7 October 2009
6 October 2009
Mummy Bloggers Meet at MOSI in Manchester
On Sunday Presley and I drove to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester to the British Mummy Bloggers Northern Meet up.
I was confident that we would enjoy meeting more Bloggers after the success of my Blogger Blind Date the week before.
Presley and I arrived early and had time for a look around the amazing MOSI. We would thoroughly recommend it and will be going back for a proper explore.
We all met in the cafe. The children played together and the Bloggers and their partners were able to have a chat. I managed to talk to everyone, albeit briefly. All Grown Up was there with her beautiful four week old baby. I resisted the temptation to ask for a cuddle, I feared my hormones would rise up and order me home to my husband immediately!
It was lovely to see Sally and Lindy again, wonderful to meet Josie and Parklover, and I was in awe of the Wife of Bold and Amy with their four daughters each, all behaving impeccably. Huge thanks to Amy for organising the event too.
Special thanks goes to NotSupermum who made sure Presley didn't get his roast dinner on his head at lunch time and who also emailed me the wonderful photograph she took of him playing.
After lunch there was a presentation from Silver Cross. They unveiled their snazzy new travel system. If I needed another pram this would be on my short list.
Silver Cross also revealed their new toy ranges. All the children were invited to play with them, Presley didn't need asking twice.
I proved that I only open my mouth to change feet by telling the Silver Cross rep that their toys looked like those you get in Mamas & Papas, but in a good way. The toys are lovely. Really. Oh dear.
Pretty soon after that I got my coat.
We had a fabulous time. If you're thinking about going to a British Mummy Bloggers meet up, I can thoroughly recommend it.
***
In other news.... I'm staggered to see Baby Baby at number 21 in the index of Top UK Parent Blogs. I don't know how it got there, but I'm delighted.
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And finally.... There's a carnival over at Conversations With Moms. Maria has kindly included one of my posts.
2 October 2009
Cancer, Fashion and Rings
This is my best friend Amanda. This beautiful photograph is of Amanda on her wedding day in 2005.
A few weeks after the wedding Amanda rang me. I knew she had found a lump in her breast. I knew she was going for a mammogram and a biopsy. I didn't imagine for one moment that it would be anything serious. I was waiting for her call. In the tiniest voice I've ever heard she told me 'I've got cancer'.
I'm afraid I was incapable of keeping a stiff upper lip. I wailed and cried with her. I shouted 'it's not fair'.
Amanda was just 36. Her children were only 11 and 7 years old.
Amanda had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was very sick. She lost her hair.
She never stopped battling and she beat it. I'm so proud of her.
A couple of weeks after her major reconstruction surgery, in October 2006, we went to the Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show. Here we are about to get into the limo:
Amanda is second left, with her newly grown hair. I'm third from the right.
We had an amazing night at the Grosvenor House Hotel. It was great fun celeb-spotting. We saw Cherie Blair, Natasha Kaplinsky, Duncan From Blue and Geri Halliwell among others. There were goody bags and Swarovski crystals in the carpet.
The fashion show was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. All the models (male and female) have had breast cancer. My hands were bruised from clapping.
There was a charity auction. As Amanda recalls, she nipped to the loo and when she got back I was bidding. I outbid Kenny Goss (George Michael's partner) and won the Romantic Lot.
Yes, I had been drinking! I was also celebrating getting engaged to Andy a few days before.
I won't say what my winning bid was, but I had to raise my credit card limit to make the payment.
The Romantic Lot was a weekend in a luxury hotel (only 20 miles from home), a hire car (forgot to claim this bit of the lot) and the chance to spend the weekend at the Jon Dibben Jewellery workshop, with a £2000 voucher to spend at Jon's shop.
We had the most amazing time. Jon and his team made us so welcome. They even said they were happy we had won instead of Kenny Goss! Andy and I made, from scratch, a silver ring each, mounted with a tiny blue diamond. We also chose my engagement ring and our wedding rings. We spent time with the goldsmiths who made them. This makes our rings even more special.
We haven't been to the fashion show since 2006 for one reason (having Presley in 2007) or another (having Cash in 2008), but we are going this year.
I'm delighted to say that Amanda has been chosen to be a model at the 2009 Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show. I can't wait to see her on the catwalk. I will be taking my camera and a whole box of tissues. I'll report back next week and let you know how we get on.
This year however I won't drink quite so much champagne and I'll be leaving my credit card at home!
1 October 2009
The Gift of Life
This isn't the post I had planned to write today. I had planned to write a post where I talk about my weight.
This isn't even the post I had planned to write today instead of the post where I talk about my weight, because that's a difficult post to write. I was going to write a post about how I'm feeling sorry for myself. I do have a cold you know. And I've got a sore finger.
Then I read all the posts about the Pampers/UNICEF campaign: 1 Pack = 1 Vaccine.
Then I cried.
I didn't cry for myself, I realise how lucky I am to have two healthy children. I cried for the poor babies that die needlessly each year from tetanus. I cried for their mothers and I cried for those women that also contract the disease and leave their children orphaned.
My tetanus is up to date, so the puncture wound on my finger that I got yesterday from fiddling with a pushchair will not kill me.
So I'd like to thank Carol at New Mummy for snapping me out of my self-pity. She has tagged me with the Gift of Life.
These are the rules:
1 Open the virtual Gift For Life by going here
2 Write a small post on the campaign
3 Pass on to 5 other bloggers
4 Add the campaign badge to your sidebar
5 Feel incredibly proud that you are helping to make a difference!
2 Write a small post on the campaign
3 Pass on to 5 other bloggers
4 Add the campaign badge to your sidebar
5 Feel incredibly proud that you are helping to make a difference!
I am passing the Gift of Life on to:
30 September 2009
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