Last weekend the boys went off to their first football match together. They were off to watch Manchester United play Bournmouth at Old Trafford. They hopped on the tram full of excitement and I went home and pottered about in the kitchen, listening to the build up to the match on the radio.
Unfortunately their afternoon didn’t go to plan and the stadium had to be evacuated.
I listened to the updates on the evacuation and sent a text to my husband which he didn’t answer for an age. I was worried sick, but thankfully the evacuation was handled incredibly well and everyone was safe. They came home on the tram and we made the best of the afternoon.
This is the pair of them just as they were leaving for the match. They’ll try again next season. Fingers crossed. We’re all just glad the evacuation was handled so well, no one was hurt and that thankfully no one was really in any danger after all.
When raw sewage lifted a manhole cover in my Dad’s garden and human waste bubbled out and ran down his path, he guessed there was a major blockage somewhere. He got on the phone to United Utilities and they sent a team down to deal with it.
After some serious and rather disgusting delving, they discovered that one of the pipes was blocked with a nappy on of his neighbours flushed down the toilet (how this is possible I do not know). They also found about six months worth of baby wipes another neighbour had used each night to take her make up off, which she then flushed away.
I’ve always been careful about what we flush down the loo. The usual stuff is ok, but anything like nappies, wipes and sanitary products are always wrapped up and binned – the lesser of two environmental evils. If my home was a hospital those kinds of things would be labelled “biohazard” and sent for incineration, but these days my local council favours landfill.
United Utilities have recently launched a campaign to think before you flush. It’s a campaign I fully support, having surveyed the aftermath of the “poopocalypse” in my Dad’s garden I am keen to do everything I can to stop that happening here. I’ve also walked on far too many beaches which have been strewn with things people have just flushed and forgotten, and no one wants to take a child to a beach covered in used condoms and tampons.
In the UK we spend over £500 million per year on wipes for all sorts of purposes, from cleaning our sinks to caring for children. Wipes are so handy around the home, I think I’ve got at least 5 different kinds of wipes in my house for all different purposes. The problem is they don’t biodegrade and break down like toilet paper would, even if they say they’re biodegradable on the packet they can still clog up the sewers around your home for months or even years whilst they rot down.
Each year United Utilities deals with around 25,000 blockages, a significant number of which are caused by unflushables being flushed! If you take a moment to wrap any unmentionables (I use cheap nappy bags at about 20p for 250) and bin them you can do your bit to help prevent blockages not just on your property, but down your street and beyond. It also means the next time you go for a walk on the beach you might not be reunited with something you flushed and forgot.
The only thing you should flush down your toilet are the three Ps – pee, poo and toilet paper! Think before you flush!
For a whole heap of useful resources including videos, pictures and reports as well as a family friendly downloadable information pack created especially for parents which includes fun activities and posters, visit the United Utilities Website.
The other day Facebook dutifully reminded me that it had been three years since my last spinal operation. Whilst these daily Facebook memories are meant to be a nice thing, perhaps reminding you of lovely memories of years gone by, my reminder that three years ago I was in hospital wasn’t a great one.
On one hand it’s nice to look back and reflect on how far I’ve come since then, but on the other hand it’s an unwelcome reminder of a dark and unhappy time in my life. Three years ago I was a mess, I spent much of the summer in the grip of anxiety and having the worlds longest panic attack. I couldn’t bear to be in the house after eight months of enforced exile and once I got out it was one long non-stop party, all great fun until the hangover kicked in and I was alone with my racing, panicked thoughts again.
During that summer in many ways it was like being a teenager again, always out at parties and on boozy nights out. I was part of an intense little group of friends who propped me up and enabled me in equal measure. I still see them now, though not as often and our nights out are less wild and carefree than they were.
Since 2013 I’ve been on an intense and sometimes painful journey of self discovery, there have been long and intense periods of navel gazing and introspection. I know and understand more about myself and what motivates me than ever. I’ve had therapy and CBT which were useful and useless in varying degrees, but importantly, most importantly, I’ve had very good people around me.
People who have posed questions about me and my actions and what drives me. People who somehow manage to completely understand what is in my heart better than I do. People who love me for who I am and without coddling me, love and support me when I’m down and champion me when I’m up. I am lucky, so bloody lucky.
Some people come and go, but they always leave their fingerprints on my heart however fleeting our friendship. I am intense, I know this, but if you’re my friend I will love you, support you and fight your corner. My best friend (who knows me better than myself) says that I love unconditionally; which is a beautiful, innocent thing, but it does leave me open to bumps and bruises. A slight snub that most people would brush off, a passing remark, a small criticism, it all hurts and scars.
I know I’m not alone in being tender hearted. The world is full of people quietly breaking their hearts over a half imagined injustice. There’s no known cure other than toughening up, but why should I? I have a heart full of pure love, why should I harden it and become like the others? I know I probably sound like some old hippy, banging on about love, but an old hippy once said “all you need is love”, and they might just have been right.
On Friday I spent the day at Jessops in Manchester at their academy. A month or so ago I bought myself a Nikon D3330 DSLR camera and one of the things I also did was book a place on their level 1 photography course. I was a bit nervous, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was still very unfamiliar with my camera and worried I would be the class idiot.
I actually didn’t really have too much to worry about, the trainer was excellent and explained things really well, and all the blog photography sessions I’ve sat through at various conferences seemed to have given me a little knowledge which I can now build on.
The level 1 course focussed on Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO and we managed a quick half hour on the streets of Manchester having a bit of a play with our cameras and our new found knowledge. Here is teddy posing with a mystery man outside the Arndale Centre in Manchester.
I loved the course so much that I immediately splashed out £150 on a new 50mm lens and booked myself onto the level 2 course for later this year.
If you’re getting to grips with a new camera I can totally recommend the Jessops level 1 course, it’s given me lots of confidence to go out and have a go and try and take good pictures on purpose, not just by accident!
My two boys are an adventurous pair, always going off together for some father and son bonding. I have often thought it would be a good idea for them to keep some kind of record of the things they’ve done and places they’ve visited. So when I spied the Personalised Adventure Box from Dust and Things I thought it would be the perfect way for them to store the memories they’d made together.
Working from their family workshop in Wales, Dust and Things make design-led, personalised gifts for all kinds of occasions. With a unique selection of beautiful personalised gifts including chopping boards and cheese boards, jewellery, slate, coasters, photo fames and much more. They have lots of designs to choose from in each category, but the adventure box really caught my eye.
It’s easy to order, you just choose the size of box you want (I went for box 1 which was the smallest box and measures 28.5cm x 18cm x 13.5cm). The wooden box includes a lift up lid secured with vintage style latch and fixings. There are spaces on the online order page where you can add your personalised wording, in my case “Daddy & Benjamin”. On the bottom of the box I had the words “Love from Mummy xx” engraved too.
The box arrived very quickly and was well packaged; wrapped in bubble wrap and in a sturdy box. They offer free worldwide delivery too, which is excellent. I was delighted with the adventure box and I knew the boys would love it too. It would make a lovely gift for Daddy’s birthday and extra special with the promise of an adventure to get their keepsake box of magical memories started.
The box has a simple, almost rustic look and seems sturdy and well made. It’s plenty big enough to store all the postcards, photographs, train tickets and little trinkets they might find on their adventures. The simplicity of the design and it being a lovely neutral light wood is something I really liked, and it looks great on our shelf, ready to be filled with treasures, or looked through wistfully at a later date.
The personalised adventure box costs £29.95 with free delivery. I think that’s excellent value for a hand made gift of this quality, especially as it’s something which will be loved, used and appreciated for many years to come.
And I was right. The boys did really love it. I guess the adventure starts here….
For more information or to browse the extensive selection of personalised gifts from Dust and Things, visit their website.
As a food blogger I’m always really interested to try new things and explore cuisines from all over the world. I love Thai, Japanese and Chinese food, but I’ve not as yet tried Korean food before. Last week I visited Wokooshii to try their Korean and Japanese food and ended up having one of the most exciting, interesting and delicious experiences of my food blogging career to date.
We were invited to Wokooshii by Gerry Yeung OBE, the founder of Manchester’s famous Yang Sing Chinese restaurant to sample the menu at his latest venture, Wokooshii which serves Japanese and Korean cuisine. Wokooshii is the only family run independent restaurant in the Trafford Centre, which does set it apart from the identikit chains in there.
Our genial host Gerry welcomed us and we sat down for a chat over a drink. I fancied a beer and Gerry suggested I try the Asahi Dry Black Beer which was a revelation, it was an unusual dark lager style beer which went incredibly well with the food and is something I’ll be looking out for again.
We chatted with Gerry and he suggested he order from the menu for us. Taking into account our likes and dislikes, he ordered a selection of some of the most interesting food I’ve had in a long time. The menu itself is a colourful picture based menu, which I personally liked. I find it useful to see pictures of some of the more unfamiliar dishes before ordering them.
To start Gerry ordered seaweed, (but not as we know it) fresh seaweed with beansprouts with a Japanese vinegar dressing; kimchi – the Korean national dish made from spicy fermented cabbage and a taster sample of the Korean sashimi tuna salad.
The fresh seaweed was delicious and much healthier than its deep fried cousin. It smelt and tasted of the sea and was delicate and flavoursome. Kimchi is something of a favourite of mine and I’ve had it many times before. The Wokooshii kimchi was excellent and packed a real punch. The Korean sashimi tuna salad is one of Gerry’s favourites and is a delicately flavoured dish of thinly sliced raw tuna, iceberg lettuce and leek with a dressing of Japanese chilli, sugar, vinegar and sesame oil, the tuna salad was a real highlight.
Next to the table came a selection of Mandu dumplings, a Korean speciality. I tried the pan fried vegetable dumplings, whilst my companion had the dumplings with pork and cabbage. The dumplings were soft and yielding, mine was packed full of delicately flavoured vegetables and would be something I’d order again and again.
The dishes were coming from the kitchen thick and fast. Cucumber and Japanese radish Maki with soy sauce, wasabi and ginger; king prawn tempura made with the lightest and crispiest tempura ever; Yakitori sirloin beef roll filled with spring onion which looked so good. and prawn yakitori, perfectly cooked prawns with a piquant sauce of onion, butter, chilli and garlic.
Next to the table was something I was especially excited to try – a Korean pancake. It’s a flour and egg pancake packed with healthy vegetables. Traditionally these pancakes are served as an appetiser. It’s a simple dish but utterly delicious. The pancake was crispy on the outside, soft inside and one of my favourite things on the day.
After taking a tour around most of the menu two final dishes were brought to the table, Teppanyaki Aubergine with scallops on the side served with teppanyaki vegetables which were simply cooked and peppery. The aubergine was beautifully cooked, tender and soaking up all the umami flavours in the sauce. The scallops were perfection and the whole dish just sung to me.
The final dish was something I’d never heard of before, a Bimbinbap which is a Korean dish consisting of rice with sautéed vegetables, chilli paste, and seafood or meat, with the addition of a raw or fried egg on the top.
Bimbinbap is served in a piping hot dish fresh from the oven and is finished at the table in front of you. It’s a bit of a showstopper of a meal and I particularly enjoyed the theatre of it being brought sizzling to the table. It comes with a fried egg on top, but you can ask for the raw egg yolk which would be cooked in the heat of the dish anyway. You can choose from the yellow sauce which is made from fermented soya beans, or the red sauce which is the same but with chilli, I went for half and half because a bit of spice in your life does you good!
Watch the Bimbinbap being stirred in the short clip below…
The Bimbinbap is one of the most popular dishes on the menu, it’s a big hot bowl of deliciousness and I especially enjoyed the crispy bits of rice. It’s a theatrical show-off of a dish and I loved it.
During the afternoon we tried so many dishes from the Wokooshii menu it was difficult to pick a favourite. Wokooshii is a mixture of ‘wok’ and the Japanese word for ‘delicious’ and the name describes the food perfectly.
I was blown away by the whole experience, Gerry was the perfect host and took us through the menu, introducing us to new flavours and textures and helping me to learn more about Korean and Japanese cuisine. I wouldn’t hesitate to go again next time I’m at the Trafford Centre, in fact I’ve been dreaming of the teppanyaki aubergine ever since. If you want something delicious and authentic, Wokooshii is well worth a visit.
Wokooshii is at 128 The Orient, Trafford Centre, Manchester, M17 8EH. Visit their website for more information.
We were invited guests of Wokooshii and were not asked to pay for our meal, nevertheless all images and opinions are our own.
Since I received my very first Delia cookbook when I was a teenager I’ve been addicted to cookbooks. I have a particular fondness for cookbooks with a bit of history in them. I am by nature a fairly thrifty cook, so the household manuals and farmhouse cookbooks which have been handed down through my family are fascinating and incredibly precious to me. When I got my hands on a copy of Churchill’s Cookbook by Georgina Landemare, I knew I was in for an historical treat.
Published by the Imperial War Museum; Churchill’s Cookbook by Georgina Landemare is a 160 page snapshot of wartime dining for the upper classes. Georgina Landemare was cook to the Churchills throughout WW2 and was engaged by Churchill’s wife Clementine as she felt she would be able to make the best out of the rations available. Georgina Landemare was an accomplished but untrained cook who was heavily influenced by her husband Paul Landemare; a distinguished French Chef at the Ritz.
The Churchill’s, although subject to the constraints of the ration book where in the lucky position of having a farm on their estate at Chartwell; giving them ready access to eggs, milk, cream, chicken, pork and most vegetables. Churchill’s Cookbook doesn’t tell the every day story of the struggles of working class ration book Britain. It is a fascinating read, with a chapter devoted to setting the scene; introducing Georgina and discussing the favourite foods of the household.
The book is divided into sections; soup, fish, eggs, poultry, meat, sauces, salads, vegetables, puddings, savouries, pastry, biscuits and cake. The 250+ recipes in the book are brief and simply written. I like old recipes because they tend to work with fewer ingredients and are generally (though not always) simpler.
I decided to try out some of the recipes myself. We liked the look of these “Bachelor’s Buttons” and I thought my son would enjoy baking them with me too. I’ve never really had much success with biscuits for some reason. I always either over or under bake them, so I put these to the test.
The recipe was very straight-forward and it only took me a few minutes to whip up a batch. The recipe didn’t say when to add the vanilla essence so I added it with the egg and it didn’t say to set aside some sugar to roll them in prior to baking. I suspect during wartime they wouldn’t have just used the whole 3oz in the mixture and then rolled them liberally in another ounce or so of sugar; but that’s what I did.
I also didn’t know what a “medium” oven was, put popped them in my oven at 200º until they were starting to brown, this took around 10 minutes. My top tip would be to get them off the baking sheet very quickly whilst they’re piping hot, otherwise they stick. They were very delicious and as light as a feather. I’d definitely bake these again.
I was a little surprised at the range of rich foodstuffs in this book, especially considering it was a wartime cookbook. I suspect the Prime Minister and his household may have had access to more than just his ration.
This book might raise a few eyebrows; with Georgina’s recipes including Cervelles Conought (curried brains). There are some delicious sounding and fairly frugal recipes I’ll be looking to try out over the coming months.
Winston Churchill was well-known for his hearty appetite and love of food. Churchill’s Cookbook gives a fascinating insight into what he ate during the Second World War. Indeed, Georgina was told by the Prime Minister on VE night that he could not have managed through the war without her. Fascinating stuff.
Churchill’s Cookbook by Georgina Landemare is available online and is priced at around £10.
It’s good practice when you’ve got a blog to schedule in a bit of maintenance on a regular basis. One of the things I like to do is to remove old giveaway posts, mainly because I didn’t like the thought of someone clicking through thinking there is a live giveaway but its closing date was months ago. I had been either re-working them into more content based blog posts, or if that wasn’t possible I was deleting them altogether, which is in hindsight a stupid thing to do.
I decided it was time I figured out how to redirect my old giveaway blog posts to my giveaway page, so anyone clicking through could see what giveaways were live on my blog right now, rather than being disappointed and just leaving my blog entirely.
I am often daunted by a page of boxes to check and things to code, but trust me, this is really easy and will make a difference to your blog. Setting up a redirect in WordPress is remarkably easy and all it takes is a plugin.
Choose a redirect plugin
I went for the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin. It had good reviews and seemed to do everything I needed it to do, so I installed it.
Once you install it you can take a look at the settings page, but it all looks a bit scary with too many questions I didn’t entirely understand (I always fear that I’ll tick the wrong box and delete everything I’ve ever done) and there is a better way. I wanted the plugin to redirect old giveaway blog posts to my giveaways page, which was a simple enough task.
Find the blog post you want to redirect and go to “Edit”.
Scroll down to “Quick Page/Post Redirect” which for me was immediately below my blog post.
In the “Redirect / Destination URL” box type or paste in the URL you want to redirect to.
Select the “Type of Redirect” (more of which later). I always choose 301 Permanent.
Tick the box with says “Make Redirect Active” and the click on “Update” in the Publish box and it’s done. (Go on, check it).
Or for Quick Redirects, once you’ve installed the redirect plugin the option to do Quick Redirects will be in your dashboard sidebar. This is useful when you know the URL but you’ve maybe deleted the old blog post. Redirecting is simple –
Put the URL you want to Redirect in the “Request URL” box
Put the URL of where you want to Redirect it to in the “Destination URL” box
Click “Add new Redirects” and you’re done. Easy yes?
If you need to edit the Redirect at any time you can do so if you scroll down a little further and click on the editing pencil icon.
SEO
Is there any benefit to redirecting your blog posts instead of deleting them?
Yes, without a redirect, deleted pages just ‘drop’ out of the Google index and you lose any value you’ve built up in them. If you redirect, you retain that value AND effectively pass it on to the new target page. By setting up a redirect you’ve not only avoided losing the SEO value of your old post, but you’ve also assigned it elsewhere. From an SEO perspective it makes so much sense to redirect.
Which Redirect should I use?
The Redirect Plugin gives you four redirect options to choose from, which should you go for?
301 Permanent
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect which passes between 90-99% of link juice to the redirected page. A 301 redirect is generally considered the best option when putting redirects on a website.
302 Temporary
A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect. It passes absolutely no link juice to the redirected page and isn’t recommended for use.
307 Temporary
A 307 redirect is the successor of the 302 redirect. Again it doesn’t pass any of your hard won link juice on to the redirected page and should only really be used if content is really being moved only temporarily.
Meta Redirect
When I mentioned Meta Redirects to my friend who is an SEO expert he told me not to go near it with a bargepole. “It’ll make your blog look spammy to Google” he said and they will be slower and you will have seen websites with a five-second countdown with the text “If you are not redirected in five seconds, click here, that’s a Meta Redirect. They are not recommended as an SEO tactic due to poor usability and the loss of link juice passed on to the redirected post.
Any questions?
If you’re in the habit of tidying up and deleting old blog posts, then it’s definitely worth looking into installing and using a redirect plugin on your WordPress blog. I went for the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin and I really rate it. It’s simple to use for quick redirects and it’s quick. The redirects I’ve sent up load incredibly quickly, and I’m cross with myself for deleting so many posts when I could have easily just redirected them and kept all the lovely SEO link juice for myself.
If you’ve got any questions feel free to comment here or Tweet me. Always happy to help!
Last year I reviewed some Beech’s Fine Chocolates Easter chocolate treats and developed a very soft spot for this local company producing excellent chocolates. Beech’s Fine Chocolates have been making traditional British chocolates in Preston, Lancashire since 1920. They were kind enough to send me some of their new range of chocolates to try out.
First of all I loved the colourful statement packaging. I really like how colourful and fun they are, each box has a bold pattern which really makes them stand out from the crowd and all the packaging is recyclable. Beech’s Fine Chocolates are made using 100% natural ingredients and all products are gluten free and many are suitable for Vegans.
After dinner we opened the Original Dark Chocolate Fruit Creams which are made to a traditional recipe using natural fruit oils. This 150g box contains a selection of orange, lime, raspberry & lemon cream centres which are covered in dark chocolate. They boys liked these best, I’m not usually a fan of fruit creams, I often find them a bit sickly, but I liked these, they weren’t too sweet and I very much liked the lime flavour. There were 14 chocolates in this attractive box which retails for £4.75, they are also suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
In another beautiful box were the Milk Chocolate Covered Dairy Fudge. I’m a bit of a lover of dairy fudge, it’s sweet but not as sweet as the crumbly bags of fudge you get at the seaside. This 100g box does not disappoint and I was a bit reluctant to share. Each box of the Milk Chocolate Covered Dairy Fudge contains 9 chocolates and retails as £2.99. This product is also gluten free.
Hubs loves mint chocolates, so he opened the Original Dark Chocolate Mint Creams and gave his approval. He liked the smooth dark chocolate and the mint cream which he thought wasn’t too sweet. The 150g box contained 14 of these lovely minty chocolates which are made using English Mitcham Mint oil, which is grown in Hampshire. The mint creams are suitable for vegans and vegetarians and are gluten free.
I have to confess that I wasn’t really looking forward to the last box of chocolates we tried. Milk Chocolate Coconut Macaroons, I’m not usually a fan of coconut and wouldn’t pick a Bounty out of the selection box, but these were hands down my favourite chocolate of the selection. Lovely milk chocolate and hand-shredded coconut all mixed up together and made into a lovely bite-size macaroon (not a trendy macaron). Apparently these were very popular in the 80s and 90s and they’ve brought them back and I hope they stay!
They cost £2.99 for 9 chocolates and I adored these, perhaps a bit too much. Even if you’re a bit uncertain about coconut I’d say give these a try, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
It’s nice to see Beech’s Fine Chocolates bringing out a new range and reinventing some of their old favourites. They’re a lovely, good quality chocolate and they are good value without looking or tasting cheap. They always have offers on their website, so it’s worth checking out especially if you’re buying a few boxes. I’m very happy to buy Beech’s because they’re fairly local to me and delicious too.
This year Tatton Park in Cheshire have a full programme of events to celebrate 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl. Being epic Roald Dahl fans, we ventured down to the farm at Tatton Park to see if we could find our friend, The Fantastic Mr Fox.
When we got there we had a good look around and ended up in the woodland play area. The small boy couldn’t resist a go on the adventure playground. I love watching him in action and I always try and take a step back to give him the space to explore without me shouting “please be careful” at him all the time. I won’t always be there to pick him up, so he needs to learn that himself.
I’ve digressed. The Roald Dahl events at Tatton Park are well worth exploring, with events, installations and exhibitions happening throughout the year. You can read my review of Fantastic Mr Fox at the Farm here if you’d like.
