Strictly Come Dancing

But I am loving Strictly! They managed to make Holly Valance look quite ordinary and a bit chubby, and Jason Donovan rocked! Yeah for men who are "getting on a bit"! But that Edwina has to go, politicians and dancing really don't mix, especially when in your head you've got her getting it on with John Major every time you see her. It's putting me off my wine!

X factor again

Against my better judgment I've been watching the latest X Factor. It's more interesting now with different judges, though Gary Barlow obviously has the Simon Cowell hat on. But what's bugging me is all the messing around they are doing with the groups. The judges keep taking one person out of one group and then putting them in another, and most of the groups that actually auditioned as groups are sent home. Why bother auditioning as a group? You might as well audition individually and then if you don't get through on your own merits they may well call  you back and put you in a group with 4 other strangers and then flog you to the media. Doesn't matter that you don't know each other or even like each other. Well if it worked for the Spice Girls...

A 4 year old expert blackmailer

So Littl'un has been trying to get me to play Monopoly with him for ages. I keep saying "no", mostly as when he asks I am making tea or something, but I do feel bad! Anyway, yesterday I had just sat down after hours of gardening, ready to just sit and do nothing with a cuppa. He asked again, and automatically I said "no". "Right," he says all dramatically, "if you don't play with me I am NOT your boy anymore and I am going to go and live somewhere else".

Well, if you put it like that I suppose I'd better play!

Men and money

You know when you have a certain amount to spend every week and it is all accounted for? Mostly on food and a ridiculous percentage of it on beer. So you get the beer, and then the other half drinks it in 2 days and then goes out and buys some more. And has also developed a nicotine habit that is getting worse and more expensive! How can I be expected to keep to the budget?! But why do I feel guilty when we don't?!

And the depressing thing is, he would happily have us all live on frozen sausages every night as long as he has beer and fags in.

Doing two things at once...

It seems the new trend is that you can't just do one thing at one time anymore, like watch tv or go to a party. You have to sit watching tv while posting pithy tweets at the same time, the amount of times I've gone onto Twitter and it's all about last night's Dragon's Den or Strictly. I feel left out, at the time I had a brilliantly sarcastic one liner I could have shared, but my computer doesn't load up quick enough! (It is 7 years old people, practically prehistoric) And now there is a program (the Million Pound Drop) that actively tells you to log on and play along and you might get selected to be on the show next week and win shedloads of cash. And what is developing? A nation of people watching tv while on their laptops or fancy phones and not really relaxing as they never switch off. What happened to relaxing with your feet up and a cuppa?! The most advanced technological thing I ever did was a textathon when the Eurovision was on, Mr Babs doesn't get the comments about crazy hair and weird European lyrics!

Technology is great but it is stopping people interacting in real life. Next door had a barbecue last night (get them, October 1st and all!) and I watched them over the fence sitting round drinking and all on their phones texting other people or on the internet. It was quite sad really. If me and Mr Babs ever entertain I will have a dish to put phones in, a bit like the old car key trick :)

And if you ever don't want to know the results of a program or anything important, you can NOT go on the Internet. I used to have to avoid the news channels if I hadn't seen the last episode of Masterchef or something and didn't want to know who won until I saw it. Now I'd have to avoid Twitter, probably Facebook, and the news, and email just for safety.

Maybe I'll go and live in a cave with a tin foil hat on, it's probably safer...

Breakdown cover if you want it or not

My breakdown cover for the car ran out at the beginning of the month. The AA now cannily renew it automatically, which to be honest I had forgotten about, but I got a letter telling me that as I had a new bank card this year they hadn't got my details and I would have to ring up if I wanted to renew. I was very glad about this as they doubled the price since last year, and I didn't want to pay it. Imagine my surprise when I checked the bank last week and they'd taken the money anyway! You know when you are so angry you can't speak or breathe? We didn't have the money to spend on stupid things like super expensive breakdown cover, we needed it for food. So when I could speak I rang them up. Luckily the man I got put through to in the end agreed to refund the money, but it would take up to 21 days to get it back. Then he generously said "oh and we won't charge you the £20 admin fee for cancelling". !!!!!!!

I am still really angry! Luckily it didn't take the whole 21 days to get the money back. And the other thing was that he asked at the end of the conversation if I had any breakdown cover. I said no, I was going to the RAC as they do the same thing for £28 (not £54 as the AA quoted). "Oh, we can match that!" he blithely announced, which begs the question why quote me £54?! They are banking on people not checking and just letting the renewal go through, and it's ridiculous! You can't opt out of the automatic renewal either so you have to be on top of your game in 12 months or you're in for it. I wasn't, and luckily for me they cocked up at their end.

And the cover they would have given me wasn't coming to my house if the car wouldn't start, or towing me home, it was literally coming to the car if we break down somewhere and then towing us to a garage. I only go to the shops once a week, and I think my brother-in-law would tow me home for free. Sod you breakdown cover, I'm going solo!

Books

You know when you are reading a book and you just can't get into it? Is it worth struggling on or should you just stop? I got John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River out of the library weeks ago. I have read all of his other books, and I was looking forward to it. I'm only a third of the way in and I am trying to decide if I should carry on. It's really hard work, all the characters have really complicated surnames that you can't just read, you have to actively spell them out in your head, and it is hard going. Maybe it's my baby brain that has stopped me from being able to concentrate properly but I feel I'm not giving the book the attention it deserves. Maybe I'll get a Jackie Collins instead and try this again in a couple of years...sorry John!

The state of things

I was reading the paper yesterday and got to the end and realised I was thoroughly depressed. All it had in it was bad news. Train fares going up again to pay for the bloody olympics, bills going up, the price of food going up, houses getting smaller, random murders, dead babies, parents bullied into buying expensive brand names to keep their kids happy, school standards dropping. Jeez. England is going to the dogs. The only reason I can think of right now to stay and not elope to Spain or somewhere is the NHS and free prescriptions for Mr Babs. I know we would have a better quality of life living anywhere else, living in London is becoming a luxury at the moment. And not a nice luxury really with all the crime and pollution and noise and people and cars everywhere. Maybe we could move abroad but close enough to come back for doctor's appointments?

Books and films

So after years of umming and ahhing I finally watched the Time Traveler's Wife on dvd. I loved the book, I remember bawling outside Tescos when I finished it. I was actually looking forward to the film after reading a few reviews about it online. But no. It was terrible. I'll have to read the book again so I forget the film. It totally took the heart out of the book and I have no idea how, but it lost the love between the two main characters. In the book you can understand why the woman waits so long for the Time Traveler to reappear throughout her life, it is totally believable as they are so much in love. In the film. he was angry all the time, I couldn't understand what she saw in him really, and she seemed like she didn't care either way if he was there or not. Even when he died I didn't sob buckets like I thought I would.

Mr Babs who was forced to sit through it too was not amused. Lesson learnt, no more movies of books for me!

Stupid ideas I have had

I had the most stupid idea the other month. I blithely announced to my dad that I would take the boys up to visit him before school starts. On paper that sounds great, we can have a few days oop north, see the olds, and Mr Babs doesn't even have to come. But on a recent trip to visit some friends this was shown to be a completely head in the clouds idea. The trip was only an hour and a half, and it was a nightmare. The boys constantly asking for things, having to pass food and toys over my shoulder while driving, having to turn round to stop Littl'un #2 wriggling out of his seat, it probably was quite dangerous. We had to stop 3 times for a toilet trip. The trip to dad's is at least 5 hours. Each way. And that is without stopping.

Much as I would love to do it, I think it is going to be too dangerous. Until Littl'un #2 is bigger and can actually ask for what he wants without screaming at me in gibberish I think Mr Babs is going to have to come too.

Unless we sedate the kids...

Anyone have any sleeping pills?

Monkeys

Mr Babs wants to watch the new Planet of the Apes film. I can't think of anything more scary than a film full of angry monkeys! Don't get me wrong, I love monkeys, I used to collect toy monkeys when I was little, and forced my whole family to visit a monkey sanctuary. But nice cute ones that eat nuts out of your hand are a bit different to full size apes chasing you round a shopping mall. Does someone else want to go with him? Please?!

Ring shopping

So we went back to the pushy salesperson shop yesterday to have another look at the rings. Went for one, came out with two! Result!! The pushy lady actually did us quite a good deal, couldn't decide between the two rings, one was much cheaper than the other so she said she'd resize them for free if we got the two, which worked out cheaper than just buying one and paying to resize it. Well, not so much for Mr Babs. But I have two lovely new rings now, I'll have to wear them on alternate days!

Pushy salespeople

It's my, ahem, 21st birthday next week. I decided I want a new ring, we have been watching a lot of Gems TV recently and I like the pretty stones. So I went to our local jewellers where I got a lovely moonstone pendant last year and looked at the rings. I forgot about the odd lady who works there. She did exactly the same thing she did last year. While I was trying on rings, she got one out that was "perfect" for me, and while it was nice, I wasn't that excited about it. But her tone of voice was like "you have to get this one, there is no option". I felt pressured, every other ring I tried on after that caused her to frown and even walk away at one point in disgust! So I made my excuses and legged it. It's like she thought she knew the perfect piece of jewellery for every customer, and she really didn't. To give her credit, it wasn't the most expensive piece they had, so she wasn't doing it for the money, but her sales technique needed a lot of work bless her! I might go back with Mr Babs as back up and get the one I actually liked, even if she tuts at me!

When does summer get here?

I realised the other day that I was mentally making a list of things to do when summer gets here. This includes weeding the garden (again), sorting out the shed, washing the sofa covers so I can get them dry the same day, painting the outside tiles. Then it hit me. It is September next week. I think I missed summer somewhere. I just hope that we get an indian summer in September then we can pretend we had one after all...

You know you are a bad mother...

...when your child thinks the local charity shop is a toy shop.

Tattoos, landfills and falling trees

This week Littl'un #1 has discovered an interest in EVERYTHING. This has resulted in very complicated conversations, you know, the ones you wish you had never started...

Mr Babs has a few tattoos and Littl'un #1 is fascinated by them. He had a fake tattoo and when it washed off he wanted to know why his dad's hadn't. Took a little bit of explaining. Then we asked him what he would have if he was allowed to have a tattoo. "A dinosaur. On my bottom." was his carefully thought out response.

Then when we were changing his brother's nappy he wanted to know what happened to the dirty nappies. I always try to answer him honestly as far as I can. I explained about rubbish bins and landfills and recycling. "And does the poo get recycled?" he wanted to know...

Yesterday the neighbours had some tree people in cutting down their trees. Littl'un wanted to know why they hadn't cut the trees down themselves, after watching me and Mr Babs attacking our trees with a rusty saw and a pair of secateurs last autumn. I thought this would be an answer in itself, but no. So I tried to explain about bigger trees and the danger of them falling over and squashing houses and possibly people. I think I explain a bit much sometimes. So Littl'un then looks at some massive trees at the end of our garden and asks about them falling over. They wouldn't reach the house, I assure him, so we'd be ok. "But they will fall and skid, and come through the window and then through the car" he told me with a look of morbid fascination on his face.

Next time I am going to tell him to google it...

Failed zumba party

Tonight I was supposed to be going to a zumba party. 2 hours of zumba with disco lights. Woo hoo. I was quite looking forward to it. All that had to happen was for Mr Babs to get home before 8 and the boys to go to sleep before 8 too. None of this happened. Any other day of the week, the magic ingredients of no nap in the day, a big dinner, a nice bath, and a bottle of milk would send Littl'un #2 off to sleep in no time. Not tonight, oh no. He was still jumping round the living room half an hour after his bottle. And Littl'un #1 knew that I wanted to go out, so he whined and cried, and basically got his own way as I had to stay in. And Mr Babs rolled home at 8.30 drunk as a skunk, he'd come home via the shops and his brother-in-laws house. This was not in the plan.

So my life as we know it continues. It is all about the boys and poor mum doesn't really get to do anything she wants. And to top it off, I had chinese and wine instead of zumba and now feel really bloated and guilty. But man are those boys going to suffer tomorrow...

Mayflies

For the past few nights my kitchen has been invaded with a mystery flying bug. They sit on the walls and don't move, and look really odd. I ended up taking a picture and submitting it to the Natural History Museum website where there is a forum for bug identification. 5 minutes later an expert on bugs told me they were mayflies, usually found around ponds. That is the best service ever, and who knew there was a bug forum?! I might go out in the garden and find other bugs to submit. But I don't know where they are coming from, we don't have a pond. Now I'm worried we have a subterranean pond under the house and the kitchen is going to fall into it. I shouldn't watch that "Help my house is falling down", it doesn't half make you paranoid!

Bread and fishes

We took the boys to the seaside today, we went to a little fishing village I read about that sounded lovely. It was quaint but a bit strange. I was a bit worried that there wasn't any sand, as son #1 equates "seaside" with "sand" - it all looked a bit stony to me when we first got there, but we asked a local who assured us there was a sandy beach just down the hill. When we found it, it was indeed sandy, And for a Monday lunchtime, extremely busy. It looked like Majorca on the tv when there isn't a patch of sand left for people. But there was also a lot of bread which was very strange. Bread rolls everywhere. And the occasional custard doughnut. You would have assumed for the amount of bread lying around abandoned that there would be seagulls everywhere, divebombing people close to the treasure. But there weren't any to be seen. And all the people were sitting nonchalantly on the sand eating sandwiches, seemingly oblivious to the bread rolls. I really wanted to shout "don't you see them?!" but I didn't. It was like they had all just had a massive bread fight and the minute we rounded the corner gone, "quick, strangers!" and all sat down like they had been there all along.

Riots and rumours

Crikey it has been an odd week here in London. Scary too. Where I live luckily there wasn't really any trouble, a couple of shop windows got smashed but that's not really unusual at the weekends round here! But watching shops burn down in Croydon, minutes from where I used to live, was awful. On Monday night rumours started online that trouble was planned in our town, and then one of our neighbours knocked on doors saying that gangs were roaming round the shops and a shop had already been looted in the next town along. In real time it was terrifying. The only thing we could do was stay in, watch the news, and try and find out what was going on online. Twitter was obviously the main source, but in hindsight it was impossible to tell at the time what was true and what was rumours, and what was just made up. There were reports of Primark being on fire, shops five minutes up the road being looted, lots of things being on fire. The only thing that made me question it was the lack of sirens, and it not being on the news.

The next day it turned out that nothing serious happened, a few idiots breaking a shop window and nicking a bin. It could have been much worse. Then Tuesday afternoon more rumours started. As we had "got away with it" on Monday night, more trouble was planned for Tuesday. We were so worried we didn't go to zumba, the next day I felt really stupid for believing it all. But it is hard to know what to do for the best, go out and get caught in a riot leaving your young kids at home? I think we made the right decision at the time.

But although all this real time communication we have nowadays is brilliant in some ways, in others it makes things worse. Stoking rumours, nobody knowing what to believe, the way the rumours caught on was unbelievable. And once lots of people start reporting the same thing it makes it much more believable. But I think I've learnt a lesson about not always believing what you read, when I was at library school it was one of the basic lessons we learned - check your sources!