Amanda is looking forward to performing at the annual Kidz in the Middle event for Disabled Living later today. This year will be Amanda’s third time entertaining at this great event.

The event has over 100 exhibitors including lots of professionals in the disability field offering solutions to problems many though were unsolvable. It’s a privillege to be able to take part and contribute something to this worthy cause.

The event will take place in Ricoh Arena, Coventry from 9.30 – 4.30pm today. Amanda hopes to see you there.

Amanda has the good fortune of stumbling upon many interesting new children’s services providers on her travels, some of whom merit a special blog mention.

Oddizzi is one such company. Amanda visited their stand at the Ed Show the other day and was hugely impressed by their exciting educational brand. Oddizzi.com is a website that brings the whole world to life for children.

It has a vast amount of information about the whole world and transports travel-hungry young minds to the other side of the globe.

Available for individuals as well as schools to subscribe to it even includes something called ClassPals which enables children from all around the world to connect with each other and interact.

We visited Oddizzi.com and found it a very friendly site and easy to use. Odd and Izzi are the two loveable, alien characters who show you around, always popping up with interesting ideas to baffle and amaze you.

You can easily see why they were the recent winners of the Bett Award 2012 for Primary Digital Content. We’re now hopeful of collaborating with Oddizzi further on something so watch this space!

Mums always ask us, ‘Where’s a good place for a party venue?’ and we’re happy to advise. We’ve been doing this for 20 years so we’ve seen the best and worst that’s out there. Below are two venues that get the Amanda’s Action Club seal of approval.

The first is Ray’s Playhouse at Sand’s End in Fulham. It’s a fun and spacious venue offering the best value for money in SW6.

Ray’s Playhouse’s range of facilities include indoor and outdoor space, children’s tables and chairs, dedicated children’s toilets, a kitchen, a covered buggy park and ample off-street parking. The outdoor space has children’s play equipment and a sandpit.

You can hire the Playhouse for your child’s birthday party on late afternoons and evenings from Monday to Friday.  On Saturdays and Sundays the Playhouse is available from 0900-2100hrs and is bookable in three hour time slots. The cost of hiring the Playhouse for three hours is from £80.00 which is excellent value.

To find out more call Ray’s Playhouse on 020 7371 9002 or visit  http://www.raysplayhouse.org

The second venue we love is the Hotel Rafayel which is on the river in Battersea. Their space for children’s parties is spacious and lavish. For more information contact Sue on 0207 801 3610 (or visit http://www.hotelrafayel.com).

Unfortunately due to circumstances out of our control we have had to postpone the classes at the Kensington venue. Any Kensington parents and carers interested in classes in the area please email info@amandasactionclub.co.uk and we will keep you updated.

Just a quick post to say thanks to everyone who made the London Taxi Drivers ball such a huge success last night.

Amanda with TOWIE star, Lauren Pope

Celebrities from the tv and media turned up in their droves to support the cause which helps children with special needs. The London Taxi Drivers Fund for Underprivilleged Children (LTFUC) has been helping children since 1928 and last night marked another successful event in their long history.

Amanda was thrilled to be a part of the occasion and got everybody into a great mood with her unique partygames, music and infectious enthusiasm. Anyone who knows Amanda knows how much she enjoys working with children with Special Needs and that she is keen to do much more work in that area.

Amanda found the night rewarding and inspiring and hopes some of the contacts she made on the night will lead to more similar appearances in the near future.

It turned out the tv cameras were at the event and Amanda turned up later that evening on the ITV news. You just can’t keep her out of the headlines!

Amanda monkeys around!

Who's the cheekiest?

Happy New Year from the Amanda’s Action Club team! Here’s hoping it’s a really special one for you all.

What better way to start the year than by giving to charity.  Here’s an easy way for any house owner in SW6 to give to a hugely important charity that we support…

The Octavia appeal is a charity fundraiser for the paediatric intensive care department and paediatric ward at the Royal Brompton Hospital. They treat some of the sickest children in the country with heart and lung complaints – as you can imagine they do an amazing job on limited funds.

Brik, the estate agents in Parsons Green lane have pledged to give £30 to the appeal for every houseowner in SW6 who is willing to put a board up outside their house for 4 weeks of the year (see PDF below for more details).

It’s an easy way to give to a hugely important cause so if you do live in SW6 please email your name, address and telephone number to lyndacmackie@tiscali.co.uk.

Please also like the Octavia appeals Facebook page too.

Many thanks.

This year Amanda’s Action Club is throwing a no-expense-spared Christmas party in Wandsworth!

The big, festive event is taking place at the County Arms pub in Wandsworth on Tuesday 13th December from 10am-12noon.

We’ve got the REAL Father Xmas giving out real presents worth having and all sorts of fun and games including: Cookie-making, arts-and-crafts, balloon modelling, face-painting, an interactive Christmas story and, of course, a festive Amanda’s Action Club session.

For these hot-as-mince-pies tickets (only 30 available!) contact info@amandasactionclub.co.uk and get your name down. Ticket prices: £18 per child.

Get your ticket now or Yule be sorry!!!

Amanda, Will, Lil Tim and Fu Lin recently returned from Dubai where they turned many a head and announced themselves to the Arab world.

Now Will and Fu Lin are set to return to Dubai for good and Amanda is booked to return at least 3 times a year to train the staff at the Jumeirah Beach hotel! All that as well as some very interesting prospects with other agencies out there. It’s exciting stuff and a great pay off after lots of work arranging meetings etc with the key players out in Dubai.

We’ll keep you updated on any more Dubai news as it happens.

Now where did I put that umbrella?

Amanda was thrilled last October to be asked to give an award at the Mumandworking 2011 awards. She was honoured to be among such a formidable array of go-getting females and inspired by their stories.

Amanda gave away a prize of a free Amanda’s Action Club party to the lucky winner of her category – Growing Business of the Year. The company Linen at Home was the lucky recipient and a very well deserving one too.

Alexandra Watson, X-factor coach and founder of ‘the Happiness system at Work’ hosted the evening’s entertainment.

During the evening Amanda received many compliments on her stand-out, purple dress too. You can see why.