Month / November 2012

by jo

Cbeebies – The Album – A Giveaway

Cbeebies - The AlbumWay back in the summer, my friend at Demon asked me which songs I thought should go onto a Cbeebies compilation, and I excitedly bombarded him with emails of songs I thought of which hadn’t been on many (if any) of the compilations we’ve got. Alas, it looks like they couldn’t get the ‘Roll up your sleeves’ song from ‘I Can Cook’ (which would have been the best thing ever) but a big huge hurrah, as this new compilation – released today – has the Cbeebies presenters songs included for the first time  – something these compilations have been missing for a while.

Oh, and MoMo’s song from ‘Show Me Show Me’ too! In fact, it’s got pretty much every current Cbeebies character’s song, so you too can dance around the room in a crazy manner to the Yacki song from Baby Jake. or just the Tree Fu Tom theme instead. Or a little bit of bopping around the room to the sounds of Rastamouse, perhaps?

Here’s the full tracklist:

Disc One
1. Justin’s House – Theme Tune
2. Baby Jake – The Yacki Song
3. Iconicles – Theme Tune
4. Rastamouse – Give It Up For Da Easy Crew
5. Abadas – My Name Is…
6. Mike The Knight – Theme Tune
7. Mr Bloom’s Nursery – Meet The Veggies
8. Gigglebiz – Theme Tune
9. In the Night Garden… – Theme Tune
10. Big And Small – Theme Tune
11. Timmy Time – Theme Tune
12. Everything’s Rosie – Theme Tune
13. Woolly & Tig – Theme Tune (I Love Woolly)
14. Andy’s Wild Adventures – Theme Tune
15. Grandpa In My Pocket – Boom A Boom Whoop Zing Zoo
16. Tweenies – Theme Tune (Hey Hey Are You Ready To Play?)
17. Alphablocks – Theme Tune
18. Cloud Babies – Theme Tune
19. Tree Fu Tom – Theme Tune
20. Something Special – Theme Tune (Hello Song)
21. CBeebies Presenters – Summer Song
22. CBeebies Presenters – Goodbye Sun, Hello Moon
23. CBeebies Presenters – Winter Song
24. CBeebies Presenters – The Big Fun Time Song
25. CBeebies Presenters – Christmas Song

 Disc Two.
1. Rastamouse – Hot Hot Hot
2. Abadas – Medley (Abadas Song / Let’s Play / I Found The Word / Goodbye Song)
3. The Lingo Show – Theme Tune
4. Show Me Show Me – Momo’s Song
5. Mike The Knight – Huzzah For Glendragon
6. Raa Raa The Noisy Lion – Theme Tune
7. 64 Zoo Lane – Theme Tune
8. Charlie & Lola – Bestest In The Barn
9. Postman Pat – Special Delivery Service Theme
10. Num Tums – Theme Tune
11. Zingzillas – Do You Didgeridoo
12. Guess with Jess – Theme Tune
13. Tinga Tinga Tales – Theme Tune
14. Balamory – Theme Tune
15. Mr Bloom’s Nursery – The Finale Song
16. Big Barn Farm – Theme Tune
17. Mister Maker – I’m A Shape
18. Waybuloo – Time For Yogo
19. 3rd And Bird – Theme Tune
20. Nina and the Neurons – Go Engineering Song
21. CBeebies Presenters – It’s The Weekend
22. CBeebies Presenters – The Discovery Song
23. CBeebies Presenters – Lunchtime Song
24. CBeebies Presenters – The Birthday Song
25. CBeebies Presenters – The Time Has Come to Say Goodnight (2012 Version)

So see, you get loads there! It’s all really ace, anyway. EVEN better than that, I have a copy to give away! Just follow the Rafflecopter instructions and maybe, just maybe this bundle of Cbeebies goodness will be on its way to you, just in time for Christmas….

The competition will finish on the 18th November, and is limited to UK entrants only. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

by jo

BritMums Weightwatchers Back2Best Challenge – Week 7.

I know I said I wouldn’t update unless something interesting or spectacular happened*. Well in my eyes, something has. Or at least, should be. Or maybe our scales really are broken.

See, you’re not meant to weigh yourself really other than on your weigh-in day – but I did a sneaky one on Saturday morning, when I came in a whole 5lbs less than last week – so given I’d put on 2lbs, this puts me right back on track. Gobsmackingly so.

But, I must follow my own rules, so I duly weighed in this morning, and it’s now 4lbs! But still a good loss and I’m delighted. (this may also be my problem with sabotaging things I do well with to make them less good, or in other words we went to Pizza Express for tea last night before the fireworks – dough balls with garlic butter = 10 points. Sob) I barely touched the ‘overdraft’ until yesterday too.

I don’t even remember the last time I weighed this amount.

BUT – there’s something even more significant about this. I’ve made my target! This means I’ve set myself another target as it’s all about maintaining the weightloss rather than going “woo! I’m thinner, now I can eat badly again” –  as I’m still overweight – I could really use to lose another 8lb to be a healthy weight and BMI. But still – WOO!

People are commenting and noticing and it’s really nice – I kind of forget now, it’s like my eating plan is habit more than resenting what I’m doing (which I don’t, as there’s plenty of substitute foods I can eat when I need some chocolate, crisps or bread) – and I can still have a night out at Pizza Express and enjoy myself (and not feel bloated afterwards). So yeah, woo! Me!

The soup maker is definitely helping too, we’ve had soup and stews – and today we may have time to make smoothies too, they all taste much fresher and yummy than if I was to over-boil them in a pan, and I’m stuffed every time. I’ve also had two days off sick from work this week due to getting really run down and losing my voice – which in turn may have helped the weightloss… who knows..

WeightWatchers Back2Best Challenge with BritMums

I’ve been given six months of WeightWatchers Membership for the purpose of these writeups, all opinions are my own, and I bought the Soup Maker myself with my hard-earned pennies.

* not necessarily in those words

by jo

Ben and Holly Live – a Review

BH_Logo_20x15-300x225Okay, I should clarify firstly we paid for tickets. I have no reason to state this, other than my review is a confused one – but it’s my thoughts, and when it comes to the age group targeted, H loved it – and it’s the first time I’ve really seen her join in with a stage show – as she’s usually more reserved. H and her friend J were both upset when it finished, which has a lot more ground than my opinion! We’re big Ben & Holly fans in our house too (in case you hadn’t guessed).

So, I’m confused. It was only on the day of the performance I realised that the Ben & Holly cast would in fact be grown adults dressed as Ben and Holly & co (which did work for ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’) –  so wasn’t sure what to think, but went into it with as open a mind as possible. Bearing in mind Peppa Pig worked perfectly for us (and that’s with puppets), yet with B&H you’ve magic which isn’t as easy to create with humans, I wondered why they’d decided to do it this way.

Ben & Holly Live

Ben & Holly Live – photo taken from Official Ben & Holly page

One MAJOR complaint – I had a tickly cough – nothing too bad but tickly. Every time there was any magic you’d get smoke into the audience and it set off my cough every time – so be aware of that – it was quite intense! We were quite near the front – about five rows – so take a good hanky to cover your nose and mouth if you’re planning on sitting close to the stage.

The story was excerpts of episodes you’ve probably seen, put together well with some songs to help the story along, plenty of interactivity too. Ben & Holly has never been about the songs though, which made it feel a bit odd (unlike, say, Peppa Pig or Dora the Explorer) – though there were plenty of chances to sing, especially in the second half – I had the ‘Happy Song’ stuck in my head for a good hour or so afterwards (which is a sign of a good song in my book) – and H was pleased she got to sing Happy Birthday to King Thistle.

I wish there’d been more of the Wise Old Elf and Nanny Plum together – I like how they interact on the show, it amuses me. Also, while the actress who played Nanny Plum was good, she just didn’t have that fabulously mildly sarcastic tone that Sarah Ann Kennedy does – but H didn’t notice or care.

Ben & Holly Live Merch Stand

The merch stand wasn’t too expensive – there are lots of goodies and a light up windmill like at Peppa Pig live – we bought a Gaston toy which came in at £11 which was pricey, but H loves it. There were t-shirts for £12 and they take cards if you spend over £10. Programmes were £5. At the end they had the helium balloons like at Peppa Pig, although there was less of a reason to get them (as at least with Peppa the balloons were the treasure) – so we skipped on those – though if they’re as good a quality as the Peppa ones, they’ll last for several weeks after the show.

So, the plot. You have a few of the episodes combined into one story – I kind of wish one story could have been expanded on rather than three, plus the addition of Lucy (from Tooth Fairy) seemed to have minimal purpose. BUT! H liked her being there.

I think what they’ve done is interesting – and if a new story is done next year we’ll be there again – and I’m trying so hard not to be picky as I did enjoy it, there were just things I spotted that I wish could be fixed.

Really, what I hope next year is they take the Peppa format and do actors in black on stage with puppets. I think then it’d be practically perfect. In H’s eyes it was pretty fabulous anyway.

Ben & Holly Live
Ben & Holly Live feature with dates