Silent Sunday ~ 19th May

Saturday is Barber Shop Caption Day.

We visited a model village t'other day, and a fun and quirky time we had too. I was particularly enamoured with the contents of the 1950's high street windows, and for today's Sat Cap I am challenging you to imagine what the rather fine fellows in this Gents hairdressers might be nattering about!

When you are done here, visit the modelesque Mammasaurus and caption some more!

Have a lovely weekend!

XXX

Walk On By...

We are blessed to live a short walk from the river, and in my never ending quest to exhaust the toddler we often take an hour to stroll along its banks, feeding the ducks, listening to birdsong, and colour spotting as we go.

 After this weeks rain, green predominates, beautiful and vibrant with new life and growth.

Syd loves to point out all the colours he can find, today he saw red, blue and a glorious array of greens. 

We often pause for a rest. In fact Syd would like to sit on every bench. There are a lot of benches on this walk, so I try to persuade him we only need to test some of them out!

And no trip to the river is complete without saying hello to the ducks..

A perfect morning.

Love Miss Cisco XXX

Stacks of Fun

Syd was recently chosen to be a member of the Bigjigs Play Patrol, which means he gets this rather awesome certificate,

AND to test amazing Bigjigs toys. This week our first toy arrived, and it is a set of fabulous stacking cubes.

These are perfect for Syd's age group, he is 21 months old, and the toy itself is suitable from 18 months. There are 6 five sided wooden cubes, each side featuring a different decoration. There are the numbers 1-6 on the top of each cube, a side with animal names, a side with the matching animals face, and a side with part of a giraffe- which creates a whole picture when stacked. The final side has holes cut out, and the toy comes with the shapes to fit the holes.

Syd currently loves identifying colours and shapes, so there has been room for lots of educational play here. He is also still going through an animal lover phase, so he likes the cheerful animal decorations. He also likes stacking the blocks, and knocking them down again.

We have had a problem with the toy though, unfortunately it got knocked off of the table, and the biggest cube fell apart. I emailed Bigjigs, and they were disappointed this had happened, believing that the one I had must have had an unfortunate fault. They reassured me that the toy should withstand plenty of knocks and falls, as to be expected from a toy aimed at toddlers. They had a new piece sent out, and it was here within 48 hours. Great service. I always think that it is a good test of a company's customer service to see how well they deal with a problem, and Bigjigs did a great job, and I would have no hesitation buying from their website, as I feel totally assured that in the rare event there were any issues, it would be dealt with promptly and well.

We have now had the new part for a couple of days, and I am not ashamed to admit it has had more knocks and bumps, these are unavoidable with toddler toys, especially ones designed to be stacked high, shortly followed by the inevitable shove over, and this time we have had no problems at all.

Overall, this is a great toy for number, colour and shape recognition, and good for practising motor skills- both in stacking and shape sorting. It is cheery to look at, and has been well used already. It also tidies away inside itself, which is an added bonus when trying to reclaim the lounge as an adult zone at the end of the day, thumbs up Bigjigs!

Love Miss Cisco XXX

Disclosure: We were sent this toy free of charge as part of our membership of the Bigjigs Play Patrol Team.

She's Stretching Her Wings

My little girl has got big, and today she is in London with her mate watching a band. They are sixteen years old, on an adventure, involving rock'n'roll of sorts, crushes on boys and last coaches home. I am part envious, and part terrified. It is however time to start letting go.

My house is slowly filling with university prospectuses. Not long ago she was two foot nothing, with a smile full of baby teeth, and an inability to say the letter 'S'. Now she is bringing home UCAS information, and planning to fly the nest next year.

So bearing in mind in less than 18 months she may have left home altogether, a coach journey to London and back is small fry. I said yes, because I trust her to be sensible (within reason!) and because I know she needs to practise looking after herself, before it becomes a full time reality.

Part of me would like to pretend she will be here forever, but much as it makes my heart heavy, it is in my job description to make sure she is ready to go. I love this Khalil Gibran quote:-

So in my role as a responsible 'bow', these are things we need to work on in the next 18 months:-

• Cooking. For someone who passed a GCSE in food less than a year ago, she seems to find it surprisingly difficult to make a sandwich, let alone a cooked meal.
• How to work a washing machine. Or even how to put your dirty clothes in a separate place from your clean ones. She will not always have access to my pants drawer in an emergency!
• How not to lose a key. Bored of buying them, she hasn't even had one for a while, but she will have to get used to not being careless. Maybe I could get one attached to the lip piercing she keeps threatening to get.
• Basic housework. Finally found a way to make her tidy her room, all it took was a threat to put a password on the broadband, but she could (and so could I to be fair) use a crash course in quality washing up and hoovering!
• Budgeting. Hmmm. She will have a pretty tight budget to live on if she goes to Uni, so I need to make sure she understands how to make a realistic budget plan, and stick to it. Putting it into practise will have to wait until she gets there tho, be hard to watch her starve while we eat dinner if she spends all her cash on beer. 
• Remembering to ring her Mum when she has said she will!

Plus, it's not just the practical lessons, what are the life tips I should be passing on? So far I have these:-

• Be kind and respectful of others, and demand the same for yourself. Don't take no undeserved shite from anyone!
• You cannot live on pot noodles alone without risking scurvy.
• Fat coke is good for a hangover.
• Always make sure you have enough money to get home at the end of the night.
• If he loves you, he will act like he loves you.
• I am always at the end of the phone/motorway, unless you are after cold hard cash in which case ring your Dad first. Ha. 
• Play hard, but work hard too. Do yourself proud, you have already done me proud!

What have I missed? What else should I be making sure she knows?

Love Miss Cisco XXX

Top 5 songs for Sulky Days.

I may be verging on the start of a whole new decade, one with a four at the beginning, but I am still capable of having a petulant moment. I quite like a big sulk. As a teen I would retire to my black painted bedroom, light a candle and a joss stick, and dwell on all the ways I was really disappointed in life. These days I don't have time available for such quality sulking, but am still capable of a minor strop, a melancholy evening, or tantruming back at the toddler.  And when I can't get no satisfaction, whether its a cry in a dark room, or a stomp about the house, these are the songs I turn to...


5) I'm Not OK - My Chemical Romance

In my mind some days I am still 14 with black hair and too much eyeliner, and nobody at school understands me, and no boys ever notice me, and I am too intellectual for all this shit and would rather be reading Sartre and smoking than doing algebra. On those days this song is my soundtrack.

4) If Only Tonight We Could Sleep - The Cure

Pop on your black knitwear, poke your thumbs through the carefully cultivated holes at the end of your sleeves, arrange your features in your best tortured artist expression and enjoy angst in the way only the genius that is Robert Smith can do.

3) Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

I am all alone, on my walk through these deserted streets, I shall swagger mysteriously about looking sad and moody and unapproachable. In my mind. In reality I am going to the supermarket pushing a truculent toddler in a pushchair. But I love this band, and I love this song, and I wish I was a mysterious outsider lurking on the edges of society in a cool way, but I am not, cos I like people and my family and am probably a bit too generally happy. Oh and Billie Joe is sooo pretty in this video.

2) I Just Can't Be Happy Today - The Damned

I love this band of punk heroes to this very day, and the sentiment of this song is so true, some days you just can't. Conversely listening to this song makes me happy, therefore disproving the entire song, and possibly making it disappear in a puff of illogicality.

1) Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths

Morrisey is the master of the self-centered whine. I adore his be-quiffed, terribly English lyrics of miserable, rainy day joy. There is no better soundtrack for a piteous navel gaze than The Smiths. One of my all time favourite bands, and it doesn't get more sulky than this!

 

Excellent. I feel much better now! What songs do you listen to when you are in a mood?

Love Miss Cisco XXX

The Flipside

At the end of last week, I had a small rant about charity canvassers on the high street, and judging from the response I got both on the blog and on twitter I am not alone in disliking this type of fund raising. What we all agreed on was that as much as we are uncomfortable with being asked (somewhat aggressively at times) to donate on the street, or by those who knock at our front doors, we all really appreciate the AWESOME job that charities do.

Well, in the interest of fairness I wanted to share what I did on Saturday night. I went out, to a punk gig, in a slightly grotty pub. It was hot, sweaty, noisy and brilliant. I had a fabulous night.

It also raised over £1,500 for Macmillan.

How ace is that?! My gorgeous mate Shiv sadly lost her husband to cancer a few years back now, and wanted to raise money for Macmillan to acknowledge the huge support she received from them. So she looked at what she knows, and she knows lots of bands, and lots of people who like watching bands, and combined the two to raise money. This was the third Shebang, and all together I think they have raised heading for £5,000.

There were fab raffle prizes donated by Punk bands from all over the country, Camp Bestival and various others. Local music shops lent equipment for the bands to use. And of course the bands gave their time for free. Shiv and her team did a fab job and deserve a big pat on the back!

video by Taped Webzine

Raising money can be fun, or hard work as you run 5K or climb a mountain, but when it is personal, an effort by people you know, or for a charity like Macmillan who so many of us have had incredible support from at the hardest of times, then it is absolutely worthwhile,

Love Miss Cisco XXX

Blackpool Tower

I have a competition running at the moment to win a family ticket to Chessington World of Adventure, and a few people mentioned that they live up north so it was too far to travel, well, today is your lucky day, because I have a competition to win a family ticket (for up to 4 people) which gives access to four great attractions at The Blackpool Tower.

The Opulent Ballrooms- stunning!

Blackpool is on my list of place that I MUST visit before I die. Sadly it is at the opposite end of the country from me, but I will get there one day, and when I do, a visit to the Tower Ballrooms is on my list of must sees. It a a stunning example of a traditional ballroom, glamorous and decadent! I am no good at the foxtrot, but can do a bit of jiving if the mood (about 4 rums) takes me!

As well as the Ballroom the ticket will gain you entry into The Eye, The Circus and Jungle Jims Kids Indoor Play. That has the makings of a fantastic family day out written all over it, and if it weren't for the 7 hour drive each way I would be nabbing the tickets for myself! To enter simply complete as many or as few of the rafflecopter options as you like, remember the more you do, the more entries into the draw you receive.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Terms and Conditions

• open to over 18's only
• open to UK residents only
• The prize consists of a family ticket for up to 4 people and will be valid for use for 3 months after the closing date of the giveaway.
• The winner will be contacted by me shortly after the draw closes to obtain details so that The Blackpool Tower may send out their prize.
• The winner must respond within 7 days or a new winner will be drawn.
• The draw closes at midnight on the 10/06/2013

Good Luck All,

Love Miss Cisco XXX

ThePrizeFinder - UK Competitions

Silent Sunday - 12th of May

Saturday is Beardy Caption Day.

Ahoy there landlubbers, it is caption time of the week, so I present to you a 9 year old bedecked with colourful beardy joy.

Caption this beauty if you can, then head over to Admiral Annie on the good ship Mammasaurus and caption some more!