Archive – Page 9 – The Mum Reviews

Tips for a perfect, portable Lemon Drizzle Cake

My mate who usually does the recipes for this blog has had the typical run of awful winter bugs this week, so hasn’t had time to write anything up for us. I’m not the cook that she is, but I occasionally excel at a bit of baking, when I apply myself. Serendipitously, this week I had the need (and by need, I mean the need to show off) to bake something for an event with my work colleagues.

The challenge I faced was that I needed to travel into London with whatever I baked, and there was a train strike on. So I needed something that I could carry on a taxi, a bus, two trains, and for a long walk, without it turning into an inedible lump of crumbs by the time I arrived at my destination.

The solution I found was this Lemon Drizzle Traybake with a lovely crunchy topping, which I found on Mary Berry’s website. That website has weird rules that you have to ask permission to link to it, so I won’t link to it, but I’m sure you can find it using our friend Google (as the BBC would say, other search engines are available) (but not really).

I’m also reliably informed that lists of ingredients cannot be copyrighted, so I’m cool to list them here, plus I’ve added all the equipment you need so there are no surprises if, like me, you don’t read the method until it’s too late. The method has been adapted to suit my own skills – in other words, I’ve tried to make it idiot-proof. I’m happy to report that not only did it travel well, but all of my colleagues ate more than one piece, so it must have been good.

You’ll need:

225g (8 oz) butter, softened
225g (8 oz) caster sugar
275g (10 oz) self-raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs
4 tablespoons milk
2 small unwaxed lemons
175g (6 oz) granulated sugar
a big mixing bowl
30 x 23 x 4 cm (12 x 9 x 1 ½ inches) metal baking tray
cooking spray oil
non-stick baking parchment
Scissors
electric mixer or wooden spoon coupled with strong mixing arm
rubber spatula
a wire cooling rack

The method:

One thing to consider: this cake tastes a lot better if you make it the day before you want to eat it.

At least 3 hours before baking, put your butter out on the worktop to soften. If you cut it into smaller pieces, it will soften faster.

When your butter is soft, preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Then, rummage around and find your baking tin. The tin I used is a tray I would normally use for making fish fingers and chips. It is a very shallow baking tray and I think you need to make sure you have the right depth of tin to get this right (see dimensions above).

Measure out a rectangle of baking parchment so it is the same size as the tin (including the sides, not just the base), and cut it with the scissors. If you try to rip it on the crap ripping thing on the edge of the box, it will go all crooked and Mary Berry will have bad dreams.

Baking equipment.jpg — Can you tell I didn’t take any pictures of the actual baking process?

Spray the tin with your cooking spray and then stick the baking parchment onto it neatly as possible, pushing it down so it sticks to the spray.

Now it’s time to grate your the rinds of your 2 lemons into your big mixing bowl. Do use a fine grater, like one you’d use to grate parmesan cheese. If you use a proper lemon zester, the pieces will be too big and might be a bit chewy in the cake.

A grater.jpg — Be careful not to grate your knuckles like I did.

Once you’ve done your lemon rind grating, put your naked lemons aside for later. Then stick your softened butter, caster sugar, self-raising flour, level teaspoons of baking powder, eggs and milk into your mixing bowl.

Use your electric mixer now to mix the mixture for about 2 minutes, until smooth. You could stir it with a spoon if you don’t have a mixer, but your arm will get tired.

Then, dump the mixture into your lined tin, using your rubber spatula to get all the mixture out of the bowl and then to smooth out the mixture in the tin. Try not to drop the bowl like I did. It got heavy after a minute of holding and scraping!

Stick your tray of goodness into the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched lightly with a finger.

When it’s finished, remove it from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for just a few minutes. Then lift it out onto a wire rack with the baking parchment still attached. Place your tray underneath the wire rack to catch the drips of the topping you’re going to make. When it cools enough so you won’t burn your hands, extremely carefully remove the baking parchment. I found ripping it in strips worked for me, but you might find a more clever method.

Now, juice your two naked lemons and add the granulated sugar to the juice. It should have a runny consistency but enough sugar so that every spoon has lemony sugary-ness. You may need to add extra sugar for it to be right. While the cake it still warm, spoon this topping onto the cake, one teaspoon at a time, and spread it out evenly across the cake.

Leave the cake to cool completely, then cut it into little squares and store in an airtight container. Eat with tea and friends. Or hide in a cupboard so you don’t have to share it with your kids.

Living with postnatal anxiety

This is a guest post by Tina from Adventures of Mummy and Me. Please check out her blog and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and/or Pinterest.

It’s 4am, and I’m laying in bed, staring at the ceiling. I’m physically exhausted, my head hurts, and my eyes sting – but I can’t sleep. I haven’t actually been to sleep yet tonight. Or is it this morning now? I don’t even know what day it is anymore.

I’ve just got up for possibly the 4th time in the last hour to check on Chase. Each time I’ve got up, it’s taken me around 6 minutes to walk the three steps back into bed. And now I’m back in bed, I’m worrying again.

Why might you ask? Because I suffer from postnatal depression and anxiety (PND/PNA).

These invisible illnesses make doing even the simplest things, such as checking on my 18-month-old son only a few feet away from me – seem as difficult as climbing Mount Everest.

I want to start out by saying that this has been a really tough post to write. Generally speaking, when I’m writing, the words just flow out of me. But this one post has taken over a month of writing, editing, erasing; then back again full circle. Namely because, if I’m honest, it’s a subject I don’t like to talk about out loud. I guess I have this naive conception that if nobody knows, then it can’t be true. I wish that were the case. When in reality, it’s a fear of perception and acceptance that stops me speaking. So I’ve decided it’s time to open up, and to share my story with you today.

Meeting the midwife

Scroll back to two years ago, and I’m sitting at my dining room table meeting my midwife for the first time. She’s just finished completing my 16-week pregnancy health assessment, and is giving me “the talk” after the results flag me as high risk for postnatal depression and anxiety.

At the time, I remember thinking to myself: perfect. Once again, another healthcare professional looking at my history of depression and anxiety, and immediately thinking I’m unstable. My “history” spans out over 15 years, and generally speaking, I self-manage my mental health pretty well. But on the few occasions I’ve needed extra help, I’ve asked for it.

Although any new mother can develop postnatal anxiety, it’s been found that those with a personal or family history of either depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are particularly vulnerable. Which is why those with a history, like myself, are flagged up during the pregnancy health assessments as someone to keep an eye on during pregnancy and initial postnatal care.

Giving birth & going back to work

Following quite a traumatic birth experience, I was surprised to find that I didn’t have any issues bonding with Chase. If anything, the only problem was my lack of mobility due to having an emergency c-section. After about four months, when I was fully mobile again, I started to feel a bit alienated being at home all day alone with my baby. I’ve never been girly, or one to have a lot of female friends, so I found the mum groups I attended overly feminine and cliquey. I realised I was struggling when some of my depression tendencies starting rearing their ugly heads. This prompted a long discussion with my husband, which resulted in me returning to work sooner than planned at six months post-birth.

At first, this all went really well, but after a few months in the office I started to struggle again. Whilst I was on maternity leave, there were some significant changes made within my company. Changes which, in the end, affected both my job role and the way I had been accustomed to working for the past few years. I trudged through for a long time, believing that it was just an adjustment period because I’d been away for so long. What I didn’t realise was that by compartmentalising the stress and anxiety I had at work, I was actually increasing my anxiety levels in other areas of my life. The main one being in relation to Chase.

Noticing a problem

It was around five months after I went back to work that I realised I wasn’t getting better. If anything, I was getting worse. Chase was coming up to a year old, and I would constantly worry about him at night – getting up multiple times to check on him to ensure he was still breathing. My usual hobbies such as reading and watching films just bored me, and the closest I came to exercise was walking downstairs to the coffee machine and back again. I sought advice from my GP, who referred me to a local counselling service.

Despite numerous prompts from my husband, I had no intention of moving Chase from our bedroom. Everyone I spoke to told me I was being silly – a typical first-time parent overthinking it. But I genuinely felt terrified about his wellbeing if he wasn’t in the same room as me. During the day, when I was occupied with work, and he was with my husband (he’s a SAHP), I was completely fine. However as soon as nighttime came, and it was time for me to relax and sleep, the silence would kill me.

By the time I eventually saw a counsellor, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Anxiety overdrive

Every time I get into bed, I have flashes of Chase becoming ill or involved in an accident of some sort. I know now that these thoughts are common concerns that parents have. The only difference being that most parents have these thoughts as a fleeting moment. An errant thought, gone before it can be fully processed. But my over-anxious brain doesn’t work that way. It overcompensates, analyses, and looks for ways to make sense of the flashes. Even when they are, in reality, highly unlikely situations.

It’s then, when my brain can’t put the pieces together of “How?” and “Why”, that it overthinks the situation. And that’s when the thoughts of “Did I put him into that compromising position?” come to play.

Which is crazy. I would NEVER do anything to put my son into harm’s way.

But that’s not how the brain of someone with PND/PNA works.

It actively LOOKS for ways to make sense of the thoughts, and therefore puts the only “logical” response into your head. That you must have done something to cause it. And this feeling opens up a whole can of worms for me. Most notably, I have obsessive-compulsive (OCD) tendencies. Meaning that I have to do specific things, in a specific order – with the fear that if I don’t, something bad will happen.

All time low

That nervous breakdown I mentioned? Yea it happened. But in a way, it was a good thing. It made me realise that in order to get better, I needed to take action, and focus on me and my family.

My GP signed me off work with immediate effect, and my intention was to do my counselling sessions, and spend more time doing everyday things with my family – like going for a walk, playing in the garden, or building bricks in the playroom. This was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. The colder and wetter weather didn’t help, but the main issue was my sleep. I had insomnia due to the anxiety, and would often have panic attacks in the middle of the night because of the OCD. My GP prescribed sleeping tablets, but unfortunately they didn’t help in sending me to sleep any earlier – they just made me sleep until midday the following day, and then sit on the sofa in a dazed state for the rest of the afternoon.

It took a few weeks being at home to start getting a balance back in my life. To become more involved in day-to-day activities, and to actually WANT to participate in them. After five weeks at home, I opted for a phased return to work. Being honest, I wasn’t completely ready. But with only one income, and minimal savings, that decision was unfortunately taken away from me.

Fighting back

Now, two weeks into my phased return, I’m starting to feel better. I have good days and bad days. Bad days are still tipping the balance, but nowhere near as much as they were before. I’ve started doing housework again – forcing myself actually. I’ve found this can help manage the OCD better than just ignoring it. Think of it as refocusing the thoughts elsewhere – it does help.

The anxiety is still there. Very much so. But I’m not naive to think that it will disappear as quickly as it came. And I think that’s the difference now. I understand my illness better, and know that it is an illness, and not a fault.

I’m still not sleeping great, but on the upside, I’m not checking on Chase half as much as I did before. And I’m even thinking about the idea of moving him into his own room. Maybe. I have however, cleared his room out so that the idea COULD become reality when I’m ready.

I have a few sessions left with my counsellor, which I’m hoping will help me through the first few weeks of the New Year back at work. Then I guess I’m on my own. Well, not really. I have my happy, loving son and my devoted husband at home to help me through this. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Family dinners aren’t all they’re cracked up to be

Before I had kids, I was adamant that we would always sit down together for family meals. In the typical manner of a person who doesn’t have kids judging actual parents, I thought it was silly to be serving your children a separate meal. I also had this beautiful wholesome image in my head of us all sitting round the table and having a civilised conversation.

But now that I actually have to share my mealtime with my little anklebiters, I understand why some would rather not.

A dramatisation of dinner in our house

Dad: It’s teatime.

There is no response. The TV drones on in the background.

Mum: It’s teatime! Come sit down at the table, please.

4yo: In a high-pitched tone No! PJ Masks is coming up next! I want to watch PJ Masks!

Mum: We’ll record it then. Presses record button on TIVO with intention of surreptitiously deleting PJ Masks after child is in bed. Turns TV off. Okay, now sit down!

4yo slowly and reluctantly walks towards the table. 2yo continues to play with his Ninky Nonk toy. If you don’t know what a Ninky Nonk is, lucky you.

Mum: Come on! It’s teatime.

2yo: NO! Catch the Nonk!

Mum picks up 2yo who does his best imitation of an angry cat in a bag, noises included. She places him in his highchair and attempts to put on his bib as he morphs from cat-in-bag to enraged Kraken. She passes him his food and he merrily starts eating it.

4yo: wiggling around in chair, not eating. MI, MI, MI-MI-MI. I’m being a Pontipine!

If you don’t know what a Pontipine is, lucky you.

Mum: Please be quiet and just eat your food.

4yo: NO! MI!

Mum: If you don’t eat your food, then you can’t have any pudding.

4yo: BUT I WANT PUDDING! MI MI MI!

Mum shrugs, gives up and attempts to eat her own food while 4yo continues to make irritating noises.

4yo: Need the toilet!

Mum: Well, go then.

4yo: But I need you to watch me.

Mum: …

4yo stands there holding himself and refusing to go to the toilet on his own. Mum gives in and follows him to the toilet and watches while he goes, thoroughly losing appetite in the process. After the deed is done, 4yo returns to his chair and starts happily munching his broccoli.

Dad (to 4yo): So who did you play with at school today?

4yo: Everyone.

Mum: And what did you eat for lunch?

4yo: I don’t remember.

Mum: What was your favourite part of the day?

4yo: Everything.

CRASH.

2yo: FINISHED!

2yo had finished eating and so he had launched his cup onto the floor.

Mum: Okay, hun, but you need to wait until the rest of us are finished.

2yo: FINISHED!

2yo picks up his spoon, extends his arm, makes eye contact with Mum, and ever so slowly opens his fingers and lets the spoon fall to the ground. Giggles hysterically. Then, he picks up his plate. Mum grabs it before it ends up on the floor.

2yo: PLAY PLAY PLAY! CATCH THE NONK!

4yo: I CAN’T EAT BECAUSE IT’S TOO NOISY!

4yo suddenly falls off his chair from all the fidgeting. Screams at the top of his lungs.

2yo: PLAY! PLAAAAYYY! AHHHHH!

Dual screaming continues.

Dad quickly serves the children some cake.

Silence. Mum and Dad drink wine.

2yo: dropping cake bowl on floor FINISHED!

Are family dinners civilised in your house? Do your kids respond to your efforts at conversation? Do they always need to take a poo halfway through? Let me know in the comments.

Tortilla Soup recipe

Pretty much any restaurant that serves Mexican food serves a version of Tortilla Soup. It’s brothy, fragrant and delicately spiced. Most recipes ask you to have a bit of shredded chicken on hand to pour the broth over when serving. I don’t usually have baked or boiled chicken laying around, unless I have a leftover roast that hasn’t been picked bare, so my recipe includes cooking the chicken in the broth. As per the name, tortillas are usually grilled and sliced to top the soup, but I’ve found a handful or corn or flour tortilla chips add the texture, flavour and namesake without the fuss of grilling my own.

If you haven’t tried Mexican soups, you haven’t truly embraced the winter warmer. This is a simple dish, but the depth of flavour may surprise you. Many recipes for tortilla soup have as little as four spices, keeping a clear broth to pour over shredded chicken. I like to incorporate as many vegetables as possible when cooking for my family, so I load this one up with onion, carrot, white beans and tomato. I also thinly slice chicken breast whilst still slightly frozen, and then boil it in the soup to keep it moist and tender, and add natural chicken flavour to the soup. This allows the chicken to begin to shred after boiling away for just twenty minutes or so. It’s an all in one pot, midweek meal that smells and tastes amazing.

You’ll need:

1 teaspoon oil of choice
1 cup chopped onion (I use frozen)
1 teaspoon minced garlic (fresh or dried)
1 cup grated carrot
1 8oz tin diced tomato
1 tin 8oz white/cannellini beans
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon oregano flakes
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional depending on kids’ heat threshold)
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4-6 cups of water
2 cups chopped coriander/cilantro (fresh is best)
Salt and white pepper to taste
1 small bag of corn or flour tortilla chips the break up on top when serving
Optional shredded cheese for serving

The method:

It’s easiest to prepare your chicken first, so that you have clean hands for stirring and adding spices. I like to slice chicken breast when it’s slightly frozen, so this dish is perfect for a packet I’ve had out thawing for dinner. Fresh chicken (or no chicken for the vegetarians) is still perfectly wonderful – I just tend to keep small freezer bags with meal-size portions of chicken and minced beef on hand for meal planning. Slice the chicken against the grain in thin strips. I find this works best for the shredding you want to achieve in a short amount of time.

I like to do this in one pot, so I begin with heating the oil, onions and garlic together over a medium high heat in a large soup pot. After a minute or two, the onions should be translucent and the garlic lightly frying.

Add the grated carrot, tomato and salt, and stir into the mixture. Drain and rinse the beans before adding to the pot.

Once the beans are mixed in, add the dry spices and give it a good stir before allowing it to bubble.

Once the tomato and carrots have softened slightly – 5 minutes or so should do the trick – add the chicken slices and just coat with the mixture.

Add the water straight away to avoid frying the chicken, you want the chicken to be submerged to boil.

Allow the water to come to the boil before adding your chopped coriander.

Once the pot is bubbling nicely, the chicken will go white quickly and the beans will begin to break down. I have been known to add only half of the tin of beans to begin with, and save the second half for later to retain texture, but it’s up to you if you want to add this step.

I allow this soup to boil with the cover on for about 15 minutes before reducing the temperature to a simmer and removing the lid. This helps the chicken to soften and absorb the flavours of the soup.

You can let this simmer for ages, but it’ll be ready after 30 minutes if you’re hungry – even sooner if you just make the broth and pour it over leftover chicken or no chicken at all.

To serve, my kids like this ladled over rice, with a few corn chips broken on top. I love a big, steamy bowl as it is, a couple of corn chips and a small handful of shredded cheese on top. My husband just wants a bowl of soup with a few drops of hot sauce and he’s happy. However you take it, this is a family favourite that offers a Mexican flare and isn’t heavy with refried beans and cheese. It’s veggie packed, bursting with flavour and aroma, and is sure to make your family think you slaved for hours to get such succulent chicken. Buen apetito!

Mothers don’t sacrifice themselves. Not even for Sherlock Holmes.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains a moan about a key plot point of Sherlock, Series 4, Episode 1. If you haven’t caught up on that yet, you might like to come back later. If you’ve seen it or don’t intend on seeing it, read on … you don’t need to watch it to understand my rant.

Right. So in this episode, Watson’s wife Mary, who has just had a baby, takes a bullet for Sherlock and dies. Sherlock is generally a show that I feel has pretty good writing and convincing plots. But this little twist, designed to give us all the feels, just rang false for me. I couldn’t get with the empathy.

After thinking about it for a bit, I realised why. Mary had just had a baby. And Sherlock, though a very close friend, was just this fairly annoying bloke who solves mysteries with her husband. I simply can’t fathom why a woman with a baby would make a decision to put her life at risk to save an arrogant man who was standing there DARING someone to shoot him. Call me a judgey mum if you like, but in my experience, mums don’t take their lives so lightly.

When you have a baby, especially in the early days, that baby is the centre of your universe. They become your reason for getting up in the morning. They might make you forget to eat, but they are also the reason you remember that you need to feed yourself. In the early days, caring for your baby is the rhythm of your existence, and your need to be with them is visceral.

I suffered through some dark times with my babies, including PND, and it was because of them that I didn’t give up on myself. I may have felt hopeless and at times that I was not bonding with my baby, but my thoughts were still all turned on the baby, and I battled through the bad feelings to survive and to make sure my babies were cared for.

I can forgive Mary for trying to “disappear” to get away from the bad guys that were hunting her. But when she sacrifices herself, she was already in the clear from the assassin-types. Then Sherlock was just standing there asking this lady to shoot without moving out of the way. Perhaps he already had a death wish. And she’s all like, “I could push him out of the way, or tackle the shooter, but nope, I’d rather jump in front of the bullet”.

I don’t know if the man who wrote that script is a dad or not, but I just don’t think parents are that slapdash with their lives. And that’s why the plotline is, in my opinion, totally unrealistic.

Perhaps my Sherlock outrage says more about me than anyone else, but it has got me thinking about how loving our children means loving ourselves. I think it’s wrong to unnecessarily expose oneself to danger when you have kids to look after. And that’s a lesson that I should apply to my daily life as well. Obviously I don’t have much opportunity to jump in front of bullets anyway, but there are more mundane things I could do (and maybe you, too, if you feel the same), to look after myself. I should do it just for myself, but looking after myself is good for my kids too!

So here are a few things, serious and less so, that I’m going to be careful about, so that I can look after my kids and myself.

Dangerous holiday destinations

I have a friend who enjoys visiting places that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office would prefer you avoid. More power to him and his sense of adventure. But for me, I have become a total travelling sissy since having kids. I’ve been travelling to utterly rural and random caravan parks in the hopes that no one wants to make a violent statement in those sorts of places. I obviously can’t avoid London, but I don’t see any reason to go somewhere doubtful if I don’t need to.

Health stuff

If I have the slightest doubt about my health, physical or mental, then I take myself off to the GP. There is no point waiting around and wondering if things will resolve on their own. Better to have peace of mind. And I’m extra mindful of how lucky we are in the UK to have the NHS. I can get peace of mind without emptying my purse!

Looking after myself

I’m giving myself permission to spend time exercising and worrying about what I’m eating. These things take my attention away from my kids but ultimately make me fitter so that I can be around for them in the long term and, in the short term, be healthier to enjoy my time with them.

Doing stupid stuff

Should I try to jump off the back of the Routemaster bus before it has stopped? No I should not. Should I drink an entire bottle of vodka on a rare night out? No I should not. My kids stop me doing those fun things that I might have risked when it was only my arse on the line.

Don’t be a hero?

I often think about what I would do if I found myself in a crisis situation – a crash or a violent incident. While I would like to think of myself as someone who would help others where I can, I know that my biggest priority would be keeping myself safe. Not for me, but because I don’t want my kids to be without their mum.

Going out to meet my problems

I used to be a fatalist about just about everything. I used to think “Oh well. It’s no big deal. If I die, to die would be a great adventure (you know, like in Peter Pan).” Now, instead, I think how to solve my problems without risking my wellbeing. Not that many of my problems involve life and death. But I do think about these things…

And Mary should have too.

If you don’t try, you can’t fail…?

I’m the sort of person who would rather leave things to fate than really try for something. It’s easier to quietly hope for something than to go out there and really try. If I don’t try in the first place, then I can’t fail! So I am doing something that scares me now.

I’m going to go ahead and ask that if you read this blog, could you – pretty please – drop me a little vote in the #tribalchat awards?

Tribal Chat is this awesome community of bloggers of which I’m a part. We have a Twitter chat once a week and all support each other in a Facebook group and across social media. Three times a year, they do a little award ceremony where people can vote for different bloggers who they think are doing well in particular areas.

I started blogging to challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone. Asking for your vote is totally out of that zone!

There are loads of different categories you can write me in for. You can write The Mum Reviews in up to 3 categories, but any more than that and your vote won’t count. I’m happy for you to choose what category you think my blog most fits, but if you want a suggestion, I’d be keen on Rising Star, Kindness or Social Butterfly.

Rising Star because I went from 100 to 2600 Twitter followers in 6 months. I think that’s pretty good going. Kindness because I help other bloggers learn how to do blogging stuff. Social Butterfly because I have a good #tribalchat attendance record and am always up for some wine and a silly GIF.

If you are in the running as well, drop me a comment about what category you’d like me to vote for you in. You see: kindness! 😉

Please CLICK HERE TO VOTE. Remember to vote for me in no more than 3 categories. You don’t have to fill in all the categories if you don’t want to.

THANK YOU! xx

The Slightly Belated Quiz of the Year

Happy New Year!

By way of easing myself into a new year of blogging, I’m completing this quiz tag post thingy that’s going around. My writing muscles (like all of my other muscles) have gotten a little soft and slack during my lovely Christmas break, so I need to give them a bit of warm up before going full speed.

Perhaps most people did this quiz before the end of last year, but I’m sure it’s still relevant, at the start of a new year, to carry on reflecting about the one that has passed. Thanks to Kelly from Nature Mum Blog for tagging me for this.

What was your highlight of 2016?
We built an extension! Right across the back of our house, we built a new kitchen diner, and converted the old kitchen into a downstairs toilet and utility room. It took 5 months and a lot of money and stress, but it was totally worth it. We had been living with a single room for both living and dining and it was a bit of a cramp for a family of 4 – especially since it’s important to us to eat together round the table. Now we have this wonderful family space and room to entertain guests as well. Look for a full post on this topic sometime soon.

Name one thing you are likely to remember about 2016 if asked in five years time?
Obviously, 2016 was the year when some of our favourite stars from our youths started passing away. It’s been a bit of a thing to be incredulous and to blame 2016 for it’s scourge on celebrities, but I have a feeling it’s just part of getting older in a culture far more media-obsessed than the one our parents grew up in. So we need to get used to this.

Sum up 2016 in one word.
Tumultuous.

Name one pearl of wisdom from 2016 that you will carry through 2017.
Take time to breathe! My life got pretty busy in 2016. My eldest started school, I started this blog, I was working 4 days per week, and the building works were stressful. I also had surgery and some other emotionally and physically stressful things happen. I learned if I don’t take time to practice a bit of mindfulness, then I start to have some serious issues with anxiety. So now I take regular breaks just to breathe. My favourite blogger who keeps me on track with this is Mission: Mindfulness. I’ll be guest posting on her blog soon about my mindfulness journey!

Do you have any new year resolutions?
It’s super-duper beyond cliche but I want to lose some more weight. This year, I lost the baby weight from having my youngest (who is now 2!). Now I want to lose what I like to call the “beer and burritos” weight from my 20s. I have my 20-year high school reunion coming up in July and this is good motivation for me. Obviously I will swan in looking healthy and be able to tell people about my incredibly glamourous life. 😉

How did you see in the new year?
Our neighbours from across the street came round with their kids from 3-6pm for the kids to play while we imbibed cava and spicy chicken wings. Party on down, I know! After the neighbours left, my husband and I put the kids to bed and carried on with the cava and junk food in front of some spectacularly awful TV. Did anyone else see Robbie Williams groping himself live on the BBC?? At least we managed to stay up until midnight.

What would you most like to do in 2017?
Just live normal life and appreciate the little things.

What are your main goals for 2017?

Be a fab blogger – with all the right stats – but to keep on keeping it real.
Stop looking at my phone when I’m supposed to be playing with my kids.
Do something new that scares me – I’m not sure what yet.

I tag Sparkly Mummy and Me, You, Baby Too to take part, if they want to and they don’t reckon it’s too late!

The Christmas Tag – couldn’t resist!

Okay I know I said I was going to stop blogging for Christmas, but this isn’t a blog post, it’s a Christmas tag. My lovely friend over at Me, You, Baby Too tagged me and it simply seemed rude to say no. You should pop over and check out her blog – she is very funny!

So this post is just a bit of fun and doesn’t involve me being creative. Let’s face it. I’m addicted to the internet. I needed to do some internetting today. I promise I’ll get better. But for now…here’s my Christmas Tag interview.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE?

For me it’s not Christmas if you haven’t seen some version of A Christmas Carol. I’m not that keen on the Jim Carrey one. I like either A Muppet Christmas Carol or the straight-to-DVD one starring Patrick Stewart. Patrick Stewart is the perfect Scrooge.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A WHITE CHRISTMAS?

When I was little I lived somewhere that used to get very snowy indeed. Sometimes there would even be so much snow you had to dig your way out of the front door. I’m not sure if that much snow ever happened on Christmas day, but all the Christmases were definitely white. In adult life, not so much, but I do think one Yorkshire Christmas had enough snow (or was it on Boxing Day?) that I managed a snowball fight with my nieces.

WHERE DO YOU USUALLY SPEND YOUR HOLIDAY?

In Yorkshire with my husband’s family. There are 18 of us when we all get together!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SONG?

‘Fairytale of New York’ because I like the sort of Irish-y tune paired with depressing lyrics.

DO YOU OPEN ANY PRESENTS ON CHRISTMAS EVE?

Not usually. But this year I’m letting my kids open some presents from friends and neighbours early. We have loads of presents from us to lug up to Yorkshire so I don’t want to take the other presents as well. Saving everything for Christmas Day is overrated IMHO.

CAN YOU NAME ALL OF SANTA’S REINDEER?

Dasher, Prancer, Donner, Vixen, Rudolph, um…nope.

WHAT HOLIDAY TRADITIONS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR?

Having a drink and chatting with family!

IS YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE REAL OR FAKE?

Real. I wouldn’t mind a fake myself but my husband wouldn’t stand for one.

WHAT’S YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE HOLIDAY TREAT/FOOD/SWEET?

We always have our main Christmas dinner at lunchtime or late afternoon. Then, later, we have Christmas supper. This consists of lots of cheese, chutney, pickles, Yorkshire pork pies and the likes. I love this munchey meal with a glass of port.

BE HONEST, DO YOU LIKE GIVING OR RECEIVING GIFTS BETTER?

It depends on the person I’m giving to. There are some people that are fun to shop for and are then grateful for their gift. In that case, it’s great I’d rather be the giver. But sometimes people are hard to shop for and not very appreciative, which is not so much fun.

WHAT IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED?

That’s a tough one. I don’t think anything has ever quite beat the excitement of receiving a ‘Barbie Dream House’ on Christmas when I was about 6. I don’t think adult gifts can ever really compare! But I do love getting a spa voucher. You can let everyone know.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM PLACE TO VISIT FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON?

I would actually quite like to just be in my own house and have family come to me. It might be stressful but we have never been in our own house on Christmas day before.

ARE YOU A PRO PRESENT WRAPPER OR DO YOU FAIL MISERABLY?

I fail miserably. This year, my husband wrapped and I was in charge of handing him pieces of tape and writing the gift tags.

WHAT MADE YOU REALISE THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA?

I always knew the truth.

WHAT MAKES THE HOLIDAYS SPECIAL FOR YOU?

Wine. Oh and probably my family. Wine and my family together.

I’m not good at thinking of who would like to be tagged for this sort of thing, so if you’d like to participate just let me know in the comments!

Merry Christmas lovely people!

I just wanted to write a quick note to whoever reads my blog that I’m going to take a little break now until after the new year. Thank you for all who have been reading my stuff and supporting this blog since I started in July. I really appreciate it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. Look, I made a card:

Blog Christmas card.jpg

See you on the flip side! (Can’t help it, will always be an 80’s cheeseball child.)

xx Nicole

Lessons learned: bus tours are not just for tourists, and always bring a change of clothes

Yesterday 365 tickets gave me the great opportunity to take an open-top double-decker bus tour of London with The Original Tour. I have lived near London and worked there for over 10 years now, so I’m hardly the usual target customer for a bus tour. Us seasoned London-goers imagine that everyone on those tours is fresh off the plane from foreign lands, desperate to gaze at the beauty of our city. But even when I was fresh off the plane, I never took one of these tours. However, I know now that I was missing out.

The main reason I was keen to go on the tour is because my 4-year-old son LOVES double-decker buses. And on previous trips to London I had seen him gaze in awe at the “open” ones. “Mummy, can we go on an open bus, pleease?” And I’d always said no because I figured it wasn’t much different from the normal public transport double-decker buses, except that you would be outside and possibly cold! But I was wrong about that too.

So here is the story of our day, which didn’t quite work out the way we planned, but was still an adventure nevertheless.

The best-laid plans…

On a foggy Saturday morning my son and I excitedly jumped on the train to London. Here we are trying out my new selfie stick. It worked brilliantly for this photo! I had many, many bus selfies planned.

The full plan for the day was to ride the bus from Trafalgar Square, where we picked up our tickets, to Winter Wonderland, where we would stop for lunch and a carnival ride or two. Then we planned to board the bus again to finish the rest of the Yellow Tour. All of the tours are hop-on, hop-off, to enable you to use the buses to get around to see whatever London attractions you’re interested in. You can switch which routes you use over the course of the day depending on where you want to get to. So in theory, you shouldn’t need any other travel ticket the day you take your bus tour.

There are two main sightseeing routes that go past all the major attractions. The Yellow Route is the original tour that covers some key sights. It crosses the river twice and passes the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, St Paul’s Cathedral, London Eye, The Shard, Tower Bridge and Leicester Square, among other things. This one is a bit shorter and has a real human tour guide telling you interesting stories along the way, and helping you know where the right place to “hop off” is if you’re planning a specific stop.

The other major route is the Red Route, also known as The City Sightseeing Tour. This makes a much longer circuit of London and goes past Regent Street and The Strand – a great way to see all of the Christmas lights this time of year. It has an audio guide, which includes a special children’s commentary to keep your kids entertained.

Both routes go past Winter Wonderland and other Christmas markets.

Your ticket also covers a bunch of other bus routes, along with walking tours and a river cruise. They give you discounts on admission to other attractions, and you also get this excellent little book for your child, full of activities and history.

We decided that the Yellow Route was best for us because it was a bit shorter, and I liked the idea of having a live guide.

An entertaining bus ride

After we picked up our tickets, we waited for a short time near Trafalgar Square to catch our bus. There was a lovely attendant there to help us be sure to get on the right bus.

We hopped on and went straight to the open-top part of the bus. Even though it was a chilly December day, it wasn’t raining, so we decided we could brave the cold for a bit. However, it wasn’t actually cold at all! The way the bus is designed blocked a lot of the wind from blowing in our faces, so we felt relatively sheltered and comfortable. It was great having a view of the sights unfettered by window glass.

The bus did a nice little circuit of Trafalgar Square where I took this picture of the Christmas tree. The tour guide explained how Norway sends us a tree for Trafalgar Square every year to thank us for helping them out during the Second World War.

We then went past the Admiralty Arch and a statue of Charles I on a horse.

I rather enjoyed the joke the tour guide made when he explained that Charles I was one of our shortest ever monarchs … and he was a lot shorter when we were finished with him! He was beheaded during the English Civil War – when Cromwell took over. The Guide asked us to consider how the current Queen goes past this statue during all her major parades, and how sobering it must be for her to pass this statue of her ancestor who died in such a grisly way!

The bus proceeded down Pall Mall past St James’s Palace, then down Piccadilly past the Ritz Hotel and Green Park. Another interesting little story from the tour guide that I hadn’t heard before was a legend about why they call it Green Park. Supposedly, Charles II’s wife Catherine caught him picking flowers for his mistress there, and in a fit of jealousy ordered all the flowers to be removed. Therefore, to this day, the park is only grass with no flower beds. I’m not sure how historically accurate that one is, but it was entertaining nevertheless.

And then it all went a bit pear-shaped…

At this stage in the journey I decided it was time for one of my highly anticipated bus selfies. I stuck my phone into my selfie stick and took aim, and then the screen of my phone went black. As I looked closer, it had a picture of an Android and lots of computer code gobbledegook streaming across the screen! Cue quiet panic while I wonder if my phone has some sort of virus and OMG how am I going to get through the rest of the day without a phone for pictures, maps, communication … all the things I constantly need it for?! I mashed the off button repeatedly to get it to restart. Finally, it did. Sigh of relief.

Then the tour guide prompted us to get off the bus for Winter Wonderland. So much for my bus selfie. Oh well, I thought to myself, I’ll get one when we get back on later.

We walked round to the entrance of Winter Wonderland and my son started complaining he was tired and his tummy hurt. I thought he was just hungry, so we made a beeline for the bratwurst stand. My son is normally a great lover of sausages so I thought this would go down a treat. We shared one and I cut it into small pieces for him. After the first bite, he said it was a little bit spicy. But he kept eating … 2nd bite, 3rd bite and then … it all came back up.

That’s right, dear readers, my son puked up his lunch in the middle of the Bavarian Village at Winter Wonderland. I looked around with embarrassment, but it was so crowded that nobody seemed to notice. I furtively cleaned up what I could and made a quick exit from the scene of the crime.

My son’s coat and clothes were covered in sick and I hadn’t brought any spares! Argh! I was supposed to finish reviewing the bus tour! What to do? My mind sailed through possible solutions to the problem. Should I pop back on the bus – or maybe into a cab for swiftness – to the nearest retail outlet to purchase some clean apparel? But what if this puke was only the first of many? Images of my son being sick down the side of an open-top bus – or worse, on some other people – danced in my head.

In despair I dragged my son out of the park and to the nearest Tube station. I decided to just go straight home and not risk exposing other bus riders to the contents of my son’s stomach. Unfortunately, we had to ride the Tube and then the train for quite some way to get back to our house in Surrey. I had to stop at WH Smith to buy a plastic bag to house his smelly coat because I hadn’t even remembered to pack one! Rookie parenting mistake.

Luckily, the train was not crowded so I was mostly able to avoid offending others with our stench. I think I saw a few people twitch their noses though.

The verdict

I have to send my apologies to the lovely PR person and 365 Tickets, who arranged this review opportunity for me! My investigation of The Original Tour was not as thorough as I had planned it to be. But surely it’s understandable that a poorly 4-year-old was in no state to enjoy a prolonged bus ride?

Despite the shortness of my experience with the tour, I can without reservation highly recommend it. As I mentioned earlier, I never thought those tours had anything to offer a “seasoned traveller” like myself, but I actually found it incredibly relaxing to sit on the bus and hear entertaining stories about London’s history and landmarks. It seems like a great way to get around if you are planning a day out enjoying London’s attractions, and even better at Christmas when there are lights and other festive sights to see.

I think the tour is a great way to get your children interested in history, too. My son loved being on the bus and listening to the stories the tour guide was telling. I would also recommend it to any friends visiting London – even if not for the first time – as it’s sure to teach you things you didn’t already know.

I hope to take my son back someday soon to enjoy the full tour. I’ll just avoid stopping for bratwurst halfway through, and remember to bring a change of clothes and a plastic bag.

Disclosure: It’s not a secret! I received a ticket for the bus tour in exchange for the review.