Camden Town Market (and being ripped off at the Darkside shop!)

Teen and I hopped on the train and headed to Camden.  I have to say I love my student railcard as two travelcards cost us just over £24.  That's good value!

Arriving at Camden this time, we aimed straight for the Stables Market which we entirely overlooked last time!  Wow!  This place is huge.  Absolutely adored all the wonderful horse sculptures everywhere.  Had a good look around and J got the cutest little necklace that is actually a mini pocket watch style.  What a neat idea.  There was a huge variety of styles of them but she settled for one with little wings.  She said it looked like The Golden Snitch from Harry Potter films.

Found a lovely lady selling some steampunk gear and had a good chat to her.  I'm going to need a fortune for this trend.

Having had a good look around, stopped for lunch at our favourite Chinese place at Camden Lock and ate our dishes of rice, bang bang chicken and sweet & sour chicken. Very filling. Lovely sitting on those half Vespa bikes. What a good use for old stuff like that.  Refreshed, we walked around that part of the market.

Next we headed off and picked J up a lovely H&R dress.  She looks amazing in it.  I decided to buy one two but in a different style. Having tried a couple on (quite a challenge over clothes you're already wearing) I found one that was perfect.  The stall holder wanted £85 for them both, giving me a 'saving' of £10. I said £80. He said £85 minimum...you get the drift.  Anyway, we settled on the two dresses we liked, he bagged them up and I handed him £80 and said, there you go, £80 as agreed. He looked bemused. We said goodbye and walked off.  Smug face (but only for a while - I'll tell you at the end).

Then off into a shoe shop as J wanted some school shoes but a DM style. She spotted a pair she really liked and tried them on. They looked great and she said they were really comfortable. I was surprised at the price - just £30. Turns out they are vegan shoes!  I asked about leather ones and was told they had 'proper' DMs but they were almost £100.  Hey, vegan is great ;-)

Darkside Camden - come on in (and be ripped off big time!)

We then headed off to try and find a band merchandise place we'd seen last time we were there. Having walked up and down the street twice, we just couldn't spot it.  I then decided to head into Darkside to gawp at the amazing boots they have and have a look at their steampunk and Hell Bunny clothing. I spotted a cloak I'd have loved (but where would I wear it?), a 'Victorian' style outfit (hubby would have killed me at over £200 for a skirt and top) and a boddice for £90.  We then went downstairs to see some more dresses.  I tried on a Hell Bunny hell bunny one (yes, the rabbit on the dress had demonic eyes) and then a Spin Doctor - Hell Bunny's darker side - one with 3 straps at the waist and a kind of occult type pattern.  Very funky. I fell in love with the Spin Doctor one and with it costing £69.99, just £10 more than the HB one, I decided to go for it.  Yippee!  Two dresses for me.  We then headed back to the market to pick up a band t-shirt for J and I got a t-shirt with skulls on too (J liked it - it says 'forever young' which made me smile as she said I am) :)

Having now shopped for over 3 hours, we decided to head home as there was nothing else we wanted.  Nice train ride back and home late afternoon.  Hubby loved my dresses and J looked amazing in hers (without her other clothes underneath).

This is where it all goes wrong....

I decided to see what sort of bargains we had got today.  It turns out none.  Yes, you heard me, NONE!  It seems Camden Town Market and shops are now the biggest rip-off going.  Why?  Let me explain.

Firstly, Darkside.  A store selling Spin Doctor and Hell Bunny outfits to name but a few.  My dress £69.99.  I have found the same dress - THE SAME - on 5 other websites. Guess how much?  An unbelievably, ripped-off, sick feeling £49.99.  That's £20 CHEAPER than Darkside.  WTF?  I sent a stinking email and Tweet to them.  How could they possibly justify such a price hike?  Had their pricing been incorrect?  Hey, I'd like a refund of that 'extra' £20 you appear to have skimmed off me.  Their response?  Nothing. Nada. Zip. F*** all.  My advice - NEVER, EVER, EVER buy from DARKSIDE CAMDEN! Go in, try it on, then go home and order it online for far less money  (from Kate's Clothing, Violent Delights, The Gothic Shop or even Amazon!).  Use them as a glorified changing room.  I'm utterly disgusted.  Serious lesson learned.

Oh, it gets worse still. The two Hearts & Roses (H&R) dresses I bartered the market trader down to £80 for?  Yep, you guessed it.  J's is £25 through Amazon (£15 less) and mine is £35 on Amazon (£5 less). So in all, going to Camden *COST* us £40 more for the clothes we bought.

Now, all that said, we had a lovely girlie day out together which you just don't get online shopping.  But I'll tell you something for nothing, if'/when we next go, I'll be looking at Amazon's website, and places like Kate's Clothing, etc as I'm in the shop or at the stall, and will pay not a penny more than they are asking or we'll try it on, test it for fit, and buy it at home where we're not treated like mugs!

Jelly and Bean - Phonics reading for Children

Jelly and Bean but who is who?

If you have not heard about these books, sit up and pay attention!  Jelly and Bean are the cutest, best books ever to get your youngster reading.

I first discovered Jelly and Bean by Marlene Greenwood when S brought one home from school as part of her daily read.  The book was so cute and really well structured to help her read with her use of phonics and blending.  This meant that immediately she was excited because she was 'reading a proper book'.  The delight of this discovery is really important in my eyes.  Reading is fun. It is not 'homework' or 'boring'.  Books like Jelly and Bean mean that children very quickly can 'read' and if they are anything like S, that means they want to read more and more.

As more Jelly and Bean books arrived home, we fell in love with the cats, the pigs and the dogs.  Super characters developing her reading potential as we went along.  Each introducing more sounds and blends including tricky words (red words her school call them).

N wanted to be involved and loved blending the sounds with words that S gave her to read herself. Yes, they shared the books. As S started to bring home books other than Jelly and Bean as her reading progressed, I decided to buy the books for N and her.

I looked everywhere for the books - usual suspects such as Amazon, Scholastic, The Book People, even eBay, but nothing. I found two listed on Amazon but they were pretty pricey for second hand.  Oh dear. Then I Googled them and there they were! I was delighted as you can imagine.  Also, what super prices for such lovely sets of books.

I ordered the original 'white' cover series as that's what S had brought home first.  They arrived and both girls wanted them.  Isn't that typical. I did tell S they were for N as she was learning and not as clever reading as her, which was accepted as the answer, providing she could read the books too. Yes, of course she could.

Each book gently introduces new sounds with sweet pictures and lots of repetition.  There is a great structure to them and their stages as they increase in complexity as children learn. Now, I'm not a teacher, but as a parent, I love that my girls want to read so for the whole of the Easter holidays, despite them being easy for her now, S read Jelly and Bean books.

At the end of the books, all the words used are on the back page. This is a great little 'check' for me to see if my girls actually know the words or were guessing from the pictures.  They love reading the words they have learned again.  In some of the books with more words we make up silly sentences like "Dad sat on a red frog".  Anything to get the giggles going.

N is 3 years and 4 months old and has now read the first lot of Jelly and Bean books I bought for her. Some words are very tricky for her such as 'Bean' and 'Wellington' (with the latter she tends to forget what the letters she's already sounded out are by the time she's reached the last one, ha, ha - but she recognised it once told what it was by sight).

My new Jelly and Bean books - reading with lunch

I've just bought the Series B books and she picked one up straight away with her lunch and started to read it.  She's not put off by any tricky words because in the whole "I can read all by myself" and "I have read a whole book" are what she says and that's super exciting for her.  And that's what matters.

So, here is my lovely collection (so far) of Jelly and Bean books.  I think the Pig Family will be next and I recall much fun about things falling into a pond so I'll have to look those up too.  If you are interested in getting your children reading and they are keen, you could do far worse than pick up Jelly and Bean.  Pop along to their website or have a chat to them on Twitter.

This review was produced out of the love of Jelly and Bean books for my girls.  I was not offered any incentive to write it.