BrickBox Subscription Box Review

Lego and other compatible building sets will always be popular with children. They're just so entertaining in the way they capture the imagination with the endless building possibilities and ideas. Every parent knows how much children love getting post, it's a joy that sadly diminishes with age and the onset of many bills, but in a child, it's still a moment of pure excitement, when they realise a letter or parcel is for them. So, when we were asked to review a Brickbox box, all the way from the Netherlands, I was very keen to see how excited L would be to receive post that turned out to be Lego. Life doesn't get much better than that when you are 11!

Stop Naming Terrorists - We Don't Care

Yesterday, I wrote about the bomb blast in Manchester and how I felt that it was pointless for many reasons. One of those reasons was that the cause, or the perpetrators, would not be remembered, only the innocent and the brave who were caught up in the atrocity. Then, this morning, all over the news, were all the details of the 'loser', to quote Mr Trump (yes, I know, only sensible thing he's ever said!) and it made me really angry. Why are we giving them what they want? Why do we care what his name was or when his birthday is? The mindset of anyone who could commit an atrocity like this is to make a name for themselves, so why are we giving them that opportunity? Stop naming terrorists!

Manchester #WeStandTogether

I went to bed early last night, so it wasn't until this morning that I woke up to the horrific news from Manchester Arena. There are no words are there? There are no words that will do anything to ease the pain for those families, the ones with missing children, the ones who are coming to terms with losing a loved one. Nothing anyone can say will make it any better for any of them. Not even the ones that maybe weren't hurt, the 'lucky ones'. Those people, most of them very young, will carry the memories, the emotional scars of what happened, probably forever. And for what? What can it possibly achieve? I just don't get it. I don't understand the point of it at all.

Three Girls; A Difficult, but Worthwhile Watch

I thought about whether or not to watch this three part drama for so long, all three parts were available on iPlayer by the time I got around to it. I knew it was always going to be a difficult watch, but in the end, I felt I owed it to them, after everything they went through, to at least hear their story. Which might sound daft, but there it is. If, like me, you are struggling with whether or not to give it a go, whether it will be too much, or too graphic, I wanted to give you my take on it, now that I've seen it. I think it's very important viewing, as it happens. Here's what I learned. Oh, and I'm going to try and write this with no spoilers, I'll come back and let you know how that worked out when I've finished. Edit: Nailed it!

Win a Motor Mania Mega Garage Centre

Gino's Generalisations - 'Fussy' isn't Always a Choice

It's a common bugbear amongst experienced parents, when other people pass judgement on your parenting skills, your children's behaviour, or any other aspect of your family life. It's not actually limited to parenting, no one likes to be judged by people who have not walked in their shoes. For the purposes of keeping this short, though, I am going to focus on the particularly superior and judge-y parent-bashers, who think they know best. Some are parents, some are not and one is a famous celebrity chef who jolly well ought to know better. I don't have any pictures of Gino D'Acampo, so I will be illustrating this post with cake, although my son would not eat it if it had jam in the middle, because he doesn't like jam. So there.

My Sunday Photo: Sunset Over the Severn

Loving London - The Best of British

I am not very good at London. I absolutely love going and I would love to go more often, so that I get the hang of getting around a bit better, but I'm still very much a tourist when it comes to navigating. It's a great place to be, though, and I've always felt really at home there. I love the diversity, the different architecture, and I really love the people. People say London isn't friendly, but this has never been my experience. I've always wanted to write a post about my experience of London, as a visitor and, after visiting recently for the This Morning Live press event, I had the perfect opportunity. So here is everything I love about our capital city, let me know in the comments if you agree or if I've missed anything!

This Morning LIVE is Coming to Birmingham in May!

Sometimes, as a blogger, I'm just a little bit spoilt and couple of weeks ago was no exception. I was invited by Netmums to attend an afternoon tea party to launch the very exciting This Morning LIVE consumer lifestyle event, which will be coming to the Birmingham NEC from the 18th to the 21st of May this year. I read 'cake' and was already on my way, but it turned out there were a lot of very interesting people to meet, including many of the This Morning family who will be at the show, and it was really interesting to find out how they felt about this new live venture. If you haven't got your ticket yet, here's a few good reasons why you should, even if you are not an avid watcher of  the TV show!

Win a Rhianna Rebelle Perfume Gift Set

How to Support Someone Who is Unhappy with Their Weight

I suspect this post may meet with some controversy due to the subject matter. There are some people (thin people) who believe that losing weight is as simple as eating less and that anyone who is overweight is simply greedy. However, as a former thin person, I can confirm this isn't always the case. I put on weight due to a combination of health issues, some that cause me to hang on to weight, and the worst one, which is a pain illness making most forms of exercise impossible. I never thought I'd say I miss jogging! The point of this post is that a lot of people are unhappy with their weight and it can take many attempts to be successful in losing it, but here's how to help by not making the situation any worse. 

Review of the New Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Range

Who can forget the great Hatchimal shortage of Christmas 2016. Easily the most popular toy of the season, everyone seemed to want to get their hands on one and who can blame them. Cute, appealing, and a brand new concept in an interactive toy. If your little ones loved the original Hatchimal, then they are going to go loopy for the latest addition to the range; Hatchimal CollEGGtibles. These tiny, adorable little critters are exactly what it says in the title, collectible, affordable, Hatchimal miniatures. We were sent some for free to see what we thought, ahead of today's launch, and we've been dying to tell you all about it.