Reviews
New Decade
In exactly one month I begin a whole new decade of my existence. Yep, bye bye twenties. I wish I could say I was sad to be leaving them behind but in all honesty I’m really ready to start a fresh page.
My twenties were really hard. Illness and fairly gruelling rehabilitation seemed to eat up so much of it and obviously relationships haven’t quite gone as I had planned back when I was a fresh-faced twenty year old dreaming of moving in with her boyfriend. But it gave me my boy, and I’ve grown. Not grown-up, but grown, hmm, I dunno, in? I am a different person after these ten years. A better one, stronger, more in touch with how I tick and with the world around me and why I’m on it.
It really feels like a new start, this. I’m excited. Excited to see what happens next and the people I’ll meet and what I’ll discover. I feel lighter, somehow, than I did ten years ago, even though I have much more on my shoulders.
The people at Journal10 offered me one of their ten year journals and I said yes. In it I have space to record a couple of lines every day, laid out day by day so I can see what I was doing every year on a particular day, all the way over decade. I think I will aim to record just one thing from every day. Something I noticed or did or read or something that was said to me. And then I can watch which way I grow and which way the wind blows me.
Thanks to Journal 10 for my new companion. It comes beautifully leather bound, with extra space for longer, continued entries and pages to mark down important dates and occasions. There’s pages to plan your dreams and mark your accomplishments each year and keep track of addresses and other important info. You can buy them via here.
Read MoreRainy day stories and a big bag of children’s books to win
Me and the boy are starting to settle into a new winter routine. Busy mornings at pre-school for him, and study for me, and then home early afternoon to crash. Afternoons spent kicking leaves are becoming slightly less fun, more soggy than crunchy, aside from the odd bright day, with temperatures dropping and more rain and dark dark dark coming quicker and gloomier. But truth is, although I’m missing more time outside, I’m loving our afternoons, (for the most part, don’t quote me on that one on a day I’m begging for bedtime. Ahem.) Curtains get closed early and our sofa is now a permanent nest with cushions and blankets. Kai is usually content to play on whatever adventure he’s dreamed up that day (mostly involving transforming robots and lasers at the moment, I have to say), and I knit, or clean, or work a little and we chat our lovely secret, in-joke chat and make each other laugh and fend off the grumps with snacks and painting and other indoory things. There’s definitely a touch of hibernation-mode kicking in – even I’m going to bed earlier. There’s something about winter, inbuilt in us, that breeds sitting, and hunkering down, and, oh and stories. Yes. It is definitely a time for books, too.
The people from the new Tesco Magazine Kids’ Book Club got in touch lately to tell me about their new site and share news, specifically, of the Kids’ Book Club videos that they’re starting to preview. On them, a host of famous celebs such as Alison Steadman, Caroline Quentin, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal, read aloud some of the best new kids’ books, accompanied by the books’ gorgeous illustrations. The first videos are up now, with lots more planned, and cover the whole spectrum of toddler, pre-school and primary-aged children, from picture books, right up to chapter books for older kids. As well as videos and reviews, the site shares news of new books, exclusive author content and parents’ resources. Honestly, it’s brilliant. And I’m not usually quick to endorse things.
Read MoreHow to occupy your three year old on a miserable Sunday when you have a cold and all you want to do is knit and drink tea.
You give him a bowl of giant, toddler-sized Hama beads and a dinosaur pegboard and while he does this…
Our Premier Inn Adventure
There has been lots of new milestones to face since I became a single parent. The first time he was ill, the first time I was ill, the first time we were both ill together (THAT was a fun one)… stuff like that. One I’ve been a bit nervous about facing was taking two year old Kai away somewhere on my own. I don’t have a car, so the whole getting there/what to pack/how to carry it issue was a bit, well, ARGH. But my confidence has grown exponentially over the last year, with Kai anyway – it’s had to, to be honest, so when Premier Inn kindly contacted me about sending us away for a couple of nights to review one of their hotels, I thought I’d take the plunge.
I have stayed in a few budget hotel chains and I have to say from the get-go, that Premier Inn is by far my favourite. It’s no more expensive than its competitors but you always seem to get a lot more bang for your buck, and our stay in the central Birmingham’s branch confirmed that. Birmingham is only 40 minutes on the train from us and within walking distance of the train station, which made it a nice, doable first expedition, and with a trip to Cadbury World thrown in, we were looking forward to a bit of an adventure as Kai experienced his very first two night stay in a hotel.
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