How cool is this?  Thanks Universal, you can get your Lifetime of Universal over on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/universalpicturesUK 

BE QUICK TOO – Competition closes tomorrow, Wednesday 3oth January, so the winner can attend the launch event at Legoland Discovery Centre, Manchester.  Don’t worry if you can’t make Thursday nights event, 5-7pm, a pass can be arranged for an alternative date for you to visit the new Star Wars attraction.

The attraction’s exciting new feature, STAR WARS™ Episode 1 is set to take over Manchester for five months and you could be the first to see it. One lucky family will win the chance to attend the preview of the centre’s newest addition while enjoying the rest of the attraction for the night too.

The launch event is on Thursday 31st January 5-7pm at the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, Trafford Centre, legolanddiscoverycentre.co.uk/manchester

I’ve made it quick and super easy to win, to enter – just leave me a comment telling me your, or your little ones, favourite character from Star Wars.   Be lucky and keep your eyes peeled to your inbox on Wednesday night as you could be joining us on Thursday night!

May the force be with you!

This week the almost 3 year old broke her nose. Who knew this was possible? I didn’t. A quick search on Google and Dr Google returned a resounding “No”. Google was wrong.

What happened? Diva G was in her bedroom with me and her grandmother, she climbed off my knew put a pair of my stilettos which she had earlier pinched out of my room and fell. At the same my mum had opened the bottom drawer of her wardrobe to get out new winter clothes and put away the summer stuff. Diva G face planted the edge of the drawer side. There was blood and tears but calpol & chocolate buttons sorted it out. We were all upset by it but didn’t think much more about it other than to feel guilty and sad at her swollen nose, the bruising and darkened / black eyes that developed over the following days.

On Thursday we were off to the doctors for some excema cream so in we went:

Me: Hi
GP: Hello, ooh that looks nasty…
Me: *blank face*
Thinking… how can he tell? I haven’t got her coat off & its under her arms?
Thinking… has she got excema on her face I haven’t noticed?
GP: Have we had a bit of a fall?
Me: *penny drops* Yeeeessss, on her nose, yes she tripped, I was there, one of those random split second, watch it happen things.
Oh crap completely forgot about the nose!
Yes she tripped as we opened a drawer but little ones cant break their nose, well according to google they can’t. Can they?
GP: Yes they can *pokes & presses* and I do think she has broken her nose so she really needs to see an ENT consultant just to make sure it’s all healing as it should be.
Me: Really? Really? Oh!
Well this is awkward. This isn’t even why we are here! When can I mention the excema?
GP: I’ll do her referral …
Me: I dish out the Bupa details as we bail into a consultants referral
Awkward, awkward, awkward! Need to get this excema cream!
GP: Right that’s all sorted
Me: Okay great … Erm she also has an excema flair up I’d like you to look at please.
The silence screamed “you didn’t come here about the nose did you?

No. No I did not!

So Diva G if you’re reading this in your “I hate my mother” teenage years with a crooked nose here’s some ammunition for you! That’s how it happened and I feel really bad about it. We are waiting for the swelling to go down and back to the ENT Consultant on Friday to see if anything corrective is required, I desperately hope not but as time goes by the bruising has got worse, so this weekend we are mostly staying indoors and keeping the, almost 3yo with two black eyes and a broken nose, away from the “bad parent glances”. This is the stuff that just happens, right?

It’s 5am. I’m awake. Everyone else is sound asleep. I can hear the children’s sleep noises. I know which is Lil H and Diva G. They are safe.

My mind is full of the unsafe though. On Monday I fly with my godmother & my children’s 8yo cousin to Cala D’Or in Majorca, we will have a fantastic week, a beautiful villa with a beautiful pool, with temperatures in the lower thirties. So why the lying awake since 3:30am?

I’m solo abroad with my two most precious people, one can just swim, one can’t. My ears seem to have been tuned into hideous reminders of terrible people and tragic events. Tia Sharp should have been safe in her grandmothers home, but she wasn’t. Poor little four year Dylan who slipped from a jetty to be instantly washed away from his parents and out to sea. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s evil past not far from here have returned to the headlines. The revolting attack on a 14yo boy in toilets Manchester on a Saturday afternoon is beyond sickening, Lil H will have to be catheterised when he becomes too old to come into the ladies with me, I can’t bear to think of that time.

Lil H was two weeks old when Madeleine McCann was abducted. Cradling my first newborn child, this was the first time I’d consumed the news of a child crime as a parent. The reality of a parents worst nightmare hit me like a train whereas before, child free, events like the death of James Bulger were shocking but I just didn’t feel them in the same way at all as I do now as a parent. Now they make me sob uncontrollably at the mere thought that anything like these terrible events happen to anyone let alone my own children. They make me want to hunker down in my home with decades of supplies and keep my precious people safe. My heart aches for the parents, how on earth do they cope and continue to live, contain their anger, fight for justice, hope for news?

As I pack our bags and set off to create happy, sunny childhood memories I will shift these thoughts and stories to the back of my mind. I wish they didn’t exist at all but they do. I will play tea parties with Diva G by the pool, the children’s pool water paintings will evaporates from the hot slabs, Lil H will bounce high on the trampolines and whizz past me on the 1 Euro go karts. All the while I shall be behind my sunglasses scanning the surrounding for psychopaths and pedophiles. Right now in the dead of night our week away is feeling like an endurance test worthy of a CSI episode. I think I need join the Women’s Institute or take up baking or gardening. My garden would benefit greatly!

So this post confirms what I’ve always known and you may have suspected. I am a nutcase. Instead of filling my bags with useful things like suncream & swimsuits I’m filling my head with remote risks and terrors. Why do I do this to myself? Perhaps it’s some subconscious self-coaching in preparation from being solo, by a pool in a foreign country, whatever the reasons I wish it would stop. I need to pack. I needed those three hours sleep! Anyone else mentally torture themselves like this? I’m feeling a lot tired and a lot terrified! Claire x

The sun is shining.  Winter boots are gathering dust.  Toe nails are painted.  Flip flops are on.  Don’t look up though, my feet are the only part of me that is Summer ready!  My friend Claire, we worked together too many years to mention ago, is guesting here today to share some great tips to help me, you and everyone who is already missing the comfy, cosy, cover all attire of the Winter months.  So if shedding some pounds is on your wish list, read on…

Three top tips guaranteed to help you lose weight for summer

In my experience of working with clients to lose weight with hypnotherapy there are three things that work for every client, regardless of their size, their goals or their dietary preferences:

1. Plan meals: take the time to plan in advance what you are going to eat for each and every meal for the week.  Use this time to eat with your imagination as well as taking time to choose foods that you enjoy, that are healthy and will nourish your body. Then you can shop for exactly what you need, keeping temptation out of your cupboards. You’ll also look forward to each and every meal knowing you’ve got something delicious coming soon.
2. Devise success strategies: we all have our weaknesses – for some of it’s a particular time of day (when the kids are having their tea I can’t help but eat their leftovers, for example) for others it might be a particular food (chocolate) – and developing strategies to get you past your weak moments is critical to success. Replacing habits that keep you fat for habits that’ll keep you slim – for example, have a herbal tea if you want chocolate, Yogi tea does one called ‘choco’.
3. Enjoy your food: it might seem really obvious but you have to enjoy what you eat, life will be miserable if you don’t. And if you’re miserable or feel deprived you won’t stick with a way of eating in the long term! And if you really enjoy your food you’ll feel much more satisfied too.

Hypnotherapy works by making the unconscious conscious so it stops mindless eating.  The three points outlined above help you take control of what you eat, when you eat and how you eat. And what you’ll find is that even though you are eating less you think you’re eating more … and you’ll enjoy every mouthful!  How does it get it any better than that.

If you’d like to know more about hypnotherapy to help you lose weight contact Claire Benson on 07961 317 251 or email info@unstuck-thinking.co.uk

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