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Scottish Independence Is Dead – For Now!

1.30am

As I start to write this, I have no clue what the result of the Scottish Independence vote will be.  To be honest, I don’t think it really matters, even though it will be history in about seven hours or so.

As an exercise in dividing the nations, it’s done a sterling job.  Many Scots have divided from the English, and the yes and the no from each country is divided against each other.

It wasn’t about Salmond, and it wasn’t about Cameron.  It ‘s a vote for Westminster or the Scottish Parliament, but that message didn’t get through.  I found the TV coverage pitiful and biased, but hey ho, I can’t influence that.

I have to admit, I had a wee bit of a wobble at the polling station, but the cross went in the yes box.  It’s the hope you see.  I’m a glass half full sort.  Our NHS seems to be reducing, we have food banks, elderly people without care support, disabled forced out of their homes, unfair bedroom tax and lots more.  I can’t blame people for wanting to give it a go themselves.

Although my parents generation are more in tune with the union, it was because they had historical industries where they felt proud to be British.  With little of those industries or trade unions left, the younger people in our country are not seeing that meshing of populations, or meshing of ideals, goals or thinking, but there are enough of the elders around to make the final decision.

Actually, the young have been raised on a diet of banking scandals and unfair distribution of wealth, which always seems to favour the already wealthy.  The elders should win this vote, but in another thirty years time, it could be very different.

5am

  • The vote is in and we bottled it as a nation.
  • Fear won over hope.  That’s pretty understandable, given that people tend to be resistant to change.  They almost always resist change in the workplace, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they resisted it for life.
  • The onus is now on Better Together and the no voters to PROVE their positioning.  But then again, it makes no difference to us, because we can’t do anything about it, even if they give all our money to the man on the moon.

The one thing I have to hope for, is that whether we are independent or not, the damage between the populations can be fixed, and we can carry on living and working together as close neighbours and friends.

The decision is made, though I think it will only fuel further divisions among the populations of the UK.

I really hope not.

We all need to kiss and make up  now, while we watch Government either fulfil or renege on their promise of more devolution for all of us, not just Scotland.

 

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We’re all going to die !!!!!

Long term readers of my blog will know that I have adopted children, one of whom has full-blown foetal alcohol syndrome and is in a dedicated special school, where he is now settled after a few years of sad instability at the hands of the education department staff.

He is now 12 years old and heading towards the teen years very fast.

He has also just begun to learn how to join simple words from some simple letters. Read cat sat on the mat, but not so advanced yet. Just the cat is a huge deal.

For 12 and a half years, he has rarely watched TV, and on the rare occasions he has, it hasn’t been sustained, but more of a one-off.

Imagine my surprise when he came through to see me last night.  He’d been in the family room while I was in the lounge, reading in peace.

“Mum, the news is bad.”

“What’s on the news?”

“Well, the army has killed two of their own people.  Cigarettes are now banned forever so dad has to stop smoking or he’ll be in jail, and Saharan sand is smothering everybody and we’re all going to die.”

Sand

Then, off he pops, happy as Larry, to listen to more gore from the news while I go and put on the kettle.

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Happy Mothers Day: Sunday 30th March 2014

Mothers Day

I used to think of Mothers Day being a little like Christmas for Mums.  Now I’ve grown up, I appreciate every little thing that anyone does for me on any day, and hope I will be pampered just a little bit on that one day a year we are meant to get a break.  It doesn’t always happen, and I have been known to buy my gift and get it wrapped so that the kids can give me something I really want.

So, what is Mothering Sunday really?

Mothering Sunday is when children usually give a gift to their parents, even if it is just breakfast in bed, or a big hug to say they appreciate them.

Mothers Day is usually the fourth Sunday of Lent and means it can end up on different days each year.

Traditionally, it was known as the day during Lent, where fasting rules begin to relax.  Like so many other holidays, it’s said to be inspired by stories in the bible.

Historians believe Mothering Sunday came about from the 16th Century habits of visiting a mother yearly, where young women in service and apprentices were allowed to go and visit their parents for that weekend.

In our modern world, it is more used as a means to honour our mothers and showing our appreciation for them by buying gifts, or spending time with them.

More formally known as Mothering Sunday, it’s held on the forth Sunday of Lent.   We can work it out to three weeks before Easter Sunday and is usually around the end of March or the beginning of April.

The modern version of mothers day is no longer basked in religious connotations.   It’s a celebration of motherhood that is revered by families UK and world wide.   People all over our little country visit their mothers and bring gifts and food to their mothers and their grandmothers.

HOW TO CELEBRATE

As it is a day to honour the women in our lives that have given up so much to be our mentors and guides, we should try to make a special effort to show our appreciation, love and affection for our maternal relatives.  The women can be our mothers, grandmothers, step-mothers, foster mothers, adoptive mothers, mothers in law and many more.

An important part of mothers day is not the gift, but the time we spend with our treasured relatives.  If people can afford it, they usually take their mother figures flowers, chocolates and gifts, before whisking them off for a meal to celebrate the occasion.  Those who cannot visit their nearest and dearest tend to send gifts and cards to remember them by.

Be sure to book early if you are going out for a meal, as places can be hard to come by at short notice.

Kids, if you’re listening, hint hint, I’d quite like not to cook this year.

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AFC – Scottish League Cup Winners 2014 – The Sheep Are On Fire

For the first time in 19 years, the cup came to Aberdeen Football Club.  I remember the last time our local team won it and I took my kids down to see the parade this time round.

It started here: the win against Inverness Caley Thistle at Celtic Park where the sheep won 4:2 on pens.

Forty thousand fans made the trip to Celtic Park, and although we couldn’t manage the match, we all watched it on the telly, and breathed in as it went to extra time and then penalties.  Inverness played a cracking defensive game and it was touch and go all the way through.

Winning on pens didn’t matter, as we brought the cup home.   The kids have supported the Dons all through the last decade of losing streaks and it was lovely to see something positive and share in a winning club while they are still kids.

Well done the Dons.  We went down to the cup parade today.  Sadly the sun was in our eyes and it was difficult to get pictures, but you get the idea.  There was lots of cheering, clapping and singing going on as the bus set off on its way.  We were at the start, but on Union Street it sounded like a footie match in progress.

Fabulous…..It’s a memory the kids will never forget…

Dons 2

Dons 3

Dons 5

Dons 7

Dons 4

Dons 9

Dons 10

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Aunt Bessie’s with “New” Added Roastiness for Mother’s Day Cooking

In Association With Aunt Bessie's

It’s that time of year again when we have to think about what we are going to get for our mothers.  My own mother is notoriously difficult to buy for as she always says that she wants “nothing.”

She does like a good roast dinner though, and I’m not always in the mood to actually make roast anything from scratch, so keeping it simple is always a good idea.

I am planning cooking this mothers day, as there probably won’t be anywhere left now that we can actually book.  My car is due an MOT and is out of action for a week or two, and relying on a replacement car in the meantime means I don’t have enough seats to take us all out.

We’ve always eaten our meals with the boys at the table and we’re lucky enough to have two tables to choose from.  We have a smaller table in the kitchen, and a bigger one in our family room/dining room/everything room.

I love having everyone around the table and all chatting while they eat.  It’s just such a throwback to my childhood when we all sat around the table then.  I’ve kept that tradition up with my boys and they just don’t ever consider going anywhere else to eat.

For a lovely homely dinner, it’s likely that we’ll start with a roast, home-made roast potatoes and Aunt Bessie’s for my Yorkshires.

My roast beef cooking tips are here if you are interested to see how I cook mine..

For Aunt Bessie’s and roast dinners, they’ve launched a new fun advert, starring the Aunt Bessie Grannies, Mabel and Margaret. This is an adventure with a mobility scooter!!!

Home Bake Yorkshires

To round it all off, here’s my roast potatoes recipe.  Mother will be proud…I hope.

[gmc_recipe 19618]

 

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Thomas Kitchen Carving Challenge: Tomato Ladybirds with a Cucumber Rose

After a few attempts, this blog post is my entry for the Tesco Blogger Fruit and Vegetable Carving Challenge to win £150 meal voucher from Red Letter Days.   This week is the first time I have tried vegetable carving, so I’ve found it difficult, challenging and fun at the same time.  It’s easy to see why carved fruit and vegetables are so popular in Thailand.  The kids eyes popped open when it was ready to eat and sat on the table with dinner.

The kids gave me some inspiration to make it and the suggestion for marzipan when white icing didn’t work was genius.  I decided on Tomato Ladybirds and a Cucumber Rose.

Tomato l

I’ve already written a post about the vegetable carving that showed just how difficult I had found it.   Tesco sent me a set of Thomas knives to carry out the task with, and my first attempts failed miserably.  With a plan, and deciding to still have a last try, I decided to take it from a different angle and create decoratively carved food that my kids would enjoy picking off a plate.

I needed Philadelphia Cheese, Tomatoes, a Cucumber, some White Marzipan, Fruit Flakes, Chocolate Sprinkle Drops, Lettuce and a Carrot.  It took 6 bamboo skewers in all, with three for the tomatoes and one to make my cucumber rose with a carrot topped centre.

The marzipan sticks to the dried tomatoes very easily, so was perfect for the spots and base for the eyes.  I could have also used it for the top of the antennae, but I had fruit flakes so used them to have something different.

So, here goes.  My finished attempts and the photographs of how it turned out.

My cucumber rose in a container of lettuce for the decorative setting.

Tomato Ladybird Cucumber and Carrot Rose

My ladybirds on a bed of lettuce with carrot and cucumber decorations.

Tomato Ladybird 4

Tomato Ladybird 5

Tomato Ladybird 7

If you would like to find out more about the Thomas Kitchen Knives and win a set for yourself, head on over to the Giveaway post to enter.

If you shop at Tesco, you’ve probably noticed that they are running a sticker promotion between 3rd March – 1st June 2014 where you can save up to 70% on exclusive kitchenware products at Tesco. For every £20 you spend online OR in-store you can collect a sticker, once you’ve collected five stickers you can use these to save up to 70% off professional kitchenware items of your own.  

Stickers can be collected from 3rd March 2014 – 25th May 2014 and must be redeemed by 1st June 2014.  

I’ve already got enough stickers to get the chopping boards and the roasting tin, so I am a happy bunny right now.

Thomas

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Why Kids Should Get Down and Dirty

“I’m going round to Jacks to play tonight,” my eldest enthuses before school.  I listen and then tell him I’ll still pick him up at the usual time after school and if he is still going over to play, I’ll drop him off.

“We’re not allowed to play anymore,” comes the sad face when I picked him up from school.

“Why, what’s happened?”

“Well, you know mum, he’s grounded and has to do chores.”

“Aww, that’s a shame, what happened?”

While secretly glad I didn’t just assume he would be going off to play at Jacks and went to make sure, I was a little gobsmacked and slightly shocked at the response.

“He got pushed over on the hill at school, and his clothes are muddy so he’s got to do chores for going home dirty.”

Whether that is true or not is neither here nor there, but the child believes he’s being punished for coming home mucky.

Muddy Kids

I really can’t understand the mentality of any parent who grudges their kids a little muck here and there.  Ok, it might be a bit boring and cumbersome to have to wash clothes and yes, it might be a bit annoying if you were heading out and about, but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of kids being punished for coming home with some dirt on them.

Before someone says it, I can understand where someone is so skint that the price of hot water is a challenge, but come on, for most of us, it isn’t really an issue.

For the kids I am talking about, they are mostly middle class comfortably off families with often several holidays a year and gourmet fast food outlets on speed dial, so it’s not as if they can’t afford a cycle in the washing machine or they have to slave over a sink with a washing board and a bar of soap.

I don’t understand the “must be clean at all costs” school of parenting and I suspect I never will.

Kids should be allowed to get dirty, mucky, muddy and downright filthy with black gunge under fingernails.  Those are memories they’ll remember and a quick soak in a tub washes it all away.

Why are so many parents against their kids getting mucky if paying for electricity and hot water to wash the clothes isn’t a problem?

Don’t they understand that for most kids, getting mucky means they have usually had fun?

I guess I’ll never understand it.

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Sponsored: Childrens Swimming Lessons

As a family, we spent an absolute fortune on swimming lessons when my kids were younger.  I found it hard to see any actual difference in their ability to swim after a couple of dozen lessons.

I’m not sure if it was the way they were taught that my children found difficult to follow, or whether they were just not interested, but we gave up and just went swimming ourselves for years.  Swimming aids are great for boosting confidence in the water and we used a few different options from floats to noodles to get their confidence in the water.

Zoggs Board

When were on holiday and in Aberdeenshire, we decided to book eldest and littlest in for intensive swimming lessons.  Middler is at special school and they have swimming lessons weekly there, so it seemed pointless to expose him to more lessons that he was going to find difficult to follow.  My brief to the staff was that I didn’t care if my kids could swim “properly.”  I just wanted them to be able to keep their heads above water and be able to breathe if they landed out of their depth in a pool, river or anywhere else with some water they could land in.

It took a while, but by the end of the first week, they were managing to hold their heads up and take a breath which was all I really wanted to be able to happen.    It’s all very well being able to swim underwater, but it isn’t any use if they can’t breathe.

My kids go through swimming googles like nobodys business.  They have a bad habit of leaving them lying in changing rooms or forgetting to pick them up when they leave the pool.  It’s probably just as well there is a great range of fun kids swimming goggles from Zoggs so we can just go have some more.  I’ve learned to always keep a spare pair or two in our swimming bags, but for some reason, we always seem to run out of them very quickly.

This is a sponsored post.

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The Caffeine Effect

Coffee-Beans-2Sweating and with a heavy headache, coming off caffeine was no easy feat.  I hadn’t realised I was so addicted until I tried to stop drinking diet fizzy drinks.  It wasn’t the aspartame that people tend to attribute as the biggest problem, as that was still in the diluting juices I fizzed with my soda stream instead.

I must have been taking caffeine in large doses although I really had no idea just how much it took to end up with withdrawal.  I was obviously sipping enough of it as the withdrawal was very obvious.

I’ve heard people saying that caffeine isn’t addictive, but if you have ever ingested lots of it over  a long time frame and tried to stop, you’ll probably get some of the symptoms I suffered with it.  I believe caffeine is a mild painkiller, so perhaps lots of us self medicate by using it.  Boots tells us that caffeine helps other pain relievers to work better, and is often in over-the-counter pain relievers, cold medications and diet pills.

I know that coffee and tea are the ones we know most about, but where I took most caffeine in was with my Diet Irn Bru and Diet Coke.  My kids were also all imbibing it in larger quantities by wanting Pepsi Max which seems to be Diet Pepsi with added extra caffeine.  Cocoa beans contain some caffeine, and Pro-Plus tablets / Energy Drinks contain quite high levels.

We all know people who take caffeine to keep them awake or to appear brighter, but where should we draw the limit?  On the Diet Coke bottle beside me, I can’t even find how much caffeine is actually in it so keeping tabs on how much we eat/drink isn’t the easiest of tasks.

There is actually less caffeine in Coca-Cola and Coke Zero than in Diet Coke which surprised me.

In 500ml of fluids, there are approximately:

  • Coca-Cola 48mg
  • Coke Zero 48mg
  • Diet Coke  64mg
  • Pepsi 50mg
  • Diet Pepsi 48mg
  • Pepsi Max 92mg
  • Instant Tea 48 – 62mg
  • Instant Coffee 120 – 170mg
  • Diet Irn Bru – (Approximately 50mg.  I couldn’t find the exact amount anywhere)

Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and although we do end up with a dependence, it isn’t thought that it would affect our physical health.

Symptoms of withdrawal usually go away after a few days, and may include:

  • Headaches
  • Tiredness
  • Irritability
  • Brain fog (difficult concentrating)
  • Anxiety
  • Shakes
  • Increased heart rate

Daily limits for health are not easily found.

I’ve seen it spoken about that levels around 500mg + of caffeine a day may cause some problems.  Although caffeine is a well studied substance, each persons tolerances are different.

I used to drink about 4 litres of diet irn bru a day which would take me to around 200mg of caffeine a day.  That’s not a massive amount in the terms of caffeine intake, yet I did suffer incredible headaches and used to get stressed if I thought I was about to run out of my liquid nectar which seems totally daft to me now.  I didn’t suffer the other symptoms of withdrawal, but the headache was enough for me.  There are times when I drink a Diet Coke that I can have indigestion, so I do think that caffeine has an effect on me.

Is caffeine safe?  

Who knows, but the effects certainly seem to have been well studied.  I think this is one additive to products we really all have to take our own responsibility for.

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Hypermobility Syndrome (HMS) / or Wibbly Wobbly Joints As We Know It

Two of my boys have hypermobile joints.  You know the ones that can turn their elbows inside out, or stick out their shoulder blades at completely stomach churning angles.  One of mine can do that.

Littlest can turn his feet to direct opposites of each other.

HMS1

In simple terms, hypermobility is the ability to move our joints further than the normally expected range of movement.  It can range from very mobile to some of us with almost no mobility at all (like me).

Many hypermobile jointed people are described as “double jointed.”

The different levels can made a big difference to quality of life.  My boys are lucky enough that theirs is easily spotted, yet allows them to still lead an active and quality life.   They can do things like stick their shoulder blades out at wierd angles that make me cringe, to folding their thumbs back so that they they are in line with their arms.

How common is it? 

It’s fairly common at some level in our population.   For some people, it might just be elbows and fingers and for others it may just be fingers that make it difficult to hold a pencil.  Yet more people might find it difficult to do some everyday things, and for others it might even be a benefit.  Imagine if you are an athlete whose edge could be that your hip joints give you that little more flexibility for each step and propels you further forward.

I watched a TV programme that Cheryl Cole was on where she demonstrated her hypermobile elbows, so it can affect anyone.

Quite often children seem to “grow out” of HMS as it can often seem to reduce as they get older.

Problems

My youngest has learned that it doesn’t take much to dislocate his thumb.  It folds back on itself, right to his arm, but a knock easily dislocates it.  That is incredibly painful for him and although it pops back in place easily, it takes a good couple of weeks for the pain to subside.  I suspect that occurs as although his joint over extends easily and he doesn’t really realise that it can go too far.  I’m grateful his healed up fine, as HMS injuries can be difficult to recover from.

He struggles to hold his pencils or pens correctly and although there are pens and pencils for people with HMS, in reality, it’s difficult for them to keep hold of.  Other children tend to want to try them or they are easily broken.  Children often don’t want to be different from their peers and might just not use them anyway.

We’ve got round that for lengthy writing exercises by having a laptop available for him to use, but again, he has to be told to use it or he’ll just potter on with struggling to hold his pencil and not manage to write very much.  It takes so much effort to just put pen and pencil to paper, that the quality and quantity of output can be quite poor and the condition unrecognised as an issue by teachers.

Pain

Some HMS affected people can experience pain from their joints, and it can be to the extent that it is misdiagnosed or interfere with daily living.  Thankfully we have not got to that point and hopefully we never will, but it is always good to know what the future potential can be.

Diagnosis

It does pay to have HMS diagnosed.  I hadn’t realised what it was until my eldest had a thumb injury and the physiotherapist told me he had it, and she watched my youngest writing and told me he also suffered from it in his fingers and thumbs.

Without the diagnosis, youngest wouldn’t have his school laptop and we wouldn’t know to watch out for hand injuries.

If they had less obvious symptoms I wouldn’t have bothered.  I just thought eldest and his shoulder blades were a bit like a party trick.    Diagnosis also helps to pinpoint later on if there are some more serious effects and it helped us to understand that it wasn’t much of a blow that dislocated both eldest and littlests thumbs on different occasions.

There is a scoring system, the “Beighton Score” which grades the body to identify possible hypermobility in some parts of the body, but it is usually best diagnosed by a doctors examination and they can help suggest things to help if it is causing problems in life.

Where do I get help?

Find out more about HMS by visiting the following:

 

 

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Grow Your Own Garden Goodies

Getting goodies from the garden is always a fab thing to get.  We’ve got a plot and it’s great to get fresh stuff.  Our plot has grown and grown and grown and although it’s the first year, there should hopefully be many years after this to enjoy the goodies.

Plot Strawberry Plants

The strawberries looked and tasted great.  Pity they’re all done already as we only got a few dozen and they don’t last long in this house.

Plot Plants

The potatoes are a different story.  We’ve been eating them for a week and loads more to come.  Fresh and absolutely lovely when they’re cooked.

Plot Potatoes 1

Plot Potatoes 2

Sadly the cauliflowers are taking longer to ripen than we thought so they might not be goers this year, fingers crossed.

Cauliflower

The peas have done well, but it’s just a pity there isn’t really that much when they pea pods are shelled.  I forgot to tell them to keep the shells for stir fry, but they’ll remember next year I hope.

Plot Lettuce

Loads of lovely lettuce.

Herbs

Some mint, two types of basil and some parsley made up the total amount of herbs we pulled up.  Somehow I’ve not managed to get a photo of the parsley.

Plot Dill

Last but not least this week was the dill.