silent sunday

Source: i.imgur.com via Krešimir on Pinterest

The best kept hair secret EVER!

I have never been blessed in the hair department; from as far back as I can remember I have have been cursed with limp, lifeless, lacklustre fine hair.  My friends at school called me "three strands" (Biatches)  because i had such fine hair you could see my scalp!  Admittedly my compulsion to pull my own hair out hasn't helped and until a few years ago I had a permanent bald patch on my crown....I have issues sure...but that's stating the obvious.



Don't worry this is not my hair, although it did look rather similar at the time.



Anyway back to my poker straight lifeless locks. Yes people my hair, along with my Louis vuitton sized eye bags, have been the bane of my life.  It has never held a curl in.its.life. fact.  My school leaving do  - curls died, friends daughters christening - frizz bomb, my wedding - complete and utter disaster, so much so I cannot bare to look at a single wedding picture and If Mr Bold would let me I'd have burned the bloody photo album by now.

Sure it's not been all bad.  Back in the 90's straight was IN people and whilst I may have not had volume i have never needed a pair of straighteners in my life.  But then came the Noughties and with them the Kardashians and Holly willoughby; their gorgeous, glossy, bouncy locks have been just too much for my poor hair  to bare and so my weeping locks have been bitterly residing in the humble ponytail for far too long ....until now that is!

who new pinterest could change your life?

I was Busy pinning away one night, as you do, when I spotted a pin claiming to curl ANY hair type with only the humble hair band?  I had to check it out and low and behold it looked actually doable.( I am sooo low maintenance I don't even own nail polish remover, If I can do It ANYONE can).

here is the video the pin linked to......

So i gave it a whirl, nothing ventured nothing gained right? It took literally five minutes to loop my hair through the hairband and so I went to bed and hoped for the best. I woke in the morning and here are the results....................


* Please excuse the embarrassing posing, I apologise in advance for being a complete tit*

And the curls lasted ALL day I was amazed!

So what are you waiting for go try this out for yourself I'm telling you its the best kept secret Ever!

What are you reading tonight?

One of the 25 selected world book night reads

Books are my first love. I love everything about them, how they smell, how they feel and most importantly how they make me feel. I remember the magic they conjured up in me as a child and how I eagerly soaked up every last word.  I'd sit  mesmerised on the cold parquet flooring of the old school hall, with a numb bum, tingling legs  and  let myself be taken away to mythical lands  - I never wanted to return. Enid Blyton's Far Away tree, My naughty little sister and Matilda were amongst my favourites and it has been so wonderful to see my children's eyes alight with that same love and wonderment of books. They love to read, they love me to read to them and the twins spend hours reading to their teddy's and dolls. Last night they were busy playing library; Sofia had lined all her books up on her windowsill and took great delight in bossing her sisters around and playing librarian.

My favourite place in the world has got to be the library, any library and Waterstones comes a close second. In fact my birthday treat this year is to spend the whole day sat in waterstones drinking tea, eating muffins and reading everything and anything ALL.DAY.LONG! Even as a 17 year old I could think of nothing more enjoyable than spending a couple of hours in a bookstore, case in point being the day me and several friends ventured on our first ever girlie holiday to shagamuff Magaluf.  The girls were busy downing shots of Sambuca, bottles of Bacardi Breezer and causing a storm in the airport bar whilst I was busy picking my poolside reads in WHS.  They started to worry after I'd been awol for over two hours and only found me after announcing  my name on the the tannoy system.

So what are your all time favourite books? If you could recommend just one book what would it be? My favourite books would have to be Charles Dickens "great expectations," Austen's "Sense and sensibility," and Arthur Golding's "Memoirs of a Geisha."

The Book I'd recommend to you?.......

                                       The Life You Longed For by Maribeth Fischer

This book focuses on a mother Grace coping with her young son Jacks rare incurable illness and its effects on her family. She is eventually accused of an illness of her own, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, and the book cleverly compares the unjust accusations made against Grace with the historical Salem witch trials. A tale about grief, forgiveness and the choices we make, this haunting book stayed with me long after I finished reading.

Here are the books i'm reading at the moment:



(I thought I'd carry on with the windowsil theme hehe)



I've already finished Philip Pullmans "The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ" which I was pleasantly surprised with.  Pullman is not the type of author I usually read and although the book is controversial I thought it was very cleverly done and well worth a read.  I'm just over half way through "TheTigers Wife" and It's just beautiful, so well written, I'm enjoying this book the most so far.  Which leads me onto the much publicised "Fifty shades of grey", I just had to buy it after hearing everyone from fellow bloggers to Oprah gush about the British housewife who has penned the new "twilight". So far, so blahhh.  I'm not getting into it at all; It's just too OBVIOUS for my liking and very much hype over content in my opinion. She repeats the phrase "He cocks his head to one side" about 20 billion times leaving Christian Grey sounding more like a greyhound than a billionaire masochistic sex god and the dialogue is extremely cringe worthy at times but maybe I'm just a prude? But I've started It now so I'll have to finish It.

As It's world book night, I will be taking part by reading one of the selected 25 books "The Road." It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was chosen for me by the schools English department (we are hosting a world book night event for the pupils) and I'm assured this Dystopian bestseller will knock my socks off.



                                                          The Road - Cormac McCarthy

About the book:

A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food – and each other.

‘Cormac McCarthy is the author of ten acclaimed novels, most recently The Road. Among his honours are the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for lifetime achievement in American literature

So what will you be reading tonight?

Inspirational and humbling..

It's hard to see the woods for the trees sometimes isn't it? I spend most days on auto pilot rushing from one appointment to the next. I struggle to wake up in the morning as the monotony of the day ahead looms over me - getting myself and the four girls up, fed, dressed, washed and out of the door on time. There's packed lunches to be made, swimming kits to find, toys and clutter to tidy away, dishes to wash, mounds of laundry to do, meals to make....the list is endless.

But occasionally, during our regular, dreary existence we are lucky enough to come across something moving and Inspiring, something that puts our insignificant silly little struggles into perspective. Today was one of those days. During a year 8 weekly RE lesson the teacher introduced us all to the immensely motivational and inspiring man Nick Vujicic.We watched this video No legs, No arms, No worries.......

It was pleasing to see that even the most hardened and poorly behaved pupils had a morsel of compassion, the whole class sat in silence and many were even reduced to tears. I struggled to keep down the lump that had formed in my throat, it was the best four minutes I've spent in a long time and left me determined to stay focused on all the amazing positives I have in my life rather than dwelling on the negatives.

Its hard to be thankful for the wonderful things we do have in our lives when we are constantly worrying about where the next pay check is going to come from to cover that astronomical electricity bill or how we are going to feed our families when food prices are continuing to sky rocket daily but I have to remind myself I've got arms, I've got legs, I've got no worries!

How do you solve a problem like Mia

My eldest is putting us through quite an ordeal of late, constant back chat, lack of respect, lack of enthusiasm for anything we do as a family, constantly bullying her younger sisters and just general torridness.
I fear i have created a monster, she's only seven for gods sake and is behaving like a sullen teenager, Sharpey has nothing on her.

Discipline, discipline, discipline i hear my dad's annoying voice reverberating through my head( I hate it when he's right) as i have flashbacks to my misspent youth, yes OK so I was quite the little madame back in the day, but its certainly come back to bite me on the arse - karma's such a bitch. Surely i wasn't that bad?

"you were worse" my mother cackles, she takes great pleasure in regaling me with tales of how i was nothing short of evil towards my younger sister and how I was the only eight year old on the planet who could sulk all the way around Disney world and complain Florida was boring.

Mr Bold reckons it's my lax approach that is causing the problems and not his inability to say NO to his darling first born ever, apparently i have no follow through.

"you need to have strict boundaries, take away all privileges" he booms "bloody hell Laura they do it with hardened criminals in jails for god sake and it works, so i'm telling you it will work here". sure he's right but what about when she  flutters her eyes at him and the crocodile tears start rolling? he'll fold like a cheap suit that's what and we'll be back to square one.

I seem to have gone off on a tangent but as i was saying I'm having trouble keeping my seven year old in check and I'm not sure if it's down to a lack of discipline and boundaries or bad genes?

I try and stay clam and talk her through my point of view but i eventually blow my top as the girl just doesn't know when to quit, then i feel awful for losing my temper and apologise until ten minutes later when she has another tantrum and the vicious cycle start all over again - it's exhausting.

So i have vowed to stick to Mr Bolds strict boundaries technique and I'm taking no more of her shit but i fear history is repeating itself and if she's anything like i was as a teenager we are in for a bumpy ride. They say there is safety in numbers so I'm going to join forces with Mr Bold and hopefully we can present a united front.......it's times like these i wish we'd settled on just having a dog.