Category: Daily Life

Words

Words are like a game of scrabble you need to be clever how you use them.

The way in which we say things can have a lasting effect on someone. Words are powerful. I am sure if you think for a few moments you could think of several famous quotes. And that If you are put in a certain place or with particular people there are words you will remember being spoken, these being happy or sad.

It’s in our nature to record these moments and then recall them when we are in a particular situation.

Unfortunately there are many words that we find hard to file away quickly so we can move on.

With social media in our world and a faceless culture of texting and emails I feel emotions are being removed from words. We created our amazing languages to communicate in an effective way, let’s not forget to use them wisely.

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Thank you

‘They shall not grow old, as we that are left to grow old, age shall not weary them nor the years condemn, as the going down of the sun and in the morning, we shall remember them’. – I thank everyone who works to keep us safe, I thank you for making me feel safe at home, I thank you for everything you give, so many live with the life long effects of what they have seen and injuries they have sustained.

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YOU

‘Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is you’re than you.’ – Dr Suess –

I am very guilty of wanting everything to be perfect. And what we must remember is what is perfect for you may not be for others. Follow and read what inspires YOU.

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The Mind

‘In a world full of doing doing doing, it’s important to take a moment to just breathe, to just be’. – Unknown –

The mind is a complex part of you, sometimes your mind is shown in your emotions and way you are acting. Whilst many of our feelings and emotions can be hidden inside, it’s becoming increasingly welcomed that people should show and discuss these feelings.

Currently there are so many things buzzing about in my mind that it has started to impact on the way that I am coping every day.

It has been 17 months since I lost my step daughter and there still a massive amount happening in my life daily that effects the way my family runs. Whilst some days seem to be ok this last couple of weeks has felt intense.

The constant battle with my children every day to get them to school, ‘what’s the point? Asten only had a short time out of school, I should be able to explore and find out about the world by doing it the way I want’. And I get it, I get their frustration but they also don’t know how much they will learn at school and how actually they will have fond memories. But right now they are just struggling to see that.

I am trying to teach them to make sure that all the choices that they make in school are focusing what they want to do right now. What makes them happy and interested to know more?

Then the tears, the uncontrollable crying and wanting to know what happens after you die.  Inside I am hurting so much as I cannot tell them what. I WISH I COULD. I WISH I KNEW.

I settle them as much as I can, I talk to them, we watch films and we read. The thing that for me is so important is getting them outside, see the beautiful world and use it as an escape for their minds. We must not just stay at home, stay in bed, sit on the sofa – don’t get me wrong this is important too but a BALANCE.

I finally feel that they have a little peace in their mind and …………………school. I will give one example – my son is in Spanish and the lesson is about family. The children must practice talking about their family. OK first hurdle, he has to decide how he is going to deal with the situation – miss one sibling out or explain she has died. He decided to use his time out card to remove himself from the room for a few minutes to compose himself. However the teacher declines his card ‘this is from last year, you need to get a new one’. My son had already been told that he did not need a new one! After an exchange of words, my son removes himself without permission of the teacher. After another child sees my son outside upset he informs the head of year as he knows my son’s situation. The head of year spoke with the teacher and ‘things were sorted’. Now I have a few issues with the situation.

  1. Why did the teacher just not let the child leave the class and deal with the pass later. I am happy for my child to be punished if they have not done the correct procedure or had no valid reason to have left.
  2. I had never thought about discussing family in many situations at school before, I had no reason to. But we cannot be the only family in this situation or a situation that maybe difficult to discuss in a class room situation i.e. foster care, adoption etc.
  3. Why let a child be visibly upset in a class – it becomes hard for that child to trust that teacher again.
  4. Should we tell every teacher that the children have contact with? I believe not, they do not want special treatment they just want to be like everyone else, however they do need compassion. Also I may add the children do not want everyone knowing.

The thing is this is ONE situation, ONE day. Some days we have multiple situations today for instance three lessons discussed death – Drama, History and English. I make sure that I talk with the children about their days every day and we try and have reasonable discussions. What was the context of the death? Why would you be learning about it? The list goes on as the discussion goes on.

And my point to this morbid blog today? I have become overwhelmed, as I said earlier the last couple of weeks have been particularly intense, with both children suffering and my husband also feeling low. And yet every day, I have to do my job, my grief, the washing, the cleaning, cook etc etc etc. I must remember to think about myself too, I must let my mind relax and have space or family life will become much harder.

I am going to make sure, I get up every day, that I go outside and look at this beautiful world and that we all go to bed knowing that we love each other. Right now that is what is important.

Sending love, hugs and mental strength to help anyone that needs a bit of TLC right now. XOXO

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Woodhenge to Stonehenge

After watching a film my youngest son said that he wanted to go and see Stonehenge, I said he had been when he was little; but he couldn’t remember this. As the next day was my day off and he was on half term I said we could go tomorrow if he wanted to. After some discussion and wanting his Dad to come too we decided to go on the Saturday morning.

We got up at 5am to set off so we could watch the sun rise when we got there. It took us about two and a half hours from our house in Kent and we arrived just as the sun was rising (perfect timing).

We parked in the road at Woodhenge; tip – there were several camper vans and cars that had used this as a place to spend the night so if you’re looking to park up for the night this would be a good spot. There is no charge for parking.

We started our walk through national trust ground at The Cuckoo Stone towards Stonehenge. It was a cold but beautiful morning with a pretty ground frost. We always use paper OS maps and the OS mobile app they are really great for finding routes, recording routes and making sure your on track whilst you’re exploring.

The walk took us to King Barrow Ridge; there were lots of National Trust information boards along the way to read about the area. The last stretch of the walk took us up The Avenue to Stonehenge.

You will not be able to get in to the stones as this is an English Heritage site and you will need to get tickets from the visitor centre. There were two reasons that we didn’t get tickets, 1. We wanted to get there early before others were there to see the site in the morning sun peacefully and the site is not open at this time. 2. The ticket would have cost us £50, we would have become members instead as this would have only been another £50. We have previously taken the children when we were members. The last couple of years we have not purchased a membership for either English Heritage or National Trust as the places we visit we have not needed to. I would say memberships are fantastic value we have 5 children and knowing that wherever we were (when they younger) we could find a local property to go and explore.

There was only one other family at the fence and an English Heritage employee watching from the side when we reached Stonehenge. It was lovely just what we had wanted and after some chatting and lots of pictures we started our walk back. The walk was approximately 7.6km and took us 1 hour 44 minutes, this was with stopping and reading the information boards, taking lots of pictures and walking at a leisurely pace. I would say that the route was easy walking, suitable for families and pushchair accessible (all gates opened fully so you can easily get pushchairs through). There are animals about in some of the fields; mainly cows and sheep and there are clear signs explaining no dogs. I am sure that there are alternate ways that you can take dogs but I would imagine they will be slightly longer and we had no need to use a route suitable for dogs.

I would defiantly recommend this walk and going for the early start, it was a lovely morning with my family.

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Family Adventure to Abu Dhabi

As a family we embarked on a trip to Abu Dhabi and what an amazing time we had. We tried the POD parking at London Heathrow and I can honestly say it was brilliant. It was easy to find the car park and finding a parking space was no problem. Arriving at the POD station there were PODs ready and waiting to take us to terminal 5. We loved this self-driven POD and the mini tour we got of the airport (around a 5 minute ride).

After checking in our bags we had breakfast at Huxleys Restaurant & Bar where they were friendly, and our food was served quickly. Food was very nice and we would defiantly go back.

Taking just under 7 hours from London Heathrow we flew with British Airways but the flight was provided by Air Belgium. The male dominant crew on the way to Abu Dhabi was brilliant however the crew on the way home were not so good – we were served our food and then 3 minutes later has this removed because we were preparing for landing. I think that one of the stewardesses was training and the other one was just not supportive of her so therefore she took too long serving the breakfast. Shame as overall I had been very impressed with Air Belgium.

We only had a short break Wednesday to Monday as I have limited annual leave remaining.

We stayed at a lovely apartment on Al Maryah Island, a great location for all we had planned.

On our first day we visited Warner Brothers World Abu Dhabi this was a great day. Warner Brothers World is all inside with the car parking located close by and only a few minutes’ walk. Our children are older we could do all the rides and our favorite was the green lantern which we went on several times. Waiting times were minimal around 10 minutes max; however I imagine queues could be much longer; we chose to go on a work/school day.

The next day we went Kayaking around the Mangroves at the Mangrove National Park. We had fun exploring the National Park seeing lots of nature along the way.

That evening we went to the fish market where we chose our shrimp and squid (you can literally choose what ever sea food you like). We then went and choose a place (in the same building) to have the fish prepared and cooked before returning to the apartment to eat our feast.

On our third day we went in search of some sand dunes, and we found endless dunes. It was very hot so we didn’t stay too long. I would recommend a sand dune experience if you have not done one before; there are many to choose from.

We visited several Shopping Malls and believe me they are huge, they have many of the shops we have in the UK and many more. There is also a huge amount of restaurants and fast food that you can visit; we visited quite a few including Baskin Robins, McDonald’s, Hardee’s and much more!

One evening we went to Yas Race Circuit and had food at Johnny Rockets, the food was brilliant and we had a view over the race track. We were lucky enough to see cars racing that evening with a selection of BMW’s and then McLaren’s. There is a great short walk around Yas Marina that you can see yachts and the race circuit.  It was a fab evening and I would recommend visiting there at least once.

On our last day we went to Water World this was a brilliant day in which we conquered many fears with the insane slides that this water park offers. The park was beautifully clean, there were short waits for slides around 5 minutes (again we went on a work/school day).

We had an amazing time, the weather for us was nice, and it’s still very hot 37 degrees most days falling to 29 degrees at night. Everywhere we went had good air conditioning and we generally stayed out of the direct sun at the hottest point of the day.

Tip: In Abu Dhabi the weekend is Friday and Saturday which is worth noting when planning your visit.

Tip: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is a truly wonderful place too and definitely worth a visit.

Tip: Get an Entertainer as this will save you money when you visit attractions and places to eat.

Tip: Take a look or follow me on Pinterest

Tip: Follow my Instagram as I story whist we are on our adventures, I also pin some road trips on my page.

Happy planning and adventuring everyone.

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