So you have an extra adult living in your home.

My daughter is not just a teenager, she became that 5 years ago, no she is now AN ADULT. As an adult she can do adult things.

Last Friday she fell in the door drunk after being sent home early by mates because a club wouldn't let her in (she was too intoxicated apparently - which she strenuously and slurrily denied) 

Her bedroom is still a teen land of danger, no one should venture in, clothes litter the floordrobe and various bottles of beauty products are scattered beneath the mirror shrine to instagram. Windows are never opened and curtains rarely drawn, it's a world of gloom, and complex disorder.

On the whole though, like many adults she is pretty responsible. She has a car (gifted! because she did well at her A levels) and she has a full time job.  She is never late for work, works hard and is appreciated by those she works with.

At home, when requested, (though never spontaneously) she will do chores around the house, sweeping, hoovering, dusting, walking the dog etc etc. Though of course 'tidy your room' is not a chore that currently seems possible.

So I have a new adult in the house, I can send her out to buy beer, ask her to pick up things in the car (including me!) it's rather fantastic and strange.

As yet I haven't asked her for rent. It all seems a tad new and weird, this new adult in the house. For years she had pocket money from us, and now I'm looking at that money flowing the other way.

And I'm wondering how to proceed, there are few manuals about teens, there are no 'Mum and Teen' church groups to join, as there were toddler groups, I rarely chat to other mums of teens and it's hard to do that anyway because as parents we don't want to disrespect our offspring's privacy. 

So here I am, embarking on a new chapter, a new adult in our house, living here, eating here, being messy here, how soon should she be contributing here too? Is it too late? Should I have started on day one of paid work?! Is it too soon, is it nice to allow your teen a bit of fun (assuming you can afford it) when they first start earning?

I'd love for other mums and dads of adults to let me know their opinion, or what they have done, and even what they wished had or hadn't done! I guess like much of parenting there are no hard and fast rules and what works for one may not work for another, we all just muddle along. 

Just sometimes the world is a lovely place

On Thursday my lovely daughter, Rafaela, was excited to be heading up to London after college to see one of her favourite singers, Anne-Marie.

Rafaela was travelling alone and like many of us, was slightly panicked about the thought. She had bought her train ticket in advance, had planned her travel across London, had both phone and mental maps of the tube trains she needed to get etc etc.

What she hadn't counted on was her shoe falling apart just as she arrived at the station. And not just a tiny crack in the sole or a loose aglet either! Her entire sole ripped off the shoe. Leaving her in tears. But after a bit of deep breathing, thinking, looking at timing, (could she make it to a shop and still make the concert? no. Get home and still make the concert? no) she decided the only thing to do was to ask for help from the people that would understand. Anne Marie fans. And the best place to get in touch with them was via Twitter.

What happened next became a Twitter Moment.

First an urgent request to anyone that was attending the concert, I imagine she hoped maybe someone could bung a pair of spare trainers in their bag to give to her at the gig, or would be able to get some to give her at Victoria station, because by the time she arrived in London the shops would be closing and she had a concert to get to.

❕Yo someone help a girl out??
Anyone going to @AnneMarie tonight have a spare pair of shoes 😂 cos I’ve just got on the train and the sole has completely come off my shoe 😂😂 currently walking in socks 😩😭❕

— Rafaela🏳️‍🌈 (@Raffacake1999) March 22, 2018

But it was Anne-Marie herself that saw the tweet and said she'd sort it out. Even then Rafaela assumed she meant that she would tweet about it, boosting the post. When Anne-Marie asked what size shoes Rafaela wore, she again thought it would be about sharing the problem, but a DM (private twitter message) from Anne-Marie explained more. Anne-Marie planned to get some shoes to Raffy herself.

A thrilled and now relieved Raffy continued her journey to London. But she still had some travelling to do before collecting her shoes. Cinderella-like she wandered in her socks down to the tube and onward across the city, trying to ignore the odd stares of other travellers. Her feet became increasingly cold, but finally she arrived.

Once at the concert venue she joined a queue of fans already there. Now, mildly famous, people in the queue were laughing and chatting with her. She messaged Anne-Marie and was overjoyed when someone from Anne-Marie's team came out to give her some new shoes. A JD Sports bag was handed over.

Raffy was stunned to find inside, a pair of new black Nike AirMax in her size. And just like in the fairy tale they fitted perfectly, and Rafaela did go to the ball. What a fabulously generous act by Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie wasn't only generous to Raffy either, she sent pizza out to her fans that had been queuing for a long time in the cold.

Who’s queuing outside The Roundhouse already? I’m gonna send you all some pizzas. Keep an eye out for @ashtonmiranda & @oli_drums ❤️

— ANNE♥MARIE (@AnneMarie) March 22, 2018

And there is another thing about this story that I really loved; twitter Anne-Marie's fans did see the initial tweet, and they did respond, with ideas, love and sympathy. And once Anne-Marie stepped in to solve the problem, and after Raffy shared a picture of the shoes, they continued to be lovely, sending supportive tweets and friendly messages. It's really lovely to see a group of people brought together by an artist who go on to really become like a family. I know that sounds gushy and soft, but really it was so nice to see.

Just pop over to twitter and look at the sweet replies to this tweet

Do they fit ok? https://t.co/lWfjLFtRRv

— ANNE♥MARIE (@AnneMarie) March 22, 2018

So thank you Anne-Marie for saving my daughter's day, making her evening and turning a disaster into a really special memory. And thank you to Anne-Marie's fans for being so lovely too.


Anne-Marie comes to the rescue after a fan's shoe falls apart 👢

Temporary Car Insurance for your newly qualified teenage driver

So your teen has passed their driving test! Yippee! they can take you home from parties, ferry you to the pub, share the driving on holiday ... oh wait... you do know that you need to sort out the car insurance right?

On the very moment they pass their test, they are no longer insured to drive the family car they've been cheerfully practicing in! Yes a quick call to the insurance provider is needed.

In our case Raffy had been driving my Fiat Panda, not a well known sports car or hot hatch, and it had raised my insurance to have her on the policy from £200 a year, to £400.
So it was with some surprise to find that upon passing her test the insurance now rose to £4000.

After some clutching at my chest and deep breathing, I went to a few comparison sites to look around, I did finally find insurance at as little (as little! *bitter laugh*) as £1500 a year, but as Raffy tends to only use the car for about an hour a week to drive to and from college, this seemed excessive. So it looked like her driving days were numbered.

That's when I remembered a product I'd heard of that enabled people to drive your car with a temporary insurance, literally an hour at a time if necessary. It was sold to me at the time as festival driving insurance "giving a mate a lift? why not share the driving to and from the festival" but I realised this might be useful for newly qualified teenage drivers too.

I took a look at Cuvva as it was the first one I had heard of, but it turned out they wouldn't insure drivers under 19. As Raffy isn't 19 for a good while yet I had a hunt about. And I found Veygo. Underwritten by Admiral Insurance it enables you to insure a car for anything from an hour to...well a month or so if you like (perfect when your student comes home for summer from University and wants to borrow dad's wheels) . And as it's done via an app you can even do it on the go. They insure learners too!

I used it for the first time this Monday, and it seems pretty simple to use. You take pictures of the car (if you forget to do that and then need to claim, your excess will be higher) and then fill in the info on the app and it's all good, the policy documents are emailed to you immediately (Mr TM and I joked that Veygo should sponsor Police Interceptors as one of the major crimes seems to be young lads driving uninsured, for only £17 or so they could escape a fine or worse!)

I insured Raffy for 24 hours as she wanted to car late in the evening, Veygo stipulate that for insurance after 10pm and before 5am it must be 24 hrs minimum, but even then it was only £26. For day time only on a Saturday the cost was more like £17. All in all a cheaper option than £1000, as she doesn't have her own car, and is now using mine only occasionally.

So there you go, my top tip. Try out temporary car insurance to ensure your new driver doesn't forget how to drive! Veygo even say you can earn a years no claims discount if you use the app for driving more than 30 days in a year!

Crowded places, kids, and fear

I'm off up to London with DD at the weekend. I'm meeting up with my brother and his family at Comic Con and I am really looking forward to an excuse to wear my Morphsuit and dress as Deadpool again, I even bought some plastic ninja swords to add to the look.

But after the Manchester attack and the tragic loss of life at the Ariana Grande concert on Monday I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, maybe even scared. Obviously I'm going anyway. As daily news stories point out, I could just as easily die on the drive in to work as in a terror attack, and terror is of course what these evil people hope to cause.

The whole thing has upset me, as I'm sure it's upset everyone. I sway between tears as I read about the beautiful people who died, on a night where they were with friends and family having fun, and then laughter as social media does it's best to snark at terrorists and fight light in the darkness. (see more on the hashtag #BritishThreatLevel on twitter)

I take great solace in reading of the things people did, and continue to do to help others, from kind words, free taxi rides, helping the injured, donating to help with hotel bills and funeral costs.

It is in the aftermath we see the truth of people, many will say we see the best of people, sadly we also see the worst of people, the vile and the racist and the spiteful, this sort of event displays the best and worst of humanity, so I hang on to the images of love and kindness, I look for the helpers.

Talking to DD about London, among my quips about dying wearing a Deadpool costume (oh the irony if that happens, but at least the blood won't show) I talked to DD about plans for us if there was a terror incident, I said that she should use me as a shield, that if we couldn't get out she should lay under me to stay safe, she looked into my eyes, her own eyes wide in surprise, saw my sudden seriousness and nodded, "yes, OK" she said, "but if we are OK, if other people are hurt, we are going to help, I'm going to wear an extra T shirt in case we need bandages..." and there it is, the best of people. I'm proud and heartbroken in equal measure. Not all super heroes wear capes, not even at Comic Con, some wear an extra T shirt.

Copyright: blojfo / 123RF Stock Photo

So I fully expect a fun day out, and I'm trying to keep fear to the back of my mind and keep love and kindness to the fore.

I'll be sharing Comic Con photos after the weekend. Stay tuned.

Teaching a teen to drive with minimal screaming

As the lovely DD has turned 17 her thoughts naturally turned to...nope not marriage, driving.

The first thing I discovered was that adding a new driver (even just a learner) to your insurance makes the price go up. I'm not talking a tiny bit either, my insurance company told me that they don't want to insure young drivers so my quote went from £300 a year to over £800 a year. Obviously I high tailed it to Compare the Meerkat to get another opinion! I am now with a different company, insured for £300 ish again. What a weird world. (oh and I get a free meerkat toy, so win win)

I have a Fiat Panda so it's a nice small car to practice in, has a great driving position with excellent visibility, and DD isn't scared of it, of course my fear factor when she takes the driving seat is on another level all together.


What I can't offer DD is a driving lesson. I'm not a qualified driving instructor and I passed my test (first time, *proud face*) way back when I was young (25 years ago) so I have no idea how much of what I was taught is still in the test, and of course there is a theory test now that I didn't have to worry about.
But I can offer DD some basic pointers and time to practice. And so after a few tense minutes talking about clutch control and braking we went out for a drive.

As the 'reponsible' driver in charge of a learner (I know!) I had to behave exactly as I would when driving. So no tweeting, no having a glass of cava to steady my nerves, in the eyes of the law, *I* am in charge of the car.

But so that you could enjoy the mayhem fun, we set my phone up on the satnav holder, out of the way, and set it to record before we set off. Note my calm and relaxed posture, the lack of screaming, the smiling...I think I did pretty well.

Of course we have invested in 'proper' lessons too. And after a hunt around for someone that
   a) had availability (many teachers are booked up months in advance) 
   b) we could afford (prices ranged from £15 - £30 an hour and some could only be purchased as a bulk booking of ten or more)
   c) DD got on with OK (a 'trial' lesson should be possible with most instructors as teaching styles should ideally be matched to the pupil's learning style)
we settled on a teacher. He is taking DD out once a week in a dual controlled car so that his blood pressure hopefully won't rival mine after an hour in the car with her.

Have you taught a teen to drive? Will you be allowing your child to drive your car? Share your horror stories below.

Wordy Wednesday's author interview with Non Pratt

Hello Wordy Wednesday fans! A treat for you all today as I interview Non Pratt, fabulous fun person, author of books my teen adores and general all round nice person.

First I asked Non to introduce herself, for the benefit of those who don't know her work (do catch up though!)

So Non, who do you write for? What do you write about?
I write books for teen-minded humans. My novels Trouble, Remix and Truth or Dare (coming out June 1st) and novella Unboxed, all have a contemporary setting and tend to involve quite a lot of friendship drama and a little bit of sexytimes because these are the things I was most interested in as a teenager… and as a thirty-something adult.

Do you have another job or are you a full time author? If you do something else (international spy?)
I am one of those rare beasts: a full-time author. My job before this was as an editor in children’s publishing, so I’m pretty much a one-profession pony. No international spying for me.

When did you start writing? 
I’ve been writing since I was fourteen – about a lot of the things I’m still writing about now. When I started, there weren’t that many books catering to teen interests and I was desperate to read about teenagers that were a bit like me (but doing cooler, edgier stuff, like hanging out in the park, drinking, getting into fights and having sex). My first novel was about a group of people who really liked the rain – called The Rain Gods – and I finished it in the middle of the night in a flood of tears when I was about nineteen.

What 3 things are guaranteed to make you smile? 
A grown cat chasing its tail in an empty bath tub. Anyone paying me a compliment on my hair. (nice hair, Non) Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves.

Do you have any pets? 
We used to have two cats – Remy and Fenix. Fenix was my cat and he would come and sprawl over the paper on my desk and purr at me. He died earlier this year, but Remy seems to have been observing the Fenix’s behaviour and now comes to see me at 2pm every day to trip over stuff on my desk and try and climb on the back of my office chair while I type. It is not helpful, but it is sweet.

Who is your favourite author? Do they influence your writing or are they a total break from the sort of thing you write? 
My favourite author is Patrick Ness. We actually have the same editor at Walker (in fact, my love of his books is the reason I submitted my novel to Walker in the first place). His books are very different to (and much better than) mine, but I recently realised that I’d never tried writing into the first person present tense until after I read The Knife of Never Letting Go – and that was the first time I found my voice as a writer. So, Patrick’s been pretty bloody influential as it turns out!

Which book(s) are you reading at the moment? 
I’ve got my sticky little mitts on The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which comes out in April in the UK. It’s about Starr, who is witness to a police officer shooting her friend. The book was inspire by the Black Lives Matter movement and you’ll hear a lot of people saying why this book is so important (it is) and timely (it is), but despite tackling some very serious and under-addressed questions, it’s written in such a deft manner that one moment you’ll be gasping in horror at the truth of what it must be like to constantly have to watch out for others’ dangerous prejudices and careless microaggressions, and the next you’ll be grinning at some of Starr’s wryly observant one-liners and the A++ flirting that goes on. This is a book that is rich and varied and worthy of the hype you’ve been hearing.

Where do you do most of your writing? 
Staring out of the window on a long train journey, or sitting in my office at home. I have my grandad’s old desk where I plot stuff out or hand-write when I get a bit stuffed up and at right-angles to that I have a sit/stand desk where I type stuff up on my PC.

Tell us about the character that you've written that you like the most - no spoilers! 
My favourite character is still Neville from Trouble. He’s a cantankerous old bastard and he’s brilliant.

What is your favourite biscuit? 
McVites plain chocolate digestive. Eaten at least three in a row, all dunked in hot tea.

Tea or Coffee? 
Tea. (Preferably accompanied by some chocolate digestives…)

In the film of your life who would play you? 
Bex Taylor-Klaus who plays Audrey in the Scream Netflix series could play a Young Non. She’s basically my style icon (in character and out) and I think she’s fab. No idea who could play me as Old Non. Alison Janney? Just because Alison Janney is amazing? We look and sound nothing alike though!

Who wouldn't want to be this cool?

If you could genetically cross an animal and a vegetable, what would you pick and why? 
I like the idea of a potato and a sloth...could you get a lazier creature? (my soul mate) I would cross a snake with an aubergine. Aubergines have the loveliest skin – imagine that on a snake.

This is Non Pratt’s Hive Page Go buy books!

You can also follow Non on twitter.

Thanks so much for taking part Non! 

I can confirm that (gay) teen girls love her books, and I know that DD will be keen to read the new one, Truth or Dare

Teen gift idea and Printed Sweatshirt Review

Finding something for a teen for Christmas is always tough. Partly as we live in an age of having much more than we need, and partly as teens have money to get what they want when they want it, and so many things that were 'saved for christmas' or your birthday when I was a kid are now just seen as essentials and bought during the year.

Unless you are the sort of parent that buys £600 phones as gifts (I'm not) you'll probably be looking at Christmas albums (interesting aside, vinyls are now outselling downloads, so maybe getting a retro record player should be on your list!), maybe books by their favourite reality stars (DD was thrilled to receive a signed copy of Hannah Hart's book for her birthday this year) or clothes.

I've heard some people say that clothes aren't a real gift. And I sort of see where they are coming from with that, obviously getting a new school skirt or some plain grey socks might not cut it, but clothes that you wouldn't normally buy yourself might be just the thing, especially if they can be personalised.

Don't worry I'm not suggesting you get your teen a T shirt with their name on like you did when they were 4,  but there are things that only you know about your teen that can make a T shirt or sweat shirt into a rather fun gift. Teens like slogan tops (so I have been told by my own teen who recently pinched my 'Nothing But Tea' T shirt, a slogan that amuses her as she's teetotal) and so why not have one specially printed?

I've always thought T-shirt printing places (the online kind, not the seaside 'I'm with Stupid' kind) were for promotional brand stuff or for teams, maybe if a group of you are going to run a marathon, or hang out as a hen group in the town, but they can be used to print individual stuff too, and they are not as pricey as you'd think.

Garment Printing make printed T shirts and sweatshirt and other things too, and the prices are around £24 for a single printed T shirt  inc. delivery and all set up and design help. (of course if you ARE running a marathon as a team then it gets cheaper per item if you order more). Standard delivery is 7-10 days but they provide an express service, and can print and deliver next day if you've left it late.

You can choose your base colour and then decide if you want a picture, logo or other design and if there is any text you fancy.

"Yes mum I cleaned my room!"

"I'll be back whenever"

"My parents made me wear this, to keep my kidneys warm" ~~ seriously considering this for the future!

"Can you lend me £10"

or one of many other well known teen and family phrases.

Garment printers have a team of designers who will make a mock up of the design and send you an image to approve. When they made the one they sent me for review I let them pick the font though I supplied the image, and it works really well, DD loves it, but you can do the design however you want. Once the design is approved, the garment is made and delivered.

DD Can't even think straight

DD and I are really pleased with the quality too. The sweatshirt is nice thick material, it feels llike a quality product. It wears well and has washed well too. The print doesn't fade or peel. I'm really happy with it.

So for a fun teen gift (or for anyone really) why not consider unleashing your sarcastic wit on an unsuspecting T shirt or sweatshirt. Garment printers have a best price promise and will confirm your quote in 5 minutes. (and with a 20% discount for charities - if you are planning doing any fund raising in 2017 as a new years resolution, they'd be a great company to work with)

Best advert for this company I think is DD who has barely taken the sweat shirt off since it arrived! (so it has been washed several times!)

Five ways your teen is the same as a toddler

So maybe you are reading this as the parent of a teen, in which case I expect you will nod along with at least a couple of these. If you are reading this, still in the innocence of life as the parent of a toddler, happily expecting things to change as they get older...well we are sorry, really we are, but sadly somethings never change...

• Your day still revolves around them

It used to be that you had a schedule based on feeding, naps and potty times. You ran them to music groups, mum and baby groups (or dad and baby groups). You organised play dates and marked craft time on the calendar. Now however, while the things you are organising have changed, you are still running your day according to the teen. You are nagging about homework, telling them to get up out of bed, to remember to put their washing in the laundry (or if you have them better trained than I do - nagging them to actually do some washing). You resist drinking alcohol in the evening in case you need to be a taxi later. And you are up late worrying and trying not to text too much when they are late home...which brings us nicely to:

• Sleep (or lack of it)

Once you used to find getting them to bed a chore, the never ending rounds of stories and drinks of water. The checking for monsters under the bed and the 'one more kiss'. And then, always just after you yourself had nodded off, the cry of 'MUM' or 'DAD' and a tiny crying body who had a nightmare, or wet the bed (I knew that last glass of water was a mistake), or just needed a cuddle, appears at the side of the bed, you either make room are get up and carry them back to their room, but both options usually result in not much more sleep. Now you would imagine that having a teen would put paid to all that, they can do it themselves, you'd think, but no. Now you have the constant getting them to bed battle but with added backchat of "I don't need to, I'm a grown-up" and once they are in bed, the eerie glow of a mobile as they check snapchat into the wee small hours, despite you calling to tell them to turn it off, only for them to complain they are too tired to get up for breakfast. And this is with out the perils of the teen 'going out' and not coming home and your own bedtime creeping by with no text or word from them..should you go to bed? should you stay up? Are they coming home at all? How can you sleep even if you do go to bed? and then...they are home! at 2am and they need a snack and a chat and dear lord will parents ever sleep again

• Fussy Eaters

This post was actually triggered by a real life event (not that the others aren't real - they just didn't trigger this post) on Saturday. One of DD's favourite meals is a chicken dish in tomato sauce served with rice. (remind me to post the recipe sometime) any way, the ingredients vary a bit depending on my mood and store cupboard, last time I made it I bunged in a few olives, which she diligently picked out, "I don't like the olives in it" she opined. So this time when I slung the olives in (because, dear reader, I like olives) I was prepared for the teenage moans..what I was not prepared for was "It's yummy, shame there aren't more olives in it though". So yes, you have a fussy 2 year old that happily eats a breadstick on Sunday only to cast it to the floor in furious displeasure on Monday, and you are hoping for this to settle down...well DD is 17 and there is, as yet, little sign of it.

• Clearing up after them

I assume you've heard about messy teen bedrooms? It's not a myth. Things grow in there. Green things in bowls and the base of coffee mugs, socks go there to die. Picking up a few stickle bricks is nothing, nothing I tell you, to the horror of a teenager's bedroom...let's move on...

• Adoring them

I know, I'm a slushy mum, but you know how you look at your angelic toddler sometimes (when they are being angelic or are asleep usually) and you just sigh with the perfect beauty and love of them? Yeah well that. When you teen emerges out of their pit room and is all dressed up looking gorgeous and young and vital, and they smile and say "I'm off out, back later" and you love them and feel that familiar warm glow of being a parent...which lasts right until you peek into their room...or are still up at 3am wondering where the hell they are...

Do you have a toddler or a teen? Or both (I'm praying for you) Do you recognise any of these scenarios? are are there any I've missed?

Does Parenting Change When You Have a Gay Teen?

My daughter, the lovely DD is 16.

She has really blossomed lately, budgeting for herself, suddenly deciding (against her parents wishes) to have her waist length hair cut to shoulder length, becoming more outgoing, getting herself to and from college without always relying on 'mum's taxi', letting us know when she'll be late and making new college mates and hanging out at coffee shops. In short she has become a teenager at last. So 'almost an adult' that it hurts to think about it.

My baby is testing her wings.

As a parent I know that this is what it's all been about, preparing her for life and for leaving us, but as a parent I also feel the pain of that 'almost loss'.

I'm so proud of her. She did well at her GCSEs, is doing all the A levels she wanted to, is making new friends, and is looking happy. Happier than she has in a while, and she's always been a happy child. Maybe this happiness is linked to the fact that she finally plucked up the courage to come out to her friends as well as her parents.

Yes dear reader, I am the mum of my own little gay! She told me by accident in a mistaken Facebook message back in January, and, well, I behaved fairly predictably. First I checked she sent me the image to tell me something, and not just because it was cute or funny (she often sends me weird memes via messenger) , and then when that was confirmed, I just said "OK" and on we went.

My Wraps - Wearable Headphones Review

My daughter, like many teens, lives with her headphones in her ears, listening to the soundtrack of her life on her phone.

I am a more discerning listener, by which I mean I listen less frequently than she does. Because of this I'm forever forgetting my headphones or finding them tangled and/or broken and useless at the bottom of my bag. When I was sent a set of My Wraps headphones to review I realised I may have finally found the solution!

My Wraps are headphones designed to be worn around the wrist like a trendy bracelet. They come in various colours and even with wooden beads, but the brown suits my style perfectly, nestling comfortably alongside my wooden watch and other bracelets.

They look so good on that I actually wore them for 3 days before I tested them as headphones! They work fine as headphones of course, and I don't lose them and have not been able to tangle them either. They are my new favourite thing, never again will I be trapped on the bus unable to watch a hilarious Youtube clip because there at my wrist will be the answer to my needs! From now on - I'll be wearing my sound.

They are really easy to put on, just wrapping around your wrist (even my skinny one) and then the jack slips into the silicone grip on the earphone end.

My Wraps start at £14.99  for the basic colours, but they are available in leather or beaded too. Perfect for men or women they are available in various colours to suit your mood or style.

They would make a perfect gift for the fashion conscious teen or the forgetful parent :-) Buy some for every outfit!

Specs for Classic Wraps…
Anti-Tangle Fabric
Includes S, M & L Silicon Tips
20Hz – 20kHz Frequency Response
10mm Dynamic Speakers
3.5mm Gold Plated Jack
80dB/1mW Sensitivity
16 Ohms Impedance

Disclosure - I was sent the wraps free of charge for the purposes of this unbiased review.

Wordy Wednesday - a break from the interviews

Hello all, for reasons too numerous the mention (but laziness may be one of them) I have no author interview for you today so I'm going to have a natter about reading, about not reading enough and asking you what you are reading.

I used to read loads. As a teen in the 80s (I know!) I didn't have the internet to distract me, the only friend I had who lived in another country was Costas, a Greek penfriend. Penfriends were all the rage back then, but writing letters and waiting, while fun, was not the distraction that the instant conversations of social media are today.

I'm a friendly soul and so I love to chat online, it makes it hard to break off to read a book. Coupled with the feeling that I don't really enjoy books that are written now. It used to be so easy - I loved horror stories for a while in my early teens, couldn't read enough James Herbert and Stephen King, but went off of those as I grew up. Then I fell for Sci-Fi and I still love science fiction, but rarely like the modern tales, that seem overly moralistic or depressing. I know the classics can be that too, but there was a lot of looking for utopia in science while now distopias seem more common.

I tried reading some YA (young adult) fiction, thinking maybe it would be more cheery...ha! It seems if you don't have a life threatening condition, a major disability, a traumatic home-life, or possibly all three you are not a YA hero. I even asked twitter (that distraction) for some happy YA - no one could name one..."oh it's sweet...but yeah..he dies"

Fantasy kept me entertained, I loved the stories of the Dragons of Pern (is that sci-fi or fantasy?) and Terry Pratchett wrote a world of comedy genius filled with trolls, goblins, witches and elves. But lately I really struggle to find something I can get properly lost in.

Recent books that have captured me have included, The Martian, The Girl in the Red Coat, The Golem and the Djinni, Down Station (hurry up and write part 2!), and The Lollipop Shoes. And the thing all these had in common was that I didn't read them....I had them read to me via audible audio books. It's a great way to consume books while I'm driving, double tasking! With the added bonus of not listening to Radio 4 and their obsessive politics.

So what else should I be reading or listening to? Tell me the good stuff I've missed. Pop over to my Facebook page and comment on this post there, or let me know on twitter. Until next week.

Giving yourself a bit of a VÖOST with vitamins

Having a teenager and being a working mum it can be easy to sometimes slip up in the 'balanced diet' stakes. Not very day but sometimes. And the media love to scare us daily with fears around missing our vegetables, getting rickets, scurvy, and the like. The latest scare is around not getting enough vitamin D because we use sunscreen! We really can't win can we!

Since DD was small we always supplemented her diet with vitamins just in case, I realise that if you have a proper balanced diet you don't need them, and that more is not any better than 'enough'; but as I said before, it's easy to find days slip by with no fruit and hardly any vegetables, and all that sunscreen....well..

As DD got older of course the vitamin requirements changed but also so did the tablets, away with the cute chewy jelly type and in with the hard 'swallow whole' sort that DD hated. So I was really thrilled to find VÖOST multivitamin and mineral effervescent tablets that make vitamin taking into a task as simple as a taking a drink (extra points for making the teen drink more) and I bought some to try. Imagine how keen I was to try the others in the range when asked! It turns out that VÖOST has a full range of vitamins and minerals, each with a different flavour and all easy to take in a drink.

We have been trying out the various ones sent to us for free. And I think I shall be carrying on with the multivitamins and maybe the Vitamin C and D too. I'll let you know if I feel boosted when I've been taking them for a few weeks!

Designed exclusively for busy modern lifestyles, the VÖOST range is ideal for anyone who feels like they need a vitamin or mineral boost. Effortlessly slipping into demanding lives, they simply fizz away in a glass, turning plain water into a great-tasting, nutrient-packed drink. Created by experts who are passionate about health and wellbeing, the VÖOST range has proven to be a hit Down Under, selling over 3.5 million tubes since it launched there three years ago. Effervescent tablets really are one of the most effective ways for people to get a vitamin or mineral boost when they aren’t getting what they need from their diet alone, and it’s been widely reported that many Brits aren’t getting enough on a daily basis.

VÖOST’s extensive range is designed to meet the needs of each individual in order to help them live life to its fullest. The range boasts a Vitamin B Complex to help unlock energy from food, Vitamin C to help maintain a healthy immune system (because who has time to be ill?!), Magnesium to help maintain normal function of the muscles and nervous system, Vitamin D and Calcium + Vitamin D to help maintain healthy bones and teeth, and a Multivitamin, which contains RDAs of a whole host of vitamins. The vitamins and minerals also contain no added dairy, lactose or yeast, so are they are ideal for people on specialist diets or with dietary requirements. Available in Asda, Superdrug, Waitrose and Morrisons, VÖOST’s effervescent tablets are sure to put a fizz inyour step.

Find more info and the full rang at http://www.vitaminhaus.com.au/

Disclosure - I was sent 6 tubes a VOOST to try them for myself!

Easter Plans

It's nearly Easter holiday time! If you are a stay at home parent for any reason you might not feel the same frisson of excitement that I do, but this year I've booked a week off work and so I'm free to stay in bed until noon, drink cava for breakfast and have sex in the garden all afternoon  spend more time with the teen and the husband.

Said teen is a studious soul and currently studying for her GCSEs so I fear she'll be revising a fair bit but I'm hoping I can lure her out for some fun at least once or twice.

I have a few things that I have been wanting to do for a while, and while I know I won't be able to do them all I thought I'd list them so I don't forget and also so that if you had input on whether they were good or bad ideas you could tell me! Ditto if you have reviewed any of them in a blog post - please share! (You can't share here, I switched comments off, but let me know via Twitter or my Facebook page - that would be great - thanks)

First choice for me is Marwell Zoo. We have visited several times now as a family and always love it - even in the cold and rain, though I admit it's better on a dry day so the weather may play a part on this decision. We always learn something new, the cages and environments for the animals are really nice, I especially love watching the giraffes. It's about a 2 hour drive, so takes a bit of planning, but now that we no longer have the dogs at least we don't have to rush home to them.

I am sort of tempted to make the even longer drive to Longleat to drive the safari park, but I'm not sure that DH would stay sane all day in car with DD and me. I do love to watch the large carnivores in the park, particularly the wolves, but DH tends to get twitching and want to be getting on with things, I imagine we would be ill-matched on a safari park visit. I think that might need to be a trip we do when we visit family (who live closer to the park) or when we can camp or stay nearby so we are in the car less of the day.

Next is the Winchester Science Centre. DD and I were there for a blogging conference and so had no time to explore but enough time to whet our appetites. It's easy to get to, has lots of parking and is spacious inside. It didn't look too busy when we were there, but I'm not sure that would be true during a school holiday. Still DD really wants to go, she loves experimenting with stuff, I do wonder though if there is enough there for a day with a teenager? Maybe I could combine it with a trip into Winchester? Have you been? What did you think?

I would also love to make a trip to London. That's a 2 hour train ride away and therefore expensive, I may have to buy a railcard to make some sort of saving, especially since now that DD has turned 16 she counts as a grown up and has to pay not only on the train, but on London transport too - gone are the days of cheap days out to London. If we all go, and if we want to be in London before lunchtime it will cost us over £100 on tickets alone, so anything we do there will have to be free! I have thought about Tate Modern, DD and I have visited and really enjoyed it, DH has yet to experience it so that would be nice. If the weather was good a walk in the parks or by the river would be nice too. I am also looking at driving a large chunk of the way and parking just outside the centre, have you done that? I need to investigate parking and where is cheap, easy and safe! What other free London activities can you think of?

It's been a while since I've been to Brighton as a tourist and so I might think about doing the 'seaside day visitor' thing, with fish and chips on the pier, a walk along the promenade, a trip to the Marina and maybe the Pavilion. I could even squeeze in some shopping in the Laines or Churchill Square - particularly if I don't spend all my money on a trip to London! I know that lovely DD aka the teen, needs some new clothes for college in September and we did promise her a new 'college capsule wardrobe' (ooh there's a blog post just waiting to be written) so that would take up a day by itself.

During the entire week of course I will be drinking more alcohol than usual, staying up later, sleeping in longer and eating more chocolate than usual. It is a holiday after all. What will you be up to?

Come and chat over on Twitter or my Facebook page I'd love to hear from you

Phones at bedtime and teenagers

Teens that take a phone to bed are more tired in the day than teens that don't. Being tired can affect mental health. So a study has revealed. Did we really need a study to tell us that? I have a teen and like me she is addicted to her phone, though for different reasons. I'm a twitter addict while she is all about snapchat and youtubers. As soon as she arrives in a wifi zone (she has limited data) she is clued to a 4 inch screen. It was interesting to see in the study that using multiple devices is common too as Dd often watches YouTube on her laptop while listening to music and snapchatting, and checking Facebook!

At bedtime it's tempting to spend a few relaxing minutes laying in bed reading stuff on your phone (or in her case watching a quick video) rather than reading a book or just going to sleep. The temptation is stronger if the phone sits there by the bed (mine does as I use it as an alarm) and if you are a teen apparently the temptation is then to check each beep during the night.

I don't know about you but I put my phone on to 'silent' (no vibrate either!) at night. So when I do finally say goodnight to the little twitter people in the phone, I go to sleep and sleep soundly until daybreak. It seems though that teens can't do that - if the phone is there it must be beeping at each interaction. (though who the teens are that are awake at 3am and sending you a snapchat I do not know! "Me in bed - should be sleeping LOL") It seems, in short, that teens lack self control. Who knew. At a guess, parents, and possibly teens, pretty much all the people that didn't do the study..or maybe they did know but they needed it to be tested, referenced and evidenced.

It sort of comes with the territory that we, as parents,  are still doing the parent thing. Our children might be growing up, but they are not grown up and so we sometimes have to make difficult decisions they won't address. In our house the answer is pretty simple, the teen's phone has to be left (in silent mode) in another room where we can see it when she goes to bed. She doesn't get to have a phone in her bedroom. After all, the average teen is not going to need it as an alarm, they don't get out of bed without dire threats and cold water most mornings. It's no fun setting rules and being the mean parent, but it's still what we have to do.
Does your child have a mobile phone (or tablet, PC, laptop etc) ? Are they allowed it in their room at night and if so will this news make you change the rules? Do you have screen time rules?

The Joy of Bedsits

The joy of bedsits.

Ah bedsit land, so fabulous that Soft Cell wrote a song about you...

Who am I kidding. The only joy in my teen bedsit was that I was free(ish) to do what I liked (within the confines of the landlords rules). 

So I could 

• play music (quietly,and before 10pm only). 
• Watch what I liked on TV (on a tiny black and white portable and only quietly and before 10pm as with the music). 
• Invite friends round (no parties, all guests to leave by 10pm - ABSOLUTELY NO SLEEPOVERS). 
• Bathe when I liked (not at all true as I had to share a bathroom and while in the bath had to steel myself for the creepy guy from down the hall and his doorknob rattling antics, maybe he hoped that one day I'd forget to lock the door?) 
• Go to bed when I liked (usually 10pm as it was so silent and felt like lights out time in a dormitory) 
• Cook whatever I liked (actually whatever I could afford since the rent ate up most of my money) - bedsit recipes are a *whole* other post!

And there's the rub. I was spending all my cash on rent and my best mate had somehow wangled a mortgage and bought a small flat! She had more that one room! In fact she had an amazing 4 rooms and a hall! She didn't share a bathroom with a mixture of oddballs, she didn't have neighbours that would rat her out to a landlord if she listened to a movie after 10pm. She used to delight in ironing naked (something I never dared to do as my landlord often appeared at weird times to 'check the electricity meter'...) She had a whole kitchen! a lounge and a bedroom too and more importantly she could choose her own wall colour and curtains. I cannot begin to tell you how envious I was and her mortgage was about the same as my rent but she was actually getting to keep something for the deal. And of course she was 'on the property ladder' a weird phrase but accurate as most people climb ever upwards.

Now I'm a grown up and we have our own house, my husband and I. I no longer have curfews, or worries that the electric meter will snarl up on a bent 50p (I think in this modern time they no longer take cash?), I can relax in the bath (not even locking the door!) and choose my own carpet. Of course I have to buy it too but that's a small price to pay compared to the freedom.

I know there are lots of times renting is best, but for me, feeling that the money I'm spending is actually buying something, something as substantial as a house, is a great feeling. Having done both I'd rather pay a mortgage than a rent.  I guess it's the old 'an Englishman's home is his castle' or some such :-)

 We have a teen (just!) daughter and I wonder what the future holds for her. I would love her to travel, to find her place in the world but I would like her to be grounded too. I know that she wants a family and she will probably be keen to settle down, but who knows. I just hope  I will be there to support her in her decisions, a wise head? or a supporting arm, or just someone with a cup of tea to compare notes about being a teen and saving for that first time you can step through a door and think 'this will be mine'. So I need to be prepared. I need to read up on mortgages. I need to be ready to stand guarantor if necessary (that makes me feel terribly grown up) but more importantly I need to browse 'home' magazines, because when you own your own home the world is your oyster.



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This blog post is sponsored but the words and opinions are mine.