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It's been fairly up and down this week. It was Anthony's aunt's funeral on Monday which was really sad. We had only seen her a few days before and it still doesn't seem quite possible.

In work I had a Public Service Board Scrutiny meeting and a bunch of party stuff. I was supposed to be going through the agenda ready for Children and Young People Committee but, it turns out, most of the data we want to use is embargoed until the end of January so we've had to postpone it.

On Tuesday I went into school to see how the mindfulness champion scheme has been getting on. It's been a cluster project with a couple of other local primaries and Croesyceiliog Comprehensive, and it's really great to see more focus on resilience with kids. I mean, it's all well and good to leave school with good paper grades, but if you can't cope with the workplace then the education system has still failed you imo.

There was a public info meeting on Northville underpass too. I couldn't make it because I was in other meetings, but apparently there was pushback over the lack of consultation. Ideally it would have gone through the process better but, the way things have turned out (basically if they widen it the road will likely collapse), I think it's just about getting the hell on with it. I know some people think a bridge going over would be better but, realistically, imagine how big it would have to be to have a disability compliant ramp - and how it would just become another congregation point with the ability to cause RTAs...

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Deal of the Week -

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Another full week of posts! I reviewed Small Wonders Miniatures and Cashback Earners, posted a lyric sheet for Buwch Goch Gota, and an A-Z of My Favourite Britcoms for World Belly Laugh Day. I also wrote an opinion piece on Women in the Workplace inspired by the tradwives story that went viral last week - basically, half of all working age women were in paid employment in 1959 - and a 30 Day Blogging Challenge for Gaia Online.

The new Tots100 update came out on Friday too and I was really (pleasantly) surprised to find I'd gone up 20+ places to #56. It'll probably slip down a bit over the next few days, but it's by far my best result yet.

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Song of the Week -

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It's been a fairly quiet week, really. I forgot to take my tablets on Sunday night and, wow, I won't be making that mistake again. I was so sick on Monday. Luckily it had mostly worn off by the time I had to go to Children and Young People scrutiny pre-agenda on Tuesday.

The actual meeting was on Wednesday morning - you can watch the recording on the webcast archive. We looked at our LAC (looked after children) numbers and mitigation measures; Welsh Government have asked authorities to set targets to bring the numbers down, but Torfaen and a few others declined. I think it comes from a good place, but I don't think setting targets is the best way to go about it. Keeping kids safe is really not something you want to slap a quota on!

On Thursday there was a budget scrutiny meeting, looking at the money saving measures proposed by the various service areas. I didn't have any work on Friday so I spent the day doing some preliminary research on Daniel Morgan. He was a Scotland Yard detective involved in lots of the big Victorian cases, but began his working life in Cwmbran Tinworks. :) After school I took Marianna into town to go to the library and spend the £10 Claire's voucher I won the other day.

Saturday I spent most of the day listing more stuff on eBay. If you're looking for Re-ment and Megahouse miniatures, check out my listings HERE.

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Deal of the Week -

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On the blog I wrote about Kid Inventors' Day, National Pothole Day, my top hits of 2015, and a guide to the Capsule Chix dolls. I also did a collaborative post on call centre waiting times and one about the reply Marianna received from her Christmas card to the Queen.

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Song of the Week -

Hollywood -  Marina and the Diamonds

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Did you know that anyone can write to the Queen? And that if you do, you'll get a reply back from her. Well, not her personally, but one of her ladies-in-waiting. Apparently the Queen does get shown the majority of the post she receives each day, especially letters and pictures from children, and then her staff get to work answering them all, sometimes incorporating her personal comments.

Back in November, Marianna decided she wanted to send a Christmas card to the Queen and - more importantly - the corgis! Actually there are only the two dorgis (corgi / dachshund crosses) left now, called Vulcan and Candy. So Marianna drew a picture of the Queen walking them, in full royal regalia (and upside down), of course, and wrote a little note to say Merry Christmas.



I stuck in a label with Marianna's name, age, and address because even with the best will in the world reception handwriting is, er, difficult to decipher! Then we just had to wait a few weeks before a letter landed on the mat with a very regal looking crest on it. Marianna was so excited to get home from school and find a letter addressed to her.


The reply came from Sandringham House and was written by one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, Jennifer Gordon-Lennox. It's a really sweet keepsake to put in Marianna's reception year memory folder, and - along with the Royal Mail reply from Santa - has been really helpful in explaining to Marianna how the postal system works. Marianna was so pleased with it she even took it into school to show her teacher. :)



Definitely worth the price of a stamp!

If you fancy getting your own royal reply, send a letter to:

Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA

In fact, you can write to Royals of all varieties. There are even websites devoted to the hobby of collecting royal responses. Check out the blogs Gert's Royals and Writing to Royals for some more inspiration.

Today is Kid Inventors' Day, celebrating the accomplishments of kid inventors. So, in honour of the day, here are five things you probably didn't know were invented by children...

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#5. Trampoline

Gymnast George Nissen was 16 when he came up with the idea of the trampoline. He built the first prototype in 1934, aged 20, and by the 1940s they were in mass production. In 2000 Nissen, then 86, got to see a dream come true at the Sydney Summer Olympics when trampolining was included in the Games for the first time.

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#4. Glo-Sheet

Becky Shroeder was just 12 when she invented the Glo-Sheet, aka a phosphorescent sheet which you put under paper, enabling you to read and take notes in the dark. The patent made her the youngest female inventor in US history, and the device was sold to everyone from toy stores to NASA.

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#3. Earmuffs

Chester Greenwood was 15 when he came up with the idea for earmuffs. By 19 he had a factory to manufacture them, an industry that would go on to employ over 60 people for decades. Greenwood actually invented a whole bunch of stuff, usually improvements on existing ideas, and in 1977 the state of Maine declared December 21st would henceforth be Chester Greenwood Day. His hometown of Farmington celebrate it with a full blown parade on the first Saturday of each December.

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#2. Braille

Louis Braille was just five when he lost the sight in both eyes, the result of an accident followed by infection. Determined not to let it affect his studies, Braille worked on improving and adapting the touch reading systems developed by Haüy and the French military. By 15 the first version of Braille was complete, and Louis would spend the next few decades simply refining the system.

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#1. Thermoelectric Flashlight

Ann Makosinski is a Canadian inventor specialising in alternative power sources. At 14 she invented a flashlight powered by the heat of a human hand, and followed it up with the eDrink mug which can charge a phone using the heat from a hot drink. Expect to hear of more from her in the years to come!

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Have I missed out any cool inventions? Let me know in the comments! :)

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It feels like everything is completely back to normal after the holiday season now. Marianna is back at school and has had her very first reading book sent home. I had a governor training session at Maendy, and a full governors' meeting at Croesyceiliog. I'm on the headteacher appointment panel there so it's gearing up to be a busy time.

At work we had an extraordinary council meeting this week, plus T22 scrutiny and planning for another bunch of meetings next week. It's like I've never been away.

I spent quite a bit of time this week sorting through old books, clothes, and toys in readiness for a trip to Cash 4 Clothes and the charity depot on Friday... Then the clutch went on my parents' van so that was the end of that plan. At least the sorting part of it is done now, I guess.

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Deal of the Week -

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On the blog I wrote about my top five houseplants for Houseplant Appreciation Day, an introduction to the Gener8 Ads browser extension, and a review of Sally Reader Miniatures. I also wrote about my one woman campaign to get magnifying glasses in supermarkets, Kwik Fit's research into the true cost of running a car, and the Morse code alphabet for Learn Your Name In Morse Code Day on Saturday.

The January Tots100 update came out this week too and at first I was at #70! Then it readjusted and it went down to #81... Still, even with the drop it's my best ranking yet. Fingers crossed it's a good omen of things to come.

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Song of the Week -

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It was Marianna's fifth birthday this week - it's so incredible to think I have a five year old child already! We asked her what she wanted to do and her decision was just a tea party at home, so that's what happened. Then on Friday she ended up living out one of our suggestions, and went to see Frozen 2 at the cinema with her cousin.

Yesterday Anthony's mum and dad took her to Cardiff Museum to see Dippy the Dinosaur so, all in all, she's had a pretty full week.

My own hasn't been that exciting, to be honest. Food shopping, cleaning, advice surgery, a trip to the DWP assessment centre to support my mum. Thrill a minute, you know the kind of thing. My head feels... different. I wouldn't say well, exactly, but much less of the depression fog I had while on the sertraline. I think I will probably still need the dosage upped, but I'm not even going to attempt to get an appointment at this time of year - it's a 3-4 week waiting list when we're not smack in the middle of a flu season exacerbated by the NHS running out of vaccine at the end of October.

On the telly we watched The Limehouse Golem for the first time (predictable but no less enjoyable for it) and the new Dracula series. I thought the first two episodes were hammy but fun, in the true tradition of British costume drama, but the third... If they had to go modern day, I think they'd have been better off spending ep 3 moving through the 20th century chronicling the rise of the Johnathan Harker foundation, then ending again with the beach scene. Suggesting that secret govt affiliated agencies care a damn about human rights violations was where it got too absurd and it couldn't come back from that!

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Deal of the Week -

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On the blog I posted my 2019 Comping Year In Review, 2020 Comping Wishlist, and my New Year's Resolutions for 2020. I also posted a birthday playlist and giveaway in honour of Marianna's birthday. Finally, for my Friday Five series, I wrote a post about my top five gemstones.

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Song of the Week -

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In honour of Marianna's fifth birthday, here are my top ten favourite tracks about that special day...

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Happy Birthday - Altered Images (1981)

Okay, so it's hardly lyrical genius this, but it's still a new wave gem. It peaked at #2 in the UK and South Africa, #3 in Ireland, as well as making the top 40 in Sweden and Australia.

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In Da Club - 50 Cent (2003)

This is a song that transports me right back to my schooldays. Apparently it was originally slated for D12 but when they were having trouble finding a direction for it, 50 Cent just laid it down in a couple of takes over the drum beat. It spent nine weeks as Billboard #1 and peaked at #3 in the UK - and inspired 50 Pence to record the very British In The Pub.

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Pity Party - Melanie Martinez (2015)

Melanie Martinez, an American singer who got her break on the US version of The Voice, riffs on Lesley Gore's 1963 classic in this ode to sucky birthdays everywhere. I love the video so much, it's just full of cute 50s kitsch!

"Did my invitations disappear,
Why'd I put my heart on every cursive letter?
Tell me why the hell no one is here,
Tell me what to do to make it all feel better."

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Happy Birthday To You (Another Year Older) - Larry Rice (2007)

Nothing like a bit of fiddle on your birthday! :)

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Unhappy Birthday - The Smiths (1987)

Who hasn't had a birthday fitting of a Smiths soundtrack? Even if it's the best birthday ever, there's always room for a little Smiths misery.

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Happy Birthday - Flyside (2005)

I had never heard of this before I went looking for birthday themed songs for this list, but by all accounts it was a pretty big hit in some territories. (E.g. #1 in the Czech Repubic, #3 in Sweden, #4 in Germany.) It's a really moving track about looking back on abortion and wondering who the child might have been if they could have gone ahead with the pregnancy; the t.A.T.u sample as back-up vocals sounds super haunting too. Give it a listen!

"I paid for the murder before they determined the sex,
Choosing our life over your life meant your death...
I think about it every year, so I picked up a pen.
Happy birthday, I love you whoever you would've been."

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Day You Were Born - Frances England (2013

This is such a beautiful song. ♥️

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Happy Birthday To Me - The Vandals (1995)

The Vandals give us a celebratory song with a good dollop of punk sensibility... Definitely not one for younger listeners!

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It's My Party - Lesley Gore (1963)

The original peaked at #9 in the UK, but the 1981 cover by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin stayed at the top spot for four weeks. I always preferred the 60s version; I always got upset on my birthday as a kid, I dunno why. Maybe it was overwhelming? Or it had that New Year's Eve feel of looking back on a year that could have been more fruitful? Either way, the idea that I could do what I wanted on my birthday, even if it was cry and be anti-social, really spoke to me!

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It's My Birthday - will.i.am ft. Cody Wise (2014)

The track might have been panned by the critics but it (deservedly imo) hit the #1 spot in the UK, earworming it's way into the nation's heads. Elsewhere it didn't do so well; it peaked at #4 in Australia, #16 in New Zealand, #23 in Belgium, and #41 in Germany. What can I say - us Brits aren't exactly known for our sophisticated musical tastes!

"It's my birthday / It's my birthday / I'mma spend my money;
It's my birthday / It's my birthday / I'mma live my fantasy."

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