The ultimate 80's night thanks to The O2!

Eh up!

Over the last few weeks we've been trying to plan a night out for a group of parents at the school. A way for us all to get to know each other better and have some fun without the kids, while it sounds like bliss it's not been easy to get this far with most of us unable to decide on when would be best for us all, trust me. That can be a problem when there's a large group to organise

80's flasher - Photo Credit - Derek Key
Creative commons license (CC BY 2.0)

Where we live has some fantastic transport links to the rest of the country, so we've decided to take the party out to the city that never sleeps, London. With it's vast array of restaurants, seedy back streets in Soho, some amazing places to party and the blessing (or regret depending on how you see it) that is the night buses for the inevitable chance of missing the last tube back to your homeward bound station. To me, it's one of the most vibrant and weird cities in the world with more to offer than most towns throughout the UK.

We've got everything planned out so far, we've booked an entire floor of a fancy restaurant and getting from place to place is all sorted. However we are missing one thing. where would we go after the restaurant? We'll need somewhere to party that night, after all. It's useless to spoil yourself in town without making it a fantastic night to remember. Me and my friend K have been racking our brains on this as we couldn't work out that best to do, When the radio station we were listening to decicded to blast 80's classics out one after another. In a true light bulb moment we decided to turn it from a school parents party to an 80's night, just without the spandex, Frankie Says relax T-Shirts and Shell suits. While funky and retro I'd prefer not to be spontaneously combustible from merely walking down the road thanks.

Now we did have one other problem to sort here, how we could make the evening a proper 80s bash? We went online and searched suitable venues and called many of them to find the were last years events. To be fair, the odds on finding a bar or club with an 80's theme near our restaurant without travelling miles out became a struggle until I heard a whisper from a friend about a special guest who was coming to The O2 around the same time we were in the City.  That was it, with much squeeing and swooning from both ladies and gents we're getting our hands on some Culture Club Tickets this week to see them at The O2. I really wanted to tweet the fabulous Boy George and ask him if we could all sneak in with him, but I'm sure he's recently unfollowed me on twitter - Sad but true, Come back lovely!!And the cherry on the top is Alison Moyet supporting too! It'll be fantastic, two amazing groups to tick off my bucket list.

If you were to join us on this amazing night out what would you wear and how loud would you be?
Paul!

Disclosure:
This post is published in collaboration with The O2

Messy fun and the Cook with the Kids Promise

Evening all.

Recently me and Lissy took a trip to London to visit the OXO Tower with Persil and learn more about the Persil Cook With The Kids Promise. A campaign to help get messy with your children, have lots of fun and make some tasty treats you can all be proud of without worrying about the mess afterwards.

I was a sad to see the results of a Persil and LMRMC survey of 2000 parents, this showed that that 88% of parents would avoid cooking with their children because of the mess and washing up involved.
47% of parents would prefer to keep their kitchen clean and tidy ‘at all times’ on top of that a further 41% said they are simply too busy to clear up the mess afterwards.

However sad that sounds It was good to see I'm in the 12% of parents who don't worry about the mess involved while cooking with the kids and a quarter of parents actively spend time cooking with the kids Maybe this is a sign of change as cooking at home for me was always the apparent complaint of mess, then again I used EVERY pot and pan in the house when younger!

With this in mind Persil and the Cookie Crumbles team set the day up with the emphasis on messy cooking fun by showing the kids how to make a pizza from scratch in a huge group the paired the children up together. Lissy was paired with another girl and with the help Cookie Crumbles team they both created amazing pizza bases. With Lissy's being star shaped, topped with cheese and a generous helping of ham it was one of many amazing shaped pizza's created that day.

Next Lissy teamed up with the lovely Ruby from Me and My shadow to decorate and eat yummy cupcakes, well I say yummy, I never got to try them (thanks girls,) guzzle lots of juice and play while waiting for their pizzas to be ready.

After pizzas, drawing and lots more play the kids got into small bodysuits, resembling minions. Hyper little minions as they prepared for the peak of the day for many of the children. The Food Fight.

This was set up with a plethora of food ready for sploshing on each other. The kids had fun getting messy, even if Lissy got grumpy for getting her hair messy.

We had a great day with Persil. And to make good on out promise to cook more with the children we'll be uploading some videos of me, my partner and the girls having fun, making mess and baking yummy goodness soon and will even show the clean-up too if wanted.

Persil aim to get 100,000 parents to sign up to spend time baking and making a mess with their kids.
For more information about the Cook with the Kids promise, and to pledge your promise click here You'll receive a free Cook with the kids downloadable pack and you also get the chance to win the ultimate children's party worth £500 too!
Also if anyone wants to join us in making mess with your children I'll be happy to add photos here and link to your blog, twitter, instagram, facebook or molome!


Persil Washing Up Liquid’s new formula all with anti-bacterial action is available in six fragrances;
Pink Blush
Orange Crush
Lemon Burst
Apple Fizz
Fresh Mint
And limited edition Spring Blossom
With new designed 500ml bottles created lighter will on estimate save 120 tonnes of plastic a year, reducing the amount of trucks on the road are now available for the modest price of £1.00 in most major stores.


Disclaimer - We were invited by Persil to attend the event and Lissy received a goody bag

Join me at SkyRide MK.

Evening all.

Two weeks ago I was contacted by the team from Sky and British Cycling to join in with the Sky Ride in Milton Keynes on Sunday the 26th August.

I've accepted the chance to join in for a few reasons.
Firstly because I like cycling and exploring new areas to ride,
I need a good excuse to train a bit more and increase my currently rubbish health (curse you spinal issues)
And finally. Naughtybike wants to play, safe in the knowledge I'm not going to thrash the bike about too much in respect for other riders.

From now until then I'll be looking for friends, fruitloons, families, vloggers and even hardened cyclists to register for the MK sky ride and join with me and many others for a jolly good set of two wheeled fun. Everyone from beginner to raving loons with naughtybikes are welcome.
I'm aiming to be there at about half nine to meet up with the sky team, and I'm thinking of offering to ride with those who are less confident or maybe need some encouragement. If you wish to join in on that ride please, get in touch.

Before I forget this is a family friendly ride, meaning children and there bikes are welcome, even if attached to a trailgaiter or a child is in a trailer (if i didn't have so many main roads to ride to get to the train station I would bring my trailer and youngest. We'll see)

Also if you join up, register for the Mk ride and come on the ride you have the chance to win many cool things, including bikes, Sky tv packages and Skybox and chances to meet Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton at the National Cycling Center in Manchester.

Come on, take part in a community ride with me and the team at British Cycling and Sky at SkyRide Milton Keynes.

Paul.

P.s. over the next two weeks i'll be adding endomondo training rides onto the blog for you all to see. Some will be slow, due to the trailer or back pain. However some will be stupidly fast.