Flying High

It's taken me all day to get to write this short blog today, what with the distraction of work, tweeting and lunch meetings......... 

I had a nice drive in to work today and shared some of it with Mr Barn Owl. 


(c) mummyrella 2010

Barn Owl at Butterfly Park Long Sutton

He appeared from out of the fog which was hovering just above the black peat of a Fenland field and even though I had another car up my rear end I decided to drive along with him a short while - what an exhilarating experience.  

Swan on Ice at 16 Foot Drain
(c) mummyrella 2010

Then to top it off about half an hour later I had another co-pilot a beautiful solitary swan flying over the 16 foot drain in Manea, Cambridgeshire. 

I am amazed at the speed both birds were flying at and made me apprieciate and feel privillaged that I am be able to have these experiences every now and again first thing in the morning!

Books, Walks, Fundraising and Confusion

So it’s been a busy week in the village, attended as special guest to the PCC, managed a 3 walk day for Poppydog on Thursday, lots of reading, and more enterprising thoughts coming my way.

Its mainly been books, books, books.  I do like a good read particularly just before I go to sleep and this Christmas I got asked the usual question “what would you like”.  The response I gave one friend was that I would like a good Novel to read as the past 9-12 months I have not been able to find a good book to get my teeth into at all. 

So when it came to opening my presents, I had been a good girl.  The friend in question had asked Father Christmas to leave me not one but a collection of eight Novels on Romance and Saga.  Now whilst I am usually into Historical, Espionage or Children’s authors like JK Rowling or Phillip Pullman.  I have been able to enjoy the ability to read a book within 2 weeks! You see I usually take at least 2-3 months especially when I have been so tired that I have fallen asleep after the first paragraph.  But this collection has been great to switch off my mind and get into. 

So it followed by a visit yesterday to my local ‘The Works’ shop and found a couple of bargains in the non-fiction section.  I came away with a book on The Secrets of Reiki by Anne Charlish & Angela Robershaw – something I would like to maybe venture into in the next few months, a book on Writing your Life Story by Michael Oke, to help me put my life into order. And finally a book called :59 seconds by Professor Richard Wiseman, not sure about this one but as my time is limited nowadays sometimes 59 seconds is all I have! I will try and keep you posted how I get on with them.

So me a special guest at the Parish Church Council [PCC] basically we need to raise over £100k to replace the roof of our Chancel and I happened to be in the Church with Poppydog checking on my Christmas flowers when I had found myself volunteering my services to a new fundraising group called “The Friends of Walpole St Peters” so watch this space! If you do have any ideas or thoughts into how to raise funds please use the comment section after this posting.  All ideas welcome.  I’m not too sure I like the term “Big Society” as I believe we all already do it is some small way.

Poppydog Walks, poor Poppydog – since I have become a mummy quality time with Poppydog has been less frequent particularly since also going back to work, but when I do get the opportunity to work from home – I do make use of my lunch break by taking her for walks around the Village,  Poppydog and I more often than not bump into fellow doggie walkers, Village habitants as well as the odd visitor or two or three. But just recently a few new dogs have arrived in the Village and whether Poppydog is feeling insecure she is having a few bad experiences.  I have to say though whilst she does on occasion run away from said bigger dogs – she does run home to the front door step.  So I have signed up to attend an event with a follower of Cesar Millan, the dog behaviourist, maybe I can get a few tips to her nervousness.

Finally Life After Redundancy ... Some may think me positive the approach I am trying to take into my imminent redundancy, but I am getting confused  as I seem to have a new idea every week – maybe it’s the Libra in me – I can’t seem to make my mind up what to do next, so many BIG ideas flowing through this tiny tiny brain that I don’t know where to begin.  Hopefully my session with a Response to Redundancy adviser will be able to help me see the light by the end of this week.

Week 41 of The Gallery - Body parts

BIG FOOT and little Foot ...........

A little bit of a boring photograph some may think.

But this captures a memory for mummyrella spending her first summer with her daughter.

This weeks topic for The Gallery is Body Parts go to see Sticky Fingers for more entries.

KIDS Show and Tell the MeFinder Verdict.

MEFINDER

What a wonderful idea, something to attach to my kiddiewinks so that if they stray away they can ask a safe person to ring Mummy, Daddy or Nanna.

The Mefinder is a digital wristband for children and when your child [should read] if your child gets lost, they show the band to a safe adult and tell them to “phone mummy”

It is described as a

Super-lightweight; curved edges; adjustable shorter strap made from very soft, comfortable plastic – this is definitely true  both my children who are 2 ½ and 3 ½ thought the designs where great – we had a lovely pink flower for my daughter and a very cheeky monkey for my very cheeky monkey – he loved it too.

Funky animations, your number is set as default – this took me quite a while to achieve as I seem to have large fingers for the very small buttons and it got a little frustrating when I had to go through the whole procedure a number of times, but the numbers got punched in and the animations appeared, which was quite exciting for a small child to see.

“Child-proof” safety-catch on wristband - whilst this was stated on the literature my husband and I thoroughly examined both wristbands and could not find these safety catches.  Re-reading the Full Instructions and watching the youtube video as well we were still none the wiser with the location of the safety-catch.

Water-resistant – ideal for the beach or pool - yes we had ours in the bath and they still worked afterwards.

Stores up to 5 phone numbers and you are able to select the appropriate number when you go out -  this is an excellent idea and if in doubt the safe Adult would be able to make use of all numbers if required.

The next task was to explain to the children who is a safe adult.  I think this would need to done as a matter of course and something mine are still learning. 

So to test it in the field – off to soft play, all was all going well until my very cheeky monkey at 2 ½ came back to show me “look at all the numbers I have on my arm I have now mummy” and I realised he had managed to press the appropriate buttons in the correct sequence and was in editing mode and the names and numbers were all jumbled and the animations had ceased to appear.  So I tackled the inputting again – I was getting good at this and away he went again, happily playing.

                                            

MY Verdict – Fortunately it was not used in its full capacity – ie children did not wander off!  I will continue to explain who is a safe adult, and will explain we don’t like wandering fingers over the buttons too much, but once in a while is ok to see the little animations.  So we will have another go this week.

A good concept, great colours and designs, maybe a bit pricey at £14.99 but it does come with free postage and packaging – will VAT increase affect this product.

A Big Smiley 7.5/10