He started off being very grumpy when I gave him a little cheese sandwich finger, but started on his rice pudding and peaches with gusto. Got a bit slower… eyes started drooping. Then a loud snore was heard…

Poor mite!

Yes, I did take him to bed. *AFTER* I got the camera out of course!

I just don’t understand Health and Safety regulations – some of them are completely bizarre, but I’m not sure if it’s Health and Safety itself that’s the problem or people’s interpretation of them that is the issue. Logic gets thrown out of the window.

Take, for example, the heating up of baby food. Most restaurants will refuse point blank to heat it up for a quick 30 second blast in the microwave for you quoting Health and Safety as their excuse, even if the vast majority of their cooking on the premises is done via microwave and (presumably) their staff are well trained on the safety aspects of using that cooking device. Instead you will be offered a jug or mug full of boiling water for you to heat your own baby food at the table.

Well that seems the safer option, doesn’t it? Yes at first glance until you realise that:

• an open container of boiling water that’s easily tippable isn’t the most ideal thing to have on a table when you have young children about

• they are almost always overfilled so that when you put the jar in, boiling water slops over the side
• the heat doesn’t get through the damn glass jars anyway!

Totally useless and a major scald hazard.

Then you get premises which refuse to heat up *your* jar of baby food but will offer you a free jar of *their* baby food which they will nuke in the microwave for you. Now, what possible Health and Safety difference can it make to heat one jar over another? If you’re intelligent enough to give a 30 second blast to the contents of a jar, giving a good stir and leave it to sit for a couple of minutes before taking it back out to the customer, does it matter whether you supplied the jar or not?

This happened to us yesterday and after a brief tussle with the server who obviously wasn’t going to budge on this VITAL Health and Safety issue, returned without giving us any options carrying a bowl of food originating from a jar heated up for us. It was completely inappropriate for our baby being (a) a Stage One jar (designed for very young babies who can’t chew – virtually liquid) and (b) tomato based (which at the moment, Li’l Bhaji seems to hate with a fiery passion). If he’d just come out saying “these are the ones we have, any preference?” we could have avoided a majorly upset baby annoying all the other patrons while we tried to get the vile stuff down his throat.

In the end, we gave up and fed him our jar cold…

For all my assertions that I wasn’t going to change my blog design, after reading Jag at Route 79‘s declaration of fedupness with MT and defection over to WordPress I’m very very tempted. I’m sick of having to deal with errant trackbacks, there’s a couple of bits broken that I can’t fix by myself (need to get Akra to do them at some point), annoyed at how long it takes to rebuild the database each time I tweak it…

Problem is, changing to a different software and setting up the templates again seems a huge task. Am I bothered enough? Will I be able to import all my old archives? Will I be able to keep the same look and feel (particularly all the different ways to access the archive?)

I have to say that I feel the most fed up of being a parent the last couple of days than I have in a long time. Can’t put my finger on anything in particular, but feel bone weary, trapped and utterly utterly bored. I suspect it’s a reaction to the Easter holidays mixed in with the building work, but without being able to put a finger on exactly what I’m fed up about I’m unable to think of ways to improve the situation.

Think I’ll start with chocolate and an early night and work from there…

Well my first ever trip to a real butchers was nice and painless. I went to the Dewhurst in Worcester and he was cheerful, friendly and helpful, even answering Akra Jr’s six thousandth question while he was getting my order. Quick to recommend stuff when asked and knew exactly what was in the sausages, etc. They have their own made-on-the-premises pork & apple burgers too, so I shall get them rather than go through the faff of making my own I think.

Wish I could say I was as thrilled with the greengrocers. Didn’t think the quality was fantastic, was a very narrow shop so difficult to get around with both children and pushchair, and was self-service with no weighing scales anywhere other than the checkouts so I kept having to guess how much a kilo looked like. I’m guessing I just need to find a better one in town.

Of course, the really bad thing about shopping in the small shops, is that the great butcher is right next door to Lakeland… oh dear, there goes the budget…

This is just completely ridiculous.

I’ve made a pact with myself to minimize my supermarket expenditure and try and shop in small shops where possible – not exactly a huge sacrifice seeing as the recent veg and meat selections from both Sainsburys and Tescos have been absolutely dismal. I’m also making increased efforts to reduce processed and to cook multiple amounts to freeze.

I’ve just done my Sainsburys online shop – this is the week’s shop without any meat, fruit or veg (I shall go into town on Wednesday to pick that up) and it’s come to £65!! That’s for 3 of us and a baby!!! Not that I was expecting to save money, but I really can’t see me being able to buy all the meat and veg we need in my remaining budget. Plus I now have shopping lists EVERYWHERE for various different places.

I really can see why people eat convenience food and only shop in one place, I really can… *SCREAM*

This is all going to be worth it, yes?

… this hilarious picture. (If breastfeeding babies make you feel uncomfortable, then I recommend not clicking)

Eating Out

… is it safe to come out yet?!

It’s my blogoversary today – Pewari’s Prattle is a grand 2 years old today! It’s very odd – when I started I wasn’t convinced I was going to be disciplined enough to write regularly, now I can’t imagine being without it.

I’ve toyed with the idea with a site redesign, but decided not. I still like the current one too much!