Birth

As I mentioned in this post, neither of the births of my children was straightforward. Monkey's birth went on for several days, involving lots of wasted trips to hospital, extra visits for monitoring, an induction that was advised but wasn't necessary, a cervix that reached fully dilated then went backwards, a full bladder and a baby that covered everyone and everything within a 2 metre radius with poo as he made his grand entrance into the world.

So, when Missy Woo came along, I was hoping for a birth that was quicker than that, and possibly less dramatic. (I forgot the call for infant cardiac arrest at a critical moment... only to be told later that it had been a practice and there wasn't a baby in trouble at all.)

The Gallery - Vintage

I've touched on this story before,but for this week's theme of Vintage on The Gallery, I thought I would tell you the story of how I came to own probably the oldest thing that I possess.

When we were children, we had a few neighbours that we were quite close to. One of them was called Doll (short for Doris) who lived a few doors down the hill from us. She had married quite late in life and so didn't have children. She kind of adopted us (and we he) because my maternal grandmother died before I was born and my mum wasn't close to her dad. We used to visit them quite regularly, even as small children.

My Grandad

I had a lot more to do with my dad's parents than my mum's. My maternal grandmother died before I was born anyway and although we did see my grandfather, my mum had had a distant relationship for most of her life, given that her parents divorced when she was a small child. Consequently, we saw little of them.

My dad's parents, on the other hand, lived less than ten miles away from our home, so we visited regularly. I remember going for tea and being made to eat ham sandwiches with mustard in them (which I hated) and being offered tomatoes, (which I also hated as a child). We'd get given arctic roll for pudding and my nan would cover it in evaporated milk. 

The Gallery - My backyard

So the prompt this week is "My backyard". I could have given you things like my Silent Sunday this week or the previous week, but that would be boring, wouldn't it? They are nice pictures but you've all seen them before. Haven't you? (The correct answer is yes, by the way. Just saying.)

So, instead, I'll give you a picture of my actual backyard. Well, I'm English so it's my back garden, thank you. This house has been my home for getting on for 12 years. It's always had grass which is unusual for a new build - for some reason, they were struggling to sell it so they grassed the back. At one stage, we added a deck at the top of the garden, but then when Monkey was a baby, we had a conservatory built and had flags put across the back of the house. Then a few years ago, the deck was turned into a veg patch. Now, the garden is part play area, part vegetable (and fruit) garden, part outside space for sitting. I still can't believe that we ate  two meals outside on the same day - in April. We're quite high up and the wind does mean that the garden is much much cooler most of the time than down in the town. We even had a frog in our garden a few weeks ago, which also featured in the Gallery.

So, here we are. My backyard in the early evening light. This was taken about 5.30pm on Tuesday. Had the weather not turned nice again today, this would have been a very soggy picture indeed - or a complete no-show from me as we have had rain nearly every day for well over a week.

And of course, constant rain and warm temperature means the grass desperately needs cutting! Oops... try to ignore that. Looking at that picture, I think it looks vaguely cottagey but it's not. We have other people's gardens on three sides. It's just a normal garden in suburbia.

Compare the Meerkat

I was completely stumped by this week's Gallery prompt of Mother Nature. It's not really a time of year to be out a lot with your camera and anyway, I am not one of the world's nature photographers. I don't have many pictures to fall back on, so had resigned myself to giving this week a miss.

And then, Garry from The Blog Up North published this forlorn picture. And it prompted a memory of a trip to the zoo of our own, admittedly completely different and somewhat lighter in mood. It's a bit of a cheat for the prompt, but I know there are often different interpretations. So shoot me.

Last May, I took the children to Blackpool Zoo on Spring Bank Holiday Monday. It was their first ever trip to a proper zoo although we'd taken them to a marine park in Portugal the year before. As my husband was working in the morning, the children and I did most of the trip on our own, wandering back and forth around the zoo, stopping and starting at random, allowing for loo stops, sandwich consumption, ice cream purchases, and chasing of birds. I forgot my camera in the rush to get myself, children and packed lunch ready but I did have my phone with me.

Monkey and Missy Woo loved seeing all the animals. There was, however, particular excitement when we found where the meerkats were housed. Maybe it's those ads, although I do have a recollection of Monkey saying he'd seen some at school on a DVD they'd played to his class. They couldn't wait to see them, and afterwards, they insisted I take this picture of them.

If my photography skills were halfway decent, you'd see that they were stood in front of a larger than life meerkat cutout. Try saying that without your teeth in.

Do you think they'd pass for the real thing if they snuck into the meerkat enclosure? Would Aleksandr sniff them out as impostors or are meerkats really simples and not notice? What do you reckon?

The Gallery - Love

My child. My boy. You landed with a bang and I wondered what had hit me. You needed constant amounts of everything for what felt like an eternity and life, as I had known it, stopped. It felt like a horrible waking dream. I felt I couldn't cope as a mother and as early as your 8th week, discussed going back to work. But I stuck it out for a few weeks longer. And suddenly, you changed. You slept, you played, you laughed and you smiled. All in healthy quantities. Within a few more weeks, I was hooked and all thoughts of returning to work vanished. You became my joy, my shining light. I would do anything for you. As you have grown, I've been so proud of the boy you have become. But just occasionally, I remember this moment at a meet in Manchester, when I held you on my knee and you fell asleep, resting your head gently on my chest. You slept on me so peacefully, like never before. Even if you did give me pins and needles that day, it was and remains a special moment in my life. A chance to be still and hold you. A chance to just be, mother and child together. Every time I look at this picture, my heart sings as it reminds me that the key component in motherhood (or fatherhood) is love. That love might not be obvious at first but it is there and it can grow inside you until it takes your breath away.

And that, for me, is Love.

View the other entries on The Gallery at Tara's Sticky Fingers blog.

This post was linked to The Boy and Me's Show Off Show Case on 16th April 2011.

The Gallery - Sparkle

Sparkle. It comes naturally to her. She likes to add to the sparkle with her dressing up outfits but most of it is her own - the sparkles on her dresses just represent her. From her eyes, that sparkle with mischief and wonder all her waking hours, to the sparkle you can hear in her giggle when she goes a bit giddy and silly. The sparkly white teeth of her sweet smile; even her hair seems to sparkle. Her whole personality is sparkly and glitters like the shiny new star in the universe that she is.

She sparkles and fizzes her way through every day, like a glass of champagne that never goes flat.

Never-ending sparkle.

That's my little girl.

(Please visit the Gallery at Sticky Fingers to see more entries in this week's Gallery)

The Gallery - White

Much as I hate driving around in it, I love the way fog gives your surroundings an unreal quality, like they've been shifted to another world. It was clear as a bell on Sunday when suddenly, the fog rolled in from nowhere and changed our day within about 20 minutes. I snapped this with my phone as I left the house to take Monkey to a party. If I had had the camera and a bit more skill, I would have been able to capture the way the fog was beginning to obscure the sun a bit better. The fog cleared a few miles from home and was fine in town but about an hour later, the fog rolled in - but by the time we left, it had cleared at home.

Why not visit the Gallery at Sticky Fingers to see some more of the entries in this week's Gallery?

The Gallery - Black and White

So, the theme for Week 36 of the Gallery at Sticky Fingers is Black and White. Not being anything more than an amateur photographer, I don't really do arty photographs in monochrome. So I've taken one of my pictures and converted it. The picture I have chosen was already had a lot of black and white in it. It's of Monkey aged about 19 months, dressed up in a cat costume for a Hallowe'en party, sat in the double buggy. I am not sure why I have not used this picture before because I love his - as usual - cheeky grin.

If you want to have a go yourself at the Gallery, there is another prize on offer this week of a canvas print of the winner's favourite photo. Or you can just visit a few of the other entries and see the different interpretations. Why not take a look?

The Gallery - Before & After

When I first saw the prompt for week 35 of the Gallery, I was totally flummoxed. Situation normal there, as it's not the first time I've been stumped by one of Tara's prompts. But this one was "Before and After" and the brief was to recreate one of my older photos.

For a few days, I really thought I was going to have to give this one a miss. I mean, I have photos of me in my wedding dress and I'm not quite ready to try that one again. I've got pictures of the kids as babies which could be fun to recreate but they really aren't small anymore.

Then I realised the answer was virtually looking me in the face. I had the perfect picture, the means and the opportunity to recreate it. It's one I've used for the Gallery only a few weeks ago so you have seen it before. All I had to do was suggest it to Monkey. Thankfully, I caught him at a good time - he was eating - and he nodded enthusiastically in agreement. I wasn't sure what it would be like but in the end, it turned out pretty well.

So here is the Before picture, taken when Monkey was about 15 months old:

And here is the After, taken after tea tonight:

He still fits in but he has to crouch now.

And not to be outdone, Missy Woo had to join in too as she is surely her brother's shadow:

Why not take a look at the rest of the Gallery at Sticky Fingers? Or have a go yourself if you like. There are prizes on offer this week - two people will win the chance to create their own book with Blurb using their own words and photographs.

The Gallery - Show Me The Funny

If you've come to the blog to see my Gallery entry for this week, you can find it here. Whilst you're here, why not have a look at some of my toy reviews, which are below?

Cheers!

Show me the Funny

This is the prompt for this week's Gallery at Sticky Fingers.

I don't seem to have many truly funny photos, certainly not digitally, that you've not already seen. I scoured my archives for a while, looking back through the children's lives so far. And then, I found this one of Monkey, aged around 15 months old.

I'm not sure if he was trying to help or whether he thought it was a toy. He wasn't even cruising them but he was pulling himself up. And looking at that pic, he looked too big to climb in, which is probably a good thing. And if to prove that he had an obsession with household appliances, I also give you this:

Here he is, a year later, trying to "help" empty the dishwasher. 

Shame he's not as enthused by household appliances now. He could have made someone a lovely wife. 

(And yes, I do know this is a week early. I just have plans for next week!)

The Colour Red

This week's prompt from Tara for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers was the colour red, a theme for Halloween and again, there are prizes on offer of some Halloween face paints.

Monkey loves the colour red but strangely there are very few photos of him wearing it. There is one that I've featured in a previous week's Gallery. We bought new Halloween costumes a few days before the prompt was published and of course, we had gone for non-red options.

And then I found this picture, and thought I'd tell you the story behind it. It has no Halloween slant at all but it does feature some red.

This is the first picture I have of Missy Woo standing up, wearing her lovely red dress which sadly didn't fit her for that long. It took a long time to get to this point. She was a late developer (like her mother), preferring to talk (like her mother), and bum-shuffling instead of walking (you get the picture). She did learn to crawl after starting nursery one day a week so she had a mode of transport for all eventualities - crawling for real speed, and bum-shuffling for those times she wanted to carry something with her. Why on earth did she need to walk?

Despite my arm nearly dropping off carrying her as she was never the lightest of babies (yeah, that too), I was not bothered because I know I got there in the end (I can confirm I do not bum-shuffle anywhere). Her brother was a demon crawler and late walker, refusing to walk unaided until he was 18 months old. Missy Woo left it a bit longer. This picture was taken just 2 months before her second birthday and she had just started to walk. In other words, she was 22 months old. I got very bored of people if she was walking "yet" and was I worried? Answer - no. I could see she was developing in other ways, and I was not ready to sign her up for the baby Olympics. There are no prizes for coming first.

We bought her some shoes quite early and I seem to remember she helped to choose them because they were pink and oh yes, she had an opinion even then and wasn't afraid to express it (yeah, yeah - I know).

I think in the picture, she is more interested in Monkey's trainers (which are not red but he was very proud of them because they had flashing lights!). But this represents a major milestone in her life - upright and walking at last.

And, over two years down the line, does it show that she was a late walker? Does it heck!

(Why not pop over to The Gallery at Sticky Fingers to discover other entries and perhaps some blogs that are new to you?) 

The Gallery - My favourite photo

This one's a particularly tough call and no mistake. The prompt for Week 31 of the Gallery is  "My favourite photo. And why". Now, I have lots of photos I love, but to pick out a favourite? Hmm...

And this week, there are two pieces of art up for grabs for the two best entries. The stakes are high, so it means making a choice. No more sitting on the fence for me; I have to make a decision for a change and blog about it.

First, I whittled it down to three pictures - which was not bad at all for a first cut  - then to two. Both of them have appeared on this blog before. One of them has been used for a previous Gallery entry. Predictably, both are of my children. But it meant choosing between them because one is of Monkey, and the other of Missy Woo. I don't like to choose between them but I've made my choice. In the interests of impartiality, I will include both pictures. I will be announcing them in the traditional fashion of reverse order.

The runner up is...

Missy Woo on Christmas Day 2007, with her new toy. I just love the look of sheer joy, mixed with more than a tinge of mischief, in her eyes. Iggle Piggle was one of the toys of the year that year but I got lucky and bought it in October when she (and I) first saw it in a shop. I managed to buy it when she wasn't looking and she was less curious in those days.

So, which means that the winner is...drum roll please...

Monkey! I've blogged about this picture before on this post, and I said at the time that I thought it was my favourite picture of him ever, but I've decided it is my absolute favourite photo of all.

The photo was taken of him by my husband on a coach going from Blackpool to Wembley. It was Monkey's second ever football match - and a trip to Wembley to the play off final. It was taken quite early in the morning on the coach down to London. What I love most about this photo are his eyes. I can almost feel the excitement and anticipation that he is feeling in this picture just by looking into them. I love the perspective that this gives - taken looking over the top of the seat behind where he was sat, which gives it a real 3D feeling to the photo. I love that it looks totally different if you turn the photo at right angles to the way it was taken. Most of all, I love that it is a picture of a little boy on a big adventure having a ball and that the promise of a special day was fulfilled.

Why not take a look at some of the other entries to this week's Gallery? There is bound to be a wide range of entries this week. Or maybe, have a go yourself. 

The Gallery - Here come the girls

So this week's prompt should be easy, right? I have 3 sisters, a mother and a daughter. I grew up surrounded by females. I am a mum, and hang out in NCT circles, with lots of other mums hang out too and have become my friends. There are lots of "girls" featuring in my life, which should make this a doddle, right? Wrong!

The trouble is, I don't take lots of pictures and also, I feel a bit odd putting pictures of just anyone on my blog. I always ask before putting pictures on my blog, except where it's not possible to ask - like ones of my Dad - or they're of my children. I don't see my sisters or my mother very often - Mum and two of my sisters are 200 miles away and my youngest sister lives in Devon, almost as far as you can get away from me in England. So.... you got Missy Woo again. I'm sorry about that but she's very photogenic and she loves having her photo taken, as does her brother. But today is about girls. My girl, in fact. My beautiful, funny, clever little girl. You may switch off now if cute girly pictures are not your thang.

This was taken at Missy Woo's nursery graduation ceremony in July. They'd been learning dances with a teacher most of their preschool year and performed a few for the parents at the start before the certificates were handed out. Here she is processing past our seats. All the children had to wear black and white (Why? They are not colours that children often wear!) but Missy Woo had the added accessory of a pink cast, after she fell off a slide in a neighbour's garden and cracked a bone in her humerus on Father's Day. After crying a lot when she first did it, she was a real trooper once her arm was in a cast; first a temporary one, then got to choose this fetching pink number. As you can see, it was not bothering her one bit.

So when you say "Here come the girls", I think of her. My daughter, my girl. My Missy Woo.

(This is my entry for Week 30 of The Gallery at Sticky Fingers. Please pop over and take a look if you can, there's always some great entries.) 

The Gallery - Food

I was really pleased when I saw that the prompt for this week was Food for the Gallery. After all, it's one of the five Fs after which I named this blog.

But when it came down to choosing a picture, I struggled. Most of the food photography (and I use that term very loosely) that I have done in the past few months has been when I've been making something that I have decided to blog. So they're already here. There aren't too many that involve pictures of the children as food.

But then, I remembered that I have a few pix on my phone on food that I haven't blogged about. This is the one I picked out this week.

This is Lemon Lapiz Pudding. I got the recipe from Paula at Battling On, which you can find here. It was Paula's entry for the English Mum July bake off. I thought it looked lovely when I first saw her post and mentally filed it as something to make soon.

I came to make it earlier this month when we were invited to a house party to celebrate the 30th birthday of one of Monkey and Missy Woo's cousins. I offered to make a pudding for the party as I hate going empty handed and after chatting to Paula, chose to make this. It's three meringue circles - which you could buy for a really quick pudding - layered with a lemon filling made from lemon juice, cream and condensed milk. I made the meringues one evening and the filling the next, putting it together and refrigerating it the night before the party. It needs to be made in advance so is great for a party, and it's even freezable apparently.

The pudding went down a storm at the party. The meringue is crisp on the outside, with a softer middle. The filling was like a lemon curd, but a lot quicker to make as it doesn't need the half an hour or more stirring over a double boiler! It was divine - like lemon meringue pie without the soggy pastry base. People kept telling me how clever I was but it really wasn't difficult to make. The cracks just added to the overall visual effect. It transports well, which surprised me as it had to drive all the way to Blackpool and I was worried it would shatter into a thousand pieces, but it survived the trip there. It didn't survive the trip home though - I left a small slice at the party when we left!

(This is my entry to Week 29 of the Gallery at Sticky Fingers - go take a look at some of the other entries; I think I can guarantee this week that they will make you hungry!)

The Gallery - A smile

This week's Gallery prompt, over on Tara's Sticky Fingers blog, was "A smile". It is in honour of the Mona Lisa Million Project which aims to raise money for charity and helping people to promote their (genuine!) websites. It is run by a former policeman and stay at home dad called Dave Fowler. Such a great idea.

So, a smile. For me, a toughie. My children are very smiley so there is rarely a picture of them where they are not smiling. And then scanning through my photos, I found a favourite picture from way back. It used to be my signature picture on quite a few discussion boards that I used to frequent so it's possible you've seen it before.

(Sorry about the quality; it was taken on our old camera).

Monkey is about 5 months old in this picture. He had a fish rattle, which became known as Mardy (tennis fans should get the joke). I came into the living room one day, having left him playing in his bouncy chair for a few seeconds and found the rattle had slipped down the front of his vest. It looked funny so I took this. Even at that age, Monkey was a little poser so smiled as soon as he saw the camera.

A cute photo, and still one of my favourites, even 5 years on.

(This is my entry for Week 28 of the Gallery at Sticky Fingers. If you get a chance, please visit some of the other entries. They are always worth it.)

The Gallery - A celebration

This week's prompt for Week 27 of the Gallery was "A celebration". It was in honour of the 40th birthday of Garry from The Blog Up North which was last Friday. His Gallery post is a summary of his celebrations.

Now, no-one is going to believe me when I say that I already thought of making my post about a 40th birthday. Not mine, however - I was 32 weeks pregnant and I am not even sure if or where any photos of that event might be. The most memorable things were a midwife appointment on the day, a pub lunch, a weekend away with dinner not 15 feet from Kenny Dalglish, and Carlisle flooded. No, anyway -  in April, my husband turned 40 and he wanted to go where we always go - Barcelona. We have an ongoing love affair with that city and return frequently so it's weaved through the fabric of our lives.

The trip had been planned for months and then the ash cloud debacle started. For a few days, it looked like we wouldn't be going, and I emailed or rang a few places to see if we could get anywhere closer to home that didn't involve flying. (Answer - No.). I needn't have worried as things were pretty much back to normal by the time we flew on the Friday and everything went without a hitch - apart from an hour long wait to check in and a dash to the plane.

We stayed in a beautiful place that was new to us called The Patio. We'd found it on Tripadvisor and it came highly rated. It's basically in a private courtyard behind an apartment block and is bounded by buildings on all sides so there is hardly any noise. It was hard to believe there was a city outside - the most obvious sign was hearing the Metro rumbling underneath not far away.

The lady that runs The Patio is English and she recommended various places for us to go. When she heard we wanted somewhere special to go for a birthday, she recommended Asador de Aranda for a celebration meal. She booked a table for us for Saturday lunch - as we had a prior engagement with FC Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the evening.

As the restaurant was out of the city centre a bit, we set off late morning to get the metro out to Avenue Tibidabo and then walked up the hill, trying to keep in the shade as it had got hot very quickly. As we walked, we noticed this lovely sign and it was decreed that a photo was called for. (The husband would like me to point out that this is not a label.)

We walked into the restaurant which is on several floors and were amazed. It was beautiful.

(It was empty, because we arrived as it opened and the Spanish tend to lunch late - the place was packed within half an hour.)

You can see a bit more here. We ordered the Menu Asador on the recommendation of the lady from The Patio which came with just about everything. The one thing we didn't take a picture of was the starters - it was a plate of morcilla, chorizo, minced meat, red peppers and chargrilled asparagus. The morcilla (spanish black pudding basically) was spectacular and we wished we'd had more of it.

Then the main event arrived.

Roast baby lamb cooked in a wood oven. It was the most delicious lamb I've ever tasted and it melted in your mouth. (Whoops, sorry, my boobs appear to have got into that picture!).

Then we were brought orujo and rosquillas.

Orujo is the liqueur which tasted of aniseed and the rosquillas are little doughnut shaped biscuits. We dunked them into the liqueur! Then, we had dessert - chocolate mousse, which was nice, but nothing like as special as the rest of the meal.

It was an amazing experience. I can't remember the exact price but I think it worked out under £30 per head which included wine, a glass of cava, water and a coffee afterwards as well as the food. If you ever get the chance to go to one of these places, do so but you might want to make sure you book as they get very busy.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, we had an evening appointment with FC Barcelona at the Nou Camp. They were playing Xeres and we'd bought tickets as soon as we could after arriving. A Barca match falling ON the day of your 40th birthday is not to be missed. We couldn't get cheap tickets and even these ones were a row apart, but when we got inside, we were able to swop so we sat together but we were in full sun for most of the game, and it was hot, despite it being early evening.

(You might have seen that hat before - it was bought that afternoon to keep the sun off. I apologise for it now. I think it's because it clashes with the tangerine orange of the shirt.)

Barca did their bit, and won 3-1 to round the celebrations off nicely. Apparently, the match was on Sky and the children, having stayed at home with Granny and Granddad, tried to spot us - in a crowd of 100,000. Unsurprisingly, they didn't see us but we rang them briefly from the ground. 

All in all, quite a memorable birthday. We've already booked our next trip to Barcelona - we're taking Monkey in March; both for his birthday and also for the Barcelona marathon, which the husband is training for. I can't wait, so I might start saving now for another fantastic meal.

The Gallery - One Day in August

This week's Gallery prompt was to go out and take pictures on Sunday 29th August, which is the day that Josie, Sian and Eva left on their trip to Bangladesh to help raise awareness of the work that Save the Children do with mothers and children there and to help put pressure on Nick Clegg and other world leaders to recommit to the Millennium Development Goals. You can follow their progress on any of their blogs or you can check out #Blogladesh on Twitter.

Sunday was an odd day for me. I spent most of it alone. Monkey and Missy Woo went away on Saturday with Granny and Grandad to a caravan out in the Ribble Valley. Missy Woo comes back for a while on Wednesday (as she needs to be here for a home visit from her new teacher) and then Monkey comes home that night, to start back at school on Thursday. Anyway, enough of my family life. They're not here, so no gratuitous proud mummy pics of cute blonde children.

I was on my own also because husband was on a night shift so got to bed at 7.30am. I spent most of the day getting the house clean and tidy so that it would stay that way for more than one day, doing a workout and watching the Belgian Grand Prix. None of which is particularly noteworthy, exciting, or even photogenic. (You seriously don't want pix of me doing a workout!)

Once the house was clean and I was clean too, I had to pop out for groceries and to deliver newsletters to various NCT members in some of the outlying villages, something I do every few months. On my way, I considered stopping and taking a shot of the canal near us, but there was nowhere to stop safely and I was short of time. I went through a couple of villages and nothing struck me. I headed down to another part, and saw my shot. I just had to hope I could still do it when I came back having dropped off the last 3 newsletters and some things at my friend's house.

Well, I took it. I'm not sure it's as good as what was in my head for a picture - the light was probably better 5 minutes earlier. Here goes:

The building is the Preston Mormon Temple. It is one of only two temples in the UK and the largest in Europe. A temple was built here because Preston has the oldest continuous branch of the church, having been established by missionaries in 1837 who headed to Preston after arriving in Liverpool.

We can see the temple from our house; it's even lit up at night. Everyone who's ever travelled north on the M61 will have seen it because it is right next to the motorway and I use it as a point of reference regularly. I know I'm nearly home when I see the spire peaking out from above the trees from a distance. I've never been inside because you have to be a member of the church to enter. Before it was dedicated in 1998, they allowed public tours and I believe it's fantastic inside. The figure on the top that you can just make out is, apparently, Moroni, an ancient prophet who delivered a record that became the book of Mormon. It's traditional to have this figure blowing a trumpet on all temples and although the local rumour is that he is solid gold, he's apparently made of glass fibre covered with gold leaf. Around it is a family history centre, a training facility and accommodation for missionaries. You'd think we'd be bothered with missionaries all the time living this close to them but they've come to the door 3 times in 10 years. They are exceptionally polite and when you say "No thanks", they thank you and leave.

This is a place brought about by missionaries, who came to spread their word. It struck me that this is what Josie, Sian and Eva are doing, albeit in slightly different circumstances. They left on Sunday on an arduous and possibly emotional journey to see what Save the Children do in Bangladesh. They may not be there to convert the locals, but in blogging what they see, they are spreading the word. Except their blogs can reach around the world, raising awareness of the issues, convincing others of the need for change and asking those in power to do something about it.

So, my picture is a record of one day in August, and a parallel.

My brief career as a model, aged 45

Last week, I noticed a press request on Twitter for 45 year old women . It seemed odd - after all, why did you have to be exactly 45? But as I am (45, that is), I replied and was asked to email my details to an address.

Soon, my mobile was ringing. The person calling asked if I could go to London for a photoshoot the following day. I had to say no because I had no childcare. That was that, I thought. Oh well. But then, I got another email explaining they could arrange to send a photographer out to me instead. I said that would be OK and they said they would be in touch.

The phone soon went again when I was out shopping at a local retail park. After a 10 minute chat/interview (me sat in my car) about my attitudes to ageing, my beauty regime, how I kept fit and so on, the lady promised to arrange the photographer. She rang off and a feeling of mild panic set in. It turned out the piece was going to appear in the Daily Mail; not my favourite paper, but there you go.

A photographer was arranged for Friday morning. I panicked about what to wear but I needn't have bothered. When the photographer arrived on Friday, he told me a make up and hair lady was on her way, that the shot was head and bare shoulders and I'd have to wrap myself in a towel to get the shot they needed. The make up lady started doing a natural make up look when she arrived, which pleased me as I don't really wear lots. It did however seem to involve a lot of make up; about twice what I'd put on. Then she set about my hair with straighteners. By the time we'd finished, the photographer had turned my lounge into a studio with lights, background, the lot.

Sat on one of my dining chairs made up to the nines with a towel wrapped around me having my photo taken probably ranks as one of the more surreal moments of my life.  The photographer took 3 sets of shots - one with my hair back from my face, one with my hair forward and one sort of half way. The photographer was lovely and seemed to take some nice shots. The whole thing took about an hour longer than I had expected, having thought the photographer would turn up, sit me on a chair, take a couple of shots and go again. 

I loved my make up and hair and took lots of pictures of my new look with my mobile after they'd gone. This is my favourite, and it's now looking at you from my every tweet. Lucky you. I have chosen this picture as "A photo I'm proud of" for Week 24 of The Gallery. I was struggling to find something else in my archives that you haven't seen already and you already know I'm proud of Monkey and Missy Woo. I feel a bit arrogant (some may say brave, others stupid) putting a photo of me here but I wanted to tell the story at some point. I do like how I look in this picture and as you will know if you read my blog regularly, I've been losing weight and am making good progress so I'm getting used to a new me. 

Anyhow, that was that. I'll let you know when the article is published and link to it here if it's online so keep checking  this post. It should be later this week. My life as a model is over. Not that I ever had one, but it was a fun couple of hours - and I didn't even have to leave home! 

I must away now to get my beauty sleep. I don't get out of bed for less than 10p, you know.

Update: The article has now been published on the Daily Mail website and you can read it here - argh!!


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I never actually said some of those things in the article and the journalist in the by line accepts that - she says the Daily Mail have edited/changed it but mine is least changed. I DO use moisturiser for God's sake, I'm not that much of a slummy mummy; I just don't wear a lot of make up and mascara is not my favourite thing. Nor did I ever refer to them as trivialities! And I didn't say I'd lost two stone - I don't weigh myself, how can I? Finally, I never said I was "phobic" about operations; I'd just rather avoid unnecessary ones, thank you very much.