Show of hands please. Who made a New Year’s Resolution to spend less time on social media? Yep, just as I thought… basically everyone. Now hands up if after deleting the Facebook app you snuck back on. Go on, be honest, it was just a peek right? And then you had to “check” Twitter, while…
There are few things more frustrating than losing something. Last week, my light-fingered three-year-old moved my Fitbit. Being three, our conversation about where he’d put it was… taxing. “Ben, have you seen Mummy’s Fitbit?” “Yes Ben seen it.” “Did you touch Mummy’s Fitbit?” “Yes Ben put it away.” * My eye may or may not…
Grandmas are the greatest. Mine was the best of the best. My lovely Nanna was the BOSS. She called Bingo LIKE A BOSS. She played cards LIKE A BOSS. She once stormed out on a card game when my husband “table talked”. See… boss. She passed down her recipes LIKE A BOSS. Her handwritten custard…
I send my three-year-old son to bed with a dolly in a pink dress. I tell my five-year-old daughter that girls can be astronauts. We’re a girl power, gender-neutral sort of household. And yet, my daughter wanted to throw the school race, so that one of the boys could win. Why? Because she loves him,…
MY WORST BOOK EVER by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman is about a picture book doomed from the very start.
You ever have those weeks where you suffer from “failure to thrive”? This week I made custard so thick we could have repointed the patio with it. I served it in a square bowl with blueberry eyes and a cocoa mouth. It made Ben cry. Then there was the play date where our visitors tried…
We didn’t go to the cinema much when we were kids. Firstly, it was expensive – there were four of us after all. Secondly, it was hard work – like venturing out with a litter of wolf cubs; complete with howling, scratching and occasional furniture chewing. Thirdly, it was totally embarrassing when the usher busted…
I have a new nephew and his name’s Finlay. In Australia we like to emphasise the LAY. FinLAY. But that was just for the first three minutes. As is always the case in Australia, you’re assigned a nickname that’ll stick with you for the rest of your life. FinLAY became Finny. My four-year-old Alice decided…
Gah. Dinner parties. Horrible. What’s worse… that inevitable question: “So what do you do for a living?” I can’t bear it. Generally, I say I’m a writer and the next question is always, ALWAYS, “oh so what does your husband do?” I earn a pretty good crust off my words thank you very much. But…
One year, at the town fair, my Mum got roped into buying encyclopaedias. Back then, encyclopaedia and Tupperware salesmen door-stepped you almost as often as the Avon lady – all now sadly lost to a bygone era. But with no computer in the house (err bit early for that) and four kids in school, Mum…
“That’s it Mum… YOU’RE OUT OF THE SHOW!” my four-year-old Alice hollered when I forgot to serve dinner on the pink rabbit plate. It’s her go-to-phrase when I apparently get this whole child rearing malarkey so terribly, terribly wrong. Like when I switched off Hey Duggee – mid episode – to do the school run. That day…
Leisa Stewart-Sharpe, My Book Corner’s picture book specialist, selects her Best Book of 2017. The Lumberjack’s Beard from Duncan Beedie. What’s not to love about this BEARDiful book! All about friends, the forest and err facial hair! Big, burly Jim Hickory the lumberjack lives in a log cabin and has an enormous bristly beard.…
WARNING: AN ELVES ONLY PICTURE BOOK REVIEW Let’s talk about stocking fillers. I’m always a bit flummoxed when online stocking filler searches offer up bulky, bank-busting suggestions. Although wonderful, a helicopter, a personalised football and an engraved child’s bracelet (with birthstone!!!) are not, to my mind, stocking fillers. Traditionally, Christmas stockings were stuffed with small…
I’ve been in a terrible temper these last few weeks. Angrily stirring my brandy sodden Christmas cake mix, irritably stringing up twinkly lights and cantankerously clicking through my Amazon orders. Bah Humbug! I’ve had a lot to juggle and instead of doing what I usually do and popping on a bit of Roxette and dancing…
“My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!” Smaug Good grief, there really is no shortage of mean ol’ dragons in literature – as anyone who’s ever read The Hobbit, Harry Potter or A Song…
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