On Hoops and Crosses

Reviews

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I’m a bit of a crisp addict so when the folk from Walkers got in touch to ask me to do a review of their new Hoops and Crosses I was delighted, to put it mildly. So imagine my disappointment to discover that it was my KIDS who would be doing the reviewing! Pah! It’s me that does all the writing and tweeting and wordpress wrestling to bring LearnerMother to the world, so surely it should be me that gets to eat the crisps! Well, ‘corn snacks’ in this case, but whatevs. THE GOODIES SHOULD BE FOR ME!

Apparently it doesn’t work like that. I totally failed in my efforts to sneak the Hoops and Crosses upstairs and stuff them in peace and quiet under the duvet (don’t judge, you’ve been there).  The gang of three managed to co-ordinate their efforts – one looked heartbroken, one put on the cute you-know-I’m-worth-it face, and one muttered sarcastically about how I’m always on at THEM to share. So – never one to miss an opportunity – I bundled the Hoops and Crosses in with a going to bed on time and being generally nice to me deal. (Again – you KNOW you’ve been there.)

So – what was the verdict? Well, I was hoping they’d hate them so I could eat them but that didn’t happen, unfortunately…there was a resounding thumbs up from them all – they all agreed that they tasted a bit like Monster Munch, which is high praise indeed from the elder ones.

I did get to try half a hoop myself – we’d been sent the Roast Beef flavour, which was pretty tasty (though I am a die-hard ready salted fan FYI Walkers, in case you want to send some crisps JUST FOR ME) . The texture is kind of like Monster Munch but the pieces aren’t so big and the taste is not as sharp, which is probably why the youngest said he liked them better.

Would I buy them for me? Probably not – I’d always go for common or garden crisps if I was buying – but I’d more than happily eat someone else’s.

Would I buy them for the kids? Well, they’re like all crisp-type snacks in that I wouldn’t want them to have them every day,  but on a weekend or for a packed lunch on a school trip, yep – I’d be happy for them to have these. I particularly like the small packet size (18g) which means they feel they’ve lucked out in getting their own packet each without me fretting too much about salt and fat content. And they are made from wholegrain so I get a few Good Mother points there too. Bonus!

AVAILABILITY – The Hoops and Crosses range are available in 6 packs for around £1.79 in most supermarkets

DISCLOSURE – The Hoops and Crosses were sent to me free of charge; Walkers have paid me for this post (though they didn’t tell me what to write).

On being Liebstered!

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Wow wow wow. I was going to fire up the laptop tonight to do some work on raising the profile of LearnerMother – I know I’m supposed to do some stuff signing up with a google thingy and also I need to get  my head round the nofollow business, and I also need to install the dropbox plugin to back up my witterings – basically I am SUPPOSED to be doing blogging homework. But then I discovered that I have been nominated for a Liebster, by Lucas over at AbstractLucas!

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I hadn’t heard of the Liebster before so I did some research – it’s a shout out to highlight new blogs which some lovely person thinks are worthy of a profile boost. Yay! That means today’s reader liked my blog! Bonus!

So the way it works is that you have to answer 11 questions set by the lovely blogger that nominated you, reveal 11 random facts about yourself, set another 11 questions and tag 11 other blogs you enjoy. I *think* that’s the deal.

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So here’s the questions set by AbstractLucas…

1- If you HAD to change your name,  what would you change it to and why?

I would change it to Georgina, because I have always wanted to be called George. Too much Famous Five when I was little, I think!

2  – When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a paediatrician, or a writer. Not enough grey matter for med school; but with a seven week old blog, hey, I’m living the writing dream!

3 – What was the most recent lie you told?

‘There aren’t any biscuits, sweetheart’.’ Because a) they are bad for their little teeth and b) I wanted a supply to see me through my blogging homework. But mostly a.

4 – What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Tea and a marmite roll and tea and tea.

5 – What famous person do you think you would get on really well with, if you happened to meet them (and why)

I would love to go for a pint with Lucy Mangan, because her writing makes me think, makes me laugh and is beautifully crafted without being pretentious.  I think we’d get on well – until I got to the third pint and started carrying on in a slightly drunk and intense fashion about how she is the writer I always wanted to be….

6 –  Have you ever cheated on anything or anyone?

Yes but I am the crappest cheater in the world so I always confess to my misdemeanours!!

7 – If your life was a film, what kind of film would it be and what would it be called?

It would be a pretty boring film to be fair. So it would have to be a short one. Like me. What would it be called? Ummm. I don’t know. Shirty Shorty?

8 –  How many works of Shakespeare can you name (without googling!)

Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Merchant of Venice, a bunch of sonnets, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, King Lear, Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra, OOOOPS I just cheated. But only for the last two.

9 – What is your favourite line from a film?

What the WHAT? You think I have time for films? I have seen, on average, one film a year for the last seven years. (I am not counting anything Disney, Pixar or Aardman. I’ve seen shedloads of those. More than shedloads). Anyway. TV wise, I am partial to a bit of 30 Rock, and my favourite line from the show is…What the WHAT?

10 – If you suddenly and unexpectedly became President or Prime Minister or {insert superior political / military position here} of your country, what is the very first thing that you would do?

I would make corporation tax mandatory, not optional and dependent on how far up someone’s bottom you are prepared to climb (see UK Uncut Legal for more details). I’d also outlaw any and all donations to political parties and give them all the same amount to campaign with. That last one is my mate’s idea, but it’s a good one, and he doesn’t do blogs, so I’m fairly safe to nick it. Oh and I’d make owning property, except the property you live in, illegal.

11 – What special talent do you have that you think you should be world famous for?

Ha! I was lamenting this only yesterday! I have no special talent at all I am afraid – I’m crap at a lot of things and ok at a lot of things. The only real thing I am known for is GSD – getting shit done. You want something done? Wind me up and watch me go. I just can’t help myself. I’d love to be able to switch that gene off for just a minute, then I wouldn’t be so knackered all the time.

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So – those are my eleven answers. Here’s my eleven random facts…

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1 – My actual name is Michelle Davisova. Because I got married in the Czech Republic, and the way it works there is that you take your husbands name and add an -ova to it. But I think it sounds a bit pretentious so Davis it is.

2 – Property is Theft. I do actually think that. Not owning a home, but owning a second home, or a third, or a bunch. It just sticks in my craw that property prices are so out of the reach of so many people. I think you should take what you need in life, and taking more than one home is just wrong.

3 – I have a twitter crush on @Cmdr_Hadfield. I am totally gutted that he is coming off the International Space Station in 2 weeks and I spend far too much time thinking about how it just won’t be the same, having another astro tweet from space.

4 – I would rather give a presentation to a hundred people, than be put in a room with a hundred people and have to ‘network’.

5 – I thought I’d be a brilliant mum. I’m not.

6 – The job I enjoyed most, ever, was waiting tables in college.

7 – Since I got pregnant with my first child, my tearducts are a bit weird. Like they fill up randomly and unexpectedly. If I am talking about something and get even a little bit animated, my eye fill with tears. It’s embarrassing.

8 – I am absolutely terrified of flying. I do it, but I hate it. There’s a little bit of me that is glad we’re skint, so we can’t afford to go on a plane anywhere. And I’m already worrying about if we ever get not skint, so I’ll have to deal with it.

9 – I sort of regret not making my blog anonymous. Being ‘out’ severely limits the blogging-for-therapy options.

10 – I’m knackered. Always.

11 – I genuinely suspect that I have early-onset Alzheimers. I had to refer to my own daughter as ‘Thingy’ the other day and such occurrences are becoming more common. I’m really hoping it’s just taking me a long time to get over my baby brain. But I’m mentally working round the possibilities and implications for our life if it’s true.

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Now – eleven questions:

1 – Mac or PC?

2 – What’s your favourite joke?

3 – What’s your favourite city and why?

4 – Marmite – love it or hate it?

5 – Are you friends with your exes?

6 – Do you believe in horoscopes?

7 – What would you change about yourself, if you had to pick one thing?

8 – Is your life turning out how you thought, or totally different, or better, or worse? Why?

9 – Is blood thicker than water?

10 – Where’s your heart – city or country?

11 – Have you ever eaten anything you’ve grown?

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Ok. Now the eleven bloggers to pass this on to…here are some of the blogs I’ve really enjoyed over the last few weeks…

Ar Flaen Ei Thafod

Flossing the Cat

Instinctive Mum

misterdoctorbeckymark2

A Year Without Supermarkets

mumblingsontheverge

Delusions of Candour

MummyLaura

Beach Life Etc

Julia’s Place

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Ok. I *think* I have done it right. Except telling those folk who I’ve Liebstered, and that will have to wait till tomorrow because this lady needs her sleep! Thankyou to abstractlucas for nominating me, and goodnight!

On trying not to multitask

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I have been making a conscious effort to be more ‘present’ with the kids recently, and to multitask a little less.

It bothers me that I have become really good at carrying on a conversation about the school day, at the same time as sending an email, checking the work twitter account, deleting spam from the shop facebook page, juggling money between accounts to avoid overdraft and checking what the weather will be like tomorrow. Admittedly all these things need to be done at some point, but probably not right now. My problem is that I’m very much a right now sort of person, and I do genuinely find it really difficult not to do something if I know it needs to be done. And smartphones – brilliant as they are – only make this tendency worse in me. So I’ve changed a few things – I’ve put my email on fetch rather than push; I’ve turned off @notifications beeps for the twitter accounts I am responsible for; I’ve taught the husband twitter too so he can deal with the shop account; but most of all I have tried to change this mental inability to switch off from work/shop life when I am at home.

Tonight, for instance. Tonight I was going to bang out a couple of emails while the youngest was watching the Night Garden, but I decided – no, I was going to leave the emails and watch it with him. So I put my phone to one side, out of temptation’s reach, and cuddled up with him on the sofa. Then suddenly up he jumps and runs to the other side of the room to bring me my phone.

‘No sweetheart, I don’t need my phone right now, I’m having some special time watching the Night Garden with you’.

I watch his little face, waiting for the beam of happiness that would surely come from having my undivided attention.

And I am indeed rewarded with a beam, a massive grin from ear to ear. A lovely warm feeling washes over me. Yes, I should definitely do this more often. Look how happy he is, just from having even a small amount of one to one Mummy time.

‘Really?’ he says, ‘Don’t you want to do Mummy’s work on Mummy’s phone?’

‘No, Mummy doesn’t need her phone now – Mummy can do her work later’.

An even bigger grin. Oh, how I am mentally polishing my mothering halo. And then, slowly, reality dawns as his grin gets bigger again…

‘Oh, good. That means I can play Angry Birds!’

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