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Having family in both France and Cyprus we like to try and visit them as regularly as my health and our budget will allow. Vince’s parents live in France and my aunt, uncle and cousins live in Cyprus. Admittedly we travel to France more regularly as it’s easy to pack up the car and drive all the way there (plus we stay with family for free) but I do love Cyprus. Cyprus is fab for price, you can get some great holiday deals, especially outside of school holidays and you are almost guaranteed fantastic weather. The flight isn’t too horrendous at around 4 to 5Read More →

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depression - pills vs talking therapy

Depression, the black dog, that gloomy cloud that envelops your being from morning to night. That feeling of dread. Doom. Waking in the night. Crying for seemingly no reason. Self harm. Spending money you don’t have. Not going out. Going out too much. Alcohol. Drugs. Poor body image. Feeling unloved, unlovable. Shall I go on? I’ve suffered on and off with depression since my teens. A looong time. I was on Prozac (now known as Fluoxetine) in my early twenties. It didn’t work for me. I felt numb, dulled-down, not myself. I’ve been on a fair few different types of anti-depressants over the years. TooRead More →

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to win the lottery? Imagine all the things you could do with a huge jackpot prize. Buy a new house. A new car. Travel around the world. Save for your children’s education. Make generous donations to charity. Quit your job. Relax. Enjoy life. In short, winning the lottery sounds like a short cut to happiness. You would think that lottery jackpot winners must be the happiest people on earth. But just like the song lyrics that say ‘money can’t buy you love’, winning the lottery can’t buy you happiness. Or can it? Amazingly, nearly 70 percent of people who suddenly comeRead More →

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In: Family Life, Health and Beauty, It's all a bit Political, Topical Ranting
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So ladies, the Jade Goody effect has worn off and less eligible ladies are having their smear. This is frankly ridiculous. I won’t lecture you. You know what could happen. You could ultimately die from something that could be prevented. If your smear is due, book an appointment, go and see the nice nurse, whip your knickers off, lie back and think of England. But before you do let me regale you with a tale of one of my smears: Let me set the scene, this was pre-children, pre-losing my dignity – these days I’d whip my knickers off and let the Tesco delivery manRead More →

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The BBC have reported here that a secondary school in Kent are searching bags each morning and confiscating unhealthy snacks. The school states “We had noticed a deterioration in concentrations, learning and behaviour particularly from students bringing into school large multi-packs of unhealthy food, snacks and drinks.” I guess that in itself is fair enough but they also state that they are “not returned” – are they consumed in the staff room? Who can say? If they were to give the items back at the end of the day I would feel better about it. I have mixed feelings about this, having two young sonsRead More →

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I’ve ummed and ahhed about writing this post. I have no real experience seeing as I’m heterosexual and certainly don’t want to be condescending. But, I do have an opinion and that’s what this is all about so here goes… I’m not really one to keep abreast of current affairs (something I intend to remedy) but whilst attempting to get a non sleeping toddler to sleep recently I was browsing Twitter. One Tweet in particular caught my eye. Allow me to enlighten you – On Monday (New Year’s Day) we (me, my mum and Big L – 6 and a half) went to our localRead More →

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Hi! My name’s Erica and I effing love Christmas. I do, I reeeaaaaally do. I’m one of those weird people that likes giving presents (but hates wrapping them). I just love it. It gives me a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling inside, I get excited at the prospect of people enjoying their gift. In fact I love Christmas so much that I set up a Facebook group for fellow Crimbo lovers with my friend Anna (HERE since you asked). Why do I love it so? Well, it’s hard to pin it down. I’m not a Christian, or religious in any sense really so it’s not aboutRead More →

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This week is Anti Bullying Week How do I know this? Because Little L (aged 6 and a half) has come home with dreams of joining the “Anti-Bullying Alliance” (it might not actually be called that but you get the gist). He is so determined to stand up to bullies and stand up for those who are being bullied it makes my heart swell with pride (and worry me a little but there you go). The slogan for Anti Bullying Week is “All Different, All Equal” which is just fabulous in my humble opinion I was bullied at school I was called names for aRead More →

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Last week I felt very lucky to be invited to the launch of Nicola Rowley’s new children’s book – James and the Birthday Balloon.  I was particularly excited because (not only was it a rare chance to get out of the house) but both Nicola and Cbeebies own, very lovely, Dr Ranj were there! Dr Ranj narrates the audio version that is downloadable with each copy. The event was held in the Evelina London Children’s Hospital and £1 from the sale of each book is being donated to the hospital. The book is about James who has the ability to cheer people up with hisRead More →

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It’s been a while since I worked in an office but lately I’ve been thinking about the different personalities you meet in the workplace.  It doesn’t have to be an office, it could be anywhere even a building site, and it even translates to blogging.  We have Facebook groups where we congregate and swap stories and the same personalities crop up time and time again. So, without further ado I give you 35 personalities you meet in the workplace (in no particular order or gender for that matter) and how they spend their lunch break: The one that hangs around the photocopier all day doingRead More →

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