Mother Distracted

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Afternoon Tea Goes Glam Rock At The K West Hotel & Spa, London

It's National Afternoon Tea Week from Monday 8th August to Sunday 14th August 2016 and, should you be looking to indulge in the drink that refreshes, I've found something really different that might suit if you are in London.

K West Hotel & Spa in Shepherd's Bush is trading its traditional Tea Rex tea for a perfectly prepared Pimm’s jelly cup.

Formerly the BBC Building Kensington House in the 60s, an endless list of Rock ‘n’ Roll royalty has stayed, played and misbehaved at K West – Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bowie, The Kinks and Roxy Music to name a few.

The hotel has given the traditional Afternoon Tea a glam-rock makeover where guests can swap traditional hot drinks for tea-infused cocktails, and even enjoy the treat late at night like a true rock star from 10pm until midnight. Who doesn’t love cocktails and cake at midnight?

The Glam Rock Afternoon Tea is served everyday from 2pm to 6pm, with The Rock ‘n’ Cocktails Midnight Tea being served Sunday to Thursday, 10pm-12pm.

With Wimbledon fever having propelled Pimm’s to peak popularity, K West’s Afternoon Tea will feature an exclusive Pimm’s jelly cup accompanied by a marvelous mint sorbet, available throughout the week.

Priced at £24.50, The Glam Rock Afternoon Tea pays tribute to the hotel’s music heritage in a playful, fun and stylish way. The tea is served on vintage record covers, with electric blue and pink teapots and teacups, adding some glam to the rock.

A Glam Rock Prosecco Afternoon Tea is available for £31.50 and the Rock ‘n’ Cocktails Midnight Tea is priced at £36.50. This cocktail tea includes a selection of five shots of cocktails, or one cocktail each.

All of the Rock Teas will include fresh blueberry ‘rolling scones’ with clotted cream & homemade jams, as well as a selection of summer themed treats such as Summer berries panna cotta, White chocolate truffle lollies, Roasted peppers & sundried tomatoes on focaccia, Savoury sliders and Chocolate cherry apples.

The Glam Rock Afternoon Teas will be served in the contemporary Studio Bar & Kitchen, which has also been designed to reflect the hotel’s rich music heritage.

This throws down the gauntlet nicely to other hotels to come up with a quirky, celebratory and sumptuous afternoon tea. If I hear of any, you'll be the first to know.

K West Hotel & Spa is situated at Richmond Way, London W14 0AX. For reservations, please call: 020 8008 6600 or visit www.k-west.co.uk

The Hobbis Family Summer Holiday Bucket List

Caitlin and Ieuan break up from school on Wednesday and, as usual, I have managed to leave it to the last minute to compile a list of things for us to do - not that there aren't oodles of ideas from my fellow bloggers to keep us busy all year long!

How hard can keeping them occupied be?

I asked Ieuan this morning what he fancied doing (Caitlin just wants to play with Shopkins) and he gave me his best 7 year old shrug and said something which sounded suspiciously like 'iPad'.

Anyway, I have started the list with the proviso that, since the Husband and I have not become millionaires since last summer, the kids will actually have to use some brain power and do that radical 1970's thing of entertaining themselves from time to time.

This means they may even experience that character building thing called boredom but it didn't kill us, did it?And I still maintain that having to make your own fun is the best way to stimulate creativity in any age group.

Superheroes are now so last year

Practically speaking, no parent has the time, energy or money to take the kids out every single day so it's going to be a compromise between the odd day trip here and there, our week sojourn to Devon and passing the time at home without killing one another.

I love the summer holidays, don't you?!

Have kagool, will travel

Here's where I've got to so far on the list and if you can think of anything an eight and a seven year old might enjoy, please tell me in the comments below.

Biking around Cosmeston Nature Reserve and exploring the medieval village
Getting Caitlin to finally get the hang of her Heeleys
Picnic at National Trust Dyffryn Gardens
Go to the funfair at Barry Island (there's a ghost train!)
Put the paddling pool up (and kiss the lawn goodbye for yet another year!)
Eat ice creams on the pier at Penarth
Explore the beautiful Westonbirt Arboretum
Go sand-dune surfing at Merthyr Mawr
Explore our local castles at Cardiff, Caerphilly and Raglan
Walk up The Garth (and then progress to Pen-y-Fan)
Hire tricycles and cycle along the Cardiff Bay Barrage
Search for sea glass at St. Mary's Well Bay, Lavernock
Sign up for our local library reading challenge (this was Ieuan's suggestion - amazing!)
Bake bread with Taid (my dad loves impromptu cookery sessions with the kids)
Visit our local museums at Cardiff and St. Fagins
Stick a two man tent up in the garden and have a camping dummy run
Go to Bath on the train and then take a boat trip on the river
Bake a cake (with me this time). I'm OK with cakes...ish.
Visit Rest Bay at Porthcawl and the fair at Coney Beach
Play football on our local common
Go on an expedition to find Dinas Powys Castle. (Yes we have one).
Go pond dipping at Porthkerry Park (supervised by the wardens of course)
Play crazy golf in Cardiff St. David's Centre
Pick our own strawberries at Hendrewennol Fruit Farm and the Maize Maze
Hold a movie night with popcorn and hotdogs
Host a sleepover (never done this before so will have to check my nerves will hold)
Explore Llandaff Cathedral and have tea and cake at the local teashop
Visit Bristol Zoo - the location for most of my school trips
Go bouncing at Go Air trampoline park
Get the kids rock climbing at Boulders Indoor Climbing Centre
Get the kids to earn some pocket money by setting up their own restaurant and charging the Husband and I to eat
Helping with the housework (nothing wrong with learning a few lifeskills)!
Washing the car
Making jewellery - I've promised Caitlin will get some jewellery making tools and restring some of my old necklaces
Watching Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit and Star Wars. Probably on repeat.
Have a games night - Junior Monopoly, Cluedo, all the old favourites
Ieuan wants his bedroom repainted so he can help his dad with that
Go skimming stones at The Knap Beach and have fish and chips on the way home
Practising our videoing skills by recording another gripping episode of Caitlin and Ieuan's "The Hulk & Puppy".
Playing hide and seek.
Oh, alright, Pokemon Go IF THE DAMN THING LOADS!!!
Visiting their Aunty Judy's new kitten, Willow.
Making home-made birthday cards with Nanny
Going to Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean
Taking a boat on the river at Symonds Yat
Reading some of the children's classics like Black Beauty and The Wind in the Willows
Making home-made ice lollies
Helping with the garden, collecting leaves and weeding
Vacuuming. (What do you mean it's not fun?)
Playing the piano with Taid - and me if I can remember how to sight read

So, there's quite a few things on my list already this year and I'm hoping we tick off quite a few of these. I'll buy the kids a scrapbook each so that they can record their adventures and they can make a memory box to keep any special souveniers they collect along the way.

Do you know, I'm actually quite looking forward to it.

What's on your family summer holiday bucket list?

Party planning - Unusual Entertainment Ideas That Will Get Your Guests Talking

From the venue, to the catering, to the decorations, there’s no escaping the fact that it takes a lot of forward thinking to plan the perfect party.

One of the main elements of any successful soiree is the entertainment. Unless you get it just right, your attendees could be left feeling less than impressed, so it pays to think outside the box.

To ensure that your next party goes down a storm, here are three unusual entertainment ideas that are bound to get your guests talking.

A murder mystery dinner

For entertainment with a difference, a murder mystery dinner could be perfect for your next party. When they’re done properly, murder mystery dinners can keep your guests amused and entertained for hours, acting as the focal point of the whole evening.

Over a meal, your guests will be immersed into a dramatic storyline, with the main aim of trying to work out who’s to blame for the ‘murder’.

Instead of attempting to arrange this type of entertainment yourself, it pays to enlist the help of professionals. For instance, experts the Murder Mystery Collective use West End actors to bring their plots to life

A flashmob dance troupe

To really surprise your guests, why not arrange for a flashmob dance troupe to perform? A flashmob are a group of talented dancers who will seemingly spontaneously carry out a choreographed routine, usually to loud, upbeat music, and then leave just as quickly as they appeared. The whole sequence is unexpected and exhilarating, and it’s sure to create a real buzz among your guests.

For example, if you’re hosting a large dinner or ceremony in a function room, you could arrange to have the dancers disguise themselves as waiting staff to get into position, for them to then suddenly burst into dance.

As long as your venue has a sufficient amount of space, a flashmob troupe could be ideal for your next event.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Aerial silk performers

If you’re keen to thrill your guests, you could book some aerial silk performers.

These highly skilled performers use the support of nothing but long pieces of fabrics and their own strength to carry out breathtaking stunts and routines while being suspended in the air.

Whether you arrange to have one acrobat or a group perform, aerial silk artists will undoubtedly leave your guests awestruck and impressed.

All that is required from you is that your venue has reasonably high ceilings. You can then leave it up to the act to put on a show stopping performance.

Looking beyond the party ‘norm’ is key if you want to organize an event that’s going to get your guests talking.

Body shaming film sets out to shatter stereotypes

Just occasionally, a story hits my inbox that I have to share and this one comes from Australia. The message, however, will be of interest to women everywhere and I'm sure that Taryn Brumfitt's film will be available to view here soon.

See what you think and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment box below.

"The four-year battle of an Aussie mum to end body shaming is about to take its biggest step forward with the global release of a documentary.

Embrace is the story of South Australian mother Taryn Brumfitt and her fight to empower men and women to feel comfortable with their physical appearance.

An increasing number of people, including children, are exposed to the unrealistic and stereotypical images of the “perfect” body from magazine covers to social media sites every day.

Brumfitt said despite the way media portrayed beauty, she learned that the real problem was not her appearance – it was the psychological battle.

“It’s a financially rewarding place for companies to make people hate their body because it makes us want to run and buy their products,” she said.

“What happened for me was learning to unconditionally love my body. I told myself that my body is not an ornament it’s a vehicle and it will change. That I don’t need to conform to the narrow ideals of society, of how we should conform to this one body type to be happy.”

Brumfitt started making waves when she posted a “before” and “after” photo of herself to Facebook that went viral – catching the interest of high profile celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Rosie O’Donnell.

The photo has now been seen by more then 100 million people worldwide.

Brumfitt decided she wanted the issue of body shaming to gain more exposure and set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a documentary, which reached about AUD $331,000.

“I hated my body after I had my three children and I wanted to change. I thought that cosmetic surgery was the only option to fix what I thought was broken,” she said.

“But I didn’t want my daughter to think that she had to change her body so I decided to train and enter a body building competition to find out what it was like to have the perfect body. But to have the body that I had took too much time, sacrifice and energy. “There isn’t a potion or a lotion or a new diet to make yourself feel good so I then started speaking in halls, community centres and schools to help other women realise that. “This message is needed and I am more than happy to be that person to drive that global change.”

A Dove international study of more than 10,000 females across 13 countries found that women’s confidence in their bodies was on a steady decline.

About 69 per cent of women and 56 per cent of girls said pressure from media and advertising agencies resulted in them feeling anxious about their appearance.

Body shaming has also been a big issue with celebrities.

Jennifer Aniston this week wrote a scathing blog post about the negative attention the media had placed on her figure over the course of her career. Brumfitt said although she had encountered a lot of backlash from “internet trolls” she used the negativity as motivation to help spread the message of love. “It’s empowering to hear someone else go through something similar and it gives hope to people,” she said.

“The mission behind everything I do with the body image movement from Embrace the film to the online stuff we do, it all leads to one thing – global positive change. It’s time to say no to those who would put us down or want to tell us how to look.”

Embrace was a Sydney Film Festival finalist for best Documentary last month and will have its South Australian premiere in Adelaide this Sunday."

Source: The Lead South Australia

Win A Heavenly Chocolate Hamper From Lily O'Briens

Lily O'Brien's, the luxury Irish chocolatier, has introduced its first ever range of indulgent chocolate bars and I have been testing them on your behalf.

After extensive research among chocolate lovers, the brand found that we are nation who love to treat ourselves and so they have come up with an 80g bar which is just the perfect size to accompany the latest Netflix box set.

The flavours are a lot more adventurous which should also keep the bakers among you happy. As you know I am highly gifted in that department so I will probably just stick to eating the chocolate ....

There are 7 new unique recipes including the classic Sea Salted Caramel and Malted Chocolate Crunch, to the foodie-inspired recipes of Orange & Bergamot and Peppermint Crunch with Basil.

Each bar retails at £2.00 and I can vouch for all of them. My favourite is the Sea Salted Caramel which has just the right amount of a salty tang whilst the Husband has coveted the Dulche de Leche.

Here's how Lily O'Briens describe their new bars and it's enough to make your mouth water.

* Foodies will love the scrumptiously delicious Lily O’Brien’s Irresistibly Milk Salted Caramel. Crack the mouth-watering chocolate shell to unleash a rush of luscious, slow-cooked caramel seasoned with Himalayan salt.

* Sink into deep waves of dark chocolate rippled with silk ribbons of creamy, caramel infused white chocolate with the marbled Dulce de Leche, as beautiful as it is delicious.

* Slip into the luxurious silk of creamy milk chocolate that slowly melts into the sweetness of mellow malt crisp with the all new Malted Chocolate Crunch.

* Dissolve into intensely dark chocolate and unleash a burst of refreshing peppermint crisp with a twist of fragrant basil with the delectable Peppermint Crunch.

* Melt into intensely creamy milk chocolate and surrender to a savoury-sweet burst of golden caramel crunch scattered with Atlantic salt crystals with an outright crowd pleaser, Caramel Crunch.

* Surrender to intensely rich chocolate with a smooth velvet heart of chocolate and orange ganache infused with Italian Bergamot. The firm foodie favourite Orange & Bergamot Ganache is available in Delectably Dark or Irresistibly Milk Chocolate.

Three of the new Lily O'Brien's premium bars recipes (Salted Caramel / Caramel Crunch / Malted Chocolate Crunch) are available exclusively from Asda stores in the UK, while the entire range can be ordered online at www.lilyobriens.com

You can find out more by following them on Facebook or Twitter

I have a fabulous hamper of Lily O'Brien's new chocolate bars to give away to one lucky winner.

The prize includes 4 x 80g bars (Dulce De Leche, Orange & Bergamot Ganache Milk, Peppermint Crunch, Malted Chocolate Crunch), 1 x Peppermint pouch, 1 x Cocoa Cookie Crunch pouch, 1 x Stem Ginger Batons, 1 x Zesty Orange Chocolate, 1 x Crispy Hearts, 1 x Sticky Toffee box – 12 choc and 1 x Ultimate Chocolate Collection – 14 chocolates.

The fabulous prize

Entry is via the Rafflecopter widget below and the giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on Sunday 7th August. UK entrants only. Terms and conditions apply. Please see my Competitions page.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How are you all this week? We're well and truly into the countdown for the school summer holidays now and, of course, it's still raining. Kagools at the ready then.

I hope to unearth one of my many picnic baskets (yes I know, it's a strange thing to collect) and head off with the kids to one of our local beauty spots like Dyffryn House, near Wenvoe or our nearest nature reserve, Cosmeston in Penarth. But picnics aren't quite the same in the rain are they?

Perhaps we'll do the very British thing of sitting in a car clutching a thermos and a tomato sarnie instead.

Here's hoping you have a good week too and find some time for a nice relaxing read.

Here are the fab books on offer this week. You're sure to find something that takes your fancy.

For Pre-orders post - PRE-ORDER / genre / title /author

For New Releases post - NEW / genre / title / author

For Free Books post - FREE / genre / title / author / end date

For Bargain Books post - SALE / price / genre / title / author / end date
(Strictly no Erotica please. Steamy romance is fine but watch those covers people, incase any underage child is viewing it!)

Click HERE for this week's awesome selection.

And don't forget you can always add some of your own!

Relationship Dilemmas - What Was I Asked In Week 28?

As you may know, I spend a lot of time responding to the questions I am asked about dating & relationships on Quora.com and I thought I'd share some of my answers with you in case you are going through anything similar.

Obviously I am not an expert but I am a 50-something married mum of two with quite a few years' experience under my belt. I take the view that, sometimes, you need to hear it like you would from your own mother - however tough the truth may be.

Here's just some of the questions I've been asked this week.

Q: How can I tell if he is my soulmate or am I just infatuated?

I have the tendency to overthink, especially on the emotions I have for my partner. Part of me feels like he's my soulmate while a part of me says i'm just infatuated. My partner has always been great.

A: In a way, they’re the same thing. ‘Soulmate’ is a term straight out of romantic fiction - it’s Mr Darcy in Pride & Prejudice territory.
If you are both happy and have a great relationship, why do you need to label it?

Whilst I believe there is ‘someone for everyone’, I’m not sure that there is just one. Times change, people change - nothing is carved in stone.

Rather than focus on your feelings, it would be more sensible to see how he is feeling and whether your feelings are reciprocated. Is he treating you well? Surely that’s far more important?

Q: My boyfriend came back to me and confessed he's still in love with a married girl he had an affair with. Should I let go?

He tells me he cares for me and he says he loves the way I love him but he is still not over this other girl. Should I dump him and never look back? I'm im love with him and he treats me as if he really loved me…

A: Why would you want to be with someone who has openly admitted he loves someone else? What is the point?

Why do you value yourself so low that you are prepared to be a friend with benefits?

It doesn’t matter about the fact the girl is married. It does matter he had an affair and he doesn’t sound remotely guilty about it. Definitely time to move on.

Q: What do you do when your boyfriend loves you but you don't love him yet?

A: It sounds as if there is no spark. I don’t believe you can manufacture love.

If you don’t feel the same way as your boyfriend you are being unfair and should set him free.

That said, is it possible that you do actually love him but have issues admitting it to yourself or are expecting fanfares and roses every time you see him.

You don’t sound very experienced so you may be better off dating a few more guys until you find one who you really do feel something for.

Q: My girlfriend is now too serious about our relationship, but wasn't before when I was. What should I do?

She wants to start the relationship in a new way, but I am more focused on my career right now than starting a new relationship. I am afraid to start everything from the beginning again, when I talk about a breakup, she starts crying which makes me feel bad, what should I do?

A: You have to stand firm and be honest. She may well cry but you are being unkind to give her false hope if you feel that your relationship has run its course.

Are you sure though that wanting to focus on your career is the real reason you’d rather break up? Is it possibly the case that now the ‘chase’ is over you have lost interest?

Whatever it is, you are doing this girl no favours by keeping her dangling. Tell her it’s over quickly and kindly so that she can start to heal and move on as soon as possible.

Q: How do I text a guy I like but he doesn't know me?

A: You don’t. You get to know him a little first to see if he is interested in you and would like to be in contact.

Texting guys you don’t know is a little ‘stalker-ish’, don’t you think?

It’s probably an old fashioned sentiment these days but I still believe guys like to do the chasing so if I were you, I’d concentrate on how to get him to ask for YOUR number.

Q: What can I do to a car to get back at my lying boyfriend?

A: Nothing. Because if you do, not only will he have got away with lying but he will have pushed you into embarrassing yourself and committing a criminal act.

Haven’t you heard the expression “revenge is a dish best served cold”?

Glam up, go out and show him you don’t need him - that’s the true revenge.

Q: Do you think my boyfriend will forgive me for barely kissing someone else when black out drunk?

A: If he’s not completely turned off by the fact that you were that drunk, possibly. Whether you were ‘barely’ kissing someone else or not, you are putting yourself at risk from something far worse than the odd kiss by being that drunk.

But, most of us have drunk too much, whether intentionally or not at one point in our lives so, as long as it’s not a regular thing for you, I’d make a joke of it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

If your boyfriend won’t forgive you you’ll just have to take it on the chin - but remember that I’ll bet he’s no angel either.

Q: Due to our vastly different upbringings and experiences, my significant other is losing faith in our relationship. What can I say to comfort him?

A: Our differences are what makes our relationship a learning experience for me — which I take as an opportunity to grow. My boyfriend, however, feels that I struggle to see the world through his eyes and am insensitive to what’s going on in America recently within the black community (I’m also black).

We all show our emotions in different ways and just because you don’t show yours in the same way as your boyfriend does not mean you are insensitive. Despite the fact that you say you have vastly different upbringings and experiences, I believe that, at heart, most human experience is the same - it’s not so much what we think, but what we feel - that’s what holds us all together - particularly at times of terrible events such as those experienced in the US recently.

It is our human capacity to love and reach out that matters. I would tell your boyfriend that you process emotion in your own way and that part of being in a relationship is giving each other space to experience emotion in your individual ways. You don’t deserve his censure and neither does he deserve yours.

Why not focus on the emotions that brought you together and how you feel together as a couple.

Ultimately, you can think the same things, hold the same opinions but if there’s no feeling, all you have is a friendship. You are not a cookie-cutter version of your boyfriend, you are a unique individual and you should celebrate your individuality and encourage your boyfriend to value that too.

That’s the way to help your relationship grow and endure.

I hope that helps.

Q: How long does it take for a friendship to grow into a relationship between a guy and a girl?

A: It very much depends if there was a spark there to start with and the reason why the couple became friends.

Shared interests and a sense of humour may not be instant relationship starters but they are the bedrock upon which a relationship will endure, but you have to have the sexual attraction there too.

It’s quite easy to tell if a relationship is going to turn into something more because the couple will want to spend every waking moment together. They will not be able to stop touching one another, however, innocently.

They will talk about each other to their friends and family when they are not together.

They will, as the saying goes, only have eyes for each other.

Shared companionship and feeling comfortable with each other is great and for some, it’s enough, but when you’re younger, I think it’s natural to want the full romantic relationship.

I think deep down we all know where our relationships are going - and it’s sometimes hard to admit that they may not be ‘the one’.

And if we’re not sure, our closest friends are usually able to tell us the truth with uncanny accuracy.

How would you have responded to these questions? You can find more dating advice on my problem page.

All materials included in this post are intended for informational purposes only. This post/information is not intended to and should not be used to replace medical or psychiatric advice offered by physicians or other health care providers. The author will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.

Mother Distracted

Big This Week

Recent Posts

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Afternoon Tea Goes Glam Rock At The K West Hotel & Spa, London

Monday, 18 July 2016

The Hobbis Family Summer Holiday Bucket List

Saturday, 16 July 2016

Party planning - Unusual Entertainment Ideas That Will Get Your Guests Talking

Friday, 15 July 2016

Body shaming film sets out to shatter stereotypes

Win A Heavenly Chocolate Hamper From Lily O'Briens

New Releases, Free & Bargain Books Link-up 15 July 2016

Thursday, 14 July 2016

Relationship Dilemmas - What Was I Asked In Week 28?