Give up Clothes for Good

I wore these Carvela shoes on a hot date with my husband. It was in the early days of our relationship, before we were married.

During the day we had filled a skip with my late father's stuff. I looked towards the sky and said 'sorry, Dad' every time I lobbed something in. That evening we had booked into a nice hotel. We washed away the dust of the day and got ready to go out. I was wearing a black top and skirt, finished off with stockings and my pretty new £60 shoes. As I said, our relationship was still very new.

We strolled a short distance from the hotel to a lovely Thai restaurant. We had a fun, flirty evening. As we set off to walk back to the hotel my feet started to hurt. I suspect Andy thought I was making a fuss, but I insisted we got a taxi back to the hotel. Yes, it was embarrassing to take a taxi such a short distance, but my  toes were covered in blisters.

I can not begin to describe the relief when I took the sodding shoes off in the hotel reception. We then drank far too much red wine and gate-crashed a wedding reception. We managed to dance the night away, with me in my stocking feet.

The Carvela shoes were put back in their box and were never worn again.

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In April I will be taking my hardly worn shoes to my local TK Maxx store to be bagged and tagged and sent to Cancer Research to sell in one of their shops to raise money for childhood cancers. The Give Up Clothes For Good campaign is being supported by the Tots100 with a blogging carnival.

If you would like to join in please consider yourself tagged. Simply write a post about a much-loved item of quality clothing that you are willing to give up for charity. Include the links above and maybe embed this YouTube video too. Then email your post to me: sandy [at] tots100.co.uk.

Give up Clothes for Good

Dad's Glasses

There, nestled in an old ice-cream tub, are my dad's reading glasses. They've been there for nearly six years. After he died I tidied them away, along with some familiar bits and pieces from his work bench.

We've moved house four times since then, but we've only just opened the box marked 'Dad's Workshop'. I'd been ignoring it, along with the boxes marked 'Sell - Ebay' and 'S clothes (too small)'. We've only been in our current (forever) home for eleven months, but the unpacking ground to a halt within a few weeks of moving in. Every now and then - when we need to make some space in the garage - we open a few boxes. After the thrill of unearthing our karaoke DVD's, we moved on to the difficult stuff.

I took out each unusual tool, spring, wheel or ancient box and held it in my hands for a few seconds. Trying to feel something. To remember. I could smell stale cigarette smoke, methylated spirits and watch oil. This combination has always been enough to make me nauseous. Still I touched each item, hoping to get a piece of my daddy back. When I held his glasses I felt overwhelming loss. 

I miss him.

I wiped away big splashy teardrops and carefully put dad's glasses back in the ice-cream tub, on top of his tools. One day I'll put everything into a proper display case, so my boys can see what their grandad did. I'll tell them that my daddy made the clock on our mantelpiece. Not now. Not yet. Now I've put dad's glasses back in a box in the garage. Buried them under the spare bits of carpet and empty boxes. I've tucked away my grief and will keep it for another day.

Dad's Glasses

New on CBeebies

We were invited to a screening of two new CBeebies programmes, Andy's Wild Adventures and Tree Fu Tom, as part of the channel's tenth birthday celebrations.





It was a massive thrill for my sons to meet CBeebies presenter, Andy Day, at the screening. He, along with Kay Benbow (controller of CBeebies), talked about a wonderful new programme, Andy's Wild Adventures.

Andy's Wild Adventures was made in conjunction with the BBC's Natural History Unit and stars Andy as a zookeeper. He and his furry sidekick, Kip, travel in the Kipmobile to visit animals in the wild. During filming Andy said he was covered in water, mud, ice and fungus - and more mud. The programme gives more than a passing nod to the late Johnny Morris and Animal Magic (my favourite programme when I was growing up in the 70's).

Presley and Cash LOVE Andy's Wild Adventures and have been watching it avidly since it was first broadcast a couple of weeks ago. They pretend to be Andy and Kip in the Kipmobile. It must have been surreal for Andy to watch my children pretending to be him, but we could tell he was genuinely pleased at how well-received the show has been.





This is the official introduction to Tree Fu Tom.

"Former Doctor Who stars David Tennant and Sophie Aldred voice the lead characters Tom (Aldred) and Twigs (Tennant) in the new multi-platform fantasy action adventure series, Tree Fu Tom coming to CBeebies in March.

Aimed at four to six year olds, Tree Fu Tom is set in an enchanted world where movement creates magic. Tom appears to be a normal eight-year-old boy but putting on his magic belt and performing a special sequence of magic action-movements (known as Tree Fu) transforms him into a tiny but mighty magical super-hero.

Using a Tree Fu spell, Tom is transported into a wondrous enchanted kingdom in a tree called Treetopolis, inhabited by sprites, bugs and naughty fungi – the ‘Mushas’. Here he meets his faithful sidekick Twigs, a silly and energetic Acorn Sprite.

Tom and Twigs are inseparable as they become embroiled in amazing, action-packed adventures, which always lead to trouble, impending disaster and catastrophe. When events run beyond their control it is only with help from the audience performing Tree Fu moves, that Tom can create spectacular Big World Magic and save the day!

All of the Tree Fu magic moves that children are encouraged to copy are developed from therapeutic techniques that are used to help children with movement disorders like Dyspraxia, but are designed to assist and enhance the development of all participating children at a crucial time in their growth."


I spoke to the producer of Tree Fu Tom, Dan, who told me that this new show has been five years in the making and was developed to help children to move. All of the children at the screening joined in with the magic movements and my boys are very excited to see more episodes.

Tree Fu Tom starts today at 5.25 on CBeebies.






Disclosure: The BBC provided coffee and pastries on the day, but nothing else! We paid our own travel. Just so you know. I write about CBeebies because I like it. It is gentle and well thought out. It keeps my boys occupied, entertained and educated while I cook the tea every afternoon.


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New on CBeebies

Review: Singin' in the Rain at the Palace Theatre, London

Warning: there may be an abundance of superlatives in this review and you can expect a few stars!

Singin' in the Rain is the story of the move in Hollywood from silent films to talking pictures. It follows movie stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont and is based on the wonderful 1952 musical film of the same name. I've lost count of the number of times I've watched this film, so I was keen to see the stage version. All the songs from the film are there, including 'Make 'Em Laugh', Good morning', 'You were made for me', 'You are my lucky star', 'Would You', 'Moses' and the legendary title song.

The cast are fantastic. Gene Kelly's shoes are hard to fill, but Adam Cooper (the adult Billy in the film Billy Elliot) does an brilliant job playing the all-singing, all-dancing leading man. I couldn't take my eyes of him. His movement is effortless, but I wondered whether he was holding something back in his performance. Perhaps he was pacing himself.

Scarlett Strallen plays the Debbie Reynold's role of Kathy Selden beautifully. She lights up the stage and is warm and engaging.

The funny best friend, Cosmo Brown, is played with panache by Daniel Crossley. It must be wonderful as an actor to hear a full house laughing heartily at your performance. He's a ball of energy.

One character I was looking forward to seeing is Lina Lamont. Katherine Kinglsey stands out as the selfish leading lady from noo yoik. Her piercing shriek of a voice is spot on, but she needs to be careful not to go over the top. All together now... 'I can't stand him'!

There were a couple of well-known faces on the stage. Both Michael Brandon and Sandra Dickinson were fabulous. All of the other actors were super. They looked like they were enjoying themselves and this helped me to enjoy the show too.

The scenes from the films in the show were excellent. They were projected onto screens on the set and fitted perfectly. Singin' in the Rain is a very funny musical. The whole show is entertaining. You get a lot for your money as the production lasts for two and a half hours.

The song and dance routines are amazing. The film translates well to the stage and the big Hollywood routines are very well done. The most exciting sections were at the end of the first half and the finale. I loved the staging of the the title number 'Singin' in the Rain'. The reprise at the end with the whole cast is spectacular too. Yes, there is rain on stage! The theatre smells like a swimming pool, but it's worth it. I'll give you fair warning though, if you're sat in the first few rows in the stalls you may get splashed!

Wow, just wow. Singin' in the Rain is superb from start to finish. We loved it. Five stars out of five.





I was given a couple of tickets to review the new production of Singin' in the Rain at the Palace Theatre, London, by Superbreak. If you want to visit London, this production is listed in the London Guide


 Image credit

Review: Singin' in the Rain at the Palace Theatre, London

Spring

Did you breathe a little more deeply today, knowing that it was March and spring was in the air?

I love this time of year, when the flowers burst open. This daffodil is hiding a little moth.

How lovely to be able to spend time in the garden.

With apologies for the poor quality of these photographs, but these were taken on a long zoom from my kitchen window.

Can you see a little blue and yellow head peeping out from the nesting box?

Spring