Healthy Relationships Education

Advice sheet for parents
from All Wales 
Sexual Health Network

In another life, I do research on identity politics and equalities. My most recent project was a study of government policy on Sex and Relationships Education. I had a great opportunity to go and present on this work to my local Labour Women's Group. We had a good discussion about why education in schools should consider supporting children's growing social skills and self-esteem, as well as their 3 'R's.

Safe Surfing for Piglets

Uh I didn't actually mean Zorro the Surfing Piglet, LOL. What I'm looking at here are some of the issues I faced as Piglet took to the World Wide Web.

Wild Garlic Pestou

I tootled off on my bike today to get some wild garlic to make pestou. I have long suspected that there is a short cut from the school down to the Taff Trail and today I found it! so now I can frequently wave goodbye to Piglet, assuring her that she is having the best time of her life, then leg it hurriedly off to have the best time of my life. 

(Gosh, sometimes I still wake up and say to myself: "Thank God I don't have to go to school any more.")

An iron will

Right. Now the cupboard is tidy (ish), it's time for the ironing .... Urrrrghh.

Waterfall Country

I find it often takes three goes to do something properly, or three days. (Or four if you stop for chocolate.) Going on an excursion involves:
1) Thinking about it and even setting off to try and get there while en route to somewhere-else but realising you don't know the way.
2) Looking it up on the map and setting off, but you are not quite sure how interesting it will be/how long the journey will take, so you don't get the full experience on that occasion.
3) OK, now we know enough about it to go and allow the proper time to do the whole number. We know what clothes we will need, how long to expect to be away from the kitty-cats and, most important, what provisions to take and what refreshments are likely to be available on the spot. We are motivated to check out all the information available from various websites, and we know enough from our personal experience to tell what the information means and which bits of it are useful.

Easter Bunnies

Egg and chips

(See Mrs. Beeton for oeuf en cocotte recipe and go here for how to cook chips.)

Cupboard Love

Stage 1

Gah, can't believe how long it has taken to clear out one cupboard! I had this foolish dream that I would have the whole thing sorted in a couple of hours and be able to spend a pleasurable afternoon on my blog or something. Yah, yah, I should've just thrown everything in the bin, not tried to sort out things which are still useful and can go to charity. 

Easter Holidays

OMG, sometimes it is so hard being a mum. 

It's Easter Holidays so I am spending a lot of time finding ways to amuse the Piglet, and running around farming her out or borrowing other piglets. Cuz one Piglet says 'I'm bored' every ten minutes, but two tend to tootle off together and leave you to do your knitting in peace (wink).

The Golden Bowl

This is Just to Say
By William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
 

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535#sthash.5mT2C0TD.dpuf

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535#sthash.5mT2C0TD.dpuf

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535#sthash.g3Hv2M9e.dpuf

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535#sthash.g3Hv2M9e.dpuf

A Striking Day Out

No no, this is not me and my knitting in an exotic location. This is Ynys Barry - OK, Barry Island, LOL - which some of you will know from the hit tv series Gavin and Stacey.

Unco-operative Capitalism

I see that my local council has moved its account from the Co-operative Bank. I suppose that's one of the many small signs of the beginning of the end. I am truly sorry to see this happening to an institution with whom I have enjoyed banking for about twenty years.Here I'm going to reflect on this in a more philosophical way, while in a companion blogpost I'll look at some practical matters related to banking with the Co-op.

Co-operative Bank worries

From David McWilliams' blog

Well, it looks like it may be curtains for the Co-operative Bank. This is a worrying thing for society in general, since it leaves us with a lot of other free market capitalist banks, many of which have had to be propped up by the government. I don't know why that doesn't prove capitalism is rubbish and a disaster for us all, but clearly Those With Bigger Brains understand and we should leave it all to them (wink). 

Here I shall consider what to do if you have a little money in a Co-op Bank account. 

Recuperating ahead of sautéing

Gah, I had a hideous cough-cold thing. It took me days to recover - crouched over my knitting in front of LoTR 1, 2 and 3. Thank God The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug has come out on DVD at last and I can knit to something else.

Slice of Life

I am laughing cuz my friend in the States says that just like over here, when you have a party you have to bring your own knife. I mean, you can carry a gun but you cannot have a knife floating about at a play centre for the families to use on their Princess Cinderella Coach and Four Horses cake. 

If you are a proper over-achieving 
mom you can find out how to 
make this cake here!

I take our special cake slice, of course. It not only cuts the cake puffickly, you can use it to serve the slices out - if you are not hurriedly shoveling the slices onto napkins which your friend and the Fella wrap up and stuff into the party bags. (Yah, Outlaw Mom gave me the cake slice - she had two of them, of course, and let me have the spare one.)

Mother's Day Special

Pictured here: a few creature comforts with which I curled up today and one gorgeous creature. Oh, no, LOL, I mean Thorin Oakenshield bv the gorgeous creature (wink), although it's true that Eowyn the kitten is growing up to be very pretty. 


Acksherly I spent Mother's Day stressing out about the Piglet party. I was starting a head cold, so you can imagine how pleased I was that I had planned this special day to be at the ice rink.

The UnPacked Lunch

Gosh I was thrilled when Piglet came home and without any prior notice from the school, she announced: "Tomorrow I have to take in a packed lunch which is totally eco-friendly and has no packaging in it to throw away." I made a number of comments using inappropriate religious language.

Life's a Beach

A couple of weeks ago, the coast was being swept by torrential tides. Now suddenly it's Spring.

Red in Tooth and Shame

Agh agh! Worst Mum in the World Award. I forgot to remind the Tooth Fairy to call. Gosh, all I had to think about was my upcoming tutorial, my other cohort of students' next assignment, the packed lunches, the breakfast, getting the laundry in and ironed, making sure there is sufficient sustenance for the cohort of cub scouts coming round while I cavort off to teach. What a slacker.

Money Money Money

Recently I bought Alvin Hall's You and Your Money and started reading it. I thought about buying it several years ago, when I saw Alvin Hall on a breakfast show and he talked about some of his good ideas. Back then I didn't have a lot of money so I said I couldn't afford his book, LOL.

How Housework Saved My Life

(Attempting to clean while 
watching over litter of kittens 
produced by supposedly 
spayed cat.)

"Back, back, you beasts!"

(Reflections on time, dirt and studying Thorin Oakenshield through closed eyelids.)

The Hinterland of Sherlock Holmes

From the BBC

From Wikipedia

The howls of outrage and disappointment must have been echoing all over the country. That was one of the worst Sherlock Holmes I've ever seen including Peter Cook in Hound of the Baskervilles. Coming on the heels of the scintillating early episodes, this will have made people all the more grumpy. Where did it all go wrong?