ENGLISH MUM

I live a weird life. After spending the last week moaning that I’ve put on 9lb since our wedding blessing in September (9lb!, that’s, like, a whole baby), I then felt moved to do this review justice by cooking – and eating – loads of puddings. MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace, yes he of the ‘it’s like a lemon has just picked you up by the ears and given you a big snog’...

So yesterday we took a very exciting trip up to London’s Haymarket to see a preview of the new Disney film, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. My children aren’t city-dwellers by heart, and the moaning started almost as soon as we got on the train: ‘Dude, turn that crap down, I can hear it through your headphones’ ‘It’s better than what you’re listening to, douche’ Ad...

Scoffing… …fabulous bags of Warburton’s ChippidyDooDaas – yummy scrummy bags of baked pitta chips, and SnackaDoodles – little crunchy doofers which are 70% wholegrain, making them healthier and with 60% LESS fat than regular crisps, meaning, naturally, that you can have two bags with your glass of wine *cough* Fiddling… …with my new mad gadgets from Oxo.  My faves:...

The fields around this area are, at various times of the year, the most beautiful, glowing yellow with all the oilseed rape.  Driving anywhere in the car, it will only be a matter of minutes before someone shouts ‘rape!’ from the back seat (yes, yes, it’s not politically correct, but try explaining being PC to any 15 year old and then you’ll really understand the meaning of a lost cause). Anyhoo,...

Poras Chaudhary, India Daisy Gillardini, Switzerland Courtney Krawec, Australia So here’s one for my lovely photography-mad friend, Tara Cain, and her absolutely fantastic ‘Gallery‘ contributors: The 2010 International Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) are now open for business! The competition is open to anyone, anywhere – whether you’re a professional photographer,...

So it started off all a bit cloak and dagger, really… but hey, when Weetabix send you an email saying: ‘we want to tell you a secret, click on this link and you’ll learn more…’ Well, you have to, really.. So it turns out they’ve brought out new Chocolate Weetabix! And yesterday in the post we got a lovely goody box with some of the new cereal to try out, plus some fantastic...

My kids were both huge fans of the Percy Jackson books.  My oldest, the Mad Professor in particular had read, nay devoured, and loved all the books, and was adamant he wouldn’t like the film, so when we got the review copy I didn’t hold out much hope. But do you know what?  It was fabulous. There aren’t many PG films these days packed with such adventure and excitement – there were...

Erica (LittleMummy.com), Jo (jobeaufoix.com), Laura (AreWeNearlyThereYetMummy.com), Liz (kidstart.co.uk/livingwithkids/), Tara (stickyfingers1.blogspot.com), Me Sooooo, back to the ‘Mummy Blogger Trip’ then.  After our animal adventures at  SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, the beautiful Discovery Cove and Aquatica, I thought you might like to hear a bit more about the things that really made us go ‘oooh’....

From Erica at LittleMummy.com: A little while back ok, quite a while back the lovely English Mum asked me to review Annabel Karmel’s book ‘Annabel Karmel’s Top 100 Pasta Recipes’, you see they aren’t big pasta fans over here at English Towers. Of course I was more than happy to oblige, but then I started to worry about how I would keep up the cookery standards you’ve come...

From left to right: Laura (AreWeNearlyThereYetMummy.com), Erica (LittleMummy.com), me, Apollo the Sea Lion,Tara (stickyfingers1.blogspot.com), Jo (jobeaufoix.com) and Liz (kidstart.co.uk/livingwithkids/) So finally, after ash clouds and delays, weeks of waiting, a very pleasant flight on Virgin Atlantic and three slightly less pleasant hours stuck melting in the baggage reclaim at Orlando Airport because it...