Typecast

For new(er) readers, or those not in the know, Soundtrack To My Life is an irregular music series that appears on my blog from time to time.  Over the years, I've had guest posts from people who documented songs that transport them back to a specific moment in their life and I've generated playlists for a variety of reasons ( click here to scroll through the 100+ entries).  So, moving on from an entry earlier this year of Songs You Should Never Play On Hospital Radio , there was only one way to go... Songs You Should Never Play At A Funeral.  I've collated a few here but please feel free to hit me up on any of my social media channels and suggest your own. TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Your loved one has just passed away and the family are gathered around paying their last respects.  The last song you want to hear is Another One Bites The Dust softly playing in the background on the kitchen radio. It's now time t...

Photo Credit : Alex Iby / Unsplash Yesterday I ended up down a weird and wonderful rabbit hole from a click on Twitter that culminated in a visit to Mumsnet (don't judge me - it was lunch time and I was aimlessly wandering around the internet unsupervised). The thread I ended up reading was about celebrities who were absolute twats in real life. The thing is, I read a couple of names on there and had to really wrack my brains to remember if they were (now) dead or alive. Well, this opened a whole new tab of research on Wikipedia and IMDb with one celebrity very much alive and another still not confirmed*.  I shared my thoughts with my Facebook friends who, quite frankly, are as sick and twisted as I am and it appears that I'm not on my own with this type of bewilderment. *FYI: Bella Emberg (alive) and Mo from the Roly Polys (unsure) *UPDATE : Bella Emberg (dead - January 2018) Names popped up left, right and centre and many of them I had to double check. ...

This month has been a hectic one but there's always something to learn and I'm passing it all on to you too! (aside: there may be a little bit of September's learning curve in here too as I didn't get chance to write it all up in time last month) When you think you don't have any more room in your heart, along pops another little human being to disprove that fact.  My newest grandchild - Freddie - was born on 29th October and is just flipping perfect.   It's always lovely to write for another website as it helps you focus more on your thoughts .  I wrote this guest post for Hope House Press which is all about choosing a diary for 2017. I'm still a little undecided and really think that there should be less choice to make it a little easier. 140 characters goes even further on Twitter now because (direct uploaded) image links are not included in the character count. It gives you a little more freedom with your tweet and also makes commercia...

Everywhere I look, someone is trying to tell me how to grow my YouTube channel or how to be successful on YouTube. Bollocks to that. This is the antithesis of that advice as surely YouTube is just for the young and the beautiful? How Not To Win At YouTube Don't start until you are 40 years old. These young'uns know nothing worth watching It might be acceptable to start at age 30 though. Never EVER ask anyone to like your video or subscribe to your channel. Needy, much? Don't have a niche. There's no need. Just be random and unprepared. Don't have a schedule. I mean, do you switch on at a specific time to watch content exactly when it's uploaded? Or need to comment with "FIRST"? Don't vlog every single day. Or if you do, make sure you moan like fuck about how difficult it is, And make sure every vlog is the same. And use one of the first three available music options from the YouTube media library. And have the vol...

I saw a random image from the 1920s today somewhere on the interwebs and I'm now thinking that we need a new photo craze for 2014.   Planking is so 2010 and Owling or Batmanning is a boring copy. Cat/Dog Bearding means you need a cat or a dog and if you already have one of these then I'm sure you've participated in Lion King-ing . Using two people and a bit of a clever angle, you can take a photograph that makes it seem that someone has been beheaded (like the Headless Horseman). So, who's up for it?  Upload your results to the comments box, tweet me your photos, tag me on Facebook or email them to me and I'll add them to this post. Image credit : the Horsemanning website

After my car being pronounced dead during its MOT I've needed a bit of cheering up, so here are a few things that have helped lightened the mood over the past few days. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ A Quote My husband, whilst tucking into a KFC Big Daddy box meal: "They never seem put enough sauce on these buns but there's always just enough to spill out the other side onto your jumper." A Collage You can read more about why I am doing this here   and I tasked myself to find a new notebook this week to start my weekly vision boards.  However, I was sent the most gorgeous notebook   from Clinique as a "thank you" for taking part in a G+ Hangout with them last week (also see " Pretties " further down).  I'm a great believer in things happening for a reason and this notebook found its way to me.  If our paths cross this year at any time I may ask you to fill in a page or two for me.  I'll explain at the time.  A Tweet ...

1.  ARE THERE CLIQUES IN THE WORLD OF PARENT BLOGGING? a) Yes b) No c) I don't know 2.  DO ANY CLIQUES HAVE SPECIAL NAMES? a) I know what they are called but if I told you, I'd have to kill you b) There aren't any.  I told you that in the last question. c) I don't know 3.  IF YOU ARE/WERE THE LEADER OF A CLIQUE WOULD YOU HAVE ME IN IT? a) Yes b) No c) I don't know 4.  DO CLIQUES HAVE RULES, SECRET SIGNS AND TWITTER DIRECT MESSAGE ALERTS? a) I can't tell you that... oops b) no... oops c)  I don't know 5.  DO YOU THINK I AM IN A CLIQUE a) yes b) no c) I don't know THE RESULTS

I'm the first one to  take to my blog for a good old rant  come out fighting in my child's corner but that is because I know them best.  I would not allow them to be placed in a position that I knew they would possibly not feel comfortable in or be able to cope with.  Are we at risk of singling our children out more by wrapping them up in cotton wool?