Fabulous food find today was a HUGE – SEEDLESS watermelon from Costo in Aberdeen at £2.99. Absolutely fabulous and the kids are hugely impressed with how much there is in the bowl after I sliced it all up to put it in the fridge for nibbles.
Watermelon works out at about 30 calories per 100g (according to my iphone diet calorie checker). A whole kg worth of water melon would only set me back 300 calories. Now that is a stomach filling prospect.
This is the easy recipe for chocolate fudge that I got off of a tin of Nestle Condensed milk. I don’t usually do much in the way of potted recipes and this one is VERY sweet, but I thought I would share the results of how it came out.
Ingredients
400g chocolate
397g tin condensed milk
25g butter
100g icing sugar
55g sugar strands / chopped nuts etc for decoration
Put chocolate, condensed milk and butter into a bowl and microwave until all melted. Take out of micro at 10 – 20 second intervals and stir well until it is very smooth.
When nice and smooth, beat in sieved icing sugar (if you don’t sieve it, it will go into lumps).
I used little cake cases, but the recipe calls for a tray bake. I got 40 little sweets in the cases. When the mixture is in, sprinkle on the sugar strands or chopped nuts.
Put in fridge for about an hour.
Hey presto.
When the lovely people at Sea Bands got in touch and asked me to review and giveaway some sets of their products, I jumped at the chance as my eldest suffers quite badly from nausea and queasiness when he is in the car.
They arrived in a nice white padded envelope and my eldest quickly scanned through the pack to find a pair that he liked. He found the camouflage green ones, and they were never to be let go as you can see.
They are actually quite cool as far as children are concerned, because they look like wrist sweat bands, so they gain kudos for being in fashion. There is also the added bonus of not having to give him tablets which can make him feel sleepy.
My boy has been using them now for several weeks, and I am happy to say that he seems to be managing to go on car journeys without suffering. The potential for journeys away has now left the realms of nervous worry for him, and that has to be a good thing.
The lovely Sea Band people have also given me 4 pairs of bands to give away. I have two pairs of adult gray bands, one pair of childs pink camouflage, and one pair of blue camouflage.
Before I go into the competition, I’ll let you know a little about Sea Bands from their literature.
Travel sickness is the nausea, dizziness and vomiting that is triggered by the messages in the brain. We may be sitting motionless in our seats, but our senses tell us that we are moving. That means we may end us as nauseous.
To help with travel sickness – we can:
The Sea-Band is an elastic wrist band that can help. Accupressure has been used in Chinese medicine for over 4000 years, and the Sea-Band applies pressure to an accupressure point on your wrist, by a small plastic stud on the inside of your wrist at a point between the two central tendons which is known to prevent or relieve feelings of nausea.
It is a natural, effective and drug free way to help take away the worst feelings of nausea, and can be worn from a young age.
They have been trialled with children aged 2-15 and gained excellent results in a large number of cases.
They are suitable for
Sea-band Website and Shop
Sea-Band on Facebook
Sea-Band on Twitter
You don’t have to wait for long, as the competition for 4 pairs is starting now, and will close on the 11th September. I will announce the winner on the 12th.
COMPETITION / GIVEAWAY
To Enter – do the following, if you are not already.
Brit Mums have had a facelift. Formerly known as British Mummy Bloggers, they have updated and extended the facilities they have on the get together site for those of us who live and breathe in the blogosphere.
I have set up a new group on Brit Mums for bloggers who have an interest in adoption, or would like to support those who are affected by the issues surrounding adoption.
There must be quite a few of us Adoptive mums (or dads) (or grown ups with their own children). Even those of you who have questions you always wanted to ask, or just if you want to give an adopter some support on the parenting front. Everyone is welcome.
I suppose with 3 children, I am in the almost veteran category of adoptive parents, and it can be hard to talk about our issues among non adoptive parents.
Perhaps there isn’t a need for a group for us, but if there is a mum / or dad / or child out there who wants to talk about adoption in any form, I will be around, and hopefully there will be others who feel confident enough to put their hand up and join us for the occasional chat when they need it (or even when they don’t).
Anything adoption and blogging related is welcome. At the moment, I am billy no mates in the new group, and I’d love a few of you to pop over and join me in saying hello, and perhaps opening up the area of parenthood that is often silent in the blogging world.
Join me by clicking on Brit Mums HERE.
Now these are just a little bit of heaven. Quite spicy and like prawn crackers without the ickiness for me. Although I absolutely love prawn cocktail flavoured Walkers crisps, I am not a fan of any brand prawn crackers. They just seem too fishy for me.
I know, I know, I can hear you all laugh as me saying prawns taste a bit fishy to me.
These Sweet Chilli crackers are really spicy, and I am someone who is not usually into things that are too hot, and I do need a drink of water or juice beside me to eat these, but I really did enjoy them.
The best bit for me has to be that it is quite a big bag of crackers, and at 60g, it’s not too shoddy an amount to sit and actually eat.
Per 20g
Calories 82 – so that makes it a reasonable 246 calories for the WHOLE bag.
As a crisp addict, these are just perfect for me.
A couple of weeks ago, with the van on a campsite, the threat of flood water in the van was getting higher. The kidlets had told each other scary stories, ranging from dying under tonnes of dirty water, to hearing screams coming from the direction of the river.
The water was very dangerous and the flood alert was in force for the area on the Monday. Local disabled residents were evacuated, and the caravan site was sitting smack bang in the middle of the flood plain. We took an early evening walk down to look at the raging river, and I couldn’t get close enough to get a good photograph of the river, and all roads in and out were closed.
We sneaked across the football field, as close as we dared and although we could spot the raging river, we didn’t dare go close enough to get a decent one, so the flooded children’s playpark is the best that I could do. The raging water was terrifying. It certainly opens your eyes to just how awesome the force of water actually is, and I am someone who spent much time in the middle of the north sea on oil rigs in her youth.
At night, we packed a couple of bags, and I had them sitting at the door of the van, just in case the river had a major flood. We were told that the “flood man” would let us all know if the river began to rise again. The rain seemed to thankfully be slightly easier that evening, and we hoped that the rain would stay lighter upriver so that it didn’t head down towards our precious van again. There were major floods here a few years ago, and lots of fears that it could be repeated.
I had my alarm set for every two hours so that I could keep an eye on the flood alerts, and check out the window to see how it is going. I intended to pop out to the bottom of the site a couple of times during the night to see if they were under water. I never got that far. Thankfully we were at the highest up point on the site, so in less danger than the vans and tents further down the site.
The kids thought it was an adventure, and we all slept in joggers so that we would be able to get out at short notice if the knock came at the door.
I didn’t sleep well at all that night, and littlest woke up about 6 times during the night in terror. He sleepwalks, although it is not as often as it used to be. In strange places, he always has to sleep close to an adult so we hear him on the move. Several times, he ended up sitting bolt upright, in absolute terror shouting “mum, why aren’t you saving me?”? I guess I can get the gist of the nightmare. He faced the door of the caravan and it was not very nice to see hs terror & knowing he was still in his nightmare with eyes wide open.
Thankfully, the danger passed, and with it the last of littlest night terrors.
I have never managed to understand the designer bag craze. I just don’t get it. A bag is a bag, is a bag, is a bag, is a bag. It’s for holding stuff in that won’t fit in your pockets, right?
Now don’t go ratting me out as some kind of slobbish, unorganised, ineffectual mother (ok, yes you’re right, I am). My poor little bag sees very little TLC, and tends to suffer badly from the effects of rain, wind, sleet and occasionally snow in the lovely Scottish climate. I do give it the occasional polish to bring up the nice leather that it used to be, and the last episode of TLC was the day before the Cybermummy Train Trip.
My current bag has been slung on my back for the last 3 years and was a fantastic (splutter) £50.00 when new. I only tend to have one day bag and one for using on special occasions at any given time, so I like them to last. I have bought cheap synthetic ones in the past, but I’m lucky if they last me a couple of months. You’d think they could make them so that they would be tougher wouldn’t you? Then again, maybe I just spend too much time with my bag on my back.
Yes, my bag is a rather untrendy for my age, small, black leather rucksack. I’ve been wearing this type of bag off and on for about 20 years. The only time I don’t have one is when I can’t find a nice one when it comes time to replace a worn out trusty. Then I have to resort to the dreaded over body bags.
I just can’t understand the pleasure or practicality of having to use an arm or a hand to hold up a bag. Whats that for then? How do you hold onto a child, or children, and a dog, or shopping when one hand is permanently tied up holding onto a bag for dear life?
I also know people who have bags that seem to have a never ending supply of things in them. I have a friend whose bag is a revelation. It doesn’t matter what eventuality she comes across, there is something in that tardis of a bag she carries to fix the problem.
You are allowed to laugh when you see what is in my disorganised little carry bag. I am dreading looking actually as it is a couple of months now since I cleared it out.
Here goes:
House and Car Keys
Caravan Keys
Chewing Gum
Old Receipts (really bad habit I have of just throwing them in)
Ancient Purse (really could use a new one)
2 Pairs of Earphones
Wrist Strap
Paracetamol
Passport Photos for us all
Virgin Vie Tinted Moisturiser
Some Bloggers Business Cards
Two Pens
Bits of a Toy
Crayons
Tomato Ketchup
Oilatum Cream
Library Cards
Dog Poo Spare Plastic Bags
Yes, I am officially a slob. No lippy (note to self – must rectify that one).
Yes, yes I know, my bag is in need of replacement. This one might just last another winter before it bites the dust. I need to keep an eye out for rucksack handbags from now on.
On twitter today, I have been called names because I don’t think that its right to post photos of other people’s children online in recognisable photos on the public internet without asking their parents if its ok to do so.
It’s simple for me, but not for all.
I told what I think is a pretty innocent tweeter that I didn’t think it was cool to post. She had taken pictures of two children in a shop that she didn’t know, and who didn’t know they were being photographed, and posted the picture online to talk about how obese they were to raise awareness of a very real problem affecting many children nowadays.
I don’t think that is proper, but I can see how others might not think about it until someone else mentioned it. I don’t think its enough justification for the two photographers who jumped on the tweets to start calling me names over it.
I’m not going to go into it all, but they were a couple of photographers that seem to think there are no consequences in this world, and don’t care about anyone elses feelings. As far as they are concerned, they are going to take pictures of anyone, anywhere, and do whatever they want with them, including anybody’s kids that they take pictures of. As far as they are concerned, people like me who would like to be asked before their kids pics were put on the internet are idiots.
Do all photographers think like that, or is it just the male kind?
In my view, the least anyone can do morally and ethically is to ask permission of parents of children that you are taking pictures of, if it is ok to use them in a public online place. Many many people have valid reasons for NOT wanting recognisable pictures of their children posted online. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable expectation to want to be asked before for such an intrusion.
One told me that just because I “shat” out kids, I didn’t have the right to take the moral high ground.
The other told me that we shouldn’t go out in public if we don’t want to be photographed !!
Debate, right or wrong, what do you think?
UPDATE
For those asking to see the tweets/conversation.
My original tweet in response to seeing the pictures of two children and being talked about due to their size was to reply to the person who took them and say that I would delete them if I were her as posting pics of kids she had no permission to was not cool.
She was trying to show the potential dangers of chidren who are overweight in this world to highlight where adults are damaging their kids by leting them get overweight, but using very recognisable pictures of children she had taken in a supermarket.
I have a couple of tweets in my favourites, and I can’t for the life of me locate my favourites on the new twitter web. I also have no idea how to lift conversations from twitter to post here, or I would have.
Two photographers who were not the ones who took the pictures decided to take it to a whole new level of discussion as they proceeded to call me all sorts for having an opinion that is not the same as theirs. They were determined to nastily defend the right to use a picture in any way they see fit.
We can have differences of opinions and ideas, and if we don’t like what someone else has to say, we can challenge it. Where it becomes not acceptable in my view is when people decide to get personal and call us names.
A nice photographer came on later and debated the issue, and apologised for the abuse I had received. I did not give the two who were nasty any abuse back, rather I tried to discuss it with them, but they were not prepared to discuss, only to call names.
The original photographer who posted the pictures apologised for causing such offence and said she would remove them.
It seems to be that photography students might be being told the legal side which is that pictures in a public place are fair game, and that it is up to their own code of ethics and morality what they do with them.
I don’t know what the definition of public and private place is.
I am also glad of the support of the mum bloggers who have the same opinion as I do that random children should not be used for the sake of someone else’s idea of art.
To me, if they have to ignore the potential subjects feelings to portray what the photographer wants to, then there is something wrong with using or taking the picture.
That is my opinion, and I am open to discussing others opinions on the subject which seems to be a huge emotive debate.
Am I defender of those two children that I don’t know, yes, I guess in a way I am. If someone did that to my children I would be furious, and I would hope that if anyone saw pictures of my children on the internet without consent, that someone would stand up for them.
To brighten up yet another rainy, miserable day in the Scottish school holiday season, we decided to take the kids for a nice long drive. Heading off in light rain, we got as far as Nairn when we felt the wrath of Mr Raindrops. We carried on to Inverness, but the rain beat us back, and we headed back down the road. It was getting late, and was about 6pm before we got back out onto the Aberdeen road.
Stopping off at the Parkdean (Holiday Camp?) in Nairn where we saw a sign for a “caravan exhibition”, we were disappointed to find the holiday park whose exhibition was simply the few static caravans that are always out for sale. Moving to the front door, we decided that we would stop off and have something to eat in their restaurant. The kids ran to the door, expecting to be able to go sit down, and then we saw the signs on the door saying that we wouldn’t be welcome and would be asked to leave as we were not owners or paying holiday guests. Shrugging our shoulders at the unfriendliness of the welcome of the “caravan exhibition”, we moved on and decided to spend our money elsewhere.
Carrying on through torrential rain, and puddles half across the road, we reached Elgin, and briefly flirted with the bowling alley. We were gobsmacked at the prices for letting the kids go play in the play frame for such a little town £4.40 per child. We played a game of air hockey, dumped a couple of pound in the bandits, and then moved on again as the place was quickly filling up with teenagers.
We spotted the Brewers Fayre from the side of the road, and we decided it would be the perfect place for a stop of. It’s been a while since we ate in a Brewers Fayre, and to be honest, I was not very impressed with the food on the last occasion I visited one in Aberdeen. With a heart half down my sleeve, we all piled in, and I expected dross on a plate, dressed up as food for the kids “supper treat”.
It was too wet for the outside play area to be of any use, and the inside play frame was tiny, and only really suitable for younger children. As we were late to eat, there were few children in the restaurant, and the boys just went in and played anyway. Brewers Fayre are one of those places where you decide what to eat at your table, and go to the desk to order. It works out fine, as you don’t feel the pressure to have your order ready to place within 20 seconds of sitting down, and before you’ve even got the kids jackets off.
Two children’s portions of chicken nuggets, and a childs pizza decided, the adults looked over the menu. There seems to be many different deals they put on for different times of day, and on Thursday night, it was curry night. There were about 5 or 6 different currys to choose from. I chose a korma with nan bread and rice. The deal was a curry and a drink for £6.99. That’s pretty good value.
Hub chose a half chicken, and the meals really didn’t take long to arrive at all. I went back to reception with the bill, as we had asked for coke for the kids, which was down on the menu for 75p. They had charged us the full standard price for a pepsi as they had run out of their bottles of coke for the kids. Hub had ordered the food and he hadn’t thought anything about it. It was when we looked at the bill, we spotted the price of the kids drinks was £5.25, where it should have been £2.25.
The girl behind the till was friendly, but not prepared to do anything about the overcharge. She just kept stating that they had run out of the kids coke, so they had charged for a full price pepsi from draft (which is more expensive). Mhhhm. Not a great answer I have to say. I asked her what she could do about it and that it was poor service. As far as I am concerned, if the kids menu states a coke at 75p with their meal. I don’t care if its bottled, canned, or draft, but a coke for 75p is what I expect. NOT a coke for £1.75.
I also asked her if there was a complaints procedure, or a form I could fill out to feedback on it. I was told there is no complaints or feedback procedure. At this point, I asked her if there was someone else I could speak to, and she finally mentioned the Manager. I think they need some more customer service training.
Fair play to the manager, he came out and immediately refunded the £3.00 extra charged for kids cokes, and on I went to get my meal. The food was fantastic. I don’t know if Brewers Fayre in Elgin has a good chef, or sources good ingredients, or whether Brewers Fayre food has improved in general, but I have to say it was lovely.
Kidlets were well impressed with their puddings, which were much improved versions from similar types that we have had elsewhere.
The price was reasonable at £36.72 for
– 3 kids meals with puddings, and drinks
– 2 adult meals with a pint and a diet pepsi
– hubs extra portion of chips and onion rings
If we lived closer, I would be tempted to visit the Elgin branch more often. It might even make me revisit the local Aberdeen one. All in all, the food, peaceful evening, and lack of noise and distractions for my boys who need calm as much as possible – made for a pleasant end to the day.
Sadly, after leaving at 10.30 pm, we then had a hair-raising journey back through teeming sheets of rain. Back to reality with a bump, bump, bump.
Baby food seems to be an emotive subject. I stated my opinion on it on twitter, and I was rapidly unfollowed by 4 mum bloggers. Who knew that baby food mums took it so seriously. Nobody said anything in defence of baby food which was surprising, but there were plenty of us who think that jars (and the ready-made tubs ) of baby food for older children are just not needed. I can see the snacks being useful, but the need for the meals confuse me.
Image: Sharron Goodyear / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My youngest came to me at 9 months old. I was told that he had been fed on cow’s milk, and he didn’t like pot noodles, so I decided to take it from there. I didn’t know any better, and with my mothers yada yada yada in my ear, I really never thought there was any other way of feeding a child, other than making something for them to eat. From day 1 in my home, he began eating the kiddie sized portion of what we grown ups and his older brothers had for meals.
Saying all that, before I get struck down with some bug from a curse from the mothers rights brigade, it is every mums’ choice of what to feed their child. The fact that their childrens’ taste buds might suffer eating bland gunk for so long in their lives is their choice.
What does annoy me is having to stand in a supermarket trailing my three hyperactive kids, who have little skills for waiting in line, to have to listen to a mummy righter blagging on about the baby food tub she had just bought in the shop – and wanted it heating up. On and on she went about how was she going to feed her baby now. The man behind the counter remained as calm as could be, although it was obvious he was dying to tell her exactly where to go.
She started off trying to persuade him to use the kitchens microwave to heat it up, but he explained that he couldn’t use industrial microwaves, then she tried to get him to let her go into the kitchen and heat it up herself. He explained that it was against company policy to allow that. I don’t know how often he said it, but eventually she paid for her food and walked away from the counter.
I had some sympathy for her, and stayed behind her in the queue without saying a word, as I could see that she was obviously getting stressed out about how to feed her baby. When she asked what she was going to do now to feed her baby, I almost felt like joining in and championing her cause.
When I had my childrens’ food paid for and got seated, I found myself facing straight towards where she sat with her friend and her “baby”. I felt a little jar of shock when I realised that this “baby” was well over a year old and possibly two or more. The kids menu had several choices of things that would have suited that child perfectly well. In the end, the mum mashed up some of her food, and spoon fed the little one.
My shock was at the fact that not only was she wanting baby food for such a big toddler, but that the toddler was getting it all mashed up, and not allowed to use a spoon or anything to eat it for herself. Far from being unable to feed herself through some disability or special need, I spied the “baby’s” dexterity with toys and the ability to be able to potentially eat for herself was evident.
It’s the mum that seems to want to keep her baby as a baby, and not let her grow up. Either that, or total laziness in feeding her child, so that the only thing she will eat is blah, blah, blah. I have tasted the jars and tubs of baby food, and they are completely disgusting. I suspect most children would turn away from them once they had “normal” not processed food to eat regularly.
I am not adverse to sticking on the odd packet of chicken nuggets, or pizza when I don’t have time to cook from scratch, but surely feeding toddlers that big on baby food is just silly.
If you want to unfollow me for that feel free, but I’d rather you debated the reasons for using it for older children with me.
I’d love to know the rationale and why baby food is so popular. Feel free to comment below.
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I agree with you John ogroats is a dreary miserable lifeless place stuck in the 1940s full of greedy little…
Hi Made lot of rolls and bread. Try make 50/50 rolls and come out great.and used my bread machine.
For your dry potato, look for Kerrs Pink, September onwards.