The Cambridge Mummy blog on: our wedding anniversary – a review…

Posted on August 23, 2011 by cambridgemummy

Ha ha, I love the idea of “reviewing” my wedding anniversary. That’s comedy in itself. But anyway, I’ve had some tweets about it, so I figured it would be good to write about it and, I’ve actually got lots to photos to document it, which is nice…

Day started at 7am, which is a result in itself. I scurried into the other room with the boys and we wrote special cards for daddy to tell him how much we love him. They were given to him, along with my present – the piece de resistance – a packet of Super Hero Top Trumps. This is a top present in my mind and Lovely Bloke does his best to look pleased with it, as he always does, god love him.

Then he tells me to look inside the wardrobe for my small present. I’m there quickly and searching, searching, searching – I can’t find anything. He’s telling me to keep looking and lo and behold I find a small Mappin and Webb box. Wooooo hooooo!!!! In some ways, it could have been an empty bag. But I suppose it’s what it signifies, what’s within it. So I open it, with the “help” of E.

And inside, are a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings. E is trying to help me wrestle them out of the box, when Lovely Bloke starts to flap a bit.
“Errrr, E shall we let Mummy do that?” So that’s when I realised they were a) real and b) would need to be insured on their own!!

Within an hour the boys had gone to Nanny and Grandad for bacon and eggs for breakfast, to be followed with a day at the sea side and Prezzo’s for lunch, as that’s Nanna’s favourite place to go for a meal out…

We are then on the road, planning to go IKEA, to sort out the kitchen and what we are going to do with it. En route, I do some more calculations and we realise that for an extra bit of money we could have the Howdens kitchen that’s on special offer, including the fitted kit, so we detour off to the outlet shopping place near Braintree. I think it’s called Littleport, but am not sure…

Here’s a photo of me having put make up on in the car, trying to look all “sultry”…

Liz Weston is the Cambridge Mummy - a self employed Marketing Social Media and Public Relations bird :))

Me, trying to do a friendly, but not gurning face

And this is what I really look like:

Liz Weston is the Cambridge Mummy and this is what she really looks like

This is what I really look like...

So then we get to Littleport or Freeport or Whatever It Is Called and we wander around the shops. Have to say, I’m not overly thrilled with it. But I did find a Wonder Bra outlet shop where in hindsight, I should have had the bra that was 15.00 instead of 25.00 but hey ho, I’ve lived and learnt from that one. And I found some of my jeans, not quite in the right colour in the Levi’s shop. They were 55 instead of 85, which is quite good but if they aren’t “my colour” isn’t that a bit of a false economy?

What I did find however, was something which my dear friend, Dr AKT told me I would find. Skinny jeggings. In stonewash denim. And behold. I did. She mentioned it several times, so I can only assume that she was secretly requesting a pair for her birthday. Who am I to not oblige the desires of one of my two best friends? [For the file, my other best friend, KR, would shoot me if I got her a pair of these, so it's good to note how we all have different kinds of friends who make our worlds go around...]

Liz Weston aka Cambridge Mummy has bought these for AKT's birthday

This is AKT's birthday present. Don't tell her though. It's a secret

And then it was on to Howdens, where we spent so much money that I had to phone the bank to tell them that a transaction of magnitude was going through! After a quick whip home for our swimmers, we visited a worktop place that does recycled glass. It’s gorgeous. And costs £3,000 for the worktop alone, not the MDF that goes under it!!! Here’s a photo for you. Does it look like a £3,000 worktop to you?

Liz Weston is the Cambridge Mummy. By day she is a Baby PR, Marketing and Social Media bird

Can I justify this worktop? Please????

We didn’t get the price that day, so we skipped off to the Hotel Pool for a swim and sauna, thinking we should be able to afford it as it couldn’t be “that much” really, could it? After that it was Browns for dinner and here’s Lovely Bloke and I eating our puddings….

Liz Weston is Cambridge Mummy. She didn't really need that pudding but had it anyway

This is the face of someone eating chocolate cookie cheesecake even though they are too full to really squeeze it in...

Lovely Bloke with a mouth full of his banoffee pie

Lovely Bloke with hamster cheeks from shovelling his pudding in

After that, we went to the cinema to see the inbetweeners movie. It was very busy and full of teenagers. We felt a bit old. But enjoyed it nonetheless. Then it was home, to bed and then a lie in together the next morning, before a couple of clients phoned me – and I told them I was “off” and managed to not work until my first client meeting at 1pm!

So all in all a good result all round really. Sorry this has been soooooo long, but I wanted do my couple time justice. It’s important to me that we got back to being a couple, even if only for 24 hours, only needing to check on what one other person wanted to do, not three and not having to reason in quite the same way with Lovely Bloke that I do with our tiddlers ;)

Will I do it again? Yes, without LittlePort, FreePort, whatever it is. And without the diamond earrings and the £3,000 worktop (did I mention the worktop???) Lovely Bloke, mooching about, swimming, dinner and movie is my idea of a good time. And I’m pleased to have worked that out. It’s a good feeling.

Now I’ve got to put my cape on and transform into Liz Weston, Baby PR, Marketing to Families and Social Media solutions provider for my day job. So I’ll see you later x

The Cambridge Mummy Blog on: succumbing to branding for my boys…

Posted on July 8, 2011 by cambridgemummy

When I was pregnant with E, I gave a withering look to anyone who said that it was impossible to avoid branded clothes, toys and accessories. Why? Because my babies would be playing with wooden, educational, hand made, purposeful toys. They wouldn’t be bribed into getting dressed on difficult mornings with Buzz Lightyear underpants. No, that’s not my family…

Liz Weston the Cambridge Mummy with her toddler boys and Buzz Lightyear at Disneyland Paris

I actually kissed him, just like our boys did :)

Anyway, back to reality. Team Weston is now officially a Disney family. We’re wearing it, eating with it, watching it, playing with it and will shortly be using it to launch toilet training for W with a Lightning McQueen potty. And we’ve now had our family holiday with Disney. And it wasn’t cheap. Three nights in a three star hotel for £1,574. I don’t think Lovely Bloke and I have ever spent that much on a three night break hotels, so it was a big spend for us – and all down to Lovely Bloke, who insisted it was a good idea. I’ll write properly about it in future blogs.

I’m just going to put it out there. The experience our boys have had this week has been the most animated, excited, engaged, enthusiastic and basically the happiest I can see them looking for, well, I don’t know since when. And whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know. I just know that we’re all playing with Mr Potato head, in the nude, with Cars on in the background and we’re all happy.

Are you a wooden toys or Buzz Lightyear underpants family?

The Cambridge Mummy on: feeling a bit lonely

Posted on June 27, 2011 by cambridgemummy

When I very first met Lovely Bloke, the very first time I came to his house, he was at work. Sounds strange I know, but I’d left work early and he was coming home late, so I was to collect the key from his mum who worked a few doors down from his house. I braved the quick “hello, can I collect keys for your son’s house even though I’m a stranger” conversation and came to the exact spot I’m sat at now. The decking at the back of the house. I sat there, thinking I’d found peace at last – in my new boyfriend’s house of all places. It was strange, but I didn’t feel at all lonely or uncomfortable. It felt great, sitting there waiting for him to come home….

In some ways, despite many years having passed, some things haven’t changed. We haven’t gotten around to replacing the decking. We still can’t make plants live in pots on a side wall, no matter what we buy. And now I’ve gone and lost the patio door keys, so we can’t even open those any more. But lots of other things have stayed the same. Lovely Bloke still prefers to sit indoors and watch TV, whilst I crave the fresh air and sit outside on the decking. Lovely Bloke doesn’t want to sit outside here and have a drink with me, because it’s not his kind of thing, whereas it’s very much mine. Some changes are good, some are not so good.

The fundamental change is that I’m now a wife a mother. In some ways, I find myself feeling quite lonely sometimes. Lovely Bloke and our two boys have a very unholy alliance. It’s brilliant for the boys – all three of them ;) Not least because they have such an amazing time together. But for me, when we went on holiday to Cornwall a couple of weeks ago, I just didn’t know how to fit in. And that’s a change for me – I didn’t know where to start with Lovely Bloke or my children. That upset me. I couldn’t wait to get back to my work and in fact buried myself in it whilst we were away. My mobile is my friend. It doesn’t make me feel like I don’t fit in, or know where to join in the conversation. I’m not saying I couldn’t and didn’t join in at all, it’s just that I was conscious of not always knowing what, where or how to take the lead, the initiative or where we should go next. Being self employed is great because it gives me so many benefits. I just don’t think I’m seeing enough of them right now. And feeling a bit lonely isn’t on my list of benefits so I think it’s something I need to tackle.

What do you think?

W and his food….

Posted on May 3, 2011 by cambridgemummy

I was so busy today with work stuff, that the time flew by. E has been having lunch at pre school for ages now, but W was doing his first time having a packed lunch there. Lovely Bloke was fretting about it, especially as they both ate very little for breakfast. Fast forward to 3.30pm and I go to collect them. It’s one of the perks of self employment – being able to pop out for half an hour, to do the school run. Turns out W has eaten apple at morning snack and eaten a lovely afternoon snack. But at lunch time he did a lot of watching and not enough eating – other than his cake and salami.

E ad W got into the car and started devouring their packed lunches with fervour. It was actually quite sweet in some ways – they had been too busy / nosey / distracted to eat at lunchtime. Upon arriving home W doesn’t want to go digging in the garden. Instead, he proceeds to request, nay demand, food. And lots of it. He had a second portion of crackers, and salami, and apple. And then sausages which E took me to the fridge and instructed me to cook “right now”….

I fret so much about their eating. I really do. E is in a phase of eating beef and chicken at the moment, followed by him adopting the muscle man pose. We then have to feel his “big strong muscles”. It’s quite funny really, as he used to not eat much at all. God willing, W will follow in his footsteps at some point. At the moment, all he wants to eat is Salami and chocolate. And drink hot chocolate. He loves to drink his hot chocolate.

It was the programme last week, My Child Won’t Eat that’s altered my perception at the moment – if W is eating something, surely I should just let him get on with it? It’s important that he eats a balanced diet, but surely instead of a perfect diet, how about him just eating some good stuff and some stuff that’s not so great. And if that’s all he wants to eat, I should maybe let him.

I’ll probably go back to fretting about their food next week, but for this week, I’m going to be a bit more relaxed about it….
Do you fret about about the amount of food your baby, toddler or little people? What’s your approach…..

I had the Pretty Woman customer service experience today…

Posted on May 2, 2011 by cambridgemummy

So earlier today, I shared my voucher for Hobbs, where you can get a free pashmina, in a lovely purple colour, if you use it by Wednesday 4 May 2011.

I also had, and had been waiting to use it on something lovely, a £25 discount card that came on the front of Red Magazine in January. That ran out today, so I went there specially to use it. With Lovely Bloke, E (age 4) and W (3 next month) and the buggy. To the Hobbs shop in Cambridge. The stand alone shop.

I have the same experience every time I go there. It’s like the scene from Pretty Woman – you know, where Julia Roberts is told that there’s “nothing for you in here” etc. It was just like that – they looked me up and down and did that “you’re not worthy to shop in here” huffy stuff. Seriously??? Do they know how much I’ve spent in Hobbs over the years? Lovely Bloke has since estimated that it’s more than £12,000 (I used to wear their suits in London and in Hatfield…)

E and W gear up for their rolling around on the floor antics, so I pick up a blue and white striped top and head to the desk to pay. A customer in front of me is mid transaction which is fine. But the other two women stand there chatting – about non work stuff. They can see me but they don’t come to process my transaction. I’m irritated by this but keep quiet.. Then when the customer is done and leaves, I present my voucher and request my scarf. Shop Assistant A asks Assistant B for help. They then bicker over who will go to get the scarf out of the back for me. The boys are being physically held apart by lovely bloke at this point.

And then Shop Assistant B who felt she was too grand to help me with my shopping started on me saying I couldn’t have two discounts or offers in one shop. I explained I wasn’t looking for that. I just wanted my pashmina with the voucher. And to use the £25 card for the t shirt. I didn’t expect a further 10% off it. Shop Assistant B goes over it twice more and it’s only when Assistant A returns and says – “yes, she knows that” that I’m permitted to have it.

I don’t have Richard Gere to come in and make people be nicer to me in a shop so it’s up to me to make this situation better for myself. Do you know how I’ve done that – Lovely Bloke and I have committed my wardrobe funds to Fenn Wright and Manson, John Lewis, LK Bennett, Phase Eight and anywhere BUT Hobbs for the foreseeable future. And I’m going to tweet and facebook this everywhere.

Just because I am a Mum, and I’m not the slimmest size that crosses their threshold, and I don’t wear matching Hobbs stuff from head to toe, it doesn’t mean that I can’t afford to shop there, or don’t deserve to wear their clothes, or should be looked down upon by them.

Here’s hoping that some other people decide not to push money their way and then maybe they will start to be a bit friendlier to people……