Shopaholic? Me?

I was reading that human growth hormone supplements are meant to reverse the signs of ageing. Side effects can include weight loss, decreased body fat, increased muscle mass, reduced wrinkles, improved skin condition, enhanced performance. Between you and me, it sounds too good to be true. And frankly I believe that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. If it actually worked, celebrities would have stopped ageing! Besides which, I do believe in growing old gracefully (or as gracefully as possible).

The problem with long term tiredness is how crap you constantly look. You have black rings under your eyes and you look haggard and old. No matter what you do, not make up and not even the best wrinkle treatments can fix it. And how do I know that, I tried to get ready for Sunday Lunch out and nothing made a difference. I suspect the only way to fix it is by sleeping for twenty four hours straight. Currently I would give up shopping for a whole day to get a day of sleep instead. Mmm Zzzzz!

I know that I said I would review coffee but I thought perhaps I could review something coffee-like! I discovered Chocolate & Love and their “expresso beans”. Devine. So I thought let’s review a sample selection of their chocolate. For obvious coffee reasons, I will start with my Expresso Beans:-
Expresso Beans : Dark chocolate coated expresso beans. It has a lovely warm coffee flavour in the chocolate and the centre is a real coffee bean with crisp texture. Unfortunately, it leaves your mouth feeling a bit gritty. This can be solved by eating another etc etc. I found that I liked eating a number of them at one go better than one at a time. Maybe that is just me. Great to serve as a petite four in a little petite four case with hot sweet liquid coffee. These are by PACARI but can be bought from Chocolate & Love for £2.95.

The Coffee Affair : For a coffee chocolate, it is quite mild and subtle. I think the level of coffee in it is perfect as most often I find coffee flavour chocolates over powering and this isn’t. It simply blends well. I would however not serve with the expresso beans as the flavour would get lost. But if you want a chocolate and a coffee fix (bar pocket coffee which actually has a real shot of coffee in it), then this is highly recommended.

Orange Mantra : I’m not an Orange lover. I must say it probably stems from my childhood when all medicines were orange flavoured, so I do tend to avoid orange flavours. This chocolate has a mild sublte orange flavour with a really nice strong bitter chocolate blend. When it runs out… you simply want more! This is only for dark chocolate lovers but it does not preclude people who are not fond of orange. Fantastic.

Filthy Rich : A strong and very dark chocolate which melts very nicely especially for dark chocolate. It is nothing striking but it does have a nice smooth flavour.

Nirvanabar : This chocolate melts even nicer than Filty Rich and probably one of the best dark chocolates I have tasted in ages. It is sweet despite its darkness, which makes it a winner in my book. It was even enjoyed by my dear hubby who isn’t too fond of dark chocolate. Pass me some more…. Oh! It’s finished!

Ah well, I guess it means I need to buy some more. The bars cost £2.90 and delivery is £2.98 for delivery to the UK within 2-4 days or £15.74 for the rest of the world, so anyone can order.

And if you are still not sure, they also have a tasting club where they deliver chocolates to you. You can select what type of chocolates you want to receive and what level you want to be on. And if you let them know that you heard about the chocolate club from Shopaholic, then maybe they will send me more yummy chocolate to er review!

I’m sorry that sometimes I leave a few days without updating my blog but I do tend to get really tired. I do take vitamins for women and extra iron and even Thyroxine but I suspect it has more to do with having twins and disturbed nights that is leaving me feeling tired. 

Maybe I will make myself some coffee and review coffees instead! You never know it might take the edge off my tiredness. Mind you I doubt I am the best person to review coffee, as I like mine short, strong and sickly sweet.

It is amazing what phones can do today. The latest models of phones are Android phones that are almost mini computers. Well I guess they technically are computers just scaled down versions of modern laptops. I took my hubby’s hand me down as he wanted the latest Android phone and I “pimped” my phone. Considering I have a hand me down, these are some of the features on my phone:-

• Phone (duh!)
• Camera
• Barcode scanner
• Recipe collection
• Games
• Educational stuff
• Web Browsing
• Calendar
• Calculator
• Timer
• Twitter
• TV Remote control (honest)
• GPS
• Calorie Counter
• Camcorder
• Email
• Photo-shop
• Planet & Stars Recognition
• etc

And this is what I am aware of. Do I recommend. Without a doubt. My phone is a Google HTC and its pink (covered)!

It’s that time again, when you realise that your mortgage introductory rate is up and you need to shop around again. However it is not simply about getting the best rate because there are a whole load of other factors to consider including:-

• Solicitor Fees
• Arrangement Fees
• cheap term life insurance quotes
• Time taken to sort it all out

And who knows what else. And when you realise it costs hundreds if not thousands of quid, then you know you need to be able to justify the saving on the interest fees against these costs. And if you can do that… well then it is time to change your mortgage.

My kids have been sick recently and it has been horrible. If I could buy anything to ease their suffering I would. I was struggling so much with trying to read their temperature it would have been hilarious had it not been so tragic.

Regular thermometers don’t work on kids as getting a reading is impossible – please stick this under your tongue for a ridiculously long time (3 mins) or please turn around let me stick it where the sun don’t shine! So I tried to buy Lloyds one second ear reading thermometer and where it seemed to register a reading on my 4 year old, it was unpredictable on one of my 6 month olds and completely off with my other. So, I got the Braun Ear thermometer and same issues. Also you need to change the ear probes every reading, so increases the cost of the thermometer considerably. You cannot avoid changing it as it could affect the reading. Guess my main issues are because babies probably have smaller ear holes which complicates the reading.

Finally succumbed to buying one that you place on the kids forehead. It takes 15 seconds where you strap down the baby so you keep it attached to their head and it changes colour according to the kids temperature. Problem is that it is not very accurate. Finally I bought one that is a no touch one second reading thermometer. Costs same as the Braun one but without the added cost of changing the probes. Fast and easy to read and accurate. So this is what I recommend if you have kids and are looking for a thermometer.

The reason I went through all this was because I would do anything to ease the kids pain. If I could buy a finger pulse oximeter and it would make a difference, I would buy it. However the only thing that did seem to make any difference was holding the kids and speaking soothingly to them, so much for shopping!

With daffodils coming up, you know spring is here. This means its time to do up our garden. I would love to have a pond with a uv pond filter and some fish but having the kids so young makes it  a dangerous thing so it will have to be postponed for the future.

Meanwhile, I think I will stick to a few pots, some astro turf, a mini trampoline and maybe an inflatable paddling pool for the hot days.

Someone recommended tazorac cream as a solution to my acne. This is made of Benzoyl Peroxide. I have never actually used the product but I have used hydrogen peroxide in the past. You know the stuff to dye hair. Obviously hydrogen peroxide is very agressive but if you actually dab it onto a spot you can immediately see the effects of it drying out. Yes it dries out the face but you only dab it on the spots. However if it were cream based then you would be smearing it all along your face and giving your whole face the treatment, so personally I will skip trying it. Sorry.

To add insult to injury, after being sick, I hve had another out break of spots. I am resorting to my teenage home remedies for acne as I do not feel up to going out. In other words I am dabbing surgical spirit on them to dry them out and clean them up. Probably the cheapest treatment too. Just do not let your (or my) beautician know or she will have a fit! But at least I see a difference in hours.