Easter

Ooh, look at my luverrly sponge....

And Oliver's Easter haul.

I have been writing out a weekly menu (not uncommon amongst the home edder community I note!) and find this saves a fair old chunk on the weekly shop.  Last nights delights were a peppered mushroom and stilton pie for Mark, and smoked haddock for me and Oliver.  The pie was a new effort, a Simon Rimmer recipe, and I was trying to get Oliver to find a fondness for smoked fish (again).  Whilst consuming these edible 'lovelies', we decided to catch up on our tv viewing and put on Filthy Cities.  Bit of a mistake I realise now - it was as gross as ever, but the association of a rancid and fetid 18th century Paris is now indelibly associated in my mind with the smell of smoked haddock and pongy stilton, which I don't like at the best of times.  In fact I can feel a little retch even remembering it.  bleurghh.  Going for quiche and salad tonight.  No strong pongs will cross the Newson threshold tonight. 

Sarah's Cards monthly sketch challenge

  Here is my take on the monthly sketch over on Sarah's Cards:

Ta for dropping by!

I love cook books.  I would love to say I love cooking too - I do, but it so very often gets the better of me that I think I talk a better dish than produce one.  Anyhoo, I have just purchased this beauty:

Sexy huh?  It is a real proper baking book with puds, biscuits, cakes and bread. I am newly inspired by it to actually have a regular baking day - y'know, a real old fashioned afternoon session in the kitchen with the radio for company and the waft of cooking smells permeating the walls.....  Haven't yet decided on a day - I fancy Saturday afternoon, but think this is down to the draw of wintry grey weekends in my wildly unreliable imagination.  Realistically I should go for a weekay afternoon - from June I will be reducing my working hours to just two evenings a week - so I have 5 whole days/nights to plan out!!!! Tres exciting.

And lately I have scrapped a bit too.  Nothing great, but a little nod to my former passion.

Took a trip up the M5 last weekend to see.......

Now (again) one of those things I was not fully looking forward to, worried about driving that far alone (well, just me and Oliver) worried about whether the seats would be ok, blah blah blah, and I have to say, it  was the best concert/event I have ever been to.  The audience was mainly families, so nice atmosphere, the venue (Cardiff Indoor Arena) was not too big and very easy to get to and park, and the show was - well, it was bloody fantastic.  The acts (you know the names and faces surely...) performed well and were (with the exception of that twat Wagner) note perfect.  They all thanked the audience profusely for their votes and support during the X Factor competition, and for 'our' continued support.  Matt Cardle (surely the nicest person in the world ever) made a special effort to point and wave at the youngsters with banners during his set, and told us we were 'far too kind' with our applause!  He is so sweet.  One Direction turned in a brilliant performance, and before the show I could take or leave them, but I am a convert - they were great!

Enough now, I am starting to sound like a groupie.  Oh, and Oliver had a good time.  In between eating all the pringles in the car and being sarcastic about me doing 4 laps too many of Cardiff city centre, that is.  

Some crappy pics to follow - honestly there were people with mobile phones with a better zoom than my camera.



Lying in the sun outside the NIA, waiting to go in





The view from our seats



Oliver and the One Direction boys

Harry from One Direction

The lovely Mr Cardle

'When We Collide'



The finalists performing 'We Could Be Heroes'

I urge you to go - it truly was a great day out and worth the effort.

I have not done any scrapbooking since mid December.  I just have not been able to find the enthusiasm that I had, and have considered selling all my stuff and starting a new hobby/turning my craft room into something else.  Like a sauna.  ha ha.

Anyway, there is a competition over on the UKS forum right now, which has inspired me to pick up my tools and scrap once more, and I felt great satisfaction this morning when I finished a double page layout (which I have never done before). 

With this done, I decided to take a little trip out in the sunshine (sun - me?) to give Oliver a run about on his scooter and to give Harvey a run about.  We went over to Heavitree Park, which is blissfully quiet with the school shits not yet on Easter hols.



guess what's lurking in the branches?




a real shoe tree!!



I got sunburnt at the home-ed group yesterday.  I blame that bloody meeting.

greed, jibbing out and a gentle reminder

Well, my lovely sister in law has finally managed to comment on my blog!!!  This is indeed a momentous event, and I have replied to her comment below.  I have noticed other people replying to comments on their blogs, and I think that this is a nice practice, which I have decided to adopt on here.  

And so to greed.  Last week during a burst of active wifely mumsiness,  I saw Mark off to work with a wholesome packed lunch and set about making a batch of cheese and courgette scones.  By 9am I had 17 lumps of soft warm cellulite-inducing loveliness sitting on a plate screaming EAT ME - EAT ME NOW...... rude not to, so throughout the course of the day, I scoffed 14, that's fourteen (does it look less in words?) of the little buggers.  Mark prised the remaining 3 from my slavering jaws, but I think that I maybe should either a) not cook these again or b) cook them again when I have several really bad mouth ulcers.  In the meantime, I have decided that I had better opt for a more middle of the road idea, and so intend to employ the 'no more than two' rule.  That's to include biscuits, cakes, sandwiches, glasses of wine and gurt big bowls of pasta etc etc.

Jibbing out.  Today, Oliver and I had intended to take part in a living history day at the hut to do with the English Civil War.  Once I saw the timetable of the day, I bottled it completely.  It seemed to involve a lot of listening, which is quite dull for kids - and it went on for several hours too.  I am, in the main, a 2 hours tops girl.  So we haven't gone.  We are at home for the day.  This leads me on a gentle reminder.  Oliver's desk is coming out from his bedroom to live in the dining room, where we normally 'work', so that there is not the constant shifting and shuffling of crap and cat food bowls off of the table when we want to sit down and do something.  The whole making space debacle adds to the time and effort stress factor of learning at home, and quite frankly, I could do without it.  So, this is a today job - and whilst clearing off his desk of the detritus which has found a loving home there, I was seized by the urge to remind him that life is not all about sitting on your arse playing DS or watching TV.  Also, there are times I feel annoyed that Oliver does not choose the option to come and find me to help him start off a bit of work - since I know he is aware he is 'supposed' to be doing something 'learny' on a regular (not necessarily daily) basis.  So the day ticks by, and no 'learny' stuff gets attempted.  This all tends to lead to the 'home or school' conversation, which upsets him and frustrates me, since he doesn't want to go to school, and I don't want him to anyway.  I am not threatening him with school, but I think he needs to be aware that getting an education is actually the law, and it's all well and good as long as he gets one not at school, but a bit of a problem if he doesn't start to recognise that he has a part to play in the home-ed scenario if it is to work. 

Phew.  I have tried several different ways of structuring days, and listed things I want to cover etc etc, but always we come back to doing things ad hoc.  Feel endlessly guilty that I am not doing things the right way, or have not yet found the right way.  Maybe there just isn't one. 

Let's finish on a random pic.

That's cheered me up.

This post has been read and approved by the British Censor Board and been passed with a rating of 12A (contains sections of swearing)

OK, fresh back from Disneyland Paris, exhasuted & feeling quite zazzed out.

We have been to DLRP before - a couple of day trips whilst staying with family in Paris, and then we took Oliver for a few days three years ago.  This time we were greedy and went for 4 days and a big hotel, and boy, let me tell you - it was a good 1.5 days too much (for me and Mark anyhow). 

Here are my top 5 of the good, the bad and the downright ugly:

Good:
1. Oliver's joy and the general feeling of excitement you get walking through the gates on the first day & the Disney 'magic' - the feeling of 'unreality' about the place - they go a long way to preserve the image of being in a fantasy world, and the staff are relentlessly cheerful
2. The view from our hotel room (at an extra £100 thank you very much)
3.  The Hollywood Towers Hotel ride - a 12 floor plummet spooky sort of thing, which I had to go on by myself.  Oliver refused after the first go and Mark - well, just refused really.
4. Being able to have breakfast in the park and go on some rides before they open to the great unwashed.
5. Going into the park after dark - very atmospheric and less busy

Bad:
1. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed for annual maintenance.  (some very bad swearing was put to use when I found this out)
2. The relentless music - twinkly and just a bit much in the park - deafening and headache-inducing in the studios.
3. The crowds - haven't people got fucking homes to go to???
4. Did I mention the crowds?  I ask you - where's my advantage of home teaching and taking holidays out of season when the world and his wife also turn up with their minnie mouse dressed brats in tow?  Harsh - but fair I think - you haven't had to stand in line (lots of them) with the little squallers for a week.
5. The weather - it was sunny.  Nuff said. 

The ugly:
1.  Queues.  And more queues.  In fact, this whole holiday was based around the national sport of queuing.  Now, I have no issue, per se, with a queue.  In fact, I think they are a very fair and civilised way of getting dealt with on the whole - and I understand that queues are a necessary evil of the theme park genre, but fuck me, you queue for breakfast, queue to get in the park, queue to go on anything at all for inordinate amounts of time, queue for lunch, queue for dinner - you get the picture....but the only thing I didn't have to queue for was the ladies - which is the only fucking thing that I do queue for in England!!!!  Incroyable.  I have come away from Disneyland feeling that I have unwittingly donated a large section of my lifespan to them.
2. Smokers.  Bastards.  I do not see why I should smoke just because they do - and boy, if people smoke - they don't give a shit about sharing their stinking, poisonous fumes with any other poor sucker forced to endure their 200 yard radius.  Fuckers.
3. Badly behaved children.  Or rather, their drippy and ineffective parents.  Disney seems to bring out the devil in children - clearly it is their given right to howl at the top of their voices when things don't go their way in the land of milk and honey.  And clearly there is some unwritten parental rule that there is a general exemption from responsibility for any tantrum for the duration of your stay, and you can therefore safely ignore your red faced screaming brat indefinitely.  Brilliant.
4. Food - shite, overpriced and shockingly samey.  Mark is a vegetarian.  Yep, I agree - his choice and sometimes you've got to just get what you're given, but this place is seriously behind the times for the veggie.  Even getting hold of a cheese baguette proved too elusive - and interestingly I saw a fish course or two within the green 'V; section in a couple of places....
5. Well overpriced merchandise.  £10 for a mug is unnecessary, £15 for a kids t-shirt is unlawful. 

So, in short - if you have small children who like dressing up in glitzy ill-fitting costumes and are given to throwing a paddy for no apparent reason, and you have several hundred euros kicking about to spend on second rate 'food' (and I use the term loosely here), and you like endless crowds, noise and fag smoke, then this truly is the holiday for you.  If not - then grit your teeth, open your wallet and take a crash course in tolerating the general public like I did. (!)

All jokes aside - there were some great high points on this holiday - mostly Oliver's happiness.  And that, as they say, is priceless.

Piccies:





Inside the Hollywood Tower Hotel (lift plummet ride - cool)





Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast ride




on the Toy Story Parachute drop ride



Me and Oliver heading down Main Street early morning



Main Street at night



didn't go on this but it's a nice pic



Ignore the unfortunate growth from Mark's head





walking in, first day



Oliver and our hotel in the background

 

Toy Story Parachute drop ride





Big Thunder Mountain