Rock N Roll Nanny

Rock N Roll Nanny is an autobiographic book by Sally Arnold. It tells the story of how, in 1972, Sally Arnold took a job as a children's nanny in Paris in 1971. It was a job that was to totally change her life for good.

Why? Because the child she was looking after was Jade Jagger, the daughter of rock star Mick Jagger. 

Soon she finds herself working for the big legends of the rock music industry but not as a nanny. She became the music businesses first woman tour manager.

Readers will learn what it's like to prepare and cook Christmas dinner for Mick Jagger, what it's really like to go clubbing at the famous Tramp nightclub with The Who's drummer Keith Moon. And exactly how can you cope with the wives and girl friends of the entourage of the rock bands?

Eventually Sally finds herself with yet another career change. Organising massive charity events and having to manage and deal with mega stars such as comedians Billy Connolly and Rowan Atkinson.

Sally also worked with the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Diana, foreign dignitaries like Mikhail Gorbachev and even members of the world of poetry the Queen's Poet Laurate, Ted Hughes.

There were potentially difficult incidents with the somewhat salty language of Peter Cook and Mel Smith (what would her father think?) the problems of dealing with the contents of portable toilets, something which nobody really thinks about.

Other matters included arranging Vitamin B12 injections for the boys, her Harley Davidson, the problems of travelling round the world, working with the BBC and the Old Grey Whistle Test and how she coped with her own health issues including requiring chemo therapy. And how people who she should have been able to rely on turned their backs on her when she needed their support the most.

The book is wonderfully illustrated with a wide range of photographs from Sally's collection.

It is published by SilverWood Books www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk at £13.99 and it will make an excellent Christmas present for lovers of memoirs and of those who want to know the inside story of the rock n roll industry from someone who was at the heart of it. 

https://rocknrollnanny.co.uk

Chocolate Bombe Dessert from Cocoba

Cocoba has joined forces with Sophia from Baked by Bon to create an easy but delicious dessert that you can whip up in minutes, which will make an ideal Christmas dessert.

This very delicious and yummy dessert can be made using any of their Hot Chocolate Bombes and they highly recommend serving it with a scoop of ice cream for a truly decadent dessert.

Carefully make a small hole in the bottom of one of the bombes and fill it with other treats like small brownie chunks, honeycomb, or shortbread, before turning it upside down so the hole is on the bottom.

Ingredients (for 1):

- One hot chocolate bombe

- 50g milk chocolate

- 20ml double cream

- Fillings for the bombe (optional)

Method:

1. Melt together the milk chocolate and double cream in the microwave or in a pan on the hob until smooth

2. If you are adding a filling, gently make a small hole in the bottom of one of the bombes and place your fillings inside

3. Plate up the hot chocolate bombe and decorate the plate if you wish

4. Pour over the hot chocolate sauce and watch the bombe melt away to reveal the treats inside!

To learn more please visit https://www.cocobachocolate.com.

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Chimney Fire's delicious Espresso Martini

You'll already be aware that Chimney Fire's Coffee have launched their 12 Days of Discovery Advent Calendar is a specially curated collection of coffees from their 2022 Discovery Coffee range. 

You might not be aware that Chimney Fire Coffee has introduced an absolutely delicious coffee Espresso Martini that will make an absolutely delicious addition to your Christmas drinks cabinet.

It is best served chilled, with or without ice. 

I rather like the idea of serving it with fresh, chilled cream! Maybe garnish it with cinnamon and other traditional Christmassy spices? Yum!

Chimney Fire's Espresso Martini is carefully blended with Wry English vodka.

You can order it here https://silentpooldistillers.com/wry-vodka-x-chimney-fire-coffee-espresso-martini.

A 50cc bottle costs £24 and the abv is 20%.

Whilst you are there, why not check out the other Silent Pool Distillers excellent products, all of which look to be great additions to your Christmas drink's cabinet!

Gift them the art of repair with Sugru

Fixing is the unsung hero of creativity!

There aren’t many people who haven’t shed a tear or two watching the BBC’s Repair Shop. Restoring the things we love can be joyous, fun and incredibly rewarding, too. 

So why not gift the art of repair this year? Choose from three gorgeous kits that are available at Sugru.com and give them to your nearest and dearest.

Kintsugi Repair Kit in Gold or Silver (£23.99)

Perfectly imperfect and truly unique! That’s the mantra of Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of repairing ceramics with visible gold or silver seams. No need to feel sad about a smashed plant pot or cracked tea cup, instead of throwing your broken items away, simply add a touch of magic! You’re able to fix up to 10 items with this amazing kit.

Multicolour Wool Clothing Repair Kit by Woolfiller (£19)

If you’re keen on easy repairs for your threads, look no further than Woolfiller. It's absolutely brilliant for fixing little holes in woollen jumpers (sweaters!), cardigans, jackets, hats, scarves, blankets, carpets, sofas, even car roof linings, in fact, any woollen textiles. 

And just check out how satisfying the felting needle process is here A new solution for an age-old problem, wool-filling is quick, simple and incredibly sustainable. 

Fix & Create Kit by Sugru (£10.99)

The Fix & Create Kit is designed with the repair revolutionary in mind. The friend who is keen to waste less, whilst crafting more. Projects cover everything from repurposing old jars and jewellery, to repairing and adding texture to simple plant pots. Upcycling and improving the things you love!

Best known for its award winning multi-purpose mouldable glue, Sugru has now filled its online shop with equally innovative products designed to inspire people to reimagine their home, garden, clothes and planet in a way that empowers their everyday creativity to beat the throwaway culture. 

Sugru invites you to unlock your imagination and find new ways to  repair, improve, organise, decorate and protect the things you love. Find an ever-growing selection of clever tools, kits, ideas and guides to get you started at Sugru.com  and let the fun begin!

We at That's Christmas are convinced that these presents from Sugru will be talked about with great pleasure for years to come!

Babbingtons Blends are ideal for Christmas gifting

Finding it Hard to Sleep in the pre-Christmas run up? Then you should enjoy sweeter sleep and sweeter dreams with Babingtons Blends.

Herbal teas can act as a brilliant aid to help sooth our bodies and our minds, in particular at bedtime, when our minds can often be racing at speed!

Sweet Dreams is a delicately flavoured floral and 100% natural bedtime herbal tea, prepared by blending chamomile flowers, rose petals, fennel, lemon balm, linden blossom and lavender together in a wonderfully balanced blend.

It's a very relaxing, cleansing herbal tea which also may aid digestion.

Gifts for Tea Lovers

Refreshing, purifying and anti-inflammatory, full of antioxidants & vitamins (A,B and C).

All Babingtons Blends teas are sustainably sourced, hand blended and are 100% natural with no artificial colourings or flavourings.

All packaging is biodegradable, too.

Tea Formats

Pyramids (x 18) from £7.99, Pouches (Loose leaf) from £6.99, Caddies (Loose Leaf) from £11.99, Caddies (Tea Bags) from £12.99.

All of which make excellent Christmas presents for those in your life who appreciate the finer, tastier things in their lives!

Visit Babbingtons Blends here www.babingtonsblends.com to find out what is available and to place your orders.

Butcombe Brewing Co Launches Tall Tales Pale Ale

Butcombe Brewing Co (part of the Liberation Group) has launched its latest snappy offering -  a Pale Ale with real bite. Introducing Tall Tales Pale Ale.

A thoroughly modern, delicious and easy-drinking Pale Ale, Tall Tales, is said to be the boldest beer in the Butcombe family of ales, is a refreshing, fruity and light beer. It's chock full of character with notes of grapefruit, pineapple and citrus. 

What is the origin of the name? The ale is named Tall Tales after the legend of a crocodile believed to have been lurking in Bristol's River Avon at Hotwells. 

The reptile, which prompted a police search but which was never discovered, has been reportedly seen floating beneath the surface of the muddy waters of the River Avon.

Marc McGuigan, who is the Group MD, Brewing & Distribution, of the Liberation Group says: “We're incredibly proud of Tall Tales, one of our biggest flavoured beers to date.  

"It's a vibrant and flavoursome Pale Ale brought smack bang up to date, by our amazing brewing team, for today's beer lover. 

“We were inspired by the tale of Bristol's mythical crocodile when creating Tall Tales. It's important that we keep surprising our customers so what better way to show the innovation and creativity of our award-winning brewery, whilst remaining faithful to our Bristolian heritage, than launching this incredible new beer.  Whether it's true or not doesn't really matter.  Who doesn't love a Tall Tale every now and again?” 

Tall Tales Pale Ale is available in 330ml bottles.

https://butcombe.com/brewery-shop-products/tall-tales-pale-ale

We at That's Christmas feel that Tall Ales Pale Ale will be a very welcome addition to the Christmas drinks cabinet as I absolutely adore a good pale ale with my Christmas dinner! My wife is a confirmed stout drinker, so we love to keep a good variety of beers and ales in stock for our Christmas dining and drinking!

Countdown to a Killing. A novel

Countdown to a Killing is a novel by Tom Vaughan Macaulay. And it is a 'novel' in the best sense of the word because it employs new and novel storytelling techniques to tell the story.

It tells the stories of a mixed and disparate group of people in a variety of locations scattered throughout different locations. London, Huddersfield and Sicily.

There's Wen Li, a very sensitive and very kind 29-year-old British-Chinese woman. Sadly, she suffers from a severe OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which, in her case, shows itself as a never-ending and paralysing dread that she could be harbouring murderous impulses.

Emotionally damaged and thwarted in her love life Wen has fallen for a colleague of hers, Lomax Clipper. Unfortunately Lomax is a man who has troubles of his own. He is deeply disillusioned and also finds himself extremely frustrated.

Lomax is very much in love with a young woman who is a Sicilian whom he met whilst he was working in Italy. 

However, Wen and Lomax are united by one thing. A deep and genuine loathing of Julian Ponsonby. Unfortunately Julian is there boss. However, all is not a bed of roses for Julian as he is bedevilled by a rather toxic relationship and also the fact that his father resolutely refuses to accept Julian's sexuality.

Lomax manages to return to Sicily, whilst enjoying a period of sabbatical leave and, whilst there he meets and befriends a vulnerable Sicilian man by the name of Fifi de Angelis who has troubles enough of his own. He is of restricted growth and has been ostracised by his own family.

The novel is told by interlocking correspondences such as emails and WhatsApp messages. The novel crackles with suspense as it becomes clearer and clearer that a murder is in the offing, as the lives of several people are explored as they are firmly bound together. 

It examines under a somewhat brutal lens a variety of important themes such as mental illness and mental health, sexuality, ethnicity and love.

It's an experimental novel that weaves the lives of several characters in a metafictive narrative and will be a wonderful Christmas present for those who like to have to think about what they are reading. It's humorous and also deeply moving in parts. Pretty much like life, really.

It's published by Red Door at £8.99 in paperback.

New job for Christmas at Lidl?

Lidl GB, the UKs fastest-growing and highest paying supermarket, has announced it will be recruiting over 1,000 new hourly paid roles over the next five months.

The roles, which span across stores and warehouses and includes Customer Assistants, Cleaners and Warehouse Operatives, will benefit from industry leading pay. New recruits will earn a minimum of £10.90 an hour outside of London and £11.95 inside the M25; the highest starting pay of any other UK supermarket.

All new jobs will be permanent and include full and part-time positions, which will see pay increase up to £12.00 and £13.00 with length of service, depending on location.

The supermarket, which recently opened three new stores in Alperton, Oxford and Gillingham is set to open further new stores over the next five months.

Lidl is currently the UKs fastest growing supermarket with sales growing 20.9% in the 12 weeks to 4 September. The fastest rate of growth since October 2014. Over 1.5 million more customers are shopping with Lidl this year than in 2021 and in total, with three in five Brits shopping with Lidl in the past year – a record new high. 

It is also in the process of recruiting for warehouses, including for its Belvedere warehouse which is undergoing a total redevelopment and recently completed the first phase of its expansion programme. The supermarket is also set to open its new Luton distribution centre next year, which it began recruitment for back in March.

To make it as easy as possible for warehouse candidates to secure roles, Lidl will be holding recruitment open days across its warehouses, with the option for successful candidates to sign contracts on the day. 

Nan Gibson, Lidl GB’s Chief HR Officer said: “We’re incredibly proud of our colleagues across the country, whose hard work and loyalty mean we're the fastest growing supermarket, with over 1.5m more people shopping with us than last year. 

"As our customer base continues to grow, and as we open more new stores and warehouses, we need more people to join team Lidl. Not only will new colleagues be the highest paid in the industry as a result of our newly increased rates, they also be part of an amazing team of people that are working to help make good food accessible to all households, at a time that is so needed.”

Upcoming Lidl GB Open days:

Doncaster: 24th October, 7th November, 21st November

Wednesbury: 19th October, 8th November

Exeter: 17th October, 21st November

Belvedere: 12th October

Peterborough: 15th October

Check out Lidl at https://corporate.lidl.co.uk.

Tesco launches inflation-busting move before Christmas

Tesco's inflation-busting move will support customers in the run-up to Christmas.

Tesco has announced a fairly beefy new price-lock commitment, freezing the prices of over 1,000 everyday products until 2023, and giving shoppers more ways to spend less and enjoy the festive season more.

The products are all included within Tesco's mammoth Low Everyday Prices campaign, which covers a wide range of products and brands bought week-in, week-out, from cupboard staples and teatime favourites, to household and health & beauty products.

To help customers make their money go further during the Christmas season, Tesco are locking down the price of over 1,000 of these products into the new year.

So whether it’s McCain Home Chips for midweek meals, or a winter pick-me-up with Nescafe Original 3-in-1, Tesco customers can count on Tesco’s price to stay the same until 2023. Which will help them spend less on their shopping and more on friends and family over Christmas 2022.

Lower Everyday Prices is a key feature of Tesco’s commitment to giving customers great value on their shopping. Which goes hand-in-hand with their Aldi Price Match, great value own-brand staples with their Exclusively at Tesco brands and exclusive deals via Clubcard Prices, which together cover over 8,000 products.

And it’s just one of the ways they are helping customers make their money go further this Christmas. Their Clubcard Christmas Savers Scheme offers customers a bonus voucher of up to £12 when they save their Clubcard Vouchers towards their big Christmas shop. 

Whilst their Toy Sale offers savings of up to 50% on kids favourites like Lego and Stickle Bricks, so that families can spread the cost of Christmas.

Tesco UK CEO, Jason Tarry, said: “We know that times are tougher for many customers at the moment, right now, especially as we head into the winter months. 

"We hope this extended price-lock commitment gives our customers the certainty of knowing over 1,000 household favourites will stay at the same great price for months to come. Which will help them with their budget when they need this most.”

As well as helping customers, Tesco are also announcing another big investment in Tesco store colleagues, with their second hourly-pay increase this year, and a doubling of their colleague discount to support them this Christmas.

From 13 November 2022, the basic hourly rate of pay in their stores will increase by a further 20p to £10.30 (or £10.98 in London). This means hourly rates at Tesco will have increased nearly 8% this year – building on what was already a record single-year investment in store pay.

And on top of that, Tesco is also doubling their Colleague Clubcard discount to 20% during the key Christmas shopping period from 13-19 December.

A Tesco spokesperson said: "This is just one part of our comprehensive package of benefits for Tesco colleagues, which also includes a recently enhanced selection of free food and hygiene products in the Colleague Rooms of our stores, so colleagues can access a wider range of breakfast, lunch and snack items for no cost."

You can check out Tesco at www.tesco.com.