It's published! Just goes to show that you really can do anything if you put your mind to it.

 Good afternoon guys, and once again apologies for almost a years' silence from the land of blogging.  Well I do believe that this time I have a good excuse, and that is that I've worn my keyboard out writing elsewhere. Writing a doc to be precise, and a doc that has now become a 65,000 word book.

I started writing this book around three years ago, I've always written, but this time I wrote and wrote and suddenly there were more than three chapters and there was some really meaty content.

Having finished the book, I sat back and waiting for publishers to randomly get in touch asking if I may have just written a book that they could publish for me. That was proving a little slow in coming through and the book sat on my laptop for about a year, until a good friend suggested that I self-publish on Amazon.

Firstly, Amazon and I have had our ups and downs, both partially to blame, but I want to say on this occasion Amazon have been truly amazing.  The process of uploading my book, firstly to Kindle and then onto paperback couldn't have been more straight forward, and I love them for that.

It also meant that I could this without any criticism or backlash. In fact the only criticism so far has been from one of my closest friends who spotted a missing comma in my synopsis. I will forgive her that, because she has bought a copy of my book!

Initially, I've said to myself, I'm not doing this to become a renowned author, I'm doing it because I've written the book and it's silly not to allow others to read it, however, now that I've sold over 14 copies worldwide, I reckon I could do this.  Only early this afternoon I was practicing my interview on Loose Women, and choosing my favourite foods for Saturday Kitchen.

Ok, so I'm totally jumping the gun and it's really early days but what I wanted to get across today is, Never say Never. If you really do have a dream, then follow it. Don't rely on others to get you there, but look at all your options to how you can get yourself there.

And if you want to buy the book, you can of course find it on Amazon, in both Kindle and Print format. Search for "Play Fair, Alexis Noble" that's me!!

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Play-Fair-cant-always-have/dp/B09CRN15GN/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=alexis+noble&qid=1629986139&sr=8-3

This is seriously a great family activity

 We managed to get away for 5 days during the summer holidays and it was so well needed.  It wasn't Texas, it wasn't even Belgium but it was 'slightly' sunny Somerset, as we headed off to our dog friendly AirBNB with heated swimming pool.

Whilst the apartment was a delight and the kids would have spent their whole time in the pool, come rain or cloud, we still wanted to include something where we could explore our surroundings.

Taunton as a town is very pretty, but is a half day mooch for a family with a dog in the rain. And so we looked where else we could venture and the opportunities of doing more than having lunch in these other towns.

That's when I was introduced to Treasuretrails.co.uk by a friend who had done it locally and posted about it on FB. The nice thing about TT is if you order your map in advance they will send you a much nicer version than the one I downloaded and printed on my running-out-of-colour-ink printer and slightly damp paper. But the benefit of not being organised is that we still had our map/booklet printed off before we set off on our trail.

We opted for a murder mystery and were tasked with eliminating suspects and murder weapons from the clues provided whilst walking around the very pleasant Devonshire town of Tiverton.

Again, it was quite a rainy day but we had macs on and James and I had the determination. To be brutally honest, the girls sneered at the idea to start with, so we gave them a map, and I told myself not to butt in and let them lead the way.

The suggested time on the map was 2 hours and about 1.5 miles of walking, and they were pretty much on target and so we parked up near our starting point, booklet and pen in hand and set off around the town of Tiverton.

The great thing is that you do this in your own time, and where others might want to read every plaque, every grave in every churchyard or historical building, we're very happy with the "ooh that's pretty", taking a photo and moving on.

The directions were pretty easy to follow, although we thought we were lost at one point, we just hadn't walked far enough along the road, and I ended up calling Treasuretrails customer support, who were quite helpful. She had her googlemaps on the screen whilst I was trying to work out the road name we were on.  Took a little time but we soon coordinated together where we were and we could head off on our journey.

The girls actually loved it, although it took a while for them to admit that, as we all had to get involved finding names or dates on our clues and then matching them to those on the back of the booklet.  It got a little competitive at times too which added to the adrenaline. Naturally we stopped off for a coffee break to avoid the rain and recharge our batteries, which added to the entertainment of our day out in Tiverton.  There are hundreds of these treasure trails throughout the UK and we will definitely be doing another one again soon.  They would make great birthday parties too and for a tenner, a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring an entertainer or venue for the same amount of time.

How to master a job interview

Good morning guys, and apologies for the break in writing, but last week I was so busy interviewing for a position we have at work.  Just the one post for a part time Customer Ops Rep and I had 170 applicants.  

Having been on the other side of the fence many, many times, I did my utmost best to be as fair as possible with the candidates and I thought I would share with you today my take on do's and don'ts of applying for a job.

Some real basics to start with.  When you see a job application, read it thoroughly, and then, if you know the company who is recruiting, research them. Look at how they write and their tone when speaking to their customers, and match that.

Always, ALWAYS send a covering letter if you really want the job. Some jobsites allow you to fast-send your CV, but does that tell the recruiter why you want to work for them? Does it hell! It tells them nothing about you.  Emphasis in your covering letter how the skills you have match the skills they are looking for. A covering letter is so much more important than a CV.

If the recruiting company has asked you to complete additional questions or tasks when applying, then make sure you provide the relevant information. They don't want a three page essay, but they don't want a one word answer either.

For example - What do you like about our company?

A good answer will show that you've researched them, picked out their USP if they have one and shown enthusiasm for that.

A bad answer will say "You pay well" or "Remote working" or worse still, talking about a different company!

So that's the first stage, and sit back and wait for the next stage.

With the job I am recruiting for, the next stage required candidates to answer some questions that would show their ability to understand our website/help pages and show their tone to our customers.  We sent out five questions and gave a strict and short timescale to get them back.

Don't make excuses if you're going to send it back later than the deadline. Just don't do that. If you can't get the answers over in time, then unfortunately my dear, this one isn't for you.

When you answer the questions, mirror the tone you have seen elsewhere on the website or app.  Don't over use exclamation marks. Don't be abrupt and definitely don't get the answer wrong or leave it blank.  These tests are set not to catch you out but for you to prove that you can read and understand.

The next stage of our interview process was a video interview, one on one.  In this stage I was looking for candidates who were passionate about our product, enthusiastic to get involved and could demonstarate the skills they put on their CV that made them get this far in the process.

If your interview is a virtual one, always check you can log on to the provided app/website beforehand. Don't turn up late, but if you do for technical reasons, do apologise.  These things happen, but a  quick apology and we can get on with the interview.

Our product at work is an App, I would expect everyone wanting to work for us to have downloaded the app and played around with it a lot before the interview. It doesn't matter if the app is suitable for you as an individual,  the idea is that you put yourself in the shoes of our customers in order to talk freely about what you like and don't like. It's perfectly acceptable and required to have an opinion.  I particularly liked the candidates who created pretend children to test different aspects of the app on.  

Those candidates who said they were scared to download the app because they didn't have children, well I'm so sorry but fear does't cut it in this environment.

Talking passionately about that app shows that the candidates like our product and genuinely want to work for us. Mentioning our competitors and pointing out how we are better than them is an even greater trait.

Swearing in an interview is a no-no. Even if you feel that we are on a comfortable level, we've had a little laugh and chatted quite informally about a subject, telling me that your colleague was "pissed off" with you doesn't really work in an interview for a professional product.  

Always, ALwAYS have some questions to ask. Again it shows that you are actually interested in the company and have done some research, and never say that the main reason you want the job is because it is remote working.  That is a bonus and something that is offered to the person who wants to make the company greater before thinking about answering emails in their pyjamas.  If you are nervous, knowing that you have questions to ask will ensure that you're not sitting in silence. Think of things that you have done that you are proud of and see how they would fit in with the interview questions. Try and offer as much information as you can without overkill.

Also, it's ok to say how much money you are expecting.  It's  not a secret, and the reason a lot of company's don't specify salary is because they want the right person rather than the right £ bracket.  Be open and honest and explain why you want that amount. It's definitely not a taboo subject.

Finally, if you're not successful and don't get through to the final stage, ask for feedback. Feedback is vital to take forward to the next job interview and gives you the chance to review your method and tweak it to be more suitable.  Feedback also lets the recruiter know that you really were genuinely interested and your name will be remembered for future roles.

I hope this helps and in these awful times of redundancies and economic uncertainty there will be a lot of people up against you but spend time on every single application you submit and the rewards will be reaped.

Good luck out there guys.

Much love

Our Summer Adventures part 1

The summer holidays are upon us, and I'm determined not to let the computers win. So I have been looking at things that we can do as a family that are different and hopefully memorable. My favourite motto of the roaring 20s is definitely "Making Memories" and as somone who loves to print out all her photos (and we do spend time sitting down looking through our albums on a regular basis, even if my reasoning is frequently to compare the size of my thighs), I want to have an array of pictures to print and not the same old same old each time.

Now that lockdown is easing, we've upped our game and taken the plunge on a few things. Today I'm going to share with you our Drive In Theatre experience, Kew Little Pigs and a good old favourite, Chiltern Open Air Museum.

Henley Festival, Car Park Party- Horrible Histories

Well this was a gamble, booking tickets for a) a show we have already seen, in b) our car from which we've never sat to enjoy a show in c) still partial lockdown and early days of easing.  But the tickets were a good price, and we paid for the car and not the people in it. I think it was £32 for our car.

Armed with snacks and not too many drinks (we didn't want to risk the toilets there) we drove to Henley and simply parked up in a field next to the river.  We were told what radio station to tune the car to and were asked to provide all passenger details before travelling in case of contact following an outbreak.

I must say this was really well managed and we arrived to see lots of children climbing onto the rooves of their parents cars. Having not preempted that, we only had a pretty grubby dog towel in the boot for the kids to lie on, and it took Lucy a while to build up the courage to climb up. Molly on the other hand loved her new sunbathing post and happily got settled to watch the show.

It was brilliant.  As all HH shows are, and also different from the last time we saw it, as it's adapted to include current news and most definitely keep parents entertained too.

There was a huge screen to watch the show on, although if I moved my head a bit I could see the live stage and we had the volume cranked up on the radio so that the kids could still hear it loud and clear too.  Instead of clapping, we hooted, which in itself was a lot of fun, and everyone was respectful of the noise so the actors were not drowned out.

The kids loved it and so did we.   Although we were asked to bring the kids down from the roof after a while (apparently someone at the back complained) it was still an awesome and new experience and a great price for a few hours of solid entertainment.

 The following day (yes how spoiled are the children) we hopped in the car and drove to Amersham to visit

KEW LITTLE PIGS

Kew Little Pigs, believe it or not, is a pig farm. It doesn't advertise as anything else, there are no rides or dinosaurs or hot dog stands there. It's simply a pig farm, but an awesome one.

You have to book in advance for your piggy experience, and we bought 4 tickets for a one hour pig play package at £24 a ticket. Not the cheapest, but again this was an experience and one that we absolutely loved.  The farm is lovely and the welcoming was great, full on health and safety and covid aware.  We were greeted along with about 7 other groups of 2-4 people and given a tour of the pens, introduced to the pigs and explained some of their history. This was really good and informative.  There are about 10 pens there in total, but we were allowed to go into 4 of them, although allowed to stroke the piggies through the fence in the others.  There is of course a reason for this. Some pigs were pregnant and not wanting people all over them, some were in quarantine ready to go to their forever homes and other reasons.  If you remember that this is a live working farm and not a pure tourist attraction, that makes total sense.

The pigs we could go in and play with were of varying sizes from really miniature to medium dog size (which is still classed as miniature in pig terms).  We were given free reign to go in and sit with the pigs, stroke them and brush them. They are very sociable animals and love to have their tummys brushed.  It was just a really lovely experience and quite therapeutic too. An hour is a great amount of time to spend with them too. Remember, they are just piggies in a pen but really cute and friendly and cuddly. Number one rule though, do not lick the pigs! Yes that's a real thing. We abided by the rules.

Chiltern Open Air Museum

Ok, so this one isn't a new experience for us, and the girls have been on multiple occasions with school, guides and brownies but this is one of our new favourite chill out picnic places.  For a £5 donation (and they really need donations right now), we booked our tickets online in line with social distancing and turned up with the dog, children and picnic to this beautiful chiltern setting.  The nice thing about COAM as it's abbreviated to is that you can do as little or as much as you want.  The history lessons are immense and give a great understanding of how things were over hundreds of years.  From the Iron age house, which despite not being in use all lockdown, still smells of the firepit last lit probably in February, to the prefab 1950s houses that were put up in an emergency after the war to provide quick accommodation.  There are orchards and veg patches and all of this is so nicely laid out with clear descriptions of what you are looking at.  There are sheep and goats here too for the animal lovers, and previously we've seen horses, but they weren't out this time.

Becuase of Covid, some of the buildings were closed off, but we could still see through the windows are there were still some lovely volunteers to chat to about the history of these amazing buildings.

The picnic area is spaced out, there are tables or grass area for blankets and the little drinks fridge is open for purchases too, as is the shop too.

Don't forget we have this amazing place right on our doorstep (if you live near me). 

School holidays and Lock down! What are we going to do with the kids?

Good mid week to you all,

I'm late this week as I've been really busy back at work now that I'm unfurloughed. It's been so so good to speak to people who aren't in my family again and get involved with projects that affect other people, who are generally more grateful and appreciative.  And this leads me on to this week's topic...

It's just hit me that the kids break up this week for 6 weeks of, well nothing really.  Having had such a great structure in place for the past 4 months, I'm in no way prepared to let the children loose with Roblox and TikTok for all the hours they are awake and so I'm planning daily objectives, and maybe if I'm really nice, I'll add them to their RoosterMoney apps and even reward them.

So now the emphasis is changing from set lessons as on the school websites and homework sites to something more fun and engaging! What ideas have you all got?

Music practice of course has to continue, and whilst Lucy will still have piano lessons, I'm hoping that the skills and chords Molly has learned will encourage her to listen to a few more 1994 rock songs and put them into practice for her own enjoyment too.

Definitely Duolingo is one that we'll continue over the summer, although I'm not entirely sure how much the girls have actually learned in French, but I imagine it's a case of words and sentences sinking in the subconcious, so that when they are presented with them, it'll all come back in an "oh yeah" kind of moment.

Talking of RoosterMoney, I will definitely get them to do the free kids worksheets on the app to get them money savvy, then they can use their skills when we go shopping and on our holiday outings.

And then to top off my addiction to learning (whilst it lasts), of course they will be reading. One of the teachers at Lucy's school has created an amazing Book Bingo worksheet for the children. It's fun, it's free and it's educational. They'll get recognition at school for their input and again, maybe if they're good, we'll add it as a reward receiver on the RoosterMoney app too.

And then whilst they're busy learning whilst hopefully still having fun, I can sit back with my PIMMS, lying in the sunshine, watching the world go by.... oh hang on.  We've had our summer already! It's back to work and back to the diet drinks.

RTFQ

A ranty blog today, and although the passive side of me would like to apologise in advance for that, the feisty, had enough of people side of me is shouting “Go me!”

Maybe this won’t be a rant actually, but more of a lesson, because it’s something I’ve definitely used with my kids when they are preparing for tests, especially for Molly’s SATs last year.

So, RTFQ – Read the Fucking Question. Simple right? Apparently not so for everyone. And this is where I would love your contribution if you have the same experiences.  You ask a question or post a statement on social media, text, WhatsApp or wherever, and the response you get no only doesn’t answer your question, but leads you down a path you didn’t even consider going down, had no interest in or even were avoiding on purpose.

Here are a couple of examples, nod if you agree.

Scenario one – Hey guys, can anyone tell me if there are still roadworks at the top of the hill on the way to Watford?

Answers from non RTFQers

-          I went to Uxbridge and sat in traffic, it was awful

-          I don’t know but I want to go shopping in Watford and do you know the price of shoes?

-          Well, driving emits gasses that kill the environment, so you should walk the 6 miles each way

-          Oh that hill, we love sledging down there in winter

Multiply that by about 8 and that’s the average response you get on a local fb page. Sweet that people really want to connect, but seriously how annoying that no one has actually answered the question for you, to the point that you turn off comments and then people post about your being rude by not letting them have their say.

The other type of not RTFQ or S (statement) happened to me just the other night.

I ordered a takeaway to support a new local business. I paid online and got my confirmation email. I went down to collect only to find that they had no knowledge of my order and it transpires that their system was down. In a bit of a rush to get eaten before I had to work (no one wants to see their WW coach stuffing their face), I suggested to the manager that we’ll have it the next night. So in order to forewarn other locals who might be less patient than me, I post on FB “If you are ordering from *** tonight, call them don’t order online because I turned up to collect my food and it hadn’t gone through the system (sad face – because I was looking forward to my takeaway) so I guess I’ll have to have my takeaway tomorrow.

Factual right? I ended up deleting the post because of the comments bad mouthing me for slating a new business, not supporting local and being unkind! Firstly it made me laugh, and I started to defend myself (er actually I am helping said business, but letting others know there is an issue), then I got annoyed with the commenters, and was very close to going through each and every post on that particular page to provide a not RTFQ/S answer. The irony would be lost with them though, as they’re only there to fight and I wouldn’t want to start a pretend fight, only to become either a hero or get my house torched. Neither of what I want from this scenario.

Why can’t people be more like my children, who have RTFQ (minus the F for the 8 year old) drummed into them every single time they start a home schooling task or prepare for a test. You don’t get points for writing a lot if it doesn’t answer the question. You don’t get points for being cute or being a tosser. You get points for answering correctly and allowing the poster to read that and say “Oh that’s informative thank you so much” or “Glad I could help with the information and happy to help further”

If you've read this and want to comment something really random that doesn't relate to this at all, I'm going to bite my tongue and let you get away with it this time. But next time you're bored and want to contribute to life, do everyone a favour won't you and RTFQ (otherwise start your own post!)

Much love, hoping that you're all still well and actually feeling good today as I was able to go to the hairdresser.

Why photographing your food can help you to lose weight

Diet - the forbidden word. Because actually, everything you eat and every time you eat it is your "diet".  The dictionary definition of diet is "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats" so that covers your three times too large bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, your apple in the company of children and your vodka, lime and soda in the company of adults or no one.

And that is why you are not on a "diet" even if you are trying to lose weight.  You are changing your diet of course, or even changing your way of life (better) in order to lose weight. You are also "cutting out the crap" for want of a better phrase.  And this, however you want to label it, is hard work.

One thing I have recently discovered on my journey with WW, other than having like-minded people who fully understand what you are going through (and why it's so important to have bad days along with the good in terms of eating healthy), is to share what you're eating.  You're making yourself accountable to a whole new group of people looking for ideas and inspirations. And if you can be that person to post a picture of your salad, then you could be the one who has helped them to lose a pound this week.  And then, knowing that you've helped someone else with your photo, surely that would encourage you to help yourself.  Hence, my new trend for posting pictures of salads on my social media accounts.

The other benefit of this is that you have to think about what you're photographing.  No one really wants to see a bit of lettuce next to half a piece of chicken, that's not very exciting, but once you "throw" on your jewels of pomegranates, colourful carrots and a variety of green from your leaves, asparagus etc. you start to create a piece of art.  Art is attractive and enticing, whether you agree with it or not, if it catches your eye then you have noticed it. And if you notice it then you might look deeper into it.

As the creator of food art, you might then realise that the extra two minutes it took to put together the colour on your plate actually makes it much tastier, much more enjoyable as you sit down to eat the masterpiece before you.

Make yourself aware of the colours you have used, the different textures, and appreciate how once combined they actually make a great meal.  Then show it off to everyone else, and inspire them to do the same. In the same way that you might choose a meal from a photographed menu (especially on the beach on holiday) or a recipe book. You've gotta admit, it's much easier deciding a recipe based on a picture rather than the one created in your head when you've mentally put the ingredients together.

I have predominantly been photographing salad, as my evening meals might currently be a bit on the beige side (loving chicken and potatoes at the moment) but I'm working on that, and you never know, this might lead to my new enterprise of photographing my amazing salads and then selling them to auction houses and galleries for zillions of pounds.