Last Friday we visited HOME Manchester for the very first time and we had an amazing night out! Slapstick is performing until this Saturday 22nd December and the group of 5 Dutchmen are true all-rounders. An amazing array of instruments played, perfect comic timing and complete commitment to character make it a unique show that really is a great night's entertainment for anyone.


We took the tram down and HOME Manchester is really easy to find, 5 minutes walk from Deansgate And Castlefield Station at Tony Wilson Place. It's gorgeous down there and the area was alive with people excited for Christmas. The HOME bar was really busy, but we were still served drinks quickly.

The show started before we even took our seats, as an 'elderly infirm man' wandered through the crowds with his walking frame, making the crowd laugh by getting in the way of everyone. Once we were in the auditorium the actors were all wandering around warming up the crowd and swapping the sweets and crisps of any willing participants.

I've got a really exciting toy giveaway today, and sadly it won't arrive in time for a Christmas, but it will make an excellent new year's gift for someone.

Now, you can relive the joy of lying under a van in a car park in the pouring rain at 10pm, but from the warmth and comfort of your own lounge and age 10+. Haynes are making model engines...


I haven't had the pleasure of playing with the Haynes kits yet, but at £36.99 for an Internal Combustion Engine and £54.99rrp for an over 250 piece, fully functional motorised Petrol V8 with its own mini Haynes Manual, it's got to be a fair price.

Christmas is almost here and 5 years in we are getting used to our new sort of Christmas. Some things change in more ways than others. I have a real problem looking ahead and I only started buying presents two days ago, but we're doing it. It'll happen. We're further ahead than this time last year.


We knew doing decorations would be hard and started at the beginning of December, so our living room now looks amazing and we have a huge LEGO Winter Village. When the tree is up it'll be perfect, and it's first time we've felt able to really go to town with the decorations since losing Elspeth.

She is constantly in our thoughts anyway, but now more than ever because she loved Christmas so much. She looked forward to it for months and every Christmas song on the radio or Christmas movie on the TV reminds us of her, and the fact she isn't here. Every gift idea seems it would have suited Elspeth best. In honesty we've kept ourselves busy to stay distracted...

December may be hard, but we've still managed to collect plenty of smiles and I've caught a few of them on camera. We've been to see Father Christmas, Black Beauty, Slapstick and The Forest Of Forgotten Disco's and we've definitely discovered the benefit of woolly hats....

Earlier this week we were guests of Contact Theatre to watch this year's seasonal production, The Forest Of Forgotten Discos! Contact's premises is undergoing improvement so this family performance, which is suitable for anyone, is being hosted by Hope Mill Theatre.


The Forest Of Forgotten Discos! is written by Jackie Hagan, a multi-award winning playwright who is herself disabled. It features a deaf performer and has sign language throughout, which only adds to the experience and makes it ideal for families or groups of friends who have a deaf member.

If your childhood was like mine then a highlight of every term was the Scholastic Book Club Catalogue of dreams. Full of colourful and exciting books at reduced prices, my parents always allowed me to choose a book and the day the delivery came was something very special.


I've worked with Scholastic now for over 3 years and all of the children's books in this post were sent to us by Scholastic for review over that time. There are some excellent books from some amazing authors...


Nowadays we don't have to wait until the new catalogue release, we can buy from Scholastic online all year round. All of the books are available at prices that are discounted from the recommended price by up to 70% and they've been specially selected by Scholastic, so you know they'll be good.

If your children like gooey, slimey, horrible toys then they'll no doubt be hoping for Slurpees Snot Suckers in their stocking this Christmas. At £5 each, they're sure to be very popular - however disgusting they are. We were sent a delightful green package which excited the boys...


Inside were some Slurpees, plus a bogey green Winter survival kit. Socks, lip balm, hand warmer, hat, blanket and mug. The Slurpees Snot Suckers come in 4 different colour varieties and each has it's own 30g of coloured slime in a resealable pot.

Here at The Brick Castle we have the 2 young boys, but we've also got 4 grown up children. They are all still studying and haven't got their own families yet, so Christmas gift buying for us is more about finding interesting gifts for big kids than it is visiting toy shops...


Here are a few of the things we've been sent to review over the past year or two which have really impressed us and make a great Christmas present, especially if you aren't quite ready to grow up just yet. Oh, and Amazon links are affiliate. It only earns me a few pence each time if you order through my link, but it helps keep the website running and doesn't cost you a penny....

We love books and Christmas is a great excuse to read together. Snuggling up under a blanket and reading is the perfect way to spend a Winter's evening and Owlet Press have sent us a couple of their Christmas storybooks to take a look at...

Both of our books have a very strong message about what is truly important:
Santa's Wish considers, what would Santa want for Christmas?
The Christmas Next Door is a book about a family coping with their first Christmas after losing a loved one and features a main character has Autism.

Maqio are based incredibly locally to me and have just launched a new low-cost toy e-commerce store specialising in Maqio Boxes. These are specially decorated storage boxes that will never peel because they use In-Mould Labelling (IML). During curing the labels are fused with the box, so your box can be washed and used for years, but the pictures and patterns won't ever wear away or look tatty.


We've been sent a big selection from the Maqio Box range to review - and the prices are good. This whole lot is well under £50, and if you buy before 20th December, there's an extra 10% off throughout the whole site.

We were sorting our Christmas decorations anyway, so they couldn't be handier - although they will mainly end up storing toys upstairs in the bedrooms.

Last night we were guests of Z-Arts to review Black Beauty - their Winter show presented by Red Bridge and Traverse Theatre Company. This is a modern and very imaginative retelling, but it'll satisfy true fans as well as newcomers and we all loved it.

Funny and honest but light-hearted, it's actually more of an homage as Black Beauty's life story is told in a different way than ever before...


I love Z-Arts because, as I said on social media last week, walking in is like going to the home of family you didn't know you had. The atmosphere is always happy and friendly, it's full of excited children and milkshake is 35p. You couldn't be in a more relaxed venue. It all changes once the lights go down though, audience behaviour has always been sensible and impeccable.