Is it froggy outside?

For the last 4 days London has been wrapped in a blanket of fog. Something my toddler is fascinated by, though he purposely mispronounced it to 'froggy'. I have also become known as 'mumby', so little man finds it hilarious to ask "is it froggy outside mumby?" His giggles are delicious, he knows he's mispronouncing but I love that at only 2 and a half my little one us having fun with language.

Birthday mists

Today is my birthday, I'm 32 and this year I'm celebrating the normality of life with a two and a half year old. 3 years ago we had a weekend in York, then announced my pregnancy to family and friends at a karaoke party in Leicester Square. Two years ago I had a 5 month old and we went out for lunchtime pizza with old friends and new. Last year hubs whisked Charlie and me for a weekend in Canterbury (where we met at uni) and we chose our wedding rings. This year life has rather taken over. T's cooking a meal tonight but is on a stag do this weekend, so I'm home alone and thinking about having a potty training weekend... The following weekend I'm at the hen do so we're postponing birthday celebrations until the weekend after that. What did I want this year? To leave the little man for a night with his grandparents and a whole day and evening spending quality time with hubs in London. We've got tickets for the Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V&A, we'll have a meal and see a show - bliss.

But back to today, the fog continues to cover London, but I'm wearing beautiful birthday brown leather boots and a new dress plus going to pre-order my Kindle Fire HD (present from hubs) so happy happy happy.

Book review - The Secrets of Crickley Hall



I'd been putting together a Halloween reading list at work and this came out as the top book to read for the end of the month. It's also going to be a BBC drama, so I wanted to read it before I see it on screen.

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert is a perfect Mummy chiller, ok it's good for everyone but if you're a mama it will pull at the heartstrings even more.

Word of warning, there's a few spoilers below, but nothing that will ruin your read.

There's two storylines, one follows the 11 evacuee orphans who drowned in a flood at Crickley Hall during WWII, and one follows the Caleigh family who move to the hall to get away from their London house and it's associations with their missing middle son. Five year old Cam went missing almost a year earlier, in a playground when his exhausted mama fell asleep.

I don't read horror very often (I don't think my nerves could stand it) and I experienced all the classic symptoms with this book, I had to keep the light on and keep reading until hubs came to bed, when reading at night I had to keep looking up to make sure no dark shadow was in the room, and I held back tears when you found out what happened to the little Jewish evacuee and little Cam Caleigh. Above all I had to keep on reading, I stayed up layer and almost missed my train stop because I was so engrossed.

If you're looking for a scary (but ultimately satisfying) read this October, I thoroughly recommend you give this a try.

Running, running, always running

With no buggy and too big for reins, this was my view of the boy yesterday.