The mature way to deal with Teens...

You'd think I was the only person who lived in this house, yes? 

After a family evening out on Saturday, Brighton Beach and a couple of pubs. 

This was the picture I was greeted with on coming downstairs at 11.30am on Sunday morning.

Was I the first one to come down?
Had all 4 'grown' and Teen children slept in or gone out?

No, of course not. 

Two, with 2 friends were relaxing in the front room.

Yes I dealt with it. Being the mature adult I am. You know, the way we're supposed to as parents, just like all the books tell you...

 
I shouted. Lots. Loudly.

...it was cleared, not by me...*ahem*

The Gallery - Children; A Debating 'tag' Team

I have four children. I have four very individual children who over the years have given me reason to scream, cry, rant, rave, laugh, hug, giggle, whoop with delight and burst with pride. 

Having four, quite close in age (17, 19, 20 & 23), has of course resulted in a fair few moments of extreme high drama over the years. When they were younger the dramas tended to revolve around who had what toy, who was playing with it first and who got Mummy's attention. Straightforward, childlike arguments which I could deal with in a simple, no nonsense way.

As they've gotten older it has become much more complex. More to do with who said what to whom and quite often the way in which things have been said. Having four highly articulate young adults in the house I often feel more like the Head of a debating 'tag' team than their Mother. 
I don't have a naughty step or a time out option anymore. Although I will secretly admit to occasional bouts of nostalgia for those simpler times, just to make it easier.

Having said that, here are the good parts, just in case you thought there weren't any. 
 

Because what has emerged is their ability to discuss. To listen and to be heard. To make themselves understood over the maelstrom of many voices. To hold a thought until the right moment. They understand about respecting other's views even if they disagree with them (often!)  Their right to hold an opinion and for others to hold a different one (also often!). A realisation that through discussion, even if heated, and believe me, many a time I have left the room just to bang my head in frustration, most situations can be resolved. Either that or they just take the piss out of each other...and agree to disagree!


I sometimes look on in amazement. 


They also have the most incredible ability to forgive each other. They don't hold grudges. Ever. Probably an unrealistic view of the world, and the people in it, but I love that about them. Within hours of arguments they will be talking with each other as though nothing had happened. I know they will always have each other to turn to and that makes me very happy...

This is a photo of a photo, having been taken on my old film SLR, so apologies for the quality. But I had to use this one as it's one of my favourite pictures of them together.
This post and photo are for this weeks theme of Children on The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers. 
Get clicky on the links and have a look, there are some truly wonderful pictures and posts.

Dear So and so...Cars, Colleges and....Well, you'll see!

Go over and see Kat to find out who else is having a moan today...

Dear #1 Car...

FFS! I don't appreciate the 'non-starting' thing this morning. Not at all, I'm not impressed. Panic phone call from TD to drop off 'correct' uniform for college, key in ignition and...Hello?!...nothing. 

I know it's been cold, I understand that. But a dead battery, come on, please! But I am a little sorry for all the foul #&%! names I called you, but trust me, only a little.

Yours, annoyed

-------------

Dear #2 Car...

Look, I get you might be a bit pissed off at being usurped by #1 Car and being stuck on eBay for a mere 99p, but a completely flat tyre? That's not even remotely funny.

Yours, saving my air.

--------------

Dear TD...

Find your bloody Timetable...

Then you won't take the wrong set of uniform in to college and end up calling me to drop off the right one. See #1 Car.

I know I offered to drop it off, but the alternative was you coming all the way back home. Which was all so unnecessarily complicated. 

Frustratingly, Mum

----------------

Dear College Tutor of TD...

Don't call me at home to ask where TD is, 25 mins after having her sent home for not having the correct uniform for the day ahead. Find her something else to do?

Ahh...Right, I see, you haven't seen TD this morning? Erm..er..okkaayyy....Bye!

Yours, red faced & trying to get off the phone fast.

Dear TD...

??.......#%*...!!!!

Yours, lied to and annoyed, Mum

--------------

Dear Me...

??....#%*...!!!

Yours, lied to and very annoyed with self.

One year on...and I nearly bloody missed it!

Yes, I've been blogging for a whole year! How the hell did that happen? Where did it go? 

When I started this blog, I just thought it would be interesting to try and record some of the things that happen in my and my Teenagers lives. I had hoped a few people might read it, maybe even enjoy it. But I just jumped in anyway, with not a lot of thought, only  'Oh I'll give this a go, it looks like fun'

What have I learnt? 

That there are some amazing, friendly, lovely, helpful, encouraging people in the blogging community, and although I've NEVER met any of them personally (well aside from Emily of Maternal Tales, who everyone should now blame for me starting this blog in the first place!) through this Blog and Twitter I've come to think of them as friends.

Also that I have either been very lucky or just very, very naive (stupid? blind?) as I've discovered, just recently, that for some bloggers, in particular this lovely blogger Jay, it's not all 'lovely' and 'sweet smelling' and obviously on some occasions appears to have been needlessly hurtful and cruel. Why? I thought and hoped I'd seen the last of this type of behaviour at the school gates, go figure! And I apologise in advance for my Potty Mouth in the comments if you click on Jay's link..You have been warned!

That it opened up a whole new world of reading to me. Who knew you were all out there? doing your thang! If you knew me personally you would know I'm an avid reader, a bit of a speed reader too, so blogs for me are the perfect way to get a complete fix of various styles of reading, quickly and easily and I love it! Jumping from funny, to crazy, to sad, all in a few clicks. My idea of heaven.

That even though I don't blog very often at the moment, I am still enjoying it. 

It's more than just putting words out there that others read,  writing it often helps me make some sense of the often rambling, thoughts in my head.

So really, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads my blog. Thank you for all your comments, advice, support and giggles. 

And also a HUGE thank you for the pleasure of reading all YOUR wonderful, funny, sometimes sad, informative, thought provoking, short and long blog posts, but always 'great' reading in so many different ways.

xXx

Gay Pride in Brighton...And a happy Cat

If you're gay you already know about this. If you happen to live in Brighton this is not news. But if you're neither of these then I'll let you know that Brighton hosted Gay Pride last weekend. It's held every year in the summer and stretches back as far as 1992 when it was just a small afternoon event. Since then, it's evolved into the biggest free Pride festival in the UK. 
And boy has it got big. According to reports in my local paper The Argus, an estimated 160,000 attended the Parade through the streets and joined in the party at Preston Park. 
That's a hell of a lot of very happy people. And I say happy because that's exactly what they were, and are every year. Yes they drink, dance, hug people and sing in the streets. But there's never very much trouble, certainly not in relation to the numbers of people involved. It always has such a wonderful celebratory feeling about it. I love it. People really do walk around with silly, smiley faces. 

All my children, as teenagers, have joined in the fun of Pride over the years, walking through the streets of Brighton with friends (you don't really have a choice but to walk if you live here, as they close off all the roads!) and heading to the Park for all the festivities.

And just like last year, I arranged with my TD to pick her up on the seafront at 11.30pm. 

This was not as simple as it sounds.


I managed to not kill, maim or run over roughly 25 extremely happy people who, due to the sheer mass of bodies on the pavements outside all the clubs, decided that the roads would be a much more viable alternative to a dancefloor. But this just made me smile even more, rather than roll out the road rage. I was laughing out loud as I managed to manoeuvre my car  round various 7ft tall gorgeous Ladies and people in all manner of amazing costumes, and rather fit looking men with very little clothing *ahem* on, dancing in the middle of the 'main' roads. 
TD had left the house at 10am wearing various leopard print clothing, with a cute little 'Cat' face drawn on. By the time I picked her up she resembled a slightly bedraggled, but very happy 'Cat'.

Sometimes I just love living in a place where everyone comes to party! 


Wouldn't you?

SO true..What goes around...

My beautiful, independant TD decided today she wanted her hair cut and dyed blonde, for a completely different look. So whilst OH, my Mum and myself went for a leisurely lunch at a local park, she had a friend come round to help her with the cutting and applying of bleach (not sure why she didn't ask me for cash to go to a hairdressers?!).

Before we left, she'd told me she was going to have a few inches off, have some layers added and "Is it okay if I go blonde all over?"

I replied with what I felt were quite wise words...Hah! Don't you sometimes wish you could just stuff them back in!!

"Aww! Darling..thanks for asking me, but really, you're nearly 17, it's your hair and you're the one wearing it, so you're the one who should decide. If that's what you want"

Phone call received by OH, 5mins after leaving the house, and relayed to me while still driving to the park.

"TD wants to know if you're okay with her having her hair cut like Mollie's?"

"SHIT!! F**K"

.....actually that was in my head, what came out my mouth sounded more like this.. 

"Ermmmmmmmmmmm? errrr...welllllll...um?" 

While my brain was engaged in some very rapid thinking. Could I go back on what I'd already said? Yes? No? Maybe? Would that just give her the message that I wasn't 'truly' ready to give her responsibility for making her own choices? And about something so personal as the way she looks? Worse still, was she asking me because she wanted me to say no?...Or yes?...and oh, all her long, thick hair...*sniff*

With my Mum in the car I was reminded, fleetingly, of all my experiments with multi colours, and, to say the least, rather dodgy looking haircuts I'd had at a similar age, and thought sod it, it's only hair, it'll grow back!

"Tell her, of course I'm fine with it" But I'm sure it came out more like a squeak..

Bright red, close cut and shaved over one side is how it ended up, sort of like Mollie's...

It's fine...*sniff*

And my Mum? She just grinned serenely from the back of the car "It's only hair....."

A heart full of love....

This is my photo heart. It's great isn't it??
It's been created on a brilliant site, called shapecollage.com where you get to use any of your photos and play about choosing shapes, and a big bonus is it's really quick and simple to use. 
I was considering using it as my entry for The Gallery yesterday, but then changed my mind..blah..blah..
But I loved this image so much I had to post it...

You'll need to click on it to have a closer looky-see...

*Just so you know, this is not a sponsored post. I just had so much fun playing with it I wanted to share*

The Gallery - Motherhood

 




The theme this week at Sticky Fingers is 'Motherhood'. 

I've been doing this motherhood job for a bit now. 22 and a half years to be exact. 

It is without a doubt, the hardest, longest but most rewarding job in the world.

I could've posted lovely, pretty photos of babies (I have 1000's like we all do!) but instead am going to show you what you get after all the sleepless nights, poo and pee related fun, toddler tantrums and schooling struggles. 

With lots of love, much encouragement, guidance and patience, you get the absolute pleasure of knowing you have been part of the most amazing journey. That you have helped the once tiny, helpless little bundle of joy develop into an independant, healthy happy adult....

...What more could you ask for?
So for all you loving, hardworking mums of still little ones out there, here is a photo of my four 'grown up' (ish) babies. Embrace and relish the journey, trust me, it's a hell of a ride!

 

 'Mighty oaks from little acorns grow'

Make sure you pop over and check out all the entries this week....

Never, ever break the Rules of the Teen Handbook..CHECK!

It's 5.30pm and I've just returned from an emergency dash to TDs college.

Why?

We got a phone call at 4.45 from TDs AS level photography tutor asking for TD, who wasn't in, so I asked if I could help.

'I'm marking her AS work and I don't have her coursework book here'.

'Unfortunately if I don't have both books she'll get 0 marks, a U grading. I have her final exam book, but not the other one, and I know she's done it because I've seen it before'.
Uh-huh...

...and what was sitting in the kitchen in a bag on the floor, below the wall phone? 

Yep, the other book. The very book I suggested she might need to take in Wednesday morning, last week, when she had her final 2 hour (out of 8 hrs) exam.

The book she argued 'I won't need, it's the exam we're doing, so I only need the exam book' with only a grudging attempt to keep the sarcasm from her voice, and looking at me like I was insane, stupid or both. Because of course, what do I know, huh?

Deep breath...I tried again 'But surely they'll need to mark the whole course, not just the final exam?'

...'Oh god, Muuuuummmm! If I need the other book then I'll take it in tomorrow!'

Okaaay...enough said.

Mistake? Yes, I know not mine...
But my mistake??

The Big 'Teen' no no? I didn't check...I didn't check she'd checked.

Rule #1 of the 'How to drag up a Teenager' Handbook? Always, always check. Even when you have to suffer the exasperated sighs and inevitable eye rolling. Suck it up and CHECK!

Lucky for TD she obviously has a good tutor. Who I'm sure, would have been quite within her rights to mark and send off only what she had there and then. But, no, she phoned home. And got me. Who raced to the college, only just in time, with the fricking book TD said she didn't need.

Why don't they ever bloody listen..*Wanders off mumbling*

What? No Teenagers?! Really??

I had to post these photos of our cute little cat Hendrix. He seemed to be revelling in the fact there were no Teens in the house and he could stretch out, in the seat of his choosing, undisturbed.

At least he was undisturbed, until I accidently woke him by photographing him....Ooops....

It appears it isn't only the Teens he needs to try and avoid!

A whole lot of Laundry going on!

With 6 people living in a house, an awful lot of laundry gets done. Plus the fact, these people, are adult humans, not baby or toddler size. Although toddlers/babies do go through loads of clothes, I do vaguely remember. 

This is not helped by the fact that these adults are, in the main, Teenagers. 

Just getting them to bring their stuff down is a herculean effort. Constantly, daily, 3 times a day even, our mantra is 'Have you brought down your dirty......?' Often the response is 'No, I forgot, I'll do it when I come back down'. Some of the time they remember. Unfortunately, more often than not, we have to tell them to go back up and get it. 

Drip..drip..drip...

The general rule in the house is 'You keep your own space clean & tidy. Bring all your dirty stuff like clothes, plates, glasses, downstairs yourself. If you don't bring it down it won't get cleaned'.  

Just recently I've had to put this this theory to the test. If you look closely at the photo, you'll see there are 3 very large piles of 'clean' laundry ready to be taken upstairs, about 7 days worth, they do like to wear lots of clothes these Teens. Yet we have 4 children. I'm not including mine and OH's laundry in this, we do the damn stuff & it goes straight upstairs, we don't need to be told!

Yes, there's a pile missing. 19 yr old son has a pile of dirty laundry 5 weeks high on his bedroom floor. No, I'm not kidding, 5 weeks. About 3 weeks ago I refused to do it for him, as even at that point there was so much. That's at least 6 or 7 machine loads. I'm not doing a backlog of his washing, on top of all these clothes you can see, plus bedding & towels. No way. We've told him he can do the backlog, he knows how to use the washing machine, then, and only then will we continue doing anything he brings down.

As of yet, there's been no sign of him doing any actual laundry, and his wardrobe is now starting to look suspiciously similar to his lovely girlfriends. I am starting to wonder about his pants though?...surely not?

Tell me your thoughts.

Tagged - A photo Meme - Art & Design Textiles

Gigi's Ramblings has tagged anyone with this meme and with me being the ultra lazy blogger that I am at the moment, I swear my brain cells have been replaced with air bubbles, I thought I would run with it.

And wouldn't you just know it, it's a photo of one of my Teen Daughters Textile projects...Grrr!

This is a particular bugbear of mine at present. Last September TD chose Art Textiles and Photography as her A-level subjects (plus 2 other re-takes). Now, just in case none of you are aware, both of these are HUGE coursework based subjects. During the first year they have to produce 3 separate finished final pieces (for each subject), with large, fat sketchbooks to support the work.  TD had completed (ish) 2 and had number 3 underway, when a meeting at college was called and we were told, reading between the lines, that given the work she had done in Textiles so far, she probably wouldn't have a place at the college for the 2nd year! WTF...

TD was fine with this, she had already decided mid way through the first textiles assignment, that she'd made a mistake and wanted to change courses, too late of course. So she struggled through, with  gritted teeth (both mine and hers) I might add. 

When we had this meeting (only last week) she was 7 weeks away from her final exams (May this year), and their suggestion was that she drop textiles, there and then, with nothing, no qualification at all to show for it. So 2/3rds of the work was a complete waste of her time...as I said Grrrr!! Also, I'm not a believer in starting something and not finishing, I think it conveys a message of "It's ok, if its too hard you can just give up". She is continuing with her Photography course, but only till the end of this academic year. So we are now looking at other courses at different colleges for her, as you have to have a minimum of 3 A-level courses to attend the college, which she now won't have. More Grrr...

Anyway, rant over, back to the photo...

The first photo is of TD's final piece (not quite finished) for her 2nd project based on the title 'Lost & Found' with a sub-theme of 'Body Adornment', using some of the methods she learnt, plastics, jewellery making, etc..

She used only items found in the house. Plastic sandwich bags and fine copper wire from cables and melted them to create shapes.  Which she then turned into this 'neck piece'.

In fact, because she put a lot of hard work into this piece, contrary to college opinion, I'm going to add more than one photo, so it's the tenth, eleventh and so on, photos...well, I'm already in the folder anyway, so I may as well.

The rules are:

Open the first photo folder you find.  Scroll to the tenth photo. Post the photo and tell the story behind it.
Tag five or more people. But I'm not going to tag anyone, just jump in if you feel the urge.

"I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly"

What an interesting couple of days we've had with TD this week!

A little background...

It starts with the age old story of a Teenage Girl, who is one of TDs friends, who has had a boyfriend for 6 months (also one of TDs friends), playing away from home, and lots it would seem. Unfortunately, TD had actually been present, evenings at friends houses, parties etc, on a couple of these occasions.

Late last week, the boyfriend had heard whispered rumors from others, and knowing that TD had been present, asked her directly if anything had gone on between his girlfriend and one in particular, apparently notoriously bad boy (also friends with all involved..a bit of a charmer, or smarmy git whichever way you want to read it) during an evening at friends, that he hadn't gone to.
..."Erm..um"...was how her reply started. TD said she then, suddenly, felt fed up with lying & covering up for the girlfriend, also, she felt sympathy for the boyfriend, who she said is a "lovely, sweet person and a really good friend"....so continued with "Yes, something did happen and you need to talk to them about it". Oh s**t s**t s**t was my first thought... this can only end in tears.

I feel, personally, she made a mistake, that she should have denied, said no comment, anything to avoid answering the question. I understand that's my reaction as her mum, because I knew it would've protected her from any of the fallout. But how many adults, let along 16yr olds, have figured that one out yet? As we know, it's the person doing the telling that always ends up in the wrong, with everyone.

Now, I'm a mum of 4. TD is my youngest, so I'm not some rose-coloured spectacle wearing novice when it comes to believing absolutely everything that comes from my teenagers mouths. Teens DO lie, for many different reasons, and I'm the first to hold my hands up and admit I have made mistakes before..
So I did question TD as to whether she was sure about it. She told me "Yes and why would I lie? what do I get from that?" (Mmm? let me just ponder that one for a second..umm.. attention? the bad sort yes, but attention all the same) She then told me the name of the girl...and I looked at her with raised eyebrows... "Yes ::sigh:: mum, the same one"...
And that was the clincher for me, because you see, one of the occasions I mentioned earlier happened in my own home. Said teenage girl, TD and a different teen boy were spending time in her room (PC stuff, loud music so on). About an hour later TD came down, with her hand over her mouth, OMG! style, and hissed at me "You won't believe what's going on up there!!??!".. "What??" I asked... "Teen Girl is getting off with Teen Boy!!" "I couldn't stay in there any longer...Ewww! It's gross, and in front of me!". I said she needed to go back upstairs so nothing too serious went on, but they were together, weren't they? so surely a little smooching comes with the territory??
"NO, he's not her boyfriend!! Muuumm, don't you listen to anything I tell you?" (Okay, I'm old, you can't expect me to know all their names...purlease!)..
"Ah, I see"...
TD did go back upstairs, almost immediately, still fairly grossed out and indignant.

End of background...

Ending in tears is exactly what did happen. All involved denied anything had happened, ooh what a surprise! Of course they did! They then turned it round and accused TD of lying...which, thanks to modern technology, flew round all the social networks, with the result that TD ended up receiving nearly 2 days worth of the most obnoxious, vile, name calling insults I have ever seen, over most of them..

So TD, at the moment, apart from half a dozen very close and loyal friends, who at various times had seen first hand evidence of the same behaviour from the Teen Girl, and defended TD to the hilt, is Persona non Grata amongst the many others.

What I've learned from this experience is how much I admire my Daughter. Through all the insults, she never once replied in an antagonistic way. I know this, because I read every single one of them, and then went away and cried a little.

At first, when reading them, what I found most odd, were that all the insults hurled at her were to do with the way she dressed (comfortable, and a tad grungy) the way she looks (she's 5' 10" and a little overweight) her piercings, her little tattoo, her two-tone hair, it was all mentioned, yet only a couple mentioned anything to do with lying.
It was like reading something from a bunch of 6 yr olds in the playground...extremely cruel and verbally foul vicious 6 yr olds.

TD is a 'good' person. I explained to her that all the things they said are within her power to change, almost overnight, if she chooses to, they are only superficial, outward changes. Unfortunately for the ones insulting her, they have much more work to do...

Then for some strange reason, I woke the following morning with Winston Churchills famous quote "I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly" in my head?!?! WTF!
I later realised it's because it's quite apt. When I told TD this quote, in relation to the ongoing situation, she understood instantly, her mouth wide open in shock at my perception, obviously!

Needless to say, TD now believes she is Winston Churchill...

BAD BAD Blogger! And thanks for the distraction!

So sorry! My lovely bloggy friends. I have been very, very distracted and absent, both with posting and with leaving comments recently. I have been reading your blogs, I promise, and I always intend to comment, but then my brain thoughts seem to lose their way, I then get distracted even more and start thinking of other things, and then forget where I was re commenting....:::sigh:::.
But the reading I can do. I find it distracts my mind for a while. So, thanks to you all for that.

There is so, so much information swirling around my head at the moment, I don't always seem to have the ability to compose much that makes any sense. Hey?!... I just wrote the previous sentences, so there must be something still working in there, right??

I wanted to write something to re-connect with everyone, so you all know I am still here, bobbing along in the Blogosphere, just not participating very much.

It's all been and is still being, very scary and unknown here concerning my OH, and I really don't want this space, my space, my sharing place, to only be about sad and scary things. So I've purposely not been posting much. Combine that with my inability to keep any thoughts in my head for any length of time, other than things to do with my OH, and you lot are not going to get anything worth reading, just a big pile of shite, probably! Which would be okay if it were creative and funny shite, but of course it wouldn't be....

Unfortunately (I'm sure I should mean fortunately, shouldn't I?!...Bad Mummy...*slap myself*) the Teens have all been behaving, well, erm...normally? So no gripping, funny or unfunny material to share with you from them.
Unless of course you count TD storming out of the house this afternoon.... "to get out of your hair"...... over macaroni cheese!

So, Many thanks for the distractions all you lovely bloggers... xxx

Hot and Cold Teens and a Nod to the Dog!

Why oh why are Teenagers so bloody dramatic?!.....Sheesh!!

TD hates college, this evening she's loving it....huh? what did I miss?
Her Art tutor is "actually, sort of okay", last week she was "the bitch from hell who hates me and a devil woman" (TD's words)...
She hates her hair, last week after bleaching her fringe, it was "awesome!!"...
A month ago she had it cut shorter, now she wants extensions!
She loves her BFF, tonight she vented for an hour about what a pain in the arse one of them is "OMG!"
No worries, they'll be BFF again by Monday...

Of course, me, being the perfect Mum to Teens, that you know and love...*cough..splutter*
....did a truly impressive nodding dog impersonation, you'd have all been so proud of me.

"Uh huh....Oh....that's too bad....yes I know....really?...Oh no...Oh dear...Mmmm?...." and nodded my little head off, till it was in danger of dropping off & rolling out the back door...

If you value your relationship with your teen daughter, or even just life as you know it, a word of caution. DO NOT OFFER ADVICE....under ANY circumstances....I promise you, from experience, it will come back and bite you in a painful place....

Take the drama on the chin....and just NOD!

Why you should NOT let Teenagers loose with a camera!

Just for fun....

Here is the very reason teenagers should never be allowed free use of a camera/video, and be left unsupervised. After posting TDs GCSE music performance last week here, I thought I should let you see the flip side to having such musical geniuses amongst us (haha..!), and what can happen when it all goes horribly wrong.
This video of outtakes was originally posted on youtube by my 18 yr old son, after their many, many (Oh.So.Many) evenings of rehearsals for music exams. I find it quite funny and it never ever fails to make me smile!

PS. Please feel free to put your fingers in your ears whenever necessary!!

Five memorable moments & Stories & songs Meme..

Love Bay - Poros

Slap my wrists, I have been very remiss and I'm now trying to catch up on two tags.

The delightful Dulwich Divorce tagged me with 'Five memorable moments' of 2009, and the ever busy Babyrambles (I applaud you, how on earth are you finding time to blog? Go and have a lay down lovely lady, you're making me tired!) has tagged me with a Stories and Songs Meme, started by Brits in Bosnia

2009, an interesting year. The first has to be from May, when I took Early Severance from my Civil Service career of 28 years. I was only 19 yrs old when I started (a baby) This was a huge decision for me, us civil servants are (were) creatures of habit & like the comfort of a healthy, steady wage. Yes it was a choice, I wasn't pushed. But the job had changed so much over the years, and I truly wasn't enjoying it anymore, so I saw it as a chance to try something completely different. I still haven't found out quite what that is yet, but luckily the redundancy package has given me time to explore.

As a celebration of leaving one phase of my life and starting a new one, I booked the holiday of a lifetime. A beautiful villa called Lemon Tree House, for 10, on the stunningly beautiful Greek island of Poros. Just a little background here. We are not a huge travelling round the world type family. More the sort of stay at home, camping, caravan type. A few week long trips to France over the years, and should I say this out loud? 2 of my children had never even been on a plane! Shock, horror!
So, for us, this holiday was a huge deal. The 6 of us, and a friend each for the kids. My OH had visited Greece before, including Poros, but it was a first for the rest of us.
It was the most perfectly glorious and relaxed 2 weeks....memories which myself, OH and the children will hold dear forever.

My lovely, lovely OH, very chilled! - Poros

My beautiful family & their friends - Poros

In August, my Beautiful Teenage Daughter, my baby, turned 16, and left school. My last one! So I spent a memorable 10mins, in my car, alone, on her GCSE results day, reminiscing and getting misty eyed, on what had gone before, and what was still to come. Bittersweet.

Surprise memory. I discovered I could make a little money from my Art, who knew?!

And thanks to the lovely Emily at Maternal Tales, for an 'Oooh' moment memory, when my eyes were opened to the world of Blogging.

Moving on to the 'Stories and Songs Meme'

I'll try and make it a quickie, before you start falling asleep....

Early 1977 was the year we moved house, yet again. I was 15 yrs old, and within days had found out that in the house behind us, lived a gorgeous, blond, 15 yr old boy. I then developed the biggest, hugest ever crush, my first real crush that wasn't a teeny pop band of some sort, in the way only a romantic 15 yr old girl can. You know the one, the "I can't possibly live without him!"... "Nobody will ever love him the way I do!" kind of way.
We had albums & cassettes back in the day, and the two I played incessantly (oh my poor mother) were Rod stewarts 'Smiler' and Blondies 'Plastic Letters'. I would play them and gaze, longingly out of my bedroom window, dreaming.
By Spring, I had plucked up the courage to talk with him :::swoon::sigh::.
Come the summer we were best friends.
By my 16th Birthday party, at the end of the following February, we were 'together'... yes, put your fingers in your ears and sing loudly "tralalalalala" *cough*....he was my first.....*blush*

During that February of 1978, the single released by Blondie, which reached No 2 in the charts was 'Denis Denis'...




..........................


........The name of my First Love?...


...........................


......Dennis.....

I kid you not...I couldn't make it up if I tried. Although, admittedly, it does sound a little better in French!

I'm passing these tags along to the following lovely bloggers....

Chic Mama

Emily at Maternal Tales

Gigis Ramblings

Ju at Maiaandlarasblog

auntiegwensdiary

Welcome back to the real world!!

All the Christmas & New Year celebrations are now over and done with, so its all back to normal here. The cards are gone, the tree is down and all the decorations have been put away for another year. I'm sure we are all at least 5lb heavier than we were ::groan::... and we still have tins of chocolates/sweets/biscuits to get through!

Of course normality here means that TD is now attempting to fit almost 2 weeks worth of Art & Photography coursework into 2 days! I know, nothing really changes, does it?
To be honest, TD has done a few bits & pieces, but not nearly enough. So the race is on...::sigh::
Oh well, at least those leftover tins may come in handy....I feel she may need that sugar rush!

So, are you all back to normal now?

Christmas cheer to one & all...and Peppermint Creams!

I hope all you lovely Bloggers and families have the most wonderful, healthy and very, very happy Christmas and New Year!

I raise a glass to you all, well, maybe not quite yet, as I still have the hoovering to do....and that would make me a tad wobbly whilst welding the Dyson Beast (it's new you know, and I'm thinking I may need to put some bloody L plates on it!)




On a slightly different subject, yesterday TD made her Christmas gifts to Family & friends. As she is a student she is always strapped for cash, so each year she hand makes her pressies. In past years she's made biscuits, this is the first year she's attempted chocolate dipped 'Peppermint Creams'. Now she just needs to wrap them in cellophane & ribbon...and voila!

Here's the recipe as they are so, so easy to make and even the littlest child can make them, its just like playing with playdough, which they can then eat....they'll love it!



Enjoy and let the festivities begin...

Hysterical phone call...And a Paramore ticket!

I received a phone call late this afternoon, while doing some shopping. So, there I was juggling carrier bags, a basket, my handbag & a mobile phone, and all I could hear was an almost incomprehensible hi-pitched, squeaky TD shrieking....

"Mummymummymummypleasepleasepleasemummy
pleeeeaasseemyfriendhasaspareParamoreticketpleaseplease
canigo?pleasepleasecanIgo?pleasecanIgo?purleeeeassse?!?!"

....all in one breathe....in 3 seconds flat!

S**t, she nearly gave me a bloody heart attack...I thought someone had died or something...
I had to get her to repeat it several times, before I could understand her.

And no, I'm not going to make it any easier for you, I had to decipher it standing in the middle of a store of full on, rampant christmas shoppers, you're only reading it on a screen! She was so frantic to spurt it all out she didn't even hear me saying "Yes".... "YES"..she was so busy rambling & burbling.... "TD....YES!" I had to shout at her.....Haha.

I had tried (secretly, as a christmas pressie) to buy tickets when they first went on sale a couple of months ago, at 9am, but by 9.08am they were sold out...Woah! Popular or what?? And I refused to pay upward of £80 at any of the other places...it's a £20 ticket for gods sake!

Needless to say I now have one extremely ecstatic (thankyoumummythankyouthankyouILOVEyou!!!) Teenage Daughter, who is, as I type, queuing in the freezing cold at the Brighton Centre, with her £25 ticket, to see her Idols, Paramore, featuring the lovely 'Hayley Williams' ....

And I know TD will have just the hugest grin on her face...

Here is a video of Paramore's BBC Radio One Live Lounge performance of their single, just in case you have absolutely no idea who they are, although if you have teens you must, surely?
If you like it, be sure to listen to their acoustic version of Kings of Leon's 'Use somebody' here.
I think it's a beautiful version of a great song.

Enjoy...

(:::Psst!..Sshhh....Just don't tell TD that her Oldest Gorgeous Brother is on the Guest list, VIP....So I think the s**t may hit the fan when they return. Uh-oh....take cover:::)