The Gallery: Grandparents

I see this week it is open to choose whichever generation of grandparents you wish. I immediately thought of my own grandparents and knew this post had to be about them. I have posted pictures previously of them and this is a great opportunity to put a few pictures in one place as a memory page for my family and I.

As a few of you may know I lost my last remaining grandparent a few weeks ago and I feel very blessed to have had him around for so long. Somewhat hauntingly I have lost a grandparent every ten years. That's life and I understand that, my Auntie made my Mum laugh by pointing out that they were next in line to fall off the apple tree! Sometimes you have to make light of what is sadly a fact of life.

Here are some pictures that I have in an album. I am regretful that I don't really keep albums these days, especially ones of old photo's. One day I will get round to properly sorting them all out and printing off the vast amounts of photo's stored on the computer.

With my maternal Nan

My paternal Nan

My paternal Nan will forever live on in my memories as being a super cool Nan. She never tired of playing tedious games with me and in her seventies she still loved the white knuckle rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I am not sure I will be that cool, she was remarkable.

Both Nans with me

Maternal grandparents

All my grandparents with my very young parents

Unfortunately I never knew my paternal grandfather as I was too young to remember. The picture above is the only picture I have of him. I know as much that he certainly lives on in my Dad!

Finally here is my Grandpa meeting Beastie shortly after he born. He was so very happy to meet him and I will forever be thankful they got the chance to meet.

Maternal Grandpa

MUMenTUM - Monday Check in

I have been a bit slack lately with MUMenTUM and I want to apologise to all the lovely ladies who have contributed every week, rain or shine. I am back with a renewed vigour and want to truly make the most of this group and the support it brings.

I have just popped on the scales and they read roughly the same as they always do, which isn't a bad thing it just means that I am never really sure of what is going on. I might have a 'fat' day but it never really reflects on the scales and although I don't want to yo yo with my weight it's a strange indicator for me. No indicator in fact. As I am the same weight roughly as I was before Beastie I always tell myself that it's great I achieved that goal. What I always forget was that in actual fact I wasn't overly happy with my weight before and even my tummy. I now look back and wonder what on earth I was worrying about! hindsight is a wonderful thing. I realise it's how you feel at the time, it's all very well looking back and wishing for what we used to have only to remember at that point we probably weren't happy either. It's all about now and what's important now. What is important to me and my self worth.

The main focus for me now is to concentrate more on what I eat. I haven't been paying much attention to this lately at all, with being fairly busy, healthy eating has been on the back burner. As a result I am feeling lethargic and sluggish.

Like many people, every now and then I need to sit and take stock. I feel a new approach is needed as the old ones simply are not sustainable for me. I have been reading about the revolution that is Thinking Slimmer and have heard such rave reviews that I feel it is a must for me to try. So soon I will be joining in with all the hype...I shall be going to bed with Trevor like thousands of others.

Take a look at what everyone else is achieving through the blog hop:

Silent Sunday...

Goodies in return for fright!

Last week I had what I would describe as a 'lift trauma' in my local House of Fraser. I have never been the sort of person to worry about lifts, nothing has ever happened to me before for me to have reason to be cautious. I am not claustrophobic or fearful of the lift getting stuck. The main thing that would worry me would be how long I might be stuck for in case I should need the loo!

So I got into one of the lifts with Beastie as I regularly do and went up to the top department, had a mooch around and got back in again to return to the ground floor. Shortly after I pressed the button, the lift shuddered, which was a little alarming but I told myself to remain calm.  Then as I thought it was going to go down at a normal speed it suddenly lunged down, what seemed an entire floor, then stopped. Then all these malfunction messages starting playing, swiftly followed by 'you are safe, please remain calm'. Which of course made me panic, those messages always have the reverse effect. Then it shot down again. By this point I felt a moment of dread and my only thought was 'no please don't crash to the ground as I have my baby in here'. 

The lift then carried on as normal and reached the ground floor where the doors casually opened announcing we had indeed arrived (in one piece). I walked out of the lift on automatic and passed a sales assistant stopping to tell her that no one must use the lift as I had just had a scary experience. She was very apologetic and then I left the store. It wasn't until I had reached another shop before I realised how much it had affected me. I picked up a dress and my hand was shaking all over the place.

My husband was very angry about what had happened to me and complained to the store. The reason being that the lifts have always been unreliable and unacceptable considering it is a reasonably new store. We are not complainers on the whole, we don't try and get a free lunch just for the sake of it but it was the principle that mattered here. The store manager replied very quickly and she was extremely professional, even if she may have doubted my story. The very next day she confirmed that the engineers had indeed found a fault, not a serious fault but a fault non the less that would have caused the lift to terrify me malfunction.

To cut a long story short, we have been thoroughly pleased with the way the manager handled our complaint, acting promptly and showing compassion. I know they have a reputation to uphold at the end of the day but customer service like this goes a long way...I can safely say I have used lifts since and I am not a jibbering wreck. I honestly don't know how I would manage if I had developed a fear, I can see how people do.

Incidentally we were offered a 'free lunch' and I received this box of beauty treats as a way of apology.

Beautiful box 

With some lovely goodies inside

Cybermummy Fever

After all the hype surrounding Cybermummy and the build up last week it seems strange that it has been and gone. Like a holiday, you look forward to it so much and then it's over in a flash. Already everyone is looking forward to next year! Not that we are wishing our lives away or anything...

When I started blogging somewhat randomly back in February, I would never have imagined attending a conference about blogging. I wasn't really 'au fait' with blogs apart from ones I had just stumbled across when searching on the internet. I honestly thought it would be a novelty for a couple of weeks and if it wasn't for Brit Mums accepting me as a member (after some time!) it would most likely have fizzled out pretty quickly. Soon after I was accepted I was sucked into the community and the rest is history. With a little encouragement I bought a ticket for Cybermummy, simply to see what it was all about.

 

@mummydaddyme @workinglonmummy

@NewMumOnline

Since buying the ticket I have made some great friends and it was a fantastic opportunity to finally meet them all and put faces to online personas. I have to say the majority were exactly as I expected. Having already met the lovely Multiple Mummy and New Mum Online at a previous event, it didn't feel quite so strange. What was great though was meeting Mummy Daddy and me Makes Three as we have formed a bond through our blogs and being newbies together. It was a pleasure to meet Working London Mummy and two of the girls I remember from the very first days of blogging who were Would Like to be a Yummy Mummy and her sister Not Yet a Yummy Mummy. They come across as really friendly on their blogs and in person they were just the same, brilliant company and like minded. I don't think there was a moment that we didn't have something to say to each other. Apart from being like naughty school children during the sessions, where we were reduced to note passing and tweeting.

I could go on naming everybody I met but they know who they are and it was good to see all the #MUMenTUM girls in one place including The Grumpinator and PR Mummy. We are hoping to meet up again soon, where we are not sure but it all sounds good fun.

@wouldliketobe @NotYetaYummyMum  Me @mummydaddyme

@MultipleMummy @anneglynethomas @NewMumOnline @grumpinator

@alysonsblog @SAHMlovingit

The event was held at The Brewery in London and it was an impressive venue, I loved the funky purple lighting. I immediately knew that the venue was perfect for the conference. From the moment I was dropped off it was a whirlwind of activity, from registration, meeting bloggers I had arranged to meet and going straight into the exhibit room. We didn't know where to start and it felt a bit like Christmas morning. I felt this urge to make a mad dash round grabbing all the goodie bags! Sadly I do get quite excited about goodie bags regardless of their contents. On this occasion I was pleasantly surprised despite the pain endured carrying the bags around all day. I think a trolley bag is in order next year, it may not be very cool but I don't care, it's a necessity.

Besides being completely overwhelmed by the amount of stands to visit, competition/form filling, goodie bags to carry and vast amounts of people to meet the day had some great content and was superbly organised. It was inspiring to listen to Sarah Brown deliver a speech (even though I needed it pointing out who she was) and I found Rachel Johnson engaging, that lady holds her own. The workshops required a little more focus on my part but all valuable tips to take away.

I particularly loved the key notes at the end where a selection of bloggers read out a popular post of their own. They were witty, uplifting, saddening, poignant and hilarious. There were tears of laughter and sorrow. Truly moving.

While the key notes were being read the after party was being prepared and it ended the day perfectly. We all got a chance to mingle whilst drinking wine and eating nibbles which were provided courtesy of Three. I am so very glad I took the plunge and bought my ticket to Cybermummy11, I wouldn't have missed the opportunity for the world.

Mummy and the Beastie - It had to be done

Silent Sunday...

The Curse of Cybermummy Eve!

I am having a seriously bad day. Really bad. It started off on the wrong footing and has steadily gone down hill ever since. I am in the safety of my home now thank goodness, I think I need to stay put all day now as it appears to be my Friday the 13th!

So the run of events started when my debit card wouldn't work in the card machine in a shop (and it was for a refund!) and then when I tried to withdraw some money from a cash machine before paying for the car park to go home. The machine said there was a problem reading my card so I tried another two machines before stropping over to the other side of town to go into my bank. Luckily the lady in Barclays saw I was looking a bit crazed my impatience and confirmed my card was kaputt and ordered a new one for me. I simply had to go to the cashier and get some cash out. She asked how I would like the money and I said it didn't matter. What a stupid mare, putting £20 in the car park payment machine has not been my brightest idea. I don't think I have ever had so much change (I never have change) and it took me about ten minutes to retrieve all the money. There was even a man wiping the top of one of the machines and I am sure I heard him sniggering.

Armed with all my change and a frantic search for the ticket I mislaid in my bag once in the car, we popped to Asda to get some nappies. It was heaving but I only wanted just one box of nappies, surely Beastie would be able to manage walking in there with me for just that? Oh no it turned out to be one mighty struggle involving carrying and half dragging him down the aisles. The nappy box broke and there was a tantrum at the till.

I am on my way to chilling out now I have been sat here letting it all out whilst drinking a cup of tea. Tea is my saviour, as long as I get to drink it piping hot! which isn't very often. After making my cup of tea I then replaced the milk in the fridge rather heavy handed and the lid fell off, milk splashed everywhere in the fridge, the cupboards and my arm. I can literally feel my blood pressure rising.

Any idea of how to break the cycle of events today? is anyone superstitious? The way I see it is that I am getting it all out of the way for tomorrow at Cybermummy. I am hoping it's a good omen.

As I was finishing off this post I failed to notice that Beastie was casually pouring some olive oil into the water jug for the iron, misjudging it every time *sigh at MORE mess*.

Actually the tea is doing nothing, I need a proper drink now but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow...

See you all there!

xx