The Bugaboo Buffalo And The 'Bug A Boooooo'

As most of you are aware September ending up being a bit rubbish. A bad case of food poisoning wrote off a big chunk of the month.

The bug had hit me bad.

I thought I was recovered. I was back eating normally for about a week and had just finished taking a course of antibiotics. I had my strength back.

Then wham.

Out of nowhere it came back.

The first I knew about it was the early hours of Wednesday 2nd October. My stomach just didn't feel right and pain kept me awake a lot during the night.

Yummy Bugaboo cupcakes

The lovely people at Bugaboo had invited me and some other bloggers to a special event in Manchester that day between 3-6pm.

By 4/5am with very little sleep I didn't think I'd make it.

I was gutted.

But by 10am I was feeling okay, just mainly tired from lack of sleep so TC and I headed off there in the afternoon.

It was great to meet Alice and Julie. They are genuinely such lovely ladies. The Bugaboo pushchairs and products are amazing and I was totally in love. We were given a demo of the brand new Bugaboo Buffalo which was released in the U.K. in September and every one of us longed for it I think. There were cupcakes and bubbly (although I stuck to water) and it was lovely to see old friends and meet some new ones but I knew I wasn't right. I felt spaced out. I felt tired. I just knew something was going to happen.

We all filled out competition forms for the chance to win a brand new Bugaboo Buffalo. I almost didn't fill mine out as I never win competitions. As much as I wanted the Buffalo I didn't think I stood a chance of actually winning it.

TC loving pushing the new Bugaboo Buffalo

TC had a whale of a time though. He loved pushing the Bugaboo Buffalo through the showroom and he got to eat some cake too. So it was no wonder that he screamed when I put him back in his pushchair to come home.

"I think he's not happy it's not a Bugaboo" I joked.

I left early and after an exhausting 2 hour drive (it normally takes about 50 minutes!) I arrived back home and collapsed.

3 or so hours later I started to feel unwell again so I took to my bed.

By 1am the searing pain in my abdomen woke me up.

I spent the rest of the night on the sofa writhing around in pain. I didn't know what to do. I felt like I just wanted to rip out my insides. I quietly wept.

A lot.

When Matt came downstairs at 7am he went mad telling me how I should've woken him. I didn't want to though as I knew one of us would need to function the next day and he's dreadful if he misses a little bit of sleep. I think it's a man thing.

He rang the doctor at 8am.

Appointment for 10.30am.

By 11.30am we'd been told to pack a bag and get to hospital to check it wasn't anything more sinister.

Double drip

A drip of fluids and painkillers for the afternoon and I was sent home later that evening with some strong co-codamol to manage the pain. They, through blood tests had ruled out an inflamed appendix and diverticulosis thankfully.

Home.

Dosed up.

I still didn't sleep well.

Although the pain had lessened it still kept me awake.

Friday.

A new day.

I was out of it on painkillers and slept on and off most of the morning. There was a missed call on my mobile about 10am. No message.

I didn't ring it back.

I spent the day like a zombie.

5pm. My phone rings again. Same number.

"Ignore it" said Matt "You're not well".

I answered it.

It was Alice from Bugaboo.

She had news!

I had only gone and won the Bugaboo Buffalo!

There may have been a few tears in my eyes when I heard her tell me. I never really win anything and to win after the up and down few weeks I'd had was amazing.

I am absolutely thrilled and we can't wait to get it. They are in huge demand at the moment so we have to wait a few weeks but just knowing that it will be ours is fabulous! I will let you know what we think when we test drive it for the first time.

As for the 'bug'.... Well, about 2 hours or so after Alice rang me I ended up back at hospital on another drip as the pain came back worse than ever but thoughts of the Bugaboo got me through ;-) *

I don't want to talk illness anymore I just want to dream lovely Bugaboo dreams.

Isn't she beautiful?




* I'm actually feeling much better and at the time of posting this I've been painkiller free for over 38 hours and today I'm going to try eating some normal food. Thank you to all of you who sent well wishes. I will catch up on your comments and blogs this week, I promise.

#MeAndMine - A Family Portrait (September)

September has been an up and down month.

I haven't really got much to report so I fear this months Me & Mine is quite poor.

For those who don't know, I had a serious case of food poisoning which, in total, took me almost 2 weeks to recover from. This has meant that a lot of our plans for this month have been pushed back.  Matt was amazing whilst I was ill. He took good care of me and looked after the children whilst still working - which wouldn't have been possible without the help of my parents.

It was Matt's 37th birthday on the 12th but he was away with work so we planned on celebrating when he got back which, incidentally, was the day before I fell ill.  We had plans for fun filled weekends which had to be cancelled and then we found ourselves at the end of the month with very little to show for September.

Thankfully the weather was kind to us this weekend just gone (I'd totally missed the weekend previously which was warm and sunny being laid up in bed) and yesterday we headed out on a family adventure exploring the fields at the back of our new house. It was just nice for me to get out of the house as a family of 4 and be able to enjoy the fresh air for a while.

My Nikon camera seems to have stopped working (yes, I'm slightly angry but that's another story) so this was a capture on my iPhone whilst we were out exploring. You'll notice we have an extra family member this time. Del The Welsh Dragon. She was visiting us for the weekend from MC's school so we've had to take pictures of our weekend adventures and MC and I are going to sit and write and draw about the weekend in 'Del's Diary'.

This weekend was also TC's 18 month birthday. I can't believe how time is flying. It doesn't seem all that long ago since he turned 1 and now, here he is half way to being 2. I'm forever thankful for each day that he's here with me.

It's my birthday in less than 2 weeks and we also have a Day Out With Thomas planned in October so hopefully next month will be a good one.

Head over to Lucy's lovely blog and check out more Me & Mine posts...

Baking - What Mary Berry Doesn't Tell You

As this post goes live, millions of wannabe bakers across the U.K. will be sat watching The Great British Bake Off. Me included!

Source

Baking.

A simple word.

Eggs.

A simple food.

Simple and nutritious - packed with protein and minerals.

Eggs.

They now scare me a little.

You see, eggs have taken a whole week from my life. Well, if I'm being honest, food poisoning has taken a whole week from my life.

Food poisoning is the worst thing ever.

I can honestly say that I've never felt so ill in my entire life. Apart from maybe mastitis but I was over the worst of that in a couple of days tops. No, food poisoning, wiped me out to my bed for a whole week.

At first I thought it was caused by a takeaway curry I'd eaten that night, but no.

The innocent act of baking resulted in 6 days in bed, two phone calls from doctors, two trips to the doctor, a hospital visit at 1am, 2 injections in my ass and 5 days without any food at all.

I was also off social media.

*plays highly dramatic music*

Yes! It was that serious!

*shocked face*

It may sound overly dramatic but those who saw me at my worst (only Matt, my Sister and my parents) will know how bad I actually was. I was weak and teary. A wreck. In agony. Unable to eat, unable to get up but unable to sleep or do anything.

Yes, 6 days in bed.

Any mother will know this is serious. Us mums don't get ill. If we have flu we soldier on, we fight through it when all men fall to their beds complaining they're dying. "Even my finger nails ache!" they cry whilst we mutter under our breath, juggling 10 or more tasks.

Nope, this wiped me out good and proper.

So, what happened? Did I eat a dodgy egg?

No.

Did I eat raw egg? (I know you're all reading this thinking I licked the spoon whilst baking...how rude!).

No.

To be perfectly honest, I'm quite careful with eggs. I always wash my hands after breaking them and I never ever lick any cake batter if it contains raw eggs (I know, I'm so restrained!).

Just a short walk up the road from where we now live there's a great local farm shop selling a vast amount of fresh produce. It's lovely. I used to drive there from where we used to live to get fresh produce but now I'm lucky enough to live so close.

Friday 13th (how apt!) was the day before I became ill and I'd been busy as it was Matt's birthday on the 12th. I decided to bake him a sponge cake as he'd been away with work for his actual birthday and we also had his parents arriving the day after.

I got the freshly laid eggs from the farm shop and cracked them into the bowl.

I washed my hands.

I returned to the bowl to mix the cake batter.

Nothing wrong there you may say.

I'd cracked them into the bowl. That was my mistake.

The eggs were freshly laid. You know the sort? Straight out of the chickens backside, freshly covered in lovely chicken poop.

Even though I'd washed my hands I then returned back to the bowl to mix and grabbed the edge of the bowl.

That's it.

That's all it took to poison me.

Obviously my hands must have gone into my mouth at some point after that and the deed was done. Less than 36 hours later I was in utter agony.

Sadly, I'm old enough to remember old Eggwina Currie causing outrage in the late 80's. Since then I've always been well aware of how to handle eggs but obviously not enough. I guess I just never thought it would happen to me.

Over the past couple of days, since my recovery, I've heard from people who have also been told that you should always wash your eggs before use (but they never do) and people who lick the batter (naughty naughty).

I've had a couple of interesting conversations with our local environmental health officer and he said this type of food poisoning is common with bakers. Obviously the cake is fine but often the person who baked it becomes seriously ill from handling contaminated eggs. So all you budding Mary Berry's and Paul Hollywood's, take heed!

There you have it.

I wanted to blog about this to warn people to be more careful with eggs. Apparently if you're using 'fresh from the arse of a chicken eggs' then wash them first and break them with a knife or into a separate cup that can be washed straight away. There's something old Mary Berry doesn't tell you on the TV.

I wouldn't wish food poisoning on my worst enemy.

Serves me right for trying to be the domestic goddess I'm so very clearly not.

*runs off to buy shop bought cake*