A Humdrum Mum

With my mum. X

With my mum. X

Adam Ant & the Good, the Mad & the Lovely Posse 9 November 2012 Portsmouth Pyramids This is the third time I've seen Adam Ant. Perhaps that might explain why we were late to the gig - missing the first two songs! Or maybe it was trying to down my last gin (on an empty stomach) in the pub beforehand, and the trek across Southsea Common? We entered to Beat My Guest, having missed Press Darlings and Dog Eat Dog. I can still remember Dog eat Dog from the first time, so I didn't feel too bad. The first gig was at the Wedgewood Rooms, a more intimate venue, 18 months ago, booked by us when his tour was first announced. With trepidation, we turned up along with the Southsea punk intelligentsia. There was a lot of love for Adam that night in the audience. Adam and the Ants were the first group I adored, as an impressionable 10 year old in 1981 playing Kings of the Wild Frontier over and over again, idolising this Prince Charming. I didn't care as much for later hits...

I'm so cross. (*pouting and arms folded) I had this great idea to edit an interview from GOOP curator Gwynneth Paltrow with my own take on it. How she thinks we're spending our next holiday in The Hamptons, or weekend even; how we can cook up macro rice flax nibbles for snacking on during the day, and the towels from Turkey that we should buy from her site, costing more than an entire bathroom refurb would. But it's been done! Admittedly it's a lot nastier than I would have written, but I would have included a lot of the same things (just in a nicer way). There is a lot of commenting that I don't agree with. Well I might but I certainly wouldn't put it in print. So the moral of the story is - do your research before you plan to post something! For those of you "in awe" of the wife of the most boring group in the whole world, it's http://videogum.com/263061/holy-shit-gwyneth-paltrow-gives-helpful-advice-to-busy-working-moms-like-herself/web...

Today I made a delicious lamb cobbler, the first time a cobbler has worked for me (in my oven). Friends visited us during a walk and despite being in my pyjamas with not even a washed face, let alone hair, I was able (when Mr Humdrum returned from shopping) to offer them a slice of chocolate and beetroot cake, fresh from the farmers' market. There is one week until the end of this half-term, and it's taken me these seven weeks to feel satisfied with the landscape of my week. When I have time to cook a more challenging meal, when I need to rustle up something quick (before swimming and after Park Wednesday), where to stop off on the way home from school for veg/milk/library books to save me going out after the school run, and short cuts to make life easier (chippy after football on Fridays). All this organisation makes for a more relaxed Humdrum. And that cake was so delicious, I think I'll have another slice while Mr Humdrum is snoozing.

(The return of Humdrum. Let's not get too excited about this, I've been gone for just over two months, although still blogging on my son's (private) site. I've enjoyed not feeling stressed about not posting ... but as work isn't stressful anymore, I feel I might - just might - be able to cope with a post every now and then. Let's see how it goes, shall we?) "From one extreme to another" captures two articles from opposing websites - this week Femail (the Daily Mail "females" pages) -v- Goop (a website "curated" by that well known mum-from-the-block, Gwynneth Paltrow).  Femail has always had a special place in my heart, namely it causes my heart to beat really fast in ANGER and DISGUST at what the Daily Mail is finding newsworthy and appropriate to print. Fast forward a few years, switch jobs and go onto blood pressure tablets, and it no longer angers me quite so much. It saddens me and worries me more. But still I read it ev...

Today I had a breakthrough in the shower! No, I didn't kick in the shower door, I had a brainwave. For ages now, I'd been going through this cycle - annoyance that I hadn't blogged; guilt that I hadn't read anyone else's blog and understanding of the sense of reciprocity and community in the blogging world. I'd been feeling that I couldn't really write what I wanted to write. This is partly because I'm not an anonymous blogger, my family and friends all know who I am; partly because I have to be careful not to write too much about life as a teaching assistant; and partly because I've been looking for a different way to write. I have found more satisfaction with the debate on Facebook than just writing a blog post. So my brainwave was a plan to put the Humdrum Mum blog on hold for 6 months to see how I feel and how things have changed in that time, and in the meantime I will be using my Facebook page, A Humdrum Mum, to continue noticing and comment...