If you have a mo…

Just have a gander at these blogs by the people who shared links to their sites in my last NaPoWriMo post.

They are all very different from one another and I have really enjoyed exploring their material so please check them out.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you:

Kruti Joshi’s Life and My Musings  

Colleen Knight

Sean Tully

Luke Otley

If you would also like to share links to your poetry, please feel free to leave a link in the comments boxes below

I am off to finish a new poem that the kids have prevented me from doing for the last week – wish me luck, a clear head and peace for the next 2 hours….. ahhhhh…

Anna x

Rock n’ Roll Things To Do With The Kids

I’ve been racking my brain recently to discover ways in which we rock and roll mamas and dadas can devise a really cool day out with our kids; how we can do this AND retain/increase our credibility as well as enjoying the experience ourselves.

Hell!  you say, That’s not possible!

From tots to teens, I reckon there’s something in this post for those of us seeking a way to keep our rock and roll streak alive as well as making an acceptable impression on our “little” or “large” ones.

So, here goes – and if you think you can add to the suggestions below, please comment, I’d be really grateful for any further recommendations.

 

 Arts & Culture

Saatchi Gallery, London – The Rolling Stones – Exhibitionism
Currently making the headlines is this eclectic and colourful collection.
Open NOW until 4^th September 2016
You could always appropriately combine this with a meal out at Bill Wyman’s Sticky Fingers restaurant in Kensington.

Snap Galleries, London
This gallery and shop situated in Piccadilly Arcade, hosts regular pop and rock art exhibitions.  Keep up to date with their calendar for forthcoming collections .
They currently have photographs of The Rolling Stones by Gered Mankowitz  to coincide with Exhibitionism until 28th May 2016.

TV
SRO Audiences
BBC Shows and Tours
Your teen would love the opportunity to be in the audience for a TV show like MTV’s Live Lockdown or Later With Jools Holland or any other favourite show for that matter.
Get onto the mailing lists (those above are the best I have found so far) for news on how to apply for (free) tickets and make sure you act fast as places get snapped up.  Shows are filmed at various studios around the country, so check you can actually get there easily.

London Rock Music Tour – Central London
From Abbey Road to Jimmy Page’s house, this tour explores London’s prime rock and roll sites and there’s loads.  It can take a whole day to see everything, but you can choose to do a morning, afternoon or 8 hour day.  Tour groups are small (16 people only) so that you get the very best out of your knowledgeable tour guide.  I’ve only looked this one up online but it sounds really interesting.

 

Music Cool Stuff

Rock By Baby – various locations in the UK
This could be your little ‘uns first ever gig!  A musical experience that seems to be a hit sensation.
Pop and rock tunes are tailored to suit little ears by real musicians playing an acoustic set.
The next gig is in Shoreditch,London on 18^th April 2016.  Tickets can be bought in advance.

Heavy Con, London
30^th September – 2^nd October 2016
The UK’s first fan driven rock and metal convention, with meet and greets, stalls, exhibitors and talks.  Cool!

Marshall Amps Factory Tour, Bletchley, Milton Keynes

Marshall is the home of the amplification system used by rock musicians worldwide.  You can TOUR the factory, privately, for FREE!  How’s that!
Booking by telephone is essential.  Tours are available from Monday – Thursday (school holidays – what a treat!) at either 9am or 1.15pm.  Tours are open to a maximum of 7 people and include viewing production, the theatre (subject to availability) and the Marshall Museum.

 

Music Festivals

Here are a handful of festivals happening this year suitable for families with young children and willing teenagers:

Bestival – Dorset
Curious Arts – Hampshire
Down to the Woods – Durham
Glastonbury – Somerset
Green Man – Wales
Isle of Wight Festival
Livestock – Gloucestershire
Looemusic – Cornwall

Having done Camden Rocks, Download and Reading myself, these next festivals are probably better suited to families with older children:

Camden Rocks – London
Download – Donnington
Boardmasters Festival – Cornwall
Reading and Leeds Festivals
SW4 Festival Clapham Common – London

For further excellent advice and recommendations checkout the FestivalKidz.com comprehensive calendar.

 

Eating Out and Sleeping Out

Hard Rock Cafés – Glasgow, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Dublin

They are a bit of a cliché but my kids love the chance to go along to these restaurants and have started to collect the t-shirts from all the HRC’s around the world! (so touristy!)  They are full of rock and roll memorabilia for you to marvel at while you munch on your burgers and fries (and probably lots of healthy rock and roll salads too)

Sticky Fingers (Bill Wyman) – London
Well, apparently, you do end up with the obvious – sticky fingers that is!

Rockers Steak House – Cambridge
I’ve never been, but it looks good – can anyone recommend?

Hotel Pelirocco –  Brighton, Sussex
A boutique hotel with themed bedrooms, the occasional acoustic gig and a lively bar open to 3am at weekends!  That said, despite some risqué decor and rock n’roll goings on, the hotel told me that they do welcome families.  The Pretty Vacant Room (which does have some artwork containing fruity language) and the Dollywould Room both have a double bed and a daybed which can sleep a third person/child. Alternatively  the Ophelia Fancy Room and Cloud Cuckoo Land are adjoining rooms, both with double beds.  These rooms are on the 3rd and 4th floors so well away from the bar. I have not been here, but I’d go, with an open mind!

Sanctum Soho – London

If you are feeling flush and a little excitable, this hotel sometimes hosts acoustic sets from bands, it has an in-house bijou cinema and often puts up a few celebs for the night, so perfect for star spotting. Nikki Sixx was there a few weeks ago, Lemmy was often a guest…you never know who you might bump into as the hotel is used for music, fashion and film pr events/launches.

 

Well that’s that!  Hope you have discovered something new!  Please keep in touch and let me know if you tried any of these ideas and obviously, how your kids responded to them!  Whatever you do, make sure you go together, have a great day out, show your kids how to live and rock n roll forever!

Long Live The Fans!

Anna xx

We Are The Mums!

Tall Mums, short Mums
Fat Mums, thin Mums
Sporty Mums, stressy Mums
Glammy Mums, slummy Mums
All shapes and
All guises
Gauging the sizes
Of our bums Mums

Mums can cook and read books
(mostly at the same time)
Mums can sing about silly things
Just to keep in rhyme
Mums can nurse and give a cuddle
Mums can run at speed
To trouble
Mums can wipe up sick and poo
And still remain in love with you

Mums like coffee, tea and bed
Somewhere quiet to hide their heads
Mums drink wine and cry with friends
Its all too much; can’t see the end
Mums are pros still to this day
Its just its all so far away
But Mums are strong and
Mums are brave
Mums can sometimes misbehave

Mums are just in day disguise
Starbucks coffees and Levis
Mums can rock and mums can roll
Beware the Mum’s ambitious goal!
Mums will make sure you’re okay
They wouldn’t sell you
On eBay
We are the Mums
All shapes and sizes
Superwomen in disguises!

Invalid

Being an invalid for the last five weeks has almost rendered me invalid.  Like an out of date ticket or an expired warranty, I have achieved virtually nothing, not even a poem.

Should I be writing about achieving nothing?  Well, I feel that I should explain my prolonged silence on Facebook, Twitter and here, on my blog, but feeling guilty about it is an emotion I am trying, feebly, to knock on the head.

I think we all should.

Life’s busy isn’t it?  We forget sometimes how to take care of ourselves when our frantic day to day lifestyles demand every ounce of our energy.  We work hard, worry hard, put all our eggs in one basket, try to do one million and one things at once and play hard (if we can!).  Any other rock and roll mammas and dadas like me out there?  Well, our work never seems to be done – kids (ah but we love ’em) sap every last gram of goodness from our brains and bodies and the inevitable wake up call is the word INVALID.

Five weeks of invalidity is crap.  I’ve lived off soup and yoghurt, tried every shelf remedy under the sun, done more than my fair share of antibiotics, suffocated on my own plugs of green sputum, lost 5lbs, coughed my vocal cords to shreds and watched night TV repeatedly (poor old Michael Hutchence and bless those wildlife sanctuary vets) because I dreaded sleeping for split seconds at a time.

Sometimes people, it is good to do nothing, guilt free; just look after yourselves.  Promise me?

Writing this post proves that I am getting back to my old self again.  Yep, its therapeutic  ain’t it?  I might even listen to a bit of music… then again, here come the kids…