My in June was very interesting and showed me that sometimes new isn't always best - definitely worth a read if you're looking for a new carrier.


In July we had an aborted holiday to Spain but did manage to review the quite comprehensively. Hubbie still uses this on a daily basis and it's stood up to lots of abuse. In Spain we also had a chance to use the fab products that we'd reviewed. Still my favourite suncream and one I'll buy again next Summer.

In the Summer my thoughts turned to losing my baby weight and thankfully I got the chance to review an that can help. This one was great fun because it got me moving. I love the scenery in the videos too - sort of like a mini holiday without the jetlag.

Another online programme I LOVED reviewing let me indulge my ongoing desire to learn to speak Spanish fluently. I guest posted in the Spring about my experiences of the Rosetta Stone TOTALe course on their Milestones blog. If only there were more hours in the day to play in this fab online classroom!


I was a bit perturbed to be sent a new version of our to review in September but thankfully it was a pleasant surprise!      

Curly Girl loves reading and we've had the chance to review all sorts of children's books from David Walliams' to ' new adventure and the fab and very original by Drew Daywalt. I think my favourite has to be  because I didn't know the answers to all the questions posed by our nation's primary school children so I learned something new too!

Going wheat-free in December was a shock to the system but made much easier by the arrival of a from the friendly peeps at Nakd. I thoroughly reviewed each and every one of them (yum yum!).

Finally with 2014 heading towards us at an alarming rate it's the perfect time to think about getting organised again for the New Year and in my search for the perfect planner I've found my two favourites from and .


So there we have it, my favourite reviews of 2013. There's nothing left for me to to say now except THANK YOU for joining me in our adventures this year and I wish you and yours an absolutely spiffingly Merry Christmas with all the presents and joy that Santa can squeeze into his considerably large sack. With the hoards joining us here at Bod towers it's unlikely I'll have time to do much posting but I will see you here again in 2014 and in the meantime you can follow the madness of our festivities over at and on .

Disclaimer: We were sent one copy of each book to review and received no other compensation. All opinions are entirely our own.

‘Well I’ll be damned.’ Robin Wimpole rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he gazed at the strange carvings in the base of the wooden box that he’d just managed to open. ‘Fifty two moves to hide this?’

Alexandria and Ryan peered into the box themselves and were just as puzzled. Etched deep into the wood were a series of letters and numbers that covered the whole of the base.
‘Looks like my old maths homework,’ chuckled Robin.

‘Clearly this was a hoax,’ Ryan said, picking up the open box and putting it back into the cloth bag. ‘Thanks so much for your help Mr Wimpole, we won’t take up any more of your time.’

‘Damn shame someone defaced it like that,’ Robin continued. ‘It’s worth a lot less now.’

Ryan ignored Alexandria’s confused expression and lifted her up gently by the elbow so that they could walk back to the front of the shop.

‘Let me know if you find any other boxes like that one,’ Robin said as a parting remark, ‘oh and please give your best regards to your Uncle from me.’ Ryan shook the antique dealer’s hand and ushered Alexandria out of the shop.

They walked around the corner where Ryan spotted an empty table at a coffee shop that was doing brisk business with all the tourists around. He positioned the chairs so that he was facing towards the window and away from the surrounding shop fronts while Alexandria was facing outwards. He asked her to get them a drink each and a few minutes later she returned with two regular filter coffees, milk no sugar.

‘Ok, can you tell me why we left there in such a hurry? I thought Mr Wimpole might have had some more information about those strange carvings.’ Alexandria asked Ryan as she blew over the top of her coffee, trying to cool it to a drinkable temperature.

‘Firstly, our time is short, we only had twenty-four hours before Stephen Charles calls you again and it’s already late afternoon. Secondly, whatever those letters and numbers mean, the fewer people that know about them the better. Remember, just knowing about the box has placed your family in danger.’ Ryan replied. ‘And thirdly, I think we’re being followed.’

‘Followed?’ Alexandria started looking around the antique market.

‘Just act normal!’ Ryan snapped at her. Then more gently; ‘I don’t know for sure, but if we are then I don’t want them to know that I know.’

‘This is like something out of a James Bond movie,’ Alexandria muttered under her breath. ‘Don’t forget that I’m the one who’s family is being held hostage.’ Her voice caught as she pictured her daughter’s face, the same face that she hadn’t seen for what felt like days already. ‘If time is so short then what are we doing drinking coffee?’ She said, changing the subject to refocus her attention. ‘Why don’t we just head back to the Major and wait for Stephen Charles to call us?’

‘I need to see if I’m right.’ Was all Ryan said, but she noticed that the whole time he was speaking he was looking in her direction but not actually at her. He was looking past her into the shop window, where the rest of the antiques market behind him was reflected. The minutes ticked by while they both drank their coffees and neither of them spoke. Then abruptly, Ryan said, ‘We need to leave, now.’ He stood up and slung the rucksack onto his back leaving both hands free. Alexandria stood up too and managed to knock her coffee mug off the small round metal table onto the floor, splashing both her legs and the legs of the lady sitting at the next table. She apologised profusely and tried to wipe her own legs with a napkin but Ryan was already pulling her away, walking away from the entrance that they’d originally used and towards the back of Grays where the toilets were.

‘You clean yourself up and I’ll meet you back out here,’ he said loudly as they reached the metal fire door that led to the toilets. Then they were through the door and Ryan closed it behind them speaking much more softly; ‘We are definitely being followed. There’s one at least. I saw him walking past Wimpole’s place when we were inside and then again when we stopped at the coffee shop.’

‘Are you sure?’ While the events of the past day were certainly the stuff of movies, she couldn’t quite believe that Stephen Charles would have had her followed. After all, he had Ary and her Mother. What did he need to have them followed for?

‘Yep, I’m sure.’ He walked past her into the men’s toilets and checked the stalls for a window. Then he checked the women’s causing an elderly lady who was applying too much rouge to her cheeks to drop her make-up brush. ‘Sorry, Mrs.’ He said with a convincing cockney accent. ‘We’ve had a report of rats coming up from the sewers.’ Within seconds the woman was gone leaving them alone in the toilets.

‘Here,’ said Ryan entering the last stall and pulling open a window. He stuck his head out to check the road and then stood to one side to let Alexandria go first.

‘You’re not suggesting…’

‘Look, all that chat about cleaning up the coffee on you will wash for a few minutes but they’ll be in here like a shot if we’re not out soon. We need to get out of here so I’ve got some time to think about those carvings.’

‘Do you know what they are?’ Alexandria asked, intrigued.

‘Not exactly but numbers written like that are usually a code. And codes can be broken, given time.’

Alexandria climbed up onto the toilet and through the window, jumping down lightly onto the street below, glad she’d dressed practically that morning. Ryan jumped down behind her and hailed a passing taxi. While they rode back to Canary Wharf to collect Ryan’s Land Rover, Ryan used his mobile phone to call his Uncle Max. He might not have seen him much in the last few years but today he needed to see him again.

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So without further ado, Bod for tea's books is going all mistletoe and wine and in the season of giving I'm bringing you not one but three reviews - all guaranteed to be welcomed by the little ones when they descend on their presents like locusts come Christmas morning. Of course it would be greedy to have all your cake at once so in this edition I give you your first bite... oh and keep reading, there's a giveaway coming up!
Do your kids like to ask questions? Not the usual ones like 'are we there yet?' or 'why do I have to go to bed before my brother?' but the sort of questions that leave you scratching your head or consulting Wikipedia? Questions like these...

Why can’t we drink wee?
Do spiders speak?
Why does Daddy never win the lottery?
How does the lady in the satnav know where to go? (I admit this one has always stumped me too...)

Yes? Then (RRP £12.99 hardback) is the stocking filler for you. These and hundreds more real children’s questions, gathered from primary schools across the UK have been answered by some well known (and not so well known but super clever) experts of our time with short and accessible answers that idiots like me children can understand. So, David Attenborough tells us whether monkeys could ever turn into men and Miranda Hart ponders why it’s funny when someone farts. There are celebrities aplenty from Bear Grylls (Why can't we drink wee? - naturally) to Sir Paul McCartney and from Adam Hart Davis to Heston Blumenthal.

Still not sure if this is the book for you? Click on the image above to consult the flow chart (and have a giggle too!).

This is the second book in the ‘Big Questions’ project by Gemma Elwin Harris and we absolutely loved her first - Big Questions from Little People (now out in paperback *taps nose*) - so we were keen to review this one and see if it matched up. And I'm pleased to say that it does. I knew the answers to some of the questions (ok, one) but most of them I didn't. While my little people are too young to read it themselves yet I now feel that my arsenal is stocked with answers to fire when they start throwing questions at me from the back of the car. I'll also be dipping into the book for some after-dinner fun around the Christmas table as there are a further fifty pages of quizzes at the back for the whole family to join in. 

Most importantly, both of the books benefit the NSPCC and to date over £100,000 has been raised to help fund the charity’s vital work with vulnerable children and young people which in my book (if you'll pardon the pun) makes them even better value.

GIVEAWAY
This is a great little stocking filler and Santa has left me an extra copy of Does my Goldfish Know Who I Am? to give away to one lucky reader. Ho Ho Ho! To be in with a chance of winning just enter using the Rafflecopter widgety thing below. Good luck!