On Saturday I went to the Good Food Show in Birmingham.

I took my Mum along and look who we bumped into in the backstage area…..

Me and Mum with Gordon Ramsay

He was really nice and very chatty… and he didn’t swear at us once! : )  we even got a hug and a kiss too!

We also got to meet some other foodie celebs…..

My Mum with the Hairy Bikers

The presenters of Masterchef and Mum's friend.

Next month (November) see’s the 1st and 3rd birthdays of my 2 children. There’s only 6 days apart between the dates so it’ll be a hectic few weekends of cake, fruit shoots and general hyper-active chaos.

For the last few years I’ve been meaning to get a homemade birthday card read out on the TV  but one thing or another (ie a new child last year!) let it slip down my list of priorities.

This year though I’ve been super organised and today posted off 2 homemade birthday cards to Cbeebies (BBC) and Milkshake (Channel 5). They recommend 1 month in advance and there’s no guarantee that they’ll get shown so it’s a bit of a gamble.

Below is the artwork for Abbie’s. This ‘concept’ is based on the lovable fun that is ‘In the night garden’. As you can see, Abbie’s photo is inside the Ninky-Nonk with Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy waving from above but I guess that was obvious to you all!

Hopefully revealed in a months time on Cbeebies

Next up is Joe’s card. Sent to Channel 5′s pre-school rival to Beebies… Milkshake.

Hopefully revealed in a months time on Milkshake

‘My thinking’ behind this piece of artwork shows Joe as Fireman Sam, in the company of Peppa Pig and that ol’ favorite Thomas.

So all I have to do now is wait a month with my V+ poised to record and hopefully this will go national. If not I vow to only ever be watch ITV and Channel 4 for the rest of my life!

I’ve lived in Bury for 10 years now & in this time I’d never been to Gigg Lane to see Bury FC play. Well until this Saturday that is… Now that we’ve taken up a sponsorship with Bury for this their 125th Anniversary season frankly I’d ran out of excuses. Saturday was the start of the Football League season & we, my son Ben & I, couldn’t resist the home game against Bournemouth.

Ben & Robbie the Bobbie

What a tremendous experience it turned out to be for both of us. Many thanks were due to Peter Young, Commercial Manager at Bury FC, who kindly had Executive tickets & passes to the ‘Legends Suite’ waiting for us with Lynne at Reception. We had a superb view of a competitive first half that ultimately saw the visitors take a 0-2 lead. Ben was really taken by the Bury mascot, Robbie the Bobbie, & we managed to get a pitchside photo with him at half-time. Although he was a little confused to start with. Ben spent a good amount of the first half trying find out the wherabouts of Bubbles the Bear & Herbie the Hammer! Pretty understandable really considering Ben had only ever been to West Ham before & they are often provide the most memorable performance, certainly in Ben’s opinion & unfortunately sometimes mine.

This won’t be our only visit to Gigg Lane this season. All eyes will be on Tuesday’s cup match versus West Brom particularly with game being broadcast live on Sky Sports… half an eye on the game & half to see whether our pitchside Cuckoo billboard makes an appearance on the telly.

She’d probably still get a quicker time than Ben Nam…

Baby Duke Darke

These helpful tips are going to be handy for me to refer to in the next few weeks or so:

Maaammmm…mmmaaaa…mmmmaaammmaa

My son spoke his first audible word to me today… it made me happy