04/01/201402/04/2017 by jo

Momondo Helped Us Find Cheap Flights to Australia.

Australia is the other side of the world. We have half our family over there and finding a good price for flights can be hard. Step forward Momondo – a flight tracker which will tell you when is a good time to book and when it is more expensive.

Momondo is a flight tracker, and a really reliable one. We’re heading to Australia. Not for good, mind. Just a few weeks later in the year. The last time we travelled with H she was fifteen months and only just walking. This time she’ll be four and so very typically a four year old.

We hunted around for flights and it felt like something we couldn’t afford until we came across Momondo Flights – bookmark it, you’ll thank me for it. We were able to search across the dates we wanted to go and find the lowest priced flights, thanks to them showing in graph form at the top of the page. This is BRILLIANT. When it makes a difference of £500 pounds on a flight it’s not to be sniffed at.

You just put in the dates you want to fly and it’ll work out what is available and find the lowest price. Considering we tried several places which claim to do the same thing and only Momondo found cheaper flights with a good airline (Singapore Airlines). There are plenty of filters which help sort your flight so you can work on the number of changes (to Australia a minimum of one is unavoidable). It’s handy if you want to fly around a time when flights will go up (like around school holidays) too.

I logged onto the Singapore Airlines site and our booking is confirmed. I’m editing the booking to add additional information they’ll need from us.

My biggest concern now is that we only have 50 minutes at Changi Airport once we get to Singapore. Thinking rationally, they wouldn’t offer the flights if they weren’t doable. My panicked thinking is we’ll miss the connection by minutes (I’ve had that happen in the past).

Other than that, the big one is how to keep H entertained for twelve hours in the sky. Previous experiences with Emirates were interesting… For most of the twelve hours she’ll be sleeping thanks to us taking off at 10pm. So if you’ve kept a four year old occupied in the sky, do let me know! Oh, and any 50 minute turnarounds at Changi Airport stories would be good too. I know we’ll be in the same terminal. We will do it. We will we will we will.

Big thanks for Belinda for recommending Momondo to us!

30/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

New Cancer Research Retro Range

I love things which have a retro feel though I don’t like the prices it often comes with. This afternoon we went wandering around the shops locally as we don’t get a chance to do that often any more.

Our favourite shop Calladoodles is currently being refurbished so we had to skip there (but it’ll be open again in two weeks) but happily our Cancer Research shop was open.

Cancer is something which has affected a lot of people. My dad died due to Bowel Cancer, my mum has had two different kinds, and various family members have been affected. A lot of friends are going through it at the moment. This is why I’ll always shop at Cancer Research shops – the money is put into Cancer Research in the hope one day a cure will be found. They have a lovely range of things in-store too. I’ve done Race for Life several times (I didn’t do it last year) and am thinking about doing the Dryathlon, though I’d find it quite easy not to drink for the whole of January.

Here’s the Cancer Research retro range, and the things which I’m going to go back and buy some of…

I do not need another cosmetic purse, however, at just £2.99 I need this.

I can never have too many notepads. Actually, I never have enough as H steals them.

This purse has plenty of card compartments and a separate zip area for coins, etc. Only £7.99 too!

What better than a matching toiletries bag?

If I really wanted to go for the overkill effect I’d also wear these wellies. At £18.99 they’re not cheap, and only go up to size 7, so may not fit me… but still, lovely!

These are all available now at Cancer Research stores and online. Go and check them out!

29/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

2014 Travels

We’re fortunate nobody wanted us to be ambassadors for their travel brands this year. I say fortunate as this meant we could do the sensible thing and book three weeks in Australia instead to catch up with family.

So the flights are booked and paid for.

Today my sister-in-law pointed out fifty minutes at Changi Airport is below the minimum that the airport recommends. Well done us! I suspect we may miss it… at least there’s plenty to do there. Having said that, it looks like our next flight is six hours later. Sob.

My reasoning, if the airline offers it then it must be possible, right? Even with a four year old, right? I believe the term is cutting it fine.

So I suspect the coming year on here will be me having occasional wibbles about getting there – it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t worry about things, that and finding things which will help make the flight bearable – the last time we flew to Australia H was 15 months old and didn’t watch tv, and absolutely refused to wear headphones.

This time she’s four and knows all the tv characters and likes pop music. We’ll be fine.

It’s just that fifty minute change. I’ve looked and a few times the incoming flight landed five minutes early. Lucky for us both flights are the same terminal, but yes, still. Fifty minutes.

What would you do? (for the record we’re flying with Singapore Airlines for the first time and I can’t wait, they’re meant to be outstanding. Phew – last time we flew with Emirates, and previous before-H times were with BA, Qantas and Royal Brunei so we’ve flown with a few)

Fifty minutes though. Uuuuh.

25/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

Merry Christmas!

22/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

Bocketts Farm Father Christmas

We’ve never been to Bocketts Farm Park, though have driven past the entrance many times. We’re also horribly disorganised this year and hadn’t booked H into Painshill to see Father Christmas. The slots all went and even locally it was hard – until we read about the Bocketts Farm Father Christmas.

Bocketts Farm is no more than five minutes from Polesden Lacey, so already an area we’re familiar with, though we’d never been. It’s a farm with a big play area, good for kids and somewhere that was on the list to visit.

Bocketts Farm Father Christmas can’t be pre-booked – you turn up and buy a ticket for your slot. To save you reading the review, we were really impressed and H got a great toy (a Barbie sized horse) – it was really well done and had the right atmosphere.

You can visit Father Christmas without visiting the park – entrance there is around the £9 mark and worth it if you’re having a day there. Father Christmas is an additional £5. We only wanted to see him so paid the £9ish charge which gave us access to the cafe and a small outdoor play area. As H is an only child we got a slot for an hour later (I suspect if I’d have had more than one child it would have been two) so we grabbed some sandwiches, had a play and had a browse in their shop. Soon enough our time came, our ‘elf’ took the kids in a trailer to the Grotto (made from hay and really well laid out), we sat down and let Father Christmas work his magic – and he was great. Writing the kids name and their present request, a simple touch but it was like he was listening to them. H was the last one to be seen, he asked lots of nice questions and handed over the present – she had a minute with him. We were all sat on hay bales watching.

It felt like we were in there for ages – each group of kids has around fifteen minutes until the next lot arrive, and he does see children in groups rather than individually and it was done really well.

A bonus is parents go free (up to 2 per child).

It’s small, but when you’re like us and badly organised Bocketts Farm Father Christmas is a more than adequate experience. If you’re National Trust members (like us!) then head to Polesden Lacey afterwards where there’s always lots going on. We were lucky and caught the last rides from two horses ‘disguised as reindeer’ in a truck around the grounds – that was pretty fab and I’m finally starting to feel festive. There was a Father Christmas who chatted to the kids in the queue, however H told me it wasn’t the real one, and they’re all dressed up and pretending. Gulp…

20/12/201318/01/2015 by jo

Bringing Warmth to My Living Room

We have a huge living room. Almost everyone who comes here comments on how deceptively big it is. The reality is it’s like a living room and dining room in one, but the space is used well. However, our heating isn’t great – the nasty air vent kind – only two in the house; upstairs and downstairs.

In summer it’s a lovely room to be in – with the windows open and the sun streaming in it’s a room which has a nice coolness to it – neutral decor with just our photos on the walls to decorate. In the winter, however, it gets really cold. Even with the Christmas tree up it isn’t as cosy as it should be.

We rent but own all our furniture – so if we’re going to make changes they have to be on our property. We were set a challenge with HomeServe to bring warmth to a room in our house so we decided on our living room as it’s where we all spend the most time.

We were given a £50 B&Q voucher to put towards the changes, so yesterday after school H and I went shopping.

Our walls are a lovely shade of what I’ve always called ‘landlord paint’ (I believe it’s magnolia), the floor a neutral brown-y grey. Our settees are both blue and I have cushions on those in varying shades of purple, burgundy and beige with plenty of spotty designs. If we’re going to bring warmth to our room we’re going to need to use some bright colours and some clever lighting. Shaun fondly calls the living room ‘my office’, as I have everything around me I need – files never get put away as I need them on a daily basis to stay on top of everything. So I picked up a fabric storage box. What I need is something that holds my school files, slanket, iPad chargers and anything else that just lived on the floor or the back of the chair. While it’s not the tidiest box in the world it now keeps all my things in one place.

After umming and aahing for a day I had to buy this floor light – it was one of those purchases-to-be that refused to go away. I love it. It brings warmth to the room just by being on. I want to curl up on the settee and drink hot chocolate with marshmallows floating on the top. You know the kind of thing? We sat with the lights off, with the new light and the christmas tree on last night, watching a spot of Vintage TV. Dare I say it? It was pretty cosy in the room.

Settee - now

I bought a fluffy pink throw. Shaun thought it’d be a bit bright but it adds colour without being too odd. It suits the burgundy cushions too – plus it’s got a fluffy texture to it which is quite nice for lying on when you fancy a tv night.

After that I decided our cushions needed some love. I picked up a couple of cushion inners from The Fabric Warehouse and two new purple ones to go on the settees. No longer do we have flat lifeless cushions you have to fold in half to feel any kind of difference – we have big squishy ones again!

As far as doing things which don’t cost a lot, the light was on the pricier side at £49.99 – but it’s sturdy which is important when you’ve a four year old around. I was able to pick up everything else at a discount – the cushions were £5 each and the inners were £8 (it’s their largest size). That works out a lot cheaper than buying two new large cushions. The throw had 50% off as well! But never mind this waffle, why not see for yourself how things are different? We made a video. I’m not very good at doing commentaries.

This is our entry for the HomeServe Winter Blogger Competition. We received a £50 B&Q voucher to take part.

11/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

Christmas Gift Ideas – Window Shopping at the Science Museum

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The Science Museum has several fabulous shops within it, and many things I wanted to buy. Seeing as how I’ve concentrated on almost everyone else in the family, and gift ideas for them, I thought I’d add my own little virtual wishlist of things. A lot of these I’d love but realistically there’s nowhere to keep them though, our kitchen is small.

However, small is good when it comes to a proper spice rack, such as this one, right? There’s only space for five so I’d need several of them… at £20 they’re not cheap but how cool would my kitchen look?

Obviously I’d need matching salt and pepper pots to go alongside it. Fortunately these exist and are only £12. They are possibly not practical for a four year old though. They look much more stylish than my existing ones.

Marinading is a scientific process apparently, so I’m all for this pipette brush – and the glass bottle looks pretty fab, and would sit perfectly alongside the previous two. It’s like I’m meant to own them.

Marinade with Pipette Brush

This though, this is what I crave. This is what I need. I never realised I needed it until I saw it, and from that point I knew my kitchen would not be complete without it – a Salad Zinger. See, I like making salad dressing but it’s always boring – with a Salad Zinger you add all the ingredients, it chops up the fresh stuff at the bottom and makes a yummy dressing. It sounds so simple, my only question is whether it is dishwasher-friendly or not. At £25 it’s pricey, especially compared to the $25 you can get it for in the US, but I’m willing to take a risk. I also squirmed at the oil and fat being put into it on the picture. Seriously?

After all this, I’d then quite like to sit and relax after eating, and what better way to do it than sitting around the table with a pretty flower in a pretty vase, right. Or just a vase like this. They look pretty sturdy, although I’d rather pick one up in person than buy one online I think… only £15 too!

So there you go, if family are reading this, this is my kind of Christmas this year. I’m going for a minimal look. Everything here is available at the Science Museum in London and I had to stop myself from getting the credit card out to buy several of these at the weekend… ho ho ho!

10/12/201324/06/2018 by jo

Carshalton Frost Fair

We celebrated the second Carshalton Frost Fair today – packed full of stalls of local businesses by the ponds. In addition to this Sutton Ecology Centre had their Christmas Fair as well – which included their fab Santa trail!

Things are slowing down here. It’s getting colder and we’re staying in more, shame on us. However, a Saturday afternoon wandering by the ponds checking out all the stalls was great – there were some fabulous cake stalls (we missed out on the rainbow cake, alas) and our favourite Koula’s Kitchen was there so we stocked up on more locally made jam – H and Koula get on well and she always gets a special jar of her own to take home!

By the ponds there were two stages – one with all sorts, from choirs to clog dancers, bell ringers – nice festive entertainment and the kind of things which make Carshalton feel like a village. The other stage had local bands performing acoustic sets. Last year H enjoyed The Dirty Spoons, but they were on a little later this year so we missed them. The kids all got to dance to earlier acoustic acts though, a special mention goes to the loud guitar bits one artist had, and watching the two four year olds clamp their hands over their ears as it was too loud! I tried to get a photo but failed… (bottom photo, bottom right)

Yet again our favourite had to be the Ecology Centre’s Christmas trail – making your way around the grounds to find Santa’s sack (with clues, paw prints and tracks to help you find each clue.) It was perfect for a four year old that can read – they ran on ahead looking for prints while getting outside. Sutton Ecology Centre is right in the middle of Carshalton – yet it’s a lovely wild open space. It’s somewhere we need to get to more often, especially as it’s on our doorstep.

H and her friend M did the trail around the grounds and bumped into another friend from school, so the three girls ran around finding clues and having a great time. Of course, the end of the trail has them finding santa and a prize, which cheered them all up. We headed back out to the fair, buying more home made decorations for the tree from yet more local crafty people (it’s this point I wish I’d picked up some cards as I can’t name them), and finished off the day with a quick drink in The Sun who also had a craft stall outside, selling things that are currently available from their little shop in the outside area – Christmas decorations and more.

It felt really good to live here this weekend, with that and the Christmas lights the week before (where I picked up some of Calladoodles lovely wrapping paper – check out their website!) it’s really starting to feel festive around here. I have just one task left to do – I need photos of the lavender lights in Wallington!

Linking in to Country Kids this week!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

10/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

Christmas Gift Ideas – Cartoons Aren’t Just For Kids…

Today’s instalment of Christmas Gift Ideas comes from a self-confessed cartoonaholic.

I often joked about how once H could speak she’d be asking to watch documentaries while Shaun and I watched a random cartoon on tv. That hasn’t happened yet, but there’s still plenty of time.

We went to the Beano Christmas event back in the summer – and have been sent a wonderful Beano jigsaw to review. This isn’t the kind of puzzle a four year old will want to do, but it is definitely the kind of puzzle a family might want to sit around the table and do together – it has 1,000 pieces you see. I like the idea of us doing it together – it reminds me of Christmas when I was younger and my dad would sit and do a jigsaw while drinking a nice glass of red wine as we watched whatever festive delights were on the telly while we helped him find the edges and whatever else he’d let us do. H really likes Dennis and Gnasher (and has watched the CBBC show a few times now) and I know is growing into a mini Beano fan – as a former mini Beano fan myself I can only approve of this progression and hope it may continue, while subliminally getting her hooked via jigsaws!

Tickety Toc have a new book out – Bubble Time. Tommy and Tallulah are having another adventure, and now they’re on Channel 5 I’m sure will be a popular one this Christmas. We’ve been sent the book and being the kind mummy I am, I’ve put it away until Christmas, so am reviewing this with my ‘this is what H would think’ head on. I’m not sure how close this works with the Bubble Time app (as we don’t have it) but I’m assuming it should. Tommy and Tallulah are trying to stop the giant un-poppa-bubble. There was a special Christmas Tickety Toc episode Christmas episode on Saturday November 30th at 12.30pm on Nick Jr so keep an eye out for repeats!

Babar the Elephant isn’t a cartoon, but has been and still is, so that’s good enough for me. To commemorate Babar’s 80th Anniversary there’s loads available – we’ve got the Babar Collection of Five Classic Stories which are a great starter place for H – she met a Babar at an event so he’s on her radar, and they’re packed so well as a little set – they’re the original Jean de Brunhoff stories (his son carried on the name, writing several more stories after his death).

Going back to The Beano, there is the 2013 Annual to consider too – loads of cartoons, plenty of Dennis the Menace and the rest of the gang, if you like The Beano, this is a good one for you. I may have found myself reading and chuckling along to a little too much of this… available in all good stores and suitable for all ages!

Finally, one that isn’t really for us adults, but is handy when you need to distract your child (and let’s face it, Topsy & Tim isn’t out on DVD yet, as that’s currently our biggest distraction) is My Little Pony – we’ve been sent two DVDs to review, ‘Welcome to Ponyville‘ and ‘Call of the Cutie‘ – they’re suitable for all audiences and have a U rating which means I can get on with what I need to while H is in a cutie, horsey world of pink where she’s happy and not scared about a single thing. This is a good thing by the way, as so many things at the moment seem to be scaring her, so My Little Pony is a nice safe option and one she enjoys. Both DVDs are out now – if your little one is a fan, then check it out! My Little Pony is shown on the Tiny Pop channel (a channel well worth checking out as it also shows Meg & Mog!) !

We have been sent all these for the purpose of review and Christmas recommendations. All opinions are our own and honest! The links above are affiliate links to Amazon where current prices are shown.

09/12/201326/01/2014 by jo

London Science Museum

We met with friends yesterday at the London Science Museum in Kensington. Most people I’ve spoken to say they don’t know where it is, and indeed we were the same until I realised we’d walked past it loads of times – it’s next door to the Natural History Museum, so easy to get to.

The London Science Museum is huge too – and has a fantastic kids area. Actually, they call it a kids area, but us adults waited for the kids to finish so we could try the things on offer.

My personal favourite – a hologram of a watch which H fell for three times before she got really cross with it. I may be a cruel parent by standing back and watching her trying to grab the pretty watch while laughing – but I loved how she learnt things that I could never teach her.

There were various lenses to look through so you could see each other through them, huge great big lenses and chin-rests so you could see everything, as well as so many other things on offer – I figure some pictures may describe what is on offer better than I can. Dry ice melting in water, and different liquids with bigger bubbles depending on their velocity. A bubble wall! A sound frequency which I tried to recreate my tinnitus on (it was close). A straw you could bite on a piece of wire, stick your fingers in your ears and you hear music (how?!)!

Next to the kids area is a Red Arrows Flight Simulator – with a smaller one that H aged kids could do (for £2) – the larger simulators are two to a pod and over 9’s only. H was more than happy with her kid-sized ones!

We headed downstairs to The Garden which had more things for kids, but younger ones (0-6 years) – from a play area where you could do plays, to musical areas, to kaleidoscopes and a fantastic water play area with waterproofs for kids.

We finished off in the design area where there were plenty of interactive things you can have a go at (such as making kaleidoscope style pictures) and a section on 3D printing where someone had the brilliant idea of doing a 3D print of a child’s picture – genius!

The London Science Museum has loads to do. We spent almost five hours in there and barely scratched the surface. H was upset as “we need to do more” (she did the most) so I know we’ll be back.

The London Science Museum is free admittance, with additional costs for some exhibitions. The shop is brilliant with loads of choice and interesting things to buy – I found several things I’d like to get for myself. There’s also plenty of food choice and for us it was quiet which is good! There’s decent buggy and wheelchair access if you need it, and several lifts around the building too. Their website is here.

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