Try on the sorting hat to find out your Hogwarts house A key part of the Hogwarts experience is discovering which house you belong to. For students, that’s done by wearing the Sorting Hat in a ceremony in the Great Hall on their inaugural night at the school. While you can’t actually try on the…
Fatherhood: I’m a Midnight special-adviser
Short read: 300 words I really should be writing all my blog posts after midnight, as it turns out I give my best advice in the middle of the night… Like most kids, my children occasionally have nightmares. For the bottom-bunk sleeping youngest, that means trudging down the corridor and flinging open our door, to…
Fatherhood: Review – The Naughty Step Podcast
Despite being a fairly heavy consumer of podcasts (at last count, I’m subscribed to 16!) I’ve never dived into the world of parenting podcasts – at least until very recently. It wasn’t a conscious decision to avoid them – the majority of the podcasts I listen to are comedy based, and those two genres don’t…
Fatherhood: The Parental ‘Firsts’ I’ve Been Waiting a Decade For
As children get older, the number of “firsts” you look forward to experience decreases quite significantly. It’s not slow decline either – first word, first tooth, first steps, first day at school: all of the biggies take place in the first few years. By the time you get past the age of 3, most of…
Guest Post – Soccer Dad: What You Need to Pack When Mom’s Not Around
It’s soccer season, and that means Mom is going to be working overtime to get everyone to Saturday’s game—but wait! Mom just said she won’t be able to be there. So, you’re on your own, soccer dad! Here’s a checklist of what you need to bring to be the MVP of the sidelines. Canopy or…
English food on the menu for Brits abroad
Insisting on a traditional cooked breakfast and seeking out English food is one of the most popular things associated with Brits abroad, a new survey has revealed. ‘Brits abroad’ is a term used by the press to describe often shameful behaviour by UK holidaymakers, and as well as their reputation for craving sausage, egg and…
Fatherhood: Family Days Out – How to do Legoland UK, without breaking the bank
Despite having been to Legoland Windsor at least a dozen times, I’ve never written about it on the blog before – apart from a short review of a trip we made their at Christmas one year. This hasn’t been intentional – we love visiting Legoland, hence so many return trips! So with our next trip…
10 Coasters for a Car-Themed Man Cave
Represent your love for cars by decking out your man cave with car-themed stuff! Make the most rad man cave ever. When your dressing up a themed room, you cannot skip the details. Picking out the TV, pool table, and the rest of the bigger stuff is fun, but keep in mind the small stuff….
Fatherhood: I May Have Discovered The Perfect (free!) Family Activity…
As a parent, it’s sometimes a struggle to find new and exciting things to do with your kids. Whether it’s a quiet Sunday afternoon where you desperately want an excuse to get out of the house, or a half-term holiday where you’re trying to watch the pennies, finding something fun (and free!) to do can…
Competition – Win Blue Planet 2 DVDs
Following up from the ground-breaking 2001 BBC documentary series ‘Blue Planet’, Blue Planet 2 was one of 2017’s most talked-about pieces of television. Whether it was the stunning underwater filming, the shocking ecological messages or David Attenborough’s amazing narration, anybody who saw the series will remember what a stunning piece of work it was. Here’s…