Typecast

You'd think after blogging after all this time that I'd remember important dates such as the "birth" of this blog?  Oh no! Not me.  I missed my blog anniversary.  Again.  For the third year running!  For those who don't know, this blog was reborn on 27th July 2009 with the post " From Young Mum To Young Grandparent in 17 Years " so, to celebrate, I started  a Tumblr account that was long overdue .  I have a feeling that this will be a funnel for all the randomness that I find round and about.  Stuff that's too short for a blog post and too long for Twitter. I've celebrated with cake, naturally.  Cake supplied by a company called Baker Days* who wanted to send me cake because I'm a lovely person.  Who can argue with that? ( You don't need to answer that last question ) Anyway, I've noticed over the past year or so that the bloggers I connected with back in the olden days are seen as "Top Bloggers" with...

"Cup of tea with three, please." Did you just wrinkle your nose up at that? Yeah, that's the expression I am usually met with when someone ask me if I want a brew. "What's the problem?"  I ask.  "It's me that's drinking it!" The brew maker usually eyes me suspiciously and tries to counterbalance their shock with the fact that they are using extra sugar for me. "Not really," I reply and continue with the explanation that my husband has no sugar in his brew (he's a coffee drinker - let's just park that there for now) but could have two sugars in it like he used to.  If I had two and he had two that would be four spoons of sugar so, in actual fact, by me having three sugars, I'm saving you some.  Reverse logic or just an answer for everything? Truthfully, there is nothing better that a good strong cup of tea though although I am quite specific with my brew making.   I'm not one for newfangled flav...

If I asked you how busy you were at the moment what would your answer be? Me?  I'm swan-like.  You all think that I'm calm and serene but under the surface I'm paddling like mad. I'm incredibly busy at work at the moment (new job role, brand new project, exciting times), my blogging life is on the up and up (fantastic) and at home the long summer holidays have just started which means trying to keep a 13 year old occupied without it costing the Earth (impossible)! As you all know, I'm a little bit addicted to my online life and keep tabs on everything via my laptop, my new android tablet or my phone.  I've got apps for everything and I'm always trying to find the shortest and cheapest route from A to B, whether that be connecting with friends, paying the bills or being entertained. British Gas have approached me and asked if I could take part in their online campaign.  They want to showcase their brand new app that allows you to ...

What do you think when you see this picture? Apologies for the crapness of quality but we were driving through the countryside  at speed in the gypsy van and I only had my mobile phone with me.  We were on our way to Rochdale the other day to pick up a door (long story) and as we were driving over "the tops" we saw this wind farm. I'm not about to go into "the science bit" which discusses possibly how un-green renewable energy is or how renewable energy is responsible for a lot of the climate change issues.  From a layman's point of view, I personally think these are a thing of modern beauty. Should we be more receptive to harnessing natural resources?  I  originally saw this video in the b3ta newsletter a couple of years ago and it's stayed with me as it's such a clever commercial for a German company called Epuron . (popout : http://youtu.be/2mTLO2F_ERY ) I often wish that using natural power/energy wasn't quite so...

Sticking to my ethos of attempting recipes and making mistakes so that you don't have to, today's "recipe" is Orange Smoothie .  Now, bearing in mind that I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom today and found a blender that I forgot I had, this was just a " chuck in what I think is supposed to go in " attempt at a smoothie. Ingredients: A blender (it doesn't have to be new) Some oranges or satsumas (I used five medium sized satsumas) 2 cups of milk ⅔  of a cup of sugar 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract Some ice cubes or 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream Method: Squeeze the living daylights out of the oranges and extract the juice.  Don't do what I did and just pick all the pith off and throw them in the blender because you don't have a juicer as you'll end up with "issues"*.  However, this does give me an opportunity to share this picture with you that hasn't had enough attention over the last two ...

This week's Soundtrack To My Life has been submitted by Neil Henderson.  Yet another Twitter introduction from a mutual online friend after - if my memory serves correctly - similar Strictly Come Dancing tweets from us both were tangoing their way across the interwebs. Neil tweets out the #tomorrowspaperstoday updates most evenings and can be easily distracted.  Here is Hendo's musical life story. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Charles Jolly (Penrose) - The Laughing Policeman It doesn't matter how awful life is, this ancient 1890's recording of a musical hall artist always makes me grin.  I think it's the innocence of it. "He never can stop laughing He says he's never tried But once he did arrest a man And laughed until he cried!" Officialdom is inherently absurd and bad regimes reserve their toughest punishments for those that laugh at them the loudest.  So promote jolly police officers, say I !! (popout :  http://youtu.be/hI1nPd7hezM ) Jerusalem ...

This post was submitted to me within the ethos of  Blognonymous . The author is a friend who asked me if I would post this as a guest post but I think it's more appropriate as a Blognonymous post. I would be great if you could offer feedback or advice from both sides of the fence very much in a WWYD (what would you do) sense.  If you  prefer to remain anonymous yourself then there is  a "guest comment" facility - sign out of Disqus (if you have used it before), write your comment, click "Post as..." and you will see "guest" appear as an option. If you would like to contact the Blognonymous team please click on the image to above for more details. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Today my 14-year old son (J) came home from school with a story.  First a little background.  He has a girlfriend (A), a sweet girl he's been friends with for quite a while but they've only been a couple for four months.  She's not his first girlfrien...