Keep everything safe on the beach, and still look stylish! Canvas Beach Bag

I rarely buy much at Boots other than the annual pot of Clarins moisturiser and top-up mascaras, I’ve mentioned before how much of a non-girly girl I really am, and of course it’s the only place I seem to be able to get hold of the photo albums I like, as I’m of the pre-photobook generation.  But recently I have made a great Boots purchase.  

I live in a pretty small town, and Boots was going to be one of only a handful of shops I was going to be able to buy some new swimwear for the summer, but of course I was making this shopping expedition in the first week of August.

With the benefit of hindsight I can see how those fashion savvy readers will be thinking ‘What the!’ since it transpires that August is actually the last time you can expect to buy swimwear in the shops. Apparently we are supposed to make these purchases three months in advance in March. Shops in August stock knitwear, wellington boots and other general autumn fair.  I understand that this would be fine for those equally blessed fashion followers who happen to have a static body shape. But I’m shopping for me, someone who has two infant children, and has varied success at actually getting any exercise.

My body size moves from a size 10 to a size 14 depending on what shop I’m in within the same day, further aggravated by the swinging body size resulting from events like Christmas and year-end accounts time (ask any accountants you know about that and watch them reach for the chocolate).

So the shopping trip was pretty unsuccessful when it came to buying any swimwear. I wanted a full swimsuit as well, not a bikini. Ha! Boots had roughly four different designs still in stock, all not to my taste and another couple of designs which I liked, but turned out to be maternity ones.

So I browsed the rest of their dwindling summer fair and spotted a lovely navy, white and red beach bag.


The design attracted me initially, but when I investigated further I discovered that it had a feature that I personally hadn’t seen before. The bag had an inner drawstring lining, meaning you could throw all sorts of stuff in it, pull the string, let the inner bag fall inside the outer bag, and have a beach bag that wasn’t going to spill all your suncream, sunglasses, kids swimming nappies, wipes, mobile etc all over the sand.

I’ve checked, but it doesn’t look like you can buy Boot’s summer stuff online (oddly), so you’ll just have to look out for similar designs like this one and be smug when you’re all ready for summer!

Tried and tested. I love it.  Photos finally added... If anyone knows where one can buy these on line this year please post the link in a comment.. Thanks!

The big one goes public!

We were in the dentist's waiting room this morning.  All fairly quiet.  Receptionist typing away on her keyboard.  Nice leather tub chairs. Coffee table sporting the usual magazines and this morning's paper.   Other parents with children that all all speaking interestingly quietly.  The volume definitely seems to turn down when you walk children into clinics, hospitals and dentists.  Why is that?  It was all very civilised.

We'd arrived early having also hit the doctors surgery this morning., so the girls were looking a the children's books and toys provided in a waiting room 'toy-box'.  All's well so far.

Eldest daughter:  "Is it our turn yet mummy?" 

"No, luv.  We were a bit early.  It won't be long though"

Youngest daughter, now 3, stands up and starts peering around the room intently.
"Mummy..." she says.  Far, far more loudly that the volume we've already established is appropriate for this type of venue...  "Where's the cock?"

"They haven't got a cLock here luv..." I say, speaking uncannily like Ros in Friends, with a need to stress every single letter and trying not to catch the eye of the receptionist.

It was only a matter of time before she went public!


If this post completely lost you, you may need to do a little back reading - just a paragraph...  click here!

My Tip for New Yummy Mummys

Does anyone read the 'Times'?  If so, you might have noticed this weekend's piece on Tracy Anderson.  Dubbed the, and I quote, "patron saint of celebrity fitness", she trains various actresses and celebrities (Madonna being a previous client) using her 'Method'. 

What struck me about the article was that it told me nothing useful about how to start to apply any of her 'Method'.  In fact it told next to nothing about what the method actually entailed and since it appears that you have to train for 1 hour every day on her 'Method'.  I'm extremely sceptical.  I'm sceptical for the same reason that I'm sceptical about those diets that involve drinking milkshakes for 2 of your 3 meals a day.  And that reason is something called "common sense".

In my mind, it wouldn't matter if I was doing Jane Fonda's original workout from the 80s (a classic I should point out), or the New York City Ballet Workout, or even just jumping up and down in my lounge randomly for an hour.  Doing strenuous exercise for an hour a day would make anyone look pretty good.  Even me.  And I don't need to spend the annual fee of $1500 plus a monthly fee of $900 to do that. (Tracy's gym rates apparently!) 

It's in the same way that if I replace 2 of my meals with a milkshake, and not even a special "costs-an-arm-and-a-leg" milkshake, just one I've made at home, with milk, fruit and a fast moving whisk, would definitely reduce my calorie intake such that I'd loose weight temporarily.

So my tip for health and fitness is this.  Exercise when you can; use stairs not lifts, walk to school or work on the odd occasion, eat a little of what you fancy, with lots of variety.  And if the weight's piling on; you need more exercise and less TV.  It's not Rocket Science.  Is it?  

The Sleep Experiment.....

...grinds to an almighty halt.  It's not that I haven't got the desire to sleep well, it's just that the theory of sleep patterns and cycles requires a consistency of bedtime that is just not that easy if you want to have something resembling an actual life.  I'm getting up at 6.30am every morning and my Lumie light is helping to bring a consistency to the time that the sun comes up.  But my bedtime is ranging from 9.30pm on days when I just can't keep my eyes open anymore, to midnight on those days when I've been working, the children have gone to bed fairly late, I've not had tea (or dinner depending on whether you come from the north or south of the country) until late, but I still just want that free half an hour to myself.  A clear block of time to enjoy a glass of wine and maybe, if I'm lucky, catch a decent bit of TV. 

Not you might argue that it's up to me to pull my weight and put in the effort required to be consistent at bedtime if I want to enjoy the fruits of consistent and refreshing sleep.  Well yes.  But this month's not really been the time to focus on it.  You see, those of you who have been regular visits to this page for a while might know that I am something of a dancer.  Or at least I was 15 years ago and despite my body's protests my brain still believes it now. 

So 6 months ago I found an advanced Jazz and Tap class for adults in my area and I jumped at it.  The fact that they were gearing up for their 2-yearly show at the local theatre made it even more enticing.   And before my husband knew it he was being single-dad for 3 Saturdays on the trot for dress rehearsals and for 3 evenings of the show from 6pm until I finally got home at 11pm all excited with adrenaline still pumping from the experience of dancing in front of a sold out theatre of over 500 people. 

I absolutely had a ball.  And we are already back into weekly classes learning new routine for next time.  So with all the good intentions in the world, sometimes life just takes over.  And I'd much rather be reaching for the coffee and living life, than being a wide awake and refreshed bore.

So I'll try and be consistent.  When I can.  And in the meantime, let me know if you find that consistent bedtimes and wake up times makes any difference....!

The sleep experiment...

OK, so I've been experimenting with my sleep patterns this week.  To catch up click here.  I've definitely noticed that I wake up more refreshed and ready to go if I can remember the dream I was having when I awake.  Essentially if I've had time dozing, and I get out of bed between dozes, then I'm OK.

I point out that 'ok' in this case simply means I'm slightly less likely to bite your head of if you try and have a conversation with me within the first 30 minutes of being upright.

I also seem to do better if I've had a 'round' number of hours sleep.  I realise that was incredibly poor grammar, and no-one will understand what I'm trying to say, so I'll try that again...  When I sleep for 6, or 7, or 8 hours and wake 'on the hour' I'm better than if I wake on the 1/2 hour.  I can only assume that my sleep cycles happen to add up like that.

In fact, sleeping for longer does not necessarily mean I'm more refreshed.  It's more about where I am in that cycle when I awake.

I'll keep experimenting, and you never know... I might soon be lifting the corners of my mouth before I get to the school gate!