Summer Bucket List 2014

Good Morning and welcome to the DG News at 9. Today's top stories include..............................

BONG - Its 3 hours and counting until the beginning of the Summer Holidays.
BONG - Its 4 hours until one Mum in Sussex may need her first Gin and Tonic.
BONG - Its 5 hours until the same Mum will use the words "TURN IT DOWN...............PICK THAT UP"
BONG - Its 6 hours until the kids will have trashed the house, eaten everything in the cupboards and reduced Mums all over the world to tears.

In other news around the region, Mrs T from Brighton has decided to walk around her house naked until her kids start clearing up after themselves......................................................More news later.

I am of course talking about that moment that we all either love or loathe, that moment that comes to us all after a few hours of them being home where we suddenly think what on earth are we going to do for 6 whole weeks. I don't know about you but it takes me a good week or so to get used to having them around the house and then I kind of relax and actually quite enjoy it. Sometimes I wish they had less time in the summer and an extra week at Christmas but I know that's never going to happen.

Last year I wrote a Summer Bucket List which was brilliant fun, I have therefore decided to do the same this year. I'm not going to do as many as last year just because I am not sure we are going to have time with holidays and visits.....................................................................................................

1. I want to read a good book whilst laying in a hammock.........................I realise that being a "curvy lady" this may prove tricky but I am going to give it a go.
2. Have a Nerf Gun or water fight.................................The Male Teen will love this...................I think. ........Not sure about Grandma.
3. Jump in a pool fully clothed.......Yes.................Fully clothed.
4. Write another short story...........................JK watch out.
5. Sleep outside under the stars......................I'm not sure how HRH will cope with this but it will be worth a blog post.
6. Watch a sunrise and sunset.
7. Build a sandcastle.
8. Make homemade lemonade and cookies.
9. Make S'mores over a campfire.......................Or BBQ.
10. Go to a pick your own farm and do exactly that.

And finally.......................If you read last years bucket list you will see that I attempted to try every Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream flavour....................................................This was the most fabulous challenge, for obvious reasons. They have new flavours now so I feel its only fair to add them to my list....................Its a tough job but someone's got to do it.

Once I have completed the above challenges I will find some more to do but I think that's enough for now.

All I have left to say is..............................Have a great Summer with your kids and remember..................................................Holidays with the kids isn't about the holiday (because lets face it, it's beyond exhausting), it's about making memories.

Lots of Love
Me
xxxxx

Phillips SpeedCare Iron Review

What's your most dreaded chore in the home? Mine is without a shadow of a doubt the washing and ironing, having a husband whose shirts resemble large tablecloths and 2 Teenagers who both need clean shirts each day for school I spend hours each week washing, drying and then trying to smooth all the creases out. I stand puffing and panting and have even been known to go over each item again just to make it look nice.

That's why I was so excited (I know, I know....I said the word excited in the same sentence as ironing) to hear of a new iron launching this weekend on the fabulous Ideal World Website. The Phillips Speed Care steam generator iron offers up to 2 X faster ironing with 2 X more steam helping you speed up your ironing and is priced at £99.99.




Other features include a safety lock to keep the iron securely on the base unit and stop little hands from pulling it off the ironing board and hurting themselves.

I was intrigued to receive this product and put it through its paces..................And that is exactly what I did.







After filling up the water chamber which is on the base unit not the iron I turned it on and waited 2 minutes for it to heat up. Once the iron was off the base unit I was shocked how lightweight it was, it glided across the creased shirt effortlessly and with the press of a little button underneath the handle steam appeared and the once heavily creased shirt looked wonderful in seconds.



The water tank has 1.2L capacity which allows you to iron for over an hour........................But, to be honest it didn't take me anywhere near that amount of time and in just 15 minutes I had done over an hours worth of ironing.

The other feature I loved was the Calc Clean system which features a sound light clean reminder so there is no chance of any dirty stains on the clothes whilst ironing which can happen over time when a build up of lime scale gets into you iron.

Once I had finished I waited for it to cool down and placed the iron back onto the base unit. The whole thing was very light and stored away perfectly ready for next time.

In conclusion this iron takes all the hard work out of a once tedious job. It leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and amazement how such a lightweight iron can do such a fantastic job.

My husband has even commented on how his shirts looked like I had sent them to the dry cleaners..................................I'm not sure what he was indicating about my ironing before but I'm not asking.





Thank you Ideal World for the opportunity to review such a fantastic product and thank you Phillips for making my busy day that little bit less stressful.

Disclaimer - I was sent the Phillips Speed Care Iron free of charge for the purpose of this review but all opinions are completely my own.

The Return of The Smelly One.

When I wrote to you all last The Male Teen aka Sparky had just left on his Wales Adventure trip with the school for a week..............See here.

I thought it was therefore only fair to update on his return............................................................

The clocked ticked past second by second and I had butterflies in my tummy at seeing my little smelly one. Then after no contact for a whole week I received a text.................................
"We r almost home" it said
"Where are you" I replied
Nothing......................................Then........................."On the coach".
"I know your on the coach but where are you" I questioned again.
Nothing................................"On the motorway" was the reply I got.

I gave up after that and resorted to social networking to give me my answer from the Mums who had girls who were far more forthcoming.

As we stood in the car park I listened to a range of comments such as..................................

"God, my house has stayed so tidy"
"I wonder if Xbox will go bust now due to the lack of usage"
"Its been so quiet without them"

Then a comment that had everyone in agreement....."I cant imagine what their cases are going to smell like". This statement made me smile.

Being the self proclaimed Domestic Goddess I like to think I am I had already made sure there was not a scrap of washing anywhere and that the washing machine was ready to go with powder in the drawer. I had even placed a plastic sheet on the kitchen floor to unpack everything. A sheep dip had been erected by the front door and Environmental Health were having a cuppa whilst waiting...................................OK.....................OK.......................That last bit wasn't true but the thought was there and if I'd had their numbers it would of been.

Once the coaches had unloaded we headed off in the car for home..............................................That was when the smell hit me..........................................My tummy lurched............................I tried to smile at the joy of having him back..............................................Nope.........................I was going to have to hang my head out of the window like the dog.

The case was placed and I braced myself for what horror lurked inside....................................HOLY CRAP....................................Nothing could of prepared me for the smell that flew up my nose. It was a mixture of wet ponds, body odour, deodorant, grass, farm animals and dead things all rolled up into one.

Sparky stood over me laughing at my face as I shoved as much as I could into the machine (mistake number 1)...............The bag went outside to be incinerated on the BBQ and I rubbed Vic under my nose to hide the smell (I've seen this on CSI and trust me it does work).

Once we had caught up and listened to his tales of what a fabulous week he had had I noticed the smell was back again...................I reapplied the Vic........................I checked the machine..............................Where the hell was it coming from..................................It didn't take me long.

It was Sparky himself........................................."QUICK GET HIM IN THE SHEEP DIP" I shouted.

Even with all of my careful planning I was not ready for this at all, Mr DG smirked as I ran around with 2 bits of tissue shoved up my nose desperately trying to stop the Wales countryside squatting in my home. I knew things had gone too far when the first load of washing had to be washed again and Sparkys socks actually walked themselves to the machine.

Take note.................................No amount of preparation can be undertaken in these circumstances and the only solution would be to take the case straight up the tip...........................Mind you.......................To be fair..........................I think it might of caused an environmental disaster for mankind.

Thanks for reading
Lots of Love
Me
xxxxx

Best Text Ever.

Last week Sparky aka The Male Teen embarked on a school trip to Wales for a camping/adventure holiday. As we arrived to drop him off I experienced the full horror of an "Embarrassed Teen" first hand. These symptoms included............................

1. Head drooped to below shoulder level.
2. Mumbled goodbye (well, I think that's what he said).
3. When head was lifted it was brightly coloured in a fetching shade of red.
4. Once on coach curtains were pulled to firmly evade any chance of a tearful goodbye.

To be fair, every teenage boy behaved the exact same way and in a moment of togetherness we as parents bonded for a very short space in time. I wanted to charge onto the coach, yank back the curtains and order them to wave to the women who had pushed them into this world. I wanted to scream that we all loved them and that we were going to miss them. I wanted to lay on the road in front of the huge coach until he told me that he loved me. I wanted to slap the woman next to me who exclaimed in a very loud voice that her son had not only hugged her but kissed her too and that he had almost been in tears at the thought of leaving her. Of course I did none of these things...............................................Only because I was worried he might not come back if I did.

As the coach started to get ready to pull out of the car park I was suddenly struck by an overwhelming fear and sadness that he had turned into one of those "Hood up head down" kind of specimens............................................Then..............................................................Just as Mrs Cocky Pants was about to announce for the 50th time that little bloody Johnny had given her a huge hug something quite wonderful happened............................................................................."Ping" went my phone........................................................"Ping" it went again.....................................................I fumbled to put the password in as a text message popped up in all its full glory...................................................."Love You Mum"......................................................."Soz I didn't say bye"..........................................."I'm gonna miss u"...........................................................


My heart skipped a beat and in all my confusion/bewilderment I shoved the phone into Mrs Cocky Pants face almost breaking her nose and causing her to have a nose bleed............................."LOOK" I screamed as Mr DG looked on in horror......................................."LOOK AT THIS"................................................................... Then as if by some magical occurrence more "Pings" sounded around the car park..........................."I HAVE ONE TOO" said another Mum.........................................."AND ME" screamed another....................................................

We all looked at each other and laughed in a slightly hysterical way..............................Mrs Cocky Pants grabbed her phone as it went off to and smirked a kind of "Ner ner ner ner ner" face. She began to read .................................... "Don't forget to clean my room LOL" was the message that she very quickly wished she hadn't read out loud..........................................We all did that "Never mind" face that us Mums are so good at and watched as she quickly stormed over to the waiting coach to demand to know why he had put that in a text.

The moment had passed and we all said our goodbyes clutching our little messages of love...................................He's been back a week now and I still haven't deleted it, I just cant bring myself to do it.

Lots of Love
Me
xx

Next time.......................................................The tale of the bag, the smell and the disappearing contents of my stomach.