In case you hadn’t heard about World Book Night, it is a celebration of reading and books on which thousands of passionate book readers, give books away to friends, family and workmates to share their love of reading. The 23rd April has been officially appointed as the international day of the book by UNESCO, which is when World Book Night sharing begins.

Read full post →

So there are only 100 days to the London Olympics? Bit too late for me to get in training for any event, but I shall be keeping a keen eye on the Women’s Beach Volleyball.

Philip’s time at C21, and by extension the UK has come to an end.

He journeys back to Germany with a head full of knowledge and a belly full of high fat English food. Philip really did embrace British culture, tried everything put in front of him and only turned his nose up at marmite.

Thanks Philip for being a great personality around the office, and for excepting your parting gifts with good grace (especially the United shirt).

If you, like me, like chocolate, then Easter is like Christmas.

And if you, like me, have children, then you know each child will receive approximately their own body weight in egg-shaped chocolate treats. This is far too much for a child to get through on their own, so adults step up to the plate (literally) and help out with the task. This can take months.

We finished the last remaining egg from Easter 2011 just the other day, so we now have an empty cupboard in the kitchen ready for the Easter 2012 haul.

Chocolate eggs, the gift that keeps on giving.

I have noticed a lot of egg decorating tutorials turning up recently so duly inspired, and with an old 90s silk tie in hand, I set off on an egg-citing journey.

The instructions are simple:
1. Chop up your 100% silk tie into strips.
2. Wet the silk, and pattern-side towards the egg, tightly wrap the egg and secure with cotton, string, floss, whatever you have to hand.
3. Using the cotton padding parts of the tie, create a second layer around the egg and secure with string as before.
4. Boil for 15 minutes.

That’s it! Cool the eggs in iced water and unwrap. My results can be observed in the image above.

Conclusions: Great result without shelling out! However, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. All the internet tutorials are American-centric and their eggs are white. Who knew? Our British beige eggs produce more unpredictable results. My blues were dull and my yellows camouflaged. But maybe this is more sour grapes than decorated eggs. The pictures on the internet are brightly coloured. My eggs look like they have prison tattoos. Still, I enjoyed the eggs-periment and had a seasonally appropriate lunch. Have a nice Easter everybody.