Who Would You Share Your Crisps With? #MustBeWalkers

June 3, 2019June 4, 2019 JayneLeave a comment

Picture the scene – it’s 1996. Euro ’96 is in full swing. Neon clothes and Adidas tracksuits are all the rage, and a group of feisty women called “Spice Girls” are topping the charts with their high-kicking, zig-a-zig-ahh-ing hit ‘Wannabe’. The whole world is thinking about whether David Beckham is going to score, both on the pitch and off with Posh Spice.

It’s the summer between year 7 and year 8, and with a year of senior school under my belt, I think I know everything there is to know about being a grown up. My Nan and Grandad had moved to Lowestoft, but brought their caravan to a site in Essex for the summer, where we’d visit them and spend the day playing outside the caravan. I remember vividly asking if we could listen to the chart show on the radio and dancing to Wannabe with my cousin Laurie, each choosing a Spice Girl to emulate (if I remember rightly it was Baby for me and Sporty for Laurie!).

Nan always made the BEST picnics whenever we went on days out together- homemade ham rolls, cartons of Um Bongo and she’d only ever pack Walkers Crisps. She had very high standards, my Nanny Rene!

Spice Girls music evoke a lot of memories of my early teenage year and this day is one of my favourites. I can’t quite believe that was 23 year ago, and now that my grandparents are no longer with us, it’s all the more precious.

Spice Girls have teamed up with Walkers Crisps, 22 years after the first time, to create a new advert, which you can see here:

Despite his love of Walkers, the Spice Girls superfan jut cannot bring himself to share his crisps. I won’t lie; I’d find it hard to share them too! Aside from the people I love, there are very few people in the world who’d get my Walkers. Here are a few of them:

Jeremy Corbyn

We all know how much I love our Jez, so I’d definitely share my crisps with him, and luckily enough almost all of the Walkers flavours are suitable for vegetarians, so I wouldn’t need to worry about him not eating meat.

Keanu Reeves

Keanu is basically the coolest guy on the planet. As a family, we have a huge fondness for Keanu and he definitely deserves to share my Walkers!

Helen Sharman

Helen was the first British astronaut and the first woman in space. She’s got honorary doctorates from no fewer than 11 universities and she’s a HUGE inspiration to females, especially in the STEM fields. Plus, I bet you can’t get any decent crisps in space!

Who Would You Share Your Crisps With?!

Walkers is looking for a GENUINE Spice Girls superfan – The campaign will run on TV and digital throughout the summer schedule from 2nd June until the 21st July 2019. Check out some of the top entries we from the challenge leading up to the ad premier. For more information visit www.walkers.co.uk/besteverfan.

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#IWantToBe – Blossom Magazine and Female Aspirations

August 1, 2014August 7, 2014 JayneLeave a comment

Sausage is an avid reader of just about anything she can get her hands on; books, comics, road signs…but most of all, she’s a huge fan of magazines. Blossom Magazine is one which has just started to catch her eye – it’s aimed at 5-8 year girls and their mix of crafts, stories, popular characters and regular inclusion of stickers (I think if Sausage ever had an x-ray, she’d be made of about 90% stickers – girl can’t get enough!) makes it very popular with my almost-6 year old.

Blossom Magazine’s latest competition is one which has us super excited. They’re asking girls to make videos in which they share their career aspirations with the world, and as a mum to two girls, I find this really encouraging. One of the carers they’ve featured is quite poignant for me; they’ve interviewed a female pilot and if you’ve read my blog recently, you’ll know that this is what I wanted to be for most of my childhood, only to be thwarted by my terrible eyesight!

Best of all, they’ve this week launched a brilliant competition for their readers. The #IWantToBe campaign is asking young readers to submit a video entry of what they want to be when they grow up. Entrants have until 6th September to submit their video to the email address of hello@blossommagazine.co.uk and one winner will be selected to win a VIP London family trip which includes one family ticket to ZSL London with a Meet the Meerkats experience; one Rainforest Café voucher worth £100; overnight accommodation in one family room at 3-star hotel, in Central London and a visit to Blossom HQ plus a Blossom Goody Bag.

I don’t put Sausage or BB on the blog, so I can’t post a video of her here, but I asked her what she wants to be when she’s older and she said that she’s planning to become a primatologist, studying and caring for monkies and apes. She’s always been absolutely mad about animals, so I have every faith in her that this is what she’ll do, but her Dad and I would support her no matter what she decides to do with her life.

So, what does your little one want to be when they’re older? Leave me a comment below!

T&Cs: Terms and conditions: Promoter: Immediate Media London Company Limited. You must make sure that we have your entries by 11.59pm, 6th September 2014. 1. You can enter if you live in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Channel Islands, unless someone who lives in your house works for the Immediate Media Company. 2. By entering the competition, you promise to us that you have read these rules and that you will follow them. 3. We can’t include entries which arrive too late and we can’t accept responsibility if your entry is lost. By entering this competition, parents/guardians grant permission to Immediate Media Company (publishers of Blossom) to post the winner’s video and entrants’ first names in its publications, websites and on its social media sites. 4. Winners will be chosen at random. 5. One entry per household. We don’t allow bulk entries or entries made by other people on your behalf. We will disqualify all entries which break this rule. 6. If you win, you will receive the prize described. We won’t swap the prize for cash. No alternatives or substitutions for any unused elements of the prize. If there’s ever a reason why we can’t give you exactly the same prize, we’ll give you something j ust as good or better instead. Prize is one family ticket to ZSL London valid for 2 adults and 2 children aged 3-16. Children must be at least 5 years of age and be accompanied by an adult for the Meet the Meerkats experience. One Rainforest Café voucher worth £100, see voucher for expiry date and additional T&Cs – includes drinks. Overnight accommodation in one family room at 3-star hotel, in Central London selected by Immediate Media Company. Visit to Blossom HQ includes a Blossom Goody Bag. Travel and other personal expenses are not included. Prize must be redeemed before 31st December 2014. 7. Winners will be contacted within 28 days of a competition closing date, either by post, telephone or email. 8. If we contact you to tell you you’re a winner, but you don’t reply within a month, we may have to offer the prize to a runner-up or give it away in a future competition. Your details: We will use your name, address and any other details that you give us to run this competition. If you win, we will pass them to the person who’s providing the prize so that they can post it to you, and we may use your first name and county in the magazine or on our website but we won’t provide them to anyone else without your permission. You can find out the winner’s first name and county once the competition is over by sending a stamped addressed envelope to Competition Rules, ATTN: Marketing Assistant, Blossom Magazine, Immediate Media Limited, Vineyard House, 44 Brook Green, London W6 7BT. Remember to tell us which magazine, issue number and competition you’d like to know about.

I am receiving a year’s subscription of Blossom Magazine in return for writing this post.

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Healthier Smoking – E-Cigs Discount Code

May 13, 2014May 13, 2014 Jayne2 Comments

Here’s something that you may or may not know about me: before Sausage was conceived, I was actually a really heavy smoker. I’d smoked since way before I was legally old enough to smoke, back in the days when shops were allowed to display their cigarette counters with pride and pubs weren’t proper pubs unless they had a smokey haze and a full ashtray on every table. However, as soon as we started trying for Sausage, I knew my smoking days were numbered.

I wish I’d had something like these electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) from E-cig Store – I went cold-turkey, and I have to say, it was really difficult. I am not a woman who is known for her willpower, and letting the nicotine ebb out of my system was one of the hardest things I’ve done. E-cigs didn’t exist back then, but if I had to give up all over again, I’d definitely opt for something like this to help me.

The thing is, even if you like your nicotine hit and don’t actually want to give up, e-cigs are still a great product. You can puff away (INDOORS!) without there being any smoke to affect anyone else, you’ll not be ingesting the tar and chemicals that you find in regular cigarettes, and you can even choose a different flavour for your e-cig too, so you’ll be inhaling a lovely fruity taste instead of acrid cigarette smoke.

Obviously the health advantages are numerous, but the thought of being able to rid your hair, clothes, house and car of the smell of cigarette smoke is a huge bouns, too. Something I didn’t know about e-cigs is that you can also choose the strength of nicotine that you’re inhaling. If you usually smoke heavily, you can go for a higher dose, but if you’re a ‘one or two a day’ kind of smoker, then there are much weaker strengths for you to try.

Here’s some of the blurb from the site:

“Recent scientific studies have shown that ecigs can reduce health risks by at least 95% when compared to traditional cigarettes. We’ve listed just a few of those hundreds of benefits from using e-cigs over traditional smoking:

The primary benefit of e-cigarettes is that they’re a much healthier alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes. Numerous scientific studies have proven that traditional smoking puts you at higher risk of a wide array of health risks including, heart disease, lung and throat cancer, Alzheimer’s – the list goes on, 99% of which are caused by the burning of tobacco and other chemicals which are eliminated with use of e-cigs.

E-cigs are odourless – Every smoker is used to the strong scent of cigarettes which gets absorbed into your clothes and hair and can be off putting for anyone you come into contact with. E-cigarettes don’t give off any odour due to the exhalation of vapour as opposed to smoke

Extremely cost effective compared to traditional smoking. Dependent on how much you smoke on average a day, switching to e-cigs could save you hundreds of pounds a year let alone the huge reduction in smoking related illnesses”

There are several different brands and systems for you to try, as well as handy accessories such as car chargers and carry cases and Mum’s the Word is pleased to say that we have an exclusive discount code for you to use if you buy something from e-cigstore. Simply enter the code MUMSTHEWORD15% at the checkout and you’ll receive 15% off of your order.

I must say, if I wasn’t so firmly in the ‘I’ve QUIT’ camp, I’d be seriously tempted to try the maple syrup flavour E-liquid!

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Moments That Matter

January 27, 2014February 11, 2014 Jayne4 Comments

Lloyds Bank are currently running a campaign to get us to show our ‘Moments that Matter’ and have kindly produced a .gif for me, made up of our very own moments:

Obviously, one of our biggest moments this year was finding out that we’re expecting baby number 2, but there’s been a lot of other stuff along the way. Sausage discovered her love of horse-riding and started her first course of lessons in the summer. She’s going to start again in the Easter holidays, hopefully.

We also had some great day trips, many locally but also to Longleat where I met and fed lots of Lorikeets, my favourite birds. We went to our first firework display as a family, visited Anfield and had an AMAZING experience there (as well as getting to see Luis Suarez score his first ever hat-trick at home!). Sausage and I had our lovely Christmas manicures in the run-up to the festive season, as well as spending lots of quality time together.

Chuck gets a mention because he’s been with us for 8 years this year and my lovely old boy is still an incredible companion for our whole family. The picture of Big Ben represents the day that I had to visit St. Thomas’ hospital for our fetal cardiology scan and finding out that our baby girl has a strong heart which is developing properly, despite my diabetes. It was a HUGE weight off of our shoulders.

All in all, 2013 was a pretty big year for our family and 2014 is looking to be even more hectic, what with a new little person coming along. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us and what new challenges and opportunities might pitch up along the way.

What was your ‘moment that mattered’ from 2013 and what are you looking forward to about the year ahead? Do let me know.

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A Much Needed Holiday

January 17, 2014February 11, 2014 JayneLeave a comment

Written in collaboration with Marsdens Cottage Holidays

Husband and I had lived together for about 8 months when we decided that we wanted to get a dog and after a little bit of research, we adopted Chuck from a local shelter. He’d been pushed from pillar to post and was literally on his last chance before the local pound would send him to be put to sleep. As a result, we promised that we’d never leave him in kennels without us and we never have, but this means now that we have Sausage is that we’ve never been able to take her on a proper holiday.

She’s got to an age now where she’s started asking about holidays and we’ve decided that we need to find a way to take both her and Chuck for a nice break. We recently found Marsdens Cottage Holidays online and are thinking about booking a cottage for us all to go to – lots of their Devon based cottages allow pets to be brought along and knowing that we could get away without having to leave Chuck would be absolutely amazing.

The Devon countryside would be the perfect place for us, as a family, to visit; Chuck would absolutely love all of the open space and Sausage would be able to visit some of the gorgeous local beaches. Husband and I would love to visit Dartmoor and see the wild English landscapes and just getting out of our little house would do us all the world of good.

Self-catering would be a really good option for us too, as we could please ourselves in terms of mealtimes. It also keeps the cost of a holiday down if you can do a food shop for essentials, saving money for day-trips and expeditions to the local pubs – of which I’m sure there’d be many!

A cottage holiday would be ideal after the baby is born, too, as we’d be able to have a nice relaxed holiday and not have to worry about her crying and disturbing other people, like we would if we were at a hotel. Lots of the cottages have hot tubs, too, so I’m sure we’d manage to fill our evenings with plenty of relaxation!

Do you have any experience of holidaying in the UK or specifically Devon, especially in a rented cottage? Have you even taken pets away with you? Do let me know, I’d love to hear about it.