Caution: Awesome when wet

When you make a claim like that, you better have some serious proof... in the form of semi-embarrassing photos of another hugely awesome #RedBalloonMums experience of a lifetime!

This weekend Map Guy, Real Jive Turkey, his Jooolie and I took to the water of the Swan River to quite literally make waves.

We got off to a rather shitty start to the day with all four of us running late and then my debit card getting rejected when I was upgrading our deal. The never-late-Glow kept the boat waiting and the control freak that resides inside me was not happy. And by not happy I mean I started to cry. In front of everyone. Map Guy and the Jive are used to it, but Jooolie just thought I was a little strange - to be honest, she wasn't really that far off.

It was impossible to stay unhappy though because the sun was shining and we were handed ponchos! Well, wet suit type robes that made Map Guy look decidedly like Cornholio and me look like a rather excited condom with arms. Who doesn't want to look like that in public and take photos to prove it?

Then the action started. The music was cranked and we zoomed out of there full throttle. It was bloody fast - at full speed the jet was pumping out a whopping 25 TONNES of water PER MINUTE. The 360 degree turns were intense and I didn't know whether to scream my now sopping wet lungs out or roar with laughter. I did both and managed to sound like a strangled cat.

For 25 minutes we did fishtails (avoiding the mermaid tails, obviously), brake stops and spins. I didn't get sea sick at all, though I figure if I had spewed the amount of water washing over us would have had me clean as a whistle by the time the boat docked and no one would have been any the wiser.

I clutched on to a slightly dodgy waterproof camera for the whole ride and just kept firing away randomly, hoping that at least one of the photos would work out. I love the top photo here, even though you can't tell it's us, it captures perfectly how awesome (and wet) the whole ride was.

And there we are, the four of us, completely drenched, smelling like dolphin, and grinning from ear to dripping wet ear.

The Jive hasn't stopped saying he's going to go back and do it again - though next time he won't wear shoes and socks. Squelchy Volleys just aren't in this season.

If you're stuck for a Christmas gift this year, throw out the idea of 'stuff' that you just have to find somewhere to store and go for a RedBalloon voucher that will create awesome memories and not take up room on the shelf - other than a framed photo of you looking like a condom of course! 

Don't forget you can get $30 off your RedBalloon purchase of $129 or more by entering RBXMAS12 at the checkout!

Disclosure: Thanks to the team at Digital Parents Collective for inviting me to be a part of the RedBalloon Experience Program. I will be sharing my awesome experiences with you over the next few months. To read all of my experiences so far, click here. As always, all opinions are my own however the experiences are complimentary.

If it's raining, I can technically spend my rainy day money

This is a sponsored post for Virgin Money

It’s spring time and yet Perth still doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. It’s freezing and raining one day and then sun burn central the next. We’re like Melbourne but with much less fashion sense. Skinny jeans and thongs, anyone?

One of the cool things about rainy days though is that you can legitimately dip in to your rainy day fund. What?! It’s raining! A technicality, maybe.

OK so I’m not the best at saving money unless of course you count the things that I buy that are on sale. That counts, right? Even though I didn’t actually need that fourth pair of practically identical black shoes for 70% off. Or that basket of pig shaped pegs just because they were buy one, get one free. Or *ahem* almost expired wine for $1 a litre. It’s just that going past a sale is against my religion and I’m extremely devout.

Which is why when I came across the Virgin Saver Account I found a really simple way to save your pennies no matter whether you’re saving for new shoes or a round the world trip. It’s so simple because there are no limits on deposits, it has a great ongoing rate and no fees whatsoever . No, that’s not a typo. No fees whatsoever. With no fees to chip away at your money, you’ll get to your savings goal even faster so Hello Manolo Blahniks or London. Or if you’re really good, Manolo Blahniks from the flagship store in London.

There are full details of the account here but for a quick glimpse, here’s a handy table to show how they compare against some of the others. It’s not quite as handy as, say, a coffee table, but since when does your coffee table give you a high variable interest rate? Hrm?

Virgin Money would like to help support saving initiatives across Australia and to do so they’ve given me some cold hard cash to give away to kick start your fund. I like the sound of that, and really, who wouldn’t like a bit of free money to start a new savings campaign?

For your chance to win $100 credited to a Virgin Money Saver Account all you have to do is fill out the form below and tell me what you’re saving your pennies for right now. A holiday? A new laptop? Pig shaped pegs?

If you don’t win that, never fear, there are also 25 runner up prizes of $25 Virgin Money Saver Accounts!

Are you a spender or a saver? Do you want pig shaped pegs

Full terms and conditions available here

This giveaway is now closed and

winners have been notified 

To Vitamin or not to Vitamin

Let's for a second ignore the fact that some of you may have said VIT-amin thus making my skin crawl, and carry on to more important things.

Original image by Erix, modified by moi under CC license

When I worked as the makeup chick in a pharmacy I would spend a lot of time with the naturopaths being told about all the marvelous things these tablets and potions were meant to be able to do for me. I often wondered whether it was all pseudo science and rather than part me with my symptoms it would just part me with my cash. I decided to try out a few out anyway because a) I had an income and b) I got an employee discount.

I swallowed giant horse tablets of spirulina, fish oil, iron, a multivitamin and, because I was duffed at the time, some super duper folate. I was taking so many different things that upon opening my cupboard a multi coloured foul smelling deluge of digestible plastic would descend on me. It was so stressful being covered every morning that I considered taking a stress remedy then decided cleaning my cupboard would probably be cheaper and more effective in the long run.

I was on my 'prescribed' regime for a year or so and other than having significantly less money in my bank account and wee that looked decidedly radioactive, I didn't notice anything different when I was on them. Though that could have been thanks to the eating chips constantly while preggers then not sleeping at all thanks to a newborn who fed freaking hourly. Apparently they negate all positive effects.

So here I am, a month in to my new health regime and I'm curious about it all again, but obviously not curious enough to actually buy any. And really, aren't blogs just avenues for getting advice?

Do you take vitamins? Should I? How do you pronounce it?

EDIT: 01/12/12 I've been taking a multi for a month now and OMG my nails are so strong. They've never been this strong before - they were always chipping and splitting. Now they're really long and painted blood red. Talons FTW!

The Notorious B.I.G. Walk Bloggers

When I woke up this morning my first thought was "Can I call in sick?". It had been pissing down all night, the forecast was shocking and the only thing darker than the clouds were the bags under my eyes after three hours of sleep. At that point I thought it would have been much better, and definitely far less painful, to die of a protracted vomiting fit than walk for 6km in the rain.

I'd signed up for the Big Walk a few months ago and figured it would be a leisurely stroll around the river on a lovely, sunny day. My only concerns, other than the whole "what if my broken body seizes half way around?", was if I'd get hat hair, but Perth's latest attempt at Spring has been rather dismal and hat hair was the least of my concerns.

Seeing as I was the one who organized all I figured I didn't have much of a choice. And honestly, a little bit of wind and rain is nothing when you think about what the kids in Princess Margaret Hospital have to go through. Plus I figured since 4yo Adam was coming up to Perth to join us and walk too, some crappy weather wasn't much of an excuse. Well that and I couldn't let a 4yo show me up.

So whilst it was a morning of rain, lightning, thunder, a few minutes of hail (which will henceforth be known as "those little icy bastards") it did lead itself to putting the Mighty Boosh's claim that it's impossible to be unhappy in a poncho to the test.

For part of the walk it appeared Tricky had thrown out the Mighty Boosh ideal and instead was channeling Laura Palmer's "wraaaaaapped in plaaaaastic". Top mother points to me for making it look like I was suffocating my child.

The team tshirts turned out to be quite disastrous. Although I got mine to work eventually, it wasn't after much swearing, hair pulling and threats to throw the printer out of the window (thanks, nameless brand for not putting full instructions on your damn packet). The only time I touch an iron in this house is to do iron on transfers - the frugal gal's answer to dress up parties and funky kids clothes - yet I still had trouble. Then after all that it was too bloody cold to even show them off. Damn you, Perth weather!

But on the upside there were long stretches of glorious sunshine (meaning a lovely jacket off, jacket on, jacket off, jacket on cycle), great company, a fabulous sausage sizzle, free rides for the kids and, at last count, $1330 in donations to our team.

Tricky on his first ferris wheel ride. He was fine, thanks to Adam

Thank you so much to all the walkers for joining in and braving the weather and to everyone who donated. You can see a list of the participants and our generous donors here - and if you're feeling sorry for us having to walk in the rain, you can still donate.

I'm a (slightly silly, vlog making) Claus for a Cause

I have gone fun run crazy it would seem. Yes even I, the girl who doesn’t exercise, can be active when it’s for charity. If you've watched the video you'd already know that I'm one of the Blog Ambassadors for the Variety Santa Fun Run! If you haven't, you really should watch it now if for no other reason than to piss yourself laughing at me. It's OK, I'll wait...

The Variety Santa Fun Run is being held almost nationwide (sorry, Tassie) on Sunday 25th of November and this year I'll be dressing up (along with Map Guy and Tricky) and heading to Freo to be a Claus for a Cause. You can go here to register and receive your Santa Suit!!

If dressing up as the big guy doesn’t float your boat but you’d still like to contribute, you can sponsor me here. And really, I think I deserve to be sponsored after prancing around Perth in my suit to show you just how fashionable it is, don't you? And the dancing bit? That's at least worth a $20, surely?

Images used with permission from Variety

Last year there were 1200 West Aussie Santas that raised $40,000 for local children who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs. Your dollars will do so much for the kids in your state, so here's an idea of exactly what your money can do:

♥ $75 can send a child with special needs to the annual Variety Kids Christmas Party

♥ $200 can help a child who is non-verbal to communicate with iPad assistive software

♥ $1,000 can give fun and freedom to a child living with disability with their own customised tricycle

♥ $3,500 can provide an electric bed and pressure mattress to give a child with special needs a good night’s sleep

♥ $5,000 can help a child living with physical disability with a customised standing frame

I would love it if you would join me or sponsor me today.

Will you be a Claus for a Cause? Would you wear your suit to the shops?