A few months back the team at Binatone got in touch to ask if Flea and I would try out a new child's tablet. Now, I confess, I'm not a big believer in children using tablet computers. I worked as a tech journalist for more than a decade and if I learned one thing (actually, it's entirely possible I did only learn one thing) it's this: technology never works exactly as vendors expect it to. So just because a vendor tells me an iPad or Nexus is perfectly safe in the hands of a three-year-old … [Read more...]

This year, Father Christmas* made a special delivery at our house - a copy of Skylanders Giants for the X-Box 360. I wasn't 100% sure how the game would go down. For starters, we're not a big TV watching household - Flea didn't watch TV at all as a pre-schooler and even now we can go months without turning the box on, except for a movie at the weekend. Second, Flea hasn't been a big video gamer previously. Someone bought her a Wii about three years ago, and we gave it away to a friend … [Read more...]

If your inbox is at all like mine, I'm guessing you get a couple of emails a day asking you to promote this charity or that good cause. It's not surprising - life is very difficult for the voluntary sector in the UK today. Funding is being cut left, right and centre, and donations are hard to come by when many families are struggling just to make ends meet. When considering any charity promotion I tend to ask myself some basic questions: what do they want me to do, who will that help, and … [Read more...]

Flea has 9 weeks summer holiday. Yep. Nine weeks. I'll just let that sink in for you. Nine weeks of holiday is great if you’re six, but if you’re a self-employed, single parent, well – to be frank – it sucks. Big Time. So, we’re six weeks in to the summer hols and I’m so frazzled you could put me in a packet and flavour me with bacon. I just don’t know how I’m going to do everything I need to do! We have a solution, though. I get up and work early in the morning, then … [Read more...]

When Flea was almost three, we were sent a Mini Micro Scooter to review. Of all the outdoor toys we’ve ever tried, this is the one was used most consistently – the three-wheel design means even young children get the hang of scooting very quickly, while the ‘lean to steer’ feature means no jackknifing accidents. However, by the age of six, we suspected Flea was starting to grow a little tall for her scooter – incidents of falling over the handlebars were becoming a bit more … [Read more...]

It's a while since I've been pregnant. So I'm not sure what made me say yes when Cussons invited me to London to eat cake and meet with their team and enjoy some cake while talking about their brand new Mum & Me range of products for pregnant ladies, new Mums and newborns. Cough. Anyway, as it turns out, the Mum & Me range works almost as well for ladies who aren't pregnant at all - after thorough testing (in between cakes) I can report that the Cooling Spray is utterly … [Read more...]

I don't know what it is that makes me think I can be a domestic goddess if I just put my mind to it, but I'm blaming Martha Stewart, and her magazines. In my head, I live in one of those white houses with stylishly distressed Scandinavian looking furniture, wooden floorboards and casually - yet stylishly - strewn about accessories from Boden-approved hobbies like, erm, sailing and lacrosse. Needless to say in my fantasy life (which I basically stole from Pinterest) my house is GLEAMING. In … [Read more...]

So, let's start by stating for the record that Tim Burton is a genius. I love the whole dark and twisty, yet quirky thing. And Johnny Depp? Mostly, I don't have a bad word to say about him. Loved Gilbert Grape and Edward Scissorhands, not too keen on the whole pirate thing but everyone has an off day. So, that settled, we can move on to the really important question - what's the BEST version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? We watched both movies this month, courtesy of the … [Read more...]

There's a new ice skating production touring the country this month - the Disney on Ice Heroes and Princesses show. Be warned. If you are aged 10 or under, and attend wearing anything other than a synthetic princess outfit, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb. Oh yes. It was an arena full of princesses that we found when we were given free tickets and invited to review the new Disney on Ice show in Liverpool last weekend. "Never mind," said my niece, who is 9, and an emo. "We are … [Read more...]