One Minute

On Monday morning at work, I received a voicemail from my dad. He was calling to tell me my mum was in hospital.
A few years ago I received a similar voicemail from him, that time my mum was in intensive care after having a heart attack when coming round from a general anaesthetic.

So obviously I was very worried and upset having received the voicemail on Monday. I left work and headed to my parents place to pick up some bits for my mum. Once I'd got them I drove to the hospital. It took me a few minutes to find where her ward was. When I did, I walked in to a sea of of blue curtains and a lot of staff around one of the beds. A nurse came over, I told her my mums name and she asked me to wait outside for a few minutes as they were working on a patient. I then realised there was something serious happening, I saw a man pacing the corridor visibly upset.
I waited quite a while before I was able to go into the ward and see my mum. She was surprised and relieved to see me. She explained that the woman in the next bed had arrived in hospital just after my mum. They'd said 'hello' to each other and shortly after her family arrived. Then at some point all of a sudden the next thing my mum noticed was doctors and nurses rushing around the lady before all the curtains around the other beds were closed. Very sadly the lady passed away. We weren't aware of this until later on though.
Whilst keeping my mum company I thought and reflected. I thought about how day to day life is taken for granted by myself, by others. I saw the amazing jobs the nurses were doing of taking care of the patients.
In moments like those you really see how life is so precious. One minute we can be here and the next minute, be gone. Situations such as this put things in perspective.
Thankfully my mum is now at home and doctors couldn't see a problem with her heart. I need to remember not to take things for granted.

What has made you reflect?
                                                           

The Ordinary Moments #12 First Shoes

Blurry as someone was keen to test out their new shoes!

It's been a while since I've posted an Ordinary Moments post. After declaring I would be more on top of getting them done, it's been a massive fail. I have been getting bogged down with work and other bits and pieces which has made me very unorganised on my blog.

Any-hoo, on Friday I bought Eliot his first pair of 'proper' shoes, so I guess this an 'extraordinary' ordinary moment because it's not everyday you buy your little one their first pair of shoes but they're a necessity.

It wasn't planned, I was out shopping with my mum and as there were sales I thought I'd take advantage and grab a bargain. The shoes had to be Clarks. I remember getting my feet measured as a child and trying on new shoes in Clarks. I want the same for Eliot, the half sizes, the width fittings. Basically getting a good fit, good quality shoe!

We headed into a shop that sold Clarks shoes and Eliot had his feet measured, he was actually a lot more co-operative than I thought he would be whilst they were measured. The mini tantrums began when I was trying to get him to have a wander in a pair and he wanted to go in another direction.

I went with a pair of Clarks Doodle shoes that were in the sale, I think they look very cute!

 

Linking up with The Ordinary moments



Baby/Toddler Boy Clothes Haul

Eliot was a very lucky boy on his 1st Birthday and received lovely gifts from family and friends. I've done a vlog to share the clothes that he was bought...I love a clothes haul! I'm totally 'vlog bombed by one of my city kitties, Coco!

Anarkali Indian Restaurant REVIEW

 

 

 A few Thursdays ago, we were lucky enough to have a dinner date at The Anarkali Indian Restaurant in Hammersmith West London.

Indian is one of my absolute fave cusines, I've been chowing down on Indian food for as long as I can remember!

On arrival I informed the waiter we had a table booked, I wasn't entirely sure he'd heard what I'd said. We were shown to a table and started browsing the menu over poppadums' and chutney.

 

In my opinion you can't do an Indian without poppadums', they are a staple part of an Indian meal. I was pleasantly surprised that there were six different chutneys/dips to try, I find most Indian restaurants usually have four. All tasted great but the lime pickle was probably my fave, I do love a bit of spice!

 

I decided not to opt for a starter as I find Indian quite filling and I waned to ensure there was plenty of room for my main. The OH went for Prawn Puree for his starter.

It was presented nicely and my OH said he enjoyed the flavours but started to feel full fairly quickly. I did warn him that puree dishes are filling!

For my main course I ordered Vegetable Thali. If you're not familiar with 'Thali' dishes they give a little taster of a few dishes along with rice and naan. Here's what I got to try out, onion bhaji, sag paneer, aloo gobi, tarka daal and bhindi bhaji. I loved trying out the varied selection and would definitely recommend it!

My OH commented on how it didn't look like there was much food but believe me there was plenty and I couldn't finish it! I recommend trying a Thali as it enables you to try more than a couple of things, perhaps dishes you haven't tasted before or if Indian cusine is new to you, Thali is a good start! Anarkali also serve a meat version too for those of you that like meat in every dinner.

My other half opted for lamb passanda, a mildly spiced dish, he chose special fried rice and sag aloo to accompany it. When the meal arrived mushroom fried rice had been brought by mistake, the staff were apologetic and very swiftly served the special fried rice my OH had ordered. He enjoyed trying dishes that he wasn't familiar with and exploring the flavours.
We were both way too full for pudding so we asked for the bill. When it arrived I quickly realised that I hadn't been heard when we arrived. We were expecting the drinks to be on the bill but the food had also been added. A bit of an embarrassing situation but it was rectified quickly, even though the staff appeared to have no idea we were meant to be there that evening.

Overall we had an enjoyable date night at the Anarkali restaurant. The atmosphere was pleasant and the staff were attentive. There is a large selection of dishes to choose from that will suit everyone's spice palette, from mild to very hot.

* We received a free meal in exchange for a review.  All views are entirely my own

 

 

Eliot's 1st Birthday

Eliot turned a whole year old on Thursday 26th June, I thought I'd share how we celebrated!

 

The day started off with poo! We went into his room singing happy Birthday, when the OH opened the blind and we were greeted by Eliot and a nice lump of poo next to him! Typically that is the first time his nappy has exploded in the cot, I'm just thankful he didn't get his hands in it and smear it everywhere!

 



We'd got his presents all ready for him the night before, along with a few balloons. He didn't have a clue what was going on when we brought him in to the living room and kitchen. Still he didn't waste any time and got into the ball bit to play and had a quick go on his trike which his Nana and Grandad bought.

 We opened some of his other gifts over breakfast but he didn't really get the whole 'open and discover' aspect and ended up pushing them on the floor.
After breakfast we got ready and headed out for the day, Eliot rode his new trike and first stop was modelling an outfit for  When We Were Little. It was for their Spring/Summer 2015 collection. He looked adorable in the clothes he wore and I can't wait to see the photos! 
Next we went for a spot of lunch at a chain called The Banana Tree. Eliot was starting to get tired as his nap is usually before or after lunch, it was at this point I realised I'd made a huge boo boo! Napping would be difficult/near impossible on his trike, which meant we were going to end up with one cranky little birthday boy...massive fail! However we decided to carry on with our plans and headed to Battersea Park. My poor boy kept failing asleep in his trike, so we thought it would be a good idea to park up the trike and get him out to sleep in my arms. He woke straight away and refused to go to sleep. Admitting defeat we went into the play area and he spent a fair bit of time on one of his favourite things, the swing!

After that we popped into Battersea Park Zoo, Eliot loves animals so we thought it would be an ideal birthday visit. It was very quiet which was perfect for us to stroll and around and get a good look at  all the animals. Eliot enjoyed watching all of them apart from the pigs who were grunting noisily. He started crying so we had to move on swiftly. The zoo hosts a huge sand play area, Eliot hadn't experienced sand before so when we plonked him down he was a bit unsure. However it wasn't long before he started crawling around to explore. It was then time to start our long walk home! (see the video at the bottom for more animal antics!)

Watching the Meerkats with daddy



Squirrel Monkey

Back at home we had dinner and celebrated our boys special day with a cake.

 

A couple of days later we had a small  bee themed party at home with some family and friends. I made a simple yellow and black dot '1' cake which turned out ok and everyone said they liked it, although my dad did comment it was 'a little dry'. Pah! I'm just pleased it turned out alright. Getting the icing over it was the trickiest bit and it wasn't anywhere near perfect but it just about passed if you didn't look closely!

 

Food Table

 



I made my own extremely simple party bags to fit in with the theme, I got the idea from good old Pinterest! All I used were yellow paper bags, bee themed stickers and washi tape, all purchased on ebay.

Overall I think my little bee thoroughly enjoyed his celebrations, even if he did have no idea what was going on.

How did/will you celebrate your little ones 1st Birthday?