Typecast

This quote from my husband sums it up: "A rich filter coffee in seconds" When I first opened my Dolce Gusto "Mini Me" pod machine I immediately though it looked like a penguin. It fits perfectly into our kitchen, looking pretty cool on the sideboard, getting lots of compliments from visitors. It's so easy to make a barista-style coffee using this machine because after you have ensured that the water tank is full, fed the "pod" into a special drawer and selected the amount of water to be filtered through the pod, the machine does the rest, delivering perfect coffee every time.   Have a look at the video below to see just how easy it is - I filmed this in real time.  There are lots of different flavours of coffee pods available. Some of the coffee styles require more than one pod (such as the cappuccino) but there are many that only require one pod. You can also mix up pods to create different "recipes". At the time...

This was the sunrise on the 28th July 2009.  At the time I never knew how that day would change my life,  but it was the start of a new path for me. Today this blog is five years old.  I've been blogging much longer under many guises however Typecast came into existence with this post about becoming a young grandparent. This blog has given me space to air my opinions and speak freely, occasionally with people listening and responding.  It has connected me with an amazing and inspiring group of people that continue to grow as an online community.  It has helped me raise thousands of pounds for a charity very close to my heart. It has brought me opportunities to help support some awesome campaigns.  It continues to take me on a journey of self-discovery. Thank you for travelling with me. The image was sent to me by The Day That... , mounted and framed.  It is now hanging over my desk as a reminder of where it all be...

Recently I have invested in a few items that are definitely going to add meaning to my life. We all need a little boost sometimes don't we? In the picture you can see my gorgeous denim satchel, my (purple) laptop, two (moleskine) notebooks and a video camera.  The laptop was the biggest investment. I'm working from home now and my old laptop just didn't cut it when it came to multi-tasking.  I've never owned a traditional style satchel before so when the Zatchels sale was on recently I thought I deserved a bit of a treat.   The camcorder is because I'm becoming involved in vlogging and spending more time on my YouTube channel .   The notebooks are... well, a girl can never have too many notebooks, can she? The larger one of the two will be my next bullet journal and the small green one fits perfectly into the back of my Filofax and will be for random notes. Brand new starts in life require brand new things to help you along.   ...

It's not often you can watch a show where every generation of the family breaks forth with uncontrollable belly-laughs and has a great time. However, this is exactly what happens at Cirque Du Hilarious. Cirque Du Hilarious, father and son duo, Clive Webb and Danny Adams , along with their small-but-perfectly-formed cast (including two of Clive's other sons, Mick Potts and Jonny Marx) pack in groan-worthy jokes, slapstick comedy that makes you laugh so much your cheeks hurt, magic acts, song, dance and audience participation in their hour and a half show in a very engaging and intimate cabaret-style atmosphere. We attended as a family of four (two adults and two children aged 5 and 4) and it was great to see a few jokes included for the adults but the rest of the show being very family orientated.  There is a very loose show storyline about wolves living under the pier but this type of show doesn't need a storyline as you get carried along with the humour and on-...

According to a recent report the number of teenage pregnancies in the UK is falling however East Lancashire (where I live) still has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the country [ source: Lancashire Telegraph ].  So it was no real surprise to receive a phone call from BBC Radio Lancashire asking to provide my opinion having been a teen mum and as the parent of a teen mum.   You can hear my chat with Graham Liver here on the BBC iPlayer (available until 29th July) at around 2hrs 8mins. As well as sharing my thoughts about finding out my daughter was to become a teen mum, I talk about how the positive stories are not included in any media-led statistics and how case-studies like mine (pregnant at 18 and still in a relationship the child's father 24 years down the line) are probably not as rare as they are believed to be - they are just not reported on because it doesn't make a dramatic headline.  This discussion got me thinking about how we really...

When I went on holiday recently I chose five books from my recent downloads to read (a lot of my random e-book reading are from  the "free" section of Amazon  with paid downloads being true recommendations from friends).   Two of them were never started, the other three were a glorious surprise. The first book I completed was 48 Hours : A City Of London Thriller by J Jackson Bentley. It was free when I downloaded it (and, at the time of writing, still is free).  The plot was unpredictable and kept me glued to the book.  When you thought it was concluding you realised there was loads more of the book left and another twist happened.  My only criticism is that one of the characters is literally Bob Geldof with a name change - there should have been more originality with this character because it still would have worked. I'm glad to have discovered this author and will probably be downloading more from him. Next was The Last Day which ha...

As many of you know (because I've talked about it so much) a lot of my early internet hours were spent on the 80s Nostalgia forum and chat room. I discovered it after it was the recommended website in the Daily Mirror and still have many (very close) friends from those times.  I have lost touch with the original founder (Birdy) but Craig took over the website and still runs it today. If I am being totally honest, I expected more 80s music from Craig's  Soundtrack To My Life  but, in a way, I'm glad that it's as mixed as it is.  For now, it's over to Craig. ¨¨ °º©©º°¨¨ Shout - Tears for Fears This, for me, is how an 80s song should be – moody, mechanical and unhappy. I think I've always been a moody male, even when I was at primary school. Over the years I've often pondered why I was so moody for the early part of my life. There were no events that I was unhappy with, not occasions that made me sad, nothing bad ever happened to me and so ...

This isn't really a " what I'm doing now ", it's more a " what I was doing then " or a " I wish I was still doing that " type of Gallery entry today. This time last week I was on a short break in Tunisia with my husband. It is only the second time we've been away on our own in our 24 years of being together. Whilst we were away, we celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary with very little pomp and ceremony. We did absolutely nothing whilst we were away; we never left the hotel, we sunbathed, we swam in the sea, we didn't get drink copious amounts of alcohol, we allowed ourselves half an hour a day to catch up on British news and Facebook alerts on our tablets using the fairly erratic hotel wi-fi connection (hence where I saw the Gallery prompt) and just properly chilled out. Here's more of what we did (and didn't) do... We also watched the sun set... ...and watched it rise again.  A lot! And...

A few months ago I accepted that I am who I am inside this body.  This isn't the body I want but its the body I've got.  For now.  Every mark, lump and bump on my body tells a story. This includes the stretch marks from three pregnancies, the scars from six operations, the pock marks from childhood illnesses, the way I choose to  decorate my skin with tattoo ink  and all the weight I've put on over the past few years.   I have made conscious decisions to make changes to my body to attempt to become happier with it. I've joined a local Slimming World group and I'm learning how to keep fit with the ' Couch to 5K ' running programme. It's not easy and I want instant results to become instantly happier with who I am but I'm sensible enough to know part of the psychology behind it determines that it's going to be a slow process. However... here's the twist...   Newspapers choose to print images of celebrity bodies which range fro...

[popout:  http://youtu.be/p4M0RRWzTXY ] Welcome to week 1 of "Vlog Challenge" If you've wandered on over here and wondering what all this is about, you can read all about "Vlog Challenge" here . This week's theme is "Top Tips" How you interpret this is entirely up to you so get creative! Vlog. Upload. Share. Here's my contribution:  [popout:  http://youtu.be/zni8310aHv8 ] Leave me your own vlog link in the comments here, the comments on my YouTube channel or tweet them to me using the hashtag #vlogchallenge .