Taken by Jen Bumford, at the top of a mountain with her knees knocking.

A friend have mine has just returned from a ski holiday in Austria. She’d posted some beautiful photographs of snow capped mountains, reported how she was now ‘off the piste and going to the spa’, and other envy inducing updates.

I’ve never been ski-ing, I don’t think that I’d ever give up a week in the sun for a snow suit, but when I asked her if she had to choose a sun holiday over a ski, she shocked me by saying, despite loving the sunshine, she thinks she would pick a ski holiday.

Why, I asked? What is the big pull? Do you have to have lots of lessons before you go? She said ‘I’m rubbish at skiing and totally petrified when I stand at the top of the mountain! But somehow I really enjoy it. It’s really sociable even if you are in a different class from your other half.’ She told me how exhilarating it is to get out in the cold air and shoot down the slope to a welcome glass of gluewein. I knew there would be alcohol factoring in the craziness of chucking yourself down a mountainside.

My friend doesn’t have children and I said ‘I bet you don’t get many people going on a family ski holiday, but she told me that she couldn’t think of a better holiday for kids. The 3 & 4 year olds are amazing, picking it up really fast and made her jealous.

So am I totally missing a trick here, have you taken young children on a ski holiday and would you choose the snow over sun?

We play hide and seek A LOT at the moment. Little ones are so funny aren’t they. Always choosing the same place to hide and being really surprised when you find them.

My big girl. She’s worked so hard this weekend, essays, drawing, reading, maths. She even fitted in a party Friday night, day with boyfriend yesterday and some ironing for me today. I could learn a thing or two from her.

A few years ago I had laser eye surgery. It wasn’t something I’d gone into lightly. In fact I’d looked into it 10 years previously but decided at the time that I wasn’t comfortable enough with the risks involved and walked away. The consultant I saw that first time gave me an analogy about painting the windows of my car out with black paint – would my car be completely useless if I couldn’t see through the windows. He didn’t instil me with much confidence about the procedure so I walked away.

In 2003, nine years after that first foray into the world of eye clinics I went for another consultation at a different company. One which my Father in Law had used and had some fantastic life changing results for him. The techniques had changed and the success rates greatly improved.

I had the surgery on the Thursday before Good Friday, so that I could have the Easter weekend to let everything settle down. All seemed to have gone well, it was a glorious day, we had a bit of a heat wave going on that year, and I was really happy that almost instantly you can see a difference.

As those first days went by, I could see the improvement in my right eye was perfect, but not so my left. I went back to the clinic and wasn’t pacified by their statements of things taking a week or two to settle. I wanted them to check everything. To cut a long story short, the surgeon had programmed the machine wrong and had made me eye worse than it was originally.

What was just as worrying as the dodgy eye was that no one seemed to have heard of the surgeon who performed the procedure. He had been drafted in to cover the Easter holiday for the usual guy and was just here for the weekend as cover.

I had my eye corrected over two subsequent appointments and it is ok(ish) now. Not perfect but both the good eye and bad eye together do me fine. The surgeon who performed these corrections was brilliant. It was only because of his reassurance and the confidence I had in him as a person that I went ahead with it. He gave me all his previous statistics of procedures and assured me he would put this right.

I get asked a lot if I would do it again, or if I recommend eye surgery. What I always say to anyone thinking about having laser eye surgery, is research the actual surgeon who will be doing the operation, not just the company. I’d also recommend going to an eye hospital that performs private surgery, rather than one of the high street companies. Use an online search facility like Doctoralia health centre directory that has all the professionals listed for all NHS clinics. Reviews by other patients are given for individual practitioners.

It will be nine years this Easter since I had my eyes done and do you know, I still push my imaginary glasses up the bridge of my nose. The best thing by far about having them done is being able to see where my children are in swimming pools, they can’t hide in the blurriness any more.

He had sneaked into his big sister’s bedroom and treated himself to a bit of New Romantic styling, black lipstick and gold hairband.

It’s certainly a look, no? Someone on Blipfoto suggested he looks like Eddie Izzard, I think I’d have to agree.

Click on the 366 to see everyone’s favourites from this week.

He asked for a story after breakfast, I said ‘I don’t have time to read you one at the moment, we have to take Amelie to school.’ He said ‘I’ll read you a story, then Mummy.’ Crafty!

I’m wondering more and more about how our tastes change as we get older? Do you remember listening to the Top 40 in the car with your Dad and him declaring a particular techno bleepy track to be ‘just noise’ and vowing never saying that to your own children? Well I switched to Radio 2 the other day in the car as some hideous heavy metal Slip Knot style track was screeching out as I uttered those very ‘Dad’ words.

It’s Radio 4 that keeps me company at home. Only if I have a passenger in the car, is that not my usual choice, I’m not ready to out myself as a Radio 4 listener to younger work colleagues. I can’t do without my fix of the Archers omnibus or Desert Island discs (just turned 70 this week).

At home too, I find I’ve surrounded us with traditional nick-nacks of my Gran, Father in Law and Mother in Law who have passed away. The things that need dusting, and I would have regarded as clutter once upon a time, are now quite comforting.

I’ve changed my opinion on furniture too. Once upon a time it would have been all light beech coloured tables, and book cases. I’ve slowly found these light IKEA cheapies being replaced with good solid oak. I’ve also slowly fell out of love with the cold dark leather sofa, we have found to be so practical with baby puke and spilt juice. I’m hankering after a Laura Ashley chintz sofa when the children’s mess quota is reduced. Something to snuggle up on, read and knit.

I’m a bit worried how far these taste change will continue, you have to worry when you see things in the Sunday magazine, and declare ‘what a great idea’, about a heated cape for achy shoulders, no?

Photo credit

Last year I had quite a jolly time de-cluttering. It gets a little bit addictive after a while and no one dare leave anything lying around for fear of it being shoved in a charity bag or listed on Freecycle.

This year to fit in with my 2012 money saving manifesto, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that anything that needs moving on from the house will have to be considered as a way of making a little bit of money back, rather than just re-homing for free.

We are having a re-jig of bedrooms this year. One of our bedrooms is currently used as an office, and this will be moved to the garage, when it’s converted. Fingers crossed for planning consent, the public consultation ends today, so I’m hoping to hear soon.

This does mean that we have got some large furniture that needs to go. Storage cupboards and a hefty rattan conservatory suite, so I’ve been looking for a local classified ads outlet that you can buy and sell through. Speaking on Twitter a couple of nights ago a few people have mentioned that they have had much more success with listing locally than using a national site, so I’m going to give it a go. I’ve found a free classifieds site called OLX which works a bit like newspaper ads, but online. It’s free and it has a nifty bit of coding so you can create your ad which goes onto their site, but you can also display your ad on your blog. It will also post your listing to your Facebook profile. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Last year I didn’t do a New Year’s resolution list, but a ‘to do’ list. The thing’s I wanted to learn or achieve that year, so rather than being things that I wanted to stop doing it was more of a manifesto of what I wanted ‘to do’. Much nicer.

This year, I want to do more, but financially will be less able to.
So my challenge will be to be more creative on a budget.

What are your plans for 2012, frugal or otherwise?

This is his best innocent face, when asked ‘what you doing?’