The moments that mattered - 2013

2013 was a BIG year for me - I turned half a century and decided to celebrate in style all year long in one way or another!  So there were many Moments that Mattered, but here are a few highlights.

Firstly, one of my lifelong dreams had been to go on a horse riding safari, so I took the plunge in April and booked a trip to South Africa.  The week was awesome, being on horseback meant that we could get REALLY close to the animals without them being spooked (as the horses lived out with the wild animals overnight) - A-MAY-ZING!

Zebra watching

May saw my actual birthday. I decided to treat my family and our best friends to a short cruise to celebrate (I had thought about hiring a large house to party for a weekend, but then the idea of catering/cleaning etc put me off, this was the perfect solution!).  We had a wonderful time, memories that will stay with me forever.

Dinner on board

I was then treated to a fabulous weekend at our best friends' house where we took a steam train for dinner one evening, I had a go at indoor sky diving (masses of fun) and they had a wonderful celebratory cake made for me.  Long walks on the beach and there was much champagne consumed!  :)

Happy Birthday!

Another horse riding adventure in June saw me being a cowgirl in Montana, USA, another long held dream. Days in the saddle were followed by nights around the camp fire telling tall tales and toasting marshmallows.

Me and my steed in Montana

Autumn brought yet more travel opportunites, again to Victoria Falls and South Africa, this time with my best friend and her 77 year old mother who had always wanted to visit.  We had a hard time keeping up with her Mum and I only wish that I will have as much stamina and verve in 27 years time!

Betty leads the way

Sometimes, things that make you smile might seem trivial to others, but discovering THE best chocolate icecream this side of Italy was one thing that brightened my life no end on a steamy hot weekend in London in July!  And that they had a loyalty card, buy 4, get one free!

Delicious icecream

Watching my godson get married brought a happy tear to my eye - where have all those years gone to?

One last thing, my dogs.  Every day they give me moments that matter and make me smile - this one particularly sticks out in my memory.  We rarely get snow in Cornwall so had to travel up to Dartmoor to find some and had a fab afternoon throwing snowballs and having fun.

So there you are, a wonderful celebratory year full of Moments that Mattered to me.

This is my entry for the Lloyds Bank Moments That Matter blog competition.

#ShopStyleParty Time!

I love using Shopstyle so when I read that they were running a competition where you had to put together a Christmas or New Year party outfit, I knew that it would be a wonderful way to spend an evening, putting together my dream outfit!

#Shopstyle party time!

I chose this fab silver Moschino Cheap & Chic metallic silver lace dress as my party dress - easy to wear but incredibly stylish - £470 at Harrods.

As it's Christmas, I wanted to inject some colour and it just had to be red!  Cue these cute shoes perfect for dancing the night away - Grazia studded court shoe from Simply Be at just £31.50, bargain!  For the chilly trip to and from my party, I'll need the Dorothy Perkins Red Silouette floral scarf (£12).  I just ADORE the packaging on the Christian Dior Addict Extreme lippy, so that's a must, and I chose Paparazzi as my colour, in the hope that my outfit will bring them out in force!  :)

My statement jewellery comes from All Saints and consists of the Biserka bracelet (£128) and Memphis earrings (£58).  Finally, a stylish clutch Palace bag from Hobbs to keep my lippy and Oyster card safe (whilst I'd love to be whisked to the ball in a coach like Cinderella, I certainly don't want to lose my lovely outfit at the stroke of midnight, so I'll take my chances on the tube!)

A very APPy Christmas!

Let's face it, life BI (Before Ipads!) used to be so difficult, trying to keep track of what Christmas presents you'd bought for who.  This was especially true for me, as I love to buy my Christmas gifts all year around as I see them, or at least note down the idea ready for when I have some spare cash!  I hate the "last minute" dash in December to get everyone's gifts when the shops are packed and prices seem sky high.

Over the years, I've tried pieces of paper (always getting lost), a pretty notebook (it got left behind too many times or I couldn't find a pen) and my brain (too much like a sieve!).  So when I found the app "Manage Christmas - Christmas Gift List Manager", I knew I had struck gold.  What's more, it's free, my favourite price!

The best thing about this app is that it's so simple.  You set your total budget to spend and the app keeps track of what you've spent in total for everyone.

Then you add people that you want to buy for, with a total budget for each person.

Christmas List by person

As and when you find the perfect present for each person, you can note it down (whether you have bought it or not), where you saw it and what the price is (useful to keep track on when there's a sale to see if it's really gone down in price!)

This app has saved me tearing my hair out AND has saved me money by ensuring that I don't overspend by buying more presents as I'd forgotten what I'd already bought back in April!  To me, it's PRICELESS!

HAVE A VERY MERRY (and organised!) CHRISTMAS!

Our Perfect Christmas Day

I guess most people have a large extended family Christmas.  Our family is only small, but does extend to four generations and what is important to me is spending Christmas with all of them, creating memories for all of us.

We'll wake early, prepare Christmas lunch and then take the dogs for their long Christmas Day walk in the morning with our best friends.  It's Mike's birthday on Christmas Day, so we enjoy a glass of something bubbly to celebrate.

Then back to open the presents with William.

The perfect relaxed Christmas lunch with all the trimmings.

Enjoying some games

and giggles

Four generations of Christmas fun!

Merry Christmas!  This is my entry for the Tots100/Argos 12 Days of Christmas competition

The Appliance of Domestic Science

Tots100 got me thinking with their blog post about domestic appliances and how much we rely on them these days.

We were having dinner with some friends recently and got chatting about what we could live without in this increasingly material world.  What would we give up if there was a choice between two things?  I knew straight away that if I had to choose between my washing machine and dishwasher, the dishwasher would definitely stay.  There's a great local launderette (with a cosy coffee shop right next door)......how hard would that be a few times a week (after all, I managed it in my twenties!), but give up my dishwasher - NO WAY!!!  All those pans, plates and pots cluttering up my kitchen waiting for "someone" (ie, usually me!) to wash and dry them? NO THANK YOU!

I breathe a sigh of relief when they are stacked safely in the machine and I press the button, pure bliss.

Most appliances usually last quite a long time, but they always seem to break down just at the wrong time. That was the case with our oven a couple of years ago.  It was Sunday, I was preparing our traditional family Sunday roast dinner (a 52 week affair in our household) and switched on the oven.  Everything seemed normal, lights came on and whirring noises from the inside, but when I opened the door to put the pork in 20 minutes later, it was still cold!  ARGH!  Husband, who is quite handy with everything (except cooking!), came to assess the situation and declared that the oven heating element was not working.  Disaster for that Sunday roast - it's impossible to cook a fabulous joint of pork with crackling without an oven

....I love my microwave and slow cooker (and indeed, survived with just a microwave to cook on for over a year when we were renovating our house and the "kitchen" moved from room to room as we tried to find somewhere without dust and grime!) but they do not cook a proper Sunday roast!  We had to cut our losses and went to the pub for Sunday lunch that day.

As I said, appliances seem to have a knack of knowing when is the worst time to break down.  Not only was it a Sunday, but our bank balance was woefully low (read negative) and we certainly couldn't afford to replace the cooker (even though it was already a good age).  The aforementioned Handy Husband did some searching online and found PartSelect who had this really helpful guide on what to do when your oven isn't producing any heat. He followed the simple instructions and concluded that he had been right before, that the heater element was indeed kaput!  After reading how easy it was to replace, he decided that it sounded like we could fix the oven ourselves so ordered the part which arrived just a day later.

I was "Chief Tool Passer" and Handy Husband had the element replaced in less than an hour, it really was very simple.  SO simple, in fact, that when exactly the same thing happened eight months later when Handy Husband was away on business, I managed to replace the element on my own (with just the Young One as the Chief Tool Passer!).  It did take me a bit longer, but it wasn't rocket science, you just need to be methodical and always adhere to the safety instructions.  PartSelect produce step-by-step videos which are really helpful if you're a bit nervous.  We now keep a spare oven heating element in a kitchen drawer, we don't want any more Sunday roast disasters!

Following on from our oven success, we had a go at diagnosing a fault on my beloved dishwasher when that broke down, but found that it was a problem in the electronic circuit board which was not repairable (by us or an engineer) and a replacement would cost almost as much as a new dishwasher.  Of course, the dishwasher WAS replaced pronto! ;)

Now, whenever an appliance stops working, we try to fix it ourselves.  We're very keen on recycling and trying to reduce our impact on the planet as much as possible, and this is a great way of making a big difference (to both the planet AND your own bank balance!)


This blog post is my entry into the Tots100/PartSelect "Love Your Appliance" competition

Travelling My Way - by any mode of transport!

When I heard that Rhinocarhire.com were running a promotion where you need to submit your all-time favourite travel photos by various modes of transport, I knew I had to enter as I love travelling!  Luckily for me, the deadline has been extended to the end of October because I've only just come back from an amazing trip to Zambia and South Africa!

I've spent a very enjoyable couple of hours going through my photos and deciding which ones to include in this post, it's been like a whirlwind trip of the world!

Travel by Sea
I love being on and in the water, so this category was really hard for me to whittle down to just a couple of photos!  So much of my travel has been by water, from kayaks through to the huge Queen Mary 2, the last true liner plying the oceans.
Firstly, from my trip to Antarctica, where we had a roller coaster 36 hour sea journey across Drakes Channel to reach this incredible white wilderness. This photo was taken very early one morning and I was struck by the beauty of the near perfect reflections in the water.

Creeping through the icebergs in the Lemair Channel, Antarctica

I love scuba diving and have travelled around the globe to indulge my passion.  I always go "liveaboard" - where you take a small (these days generally very comfortable!) boat and live on there for a week or two - you get to remote pristine dive sites away from all the day trippers.  This shot was taken at dawn one morning in a very remote area of the Red Sea - jumping into inky black waters from the safety of "home" when you know that sharks will be circling below can be daunting but exhilarating!

Leaping into the unknown

Travel by Air
Most people moan about having to get to and from a holiday by air, but to me, it's part of the joy of travelling.  I check in on line and travel with just hand baggage, so there are no huge queues at the airport, and love catching up with films whilst flying.  There's nothing better than peeking out of the window to see what's on the ground below (I've been amazed at the profusion of huge circular fields on my most recent trips, brought about by irrigation - not something we see much in England!).  I once was even lucky enough to see the Northern Lights from a plane.

This year, I visited Alaska and the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny, so I decided to take a float plane trip from Ketchican to the Misty Fiords National Park.  From start to finish, this was amazing, we landed in a remote lake right in the National Park where the silence was deafening!

Float plane on remote lake in Alaska

Flying over Misty Fiords NP

Flying by helicopter is always a real thrill, but especially so when the destination was Mount Cook in New Zealand.  We were able to land on a nearby mountain top and walk around taking in the majesty of it all - thank you air travel!

Travel by train
What a relaxing way to see a country from the comfort of a train carriage.  You know exactly where you'll end up, they are generally fairly fast and reliable, you can get food and drink, what's not to like?

Of course, the Japanese bullet trains are renowned for their reliability and punctuality.  I was amazed to see the efficiency of getting on and off the train - you must stand in a specific box on the platform.  Clean, comfortable and FAST, just a pity that so much of Japan is so urbanised so the views aren't up to much alot of the time.

Preparing to board a bullet train

My favourite country in the world to travel by train is actually my home, Great Britain.  Despite the cuts made to the network in the 1950s, we still have one of the most extensive rail networks in the world, and seeing the glorious British countryside whizz by my seat always brings my joy.

Glorious Great Britain from the train

Travel by Road
I've saved the best till last.  Nothing beats travelling by road, ideally in your own car so that you can stop when you like, take a detour from your planned trip or just put your foot down and enjoy the scenery unfold.

On my latest trip, we drove from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, but chose to go along the more unusual route through the Little Karoo, where the scenery varies from winelands to mountain and valley passes to near desert.  Five hours of pure heaven with glorious spring flowers peppering our route.  I particularly loved the deep blues of the sky against the rugged mountains of the Franschoekk Pass.

At the foot of the Franschoekk Pass

From an earlier trip to the southern hemisphere, this is a reminder to always look in your rear view mirrors, you just never know what beautiful vista will present itself!  This one was taken as we were leaving Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand.

Well, thanks Rhinocarhire.com for taking me down memory lane, it's been VERY enjoyable!  These bloggers should also be interested in entering your fab competition - SuperluckyDi (who told me about this promotion), Kylie Martin, Lisa Hughes, Katy Bennett and Kate Holderness.

My Big GREASE-Y Night In

When I read that Little Stuff and TwoLittleFleas were running a bloggers competition to say how you would spend a special night in, I knew that I had the perfect idea (I've been wanting to do this for AGES!) and had to enter!

My favourite film of all time is Grease with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.  It brings back so many happy memories of growing up, and is still as popular today as it was when first released - just look at all the young things getting married today and they are bound to have a track or two played at their weddings!

So my perfect night in would be a "Summer Nights" Grease themed evening with all my closest friends.

We would dress in the parts (Sandy, Danny, Kenickie, Rizzo, Frenchy, Sonny, Marty, Eugene, Mrs Murdock.....) with wonderful period 1950s themed costumes and sing along vociferously to each and every song (we all know the words!) that play on the new Harman Kardon surround sound speakers as the DVD plays repeatedly.

Our milkshakes would be blended like "Greased Lightnin' " in this 1950s styled blender

and popcorn freshly cooked in this traditional cooker - "We're Hopelessly Devoted to You"!

We'll lose our voices, we'll have a ball, and there's absolutely no doubt that this evening is "The One That I Want" and there will be "Tears on my Pillow" when it's all over!