Friday Five Favourite: Kids TV Shows

19 04 2013

So I did a blog about a year ago on my favourite children’s TV shows, but really that was preschool shows. I said at some point in the future I might do a set of more primary school aged shows, so here it is! Happy nostalgia Friday to you if you remember these 🙂

It was REALLY hard to get this list down to 5, so I’ve saved some like Kenan & Kel and SM:tv live for a secondary school list somewhen and hope I don’t have too many then!

The Wild House

Blue Peter

Recess

Art Attack

Zzzap





Banana and chocolate loaf cake

14 04 2013

I took this into work for a fundraiser this week and it went down well, a couple of people asked for the recipe so here goes 🙂

This is a great way to use up those bananas that are a tad overripe, just past edible!

Ingredients

  • 2 bananas
  • 2oz Butter (I use tub Stork because it’s already soft!)
  • 5oz Caster Sugar
  • 8oz Self-Raising Flour
  • 2 Eggs
  • a pinch of salt
  • 100g Milk Chocolate

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C
  • Mash up the bananas in a small bowl
  • In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar
  • Beat in 2 eggs (I use an electric whisk for this)
  • Sieve in the flour and salt and fold in
  • Add the bananas and mix well
  • Break a bar of chocolate into small pieces and mix these in
  • Grease and line a 1 1/2lb loaf tin. That or buy loaf tin paper liners, I have some that are slightly siliconised and give such a great finish! My friends thought the last I was made was bought because of this!
  • Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for an hour. One oven I used to use used to burn around the edges so I covered it with foil partway through, so keep an eye on it.
  • When an hours up, test with a knife and if it comes out clean, put it on a wire rack to cool, else pop it in for a little longer

Banana and Chocolate loaf cake





Friday five favourite: Morecambe & Wise sketches

12 04 2013

Anyone need a good giggle on a Friday night?
These 2 blokes never fail to please 🙂

Andre Previn

The Breakfast Sketch

Mastermind

Singin’ in the rain

Eric & Ernie in bed

– with the fabulous ice cream line 🙂

It may not be a sketch, but you should always finish with…
Bring Me Sunshine





Two things I learnt today!

11 04 2013

Firstly, a group of beavers is called a colony.

Secondly, if you have blue eyes, this is very similar to having fair skin when concerned with the sunshine! If you have fair skin you’re more likely to burn easily and should be careful to wear sun cream etc. If you have blue eyes, my optician told me today, then your eyes are more susceptible to damage from the sun, and you should make sure that you wear sunglasses when necessary.

You really do learn something new every day!





Fantastic Mr Fox – Roald Dahl

8 04 2013

Boggis and Bunce and Bean
One fat, one short, one lean.
These horrible crooks
So different in looks
were none the less equally mean.

While working out what to read that could compete with The Hunger Games, I thought I may as well do another Roald Dahl! It’s only 82 pages so I did it in about 2 sittings over Sunday afternoon, but still a great story! Yes it encourages stealing and drinking…. but only in a sense of finding something to eat when your whole family is starving – the book tells us that it’s ok to thieve in that case!

fantastic mr fox

A couple of years ago a film was made of this book. I don’t know if it’s just me but I really didn’t like it – the animation style made the film look like it was 20 years old! They also added a lot to the plot – although I suppose you have to for such a short book… here’s the trailer, if you’ve read the book, see what you think!





Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

7 04 2013

The final Hunger Games book! As a trilogy these books are phenomenal!

This book I’d say was the weakest of the three, but that does NOT make it bad! The speed of time jumps around a lot which gets a bit confusing. There’s a lot going on, but I just didn’t feel it flowed as well as the first couple, the plot was a little more juddered.

This doesn’t mean I still didn’t exclaim out loud at some bits, and yesterday afternoon as I finished it I think I read about 150 pages straight, it’s still one that’s hard to put down!

Again, don’t want to put any spoilers here so won’t discuss the whole outcome with the various elements – but do read it!!

mockingjay





Ineke’s philosophies on life: mellow yellow

6 04 2013

The rule “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down” is not appropriate for the workplace or any public place

It’s completely up to you if you use this in your own home





Ineke’s philosophies on life: Alarm clocks

4 04 2013

No one should ever have need to set their alarm clock for before 6am unless it’s for a holiday





Ineke’s philosophies on life: Pairing up socks

2 04 2013

The monotonous job of pairing up socks after laundry can be made more enjoyable by putting them all in a pile and pretending it’s a game of mahjong

I didn’t say enjoyable, just more enjoyable than it is if you don’t!





April Fools 2013

1 04 2013

This April Fools Round-up has definitely become an annual event now – welcome to year 4!

They’re in no particular order, other than the order I found them in, so definitely check the whole list out!

And here’s a fantastic story that’s not an April fool as it’s in several papers and states it’s not!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21991622

If I find any more through the day I’ll add them below so do check back later or tomorrow

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