A nervous day!

Yes, it's a very nervous day in my household today. It's the day my youngest son's 11+ results arrive on our doorstep!!

As the day has drawn closer I have noticed him getting more and more concerned about it. He is hoping to pass but we have tried to warn him that it doesn't always go to plan and not to be too disappointed if he doesn't get through.

However, what makes it worse is that he is a bright boy, he has the potential to pass, he has done some work towards it..................but there is never any guarantee.

Going on his work at home, if he finished the practise papers on time he then didn't do very well. But if he concentrated and didn't finish the paper on time ( quality rather than quantity) then he tended to get a good score!!!
On both of the test days he came out saying that he had finished the papers..............not a great sign!!


But you just never know. We are not holding our breath as parents however, we are trying to prepare for the meltdown that will be if he doesn't 'pass' the test. I know he will feel a failure, I know he will feel resentment against his brother ( who did pass a few years ago and attends the school my youngest really wants to go to) and I know tomorrow going into school will be hellish for him!!

You see most people have the opinion that he will pass, I'm afraid that they mistake his confidence (which he has in abundance) for ability! I think he feels under pressure because of this!

These are children who are only 10 or 11 years old. They are too young to have this much pressure. I know of many parents who openly talk about it all in front of them and therefore, the pressure of not being a 'failure' is all too apparent.

My post does not arrive until lunchtime.........................my nerves may not stand it!

Little does he know that I will be steaming that letter open to find out the result before he opens it on his return from school!! I need to be prepared in order to deal with any of his disappointment straight away!!

On the other hand he may pass and be overjoyed.................................who knows what the day holds.

Either way we will be treating him to dinner out to at least celebrate the fact it will all be over!!!!

I'm going through a change...........

Yes Mum in Meltdown is going to be changing soon! I have decided that I love this blogging malarkey and reading all of yours too. But now I want to move from my beginners Blogger account to a properly owned site..............wish me luck I am a complete technophobe. This could all go horribly wrong! But I'm hoping it's not going to be as bad as I'm expecting.

This has all come about after getting a bit of a kick up the backside after joining the Become a Mumpreneur course run by the lovely@erica and @antoniachitty .  I have been off work through illness now for over 2 years and I am desperate to get back on my feet and hopefully start earning something- however small!

The first monetary challenge was to earn £20 for the month. So along with my eldest son we cleared out some old toys/books etc and decided to do a car boot sale!!

So yesterday morning we headed of to set up and hopefully turn some of our items into hard cash!!

We didn't have a massive amount to sell but we were hoping to break the £20 goal. the day went well and we sold around £48 worth of stuff!! We were very impressed as we didn't really stay there long and the boot sale itself wasn't that big. So taking off our entry fee of £12 we cleared £35.80!!!

So my eldest was pleased as he cleared his debt's ( a lost Ipod touch that was only 8 weeks old!!) and I was chuffed as when he gave the money to me I had exceeded my £20 monthly challenge.

So this has got me thinking towards next months challenge. I have always loved to make handmade gifts at Christmas, (hot chocolate cones, hampers, cookies etc) so with that in mind I have decided to have a table at the school Christmas fair ( hopefully) to sell some of these items(again hopefully!).

My £35 will go towards stuff I need initially to make the items ( which I will take pics of and probably post on here). At the moment I am feeling confident that the items are sell able.................however when I am standing in that sale I'm sure my confidence will disappear!!

Wish me luck..............................................both for the new look blog ( please come and follow me when I change) and for next month's sale!!!

Get me off this speeding train.....................................called life!!

This week has passed with the blink of an eye!! Really I feel as though I stepped on a speeding train and forgot to get off. Lets face it life has been a bit of a whirlwind since the kids have gone back to school.

It started with Friday 23rd being my youngest sons 11th birthday. bless him he had done the 11+ test that week and was so glad to get it all over that he really couldn't wait for his big day!

Yes shock of all shocks he had to go to school on his birthday! Life is so hard.

Now for some reason he though we might let him have the day off........but we are bad parents and made him go to school anyway! But he had a great day there and had some lovely pressies from his good friends. That night he was going to milk it for all he was worth so we had present opening....

Followed by dinner out..............TGI's being his choice...............

Followed by cake..................................yum!!

Who doesn't love chocolate caterpillar cake!!

Before all this we had a discussion on what he wanted to do for his birthday. A disco, cinema with some friends, a sleepover, Quasar, all the usual stuff. But although he loves to go to a party and is extremely sociable he wanted a day with the family.................FISHING!!!!

one of his catches!

But the week didn't stop there...........oh no. We had 2 secondary school visits, a doctors appointment, a dreded dentist appointment, all afterschool classes ( scouts, boys football/youth club, dance class, drama class) amongst all the usual shopping, washing, ironing...................yes I know a familiar story to you all!!

Then came a last minute audition for my youngest up at Covent Garden which then re arranged all our plans to meet up with friends to take the kids all swimming ( while we catch up on the gossip!). So OH went one way and me and my youngest went another. Then on to friends for dinner, drinking, gossiping and far too late a night ( which was fab!) and then a hideouslyearly morning to get both boys to Scouts for a day Power Boating activity at Whitstable!!
It was the hottest day of the so called summer! The boys were away. We had the day to ourselves...........so what did we do.....................................FISHING!!!

Now this is where I know I am being mentally affected by the pace of life!! I have the choice of what to do, a day out without kids, a whole day to do what we wanted...............and i chose fishing!!!!

RIGHT, SOMETHING MENTALLY WRONG.................................you agree?

Most people get a misd life crisis, indulge in implants,face lifts, radical hair do's, wearing skirts that are too short or tops that are too low.....................................................Oh no not me..................I go fishing!!!!!

Someone save me from this insanity!!!!!!!
I need to get out more.................or drink more......................or both!!!!

Ready Steady camp!

Yes you read it right.....camp! We are off again, tomorrow in fact. Now there's lots of festivals going on over the summer with great bands, brilliant music, lots of alcohol, playing how to find your tent at the end of the night etc, etc.......you get the picture.

So when we heard this festival being talked about and advertised my OH and I looked at each other, a plan hatched and tickets were booked. Now being in our early 40's we are not hitting a mid life crisis and pretending we are younger than we are, or trying to be 'hip and down with the kids'!! So before you all get very impressed thinking we are heading to a Glastonbury style festival and that we must be really cool and laid back parents to be taking our kids off camping 'a la festival
style'............................we are not!

So although we may at some point over the weekend re live our youth, embarrass our kids with our dancing, and force them to wave luminous Glo sticks at any sad songs whist singing ( very out of tune) at the top of our voices..........................................we will not be cheering to any 'cool' bands of recent years!

Oh no, not this family. We will be heading to Henley, hoping for sunny dry weather. For a whole weekend we will be surrounded by luminous clothing, mullet wigs, legwarmers (and that's just me......only kidding!) as we will be at the REWIND festival. A full 2 days of 80's bands, beer in plastic glasses, people in our own age range who remember these bands and the words to their songs, and OK I might have to wave a few Glosticks!!

So wish me luck as Friday brings a long day of packing, unpacking, hawking everything to our pitch, erecting a very large and heavy tent (actually that will be OH and the boys), cooking dinner(that will definitely be my job) and then dragging our boys to the delights of the 'Silent Disco'!!!!!

I feel a nervous breakdown approaching very rapidly!! Or at least a body breakdown after a very bad M.E day today!!!!!!
So lots of coffee, berroca's and energy drinks I think.............................and that's before the Saturday and Sunday of fab 80's music!!!!!

I sooooo cannot wait.........................................be warned it could will get messy.

Week 2 ...................survived!

So that's week 2 of summer hols gone and we survived again, although kids arguments and petty nit picking (not literally) almost got the better of us and nearly tipped us over the edge!! However, all four of us are still in one piece and miraculously still talking............only just!

We decided pretty last minute to make use of MIL's caravan along the North Kent coast for a few days. We arrived Wednesday in glorious sunshine, unpacked, had lunch and then headed to the beach for a while before attempting a food shop with the boys (honestly you would think they would get better as they got older........do not be fooled). After dinner the evening was still lovely and warm so we headed down for a last walk along the local Leas, and as the boys took their skateboards they were well worn out when we got back to the van.

We woke up Thursday to this.....

Grim!!

However we were undeterred and played games until the afternoon, who would have thought that playing Bingo and Charades for sweets could be so much fun..........honestly, what a giggle we had!

Yes really....Bingo for Maltesers and Lemon sherbets!!

That's 2 words!!

Then when the weather cleared we thought we would have a mooch around the local shops and check out the docks to watch for the enormous 'tanker' ships coming out!

Friday we headed off to Whitstable and Herne bay for the day. We made an early start and had a yummy picnic on the beach at Whitstable watching the little sailing boats going in and out from the club there.

Yes you read it right............'ginger nuts' .........and he is......ginger and nuts!!

After a wander around and the biggest ice creams I have ever seen and eaten, a picture of which is on my phone for proof, but for some reason I'm having difficulty downloading!!! Anyway, we headed off to Herne bay for the rest of the day.

I love the pier and the pavilion at Herne bay and this time we decided to try our hand at a bit of crab fishing!

However we were not very lucky or the crabs knew something we didn't as we didn't catch a thing!! Next time I'm sure LOL

It can be a very serious business this crab fishing!

But we had a great time and finished our day off with the best local fish and chips................YUM!


Saturday we drove down to a 'blast from the past' and visited our old RAF camp at Manston. There are two great little museums there, one mainly for the adults and one definitely geared towards children with aircraft they can climb about on and lots of other RAF stuff that brought back great memories for me and the OH!! We had a picnic overlooking the airfield and the old Air Traffic building I used to work in and we can see both our old rooms from the front of the camp ( our boys love this.....sad but true!)

No you can't take it home!!

I used to be winched in and out of these things for fun.....no rephrase that.......for work!!!!

However, the weather was not very kind to us that day and so we ended up in a very rainy Margate in the amusements, much to the boys delights.

This lucky player can make a pot of 2p's last a very, very, very long time!!

By Sunday I was completely shattered and so a lay in was had by all!! It was also the 9th anniversary of my Dad passing away, so the day was never going to be brilliant anyway.We had planned to pop along to Leysdowne ( not the loveliest of places but the beach there is fantastic) to have a BBQ on the beach but the weather was grim and we contemplated coming home! But by the time we were ready it was like a new day...........sunshine.........hooray. So we took our chances, and so glad we did, we had a fantastic afternoon on the beach there complete with BBQ burgers for our lunch!

The chef..............and very nice they were too.

The water was surprisingly warm.

And the tide went out amazingly far!! Can you spot the 2 dots that are my sons?????

Although there was a small fair there, we had been playing Bingo in the van when it was raining so the boys opted to play the 'proper' bingo inside the amusements instead!! We had a blast for about an hour and 3 out of 4 of us had a win!! Sorry OH .........but you were rubbish.

Anyway we headed home for tea and a few card games before bed, and although we had a great day my 'sociableness' had worn off and I was glad to head to bed as we were going to leave fairly early the next morning.

So, today is now Monday and another week of the hols has past and so far we have had some great days. Yes there have been arguments, tiffs, tears, tantrums ( and that is just me!!) but overall it has been fab!

Here starts a new week, I have returned and unpacked, washed and ironed and re- packed as tomorrow we are heading to Devon to stay at my Mum's!! OH is staying here as he has to work. This will be the first time I have attempted to drive the journey on my own since being diagnosed with M.E!! I am not looking forward to it as I normally sleep for a few hours when my OH drives so not quite sure if I will make it!!

So wish me luck as it is going to be a very long journey. And I am already kissing goodbye to Wednesday as I know most of that will be spent in bed!! However, my brother has planned to take the boys on a 10 mile hike along Dartmoor on Wednesday..........................................so I can sleep to my hearts content and enjoy the peace and quiet when I am up!!!

I'm off!!!

Not literally..........well maybe.

Anyway we are off on a short holiday! I would love to tell you all that it is somewhere exotic but I would be lying. We are staying at my MIL's caravan along the Kent coast!!!! However, a holiday is a holiday and we will enjoy the break regardless.

We have a few days out planned with Whitstable and Herne bay very close. We will probably visit our long lost  'forces' home at Manston and pop into the museums there too.

So I am taking a break from all things technical...............OK I may post a few pics on twitter but apart from that I wont have WIFI and therefore wont be posting until I get back!!


So long, farewell, have a great time yourselves over the next week.


NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED ON MONDAY!!!!!

Here's hoping for dry weather LOL

Week 1 of holidays...........survived!

I thought that with the start of the school holidays I would have so much more time to do............things, chill out, catch up on a bit of telly, blog amongst others.

HOW WRONG COULD I BE!

I cannot believe that we are into the second week of the school holidays already. In fact a slight panic has set in, have I actually got enough time to do everything. My eldest has already been and returned from his week long scout camp!! We are heading off tomorrow to my MIL's caravan along the Kent coast until Monday, as hubby now has a few days off work (thank God!). Now my boys are pestering me to go to their Nanny's, who happens to live in Devon, which would be fantastic but I'm not sure I can drive that long on my own ( due to the M.E sometimes my muscles are extremely painful and an almighty fatigue can set in). We also have a festival in the middle of August and I haven't even thought about uniforms ( apart from my eldest's new blazer..........which I never forget after leaving it into a dry cleaners once only to wake up middle of the night on the day he was due back to school, in a total panic about what to do!!! Believe me my OH was not best pleased as I almost gave him heart failure thinking someone had broken in!!)

Anyway, last week was great with one child away it was great to spend time with the other on his own, and boy did he have his week planned out. OH was off Monday so my son decided he wanted to visit St Paul's Cathedral in London!! So naively we thought great a little afternoon up there, we would listen to the tour gadgets and take a few pic's and then home....

Oh no were there for 5 hours!! Yes you read it right.........5 hours. They convinced me to go up the stairs to the Whispering Gallery, which I really wanted to do anyway. However, then they persuaded me to go further to the Stone Gallery! Which turned out to be fantastic as it was a beautiful day so we sat and had our lunch there!

That's us on the stone Gallery

View from the Stone gallery

 Then they persuaded me to go a bit further, to the top in fact. From there we had just the most fantastic view across London, so I felt it was worth it in the end.

More steps!!!!

View from the very top!

However, I started to struggle coming down and after several rests I got to the bottom only to find my legs started shaking uncontrollably and I was stuck to the spot for about 15 minutes!!!! It was sooo not funny, bad enough when people pass you on the stairs and look at you as though you are a complete pleb for not being able to get up there, let alone how people look at you when your OH is practically holding you up in the middle of St Paul's!!( M.E is invisible so people look at you as if your are an idiot when your OH helps you up or holds you up for whatever reason). We made it to the cafe to recuperate ............a cuppa and a chocolate crispy cake is like a miracle cure.


Then a purchase in the shop ( I very sadly collect fridge magnets from wherever I go) and a snoop in the Crypt and we then being practically thrown out we had been there so long.

When I thought it was all over my son casually mentions going across the Millennium Bridge ( which is practically in front of St Paul's) so I plodded on.

That's us heading towards the bridge..............slowly.

The day was fantastic although I knew I would suffer the next day.

So on Tuesday my OH took over and the pair of them built a 'den' in the garden while I watched from the sidelines taking pic's and drinking tea.

The finished product!

Complete with warning.

Wednesday my Oh returned to work so I promised my son that we would use our prize from a competition and go play our free round of mini golf at Bluewater. That was great fun until my son beat me by 2 points!!! I was so not impressed.........I'm not one of those lovely parents who let their child win at things. I don't know what happens to me but a competitive streak takes over and not an inch is given.

However, I consoled myself with a Krispy Kreme and a coffee before letting my son window shop around Bluewater to get a few ideas for his birthday.



Thursday, I had a lovely invite to HMS Belfast which you can read about in the previous post. So little ol' me and my son and his buddy spent a fab few hours on the ship before returning home. He then was invited to his friends for the afternoon ( his mum is a start and knew I would be heading to bed after a busy morning out) and didn't return until dinner time!!

Friday was a meet with a friend at the pool, boys went swimming we had a coffee and then went back to hers for lunch and a great catch up in the afternoon!!

By then I was completely drained so Saturday was a complete blur to me and spent most of it in bed. But my eldest returned from his camp very happy but tired!!

This week had already started with an impromptu water fight yesterday afternoon and a swim 'play date' with their friends this afternoon.

A make do water spray!! LOL

We will be off to the caravan tomorrow but I'm yet to get everything packed and I am sitting on the computer doing this!!!!!
I'm waiting on the magic fairy to come in the night and sort it all out for me...................OK that means I will be up late and then not sleep as I think of the things I have forgotten to pack!!! Meanwhile my lovely boys (including OH) will sleep fantastically well as they only have to remember to put on clean pants......and sometimes that's a struggle.


So here's to a few hopefully relaxing days away where I am hoping my OH will take over the 'entertaining' of the boys for a while as I sit on the sidelines and recuperate a little in readiness for the next few weeks!!!

Science Museum Space Exhibition- a free day out for summer!

I was lucky enough to be one of the few people invited to the relaunch of the Science Museum's Space Exhibition in London on Wednesday evening.

With me I had 2 trusty space explorers in the shape of my 10 year old and his best buddy! When we arrived we were welcomed  and our explorers were given the coolest video cameras to record their visit.
This was by far the best decision for the visit as all the children there were running around recording all sorts of different things going on!

So we were given a tour that led us through the space entrance and the children had their 'passports' to find a special letter in each of the relevant sections.

They loved this globe!

By far the most enjoyable bit for my two 10 year old explorers was definitely the Launchpad where they had the most amazing 'hands on' activities. As there were only a few of us there the children had the rare experience of being able to try lots of these out without a wait! Again this was something they talked about on the train journey home.

The wall of water/ bubbles!

In passing we went through the area where the Imax is and we came across these..........not space related but they loved one and I loved the other.

Boys and their toys!

A fantastic dress made entirely of newspaper....no sign of the boys!

They were then able to listen to a talk about all things space related by a real enthusiast, who dressed for the part and everything. Children being children though, were engrossed by the stories of how astronauts go the the toilet in space! Typical.

 We have visited the Science museum before but probably not since last year so my son had a real treat that evening. However, the tour itself went past very quickly and the children seemed understandably rushed from one part to another. They talked on the way home that they would have loved to have more time in each section. The upside to this is that it has given both of them a renewed interest to go back for the day over the summer. Although they wont be lucky enough to have video cameras next time, and the museum will be incredibly busy I'm sure, they are looking forward to staying for the day and visiting all the departments. I know for certain I will be sat in the hands on Launchpad for a very long time on my next visit!!


Please if you are close enough for a visit and haven't been before it truly is worth a trip. Any age group will enjoy it here and the adults will love it just as much as the kids.........I guarantee it!

This all kicks off on the 23rd July, the museum itself is free to get in (although there are charges for the Imax and simulator if you chose to do them). So there are no excuses for not popping along during the summer holidays (unless of course you live in Scotland!!)

Check out their website http://sciencemuseum.org.uk

That was the week that was...........

............exhausting but brilliant.

From last Saturday I feel as though I haven't stopped. Don't get me wrong most of you will read this and think 'Man Up ' however as an M.E sufferer it's been a long haul ( like running the marathon).

It started Saturday with a trip up London with 5 other girls to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. We had decided to keep what we were doing a secret from her so that she had no idea on the day. For a few months before lots of emails had been flung around wondering what we could do. It all started with a spa weekend or Glamping which we couldn't get organised ( dates/ childcare/ travel etc). Then we decided to go up town so our options were open............theatre show, dinner, London Eye, boat trip, etc etc.

In the end we went with a Rib Ride along the Thames and then a posh lunch! A Rib ride for those of you that don't know is a speedboat ride that starts of quite leisurely as all the touristy bits are pointed out to you, then turns into something from the latest James Bond film!! Actually as you pass Tower Bridge the speed increases and the James Bond music is played as you are thrown around the Thames as though some terrorist is in hot pursuit!!!

My friend loving it and her friend (nearest) not!!

Being 'Ladies that lunch' we had gone fairly dressed for the restaurant and so took the easy option of huge coats to keep us from getting wet and preserve the hairdo's!

I'm taking the pic and being the shortest the coat looked like a dress on me!!

NOTE TO SELF: having long curly hair on a speedboat ride does not bode well. GHD's could not have done a better job straightening it!!!!

Anyway, moving on. Then we popped to Covent garden for a wander and a beer, stalling before we went to the restaurant. Then we went the Christopher's where we were treated to champer's ( lots of it) and had a table arranged for lunch.

That's where it got messy!!!!!
3 bottles of champers............................check
2 bottles of rose......................................check
something containing tequila.................check ( not sure what it was called but bloody lovely!!!)

After these...........

It  went from this.........

To this!!!!!

Food was yummy too.

So inevitably Sunday was spent in bed ( not hungover surprisingly - I think my Tramadol worked wonders) absolutely exhausted.

Then came Monday......................My Birthday!!!

My OH had arranged to go to Windsor for the day while the kids where at school- GENIUS!
A friend did the school run and we set off early and were able to get there for the changing of the Guards.

I'm ex RAF so love the pomp and ceremony!!

Then we popped outside for a lovely pub lunch before heading back in to wander around the chapel and the Dolls House and Staterooms.

It's truly a beautiful place to visit and wouldn't be complete before sneaking up to the Guard for a quick picture before we left!

And no they really don't talk to you!!!!

Returning home we indulged in pizza ( kids choice) and birthday cake and pressies!!

Pink festival wellies for Rewind in August- fab!
Dolly Parton cd....sad I know but secretly I love her and going to see her at the O2 in September!

Oh and did I mention..........A BLACKBERRY!!!!!!!!

This is a huge deal for me as my old phone surely has earned it's place in the Science Museum!!!!
Seriously, I am sooooo happy.............Internet at my fingertips. I feel as though I've just been invited into the 'popular gang'.

Moving on and Tuesday was spent mainly in bed recovering.

Wednesday evening I had a meal out with some friends at a local Italian restaurant. Food was lovely again, and the southern comfort and then the wine just seemed to slip down too easily! It was great to catch up although we hear more about their lives than what's happening in ours- but that's another post altogether!

Thursday was spent mostly in bed but I did manage a catch up and a cuppa with a friend before school pick up.

Friday was my youngest son's sports day! So went back to bed in the morning and the attended in the afternoon. Luckily the weather stayed quite nice and as a dutiful mum I cheered him on ( much to his embarrassment) and took lots of pictures too.

Now I feel as though no part of my body is connected to my brain.........or in fact if I have a brain as stringing words and sentences together has become a full time job!!! One I'm not doing very well at and will possibly be sacked at any given moment.


So tonight we are having a Harry Potter night watching the 1st installment of the Deathly Hallows to get into the mood for going to see part 2 tomorrow!!!

Hopefully I will manage to stay awake- although I cannot guarantee it.