Dressing up to sit in the dark

My New Year's Resolution was to date my fantastic husband much more this year.  So, at 6.30pm on Saturday I started the delicate dance that is getting the gothlings to bed while getting dressed up.

At 7.15 we left the house, and our two children mostly in bed with a sensible grown up in charge.I was wearing my behaving badly shoes, a pencil skirt, purple lace body stocking and a little military jacket.  Add to this a full face of make up, carefully chosen jewellery and a very cute beaded hair band (my new favourite accessory).  I was Dita Von Teese incarnate.

Where were we going?  The cinema! and I was about to sit in the dark with my husband.  Part of me wondered why I was bothering.  Did I really need to wear stockings and high heels to go out with the man who sees me in my dressing gown every morning, where no one would see me.

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!  After 6 years of marriage, 2 children and many trials and stresses I want my darling man to know that he is still married to "a woman who cares about herself".  I want to be able to walk down the street with my head held high looking fabulous.

So for 4 hours I looked dead glam with GothDad on my arm, then I came home, took it all off and made a bottle for Bat Boy.  3 hours later I was up for the night feed in the dressing gown, but I still felt glamorous.

Movie watching

I've just watched 'Frequently Asked Questions in Time and Space' from the BBC.  It was bloody GENIUS.  Exactly what makes British film making so good.  Low key, excellently written, based around the pub (big nod to Shaun of the Dead there) and fantastic talent.  It isn't available on the iPlayer unfortunately but you can buy it on Amazon for just £5.43, with free delivery - BARGAIN.

8 mummy uses for baby stuff

We all have houses full of baby crap.  They are so small but need so much stuff.  Well fear not, you too can benefit from all this stuff.  Behold, 8 things you can do with your kid's stuff.

1.  Bonjella - teething gel.  This works great on burns.  It will numb pain and help healing.  Obviously the first aid stuff about running under cold water for ages still holds, but this stuff will help no end 30 mins or so later.

2 & 3. Sudacrem - nappy rash cream. This lovely white cream, beloved of sore botties world wide, is a godsend for your skin too.  It will help clear annoying spots with it's antiseptic and healing properties and also works great on any sore, dry patches on your hands from washing them too much.  If you have mild excema you can also use sudacrem if it's not bad enough for cortizone cream but too bad for normal moisturisers to cope with.

4, 5 & 6. Baby wipes.  These are in constant use in our house, from bottoms to faces, they keep my world clean.  And as an aside; you know they wash pretty well too - if they just get a bit of pee or general muck on them - and can be used again as disposable flannels.  But back to us grown ups, Baby wipes have 3 additional uses in our house, most importantly as an eye makeup remover.  Much cheaper than cosmetic wipes, and generally free of over drying alcohol, baby wipes will get off even the most gothic of make up.  Next is as a mud remover.  We have dark beige carpets but they still show every speck of mud that comes in on the paws and boots of the family.  A baby wipe will get even the muddiest marks out without staining.  Finally, in the car a baby wipe will quickly and easily get all that dust and muck off steering wheel and consoles and they smell great, giving your car a quick and easy valet in 20 seconds.

7. Nintendo Wii, or other games console.  We bought a Wii for our oldest daughter but I have to say we probably use it more than her.  The Wii Fit games are a great way to snatch a few minutes of activity a day to get that figure back to the one you remember from all those years ago.  For my next birthday I am asking GothDad for Just Dance.  My sister in law has it and it's brilliant for dancing around and being silly, and getting a great cadio workout.  Consoles are no longer just for the geeks and teenagers.

8. Petit Filou Chocolate pudding.  OMG This is the best ever pudding in the entire world.  Full fat, high octane taste.  To make it look dead sophisticated take 4 or 6 nice champagne bowl type glasses, split the 4 dark chocolate pots between the glasses and then spoon the white chocolate on top.  Then grate a little bit of chocolate (choc buttons etc) over the top and pop in the fridge until you need to serve it.  If you don't tell no-one need know it comes from the kids aisle.

OK, I wanted to do 10 but I could only think of 8.  If you have any siggestions please post a comment.

Making another Gothling

Yes, that's right folks. We're trying for a baby. I can hear many of my friends whooping with delight as they read this as they ganged up on me late last year as told me money was not a good enough reason for not having a baby.

There is still one problem. Mechanical contraception has been been taken out of the equation (with a pair of pliers longer than my arm!!!!!) but there is still the small noisy one who likes to get into bed with Mummy & Daddy of a morning. Mostly I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow (too much work makes Goth Mum sleeeeeepy) but we have a standing offer of sleep overs and I really will stop working quite so much one day (maybe after the new PCs are in, or our big inspection is over, or the whole new curriculum I have to develop, or the new classrooms we are going to have to move into or the .... oops)

Anyhoo I will keep you all updated.

Here Be Dragons...

Goth Dad took Little Miss and me to lunch today and then we went to the appointed place to see some Chinese Dragon dancing. IT WAS FANTASTIC as I hope you can see from the videos attached. These were taken on my phone so the quality isn't too good (sorry). Goth Dad grew up in the far east so is used to stuff like this but it was all new to me and I LOVED IT.

This was all part of the Norwich Dragon Festival. Norwich has a huge history of Dragons from Snap to the brilliant Dragon Hall and not forgetting the Norwich Beer Festival OK, so I had a great day but pizza has just arrived.

Ciao

Shopping Paradise

I've been building an Amazon Store. Please support this blog if you can and treat yourself to a fab goth present.

OK, I know there isn't much in there now but give me a coupel of days....

Radio 6 music saved my sanity

Compare these two track listings


Duffy - Rain On Your Parade
Gabriella Cilmi - Sanctuary
Girls Aloud - The Promise
James Blunt - Love, Love, Love
Jennifer Hudson - Spotlight
Jordin Sparks - Tattoo
Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown - No Air
Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
Lemar - If She Knew
Leona Lewis feat. Akon - Forgive Me


The Cranberries - Zombie
Soup Dragons - I'm Free
This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren
Incubus - Are You In?
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Christine
Fall - There's A Ghost In My House
Ladyhawke - My Delirium
David Bowie - The Laughing Gnome
Metallica - Enter Sandman

On of these would make me insane and not nice to be around. One helped me do a huge pile of washing up on a Sunday morning and put a big ole smile on my face. The first is from my local radio station's playlist ARGHHHHH!! the second Radio 6 music. Oh how I love my Digital radio.

Party, Party, Party

So, we got invited to a party. Friends of ours are going to Thailand for 6 months and will miss Christmas and Halloween, so they are going out with a bang. The invitation said children welcome so we took along Little Miss. It was a Friday night so we asked the Angel to try and get her to nap in the afternoon; fat chance. She didn't sleep in the car on the way over and ran around the house in her Halloween costume until 9pm. Then she curled up on a sofa with us and fell asleep! Yay! Then we could enjoy ourselves until it was time to pick up the bundle and got back into the car.

It was really nice to catch up with friends, and spend some grown up time with Goth Dad, I also did some singing of Christmas Carols and general Haloween chanting.

Happy Birthday Goth Dad - Pt 1 The Party

Goth Dad got a little bit older this weekend and we had a bit of a do. We had a 'Dracula' menu'd dinner party (vegetarian of course)

We started with Champagne cocktails - E=MC2. 2 measures of Southern COmfort, 1 measure of lemon juice, 1/2 measure of maple syrup. Shaken with ice, strained into a Champagne flute then topped up with Champagne. It went down very easily and didn't taste a potent as it was. I lethal combination.

Then hadPaprika Hendl - with Quorn not chicken. Robber Steak - kebabs with fake bacon & veg and something with Aubergine - bit as that is the devil's vegetable I won't bring myself to mention it. We washed this down with some lovely Red Wine - which didn't last long enough for me to see what it was.

Goth Dad had made an EMOURMOUS baked cheesecake, baked means no glycerine, with a Blueberry glaze. It was fantasticly yummy. Then there was more champage, coffee and sleepy walks to the train station for the last train back to town for our guests.

It was great to see friends and get a little bit tipsy but Oh My GOSH there was a lot of washing up to do the next morning!

Sensible(ish) clothes for Goth Mum

I have a dilemma. I find it really difficult to find appropriate clothes to go out in during the day to do normal stuff. For the rare night out I have a wardrobe full of lace and leather, corsets and pointy shoes and during the working day I have my 'Corporate Goth' uniform of black suit, black boots, black/purple shirt (you get the picture). This week I am at home; the angel that is my child minder is taking a well deserved holiday, and I am doing Mummy stuff (more on that later). So what does the stylish Goth about town wear to take the Gothling to nursery?

I am SO over velvet and PVC for the school run seems a little extreme. Today, for example, I am wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt (with a Black Wytch Stout pic on the front) and I wore boots and a grey fluffy cyber jacket out. Not really very Goth but it was the best I could do and still be able to chase small person around the garden.


I went into our local Goth Boutique recently and found one skirt that was at all suitable for 'day wear', ie it would cover my modesty if I bent over and wasn't made of leather, satin, lace or velvet. Unfortunately it was made for a stick insect to wear, also known as a 15 yr old. I am pear shaped. I have curves and wobbly bits. I'm not fat and I really find it depressing when I try on a Large sized skirt and it does't even do up over my thighs (I kid you not).

So I shall continue to buy whatever the high street has (in black) and hope that I can maintain my Gothness while retaining some level of appropriate dress in the face of being old(er) and often covered in snot and Play Doh!

(all suggestions gratefully recieved)

A confession...

I've been pulling the wool over your eyes, dear reader. Your visual image of me is in fact about 6 years old and was taken well before I became the fantastic Goth Mum that I am now. A few weeks ago Chocolate Nana, Myself and Little Miss went to her nursery school and had a photo session. This is the first time for ages that I've glamed up and had my photos taken.



In my head I still look like the skinny, dread haired gothling that you see above. However, when I look in the mirror every morning I see a cross between Russell Brand and the nicely groomed Mum that you see here. How much time I spend getting ready depends on whether the final effect looks like Russell Brand or Dita VonTees.

This little minx is my lovely Little Miss; looking as grromed and tidy as I think I have ever seen her. 20 minutes after this photo was taken she was hanging upside down from the sofa showing her knickers to the world. I love this image of her. but my real favourite is this one....

... it's the face I see and kiss every day.

Little black dresses

I have just found Black Essentials.

Not specifically goth but some very sophisticated black clothes. They are based in Edinburgh so UK shipping won't be the usial 3 week wait followed by customs bill that we so often have from US companies.

I am particularly fond of the Black Fridalis Dress which I would quite happily wear to work and out with the family (and it would look hot with a leather waist clincher and a pair of killer heels)

Corset Obsessions and the 1980's

It's not a wierd as it sounds. I've been watching Ashes to Ashes on the BBC and there is a shot in the titles of Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) in the most fanstastic red leather belt / corset. It's right at the end of the sequence (about 50 seconds in) and shows a fab 80's grey dress and this beautiful red corset thang.




I was so corset obsessed that I wore a waspie to go into the city shopping with the pickle this morning. I looked stunning, even if I do say so myself. Long victorian boots, back and white print long a-line skirt corset over a gauze top and lashings of dark smudgy make up. My daughter wasn't impressed but I felt great!

I find myself doing this more and more. Some days I just have to get dressed up. For no other reason than I haven't worn lipstick for a few days. I think my husband appreciates it, so it's not a complete waste of slap.

What's on my MP3 player?

In a bid to rid myself of the daytime playlists of Radio1 I have taken to listening to my MP3 player on the way home from work rather that Scott Mills.

Currently I am having a bit of a Dave Grohl thing. My groovy little Zen Stone is full of Foo Fighters and Nirvana. I set in on Random so I am constantly surprised as I have a few little random nuggets of Ramstein or the Sisters of Mercy.

I also have to keep up with my Podcasts.

Since Pandora stopped broadcasting to the UK I have missed listening to new music but I have found a few good podcasts on the net.

13Thirteen is a great place to listen to unsigned and barely known artists mixed in with a few classics and the Radio 1 alternative / indie / punk / whatever podcasts are really good if, like me, you can't stay up until 3 am listening to the radio. I particularly enjoy the Rock show with Daniel P Carter

What I really need is a DAB radio in my car then I can listen to 6 music, or Asian network. Anything but daytime playlisting.

Going to drown out 'Alphabeat' with a large glass of Gin now (that will teach me!)

So, who am I really?

For the longest time I have been aware that there a number of 'me's inside; a princess that wants everything right now and it had better sparkle, a very cynical me, a vamp me that wants to hurt people and a mother figure who wants to cuddle everyone to name but a few. All of these mes kinda smoosh together in a fluid and ever changing manner to create my personality and moods.

I am becoming aware now that there are outside mes too and they all want a piece of the action.

In my late twenties everything was fantastic. I knew who I was and where I was going and my priorities were clear. Now I'm in my mid thirties; a mum, wife, teacher and I want to do so much but I just can't seem to find the time. Where are my priorities?

My friend Roses has been having a dilema of priorities, work for her son's future or immerse herself in her creativity. I am so proud of her for making those hard choices and figuring out what is important to her.

So what is important to me? My husband's career has to quite near the top, as he needs to finish his studies before we expand the family anymore (I guess that's another thing I want) and at the moment getting enough cash in to pay the bills is pretty damned important too.

OMG there is so much going on. This needs some more thought.

How do you decide what to prioritise?

Goth Daddies

I've been reading some articles on Helium about Fatherhood; specifically when does a man know if he is ready. There are some good pointers, thinking about your childhood, thinking of your partner before yourself and looking at scantily clad women and thinking that they are a bad role model for young girls. I got to thinking. Goth blokes are some of the most self obsessed and disorganised people I know and I can say this because I love them very much and they all like scantily clad women.

I think that for Goth blokes they have to get out of spending 2 hours getting ready to go out 4 times a week and obsessing over their PC or their music or whatever before they think about all that settling down stuff. I must add here that Mr V and myself were both in our early 30's before little Miss came along.

Does 10 years of having fun, building a career and becomming an interesting person make you a better parent than someone who is in their early 20's and just starting out on their adult journey? Now I have to say I have seen it from both sides, as one of four siblings. Two of us had kids in our 30's and two in their 20's. All of the children are well balanced, well socialised young people who I have ultimate confidence in their future success. Can I also add as a matter of some smugness that all bar one (who did everyting first in the family) are still with the other parent.

I'll shut up now as it has been a long day and I have to work in the morning.

Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes

Set a reminder, put a note on the fridge. 9pm 7th February is the first episode of Ashes to Ashes, the sequal / spin off from the fantastic Life on Mars.

For a review of the first episode click here (thanks to the fab Lesley Smith).

If you can't wait for the 7th Amazon has more than enough Life on Mars stuff to keep you going. The DVD is out on 12th May (you can pre-order. We bought Mr V's sister the modern policing book for her birthday and the 2008 calendar is counting down the days to the disertation hand in on the study wall.

Will Smith - What a man!

I watched The Pursuit of Happyness on Tuesday. I'm off work at the moment with a bad back so took the opportunity to watch a chick flick with out Mr V tutting from the other end of the sofa. I haven't cried so much for months, it is totally in league with Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge (Baz Lurman always makes me cry). Unfortunately, it pushes all the parenting buttons.



There is this one scene where they are spending the night in a subway station bathroom and little Christopher is asleep in his Dad's lap and Will Smith is just sitting there with tears running down his face as someone bangs on the door. It's making me cry now just to think of it. The things that they did together and the strength of their relationship was amazing.

Anyway the real point of this blog was something that Will Smith said on one of the extras. He talked about how he had to run like his Dad in the film (you can see his running in the trailer below)



This was compared HUGELY by Bad Boys II on Channel 5 last night. I think I prefer the Dad version of Wil Smith. I may be getting a bit old now *wibble*

Anyway, you can see The pursuit of Happyness, Bad Boys or any other film you fancy for free on Love DVD (click below) so enjoy, cry your eyes out.

Goth Nights

I was thinking this morning about how we never go out anymore. What we need is a Goth afternoon, instead of a Goth night.

It would be really nice to have somewhere we could go on an afternoon to see and be seen and to chill out a bit. Tea and cakes would be nice too. Also somewhere where little miss could hang out with some other baby goths.

Am I wishing for too much?