Thomas Cook World Book Day App

Here's a fun way to choose holiday reading material! Simply enter your holiday destination plus favourite book genre in this handy online app and it will suggest what reading matter you should take away on holiday. As someone who never fails to find packing books one of the most troublesome tasks when going away, this could be really useful! Give it a go. You can either try it for yourself right now right here or on the Thomas Cook website.



The Thomas Cook Holiday Book Selector

Dad in a Box

Stumbled across this the other day when disappearing down the rabbit hole of twitter links and couldn't resist sharing it. It's the little girl's third birthday and she's got a very large (surprise) present. If you've not yet seen this, you'll love it...

Win an Abra-ca-Debora Pancake Day Hamper!

Next week is Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and one of my previous incarnations as an RE teacher it was always an easy lesson to prepare. In case you were absent that day (and in case you're remotely interested) here are some of the most commonly asked questions about Pancake Day, with answers in varying degrees of seriousness...

1. Why 'pancakes'?
The usual answer is that it was an attempt to use up all the rich foods that would otherwise have gone to waste during the fast of Lent (which begins the day after, Ash Wednesday).  Hence the name 'fat Tuesday' (Mardi Gras) in some parts of the world.

2. Ok then, why is it always on a Tuesday?
Ah, slightly more complicated, that. But basically, because Lent (which begins when? Come on, I've told you once!) is the forty day (ok, it's more than forty straight days but Sundays don't count, right?) period leading up to Easter. And Easter is the traditional 'moveable feast' as it has to be based (for historical reasons) on the phases of the moon. And as we know, lunar and solar months are different. 

3. And why 'Shrove'?
Bit technical, that one. It comes from the word 'shriven' which basically means 'to be forgiven' and refers to the need to 'fess up before fasting. So, 'Shrove' Tuesday means 'confess-your-sins-and-be-forgiven-ready-for-fasting' Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is shorter, obviously.

4. Tossing. Tell me about tossing.
Well the story goes that housewives busy with their pancakes forgot the time and had to make a dash for the church to receive absolution (forgiveness - see above) in time - taking their pancakes and their frying pans with them. Personally I think that's possibly one of the most far-fetched pseudo-explanations in history so here's my theory: everyone knows how hard it is to toss a pancake and what a mess it can make of the kitchen if it goes wrong. So do it outside and if the worst happens, the birds will clear the mess. It's a short step from that to running - back inside, having tossed (successfully) - to feed the family before the pancake goes cold.  

5. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. Are you sure?
Of course not. But if you think that's far-fetched how about the traditional Irish custom of pancake crocking - basically going from door to door demanding pancakes and threatening to throw broken crockery at the house if unsuccessful. Don't try this at home. 

Instead, why not try winning one of these fabulous Abra-ca-Debora Pancake Day Hampers? I've got one to give away to the lucky reader who leaves the most entertaining pancake-related comment or anecdote below (criteria: Charlie's amusement as measured by breadth of smile or length of laughter - judges decision final!) before pancake day itself, next Tuesday March 4th. And in the meantime why not pop over to the Abra-ca-Debora website and get some inspiration for the big day from their fabulous pancake recipes.

Happy Tossing!

Scouting for boys

Well, well... or dyb dyb (and yes, that IS the way to spell it as it's short for 'do your best', the Scout Master's injunction to all young Scouts to which they heartily reply 'dob dob', short for 'yes of course, sir, we will do our best and certainly not allow our woggles to go wonky...)

But I digress. As I do rather a lot.

Today, February 22nd, is a very special day in the history of Scouting, Guiding, Beavering and Cubbing to say nothing of Brownieing and Rainbowing. Because on this very day in 1857 Big Chief Baden-Powell himself was born. Happy Birthday Skip.

Powell was an army officer, veteran indeed of the Boer War where one of his less auspicious claims to fame involves the invention of the concentration camp. A firm believer in fresh air and clean living,  B-P refused not only to sleep in the martial bed but shunned the martial bedroom entirely, preferring to sleep on the balcony in all weathers and at all times of year.

'We say to a boy, come and be good' he writes in his manifesto of the scouting movement. 'Well, the best class of boy - that is, the hooligan (yes, he really did say that!) replies I'm blowed if I'm going to be good'. (The term 'blowed' might well be a euphemism or a more polite substitution but is in any case not to be understood in the modern sense of the word, just to avoid any confusion). 

'But we say to him,' Lord B-P goes on, 'come and be a red Indian and dress like a scout, and he'll come along like anything.'

And they still do (come along like anything) 100-odd years later. And if that isn't a cause for celebration then I don't know what is. 

So, is your son or daughter a Guide or a Beaver, Rainbow or Scout? I never quite made it myself, giving up after Cubs. Wasn't even a sixer, either. Did make seconder though. And had fun in the gang show. 

Thanks B-P. Long may such innocent fun continue.

Smoking ban in cars with kids? Bring it on!

I know it'll be difficult to enforce. And I'm a firm believer in the principle of not passing laws unless you're prepared to make a reasonable effort to ensure that they're followed. Heaven knows there are enough laws out there (or there are here) that no-one seems to want to police, like dropping litter, letting dogs foul the footpath or getting blind drunk in the park. Did you know it's also illegal to import Polish potatoes? Or that putting a stamp on an envelope the wrong way round is considered an act of treason?

But I digress. Freedom to put someone else at risk ain't freedom in my book, and just because you're behind the wheel of your car doesn't mean you have the right to put other people in danger. You don't have the right to offend my eardrums either with your axle-shaking music or your mortar-sized exhaust that makes your car sound like a fighter jet. You don't have the right to risk clipping my bike as you drive by because you've got one eye (and one hand) on your mobile phone; you don't have the right to park your car across the footpath forcing me and my fellow pedestrians to walk on the road; you don't have the right to jump the lights or race or do any of the other things that put life and limb in danger. And that's why you're not free to indulge in such behaviour. Because such things are known dangers, as is smoking. And moaning about your civil liberties doesn't make a jot of difference.

Protesting that banning such behaviour is an infringement of your rights or a dictatorial extension of the state are well wide of the mark too. This is not the same as protesting against a risk-averse, health and safety obsessed and creeping nanny-state. Personally, I do think kids should climb trees, play conkers, swim in rivers and so on. Because they're fun. Risky, yes. But fun. And you can't tell me that being made to breathe others people's tobacco smoke is 'fun'.

So, bring it on. Bring on the ban. Add it to the long list of other cherished liberties we've lost, like the right to beat our wives, the freedom to send our kids up chimneys and the liberty to lock up those whose views we disagree with.

And let's repeal a few hundred other silly laws to make sure there's some chance of enforcing it.