My last blog for Iceland!

THE TIME HAS COME TO SAY FAREWELL...

I’M LEFT WITH MANY TALES TO TELL...

THANKYOU ICELAND IT’S BEEN A BLAST...

ENJOY THIS BLOG IT IS MY LAST!

This week it’s hello again and goodbye!

The year has gone so quickly, it’s hard to believe this time last year I was unaware of how my life was about to change. When I sat down at my computer last year and wrote a few paragraphs about my life and what Iceland meant to me, I had no idea that I would end up auditioning for, and then winning Iceland’s competition to find a normal, everyday customer to be their “new face" and ambassador for 2010. If I’ve learnt anything from this it’s that you should always follow your dreams, however unrealistic they might be, and always enter competitions even if you think you have no chance of ever winning.

In this, my final blog, I’d like to explain why I felt I had to enter the competition and why I am such a big fan of Iceland. These are my own personal views and no one else’s! I am not on the Iceland payroll, and have no hidden agenda! This is just what I think (and always have thought even before the competition).

Many people seem to enjoy looking down on Iceland and on frozen food in general without understanding any of the facts about the products. For instance it is proven that frozen vegetables contain higher levels of nutrients and vitamin C than fresh vegetables that are not eaten immediately. Also, Iceland’s own brand products were the first to contain no artificial or GM ingredients and they sell lots of fresh chilled food, fruit and vegetables. They are constantly bringing out new products and new ranges so you never need to just buy the same old stuff every week. There is always something new to try.




I shop at Iceland because I enjoy the quality and variety of the food and I find it cheaper than any other store on many of the essentials like bread, milk, butter, cheese, etc... etc... However, even if I became a multi-millionaire I would still shop there as I don’t know why people pay more for things than they have to. If it wouldn’t all fit in my Porsche then I would have their free home delivery to my mansion too! O.K I’ll get off my soap box now but I can assure you my passion for good quality food at low prices from Iceland will continue whether an official or unofficial role and I won’t stop telling people!

I have to thank all the other “Iceland mums” who made the last year so much fun. Some of the friendships we made will last a lifetime and I don’t think I would have got through all the advert filming without them. We all have video evidence to show our future grandchildren that once upon a time granny danced the can can in an advert seen by millions! The memories I have will stay with me and always make me smile.


Finally I would like the thank Iceland for having faith in me, and giving me the chance of a lifetime. They have actually shown more faith in me than I had in myself, but I now know that I am capable of much more than I ever thought I was. (I suppose I should also thank the “shake and vac” lady for being my inspiration too!)

I think Iceland have made a good choice to pick Stacey Solomon as their new face. I watched all the “I’m A Celebrity” programs, (and not just for the ad breaks!) and thought she showed amazing strength and character. No matter what she went through she just kept on smiling and being happy! I wish her all the luck in the world and if she has half the fun me and the other “Iceland mums” had, she will love her new role with Iceland.

So for the last time I will say to you all...
Thanks for reading,

Ellie
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Becoming a gardener

ELLIE MARY, QUITE CONTRARY,
HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
WITH LOTS OF SNAILS, AND WAGGING TAILS
AND MY BULBS UPSIDE DOWN IN A ROW..ROW.. ROW..
MY BULBS UPSIDE DOWN IN A ROW!

Hello again,

This week I have had an urge to become a gardener as the sun is out and it feels like spring is here. Unfortunately I am not a very experienced gardener and planting things in pots is about my level, but I felt inspired to have a go. It is a very small garden at the new house but I see that as a plus point rather than a negative. In the last house the garden was probably three times the size but this meant the boys tried to play football in it, and if I ever tried to plant things in pots they always ended up snapped off and sad looking after having footballs land on them. They also had a trampoline which took over all the space and had a game that involved throwing shoes and trying to hit each other with them whilst bouncing. It wasn’t necessarily a game I approved of or authorised, but somehow it still seemed to happen and apart from having to ask the neighbour to throw shoes back, they also landed in any flowers I tried to plant.

The garden I have now is big enough for a patio set, a bench and a bar-b-que but that’s about it so I have claimed it as an "adult’s garden". As we live in a cul-de-sac now, there is plenty of space out the front with hardly any cars around for the boys to play football and on their bikes and scooters. This is a much better arrangement and I now want to get the back garden looking lovely in time for the start of bar-b-que season. I don’t think it matters what size a garden is, you can still make it your own little piece of tranquillity and once the sun comes out I am never inside the house.

I started by painting my old and ancient garden bench a very bright Mediterranean blue colour, inspired by the blue and white you see everywhere in the Greek islands. It’s actually a bit of an heir loom as it was my granny’s old bench but after the paint job it looks brand new again. I then bought some trays of pansies and primroses at the garden centre to fill all the pots. That was a hair raising trip as Luke wanted to help me and insisted on pushing the garden trolley for me. After nearly running down a person, and then bashing into a big pile of ceramic pots and making them wobble I decided I should push the trolley! I didn’t want to discourage his interest in gardening though, so when we got back I had great fun with a mad dog trying to dig and a 7 year old both "helping" to get the compost and plants into the pots. Despite the odds, the end result now looks very pretty! I also put up some of the solar powered lights on a string all along the back fence. Along with the blue lights running round my conservatory roof I now think it looks lovely at night, but must admit I am slightly worried the planes flying over to Bristol airport might think my house is a runway!

I also bought some Dahlia bulbs but quickly realised I had no idea which way up to plant them as there were no helpful diagrams on the back of the packet. We are not all natural gardeners; would it hurt to have a picture?! In the end I went for sprouty bits upwards but after discussing my dilemma in the school playground I was told that was upside down so had to dig them all up again and turn them round! Some of the knobbly bits fell off during this process so I am not holding my breath to see what comes up. Never mind, I seem to have about a million snails out there anyway so I expect they just would have eaten them anyway! I also saw some metal flower decorations when out shopping so bought 4 of those as I thought at least being metal I couldn’t actually do anything wrong and kill them!

I also finished off my birthday celebrations this week at the pub quiz with my work collegues.Unlike some pub quizzes this one has no real prize and is free to enter so it’s all just fun. We did pretty well but couldn’t agree on "What do chefs call the master spice?" Some said salt but I said it can’t be salt as salt isn’t a spice, then we thought maybe pepper but the more we thought about it the more other options we came up with. In the end we went for Saffron as it’s one of the most expensive and so could be called a "master" spice, but it turned out to be pepper after all! Always go with your first instinct! It was lovely to see everyone away from the workplace and we all had a nice evening. I had to stop every person there buying me a glass of wine for my birthday though as there were 8 people. Since I had work the next day and one of the people there was my boss 8 glasses of wine would have been a bad idea!

I hope wherever you are you have been enjoying the sunshine too and perhaps planting your bulbs more successfully than me! I will keep you posted as to whether anything actually comes up!

Thanks for reading,

Elle

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Birthday Fun!

THE DAY CAME AND I TURNED 40.....

STILL FOUND TIME TO BE A BIT NAUGHTY....

OUT FOR A CURRY WITH LOTS OF MUMS....

I MIGHT BE OLD BUT I CAN STILL HAVE FUN!!

Hello again,

This week I am writing to you as a mature and responsible 40 year old!

I must admit as the day grew closer I started to have a few panics. The thing is I just don’t feel 40. Apart from having a bit more self confidence, and perhaps a bit more wisdom I don’t feel any different to how I felt at 21! I started to ponder what does actually change as you get older, apart from becoming a bit more haggard in your physical appearance and this is all I could come up with;
1. I now enjoy Antiques Road Show.
2. I got excited when my Mum bought me a dishwasher.
3. Sometimes when I talk about old songs or T.V shows my younger work colleagues look at me blankly and I am shocked not everyone remembers who Geoffrey, George, Zippy and Bungle are.
4. I realise that not much in life is black and white; most things are a gray area if you really think about both sides.
5. My car insurance is cheaper!

The list of things that haven’t changed is too long to list here, but includes still painting sparkles on top of my nail polish, singing badly, playing music too loudly, dancing stupidly but energetically, watching children’s T.V shows such as “The Sarah Jane Adventures”, and “M.I High” and enjoying them just as much as the children, and going out with my friends!

I gave myself a talking to and said age is just a number and reminded myself that on my mum’s 60th birthday she abseiled down the Avon Gorge in a T-shirt that said “Spider Granny”. In fact, it was the same day she met Rob for the first time, I remember pointing up to the top of a cliff and saying proudly “that’s my Mum!” She also regularly dyes her hair with purple streaks! If that’s how she turned out at 60 I really shouldn’t worry about being 40 when we share the same genes!

I had arranged for a curry night out with the other Mum’s from Sam and Luke’s school on the Wednesday before my birthday. It was really nice to see them all for longer than just the normal chat after school when we moan about our children losing their coats and lunch boxes. There were 12 of us altogether and I had some really lovely presents. Some of them had clubbed together and then gone shopping together and put a lot of thought into getting something I would really like. I had some beautiful jewellery, a candle burner, some flowers, wine and chocolates. We had much too much to eat but enjoyed every mouthful, and then went on to a pub where we had a bit of a sing along with the juke box and the landlord bought us drinks.

On the actual day I had to work, but even there they arranged a cake with candles in the lab and sent me down to get something, only for me to find everyone singing to me!




After work my friends and family came over for “Birthday tea” and my friend Helen very kindly bought me a musical birthday cake hat which I wore for the rest of the day. She also bought me one of the pretty bracelets that you add beads to and can keep forever. I really did have a lot of nice things from many people but the surprise of the day was Rob’s present. He has got me tickets to see one of my role models and heroes in life Dolly Parton! Being a non-royalist I have always said whilst I respect the Queen for the job she does I would not courtesy to her if I met her, however I would courtesy to Dolly! She is my own Queen! This is her final tour and I don’t think she comes to England very often and I certainly haven’t ever seen her so it will be a once in a lifetime treat for me. I have to wait until September but am already planning my “Dolly” outfit which must surely include a wig!

I still have one more celebration to go, this Wednesday I have another night out with my work colleagues so in effect I will have celebrated 3 birthdays. (I hope that doesn’t make me 43!) We are all going off to play in a quiz. I enjoy quizzes and although I’m not a swot I do seem to retain lots of useless trivia which comes in handy sometimes. Not everyone can remember things like the name of the street where Paddington Bear lived!

All in all I would have to say it was a good birthday and for anyone not quite there yet, not as scary as I thought. I didn’t wake on the day with an urge to go out and buy sensible shoes and am showing no signs of slowing down just yet. Let’s hope the next 40 years are just as exciting.

Thanks for reading

Ellie
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Poorly Pip!

PIP’S BEEN TO THE VET TO HAVE HER OP....

WHEN I LEFT HER THE TEARS WERE HARD TO STOP....

HOPE SHE DOESN’T GET TOO MANY ITCHES....

REALLY DON’T WANT HER TO BURST HER STITCHES!!!

Hello again,

This week I am nursing a poorly dog! It was time for Pip to be spayed. She is not yet three years old and when I rescued her from the centre she had just given birth to her third litter of puppies. She must have spent roughly half of her life either being pregnant or nursing pups. After my own experiences of childbirth I have all the sympathy in the world for her and thought the time had come for her operation.

Even when you know something is for the best it can still be very hard though. I felt like the worst person in the world walking her up to the vet’s yesterday morning with her tail wagging, knowing that she wouldn’t understand why she was being left there and waking up in pain feeling wobbly. As soon as we got there she stood by the door in the waiting room trying to go back out. Her only other experience at the vet’s was her initial check where she objected to having her temperature taken and tried to bite the vet!

I was surprised at just how emotional it felt walking out and leaving her, I’m a grown woman who understands the logic of the situation and yet I still felt I was abandoning her. To try and make myself feel better I popped into the pet shop on the way home. She already has a dog bed but I had an idea to get her a big bean bag cushion, or fluffy blanket to sit on after the op. In the end I found another fluffy dog bed with a roof on top that I thought she might like to hide away in to feel safe and warm. She probably doesn’t need two different beds, I do realise that, but it made me feel better to get it whilst I waited for the call to say it was all done!

They called shortly after lunchtime to say it had all gone well and she was sitting up watching the nurses and I could collect her at 4pm.

I couldn’t wait to get there and bring her home. The house had felt strange all day without hearing her bark at the postman, and her name tag jangling on her collar as she walked around the house. I think this proves how she really is part of the family now; it just wasn’t right without her. Her legs were very wobbly when I picked her up and she was extremely subdued. She normally goes mad in the car and barks at everything that moves, but this time she just sat quietly on the seat looking at me.

Luckily she doesn’t have to wear the collar, or as Luke describes it, the"doggie satellite dish" on her head unless she starts playing with her stitches.

She stayed very quiet for the rest of the day but still wanted cuddles. She had painkillers but I could tell it still hurt as she was shaking slightly and when you got up close to her she was making a very quiet crying sound. I couldn’t help sympathising again and remembering how I felt following a caesarean!

Anyway, today she seems a lot better. The tail has started wagging again and she has eaten. She also barked at a scooter going down the road so I know she is getting there! I’m not allowed to take her for a really long walk, or let her off the lead for 10 days but she seemed quite happy to go round the block.

Also this week Luke had his friend Harry round for tea and we had our famous "sausage surprise," and yes, we did get the inspiration from "Eastenders." In the programme Stacey’s Mum seems to make this a lot but you never get to see what it looks like, so we have created our own version. It is sausage and mash with veg and gravy but the trick is getting the sausages to stand upright in the potato! We also then do our own impressions of Stacey’s Mum shouting "sausage surprise "as I present it onto the table. I think a lot of your own personal "family ways" sound quite strange when you write them down but Harry seemed to find it entertaining anyway! We finished this off with the Iceland Lemon Sponge Pudding which I had to buy again after having it on my list of test products, because it was so nice.

Other than all that, this week I am just making the most of the last few days of being "in my thirties". Only three days left before I have to buy sensible shoes, cardigans, and "slacks"! The big day is looming and am sincerely hoping I don’t have to see pictures of myself as a baby tied to lampposts as I drive to work on Thursday, Rob if you are reading take note! That is NOT necessary - a few balloons at home will suffice!

Please come back next week when I can tell you whether anyone was strong enough to give me the bumps
and how I celebrated!

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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Old Friends

LAST TIME WE MET WE WERE ALL AT SCHOOL....

LOOKING FOR WAYS TO BEND THE RULES....

25 YEARS ON AND MUCH THE SAME....

I WOULD DO IT ALL AGAIN!

Hello again,

I wonder if anyone else reading this has ever been to a school reunion. It’s one of those things people talk about a lot but quite often when it comes to actually doing it the plans seem to fall apart.

This was the second reunion organised for my school year but the first one I had ever been to. Last year was just the wrong time. I had just lost one of my closest friends from school at that time and wasn’t ready to see everyone else from that era. This year felt much more positive and there were others there who shared the loss of both Rachael, and other loved ones. It was a celebration of the time when we were all together. It is also a special time for all of us as, we all turn 40 within the same 12 months. I suppose it is sad but inevitable that out of a group of 100 or so people not all of them would be still around at 40, but I think all the more reason to celebrate and make the most of every minute we are here, and to be grateful, in their memory.

It was quite nerve-wracking getting ready to go and my biggest fear was someone remembering me but me having no idea who they were. What would I do if that happened? Let them speak and keep talking in the hope it would jog some memory later? Or just say from the start “I’m sorry I don’t remember who you are?”
I am usually a very honest and up front person so thought I would go for the second option and just come clean straightaway if I didn’t know.

In practice it was actually very easy to recognise people, just the hair, height and clothes were different but the faces all looked the same! I think it’s true that as you get older your long term memory stays intact and it’s the little day to day things you forget. Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I’d have think long and hard about it, but ask me if I remember who flicked the rubber band that took a wrong turn and hit our French teacher resulting in serious shouting and a detention all the details are there!

I was very pleased that one of my closest friends from that time Katy was there. We helped each other, and every time the door opened and more people arrived we had time to quickly put names to faces. I even scored points for remembering two of our old teachers that were there!

The atmosphere was unlike any other social gathering I’d been to, in that everybody spent the whole night laughing and smiling as we all shared memories. Once the initial ice was broken I was surprised at how we were all able to talk to each other so easily even after all those years. Someone calculated that the time passed added to all the people there accounted for roughly 1000 years, a lot of catching up to do in just a few hours! A lot of us had children and passed pictures around. We even had one person soon to become a grandparent! There was a genuine interest in each other’s lives as they are now and it never felt competitive in any way. I must admit before I went that was another potential worry I had. I used to hate the toddler groups I went to when the boys were young where it seemed the discussions revolved around who had the most teeth, who was out of nappies first , etc etc and I felt trapped in a race I didn’t want to be in. I wondered if people would be doing similar comparisons at a school reunion regarding jobs, lifestyles etc. but am pleased to report there was none of that, and the overwhelming feeling was one of friendship and solidarity!

I heard a quote the other day and due to the short term memory problems I described earlier I can’t remember exactly where I saw or heard it, but it really struck a chord with me. It was along the lines of “success doesn’t bring happiness... happiness brings success.” I always say success should not be based on your grades at school, your qualifications and your annual salary. To me success means waking up each day and being happy with where you are, your friends and your family and looking forward to another day in your own life. I think if you can feel like that whatever your job or lifestyle you can claim to be successful rather than basing your success rating on the car that you drive or the job that you do.

I think instead of making you yearn for “the good old days” a school reunion makes you appreciate what you have now. It’s just nice to be in a room where your memories aren’t only your own, they are shared with 40 other people. Despite my rose tinted glasses I wouldn’t want to actually go back to a time of teenage acne, homework deadlines and major adolescent insecurities. What I would like, is to see the people who went through it with me at the time in the present again!

So my conclusion this week is that if you have ever thought about having a school reunion don’t be scared, just go along and I bet you enjoy it more than you think you will! With the rise in social networking sites it is much easier to find people that you probably never thought you would see again, so I’m sure more and more are being organised. If you are really brave perhaps you could be the one to organise it?!

Thanks for reading
Ellie
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Feeling nostalgic

THE BOYS WENT OFF TO THE SCHOOL DISCO....

THE PREPARATIONS WERE LIKE A FASHION SHOW....

THE SMELL OF LYNX NEARLY KNOCKED ME OUT....

THEY’RE GROWING UP THERE IS NO DOUBT!

Hello again,

I can’t believe I have reached “blog number 40”. This means for 40 weeks now I have been sharing my ramblings with you about the Taylor family’s daily life! Time seems to pass so quickly and I think it’s true what my Granny used to tell me that every year goes faster than the last.

I had a sharp reminder that my “babies” are growing up this week when they went off to the school disco. I always thought it was girls that spent hours in their bedrooms getting ready for these things from my own memories, but it seems boys are just the same, minus the make up! They used nearly the entire can of Lynx body spray from their Christmas gift sets and I thought perhaps I should be wearing protective breathing apparatus to enter their bedrooms. The hair gel was everywhere including a small amount actually on their hair and both had attempted the “Justin Bieber” look. The rejected outfits were strewn across the floor as if a small grenade had exploded inside their wardrobes. Once they were finally ready I took a picture of my quickly growing boys and Sam did his best “catalogue model pose” for the camera!

It really doesn’t seem any time at all since it was me going to the school disco and singing along to Duran Duran into my hairbrush whilst I decided what colour glitter spray to squirt into my hair. I think this must just be a delusion on my part as it’s only two weeks to go till my big fortieth birthday, so it must have been roughly 25 to 30 years ago. A scary thought!

It could be that I have a chance to relive my school disco days very soon as I am attending a school reunion on Saturday. It is the first one I have ever been to and I really don’t know what to expect. Will people look like they did when I last saw them all 25 years ago or will we all have to wear name badges to identify ourselves after the ravages of time have taken their toll! I have a feeling the mood will be very nostalgic as everybody there from my school year will either have just turned 40 or, like me, be just about to. The perfect time for a mid life crisis so it will be nice to be amongst others going through the same thing! My old school was actually very close to where I live now so despite doing a lot of travelling, and living in a few different towns over the years I have ended up close to where I started and have already bumped into quite a few old school friends in the village, so at least they won’t all be strangers. I also will be sharing a taxi to the venue with three others so at least I don’t have to walk in on my own and think “Help! I don’t recognise anyone!”

Also this week Rob followed up his T.V moment of fame by being recognised in a pub. We had gone to a quiz night in one of our locals and in the break we heard someone say “Excuse me but have I seen you on T.V?” I turned round with my best smile ready to talk about my year as “The New Face of Iceland,” only to realise he was talking to Rob and not me! Rob was quite embarrassed and tried to deny it, but the man was quite insistent so he had to confess it was him in the end. Feeling a bit put out I asked the man, “Have you seen me on T.V too in the Iceland adverts?” and he put me in my place and just said “No.” It was actually quite funny and at least Rob knows now how it feels to be recognised by people you don’t know!

We also started testing the new Iceland products this week. Rob’s children James and Jodie came round last Thursday, so it was a perfect time to try out the family feast Takeout box and a couple of puddings. The full reviews will be on the website in the coming weeks but it is safe to say they all gave it top marks.

It is half term this week, so a good time to stock up on food as they always seem to eat me out of house and home during the holidays. My two boys seem to eat and eat but I still have a problem getting Sam’s trousers to stay up. If they fit his long legs they are too big round the waist and if they fit round the waist they don’t go down to his ankles! I guess they must just burn it all off by being so active!

Talking of being active, the dog is now looking at me with sad eyes that say “Please can you hurry up, and take me to run round that big field now?” There is not much sadder than a dog looking at you with sad eyes, so it must be time to go and exercise both my dog and my children! She is just learning how to chase balls and bring them back now as I don’t think she did much of that in her previous life. The first time we threw a ball for her she just looked at us as if to say “What exactly to you expect me to do here?”

Please come back next week when I can tell you how the school reunion went and whether dancing to “Come on Eileen” felt as good at the age of 39 and ¾ as it did when I was 13!

Thanks for reading

Ellie
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Fame for all the family!

THE DOG’S IN THE PAPER, AND ROB’S ON T.V...

SAM’S ON U-TUBE FOR ALL TO SEE...

JUST WAITING FOR LUKE, NOW WHAT WILL HE BE?

THERE’S NO ESCAPE FOR THE PUBLIC FROM MY FAMILY!

Hello again,

This week it seems everyone in my family is in the media including the dog!

I opened this week’s local paper to find an article written about the rescue centre where we found Pip, and across a two page spread there was a picture of her puppies! The story told of the work done at the centre and in particular Pip’s own story of how she came to be there when she was pregnant.

Not to be outdone, last night my phone kept going off from people texting to tell me they had just seen Rob on our local news too. I completely missed it as he hadn’t said a word about it, but apparently a film crew had turned up outside a pub where he was celebrating a colleague’s retirement. He said he didn’t know he was going to be on the news, but I did ask him who he thought the people were interviewing him and pointing a camera at him and why he didn’t ask what it was for? Apparently he thought it was just some random people making a film and didn’t recognise the news reporter!

Sam is also getting some fame in his own right for playing the drums in a u-tube video so now I’m just wondering what Luke is going to appear in next.

 I wonder, now that she’s had a taste of fame should I get Pip an agent and sign her up for some dog food adverts? I could teach her how to do the Can- Can and tell her how it all works when you make adverts from my own wealth of experience! I don’t think Rob will be following up his experience in the media as he was so embarrassed he refused to watch himself.

Anyway, in the real world this week I completed my induction course for my new carer’s job. Now I just have to wait for all the references and checks. The induction days were good and the others starting with me were all very friendly. One of the topics we had to cover was health and safety. I think whatever your job in this day and age you always have to cover the health and safety at work act. I understand that this is important and serious and has to be covered, but I do also think we have gone totally health and safety mad in this country. Some of the things you “learn” are so common sense that you sit there thinking if I wasn’t capable of working that out for myself I don’t think I would have made it to 39 years old! I have watched many training health and safety films for many different jobs, but they are all along the same lines. I remember one where you had to watch different scenes and then answer questions as to whether or not what the person was doing was good practice or dangerous. For example, a man in an office putting his cup of coffee on top of his computer monitor, or someone going up a wobbly step ladder in their slippers and standing on tiptoe on the top. If you take it all too much to heart you come to the conclusion that the only safe thing to do is to sit in a room surrounded by cushions and never leave the house just in case! I’m afraid my philosophy in life is that you take your own risks and as long as you never endanger any innocent bystanders you have the right to do the odd stupid thing! Let’s face it many sports and jobs would be completely banned, and life would become very boring if no one ever took a calculated risk.

I had some more exciting news this week when my list of new trial products came from Iceland. Everyone in the family (and some of the neighbours) love it when I have to write the food reviews, and I’m never short of volunteers to make sure I am giving an unbiased opinion. I am already planning the “Family Take Out Box,” for when Rob’s children come for tea in the week, and am personally quite excited about the “Lamb Moussaka,” so please check weekly on the Iceland website to see what we thought!

Sam and Luke have a new favourite tea at the moment and it’s “wraps.” Basically you can put pretty much anything you like inside a wrap but they particularly like the Quorn pieces with cheese and salad. It’s a good meal to do for children and adults eating together as you can add different things according to your own taste and they are always fun to make at the table. If they have eaten it all sensibly, I do allow them to do something silly with the last wrap. Luke has found you can make a “wrap mask” by eating the eye holes and mouth shape and Sam has attempted some animal shapes! Yes I know you shouldn’t play with your food but sometimes it can be fun and it does all get eaten in the end.

We also stuck to our family decision of making sure we have a meal together at least once a month when my parents and brother came over for a Chinese takeaway. My mum had a friend staying so with the extra guest I found my table could actually fit 8 people round it at a push. I think I might invite them all back to do some food testing.

Anyway that’s our news so far for this week, the boys are off to the school Valentine’s disco tonight so please come back next week when I can tell you how they got on. That is assuming they tell me anything, which they probably won’t!

Thanks for reading

Ellie
X

The glass is always half full!

YOU GET SOME DAYS WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG...
SOMETIMES IT’S HARD TO ALWAYS BE STRONG....
WHEN FATE DECIDES IT’S TIME TO BE MEAN...
I’M LUCKY I HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON MY TEAM!!


Hello again.

Do you ever get those days when it’s just one minor disaster after another? I think the story of the straw that broke the camel’s back is so true. Minor mishaps happen to everyone every day, but sometimes when you get one or two bad things all happen at once you end up exploding like a pressure cooker! Well I am speaking for myself here but I’m sure you know what I mean.

My bad day started last week with a gas and electric bill, not so bad so far you might think, but let me continue. My meter’s in the new house are in the garage so can’t be read unless I’m in, so it was an estimated bill. I always read the meter myself at that point as I don’t like to get a back log of payments due by underestimating. Sure enough when I gave the actual readings they were about four times the estimated amount. I decided to file the bills in a sensible place (shove them in the kitchen drawer and forget about them!) and go off to work.

When I returned to my car after work I found the next problem. Someone had obviously walked along the pavement next to my car with either a key or a coin in their hand and scratched it all the way down the side from bumper to bonnet. I had a little “Why me?” moment, as the back bumper is still not fixed from when someone ran into me in the snow and drove off, so my poor little car is really looking a bit battered now. It’s the sort of stupid mindless act that really drives me mad. Why do people do it? I just can’t imagine setting out to annoy and upset a person you have never even met for no reason. It’s not even as though I have a flashy sports car and someone is jealous, in fact my car is starting to look more and more like a dodgem car! Eventually I told myself there was no point raising my blood pressure over it as no one would ever know who did it. I wouldn’t have the time or money to re do the paint work so I just had to live with it and forget about it.

When I got home I found the next problem and the one that broke the camel’s back! I put the heating on as normal when we got in, but wondered why we didn’t seem to be warming up half an hour later. I checked the boiler and found the pressure gauge on zero. It has been needing topping up more and more lately, but this time it seemed to only last a few hours. I phoned the emergency boiler people and they said they could send someone out the next day but unfortunately I had to work, so the next available time would have been 3 days later on Monday. They also said if there was a leak I might need to “Get someone in to pull all the floor boards up,” as they didn’t do that! I put the phone down and sat and thought about having floorboards pulled up in my nice new house, and who could do it and about having no hot water or central heating for the next three days.

I have to admit, although I always try to be a “glass half full” person I felt a bit defeated by this point and did the only sensible thing to do in a crisis and phoned my mum and moaned! She offered to come and wait in my house all day so that the boiler people could come the next day, so I focused on the positives again and thought what a nice mum I have and that at least the heating crisis had taken my mind off the vandalised car. When they came it turned out I had a faulty “expansion vessel” so my vessel was successfully repaired and we were warm and clean again that evening and the glass was half full again!

At the weekend we decided the time had come to see how the dog would react off the lead as we have had her over four weeks now. We live quite close to the Ashton court estate in Bristol which is open to the public and has huge grounds, so after struggling with the dog car harness we were off on the next adventure. Pip hates the car and whined and barked all the way there and despite reassuring her it would all be worth it she still spent the journey fighting with her harness and trying to break free to get onto my lap.

As it turns out it was definitely worth it. We found a quiet spot and let her go. She loved running with the boys and I was amazed at her speed. She was very good at coming back when we called her and kept checking we were still in view. I wondered what she would do when she saw other people and dogs as she always barks on her lead if any man walks near her. She still ran up to a few walkers and barked, but then ran off again. There was one scary moment when she decided to chase a cyclist but other than that it was all O.K.

When she found some other dogs to play with she seemed very happy but made it clear she only liked to do the chasing and not to be chased! The funniest moment was near a small pond when she was chasing a big black Labrador who jumped into the pond with a big splash. I think she forgot for a moment that she wasn’t a big dog and jumped straight in after him. You could almost see the look of terror in her eyes when she realised her legs weren’t as long as his and she had to swim, so we got her to the side and quickly fished her out! Obviously she was quite wet and smelly by this point so we spent some time letting the boys climb trees while she dried off a bit. She actually showed us she was a good tree climber too which pleased Sam and Luke!

Once home it was straight in the bath and despite her earlier encounter with water she was very good and didn’t make any fuss in the bath. Now she is sweet smelling and fluffy and has proved once again how good a family pet she really is.

I have one more induction day left to do for my new job so please come back next week and I can tell you how the whole course went and if I have an official “start date” yet.

Thanks for reading

Ellie
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Family fun and new horizons.

A NEW YEAR, NEW JOB AND NEW START FOR ME...

KEEPING OLD PEOPLE COMPANY....

WHEN IT COMES TO JOBS, I NOW HAVE THREE,

I THINK I’M GOING TO BE KEPT BUSY!

Hello again and this week I have good news.

No, I didn’t manage to get the matching cup to my Pinky and Perky saucer from the auction site (stupid computer crashed just as the last bids were happening!), it’s even better than that... I have a new job.

Some of you may know that before I had my children I was a qualified nurse (R.G.N). I gave up after having Sam to stay at home with him. Then I had Luke and was away from work completely for about 5 years. If you stay out of nursing for more than 3 years you need to do a 3 month refresher course to renew your qualified status and this has never been practical for me as a single mum. Even if I re-qualified, shift work would be very difficult to organise, as I struggle enough through school holidays as it is with my current 3 day a week optician’s job.

However, I have been starting to miss the caring side of the nursing job and after some browsing on the internet I have come up with a solution. I found a company that offer care at home for people who need help with daily life. I had an interview last week and am happy to say I have got the job. After my induction course I will be calling on people who need support in their own homes and offering help with cooking, cleaning, transport, washing, dressing and pretty much anything else they need help with. (I’m hoping not DIY though as I really am useless at anything more technical than hitting things with hammers!)

Some of the time it may just be company that people want, especially the elderly and if so, I’m hoping I can entertain them with my stories of Iceland antics, and life with children and dogs! It will be closer to the line of work that I originally trained for and I am really looking forward to the one to one care. Sometimes working in the care industry can be challenging, I already know that, but I also think things that are challenging are ultimately more rewarding too.

The plan is to start this work on the days I don’t work at the opticians but to also keep that job as well. Some weeks there may just be a few hours work with the care agency and some weeks there may be a lot more so I need to make sure the mortgage gets paid!

I think it will be a busy few weeks until I establish a regular routine but I feel very positive and excited about it.

When I say I have three jobs I am including my winning year as “the new face of Iceland” which I suppose isn’t technically a job in the normal sense, but it is great fun writing a weekly blog, testing food and writing reviews, officially opening stores and appearing in adverts. It really has gone very fast in fact it is almost coming to an end as it will be a year ago in April that I won the competition. One thing it has shown me is how much I like writing and I think whatever else happens I will continue to be a “blogger” in one form or another. Perhaps a novel is the next challenge! (Well I do like to keep busy!)

Also this week I had a lovely evening out with my family. We decided to go out to celebrate my new job and had such a nice time that we all agreed we should make time once a month to all meet up, whether for Sunday lunch, a takeaway night, or a meal out. My mum helps me a lot with childcare when I am working but sometimes that means the boys end up seeing her a lot more than I do. I would say we are a close family but getting everyone, including my brother, in the same place at the same time doesn’t seem to happen as often as we all agree it should.

We are generally quite silly when we are all together and we spent a lot of the evening laughing. My Step-dad had been sorting through the old photos to make a display on the wall of ancestors past and present. We found some very funny pictures of odd hairstyles, bad clothes and forgotten memories. I did try to point out that you have to put fashion and taste into context and at the time my mum’s big curly perm and my embroidered dungarees were probably the height of fashion! My brother seemed to win the prize for most different hairstyles over the years and we all agreed it was good that he grew out of the bleached blonde spiky mullet style!

Anyway once we had all laughed at each other and censored the photos that we definitely didn’t want out on display, we went out to a lovely pizza restaurant and that’s where we decided we would all make the effort to co-ordinate our lives once a month and meet up.

My induction days for the new job start tomorrow so please come back next week to see how I got on. It feels a bit like first day at school all over again!


Thanks for reading

Ellie

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Bargain Hunting!

ROLL UP ROLL UP TO THE CAR BOOT SALE....
EVERYTHING YOU NEED, EVEN A BLOW UP WHALE...
LOTS OF JUNK THAT SHOULD BE THROWN OUT....
BUT IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY THERE ARE BARGAINS ABOUT!

Hello again,

This week I am going to try not to spend the whole blog writing about the dog but it is hard. Especially as I bought her a new bright purple coat and it makes her look like “Super dog” in a cape! Rob absolutely refuses to walk her in it, as he says it’s bad enough being a 6’ 6’’ man walking a little girlie Jack Russell without her dressed in pink too! (I still say it’s purple not pink!)

Anyway moving on, this week we went to one of my favourite places to go on a weekend, the car boot sale. I think you either love them or hate them, but I always have a dream like many others, of finding that antique rarity amongst all the junk and making my fortune.

At one time I sold a lot of old clothes through an online auction site and used to try to sell car boot treasures on there too. My best one was a little egg cup with penguins round the edge that I bought for £3.50 and then sold for £24, as it turned out it was made by someone collectable. Unfortunately this success has not been repeated so far. I honestly did think that a thimble collector somewhere in the country would really want my Charles and Di wedding thimble, but unfortunately I was wrong. I couldn’t sell it for 99p let alone make a profit!

I think there are too many programmes like “Bargain Hunt” and “Cash in the Attic” that encourage people like me to think I can become the next David Dickinson, when I really have no idea what I am doing! After the Charles and Di thimble mistake I work on the advice they give you to only buy items that appeal to you, as well as thinking they might have some value.

It always amazes me what people think they can sell at a car boot sale. As we wandered around I saw; a tin of chicken soup; some value supermarket furniture spray; dolls with no legs or heads; books with no pages left inside; jigsaws with no pieces and cars with no wheels! I’m no snob, and enjoy a quick rummage in charity shops whenever I can, but even I draw the line at buying second hand underwear or pyjamas, but it’s all there at the boot sale!

In my house I have a cupboard that is known as “the cupboard of doom” because every time I tidy up in a rush, anything I’m not sure what to do with gets shoved in there out of sight. In there you will find things like sellotape, tea towels, screwdrivers, hammers, plastic toys, bouncy balls, books, stickers, old magazines and many other random objects. Some of the stalls at the boot sale look like they too had their own “cupboards of doom” and just emptied them straight onto the table.

Anyway, we began looking through the junk for treasures and the first thing that caught my eye was a tall oak table that is meant for putting plant pots on. I thought it would look very nice with my new lamp I had for Christmas on top. Part of the car boot experience is bartering with the sellers. So I asked the man how much, he made up a price, then I told him what I would pay, and then we met in the middle!

Next, I saw a family of 3 black wooden elephants and asked how much. This deal ended up in me paying £5 for all the elephants the seller had (7 in total), even though I only wanted three and being offered a free scotch egg into the bargain! I declined the Scotch egg, but now have more elephants than I know what to do with. At this point I thought I should stop buying things for my new house before it ended up looking like the car boot sale was being held there, and concentrate on my bargain hunting.

I saw a very nice looking pottery Tom and Jerry but the seller wanted £25 and I thought this was too much of a gamble. I have since come home and seen them selling on the auction site for double that, so perhaps I should have taken the risk. I don’t really like to spend more than £5 on any one item, as it really is just a hobby to me and then even if it doesn’t sell it’s not the end of the world. In the end I found a saucer with the original Pinky and Perky on it in good condition, with the pottery name and “made in England” on the bottom. It had a price ticket saying £3.50 and I had great pleasure in getting the price down to £3! I actually like it so haven’t decided yet what I will do with it. There were no others like it on the auction site when I looked, but I have found the matching teacup for sale on there so perhaps I will buy that and then sell it as a set!

I think it’s safe to say I won’t be appearing on the “Antiques Road Show” as an expert just yet but it’s still a fun hobby. Sometimes Rob and I will both buy one thing with a £5 limit and see who can make the best sale with it. I think I just have to learn not to keep all the things I buy as that isn’t part of the game.

If you are off to a car boot sale this weekend good luck with the bargains, and if you see any more Pinky and Perky china for sale let me know!

Thanks for reading

Ellie
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It's a dog's life!

WE HAVE A NEW DOG, HER NAME IS PIP...
OUT ON A WALK SHE LOVES TO SKIP....
SHE STANDS ON HER BACK FEET, PAWS UP IN THE AIR...
AND LOOKS LIKE A MEERKAT YOU CAN COMPARE!!!!

Hello again,

This week I have been wondering why people say, “It’s a dog’s life” to imply a bad or hard life. From what I’ve seen I think it would actually be rather nice to have a dog’s life! You get fed and never have to cook or wash up. You get taken to exciting places for a walk, you can lie down and have a snooze whenever you like, you have children ready and eager to play anytime you want to, and you get to snuggle up and have your back stroked in the evenings!

OK, that may not be every dog’s life and that’s why rescue centres are so important but it is pretty much Pip’s new life.

We have had her for three weeks now and she seems very settled in her new home. For the first few days she would follow me absolutely everywhere, including the toilet! She also seemed to be constantly shivering even when you were giving her affection. That has all passed now and she is happy to lie in her favourite place on the back of the sofa whilst I run around doing the jobs at home. She doesn’t shiver anymore when sitting on your lap at night for a cuddle. She just lets out the occasional big sigh! For a two year old I think she has had a busy life before coming to us. Apparently before her most recent litter of puppies she had two other litters previously. Considering she is only the size of a large cat she must have been exhausted by all those pregnancies and births!

It also became apparent that she has a fear of men. The first few times Rob came round after we had her she would always wee on the floor as soon as she saw him through sheer terror! (He has that effect on most people but really is very nice once you get to know him!) She also barks when she sees a man walking along the street and hides behind my legs, but runs up to ladies and children with her tail wagging. I think we have to put that down to a possible bad experience of men in her previous life. Now that she knows Rob she is fine with him and the accidents have stopped.

I have seen no evidence of the chewing and yapping that seems to be a Jack Russell’s reputation. In fact the first time I heard her bark was when the postman came to the door the day after we had her. It was actually quite reassuring to discover she did have a voice after all. She doesn’t chew anything up but does like to take anything that smells of me and cuddle up next to it. I usually find my slippers in her dog bed in the mornings! I just checked where she was as I am writing this and she is curled up on my jumper and bedclothes that are waiting to go in the washing machine!

We decided from the start that I didn’t want her sleeping upstairs in the bedrooms or on our beds. I know this is a personal thing, but in my mind she has a free run of the rest of the house and even allowed on the sofas, but bedrooms are special. I don’t even allow the boys in my own bedroom very often as I see it as my one place of sanctuary! Our house is quite open plan so this means at night she has to sleep in the kitchen/conservatory as it’s the only part you can close off. The first couple of nights she complained a bit but settled down after half an hour or so. She did manage “The great escape” one night and managed to open the door handle by jumping up and pulling down the shopping bags that were hanging on it! Very clever! I have a dog from MENSA! The bags have now been moved. Now she goes to bed happily when I go to bed and when I open the door in the mornings she doesn’t rush out shouting “freedom” so I know she is happy to sleep there.

The boys love her to bits but I knew they would after their longing for a dog to call their own for so long. She even does a trick for them where she stands up straight on her hind legs with her front paws in the air and they think this is hysterical as she looks like the meerkats in the commercials. Now there’s a thought, I’ve had my turn at being a minor celebrity appearing in adverts; maybe it is Pip’s turn now! Must get her an agent…

What has surprised me the most is how much enjoyment I am getting from owning a dog. The first time I left her while I went to work I wasn’t sure what chaos I might come home to but in fact there was no mess, no destruction , just a little dog with a wagging tail, bouncing three feet off the floor because she was so pleased to see me! It really is very nice to have such a warm welcome home. I also love the time in the evenings when, as soon as I sit down she will jump over and sit on my lap. I understand now why people say it is stress-relieving to sit and stroke an animal. I read somewhere that a study found that people who had dogs lived on average 4 to 5 years longer than people who didn’t. I don’t know if that is a true statistic or not but it seems to make sense when you think of the regular exercise and stress relief a dog will bring you.

We still have to keep her on the lead as she has some more immunisations due and the rescue centre also recommend you leave it at least 4 weeks before trying them without a lead in case they run off and don’t come back. She also needs to be sterilised as I think she has probably had enough of puppies so it will be a little while yet until we can take her to run freely in the fields. I am already wondering how she will cope with “The cone of shame” after her operation to stop her licking stitches. (If you have seen the film UP you will understand the reference!)

So in the meantime we are having two walks a day with the lead and I am hoping all this new found exercise will benefit me as well as the dog. It seems a much more reliable way of keeping fit than my normal plan of buying a new work out DVD in January and then ignoring it on the bookshelf by February!

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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We welcome in 20011 and add to our family!

HOW COULD I TOP 2010....?
I’D LIKE TO DO IT ALL AGAIN.....
IT REALLY WAS AN AMAZING YEAR...
AND MADE ME GRIN FROM EAR TO EAR!


Hello and happy new year to you all! I hope however you celebrated that it was a good one.

I have often found the end of the year to be a bit of an anti-climax. In my younger years before I had children I used to go out like most people only to find that pubs were charging you money to get in only so that you could spend more money once you got there. Everywhere was overcrowded and I seemed to have a habit of missing the actual stroke of midnight many times by being in the toilet at just the wrong moment! I often came home thinking: was that it?

Then during all the years with children I have normally been trying desperately not to fall asleep before 12 and waiting for the brief moment to let off a party popper and sing the wrong words to Auld Lang Syne whilst watching Jools Holland!

For the first year in a long time I actually had a baby sitter so Rob and I had the opportunity to go out. At first this was a very exciting thought, but then I remembered all my experience of overcrowded expensive pubs and wondered what we could do instead. It has been a year of a lifetime and I felt it needed a good send off. As luck would have it we were invited to a friend’s house for a curry. There were 6 of us altogether and it was one of the best New Year’s Eves ever.

We played a few games on the Wii, drank some wine, ate some very tasty curry and then laughed at how childish and competitive the men got playing Wii bowling! When the moment came we all sang the song and  I still don’t know the real words. Is there really a bit about baking cakes or were we all improvising?!

I actually felt quite emotional at saying goodbye to the year that had the best, and worst of times. Some of you may know that I lost an old school friend on my birthday back in March. We had been friends since age 5 at primary school and grown up together through all the teenage years. She was such a confident and brave person and I still say she is the reason I got where I did with Iceland. Whatever you believe, if nothing else, thinking of her strength pushed me to muster up more confidence than I normally have and to tell myself I should seize every minute and every opportunity and not waste time feeling shy or insecure and holding myself back. In some sense or another I know she was there, dancing the can can with me in those tiring 4 days of filming and I don’t think I could have done it without her!

It’s strange how some years seem to just plod along with nothing either very good or very bad happening, and then other years can be packed with such extremes of happiness and sadness. This year of course was also the year we made another dream come true and moved into our own house.

The boys have wanted a pet since they were old enough to speak. I resisted all the requests for gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits in the knowledge that after the first week I would be the one cleaning them out and caring for them. I would have liked a more interesting pet like a cat or dog but we couldn’t realistically do this due to always renting our houses and having to move regularly. This of course is another thing that is different now we have our own house. My friend Kirstein recently got a little Jack Russell cross breed from the local animal rescue centre and I spent quite a while cuddled up with her on New Year’s Eve at their house. I have since told Kirstein that I blame her for what happened next!

I made the mistake of having a look on the same animal centre rescue website, and that’s where I first saw the new addition to our family! She is a little Jack Russell called Pip who is 2 years old. The website information said she was unavailable at the moment because of having puppies 8 weeks ago. Despite this we went to the centre to have a look at the all the dogs and see some of the others. I told them that I had seen Pip on the website but knew she was still unavailable due to nursing her pups. This is where I believe in fate, they told me that she had become available that very day as it was the first day she had been separated from the pups. We were allowed then to meet her and take her for a little walk. The boys had seen her puppies on the website previously and had been saying “get a puppy mum, look they are so cute” but when they met Pip and she was so tiny and affectionate we all agreed we should reserve her immediately while we waited for the home check. I had already decided that I wanted an older dog and not a new puppy as I couldn’t stay with it at home all the time.

The rescue centre are very good at making sure their dogs go to appropriate homes and they checked our house and garden and gave us the good news that we could collect Pip the next day.

I almost felt like I did when I first brought the boys home from hospital for the first time as babies! It felt so good to be taking her away for a new life and lots of love. All the dogs are very well cared for at the rescue centre but it’s not the same as having a home and a family to call your own. The noise of continual barking is incredible and must be unsettling for them. When you walk past the different pens I can’t help thinking it looks like doggie prison despite looking after all of their essential needs.

I didn’t know what to expect when we got her home, would she be scared of meeting new people? Would she cry for her puppies? Would she miss her carers at the rescue centre? Would she chew things and dig things up? (Jack Russells seem to have a reputation for this!)

Well I can tell you more about how she has settled into the Taylor family life next week but the quick answer is that she has exceeded all our expectations and is probably the most well behaved loving and affectionate little dog I have ever known! In fact if anyone in our household needs extra training I would say it’s my own puppies, Sam and Luke rather than the dog!

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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Happy Christmas everyone!

CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR....
THE FAMILY ARRIVED WITH CHRISTMAS CHEER....
FUN AND LAUGHTER FILLED OUR HOUSE....
I WOULDN’T WANT TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE!

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

In our house the last week before Christmas can be a testing time. The children get so swept up in the build up they find it hard to contain their excitement and this usually turns into naughtiness. At least I know what to expect as I have seen it all before and know the pattern. Once the magic day arrives they turn back into nice little boys instead of horrible little trolls and peace and balance is restored again!

My favourite time is Christmas Eve. Although I had to work, we were allowed to finish early. So at 1pm I was rushing home to check on the website that tracks Santa, whether or not he had started! It is a bit of a routine now that we always go onto this website on Christmas Eve, and one I hope that will continue even as the boys grow and become older and wiser and more cynical about magic in the world we live in. It is an interesting time as Sam is 10 now and able to question things a lot more. I think he is developing his own ideas about Father Christmas but as Luke is still only 7, I try to protect him from growing up to soon. You have your whole adult life to develop cynicism, so in my view the longer it takes to get there, the better! I remember my own mum telling me that when you stop believing in Father Christmas that is the time he stops coming to you. She said when other children try to tell you at school that it’s really the parents, in their case it probably is, because parents have to take over once Father Christmas stops and I stand by that argument! The children had actually gone to bed by the time the web site showed Father Christmas’s sleigh flying over Bristol and landing at the millennium stadium in Cardiff to make his deliveries and for a minute I forgot I was nearly 40 and shouted to Rob “look, quick he is flying over Nailsea right now!”

The morning arrived and this year I am pleased to say it didn’t arrive until around 7am. I remember plenty of years when I have woken up to shouts of “wow look at this, he’s been!” “Mum can you open this, have you got a screw driver?” and felt a sinking feeling when the clock said 4.30 am! One of their stocking presents was a make your own comic set and this kept them busy for several hours whilst we waited for the rest of the family to arrive - so top marks for Father Christmas this year from me!

At around 10.30 my parents and brother arrived, the turkey went in, and the mulled wine went on. Some people find Christmas cooking quite stressful and maybe I’m just lucky with the family I have, but I think there is no point in doing it at all if you spend the day tearing your hair out in the kitchen. We are all very relaxed and I know that even if I burnt everything and ended up giving everyone a sandwich, my family would still all say it was wonderful as long as there were crackers, games and wine! Rob is very handy in the kitchen too and had prepared all the vegetables the night before with the children. They love peeling and cutting the veg as they get to use a sharp knife under supervision - something I would be far too nervous to allow, so I let them get on with it under Rob’s watchful eye and keep out of the way. I know it is good for them to develop a sense of responsibility and I’m sure their future wives will be very grateful that they know how to deal with a sprout!

Anyway without feeling under the stress and pressure of having to create a perfect meal the end result always seems to be just that, a perfect meal. No one was confined to the kitchen; we all helped and had a lot of help from Iceland too!

I never want to eat turkey curry for three weeks after Christmas so we had a turkey breast crown which was delicious and juicy and was the right amount for the number of people eating. We also had the prepared stuffing with the bacon on top and the prepared pigs in blankets. This meant there was time and space for Rob to make his own vegetarian version with veggie sausages and veggie bacon. My brother is vegetarian too but between us all we produced two versions of the best Christmas dinner ever without any dramas in the kitchen.

We all had some lovely presents. I had got new bikes for the boys that I covered in tinsel and put in the hall. (They took some hiding in the run up to Christmas and I am very grateful to good friends with spare garage space!) I got the response I was looking for, and they both seemed really happy with them. I had a beautiful lamp that is hard to describe but looks a bit like a huge red tulip bulb with sticks sticking out of it, it is actually much better than it sounds! Top marks to Rob as I had seen it in a shop window a month or so before and commented on how much I liked it and he must have remembered and gone back to get it.

I also had a huge mirror disco ball from my friend which I realise may not be everyone’s heart’s desire but I thought it was fantastic! It is now hanging proudly along with my blue neon lights in the conservatory and I am happy to say a boring old kitchen is rapidly turning into an authentic 1980’s discotheque, especially with the addition of a purple lava lamp too!

I can honestly say it is no longer a problem in my house to be out in the kitchen, with the music on and all my disco effects. I would happily stay out there singing and dancing, and perhaps even cooking for hours!

The icing on the cake was having a dishwasher from my mum. Yes, I know that might sound very grown up and boring, but she also gave me a wooden monkey that does trapeze tricks and a Spike Milligan book to balance that, and the time I save not having to wash up anymore can be used to do things that are much more fun, so it is the best present ever! I have never had one before and can’t believe how labour saving they really are.

We spent the rest of the day playing silly games like charades, consequences and playing “Just Dance” on the wii to burn off a few Christmas calories! It really was the best Christmas so far and unlike the soap operas at Christmas, there were no fights or natural disasters, just a really happy day!

I hope you all had your own perfect Christmas too. I realise that might mean different things to different people depending on your own routines and priorities, but whatever they are I hope it was good!

Please come back next week when I can tell you how we said goodbye to 2010 and welcomed in the New Year.

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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