Gammon and Chips - Page 2 of 4 - The adventures of two kiddiewinks, by their Aussie expat mum

Fancy dress-a-go-go!

Well, just to warn you now… this post isn’t about Gammon OR Chips – it is (please try not to shudder) about me – Mummy Gammon & Chips. Just to fill some of you in on what I’m like – I reckon that if you did a straw poll of my friends and asked them … Continue reading »

The Koala Brothers. Image Copyright Spellbound Entertainment.

Koala Brothers Vs The Wombats

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the theme song to ‘The Koala Brothers’ on CBeebies sounds just like ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ by The Wombats? I’d really like to think that maybe these Australian native animal are in cahoots and have been helping each other out. Like they all get … Continue reading »

Review: Micro Scooter Balance Bike – G-Bike Plus

I love Micro Scooters. They. Are. Cool. Gammon has had one since he was about 18 months old. I bought him a second hand blue one from the Friday Ads because he kept ‘borrowing’ those of older children when we went to playgroup. He was really good on it from a very young age – … Continue reading »

The Ultimate Guide to Saving Money on Holiday

Now, I love to holiday. And I love to save money. If I can do both of those at the same time (and really, when do I not!), then I’m in a small piece of jetsetting heaven. So I was well chuffed when the lovely team at Deal Checker asked for my help – plus that of … Continue reading »

Win a family ticket to Elderflower Fields Festival!!! 23-26th May

A huge thank you to the amazingly lovely people at Elderflower Fields Festival who have given me a family ticket to their festival to give away. That’s passes for two adults and two children (under 5s are free) and is worth over £300! This is the third year for Elderflower Fields, and it’s set to … Continue reading »

Wow! I’ve made the BiBs shortlist in the Commentary category! #BiBs2014

VOTE FOR ‘GAMMON & CHIPS’ IN THE ‘COMMENTARY & CAMPAIGNS’ CATEGORY HERE. Well, knock me down with a feather and call me Susan! I’ve made the 2014 BiBs shortlist! Yeah!!! You can find me in the ‘Commentary & Campaigns’ category. Thanks so much to everyone who nominated. It really means a lot to me, because my … Continue reading »

Rainforest Adventure at Brighton Sea Life Centre

Just before the start of the school holidays, we were lucky enough to be offered a free family pass to the Brighton Sea Life Centre for the opening of their new Rainforest Adventure exhibit. We love the Sea Life Centre in our household – mainly because Gammon has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all things … Continue reading »

Themed Dinner Party Ideas For The Grown Ups!

The dinner party – so popular in the 1970s – is back in fashion, probably thanks to the endless re-runs of ‘Come Dine With Me’ on TV. If you want to invite your best friends around for an evening of wining and dining and fun, here are three ideas you could adopt to make your … Continue reading »

BritMums Carnival at Gammon & Chips: Come join the party!

Well, hello there! And welcome. My BritMums Carnival hosting gig has finally arrived! Yeah! And I feel excited. Because this little shindig has a waiting list longer than a Welsh railway station sign. I’m so glad it’s finally here in all its glory. So, please make your way down the hallway, help yourself to a … Continue reading »

BiB Awards 2014: Commentary & Campaigns category

Yes, my dear followers, I’m going to be blunt about it – I have another favour to ask. It seems like hardly a week goes by without another round of blogging award nominations at the moment. But a huge thanks to each and every one of you who nominated me in the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ category … Continue reading »

BritMums Carnival – come join the party!

Calling all blogging groovers! On Tuesday 8th April, I’m hosting the BritMums Carnival at Gammon & Chips. That’s right – we’re gonna be busting out the Party Rings, gulping down some Cream Soda, sprinkling Hundreds and Thousands on squishy white bread with margarine to make Fairy Bread and generally partying like it’s 1999. It’s a … Continue reading »

Our first visit to Westminster! Love for Izzy Dix

On Tuesday, Gabbi Dix and I made our way up to Westminster for the first ‘Love for Izzy Dix’ campaign meeting with the powers that be. We were there to see Gabbi’s MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston, the member for Totnes, to discuss next steps for our anti-bullying campaign. If you aren’t aware of our campaign, … Continue reading »

It’s time to go MAD for Gammon & Chips!

Yes folks – it’s that time of the year again. It’s the time when bloggers who usually hide behind their laptop screens… well… continue to do just that… but they just do it a bit louder than usual. It’s MAD Blog Award nomination time! The time of the year where I ask very politely for … Continue reading »

Review: Reef 2 High Tide

Many years ago, before I was married and had children, I remember flying over the Great Barrier Reef in an aeroplane on my way to the UK. On the seat-back television screen I was watching ‘Finding Nemo’. I had a window seat and as I looked down over the crystal clear sea made up of … Continue reading »

When hand-me-down toddlerwear gives up the ghost

Here at Family Gammon & Chips, we’ve been so fortunate with the ‘hand-me-down’ clothes we’ve received for our kids. From the time Gammon was a tiddly little mite, my lovely nutritionist friend Karen has regularly popped round for a quick cuppa laden with bin bags full of very smart boyswear passed on by her two … Continue reading »

We’ve done it! Westminster, here we come!

Saturday was a great day. At exactly 5.52pm, our online Change.org anti-bullying petition in the memory of Izzy Dix was signed by our 100,000th person. That means, we’ve reached our target in just four months. To us, this is massive. That’s 100,000 people who have heard about Izzy and her mum Gabbi’s story and are … Continue reading »

Honk if you’re corny: Team Honk Brighton – Bloggers Relay from Lands End to John O’ Groats

This week, two words have entered my life that I never thought would touch the precincts of my brain neurons, let alone grace the pages of my blog. The words in question are ‘sport’ and ‘relief’. To me those words, when placed together, are the biggest oxymoron of them all. ‘Relief’ when taking part in … Continue reading »

Win a gorgeous ‘stag’ Christmas Stocking by Sophie Allport designs

Oh deer. Christmas is coming! And yes, that pun is intended, because I have a lovely Christmas stocking made from Sophie Allport’s beautiful festive ‘Stag’ fabric to give away to one lucky blog reader. Love Christmas, but cringe every time you see a felt representation of a rotund bearded man dangling limply over a fireplace? … Continue reading »

Guest Post: KalliKids for Anti-Bullying Week: Love For Izzy Dix

To read my Guest Blog Post, please click here. Last week, I was asked to write a Guest Blog Post for Anti-Bullying Week on the KalliKids website. I chose to write it about the name and nature of our anti-bullying campaign: ‘Love for Izzy Dix’. It explains why ‘love’ is at the heart of what we … Continue reading »

Guest Post: Special Needs Jungle: The Future is Ours. Safe, Fun and Connected

To read my Guest Blog Post, please click here. Last week, I was thrilled to be asked to write a Guest Blog Post for the Special Needs Jungle website, after meeting Tania when we were both speakers on the ‘How blogging and social media can change the world’ panel at Mumsnet BlogFest. I was speaking … Continue reading »

Ho Ho Ho Ho! Merry 4D Christmas!

I love Christmas. Being Australian, I especially love the theatre of the cold snowy Christmas that is celebrated here in the UK. It’s so different to the ‘basking around in the sunshine, going for a swim and eating king prawns, salad and pavlova’ Christmas that I grew up with. So I jumped at the chance … Continue reading »

Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map

Despite an exceptional attendance rate over the past 4 years, it seems Gammon has now self-graduated from CBeebies University and moved on to audio-visual pastures new (well, with the exception of Octonauts of course!). Chips has never been quite as interested in telly as her older brother, and…well… long may it continue! Gammon’s latest favourite is … Continue reading »

Matalan Movie Club – Finding Nemo

With our anti-bullying campaign in memory of Izzy Dix in full flow, my blog has had to take a bit of a back seat of late. But I did get to go on a Mummy/son trip to London with Gammon in tow one weekend back in October. We caught the train up from Brighton to … Continue reading »

Commando Dad book review. Author: Neil Sinclair

If there’s one thing I love, it’s a metaphor. If there’s one thing I love more than a metaphor, it’s an extended metaphor. So if that’s the case, then in my mind this book really is the literary equivalent of a celebratory Passing Out Parade. Apart from coincidentally having the same name as my brother-in-law, … Continue reading »

Make a Change.org for Izzy Dix. Sign our ask.fm petition

Last month, a very close family friend of ours, 14-year-old Devon schoolgirl, Izzy Dix, took her own life due to bullying, both at school and online. Hopefully, many of you have already seen the anti-bullying campaign that we have started in Izzy’s name to try to change things for the better for other young people … Continue reading »

Win 2 x Russell Brand tickets – live in London!

Yes, that’s right people! The lovely folk at Seatwave have given me 2 tickets to give away on my blog, to see he of the sparkling repartee, the big hair, the permanently attached yoga mat, the thought-provoking Guardian articles, and the questionable past, live. See Mr Russell Brand in all his glory on MONDAY 14TH … Continue reading »

In memory of Izzy Dix. Together, we must stop cyberbullying.

Please sign the PETITION HERE! Last week, our dear family friend, a 14-year-old schoolgirl called Izzy Dix, died. It appeared that she’d taken her own life. And this action seemed to be linked to bullying, both at school and online. I know that Izzy had been bullied. She had discussed it in depth with her … Continue reading »

Regress Australia Fair?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Last weekend I was angry. Very angry. This weekend I was just sad. Why am I sad? Because the country that I love, the one that I originate from, the one that I happen to think, after a lot of careful consideration of different nations over the years, is one … Continue reading »

Our festivacation: Beautiful Days festival, Devon

Family Gammon & Chips has just spent the best part of the last two weeks on holiday. And I’ve spent a good part of those two weeks coining a new phrase for what we’ve been galavanting about doing – a ‘festivacation’. The definition of which is (according to me, as I invented it) ‘a holiday … Continue reading »

Autumn fun in the holidays: my top 10 ideas

Gammon starts school in September. He’ll be four years and not even a month old on his first day. But his tender young age is a whole other post in itself. For another day. The thing i’m struggling at the moment to get my head round is the fact that we won’t be able to … Continue reading »

Parragon Book Buddies review

When I attended BritMums Live! blogger conference in London last month, I was very pleased to meet the lovely team from Parragon Books and they asked me if I’d like to become a Parragon Book Buddy. I am passionate about children reading, so I jumped at the chance. I was read to constantly as a child, … Continue reading »

Win a Royal Baby mug & children’s sailing boat dinner set from Sophie Allport!

Fire the cannons in celebration – Kate & Wills have produced a tiny human! He will be known throughout the world as ‘George’. I can’t wait for his sister, ‘Mildred’, to arrive in a couple of years’ time. Hooray! To commemorate this grand occasion, I’m giving away something synonymous with Royal Births – china! That’s … Continue reading »