… than “no it isn’t!” “I know!” – drawn out to the point of abusing vowel sounds and accompanied with rolling eyes and disowning of the parent. Own up – who turned my kid into a teenager eight years early?!!

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…and other fervent beliefs of the five-year-old Here are some excerpts of my conversations today: Half way through Big Cook Little Cook Me: oh – they’re making cheesecake! Akra Jr: no they’re not. Me: yes they are – that’s a biscuit base. For a cheesecake you have crumbled up biscuit at the bottom, then you [...]

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I have grown complacent by the success of the white cloud mountain minnows and completely forgotten just how frustrating fish keeping can be. Last week, I bought six neon tetras – nice, bright, cheerful and fairly common little tropical fish – bringing the total stock in my 30L biorb up to twelve fish. I watched [...]

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Are you a woman aged 18 or over? Do you live in the UK? Would like to help discover the causes of Breast Cancer? I don’t know whether you’ve seen previous publicity, but Breakthrough Generations plans to be the largest and longest scientific study, with over 100,000 participants. It involves filling out a detailed questionnaire [...]

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I took Akra Jr ten-pin bowling today. I haven’t bowled in years, and it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me as a suitable five-year-old outing either, had it not been for one of his friends holding a birthday party there recently. I’m glad we went though, as we both had a fantastic time. It cost [...]

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Mindless thought meander of the day: As far as I remember, I was always taught that the correct pronunciation of “controversy” was “con-TROV-ersy” … yet I’ve noticed on BBC Radio 4 an increase in speakers pronouncing it as “CON-tro-versy”. Being that the BBC is usually the bastion of proper pronunciation and grammar, was I taught [...]

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I’ve had enough now, this dreary weather is depressing me. I’ve lost track of the last time we had a whole 24 hours without rain and the forecast for the next week isn’t looking too hot either. I hereby demand the cessation of all downpours and the beginning of a proper summer for the following [...]

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Most people who know me consider me to be a fairly organised and methodical person. I have routines. I have places things are kept. I usually keep on top of my paperwork. I just have two achilles heels: keys and purses. They never seem to get put down in their correct homes if I have [...]

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Yesterday, the Guardian ran a very interesting article on “The rise and rise of convenience food” – sparked by the recent announcement by Heinz that they are developing an “instant baked beans on toast” ready-meal. Now, I’m not completely anti-convenience food. I believe it has its place – particularly those things which are harder and [...]

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Normally I shun the pink aisle in the toy shop. If Akra Jr hadn’t come home with a party invite from a girl in his class then I’d still be avoiding it, instead I was left standing there in the midst of a sea of pink having palpitations. My pink aisle phobia doesn’t have much [...]

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