Posted by admin on Mar 2, 2010 in
beauty,
lists,
travel Thailand is fondly referred to as the land of smiles, and three weeks travelling through its sunlit shores was enough to convince me that the smiles are genuine. Whenever you travel abroad there are always going to be areas set up for tourists, with people pushing to sell you their wares and persuade you that their shop/bar/museum is the best, but in Thailand they tend to take refusals with good grace and smiling faces.
I was a complete newbie to the East and though I arrived armed with a Lonely Planet and heaps of advice from some great sources, till you experience it for yourself, everything else is just words on a piece of paper. Here are my top ten unmissable experiences that I strongly suggest you add to your itinerary.
Co Van Kessel Cycling Tour in Bangkok
Chinatown is a weird winding mess of crazy side streets, narrow alleys and men frying fish whilst juggling cans of condensed milk. It’s crammed to the rafters with all sorts of visitors, from locals doing their weekly shops to tourists trying to barter over jewellery. Add the sounds of motorbikes, mandolins and distant temple bells and you have a cacophony of colour and confusion. This was what I had to cycle through, manoeuvring my road bike in and out of people’s shopping bags, and the random escaped menageries that adorned the narrow paths. Bright colours, strange scents, it was strange to be whizzing past this vital thriving community on a bike, but my guide was insistent and we passed though this chaos to start exploring the hidden backstreets. Some roads were so narrow that both shoulders grazed the wall, whilst other paths meant near-fatal collisions with accelerating mopeds. Every forty minutes or so we stopped for water (provided) and there were many stops for pictures, which were happily taken by our guide. The tour of Bangkok involved two boat trips (depending which tour you opted for) and we took a ferry across the waterways to western Bangkok and spent an hour cycling through lush shrubbery.
It was humbling to view the variety of housing people lived in, from ramshackle shanty style buildings to palatial European marble houses, and seeing them built next to each other spoke volumes about the structure of society in Thailand. Lunch was held aboard a floating restaurant, a delicious mixture of rice with a variety of dishes, and there was fresh fruit for dessert. You couldn’t help but admire the guides dedication, as she spoke flawless English and had a huge wealth of knowledge on the surrounding area. ‘I did a degree in health and tourism’, she told us. ‘This is how I save for my training’. Read more…
Tags: Cycling in Bangkok, Damnoen Saduak, fish pedicure, Floating market Thailand, Gara Rufa, Renting mopeds in Thailand, Thailand, Tiger Temple, travelling
Posted by admin on Jan 31, 2010 in
Celebrity,
beauty,
lists My teenage days were spent wistfully perusing the counters at Boots, with barely enough money to scrape together the required 99p for a Collection 2000 lippie. I lived in lime green eyeshadow (oh the shame), sprayed Sun-In on my hair and had horrible encounters with the Silkymit and maxipads. Thankfully my beauty routine has progressed considerably (as has my budget) but there are still lessons to be learnt from the beauty blunders that occurred in those days of yore.
In fact many of the mishaps made when I was younger could now be considered cutting edge trends- and I’ll show you how to create them for yourself. Best of all, as they all pay homage to youthful errors, they’re pretty light on the bank balance.
Stripes of hair colour
I’m not sure if it was the fault of Geri Halliwell or the launch of all those coloured mascaras but I know that I desperately wanted to have streaks of purple and pink in my hair when I was young. I did try- but those mascara never worked that well, leaving the hair gritty and feeling rather lank. Once I was in my twenties hair streaks were strictly of the highlighted kind as pink shimmering sections weren’t really suitable for my career path. However, thanks to the likes of Ashley Olsen, Kate Moss and some of the recent catwalk shows, streaks are being taken more seriously, and in a sweet whimsical way. If you’re brave enough you could go for the colour block option seen on the runway at the Alexis Mabille show, but a more wearable look is simply adding streaks to the hair. La Moss went all the way and actually dyed in gray strands as highlights throughout, whilst Olsen’s take on this trend was more of a sugar plum fairy effect, with light wefts of baby blue and lilac. If you’re not brave enough to dye just yet, try clip-ins to give you more confidence, like these good quality ones from Hot Hair here. (only £2.95). Read more…
Tags: A/W 09, Ashley Olsen candy hair, Chanel Particuliere, Christopher Kane, Collection 2000, home hair dye, Impulse, Kate Moss grey hair, multicoloured nails, silkymitt
Posted by admin on Jan 25, 2010 in
beauty,
lists,
style It’s difficult for a new hairdresser to come up with a good USP (unique selling point). They can offer massage chairs, miniature TV’s by the basins, and complimentary cocktails, but when you get right down to it you’re handing over cash for someone to wash and cut your hair for around 2 hours. Making this experience pleasurable (where the cocktails come in) is all very well, but you have to get the customer through the door, before they can come back. And there are sooo many salons to choose from at the moment- Yell.com says there are currently 2520 salons in London alone, and seeing as you’ll probably find a zillion on your local high street, they need to try and hook you fast. Some have gone the freebie route with half price sessions, or ‘Cut ,try and dry’ days, but others have opted for the ‘pun‘ route. Whilst that may work well in Terry Pratchett books, some of the ones I’ve spotted don’t seem to be selling the salon particularly well. It may be funny, but that’s not really what you look for in a stylist is it?
Here are my favourite salon cock-ups
Ryan Hair
This is funny in two ways, firstly because I have a friend called Ryan who’s extremely vain about his hair, and secondly because the salon is choosing to play on the association of a budget airline, known for uncomfortable seats, long check in times, and oddly timed flights. Who wouldn’t want to get their hair cut there? Read more…
Tags: funny hair salon names, hair salon, hairdressers, stylist
Posted by admin on Jan 18, 2010 in
geekery,
lists There is a wide world of fonts on offer, far beyond that which MSOffice comes pre-installed with. The likelihood that the below will be appropriate in everyday life is fairly slim, but they’d be a great way of jazzing up a letter or email. Enjoy- and marvel at the creativity and kookiness that has gone into their creation.
The Jesus Font
The sexy font a.k.a Alpha Silhouettes
Read more…
Tags: cat font, fonts, fun fonts, geekery, geeky fonts, murder font, sexy fonts
Posted by admin on Jan 17, 2010 in
books,
lists 
The last two months have seen a heightened level of reading time, due to holidaying, and thus a great many more books were consumed than normal. Due to a particularly helpful bittorrent, I managed to make my way through some of my favourite authors back catalogue, and can happily now add a wide selection of Philip. K.Dick novels to my mental library.
The Gathering storm, Wheel of Time , By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
I was completely devastated when Robert Jordan died, in part because it’s always a shame when one loses a great man due to the ravages of illness, and partly because I’d immersed myself in the WOT series for ten years now, and NEEDED to know what would happen to Rand et al. Jordan created a world of such density and scale that Sanderson, the new ghostwriter couldn’t manage to end the age in one book, needing three in fact to do so. This is the first book in the final trilogy and Sanderson has an acute wry style which picks up perfectly where Jordan left off. His turn of phrase is remarkably accurate, and the characters conundrums continue to be compelling and perplexing. Read more…
Tags: Ben Elton Meltdown, books, Kiran Desai, Marian Keyes, Philip.K.Dick, reading list, Robert Aspirin, Wheel of Time
Posted by admin on Jan 6, 2010 in
lists,
opinion 
A year has passed since I officially started this site, and a lot has changed for me. I’ve moved accommodation 4 times, participated as a judge in three awards, and read a startling number of books on a wide variety of topics. I’ve been to Thailand, and Australia, experienced three weddings and suffered through the mortgage discussions of four of my friends. The statistics on this site have risen from a measly 200 per week to an average of 16000 uniques a month, and the search terms aren’t just pornography (though Peter Andre does come up a fair amount).
Looking back over the year, I realize how far I’ve come, and how my tastes have changed. I’m more ebook obsessed than ever, I’ve become a convert to the Android mobile interface, and I’ve discovered what it feels like to have a fish pedicure (more on that later). I’ve laughed, cried, and lived, and have somehow made it through all the confusing pathways to end up where I am now.
Perusing last years resolutions here I’m happy to realize I’ve completed a fair amount of them, and have decided that this year I’m going to work even harder to accomplish the following list! Annoyingly, some are repeats, as I managed 5 out of the 15, but this year I intend to receive top marks.
1. Work on my novel, and finish first draft by September. I have a title, I have a plot, and I have a vague idea of where it’s all going. More to come when I reach 50,000 words.
2. Visit the gym 150 times. That sounds like a lot, but if you think that the year is 365 days, that’s only around 3 times a week. Everytime I set a fitness goal I tend to fail it, so maybe doing it this way means I can tick it off. For the record, by gym I mean any physical activity that involves sweat (not bowling/ sex obv)and lasts over 40 minutes- so cardio classes/tennis etc can all count as a session.
3. Visit a country I’ve never been to. This was last years resolution and though it was fulfilled, I still want to explore- there are so many places to see and do. On that note, my next point- Read more…
Tags: 2010, ebook, new year, new year resolutions
Posted by admin on Dec 13, 2009 in
lists,
random 
I don’t cook, but I do use condiments, and as a lovey ex-colleague of mine can attest, ‘Everything tastes better with a little pepper’. Here are some interesting/decorative/crazy ways in which to contain these humble spices. And why did I choose to write about these? Let’s just say I was having a strange day. Read more…
Tags: Etsy, Heal's, IWOOT, novelty items, Rubik's cube, salt and pepper
