People's strictly

As usual I'm way behind with my posts.



Did you catch the People's Strictly on the BEEB. I missed the shows where the contestants were chosen but managed to download them all on iplayer.

Back in the day, Ballroom dancing on the beeb used to be non-celebrities, normal bods. So it was nice to see that happen for comic relief. Only those 6 chosen bods were in no way normal - they were amazing people who give so much of themselves to community. I wish I had that in me but I seem to never quite find my place or feel I have anything that much to offer. Hey ho.
Oh, and in the manner of 6-degrees of separation, I happen to be linked to two of the contestants; one is my cousin's wife and the other started the school that my autistic nephew attends. both of their stories had me in tears. O.K. I lie, all the stories of these 6 amazing people had me weeping. Wonder if there is a way to help the community by being a profession weeping woman?

Our kiddo free week parts 1 and 2

Routine again rules our house. At 7.30 I had the battle to take kiddo for her shower - she always enjoys herself in there so the battle is doubly frustrating. Now it's around 8pm and Mr P.M. is upstairs putting kiddo to bed.
We have had a kid free week - and boy did we need it. I love being a mum but sometimes I just want to walk away - be somewhere where I can read what I like, watch what I like on TV and eat what I like without feeling guilty that I haven't made a yummy yet nutritious non spicy meal for kiddo. Freedom wasn't quite what I got though as I still had Mr P.M. around but luckily we took advantage.

The next few posts are going to be about the week that was. Lets start with Monday and Tuesday

Monday 
A full day of work which means extra money at the end of the month to spend on the house. To be brutally honest, I am not enjoying this job as I have to wake up very early to get the train in and there is a lot of work to squeeze in the hours. But I'm grateful to have a job and on the whole they are flexible which is useful for a parent.
We cracked open the first season of Breaking Bad. Episodes 1 and 2 were fine. But my goodness Epi 3 was slow and I nearly gave up. I spent a lot of time complaining about the wife who was just an awful person!

Tonight's dinner was a falafels. Usually a meal I love but having spent a bit of time on the phone with kiddo it ended up burnt. And our Zinfadel Rose didn't work out - very rarely I get a strong pain in the Eustachian tubes when drinking alcohol. Sod's law it was this time. Bit of a flat evening ensued.

Tuesday
Another working a full day (wooohoooo more hours = more money to spend on the house).  I couldn't be bothered to cook dinner so we had take out from Bay Leaf - I had my usual extra spicy saag paneer and hubby had a prawn curry. He seemed to enjoy his. I loved mine - even though every now and again I was crunching on rougly chopped up chillies. We had our meals with pilau rice and a paratha. It is really lovely being able to order a ruby murray without worrying about kiddo.
More Breaking Bad - we are HOOKED

In some ways it was a normal few days - I got home and moaned about my job. we ate dinner while watching the box. We watched the box until late and we went to bed.

Piece of cake

I like my cake and I like to eat it too.
Last week there were MacMillan coffee morning across the land as loads of people held events to raise money for the charity by asking people to eat cake and drink coffee. Alas, I was thwarted by a bit of a tummy bug which meant no cake for me.
I consoled myself by watching the Great British Bake Off, Series 2. I started to watch it as Paul Hollywood is like a chubby version of my husband and he knows about cake. The final last night literally had me on the edge of my seat (the rest was now too wet from the drool falling out of my gob). The finalists were all mums. One married at 17, and a stay at home , one highly educated, well travelled now stay at home and one a company director on maternity leave. Now, woe-betide the mum that doesn't bake. I can whip up a cake and can be shall we say "creative" with toppings but these ladies were something else. I didn't like one contestant (the mad staring eyed Holly company director) and was really rooting for the inventive, bake obsessed, creator of Gargantuan cake Mary Ann (a Terry Pratchett fan no less so a person with good taste). I liked her humour especially in the light of cock ups. Though in the end, I was happy that Jo Wheatley won - the  mum since 17, who had raised 3 boys and now wanted to do something for herself. And bloody hell, she did it - she won. Wooo hooo there is life after parenthood - there is hope. And in the meantime, there is cake. I wonder if she would hire herself out as a Cake-Mummy for a day?

Jo Wheatley's blog - Jo's Blue Aga
Mary Ann Boermans blog - Time to Cook

P.S. Before you judge me and start rolling your eyes, let me assure you, I'm not a reality TV show fan. Most of it is mind boggingly crap and I'd rather scratch my eyes out with brillo pads then watch. This statement doesn't apply to ballroom dancing which I watch with the mother in law, or to cake shows.

P.P.S. The final show was educational. I now know what a squirrel's willy looks like without having to resort to unsavoury experimentation. 

Proper pukka education

The start of this week was pre-occupied with primary school selections. While we wait another year to apply as litte one's birthday is just after the cut off date, a lot of our friends have had their emails/letters telling them where their kids are going to be placed. Some were happy to have got their choices, and some were very unhappy and will be going along the appeals / waiting list route. Anyway, this mood had me tuning into Jamie's Dream School. I am not a fan of reality TV and think most of is shockingly bad. However, out of curiosity I had recorded the whole series to date but just not been in the mood to watch it as the Cheeky Chef annoys the bloody hell out of me.
This show is not about the reality of teaching, the state of our education system or the problems of disenfranchised youth. It's ENTERTAINMENT, car-crash gawping enhanced by the clever use of editing to make us see how awful some kids are and to feel huge amounts of pity for the quiet ones who want to get ahead but don't have a chance as their classes are constantly, continually disrupted. When a teacher is faced with 30 kids I can see why they have to exclude some for the good of the majority.
As far as I can tell, the only person with any expertise in secondary education is the head teacher "Dabbs" and he ends up in tears by episode 4 out of sheer frustration. I have heard many teachers leave the profession due to bad behaviour, but surely this head teacher has had to deal with difficult pupils before and even if it's not so concentrated, it only been a few weeks. Sheesh - what, if anything he is bringing to the process? (Have to say too, a head master who calls himself "Dabbs" is not really going to get much respect - in my day it was "Mr Edwards" (not his real name)). Oh god, I sound like David Starkey now :(
I have toyed with the idea of being a teacher but my goodness; I'm having second thoughts now.
That old adage "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach" was shown to be bollocks - it used to be deregatory towards teachers as they were people who couldn't succeed in a given career and were reduced to teaching instead. But a teacher who is not good at a subject is never going to be a good teacher.
People Jamie found inspirational (but the kids didn't know mostly) struggled as they were not given one iota of secondary school teacher training. Even David Starkey and Mary Beard who are used to teaching undergrads struggled.
One thread that has come up again and again is the short attention span of the children, esp. when they are not in a hands-on creative class. This is often blamed on portable technology – however, being able to text/chat/surf whilst being in a meeting is a valuable skill enabling participants to be present in multiple locations at any one given moment - a fantastic skill that we shouldn't know huh ;)
I'm going to keep watching (and blogging and tweeting) until Jamie's irritating personality drives me to throw my mobile at the TV. It's pandering to my fears as a parent especially the fear that feral wildchildren will be waiting to lure my daughter away from her studies and woes betide me if I let them succeed in turning her to the dark, dumb side.
This show is not going to come up with any solutions that the brightest and best teachers, heads or educators in the UK haven't already thought. It's just going to tell that us what we know - give the resources the show has to each school in the UK, give the decent teachers some respect and support (get rid of the shite ones), change the size of classrooms, help the people who fall outside of the system and then we can all marvel as our kids are engaged with real life A&E, biodomes, the beauty of poetry and power of photography.

Rememberance: The Sikh Story

Last night I caught a BBC documentary Remembrance: The Sikh Story which was about the input of Sikhs in both World War I and II. They were marked by the British as a "Martial Race", as were the Gurkhas, and actively recruited to the conflicts.
The documentary was fascinating in briefly explaining how the Sikh religion did not start off as a warrior one... which was news to me as I had always thought they were the warrior class that got disenchanted with Hinduism. But I learnt that they only become warrior saints in their recent history.
The Royal Pavillion in Brighton was used as an Indian Military Hospital which must have been bizarre.
History is seldom a straight report of the facts - propaganda can determine what story we are told. According to the documentary this was true as after the Wars the contribution of many Commonwealth soldiers was "forgotten" as it was deemed important for the English to think they had won the Wars on their own. I can understand that, and there were millions of soldiers from the UK who bravely stood up to the ultimate evil, but it was good to see that, in this week of Remembrance, the people from other nations who fought are now being remembered.
The documentary is available on iPlayer so if you get a mo, have a look if only to hear about the dashing young WW2 Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji who must have made quite an impact wherever he went.

Bogus roofers in Plumstead

The police have been round to warn our street of bogus roofers. Apparently these guys spray a roof with water, then knock on the householder's door and say they were working in the area, noticed the water dripping, and then offer to fix the guttering at a high cost.
So beware.

P.S. I absolutely hate when people come to door touting for business, promoting a religion or even collecting for charity and think that it can be quite menacing having this sort of unwelcome intrusion. I've had utilities suppliers being sarky that I don't want to save money by switching to them, or charity collectors being very uncharitable. And before any assumptions are made, let me make it clear...I do donate to a number of charities that are close to my heart and that I have taken the time to research regarding their use of funds etc. And we keep an eye on utilities suppliers too.
On last night's Watchdog, Martin Lewis from the Moneysaving Expert site was on about how to beat cold callers, junk mail and unwanted calls away. I'm off now to print a massive NO COLD CALLERS sign :)

Commonwealth Games

One of the advantages of being a stay at home parent is that you can sit around all day eating chocolate and watching TV. Obviously I jest but it is partly true. I am not interested in sport and had I not been home, wouldn't bother watching the Commonwealth Games.
However, the other day I tuned in to see Robbie Renwick, the Scottish swimmer, grinning and proud as he received a gold medal. It's not often you see a Scot doing well and as part of the Plummy Mummy household hails from North of the border, it was an excellent sight to see.
I and tot have watched the excellent swimming, the indoor cycling, some squash and then last night caught three amazing events: the men's shooting, the women's weightlifting and women's gymnastics. Zoe Smith, the 16 year weight lifter who won a bronze medal is inspirational. She was born in Greenwich and goes to school in Bexley. Here is a girl that has just done well in her GCSEs and also has time to represent her country and do so well. She's 16 and a lot younger than the Gold and Silver winners - definitely one to watch for the future. I was pleased my tot saw her and even though she may not understand, the Games show her what people are able to achieve when they strive  hard.
The gymnasts were AMAZING. Their ability to fling themselves in the air and twirl before coming down to a perfect stop was just unbelievable.
It's a shame that a lot of the media attention around the Games have been on the failures of the host nation. Again like South Africa there are a lot of complaints about conditions, security and health. On some forums the Games have been used as a way for knobheads to be racist in the guise of national pride.
I'm am somewhat surprised that given there was 7 years to prepare, that things aren't ready. Yet I wonder why the Commonwealth committee or whatever aren't doing periodic checks to make sure hosts are on track and if they are not, then either penalise them or cancel the events.
Despite all the controversy, I for one am glad to watch when I can and hope that through the Games, we will become familiar with people who will be competing here in 4 years time. And that my tot will be inspired to do more than me and get off the couch.

DW comes to town

OK I admit it, I'm prone to changing my mind. Whilst old David Tennant was rather good as the Doctor, his swansong was so protracted that I got a bit bored. Even so, when the new Doctor was announced I was dubious though have much faith in Steven Moffat's writing. But my gosh the BBC have got me all dizzy and excited. The Doctor keeps popping up all over the place - Jonathan Ross had an official visit, Paul O'Grady on BBC2 an unofficial one right in the middle of a song. I have to say that I was worried he would be too young, but all the previews show that Matt Smith is an old soul in a young body.
Brilliant!! So I could barely contain my excitement and headed down to Woolwich General Gordon Square. In truth, the 3D preview was a bit ropey and didn't show anything that hasn't already been previewed. But it was pretty cool to see the Cyberman up close and then to run away from the Scarecrow as he was a bit too scary for the little one (honest it was her and not me that was screaming like a girl).
Here are some photos. Sorry about the quality, they are from my battered phone.

Jo Frost came to Woolwich!

I used to be addicted to the House of Tiny Tearaways. But recently I've switched to watching Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance on Channel 4.
This week featured Paige, a 5 year old from Woolwich who had never slept a whole night in her own bed. Oh how I felt for the mother. We have a milder version of this issue as our tot often ended up in our bed. None of us slept as she would sleep diagonally to prod dad with her feet while continually winding her tiny fingers in my hair.
In the end, we got a foldaway bed for her room. And in no time at all, it started to become easy for one of us to sleep in there when she awoke. But following this week's show, I'll be resisting that temptation. It's hard - I have hubby to sleep with whereas our tot is all on her own and that makes me feel so sad for her every night. And when she wakes up distressed, I want to be near to comfort.
Not anymore. Watching how well Paige and her mum progressed, we will be returning tot to bed and leaving her to it more frequently now. I'll only stay in there if tot is ill and needs comforting.
A lot of series is focussing on childhood obesity and self-perception. Ms Frost is not a slim lady so I wonder how she feels going on about obesity to parents. While watching the segment on portion sizes, I was shocked to discover the recommended size of pasta, pizza and ice-cream. By god, we are over feeding our tot (and ourselves I presume!). I'm tempted to buy a whole load of diet plates and also get really small dinner plates. We are also going to rethink our habit of rewarding with treats - most of which are sugary. OK we are never going to withhold food from our tot (unlike the evil mother of Khyra Ishaq) but for now, will try to treat with days out and books etc.
Another portion of the show was about girls growing up too fast. I wanted to slap the mum that allows her 13 year old to go to clubs dressed up as if she was much older. Get the gunge off the girl's face and push her into a playground to play. Of course, as mummy to a daughter, I may face the same issue. But I come from a background where I wasn't allowed to wear t-shirts (too revealing) and her dad has a good upbringing and the horror of so many teenage pregnancies in Dundee, so I think between us we will manage to keep our tot childlike as much as possible. Now I just have to resist the urge to keep her baby like.

Regarding healthy portion sizes :
NHS Change4life site - this doesn't give any straightforward advice on what a child should eat. In that sense, I think it fails monumentally. Although we don't want to be treated like idiots, an idiots sheet of amounts would be useful. Instead, lots of money has been spent on colourful websites and brochures of information that you have to download and wade through
Bupa's portion sizes for adults
American health size Kaboose

Asian ladies on TV

It's quite nice seeing Asian women on TV. Growing up this was a rare sight - I dimly recall Jamila Massey on episodes of "Mind your language". Ms Massey appeared in "Eastenders" but I had already stopped watching that after people took the mickey out of me for looking like Shobu Kapoor (I still cringe anytime I think of it and her pronounciation of Sanjaaaaay). I am sure she is a lovely lady but I didn't like the comparison with her character Gita Kapoor as she wasn't very glam. Have to say Eastenders has always been good about having Asian women in it's cast though.
All things improved vastly when Asian comediennes appeared: Meera Syal and Nita Wadia came on the scene with the hilarious "Goodness Gracious Me", Shobna Gulati in "Dinnerladies" and Mina Anwar in "The Thin Blue Line".
The ladies haven't done badly in film either with Parminder Nagra in Bend it Like Beckam, and Archie Punjabi in East is East. I love that name...Archie Punjabi. It's a perfect name for a cartoon character. Not that that is what she is. She was born in Barnet where I grew up so she kinda speaks as my friends and I do. Last week I caught her in a prominent role on a new show "The Good Wife". I hope she will be as successful over there as Parminder has been.

Yahoo and a rinky dinky do

Yahooooo, and a rinky dinky doo - I caught an episode of Hong Kong Phooey earlier this week. Made me think of all the cartoons I used to enjoy like the Wacky Races, Spiderman, Dangermouse, Inspector Gadget, Mr Magoo, Scooby Doo and Top Cat.
Now don't get me wrong... some modern efforts are very enjoyable such as Timmy Time. And some are bizarre like Dirt Girl. Of the CGI ones I find I find the worlds created often became homogeneous.
One show we are really enjoying at the mo is the Ooglies - a hilarious stop motion animation shown on BBC.
Here is the website in case you want to see what I'm on about:
CBBC/Ooglies
Today a session of playdoh led to the first attempts to create our own Ooglies...Daddy is the one on the right and is sad as he was at work. I'm the one of the left.... OBVIOUSLY!

No More Doctor

The BBC are getting their money's worth as David Tennant has been on nearly every show I've watched. It's almost reaching saturation point for me as though I find him awfully sexy, I think we've had just a bit too much of him this festive season and I let out an awful groan whenever I see him on yet another show or turn on the radio to find he's taken over there. Sad to say that now I'm in my 40s I'm an avid Radio 2 fan but even I had to turn it off when the Tennant and Tate show was on.
I don't even know if I'll bother to watch the last ever Tennant Dr Who. Alright, I lie, I will but that's it. After that no more. Well I'll watch the Hamlet I've got recorded and then THAT's it. I kinda feel sorry for the new Who as he's got all this to follow. Wonder if he will cope.

Better the devil know

I'll be watching Question Time tonight and sincerely hope that Nick Griffin appears. I'm not a fan. Quite the reverse. I'm hoping that the show will reveal him for being the insidious snake that he is. If he comes across well, that will be worrying but at least we will know the devil for what he is.

Back to me...

It's very odd to feel sad when a celebrity dies - unless I guess you knew them personally.
This morning was a double shocker; first Patrick Swayze then a few hours later, Keith Floyd.
Now with PS I was sad. But with KF I was gutted.
I loved to watch Floyd cook even though most of it was meat or fish and therefore not really something I could do. But he was pure entertainment before all the wanker arrogant TV chefs of today were on the box . And he reminded me a lot of my dad's style of cooking. When my mum died, dad went mad and started taking over the kitchen. Much to my annoyance as I was also trying to do the same thing. Our styles of cooking were different. I chop as I go, quite happily cooking in chaos with a sink full of dishes. Dad on the other hand would first clean the kitchen, then get his glass of booze, his rolled up ciggie and set off on the great and LONG adventure of cooking that night's dinner. Before the actual cooking began, he would have everything chopped and ready in little dishes, Floyd-like. I would be told to get out of the way and would only get him coming into the main room to tell me a story or summat whilst he set something to simmer, blanch or burn (frequently, though he denied it). Dinner would take ages and often we didn't sit down to eat for at least 2 hours.
We both enjoyed watching Floyd. The man had style even if he was a rude sod. He would embrace the cooking and life etc. I wanted to go where he went, drink what he drank and be that enthusiastic about eating (something I think denied to veggies as we often say No to food). And I loved that. So sad to see that vitality gone.
Dad's coming over this weekend and I think we will do a tribute lunch to Floyd. But there is no way the old man is kicking me out of the kitchen this time and NO booze for him as he's driving. And we will eat before I age another year.