The Zoo, A Pudding And The Crown Jewels

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

I am beyond excited that this weekend I finally get to meet some of the lovely bloggers I've gotten to know over the last eighteen months! I am dragging Other Half and Small Child off to London for the British Mummy Bloggers meet up at London Zoo. Well I say dragging - not much dragging will be involved for either of them let me tell you.

Small Child is beside herself at the prospect of not only another trip to London after loving every minute of last years but, she gets to go on a train again and visit the Zoo!

Other Half, who loves London when he's not having to go there in a work capacity, is very keen to meet some of these people who take up so much of my time these days and whom I warble on about on a regular basis.

I love London and seem to be managing more trips up lately. The added bonus of seeing all the Christmas lights this weekend is sending my festive vibe into overdrive too. Mind you, it's not just me... SC will be going into school dressed as a Christmas Pudding for non-uniform day today. There was a choice between just wearing Christmas colours or going the whole hog. I love that she picked the hog!

Love the expression... we are not amused at being papped!

And finally before I let you get on with your weekend, I just wanted to say a big thank you to lovely Muddling Along Mummy who was kind enough to bestow this crown award upon me. You may remember that Emily at Maternal Tales also gave me this a while ago which gave me cause to bemoan the size of my head.

Well, Muddling Along Mummy has thankfully solved my dilemma. Now that I have two bejewelled crowns I've decided to fashion them into a festive bra type contraction. Voila! Give me any fashion problem and I'll solve it! Why are you running away? Come back.... please.....

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If The Crown Fits.... (originally published 2/11/09)

Actually this crown probably won't fit because apparently I have an overly large head. So said the woman who measured me for a hideous Victoria Plum-esque bridesmaid hat once. Mine had to be made 2.5 inches bigger in circumference than the other girls hats!

Don't get me wrong.... if you met me you wouldn't think "Ooh look here come ThatGirl39... Oh my god... she has got one huge head... quick... run in the other direction!" However, if you came wedding hat shopping with me you'd very quickly get bored of gazing in wonderment at how funny they look perched atop my noggin. Its fair to say that the crown in the award picture is fairly representative of how far down my head I can get a hat to sit.

But look... I've gone and digressed.. shocker I know. The gorgeous Emily at Maternal Tales has given me this dazzling award which fills me with pleasededness as it goes very nicely with the new decor dahlink! And before I pass this onto to five lovelies whom I'm sure all have heads of normal size, it also allows me to show you my Forty Love page where I am proudly displaying all my blog bling these days.

And so to my Queens Of ALLL Things Awe-summm!!! Step forward to the pink carpet the following majestic blogesses....

Laura at Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy?

Lady Mama

Lets Have A Cocktail

Life, The Universe And All That's In It

One Of 365

Enjoy wearing your crown.... and I'm not all jealous that it looks better on you than me!

Chicken's Of The Undead Unite! (originally posted 20/10/09)

You know when you were a kid you'd want something so bad, not just because it was really cool but cos all the other kids had it too?

Well... that's me and the Zombie Chicken award. I have stood by and watched whilst others have had the undead chicken bestowed upon them. Don't get me wrong.... I stood there with pride wearing my fancy frock in their honour, I applauded and quaffed champagne with them...just to keep them company you understand? But god darn it... where was mine??

I don't normally covet awards; I mean it's so lovely when someone thinks of you and wants to let you know that they enjoy reading your ramblings, but they are not a thing I would seek to solicit. Solicit a pair of Louboutins? Why yes of course. A Chanel 2.55 bag, despite what Karl says about mothers? Oh go on then. But man, did I ever want this baby!

So it's with eternal gratefulness that I say thank you to the lovely Metropolitan Mum for granting my wish and for saying that she would risk brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read my words.... I kid you not! Look......

“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.”

So... not being one to risk the wrath of chickens, zombie or otherwise, I shall be passing this onto:

Liz at  ... but then I had kids She's funny, honest and and had me hooked after reading her About Me section!

Catherine at Lucy And I. I love this woman! She is one cool mummy, shares my glossy magazine addiction, makes wonderful clothes for her girls and Etsy shop and has been one of the blogs that I have always gone back to read since I first started blogging.

Emily at Maternal Tales. I know she already has this but she deserves another. Yes you lady... you who has made me snort my coffee everywhere on several occasions. Got any screen wipes?

And finally two blogs that are new to me. First up is Chapter Forty. Well of course I would be reading this one, especially with the strap line "Oh Poo, life is passing by way too quick"! Also, Nicola of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. I have only read a few of her posts so far but am addicted and will be going back for more.

So, please accept this, err... lovely dead chicken award from me and feel free to display or dispose of as you wish!

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Two Good Reasons For Drinking Champagne (originally posted 24/9/09)

Image courtesy of: Tinker.com

Firstly there's the wedding that I can't talk about. Don't go getting all over excited and thinking that I've started moving in c'leb circles and have been attending the nuptials of famous folk. It's more to do with certain people not finding out that certain people went to the wedding of two other certain people. Icks Nay On The Wedding Spay as they say....

Having not yet recovered from the concert, we came home, picked up Small Child, organised her and us as necessary and then I drove her down to other Grandma's. The plan was to spend a quiet night in before setting off early on Sunday to said unmentionable wedding. I managed to scupper this slightly by having a funny turn at the wheel on the way back home which scared me to the point of pulling over and asking Other Half to drive to meet me. Having attempted to follow him home slowly, we ended up abandoning one car and him driving me the rest of the way after I started feeling woozy again. I've been fine ever since so have chalked this one up to post traumatic seven hours on feet at concert syndrome!

Having written ten notes for the babysitter who was taking over from Grandma later that day and collected aforementioned abandoned car from the next village, we set off. The wedding was at a nice country hotel...it just happened to be situated in a place that was difficult to get to although I suspect we may have taken the scenic route. One two and a half hour drive and a quick outfit change in the hotel toilet later we were officially at the wedding that I can't talk about.

So quick summary: elegant bride, emotional groom, small gathering of guests, a bit of quality time for me and OH, and dopey wasps attracted to fizzy stuff on an exceptionally warm September day. Which meant me doing a lot of flapping and running about at random.

Which leads me seamlessly(!) onto the other reason to be drinking champagne.... awards!

Lovely Fab In Your Forties bestowed upon my blog this one.....

This lady makes me laugh with her wicked sense of humour. In particular, if you missed out on her London Fashion Week special, go take a look! Thankfully this award does not seem to require that I reveal strange things about myself... lucky for me, lucky for you. But I would like to pass it onto the following lovely bloggers:

NotSupermum

Rosie Scribble

With Love....

Not Enough Mud

And WildernessChic gave me this...

I am truly honoured to be considered among WildernessChic's circle of friends; she is one stylish lady who expresses herself beautifully and sometimes lets us in on her past life... always a good read!

I consider these people my lovely blog friends too:

Diary Of A Yummy Mummy

Tara at Sticky Fingers

Maternal Tales

I just hope they don't consider me to be in their circle of blog stalkers!

Special mention also to One Of 365 who gave me a complimentary shout out... she said such nice things that she made me blush! Right back at ya babe I say! I have just started reading her letters out to the ether and she intrigues me. I look forward to spending many more happy blog hours over at hers!

Cheers Dahlinks...... clink!

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Random Ramblings (originally posted 10/09/09)

Image courtesy of: redbubble.com

Phew what a week so far! I suspect this post will be something of a hotch potch of blurb so accept my apologies in advance. Blog time has been a bit elusive this past few days, as has sleep. Therefore the brain hasn't really been engaged thus enabling me to mentally cobble together post ideas whilst going about the daily business of this thing that I call my life.

Random Thing 1. Small Child's first day at big school made me realise two things; the older I get the less I seem to embrace change and, if the change relates to Small Child then I dislike it even more! Thank you so much for all your kind comments and tweets; you'll be pleased to hear that I'm no longer an emotional wreck and by this morning, I feel like I'm starting to get into my stride as a school mummy. Seeing her go in happy and a bit more confident makes the world of difference and I come home able to make use of the time as opposed to sitting there wringing my hands.

Random Thing 2 is an act of kindness. Patricia Davidson of Glamoursleuth blog and author of The Shopoholics Top 1000 Websites, picked up on one of my tweets about loving InStyle magazine. She mentioned that the U.S. InStyle was fab and offered to send me the latest issue following a forthcoming trip to the States. Sure enough I later received a parcel with a couple of American glossies.... how lovely is that?

Random Thing 3 would be my continued obsession with New York. Yes... its NYC fashion week and no... I am not there. Nor am I at any of Vogue Fashion's Night Out events this evening... natch. Nor are any episodes of the new Rachel Zoe Project or The City being shown over here yet... bigger natch. So please, in lieu of the fact that I am never going to get to an NYC/fashioney type/Vogue related event, c'mon television programming people... get off your butts and screen them here already! Big thank you to E4 though for bringing me Running In Heels and to Channel 4 for The Real Housewives Of New Jersey. This goes some way to appease the hurt.

Random Thing 4 is this award.....

... from Maternal Tales. I am truly honoured to be called "a great read" by someone whom I consider to be one of the truly great blog reads! She is often responsible for me sitting at the Mac shouting "Nooooo!" or "Oh my god you didn't" or just sitting there clutching my sides and rocking back and forth before making a hasty retreat to the bathroom for reasons that only women who have given birth can understand. Her honesty is refreshing, whether we're talking reviews or her kids poos! Not for the faint hearted that last one let me tell you!

Random Thing 5 would be the dreaded Wine Waist. No...I am not looking to acquire one as I'm already the proud owner of said extra poundage thanks. I have made a vow to get rid of this ever since bending over to wash my hair, catching a glimpse of it down my top and mistaking it for my arse. Having lost a few pounds before my 40th this year, any that now creep back on seem to go straight to the middle region and taunt me like never before. You know that I love my red wine so limiting my intake will be tantamount to torture for me, but it must be done if I don't want to spend the rest of my days encased in either Spanx/Magic Knickers/Tummy Toners/Belly Busters or all four at once. All hints and tips, apart from surgery, will be gratefully received, tested and if you're really unlucky, reported back on.

And so, seeing as its now coming up to eleven thirty I have to think about leaving for the school run already. Yep... not loving the month of half days so much as there's barely time to get into anything before I head back to the school gates.

Thanks for listening, you've been great.... and I've been rambling.

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Awards Day (originally posted 11/8/09)

On Saturday night I learnt via Twitter that a lovely lady I know who likes to look Fab In Her Forties had bestowed upon myself this Honest Scrap award. Imagine my surprise and delight then, when a certain blonde Wilderness Chic lady from Life, The Universe And All That's In It also chose to bung me the same bling!

I like to live life in perfect symmetry and so will gladly accept both of them to be stored side by side, happily ever after. Check out the picture of Gwynnie looking decidedly unangelic and pretty hot on Wilderness Chic's blog by the way - bet that's the photo Chris Martin has been carrying in his wallet whilst touring the world recently.

Now for a bit of rule breaking. It says you have to brag about it, (done that), nominate seven blogs to pass onto, (gonna do that by way of an upcoming post) and then list ten honest things about yourself.

Listen up peeps. It feels like all I've done lately is unleash copious amounts of my weirdness onto you and I fear if I spout forth anymore, you might run for the hills yelling "Go away strange moth fearing, aubergine hating, sticky tape on the finger nails loathing, shoe obsessed FREAK!"

Besides if you want honest (s)crap from me, just drop by the blog whenever you feel like it and I can pretty much guarantee there will be some in there somewhere. And... it looks like I'm not the only one doing the rule breaking... whilst certain ladies who shall remain nameless have been changing the picture that goes with the award, I've been a bit of girly swot and kept the original badge.

I have to say though that "Awards Day" hasn't all been plain sailing you know, in fact it's been a tad stressful...

When I woke up this morning, I looked in the mirror to find that I looked a bit worse for wear....

Image courtesy of: thefunnyworld.com

After some coffee and a lot of gentle coaxing in the hair department, I looked like myself again.... some say I look a bit like Rachel Zoe but I can't see it myself. Perhaps it's the sunnies.....

Image courtesy of: socialite life.celebuzz.com

Anyhoo, I called my driver and asked him to take me shopping where I just happened to purchase a few essentials...

Image courtesy of www.wornthrough.com

.... before stopping for a spot of lunch.....

Image courtesy of: Creative Loafing

After a mani/pedi/waxi/fake tanni/eyelash tinti I finally got home and set about checking out my closet to see what I should wear to the awards ceremony....

Image courtesy of: treehugger.com

Eventually I decided on the Chanel... bless Uncle Karl, he'd had shipped it over especially....

Image courtesy of: Chanel

The evening was a resounding success but after all that partying one really needs to lie low for a few days.....

Image courtesy of: handbag.com

....I'm pooped.... there's only so much glamour a girl can take in one day.

p.s. You might just have to look a teensy bit harder for the honesty part in this post!

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An Award, Howard... And Some Fungus (originally posted 5/8/09)

Just take a look at this sexy water cooler lady... goodness... if the facilities team at my old office filled them up in this manner, the queues would have been round the building and back! Not only is this retro award saucy.. but its mine! The lovely Sher at Fashion After Forty thinks I'm a Water Cooler Wonder... I am truly flattered!

But in case you were wondering, which you're probably not but I'll share it anyway... my life is not always one long round of award acceptance speeches and after parties.

As that round, yellow, occasionally hot thing in the sky decided to make an appearance on Sunday, we headed off out to the New Forest. Other Half was keen on seeking out a six hundred year old oak tree, Small Child wanted to go "on an explorer adventure" and I felt the need to walk off the three course meal that we'd cooked for our friends the night before.

Having packed in enough outer garments for any number of sudden weather changes, we set out, dodging all the tourists, donkeys and ponies that meandered along the forest roads. And, tourist folk, whilst we're on the subject, I expect nothing less of the equine beasts, but you know that thing made of concrete attached to the side of the road... that's called a pavement, please use it.

In the next village along from ours we had to pull up behind a nice silver Audi Q7 that was parked halfway on the pavement and therefore causing most of the tourists to play chicken with the traffic. This prompted me to begin my usual cursing of and general hex placing upon all the 4 x 4 drivers of the world. That was until I saw Howard from Take That step out.

"Look, Look!" say I to Other Half, "There he is again!" As always, Other Half nods and indulges me whilst trying to ignore the fact that his wife turns into some sort of crazed groupie whenever she has a Howard sighting. Wearing his woolly beanie hat, he somehow managed to fit right in amongst all the tourists. Seeing as the last place you'd expect to bump into a member of Take That is a sleepy forest village, I doubt that he gets much hassle from people. Don't count on it being that way forever, Howard my friend - one of these days I'm gonna muster up the courage to say hello!

Driving onwards, no doubt silently thanking the gods that his wife had decided against leaning out the window and shouting "Howie!", Other Half got us to our six hundred year old tree destination. Normally this sort of thing would be as exciting to me as a used tea bag, but I skipped along happily, buoyed up by my pop star encounter. Small Child was far more interested in going deep into the dark forest,"On a bear hunt Mummy...C'mon!", than looking at the ancient oak but she did stop to gaze at the Kissing Trees for a moment.

After lunch, we went to another local beauty spot and had great fun leaping over logs, balancing on logs and generally imitating Frog On A Log Who Was Trying Not To Fall Into The Bog. For some reason unbeknown to me or the rest of womankind, Other Half was intent on taking photos... of fungus! This is not meant to belittle his photographic skills in any way as he has a talent for taking great pictures, as you can see from some of these .....

... but seriously babe... fungus??!?

... well.... I guess this one is quite pretty... as mushrooms go!

Ooh... hang on a sec..... what does this one remind me of?

Goodness me, I've come over all unnecessary... think I need to go for a lie down!

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