I love this video, and the message it conveys is a very important one.

My mum’s life was probably saved by her mammogram. A few weeks before her 50th birthday in 2008, she booked herself in & got checked – ‘just in case’. There was nothing wrong, that you would notice, but it turned out she had a very agressive form of cancer. If it had been left undetected, it could have been too late by the time anything visible appeared. So please, if you’re nearing 50, don’t wait until you feel like there is something wrong – go and get a mammogram. I know they’re unpleasant, but they save lives – In the UK, the NHS screening program saves 1400 lives every year.

And don’t forget – I am taking part in Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life this year, in Bristol. Please sponsor me!

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These are a few of my favourite Mac utilities, that are almost always running when I’m on my laptop. They fall into a few categories; some are for social networking & email, a few for entertainment, and a there are a bunch of useful tools for a variety of things. So, from left to right, they are:

1. last.fm

Although I actually prefer using the iScrobbler plugin, since upgrading to Snow Leopard I’ve just had way too many problems with it & have had to fall back to using the official last.fm plugin, which is a little bulky for my liking. I love ‘scrobbling‘ my music to last.fm though – it helps me realise what music in my library I’m not listening to as much as anything, when I feel like I need a change. If anyone has any recommendations for a lightweight last.fm app that syncs iPhone play counts as well as iTunes, please let me know!

2. ByteController

Another app that runs whenever iTunes does, Byte Controller is a super lightweight way to control your iTunes music from the status bar. A number of different skins are available in the prefs, and it is great for pausing or skipping tracks quickly. It only takes up space whenever iTunes is open, which I love – last.fm doesn’t go away when I quit iTunes and I wish it did!

3. Adium

Adium is the instant messaging app for the mac. There is just no real competition, I’ve found. It is lightweight and can connect up to pretty much any chat network there is. I use it for gtalk¹, facebook chat², yahoo, aim & windows live. This is what happens when you have different friends and family using different networks! Although it does tend to mean that people assume that I am on facebook.com just because I am logged into their chat system. Adium is wonderfully customisable – you can change every aspect of the visuals, and there are some beautiful themes, icons & so on out there for it. I’m currently using a menubar icon from Vibealicious.

4. Skitch

This app is brilliant for super quick image capture, annotation & sharing. You can ’snap’ images from your screen, or from your iSight. It includes a fairly standard set of basic annotation/editing options, including resizing, various shapes, arrows, text, freehand pencil & fill. With a built-in history feature & great sharing options, it’s a fast and easy way to get your images edited and up on the net asap. A nifty feature I use a lot is the ‘drag me’ button which makes it a piece of cake to drop an image into a new tweet, email, or just onto the desktop.

5. JustNotes

I love this notes app, because it is simple, unobtrusive and fast. I raved about Simplenote a few weeks ago, and this is the menubar app I use to view & edit my notes on my mac. The syncing to the Simplenote (powered by Google) service is flawless, and the style is beautiful. There are a few customisation options, so I am happily using Helvetica! I love having my notes available to me wherever I am, whether it’s on my laptop, my iPhone, or at any internet enabled computer!

6. Notify

After trying several different options for accessing & managing my gmail account, I settled with using the web interface in Chrome, which is now my default browser of choice. However, this doesn’t help if you want to keep a track of your unread emails! I use Notify Pro, which includes the capability to ‘quick look’ and reply to emails right from the app, and also to mark them as read or delete them. This speeds up the process of dealing with my email quite a bit! It supports gmail, google apps email, mobile me & any IMAP enabled account. And it’s very pretty!

7. Pastebot Sync

This is a companion app to its iPhone conterpart, Pastebot. These two apps combined allow you to transfer information from your clipboard on your iPhone to your mac, and visa versa – very very useful! The iPhone app also allows you to save items so you can retrieve them again later, organise them & even edit them (including some basic image editing with more on its way).

8. ShoveBox

This app is exactly what it sounds like – a place to shove all the debris and random information you pick up around the internet and seem to accumulate while you are using your computer. I use it for storing random images, files, snippets of text & links I want to remember. I hate to have a cluttered desktop so a place to hide all this randomness is great! What’s great about this one is that there is now a matching iPhone app so that you can sync your random collection of information over wifi to your iPhone and carry it about with you. I also find this a great way to keep useful files on my iPhone, rather than having to email them to myself all the time.

9. Tweetie

My all time favourite twitter app for both iPhone and Mac is Tweetie, without a doubt. Unfortunately this is getting a little out of date now, so I am eagerly awaiting the release of Tweetie 2! This app is intuitive, fast and has a brilliant multiple accounts setup. The fact it’s not an Adobe Air app wins it big points too! Again, I’m currently using a menubar icon & custom app icon from Vibealicious.

10. Facebook Notifications

Facebook Notifications does exactly what it says on the tin.. it notifies you.. about stuff that happens on facebook. It is actually surprisingly useful, with a list of your recent facebook notifications and another of your recent messages. There are also quick links to the news feed, your profile, to compose a new message, as well as a built in status update function (the latest update includes link & photo updates too). It plugs into growl to display new notifications³, which is always a nice touch. This app has definitely reduced my wasted time on the facebook homepage!

And a bonus! 11. Eject Applet

The eject applet is actually built into Mac OS X – you just have to know where to look. I find this incredibly useful, especially since I spilt water on my keyboard and my physical eject button no longer works! It’s also great if a disc is playing up and refusing to eject – quite often this method works when nothing else does, short of a reboot.

Also, if you’re interested, the wallpaper I am using is Bokeh by Sparcy86, and the desktop icons are ColorStroked Freehand Icons by mfayaz. I love them!

1. jabber
2. also now jabber
3. last.fm, ByteController, Notify, Shovebox, Adium & Tweetie are also all growl enabled

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Mostly, I have been reading the Twilight series (again!). I’m sorry, but they’re addictive. At the moment, when I want to immerse myself in a book, these are the books I am turning to. I don’t even know why. However, I do know that I resisted reading them for ages because of all the ‘hype’ and teenage mania – if this is why you haven’t picked Twilight up yet & dug in, then I suggest you reconsider. It was humbling to be proven wrong, and it shows that preconceptions can be incorrect.

I’ve also just reread both Honeycote by Veronica Henry and Connections by Sheila O’Flanagan. Honeycote is a fairly fun read, with affairs, dramatic business problems, and touching slightly on serious issues like anorexia and abortion. Connections is a fun compilation of short stories based at a Caribbean hotel, interweaving with one another, telling the tales of different visitors to the hotel. This sort of book is great if you want to pick up something for a quick read.

… I have been watching lately

At the moment James & I are trying to keep up with Dancing on Ice¹, Heroes, and Lark Rise to Candleford. I have to admit I also have Relocation, Relocation on my Sky+ schedule, because I do love seeing people nosing around strangers’ houses that I could never afford!

As well as all these shows, we just finished watching Got to Dance, Sky1’s attempt at a dancing version of X Factor. The final of Got to Dance was broadcast on Sunday, and it was great! A little boy called Akai won, and deservedly so – he’s a great little street dancer. Although I do have to say that I really liked almost all of the final performances, though none of them quite as much as the epic show Diversity put on during the second round of voting!

1. We are woefully behind with DOI - although they are all on our Sky+ box we’ve only managed to watch the first episode! I think this one may have to fall by the wayside in favour of the figure skating in the Winter Olympics instead!

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It has links to my profiles on the various networks I am signed up to, a little bit about me, and my basic contact information. You can download a vcard to get most of the information in handy .vcf format.

I discovered iWebkit a few days ago, and so I figured I would have a go at making an iPhone version as well – I think I did ok! If you head to me.zoecorkhill.co.uk in MobileSafari, it should flip you automatically to the iPhone version.

After a little help from my husband, we made it so that it can email you my vcard – so that you can add my contact info to your iPhone address book. I had some fun playing with SimplePie as well, so that the ‘Combined RSS Feed’ page shows an output of the RSS feed from the last two weeks, as well as linking to the feed itself. My combined feed includes my blog entries, tumblr posts, flickr photos, twitpics, youtube videos & delicious bookmarks – it’s like a watered down version of my lifestream page (no twitter, foursquare or last.fm info).

You can visit my ‘online business card’ at me.zoecorkhill.co.uk.

What do you think?

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This film is everything it is billed to be: a romantic comedy packed full of big names, with plenty of scenes to make you laugh, and even one or two to make you cry. Thankfully they don’t overdo the gooeyness though – it manages a great balance between comedy and romance! With some of my favourite stars in the cast, I had looked forward to watching it since I first saw the trailer a while a go.

It has McDreamy AND McSteamy¹! Julia Roberts! Taylor times two²! Topher Grace! Jennifer Garner! Bradley Cooper! Queen Latifah! Anne Hathaway! The list goes on…

From the director of Pretty Woman, Valentine’s Day uses a Love Actually / He’s Just Not That Into You type concept; with many characters’ stories and relationships intertwined with one another. The biggest difference to these films is that the stories are told over just one day – February 14th. I actually thought that the whole film had a similar ‘vibe’ to Love Actually, by telling the story of love & its many forms.

There were relationships between friends, the blooming of first love between teenagers, strangers on an aeroplane, and so on – beautiful stuff! I really enjoyed the characters that were in this, so many of them actually seemed to be realistic, which is one area where Love Actually falls a little flat – some of the characters in that are a little far-fetched (since when does England get such a fun Prime Minister)!

I won’t give away any of the storylines, but I do recommend that you go and see it, especially if you’re a fan of rom coms (and Love Actually or Pretty Woman in particular). I am a self-confessed chick flick/lit fan, and I loved it. This will definitely be one for the DVD/Blu-Ray collection – it’s going to work fantastically as a feel good film for cheering me up when I’m having a bad day.

Go watch it³!

Official Website

1. this is a Grey’s Anatomy reference for those of you who are confused
2. Taylor times two = Lautner (mmmm you’re sort of beautiful) & Swift (love her music)
3. and hang around for the first part of the credits – especially if you’re a Pretty Woman fan

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I use Simplenote for all manner of things – draft blog posts, lists, random titbits of information I need to remember, which songs I want from the SingStore, etc.

I have tried a lot of notes apps from the app store, but this is easily my favourite from all of the ones I have tried. A lot of the other apps that I tried were overcomplicated, difficult to use & had annoying methods of syncing/backing up your notes. Simplenote syncs with their own servers which means you can access your notes in various different ways.

In their own words…

Why Simplenote?
Simplenote is a free replacement for the Notes app on your iPhone or iPod touch. It has a great interface, awesome web syncing, and it works with a growing number of desktop apps.

Everything you need, nothing you don’t
Don’t let unnecessary features get between you and your notes. Simplenote’s interface is designed specifically for text notes. It gives you fast, clean, synchronized access to your thoughts, dreams, musings, and masterpieces.

Syncing without thinking
The Simplenote app works together with our free web app and a variety of third-party apps to keep your notes in perpetual sync. No cables, no hassles, no fiddling. Automatic, over-the-air, and fast.

As well as being a super easy app to use, there are some really great extras for you to download. My particular favourite is JustNotes which allows you to read, add & edit notes from your OS X taskbar.

There is also a fantasic webapp to allow to access your notes from your browser – this is great if you just need to check something while at work, or if you don’t have your iPhone with you while you are at a friend’s house, etc.

If you are like me, and get frustrated with the looks & inconvinient syncing of the built in notes app, then this is the perfect app for you.

ITunes Link

1. Yay, helvetica! No more Marker Felt

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This year, I am joining Hayley and taking part in the Race for Life in Bristol, on June the 12th. I will be blogging about my ‘training’ (I plan on taking the dog for lots of walks/jogs) as well as the race itself, and you can catch up on things here at my blog.

I am taking part in the race to celebrate my Mum being given the all clear… She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2008, and underwent operations, chemotherapy & radiotherapy in her battle against it. She was given the day off from her treatment to take part in my wedding though, and thankfully has been ok since her treatment ended!

Cancer Research UK really is an amazing charity that does such great work; I’m really happy to be able to do something to help support them. If you would like to join in too, please get in touch – the more the merrier! Girls only though, I’m afraid.

Please sponsor me whatever you can afford (every pound makes a difference!) at my sponsorship page!

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I won my slanket from Aussie, but if you want to make one on a budget, someone over at instructables has posted a great tutorial on how to make your own. The best thing about this is that you can make one with whatever amazing fleece material you can find.

And no, I’m not going to post a photo of me in my cream slanket. There are some things that even I won’t post on the internet. A photo of me in a shapeless blanket with sleeves is one of them. It’s great at keeping me warm, but it’s not the best looking or flattering outfit in the world!

Edited to add: I just have to add the response to this from @hayles:

@zoecorkhill NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOoOOOOOO!

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After being introduced to her lovely housemate Max, the three of us (James, Hayley & I) headed into the City to wander around the shops and to meet @NeilCrosby and @bookwormbecca at Rocotillos. The milkshakes were AMAZING. Oh My God. I think I want to go to Bristol as much as possible just to go to Tillos for the magical nectar they serve. I picked Mint Choc Chip which was delicious, and also snagged a sip of James’s Banoffee and Hayley’s Chocolate Hazelnut – both of which were sensational. I think that I will end up having a nervous breakdown next time I go, trying to pick which milkshake to order.

The five of us piled into the car & headed back to the house which is, by the way, really close to the house from Being Human! Becca & I were both quite ridiculously excited by this. The pub was there too. Great stuff, I’m actually quite jealous of Hayley & Max for having that claim to fame.

When we got back to the house, more people had started to arrive and so we all got settled with some gin / vodka based drinks and collapsed in the living room where we proceeded to shout at the following god-awful yet highly entertaining TV shows: American Idol and Take Me Out. After a half hour or so, we were all laughing together at the ridiculousness of it all. I’d never seen Take Me Out before, and it really is just car crash television, huh!? I am really quite tempted to add it to our sky+ schedule, it’s just too entertaining in a bad way to ignore!

Following the god awful television, we moved onto the brilliance that is SingStar. Food and nibbles appeared, there was much chatting, singing & laughing, and it was an absolutely brilliant night. Apart from me getting an evil headache which required lots of drugs, we both enjoyed ourselves lots. I got to meet lots of lovely new fellow mac geeks people and managed not to be too shy (thank you vodka!). Of course, that meant I sang rather too much which was horrendously bad.

Thankfully the video of my singing is limited to facebook, so instead I present you with this masterpiece by the hostess herself:

We staggered to bed at something am and managed to get a half decent night’s sleep on the floor before being spoilt with bacon & egg this morning, and GLEE. Everything is better with glee. And bacon.

To Hayley & Max – thank you for a great night!

Here are a few photos I took, and there are more videos on youtube too:

I really need to go to bed now.

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At the moment, James & I share a MacBook (which is primarily mine) and an iMac. We use the iMac for development & design work because of the larger screen, and my MacBook is the ’sofa device’. I basically use it just to catch up with news feeds, check & edit my numbers documents, chat to people on IM & browse the net. Yes, my laptop is capable of much more than this, and occasionally I use Photoshop or coda to do some design work, but when it comes down to it I really just use it for web browsing and so on. I don’t play games on it because the graphics chip isn’t the best, and the puzzle games on my iPhone are more fun to play.

A lot of geeks are complaining about the iPad. I just want to point out that the iPad is not really for geeks… or at least it’s not aimed as a work device for geeks. It is not a power user device, or a content provider device; it’s a device for people who want to check their emails quickly while they relax on the sofa or in bed – content consumers. A laptop is unwieldy to use when you are curled up, and so the iPad is perfect for browsing the web to check something quickly, or reading an ebook.

The main issues that geeks are complaining about seem to be:

• It doesn’t have flash - um, flash games are crappy¹ & YouTube has a dedicated app. I don’t use flash for anything else. Oh no, I won’t see flash adverts. I’ll live.
• No multitasking, which basically means you can’t stream music and read email at the same time - I buy all the music I love, which means it’s in my iTunes library – I don’t bother with streaming services because I don’t like ads. That means I can listen to as much music as I like while I browse the web, or write a quick blog post. And thanks, but I love the way apple have used push notifications on my iPhone as a workaround to preserve battery life. I’m fine with that trade off. I really don’t see the big deal about this – push notifications will let me know if someone talks to be on IM, or if I get mentioned on twitter.
• The 3G model is too expensive – I don’t want 3G. I have an iPhone to keep tabs on my email on the move & free wi-fi is prolific these days anyway. I don’t see myself walking down the street and pulling it out to read emails, it’s just not that sort of thing. If I’m going anywhere I’ll prefer to use that over my iPhone for a quick google search on the move. I just want a new sofa/bed device.
• It’s got a big bezel – how did you expect to hold it? You need to be able to hold it in portrait and landscape. This means a thumb sized bezel all the way around.
• It’s not 16:9 - neither are books. Widescreen is too awkward to look at for portrait view, which is obviously what Apple are expecting to be the primary orientation of this thing. I can live with a black bar top and bottom of a video, if it means getting the best reading experience possible. The only thing that is best in widescreen are videos; almost everything else will look great on that screen.
• No camera on the back – I use my iPhone to take spur-of-the-moment, whip-it-out-of-my-pocket photos, and so do a hell of a lot of people. For an event or trip where I know I’m going to want a camera, I take my Sony cybershot. Can you really see yourself holding up a tablet device to take a photo?
• No front facing camera – this is not primarily a business device²; video conferencing is just not that important. As for non businesses, how many people do you know who have webcams on their laptops that actually use them for more than taking silly photos of themselves? Everyone I know who has a skype account never logs into it, or if they do they use text or audio chat more than video chat. My sister and I IM when we both have the capability to video chat, and so do a lot of my friends. It’s just a pain in the arse – it’s a fun gimmick but no one I know actually bothers with it. Especially if they have the tv or music on. Who would I talk to even if I did have a front facing camera? I don’t talk to anyone with my laptop, and that has one.

As you can see, these ‘major flaws’ just aren’t issues for me. I understand that they might be for other people, but I don’t think those people are who Apple are aiming this at.

I want an ebook reader that has a bigger screen than my iPhone, which is what I read on a lot of the time. I’d say that I my reading time is now split about 50% paper, 50% iPhone screen. I want something I can pick up to check and update my budgeting numbers doc on without having to faff around. To all you uber-geeks complaining that it’s not just a touch screen MacBook pro³ – it’s not for you, and it’s got great specs for the low price.

How many people with an iPhone have got into the habit of checking their email or reading news feeds in bed?! Just think how much more pleasurable an experience that will be with a larger screen. Using a laptop in bed is doable, but uncomfortable. The iPad seems to me to be the perfect compromise between the power of a laptop and the convenience of an iPhone. Have you seen the reviews written by people who have actually handled this thing? It’s fast, and it’s intuitive. It’s easy. ‘Normal’ internet users are going to go mad over this thing, just like they did with the iPhone and iPod Touch. If people don’t do a lot of computer work, but instead just need something to check emails & browse the web, why do these people even need a laptop anymore? This is apple’s answer, and it’s at a hell of a competitive price. Other companies have released netbooks… which are really just cheap, small, slower laptops.

Of course, I won’t be able to afford one for yonks and yonks. But before this week, I was planning to save for a small 13″ or 15″ MacBook Pro to replace my aging MacBook – something I could use on the sofa still, and play some games on. Now, I just want an iPad instead… it does everything I want, and it’s a beautiful device to boot. I’ll take one please, and I suspect James will too.

1. A lot of the games available for the iPhone OS are awesome so who needs flash games anyway! I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the iPad with that lovely big screen.
2. that’s not to say businesses won’t use them – it could be used as a great keynote display device, hooked up to a projector… or to refer to things quickly, or for travelling, but no one would use an iPad as their primary computer in a business environment.
3. On a side note: I can’t believe that there are so many people complaining that it doesn’t live up to the hype… I understand this complaint when it comes to devices that have prototypes shown off at computing expos and such, that don’t live up to the manufacturer’s promises, but apple has never hyped this product once. It’s all made up by the rumour mill – so how can it possibly let people down when it didn’t promise anything?

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• Dancing With Myself
• Defying Gravity (Kurt)
• Defying Gravity (Rachel)
• Defying Gravity (Kurt & Rachel together)
• Don’t Stop Believin’ (Intro)
• Don’t Stop Believin’
• Gold Digger
• Halo/Walking on Sunshine (Halo section)
• Halo/Walking on Sunshine (Sunshine section)
• I Say A Little Prayer
• It’s My Life/Confessions Part II

Zipfile containing all 11 ringtones

I know, you love me. Ok, maybe you don’t. But you should love Glee, at least.

And if you haven’t watched Glee yet, where have you been! Watch it, pronto. It’s avaliable on 4oD for all you UK folk.

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For some reason, I am absolutely loving this song since I first head it on the radio, so I gave in and bought it on iTunes yesterday. You just have to look at my last.fm page to see that the addiction is setting in. The video is a masterpiece as well; so many things remind me of my childhood! I even have it set as my iPhone ringtone at the moment (I love Garageband!)

Ironically enough, I’ve been having trouble sleeping over the last week or two due to some crazy dreams. I only have to shut my eyes and start dozing for the monsters to come out to play. For me, some of the lyrics are quite appropriate right now!

I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay
Awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep

Leave my door open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
‘Cause I feel like such an insomniac
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep
(Please take me away from here)
When I’m far too tired to fall asleep

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It’s not like it’s a particularly unique bed. In fact, it’s the polar opposite of that, due to the fact we got it from this small furniture store you may have heard of. IKEA would be the one¹.

Despite the fact it’s from the Swedish furniture maze that is ikea, I can’t help but adore this bed. Sure, it’s not a real wood frame, but to be honest I’m not going to complain about that on our budget. It still looks good to me.

Most importantly, this bed is insanely comfortable. It’s an ‘ikea king size’ (or European king size to be exact) which means it’s slightly larger than the regular uk king size. Seriously not a problem. That is totally something I can deal with, especially since ikea sell fitted sheets to match. With the added bonus of a new toasty warm duvet from asda to match our super comfy (and extra large) duck down & feather pillows from ikea, it is comfort heaven after a long day.

I love to spend time in bed just kicking back & relaxing; it lacks the noisy distraction of the tv downstairs and is a perfect place to curl up with a good book, or my MacBook. The dog(s) curl up next to me & promptly fall into a coma-like state, and I can lose hours just reading, drinking a coffee & catching up with Twitter on my iPhone. I’m not ashamed of my hours long lie ins that I indulge in at the weekend either; this morning I loved having the chance to curl up with Bella, Edward & Jacob, not to mention Homily & Blossom, and just indulged in the comfort & escapism that reading a good book in bed brings!

1. although they no longer do it in the same wood effect, bum

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I am lucky that there is a selection of really nice cinemas not far from where we live, with nice big screens & comfortable seats. After living in Cornwall, where the nearest cinema was an hour’s bus journey away¹ and tended to leave you with an aching feeling in your rear end, the Birmingham cinemas feel like utter luxury to me. For the four years I lived in Cornwall, I basically went to the cinema about twice a year. For someone who loves films, that’s really bad.

The films I’m looking forward to seeing in 2010 are:

Alice in Wonderland

The combination of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham-Carter is just one I cannot resist. Every film Tim & Johnny have done together is a magical combination of weirdness and human emotion, with fantastic cinematography & fabulous storytelling. From the look of the trailer, Alice in Wonderland is going to be no different.

The storyline is interesting; it isn’t actually based on the original Lewis Carroll story, but is instead a sequel to it. I will have to get around to reading the first book in it’s entirety before going to watch this one. I keep starting it, but getting distracted by other books and losing my place. I shall download it from Project Gutenberg and read it on my iPhone² next month, in preparation.

This film trumps any other 2010 film as my favourite pick of the year to come, and it’s coming out in ‘Disney Digital 3D’. I can’t wait!

Iron Man 2

I love the first Iron Man film, and I am hoping that the sequel lives up to the example set by the first one! Plus, Robert Downey Jnr is hot. And Gwyneth Paltrow looks great with red hair. Ok, so this isn’t the deepest film ever, but it’s got some great eye candy and hopefully it will be entertaining!

Twilight Saga: Eclipse

I wouldn’t be a Twilight Saga fan if I wasn’t looking forward to this one! I do love the books and the films, though not on the crazy fan girl level that some do! This film should be interesting – I love the storyline of Eclipse, plus you have the fact that Edward is actually present for much more of the book, which is a good thing!

(No trailer, bum. But here is a pretty picture instead.)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The HP films have just been getting better & better; Half Blood Prince was amazing and I just don’t know how they are going to top that. On their journey from the cringe worthy Philosophers Stone to where they are now, the actors have developed brilliantly, and the film budgets have increased to match – this one should be a good one. By splitting it into two films they are giving the story the time it deserves, although I know the wait between Part 1 & Part 2 will be difficult to bear!

Other films I’m interested in seeing are: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Shanghai Dawn, Robin Hood, The Karate Kid, Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Valentine’s Day & Rapunzel

What films are you looking forward to this year?

1. it was an hour on the bus to Truro from Penryn, where I went to University. The train was much faster but also much scarier, as it was a single line & it tended to break down a lot. While living at my parent’s the cinema was over an hour’s drive away, so also not a viable option.
2. I love Stanza for iPhone. Download it, it’s free. Then download the entire Oz series from Project Gutenberg and proceed to lose yourself in the Land of Oz for at least a few weeks. Trust me, it’s worth the late nights you’re going to be stuck awake reading.

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On days like these, I appreciate the warm welcome I have when I get home. I hardly ever spend any time completely alone in our house, because my Norwich Terrier, the infamous Homily, is loyal through & through. She loves nothing better than to follow me around all day, settling down in a comfy place as close to me as possible wherever I go, and promptly having a lovely little nap. At the moment, we have Blossom staying with us for a while & the enthusiasm they both display when I get home from work is enough to raise a smile after even the longest day at the office.

Another big plus my furry friends bring into my life is the simple joy they bring to a walk around the park. Even on the dullest day watching Hompom bounce around the park with her tongue hanging out, looking so very happy, is a great pick me up. We took the two of them for a walk yesterday and I loved seeing them run along together, taking turns to go in front, and barking at any other dogs that strayed into their line of sight. Not that Homily is brave enough to follow-up her barking with anything more substantial, she is more likely to run and hide behind my legs than actually attack!

These waggy darlings might not be good for much other than eating & sleeping, but their greatest talent is making me smile, a lot… and after a long day at work, there is nothing better than having a cuddle with my favourite four-legged teddy bear.

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I haven’t played with everything yet, but here are my goodies:

My big parcel contained:

• Slanket – “the original fleece blanket with sleeves” – this is the perfect thing for me, I have a blanket that lives on the sofa which James & I fight over. The slanket will end the war between us (he can have my blanket, pah) and I will be snuggled up nice and warm for the rest of the ‘big freeze’ that we’re suffering through.
• Pet’s Eye View Camera – I’m excited about this one, I should get some funny results when I hook it onto Hompom’s collar when I’m at work!
• Powermat Wireless Charger – this looks useful & very geeky! Unfortunately I won’t be able to try it out until I buy this little addon for my iPhone, so maybe I’ll blog about that next month if I have a few squids to spare to get the gadget! It does have a USB slot as well for usb chargers, which will be handy when it’s all set up.
• The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook – this was a great surprise, I’m really pleased! I’ve wanted this book since I discovered it online ages, the recipes look fantastic & I can’t wait to get baking. I will make sure to blog any successes and/or failures, when I get started.
• Smaller goodies… Max Factor Lipfinity & Lash Extension Effect Mascara, TimTam fingers (chocolate is always good!), a handy handbag hanger, and a few little bottles of the yummy Aussie, of course.

I had another big parcel arrive at work today as well, as my yarn arrived! I’m going to start my granny squares tonight, and do a bit of experimentation with sizes & things to decide what I want to do exactly.

So, I have lots of new things to play with – tonight I shall be curled up under my slanket, crocheting away.

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The main project is a large Granny square blanket for our bed, with blocks of ‘mint’, ‘denim’ & ‘bluebell’, surrounded by a white edging. This is a very close colour scheme to one my Mum made for me when I was younger, but unfortunately we lost it at our wedding (we had it under the table in our hotel room for Homily to sleep on, but left it behind & someone took it! The cleaning staff never found it, and it was never handed in. Very mysterious!). I really loved that blanket and so it is nice to have the skills now to make a similar one for ourselves.

Our new colour scheme in the bedroom is different shades of blue & white, so it will fit in nicely, and keep us warm at night! I chose 100% acrylic DK (double knit) yarn on the advice of my Mum, who is an absolute crochet & knitting expert. We are an accident prone household and so the ability to wash a blanket without it shrinking is a must!

These are the colours I have chosen for the blocks of colour (to start with at least, if it looks like it needs more I can buy a few more shades):

I have also ordered the following variegated balls because they are fun for smaller side projects. There are loads of brilliant free projects on the Lion Brand website, including cosy socks, bags, hats, and so on. Things that will take less time than the big blanket, and that will be nice to do when I’m tired of crocheting granny squares! There are also some great patterns in the books I have been given by my Mum & @trialia, that I am looking forward to trying.

Of course, if I want a break from crocheting of any kind, I can do some more jewellery making, or playing with sewing projects – 2010 is going to be a crafty year I think!

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The recipe is super easy & requires no oven baking. Luckily for me, the ‘cake’ isn’t required to rise either – I’ve had my share of trouble with cakes not rising in the past!

I used the same quantities that Helen suggests on her blog entry:

• 100g butter
• 200g Cadburys milk chocolate
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup
• 225g finely crushed digestives
• 225g Maltesers

Step 1: Melt together the butter, chocolate & syrup. I did this in a pyrex bowl over a simmering saucepan, making sure to stir it often, but you can microwave it instead if you like – just be careful to stir it regulary, and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

Step 2: Stir in the Maltesers & digestive crumbs – try and do it as quickly as possible because the mixture starts to cool quite quickly!

Step 3: Dump it into a well greased cake tin (I had a little problems getting mine out!) and spread it out so it is cake shaped, instead of mound shaped.

Step 4: Stick it in the fridge. Get it out after half an hour and attempt to grab a slice. Gobble it up. Stick it back in the fridge, and then serve your second slice the next day when it has actually hardened.

All I can say is… YUM!

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Having lived with headaches, clusters and migraines for about ten years now, it would be nice to be able to say that I’m finally learning to live with them. But when a migraine steals three days from me, leaving me drugged up to the nines on drugs I would really rather not take, it’s hard not to resent them at least a little bit.

Most of the time, I can ignore the nagging pain that is ever present inside my skull – you kind of get used to it always hurting and learn not to acknowledge it on a day to day basis, if you can help it. Despite that, there is always at least one day a week that it pushes itself to the front of my consciousness and yells “here I am, out to get you!”. It’s not quite so easy to ignore on those days!

Migraines, although not as bad as the clusters I occasionally get, are still some sort of pure evil, in my opinion. I become light sensitive, noise sensitive, nauseous & utterly drained of energy. It’s not unusual for it to take me 10 minutes to get to the bathroom, and another 10 to get back – the whole process of going for a quick wee can take about half an hour!

The migraine I had last week is no exception to these rules; beginning late on Wednesday and continuing till late on Saturday afternoon, it left me feeling like complete crap & ruined most of my weekend… in addition to keeping me stuck in bed for two work days with just my iPhone (on the lowest brightness setting) and Homily to keep me company. Believe me, I really would rather have been at work!

I spent most of the time during those three days succumbed to drug induced sleep, which is not as restful as it sounds – you wake up feeling as tired as you did when you fell asleep, and as if someone has been having a go at your head with a pneumatic drill. Thankfully it did ease slightly at times, allowing me to a) eat something in the evenings and b) retreat to the sofa with the lights off & two blankets once or twice (whereupon I proceeded to fall asleep anyway).

Do you see why it is hard not to resent these foul things? They have accompanied me through the last ten years of my life, ruining nights out with friends, causing me to cancel events or leave early, and messing up things with work at times. In addition to daily medication, I have to take maximum doses of potentially addictive opiates (which are about 3 times stronger than anything you can get over the counter), which isn’t fun – they leave me with a dodgy stomach for days afterward, increase my nausea & make me incredibly drowsy. Yet, they are the better of the two evils, in my opinion – I just have to self regulate my use of them to avoid the addiction risks; after ten years of taking painkillers my doctor trusts me to manage my own intake.

Bah.

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James & I had a very lazy holiday, with long lie ins, bacon sandwiches for brunch, plenty of time curled up on the sofa watching films, reading books, and (after Christmas) playing on the PS3.

Christmas Day

I am pleased to report that this my first attempt at cooking Christmas Dinner was a success… James & the dogs seemed to devour everything that was put in front of them at least!

The day started off with stockings (just minus twenty from our ages to get our mental age when we woke up on Christmas morning and you’d be about right) and, of course, the Muppet Christmas Carol! James-Santa put together a brilliant stocking for me, filled with goodies from Hotel Chocolat, Aussie stuff, a bottle of Mateys bubble bath, moleskine notebooks.. even a crayola colouring book & crayons, amongst other silliness.

I have to say that James’s stocking was a masterpiece. He had LEGO, a rubber duck, and a t-shirt which mocks his thinning hair.

The dogs had a stocking (from Dave, our old neighbour), doggie chocolate coins (from my mum) and a selection box (from us). It is going to take quite a while for them to work through all those treats, though they were eager to get started straight away!

After watching the traditional muppet film, I got started on Christmas dinner. There was a LOT of food. But it was good, and we ate lots of leftovers for several days so there wasn’t much wasted at all (Homily certainly doesn’t think her contribution to eating up what was left was a waste at least!).

While it was cooking, we relaxed, ate chocolate, played about with our stocking stuff & stuck Christmassy stuff on the tv. I did some colouring (I rock!), James made his crafty reindeer thing (with glittery space glue no less) and James got himself & the dogs out from under my feet for a while by taking them for a snowy walk in the park. I feel the need to point out that James used the reindeer’s ears as eyebrows, and that it looks dead because he couldn’t make it sit up. Oh, and one of it’s legs doesn’t actually seem attached.

After we ate the brilliant food, it was time for presents! I got some really lovely gifts from people and was quite touched at some things in particular – a beautiful watch from my parents, perfume from a friend of mine, a crochet book from @trialia, and a dog story book from James. I love surprises :-). Here is my stash of pressies!

And of course, the highlight of the present opening was the PS3! I have to admit I teared up a tiny bit when I saw how excited and happy my husband was when he unwrapped it, I’m such a lame person sometimes! We spent the rest of the day setting it up & playing games.. as well as eating chocolate, cheese & biscuits, and pavlova – yum!

More photos from Christmas Day here at my flickr set!

James’s Birthday

My poor husband is unfortunate enough to have his birthday fall in that wilderness between Christmas Day & the New Year. The day started with presents & ended with a trip to our favourite Chinese restuarant, Lychee Garden. Victor came with us (everyone else cancelled!) and we had a great time.. and Victor was kind enough to treat us to the meal as a birthday present, so yay! After the meal we headed home to partake of some Christmas Yule Log Birthday cake (he picked it! I offered to get him any cake they had in the shop, and they had proper birthday ones!), which I managed to cram a load of candles on.. it was a bit of a fire risk to be honest! The three of us played singstar & chatted for a few hours, then Vic headed home and we crawled to bed, it was a great evening!

I gave James another game for the PS3, as well as a film and a few other bits & pieces. There wasn’t an awful lot of money left over for smaller presents after I bought the playstation! He also got the Star Trek bluray from his Mum, along with the Chris Moyles Parody Album (which is hilarious, by the way).

New Year’s Eve

Some friends (Victor/Joe and his lovely girlfriend Rachel, Suzi and @serenium) came around to help us celebrate the new year. I already blogged about a bit it the morning after, so instead of repeating myself I give you this…

The Rest of the Holiday

Well, it was kind of lost to this, which I have almost completed:

I have completed the storyline, and just need to collect the last of the feathers, do a few more assassinations, and raid some treasure chests. Great stuff!

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