings me back to my lovely teapot.

I only purchased it because I'd bought an equivalent one for my sister, liked it so much that I paid for an extra. Then there were the pastry forks that I decided to keep for myself and ended up buying a replacement pressie.

There you go. Surely you'll agree that some form of therapy is definitely in order!

So this year I promise to be wise, grasp the willpower and just say no.

Instead of reaching for the credit card, I will pass things by and if I still want them in December, I'll add them to my Christmas list.

It will really make a refreshing change to have things for Christmas that I've actually anticipated and longed for, even if it is just for a few weeks, instead of buying stuff there and then!

You never know, I might not even need them after all.

But I do really need a new teapot. I've missed it too much and I hate dunking teabags in cups and mugs, which is why this month might turn out to be a real challenge indeed.

I suppose the only saving grace is that I'm such a blimmin' fusspot, it'll probably take me a month to find a suitable replacement.

So why don't you join me in this mad crusade. It could save us both some cash and make December even more special. Go on...29 days isn't that long.........is it?


______________________________________________________

Read more ►