Park Inn Hotels are currently running a competition at Play 4 Park Inn .  The grand prize is a weeks stay  at Park Inn Manchester, Park Inn Berlin, or Park Inn Ulysse Resort (in Djerba, Tunisia) plus a £300 giftcard.

But that’s not all.  Just by playing the game you can enter into a weekly draw where two winners will win an iPad and £250 (respectively).  The game isn’t hard, a simple game of “4 in a row”, and even if you lose (which I did!) you still get to enter the draw.  You could spend all your lunch breaks playing as it’s quite addictive!

I’ve entered to win a weeks stay at Park Inn Hotel Manchester.  It’s not as glamorous as Tunisia but with a young toddler it’d be an easier journey and I think a city break would be fantastic.

Of course, Manchester isn’t really my dream destination.  If you’ve read my blog before you probably know I got married in Paphos in Cyprus.  I’d love to go back there and show it all to C.  We stayed in Paphos and both M and I loved it.  If we went again we’d love to hire our own car and be able to explore the island more.  There are such vast differences within a couple of hours drive.  There are the gorgeous beach resorts obviously but there are also the mountains which are just stunning.  We went in January and it was freezing up those mountains but I’m told its much warmer in the summer.

I wonder if there are any Park Inn Hotels in Cyprus?

Oh yes and here are the T & C’s:

• Entrants must be 18 and over
• Competion closes 18 December 2010
• Max of 20 entries per week
• Main prize is for 2 persons based on double occupancy

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According to the UK Department of Transport, 60 to 80% of all car seats are used incorrectly, with harness tension being the most common problem. This is a particular issue in winter as it is hard to tell whether you have a good harness fit if your child is wearing a thick coat or snow suit.

For a car seat harness to work properly, the straps need to be tightly strapped against your child’s chest. When a child wears a snowsuit or thick coat, the straps are usually adjusted to the thickness of the coat, not the chest. If the car was in an accident, the coat could compress, making the straps too loose and reducing the level of protection for the child.

To see if a coat is too bulky to be worn while a child is in their car seat, do the 2 finger test:

You might be wondering why you’ve not heard about this issue before. In the USA and Canada, the issue of harness tension and thick coats is a subject that’s been discussed at length and parents in these countries are strongly advised not to let their children wear thick winter coats in car seats. The awareness of this issue has been led by qualified car seat safety technicians, who are shown pictures and videos during their training, of what can happen during a motor accident.

There are examples given to demonstrate the point, like a picture of an infant seat with a snowsuit under the harness. The seat was pulled out of a car that had just been in a crash. The infant was ejected from the seat and the car and was found some feet away from the car, but the snowsuit was left behind in the seat, highlighting the dangers of harness straps that aren’t tightened correctly.

In the UK, with our milder winters, this has perhaps seemed less of an issue in the past, but as our recent extremely cold and snowy winters have shown, parents do face the same problem of how to keep their children warm and safe in the car. Car safety authorities emphasise that it is harness tension that is the issue, not the thickness of the coat. But if you as a parent can’t be sure that you have a correct fit over a thick coat, why take the risk? Take the coat off and be safe.

Gifts bought this week: 0

A complete fail at gift buying this week.  I worked an extra day, with no lunch breaks, so spare time has been scarce.

This week, what I’d buy C for Christmas is money was no object:

Wow, right?  At a whopping £33,977 this would be something I’d go and get with my lottery winnings!  The company, Rainbow (www.rainbowplay.co.uk), also do some more reasonably priced climbing frames if you’re after one.

I hope you’ve all started buying thing now.  I need to make a definite list of what I’m getting as main presents for people and make a start with those, still deciding on C’s.

One of C’s new favourite places.  There are swings, slides and things to climb on.  What more can a 15 month old want?

You may remember my ‘Men’ post from a while back?  Well this is the ladies version of that photo.

The quality is really poor but apart from photographing the professional pics, which is cheating, this is all I have.

This is (from L-R) my Grandma, Mum, me and Mother-in-law, on my wedding day in Cyprus back in January 2006.

I’m making the most of this and trying to take her out for regular walks with the dog.  Although it’s very slow going, we both have lots of fun.

We see lots of interesting things

And find exciting looking stones and twigs

We even chase the ducks and swans

I love seeing how she finds every little thing so interesting.  I know it turns a ten minute walk into a 45 minute one but soon enough she’ll take all these things for granted, as we do, and I’ll miss the time when a twig was the best thing in the world… until she spotted that stone over there.

This is my creation:

And this is M’s:

Obviously mine is better but I promised him I’d put his on show too!

We’d love to win the prize but even if we don’t, we still had fun building!

Gifts bought this week: 2

Again, only a couple of little things but better than nothing.

My recommendations this week go to some businesses I follow on Twitter.

Firstly @icklebabe_com whose website Icklebabe sells some gorgeous handmade items which would make fantastic gifts.  I personally love the tea-cup candles, and the Twitter mug.

They also sell various homewares such as aprons, cushions and tea cosies, lots of things for the kids like t-shirts and personalised clocks and lots of other pretty things.  Helen, who runs Icklebabe, is also a very lovely lady, and great to chat to on Twitter! 

Next is @piddleypix who make fantastic pictures for kids. They’re really bright and colourful, and very competitively priced too.  Theres far too many for me to choose a favourite, I love them all!

My final recommendation for this week is @CharisNameArt who is behind this website and designs and makes some stunning items, based around names.  There are canvasses, t-shirts, place mats and more.  I really love the personalised place mats, they’re on C’s christmas list!

I hope you’re all getting on with your shopping.  It’s October y’know!

Hair

Quite possibly the single most essential thing for a woman to be feminine and fabulous is her hair. A good hairstyle not only looks fabulous but it makes you feel fabulous too. 

Lottie’s challenge is to spend 5 minutes every day, for a week, styling your hair, and for the very first time in the Finishing School I can honestly say I already do this!

It hasn’t always been that way though.  I’ve said before how I’m not very good with hair and make-up and all that goes with it, and I used to have a long bob that just kind of hung there.  When I particularly couldn’t be bothered I’d just scrape it back into a ponytail…not a good look for me.  I’ve always liked it when my hair looked nice but I just couldn’t figure out a way to do it that didn’t take an hour every morning.  Just to have a boring bob I needed to use the straighteners every day as my hair is wavy, not the nice wavy, more of the ‘it does what it likes’ wavy.

SO, about 3 months ago I decided I wanted to chop it all off.  I don’t have the face for one of those cute pixie cuts but I knew I wanted it quite short.  My hairdresser is really good. I explained to her that I wanted it short but not too short, and told her I didn’t want to spend ages on it every day but I was happy to spend 5 minutes with the straighteners.  This was the result:

It’s not the most trendy hairstyle ever but I love it.  It’s easy to do, and with it being short, it ensures I go to the hairdressers on a regular basis.  I like to dye it too and, after many self dying disasters, I’ve finally seen sense and have this done at a salon too, despite hubby moaning about the cost!  I’m really happy with my hair at the moment and I hope it continues!

Don’t forget to go over and read the other Finishing School posts over at Lottie Loves…