Pyjamas or...errr.... Bananas...?

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Several things recently have got me musing over what people do wear in bed...firstly, the lovely Julie over at Kailexness wrote a post asking if there was Sex After Children (yes! hurrah!), and suggested sleeping naked as an easy way to intimacy. Secondly I was catching up with one of my many guilty pleasures in the trash TV stakes, 'Brothers and Sisters'. I won't bore those of you who don't follow the Walker family shenanigans with too much detail, but suffice to say, this particular episode seemed to involve a lot of them getting out of bed for some reason. It was interesting to see how what each character appeared to wear in bed reflected either their personality, or the state of their relationship.

I'll hold my hand up at this point and declare that, while I do possess a silly amount of frilly negligée type things, I am generally a 'comfort over style' kind of girl when it comes to bed wear. For starters, we live in a Victorian house that realistically has quite a way to go in the insulation stakes, and if there is one thing I detest it is Being Cold - in bed or out of it. I'm therefore definitely a cosy bedwear fan - however, even when the temperatures climb drastically, I still prefer to wear a little slip of something. Apart from anything else, I've always been a huge fan of leaving something to the imagination...

I do recognise, however, that it is very much a personal preference, as well as a practical consideration. A colleague of mine generally packs pyjamas only when going on trips, as they have a slight phobia of being caught out in case of a hotel fire alarm. I don't know whether this fear is based on a previous negative experience, or whether it is just sensible precautions, but it does seem a perfectly prudent thing to do. The thought of finding yourself starkers in a hotel car park in the middle of the night does not seem appealing to anyone but the most fervent exhibitionist.

Therefore, as I'm generally nosy, I'm going to open this up with a little poll (and fingers crossed that I have done this correctly!!), so go on, tell me...: 

What do you wear in bed?

Random Thoughts of the Week - the Half Term Edition

- We recently spent a wonderful week with a large group of old friends in the Peak District, a beautiful part of the country that really inspired me into thinking that we really should explore more of the UK, as there are so many wonderful places that really are worth a visit. Sadly, this assumes time and resources are plentiful (5 hours in a car is not fun, and sadly stingy employers limit those precious days off!), so I fear it will remain an unfulfilled ambition for some time yet!

- The main problem with holidaying in the UK is of course the unpredictability of the weather. Rain protection, especially is pretty fundamental. It helps to bear this in mind before travelling. Leaving youngest daughter's raincoat at nursery is therefore a really, really bad idea...

- There really are places in the UK without any mobile phone coverage. When I say UK, I actually mean "England" - I kind of assume that some of the more remote areas of the Scottish Highlands might not be covered. Being uncontactable for a couple of hours is very rare and quite strange these days!

- In a large party, including 13 children of various ages, the statistical probability of at least one of them being ill are (sadly) pretty good.

- As a collective group, we need to make more effort to teach our children the rules of "Poohsticks". They didn't quite seem to grasp the concept, and assumed it meant hitting bits of deer pooh with sticks...

- "Coming out" to your friends about your blog is weird, but not as painful as anticipated (Hello all!)

Mystery Blog Swappers Revealed

So, did you guess who was swapping with who?

Cuntychopalops swapped with Curly and Candid
Pants with Names swapped with Phantom Kitty
All About Us and Such Like swapped with Geekymummy
Sandy Calico swapped with Bumbling's Blog

Did you guess?

Thank you so much to all the swappers!!

So....This Mystery Blog Swap Business...

It seems there were some people foolish brave enough to sign up to my rather flippant idea of doing a secret blog swap.

The way it is (hopefully) going to work is this - below is a list of blogs participating. They'll be posting a guest post by another person (to remain unidentified) on the list over the next couple of days. For anyone not participating that is game, you then have a couple of days to try and see if you can work out who has swapped with who before we reveal whether you were right or not. Special kudos to a) the person who guesses the most swaps correctly, and b) the swappers who are most successful at hiding themselves. If it goes well I might even see if I can rustle up a prize or two...

So, without further ado, the list of participating blogs is (in alphabetical order)

All About Us and Such like 
 Bare Naked Mummy 
 Bumbling's Blog
 Cunty Chopalops' Font Bukkake
 Curly and Candid
 Diary of a Frugal Family 
 Domestique Goddess 
 Mochabeanie Mummy
 Muddling Along Mummy 
 My Mumdom 
 Pants With Names 
 Phantom Kitty
 Sandy Calico 
 The Hairdog Chronicles

Eek, here's hoping it doesn't all go horribly wrong...

On Being the Old New Girl

I may have mentioned a while back that the company I work(ed) for was about to be taken over. For various reasons, this never happened at the end of last year, as originally planned, but instead happened at the beginning of last week.

I therefore now find myself in the rather strange situation of working for a new company without actually having changed jobs. Of course, the first working day of last week was a bank holiday in the UK, so really I have only been employed by NewCo for 4 working days.

In a lot of ways nothing much has changed - I still have the same team reporting to me, I still have the same manager etc. The changes are much more subtle. There's a whole new intranet to find my way around. To say the organisation structure is complicated is an understatement. I need to apply for a new corporate credit card. Expenses are handled different, and there's a fancy new employee discount scheme - all those small, seemingly insignificant things that end up taking up too much time and detracting from the business in hand.

Still, a change is as good as a rest as they say, and I'm looking forward to learning and discovering again.