Where where you when...

...Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris?

...The World trade centre was hit by flight 11?

...Trinity Cathedral in St.Petersburg burned down?

I totally missed the news about the fire which burned down part of a historic landmark, which was on my list to see!

Why didn't anyone tell me?

Brand happiness?

“From an early age, I have been taught that to be accepted, to be loveable, to be cool, one must have the right stuff. At junior school, I tried to make friends with the popular kids, only to be ridiculed for the lack of stripes on my trainers.”

Who would not dream of a life in brand happiness?

I now benefit and agree with the lesson learned as a kid; that I do not need something just because playground rules say a specific brand is required to belong. I even agreed as a kid, as my parents spend time explaining it to me. With parents working in advertising they had all the right tools to convince me that brands where just that, brands.

Am I better off for having learned this lesson at an early age? Maybe, but it took a huge chunk of happiness out of my childhood.

How far should we let our kids stay happily ignorant of the powers of the world?

Read the blog; Bonfire of the Brands

"Honk if Pluto is still a planet"

We no longer live on a planet.

"...it is impossible and contrived to put a dividing line between dwarf planets and planets... One of the three criteria for planethood states that a planet must have "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit". The largest objects in the Solar System will either aggregate material in their path or fling it out of the way with a gravitational swipe.

Pluto was disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune.

But Dr Stern pointed out that Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune have also not fully cleared their orbital zones. Earth orbits with 10,000 near-Earth asteroids."

Aparently "Eight (planets) is enough"

And in other news, "The UK population has broken through the 60 million barrier for the first time in history"

Sorry, 60mill is enough, you cannot be part of the UK population,

A spoon full of sugar...

I had a couple of birthday cards and a present to my pregnant friend in Denmark which needed posting, so I went to the post office in my lunch break.

Normally I would pick up a freshly made sandwich from the café in our office, but since I was out and about it was easier to pick something up in town, and we all know what they say about a change being as good as a holiday.

I went to Boots and had a ‘Delicious Wrap’, and it was delicious. I had a bag of ‘Delicious lightly salted hand cooked vegetable crisps’, not so delicious, but ok. Normally I would just have water with my lunch, but since the Boots meal deal included a free drink I thought I would give their ‘Delicious Cranberry & Blueberry Still Hi Juice Drink’ a try.

The Delicious range promises to have been ‘Created by food lovers exclusively for Boots’. Since when do food lovers love chemicals? I don’t buy many soft drinks, otherwise I would have remembered to read the small print!

Ingredients: Spring water, Cranberry Juice from concentrate, Blueberry Juice from Concentrate, Flavourings, Stabiliser, Preservatives, Sweeteners, Antioxidants, Citric Acid.

I can live with the odd preservatives, stabilisers, flavourings and antioxidants, but sweetener is a complete no go. Sugar is like fat, it adds the flavour! So what happens when you take sugar (and fat) out of my food? You take away my flavours!

Don’t replace my sugar with sweetener! Foodlovers love sugar!

And don't forget; I was Recommended. Please visit and leave a comment. It would be rude not to.

Guinea Pig

I was never allowed a pet when I was a kid, as my dad was allergic to all kinds of furry animals. I did have a baby rabbit for a while, but he got sick and died. I didn't get another pet.

Dogs have never been a great love of mine, though I think I could get attached to a cat. However I have always been attracted to fish, so this year for my birthday my better half bought me a fishtank and I got 3 goldfish.

So how did I get a guinea pig on my blog? I was Recommended. Please visit and leave a comment. It would be rude not to.

@Recommended, Thanks for being my guinea pig in the world of blog renting.
@Everyone else who bid, another offer will be coming soon.

Continental café culture

"We Brits just can't get enough of European cities. We spend holidays in romantic Rome or alternative Amsterdam, and rave about the cafes... Our attitudes toward European cities, like so much else European, are conflicted. We hanker after European standards of city living, but these are expensive - and few are willing to pay Continental levels of tax for the privilege."

Since when did continental taxes pay for the continental café life? Is the argument here that the continent has the city planning to allow for the café spaces? I have been to several truly continental cafés in small backstreet houses on the continent. We have small backstreet houses in Britain.

What the Continent have but the brits don’t is the café culture. How do you change a country culture? By raising our taxes?

When life goes wrong

One day, years ago, I woke up and found that my life had taken a completely wrong turn. I still had a job but I lived in a back room of a kebab shop with debts piling up all around me. I lived on toast and baked beans, and that was on a good day.

But did I turn to my family for help? Did I turn to my best friends for help? I turned to a stranger. Not because I didn't think my family or best friends would have rushed to my rescue, but because of pride I guess.

The stranger became my friend for a reason.

Friendships who come into your life for a REASON often comes to an end. Not making them less important friendships.

Other people comes into your life for a SEASON. They bring you an experience or make you laugh. It is real, but only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teaches us lifetime lessons to build on. You accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

Whether a friend for a reason, season or a lifetime, thanks for being part of my life.

Who's negative?

Human beings have an amazing knack for remembering the positive and suppressing the negative.

For example, when I think back to the year I spend in Norway after college do I remember the minus 30 degrees celcius in the winter? Do I remember how you couldn't buy anything but low alcohol beers in the one shop? Do I remember the prices you had to pay for a pint of lager at the pub? No, I remember the beautiful views, the parties, the skiing. Ok I didn't really do that much skiing, even though I lived in a skiing resort.

And when I was at school, I hated school, do I remember why I hated school? No I remember the few good times I had.

And don't even get my started on what the weather was like when I was a kid!

As our four year old puts it, "It is always sunny at my school" (He starts this September)

Pickle

I'm a keen gardener, but I wouldn't say my garden take first priority, more like 15th. So even though the intention is there I realised early on in my gardening career that I needed plants that needed minimum maintenance.

Olive trees are such a plant. They will even survive outside in the mild winters of southern England, so no need to wrap up or bring inside.

But since I have a leftover gene from my ancestors which tells me to grow my own food i thought I would try and preserve the olives from my olive tree this year. Since my parents have a huge vegetable garden I thought I would ask them first about what they knew about home grown olives. My parents live in Denmark though, and the winters there don't really allow for Olives, so the olive tree is for decorative purposes only. So I went for a search online.

It was fairly easy to find a good, and what looks like a fairly easy recipe on "How to treat fresh Olives". Wash and soak in a solution of salt and water... for up to six months!!!????

Even with 4 year olds constant testing of my patience, I am not sure my patience will stretch for preserving my own olives.

Cold calling

Before anyone asks, no, we don't have caller display on our landline phones, and yes, it is a deffinate possibility for the near future.

Thursday night I was waiting to hear if my other half would catch his flight back to Heathrow. Normally he would just text me on my mobile, but with no handluggage allowed through airport security, this was not an option.

The phone rings while I am just reading 4 year old his bedtime story so I drop the book and leg it down the stairs.

"Good evening...", already now I know it was a waisted journey down the stairs, "This is John from Kitchens Direct, we have a special offer," I cut him off, "We're renting so not in the market for a new kitchen", he cut's me off, "Oh!", and he hangs up.

Whatever happened to, "Sorry to disturb you"!?

I haven't posted for a while

...but I guess you noticed that.


...no?