Football, racisam and chins

Argh giant lollypop head!

I was walking down the road yesterday and then all of a sudden a huge lollypop headed skinny scary image loomed down at me. It was this advert for some smelly crap or other. It looks weird on this blog but imagine this image 6 feet tall on the side of a bus stop. It was slightly warped by the burnt plastic in front of it as well and it wasn't really clear how the woman was standing. I can see now she is side-on but in the street it looked like she had no arms.
Has her body been shrunk or her head enlarged? Answers please Irgxana...your the graphics 'manipulation' man.
Anyway, scary!

Nobody eats my food!

I made a fantastic shoulder of lamb (Jamie inspired). I cooked it for 5 hours with garlic and rosemary and it just melted in the mouth. I made smashed veg to go with it; potato, sweede and carrot with cream and butter smashed, not mashed, so you get chunky bits of yum in there too. I made a red wine gravy from the meat juices.
It was such a good meal. I proudly plated it up for my family and served.
Nobody ate it.
They pushed it around and said they didn't like it.
Even Rob.
I ate mine, it was fantastic.
You know, sometimes it just gets disheartening cooking a lovely meal and take so long and spend so much money and love on it and have people push it around and look at their plates like I had fed them poison. I went to our local butcher and bought local lamb instead of going to the supermarket. It was a really special meal but only to me.
They would have loved a plate of fish fingers, bean and packet noodles. That would have cost a fraction of the price, taken two minutes to cook and they would have eaten them all up.
I'm sure I have tried to raise them to like good food. I have breastfed them so that they experience different flavors in my milk, I try to cook from scratch as often as I can. I do home baking and make stews, make Thai meals and can whip up a lasangea from my store cupboard any time of the week.
Why do they just want Macdonald's?

Thinking about spring

Oh yes; the garden is just waking up. I've been looking at what has survived and what is coming up again this year. The chives have just popped their heads up from the earth and so has the parsley. My broccoli is just about to sprout but I'm not too worried about how much I get, it's job was to put nitrates back into the little patch of soil it's in. This should mean that whatever I plant there this year should grow well. It's a shady little patch and so I have taken advice from Maia and I am going to plant garlic and onions, only a few, nothing too ambitious. I am determined to grow some runner beans this year. I've tried for the last three years but the slugs keep eating them. This year I am going to take the offensive. I'm going to plant them in containers with trellis up the back and I might have to resort to slug killer. I know, I know...organic farming and all that but I thought if it was contained then it wouldn't kill the slimys in the rest of the garden. Is there such a thing as organic slug killer? I think I need to find out.
I think I will try to grow some windowbox spring onions as I have discovered they are fab with everything. The raspberry canes are looking healthy and the coriander might have self-seeded.
So much to be happy about in the garden and spring isn't even here yet.
I hope we have a hot summer this year, I really need to sit and be warm under the sun.

Women...know your limits...!

This poster is slightly disturbing.
What it says to me in it's stark tormented depiction of a women who has been the victim of a sexual assault BY A MAN, is this:
"Women...Think you can go out and have a good time? Think again. We will get you. We the army of dark faced strangers who silently watch you leave the safe boundaries we set up for your own good. This will happen to you. Look at this womans face. THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU."
Argh! Makes me need a drink.

More illness and oweys

The Chicken Pox has returned and is much more scary than before. Poor Solomon is absolutely covered in the damn things. (out damn spot??)
This time instead of little tiny spots that scab over in a day they are huge blotchy infected marks the size of a silver dollar. He has spent the day listlessly resting in his mum or dad's arms and feebly asking for "More Bob" or "dooby do". That's Bob the Builder or Scooby Do.
He's in pain, he can't sleep, we can't get any medicine down him. I've spent this week sleeping in quick bursts when I can. I'm sure I haven't had more than a couple of hours at a time.
How long can this go on for? I phoned the Doctor who seemed wholey unimpressed at my descriptions of the horrible sores all over my boy.
As I type it's 11 o'clock and he just can't get to sleep, he keeps scratching and moaning and having a boobie.
Oh dear....

Trains with children

It's not easy getting four children to Bristol, especially when the line is down and the journey is going to take twice as long and re-route through Newport in Whales. It's not easy getting two buggies up and down the step onto the train. It's not easy having to sit in the corridor for the whole journey because there is nowhere to put the buggy, even if was folded down. All in all I'm not sure what Hayley and I were thinking when we decided to take a two-month-old baby, two 2-year-olds and a four-year-old (Who was actually really good and helped us loads) to Bristol.
All of this was not easy and was not made any better by all the people tutting as our children cried. What is wrong with people?
As all the seats were occupied by single people taking up four people tables we had to slot the children into seats beside them. You'd have thought we'd brought a day-trip from the leaper colony on an outing the way people reacted. Everybody could see we were struggling but nobody offered to move or help or even made eye contact with us; they tutted under their breaths, just loud enough for us to hear.
Two things annoy me about this experience: The first is this; should I just stay at home with my children? Should I get a nanny or child minder if I want to leave the house and more importantly, isn't it good for the children to have these experiences? How will they learn to behave on a train if they don't experience it? Where are all the mothers with children? Hidden in their houses or driving cars so that they don't impose their 'brats' on the ordinary public? No wonder women get depressed sitting at home, not feeling welcome anywhere but baby groups. No wonder so many women talk about "getting their life back" when they have a baby, what they mean is that they want to be allowed back into adult company. Bah!
Second point: I don't own a car. I can't afford it and it's unnecessary because I live in a city with public transport. Traveling on that train would have been totally impossible for us if we had not had extra adults with us. We had Will on the was there and Polly came back with us (we payed her fare in desperation to have her help with the journey) if we had only had the two adults we could have possibly been stuck in the middle of nowhere in Wales still with the stiff little bodies of our children who had died of hypothermia. I'm very angry that the trains are so inaccessible. What if I had been a single person in a wheelchair? I'm also terrible jealous of people with cars who can just load up their children and drive somewhere. Bah twice!

Local places for Local people

Apologies to anyone who is reading this post and who does not live in the Gloucester region.
Maybe you might be passing through our fair city and so you might want to try out these Erika-recommended places.
But to all you local people....Try these places to eat out (if you are not familiar with them already)
I was stuck in town a few weeks ago with two hungry boys and I didn't want to go to McDonald's but if you have children there is very few other options; most people hate children and will tell you so with loud tuts. The other thing about Maccy D's is that you can feed your children for £1.99. So I wandered around town for a bit and came across a lovley little place tucked away besides the Regal pub just off Northgate St. It's called
'**~~~#### THE BLUE THAI CAFE ***~~~####'
I had the yummiest red curry I have ever eaten and they cooked the kids some plain noodles which were also very yummy. The kids liked it, the staff were very friendly and happy to talk to the children, they serve a very nice mango juice and the best thing is that the whole meal cost less than what I would have spent in the big evil M. My Thai curry was only £3.50! I'm going back there tomorrow with Rob. I think I'll try the green curry this time. When the kids were full the waitress came over and boxed the leftovers for us to take with us, the kids nibbled on the cold noodles for the rest of the day.

On to my next local recommendation:
Did you know Dr. Fosters had re-opened? No, neither did I until last night. My lovely brother took me out for a few drinks there. Not only is it most pleasant to sip a drink in a warm conservatory whilst watching the lights ripple on the water of the docks but they also have a spanky new menu of pub food. You will find all the favorite pub dinners: Steak, mixed grill, chicken etc but they also have lots of seafood and more interesting looking food. They also have, much to my delight, a fab tapas menu. I just love tapas! Little bits of yumminess that are not quite a meal so you don't feel like a pig but are more substantial than bar snacks. I had chritzo with chicken livers. This might not appeal to many people and it could have gone either way but it was a quite delicious and I got two bread rolls with it. You are never given enough butter with bread but I was given so much I had some to spare. The service was great, it felt such a nice environment to sit and relax that in a few hours I was stress free.

There we go, two fab places to eat out. I think it is important to use local small places often and to promote them because if we did not then the towns will be full of generic coffee shops and they are crap, overrated and too expensive for the likes of me. I don't want a world full of Weatherspoons either.
I'm very worried about the uber complex that is being built down by the cinema at the moment. It is SOOOOOOO huge that either it will fail and be full of empty spaces or if it succeeds it will totally eclipse the town center (which it is just down the road from) and I fear we will lose any individuality that Gloucester has left.
Any thoughts?

Best books of 2007

With my new bookworm look on my avatar I thought I would do a quick round-up of the books that I have read in 2007 with a star rating. It's out of five stars and if it gets one of these ! then it means I really really like it and I recommend that you read it, but only if you like the same sort of stuff that I do of course, I know we all have different tastes.

Horrible Geography - Stormy Weather By Anita Ganeri *****
Horrible Geography - Shattering Earthquakes By Anita Ganeri *****
Horrible Geography - Violent Volcanos ByAnita Ganeri *****
It it just me or is everything shit? By Steve Lowe and Alan Mcarther ***
Marasaki By Liza Dalby ****
Vicious Circle By Mike Cary - ****
The boy I love By Marion Hubard **
The God of small things By Arundhati Roy ***** !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Horrible Geography - Perishing Poles By Anita Ganeri *****
The Nightwatch By Sarah Waters ***
Tanglewreck By Jeanette Winterson ****
The devil wears Prada By Lauren Weisberger ***
Extremely loud and incredibly close By Jonathan Frau Foer ***** !!!!!!!!
How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world By Francis Wheen (This book was so bad I am giving it a minus rating) -****** i.e. very bad indeed
Living by the word By Alice Walker ****
Slapstick or Lonesome no more By Kurt Vonnegut *****
The Book of Dave By Will Self (Another minus star book I'm afraid) -****** i.e. use as toilet paper rather than read it.
The girls By Lori Lansens ***** !!!!!!!!!!!
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop cafe By Fannie Flagg ***** !!!!!!!!!
The tenderness of wolves By Stef Penney ***
Chart Throb By Ben Elton ***
James and the giant peach By Rold Dahl (I read this to Osiris and he gives it a big fi8ve stars) *****
The magic finger - Rold Dahl **** (Another bedtime story book)
Aberystwyth mon amour By Malcolm Pryce ***
Human Crochet By Kate Atkinson ***** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stolen By Kelly Armstrong ***
Last Tango in Aberystwyth By Malcolm Pryce **
The boy in the striped pajamas By John Boyne *****!!!!!!!!!!!
The forth bear By Jasper Fforde *****
A spot of Bother By Mark Haddon ****
Subject Women By Anne Oakley *****
The adventures of Red Man red By Nathaniel Haynes *
The Time Machine By H G Wells ***
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow By J K Rowling ***
Leaving Poppy By Kate Cann ****
Nevermore By Linda Newbury ****
Never push when it says pull By Guy Browning ***
Sweetness in the belly By Camilla Gibb ***** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
High Jinx by Sara Lawrence *
Queen Camilla By Sue Townsend ****
Amo, Amas, Amat By Harry Mount ***
Why Pandas do handstands By Augustus Brown ****
About Grace By Anthony Doerr **
Thorn By Verna Cork ***
Brick Lane By Monica Ali *****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elements with style ***
Dime store magic By Kelly Armstrong ****
Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination By Helen Fielding ****

And my 2007 award for Book of the Year goes to......
Sweetness in the belly by Camilla Gibb. I just loved this book. It gave me a wonderful inset into a world that I had never experienced, just what you want a book to do.

Queen's speach

I'm only jealous because we couldn't afford a wii this year...oh well, maybe next year!

Chicken pox alert!

Poor Osiris has got chicken pox. He has got spots everywhere, even on his privets! Poor thing. He is currently in a big bed made of sofa cushions in fount of Cartoon Network feeling very sorry for himself. I thought that he had had it as a child but apparently not!
If you have been in contact with us in the last 10 days you will have been exposed. Doesn't that sound overly dramatic?
I'm hoping Solomon will not get it but that seems unlikely. There is a theory about breastfeeding that the mother will pass on her antibodies to her child and that is why little babies don't usually get it, it's tends to be children over 3, but I have seem evidence that that is not true and besides Osiris still gets breast milk. I'm not even sure I've had it, my mum says have but she said I'd had mumps and I got that a few years ago.
The question is; Why has he developed it now when he has been exposed to it many many times in his life? Viruses are very odd things.

What's wrong with this eh???

"Paediatric Feeding Advisor / Sales Representative - Infant Nutrition

THE MARKET LEADER: This truly global market leader has developed a wide range of infant milk formula, and follow-up weaning and toddler nutrition, to ensure optimal growth and development. Their products are tailor-made for the specific age and nutritional requirements of the precious first few years of an infant's life. This division manufactures a premium range of formula. Promotion necessitates the recruitment of a sales professional to manage their well established Yorkshire territory.

THE ROLE: You will be calling on midwives, dieticians, nutritionists and nurses in a territory that has been very well developed. Consequently your role will be predominantly managing the relationships with committed and satisfied customers. You will need a background in either healthcare sales, and / or possibly be a nurse / midwife with the desire and motivation to move into this type of sales role.

THE PACKAGE:
Basic Salary - £24,000 to £28,000
Commission/Bonus - £2,000 to £7,000
Company Car - Passat
Benefits - Mobile, Pension, Healthcare, Laptop, Lunch Allowance, 25 days holiday Stats"

Who would want to be a Breastfeeding Peer Supporter who supports mothers for the love of it when you can go and earn 28 grand and have a company car? Who would choose to stay with the NHS when this is on offer? Calling on Midwives who are already committed customers? Wanting someone who was once a midwife? This is totally immoral!

New Year

I spent a very quiet night with my two boys for New Year. Usually I am a bit resentful if I end up on my own with children at this time of year but this one was different. I couldn't have wished for two more lovely and loving people to be with. My sister-in-Law came round with her boyfriend(one of my oldest and dearest friends) and her son and we had a few silly party games with the kids and lots of pizza. It was really nice; the boys didn't even fight that much. I made the front room into a huge bed and we all had fun romping about in the blankets. By 10 the kids were asleep and my guests had gone home and I cracked open a bottle of Cava. At 12 I toasted the New Year and gave my boys a cuddle. Rob rolled in at about 4 ish a bit worse for wear.
I'm feeling very positive about the new year. I'm going to try to start to learn to drive, I going to try to be a bit more patient with the boys. Osiris will be 5 in April and Solomon will be 3 in December, I will be 35...blimey! Time to start thinking about organizing a humongous party for my 40th birthday.
Anyway, happy new year to you all and happy blogging. I don't think we will change the world much this year but the important thing is that we keep on trying.