My collection

When I was prompted to think about this, I thought I was averse to collections and collecting. This goes back to when I was about 10 or 11 and my mum was friends with a local hairdresser who I sometimes "babysat" for. (I'd be upstairs in their flat, watching her daughter, whilst she was downstairs in her salon.) She was a strange personality, and quite snobbish - which is some going for a hairdresser who lived above her shop. When she gave me this book - I can't remember the occasion - she told me, "I want to see something good out of this." My mind froze as to what I might collect but the book was pretty. I never started a collection. At home, a terraced house lived in by 6 people, there just wasn't the space to collect things endlessly, certainly not of any size. I may have dabbled in stamps at one stage almost as a rite of passage, but I could never say I actually collected anything. Mary would probably have not been best pleased but I'm not sure I cared.

Meal Planning Monday

Well, as you know, last week I tried out one of the 5 for £20 evening meal plans that Sainsbury's have been promoting. I thought, before I went on to what we're eating this week, that I'd talk about how it went.

The breakfast of princes (or princesses...) You could win one too!

I'm a stickler for breakfast. I do not understand how anyone can not eat it - even if you're not feeling hungry, you can still manage a little something, can't you? We tend to give the children cereal these days because they get toast at school at break time (provided I remember to pay the toast money and not walk off and go to Manchester with the envelopes in my pocket, realising just as my train arrives in the station. Ahem.) Cereal is quick and it's cheap, but it doesn't add to their 5 a day, does it?

Princes sent me a lovely breakfast box last week full of lots of tinned fruit and their fruit juices and some other goodies. Of course, why didn't I think of adding tinned fruit for breakfast? It's great because it doesn't go off like the fruit in your fruit  bowl can and it works out cheaper. Using tinned fruit takes me back to my youth so it's kind of nostalgic about it. It turns out my husband loves the pear halves - and as most pears go from rock solid to beyond use in a blink of an eye, they are about the only way you can use pears consistently. The children love fruit juice with their cereal - which can also count as one of their 5 a day. 

When the hamper first arrived, the children were very excited to see what was in it. As always. Monkey, whose reading ability is coming on leaps and bounds, read the tins as "Princess" so I had to tell him the correct name. Hubby later confessed to me that he always used to think they were called that!

You might spot in the hamper something that looks like a watch. It's a heart rate monitor. Princes sent me that as a bit of an experiment to test my heart rate during the morning routine including the school run to see how stressed I got during that time. Now, I am lucky in that my husband works shifts and does the school run for me quite a bit, thus removing the stress of that time on those days but on other days, I fly solo and it can be stressful if one of the children decide they are not playing ball. 

I monitored my heart rate during the school run for four days over the last week. I found that my average heart rate during that time was more than 35% higher than when I'm resting and relaxed - although admittedly, some of that could be explained by walking and general movement, but the shocking thing was how high my heart rate could get. The highest it got to was 214 bpm - shouldn't I be dead? Admittedly, that was the day I was off to London to the MADs almost straight after the school run and at least one point, Monkey had a tantrum. One of my other days was the same morning I was being interviewed on the radio - but I made sure I didn't put my heart monitor on until after the interview! I'll be very interested to see the results for the other mums taking part in the experiment. 

And now, you've got the chance to win a Princes breakfast box too. It won't include the heart rate monitor but it will include a set of six bowls and six tumblers, table placemats, an alarm clock, a colouring book to entertain the kids, a relaxing candle for the mums, money-off coupons and, of course, a range of Princes canned fruit – including grapefruit segments, peach slices, pear halves, fruit cocktail, pineapple chunks and mandarin segments – and Princes pure juices.

To be in with a chance of winning, leave me a comment below and tell me about your most stressful moment on the school run. Please ensure that you're following the blog via RSS (orange jellybean), email (red jellybean), or facebook (the darker blue jellybean!) and that you leave me a valid means of contact  = either email address or twitter ID. 

Terms and conditions

To enter, leave a comment below as specified along with a valid contact email address or Twitter ID, which will be used to contact you if you win and follow this blog via RSS, email, or Facebook.
One entry per person - multiple entries will be discarded.
The prize is a Princes breakfast box.
The competition closes on Friday 14th October at 8pm.
The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
The winner will be contacted that evening and asked to provide a postal address within 48 hours or the winner will be re-drawn. UK entrants only.
There is no cash alternative.

Good luck everyone!

(Princes sent me a breakfast box and a heart rate monitor. I have not received any further compensation and all opinions are my own.)

My radio debut. Not quite a radio star.

Quick blog post before bed!

I was invited to be interviewed over the phone to talk about blogging on the local radio station, BBC Radio Lancashire. It all came about when they started following me on twitter and I made a funny comment about them wanting to find out what bloggers got up to in their spare time and that actually my life was dull!

The next day they DMd me and asked me to call them. Before I know it, they're asking me to appear on the radio the next morning. I accepted and then thought "What have I done?"

Anyhow, I got up early the next morning and they rang me a few minutes before. I was only on air talking to Graham Liver for about 5 minutes and I don't think I made a fool of myself. I got some good feedback on Twitter from my followers anyway.

If you want to hear it, the programme is on iplayer until Tuesday 11th so you can listen in here. I'm on from about 85 minutes in. I still haven't listened to myself back as I hate listening to my voice, but apparently I'm posh. Really? I love that I got introduced as a Lancashire-based author. It made me sound important!

Listen in if you fancy. But I'm a radio star now. (Not)

Life Circle - Week 2

Time to set another task! Boy, that has come round quick. I hope you found doing the Wheel of Life useful last week. The comments I've received suggest that you did and hopefully it identified some areas for you to work on. Thanks to everyone that took part and hello to those who are reading but not necessarily taking part. Although it helps to do all the tasks, you don't have to take part in everything and I really won't mind if you join in later or for a particular task. If you can offer other participants support and constructive comments, I know they will appreciate it.

What we are going to do this week is think a little longer term. We're going to work on the start of a Life Plan. Now, even to me, that sounds horribly organised and a bit control freaky but trust me on this. It won't be the 43 page life plan document that I saw a woman appearing on a television programme referring to a few years back. It will be what you want to make of it, because this is YOUR life.

Are you still watching this space? My night at the MADs and THAT dress!

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's four whole days since the MAD Blog Awards ceremony in London and I've neglected to show you my dress and tell you about my big night out.

So I arrived in London at lunchtime and checked into our hotel before going for a group tapas late lunch. It was a bit rushed as they didn't seem able to cope with large numbers and then Nickie told me that the hairdresser was due to arrive back at the hotel. We found the hairdresser hanging around outside and I went off to have a quick shower whilst he did the hair of my roommate, Lindy. The hairdresser,  Adam from Electric Hairdressing, dried and straightened my hair and generally made me look presentable once I was dressed in my lovely dress. When he was done, I barely had time to do anything because it was time to get cabs to the awards ceremony at Talk Talk's Customer Experience Centre in Soho.

Meal Planning Monday - the 5 for £20 edition!

Time for a different style of post this week again. I'm testing out one of Sainsbury's 5 for £20 meal plans this week. The idea is that the meal plans will provide 5 family meals (for 4) for just £20. Seems amazing in the times we're living in, doesn't it In order to prove it, Sainsbury's have sent me a £20 gift card to give it a go and see how I get on.