Friday Quicktakes

He hasn't even the decency to be handsome!

1. Now,  I know I'm a bit behind everyone else here- I was playing catch up on the Sky+-but did you see the season finale of 'Mr Selfridge'? What about that dirty dog Groves? Talk about having your cake and eating it! Never has a character gone down in my estimation so much. Poor Miss Mardle-she gave her best years to him and he turned out to be a cad and a bounder! ( See-I'm completely in the zone, insult wise). I'm just so glad she held on to her last shred of dignity and told him to sling his hook in the end. She's well shot of him and I'm just hoping that he gets in comeuppance in season 2. ( There I go again! Comeuppance-a most versatile, yet tragically underused word. )

Mary and her Aga...I just know we'd be besties!

2. Staying on the TV theme for a moment, I seem to have developed a bit of a girl crush on Mary Berry after watching her two part life story. Although in relation to Ms Berry, it seems tote inapproprope to even call it a girl crush- a lady crush just seems much more fitting.
 The elegant way she pops a teeny tiny forkful of something yummy into her mouth, declares it delicious...and then puts that fork down! And you know looking at her that she's won't be sneaking back to fill her Tupperware with the leftovers. No indeed, she's seamlessly moved on, already detached from that plateful and on to the next delicious mini-bite.
No way could I do that in a million years! As soon as that camera was turned off,  I'd be shoveling that Victoria sandwich into me like it was going out of fashion, and then covering the rest with cling for later. Born greedy, I'm afraid, and just one of a whole myriad of reasons why I'd never be asked to do a cooking show.

3. Speaking of which, inspired by Mary Berry, I dug out my Aga book, which was written by the woman herself and shamefully underused. When we moved here, I inherited the Aga but I just didn't 'get it' at all. It seemed temperamental, over rated, and unreliable, but  gradually over the years I've grown to love it...just like everyone said I would. Now we're moving, but sadly the Aga isn't, so better late than never I'm getting stuck into a few of Mary's recipes.
For example, would you believe that I'd never made a lasagne before? Shocking, I know. Someone once told me it was very complicated and that put me right off and anyway, we used to live near a bakery that sold the most gorgeous 'home made' ones at a very reasonable price, so of course I reasoned, 'Why bark when you've got a dog?'
 But I was inspired when I saw Mary B make it, so I used her recipe and made it myself, took a little teeny weeny forkful and pronounced it tote amaze! (I know what you're thinking-self praise is no praise at all, but it WAS delish!) The moral of the story? Don't be scared by lasagne or any other recipe-just go for it. (Except possibly if it has the word 'terrine' or 'roulade' in the title- that IS scary.)

4. Its 'Helping Others Day' in school today- a day entirely focused on the children raising money for Trocaire- a most worthy cause. There's all sorts of activities going on- Cormac made Shreddies buns last night (a little twist on Rice Crispies), to sell in the tuck shop, and the school has called an amnesty on all Lenten promises for the day.
There's the tombola stall, where Cormac was delighted to win a travel iron several years ago, and the jumble sale where the children enjoy buying back not only the old tat that I've donated, but other people's tat as well. For instance, last year Rory was delighted to gift me with a rusty colander, which unbelievably, he'd actually outbid someone else for.
 There's also lots of sponsored activities going on- Rory's class is doing a sponsored hop, skip and score. (No I'm not sure what it is, either.) What I do know,  is that it involves exercise which isn't Rorys bag AT ALL, so when he brought home his sponsorship sheet he announced he wasn't doing it.
'Teacher said you don't have to!', says he. '
Oh indeed you are!' I told him. 'It's your duty to raise as much money as possible for Trocaire..etc etc'.
It turned out he didn't want to miss all the 'fun', which on further investigation translated as 'chocolate'. He actually argued that he could raise more money spending all his pocket money in the tuck shop- essentially doing a sponsored 'eat'. They say that God loves a trier...but he's still hop, skipping and scoring, as well.

5. It was Loverboy's birthday during the week- he got quite a few cards, including a beautiful home made one from Anna and a  regifted Tigger one from Rory, who just rubbed out his best friend Lara's name, and inserted his own.(Simple but effective.) My personal favourite though was this one from our good friends N and P..... Well it made me laugh!

 6. Finally, this weeks boogie in the car seat. Given the hideously awful weather today (snow- WTF???) it had to be something upbeat and happy. So here's a little bit of summer for you-Take it away Katrina! Happy Friday peepsxxx


PS If you haven't already, please take a moment and vote for me in the Family Life Category of the MAD Blog awards before 26th March- Thank you so muchxxx

Friday Quick takes

Danny boy!

1. . Anna went to her very first concert this week- she went with her cousin (chaperoned by Loverboy) to see 'The Script', although of course, the only one who mattered was Danny O'Donoghue.

Morten xx

With their  homemade sign and their hair curled specially, the pair of them screamed themselves hoarse. Exactly as it should be.
 It brought me right back to my first concert (I'm so NOT counting Chris de Burgh/The Singing Eyebrow)-it was Aha in The Kings Hall in Belfast. We didn't even have tickets but we got right to the front anyway - I even saw the gorgeous Morten Harket combing his hair behind the curtain before it started! My teenage experience was complete when later on I swooned dramatically with the heat and the excitement of it all, and had to be lifted over the  barrier by a burly security guard. I instantly declared it the very best night of my entire life EVER.

2.  I hit a personal low this week when I encouraged our youngest son to pee in a Fruit Shoot bottle, in the ladies' changing rooms in Primark. But before you click that x button in the right hand corner of this screen, can I at least explain?
Time was of the essence- I'd two hours to do a load of messages, and by this stage, I 'd already spent one of those precious hours in various public toilets, fruitlessly beseeching nature to take its course.
 In the process,  I'd managed to piss off an old lady on crutches by tying up the disabled toilet for too long, and then to make matters worse, Luke refused to vacate the aforementioned loo, and threw such a hell raiser of a tantrum that I had to physically carry him out past her, bare bottomed, whips round his ankles, while she looked on stoney faced. Understandably enough I suppose, she proceeded to ignore my distracted apology, while I wanted to burst into tears as I  forced my devil child's rigid body into the buggy and strapped him in.
Off  I rushed then round the shops, and was on the third floor in Primark, with a basketful of stuff, when His Lordship informed me that he absolutely, definitely had to go this time. The wriggling around in his seat, indicated that this wasn't another false alarm, so I'd a choice to make- dump my basket, wait for the lift to take me down three floors, run 200 meters to the nearest loo, only to discover that he'd been caught short anyway or..... grab a top ( 3 sizes too small as it turned out), and calmly head for the ladies' changing rooms with my stashed blackcurrant Fruit Shoot bottle.Well,  I did the latter and it worked like a dream. (Still not a good dream obvs)  So now, I'm just ever so slightly concerned that because he was so thrilled with the entire experience, he may well decide to utilise future Fruit Shoot bottles in this novel way, in even less appropriate and even more public settings.Yikes!

3. Have you seen 'Breaking Bad' by any chance? I'd managed to wrestle the box set off  my sister last week before she sold it on Ebay.  I'd heard that it was completely unmissable so we watched a few episodes and, well, Loverboy loves it, while I ...appreciate it. I mean, I do see that it's really original and why it's won all the awards, but I'm just not feeling the love. It's too gritty for me and too much of a leap from my current period drama favs 'Call the Midwife' and 'Mr Selfridge'.
I'm just not sure that I want to see how to make crystal meth from scratch, or how to dissolve a dead body in acid. I'd much rather see romance blossom between Chummy and her policeman, or watch Mrs Selfridge's 'almost affair' with the artist unfold. Clearly, I'm missing something because I felt the very same way about the highly acclaimed 'The Wire' - I just didn't get what the whole fuss was about, and it didn't help that I couldn't understand Baltimore gangland speak-  Loverboy had to pause it constantly to translate it, so in the end I just gave up and watched 'Mad Men' instead.

4. Remember I told you that I'd keep you posted on the 5:2 programme  I've been doing? Well, yesterday was my first monthly weigh in and I've lost half a stone!!  To be honest,  if you see me you won't even notice, because I'm quite good at camouflaging my 'zones', and I'm certainly no stranger to Spanx, but I can definitely feel it round my middle so I'm delighted with myself. The very best part is that I'm finding it easy- something I NEVER thought I d say about losing weight. I'm really strict on my fast days- I actually enjoy the challenge- and then I eat what I want, without the guilt,  for the other 5 days. Mentally, it just seems to work for me, and I'm delighted that it seems to be chipping away at my muffin top as well.

5. Finally, I heard last night that I'm a finalist for the MAD Blog Awards 2013 and I just can't believe that I've been so lucky again, especially when there are lots of better blogs who didn't get through.  There are days when I  ask why  I'm writing about my little life and  wonder who in under God would want to read about it anyway, and I've seriously considered pulling the plug on the whole thing. Then something like this happens and I feel a teeny bit special and very much loved...and it's completely down to you, taking the time to vote even when you've a million better things to do with your time. So I just want to say thank you very very very  much. You. Are. The. Best.

6. If you've made it to the end of these (most definitely not ) Quick Takes, I'll just finish with my Car Seat Boogie. This week it's Debbie Harry's 'I Want That Man'  from 1989. I mean who among us hasn't stood in a pre- formal disco, alcopop aloft, shouting along to 'I wanna be kissed from head to toe, by that man in the very back row'!?  No? Oh. That'd be just me then. Happy Friday my lovelies.xx

Friday Quick Takes

1. Its been a house of sickness this week- we've had a relay team of at least one, mostly two boys off at a time. That's just one of the many joys of having five children - the flu takes twice as long to go around the house. Poor Mac has been hit with it the worst- you KNOW a boy's sick when he shows no interest in his new DS, refuses chocolate and ice cream, and actually SUGGESTS going to bed himself.
 Rory, on the other hand, who was also 'under the weather', gave an Oscar winning performance in an effort to extend his one day off. Big beseeching eyes, shuffling slowly around the house, that trembling little voice saying 'No dinner for me, Mummy-my tummy's sore..... Well, maybe just a wee bit..... No, a bit more than that....... And I'll maybe take that piece of cake too.' Aye right,pet. Is your bag packed for the morning?
From a purely selfish point of view, it's been three, long, tough weeks- the sickness coming right on the back of  Loverboy's jolly/worktrip to India. But them's the breaks, and thank goodness, everyone's on the mend now. *touches wood repeatedly*

2. My 5:2 eating program, which coincidentally  I've also been doing for 3 weeks,  has been going....very well actually, but if you want weekly weigh ins and hip measurements, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong blog. I've an aversion to standing on  the scale- once a month is enough for me-but I CAN tell you that I've lost the Christmas lbs, and I definitely feel my muffin top is somewhat reduced. (Of course it's all relative isn't it, because If I were an ACTUAL muffin, I'd be one of those humongous American style ones, whereas you're probably a perfectly proportioned fairy cake!)
More importantly though,  I'm finding it works for me.  I don't want to big it up too much-  there's certainly no before and after pictures- but I'm not finding the fast days too difficult. I actually enjoy the challenge of seeing how far I can make those 500 calories stretch, and then it's lovely not having to think or focus on it for the other 5 days.  In fact, on those other days, I'm finding that I appreciate the taste of food a lot more, and I'm much less inclined to graze mindlessly on the kids' leftovers. So at this stage, I'd say that I'm tentatively optimistic. As in, come July I might actually fit into those tight jeans hanging in the back of my wardrobe for the last 3 years, not as in, here comes ginger Kate Moss!

Come to Mama.....

3. Are you just LOVING Mr Selfridge? Cos I am! I watched 'The Paradise' before Christmas and adored it, but thought between that and Downton, I might have had period drama fatigue- clearly I was wrong. My mum actually bought me the book  it was based on several years ago, (well, it WAS Book of the Week on Radio 4), but I was a bit ho-hum thanks Ma, and anyway I'd had a pile of Grazia mags to work my way through, so it just sat on the bedroom  windowsill and got all sun faded.. Now of course, SHE'S hooked on the show so has huffily  retrieved it, but tells me that I can borrow it when she's finished!.

4. Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you to anyone who nominated me for the MAD Awards 2013 this week- I'm so very grateful! If you haven't and you'd like to, just click the badge at the top of the page- it only takes a minute, nominations are open until 18 February and I promise that I'll love you long time!

5. Finally finally, I heard this song on the Radio yesterday and it brought me right back and just made me smile. To think that I used to know ALL the moves!  Enjoy and happy Friday! Emmax