Carolyn Mandache

I'm guessing many people will have eagerly joined the gym, or taken up some form of exercise recently. We've all done it, start the new year with good intentions that this will be the year you'll get fit, no more excuses...2014 WILL be the year. Nearly the end of January now...have you stuck with it, or is your gym pass gathering dust somewhere, unloved and no longer in use?   Personally, I spend more time running 4 kids about to their various sporting activities, than actually partaking in any myself. However, I'm pretty sure walking up and down to the school and nursery 3 times a day must count for something. I do enjoy a class called Combat. Punching an invisible assailant to manic music I've not heard since I was 15 ("Like a shooting star..."), is surprisingly therapeutic. I find it a great release for stress. I am very fussy about instructors though. In my view, if I wanted a sergeant major yelling at me, I'd have joined the army. I want someone...

Just before Christmas, my 4 year old made an important announcement: "It's Tom Fluffy-Whiskers birthday tomorrow, we need to have a birthday party." (Tom Fluffy Whiskers is the brilliantly imaginative name he has given his toy bunny.) As you can imagine, holding birthday parties for toys was not at the top of my priority list in the manic lead-up to Christmas. However, who could resist such a cute request? I managed to persuade him that Tom's birthday was a few days later, which just happened to be a Saturday, and not a weekday taken up with homework/after-school clubs. We decided to have a tea party, the toy tea set was set out on a blanket on the floor, Tom and his guests sat on cushions. My son and his cousins really put a lot of thought into it, Tom brought his own teddy, and his bunny friend even wore a tie for such an important occasion: The food was all very rabbit friendly, we made a carrot cake. Betty Crocker may have had a helping hand...

My first post of 2014, Happy New Year! This year we went away for the limbo period between Christmas and New Year. Perth was our destination (Scotland, not Australia). The holiday, which we shared with very good friends, was not without it's share of mishaps. However, as seems to be so often the case, in many ways they added to the fun we had. Our destination was the Log Cabin Hotel, part of the Nae Limits group offering adventure breaks. We did not book any adventure activities, but seemed to end up having some of our own anyway. The drive took us to the tiny village of Kirkmichael, which was very remote (think Blair Witch Project). Our room, although quite spacious, did feel a bit Waltonish every bed time, as all 6 of us said our good nights and tried not to wake each other in our side by side beds. There were often bumps in the night as one child or another rolled off their bed, or onto someone else. There were no bears in the woods surrounding the hotel, but a grizzly in th...