Roll Up, Roll Up and get the best tickets in town.

There is no reason to stay home and not go out and see a show.

There really is something for everyone on all the time and I have some tickets to giveaway to a few of those coming up in Melbourne.

First up:

Slava's Snowshow

I am going to see this in a few weeks time (adding get a babysitter to the to do list). I can't tell you too much about it as I haven't seen it yet, but if the Sydney gig is anything to go by then this will be worth checking out. It looks like one of those amazing shows you don't want to miss.






Slava's SnowShow will be on at the Comedy Theatre, 17 - 28 July,

I have a double pass to giveaway to someone valued at $158 who is free to see this on 

Wednesday 17 July at 7.30 pm (in MELBOURNE). 

Show Number Two:

Disney on Ice Princesses and Heroes

Our School Holidays are already filling up fast and one of the activities the girls are really looking forward to is the Disney on Ice Princesses and Heroes event. We went last year and I have learnt that it is cold in those places so if you are planning to go my advice is to wear warm socks and boots to keep your toes warm, and take a coat. I also suggest taking home made snack packs, but that is because I hate spending so much cash on all the junk that is on offer at these places.

I am giving one person FOUR tickets to see the show.  

You can take your family or some friends, whatever works for you, but you must be free to attend the performance on Sunday 7 July 2013 at 5pm.  

Show Number Three:

Confessions of a Control Freak

This is one that I won't be able to attend myself, but that is not going to stop me from giving you guys the tickets instead!

Confessions of a Control Freak looks really fun and the blurb reads great:

Feel better about yourself and witness someone way more messed up than you. Former ballerina and self-confessed control freak Belinda Raisin embodies alter-ego Frances in this one woman comedy cabaret about the struggle for balance in a contemporary life. How does a control freak reconcile the conflicting ideas, “I want it all - I want it now” and “I need to slow down - go with the flow”? 
Belinda is joined on stage by pianist Jamie Teh. Totally blind, Jamie has the best ears in the biz.

For all the details or to get your own tickets: www.belindaraisin.com/confessions

I am giving one person TWO tickets to the show on Tuesday 2 July at 9.30pm, at The Butterfly Club, Carson Place off Little Collins Street Melbourne. 

Show Number Four:

Sing-a-Long Sound of Music

I went to this show last year and I laughed and laughed. Mainly at the other people around me. Everyone was so fanatical about The Sound of Music that they went dressed up as characters of the show, they sang their hearts out with the songs playing, booed and hissed at the Countess and the Nazis and yelled out 'behind you, behind you' like little kids.  It was a really silly, funny night. This year I am going again, but sorry I have no tickets to giveaway because I am taking some friends along with me already. If you think this is something you would enjoy, grab your tickets here, it is playing at the Arts Centre in Melbourne on 16 and 17 August.





Show Number Five:

Unblogged in Anglesea

Alright, so this is not a theatre show, but if all these others are not for you but catching up with other people and enjoying the company and conversation of cool people is more your thing, join a few other people at Unblogged in Anglesea. Sorry, no tickets for this one, everyone is doing their own thing, some are in cabins, some may camp, some already have houses down that way and will just join for dinner. It's just a big talkfest with like minded minds.

That's all Folks, except the important bits: 

To win any of these tickets please leave a comment that includes: 

1) Which show you would like to win tickets to.

2) Why you want tickets to that show.

3) SOME WAY TO CONTACT YOU! 

Comments are open MONDAY 17 June and CLOSE FRIDAY 21 JUNE.  

I will contact people on the weekend, if you have not given me your details by midday on Monday 24 June the prize will be provided to a runner up. 

Good Luck.

P.S. Please note I am moderating comments at the moment so you won't see your comment instantly. xx

Hang it all out

Months ago someone mentioned to me that they don't like the way people use hung when they should use hanged.

It wasn't something I have given much thought to, but then today I was thinking to myself, would that person say "I just hanged out the washing" which sounds ok-ish to me but I would most likely say "I've just hung out the washing".

I decided to ask the question in social media land to see what they said.

The answers were fast. The rules were simple.

Pictures are hung. People are hanged. Coats are hung, unless they are on the backs of the hanged.

Except English is never that simple.

Because as @meaganpitt suggested, sometimes people are hung. A man for instance may be "well hung". You wouldn't say, I met a man who was well hanged, unless he was dead and even then I am not sure anyone would say that.

You can also hang your friend out to dry.

Your brother might hang you from a hook - but not to kill you just to be funny - if you have a brother that can lift you and a coat on.

The girl who wore the odd shoes to work, she should hang her head in shame for making such a fashion blooper, and if she did, does she say to her friend, "Yesterday, I hanged my head in shame when I noticed my shoes." Or is her head the object and so it's "Yesterday, I hung my head in shame when I saw my shoes."

Some people, they get a hangover and then later they talk about being hungover, they are not hangedover. Ever.

So hanged is just for people who are left to die by hanging.

But not those that are crucified. Jesus was hung from the cross and left to die, but he wasn't hanged. ONLY if he was hung from a rope, around the neck, then he was hanged.

However, then we have the song from My Fair Lady, with the following lines:

By law she should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue

Ummm...shouldn't that be hanged?

A very popular song, sung a gazillion times. Apparently changed because it made it easier to rhyme with, but it didn't bother song writer Alan Lerner all that much nor the people who watched the performance year after year. Hung was very easily changed from hanged decades ago and not many minded.

In Australia we don't hang people any more and the term hanged is used less and less and it is not often we see the word in that context.

You never know where words might take you though. Google + now has 'hangouts', people go 'hanging out' with their friends.

Some people just let it all hang out, others say "'hang it all, who cares?"

Tell me, how ya hangin' and do you like to play hangman?

Creative Play for the iGeneration

I just downloaded my photos from our weekend. There were 96 images and only five of them were pictures I had taken.

The remaining 91 were from everyone playing on my phone and taking pictures of what they created.

When we go away we have nearly eight hours in the car. I always pack both the girls a backpack of toys, paper, pencils and craft and I also download a new app or two on the devices we have.

Last week I downloaded Hair Salon 2.

It is really fun.

It is not educational and your child will not learn anything at all.

It is also not a game.

I really like this because you don't go 'out' and have to start again. No one wins, no one has to keep going until just one more level. There is no competition at all, you just play along, being creative and snipping here, growing there, colouring a bit too.

It is just about playing and being silly.

You pick a character and then you do their hair - you can make it grow, cut it, shave it, colour it, curl it, straighten it, add some hair clips or a hat, you can wash the hair and blow dry it or towel dry it. There are six characters to choose from, four males and two females. If anything I would have liked to have seen an equal balance here, not sure why there wouldn't be. Immy only ever chooses the female characters, Popps likes to give the men funny beards and facial hair.

It is simple for the littlest of fingers and fun for the big kids.

Hair Salon 2 is also a good idea to get for someone who is new to touchscreen devices, let them play with this app to really get a feel of how to move around an iphone screen without worrying they might 'break' something.

At four years old, Immy just loves this app over anything else on the ipad or phone. I even lost a little time in front of the fire playing with it myself.

There could be a free version, but I coughed up the price of $1.99 for this one so that there were no adverts or in-app purchases, which are the two things I despise most in apps that the kids use.

Once you are happy with your creation there is a camera button that you can press that takes an image and saves it to your photo gallery for you.

If you want some quiet from the back seat on a long drive this is what you are looking for.

Children's Books that are keepers.

Each year at Christmas time we give both the girls a book that we hope will be a 'keeper'. The type of book they may not love right now, but over time it is one they won't grow out of fast and it will be read over and over for years to come. Sometimes they do love it instantly but the book has so much to it that they get more and more out of it as they grow.

Finding such books is really hard.

The best ones so far have come from Graeme Base. The Water Hole, Uno's Garden and ol' faithful Animalia. These books have beautiful images that small children can look at, you can make up stories to the pictures or read the written story. As the children develop, the illustrations have things to find hidden in the drawings, important messages about the world and even mathematical equations to work out.

Old classics can also work but most are longer books and not as suitable for little kids. Little Women is on the list for the coming Christmas.

I have also found Ruby Red Shoes.

We all love Ruby Red Shoes.

It is a very simple book about Ruby the hare. Ruby is a very 'aware hare' who lives in a caravan with her grandmother, Babushka Galina Galushka.  Ruby has a beautiful garden, with chooks who cheat when they play soccer and who are learning to speak french. Ruby has lots of fun playing with friends and being all cosy in her caravan.

The paper of the book is a high quality thick paper, not 'toddler proof' plastic paper but thicker than many kids books and provides that feeling that you are reading a 'special' book.

Most of all, whenever we read Ruby Red Shoes we are always a teeny bit sad that it is over. We would like to see more of Ruby and her garden and what she is up to.

Ruby Red Shoes is written and illustrated by Australian artist Kate Knapp, Kate and Ruby share a blog, and it looks like they might be in the process of putting together Ruby's next adventure!

Do you have any other books which you consider to be 'keepers'?

Have you read Ruby Red Shoes?

Images are from the Ruby Red Shoes website

_______________________________________

Really, who does this?

I jumped in the lift to go home from work tonight and someone I didn't know walked in as the doors were closing. I couldn't be bothered with any lift conversations so I just looked straight down at my feet.

What the Fruitcake???

Who does this?

Who really wears two different shoes all day and does not realise.

I walked around like this all day and I didn't notice I had different shoes on.

No one said anything all day. They must have been pissing themselves laughing after I left.

Lucky I can laugh at myself.

I sent my sis a text sharing my humiliation, she sent me a reply that simply said.
"You have made my day."

A good laugh is good for your health, today, the laugh is on me.

You're Welcome

Diary of a migraine

 I am awaking from a migraine. It is a common thing, a regular occurrence for me. I have tried a gazillion ways to avoid them, I have seen many a doctor but the reality is that migraines are just something some of us have to deal with and swim through to the other side the best we can.

Oh the pain. The pain. It hurts.

I knew it was coming on Saturday. So I pretended this one would be ok. It wasn't too bad. I went to bed early, crossing everything that a good sleep would keep it away this time.

By 5 am I was scoffing down codeine. And nurofen. They come together in a neat little package. The package needs to be served with a Fibre gel chaser.

That codeine is no bowels friend.

It takes its time to settle in.

By 5.30am I decide a shower will help. Anything to stop the constant throb while I lie twisting in the dark with the pain.

For some people a migraine attacks their eyes making anything visual difficult. While I have this at times, mainly I find distraction a useful tool. Anything that takes my mind off the pain. It works best if I don't have to move. Reading can work for a short while. TV can work if it is not loud and too glarey. Social media can work too, but no one is there to talk on Sunday morning at 6am.

Because it is a Sunday Mr H is home. By now I have thrown myself into the spare room where no one comes to speak to me. Speaking and interacting can be difficult. It takes concentration and noise and means I have to move my head. I say no to all phone calls and utter one word replies to any questions.

At midday I move myself to the couch. I have a book and allow myself to keep reading it. Immy snuggles in with me, she has sniffy blanky and snorts away at the threads hanging off it. We sit there snuggled in silence.

Popps starts playing the keyboard. Mr H decides he is off to try his new golf clubs.

I call on my codeine package again.

We eat soup I have made the day before for tea.

I finish my book and go to bed but I can't sleep after lazing around all day.

The next day starts with a fresh throbbing pain. I turn to my new migraine friend, Mazalt. I don't know much about the drug. I am wary of it. I am not sure if I should be. It works. It dissolves on your tongue in seconds and then sends me rather spacey. My body feels odd, like I have less control of it and can't rely on it to do what I want it to. The feeling lasts for half an hour before slowly starting to leave and taking with it any pain at all. After an hour the pain is totally gone and I think I should have just taken the Mazalt first up the day before. But I never do, each time I try and beat the pain myself. Drink more water, avoid alcohol, get enough sleep, take a bath, do pilates, use voltaren, drink apple cider vinegar, walk more. Every time the migraine still attacks.

Maybe next time I will grab the Mazalt first and see how the diary goes.

Got any friends from primary school? Not me.

This is a sponsored post

Oh the 80s. Such a time was had. I remember wearing my fluoro fingerless gloves to one of my schools, the only part of the uniform you could really make your own. When I shot my arm in the air to answer a question the teacher could see me from miles away. He was probably wearing Ray Ban aviator sunglasses to protect his eyes from all that glare.

Amazingly I don't have a single friend from back in my primary school days in the early 80s. 

My first school was great, but I left there at the start of grade 2. When you move around as a kid you meet lots of new friends and it can become hard to keep up with all the old ones. Especially when you are only just learning to write and computers have not yet entered the home environment. Friends become pen pals, but you can’t write to five friends every night. Over time, the new friends replace the old.

It might be different these days. If we were to move around Popps could use Skype, or Facetime to chat with her friends. When she is older she would be texting or using Kik or Vine or Keek or any other new app that allows instant contact with people. Keeping in touch is just one of the benefits of modern technology.

New tools, tablets and apps provide so many advantages to kids these days and that is why Colgate is running a campaign as part of their Bright Smiles Bright Futures project to allow you to win an iPad for your old primary school and of course one for yourself to play with.

As part of the campaign they have a fun app on facebook where you put in the faces of your friends from primary school. I took a look at it and of course I couldn’t enter to win the iPad they have on offer as I just don’t have any primary school contacts.

You need a few friends from your own primary days to make up a picture of your class.  Colgate are looking for bright smiles! 

The app is really easy to use and once you have a go at it you go into the running for the iPads.  I am hoping someone from Popps’ school gives it a try and they might win one for our school. I am a big believer in the benefits of iPads in the classroom and how they are so versatile, allowing children of all levels and needs to learn in so many different ways. 

Have you got any friends from primary school  - or do you sticky beak at any people you used to go to school with on facebook sometimes?

Germies

I said I would embrace winter and I am.

But gee winter is a hard master to follow fondly.

I have spent the morning dealing with Immy getting a fast appearing ear infection which probably came from the chest infection also diagnosed.

As her temperature started to soar, I was too low on kids panadol to top  her up, so I headed to the chemist/doctor and ended up straight into the doctors room after the reception staff moved all the other patients around to get me in earlier than my actual appointment, they took one look at the misery I was carrying in my arms and knew she wasn't well.

Thanks to the wonders of medicine Immy is now more comfortable, lying on the couch watching her old favourite DVDs.

Before she got herself snuggled she declared it pyjama day, just like the school kids had last week.

I have been told to wear my slippers so we can be the same and I am happy to partake.

I 've also stocked up on the winter essentials. Night time fevers always spike when you run out of pain relief - so this is like a safety net - if I have supplies in the cupboard I probably won't need them, the day you run out is the night you will need them.

Do you keep a well stocked medicine cabinet?