Going to the Flicks

How many of you going to be pranked being April Fool's? I am off to Wimbledon. The Weekend was good completing 5KM doing parkrun and then went to the cinema with my son, to see Snow White. 

 

It was good and now we going to once a month go and see a film. It was reasonable getting pick n mix, you just pay for the size and can get refills of coke and my son had a hot chocolate and booked to see it in the IMAX studio and for premier seats. There was another child watching and just me and Henry. 

As a kid we went to the cinema a lot. My first film I ever saw was Annie in Clacton when we were on holiday and apparently I fell a sleep. We would go to the Hammersmith Odeon, before it was the Hammersmith Apollo and the Cinema in Kings Street in Hammersmith. 

Then at Secondary school it would be the cinema in Fulham Road or The Kings Road, Central London, or in Putney. 

It was 130 years ago when they started to create cinemas to watch film, back in 1895. You'd have silent movies, then they made films where you could hear speech, to then musicals and loved as a kid watching black and white films. I loved Laurel hardy, Doris Day, being Calamity Jane my favourite film with Doris Day. She was amazing actress and had a lovely voice and smile. The Wizard of Oz, Some like it hot and Westerns with John Wayne, followed by Clint Eastwood which was my dads and my husband's favourite. 

I left it for a while before I took Henry to see a film at the Cinema because he has ADHD and had a very low, attention span, but he was fine. I am trying to remember what film it was, but he enjoyed it and something I knew I wanted to do as one of the things I feel, if possible, kids should experience. 

Then you have theatre and I would say be second on the list of things to do with your kids. There is for children Polka Theatres. They do shows for different ages and really good fun. Then there is the The Rose Theatre in Kingston and went to see my sons favourite children's TV character, Blippi and took Henry to see The Tiger Who Came to Tea in Woking's big theatre and such a good fun.

Watching the trailers there are some new films for kids coming out, Minecraft, How to Train a Dragon and Lilo and Stitch and a new Spongebob film. 

So Happy April Everyone and have a great day. 

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

  

End of March, Planning for Easter

Boy it is going fast. Next week it is April and means that we need to start if you haven't already, begin to plan for Easter. I feel many of us are too worried to think about it because of the fact many will struggle even more financially. Please reach out. You can leave a comment below. 

Anyway there are some things you can do. Check The Works They have a lot of items for Easter like paint masks, make your own bunting, canvas and cards and I have molds that I got from Lakelands but can buy from Amazon too, to make homemade chocolates. All you need are:

- Molds

- Chocolate 

- Glass bowl 

- Saucepan 

Melt the chocolate in the glass bowl, putting the bowl on a saucepan, not touching the water, that will help melt the chocolate. 

Let the chocolate melted call down. 

Fill the molds and put in fridge or freezer and then once solid take them out of the molds into food bags. 

These will be great as a gift. 

Have your children paint eggs as decor using A3 paper and bunnies and my son at school made Paper chains. 

Checkout Charity shops. They often have some goodies and today I looked in the charity shops in Epsom and Oxfam had some lovely bits and crafts where you can paint a egg and if you have teenagers and they don't like chocolate then check out TKMaxx they had some beauty items and they do have chocolates and sweet on offer and why it is my favourite store.

We have a old fashioned sweet shop and don't go in there all of the time but I love to treat myself and why not do a little tuck shop so they have to give a penny to buy some chocolate and sweets or a lucky dip.

If you plan to go to a theme park expect it to busy, but it depends on the time you go.  Sometimes you have to book a slot, have discount tickets if you go later and do have fast track tickets and a pass to help those disabled. They often have a guest pass if the person is not able to queue and have priority to go on rides. If it rains some have rainy day discount or a Return Promise so if it rains the whole day you can return for free but their are terms and conditions. 

They are good fun. The food can be pricey so if you are able to bring in your own food then would advise you do, because it can make the trip extra expensive.

So I hope you have a good weekend. There will be more daily blogs to come. 

If you'd like to be notified when I post then please follow and if you have any tips then share. You can leave a comment below.

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

Worried about the Wealth of the country

Who else is worried financially of the changes Labor want to make? Those that are already struggling is not going help and means that many more families will be relying on foodbanks. Why?

Are we all going to be worse off? I really feel worried for those who are disabled and relying PIP to get by. I just not confident that what the Chancellor is proposing. Has she even visited families who are struggling? 

I wonder if she'd like to work in a foodbank and see the poverty in this country that there already is and that there are people like me volunteering and going out of their way to help families and people in need. Don't get me wrong I love working on radio. I find it so rewarding, but there should be more wealth. There are people doing two to three jobs to build up their income to support their family. 

There are lot of low wage jobs and people don't just want a job, but do a job they really passionate about and in my case it is the hours that I have been difficult because of caring for my son. Many families have struggling with managing both work and family life and not able to work as they can't afford to do both. 

Many high street stores are clothing because of financially they can't continue and so how do we grow employment with stores closing down? People unhappy with their job and doing so many hours only earning minimum pay?

I have worked in hospitality, finance and call centers and many of us struggling to cope with the demands of those jobs. 

Then there is NHS and they do a brilliant job and have to come up against a lot. When my son was sick the GP surgery receptionists kept saying when I described what was the matter with my sob said "If he is that bad go to A&E" but I pushed and got an appointment and found out that he had tonsilitis and last year when we got an appointment referred to the hospital because of his heart rate was a bit high and they was so thorough and don't get the thanks they need. 

So what are your thoughts? Are we going to be worse off? Please leave a comment below.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X  

Modern Technology is AI a good thing or bad

Wow! It is Tuesday. How are we in Tuesday? I am trekked over to Wimbledon to get my sons rugby ball and Mickey Mouse. Please don't ask. It is my sons favourite items and think he will be a sportsmen when he finishes school. He loves trains but enjoys playing football, cricket, tennis, table tennis and rugby. He will have a video playing on his tablet a football match. The only issue he will copy and had to tell him not to take his shirt off when he scores.  

He has so much energy and was waking both daddy and I up this morning, wanting his tablet. Is allowing my son his tablet a pain? It has caused tears and meltdowns. He doesn't watch it as much now and will take breaks from it. There was a time when we'd allow him to have it play at bed time but was a big no as none of us slept well. 

There was a time where we would use it to help him sleep playing lullaby music and it did work, but became reliant on it and so was a not a long term solution and he and I preferred reading a book to him and he enjoyed story time rather than his tablet. He found it more soothing and we would be laughing a lot as I would make up bits in the story. Nothing rude may I add and we'd both sleep and he does have it in the morning but not all the way through and in Spring we will often spend time playing outside. 

I try to stop being on my phone and laptop all of the time. I like popping out and it builds up my steps. I like travelling on bus and train listening to music and will decide what I will play whilst travelling but won't watch videos or on social media all of the time. 

It is good to have a cut off time. I like having a family meal and watching some TV. 

Tonight it is bath time for my son. I am going to have a shower rather than a bath and make sure I have a good nights sleep. 

Sundays I struggle to sleep. because my mind is active, working on radio, so stay in on Mondays and it is good to find the things that will boost my energy and I fear a AI. I am not sure if its going cause more scams, reduce jobs available and so cause financial problems, whereby it is all done my technology rather than man made. 

Our kids are going to be a lot more computer savvy, because they've born into the world where we can watch live videos on our phones of celebrities we love. I am loving the fact that Vinal is back. I loved my record player as a child and my portable CD Player. I bought one for my son and never used is going to find it and use it myself. I can play some CDS for the radio show if a song is not on the system we use, to choose songs to play.

We'll kids need to go to school in the future and learn at home. Will there be more jobs working from home? Will we no longer have a high street and not use cash? 

It makes me wonder and concerned at the same time.

Let me know your thoughts. You can leave a comment below.

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

Starting the week on a fresh

A new week and have my week mapped out. I have some TV to watch and got to post my March Newsletter. Check them out on Everyone can build a castle blog site and my weekly cheat sheet. On Friday started uploading my Spring Vlogs. Click picture below. It will lead you to my Vlog Channel.

These are free to download. I feel good as the weekend was good. I am doing things differently this week. I am going to be doing a Reset and get some overdue tasks done. It means starting a fresh and getting ready for plans for Spring. It is good to have a clean slate. I like a lot more meals that are different to what we have in the winter. 

I had lovely Cold Vanilla Latte and on Tik Tok I am trying different coffees, so check it out: https://www.tiktok.com/@typicallondongal

This week I am doing a reset and having blank canvas and clearing out my lists and just having a bit of a reshape. Now the weather is changing it means that I can do bit of reading and work on laptop outside. Have a pub lunch, go for walks along the river and a lot of days out.

Winter has been good. I have been doing a bit of declutter, catching up on home tasks like cleaning the home and having a sort out and having my health checks and starting Parkrun and now feels good to now be in Spring and do a bit of organising and restructuring. 

It means going through my google calendar, my notepad, diary and Notion. 

The one thing I love is the early mornings, now it is lighter and feels like I have more time to get things done will be making the most of it. You have to. The one place I like to go is going to North Greenwich, visiting the O2 by UberBoat. I love the food market on the Southbank. I like to would like walk from Kingston to Richmond. It is a good walk and then there are April Showers. I know putting dampener on it but they did exist. I'd like a dry April and be good to do the Parkrun and less muddy. 

So I wish you a good week and will try do this daily and now it is Monday early evening and had a nice dinner, giving my a son a wash ready for tomorrow. 

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

Off to the Cinema to see the new Bridget Jones Film

My son is away with his school and feel a little lost. It is strange and miss him a lot. He is such a live wire as he loves to be active and play sports. It appears that all the children including my son and he'll be spending time with are enjoying it. I wrote a new blog on my Wordpress site if you'd like to read it: https://theparentingadventuresthebirthofmyson.wordpress.com/2025/03/13/my-sons-last-residential-trip-with-his-primary-school/

Me the Author of this site

I am off soon to see the new Bridget Jones film, Mad About The Boy and read the book, which was a really good read and Renee Zellweger is a brilliant actor. Her English accent is amazing. I love Hugh Grant and is back as Daniel Clever. It is shame about Mark Darcy but she is a bit of a lost soul in some respects and someone who finds it tough being alone and one of the reasons why I love the films is because I can identify with her in many ways. 

I have struggled with my weight and never had boyfriends as a teenager and not until adulthood as such. In my twenties I just wanted to enjoy myself and not be tied down. I never had a childhood sweat heart, but at the same time always knew I wanted to get married, how ever much I'd detested at one point, being a bit of misery guts.

With Bridget I feel it empathises how much as women we put so much pressure on ourselves to be a lady that appeals to the opposite sex, by the way we look and size we are. I have a blog site called Building Self Confidence The Ugly Duckling, and talk about my struggles with the way I looked and my body. This stemmed from quite young. 

So I a looking forward to seeing the film. I will do a review once seen it but I feel it is going to be as good as the others and wonder if there will be further books. I am writing a few books at the moment myself. I am writing a comedy series and a serious type of book and it isn't easy but rewarding too and learn from books that have had great success. 

If you have recommendations on books to read then please share. I love recommendations. Please fill in comment section below and you can also subscribe on this site if you'd like to be notified when I post a book.

I also have three Youtube channels. A Vlog channel, Financial Living and Carries Educational Youtube channel.

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

The week and celebrating being a woman

It has been a week planning and sorting out the home, getting ready for my son to go on a Residential trip with his school and I am nervous. It will be good for him and hope he enjoys it and has everything he needs and sorting out my rooms, working on my blogs, vlogs and books. 

The Pancakes we had

Then we had pancake day and I cheated yes, I bought a packet of pancakes from Waitrose but were nice and my son loved them so convenience won. It was International Women's Day on Saturday and it is good to celebrate being a woman as we have a lot of challenges and we take on a lot. Not saying that men have it easy. Absolutely not, but being able to carry and feed our children, having periods and Menopause it can be tough. 

I was a early developer and took a long time to adjust to these changes in my body. I was told about puberty but it felt it started out of the blue and it affected my emotions. 

Will we experience having another Queen? We have Camila but I mean born in the family and will we have another female prime minister?

There is a lot of criticism about Meghan and not sure what I think about it. Are the critics being unfair? I am confused by it all. However I am a Royalist and feel that William and Kate have got it right and not made a song and dance about things. I feel with Kate she seems a lot more sincere, compared to Meghan. 

Should we judge other women? Let me know what you think. You can leave a comment below.

I have been judged more by my height not really because I am a woman. I am petite and I have felt small and it really bugged me, for a long time. I felt that I haven't always been taken seriously and had men talking to my chest rather than my face but never really fazed by that, but being looked down upon because of my height. 

So much has been changed when it comes to women. Sport, we had the Spiced Girls, Beyonce and Madonna and they have all created such a impact on what women can do and their position in the world. 

I feel we as a women we have had to work a lot harder, to change peoples perception of women, that they are not all bread to have kids, be a housewife and be the Secretary, but who we wish to be and that it should be  down to choice and be the breadwinner rather than the man.

My mum has always worked and never ever unemployed and it amazes me because she has had to deal with a lot, work wise and now is retiring and always on the go, that she makes me feel tired and could never take on so much compared to what she has had to. My nan worked and took care of all the family. My Aunt has run her own business and one of my mums cousins was a teacher and so had a lot of women to look up to and be proud of being a woman.

We can give ourselves such a hard time and feel we need to take on the world not having a break, but I like being the one to book the holidays, trips and visiting places with my son. I like cooking and planning meals for the week and writing the shopping list, and now I do voluntary work along with building my blogs, write books and create videos as a mum, writer, coach and radio DJ.

I am glad I have been able to spend time helping and watching my son grow, taking him to clubs, to nursery and school and gone on school trips with him and on Sundays watch him play rugby at the weekend, playing football and rugby with him and I love a bus and train ride like he does. 

So lets stop us ladies on giving ourselves a hard time and celebrate what we can do and achieve being a woman and how much as women, we have all grown.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X