Month: October 2015

Home: Budgeting for home improvements

Budgeting for home improvements

How to budget for home improvements As you know, I love family adventures and any spare cash that we have always goes on spending time together as a family, which is why my never ending list of home improvements always seems to take a back seat. The shower needs a new door, a kitchen cupboard has a note stuck on it saying “do not open,” for fear of the front falling off, and the floor tiles are growing things in the cracks. It annoys me, but home improvements are just so expensive! That doesn’t mean that our home is an unpleasant …

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Travel Books for Kids: review and giveaway

The Travel Book is one of Lonely Planet Kids new travel books for kids

I met my husband on holiday. We bonded over gluwein and ski-runs, and never looked back. Always forward, to the next trip. And we’ve had some great trips over the years. Dubai, the Maldives, California, Aspen, Cape Town and Turkey are just some of the places we’ve ventured. When children came along we stayed a little closer to home, but not for long. Our wanderlust and love of new experiences has us back out there now that the kids are a little older, and they’re proving themselves to be very enthusastic travel companions in their own rights. Lonely Planet introduces travel …

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Travel: Amba Hotel at Charing Cross London

Review of the Amba hotel at Charing Cross in London's West End

Last Christmas we gifted Actually Daddy a genius experience. A voucher for the whole family to go with him to see one of his favourite shows ‘on the stage.’ A signed up fan of all things Monty Python, he was always going to love the Faulty Towers Dining Experience, and we’d decided to make a weekend of it, spending the night in London rather than dragging back home with the kids on a packed late night train. As I hunted around for somewhere to stay after the show, it dawned on me that the hotel playing host to the production …

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Dear Type 1 Diabetes

Raising money for JDRF, the Type 1 Diabetes charity

Dear Type 1 Diabetes, I’m just writing to let you know what I think of you. I haven’t ranted too much in the last year since you rudely set up camp in our lives, but the time has come. It might get sweary. Actually, strike that; this is going to get totally sweary, and I make no apologies, because it’s about time you were told. Type 1 Diabetes, you are a nasty, vindictive little terrorist, with an impeccable and malicious sense of timing. I have gradually come to accept that you are a law unto yourself. It’s not about food, …

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Days Out: Faulty Towers and an avocado sofa

A review of the Faulty Towers Dining Experience at the Amba Hotel Charing Cross

For a wedding gift, my brother-in-law gave us a very bizarre thing. I’m slightly embarrassed to confess that we fell into the cliché of demanding that plates, cutlery and cushions be donated via a large department store, but he ignored such bland instructions, instead posting us a voucher. It caused so much consternation in our new married bliss, that we waited until the day before it expired to use it. Early one Saturday morning we took the train into London, swigging champagne from a bottle to fuel the bravado we thought we’d need, and breakfasted at the Hard Rock Café …

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No Likes Needed

Yesterday I spent the entire day on social media. It wasn’t intentional – at least, it was, kind of, but I wasn’t supposed to be on it all the time – it just kind of took over my day. I had been commissioned by the Dove Self-Esteem Project to experience social media as a teenaged girl. They had some research about how the average girl spends her time online, and they wanted me to experience it for myself, and report back on how it felt. I went to bed early, with a headache, craving wine that we didn’t have in …

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Is your car safe in winter?

Jodie Kidd launches Halfords free Women’s Winter Motor Workshops at Halfords

I have the most epic car. I’m not sure when I first started to crave a Mini Cooper, but it may have had something to do with Charlize Theron’s moves in the Italian Job remake. Mine is blue though, and the roof comes down. Epic. It has one small problem though. Whenever I sit in it these days, on goes the warning light, and ‘ding’ shouts the alarm. My car needs a service. Of course, I know the phone number of the service centre, there is a really nice lounge there to wait in, and the coffee machine makes a …

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