Thoughts on The King’s Speech

The_kings_speech The handwritten note on the door of our local cinema says it all about the enormous popularity of this film: "All of today's showings of The Kings Speech are sold out".

It's been a couple of weeks since the UK release and it's still difficult to see the story about King George VIth and Lionel Logue, the speech therapist that helped him get over his stammer. I had to call around to several cinemas; most preempted recordings with a message about limited or non-availability of tickets to see the film. After Googling the film, I finally got tickets at larger cinema about 30 miles away.

The first thing that struck me was the age of the audience. I had to get up several times to let ladies with beige jackets and pleated skirts get to their seats. I wondered when the last time most of them had been inside a cinema and was intrigued as to what brought them out on a rainy evening.

I’m giving up plastic bags for the Baglady, please pass it on…

What we thought of Disney’s #Tangled

 

TANGLED_Intl_Payoff1Sheet_RGB.jpg_rgb One of the best things about being a mum blogger is getting a sneak peak at films before they are released. Sometimes I even get to go on press junkets, and meet the talent behind the films and ask all sort of mum-type questions. I love it!

The girls and I recently saw Disney's 50th animated film, Tangled. It is the story of Rapunzel. You know the one, where a gorgeous girl with long hair is stuck in a tower and is rescued by a handsome prince?

It sounds terribly twee and predictable, doesn't it?

It's not! Disney turned this tale on its head. Yes it has the signature princess, but it is much more. The film touches on issues as such child abduction, a mother's love, growing up and there are even some spiritual tones.

I wish I had given my daughter the swine flu jab

Sick child My 7-year-old daughter had swine flu and it was hell.

It lasted two weeks. She had a sore throat and a high fever. She had a chesty, hacking cough that would lead to getting sick (not that she had much to throw up, she wasn't eating). She was tired and listless. At one point she recoiled when I touched her. She just wanted to be in bed, alone, with the lights off. She had a respite after a week, but then it came back with a vengeance; more coughing, more getting sick, more high fever. My main goal was to keep her temperature down and to make sure she took liquids.

Meet the talent behind Disney’s Tangled

 

Alan Menken w Mandy Moore 

The highlight of my press junket to Disneyland Paris was meeting some of the talent behind Disney's new animated film Tangled. Press junkets are a whole experience in themselves; I could write an entire post about them. I was the lone blogger amongst a large group of European press, and a guy from one of the mainland nationals kept eeking in all his questions before anyone else could breathe! I did my job though and managed to get in a few parent-focused questions.

More about that dress

Thames Valley drinks and the digital story of the nativity

Last night we had Christmas drinks at a neighbours. Actually it was with the neighborhood, as the whole town was there, drinking mulled wine and chatting about the symptoms of swine flu and Evernote, a cool app that syncs your notes from all devices. We also took a quick peak at this viral video (on an Android smart …

Please, leave your sick kid at home!

Toilet1 To all mums,

If your child threw up last night’s dinner or had the loo permanently stuck to their bottom last night, PLEASE DO NOT SEND HIM TO SCHOOL.

I don’t care if you asked him if he wanted to stay home and he said no. I would want to get out of the house too if I was faced with the choice of helping a grumpy mummy with the growing mountain of laundry the size of Everest or playing with my friends.

The thing is, when you send your sick child to school, they spread their germs. They don’t do it intentionally – they cough or sneeze and the virus suspends itself in mid air, non discriminate on where, or on whom, it lands.

Then other children get the sick bug, and they in turn get their siblings sick, and their parents. Soon the whole town is sick is and throwing up in unison and there is a run on paracetamol at Tesco .