John Lewis Christmas Preview, A Mothers Ramblings Style!

When I was asked the other week if I would like to go to the John Lewis Christmas preview show in July I was really really excited and of course said yes; Anything to do with Christmas will get me excited and have me answering Yes (read in to that what you will!). When Top Ender found out that it was going to be Christmas in July she asked if she could come too which is why Top Ender, Baby Boy and I all went to London for the day.

We managed to keep some commuters amused in the morning with Top Enders excitement;

"Will Santa be there?" she asked
"No I don't think so, he is probably rather busy at the North Pole right now" I answered
"Maybe he is on holiday in London" she answered more knowingly than me

We knew we were in the right place when we saw a snow machine outside of the building and a Christmas tree just inside the door.

Even though we were really early we were welcomed in and then I was handed a Flip camera.

Yeah. I know.

I assumed at the time (and lots of other people told me they thought the same too) that the camera was to give the team at John Lewis our view of the day, but no it was for us to keep. Top Ender had a field day and was filming EVERYTHING. Anyway eventually I got to see round all the lovely fab stuff that John Lewis will be getting in after Clearance and during late August, early September.

So Top Ender and Baby Boy got to watch 3D TV whilst sitting on a sofa that was the so comfy that I did think about stealing it out of the front door whilst getting some other Bloggers to create a diversion. The other Bloggers were up for it, but I just could face taking the sofa on the Tube.

I got to see round all the new ranges that are coming in, I remembered that Diesel is bringing new Denim into John Lewis and that Russian Military is going to be big this winter, and if anybody needs an Evening Gown there are going to be some great choices in John Lewis this year! There was a nightie that I did think was an Evening Gown, (honestly though if I did the school run in that people would be asking me when I won the Lottery!) and there were Doc Martin Boots that will be on my Christmas list (I would like the ones with the sheep fleece lining please!). There were some fantastic Men's PJ's and some great slippers in really vibrant colours and some really nice suits, one of which convinced me that Doctor Who shops in John Lewis.

There were some beautiful bedspreads and furniture (did you know that John Lewis have items that can be customised for you? Yup, Good old John Lewis does bespoke furniture!) that was making me think about starting to play the lottery in order to get a bigger house to keep it all in! There were several more chairs that I fell in love with and cushions galore. If you want to update your rooms this year, but want to do it on a small scale change the cushions, find some in John Lewis as there are a lot to choose from!

I was able to see lots of the Christmas decorations range where there is something for everyone! There are a lot of vibrant jewel colours and a lot of Scandinavian inspired type decorations and the cutest wooden cut words (Peace, Joy and Noel) in a light wood which will be on sale between £12 and £15 and will be something I invest in this year.

The best part of course was upstairs (where I had deposited Baby Boy and Top Ender with some friendly staff) where there were Children's clothes and Toys. Top Ender and Baby Boy thought it fabulous and had made cupcakes, cards, played with Play-Doh and Top Ender had even made a headband and had her face painted by the time I got back to them!

The train journey home was spent by Top Ender and I talking about the amazing time we had spent with John Lewis and Cohn And Wolfe (Baby Boy was crashed out in his buggy) and what we wanted for Christmas much to the amusement of the other commuters again!

So I know that I talk about Christmas all year round, but if you want to get a jump on this years Christmas Shopping, get to a John Lewis Store at the end of the Summer!

Wordless Wednesday - Swinging Fun

Baby Boy Giggles - Ice-cream is his God

Baby Boy and Top Ender both had an ice-cream at the air show we went to on Fathers Day. Baby Boy being the usual glutton that he is had eaten almost all of his before Top Ender had even scoffed a quarter of hers.

With a stub of cone left Baby Boy looked to Top Enders almost full ice-cream
"Mamma? Swap?" Baby Boy asked gesturing at Top Ender
"No honey, no swap" I answered
"OH!" answered Baby Boy

He finished his ice-cream without talking to me and stood next to Daddy, who was clearly now his favourite parent.

"Dadad? Walk?" asked Baby Boy
"Sure Baby Boy, lets all go for a walk" answered Daddy

We all walked down the field a little with Daddy and Baby Boy leading the way. A few moments later Daddy turned to Baby Boy and said;

"Baby Boy? Where are we going?"
"More Ice-cream Dadad!" answered Baby Boy as if it was obvious.

Wordless Wednesday - There go my plans for the Weekend.

Milton Keynes: Where I live and why I love it

A few weeks before my seventh birthday my parents moved with my sister and I from Garston (just outside of Watford) in Hertfordshire, to a town called Linslade in Bedfordshire. Linslade is right next door to a town called Leighton Buzzard, in fact if you wanted to go shopping you had to go to Leighton Buzzard as that is where the high street is.

Leighton-Linslade (as it is known colloquially) is one of those places that is brilliant to live but really rubbish to visit. Unless you are on a canal trip, into WW1 aircraft the Vimey Bombers, interested where Mary Norton who wrote The Borrowers lived or want to see where The Great Train Robbery happened. For those in to popular music Kajagoogoo and The Barron Knights were formed in the area (and I use to live two doors up from Stuart from Kajagoogoo and I use to speak with one of the Barron Knights when I was a credit controller!) and if you want something a little more scary The Fox was in the area and caused a big todo in the summer of 1984.

Okay so maybe it isn't that bad.

Of course there were times when you wanted something a bit more exciting, like a trip to McDonald's or a trip to the cinema or even a trip to C&A's and for that you would have to go to Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes was shiny and exciting and where I moved to when I got married to Daddy, in 2001.
Milton Keynes has been the butt of many jokes in the past due to the impression that it is a concrete city with an extraordinary number of roundabouts, but this is not the real Milton Keynes. That is not the Milton Keynes that I have fallen in love with. Did you know that here in Milton Keynes there are more than 22 million trees? For a town that is 34.1 square miles that's not bad going!

Of course we do have concrete cows, a concrete snowman and lots of roundabouts, but we also have a fantastic shopping Centre, which is so fantastic that Cliff Richard recorded a music video there. I would of put the video into this post, but for some reason Cliff doesn't want me to share the worlds greatest music video in my blog post, so you will have to go and see it at YouTube. Go on go watch it, I'll wait.

Cliff is to Tennis as Strawberries are to Cream.

Did you watch the video? Speed Boats, sports cars and roller skates. Tell me its not the best music video ever and I shall give you your crazy certificate ;) The best bit (IMHO) is the skating up and down past trees and a big brown wall, which is actually the external wall of the Milton Keynes John Lewis! If you look you can actually see that the wall tiles spell out John Lewis!.

Oh and the shopping centre doesn't have a C&A anymore, but it does have banana trees!

As you saw in the Cliff video, there is a lake in Milton Keynes. Actually there is more than one, there are several and each lake is great for walking or running or cycling round. In fact the whole of Milton Keynes is great for walking or running or cycling round. Then are a number of redways (the local cycling routes) that criss cross the city with over 280km covered and a lot of paths that mean walking from the local Hospital to Ikea (as I did once with Top Ender and Baby Boy) doesn't take that long and can be done without crossing a major road. This is because of the number of underpasses and bridges (more bridges in Milton Keynes than there are in Venice you know) and the fantastic grid road system.

An underpass, makes it safe to cross a major road

Of course you don't have to walk as Milton Keynes was designed for the car, (as the grid system proves) but with being green and environmentally friendly so important we have a fantastic public transport service, with all parts of the city being accessible by bus (well there are some disputes about that, but I can get where I want by bus if I need to) and by train. There are five train stations in the Milton Keynes area (six if you include Woburn Sands, but technically it is just out of the area) and if you think that the train station at Central Milton Keynes looks familiar you might be pleased to know that it was the UN Building in Superman IV... (and I saw a bit of it being filmed on a day out!)

The Roads in Central Milton Keynes all numbered too, and referenced as either a "V" or a "H" road. That's right there are vertical and horizontal roads. It makes it very easy to not get lost and to work out where you are and is why you will often here locals talking about not being on the H8 at rush hour. The rather brilliant thing about Milton Keynes being set on a grid system if you ever take a wrong turn it is very easy to get back to where you were a few moments before! All we need now is an underground service and we would be set!

Not really an underground system, but a map of Milton Keynes!

It has been said that Milton Keynes has no culture. This really annoys me because people don't look at Milton Keynes more than seeing that it has a grid system and houses which at first glance all look the same and that it is a "new Town" built for people to move to who lived in London. We have an Art Gallery and a Theatre, we have art trails, sculptures in public places, buildings which are beautiful to look at (the Art Gallery won an Architectural award in 2008), Churches with history (St Marys in Bletchley for example has what looks like a Wine Glass in the external wall, but its is really part of a tomb that was reused), there are places to go to to listen to live music such as The Stables ( Dame Cleo Laine and the late and great Sir John Dankworth set it up) and there is even an international festival planned for July 2010.

To you Milton Keynes might just be a place on a map, but to me its home and I love it. And if you ever want a tour just let me know!

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!

First Strawberries of the Season

Whilst I was taking a time out (okay I was skiving off the hard work), Daddy took the Top Ender and Baby Boy out into the garden. He was going to mow the lawn and the plan was that Top Ender and Baby Boy would play in the play house and move the play things in the garden as and when Daddy needed them to be moved.

I had just closed my eyes when Top Ender came bouncing in and asked if she could pick a strawberry from the Garden. Daddy had already looked and confirmed that some were ready for us to pick and so I agreed.

Baby Boy got in on the act too and they both appeared a few minutes later to show me their first picks. Top Ender took the crop and gave it a quick wash before they both reappeared to show me the reactions to the first taste. As you can guess Top Ender thought they were beautiful and sweet as her grin proves it!

As you can see however Baby Boy wasn't as impressed to start with as his Snape sneer shows through with his first bite.

I didn't take a picture of me eating my first one, (because I am just not as cute as Top Ender and Baby Boy) but believe me it was tasty!