Luna Cinema, the country’s leading open-air cinema, has some brilliant movies being shown over the summer at venues all over the UK. From new films like A Star Is Born, The Greatest Showman, Aquaman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary Poppins Returns and The Favourite to classics like Dirty Dancing, The Breakfast Club and Moulin Rouge! Here’s a taste of what’s on over the next couple of months around Surrey and London.
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When we relocated from London to Surrey in 2010, one of the first things we did was to knock down the wall between our kitchen and dining room. I was pregnant with POD at the time and we needed a space that worked for us a family.
If you’re looking for delectable chocolate, Hotel Chocolat provides exactly that. From boxed chocolates, sleeksters and H-boxes to selectors, batons and slabs, you can expect melt in the mouth chocolates that are simply exquisite. We’re especially fond of the salted caramel, coffee chocolate and boozy chocolate varieties. But the Hotel Chocolat range is broad spanning from chilli chocolate, caramel chocolate and cookie chocolate to fruity chocolate, cocoa gin chocolate (yes really) and raspberry chocolate. Plus there’s a choice of scrumptious milk chocolate, deliciously dark chocolate and silky smooth white chocolate. We’re delighted to give one lucky reader the chance to win a Hotel Chocolat Christmas Luxe gift box worth over £35.
When POD was asked if she’d like to go on a litter pick, her immediate response was “are we doing it for the environment?”. Even at the age of seven, she understands we all have a responsibility to look after our planet. POD has seen videos at her school of islands with more ocean waste than fish. She’s seen litter discarded on the street and wonders why it’s not been put it in a bin or taken home.
The Blue Planet effect and the subsequent war on plastic have made everyone aware of the damage we’re causing to our environment. Its currently estimated around 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste will be in landfill or our natural environment by 2050 if we don’t act now.
We lived in London for many years before relocating to Surrey when I was pregnant with POD. Much of our time was spent in South London and we have fond memories of the decade or so we spent there. Those pre-parenting days seem such a long time ago, given we’ve been a three for 7 years, but we had some great times. Borough Market was only a few miles away from where we lived and a fairly regular haunt so it always feels special heading back there. That said, London’s oldest food market IS special and one of the most well-known food markets in the world. It’s also famed for being the location of Bridget’s flat, located above The Globe, in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Continue Reading…
POD seems to have grown up so much over the summer holidays and not just in height. In just a few days time, she starts Junior School which I still haven’t got my head around. That said, it’s looking to be a fairly smooth transition as she’ll be joining many of her friends there. The Junior School feeds in from the primary she was at so it was a relief when she secured a place. I suspect we would have had to move house otherwise.
You may remember just over a year ago the Premier League launched Primary Stars. It was a wonderful campaign to be involved with at it is a curriculum-based initiative designed to inspired children (aged 5 to 11) across PE and Sport, English, Maths and PSHE. The Primary Stars programme is backed by over a hundred Premier League and English Football Clubs along with industry experts like Edcoms, the PSHE Association and the National Literacy Trust, giving children the opportunity to learn, get active and develop life skills. The resources are free for teachers to use.
Those of you that have been following PODcast for a while will recall our previous school place challenges. Back in 2015, we’d expected POD to join the local school when she started reception. Everyone told us we’d get a place and we’d have nothing to worry about given the school was just up the road. We were well within the catchment too. As it happens, we were all wrong as POD didn’t get offered a place. We appealed against the decision but it was a battle we were never going to win. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
Everyone loves Disney, don’t they? We certainly do so when the Disney Collection Plushes arrived, you can just imagine the excitement. POD had carefully opened the white box and peeled back the tissue paper to reveal Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Eeyore, Simba, Bambi and one of the dalmatians. There was a squeal before she announced she adored them all.
We all know The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the adventurous but somewhat mischievous hero created by Beatrix Potter. The book was an instant bestseller when it was originally published in 1901 and it continues to delight generations of readers.
