Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I just finished this book and it was fabulous! A real page-turner from beginning to end. I didn't too badly time wise...about 2 weeks (but really only because I was away from family duties for two weeks!). I picked it up at the airport a couple of months ago (along with 'The Fourth Bear' - Jasper Fforde) and finally got around to reading it! I liked the title and the cover of the book...I know you should never judge a book by it's cover...but when it comes to books and wine I tend to go for quirky!

Read it! (my copy is currently on loan to my mother-in-law, but will be available shortly I would imagine!)

Uppsala at Night

I have had a couple of trips to Sweden in January, Peter has been a star looking after Sunshine...I don't know how he puts up with me!!
Anyway, we had a few good meals this last week...On Wednesday we went to Tzatiki and had some fab food..I was considerably stuffed at the end...no room for pudding...On the way back to the hotel, the lights in the trees alongside the river looked so pretty I just had to record the scene...I only had my phone...so the quality isn't as great as I would have liked...but still you get the idea!

Then on Thursday night we went to Kung Krål and had a fab reindeer steak with the best mashed potatoes in Sweden!
I will apologise now if Santa is late this Christmas....

Copper

This weekend was our 7th wedding anniversary and as a treat Peter and I escaped to the Oaklands Court Hotel, Norwich whilst my mum looked after Sunshine for the night. It was a treat, but in the morning whilst we were relaxing, we just thought that there was something missing! Sunshine!

I was really lucky in finding the copper hearts I gave as a gift to Peter, and unlucky in that Sunshine found them before we had even packed the car...I really must learn to hide things better! I found them on the internet at Greens Weathervanes...I really fancied getting the Seahorse weathervane but it may have looked a bit pretentious in our semi-urban environment....!

More recycling places...

Further to my last blog, I have been Stumbling around the interweb and found a couple of more sites which could be a good way of swapping your old stuff for someone else's old stuff...All you pay for is the postage but in the end if you get what you want it all evens out in the end!



The first place I found was BookMooch where you list all the books you want to pass on and you get 1/10th of a credit for doing that...when you get one credit you can 'Mooch' a book that you want from someone else...



Then I found chanceXchange which is basically the same thing and has only started up this year...At the moment there is a special offer..if you register and list two things you don't want anymore, you get one credit to use for exchanging for something else...The exchanges are limited to the country you live in so that you never have to pay international postage or worry about the regioning of DVD's and videos

chanceXchange recycle your cds, dvds and books a free exchange service

Alternatively you could just take your box of books,cds and videos down to the local charity shop of your choosing...

Free-cycling

At the end of the month our council has decided that it is going to trial fortnightly collections in our area which could pose a problem for me in my ever escalating de-cluttering program as I'll be able to put less stuff in the green bin (which is actually our rubbish bin...our recycling bin is blue!)...so I found this site and joined a couple of local groups and I have successfully freecycled some babygros and some freezer baskets (which were just attracting more clutter!) This has also enabled me to reduce the stuff we send to landfill...(pat on the back for me!)...and some of the stuff which has accumulated!

So if you don't think you can eBay something because it's not worth much but still has some useful life left in it...there may be someone who will take it off your hands! (I don't think you would believe some of the stuff which people try to get or get rid of!)

USB Batteries

How cool is this!? I was just shopping for some more Ecoballs (the ones I bought last year have come to the end of their life) and I saw that the Ethical Superstore had USB rechargable batteries! These would be a definate improvement on taking regular batteries or rechargable + charger on trips (as long as my laptop was coming with me of course!)