Tots Club at Wacky Warehouse

After promising Squiggle that one day he would get back to the Wacky Warehouse and weeks of him asking, I finally caved in and took him. I only wish I'd done it sooner!

It is so different during the week compared to the weekend, for a start it's a lot quieter and cheaper, secondly they provide free drinks for the kids, thirdly there's arts and crafts for them to do and last but not by any means least - adults can go on the equipment!

Oh how I wish I was 30 years younger, I could have such fun with Squiggle, I tried my best today but it's still very hard for me to manoeuvre with my war wounds, and I'm not as bendy as I used to be, but still, it was brilliant, climbing up and down and chasing him around. I made a new friend in the little girl who decided she was Squiggle's new best friend and was going to take him home with her!

Squiggle even did something out of the ordinary - he joined in with the painting, yes, he actually sat down and painted on paper, not the walls or doors that he is used to drawing on at home, but actual A4 paper. It's going to be framed when the paint finally dries as proof that he can do it!

Unfortunately, I'm now paying the price and sat here in agony, (with pleasure comes pain) but it was worth it to see Squiggle enjoying himself so much!

Not so sure about the wording on the balloon we were given though - 

As my husband asked when we got home - 

What sort of Wacky do you love? !!

I've been baa - king cakes

My grandma has always made and decorated cakes for as long as I can remember, I used to look forward to getting a birthday cake off her, over the years she's made hundreds - all different. I've had doll cakes, Magic Roundabout with Zebedee and Dougal, Tetley Tea Folk, handbags and glad rags  she's done countless football shirts and cars, horses, trains, retirement, anniversary and even wedding cakes, the list is endless. But now she's retired, so no more cakes off her. However she still likes to go to the cake shows and keeps her tools for flower making. So I treated her to a day out last month at the Cake International Show at Event City in Manchester. Unbeknown to me that it would ignite a new passion in me for decorating cakes. I did dabble a bit when I was about 17/18 years old but haven't done any cake decorating since. So last weekend when it was son's 3 rd birthday I decided to bake some cakes and use my new found inspiration to make some sheep cakes.

Excuse the psychotic looking sheep in the first picture, I got tired of making eyes, 

so opted for a food colouring pen instead!

I was quite impressed with them, and they are quite easy to do, all you really need is a bag of marshmallows and some premade ready to roll black & white icing. I used Renwicks which I bought from Tesco.

1. Make a batch of buns/cupcakes/muffins

2. Using the black icing roll out head shapes and ears

3. Using the white icing roll out tiny eyes and press onto heads.

4. Using the black icing again roll out tiny eyeballs and press onto white balls

5. Mix up some butter-cream

6. Spread butter-cream onto buns and cover with marshmallows

7. Attach sheep heads

If you're not a fan of marshmallows than simply pipe a fluffy design onto your cakes before attaching a head.

How rude!

I decided to go and treat myself to a new coat, so headed to Winfields at Haslingden. Haven't been there in years, used go regularly to buy shoes and things as a kid with my parents, but after this experience I will be thinking again.

The trouble is I am a stickler for customer service. I did it as part of my college course when I was 17 and was taught at college by a fantastic woman called Sheila H, she had pretty much the same opinions about customer service as Mary Portas does now. Sheila obviously left an impression on me because I love to observe people and see how they react with customers, so much so, that I dabble in mystery shopping now and then, ( but I must admit I do find it hard to switch off, so I have always got my "mystery shopper head on"), if only I was on a mission today.

I found what I wanted and joined the queue to pay. There was one member of staff serving and a woman in front of me also waiting to pay. She moved to the till and this is when the problems started, she appeared to be buying a gift voucher but the staff member didn't know how to process it, so he called his manager for help. The two of them then proceeded for 10 minutes to faff about doing whatever. A small queue was forming behind me. A further 10 minutes passed and the manager finally looked up to see the queue so instructed the male staff member to open a new till and serve us waiting customers.

Finally I thought I can pay and get out of here, oh no, no sooner had I got to the till and put my basket on the counter, along came another staff member, called him over with another customer's order and he proceeded to ignore me and go and serve her! - Well my mother wasn't happy and voiced her opinion, but the staff member didn't flinch, in fact he did nothing, no apology, no excuse me nothing, quite simply he ignored us!

He finally returned to serve me and still no apology for keeping me waiting or anything, he proceeded to scan my jacket and asked for payment - I asked if he was going to sell me the boots that were in my basket - "oh yeah" he said, "size 7 boots is that right?", "erm no!" I said, "they should be 6.5", oh right was his reply as he put them in a bag.

If I wasn't so desperate to get my boots and coat I would have just left them by the till and walked off! 

My write up may come across as tame and my readers may wonder why I've got worked up about it, but people should expect a minimal level of customer service, and keeping customers waiting 20 minutes to pay without an acknowledgement or apology doesn't meet that minimal level!

Park Life

Four generations of the family spent an enjoyable afternoon in the park today, our ages range from 2 years old to 83 years young! What a laugh we had, because it was still quite cold nobody else had decided to venture out except for us - well the sun was shining so we were going to make the most of it.

First mission was to fathom out how to get onto the slide - not an easy feat, the choice was meant to be either a climbing wall or a cargo net, of course Squiggle is too small to use either, so it was up to me and my mum to lift him up onto the apparatus and then for great granny to catch him at the bottom as he came pelting down the slide. We didn't know how fast he would come down the first time and so he flew off the bottom of the slide, luckily the ground was covered in sand so he had a soft landing.

We had a good laugh until he decided to venture a bit further over the equipment and got stuck, in came mummy to rescue the day, unfortunately, although I can now walk and climb stairs, it soon became apparent I still don't have the strength to climb a cargo net, and with no way up or down without making a complete arse of myself, I got myself stuck! Fortunately Squiggle managed to sort himself out and so with him above me and my mum below pushing and pulling between them, I soon got myself up onto the equipment, thank goodness there's no CCTV watching the park because it was a sight.
The bonus of going up instead of down meant that I too could go down the slide, wheeeeeeee !!!!

Snorasaurus - Noun: "(informal, humorous, mildly pejorative) a loud or persistent snorer"

What I wouldn't give for a lazy day, I'm feeling very sorry myself & think I'm sickening for something, got the usual pre cold feelings - sore throat, fuzzy head, feeling cold in myself and generally feeling knackered. It doesn't help that I don't get much sleep at night due to the 2 Snorasauruses in the house. My husband is the first one and my two year old son has now joined him. It should be made an arrestable offence if when you snore your poor wifey can't hear the TV downstairs! It's like listening to a pneumatic drill coming through the ceiling some nights and then when I'm ready to fall asleep I've to climb in bed next to him and listen to it even louder! - My son is just as bad, at two years old I can hear him, his in bedroom, with the door shut!. They seem to take it in turns to snore so all I actually hear is one long loud noise with no let up!

I've just managed to get Squiggle Diddle (son) off for an afternoon nap and thought I might join him, but no, he was snoring before he had even shut his eyes - takes after my dad there then - he can snore whilst he's awake!

I have to slightly disagree with the dictionaries meaning of a Snorasaurus, In the case of my son, I can whole heartily agree that it is humourous & very cute, but not the husband, oh no he's just annoying!

Well I suppose I'd better make the most of this and attempt to do a spot of cleaning, I'm supposed to be having a birthday tea party for Squiggle at the weekend but as yet I can't find my dining table, its buried underneath a mound of ironing, best crack on and do something productive with my "peace and quiet" time.