Friday 16 May 2014

Mr & Mrs Chopper

One of our ex-HHR'ers went and got hitched yesterday. The one who swore she'd never get married! Congrats Slade! 

We were very excited in the office during the day, even Barry Bug had to post a status.

 
 The evening was brilliant, such a great atmosphere, the venue was beautiful (The Square Tower in Old Portsmouth), the Bride and Groom looked hawt and the band was SHAMAZING. They're called The Decaders and they're on Facebook here, if you're looking for a band for an event you seriously need to look at them.

It was so lovely to see how happy Donna is, and great to think that we were around right at the beginning when she first met Chopper.

Us HHR girls love a good wedding. Although in my case last night I may have had a few too many drinkies. On a school night. Whoopsies.



















 

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Hi ho, hi ho.... it's back to work I go

Well that went bloody quick.

10 months ago I was waddling around whilst the UK was in the middle of a heatwave, stealing the boyo's paddling pool for my swollen cankles whilst he was at pre-school and generally looking like a whale. Now I am back to the crazy-busy Handover HR office FULL TIME. Yes, FULL TIME. Yes, I still feel the need to type it in capitals. 

  
I have had a shamazing time with my babies, watching their relationship (& them) grow and slacking off as my co-workers and Husband would say! Just being at home pottering around has been lovely but it is time to get back to it and get earning those pennies. As a family, it makes sense for me to go back to work rather than staying at home full time. And it works. William has been bugging me for aggggesss to go to Hedgehogs (after school club) because his best friend Jack goes, and Emilia has settled into nursery really well; so much so that she gets excited when we pull up onto the Nursery's drive. Oh, and of course, for the time being my Mum has E twice a week for Grandma time and does the school run! Thanks Mum xxx


Two and half weeks in and it's going well. Just another 40 odd years to go...

Monday 12 May 2014

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

I miss my Nan so much I ache. 

There I said it; well, typed it. I'm not saying it for attention, I'm not saying it because that's what you do after you loose a Grandparent, I'm saying it because I need to. I need to get this out of my system and the easiest way for me to do that is to write it down here. Feel free to skip to a more cheery post if you wish to! 

My Nanny was diagnosed with lung cancer in January this year, and she was gone by the 22nd of February. Which is also World Thinking Day for the Girl Guide Association. 

I saw my Nan a lot. At the very least for two afternoons a week, but it was always much more than that. She was part of my normal routine, never a chore, always a pleasure. I am very lucky to have had such a beautiful, close relationship with her that I didn't value enough until it was taken away. I don't think you truly appreciate people until they've gone. And yes everyone says that but it's true. 

Sooo many things remind me of her, my drive to work alone passes two places that she lived in. And I only work 6 miles away from my house! I know I'll get to a point where something will make me think of her and I'll smile and have a nice, warm, fond feeling. But at the moment it's just upsetting and I start to well up. 

Grief is shit. 

I feel guilty about my feelings quite a lot. I feel guilty for not feeling exactly like this when my Grandad passed away. I feel guilty for not feeling like this when my Grandma, Grandad and Auntie passed away. I feel guilty for showing my feelings because I know that my Mum and her brothers must be feeling so much worse. Losing a parent must be so much worse than a Grandparent, therefore I shouldn't feel like this, right? 

I am lucky, however, that she met, enjoyed spending time with, and most of all loved, my babies. We all know how much she struggled after Grandad passed away, but she hung on to meet Molly, Oscar and Emilia. The new babies in our family, who all arrived within 8 weeks from start to finish. She watched them start to grow, she loved them. Recently I keep thinking about a conversation I had with her just before it all kicked off. We were in the bungalow, William had just finished his dinner and was watching Tree-Fu Tom (he had dinner at Nan's two afternoons a week after school), Emilia was playing with Smokey the Elephant with me on the floor and Nan looked at me. She said 'you enjoy being a Mother now'. Of course I said yes, but I didn't need to answer. It wasn't a question, it was an observation, she was happy to know that I was happy. It was a nod. 

Now the four generations have turned into three. I'm not the baby any more. And although this is painful now, I can't wait to watch my kids develop the relationship that they have with my Mum into what I had with my Nan, and some more. 

xxx

Sunday 11 May 2014

Being a #MorrisonsMum

At the end of April, just as I had started back at work after a glorious 10 months off on Maternity Leave, a very welcome letter arrived through the post. I had been picked to be a 'MorrisonsMum'! 

Firstly, thank you very much to Brit Mums and Morrisons for running this campaign. I know quite a few people were picked, but it really came in handy not only at the tail end of my Maternity Leave (tight budget) but also has given me the kick up the arse I needed to get this blog back on the go. I have so many ideas, and posts that I know at least my family will want to read, that I WILL translate onto paper/ the web/ Team Sainsbury. Bring it.

So, for those of you who are wondering 'What's a MorrisonsMum?!'; I received £80 worth of vouchers to go and try out the Morrisons experience for the May Bank Holiday as they have just launched the start to a cheaper Morrisons. They've cut their prices across the store on the regular, every day stuff you genuinely need... as well as those scrummy biscuits you don't! And it's not for a limited time either, those prices are here to stay; but at the same time, the quality isn't being compromised. And that's where I come in. If you want to learn more about this campaign, please click here.

I had never shopped at Morrisons before, mainly because the nearest one to our house is 15.3 miles away and they don't deliver to us, yet. Although I was obviously aware of them - they have had some great TV ads (Richard Hammond pushing a shopping trolley through the countryside, Take That's 'Shine' in the background, Ant & Dec at Christmas) and I don't live under a rock. We normally do our shop online at Sainsbury's (no unfortunately we are not related, damn it) and then top up all of the fresh stuff as we go throughout the month. I plan our meals on roughly a fortnightly basis, with room for kind offers from the Grandparents to come to their houses for dinner instead. Thank youuu, love youuu! So, after a meal at one set of the Grandparents' houses on the Friday evening of the bank holiday weekend, off I went to Morrisons - woohoo. 

It was quite late, around 20:15, and they shut at 22:00. It was quiet, probably because most normal people were out on the town, my Mother included. The first thing that hit me was the lovely way they display their fresh fruit, veg and herbs. A lot of it were in these cabinets which jetted out mists of icy cool water to keep the produce fresh, the little things eh? Once I was over ooohing and aaahing at the mist, I noticed the vast range of fresh products available. They even had plantain which had unfortunately all gone by the time I got there but there were also so many things I hadn't even heard of!





See, pretty right?

I then ventured across to the deli and fishmonger, both of whom had the best customer service I have experienced in a long time. And it was gone 8pm at night. And it was quiet so can't have been the most fun part of their shift. I decided to become a bit of a secret shopper, as I didn't exactly need anything from either of them, but as I had received these glorious vouchers I thought why the hell not? This Bank Holiday weekend for us was all about picnics as we had a couple of trips planned. So naturally I picked up some Billy Bears for the babes and some yummy ham for us. Jeanette was very happy and friendly, and even spotted that a piece of the ham was starting to look a bit dry and without prompting swapped it for a fresher piece. It is little things like that which make you want to return. Next up, Nathan the Fishmonger was quizzed by me. I'm not very adventurous with fish, usually sticking to salmon, so I asked him to recommend me something not too hard to cook and nothing that couldn't wink or smile at me! So I came away with some monkfish and haddock. He also told me how to cook the fish and what to season them with. I told them what I was up to after they had both served me and they even agreed to have their picture taken. So here they are, wahey!


If any member of the HR/ Management Team at Morrisons read this, they should definitely receive some sort of bonus/ employee of the week award. Nathan and Jeanette of the Totton (Southampton) store, thanks!

After all of that excitement, I went about and did my normal shop. There were some really good deals including the two pictured below. It was very difficult not to be distracted by the Nutmeg range of childrens clothes but I did it! 


As mentioned above, our bank holiday was very busy taking the kids to Finkley Down Farm and Chessington therefore the picnic bag was out and in action. Lots of treats were packed including a variety of fruits, chocolate yummies and lush sandwiches. Even if I do say so myself. We had a great weekend, and our tummies thank Morrisons as otherwise we would have just had the same old, same old. 




The question is, will I return again? Probably. I won't be doing our regular shop there as although it is an exciting experience as far as food shops go and the prices are fab, it is just too far to travel. However, I have heard on the grapevine that a Morrisons is due to open in Hedge End (which is where we live for those of you not in the know) on the old Wickes site. If this is the case, it will be my place to shop. 

Thanks again to Brit Mums and Morrisons, Team S xx

Disclosure:
I received £80 in vouchers for the purpose of this review and the opinions are entirely my own.