Through shone the sun: Eclipse

It's a little unnerving to admit that the first movie I have seen in about a year is the third installment of the Twilight Saga. Sigh, this Eclipse did not however block out the sun and leave me in darkness, in fact it did quite the opposite. Argh the shame to admit.

Any post-pubescent "token tween" such as myself will admit that by the third attempt someone in Rob Pattinson/Kristen Stewart world got it right. Sufficiently lacking the cringe worthy love scenes of the hollywood heavyweights frolicking through meadows, Eclipse does Stephenie Meyer's words justice. Perhaps it was David Slade's direction (which at first struck me as a strange fit after Hard Candy), or perhaps everyone on set has just grown up a bit but the acting seemed better. Kristen Stewart managed to smile twice and the new man-candy provided by whoever it was that played Riley made for easy watching. A standout for me, as she was in her 30 minutes of screen time in the last film, was the demonic child Dakota Fanning. If that kid (now a shockingly tall young adult) wasn't destined to play a corrupt vampire, I don't know who was.

Although I know there are many "twilight haters" out there who will disagree with every word I have spewed in praise of this film, think if anything Eclipse sets high expectations for Breaking Dawn.

Ben, Jerry and Sainsbury's Vs Madolyn

I strongly believe the global beast that is the Ben & Jerry's corporation have teamed up with Sainsbury's supermarkets and declared war against me. Why do Ben and his partner in crime Jerry create ice cream that is so damn moorish you can't possible stop at one scoop and why do Sainsbury's always seem to sell the ice cream as buy one get one free.

Have you ever wanted to know what happened to Nestle Rolos. Turns out Ben stole them one day and Jerry came up with the brilliant idea that they hide the evidence in their chunky caramel swirl ice cream.

Death by sugar now...

It seems there is a blogger who shares my love of B&J. SuperFineFeling has written a darling post about the chunky range... mmmmm chunkycheck it out!

Image by the Ben & Jerry's promotions office.

A letter from Spain

The very first ever letter from my first pen pal Paula in Spain arrived today! I did know to expect it, but nethertheless I was so excited to walk into the kitchen and see my letter sitting on the kitchen table.


Do you remember the "ye olde days" of pen pals! In primary school everyone had a pen pal, it was what you did after you had to look after that egg as if it were your child for a week. If it was well organised, most likely by a school, you would be paired up with a pen pal from somewhere on the other side of the world. Usually from Italy, France, Japan, Germany. You know, so kids could improve the language they were chained down and forced to learn until at least the third year of high school, and then regretfully forget later in life when a bilingual tongue would have been useful. In retrospect I think we all took the pen pal relationship for granted, I bet no one ever wrote more then one letter to their pen pal. Now as an adult I sit and think, brainwashed by facebook (and bebo and myspace and that twitter thing), how nice and unusually quaint it is to write almost meaningless letters to a stranger on the other side of the world.

If you want to get involved with the pen pal project you should definitely visit Indifixx.

My ♥ is a marshmallow

One of my favourite blogs, Lucky Pony, pointed me to a site today that may in actual fact destroy me. I have a sweets addiction, and I mean addiction! Picture me hanging out in a dark alley with Pete Doherty and cocaine addicts alike, now replace the cocaine with dark chocolate baked cheesecake! It's not pretty, I promise you.

I tried to kick my sweets addiction the other week. I found myself on the edge, looking down into the abyss. I eventually resorted to banana and peanut butter on toast providing the fix that saved me from resorting to picking the sugar residue out from under my finger nails. Eww, enough of that because today I found heaven...

I am pleased to share with you Bakerella.com!!!! How amazing does this banana pudding look (and it ain't banana on toast)!



I also just found this amazing s'morey cupcake goodness! It's got cupcake, it's got marshmallow, it's got hot oozing chocolate. I need to leave this site, it is actually becoming dangerous.

Dear paper crane, can you fly?

I ♥ origami, I think it is such a superb pass-time.

Today at work I received a press release, this is standard it happens every day, but today I opened the envelope and out fell four delightful little paper cranes. They had been folded from the medical information leaflet you get inside pill packets.... a little bit cool.

If you consult doctor Google, you will of course end up at Wikihow at some point, but hey kids today Wiki doesn't let us down, there are simple instructions for origami beginners to follow. Even more exciting, whilst on my google image rampage I found Made by Jo on Etsy (oh how we love Etsy). Jo has a delightful store where you can buy tens or hundreds of paper cranes already made for you. This can only mean one thing, paper crane theme party time!! Go ahead and fill your life with origami delights!! I have just ordered the 24 printed cranes for USD$6, yeee!!!

♥ A little lovin' ♥

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We'll Always Have [Casablanca]

My most recent adventure saw a spontaneous trip to Morocco which has unquestionably seduced me into a new love affair.

Getting lost at night in the maze of streets with only the smells of spices, the crowds of people and snake charmers to guide you through leaves you beaming with a giddy child-like excitement. The wit and charm of the locals puts a smile on your face offering an invitation for playful exchange of jokes and banter. Full day hikes, scaling African cliff faces and tip-toeing over rickety bridges offer the magical reward of swimming under amazing waterfalls. Bumpy and smelly camel rides guarantee everyone’s favourite holiday happy snaps. Riffling through the assortment of leather bags, jewelry, cosmetics and oils will see you haggle your heart out until you walk away with a tacky “I heart Marrakech” t-shirt you didn’t even want and a great story to tell.

Ahhh, the culture, the craziness, the charisma… "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".