We’ve had long lazy days in the park playing rounders, hours spent on the swings in the park and lazing around in the garden and with the sun shining, there’s no way I want to feel that my daughter can’t stay out and play in the sunshine – it’s such a rare treat after a long winter. So we’re already stocking up on sunshine skin care, and we don’t leave home without it.

We’ve been using Nivea products for years and this new range offers top protection and it’s water resistant so it’s perfect for making the most of the sunny weather whether you are by the pool or fooling around in the garden.

NIVEA SUN® to help keep sensitive souls protected is the latest innovation from the experts at NIVEA is 100% free from perfume, colourants and preservatives helping to reduce the risk of skin allergies and especially developed for kids’ sensitive skin. I’m going to give it a go myself too!

The new launch offers all of the usual NIVEA SUN benefits and has been developed for the most sensitive of skins with a formulathat is dermatologically approved and hypo-allergenic and with the very high protection of SPF 50+ and offering immediate protection.

With the highest quality UVA and UVB protection system it helps protect immediately against sunburn and long-term skin damage while the very water resistant formula helps keep kids sensitive skin protected all day.

NEW NIVEA SUN Kids Pure & Sensitive keeping precious skin protected in the purest way possible and you can find more about the whole range here.

NIVEA SUN Kids Pure & Sensitive Sun Lotion and Sun Spray SPF 50 RRP £16.84
Available from March 2011 – Boots exclusive

This is a sponsored post for Nivea brought to you by Nixdminx and Handpicked Media.

I grew up in a very political household. My very Conservative Mother believed that women should earn less than men so in response to the challenge I grew up as an ardent Leftie feminista (replete with designer handbag, shoes and champagne flute). My elder sister though is a dyed in the wool Tory. But she still wears nice shoes (not as nice as mine though).

So how do you explain politics to a 10 year old? Especially when that child is your one and only daughter? It’s quite a passionate topic so I have to admit I’ve found it a bit difficult to stay calm and unemotional. Deciding to rise above it all, I did watch two of the televised debates with my daughter and friends (hers and mine). Not soon into the screenings I had to excuse myself as I became bitter and enraged by the discussion and was on the verge of hurling stuff at the TV. Grrrr.

1997. I was overjoyed when Labour got in, I got in at 5am and rang people singing. The world has definitely moved on however since those heady days of champagne socialism and the shiny new optimistic-modernised-’Brit Pop’-dot com-wonderworld we lived in for a while. So roll on tomorrow. It’s going to be very different from back then.

And today? We’ve been hassled by the hustings left, right and in the middle here in leafy riverside Chiswick and not least of all at the school gate. On the homefront, I’ve had far too many leaflets through my door, including the BNP ones, to find it funny anymore.

I’m not saying it is a waste. I’ve been interested in the whole process and politics has a rich and complex place in my life. If only it were really simple and the decision could be clear cut.

For a 10 year old it appears that is really is. Miniminx has been giving me daily updates of the campaign trail at her junior school. She was a wobbly voter and undecided for a while. Unconvinced by policies, looking to make a decision on who her vote went to by how much she liked them.

She came home yesterday with her mind made up. She has decided that since the LibDems have nothing on offer it’s a two horse race between the Conservatives who are offering Mac Air notebooks and the Greens who are offering wind up laptops.

What happened to Labour is anyone’s guess I suppose.

Sorry for the bad joke but I just couldn’t help repeating it all day long. It’s just a mask for the fact that I’ve been having kittens about being stuck abroad and have had to keep my pecker up for the last few days and make it all seem like fun for my daughter. Actually, scrub that, it’s been an adventure of great magnitude and instead of coming home feeling a bit sad the holiday is over, we’ve both experienced a huge rush of appreciation for all things domestic, friendly and well, just our own doorstep.

Having told the world and his wife that we were delayed and unable to return from our holiday until next Monday, instead of last, things took a drastic turn for the better when the flights to the UK were announced again.

It would be an understatement to say that we’ve been in a state of crazed delirium for the last 24 hours. Having swapped Cote D’azur for a far chiller London W4, it feels brilliant and a bit lunatic.

I don’t know what it is about the human spirit but it has a homing device that propels the heart and mind in tandem towards reaching that destination against all odds, just to be there.

Last night after Miniminx and I had skyped,tweeted, texted and called everyone we possibly could from our French outpost, we found out before going to sleep that the skies over the UK were reopening. I did a celebration dance and downed another glass of wine then spent the night sleeping very badly as my daughter did her usual holiday prank; shrieking with laughter in her sleep throughout the night. It was all good, we could travel and get back home, lack of sleep permitting.

Not to be outdone by the general somnambulent squawking and whimpering, it was my turn to wake up with a fire in my belly at 5.50am and skittle around the room turning lights on and off, before settling at my laptop screen for some airline ticket motivated search action – I was determined to get us home.

As I flicked between tabs and screens and the abundance or search items, the flights were all coming up fully booked, and every few minutes there would be a change, prices would wobble, new airlines would be appearing, it all seemed a bit crazy.

‘Psssssssst, darling, do you want to go home this morning?’
‘Yeszzzzzzzz, but ….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I just need sleeeeeeeeeeep. Let’s go later.’

I was tempted to go back to sleep myself but I couldn’t. I was mad awake. Just the thought of being away from home with no good reason for a day longer was driving me a bit loopy. I let her sleep, and kept refreshing the flight screen. Two flights – oh no, gone already. Another one, at £1500. Another £386 with one stopover. Then after another 20 minutes, bingo. The 9.30am flight out of Nice, after the fourteenth try, had availability.

‘Wake up – we’re leaving in … oh quick, in 15 minutes, we have a flight to catch. Brush teeth, get dressed, close suitcase, do a room sweep*’

It was 20 minutes actually, but in that time I had to call reception to prepare the bill, shower, pack (yes for two) and dress and panic, oh and buy the tickets. The merry dance began and within 15 minutes we were out of the room and finalising the hotel bill and leaving, not before drinking a massively strong coffee. Our taxi arrived and I prattled on in French to the driver. It turned out his wife was stuck in Frankfurt, unable to return. Everyone had a story about some loved on somewhere, our waitress at breakfast had a boyfriend stuck in Thailand.

Determination and sheer bloody mindedness are one thing, but navigating the nuances of local traffic are another thing altogether. Needless to say as we lurched through the early morning traffic, 7.45am is never a good time anywhere, there was still a chance we would miss the check in period so it was all a bit touch and go. We arrived at 8.20 and had to go to the ATM to get the cab fare then to the check in desk, we had 8 minutes to spare. We got through the whole process, very smoothly in fact and boarded.

The flight was amazing, we arrived 30 minutes early and got back across town in good time. Arriving home was perfect – the sun was shining and London is full of Spring blooms. We are very very happy to be back.

So home and back to the grindstone it maybe but the simple pleasure of cooking an evening meal and having neighbours pop over to say hello is just the bees knees.

I’d always believed the old adage that travel broadens the mind, but it also emboldens the home loving heart much more than I imagined or remembered.
I wonder how long it will last?

*a room sweep is what I do after packing, moving around the hotel suite with military precision to check cupboards, wardrobes, shelves and drawers and underbeds for anything and everything I might have left lying about

It’s no secret that I’m hassled frazzled bonkers busy but it’s not all doom and gloom. Living and working in London and bringing up a child in one of the most cultural capitals of the world is a rich and rewarding experience. There’s no way you can really slow down unless you leave town for the weekend or take a holiday, so my advice is just enjoy the ride.

That said, there are times when the stress may seem overwhelming. I just have to stop for a second and ask myself ‘What’s going to solve this simply and comfortably with no lasting impact?’ So while I have not resorted to cutting my own hair because I can’t fit a visit to the hairdresser in, I’ve definitely learned to cut a few corners and give myself extra time.

If you’re a working Mum like me and need to be firing on all cylinders 100% 24-7, you might find these ideas useful.

Cabbing Fever
I often get cabs to work and drop my daughter on the way. Some days we have to take gym kit, guitar, lunch box and school bag plus I have my handbag and laptop so it makes for a cumbersome walk. It buys us an extra 30 minutes or so meaning we have more time together in the morning and I get half an hour of zen like calm in the car after the chaos of getting out of the house and to school on time. I do my make up in the car, make any calls I need to, then grab a coffee and a yoghurt before hitting my desk. Can a nanny do all that?

Tight Spot
The necessary evil for all women and the most stressful thing in the morning; falling over while putting on tights and even worse; putting your hands through them as you pull them up. Always, always, always have oodles on hand for these hideous moments – at least 10 pairs is my estimate. Wolford is the best brand for tights and topshop for funky socks.

Every Occasional Wear
Make sure your wardrobe is well stocked and kept up to date, not just with new buys, but vintage oldies too and all kept in tip top condition and ready to go at a moment’s notice. If I’m coming home from work and having to go out later, I don’t want to spend precious time having a wardrobe crisis. I also choose what I want to wear in the morning.

Treat Out
Every week or so if my daughter has done really well at school or done something fab, I take her out to her favourite restaurant as a treat. She’s invented an absolutely revolting cocktail of cranberry juice and orange fanta which she loves, I don’t have to cook or clean up – perfect all round.

Work at Home
Working from home is the best thing ever. Make sure you have good broadband and mobile phone reception, as well as a back up laptop. Not only can you save hours on your commute but you can also catch up on domestic stuff at lunchtime. Even better, go for an early morning run after the school drop off and set yourself up for the day.

Dump the Toxic Timewasters
I have friends who make me wait – sometimes for hours. There are others who are forever rearranging to meet up and keep cancelling either a few hours before or after the meeting time. I think I probably spent or rather wasted at least 20 or hours on these people. I have such little spare time that I find what little I have is precious. It’s even more precious if I have paid for a babysitter or have arranged my day around one particular meeting… So no more of this in 2010 for me.

Full Steam Wardrobe
Never fight with the ironing board again….invest in a clothes steamer and make like a stylist. These are great, plus the savings on dry cleaning bills are massive. Steaming your clothes kills bacteria and smoothes creases, great for wool too plus it doesn’t use any earth harming chemicals, win-win I say.

Deliverance
Internet shopping is not just for a weekly one off. My milkman is online, we get three deliveries a week, so we always have milk, juice and yoghurt. So is Abel & Cole so we’re never short of fruit or veg plus they sells eggs, butter and loads of other things. They’re both doorstep services so you don’t have to be home. Use an online grocer for big stuff and bulk buy toilet rolls, dishwasher tablets, juice, dry goods.

Keep It Simple Supper
Two ways to give yourself a break in the evening; have an abundance of things which you can prepare in under 10 minutes or shove it all in the oven so you can cook and do other things. Dry fried Halloumi, green beans in pesto, olives, hoummus and pitta – hey presto! You can bake perfect risotto with peas in 30 minutes, and cook salmon at the same time in the oven.

Sleep Through It
My final and most important tip is don’t forget about those cosy moments which you cherish so much when you look back. When my daughter was small, sometimes I would fall asleep with her while I was reading her a bedtime story. I’ve started doing this again!

And now it’s my turn to give some of you an early christmas pressie back.

So without further ado, here are the recipients of the goodies, and I only ask that you email me at nixdminx@live.co.uk to organise posting things to you.

Karaoke Golden Ticket

The Lucky Voice Golden Ticket with two hours free singing in this most glamorous of establishments with cocktails and microphones galore goes to: MummyTips

Uh Oh Oh Oh Oh and the song below turns out to be Crazy in Love by Beyonce!

Super Lush Sweet and Dreamy Box

This gorgeous Sweet and Dreamy Lush briar box of rosy dreams and sugar candy baths will be winging it’s way to Sandy Calico.

Festive Fun: Peter Pan tickets

Two tickets to see the Peter Pan show at the 02 from lastminute.com* will be winging their way to Liz a Living with Kids.

The Simple Human Sinky Caddy & Drainer is going to Gotyourhandsfull.

Tickets to SeaLife
And two tickets to Sea Life – take your pick which one you want to go to – are given to The MadHouse

Transformers DVDs
We have four winners of the of Transformers 2 Revenge of The Fallen DVDs and you are:

Amy at and1moremeansfour

Clarebabble at clareybabble

Vic at Glowstars

and finally Insomniac Mummy

Thanks to again for dropping by. And thanks also goes to Lush, lastminute.com, Simple Human, Lucky Voice and Paramount DVD for their generosity.,

*valid for performances Monday to Thursday before December 17 2009

Armed with backpacks, sleeping bags, cameras and sunglasses, we headed off from Heathrow and from the moment we left our front door the nine day adventure began.

We arrived in Ouzazarte a day before rest of the party, since we’d checked in our hotel at 2am we really needed that day to chill out and adjust. We spent it by a hotel pool and hung out in cafes.

As we sat and watched the world go by, out of nowhere, a small boy about five years old ran by with a cigarette tucked behind each ear.

‘Mum! Look at him!’
‘Don’t point!’ I said laughing.
Miniminx gave me that widemouthed, wide eyed look of disbelief. I smiled to myself, I knew this trip was going to be quite an education.
The irony was all on us in fact since we were odd ones out. People were actually stopping and staring at us. A mother and daughter in a strange land.

The next morning we met our travelling companions for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised that we were all women with young girls. We already had a lot in common. Our first stop was a kasbah in Ouzazarte, it was strange and fascinating. Our guide began to tell us about the great films that have been shot there, Gladiator and Babel, but we were more interested in the locale and the people there.

On our drive we stopped to take photos and a farmer welcomed us and shared his date harvest.

The girls spotted a cute frog and chased the poor thing around the field.

Heading off in a truck towards the desert, we were going to camp in Bedouin tents that night and as you can see, it’s quite a fairy tale existence. The food was great too, lovely soups and tagines and very sweet mint tea. We were awoken several times first by the birds and crowing cocks, then early morning the call to the mosque, followed by the braying donkeys and then by the sun.

There was an empty pool on the camp site and our four little girls found a tiny scorpion in it. There was another one in the shower too – none of the girls screamed and we were assured it would not harm us.

The evenings when we camped were very sweet. The girls all played together as the Mums chatted and as we all went to bed around the same time, bedtime stories became a shared experience.

The next day was the start of a two day camel trek across the Sahara with a night in the desert. We all had to learn how to put on a shesh. It was fun and it was also hard work, Miniminx did not like being on a camel so ended up walking. I discovered my daughter is quite the tough cookie and walked happily for hours, which was a very pleasant and unexpected surprise.

The highlight was camping out in the Sahara and watching shooting stars in the night sky. We all laid out on thin mattresses after dinner and watched the slow moving drama of the heavens above. Waking up the next morning was great too. It was so wonderful, even if the camels do snore (well I hope it was the camels).

There is something very hynotic and mesmeric about the Sahara, I was suprised that a desert I had imagined to be barren had quite a few trees and weird looking plants.

Our guide recommended that instead of buying our carpets and rugs in Marrakech, it would make more sense to go direct to a co-operative. This meant we could buy from the local people and not have the added commission which would be added in the souks. We bought some amazing stuff there and I was delighted (so was the owner of the co-op).

With the bright sun and still air, there was a sense of calm and ease of being that is a great antidote to London. But this was really a non stop whirl wind trip. Staying in a different place every night, we unpacked and repacked daily and dealt with all manner of things. I was the only person who didn’t get a 24 hour bug.

We spent a night near the kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. I loved the homemade advertising – see photo below.

The drive through the Atlas mountains was stunning and we all chatted and sang our way through the dizzy heights. I still look at these photos a lot, it really was a special journey.

There was mounting anticipation about our arrival in Marrakech – the journey was four or five hours. The road signs were getting bigger as we got nearer.

And we got there eventually with a big all round cheer and headed to the main square and spotted the snake charmers. It was like going back in time.

The early morning view of the city sprawl from the hotel window was pretty atmospheric. We went on a four hour walking tour with a guide and then had the rest of the day free to shop and explore. We had our final meal together that evening and the kids were all very sad to be going home.

About a week after we got back we had this funny conversation.

‘Darling, you were really good about the scorpions.’
‘Yeah, well Mum, they did scare me a little bit.’
‘Yeah, I was surprised you didn’t say anything about them in the tent that night when we went to sleep.’
‘I thought you’d be a bit cross with me if I said I was scared.’
‘Well I thought if I told you I was a bit worried there were any in the tent, you’d hit the roof.’
We both looked at each other and smiled.
‘What a couple of scaredy cats we were!’ I said and we laughed for a very long time.

For anyone looking for a holiday that’s definitely off the beaten track, I’d definitely recommend a trip like this. It was hard work and tiring but so magical and such a great cultural experience, I’d definitely go again.

For the full itinerary go here

While I’d love to buy a drink for each and every single of the one hundred bloggers heading to the Zoo this Sunday, I don’t think it’s fair on those of you that can’t make it.

How about I make you all some cake? Yes, that photo is me in the kitchen, rustling up something tasty, wonderful and celebratory – but oh, what rotten luck, with our low-tech social networking, you can’t even taste it!

Well fear not, I’ve managed to magic up with a bit of blagging and barefaced cheek blogging goodness some cracking goodies for everyone to have a shot at bagging.

And here they are and they could be yours, just drop me a comment on this post, or a tweet @nixdminx and I’ll pick the winners of these darling goodies by December 10. I’ll be adding a few more over the coming week too, so keep your eyes peeled lovelies x

Karaoke Golden Ticket

I’ve got a Lucky Voice Golden Ticket on offer. That means two hours free singing in this most glamorous of establishments with cocktails and microphones galore!  It’s so much fun, you’ll want to say longer…I ended up staying an extra three hours on my Birthday last year.

If you can work out what this song is below, will you let me know…the lyrics aren’t recognisable but I think we sang it more than once!

Super Lush Sweet and Dreamy Box

This gorgeous Sweet and Dreamy Lush briar box of rosy dreams and sugar candy baths (quite tempted to keep it actually) could be winging it’s way to you ahead of the Christmas Party Season and could help you get over all those dreadful hangovers feel fresh as a winter daisy.

Festive Fun: Peter Pan tickets

This is one hot show this Christmas – I have two tickets to see the Peter Pan show at the 02 from lastminute.com*.  It’s also a little known fact that my birthday falls on the same day that the original book was published (Peter Pan by J M Barrie)

Kitchen Goodies from Simple Human

Thanks to Simple Human for the Sinky Caddy & Drainer – I would hate for you all to be scrubbing pots and pan without some kind of stylish kit…

Tickets to SeaLife

Here’s one to fill the days after Christmas when you simply have to get out of the house, two tickets to Sea Life – take your pick which one you want to go to

Transformers DVDs

Blockbuster movies are always great for rainy days and I know this one is a goodie. I have four, yes four!, DVDs of Transformers 2 Revenge of The Fallen

I really enjoyed the first film, so please let me know what you think of it – but remember it has a 12 rating.

Thanks to Lush, lastminute.com, Simple Human, Lucky Voice and Paramount DVD for their generous offer of prizes – it always helps to keep the readers happy! x

*valid for performances Monday to Thursday before December 17 2009

The theme of these posts is what has really happened, and this little adventure was the one that made the blogosphere a real place with real people.

Contrary to the generaly rule; that bloggers are a sad and lonely nerds, I’ve made a lot friends through blogging and so have loads of us who snatch the odd hour or two to update our blogs. We’re the people that never shut up! Plus, we’re not the usual run of the mill Mums are we? I’m not sure about you but I’m mildly eccentric, quirky and busy as hell so not only do I keep strange hours, I’m out of the loop on competitive-school-gate-mum-syndrome – which means social media suits me just fine and dandy.

Not long after starting out, I discovered the British Mummy Bloggers social network on Ning and signed up.

To me, it was a bit like walking on stage naked, staring into the spotlights and waiting for the howls of laughter. (I’m a sensitive soul really)

It’s not fun being the newbie is it? There’s nothing worse than feeling you are encroaching on a space you have no right to be in – I was quite apprehensive and worried that maybe it would be a negative experience and that I’d be snubbed.

Imagining if I posted anything ‘uncool’ that I would be kicked into touch, I posted a tentative ‘Hello’.

And.

I was pleasantly surprised.
The welcome was a warm and friendly one.

There were quite a few people saying ‘Hello’ back and offering advice on blogging, family, fun in fact anything. I had lots of help when I wanted to move from wordpress to a hosted environment and the gorgeous Violet Posy gave me a blog make over – which I still sport to this day.

Next up was an interesting development, an invitation to meet up for coffee with the BMB ladies…how intriguing, who were these people hiding behind avatars and blogger handles? My curiosity got the better for me and I accepted.

Just one look in the mirror told me I’d become quite the unemployed-slovenly-singlemum-housewife – I had to scrub up…meet real people. I was scared.

I was meeting Potty and A Modern Mother at Starbucks in Paddington. It all seemed very 2.0 and urban, just my thing in fact.

I scuttled in a panic walked into the coffee shop. Nervous as hell and looking for prams. I spotted two ladies and took a chance.

‘Hello, I’m Nixdminx – are you…er, ummm??’

My words hung in the air, my throat dried, I started to feel a bit stupid – I didn’t know their real names!

‘Hi I’m A Modern Mother’ said the lovely Susanna, she was friendly and warm.
‘And Potty’ beamed the other BMBer.

Gulp.
Phew.
It’s them.
Thank God for that!
I liked them both immediately.

We didn’t have long and we chatted over coffees. It was a very brief meeting, but I’m so glad I went.

Behind these blogger handles were three women, real people, real lives. Things were getting interesting, and a bit more real.

At the next get together at the Rainforest Cafe there were loads of us including kids and this week there will be even more as the guest list now stands at 100 – that’s astounding.

Thanks again to Susanna for setting this up – I hope this reaps great rewards for you in the future but I know it has already x

And so, so glad to escape the glass towers where I had worked. Once a bustling enterprise, it was haunted by glum, grey, despondent suits wailing over share prices and school fees. Ironically they had kept their jobs but with a world gone so crazy in the throes of the credit crunch this oxymoron was quite the norm.
They lived in fear.
I was way past that stage.

Okay – I’m glossing over the bad stuff – there were bills to worry about, friends and family frantic about me not working, self doubt etc etc. but I could not allow this to consume me.

And I have to fess up to luxuriating in all this new found free time and being a full time Mum. All the same, I still kept a semblance of busy-ness to give myself a purpose. I wrote. A lot. For some reason, I felt that this would really help me out of this situation and lead somewhere, exactly where, I wasn’t sure but for the time being, it seemed 150% right.

Dropping Miniminx off to school became a leisurely past time rather than a rabid rush. Walking along the river on the way home, I’d start thinking of what to write. Life as a ‘no hoper’ had such rich pickings, and while it filled the yawning gap left by a career on hold, there was never any shortage of ideas.

Back in the tedious mind-numbing and utterly depressing world of jobhunting the jobs evaporated in front of my eyes. I spent hours trawling the web, calling people, meeting headhunters, writing my CV, following up, rewriting my CV, and uploading my CV to sites. But there was nothing out there for me or anyone else.

And then it was February.

I started to contribute to other blogs; London Mums, Mummo, Mumsrock and was a Mychild top blogger- it was really great fun, and I suppose I was of the moment; a vocal and blogging credit crunch casualty but that was just a sideshow. I’m a Mum, with a daughter, and I was able to share that with other Mums and for the first time felt I was able to discuss Motherhood and feel the empathy.

Then, I found out about a Carnival. I wasn’t quite sure what a Carnival really was – I’m an ex Notting Hill girl so to me it means one thing – a three day bender and a week to recover. But I soon learned it was much more civilised and a round up of blog posts with links to the stories and name checks. This one was to appear on AlphaMummy – the top site for Mums. I was in awe.

I submitted an article.

Well, actually I didn’t, I drafted the email.
Then had a coffee and thought it over.

‘Would it be such a good idea?’ I asked myself. ‘What if anyone reads it?’

I left the email in draft and felt a bit flustered.

‘What have you got to lose?’ I said to myself. ‘Hmmm, um, nothing?’

I pressed send.

Then I dashed upstairs and hid under my bedcovers. I’m serious, I did!

‘What the bloody hell have I done?’ I was cringing.

Gawping at myself in the mirror before heading out the door to pick Miniminx up from school, I splashed my face with coldwater and told myself;

‘Get a grip, it won’t even make it anyway – who’d be interested in me?’

And when I checked AlphaMummy a few days later, it was on there…I had made my first carnival!

It meant a lot and inspired me to keep on going.
For all my bluster, I’d still taken quite a knock and this helped me rise above it.

I began to love carnivals and continued submitting to them, even creating my own Credit Crunchista Carnivale which proved to be quite possibly a bit too tongue in cheek popular (thankfully!).

That’s when I started to really enjoy the whole thing with a passion.

And come to think of it, I never actually stopped working really, did I?

More to follow…

Incredibly, this story I am writing is post number 149 which means over the last year I’ve probably written around 75,000 words here. That combined with the other writing on sites and blogs I do probably amounts to around 120,00 words – no mean feat when you look at it. But it’s my no means been a difficult challenge, it’s been a total blast and has helped me get to grips with more than just how to click ‘publish’.

So back to where it all began. Facing a particularly difficult situation; no job come January, a Christmas without my daughter and and the end of my work contract wind down, the months appeared before me like an abyss. It was hard not to feel alienated and a social outcast. Even if I wasn’t one, I felt it. It was no suprise I succumbed to an awful attack of the flu. That Friday, the fever was so bad that I was unable to leave the house for three days, and fortunately Miniminx was away for the weekend.

With no choice but to live online while snivelling and bedridden, I just about managed to survive on what was in the house, ordered some online supplies and kept writing. Just a blog post each day, but it was something.

At the end of day three with the tissue box empty and the lemsip packets crumpled, there was a knock on the door and a groaning ghostlike-heap greeted the delivery man. Yes, it was me, and it was at that point I had a revelation.

Nothing was going to be the same again – I’d found a new tool for survival and wasn’t going to give it up.

Blogging might be easy, but getting started is the hardest part. I determined to say anonymous. And by blog name summed up the sense of futility at that time. My high hopes had been nixed and my minxy life crushed. Clown that I am, I set about writing with humour not despair, it took me a while to get it right and it certainly lifted the dark clouds and put the light back behind my eyes.

There is something really unnerving about putting a story out there in this new cyber world they call ‘the cloud’. I imagined my blog posts would be like raindrops falling from this cloud and evaporate before even hitting the ground and, in reality, no one would ever read it.

But they did and hey ho, I got a visitor or two, and thought

‘Oh my god, I wrote a blog post and someone bloody ready it – shit!’

….and then I got a comment, and thought

‘Um, so what happens next? This is quite scary. Who are these people, they have funny bloggy names.’

I had a look around and found other bloggers. Mummies. With beautiful blogs, stickered with awards. I had discovered the Mumosphere, or rather, it has discovered me.

‘Ahem.’ I thought. ‘Well goodness me. I see I’m not alone here.’

I replied to comments, it was like making invisible friends with lovely people. It was a miracle. I was no longer alone at my laptop.

‘Wow. Wahaaay.’

I had a new job.

I had become the accidental Mummy blogger.