Working Mum

As 2010 comes to an end I’d like YOU to write my last mumorandum of the year.

What are your thoughts on what marked this year most for you? What defined it, what were the trials and triumphs of the year?

Thank you all… and wishing you health, happiness and success in all aspects of your lives in the coming year.

We replaced our smoke alarms at the end of March and the new ones are a little more sensitive to say the least.

Quite often the downstairs one will go off when we’re cooking, and we can’t even see the smoke. Mind you, better that way than the other way round, i.e. not sensitive enough.

The usual procedure in dealing with this is to shut the kitchen door and waft the smoke away.

Today whilst making the girls tea the downstairs smoke alarm went off again. This time as I wafted the smoke away with Ami’s school book bag (it was the nearest thing to hand) I heard Izzy come running shouting: “Tea’s ready!”

I will admit to be rather geeky when it comes to technology. I like playing around with new gagets such as the plugins on this site. Normally that’s not a problem but in this particular case it was.

You see I accidentally deleted the log in page for the site and so had no way of getting into the back-end od the wite to write posts, approve comments, etc. This is a ‘Whoopsy Doopsy’ (to quote Izzy) on a major scale.

Hence no blog activity for three weeks!

Eventually I got back up and running by deleting the entire site, re-installing Wordpress and then linking the database back in. Unfortunately it took me over two weeks to come up with that bright idea.

It’s not all my fault though, I mean, the log on page is such a critical part of the site it should be impossible to delete it. Don’t you think?

Anyway, I’m back so don’t be surprised if there’s a torential downpour of blog articles in the next couple of weeks!

I am a Mackem and proud of it. But I live down south which means that most people I meet wrongly assume I’m a Geordie. The problem is that unfortunately, we the Mackems have the bad luck of being placed next to the Geordies. Geographically the difference between us and them is about 12 miles.

So let me get this clear:

Not everyone from the North East is a Geordie!

I was born and bred a resident of the largest city in the North East of England, unlike the common misconception that Newcastle is, and I love it. But what is a Mackem?

A few years ago the term Mackem made it onto the TV programme Balderdash & Piffle which investigated the origins of the term for the Oxford English Dictionary which defined it as:

Mackem, n.
Brit. /makm/, U.S. /mækm/  Forms: 19- Mackem, 19- Makem. [App. < mack, mak, regional variants of MAKE v.1 + 'EM pron.

Prob. with allusion to phrase mack' em and tack 'em and variations thereof, said to refer to the shipbuilding industry of the region, the suggestion being that in Sunderland they make ships (mack 'em) so that others can take them (tack 'em), or, specifically, that the Geordies of Tyneside would then take them to fit them out. Cf.:
1973 Centenary Programme: Sunderland v Dolphins (Sunderland Cricket & Rugby Football Club), We still 'tak 'em and mak 'em and ye canna whack 'em'.Perh. partly also with allusion to the pronunciation of MAKE v.1 typical of Wearside, as contrasted with that of Tyneside.]

Brit. colloq. (orig. Eng. regional (north-east.)).

A native or inhabitant of Sunderland or Wearside; a supporter of Sunderland Association Football Club.

However I leave you with the Urban Dictionary, who defines the differences between Mackems and Geordies as:
“Mackem: A demi-god worshipped by ancient civilisations as the epitome of wit and sexual prowess. Romans and Vikings colonised the area in the hope of developing a race of supermen to help them in their ambitions. The word is based on a blend of Roman and Norse, and means “astonishingly well-endowed, funny and attractive angel on a temporary visit from Valhalla.”

Not to be confused with Geordie who were the unfortunate result of a Roman experiment in which Scotsmen had intercourse with pigs. These unfortunate troll-like humanoids can be identified by the fact they have to wear clothes covered in a large barcode so they can be tracked and controlled by security satellites.”

Please look at this embedded video, I love skiing and I’m a supporter of the GB Paralympic Vancouver 2010 Ski Team. This is very inspiring, they’ve worked hard and deserve success at the Vancouver Games.

Go Team GB!

Welcome one and all. It’s Mummy Bloggers Carnival time and I’m indulging in holiday planning, so this carnival is all about holidays, days out and fab times. So grab a cuppa and a biscuit, those chocolate digestives are mine so hands off, and sit back and read. It’s better than the telly! Read the rest of this entry »

This morning I fell out of bed. Grandad came to help me before Mummy got there. Grandads are very useful.

We had croissants and pains au chocolate for breakfast. Izzy had Cheerios and toast with jam, again.

Then Mummy and Granny made some sandwiches for lunch while Daddy put suncream all over Izzy. I put suncream on myself.

Mummy took some photos of me and Izzy outside wearing our masks – look. Izzy was still wearing her jim-jams as well.

Daddy said we were all going for a ride in the car to see a big lighthouse and a big bridge, but we also had our swimming things because there might be a beach as well.

We drove all the way over a big bridge to the Île de Ré. Daddy complained about the cost of using the bridge, he said it must be a lot more than they need to keep the bridge open.

It’s a long way to the other end of the island. When we arrived there wasn’t anywhere to park, so we left the car in a field. We walked a long way to get to a great big lighthouse, called the Phare des Baleines.

I climbed all the way to the top on my own without a rest. It was a long way up – look at how many stairs I climbed. Mummy took the photo from the bottom. You can’t see me at the top.

Daddy followed me up and Izzy climbed up with Grandad. When I got to the top, I was tired and told Daddy I wanted to go down again. This made Daddy grumpy. So I took some photos with Mummy’s camera.

Daddy carried Izzy down and Mummy helped me.

We all met Granny at the bottom and played on the grass. I found a big log in the trees. You have to be very stong to lift up a log like this one.

We then bought some drinks to go with our picnic, but we weren’t allowed to sit at the lighthouse, so we walked through the village and found a space between the trees.

Izzy didn’t eat her jam sandwiches. She only had crisps and sweets. I tried really hard and ate a whole cheese sandwich with my crisps.

Then we climbed through the bushes and found the sea. Daddy took a photo of Grandad and Izzy.

When we came back, Mummy had thrown away my juice and I got upset. This made Daddy very grumpy again. I don’t know why. I just wanted my juice.

We went back to the car and drove a bit more. Izzy fell asleep really quickly. She’s only little, so she sleeps a lot during the day. She can’t help it.

After a while we found a car park next to a big beach. This was much better than the lighthouse.

Izzy was asleep so me, Daddy and Mummy put on our swimming things and went for a plodge in the sea. It was much warmer than the sea at Nonny’s house. It was sunnier than Nonny’s as well.

We filled Daddy’s hat with sea shells we found on the beach. While Izzy was asleep, the sea went much further away than when we arrived. It was 46 of Daddy’s steps further out.

When Izzy woke up she put her swimming costume on but she didn’t want to go in the water. She just stuck to Mummy.

Later we left the beach and we found a big yellow banana boat near the car. Look, I sat on it.

Then we drove a bit closer to home where we stopped for an ice cream. We didn’t find the one I wanted so I said I would have a red one instead. When Daddy said we’d go to another shop I cried again and Daddy got really grumpy this time. He carried me out of the shop and along the street. I don’t know why, because we didn’t find another shop and I ended up having a red one from the first shop. Silly Daddy. We also got some bread so we can have pain au chocolat for breakfast again tomorrow.

At home we went straight to the swimming pool. I made Mummy and Daddy very proud because I jumped in from the side. I must remember to shut my mouth next time.

Then I took my floats off and I swam on my own for the first time ever.

We had tea sitting outside. I had some brioche with butter and jam. Brioche is like half bread and half cake. It’s yummy. Then I had some chocolate cornflake cakes. They’re also very yummy. Izzy got covered in beans and chocolate and she had a lot of windypops. Smelly Izzy.

After tea I washed the sand off all the shells we collected in Daddy’s hat. Look, one of them tried to bite off my finger. Naughty shell !

After all this, we were so tired that we went to bed. Izzy went first and then I went afterwards.

I don’t know when the others went to bed, because I was asleep. Grandad says I fell out of bed again. I don’t remember it because I was asleep.

Then in the middle of the night there was a giraffe in my room and Mummy had to scare it away. How did that get here ?

This is an idea I’ve nicked from my friend Tracey on Facebook. So everyone, what is your favourite movie line (or lines) and from what movie (or movies)?

I’m looking forward to reading yours but I’m going to start with mine.

“It’s sort of social. Demented and sad, but social.”
Breakfast Club

Princess Leia: “I love you!”
Han Solo: “I know.”
Empire Strikes Back

“I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.”
Steel Magnolias

“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a very bad mood for forty years.”
Steel Magnolias (again)

In the deep mid-winter…. OK, not quite but it’s another day and another forecast of snow. Here in the Gardner household we are looking forward to our summer holiday in St Malo, France.

We’re firm believers that you always need a holiday, day out or event to look forward to so for the British Mummy Bloggers carnival that will be held here on 2nd March I want to hear your stories about holidays, day outs or events.

Perhaps it could be your advice on what makes a great child friendly holiday, a special day out, an event you weren’t looking forward to but turned out brilliant, something funny that happened, a great reunion or something you are currently looking forward to. Perhaps you may want to write about your best holiday ever, even if it was without kids as we’re all individuals as well as parents.

So send me your posts and then pop back here on the 2nd March for some happy holidays, hosting houses holding happiness and helping hearts hurry home.

We all need a reminder once in a while so here are my top 10 ways to stay young:

1. Throw out non-essential numbers such as age, weight and height.
2. Enjoy the simple things.
3. Laugh often, long and loud.
4. See your cheerful friends more often.
5. Keep learning whether it’s a new hobby, career development or DIY.
6. Surround yourself with what you love whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, and hobbies.
7. Cherish your health, preserve it, improve it or get help.
8. Don’t take guilt trips, instead take a trip to the shops, to the countryside, or somewhere else, but NOT to where the guilt is.
9. Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity.

Now you may have noticed that I’m one short of my top 10 so tell me your top tip and I’ll post them.