A Matter of Choice

Back in the 'good old days' of blogging one of my favourite 'linky's' was Listography over at 'Kate Takes 5' ,   so I was excited to see that Kate has brought it back for a one off to celebrate her 6 year blog anniversary. It's a real blast from the past in more ways than one as we are sharing our top five blog posts of all time.  The first one was easy for me as it's always been my favourite post,  it's only a short one as it was from the real early days, and as you can tell if you read it, the days when I was at home all day with a baby! One day....   I've often thought about updating this,  to reflect the fact that one day I won't be saying 'please stop fighting,  please put your pants on,  get off your brothers head and so on,    maybe I will if I get to stop asking the boys the same question repeatedly long enough to write it! The other four posts didn't come to me as easily but it did give me a lot of enjoyment loo...

It's been a very long time since I joined in with Kate's Listography but I couldn't resist at the mention of books. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many books I've read and I have so many favourites but these are these ones which are the most memorable to me. The 'Little House' series - Laura Ingalls Wilder After reading Little House on the Praire at school, and then finding 'These Happy Golden Years at the library I was totally hooked on the story of Laura and her family.  Eventually I owned the whole set and read and re-read them for many years. I can't remember how old I was when I got rid of them but I dearly wish I'd kept them all now. Flowers In the Attic - Virginia Andrews This was the first time I realised how you (usually) ruin a very good book with a bad film.  I loved Flowers in the Attic and the rest of the series, but I sat in disbelief at the film - it wasn't even the same ending! I went on to read almost every...

It seems at the moment it's all about the photos, the blog world is full of people starting 366 projects, where they plan to take a photo each day to have a record of the year to look back on. The Boy and Me successfully completed the project last year and I did consider joining her and the others this year but as much as I love my photos I don't think I could manage to keep it up for the year.  Maybe if I was using a smartphone to take and post my photos it would be a lot easier, but the thought of using my camera, finding the lead and uploading a photo a day seems a little ambitious!  Also I didn't even take a single photo yesterday meaning I would have failed before I'd even started! Instead I think I'll be focussing more on the photo blog I started last year - Discovering Cyprus. I started with good intentions and then got a bit distracted but I will start to look back through my large collection of Cyprus photos and gradually share them with you. Talk...

Love Christmas = Love Christmas music, it's the best way to get you in the festive spirit! Growing up we had an LP (remember those? Big round black vinyl things? No, ok I'll continue) of Christmas Carols which was very nice but as I got a bit older I discovered the joy of the Christmas Song! Every year at the end of the school term there would be charity events, and own clothes days and it would all be topped off with the Sixth Form Christmas show where all the teachers would make prats of themselves for our amusement. The best bit for me was at the end when they used to play all Christmas songs and everyone would be so over excited about the holidays and what was to come. That was the start of my love of the Christmas song, now much to the disgust of my hubby who thinks they should only be played on one day I can't wait to get the Christmas CD out each year. It's a tough call but I've been trying to list my top five favourites... Well, first of all there is...

One of the things that continue to fascinate me about this blogging lark is the not just the amount of readers I have gathered along the way but also the search terms that lead people to my blog.   This weeks Listography  asks for our Top 5 Keyword searches so I couldn't resist going to find out what they were. 1. Barney / Barney & friends (and loads more Barney related phrases)   This is my highest viewed post by far, and it was a previous Listography entry - Top 5 Annoying Kids programes .  It's had over 10,000 more views than anything else! 2. What makes a house a home The second highest search at the moment, which would take you to my recent post about Leo's new 'Big boy's bedroom' 3. It's all Greek to me / Rosetta Stone (and many Rosetta Stone related terms) I've been writing about my progress learning Greek and reviewing the Rosetta Stone software. 4. Meniere's Disease This pleases me, and I hope this post may have helped som...

There is much talk at the moment in real life (well, my real life friends on facebook - does that count?) and in the blog world of the whole 'back to school/end of summer thing'.  I realise this is not going to make me very popular but this is kind of passing me by a little bit..... Summer has been here in Cyprus for a long time, not just due to the fact it hasn't rained since early May (Sorry I did warn you!) but that the schools here break up for the holidays somewhere near the beginning of June and they still haven't gone back yet. (ah now you're glad you are in the UK aren't you!)  For me, as a stay at home mum with a preschooler it makes no difference anyway.  So my summer is here to stay a while longer. This year has been a much more enjoyable summer time, I even have a tan - last year although I developed a bit of one I'd previously got more tanned on week long holidays! Although I have only sunbathed once this year we have spent a whole lot more ...

We are halfway through our holiday, (well Aaron's holiday from work but I've been calling it our holiday as it sounds more fun!)  I planned to spend less time blogging during this fortnight hence the recent guest post  and the ones coming up this week but as we are still at home I'm not doing very well at that! I've not joined in with Kate's Listography for a while but this week the theme is "What we got up to last week"  so I thought I'd share some photos of our 'holiday' so far... Building boats on the beach Making cakes! Our wedding anniversary picnic on the beach An evening drink on the Pernera beach path. Right, better get back to it, there's beers to be drunk and stuff!

The listography this week has been inspired by Christine Mosler who made the very admirable decision to travel to Mozambique to raise awareness of Save the Childrens "No child born to die' campaign. In her honour Kate is asking us to share the 'Top 5 Decision's We're Glad We Made' I'm terrible about making decisions, but strangely it's the little ones that cause me the most problems... What to eat, what to wear, whether to watch a film or not, I could go on and on. But looking back I've made some massive decisions with much less debate! Off the top of my head I can't think of any really bad decisions I've made to do with anything important, I won't give it much more thought in case I do and then I'll be annoyed! The best decisions I've ever made.... 1. Moving to Cyprus, it's only a small exaggeration if I said I've spent longer deciding on an outfit  but moving to Cyprus was without a doubt the best one I ever m...

This week Kate has asked us our Top 5 products we couldn't live without.  So here we go... 1. My laptop - without a doubt this is number one. I love blogging, keeping in touch with people in the UK and I generally watch all my tv online. Without my laptop I am not a happy bunny at all! 2. My camera - I rarely go anywhere without my camera. I've always loved photos and I was usually the one on a night out who ended up with lots of embarrassing photos of everyone. I have hundreds and hundreds of pics. Now Leo is my main photographic subject but I enjoy taking lots of photos of places out and about in Cyprus for my blog too. This where I get a bit stuck, once upon a time I'd have been able to reel off a whole long list but everything that pops into my head I could actually live without now. When we moved  we didn't have access to a lot of our things for a long time and I realised how much stuff we owned that we didn't actually need.  Ok, so had a quick l...

This week's Listography topic is 'Bad Combinations'  As we have no entered the tourist season in Cyprus there are many bad combinations to be seen everywhere. Socks and sandals - Do I really need to explain? Why do people do it? In what way do they think it looks good? Men and speedos - particularly older overweight men but I think no man (yes, that includes David Beckham) looks good in speedos. Beaches and picnics and toddlers - sounds like a good idea but it is impossible not to end up with crunchy sandwiches.  Sun and holiday makers - Lobster red is really not a good look. I know you might not see much when you get home of it but as much as you want to you cannot take a whole summers worth in 2 weeks. I can never believe the amount of people who are bright pink and STILL laying in the heat of the day! Toddlers and hangovers - I know it's been mentioned but it is the worst combination of all time so there was no way I could leave it out!  Now eve...

I've not joined in with Kate's Listography for a while but this week I absolutely had to. In tribute to the Royal Wedding this week she has asked what 5 things we would change about our wedding day .  Although I had an amazing wedding day and loved every second of it I have been saying for a few years now that I would love to go back and do it all again but change bits. 1. The dress, this is the main thing I would change. It was a lovely dress but I'd have a different style now and in some ways a lot less of it. It didn't occur to me to even try to lose some weight for the wedding and I'd love to get a wedding dress now being a size 12 rather than a size 20. I do feel a little envious when I see such lovely extravagant dresses and wish I could do it all again with something out of this world - bigger skirt, longer train etc! 2. The photos - you may have recently read how I would love to change my photos . I'd spend more as it is these that last forever. I...

I'm joining in with Kate's Listography again this week, and I must admit I got a bit excited when I saw the topic - Top 5 Pet Hates  but I've been racking my brains for ages and have only come up with 3, I think moving country may have mellowed me out a bit. I asked AJ and even he struggled! 1. Lateness, this is without a doubt my biggest pet hate. If you care about what you are meeting me for, why would you be late???  I don't do late (unless it it something beyond my control, and even then I may have already planned for something to go wrong and can get round it) In fact I hate being late so much that I am usually early, something which would possibly be on my friends list of pet hates! 2. Empty promises, this ranks very close to lateness for me. I hate it when people say they are going to do something and then don't. Time and time again I have heard 'I'll call you / Let's have a group weekend away / We'll definitely come and stay with you / of...

Ooh, tricky... this weeks list is "Top 5 favourite films" I'm not really a film lover, I do enjoy a good film but I want to know it will be good before I watch it, I hate the thought that I am wasting over an hour of my life watching some rubbish. (strange when I can happily waste hour after hour playing games on facebook!) My list is quite random, and made easier because there are hundreds of films that everyone has seen except me. So in no particular order, here are my top 5 films. 1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show - if you have been reading for a while you will know why . It's not a 'good' film on it's own, in fact its a bit odd but try watching it in full Rocky costume in a function room in the place where it was filmed with 80 odd other HUGE Rocky fans and you'll understand why it has to be the best film ever! 2. Towering Inferno - another random choice of film, probably more so as Rocky would appear in many peoples top 5, I can't i...

Love is definitely in the air, as this week Kate's Listography is helping all the men who will (hopefully) wondering what lovely things they can get their gorgeous wives and girlfriends for a Valentines gift! We don't really do Valentines in our house, I used to be very offended by this but now have been brainwashed by  agree with hubby that it's just a load of comercial rubbish and what's the point of giving each other a card/flowers etc because you 'have to' surely it's better and means more on a random day because then you are doing it because you want to.  However that does mean that you have to do romantic things throughout the year or your anti-valentine argument is rubbish..... I would like something for Valentines though.... and now I come to think of it, five things, thanks Kate! 1. A nice meal and drinks out with AJ, just the two of us . Due to a severe lack of babysitters we have not had an evening out on our own for over a year...

This week Kate asks us what out top five annoying kids programmes are, I've been reading through everyone else's lists and feeling quite grateful that we don't get most of those programmes shown on our channels, that's one benefit of our rubbish selection I suppose! Although the small selection does mean that the programmes get repeated A LOT, and by that I mean sometimes twice an hour on the BBC Entertainment Cbeebies, let me tell you that can make even the best shows   annoying.  1. Me Too - this is the most annoying programme by far. What the hell is the point of this crap! Sorry going into a bit of a rant now but this programme actually pains me to watch. It's not been on for a while and the songs will not leave my head. It is truly the worst thing I have ever seen. 2. Balamory - I've noticed this on a few peoples lists, I can only assume they haven't seen 'Me Too' as that makes Balamory look good. But that's not to say it is, and they co...

This week for the Listography link up Kate   is asking everyone what the top five things they wish they could do are. Now there are lots of things I wish I could do, some sensible, some not so much and  some not even a vague possibility but in no particular order, here are my top five. 1. Speak Greek fluently - This comes into the sensible category. I know some very basic and random bits of Greek. I know the alphabet which is a good start but not really a whole lot of help in conversation.  Leo will go to Greek nursery and school so I don't just want to know how to order a beer or ask where the beach is, I want to be fluent. 2. Swim - I can swim, if by swim you mean not drown. What I would like to be able to swim properly. I do a strange mixture of swimming strokes, a sort of front crawl with my arms and something like the breastroke moves with my legs. It works, just looks a bit odd! 3. Whistle -I don't imagine this would really change my life, or even particu...

It's list time again, this week Kate  asks us to share the Top 5 Places you have visited. I've always loved travelling so had to give this a bit of thought. When I say travelling obviously I mean travelling to nice shiny holiday destinations not packing my life in a backpack and going off on a random journey round the world, I like the sound of that but only in theory! 1. Cyprus - An obvious choice as it is now our home. If you've been reading since the start of my blog you'll know we had spent  hardly any time at all in Cyprus before we decided to move here so it's pretty lucky it has grown on me so much! The first time I walked into Larnaca airport though I felt like I had come home. Macronissos Beach 2. Cancun, Mexico -  (the Moon Palace to be more specific) This was our honeymoon destination and it was by far the nicest place I have ever stayed, it was a brilliant 2 weeks. We had a jacuzzi in our room, there were 2 swim up bars and the pool was a mil...

Last week Kate from Kate Takes 5  started a great new link up. Last week was The Top 5 Good Things about having kids.   This week she is asking us who our Top 5 Famous Dinner Party Guests would be. I've often given this a bit of thought as it's a popular question in magazines and random pub conversations. So here goes..... 1. David Tennant - haven't got to think about this one at all!  I LOVE David Tennant.  I wouldn't care if no-one else showed up the dinner party, and I wouldn't even eat all their food to save it 'going to waste' (Well I probably would, but only after David had gone) 2. Michael McIntyre - he's my new favourite comedian, and I think would make a great addition to a dinner party, I love anyone who makes me laugh and he would have me snorting unattractively into my wine. (Hmm, maybe not the best way to impress No.1) 3.John Barrowman - yes, I do have a huge fascination with Doctor Who and Torchwood, but John would be a great gu...

As someone who often says "You can never be too organised"  I'm sure it will come as no surprise to hear that I am a big fan of lists.  Shopping lists (obviously), to-do lists (have actually been known to write something on my list I've already done, yes I realise I need to get out more) and of course my favourite list so far.... my 101 in 1001 list So as you can imagine I was dancing with joy  quite impressed when I saw that Kate at Kate Takes 5  has started a new linky thing. She has started off by asking what everyone thinks are the top 5 things about having kids. Some are very similar to others lists but I suppose that's because they are the best things! So, in no particular order my top five good things about having kids are....... 1.  Christmas becomes Christmas again! I've always loved Christmas but it is undoubtedly  better with kids. Not just the day but the whole run up especially as they grow up and appreciate a visit to Santa (...