Back in November I was the very lucky plus1 to Sim (from Simslife) at a launch event for Pandora. You might not instantly associate me with Pandora, and it's true I'm not the girliest girl, but I do really like a bit of sparkle and it was a really excellent night out.


We were there to see the brand new range of charms created by Millie Bobby Brown, the young starring actress from Stranger Things. My earrings only arrived just before Christmas, and as I knew there were queues out of the door at most Pandora branches, there didn't seem a lot of point rushing to tell you about them. But if you happened to be the lucky recipient of vouchers under your tree - they've a Winter Sale on now...


The launch evening was held at The Ivy in Manchester and it was my first visit. Wow. It's exactly as you'd expect, but with the added bonus of awesome bathrooms and the most amazing waistcoats. The staff themselves, who were impeccable, really made the difference. They were so friendly! I expected politeness, charm and to be well-looked after, but they were also the nicest, smiliest bunch of people too.

It's back to work proper today for a lot of people, and although this isn't my first post of 2020, I'd drafted the first one last year, so it also counts for me.

I said in my 2019 end of year round up that we'd had a much calmer year. For the first time in a long time, not only did we escape any major disasters, but we escaped them for long enough to start to have time to be a bit 'normal'. I even had chance to worry about the state of my hair and my nails, although don't get too excited - I bought a scrunchie and that's the hair sorted.


I reduced the number of reviews I did last year, and this year I'm reducing it again. I always have great plans to write more personal posts and take this blog back to a record of our lives and a dumping ground for rambling, rather than a safe list of crafted and fairly formulaic review posts. I write much more quickly from the hip and I really just need to pull on my big girl pants, find some of the confidence I used to have, and go for it.

The Werewolves Of Millers Hollow is what is commonly referred to as a party game because it suits a large group. In this case a massive 8-18 players, aged 14+ (and add-ons are available to take that up to 48). Each game will normally take less than an hour, and it's very easy to play. The format is a little like the classic party game 'Murder In The Dark' and it's very intuitive. You just need a little organisation to get the crowd together.

The town is overrun by Werewolves who are eating the Townsfolk and must be stopped. Players are either on the side of the Townsfolk or the Werewolves, and the aim is to rid the village of your opponents so that you can live in peace...


The Werewolves Of Millers Hollow is stored in a tiny box 10cm x 10cm, and inside are just the instructions and 24 different cards. No waste, very little single use or unnecessary plastic, and easily transported and stored.

Goodbye to 2019. You were a lot fairer to me than the previous 6, so thank you.

In my home at least, we've found an overall level of peace and calm that has been hard fought for and a long time coming. We will always have a huge Elspeth-shaped gap in our family, but we are beginning to learn how to live alongside it and pick up some of the things we dropped when she died.

We had an excellent Christmas and spent lots of time with all of our children, as well as the Grandparents. Our big kids are settled at uni and work, our young boys are doing well at school. 2020 seems like the time to focus more on ourselves.


For the UK 2019 turned out to be a year full of momentous decision and political records which will be taught to our children's children as history, but will impact them every single day of their lives. We all know the theory now and 2020 will see Brexit become a reality. And that's probably enough UK politics for one post...

2019 was a year which saw young people front and centre, standing up for their futures with climate change school strikes around the globe. A young woman brought the climate emergency to the entire world's attention, just as a young woman emerged heroic in the year's most watched TV series, and 3 of the top 6 grossing movies 2019 have powerful female leads.

This year was, in many ways, the year we really paid attention to the kids and the powerful women...

I've worked with HARIBO quite a lot recently, partly because they've brought out a whole range of vegetarian sweets which I can eat too! They asked if I'd be interested in sharing the #HARIBOFestiveFun by making a gingerbread house and decorating it with HARIBO sweets. I replied that I was already planning to, so it couldn't have fallen better really...


Gingerbread houses are synonymous with Christmas, even though there's no law that says you can't eat them year round. Those festive flavours and the spectacle of a gorgeous sweet treat in the middle of the table are just perfect, and ridiculously easy to make. Trust me.

This Christmas dinner, like the 5 before it, we will have an empty chair at our table. It's a chair that shouldn't be empty. A chair where there should be laughter, and smiles.

The empty chair is more important than anything else in the room. It represents the space in our lives, the hole we all navigate around every day. It can't be ignored, and as we go through our Christmas preparations, we plan and we buy, decorate and bake, the empty chair becomes more important.

At first it is quiet, sitting, watching. You catch it out of the corner of your eye, and you remember everything you try so hard to put to one side.

The chair gets bigger and more unavoidable as December progresses, until that innocuous piece of furniture is the loudest thing in the house. It becomes the only thing you can see when you look into the room.

illooms are the world's first LED latex balloons and I think we've been buying them since their launch in 2008. Each balloon has a fixed LED light inside which illuminates the whole balloon, and the effect is brilliant.

I'm delighted to be working with illooms, and one of my readers can win 5 x gold and 5 x silver illoom balloons - perfect for any celebration or party.


illooms balloons are very easy to use - simply pull out the tab before inflating and tie off as normal. You can fill them with helium, stick them to the wall or string them in rows like any other balloons. You can even play that most popular party game with no name, keepie-uppy.

The last month has been a bit of a rollercoaster for everyone in the UK. The most divisive election I'll probably ever see in my lifetime took place, and also the most deceitful and untruthful. It's a hard place to be when pretty much all of the people you have to trust to look after you have been guilty of lying and spin. 2019 was the year we saw the end of political integrity.

I don't hide the fact I'm left wing. I've always been a person who feels if you live on an island with 10 people and 10 coconuts, everyone should get 1 each. That's just who I am. The election result has made 43% of those who voted feeling like winners, but it has also left a lot of people deflated, including me and my older children.


The benefit of age is that I've been in that position before, when mortgage interest rates were 15% and I had a small baby to care for. We were broke back then and I had no family to rely on for childcare or to rescue me, and I couldn't see how we could survive, but we did. It wasn't easy, just as it isn't easy for a lot of people now, and it taught me a lot.

I learnt the joy and pride of being able to bake, sew, fix my own van and do my own brickwork. I learnt that if you are prepared to give it a go, there's often someone who is happy to come and help, and you can find lifelong friends. I learnt that the poorer people are, the more likely they are to split what they have with you, and your heart will melt at their offer. I learnt that fair exchange is better than cash, and low paid or unpaid skills are often the most valuable. Most of all I realised that some people are so poor, all they have is money.

Hannah The Spanner And The Polar Bears is a Christmas story book set on Christmas Eve, and it's the 7th in the Hannah The Spanner series written and illustrated by Stuart Simmonds and Bill Greenhead.

Hannah has some zany adventures and this tale features one of them, and it's definitely not the sort of thing that usually happens on Christmas Eve...


The Hannah The Spanner books are big, bold and colourful, which is kind of like Hannah herself. This is a longer 64 page story, which starts with a boring trip to the superstore and a surprise wink from a polar bear soft toy. We see him again, and he's even more animated.


As with all of the best Christmas stories, someone needs help, and it's up to Hannah to provide it. The reindeer are out of action after eating some dodgy pork pies over Kent, and the polar bears are needed to save Christmas! Will they manage?

We thought it was bad the year the oven broke on Christmas Eve, but then the universe said "Hold my pint" and we had Christmas 2018.

Last year was our best Christmas yet since losing Elspeth. We were doing Christmas. We'd decided to do an 'Advent' with the LEGO and built an amazing LEGO Christmas Village sprawling across 3 tables. It was ready for 1st December and it even had lights. It looked great unveiling a little more each day on Instagram.


We had an awesome real tree and for the first time in years we had put up a second tree by the window. With the 1970's ultra-flammable decorations on the ceiling and bookcases covered in tinsel it was epic. My partner even had 3 extra days off before the kids broke up from school, so we had tons of time for preparations for the big day.

We had bought or collected loads of stockingfillers, but only a couple of main presents. This will be important later. It would all be wrapped at our leisure, with Christmas tunes on the TV and warm mince pies.