Songs to Live your Life by

I was fortunate to be tagged by the lovely Jo for this Meme and it really had me a little stumped until I had a couple of hours alone in my car with my ipod on shuffle.

now these aren't necessarily the songs that mean the most to me - songs can be so emotive.

No, these are songs with a message I love for what they say.

Firstly I was raised in a house surrounded by music and Neil was a favourite, and not just because my first ever valentine's rose came with the message "I'll always bring you flowers"



Next up, well it's an oldie brought to me by me, that does actually have a lot of memories attached.




Because you 'can't catch love with a net or a gun' (something I need to remember next time I want to hold onto a man so tight my knuckles turn white), a bit of James.



And don't we all want to be someone others feel like this about. Groove Armada - My Friend. Luckily I have many of these.




Finally as the mother of a daughter I also have to have Beautiful, twee but hey.




I wanted to add Three Little Birds; a bit of Madonna and so many more that Jo already stole!....


I'm going to tag a Non-mummy blogger because I am intrigued.

Go Gray

Seven days, seven things

I was tagged for a Meme by Muddling Along Mummy but it is one I have done before plus I really don't think there are seven things you don't know about me!

So I thought I'd tell you 7 things I have done in the last seven days simply because I actually HAVE seven things to tell you.

1. This time last week I had been drinking champagne for two hours and was to find myself stumbling out of a bar at 2am, feeling very proud of myself for partying, flirting and laughing.

2. I had my first MacDonalds in recent history - I'd forgotten how good a cheese burger can be!

3. On Wednesday I taught Kriss Akabusi a short meditation.

4. I have lost 4lbs on the Dukan Diet - I can now get into my dress for a wedding in a few weeks (no not mine)

5. I have started a counselling course and have a feeling my tutor (it's online) is actually the brother of an ex boyfriend and I don't think he ever liked me, especially after I broke his brother's heart. But that was a long-time ago I'm sure he won't grade me accordingly will he?

6. I have potty trained my daughter - well made a blooming good start.

7. Started looking for my vocation

It has been a fantastic seven days, thanks to many many people in my life.  This award (maybe without the blogger bit) is for you.

Favourite Photo Meme

I have been tagged by the lurverly Metropolitan Mum to dig in the archives and produce my very favourite picture.



To be honest there are many I could choose, especially from PD's photo blog; as I have just lost my Grandad, and my Grandma is rapidly shrinking, this is the one that came to mind:










As little as five years ago I would have doubted that my little girl would know one of the biggest influences in my life, my Grandma. The years have passed and while she may not be the same Grandma I grew up with, I am proud to introduce my little girl to the Greatest Great Grandma she will ever have.


I stopped taking pictures of Grandad because I wanted to remember him as he was, and as I will always picture him.


I tag the lovely Nixdminx and English Mum to let us see their favourtite piccies.


Thank you Tara for starting this one.

A saving grace or a disgrace

I've been tagged by Rachel with this sevens meme and it couldn't have come at a better time.

At the moment I'm struggling to blog for fear of what I might actually say. There is so much I think I want to say but can't say, but then I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, so I've said very little.

Confusing isn't it? Try being me for a minute....

Anyway, I have to list seven character traits. Now at the moment when I hardly know if I'm coming or going, am not really proud of some of the traits I'm displaying, I'm not sure if this a good idea as it gives me a safe framework to write about or is it just going to highlight what a pickle I'm in.

Heigh ho, let's go, feet first (hopefully not into my mouth)

Do you know the first word that sprung into my head? Depressed - how depressing is that. I'm choosing to ignore that one.

• Anxious - yes right now I am anxious. I have a big knot in my tummy, you know the kind that fills you with a bread baby sized sense of foreboding. Anxiety is actually something I feel a lot lately. It's what stops me answering the phone, it stops me going out. Basically it's pants - this must change!


• Resilient - you know Tubthumping and all that; Weebles wobble and they don't fall down. E.g. I still love to love even though I keep loosing.


• I can't put defiant because, as has been pointed out to me lately, I have lost my defiance. It's true I have, I'm not proud of it.

So, so far I am anxiously resiliant with more than a faint air of defeat about me... hmm attractive, let's see if we can do better than that...

Struggling to come up with more...

• A dreamer - I do have romantic notions and I dream in colour, I like to say this makes me hopeful, and I certainly don't see this as a bad thing - you have to have a dream else how you going to have a dream come true.


• Loving - I have certainly found a capacity in me to love more than I thought imaginable where my child is concerned, which is good. The inability to stop loving is possibly a bad thing, while it makes me generous, it also makes me a little foolish.


• Naughty - you can take this however you see fit...

Hmm a Naughty, loving dreamer, that sounds slightly better

• Last but not least let's go with Creative - it covers allsorts from baking to home making, via the office and back to the bedroom.

Not sure that is me in a nutshell, but it will do for a Thursday lunchtime - not quite a tick vg more of a could do better...

Not sure I can find 7 peeps, but maybe these would like to tell us more for a start; He of the Brouhahah; Butterfly Girl; Her Ampleness and Mr Ledger (no not Heath, that really would be very odd, but very creative...)

Recycle Week

This week is recycle week and I have been tagged by the lovely Tasha to make a pledge for said occasion.

But I am struggling.

Here are the details:

This is what you need to do:

• Visit http://www.recyclenow.com/ and sign up to one of the pledges to waste less.
• Share the details of your pledge on your own blog.
• Chose five other bloggers, who will also be up for a bit of recycling fun.
• Come back to this post at The Rubbish Diet and share your pledge with others, by placing a link to your pledge in the comments field.
• Optional - as a thank you to all involved The Rubbish Diet will be publishing a British Mummy Bloggers' Recycle Week carnival on Monday 29th June. To be included, simply submit your favourite post revealing the progress of your pledge by Saturday 27th June - email to karen[at]therubbishdiet[dot]co[dot]uk.

Well, I am actually pretty good at recycling, I even keep shopping bags in the pushchair AND I have a small one in my handbag. I know, I know I should have a halo.

I did think about going 'waste free' for a day but I have a baby, babies don't do waste free. Even if you use terry (or whatever the equivalent is these days) nappies there is still a nappy liner.

So the only other contender was 'Left-overs for lunch' most of the week I only cook stir-fry and cook what I need. So I will plump (hopefully not literally) for this - a bit worried about the pile of potatoes I have at home but potato salad and smoked salmon sounds good. I don't think eating leftover-homemade Victoria Sandwich filled with fresh raspberries will be a problem!

Ok, I think it may be a bit late to tag people but just in case I tag (non mummy bloggers):

The non-maternal but funny Cat

Pants-on-the-outside Diary of a ledger

And the lovely newbie Butterfly girl

Blog stuff

Yesterday, we dodged internal thunder storms, tigers, elephants and gorillas, to meet the British Mummy Bloggers in the Rainforest Cafe.

Well not all of them, but many. I wish I'd got to speak to more mummies but it was nice to chat to those I did. Sparx and I even had a non-baby related chat - a rare thing these days. Now I have even more blogs to keep up with!

(I should mention it was a free lunch - yay for us. Silver Cross paid, and we had a look-see at their new products, but for me they will always be the makers of lovely carriage built prams, no matter how innovative they get. They are British, so do take a look.)

Wife of Bold is another new blog I discovered recently and she has tagged me. For this lovely rule of eights meme.

THE RULES ARE:
1) Mention the person who tagged you (done)
2) Complete the list of 8's
3) Tag 8 others and let them know

8 Things I'm looking forward to:

1. Reading my new books: Jo Whiley and the new Carlos Ruin Zafon book 'Angel's Game'
2. Being allowed to sleep ALL night at some point in the not too distant future
3. Having the NCT girls over for dinner on Thursday
4. Getting back into yoga
5. Fulfilling my dream of hopping on my beautiful new bike to go wherever I like with grace and ease
6. Going to a grown up birthday party on Saturday (well, it might start that way...)
7. Bestival
8. the future

8 Things I did yesterday

1. Took Isobel on the tube
2. went to the mummy bloggers lunch
3. had an orgasm
4. made granola bars
5. read the paper
6. drank too much rose
7. ate more junk food than a grown-up should
8. weighed myself

8 Things I wish I could do:

1. Treat them mean keep 'em keen
2. walk into a room of strangers without my heart racing
3. write better
4. a headstand
5. sing, I think everyone wishes I could sing.
6. be a size ten
7. ride my bike without falling off
8. channel more goddess energy

8 favourite fruits

Can I just say: Summer pudding

8 Places I'd like to travel:

1. New York
2. Morocco
3. India
4. Cuba
5. South Africa - have to say that if Isobel is to meet her paternal grandparents and see her godfather again!
6. The Galapagos
7. Chile
8. Antartica

8 Places I've lived:

1. The Isle of Wight
2. Bondi
3. Stoke-on-Trent
4. Weybridge
5. Twickenham
6. We'll see...

I tag:

OMG I'm pregnant (counts as two because she is ... pregnant!)

Little Mummy

Nixdminx

Tawny

Sparx

Ok, I can't count...

Someone else loves us

The lovely Clareybabble has awarded us an award, I'm not sure which one, but one of them says I have to list 10 things about myself, and as I have a minute or two on my hands, here I go:

1. This is the longest I have ever been single for: one year, so far.


2. I was once a dummy in a lifesaving display. This involved being winched into a helicopter from one lifeboat and down into another - I wish I had been able to keep my eyes open a little more!


3. I was an extra on Grange Hill - they visited the Isle of Wight and we were the other school. Yes, if you've worked it out this was in the 'high' days of Zammo and 'Just say no'.


4. I was once nicknamed lobsterbolly at work


5. I had a lisp when I was younger, cured by speech therapy, but sometimes I wonder when my little girl likes Ssss words so much: sockssss, shoesssss...


6. I have a degree in Economics and am a qualified accountant but I hate, HATE, numbers


7. My car was clamped for unpaid road tax today


8. My first car was a red Renault 5 called Rupert


9. In 1989 I took part in one of the first ever Russian School Exchange trips, an amazing time to visit Moscow, Perestroika and Glasnost just beginning.


10. The thing that scares me most is losing my daughter.

I think this qualifies me for the honest scrap reward:

I bestow this to all those who don't already have it. Honestly, please help yourself.

(Not alturistic, I'm just nosey and want to know as much as possible about everyone)

And the winners are.....

Drum roll please

I award the this blog is Lovely award to:

(Tough because most blogs I've been reading and enjoying for an age and this said they had to be 'new')

Millenium Housewife for being so frank! (although I think she already has this one!)

Ample Nerd because this really is a new blog, a newbie but a goodie.

Mamapo not just because she blogs from my beloved Island, or just because she pedals kitchen porn...

Tasha - Ok so I've beeen reading this for a while but I am stuck in my ways...

There are two boys I have to give a mention to but I'm not sure they really want a fluffy award for their blogs! Brouhaha and Gray. Bouhaha it makes us feel like you are near by nd you are a fab writer and Gray, I amy not always understand what you write about, but hey I can appreciate the style!

So, here's the award and I mention the rules in a previous post, but here is a recap:

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link

Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. (Ok, so I didn't manage ten, so shoot me already!)

Publish your 5 Pet hates.

Lovely (?!) Stuff

When I started this blog I really did so in isolation, I had no idea what a lovely community there is out there and how having the company of apparent strangers on this journey could make it all the more worth while.

Indeed on my darkest-throw-in-the-towel days someone, be it a blogger or not, has always cheered me on.

OMG We're Pregnant has beautifully presented me with an award today, which reminded me that Tasha had sent me one ages ago but I'd been too ungrateful, ungraceful or down right rude, to accept it .

So thank you Tasha for this award:
Which I dutifully use as a fair and super swap to OMG We're Pregnant in return for this:

Now the rules of this award are:

1. 
   Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
   - tick v.g.


2. Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. - Pending
   


3. I also have to publish my 5 Pet hates, so off the top of my rather empty head:
   

• Public nose pickers - a chap opposite me on the train this evening was having a right old rummage, and I mean rummage. I think he was about to send in a search party.
• Eating soup with a dessert spoon.
• Cracked Heels - why and how does it happen, thank the chemists for foot cream
• Book trashers. My books I can read fifty times but you wouldn't know it. I read them on the train, bus, tube and even in the bath but they still look new. I LOVE books, I love my books and it shows.
• Two faced people, surely life is too short to put yourself to all the effort of applying mascara to two sets of eye lashes; my life is certiainly too short to try and guess which pair are falsies.

Back in a bit with my blog list for you...

Who can I pass this onto...

Ok, so I've been tagged by the lovely Mamma Po on the glorious Isle of Wight, and although I seem to be wracking my brains to tag someone who hasn't been so already, I will try and answer the questions (somewhat hastily as I am at work):


What are your current obsessions?


(In no particular order) Yoga, learning to ride a bike, teaching little girl to talk, regaining perspective.


Favourite food?


Cauliflower cheese and oven chips

Fish, chips and champagne

Steak Tartare

Cheese

Beetroot


What’s for dinner tonight?

If I go to yoga - nothing

If I don't go to yoga I now have a hankering for steak, salad and sweet potato wedges


Hangover cure?

Berrocca


Moaning a lot, doesn't work but seems to happen anyway.


What’s the last thing you bought?

Egg and tomato breakfast baguette from Pret


What are you currently listening to?

Keyboards tapping, St Pauls chiming and on my iPhone are Fleet Foxes, Ben Iver and The Chemical Brothers.


What are your favourite holiday spots?

Well, the Isle of Wight is where I run to most - my mummy lives there


other than that I can't think about holidays until I can afford one!


What are you reading now?
The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie

Itsy Bitsy Yoga - Helen Garabidien
Mind Gym: Relationships - Mind Gym

Use 4 words to describe yourself.

Generally: Happy, loving, optimistic and occasionally naughty

Right now I tend to be: Blue, dull, moany and self-absorbed


What is your guilty pleasure?

Fridays: Going to yoga while my baby is at nursery, and spending the afternoon drinking champagne with Erica.


Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?

My neighbours and my family


First Spring thing

Retrieving flip-flops from under the sofa - told you I am an optimist


Where are you planning on travelling to next?

I'm running away to the Island on Friday.

Otherwise, I guess the next big trip is to SA to visit PD's family.


What was the best thing you ate or drank recently?

Several bottles of 'Don David' shared with friends on Sunday


When did you last get tipsy?

Sunday - the Don David did it. Or this evening if you read this on Thursday (nothing like forward planning)


What is your favourite film?

Life is Beautiful or It's a Wonderful Life


What’s your favourite song?

Right now it's Prettiest Star by David Bowie, I dedicate it to my little girl.

(Isobel's is Nellie the Elephant by the Toy Dolls)


Share a piece of wisdom.

'This too shall pass'


If you could change anything in your life so far, what would it be?

I would have let PD go before Isobel was born and dealt with it with greater grace. I treasure every second we spend together as a family and love sharing her sprecial moments with him; I will always wish things were different but they aren't and I can't change that.

So ladies, the game is, you answer the questions, changing one question for your own, then forward to ? others - who is left!.

Cool Bananas

Tawny

New Mummy