Lifestyle - Hudl Love

So, I have been really busy the last few days as it's the Easter holidays at the moment. I really hate that it totally interferes with my being able to blog :-( 

It does mean, however that madam and I have had a bit of time to do some girly bonding. This has entailed rather a lot of arguing, but we have been to see Mr Peabody and Sherman (better than I feared it would be). We've also been spending a lot of time playing with my fancy new tablet...

Minion Rush, by the way, is horrendously addictive! 

My netbook screen got smashed, and you have no idea how much you need that top left corner!

I bought the Hudl after much soul searching and consulting with people on Twitter. I nearly went with a Kindle Fire as the last gen ones are on offer at the moment. £60 off, if you're interested. I didn't in the end as I needed something with more flexibility than a Kindle gives you. 

The Hudl comes with a 16gb memory, however it has a micro SD slot so you can add extra memory to it. It runs off the android system so you can download allsorts from the Play store. I have basically put everything I find essential on my phone onto it plus a whole load of games to keep madam and I amused whilst we're offline at home!

What a pretty face... 

I am probably driving people on Twitter mad with my Hudl love, It's just so nice to find a piece of kit that works so well for me and fits in with my lifestyle! Though I miss my netbook and am still hoping to get it back up and running. If nothing else because of the massive amount of photos and music stored on it. 

Oh, and having the ability to word process would be handy too. I have looked for an app for that, but couldn't see anything useful. Typing on a touchpad is OK, but I do like a proper keyboard and might invest in one soon... 

But, yup, basically I ♥ my Hudl. I have even gone so far as to buy it a new cover that matches it perfectly. The one I got with it didn't have a hole for the rear camera or speakers and this one does. I think if you're looking for a small tablet then this is a pretty good option for you. 

Blue!

And no, Tesco have not sponsored this post! 

Love, Pearl.

the return of the parents

I appear to have woken up today to the news that it's July already. That can't be right, surely! This year is going by so quickly, which is a silly thing to say really as it's all relative. I just can't quite believe we've got to the second half of the year already. I just am feeling rushed, would anyone mind if I just had another go at June?

 

Although today being the first of July does mean that my parents are home from their holiday! And they have brought home lots of interesting stuffs :) This is my favourite part of travelling, all the new and exciting things you discover. My dad has even brought home a massive dragon shaped kite!

 

 

 

It's lovely to have them back and to have someone else to help me with madam again, especially as I decided not to send her to nursery because of the big bandage! She'd be driving me crazy by now, but is instead driving my parents to distraction by "helping" with the unpacking instead! ;)

 

They brought her lots of presents too! She got a mouse, bought on the train as a "get well soon" present, who is now called Lorelai after the part of the Rhine the train was going past at the time! The mouse has been getting into all sorts of mischief already, including trying to eat the cheese that we had for lunch and playing hide and seek with madam and my dad whilst mum and I went to Morrison's.

 

 

 

They have also brought some clothes for her to grub around in over the summer holidays. But the piece-de-resistance is the flamenco dress that they got her! It's officially an age 12 (!) but fits her pretty much perfectly. And it's fabulous. Madam is so taken with it she was trying to persuade us she could wear it to go and pick up the take away later with my dad!

 

 

 

We've persuaded her to put it away and save it for best, or at least for times when she isn't going to ruin it! She's decided to debut it for her best friends birthday party at the end of the month. And it will make the best party dress...

 

I'm suspecting there are some sweets tucked away for her somewhere too!

 

I'm still feeling somewhat wiped out by the weekends exertions so it's nice to be able to have a fairly relaxed day with my folks. And you have no idea how glad I was to have the car back again!

 

Mum and I have also started plotting expeditions to take madam on during the summer holidays. We're trying to decide if madam will manage to get up to Whitby as it's quite a long drive for a small child to put up with. She's not too bad at travelling though, so I'm hoping we'll be able to give it a go. Apparently mum had said we could go to the sealife centre in Scarborough at some point as well...

 

I'd just really like it if we managed to get more dry days than wet!

 



organising is not my forte

I am trying to have a chilled afternoon before the onslaught of guides this evening. But as there are only going to be a few (of our already small numbers) there tonight it could make it really hard. If I have trouble arranging fun activities for two patrols then doing it for just one will be worse.

I was actually speaking to one of the other guide company leaders at a playgroup with madam the other day and she was saying their unit is very small as well. She suggested an amalgamation of our two units until numbers pick up a bit. But they meet on a different night to us and my leader wouldn't go with it...

However, I think that it could be worth considering doing some activities with them. It would make it more feasible for us both as companies to have a bigger group to do things with. For example, neither of us could fill a 16 seater mini-bus, but together we could. And allow for the couple of guides who won't want to come!

It doesn't solve my problems for tonight very much though. I need to do something fun and easy with a small number of guides. I'd quite like to get them to do a bit of running around as I think we're mainly going to have our youngest members tonight.

At least if we have the young ones we can do some crafting as they are much more into it than the older lot... Perhaps not Father's Day cards though, they're a bit old for that now, surely... 

I have been doing some online research and there are some interesting games for smaller groups, but you need about 10 to really play most of them. Though  this sounds kind of fun...

Grab the finger

Get everyone to stand in a circle, with their arms out either side.  Tell people to put their left palm up, and right finger pointing down (touching the person next to them's outstretched palm). 

When you say the word "GO", people need to do two things:

1. Grab the person's finger in your left hand
2. Prevent your right finger from being grabbed

If your finger is grabbed, you are out, and you sit on the sidelines.  The game continues until there is a winner.  

The key to this game is adding a bit of drama and suspense around when you say "Go". eg count down, add a big delay, etc.  You can do it a few times before it gets old :)

But again, sounds like the more people you have the funner this would be! Oh, that game comes from this website by the way.

There are a lot of those kind of websites around, who'd have thought it! I'm still a bit stuck for ideas though!