Category: Family

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Who’s Calling?

I felt a rant coming on tonight, and I just had to share it.    I am sure you all really  really want to know all about it.   It’s not often that I get as annoyed with others outside my family (other than education and people who make fun of my kids – but that’s another story)

So, what has got me into a frenzy of absolute rant hood.  Well, I think you might have guessed by the use of the picture of the telephone in this post.  

Yes, the telephone is my first love, and also my first hate.   From an early age, the telephone played an important part in my life.  I remember my grandmothers big, black old fashioned rental phone from BT.   And yes, before someone asks, almost everyone rented their equipment from BT in those days.  I even remember the telephone number we had for it, and that’s not bad, considering it was nearly 40 years ago.

From then, onto teenage pain years, and the main telephone in the hall, which was corded of course.  Everyone else who was anywhere else in the house could overhear your conversations.  Cue early romances and  calls with phone mouthpiece cupped in your hand, as you whispered as quietly as you could to talk.  That’s got nothing on the daily dash from upstairs to get to the one phone in the house downstairs when it rang.  Those were the days.  The days when the phone rang when it was from someone who wanted to speak to someone for any reason that didn’t involve selling you something.

Fast forward, through the mobile phone craze, and the budding cold sales caller.  I can’t remember exactly when I received my first one, but I think I was about 18, and it was from a kitchen company in the local area.    It was quite amusing at first, but quickly became the bane of my telephone life.  With only one phone in the house, and having reached serious dating age, it was a time where no call could go unanswered as there was no answer machine to record calls.    Being upstairs when the phone rang meant a breakneck speed jump down four stairs at a time, just to reach it before it rang off. 

“Good afternoon madame, we are in your area……..”

What bit about stop calling on the last 10 phone calls did they not understand.  It just got worse, and worse, and worse.  I managed to set telephone preference a couple of times, and that did work for a while, but you seen to need to repeat that often enough.  I gave up having name and address in the phone book to try and stop the flow of double glazing, kitchen, bathroom, conservatory, or driveway salespeople.

Oh but it doesn’t stop  there does it??  I’ve had some fun with some of the callers, and turned the tables on them.  There is nothing like asking them if they want to buy something to make them hang up.    Now I know they are only trying to make a living, so I try not to be rude to them, unless they are rude to me first. 

I do have to say though, that the most recent calls about the “government scheme to write off all your debts” annoys me more than all the rest have ever done.  THEY JUST NEVER GIVE UP.   

They call several times a day.  They usually call from International, and they always seem to know more about us than they should.    When I see international on the line, I now just wait for the answer machine to pick up.   It’s usually a morning and tea time call that arrives.  I’ve asked about, ohh, say 100 times for them to stop calling me, and they just keep on a calling.

If anyone has any tips on how to get them to stop calling, I am all ears…….

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A Camera Dilemma – Canon v Nikon – A Shot in the Dark

I have had a really hard choice this week.  I have spent more hours than I care to remember looking at Cameras.  I have dragged my kids from pillar to post to weigh them up and potter about with them, whenever I could.  

I had decided on this one – the Nikon D90, and went to order it. 

Unfortunately I did something wrong somehow, and it ends up that it is out of stock at the moment, and will be back in stock over the next few weeks.    I didn’t want to wait for a camera – as I have serious camera envy at the moment – of ANYONE who has a nice DSLR.


I went and retrawled the shops, and came across this – The Canon EOS 550D.  I loved the video capabilities of it, and was almost at the point of purchase, when………the salesman graciously decides to tell me that there is a new camera coming out this week.

The Canon EOS 600D with the swivel screen.

At this point, I am tempted to hang up my camera seeking self for a week or two and then come back to it.  I now have no idea what to choose.

It looks like poeple end up being loyal to the first brand of camera they buy, as the lenses are so expensive.   It’s a minefield.   Who knew that buying a camera would be so complex.   I am so confused by them all, that I think I am just going to pick the cheapest one out of all of them and live with it.

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Housework Hatred

  Image: koratmember / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now I have to be honest with this post.  I started thinking about it today, as it is the never ending cycle of domestic purgatory that exists in my world.   Dirty dishes, laundry, hoovering, floor washing, bedding to be stripped and remade, dusting, animal walking, and lots, lots more.  

And none of that includes the never ending cycle of kids bedrooms, perma toys all over the place, homework, night routines, la la la la la

I really really detest housework (WITH A PASSION).   Did you get that, or do I have to repeat it. 

I REALLY REALLY DETEST HOUSEWORK (WITH A HUMUNGOUS GINORMOUS, PASSION)

With that in mind, I decided to try and work out which of those chores are my most dreaded.    What brought on this post of major grumpiness, I hear you wonder.  Well, if you really must know, the sun is shining.  It’s a nice afternoon, and with the sun streaming in through the windows, it should put me into a good mood – right. 

Did I tell you that my house has 27 windows, 28 if you include the garage.    I stopped smiling at the sun coming out a long time ago.  Why on earth we bought a house with so much wall space as windows is anyone’s guess.   Well, it did look pretty, on a dull winters day when we first bought it.    I had no idea, that I would be letting  myself in for window torture.

I don’t think this picture gives you the best indication of what happens when the sun shines on all these horrendous pieces of clear glass.  At best it looks manky, at worst, it looks positively slovenly.  Oh, yes, and we do have three rooms that have glass panels as well.  It just never ends. 

If anyone has a tried and tested method of keeping windows streak and grime free, I am all ears.  I’ve heard of stuff you can put on the windows, but I don’t know what it is, or how good it is. 

I’d love to know what everyone else’s pet hates housework wise are.  Leave a comment, or twitter on @scottish_mum

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Fill In The Blanks !!!!! Meme

I have been tagged by @jontybabe AND @helloitsgemma on twitter.    They are getting me back for tagging them last week (only kidding).

Fill in the blanks is as it sounds.  A list of words that I have to fill in the blanks of.

I am… 
Trying to be the best mum that I can be.  I know I am not perfect.  I know my kids actually wish me out of the way at times, and I know that sometimes I get things wrong.   It doesn’t stop me trying though, and maybe, one day, my kids will understand that there are rules for their own good.

The bravest thing I’ve ever done…
I’m not very brave.  I will challenge things that I don’t think are right, but I am not a gung ho type of person, not any more.  The kids took care of that.    In fact, bringing 3 children into my life was probably my bravest feat.

I feel prettiest…
Now this is predictable and corny for me.  Easy – I feel prettiest when  I am thin, and on the day I get my hair coloured.   At the moment, the first is out of the equation, but the second was done last week, so I’m still feeling slightly confident.

Something that keeps me awake at night…
Education struggles for one of my children and my childrens special needs sometimes does keep me awake for hours at a time.

My favourite meal is…
I don’t particularly have a favourite meal.  I have a love/hate relationship with food, but if pushed, it would swing from (proper) stovies with baked beans, milk and oatcakes, to chicken risotto.

The way to my heart is…
Through my children.  Treat them well, and my heart goes out to you.

I would like to be…
A fly on the wall in the education and council departments as they make swathing cuts to childrens services.

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This is me.

Sticky Fingers has challenged us to add a picture that our children have drawn of us.   She is compiling them in a linky gallery.

In Tara’s words:
It’s so so easy.
Ask your child – their age doesn’t matter – to draw a picture of you.
Post it on your blog.
Pass it on to your friends/enemies if you want to.
(If you don’t have a fancy pants scanner, take a photo of it and post it that way!)

Then when you’ve done, go to Taras Post here and add yours to the Linky so we can all laugh. 

    THIS IS ME, by middlie

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5 Things That Make You Feel Good.

With all the juggling that we do on a daily basis, it seems to me to be a good thing to celebrate our womanhood, and what we like to do as women.   Not as employees, girlfriends, wives, mothers, daughters, or friends.   As I have been focussing on the negative aspects of my body and life recently, I wanted to move to the things about me that make me feel good.

I have seen lots of posts about what we struggle with, or things that we like to do, and I’d like to find out a bit more information about all of you. 

This is my way of doing it.     I am looking forward to visiting some of you on the blog hop.

What you cannot choose.  The Rules are Simple
We all know that blogging / facebook, & or twitter  is in our arena of what we like to do, so I am going to rule them out as one of the 5 that you can post about.  They really are not very girly.    Likewise, phones, computers, ipads are all out of the running.

 I am challenging myself to this, as I am really not a girly girly type of person, and I want to find that within myself.   It’s not all about power suits, filofaxes, ipads and designer phones.

If you want to pass this along, pick bloggers that you want to find out more about, and challenge them to write up their 5 secret passions that make them feel good.  The idea is to lift our spirits this week.  The fact that there is a linky added, just makes it all the more worthwhile in doing.

Here goes.

1 – I actually, really love my hair.  I pretend that I don’t, as its thick, tends to frizz with curl when it is humid, and can be difficult to tame.   What it can do, well, almost anything really if I really set my mind to it.  I can wave it, curl it, frizz it, or straighten it.  I choose to straighten mine nowadays as I like it that way, but in the 80’s, I used to have it like a poodle perm.  It takes colour beautifully (when I get time to go to the hairdressers), and I do tend to change my hair colour by the year.  Last year I was brunette, this year I am sort of blondish.

2 – I have no bunions, corns or callouses on my feet.  Yay me.  I hated my mother when I was growing up as she made me wear sensible shoes until I was old enough to buy shoes for myself.   She used to wear gym shoes as she couldn’t afford to buy both me and her shoes, but I didn’t know that as a child.  I so love her now for it, especially as I have internal foot problems with nerve damage, and I am grateful that the outside of my feet were never damaged by badly fitting shoes. 

3 – I love my pink epilator.  I used to spend a fortune on waxing, then I spied an epilator in Costco a couple of years ago.  It cost me £40, but has saved me hundreds of pounds on waxing.

4 – Shoes.  I have always had a shoes passion.  Unfortunately I can’t wear  most of the lovely things that are out there these days, so my passion has shifted to fitflops.   I can handle that.    It nearly broke my heart to sell the lovely Prada boots I had in my cupboard and the pair of Manolos that I had treasured, but when a couple of pairs of new fitflop boots arrived, I quickly got over my angst. 

5 –  I love make up and smellies.  You probably wouldn’t think so as I don’t go overboard with mine these days, but I do.  So many things are now free of the nasty stuff, that they are nice to try out.   I love scented oils, candles, perfumes, mascaras.   You can’t ever have too much make up choice, and a nice scented candle always makes me smile. 

I am tagging some people from twitter today, but anyone can join in, and add an old post that covers the same topic.  Lets find out a little more about each other.

 This will initially go to:

@crystaljigsaw @nettiewriter @kateab @superamazingmum @melaina25 @tara_cain @flutterbyrosa @softthistle @mummylion
@theboyandme @mrs_moog @jontybabe @jencull @mid30slife

Add your link to a new or existing post.   Grab the code, enter it into the html of your own post to see the same list as everyone else. 

get the InLinkz code


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Appetite for Disaster – My Fight with Flab

Ok, here we go.   For me, weight is an issue.  

I am not one of those people you read about in papers or magazines who say that they are happy in their skin and that they are comfortable overweight.

At the moment, I have three stones to lose to feel comfortable and get into the lovely clothes in my wardrobe that have been squirreled away for the last four years. 

I have been up and down, I lost two stones last year in January and February, only to put one stone back on again over the year.    This time, I want to lose the three stone. 

I started on January 1st, but there have been many more family issues this year than last year, and I am a comfort eater.  When I am stressed, I eat, then feel guilty, then I eat some more.

I have bad feet, so that rules out jogging, or cycling when they are bad.  I also have a child at home who is not able to be put into a creche etc, so I can’t do my exercise of choice this year, which is swimming. 

What I do have, is all of you.  @livingwithkids on twitter started a weight loss journey with a group of women who are all wanting to lose weight, and although I have not answered this week (sorry Liz, if you end up reading this), I have had an awful week.  I am hoping to do better next week.

The one thing that I really would like in my quest to regain my old body, and that is an appetite retrain facility.  If one of those was available, I can imagine that the person who made it up would be a millionaire overnight.

I have an awful appetite.  It’s not hunger.  Unlike some people, I do know what hunger is as I used to starve in my 20’s.  Not that you would know it now.  I regularly used to go for 2 – 3 weeks on end eating nothing, and I mean nothing.   Perhaps the odd cup of coffee with milk in it, and a cup a soup or two.  And I worked 12 hour shifts when I was at University.   Not once did I ever pass out, or feel faint.

This appetite is the overriding feeling of the fact that you must put that thing into your mouth, chew, and then swallow it, despite all that your head is telling you.  I used to starve without any thought of hunger or appetite.  Even now, I rarely feel hunger, although I recognise when I am peckish.    I don’t need it, I certainly don’t want it, but yet I still pop it into my mouth.  I also find it difficult to look back on the girl who starved for years, and understand how I did it.

I often now, find myself pacing the floor to stop myself from eating.  The craving is so strong, that it is totally unreasonable.  I suspect it is a replacement for what I really need.  The only problem is, that I have not figured out what it is that I actually need.  My desire is to be thin, fit and healthy.  That’s when I feel good, yet I am the one that is doing so much to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

I am putting this out there, as a reminder to myself, that this is the year that I want to crack it properly.  I am resisting the urge to do a starvation session, and I am trying to do this sensibly.  It is taking longer to come off, and I am slipping back and forth with sticking to the diet.

I may need a kick up the derriere a few times this year to get back on the wagon, and the magical button to banish appetite is just not going to happen for me.   This years quest, is simply to be able to ignore it rumbling away in the background.

Maybe I should post a picture of me where I want to be, and have that looking at me every time I log in.  Hmm, that might just make me raid the biscuit tin……

Wish me luck.

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Bloggy Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2,3 – Week 6!

This is my first go at this so bear with me until I get it sorted.  Doing blog hops has not been my speciality yet, and the only one I have tried, ended up with me just messing it up.  Here is hoping that I manage to get it right this time.

Okay – my reasons to be cheerful.

1 – I have a fantastic mother who does so much to help me, that I cannot even begin to describe how much she means to me as a mother.  She struggles with diabetes, thyroid disease, arthritis and has just passed her 5 year mark for breast cancer.  And yet, she still always thinks of me and my children first, and never complains.  I landed an angel.

2 – My relatively new circle of friends (1 year plus),  has brought me back into a fantastic life, that revolves outside of my own little home bubble.  They took me in, made me one of them, and now I would be lost without them.

3 – I found twitter and blogging.  While I am not Mrs Wonderful Blogger, I am loving it.  I have the opportunity to interact with other women like me.  I can meet and talk to people as and when I need support, a talking to, or just a bit of gossip or banter.

4 – Like some of the other bloggy mums, I have recently been contacted by some PR’s wanting to work with me, which is fantastic.  This is an amazing boost to confidence considering I had to start from scratch when I lost a few months of posts in October.   I have only been going again since November under my new name, and I am happy with how things are going.  This is fun for me, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

5 – This is a holiday weekend, and I don’t have to rush getting the kids up for the next 5 mornings.

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@scottish_mum / My Top 5 Reasons for Twittering

Yada, yada, yada.  I see the look on the faces of anyone that I mention twitter to.  It is normally met with some kind of snigger, and snort, or some comment of how they have far too much to do to spend time on twitter, or asking why I would want to talk to strangers every day.   After that, I don’t tell them I tweet. 

Because of the reactions, very few people know that I tweet.  My husband and kids know, and they snigger and snort at it.  I have two people in RL apart form that who know, and they are fine with it.  So much so, that they even know about this blog.   If you are reading this, yes, you know who you are.  That’s it though.   To other people, my twitter doesn’t really exist.

My enjoyment of using twitter is totally founded on the fact that I have met new friends very quickly.  These are friends, whom we rarely meet, or hardly know, yet we talk to each other nearly every day.

Pre twitter, it was hard for me to imagine that I would enjoy it so much, or that I would end up setting up a blog, and writing away into the cyberspaceworld.  I would like to go public as some of you do, and reveal my face to the world, but I am not comfortable doing that at the moment, so I am doubly grateful for the lovely people who have come into my twitter stream. 

My top 5 reasons for tweeting

1 – I have someone to talk to at any time of day.  There is always someone on the other end of the keyboard in my timeline now.    And that is not just anyone.  They are going to be people like me, with kids, with problems, and not pretending that everything in their lives is rosy.

2 – I don’t have the time with special needs in the family to do the coffee mornings, lunch groups, or mummy socialising locally, and twitter offers me the opportunity to mix with both special needs and mainstream mums.  I get the best of both worlds, which doesn’t happen in real life.

3 – I am doing something that I would never have done before.  Thanks to twitter, I am travelling 500 miles to a place I haven’t been to before, to meet a few hundred other women who have met through blogging at Cybermummy in London.

4 – I found blogging.  Through reading some other peoples blogs, and deciding that I needed an outlet to keep me sane, I started blogging last year.  I messed up when I transferred across to my own domain and lost it all, so it was start all over again.   This blog started in November / December and will take time to build up, and at the moment, I am enjoying having somewhere to splurge.  Do I want to take it further, not yet, as it’s fun.

5 – I thrive on the sometimes multiple, fast conversations going on.  All those  people who join in, all the people helping each other when someone asks for help, and the fact that it keeps me sane. 

That’s it from me.  I think I have been lucky in that I have not managed to get myself into any twitter arguments.   This is the secret though isn’t it.  It’s like a little secret society of fast moving conversation followers.  The speed it moves in comparison to facebook is astounding.

Thats it from me, and if you haven’t tried twitter, it takes a little time to find your circle, and expand to follow the people that you like.   I tried three times before I really got into it.   I’ll have withdrawal symptoms on holidays this year !!!!!!