ManicMammy’s Blog

I first spotted these on the Dragons’ Den TV programme a year or so ago. Unfortunately the Dragons didn’t think the idea was a good one but I thought it was excellent. So many times in my yoof after a night out, I’d ended up walking home in bare feet when unable to catch a taxi and my high heels had gotten just too sore to wear.

As you can see, its basically a pair of pumps that fold into a small pouch which you keep in your handbag. This pouch when opened tranforms into a bag to carry your high heels in, whilst you wear the flat pumps. Brilliant idea.

Unfortunately nights out in high heels are few and far between these days, so its taken my ages to try them out. Last night we bussed it into Cork and at the end of the night bussed it back to Bandon. Then the walk home greeted us. I dumped the high wedges into the bag and put on my little pumps. The walk then was no problem.

The pouches and pumps are available in 4 colours and a range of sizes as can be seen on the Tipsy Feet website.

This is the Masterchef I want to see. Forget the amateurs and the celebrities, I don’t want to see mediocre cheffing, I want to see professionals who have passion for food, talent for cooking and can inspire me.

This short series came to a close last night with Derek from Scotland the deserved winner. From his initial appearance it was obvious that he had real talent. Though as the series continued and the contestants were whittled down to the final three, there was a brief moment where I thought that Murray was going to steal the title from him. There was obviously no love lost between them and Murray’s insistance to go solo and not ask for help when the 3 finalists were preparing food for 30 Michelin starred chefs probably was a factor in his downfall - teamwork,  I would think is a major requirement in a professional kitchen.

Overall the series was very enjoyable. The standard of cooking was excellent. In particular the work that went into the meal for the Michelin chefs stood out. It was immense, intricate and a credit to the contestants that they survived! Though I would have preferred more food challenges where the chefs are given a set number of ingredients and have to create a dish.

The replacement of John Torrode by Michel Roux Jr. was definitely a good idea. Though Gregg Wallace seemed to flounder beside Michel. His opinion of any of the food he tasted after Michel tended just to be “what he said”. Michel’s critique tended never to be all negative, he could find something in most dishes to praise and encourage the chefs.

Fingers crossed the BBC will drop the celebrity and amateur masterchefs and continue this series.

Via Blair and Conor, I’m loving this website. Mixes as many cowbells  and as much Christopher Walken dialogue as you desire to the mp3 of your choice.

I went with Kate Bush’s Experiment IV and I’m liking the result. Whatcha think?

So we’re back from the first official proper 2 week family holiday evah. It was fabulous despite the initial mistake we made of presuming the 7 of us would get some decent sleep together in one cabin on Cork-Roscoff ferry. No hope!

Despite this we landed in France all excited at 7am on a Sunday morning and drove to the La Grande Metairie campsite. Thankfully, we arrived there in just under 3 hours. Yep I was driver’s map reader and I blame google maps for our minor diversions. Its located very near the town of Carnac which is on the coast with a lovely beach.

The campsite was brilliant. We had hired a 3 bedroomed mobile home with additional baby cot. It worked out well for us. The decking with seating and table definitely made it more spacious and most nights, depending on the weather, we could sit, read or play cards outside.

The first attraction we encountered was the mini farm. The enclosure held a number of kid goats and goats, a wild pig, some llamas, ducks, geese and swans. Our gang loved the kid goats and feeding them leaves each time we passed.

The swimming pool area was great with a variety of depths to suit us all. The 2 smallies loved splashing around in the very shallow baby area. There was a fountain in this which gave them great amusement. In the indoor pool, the paddling area had a baby slide to keep their interest.
The outdoor pool 2 big slides were loved by Oscar who’s 9 and a good swimmer. He spend most of his time on these or persuading me and Conor to join him on them. Great fun. The middle 2 enjoyed the fun of the water rapids. Anytime we were there, the life guards were visibly keeping an eye on things.

The campsite has a huge number of activities on offer. The middle 3 loved the horse rides. You could hire the horses for 30 minutes and the parent lead the horse and child around the many lanes of the site. We all tried the table tennis, tennis, mini-golf. There was one large playground and one smaller one which had a good range of swings, seesaws, roundabouts etc. I liked the fact that these had sand underfoot. The kid’s disco every evening in the amphitheatre for a half hour was great fun. Each day there were kids’ clubs organised for the 4 year olds and older.

For the adventurous there were zip lines and climbing. Eeek!

The campsite also had the usual practical facilities of a laundry room, onsite mini-market, newsagents/gift shop, bar, cafe and restaurant.

The takeaway was also a welcomed addition for the evenings when neither of us felt like cooking. Pizzas, crepes and more available at reasonable prices. Each evening there was a special. Although hardly authentic French cuisine: lasagne, fish and chips, roast chicken, it tasted good and our gang loved it.

We were impressed with how clean everything was kept. The only minor complaint I would have was that some of the mobile homes were located very close to the campsite internal roads and the individual sites were quite compact. Thankfully we were given one on a quiet cul de sac so didn’t have the immediate worry of the toddler running out into the path of a car.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this campsite as an ideal location for a great family holiday. As its in Brittany, the weather was never too hot or too sunny. Our 5 kids ranging in ages from 9 to 1 year old all loved it.