This is what waits for you when you open a copy of your favourite magazine or newspaper nowadays.
I know there are some days when there isn't anything to watch on the tv but what are the people at 'What's on TV' thinking? If we get bored of the content of the tv guide we will actually get excited by the added marketing that has managed to use the whole of the Amazon Rainforest in it's production?
When you pick it up to purchase it the junk has already planned it's emergency evacuation and manages to make a safe landing all over the floor of the magazine aisle. Then comes the debate, do I pick it up? Yes, it's only right but do I just quickly put it all in another magazine, just pop it on the shelf or do I just leave it in the trolley/basket and hope it just all disappears? There are thousands of supermarket trolleys all laden with unwanted junk leaflets and you know at some point you are going to be picking them up, throwing them in the nearest bin and cursing the last person for leaving them there.  
I swear my tv guide knows how old I am as well, I've tried tricking it and taking one from the back but it stills has inserts that happily inform me that I need to make a will, plan my funeral, buy items to help me get around the house and plan my next holiday on an over 50's cruise around the Fjords.
I'm sure my regular tv bible use to throw wedding planners, baby products and wild 18-30 holiday brochures at me. It's like it knows that I'm single, middle aged with a slightly leaky bladder.
I understand companies need to do their marketing and sell their products but I don't want it in my newspaper and magazines, I don't even like the booklets that are stapled in as they disturb the flow of television for the week. I don't want to skip over a 50% offer on a Stannah stair lift ( oh 50%....that's quite good isn't it?) NO stop it now and save the rainforest or if your one of these companies, save your money on printing.....you could afford a nice night out for your employees, on a mini cruise around Norway, they will thank you for that!!!!
Be good and catch you tomorrow. 

There is something about going to the doctors. A million reasons to go, sometimes uncomfortable, painful, routine, joyful and time consuming. 
It's a waiting game from making the first phone call for an appointment to entering the waiting room for your next big waiting session.
It becomes a serious tactical mission from the moment you take your seat.
Now it's so easy as most doctors waiting rooms have a nice bright 40 inch HD television which broadcasts your name, your doctors name and the room number.....if this goes horribly wrong and the admin had a few sherry's the night before your present medical problem could also go public. Well that's one way to become famous and get on TV, not so bad for ingrowing toenail but a case of gonorrhoea (phew didn't know how to spell that) might be something that needs to be kept neatly inside you medical records under a strict patient confidentiality clause. 
Years ago though you had to have your wits about you as long as you were not too ill to pay attention. You would have to book in with the receptionist and then get ready to start the waiting process, this was worse than 'The Hunger Games'. 
Who were you up against?, Who in the room was also waiting to see your doctor? Now you would know how many people were in front of you but it took great math and strategic plans to work it out.
As you scan the room, witnessing coughs, sneezes, quiet people, chatty people, those who were forced to read a copy of People's Friend or Womans Own from 1974 it would come closer to your appointment time. If Doc was on time it was time to make that 'ready to go' shuffle as you were next or maybe Mr Man Flu was on a double appointment as he wanted to get a case of gout checked out at the same time. 
The next bit was always the hardest, take your mind off the ball and it's game over, you either stall proceedings, making everyone late or you miss the appointment altogether and have to wait till the end of surgery. It is the part when you 'listen for your name to be called'. Did she say my name? You look around just to make sure no one else has the same name or something similar and then instead of waiting for a repeat, just jump up and go anyway. YES!! You are having this moment and practically running to Room 3 before anyone can catch you. Quick knock on the door and your at your finishing line like a scene in 'Chariots of Fire' You made it!
Thank goodness it's easier, the magazines are even more up to date now. Some rooms even have the radio on, everyone is in trouble if 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor comes on because I am owning that song, poorly or not!! 
You normally see someone that you haven't seen in years and the one question you want to ask is 'what are you doing here then?' but you know you can't. I would say it's not the time or place but it is completely the right place!! 
After a polite reunion with an old school mate, discretion being your middle name and hopefully everyone getting their prescriptions, tests and toenails done it's home until the next time. Busy places full of so many stories, some good, some bad but it's a great service, one we couldn't live without.......so I'd like to say thank you to the NHS and everyone who works there. 
Until tomorrow...........stay well.

Well it's that time again for my tv round up of the week, doesn't seem long since we were discussing the telly box last Sunday.
What a week! Not long after writing 'Pass the Remote' last week we had a new drama to hit our screens and wow, what an impact it made.
Apple Tree Lane just had me glued to the screen, and no not for the saucy sex scenes but for just the on the 'edge of your seat' drama. Yvonne (Emily Watson) is a middle aged scientist who embarks on very passionate affair with a stranger played by Ben Chaplin which surely is going to lead to some trouble along with the aftermath of an awful violent act, I'm sure will lead to a dramatic trial. It is very dark and I can't wait for the second episode tonight. Wonder what will happen next!
Call the Midwife returned for another series last Sunday and I am not liking Sister Ursula!! She has just come in and taken over as boss nun shoving our Sister Julienne out the way. She's banned the tv and served her light lunches which frankly will not keep those ladies going with all they have to do so I am a little concerned how this is going to go. Jenny Agutter rules wherever she goes, you just can't do that to her, I boo'd at the telly like it was some pantomime, not 'poplar' at all, ha ha see what I did there? POPLAR (call the midwife land) instead of popular. We'll see what she's up to tonight 8pm on BBC1.
I caught up with the drama 'Tina and Bobby' which was a great insight into the lives of Bobby Moore and his wife Tina. Very well done and great performances by Michelle Keegan, Lorne MacFadyen and Patsy Kensit. Think I'd like to read Tina's book now, I bet it's a very interesting read. What a life. if you've not seen it catch up on the 3 episodes on ITV Hub.
Unforgotten is a brilliant crime drama and this week saw the 4th episode out of 6 this week. It is another gripping story where all the characters link in some way but how? Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar are the main characters and really work well together. I must admit I hadn't seen the first season, not sure where I was but better late than never. You can catch the first season on Now Tv.
So that's my little look at a few great programmes.....remember to add to your favs in the comments if you can recommend anything and will catch you again next Sunday for another 'Pass the Remote'.
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Is it just me or does anyone else find it hard to diet in the winter? I feel the need to stock up and eat to keep warm, that's my excuse anyway.
I love being on Slimming World, it's been the best diet so far for me. I've been with SW online for just under a year and lost two and a half stone. The online part works for me at the moment and I'm quite well organised with it. If I struggle I can always transfer to the meetings but I don't want to commit to that at the moment I'm happy to just cope with it in my own time. It's very much based around cooking fresh meals and it does feel a lot more healthier.
In spring and summer though I feel I drink more water. This I think is really important, it's amazing how much you lose by keeping hydrated but I find I don't drink half as much in winter, well not water.....I do tend to drink Costa Coffee dry and my Tassimo machine is always brewing! I know! I am having skinny latte's, mainly tea or black coffee with sweeteners.
I always feel the need to snack more. It's comfort food isn't it? For the cold winter dull days so as long as I breathe in or stand on one leg on the scales, it will be fine. 
I am less active in the winter as well, as far as exercise is concerned, I'm buzzing around doing mad mum stuff and fitting in life but I don't tend to go out walking so much or want to go out in the evenings to a class. I should be a tortoise and hibernate, I always think that's a great idea. 
Slimming World becomes not just a diet but a change in lifestyle and after a while it just becomes habit to eat along their guidelines. I'm still amazed I write everything down and yes I even include ' big slab of cake', sigh and curse that I would have been good if I hadn't added those 10 syns on for such bad behaviour but it would have felt so good eating cake!!! Everyone needs to syn or sin now and again and I always say to myself ' tomorrow's another day' or after weigh in on a Monday I promise myself this is the week I'm going to stick to my plan......by Tuesday it's 'ohhhh look Pizza'.
I'm not going to worry at this time and I'm going to do my best, if you stress about it all, then it's not worth doing and that's the time to stop. I'm determined to lose a bit more and as I sit here feeling quite smug that I've been good today it may be a different case when I add it all up officially. A quick run upstairs about half a dozen times will sort it! Oh and it has crossed your mind at sometime that if you have a big 'number 2' Poo before a weigh in it's going to make you lose about half a stone. Go on! We've all thought it and some have actually tried a weigh in after it too. 
So now I've lowered the tone of my blog and mentioned toilet humour I will retire for today and catch you tomorrow. 

I had my first request for my blog the other day and it came on a miserable, damp, dull winters morning. It was the kind of day when the big decision of the morning as you jump into the car is not whether you've scraped the ice off in time, got warm enough clothes on, everything with you you need, and have enough petrol it's 'should I put my lights on?'.
New cars nowadays have automatic headlights so the decision has been made for you by up to date technology but for the others it really comes down to a bit of common sense and self judgement. Some of us just forget to put them on and I have at some point, it's good though to check you have your own lights on before verbally abusing other drivers for not lighting up. 
So yes it's annoying when people don't put their headlights on and potentially dangerous but there are also those who are at the other end of the debate who are 'fog light friendly' and put them on in just a little bit of mist blinding the rest of us, especially if you get stuck in a queue of traffic or sitting at traffic lights. To add to that is the 'brake light buddies' who have their foot permanently stuck on the brake pedal which is not good if you're sitting in a mini behind a Range Rover, that even requires a winter visit from the redundant sun visor. 
The thing is if you're not quite sure whether to use your lights just pop them on anyway, it is a switch you can switch off later if you change your mind or the sun shines through. Get them checked regularly as there are a lot of cars around with lights out.
It will be spring soon, lighter nights will come around again so the only time we'll have to worry about lights is on our classic English summer days when it's pee'ing it down with rain. The important point for everyone on the road is that we all stay safe, there will always be road rage, people who rub you up the wrong way, we may be rushing because we are running late but just make you're verbal abuse look like you're singing the best rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and pretend any finger or hand gestures are your attempt at learning sign language. 
Don't forget.....be nice, considerate, let people out of junctions, don't speed, jump red lights, (rich, coming from me) pop lights on, switch off fog lights unless its foggy, don't sit on your brake, indicate and there will be peace on the roads.....maybe! 
Be good and catch you tomorrow.
Photo: courtesy of Charlie. 

Everyone loves a password reset don't they? No? It's good for security to regularly change them but ohhhhhhhhhh the pain when you've forgotten it, the ache of trying to desperately remember what great ideas or inspiration you had when you first made that super secure, strong, good strength password.
There is such a sense of achievement when you hit that third bar of strength and feel so smug that no one in the whole of the world web is breaking into that baby!!! But the thing is you mix up the characters and numbers up so much you end up completely forgetting it, and we know it's not a good thing to write them down right???
So then comes the reset and to think of yet another great word that will blow the super hackers away. It has to be more than what seems like a million characters and include a capital letter, number, symbol, Pye to 24 places and the solution to the Rubiks Cube. All impossible, well for me to remember. 
There are apps to help you store and remember them, yay!!! great idea until you need a password to remember the password reminder service. No it's not happening and they say to think of different passwords, not to use the same one on all your accounts......please Inspector Gadgets make this possible then I'd only have to remember one!!! I could go for super spy fingerprint access or I'm sure the iphone 20abc will have retina scan access, crikey, imagine that? if I forget that thing I'll have to scrape my eyeballs out. 
Siri, Cortana and Alexa might come up with a fancy solution and you'll be able to ask them to whisper your password back at you if you get close to them. Pin numbers are just the same and they usually only have 4 digits, how hard can it be? 
It will get easier I'm sure, who knows maybe the password will be a thing of the past eventually but for now we'll do our best to remember or just keep the resetting services ticking over.......no password required for my next entry tomorrow so see ya there!

This is the alert I give out to the family when a new bag has entered the household. It hasn't happened for a while but I have a birthday coming up and I've had a pressie! (thanks Mum).
I love handbags but there used to be a day when I had to run the slightest idea of buying a new handbag past my youngest son. He would always say 'not another bag' and actually rationed me to one bag a month. I'm not quite that bad (those that know me will disagree) but when I do find 'the one' I kind of stick with it until it wears out, which is more than I can say for my relationships. 
This one though is just great, a very multi functional large bag with its smaller 'friend inside' (yes two bags for the price of one). So you can load the smaller bag and use it like a bag organiser, to prevent your lippy (lipstick) rolling around the bottom of big bag and not being able to find it. Then..... if you just fancy going somewhere without big bag or you get some more luggage you need to carry around you can take out small bag and pop off with that separately, fantastic eh? It's lovely soft leather and the only concern I did have was with the small holes in big bag as decoration, would things get wet inside in the rain? But then I thought no, either don't go out in rain, use an umbrella or leave big bag at home on a rainy day, they really are not very big holes. 
If it stands the test of time and I am still using it in the next month then it wins the Bag Oscar for 'Best Supporting Role of a Woman's Possessions'. Got a feeling it might.....remember to love your bag and keep it close or if it's any good, needs a home or you have lost that loving feeling just let me have it.....not really, I've got enough!!! (enough bags??? no!!! one can ever have enough bags).
Catch you tomorrow...........

Why are there Easter eggs in the supermarkets now?? It's not Easter until April! It's like Christmas starting in September, I can see it takes a bit of planning and organising but how much preparation do we need for Easter? Do we really need three months to decide how much chocolate we are going to buy and who has which eggs? It used to start just a couple of weeks before not in January. I mean people completely forget what these holidays are all about, Jesus has barely been born and now we are preparing for the anniversary of his death (depending on your belief's) It's just too soon!! 
I would also just like a bit of a break of seeing chocolate everywhere as well, I can put weight on just by looking at chocolate. It's all there in the big boxes of Quality Street and Roses and choccy santas, now it's wall to wall eggs and chocolate bunnies, HELP ME! Someone ring Chocolate Anonymous. 
I love eggs, the other kind that are there all year round I mean and today I bought blue eggs, not because they tempted me on the box with the 'creamy yolk' talk, but because they just look pretty. I now have eggs that match my son's blue eggshell bookcase in his bedroom. I did wonder though whether there were blue hens laying these eggs and I always smile at a feather stuck to an egg, makes me feel it's very fresh and just popped out, literally behind the scenes at Aldi. I bet these egg shells would look fabulous painted, like we used to decorate them when we were young. Someone brought in a great interior designer in as well as the insides of the shell are blue, poor brown ones have to put up with the run of the mill magnolia painted ceilings......see even eggs are a work of art.
Scrambled, poached, fried, sunny side up or down they are lovely and ssshhh even the creme eggs are delish ( I tried one today just to see if they were fresh) 9 syns on slimming world just gone like that woosh!
Anyway enjoy!! and Happy Easter.......catch you (after breakfast) tomorrow..........

Is this ok for the level of toasting before it kills anyone? Just want to check and frankly I get tired of people telling us what we can and can't eat, now it's what colour it's got to be? Yes I understand that there is a chemical Acrylamide which is produced when starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures ( I know, get me!! straight out of a science lab) but please can we stop scaring people into thinking they will get cancer if they burn their toast or roast their potatoes too much.
Apparently, and I am no scientist or doctor, you would have to consume and massive amount of this chemical for it to do harm and going by the look of my youngest son's level of tostage he is going to be fine for years to come. He insists on his toast being, well, just very slightly TOAST! It borders on warm bread to be honest and is very hard to spread any butter on as it just sinks in and the 'broast' flops around like some wet soggy piece of paper. Toast should be firm, heated to a light brown colour and it should be crispy.
You see now toast knows what it feels like to be a victim of too much heat like we do with a suntan, maybe we should start splashing some Factor 30 on our food instead of sunflower oil. It's a downward spiral, soon there will be false toasted bread, bread that looks like it is brown or spray browned!!!! 
We tend to only eat slightly burnt food when we've lost count of the timing on the packet or recipe, apart from the people who do actually like, and eat burnt toast.....which is absolutely fine. We are all different and that's what makes us great. There are people who have been eating 'well done ' food for all their lives, never had cancer and still remain healthy to a very late age. I think sometimes we have to look at the air, pollution and many other factors before we 'diss the diet'. Tomorrow we will be in trouble if we don't cook these foods enough. It all comes down to common sense I think, cook it for as long as it says, eat it when and however you like and just enjoy it. Of course in moderation and maybe go for a walk afterwards. Life is too short any way, there are too many rules and regulations as it is, eat the toast! and don't forget to eat your crusts, we all know they make your hair curl, (they do don't they?).
Catch you tommorrow!!!

I've decided to make every Sunday 'Pass the Remote Day' this is where I get to tell you what I think is jolly good on the television at the moment.
So if you are not already watching the following you really need to:

Modern Family (Sky 1) - I'm binge watching this at the moment on Now TV, there are 8 seasons so far. It follows the Pritchett/Dunphy family from LA and is so funny I'm totally addicted. Great characters you'll just fall in love with and so well written it literally is a laugh a minute.
Silent Witness (BBC 1) - Just great British drama, follows the team of forensic pathologists helping to uncover a murder or two, if your'e a bit squeamish you may need a cushion to hide behind in some parts but yep as it does involve pathology, you're going to get a lot of post mortem scenes. Just don't eat a meal while you watch it.
Delicious (Sky 1) - staying with Emilia Fox from Silent Witness, co starring Dawn French and Iain Glen with the gorgeous deep sexy voice, this is just brilliant. Again I've watched it through Now TV but for me I really think this should have been on prime time BBC. It is just brilliant with it's tale of food, love, betrayal and infidelity, great cast and brilliantly written by Dan Sefton of Mr Selfridge fame. 
The Halcyon (ITV) - tells the story of a glamorous five star hotel at the centre of London society during the war. Another great drama with another fabulous cast, it does run against Silent Witness so you may have to tape one (record it I mean or play catch up). 
The Voice (ITV) - Loving the new series of the voice, it's a bit tough though now the performers just have to walk away if the judges don't turn which is hard, they don't even get to hear the excuses for not turning and get a commiseration hug. I would need a big hug if it was me. Wasn't sure about Gavin as the new judge but he seems to be settling in now, and good to see Tom back!
We were treated to another very entertaining serious of Sherlock which concluded last Sunday but must be available on that BBC Iplayer thing if you didn't tape it. (love that we still say tape it from the days when we did actually record programmes on a cassette). Seasons 1-3 are available on Netflix if in case you have never watched an episode in your entire life, you need to go and fix that right now!
That's my little favs from the old tv guide at the moment. Let me know your favourites as well. I'm sure there is more to catch up on but I'll keep you posted........bye for now.