Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends "Hero of the Rails" for the Wii - a Review

Baby Boy is two years old and loves to play on the Wii, unfortunately for him, most of the games are just a little too complicated for him to play with any great success. When Ubisoft asked if I would be interested in reviewing a new Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends Game titled "Hero of the Rails" I knew that Thomas mad Baby Boy would adore the game.

The first screen gives you two options, you can either go to a "Story" section or a "Game" section. On our first play Daddy went to the Game section and we chose a random game which was a race between two engines, one of which is controlled by your hand movements on the Wii controller. The game started before explaining how you were to use the controller to make your engine move and Daddy found himself working very hard to catch up (and then overtake) the engine he was racing.

Baby Boy, Top Ender and I played the other games taking turns as they are all one player games and I was thinking that this might not be a good game as it was rather boring and didn't seem to be as great as I was expecting for something associated with Thomas the Tank Engine brand.

After doing all the games, we decided to listen to the story. I was sitting on the floor when suddenly I realised that the story needs input in order to progress. All the games that we had just been playing in the Games Section are in the story! This put a new spin on things and even Top Ender (who says that she doesn't like Thomas the Tank Engine) was enjoying helping Thomas and friends help save a long forgotten steam engine called Hiro (Yes like in Heroes) get fixed up all whilst keeping it secret from Spencer.

Baby Boy found the game easier for him to complete than other games that we have and it took thirty minutes to listen to the story and do the games within the story. Daddy was a bit worried that Baby Boy would get bored after he had completed the game, but he has asked to play it again on a couple of occasions and has played along with little or no help from me.

The game has an RRP of £19.99 and is rated PEGI 3 and I think that this is a great game to get for younger Wii users, as they will get to grips with what they need to do quite quickly and it uses characters that they are familiar with, as I don't think I know any children who don't know of Thomas the Tank Engine!

Aramazu: A new way to Learn to tell the time

At the start of the Summer Holidays, Top Ender and I were sent a book called "Aramazu The Learn to Tell the Time Right Now Book". Top Ender had been learning time at school, but she wasn't finding everything as easy to remember as O'Clock and Half Past which is what I felt the school were focusing on and efforts at home to teach Top Ender with more detail were just met with frustration from both sides. In stepped Aramazu with a book that has a new and easy way to learn to tell time for children that can count to sixty.

We waited until Baby Boy was asleep and then Top Ender and I stretched out on the floor side by side and started to read the very bright and colourful book. The book tells the children that they are going to learn a new way of telling the time, unlike any way that the grown ups in their life may of learned and so when they have read the book it is up to them to teach the grown ups the new method. Top Ender loved this idea, which I guess is the point of putting it on the first page. If children know they are going to be able to teach something to an adult they are all the more willing to give it a go!

We started reading the book and within a few minutes were both totally engrossed in the method that was being explained. It took us about twenty minutes to read the book, as this included a couple of toilet breaks and a lot of practice at the end and Top Ender was reading the time with a lot of confidence and testing my ability to tell the time.

The method is Mountain climbing and each hour is a mountain that time has to climb. It made total sense to Top Ender from the start and I feel a lot better about her understanding the time when she goes back to the subject at school. She even managed to work out how to read my magic clocks that Daddy made for me a few years back;

And that takes talent!

Bob The Builder - A Toys R Us Toyologist Review

Do you remember I told you that Top Ender and Baby Boy had been asked to be Toyologists by Toys R Us? Well we have tested all the toys to the best of our extent from our first parcel and the first review we are posting is a Bob The Builder Dancing Bob toy which retails at £19.99.

The Dancing Bob sings and dances to a song which is turned on and off by pushing Bob's hand and for the first week, we only ever got the intro to the song as Baby Boy loved that he was able to control it by squishing Bob's hand! As soon as we got Baby Boy to realise that there is a dance associated with Bob's song then we managed to get Baby Boy to dance along.

So I present to you Bob The Builder, with backing dancers (who are actually in the foreground) Top Ender and Baby Boy and a guest appearance from Geoffrey the Toys R Us Giraffe!

If we get enough requests, we might even post the video of Daddy and I dancing along...

Little Dish Favourites Cookbook and Top Enders meal plan

Did you know that Little Dish has a cook book? Its called the Little Dish Favourites Cookbook and I knew because they sent me one. Top Ender has spent her time pouring through it looking at the various dishes, pondering on what ones she would request that I cook for the family. Baby Boy didn't quite understand that a cook book was full of recipes and wasn't something you were meant to eat and took a bite out of some of the pages!

Top Ender found a section called Meal Matchers towards the back of the book that recommends what dishes you can make that go nicely with another dish and she was busy copying out the names so that she could play restaurants with Baby Boy and I. It gave me an idea though, if she was smart enough to work this out, what would happen if I asked her to work out a meal plan for the week?

I gave Top Ender some simple instructions. Don't choose anything that nobody will eat, make sure that we get at least one portion of fish in the week, see if we can use the same ingredients in more than one dish, and we like to have a Roast on Sundays. Top Ender spent half an hour looking through making notes in her little notebook and finally was ready to sit down with me to update our spreadsheet.

Her list was as follows;

Meatloaf with Ratatouille
Sausage and Lentil Casserole with boiled potatoes
Spanish Tortilla
Shepperd's Pie
Easy fish in foil with Broccoli and Cauliflower Cheese
Burgers with Wedges
Simple Roast Chicken with trimmings

I was impressed. She had chosen meals that she knew everyone would eat and more importantly that I could confidently cook! All of the dishes apart from Meatloaf were dishes that I cook and know how to cook, but I followed the recipes as stated and found that although the dishes didn't taste too different to how I cook them normally that Top Ender ate everything we gave her... traitor.

All of us (apart from Baby Boy) loved the Meatloaf recipe, so much so that everyone had seconds. I don't ever remember us all having seconds. Baby Boy was keen on the leftovers in a sandwich the next day, so it was a good job there was a lot leftover, as I had to make another sandwich for me! The Meatloaf recipe was such a success that I wrote to Little Dish and asked if I could share it with you and they agreed. So for your delight (and consumption) here it is;

Ingredients

1/2 Small Onion, peeled and diced
1 Large Carrot, peeled and diced
2 eggs, beaten
60ml (2 fl oz) whole milk
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
100g (3 1/2 oz) fresh breadcrumbs (2 1/2 slices of brown bread)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (optional)
500g (1lb) lean minced beef
500g (1lb) lean minced pork

Method

Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas 5

Line a baking tray with foil. Lightly oil the foil.

Combine all the ingredients, apart from the meat, in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. Using your hands, add the minced beef and pork and make sure it is well mixed in and evenly distributed.

Shape your ingredients into a loaf and place on the baking tray. The loaf should not touch the sides of the tray but sit nicely in the middle. Bake for 45-50 minutes, then let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

This should serve 8 children or a family of 6 with leftovers according to the book. It served us as a family of 4 with seconds and leftovers and I was generous with the portion sizes. I found that I had to cook mine for 70 minutes as after 50 minutes the centre was still pink, and I also think that next time I would cook the carrots a little before adding them as we found them a little hard and if they were softer I think that it would have just made it a little better. Mind you I probably should of diced it smaller!

The only problem that we have now is that Baby Boy wants to make a meal plan...

The Little Dish Favourites Cookbook is available from WH Smith, Waterstones, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s, or online at Amazon.co.uk (and other places if you Google it) and its RRP is £14.99.

The London Dungeons

I was gripping Top Ender's hand as we stood next to a recently unearthed coffin listening to distant screams, and I was wishing I had eaten more carrots and tuna as a child so that I could see in the dark, when suddenly a man dressed in black ushered me into a room lit by torches and I started kicking myself for my own stupidity.

RIP William Hyatt Originally uploaded by the-dungeons

You see a few months back a kind man asked if we would like to go to The London Dungeons and that he would provide tickets for us to go and we could write about our experience on this here blog. I knew that The London Dungeons was an attraction in London, but that was about it. So I asked my friend Google for some details and I didn't like what I saw.

I decided that as I am really a huge wimp that I would get Daddy to take Top Ender and that I would claim that Baby Boy was too young to go to such an attraction and that he would much more enjoy going across the road to The Hays Galleria with me... It worked right up until the morning we were set to go and Daddy asked my traitorous friend Google for some details. Somehow he managed to convince me that Top Ender would enjoy the visit with me more than with him.

Enter At Your Peril Originally uploaded by the-dungeons

A little known fact about me is that I'm scared of the dark. A well known fact about The London Dungeons is that it is a tour through the scary and horrible bits of London's History in the near dark with special effects, live actors and a big dose of your own imagination. Standing in the second queue before we were admitted to the tour gave me enough time to say a quick prayer mainly asking for me to not drop dead of a heart-attack during the tour and for nobody to jump out on us; Top Ender echoed my prayer but added a request for a torch. She's sensible.

Top Ender was the youngest in the group and I think that swayed in our favour as we didn't get picked on once during the tour. Mind you we also were smart enough to not go in the front or the back of the group as we knew if the guides were looking for volunteers that is where they would find them. A few of the friends we made during the tour (when you are all as scared as each other you make friends quickly) did get picked on, but I can say that they enjoyed the experience as much as Top Ender and I did.

Everybody was wanting to be scared (why would you go on the tour if you didn't want to just for a little while?) and so with belief suspended the over acting actors and the sometimes very dusty displays were very spooky. Even though Top Ender and I kept muttering to each other "It isn't real, they are only actors" we were at times clinging to each other and at others we were screaming, cowering, giggling and getting wet.

I don't want to give too much away about what happens inside the Dungeon, as if you go I wouldn't want to spoil the surprises (and there are plenty of places that already do that), but the hour and a half that Top Ender and I spent in the semi-darkness gripping each others hands was actually a lot of fun and fairly educational with a lot of what I had learnt at school being covered.

The tickets that we had allowed us to skip the main queue (thank goodness as it was huge!) but a quick chat with one of the ladies outside said that if you come first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening that the queues tend to be smaller, and more so if you come between Late September and Early June. The tickets do cost quite a lot but if you buy in advance and online they are cheaper and there are plenty of offers around. If you can afford the priority tickets to avoid the queue it would be worth the extra money, but there are entertainers who keep the waiting masses amused with the painting on of cuts and selling of guidebooks.

Top Ender and I would recommend The London Dungeons to anyone who is brave enough to go and I would say that ten year olds and older may enjoy it more than six and a half year olds but your own discretion should be used.

Go! Go! Go! and see this show!

On Saturday, Daddy and I took Top Ender and Baby Boy to London to see "The Go! Go! Go! Show", (after having been given tickets by Mummy Marketing) which is a family musical about a group of five friends and without giving too much away involved a sweet sock-stealing "Fluffalope", magic bikes and some fantastic songs that none of us have been able to stop singing...

We went on the underground to Leicester Square (which is on the Northern and Piccadilly line) and then walked round to the Leicester Square Theatre (its hidden up near the Prince Charles Cinema near China Town) for the 2:30pm show. We made our way down the stairs and found a foyer with a very friendly man selling merchandise which was very reasonably priced and saw me buying Top Ender and Baby Boy flashing wands (£3 each) and a Souvenir programme pack (£5), there was a place to leave our buggy and a huge pile of booster seats for children to use in the intimate theatre.

We were all quite excited to find that over the back of our seats were different coloured socks (which becomes important later) and we settled down ready for the show. From the start Baby Boy and Top Ender were excited and as soon as the musical started they were dancing along and learning the Go!Go!Go! club move and shouting excitedly when ever the cast asked the audience a question. Top Ender was in heaven and laughed loudly at the jokes, as only a six (and a half) year old can, and has already learnt all the words to Heaven Bound. Any doubt that I had about us not enjoying the show was removed from my mind as we all grew more and more engrossed in the show.

There is an interval in the show, and if you are tempted to buy an intermission icecream do be warned that they are £2 per tub, but it was really nice ice-cream and according to the pot they have won lots of awards for being so nice.

The second half of the show started getting a bit too much for Baby Boy, but with some clever Mummy and Daddy tricks we managed to get him to watch most of the second half, without too much stress and we decided that he would skip meeting the cast after the show and go and claim our buggy. Whilst he and Daddy were claiming the buggy they did meet Mr Baffled who was very charming according to Daddy.

Top Ender and I battled it out to meet the other cast members (nearly losing an eye in the process from some sharp elbowed mothers) and even though they had just finished a show and must of been exhausted they were all so lovely and I hope that take this show on tour... or at least release a DVD as all of them deserve success in the future.

For further details of show times and how to book tickets, visit http://www.gogogo.tv/ and do it soon, it is one show that the whole family really will enjoy!

When we were offered our tickets, we were also offered tickets for a family of four as part of a competition and so if you would like to win tickets to see ‘The Go!Go!Go! Show’ then all you have to do is answer this question;

What is the name of the sock stealing creature in The Go! Go! Go! Show?

A. The Sock Nabber
B. The Fluffalope
C. The Sneak

Please leave your answer in the comments below (on A Mothers Ramblings, not on any other feed such as the Facebook group), and use a valid email address as this is how I will contact you if you have won. If more than one answer is correct, a random number generator will be used to choose the winner, based on the order of entry. Competition closes at 1pm on the 7th of August, transport is not included.

Millets Farm Centre And the Maize Maze

On Saturday Top Ender, Baby Boy, Daddy and I were invited along with a few other bloggers to visit Millets Farm Centre in Oxfordshire to try out the new Maize Maze and to enjoy the other attractions on offer as well. As going in a Maize Maze was one of our 100 things we decided that we would be foolish not to accept, especially as they were providing lunch and free food will always get me out of bed in the morning.

As we made our way to the entrance tent to the Maize Maze area and the Courtyard activities we walked past a Victorian Steam Carousel which took both Top Ender and Baby Boy's eye, and at a cost of £1.50 per person was something we were quite happy to let them have a ride on, but agreed it should be at the end of the day, as it was next to our car!

Entrance to the Maize Maze and the courtyard activities is £5.95 per Adult and £4.95 per child (3-16 years), but there are discounts for family tickets and groups and I felt it accurately priced for the amount of activities in the courtyard area.

Within the Courtyard there are several garden games such as noughts and crosses (I won), draughts/checkers (Top Ender won), a football aim game (Baby Boy enjoyed this), connect four (Baby Boy declared himself to have won despite not playing) some mini tractors for those under ten to pedal round a small course (Daddy *enjoyed* pushing Baby Boy round) and there are trampolines, a bouncy castle and Straw bales to climb on and under. If you look closely at Top Enders video you might spot one of those other bloggers...

There were two further mazes one of which is a lost sheep trail and the other is a fort maze and both were great fun for Baby Boy and Top Ender to run around looking for the various signs they were to look out for. The courtyard activities were well aimed, with older children enjoying the activities as much as the younger children and the huge sandpit, which I think Baby Boy was trying to smuggle home in his shoes, even kept a few adults amused!

There are three Maize Mazes, the Giant Maize Maze which takes around an hour and a half to complete (but we decided that we really weren't cut out for that), a middle sized maze which takes around a half hour to complete (unless you forget to take the map in with you) and the Mini Maze which takes around fifteen minutes to complete (Unless you let Top Ender navigate).

Each Maze has a quiz element but the most fun is the one in the mini maze, where as you go round you have to look for small stands that have finger pastels in five different colours. When you find them you can choose which finger you colour and when you come out of the maize there is a giant board with all 120 possible different colour combinations which results in you having to do a dare. It did cause a lot of laughter with us all and Top Ender has new found respect for my pig impressions.

Millets Farm has 100 Acres of land where it grows fresh produce, a restaurant, a farm shop, a Garden Centre (part of the Frosts chain), a wood, a farm animal Zoo and plenty of areas to picnic in. The restaurant uses produce grown on site or ingredients sourced locally and the lunch we were treated to was put together by them and was fantastic. I have a feeling that the food is expensive, but I do think that it would be worth it.

The Farm has a large pick your own section and we had been given a voucher for a punnet of Strawberries so we made our way across the complex to the strawberry polytunnels. We started picking and our punnet was soon full and only a handful didn't make it to the punnet but were sneakily eaten by Top Ender and Baby Boy. They told me that they tasted as good as their first strawberries of the season, and the few that I have eaten so far would make me agree with that!

The whole day was lots of fun and Daddy and I agreed that we will be returning in the next few weeks with Top Ender and Baby Boy and we all agreed that it will become an annual tradition for a day out.

Play-Doh Fun Factory review

When I was little my sister and I would often play with Play-Doh. One of our favourite games was to pretend we worked in a Play-Doh Cake Factory, where we would make cakes and then put them in our shop window (bottom of our wardrobe) whilst we got on with serving the customers at the counter (the long desk we had in front of our bedroom window). Had we have had the Play-Doh Fun Factory, it would of been so much quicker on the cake production line!

These days Play-Doh is still a big favourite in our house. I do insist that whenever we play that we do so on a tray just like I was always told to do as a child. I think my Mum was sick of us treading Play-Doh into the carpet. Anyway when the opportunity came up to review the Fun Factory which is being made extra special because Play-Doh turns 50 this year (I know, doesn't look a day over 21 does it?) , I knew that if I said No Top Ender would of disowned me.

Now I know that Play-Doh is supposed to be for Children over three (or at least this product is) but I don't let Baby Boy eat it anymore and so I let him join in with the fun with Top Ender and I. Look you can see his foot in this picture of the Fun Factory.

Baby Boy, Top Ender and I played with this for at least an hour, making all the different shapes and then making various other things from the shapes we made. It was great, with Baby Boy and Top Ender taking it in turns to choose a shape and then to squeeze down the purple handle to make the shape. They let me have a few goes too which was nice, although not as much fun as when I played with it on my own that evening!

The red dial on the front was soon removed by Baby Boy, so that he could clean off bits of escaping Play-Doh and when he did that he discovered a secret little storage area underneath the red dial to store the Play-Doh pots in, which I thought was a great little touch! Although you don't need to remove the dial to find this.

The best bit of the play session was when Top Ender made some earrings from the red Play-Doh (Baby Boy got the blue Play-Doh because that is a boy colour you know) and Baby Boy cracked up at my impression of Roy Evans (you know from Eastenders)

"I don't like your Earrings..."

We got to keep the Fun Factory, but if we hadn't had fun with it then I would of told you!

Little Dish Purees Review

As you may remember once a month we have a cheat night for dinner, which normally involves a walk round one of the local Supermarkets and us picking up a prepacked meal. Top Ender and Baby Boy are quite fond of the Little Dish meals and will chose a favourite meal out of the range (see The Little Dish Review if you want to know about them) and everyone will be quite happy.

The other week though I noticed a new addition to the range, a puree in a pouch and I thought that it must be aimed at the weaning market. A smart idea in my opinion because the purees are the sort of thing that I made for Top Ender and Baby Boy when they were both learning to eat solid food, and because they are fresh they are a good alternative when you realise that you have run out of ice cubes of mashed butternut squash or potato and parsnip which my two were very fond of.

I didn't think much more of it, even when my sister mentioned that she had seen them and that they do fruit flavours too.

The Little Dish asked if we would like to try some. Even though Top Ender and Baby Boy are well past weaning it was suggested that these would be good as a snack or a dessert because the pouches make them easily transportable and they can be out of the fridge for up to four hours.

When the package arrived I was just about to go on the school run, so I quickly signed for the package ran up to school and let Top Ender open it when we got back.

They sent them to me in a lovely little cooler backpack which Baby Boy has obtained from Top Ender!

Top Ender having a check of what it contains

Theres more!

She pulled out six pouches;

• Butternut Squash, Carrots and Apples,
• Sweet Potatoes, Parsnip and Leek,
• Peas, Pears and Apples
• Strawberries and Apples
• Blueberries and Apples
• Mangos and Bananas

I could of been an artistic director, look at how I arranged these!

The three savory pouches were passed over and she and Baby Boy tucked into the three fruit pouches. Baby Boy was expecting something less thick I think, but he was very pleased with the taste and kept telling me it tasted of Strawberry (he had the strawberry one!) and Top Ender really liked the Blueberries and Apple one. I was left with the Mango and Bananas one (which was fine by me as I like both fruits) and it was very strong so probably not a good one for my two to taste.

I didn't want to waste the savoury pouches and so I passed them to a friend who is a few weeks into weaning her little one. She let her little one try all three and there wasn't a drop left if the bowl that she squeezed them into! They of course passed the Mummy taste test too, with my friend commenting that if she got hungry later in the evening she might end up just sucking on one of the pouches herself!

The three fruit pouches are something that I would consider buying again for snacks when we are on our adventures, as the packets are quite robust and the price (£1.19 for one or two for £2) is reasonable for a healthy on the go snack of this sort and style.

Yummy yummy yummy, food for my tummy!

So if you want to try these head for your nearest chilled foods aisle in your nearest Tesco's!

The Little Dish Review

I was contacted by Little Dish on Twitter and they asked if Top Ender and Baby Boy might be interested in trying some Little Dish meals. I managed to convince them that they wanted to send me lots of dishes so that I could get the playgroup Mums and children round for a taste test session after playgroup.

I don't think they thought me greedy as they sent me a cooler pack filled with meals (and crayons and balloons and little activity books) and so when the Mums came round after playgroup I threw the meals into the oven (and a cake) and carried on the chat where we found out a lot about each other.

All I am going to say about the chit chat is that its always the quiet ones, that I am proud to know these women and my list is now longer. I might talk about my list in a blog post one day... then again this is a family blog!

Back to the food.

We had several meals to try and there was enough that each of the children had a little bit of each meal and us Mum's could try some too. We had;

Salmon and Broccoli Pasta Bake
Chicken with Vegetables and Giant Couscous

Pasta Bolognese
Cottage Pie and
Chicken and Butternut Squash Pie

Luckily I have two ovens and so everything fitted in nicely. The smells coming from the oven whilst the food was cooking (for 15 minutes) were very tempting and even when the dishes were taken out of the oven I had to say I was impressed, the food didn't look like it was shop brought but looked like something that I would make in a fit of domesticity.

The Mums spooned some of each dish on to a plate for their child and then the fun began.

It was a mixed bag of reactions to the dishes with the Salmon and Broccoli Pasta Bake being identified by most of the children as the one they didn't want to eat (by spitting it out) and to be honest it did smell well fishy... yeah I know its a fish dish and it should be fishy but it was just too fishy! (although after everyone had gone home I ate the rest and found it to be really nice once the flavours had settled)

The Chicken with Vegetable and Giant Couscous was a success with one little one using it to decorate a drawing he had done whilst waiting for the food to be cooked! I have to say that Baby Boy did like this (which pleased me a lot as I was the only one in the house who liked couscous before this taste test!) and this is the one that we will be buying again for a treat for him!

The Pasta Bolognese was very nice and with Angus Beef Mince and five pureed vegetable it almost resembled one I would make (I hide more vegetables in mine!)  as was the Cottage Pie although the topping of sweet potato and parsnip was a little strange for a few of the little ones (I liked it!).

The last dish was the Chicken and Butternut Squash Pie which everyone liked Mums and children alike! I almost didn't get to taste this one as after the initial taste tests from the Children and Mums there was a queue to get seconds. Luckily I managed to nibble a little from Baby Boys plate and could agree that it was very scrummy!

All the Mums had a good look at the packaging and loved that it was so clear to read, there was no added Salt or Sugar, they are nutritionally balanced and have clear allergy information. When Top Ender came home she also loved that inside the sleeves were pictures to colour in and she loves the illustrations on the front especially the unicycling cow!

The range can be brought at Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and on Ocado.com and if you are looking for a healthy ready meal for your kids I would recommend these!

Cinderella at Milton Keynes Theatre

On Monday night Daddy, Top Ender, Baby Boy and I went to The Milton Kenyes Theatre to review Cinderella as part of The Great Panto Review at Have a Lovely time. I was really excited to be given the opportunity as Cinderella was being played by Lousie Dearman. Now most of you probably have no idea who this blonde Temptress of the West End is but I do because I went to school with her and she was the first friend I made when my family moved to a new town when I was seven years old. In fact as a side note, her first professional engagement was as part of the Children's choir in The West End production of Joseph and The Technicolour Dreamcoat... which was also my first (and last) professional engagement in the West End!



Anyway, the story followed the traditional panto version of Cinderella, there were the mean deluded and ugly stepsisters "Bootylicious" Britney and "Willowy" Whitney (the wonderful Chris Dennis and equally wonderful David Langham), Buttons suffering from unrequited love for Cinderella(*The* Bobby Davro), a fairy Godmother (Anthea "I-did-a-conga-with-'Daddy'-during-GMTV's-Get-up-and-Give-week-in-1995" Turner), A Prince Charming (Anthony "I can make you feel good" Kavana, who is blooming sexy btw!), Man servant Dandini (the perfect Chris Nelson) and of course Cinderella's Dad Baron Hardup who had just returned with the ugly stepsisters from America and had a rather strong American accent... but then that could of been because he was being played by Mickey Rooney!



Another little side note, when I took my Spanish GCSE, one of the questions we had to prepare an answer for was who did we respect. My still memorised answer was;
"Me gusta el actor estadounidense Mickey Rooney, que jugó Mi Taylor en "National Velvet". Creo que es un actor maravilloso."
Which translates as;
"I like the American actor Mickey Rooney, who played Mi Taylor in "National Velvet". I think he is a wonderful actor."
I like to think that the reason I scored low on my GCSE Spanish oral exam was because my Teacher had no clue as to who I was talking about, and not because my Spanish accent was/is terrible.

Top Ender sat transfixed for the entire first act and could only be dragged away from her seat in the interval to visit the toilet on the condition that she could have an ice-cream when she returned, and that she wouldn't miss the second act! She found the whole spectacle to be an amazing experience and was delighted with the inclusion of the last song of the night High School Musicals "We're all in this Together". She thought the costumes to be divine (they were), the sets to be amazing (they were) and the jokes that didn't fly over her head (which I am so happy did the last thing I need is a repeat of the Sausage incident) to be laugh out loud funny.

Baby Boy stood for most of the first act, dancing along to the music, shouting at the appropriate times and chatting up the lady who was sat in front of him. If the lady who was sat in front of him is reading this, you made his night by chatting back before the show started and I really am sorry if you found popcorn in your hair when you went home. The majority of the second act was missed by Baby Boy as he went to sleep on my knee just before the Interval... only to awake in the Second act to shout "Boo, hiss" as we had rehearsed earlier in the day. The lady sitting next to me thought this was marvellous, especially as he snuggled back down and went to sleep again after.

Daddy was impressed that the writer Eric Potts (You know Diggory Compton the baker in Coronation Street) had written 14 of the Pantos being shown around the UK this year and found Bobby Davro's topical jokes (the ones that were luckily flying over Top Enders head) to be very amusing as well as finding out that Bobby Davro, beloved entertainer has a fantastic singing voice. We have both been doing impressions of him since we left the Theatre!



I found the whole production to be laugh out loud funny, and even the good natured heckles didn't phase the actors who just rolled them into the dialogue and giggled along with us at the slip of the tongues and odd mess up of lines. Two local cast members (who won a MK Got Talent style contest) made me proud to be from MK and the sponsorship by Robinsons (Remember Top Enders review of the Put on a Panto site?) caused a good giggle from the Adult Audience members when mentioned by The Ugly Sisters in an attempt to get the sponsorship projections turned off in the second act! There is no doubt that The Ugly Sisters and Bobby Davro were the Show stealers (and the ones involved in talking most to the Audience) although Louise Dearman's impression of Stacey from this years X Factor was hilarious!



As is usual there was a fair amount of audience participation and The Ugly Step-Sisters "picked" upon one female audience member who turned out to be a family friend (her two eldest daughters were two of my bridesmaids!) and she and her family ranging from 70 something to 7(ish) all enjoyed the show too, even though they were "picked" upon the whole evening and I have to mention because I know she reads this blog that we knew the female 70 year old something had a nice "Ooh and Aah" but its official now because Bobby Davro said so!

Cinderella is on at Milton Keynes Theatre Now until Daddy's Birthday, (otherwise known as The 17th January 2010) Tickets range between £17 and £29 depending on where you sit and of course when you go. So go and buy tickets now and tell them I sent you and that we are incredibly grateful for our tickets and we are looking forward to Jack and The Bean Stalk next year!

Of course the whole point of The Great Panto Review series and all the hard work being put into helping bloggers get the tickets for them and their families was to help children with cancer through the charity NACCPO. There is a target of £1,000 and we are asking those who can to support this by visiting the JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/Havealovelytime


And the last thought of the night came from Daddy who commented;

"Well honey, you might of gone to school with Louise Dearman, but you haven't got a signed photo of Anthea Turner now have you?"

He has me there, a signed photo of Anthea Turner is something I don't have... now where did I put that signed photo of Louise Dearman?