T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Okay, so we need a decent SMALL tent for such things as me going off with Guiders and for Aprilia and me going off for weekends on windy hillsides (like at the end of the month!)  the choices seem to be….

Wynnster Falcon - don’t know the name and I know I swore never to buy a tent if I didn’t know the name ever again after the last fiasco but this does look nice and roomy but is a little above what I want to spend

Vango Beta 250 - again a little more than I want to spend, and only 2 berths for that extra cash (we like 3 so that there’s a bit of space for Aprilia to flail arround in her sleep!)  but a nice big porch area for dumping wet coats etc

Vango Alpha 300 - it’s a dome, and domes are stronger, I know, but I’m not sure how much space there is outside the pod for dumping soggy stuff, but it’s much more our price range!

Vango Zetes 300 - this is looking favourite at the mo because it has a bit more porch space (but not as much as the first two) and is a price I can justify!

Arg!  like I *need* another tent….. but the Hobbit Hole is way too big really for just 2 of us and for just a few nights even though it’s been shown to be storm proof, the Outwell is lovely but I’m worried that a tall tunnel won’t take kindly to strong winds at Jan and Jonathan’s  and the old Argos one really is not fit for purpose any more since the cat ran all over it (and it leaked before then!!)

after the hilarity of me having to defend my sugaring paste from Aprilia whilst trying to wax my legs ("but mummy, it’s scrummy, can I have some in a bowl?") I gave the cheapskate cosmetics a rest.  But then decided that my gradually decreasing waistline deserved a treat to perk me up a bit.  Body scrubs being scarily expensive (especially when you have as much body to scrub as I have!) I reached for the kitchen cupboards again…..

There are loads of "recipes" on the web, most of them seem to use oats and really, I didn’t fancy trying to explain to Duke how I had blocked up the plug hole with oats in the name of getting nicer skin   so I kept looking!  I settled on one that uses coffee grounds, olive oil and brown sugar.  Sounds dreadful doesn’t it?  But I hvae to say, the bathroom smelt wonderful (you know, that fresh coffee smell?) it felt quite nice to use and this morning my skin does feel really lovely!  Felt even better for knowing that a) I had done something just for ME and b) the whole tub cost under £5 and will probably last ages so I can treat myself lots for not a lot of money

In other news, Aprilia is having a "quietly assimilating what she knows" sort of week, just lounging round doing bits and bobs then suddenly coming out with something really clever (you know, like reading big long words or telling me what 2 big numbers add up to!).  I spent a couple of hours yesterday plowing through one of my course books in the "new improved" digital audio format which is not nearly as user friendly as tapes but is much more compact being one CD rather than a box of 30 cassettes!  And we had a fab time at Rainbows doing some stuff from the Change the World Kidscape pack.  And I’ve linked to it because it’s free to download and got a lot of stuff that would be useful to other groups and families too.