Skinny Genes

Ok, so this might surprise, but these 2 are both my sisters.... so here is my question. What the hell happened to me? And why did I get all their fat genes? Because seriously, this is my mom -

And now I am going to take my chocolate biscuits, curl up on the couch and sulk......

Finding The One.....

For Christmas this year Gareth is buying me a Winter coat as I have been living in the UK now for 2.5 years and still do not own a winter coat. I needed to know what sort of coat to look for, seen as all the jackets I have been trying on have all made me look like a giant marshmallow. So, I turned to Gok Wan for some advise. And this is the advise that he gave me (well, at least his website did):

Don’t create unnecessary bulk with your coat, and make sure it fits perfectly. Snug fits will show off your figure and make you seem slimmer. Keep the shape simple: A-line that is either mid-thigh or knee-length will look great as it covers your bum and slices those thighs in half.
Avoid obvious pockets on the chest or hips as these will add bulk, and you want single-breasted to slim down that torso. Make sure it fits perfectly on your shoulders, and leave the neckline open to reveal a little chest. It’ll stop you looking top-heavy.
Top Tip: Avoid large shapeless coats; they’ll make you look large and shapeless too. Double-breasted is also very unflattering on a larger-breasted lady.
So this is what I found:

I think it meets all the necessary requirements (although I must admit that I have no idea what double breasted/single breasted means - in terms of a coat that is).

What do you think?

A little moan

I love my son and I love him just the way that he is. In my eyes he is perfect even when he is having an off day or an off moment. Yes, I am aware that he has moments and that they need to be dealt with, I don't think that he is always an Angel and I would not ignore him pouring grape juice over anyone (as I recently read about on a travel forum) or doing anything like that, in fact I am usually very aware of his behaviour and do try and curve unruly behaviour before it can occur, but this is not what my moan about.

My moan is the fact that there are other mom's out there that feel that it is their responsibilty to point out to me how small, or diddy as they put it, James is. Yes, I am aware that James is small for his age. Yes, I am very aware that when I dress him in the morning that most of his clothes are 6-12 months. Yes, I am aware that he only weighs 21 lbs (or 9.6kgs) and that he is 23 months old. Yes, I am aware that he still wears size 4 feet. Yes, I am aware that he is only on the second centile in his red book. And yes, I am aware that he was a big newborn at 8lbs (3.63kgs).

But I am also aware that he is happy and healthy. And I am also aware that the pediatrician thinks that there is nothing wrong with James, she thinks that he was born big and is growing into his natural size. And yes, I am also aware that Gareth is 6ft 1 and only weighs about 159lbs (or 72kgs) and that my sister (who is only about 5ft on a good day in very high heels) only weighs about 99lbs (45kgs) and thats when she is having a fat day and that my grandfather is 6ft something and weighs less than Gareth, so yes, it is in James' genes to be small.

So next time a mom says to me "Your son is so cute, how old is he?" And I say "23 months" and they go "His um, well, um, very diddy, isn't he?", please beware that I am aware and that I can't change it and love him as he is and I would prefer you to focus on your own child and leave mine alone...... because one day I am not going to smile and say "yes, I know", I am instead going to loose it, and then its not going to be such a pretty picture, because trust me I don't loose it often but when I do there is usually the need for health professionals and lots of medication, and really I don't feel like going through that again. And the only reason that I feel that I need to moan about this is not because its been a handful of moms that have commented on this, but its about every second new mother that I meet, so basically I get told this at least 2-3 times a week, times that by 52 weeks in a year for almost 1.5 years and see how you feel.

(*And just for the record - he is advanced in almost every other way)

Gloop

This morning James and I had some messy play and we played with some Cornflour Gloop. It was lots of fun and wonderful to see my little boy who does not like getting his hands dirty getting really messy and having the gloop run threw his fingers while he was giggling.

To make the gloop you need to mix 2 parts cornflour with 1 part water, and thats it. It goes runny and hard at the same time. Sometimes its smooth and sometimes its velvety. I did keep changing the quantity of the water and the cornflour so sometimes it was runny and sometimes it was harder.

If you do want to do this at home make sure you do it on a hard floor and not carpet. I cut open a black bag and put it on the floor then we sat on the black bag and played. James had a big plastic scoop and a second bowl. So, we were sticking our hands in the gloop and transfering the gloop to another container. For cleaning up purposes, it is easier if you let the gloop dry if it does splatter onto the floor as it will go hard and then when you scrape it, it will go powdery. You you try and clean it up while it is still wet it is likely to spread and leave marks.

Three Years Ago Today.......

Pizza Base Recipe

As requested by Jelena, here is the recipe for pizza base that I make:

300g Strong Bread Flour
1 teaspoon Instant Yeast
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
200ml Warm Water

1. Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt
2. Make a well, pour in the warm water and olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough.
3. Knead dough for +-10 minutes
4. Brush a little Olive Oil on the dough and cover with a tea towel. Put the dough aside for a minimum of one hour (I usually make the dough in the morning to use that evening). Make sure you put it somewhere warm as this helps the dough rise
5. When the dough has risen to at least double its size, you can break off about a fist size and roll it out on a floured surface. Don't forget to brush some olive oil on the base before you put the tomato paste on and don't decorate all the way to the edges, there still needs to be a crust.
6. Bake at 240C/fan 220C/gas mark 8 for 8-10 minutes. I sometimes find that I do need to bake it a little longer, you know that it is ready when you tap the crust and it sounds hollow.

The pan that I use for pizza looks like this. I don't think that it is an absolute necessity, but it is handy. The one I bought was from Asda and was under £2. If you have any questions, just ask.

FAB Pizza

I miss being able to pick up the phone and order a FAB pizza. FAB for those of you that don't live in South Africa means Feta, Avocado Pear and Bacon. Its been 2.5 years since I have been able to just pick up the phone and order one, and if I mention this to a British person they will look at me as if I have 7 heads. Its not an unusual pizza in SA. Although here in the UK you can order sweetcorn and a fried egg on your pizza, now that to me is strange. So, on Friday night we had home made pizza's, and I had Feta, Avo, Bacon, Garlic, Peppadews, Olives and Caramalised Onion. Can I just say Yummy, yummy, yummy! And we let James make his own pizza, he has pineapple, orange peppers and bacon, and then he ate it all. We took photos of James making his pizza, so now we just have to wait until we can upload them.

Update

So our computer has still crashed and I have about 100 photo's on my camera to load. We are using my SIL's computer for now until we buy a new one. So here is an update of everything that we have done since I last posted.

In October we went to Butlins in Skegness. It was lovely. I was a little worried before we went that it was going to be very Chavvy (yes, I am a snob), as the price was really good, but here is my review of Butlins:
Butlins is great if you have kids - the entertainment consists of Bob the Builder, Barney, etc. But the swimming pools and funfair was a lot of fun. The food was ok, it was kind of like eating in a Tesco's Cafe every night, except that there was more choice and maybe slightly better quality. But for £153 for accomodation, entertainment, breakfast and dinner from Monday to Friday for all 3 of us, I really can't complain. We never took as many photo's as I would have liked, but that is because we were too busy having fun. James was sleeping like an Angel and hardly had a tantrum, there was just too much to do. There were Chav's (and Chav children that don't know about taking turns), and there were people there that could be Chav's, but have not allowed themselves to sink that low, and then there were 'normal' people. I did not feel like the place was over run. We had very basic accomodation, just a room and a bathroom, and the bed was very uncomfortable, but we never really expected much. We will consider Butlins for a holiday again, but next time we will upgrade our accomodation.

On our way back we stayed with Gareth's aunt in Liverpool and then on our way back to Bournemouth we stopped at the Land of Lost Content in Cravens Arm in Shropshire for lunch. The food was well priced, but huge and delicious. The museum however, was scary. It was cluttered and full of (crap) contents. And it had scary dolls whose eyes followed you every where, but then we did have lunch with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson all under a Disco ball.

Since we are back I have taken James to both the theatre and to the cinema and he sat through both shows.

We went to the Bournemouth Pier Theatre to watch Chris and Pui from Show Me Show Me, the show was almost 2 hours long, including a 20 minute interval and James sat through the whole show and clapped his hands and sang and danced. It was definately well worth the £6.50 we had to pay.

Yesterday I took James to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua at the cinema. He loved it. He watched the entire movie. We took advantage of the Odeon Kids movie Club which means we paid £2.50 for both of us to go. Although James did have to sit on my lap at both the theatre and the cinema as they have the pop up seats and James is too light to keep the seats down.

And now I have to run because Gareth is home to study so James and I have to stay out of the house.