Man! Where’s my car?
“Mumble, mumble, mumble…what the hell was I saying?” I thought. “What day is it today? And, does anybody know what I’ve done with my car?” Another event today made me realise that even three years after giving birth, I still have ‘mother’s brain’. Why is it that I can go from being...
Indoor play centres: Love them or hate them?
Groggy and hung over from lack of sleep I trundled into the local indoor play centre this morning to meet a friend and let the kids be wild for a few hours. Plonking down on the nearest table that hadn’t been taken over by handbags, I took our shoes off and in HORROR looked at my feet. I could not believe that in my...
How to stop the terrible two’s: A strategy t...
How to stop the terrible two’s: A strategy that works! Is your toddler refusing to get dressed or refusing to leave somewhere when you want them to? Are you struggling to get them into the car or out of the car? What about their eating habits have they suddenly decided that eating is not on their agenda, even their favourite...
Mothers Day Bliss!
Mothers Day… what do you do? Do you hope in wait that Hubby reads your mind and delivers for you a beautiful bottle of Red coupled with the appropriate matching number of roses from Marks & Spencer Mother’s Day Flowers, one for each year of bliss as a Mummy. Do you dream, days before the event, of all the romantic things you’ve seen Hollywood men produce for their beauties and hope senselessly that you will get to act out one of those scenes?
I do! And it’s my own fault I end up wailing in the shower on Mothers Day evening, pitying the lack of Hollywood in my life.
Year after year, I subtly try and squeeze every little hint my wobbly brain can manage onto my husband about wonderful, romantic Mothers Day surprises. And year after year I disappoint myself.
This year, I have learnt a lot about expectation, especially the ol’ ‘Read my mind’ one. It was Hubby that taught me that if I want something, then jolly-well ask for it! Then I have a great chance of getting it. Just because he doesn’t deliver what Tom Cruise did in Top Gun, or pick me up at work and whisk me off for sexy rituals back at home like Officer and A Gentleman doesn’t mean he doesn’t love me, or that he doesn’t think about me and Mothers Day.
“What is the point in hoping and then being disappointed?” he quite frankly put it. And he is so darn right! Damn it!!!
This year Mothers Day will be what ever it turns out to be. I have not thought about it, I have not imagined it. I don’t in all honesty, (hand on heart tell the truth) know what day it is, however…whatever happens this year, it will be magical. It will be Walt Disney and Gone With The Wind rolled into one: Fairytale Dreams Come True mixed with Romance.
This year, the whole day will be a surprise thanks to my new found rule and daily chant of “Thou shalt ask if I want and will not expect” and will therefore be incredible!
In the warmth of my little girls hands my true Mothers Day exists. In her eyes I see bouquets of Roses, dozens of them. In her smile, I am there. I don’t need any gift of wine, roses or romance… it all exists in her and Mothers Day just reminds me of that.
I hope you enjoy yours!
xxx
Read MoreGreen with envy (Teapigs)
Green tea is just so bitter. Right?
It’s hard to drink no matter how darn good it is for us! I have wished for so long that I could be a ‘health freak’ and gulp it with pleasure, knowing that from the inside out I am doing wonders for my body. But years and years of trying to drink the horrid, bitter, dirty green coloured liquid left me with great scepticism on trying yet another green tea. Yet here I was about to try Teapigs Mao Feng Green Tea. The teabag had been staring at me for days and eveytime I went to make a cup I would give it a dirty look and tell it, “not yet”, I just wasn’t ready for another ‘bitter’ disappointment.
Drinking Green tea is just like eating vegies when we were kids.
Remember the times…?
Like the memories I have of being a kid, sitting at the dinner table an hour after everybody else left all because I didn’t like pumpkin. Mum kept telling me how ‘good’ it was for me and how healthy it is and that “until you finish all of it, your not leaving the table”. Humpf!! In the end, I would hold my nose and swallow the very cold pumpkin, as fast as I could. Just like holding your nose and swallowing the green tea, knowing its good for you and that’s it! Only now, I love pumpkin! It is one of my favourite vegetables along with several other ‘good for me’ veggies.
That’s how it felt yesterday morning as I finally plucked up the courage to drink Teapigs Mao Feng Green Tea. I want so much to be as healthy as I can. It has never been more important as it has been since I gave birth to Pickles. Now, the investment in my health is also hers. And guess what? Without going on about how delicate it is, how light green my cup turned (not dirty green) and how smooth it was. I will just let you in on a great secret…
It was really, really nice. And, I finished the cup – without holding my nose!
It still has that ‘green’ flavour that I need to get used to, but it was a pleasure to drink. It was soft, subtle and I felt like I had a Jane Fonda workout in a cup; so healthy!
Go, get some, try it. If you’ve tried to drink green tea before and hated it, and now if the word ‘green’ in relation to tea makes you shiver, don’t panic…the healthy green tea you will enjoy is here. I am pleased to admit, I will be ordering more!
And the other delicacies I tried this week:
Winter red tea – Oh bring on Christmas!
Lemon and ginger tea – A new favourite of mine. With so many other brand teas the ginger is just so overpowering that you feel like your chewing on the root. I drank this tea because I was suffering a little heart burn and voila, 5 minutes after drinking the tea it was gone!
Pure lemongrass tea – mmmm, this was my downfall. I love lemongrass, I love all things lemon, but this one for me was too strong. The flavour was still soft, like most of Teapigs teas but this one and me just didn’t bond like the rest of us have.
Choc flake – OMG!!! How do you get chocolate, in a tea, without it being insipidly sweet and making you feel sick after drinking it. Easy – try this tea. I love my sweet teas after dinner in place of After Dinner Mints, teas like Rooibos and Caramel, or my black Tea2 tea, leaf infused with fudge (from Australia) and this one is just as good! I was so deliriously happy while drinking this tea. I am not a great chocolate eater, but I love the flavour of really good quality chocolate! This tea is my chocolate bar in a cup and I don’t feel any guilt for my waistline while I drink it. This tea left me in a delirious trance totally oblivious to my hubby sitting beside me calling “honey, hooooonnneeeeeeeyy” – “ha, sorry babe what” I responded. ”You haven’t heard a thing” he said. I had slipped into a sultry cup of Choc flake tea!!
and the Mao Feng Green – you know all about that!
I am starting to see a real commonality in Teapigs tea which is beginning to impress me very much. All their teas are subtle (no bitterness), soft, yet very, very flavourful! It’s like drinking the word ” CHILLAXING” in every cup. You just enjoy every drop!
All I need now, is a fancy cup worthy of the tea!
_________________________
Tomorrow I am dedicating the entire day to the Matcha super power Green Tea.
Down the hatch!!
Read MoreChristmas: the traditions, the habits and the toys
Ohhhhhh, I LOVE Christmas! What could represent being a child more so than Christmas?
Out and about over the weekend we noticed a lot of the shops have their Christmas ‘stuff” in store now. Now that the weather is so chilly and damp, and the thought of sunshine and my tan seems moons away from here, I am totally wrapping myself up in Christmas. Although, I do every year.
Traditions from my Mum have become my passion and not more so than Christmas traditions. My tree goes up on the 1st December, just like my Mum used to and the rest of the house slowly follows. My newest tradition however is my fairy lights, inspired by Nigella Lawson and her endearing use of lights in her kitchen. It makes you feel like your cooking in a wonderland every time you get the saucepans out. I love the kitchsness of Christmas, I love the traditions of Christmas and I just can’t get enough of the looks on Pickles face with all the colours that surround us for those 4 to 6 weeks.
But this year, I have a problem!
Read MoreTeapigs Herbies go bananas!
The peppermint, the Chamomile, a Darjeeling Earl Grey and a funny little green called Mao Feng. That was what was next on my list to taste from Teapigs.
So what is the verdict?
Firstly, I want to ask, have you ever drunk herbal tea? I have been drinking Rosehip and Peppermint tea for years. I discovered their therapeutic benefits (known for their benefit on the tummy and the digestive system) some years ago. They were my saviors when I suffered IBS and whenever I overindulged on a great night out. But as for Chamomile, well, those little yellow flowers only ever sat in my teacup when I was desperate for calming, which prior to being a Mummy wasn’t really that often. Chamomile tea always seemed to go down with a peg on my nose and a wince on my face. However, venturing further outside those teas was not my gig, until about 3 or 4 years ago.
Venturing into some of the oddly named teas like Oolong or even the fruitier kinds of tea never appealed to me until I drank myself sick of Rooibos tea and was fed up with drinking 5 cups of it a day. I was soooo desperate for variation in my tea diet. So, I ventured forth and fell in love with loose leaf teas with all sorts of herbs in them, like lemongrass and ginger to licorice and mint. They were appetising but hard to find in the supermarkets. You could of course buy loads of different varieties of teas in the supermarkets but the majority of them were fruit blends or infusions, meaning, not 100% tea leaf. This therefore put me off venturing too far and after drinking only a couple of the fruity kinds I refused to drink any more thanks to the deluge left on the back of my throat after each cup. It’s kind of like a thick, horrible taste at the back of your mouth….charming, it is not.
But…
Enter Teapigs and what I am happy to call the ‘Herby goes Bananas’ blends. There are so many to choose from. Thus far the Peppermint proved very ‘minty’ and soothed my tummy immediately after overindulging at a friends dinner party. The Chamomile has never been a favourite as it always tends to be bitter, harsh on the tongue, however I was pleasantly surprised by Teapigs version, it was smooth and had none of the ‘bite’ Chamomile tends to have. And the green…
Mao Feng. Cool name isn’t it? It’s name makes me think of a little Chinese Guru kneeling in front of me, teaching me, guiding me into a meditation each time I drink it. The tea itself has that same effect when you drink it. You somehow feel like you are meditating and cleansing your body each time you drink it and it makes me ‘feel sooooooo good’.
Then, my ultimate favourite…The Darjeerling Earl Grey. Now, I am a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to Grey tea. I know my Earls’ and my Lady’s very well. Each variety has its own particular royalty but I really, really love Teapigs Grey! It is smooth and the citrusy taste of Bergamot dances in your mouth, it is not overpowering either, it is just right and so far it is most definitely my favourite Teapig!
Mmmmmmmm, another cup? Yes please!
So what’s next? Coming soon to a teapot near me are some beautifully exotic sounding teas like Chai (ohh I do love my Chai) and the following:
Winter red tea
Lemon and ginger tea
Pure lemongrass tea
Choc flake
and the Matcha Green (this will be good as I am not a Green fan, will it convert me? Hmmm.)
Will Teapigs end up as Britains next best cuppa?
Stay tuned for more verdict.
P.S. If you haven’t read how the project of finding Britain’s next best cuppa tea started…read it here
Thanks for enjoying a cup with me!
Read MoreMotherless daughter – my true disability.
Ten years after my mum passed away from cancer, the second biggest thing in my life happened.
Pickles was born.
As a motherless daughter I knew, just knew, that losing Mum would hit me like a speedway train when I had a baby. After she died I told myself that ‘that was it…there was no way I was going to have children without my mum’, because Mum always said “you will be bed ridden for your pregnancy” and “you are going to need all the help you can when you have a baby’. So losing the most important person, my support network, at just 25 years of age shocked me into thinking there was no way I would cope and I convinced myself that I did not want children. ‘Noooo way’. Without my Mum how the hell would I manage?
Nine years later I was pregnant and about to do what I feared the most.
You see, I have a disability. If you saw me standing in a room, you would think I was joking. If you heard me on the phone, you would think I was joking. It’s not until you see me walk that you would realise I do truly have a disability. Its one of those muscular disabilities that Doctors give a ‘really special name’, you know the ones that sound like E.T. made it up.
So how the hell was I going to get through pregnancy especially as a Motherless daughter? I was terrified, I was so terrified.
I had been told from a young age that ‘having children’ was going to be difficult for me. Pregnancy was made out to be a horrible, bed ridden existence for 9 months and parenting…well. That was going to be a lot harder. I guess people expected that because my disability is muscular, my body wouldn’t cope with the physical strain from both pregnancy and motherhood. But my god, I have seen women who are way less able than me become parents, very capable, happy parents.
But I was still terrified!
Thanks to the stories of what it was going to be like for me as a parent, I had a very old belief that I was about to enter some kind of hell. Isn’t it funny how little stories told by parents can become a belief, one so ingrained in your pattern of thinking that fear begins to rule your thoughts. I know Mum was just protecting me, letting me know she would be there for me, warning me that it wouldn’t be easy, but that it’s OK, she’s there for me. She never, in her worst nightmares ever thought she would never be here to share the journey with me. However, the universe decided to tear her away from me way. And the belief, that turned into a sentence for me. One I was not prepared to go through without my Mum.
But, ten years after losing Mum, and 9 months of blissful pregnancy (no sickness, no tiredness and NOOOOOO bed ridden days at all thanks to Bowen Therapy), this motherless daughter became Mummy to a little cherub, a girly cherub, a beautiful, tiny 6lb cherub. And it was then that I realised my true disability.
My disability is not a muscular condition that affects my physical capabilities. My disability is not having my Mum around so that she can she the wonderful job her daughter is doing and to share in Pickles life, the beautiful little person that is her grandaughter!
Little did I know ten years ago that I would become a Mummy. One that does cope. One whose life is so far away from the beliefs that I had, that it would turn my life into something so incredibly beautiful, even as a Motherless Mummy.
The biggest surprise in my story is how much I love being a Mum and how, even with a physical disability, it has become the most successful time of my life.
I love you Mum!
Love always
Pickles and Me
xxxx