Schwartz Mulled Wine

Yes Yes I know it's only November and the Grinch patrol may nail me to a Christmas tree but I couldn't resist this.

I added the two sachets and 200ml of water and kept it not quite boiling for ten minutes.

An arty shot of the mulled wine with sliced Orange.

It is well worth buying these satchets if you like mulled wine as its not to overpowerig there is a more powerful recipe on their website that involves orange juice and Brandy!.

Thanks to Schwartz for sending a Christmas care  package to do this even down to the orange. And don't laugh they even sent  me the ingredients to make cookies which I shall be making later this week.

Blog Comments!

So you are a blogger, you may not be word perfect. Your blog is out there and you are doing it for you , you must remember that. After all you can take part in countless Meme's its all good fun but when the dust has settled after your fun what are you left with?.

I try and balanced my own blog with more posts these days about things that matter to me such as education, autism etc. Do I get comments do I heck , well a few . Does this bother me well actually it does. I have had countless great advice that comments don't matter you are blogging for you. Well I am sorry I am blogging for more than me, I do hope that what I say occasionally matters. And I hope that on occasion people might say you have really helped me, which they have on the odd occasion.

 Some blogs quite rightly so gets lots of comments are and hugely popular because they are great blogs. I do wonder if a great blogger wrote a piece say about how ' they  hate grated cheese in sandwiches' would they get lots of comments. I may be bleating on but it's my blog and it's my rules now isn't it?

I have come to realise that asking people to comment on my blog in order to enter a competition is wrong for me. So excuse me while I go off and right my next blog piece after ' How I hate grated cheese in sandwiches'

Rant over for now.....

Ps. Pop here so you can learn how to comment on not just this blog but others if you don't know how !

Pingi Moisture trap

The frontrunner of the Pingi product line. Developed to protect your home, car, boat or caravan from the harmful effects of excesshumidity. This product can be used for years on end. It absorbs 100cc of moist per cycle.
Requires 5 Minutes of recharging in the microwave oven.
Pingi basics
Rechargeable in the microwave
The Pingi moisture traps are easy to recharge in the microwave oven.When the patented indicator changes from blue to pink, full saturation hasbeen reached and Pingi is ready to be recharged. Good for the environmentand for your wallet. Within a few minutes, Pingi is again ready for use.

Probably better to use this in older homes, caravans or boats or those that don't have doubles glazing as I have had this weeks and it has yet to change from blue to pink!, I have a house that is only ten years old. So it would be a good product if your property or place or work or even your locker  is applicable.

Price: £7.99

Brabantia Vintage Blue

Just as the soft pastel colours of the 1960s gave way to bolder more confident hues in the ‘70s, so Brabantia is reviving the blue-jeans era as its inspiration for Vintage Blue, a deep and bold colourway for its steelware collection.

Drawing on a look from 40-years ago, Brabantia has blended its smooth forms with this confident interior-accent that will look highly distinctive against a minimalist or contemporary kitchen interior such as white or industrial stainless steel, or indeed a more eclectic and retro style kitchen.

Vintage Blue features across a range of Brabantia waste bins, including the 30 litre Touch Bin® with a Matt Steel lid finished with its highly practical Fingerprint Proof coating, and five Pedal bins in 5 litre, 12 litre, 20 litre, 20 litre Slimline and 30 litre sizes. All take Brabantia’s size-matching bin liners with tie-tapes to make emptying, sealing and removing the rubbish a hassle-free task.

Your eye is just drawn to the Vintage Blue!

Mr T said "Does this mean I have to decorate now"  YES.

Using the proper Brabantia bin liners there is no unsightly over hang of the liner !

Sorry you  have to stare at my rubbish ( not my blog you understand) but the rubbish in my bin . You see how neat it all looks!

The old Brabantia bin without the proper bin liners oops !

Prices start from around £6.50 for a Storage Canister, and all items are covered by a 10 year guarantee for complete consumer confidence.
Brabantia products are available from leading retailers, including high street department stores, superstores, quality independent housewares and kitchen product specialists.  For stockist details, please contact the Brabantia sales department on 0845 602 4877 or visit Brabantia’s website www.brabantia.com.

Disclosure ( I was sent the Vintage Blue bin and Bread bin and canisters for review... the rubbish in the bin is my own) 

School trips the increasing cost now its the Olympics!

I am sorry that this is a rehash of an old post but I am getting hacked off with my son school. Now it is my choice to send him skiing at £750 and the rugby tour at £250 . Now he could have gone on a football trip at £530 to Alicante but thankfully he didn't want to go on that !. I have just received an email about him going to the Olympics ( a great opportunity I agree) but at what point do you draw the line.? If my son went on every single trip he would up missing a month of school.




Below is a insert of the email my son's school sent me!



'Dear Parent/Guardian,
I am writing to inform you of an opportunity to take 1 or 2 groups of students to the London 2012 Olympics.  This has come about from an invitation I received from Thomas Cook on Thursday specifically aimed at school groups.  As you can appreciate, this is a rare chance to witness some of the world's best athletes performing in our own country.
I am fully aware of the current financial situation and the pressures that your son/daughter place on you regarding trips etc.  Therefore I would like to gauge interest from you without raising student expectation  in the first instance.  Prices are based on a two day trip including coach travel, overnight accommodation, breakfast and tickets to two events.  The cost is £170 - £350 depending upon which days/events we choose.  The events are scheduled between 27^th July and 12^th August.
As these offers will book quite quickly, I would like a prompt response.  Please could you e-mail the following address by Wednesday at 18:00 with the information if you are interested for your son/daughter to have the chance to go to London 2012.
•·         Your upper limit of cost for the event
•·         Your son/daughters name and form (e.g.  Joe Bloggs 8BUR) AS THE MESSAGE SUBJECT'

Is this too much ?






What price do you put on education if you go to a state school. There is the constant demands from an early age for trip money. If you do not pay your child will suffer blah blah. Now this is hard enough in this economic climate if you have one child but one if you have more the pressures are even greater. Now J my son is a truly able sportsman

Now its been a constant ask all through his school life so far for trips,charity , school PGL but I was not prepared for the shook of the cost of senior school. Now J does not go to private school just a academy school but it s like private school. For the off there was trip after trip  first skiing, then cricket , three lots of rugby, singing . Now I am pleased my son is talented I really am but I felt the need to draw the line somewhere so I said NO to the rugby tour. He was a little crestfallen but he got on with his life, We all have to make sacrifices in this world.

Then came the school sports award night. J had already won various certifaces for academic achievement being best in his class etc glowing report etc. Model child, etc not stereo typical of Only
child syndrome. Well on the night he picked up award after award culminating in the sports personality of the year. Basically the teacher said if there was a tiddlywinks team he's be in . Now faced which this pride how could I refuse to NOT send him on the rugby tour. So another cost for me so far these trips total up as £750 for skiing, £120 for cricket, £350 for rugby not to mention £50 for another rugby trip ,£25 for singing trip and another £25 for another rugby trip . I try not to  add it up, knowing it is such a scary amount. And all this is before spending money, clothes etc. This is where i cam e up with a plan to sell stuff on that internet auction site. Good opportunity to clear out etc and help pay for all these trips. First up was Mr T's organ he didn't use it any more , it was just there gathering dust. I know it was hard but I just had to let it go.....

There you've seen it Mr T's organ, also I started selling his train set as well. All little amounts help, the school were puzzled as I started paying off these little amounts and indeed ring to ask me was this right. You do what you have to do so your child has a better life etc, but at what cost.?