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By Little Mummy, November 29, 2008 6:23 am

I was born, and spent my early childhood in Swansea (South Wales). On a recent visit I visited two places I’ve never been before.

Swansea, Mumbles and the Gower is enjoying huge amounts of regeneration at the moment, the old Morfa Stadiwm (where I use to train) has been replaced by the shiny Liberty Stadium, home to the Ospreys and The Swans. SA1 is a swanky new dockside development akin to our own Leith area in Edinburgh, and the leisure centre which was closed because of asbetos has been replaced by LC2.

The shape and structure of LC2 is much the same as before with, almost complete glass at the pool end displaying the huge flumes and enticing everyone in. Here’s a video of of the building of LC2.

The LC2 has plenty of facilities including an indoor surfing ride, a climbing wall and kids play area. We visited the pool, which was a lot of fun, our favourites were the rubber ring flume and the dark flume which is very slim and pitch black!

Our second never-before-visited-place was the Gower Heritage Centre, it reminded me a lot of East Links which we visited this time last year, and thoroughly enjoyed. Our entrance was free as we went with family who had an annual family pass which was shockingly good value at £25! The centre includes local heritage attractions including a world war exhibit, woolen mill and traditional cider making. There was a picnic area, cafe, toy tractors to play on, an excellent play park, animals (including ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs) as well as a free puppet show. For a small fee there are various craft workshops as well as pottery (which we enjoyed, only £2.50). The heritage centre has a really authentic and friendly feel to it, a real asset to the area. We’ll definitely go back.

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By Little Mummy, November 28, 2008 8:44 am

There’s a lot of chitter chatter around the blogosphere about thanksgiving, giving thanks to family, friends, god etc…

Well I’ve caught the bug and I wanted to highlight a group of women who have been raising money for good causes in their local area for twelve years. The Baywood Belles is a good old-fashioned concert party based in Swansea, they entertain by singing, dancing and doing sketches at nursing homes as well as holding full blown concerts to raise money for their specially chosen good causes. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t just a charity thing these ladies have a crazy time together, you only need to see some of their shows to see they’re having a blast. They have drunken annual trips away and a rumour has it a reasonable portion of their rehearsal time is spent gossiping!

They’ve worked really hard over the past year, fundraising, finding a new rehearsal venue as well as producung their best sketches yet – chitty chitty bang bang and ‘bellesque’. They’ve featured in their local media and have become like celebs on the nursing home scene! AND they now have an online presence, their website has just launched and looks amazing, there are loads of pictures as well as a short piece on each member. Please go and check it out, and please sign the guestbook, they deserve the support, Christmas can be a lonely time for the elderly but one afternoon’s entertainment from the Baywood Belle’s is enough to cheer anyone up.

Thanks Baywood Belles – we need more of you

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By Little Mummy, November 28, 2008 8:01 am

I’m chilling back this afternoon, I bought a couple of final christmas presents online and bought the christmas paraphernalia (extra decorations, wrapping paper, ribbon, tags..). I’m hoping that I can now relax(!) and enjoy December, wrapping, decorating and doing crafts

Before I head off to dig the christmas tree out, I wanted to give you one little christmas present idea. My sister in law bought me Snow Flower and the Secret Fan a while back, it sat in my draw getting dusty, you know, one of those things you mean to get round too but never quite get there. I don’t know what made me pick it up, I guess I was just in a reading mood. It didn’t take me long to become completely absorbed by the story of Snow Flower, her childhood in a patriarchal household in rural China, born a girl she was considered worthless until a twist fate sent her on a path to fortune and privilege. This is a fictional novel but provides a rich and accurate picture of how life was, it covers foot-binding as well as the ancient women’s writing Nu Shu. I read the whole novel in two days and it brought tears to my eyes, more than once. I’d highly recommend you read this, or buy it for someone close to you this christmas (I recommend doing both!)

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, I had that sinking feeling when it was finished.

Has anyonelse read Snowflower and the Secret Fan?

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By Little Mummy, November 27, 2008 11:00 am

Today I realised something simple which may change my blogging in the future.

Over the past two and a half years I have continually failed to leverage every opportunity. If you want to blog for more than just fun you need to make the most of every post, every opportunity, every email…

Read the rest…

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By Little Mummy, November 27, 2008 4:46 am

A few weeks ago I was sent a couple of bottles of ‘Mile High’ to test, and yes, the name raised a few smiles in our highly childish household.

Mile High was originally formulated for air pilots and flight attendants (hence the name) but was so popular it has now been released for the rest of us. It is recommended for use “after a long flight, a tiring and difficult week in work or a night-shift”

“a tiring and difficult week”

Excellent! Plenty of opportunity for me to test run it then.

It just so happened that the week it arrived I was working until 11pm and then we were travelling directly to Wales. About a third of the way through the journey I grabbed the bottle (feeling quite pleased that my ‘freebie juice’ was gonna save me a fair few pennies at the services, well, have you not heard of the credit crunch?, of course you have, we’ve all heard of the bloody credit crunch…sorry…that’s a seperate rant…back to Mile High), so I grabbed a bottle and read the back, “red grape and cherry”, love cherries and grapes, should be fine, “aloe vera and ginger”, hmmm for a facial and a stir fry yeah, but a drink? I took a swig.

I’m disappointed to say that I didn’t like it. It was a strong and unusual taste, I wanted to try more to see if it had the desired ‘pepping up’ effect, but I couldn’t, I REALLY wasn’t keen on the flavour. I offered it to my husband, he likes powerade, lucozade and all manner of other ades, he would surely enjoy some mile high (hee hee), nope, he didn’t like it either, nor my relatives, although one said they weren’t as offended and described it as an “acquired taste”.

Thanks for the opportunity Mile High, but I’m afraid this one wasn’t for us. Although I loved the packaging and the fancy metal business card, very swanky

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By Little Mummy, November 24, 2008 2:30 pm

Hello loyal subscribers,

I’ve been receiving increasing offers of freebies, voucher codes etc… I know, it’s a hard life
I’ve decided to set up a VIP list to give away prizes, promote products and publicise voucher codes. Become a VIP by visiting the site and completing the sign up form in the right hand column, your details will not be passed on and you can unsubscribe anytime, you know, if for some strange reason you didn’t want freebies anymore?! Simple, no catch. Get on the VIP list now , takes me back to my clubbing days saying that hee hee…

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By Little Mummy, November 18, 2008 12:36 pm

Here’s our Santa Top Ten…

In at number one, we’ll be spinning around on these pink fifi roller skates. I love Fifi and the Flower Tots. It’s girly, fun and innocent. If this list were written in September number one would have been a duck, because every two year old needs an outlet for their stale bread.

Just off the top spot at number two is a doll’s car seat, what budding parent would be without one?

Down two at number three is a doctor’s set, best to keep your future options open, this can double as a vet/nurse/midwife set.

At number four, it’s an old classic – Kerplunk. Because I like it. And if I have to spend my days playing then it might as well be games that I enjoy. Yes, I am that selfish.

Ding, ding at Number five, this handy cash register with scanner. Why go to the shops when you can just spend the afternoon playing shops, no heavy bags…

Just outside the top spot at number six, for our viewing pleasure…..drumroll please… it’s the Peppa Pig boxset.

Slipping down at number seven. Because six babies aren’t enough, the new addition to our family is Darla (sorry no photo, she’s obviously been sent to Santa to be gift-wrapped)

At number eight, the one she didn’t want but which I bought anyway because when it’s built she’ll love it, a wooden dolls house.

A new entry at number nine, a last minute decision, it’s this snazzy shopping trolley. How long til she sits in it and breaks it? ooooh about five minutes!

Just scraping in at number ten, the babies can’t do without it any more, it’s a new rocking crib, we don’t need social services rocking (excuse the pun) up due to insufficient sleeping provision. Look, please don’t take them away, it even has a canopy!

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By Little Mummy, November 17, 2008 1:13 am

The first ever Whale Shark Doing a Poo has been filmed. Quite fascinating really, although I don’t know why. As a parent it seems we become quite obsessed with poo, how much? how often? what colour? consistency? well, you can pass this clip off as education, there’s an interesting article and a shark’s eye view of the ocean.

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By Little Mummy, November 15, 2008 7:31 am

We’re fortunate to have family that own a caravan near Pitlochry. Tummel Valley is a beautiful place to visit..if you don’t mind rain, it does rain a lot, but the scenery is stunning and more than makes up for the poor weather. So, what is there to do in Pilochry for toddlers?

The Queens View

Stop at The Queen’s View for breathtaking views, homemade cakes and teas and a quaint gift shop in which to spend some pocket money.

Children’s Amusements

The Children’s Amusements are just off the main high street, parking is available close by. There is an outdoor rides based park with the usual merry go rounds. Inside there are some two pence machines and a few old one arm bandits.

The Salmon Ladder

This was a bit under-whelming on the day we visited as we seemed to be out of season. On the right day though this would be a great spectacle for toddlers, the fish (apparently) jump high into the air and during migration around 5000 salmon use the ladder.

Victoria’s

We headed to this place for lunch and found it to be very child friendly. The coronation sandwich was really tasty and the children’s chicken goujons were homemade. Will definitely go back.

The Park

There is a huge park just off the main street which has a children’s play area and a very large football field, great for a kickabout.

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By Little Mummy, November 14, 2008 11:56 am

Stop press! Children grow up.

Ok, so not really a shock. Until. It happens. To you.

Or in this case me. I’ve spent the season we call Summer, but which actually represents a mild Winter, the mother of a toddler, or so I thought…it seems someone stole my toddler and left me a little girl in her place. A little girl that pretends to apply lipstick between cbeebies programmes, struggles to keep bangles on while carrying her ‘handbag’, a little girl that goes to her first ballet lesson tomorrow. Ballet. She only just learned to walk. Damn toddler theives, there should be a law against it.