Mid-November and the Amazon boxes are already stacked in my wardrobe, the Tesco seasonal deals are beckoning the contents of my next pay packet and somewhere in my mind, I’m wondering whether it’s too early to order the turkey.

So here I am. Over 40 (in fact nearly 45) and lately I find I've developed a strange relationship with magnifying mirrors. Once the domain of eye-brow plucking, I'm turning into Snow White's wicked witch with a "mirror, mirror on the wall..." complex. Do I need help? Is this normal I wonder?

Is it just the years panning out or did some very clever bloke decide to sneak Father’s Day in just before the World Cup? So I’m bracing myself for a month or so of ‘scheduled’ TV viewing where I’ll be way down the pecking order for the remote control behind Sponge Bob Square Pants, In the Night Garden and Hannah Montana.

According to Travelodge who recently conducted a poll amongst 2,000 British families, more than a quarter of children think Easter is the date that chocolate was invented, chocolate tops the list of things Britons have given up for Lent and only one in ten British households will be eating fish on Good Friday

Another day holed up in arctic conditions, kids in bed, cheese on toast (not quite one of my five a day intake, but it's tasty!) and flicking through the channels, I come across another Mumknowsbest - except this time it's two blokes on motorbikes proclaiming to be the Hairy Bikers.