Mum-e Blog

Well, the holiday is well and truly over and it’s back to the chaos (did I say relief?) of school. It might all be fine if there weren’t so many mountains of stuff to deal with. And suddenly it’s nearly winter and none of the girls’ clothes fit anymore and there are simply not enough hours in the day to do everything and manage to get six hours’ sleep.
Thank goodness for Rufus – one of the great things about getting a pooch is that you have to find time to go for a walk every day which is great for making us spend proper time together as a family rather than rushing around all weekend.
This weekend we went to Rickmansworth Aquadrome. If you live anywhere near it and haven’t been, you must go.

Three beautiful lakes with a sailing club (we have booked a lesson for next weekend), canoes for hire, waterskiing and a nature reserve. Plus lovely walking/cycling paths, a great play area for the girls and -best of all – the most fantastic cafe that does proper food. I had a Leon-style superfood salad with quinoa and broccoli and chilli and feta. In a park cafe! And there are lovely sweet potato and salmon fishcakes and smoothies for the kids. And the fussiest husband in the world raved about his Gruyere and spinach and salsa hot sandwich.
All great reasons to buy a dog.

Off to Italy tomorrow for what might at first glance look like a smug family trip. Fifteen of us – my twin brothers and their wives and kids, plus my parents – off to a big villa in Tuscany, very generously paid for by my lovely Dad. It’s a lovely villa on the Tuscan coast, with a pool and a huge long table under a gazebo for lazy lunches al fresco – and we have even got a cook coming in a couple of nights to we can collapse with a bottle of chianti or eight once the kids are in bed. Plus my parents are running a kids’ club for their seven grandchildren every day for an hour or so, so we exhausted parents actually get a chance to sunbathe with a book for a while each day. So, er, yes, it is actually a really very smug family trip. Sorry about that.
If you were ever thinking of doing something similar, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Tuscany Now. They are the most amazing company who can organise anything, from babysitters to cooks, in whatever size villa you want, all with pools and properly checked out each year to make sure they are up to scratch. We’ve been away with them about four times and they have always been brilliant.
Anyway, I’ll be off the blog for a week so in the meantime I will leave you with my favourite pizza recipe. I promise, once you have had this, you will not want to eat restaurant pizza again, it is fantastic, and great fun to make with kids. Mine like to make their own and like flower or heart shaped pizzas which they then decorate with loads of vegetables they would not usually eat. Somehow peppers and mushrooms that would usually be considered icky are really appealing on pizza. Maybe it’s all that melted cheese….

Best ever home made pizza

Makes enough for two adults and two kids.

For the dough:
500g white bread flour
1 sachet (7g) easy blend yeast
12 fl oz water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Topping
Jar of tomato pasta sauce (or make your own with passata, onions and garlic plus a tsp each of salt and sugar, simmered until thick)
1 bag of grated mozzarella
Anything else you fancy – my kids like black olives, mushrooms, sweetcorn and red pepper; I like fresh basil, anchovies, capers and olives; husband likes artichoke and tuna.
Olive oil
Black pepper

Heat oven to 220C.
Put all the ingredients in a food processor with a dough hook, and knead for five minutes, or knead by hand for ten minutes.
You end up with a wet dough. Leave in a warm place for about 30 minutes, til the dough has doubled in size.
Punch out air and shape (or roll) into two round pizzas and place on baking sheets, lined with greaseproof paper or oiled.
Spread tomato sauce over the base then add cheese and other toppings.
Drizzle with olive oil and grind over pepper.
Bake for 20 minutes until cheese is bubbling madly and the base is just cooked through.
Yum!

Little Princess no 1's flower pizza about to go in the oven

Hi everyone, thanks for logging on to the second live web chat about the O2 Joggler. You should be able to enter your name and start typing your comments from 1.00 onwards. Comments come to us first so we can filter out any swearing etc, and then we post them so that everyone can see them. I’ll be answering as many questions as possible and moderating, but like last time I’ve also got people from O2 with me to help me on other questions you may have. The message board will remain here on mum-e.co.uk as a post so anyone who comes to the blog after today can see our discussion.

You should have received the agenda prior to this, it worked pretty well last time to keep us on track so here is today’s:

Part 1: Getting a sense of how it is working in family life.

1. Two weeks in, is the O2 Joggler having a positive impact on your family life? Why/why not?

2. What are the three things on it that you are using the most?

3. O2 have recently launched a pay and go package for families called the ‘Bolt On’, which offers unlimited calls, text messages and picture messages between you and your family (up to 5 members) for £7.50 per month. Would you consider the Bolt on useful for family life alongside the Joggler?

Part 2: Refining what you want next/what is most important to you from the Joggler and Calendar

4. What are the three things you’d like it to do that it doesn’t currently?
a. We know Calendar syncing is one – what do they mean by this i.e.

1. Do you want to synchronise your/your family’s personal calendar (i.e. outlook) with the whole of your O2 Calendar?

2. Do you want to synchronise selected events from your personal calendar with your family on your O2 Calendar?

3. Or do you just want to be able to invite your O2 calendar from other calendars I.e. outlook & visa versa?

b. Do you use/ see the benefit in streaming music photos and video from the home pc or laptop directly to the Joggler?

Hi everyone, thanks for logging on to this live web chat about the O2 Joggler. You should be able to enter your name and start typing your comments from 1.00 onwards. Comments come to us first so we can filter out any swearing etc, and then we post them so that everyone can see them. I’ll be answering as many questions as possible and moderating, but I’ve also got people from O2 with me to help me on other questions you may have. The message board will remain here on mum-e.co.uk as a post so anyone who comes to the blog after today can see our discussion.

As there are a lot of us on here and a lot to discuss we thought we’d put together an agenda to keep us on track:

1. How did you find setting it up? (5 mins)
2. How are you using the O2 Joggler to organise your family life? (10 mins)
3. Do you think it’s good value for money? (It’s £149.99 or free if you take one instead of a phone upgrade.) (5 mins)
4.. If the O2 Joggler had internet access would you find that useful? What would you use it for? (5 mins)
5. What do you think about the different functions of the Joggler? E.g. the new messaging function, Weather, Traffic, etc (10 mins)
6. O2 Plans for the Joggler – your questions answered and what’s to come (10 mins)
7. What is the latest bit of gadgetry you like using? (10 mins)
8. Do you think women/mums have specific technology needs? (5 mins)

Not So Alpha Male was lying in bed last night, reading a booklet.

“What’s that, darling?” I asked him, as I glanced up over my copy of Popco by Scarlett Thomas  (Popco is, by the way, the best novel ever. Seriously, if you are interested in branding and big corporations and puzzles and codes, you must read it. I’m now reading it for a second time, and I never do that.)

Anyway, he barely glanced up, he was so engrossed. He just muttered, “I’m reading the instructions to the new microwave.”

I am ashamed to say I sniggered. And sneered a bit. And said: “Goodness, your literary tastes are terribly sophisticated, aren’t they, darling?”

At which point he looked up and said: “Well, you’re the one who won’t know about the clever stuff it does. Using sensor technology. So everything is perfectly reheated and defrosted without you having to do anything except press one button.”

And then he had my attention. Because I love clever gadgety stuff. And if I had to write a list of things that make my life easier – aside from the au pair – along with my iPhone, Sky Plus and my new O2 Joggler, the microwave would have to be up there.

So, when we had the kitchen re-done recently, we bought a new one. I left Not So Alpha Male to choose it…and the boy done good. After I’d stopped sneering and listened to what he had to say, I realised I now have the best ever microwave on the planet, a Panasonic Inverter.  And yes, it does just what he said it does. So if you want to reheat something, you just tell the thing to reheat and it does, beautifully, for just the right amount of time, so there are no extra hot bits, and no cold bits, and no dry edges. It’s all just so. I have to admit to not being quite sure how it does all this, but I do know that it is really great and clever and looks sexy too, sitting there neatly in my utility room. If only it was a man….

Anyway, here it is, in case you want to see it. Oh and it costs around £140, which is quite good for something so fabulous, I think. So, no more laughing at my husband’s reading material. In fact, I’m encouraging more of it. I’ve put the instruction manual for the new extractor hood on his bedside table.

My new microwave

Hi Mums,

I’m sure you’ll be glad to know, that due to popular demand, the initial O2 Joggler feedback forum on my blog will now take place between 1-2pm (not 7pm) on Wednesday 10th June and the follow-up session will run on Wednesday July 1^st at the same time.

O2 understand that you may not be able to make it at that time on each day, so you’re welcome to leave your questions/feedback in advance and the O2 Joggler team will answer them/respond between 1-2pm on each of the days.

Feel free to start posting your initial thoughts here and I hope that you can make the live forums and join in the discussions. Here are a couple of thought starters:

1. How did you find setting it up? I thought it was pretty straightforward but would be interested to know if you had any problems.
2. Are you finding it useful? And why? Is it helping to organise your family life?
3. Would you recommend it to friends?
4. Do you think it’s good value for money?
5. Do you think O2 could do anything to make it better? I’d like it to be wall mounted! And I’d like a recipe folder so instead of all those newspaper and magazine clippings shoved in a drawer I could quickly tap them into my Joggler and have them all neatly organised, ready to use, in my kitchen.
6. If there’s anything else you think about it, please let me know.

Happy Joggling!

Anne (aka Mum-e)

P.S The blog post on Wednesday 1^st July will be set-up after the initial one and the link sent out to you.

Oh dear. The au pair is away on holiday for ten days and after 36 hours as a full-time working mum, my life is already in total chaos. Yes, I can see on my lovely O2 Joggler where to be and when – which is way better than if I didn’t have one – but how am I supposed to get work done too between school runs, swimming, dancing, after school club, play dates, packing for holiday, getting Not So Alpha Male’s birthday/10th wedding anniversary presents bought and wrapped, making packed lunches and so on? I just wish my Joggler had legs and a driving license and knew how to make meatballs….

Thank goodness we are off on holiday ourselves next week so I can just concentrate on all the nice bits of having kids without having to think too much about work (although the laptop is coming with, clearly). We’re away for our anniversary and hubbie’s birthday so lots to celebrate and it should be great fun although the forecast for Languedoc-Rousillon, where we are going, is rain and clouds. Of course.

So…O2 have decided to use my blog to give the first airing of their fab new TV ad for the Joggler electronic family organiser. Hurrah! I’m really excited to have my first world exclusive! It shows a family of fridge magnets on a big fridge covered in scrappy notes and reminders.

The magnets come to life and post all the bit of paper into the Joggler and hey presto, family life is suddenly much more calm and organised! Have a look, it’s really fun with a slightly retro feel.
Apparently, the magnets were actually little models and shot frame by frame like the old Morph programmes, rather than using hi-tech computer graphics. It will DEFINITELY make you want a Joggler immediately (which I guess is the point and means it’s a pretty good ad…).

Anyway, click below and let me know what you think…

So here’s where I was last night..http://tinyurl.com/p2q5v7. Really good fun, met some incredible, selfless, truly inspirational women and got to hob nob with the stars! Had a lovely chat with Claudia Winkleman who I was at school with. She’s fab – and not the remotest bit vain despite being stunning and really clever and funny. Sigh. I did notice she said no to dessert…why do I have zero self discipline?

Anyway, am now still in pyjamas, with leftover mascara round my eyes and a slightly sore head, trying to motivate myself to get on with some work and go and buy some gear we need for the after school club I’m helping to run. Thinking of making sugar mice with the kids – I think they’d love it and there is something so nice and old fashioned about sugar mice that even the mothers in the anti-sweets brigade can’t object, surely…

Have now found a memory stick and am determined to find time to load my O2 Joggler with pics and music today. Have taken loads of pics of kids’ school artwork with iPhone so should be straightforward to get them on to the Joggler. That way we get to see the kids’ pics all the time, without those scrappy bits of paper ruining my new kitchen walls!