Typecast

Today on Soundtrack To My Life , the songs have been chosen by someone you may only know as a donkey.  Wendy normally goes by the name of " Very Bored in Catalunya " and uses a straw donkey as her avatar.  Even I didn't know what she looked like until earlier this year when I finally had the chance to meet her at  BritMums Live .  I have featured Wendy today because she is Guest Twizmaster on the Friday Twiz tonight, giving me the chance to join in.  Let's see if she's got some tracks to get us in the weekend mood. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Olivia Newton-John - Take Me Home Country Road I suppose I had better start in chronological order ... way back, way, way back when I was just a nipper, well about 4 or 5. I have very vivid memories of a house we used to live in. I remember leaving wax crayons out on the floor, a bit too close to the gas fire which then melted nicely into the carpet... I also remember my mum playing her rather small collection of 45s. ...

Shoes... SHOES... S.H.O.E.S... I'm getting to Imelda Marcos status with my shoes at the moment but with the recent indeterminable weather it has meant that I've gone out in flip-flops when I needed galoshes or worn boots when I could have got away with pretty sandals.  Because my feet have been encased in boots most of the time (flat, warm, safe) I have been dying to get back into heels.  I've had the opportunity to try a pair of ECCO shoes which looked pretty cool, although I wasn't too sure about the shape at first. I'm lucky that I can dress for work in a smart/casual way because I flit between the office and off-site project work.   As the  Sculptured 65  is a brand new range I've styled them up in both a smart and in a casual way to see what felt best. I have been looking for a great pair of shoes to wear with this knee-length dress and these are perfect for it and I can totally see me teaming them with a pair of thick-knit tights ...

I'm not normally into inspirational quotes, however sometimes something just stops me in my tracks, even though it might seem 'cheezy'!  I am not sure whether it's a new state of mind within my new job role or just old age.   Anyway, I saw these two posters at a meeting today (immediately Instagrammed them, natch) and thought that we could all use these quotes either for ourselves or our children.   What do you think?  "The choices we don't make are as important as the ones we do make" "No two flowers bloom in exactly the same way"

Please welcome Kylie as this week's Soundtrack To My Life contributor.  Kylie writes about being a parent of a premature baby and how that journey has affected them as a family.  You'll notice that today's choices have a bit of an Aussie theme running through some of them and that is because Kylie is originally from Tasmania.  However, this boomerang hasn't returned... we've got her for keeps! Over to Kylie and her musical excerpts. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Hunters and Collectors - Say Goodbye When I was growing up in Tasmania, all my friends were very much influenced by music from the UK and the States.I felt there must be a better way, an Australian way and I fell upon Hunters and Collectors. This song, Say Goodbye, is a very grown up pop song and an enduring favourite. [popout :  http://youtu.be/BWVUB1bzdrM ] Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him? One of my favourite things to do as a teenager was listen to music programmes, Countdown and later Rage,...

Yesterday I set you a moral dilemma .  This question has been used in interviews in the past and I read about it over the weekend.  Of course, there is no correct answer but the "best" answer was this:

Our final #AppyBitches activity was supposed to show a 30-minute discussion between a fab group of bloggers where we talked about money saving and time saving apps for busy parents.  However, I only found the big red BROADCAST button after everyone had left, as you can see... Myself and Paula were joined by: Sian from Cybher ( @geekisnewchic ) Paul ( @hooker1UK ) Di ( @superluckydi ) Amy ( @and1moremeans5 ) Emma ( @methemanandbaby ) Andy ( @ndyharmon ) and we discussed which apps work best on iPad (sometimes they are just enlarged versions of iPhone apps), how some apps are best developed rather than newer versions created and we compared apps for the iPad against apps for the (newer) android tablet. There was talk about social media apps (Twitter and Facebook featured heavily) and how shopping and banking apps are becoming more popular.  I also believe, at one point, we agreed that I was going to find out how to become ordained online and conduct ...

You are driving along the road and the rain is beating down.  Your windscreen wipers are struggling to swish the rain away from the window but the journey is just about manageable.  As you are nearing the edge of town you pass a bus shelter with three people waiting:

Should you ever write a blog post so personal that it feels as though it shouldn't be in the public arena?  I've been attempting to write a blog post for a few days and each time I start, I stop a few lines later.  I'm not sure if it's the nature of the post or just the fact that I'm not ready to write about it yet. It might be easier to explain.

Is it wrong that I'm not gawping at David Beckham in his pants but drooling over his tattoos? That's some seriously amazing work there. What do you think? 2012 2013 2013 (second shoot) 2014 2014 (second shoot) All images from  From the 2012, 2013, 2014 H&M Campaign Found  on Google  and again on Google and again  on Google  and, just for a change, Eonline UK "safe search" off, naturally...  *cough*

I bet you're all wondering how the #AppyBitches / #BGSaveTime campaign is going?  Well, first of all, Paula didn't do a runner with the iPad but she stuck to her brief and researched a number of apps to see how they could help her organise her life and maybe make it a little easier.  Her trip to Ireland to catch up with her family was the perfect place to start and she's been keeping a diary for me during her holiday and on her return home.  Let's see what she's been up to - over to Paula.

Picture Credit : Yahoo Sport After the glorious Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics , the amazing achievements of all the athletes and the "Team GB" record-breaking medal stash we were left with a bit of a damp squid of a Closing Ceremony.  I don't doubt for one minute that organising an event of that scale takes a lot of inspiration and forward planning and was it marvellously bonkers as only the British can be but it took Eric Idle, Freddie Mercury and John Lennon to save the day  and two of them are dead !

I'm a massive fan of slogan t-shirts and many of you will already know about my favourite - "Social Networking Ruined My Life" - which is, more often than not, my Facebook profile picture.  I have got plenty of t-shirts with unusual images or slogans on them - the weirder the better.  My favourites include: NEWSFLASH: I am special and will never be one of you Life is not a popularity contents... Oh, wait, yes it is Boomerangs are making a comeback Video games ruined my life.  Good job I have another two [followed by two red hearts and one faded out heart] I love them.  I think they are fun.  I believe they add a bit of color and humour to the day. Until this weekend, that is. We were in a flooring shop and I was wearing my "NEWSFLASH" t-shirt.  The shop was empty and we were stood at the till.  One of the (male) shop assistants said, "Can I ask you a question?  Why is it that you can wear a t-shirt with writing on it...

This week on Soundtrack To My Life I am featuring an internet friend who I have known for about seven years yet only had the chance to meet earlier this year at the Cybher conference.   Violet Fenn (yes, that's her real name - she changed it by deed poll) and I have very different blog themes but her "deads" fascinate me.  More about that later - here are Fenn's musical choices. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Ralph McTell - Streets Of London When I was about six, my dad used to teach guitar in the evenings after my brother and I had gone to bed. This was one of the first songs that he taught his pupils and I remember so clearly lying in bed with the thin curtains vainly trying to keep the summer evening light out, hearing this over and over and over again. (popout : http://youtu.be/UDT1sx1yePM ) The Damned - Eloise This isn't the first song I owned by The Damned - that credit goes to 'Noise Noise Noise', which I procured from a friend of my father's...

How many can you guess? Have a go in the comments... The original source is stephenwildish.co.uk but I saw this on the 97.4 Rock FM Facebook page .

example There is a great trend at the moment for sharing the blog love by displaying a button to show your affiliation.  The usual places for these are in the sidebar of your blog or on a separate Affiliate page. This tutorial is designed to help you create your own badge and to show you how the HTML code is constructed.  This gives you a bit more understanding so that you can create buttons for almost anything - to click through to pages on your own blog, to promote all posts under a certain label or even to point your visitors in the direction of a guest post you have written. Step 1 Find a picture that you would like for your button.  You can use any image you like but preferably a picture that you have taken yourself or a free* image from the internet.  A bright image is good but relative to the subject is better. Step 2 Use the direct link code Upload your image to an online storage website (or your own...

It's time for another  Soundtrack To My Life  and today I am featuring the very lovely Hollie Smith .  Hollie is a complete technophobe when it comes to blogging but she relies on myself and a couple of others to help her out there.  Her main forté is writing - and she seems to be pretty good at it considering she has (at the time of writing) ten books published, including one that I reviewed a while back - You And Your Tween .  Here is Hollie's musical interlude. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Frank Sinatra - How About You I grew up with my dad's music of choice crackling on the turntable in the background. He was into the genre they call 'Easy Listening': Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee. This Sinatra song is one of his best. I loved it then and I loved it now. (popout : http://youtu.be/jgoG5o7Jsk4 )  David Bowie - Fill Your Heart  I used to play my brother's Hunky Dory LP all the time when he wasn't looking. Later I bought my own...

In case you've been living in a hole for the past few week or don't actually spend your life on social media, you may have noticed that the London 2012 Olympic Games are currently happening.  I haven't written about the Games yet as I am a frustrated ex-athlete who's career was cut short by an accident .  I just sit here, watching in awe, trying to push my jealousy to the back of my mind.  Seriously, though, I am gobsmacked by the dedication that our athletes put into their sport and it's all because they love what they do, not because they get paid to love what they do. Our medal total is growing and there have been amazing achievements by ALL of the athletes in the Games (let's just ignore the shoddy sportsmanship during the badminton for now), not just the ones who have won medals.  Are we forgetting that the athletes that have qualified to represent our country at the Olympics are the best we have, not the only ones we have?  It just so happens that ...

9 Months... ...but it feels like forever