Let's Dish The Dirt Shall We? #NewsMumOnline

It's time for #NewsMumOnline again, and for the second time in a row, it's a blogging focus rather than a mainstream news focus, but then you did enjoy the last one right?!?!?! :-)

So, this time, it's all about dishing the dirt, because there's a lot of honking going on. Honking bodies, honking from home, and honking house cleaning. There's so much honking going on, that Mummy Bloggers have been in the Daily Fail THREE TIMES recently.

In case you've missed all or any of them, it's my job to bring you up to speed ;-)

So first up, Pippa from Story of Mum is giving some leverage to #HonkFromHome so that it's not all about that Wembley Danceathon #TeamHonkDanceathon. Pippa started #MyKidsDressedMe 

So what actually happened?

1. First up, Pippa was inspired by Summer Bellessa with this post: I let my toddler dress me for a week here's what happened
2. So she did this Facebook post with photographic evidence of her doing same.
3. Due to the support it received from lovely comments from Story of Mum fans, it all kind of took off from there.
4. Pippa tweeted and it was kind of nailed when @EmmaFreud said "brilliant idea. We need to get the whole country doing this".
5. Then Pippa blogged about it here: Would you let your child choose what you wear for charity
6. Then it became a thing!
7. It went in the Cornish Man except it's a Cornish wo-Man in this instance ;-)
8. And then it went into the Daily Fail: Cornish Mother starts global fashion craze and the rest is history. 
9. Except the reason my blog post title of "dish the dirt" applies here, is because the Daily Fail COMMENTS are quite frankly heartless, so I have red arrowed down all the nasty ones, green arrowed up the few nice ones and commented myself. If you've read this far, can you do the same please and tip the balance in favour of nice humans? Thanks in advance!
10. If you LOVE Comic Relief and Team Honk but can't make Wembley then you really must #HonkFromHome and what better way to do it than with #MyKidsDressedMe ;-) You'll have fun and so will your children. Plus the most important thing is that you and your friends send THE text. Your pics hashtagged with #MyKidsDressedMe may even end up on the live BBC show!!!!

Hey, they EVEN have a POSTER (which Jo designed), which couldn't be clearer. Now you know what to do:

So next #NewsMumOnline blogger story. These ladies say that they don't honk, but you can make up your own mind. See who you recognise from this Daily Fail story: Can you guess which of these women only shower once a week? I personally spy at least two well known bloggers amongst them.

Favourite *honk* quotes from the article:

I pass one of my son’s wet flannels under each armpit before giving my arms, hands, face and intimate area a cursory once over. Then I’m ready for the school run.

Tempered by:

It may sound grim, but I can assure you I don’t smell, as my husband — who has a shower every other morning — will attest.

Next honker:

But after I’ve put them to bed, I rarely bath or shower myself, despite being covered in as much mashed banana and yogurt as they are.

Tempered by:

Deodorant and dry shampoo are my saviours and my straight, dark brown hair looks the same whether I wash it or not. No one has ever said I smell, but then I work from home, so there is no one to offend. My children certainly don’t complain.

The commenters were ruthless but amongst the kinder ones was this one:

brian r, great bookham, 2 days ago
a dermatologist will tell you NOT to shower or bath every day as it depletes the covering of natural oils that help defend the skin from the weather

So perhaps these ladies can also #HonkFromHome or perhaps they already are ;-) *jokes*.

Third up and finally, how clean is YOUR house. Mine is quite nice thank you very much, but then that wasn't always the case. At one point I stopped hoovering and stopped tidying because for a couple of years, as a toddler, Aaron was JUST LIKE THIS.

If only I had the good sense and foresight to video Aaron being like that, except I was too frazzled and frustrated by it. It meant I couldn't have people over and often meant I escaped the house to stop having to look at it. 5 million people have watched the above You Tube video, but FIFTY million have watched it on Facebook, according to the Dail Fail (yes this blog post is three times over Daily Fail focused, #SorryNotSorry). The Daily Mail article is here: Why Mums Really Never Get Anything Done. I hate though that they don't use the You Tube video! (1) it meant it took me AGES to find it and (2) it means people don't click through and increase her views, which seems mean of the Mail considering they are benefiting in page views from HER story so surely they should reciprocate. Or tell me, am I wrong? Can YOU navigate to her or her video from that article? I couldn't! Nor to her Facebook page.............

Anyway, this bringeths the end of this #NewsMumOnline article. If you have enjoyed it, you can thank me by sponsoring me. After all I too will HONK after dancing for 6 hours in the #TeamHonkDanceathon in Wembley on Sunday 8th March.

Sponsor me here

Dance With Me. Sponsor Me. Dare Me. Train With Me. #TeamHonkDanceathon

I've been a big fan of Red Nose Day and Sport Relief - both of which come from Comic Relief - for as long as I can remember, so when I saw that Team Honk are doing a Danceathon, in the same venue, same day, with THE DANCEATHON it was a no brainer.

Take part in the first ever Comic Relief Danceathon on Sunday 8th March hosted by Claudia Winkleman at The SSE Arena, Wembley

I absolutely adore dancing, and there are certain beats that will get me dancing no matter where I am - Bhangra being one of them. Even carrying my baby doesn't stop me dancing, although that and being filmed did make me slightly award as you can see:

I often liken myself to the Fat Bottomed Girls of Queen's Song: Fat Bottomed Girls You Make the Rocking World Go Round. You would totally understand if you could see footage of me at a Salsa dancing class in Malta 2008, but sadly I can't find the MP4 to upload it here. You're saved from watching and I am saved the embarrassment ha!

But back to me and Comic Relief. I've always watched the show, on BBC1, but 2007 I took it further and did a last minute effort for Red Nose Day at work. Just that little initiative executed in 48 hours raised a few hundred pounds and shows the difference that each and every one of us can make! Actually I have just dug out the pic and it was over a thousand pounds, ooooh!

Fast forward to 2008 and I was on fire about the possibilities so I liaised with Comic Relief with a view to my employer being an official partner of Sport Relief 2008. It worked, and involved a year and a half of hard work, but we raised over 40 thousand pounds. We did so many initiatives. We did an on pack promotion, where 20 pounds from the sale of each product went to Comic Relief. We provided the prize for each and every member of the public who raised 500 pounds or more in sponsorship. My ex-colleague organised and hosted an actual Sport Relief Mile, and has continued to do so every two years since actually. As our Head Office was in London, a load of us did the London Sport Relief Mile and raised a fortune on each of our fundraising pages, as ultimately that is what it is all about! A stockist organised a walk. There were lots of initiatives, some of which I have probably forgotten. A highlight was that in addition to being AT the live BBC Show, a A few of us were also able to attend Sport Relief does The Apprentice, where I met Sir Alan Sugar, David Walliams, Kelly Holmes, Simon Cowell and Kelvin MacKenzie. We'd provided product for the "Apprentice's Shops" and Kelly Holmes shifted loads of our product in a bid to make her team win (it wasn't televised though). She was truly amazing and a bundle of energy. My findings were that Simon Cowell was short, Sir Alan likes to be called Sir so got cross and blanked me when I said "Hello Alan" (I know I am DUMB and nerves got the better of me) and when I tried to chat to David Walliams he looked at me suspiciously and said "are you a journalist?" LOL! No, not me! Oh and Kelvin MacKenzie was a diamond geezer and wrote out a large cheque.

In 2010, we were no longer involved but me and the Marketing Manager were really really nostalgic about it so at the VERY last minute we bought a ticket for the London Sport Relief Mile and went along, just the two of us. Our colleagues were really generous and we raised stupid amounts of money on our fundraising pages. In the days after I was Googling it and read what the Guardian had to say and was thrilled via that, to find this freelance photographer's photos uploaded to YouTube in a slideshow (below). The photos he took were very touching as I was 6 months pregnant, yet did the 3 mile option (starting off jogging and then walking). So yes, Aaron did 3 miles for Sport Relief in my tummy. The pics x 2 are at 1:16 and 1:36. I meant to contact the photographer and buy them, but as I was a workaholic back then I never ever got round to it:

Funnily enough, YEARS later, when I went to see the Press show of The Gruffalo Live, that very same photographer was there photographing the celebrities who attended the theatre. He gave me his card, but do you think I know where it is?!?!?!? Fail!

Anyway, I am finding this whole #TeamHonkDanceAthon thing infectious and am playing Saturday Night by Whigfield and lots of other upbeat songs constantly. The other evening I danced in my kitchen for TWO HOURS. I've gone a bit bonkers with it all truth be told. But it's making me move more and that has to be a good thing. Aaron's done some of the dancing with me, and last night was singing along to Whigfield "Salad Tonight Salad Tonight" which made me laugh till I cried. So appropriate as this is COMIC Relief after all LOL.

I will upload footage of me or Aaron or both dancing in our kitchen if YOU sponsor me. Pretty please? My fundraising page is dormant currently, as I've been a bit SHY thus far about sharing it. My big fat zero on my sponsorship page is all about to change as the lovely people at BetFair are sponsoring me, to get me off to a flying start. That will give my dancing shoes wings for sure! Now, Comic Relief asks that dancing participants raise 150 pounds in sponsorship (we do get to go to Wembley and meet celebs after all), so with BetFair enabling me to reach that total straight away I COULD rest on my laurels and focus on my dancing training, but no, I have set my target to 300, as I would like to raise the required 150 personally as well, but without a whole office of colleagues, as a lonely SAHM I have no idea how to do this unless YOU dear reader help me.

I am also working on a Red Nose Day 2015 initiative with school as I am on the PTA (actually I better finish this post as we have a meeting at 13:30 today), but a couple of them were reluctant about Comic Relief as they wrongly have the impression that "all the money goes to Africa" (concerned when at these times of austerity there are so many here in need at home). I put them straight because:

Comic Relief works on Domestic Violence - they've "helped to establish the National Domestic Violence Helpline, which has received over 1.5 million calls since it was set up in 2003".

and:

But, being that Aaron is half African, I am delighted that we help overseas and at home. Charity does indeed begin at home, but it is heart warming to help people in need wherever they may be. Always thinking "there but for the grace of God go I".

I adore the #MyKidsDressedMe initiative that Pippa Story of Mum has come up with. For anyone who can't get to Wembley to do the danceathon the thing to do is #HonkFromHome and the being dressed by your kids thing is certainly a way to honk from home. You get to bring Comic Relief and Red Nose Day to the school gates by having to explain why you are dressed that way, and you can ask your school gates gang to text "Funny" to 70011 to donate a POUND.

So, I think now, I will go and find the Halloween Dress that Aaron wanted me to wear to school on Monday morning, and I might just wear it to my PTA meeting and get my lovely "fellow parent" ladies to send that text!!!!

Please sponsor me OR get involved in Comic Relief your own way. Like I said earlier, if you can't make Wembley for the #TeamHonkDanceAthon you CAN #HonkFromHome or you can just do lots of social sharing, to help raise awareness of this year's Red Nose Day.

I'll show you my dance moves if you sponsor me ;-)

At first, I wasn't going to sign up for the DanceAthon as I wrongly assumed it was full. It's NOT, sign up TODAY. I am looking at all of you, and staring at Mama and More's Zaz. Very happy that Tinuke has signed up, from Circus Mums.

If you want to keep up to date with all the news, follow @Team_Honk on Twitter.

Bye for now, Liska xxxx

All this training is changing my shape already. You want in? Sign up too and start dancing TODAY.

I'm linking up with All About You