Time flies and the children grow so!

Buffer

How did they grow up so fast?!

Are you feeling like this at the moment?  Like it's only a few precious moments ago that you had all these plans and ideas about how their childhood would be, and suddenly they are asking for their own phone and applying to secondary school and couldn't give a toss about the cookie baking idea you had.

What happened?

Yesterday my daughter was listening to my iPod on random shuffle and came across a song she called "Sister Add It".  It turns out it was Five Star's classic "System Addict".  When I mentioned it to my husband and had the nerve to say I'm showing her some great retro tunes he replied, "Five Star isn't retro; it's ancient!"

Oh good grief!

It's less that the children have grown up.  It's more that I seem to have missed the passing of the years and am suddenly a decade older.

I turned 41 this year.  I feel 21 still.  I'm definitely aiming to increase my flexibility this year in dance class and get down into those 'splits'.  So I'll be lying to my body from now on.  I'll be insisting that it responds exactly as it did at 21, whether it likes it or not.

I'm sure my knees will be delighted with the news!

What lies do you tell yourself in an effort to feel younger?

New Year's Eve party? Don't be daft; I'm a parent.

This year we didn't even pretend to go through the motions of staying up to see in the new year. We didn't watch any New Year's Eve specific TV. We didn't countdown. The girls, now 7 and 5, went to bed at 7.30pm. We wandered up to bed at around 11.30, only late because we had been independently pottering around on the Internet doing various jobs, reading up on news, shopping for hotel rooms and 2014 mini breaks.

When I was just dropping off to sleep, I heard the start of the fireworks and my only thought was, "so it's midnight then".

When I was in my teens and early twenties, New Year's Eve was a big deal. A HUGE deal. It was a special night when you got to dress up in your absolute best gear, dance the night away, drink slightly too much, and still end up in a beautifully romantic pose, at midnight, kissing the man of your dreams.

Of course that view was entirely the product of watching Sleepless in Seattle and similar films and has never ever, in my experience, translated to real life.

Truth be told, I can count the number of New Years Eve 'parties' that I have been invited to in my entire life on one hand. Not one of them was in a posh hotel in New York. Not one of them was in a posh hotel...

Forgotten how to have fun? How to get your comedy mojo back

I distinctly remember at age 17 telling my parents that I wasn't going to get all boring when I got older. I didn't see why you should stop being silly and having fun just because you were grown up. For me this meant I absolutely planned to own a house with a fireman's pole and a helter-skelter style spiral slide from bedroom to kitchen.

Funnily enough I don't have either in my house now, and I am fast approaching 40.

I watch my 7 and 5 year old daughters running around pretending to be Batman and the Joker, giggling their heads off, and I try and remember the last time I giggled like that. The high pitched hysterical giggle that makes others smile to just hear.

I can't remember.

When the girls were babies I considered myself pretty good at playing the fool enough to get them to laugh. Now it feels like hard work. We are having a tough year as a family, but nothing I should moan about.

So to get my comedy mojo back I am planning on working on my laughter muscles. I have a plan of action. Read on to find out how....

Streetdance: can you do it when you are approaching 40?

Last week I announced on Facebook and Twitter that I had signed up to attend a Streetdance class. There wasn't so much as a ripple in the Internet surf.

For some reason I expected more of a shocked response. My followers will be aware that I am fast approaching 40 years old. Admittedly I started dancing at 5 years old.  Disco, ballroom, ballet, tap, modern and Acro - this was the 70s in the Midlands, UK, and the dance was very Pop based.

But despite the fact that I love dancing and Streetdance is great fun. Despite the fact that I am feeling 20 years younger whilst doing this new class. Will I actually look stupid doing Streetdance? At what age does a Street dancer have to stop dancing else they look daft? Is there an age?