ceriselle.org

I LOVE all these sort of magazines. Chat, Take a Break, Love It…if I wasn’t so embarressed about going into shops to buy them, I’d be spending most of my days reading them.

Thankfully someone else has started a website called takeaweirdbreak.com. Now I can look at the headlines, and think about what the stories could be about. Lets face it, making up the stories is usually a lot more entertaining than what they really could be.

This is my own personal favourite – spotted a few years ago now. Always interested me how the two things were related.

smug /sm’??/ –adjective, smug?ger, smug?gest.

1. contentedly confident of one’s ability, superiority, or correctness; complacent.
2. trim; spruce; smooth; sleek.

There is a breed of human around called a smug married, the Wife and the Lord (yes, Nathan has been upgraded from mere “boy”) which I am afraid that I am becoming with Alex.

However, I should mention that the following things are not smug

• Ordering the same item in a restaurant. Sharing that item would be smug, feeding each other would be epic smugness.
• Matching bed sheets. No, not our beds in our respective homes (would that be more smug than feeding each other?) but matching pillow cases, duvet covers and sheets.
• Holding hands. No, wait, thats smug.

Oh, and the XKCD comic up top? Yeah, thats what I feel like I’m doing whenever I mention Alex (did I mention I had a BOYFRIEND?)

This post was written by my BFF Helen over on her blog – here. She let me repost it because, well, she’s bloody amusing.

Everybody has their favourite shop, Oasis, Warehouse, Topshop, well mine is New Look. Yes I’ll browse round the others, spend vouchers in Oasis and get work tops on offer in Dorothy Perkins but my heart always takes me back to New Look.

Even “Little J” is loving New Look!

I know that people who frequent Topshop will scoff in their oh so original trendy boots but I don’t care. To be honest I only nip into Topshop when there is a sale on and even then I wait till it’s reached the buy one get one free point!
I just don’t see the attraction. Yes some of the clothes are nice and I used to shop there all the time (well they were the only shop that sold long length jeans and trousers so I didn’t really have much choice!) but for me the love affair is over. People who shop there seem to think they are the best thing since sliced bread, they think they’re so fashionable but in a trendy, original way. Problem is, they’re not, they all look the same! You can spot a Topshopper straightaway, they’re generally found in a group of girls who all look the same! The only good thing about Topshop nowadays is what it’s name suggests, selling tops, the basic tops in a few different styles in about 10 different colours.

Yaaaaaawn

For me it’s all about New Look. Firstly, it sells everything, clothes – yes, shoes – yes, bags – yes, coats – yes, accessories – yes, underwear – yes, swimwear – yes, watches – yes, yes even watches!!!! And it’s all at a reasonable price. You can get a wide range of styles and sizes, tall, petite, maternity, plus size, kids, men – what more could you want?!

The new Bath store, the 200th New Look store ever or something?

If you’re headed for a night out and you have don’t have an outfit (or at least one you want to wear!) you can pop into New Look on your lunch break and if you’re a savvy shopper you pick up a whole new outfit for less than £50, including shoes!!! If you are lucky and there’s a decent sale on you can get an outfit for less than £30!

“But what about Primark?” I hear you cry. Pfft. Yes, I pfft at Primark. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a snob, I love a bit of Primarni, you can get an entire outfit, including shoes and accessories. Having said that, if you want your clothes to last for more than a few weeks with regular wear you will be slightly disappointed. I find that after a few washes Primark clothes tend to lose a bit of shape and shoes become tatty looking with the sole coming away. If we’re talking underwear, pjs, bags and jewellery I am there, in fact I can’t wait for the Primark Superstore ‘opening soon’ in Chester! Lunchtime bargain hunt here I come!

I think I will probably always love New Look, I tend to pop in at least once a week just to see what’s new. In fact, recently I bought some new shoes from Office and all my friends asked me if they were from New Look! (Originally they were supposed to be £60 so I’m taking that as a win for New Look!)

On Monday, I was very lucky enough to be given a ticket to see the ballet Sleeping Beauty at the Hippodrome. The week before, Kate asked via Twitter if any one would be interested in going with her, as she has won two tickets.

We were sat in the grand circle, quite central but just off to the right of the stage, which gave us a great view of the stage. It was the first night, and so the place was pretty full but we didn’t have anyone in the row in front until 10 mins into the first act when a bloke with a head so large it blocked about 20% of my view sat in front. I affectionately nicknamed him “Fat Head” and luckily he moved after the interval.

I had never been to the ballet before so didn’t really know what to expect. For one thing, I didn’t actually know that there was no dialogue, just music and dancing.

The dancing was pretty awesome, but lets face it, if you’re going to watch a ballet by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia, you kinda expect that they’re not going to be completely crap! I have to admit, the costumes were a lot more interesting to me than things like the backdrops. The princess’ wedding outfit reminded me of She-Ra’s costume. And lines like that prove why I’m not a reviewer.

Crackerjack has a proper type review here, and the company touring the country at the moment, so have a look at this page to see if they’re performing near you soon!

After nearly 2 months of living in the new house, we finally had our housewarming on Saturday.

Zoe and James were the first to arrive on Saturday afternoon so we headed up to Clifton for some pretty pretty shopping, before Becca and Neil joined us at Rocotillos after their 5 and a half hour journey from Bedford!

The milkshakes and burgers went down quite well (as soon as Becca walked in, I handed her my shake for a gulp!) and we all managed to squeeze into James’ tiny car to head back to the house.

Our new house just so happens to be around the corner from a certain house heavily featured in Being Human, so without mentioning it, I directed James to drive past Corner House. Becca and Zoe squealed with glee, and again a few seconds later when they realised that the pub that one of the characters works in or something is actually on the next corner. (Can you tell I’ve not been watching it?)

I opened the front door to find Suz in the kitchen opening a bottle of something. Quite a surprise!

We all settled down in front of the TV to watch American Idol auditions and some dreadful dating show with Paddy McGuiness whilst more people arrived. I feel like I should point out here I had no influence on the TV shows!

The Signstar came out about half 8, 9pm ish, and there was so much singing done! I honestly can’t remember some of the songs I did, although, of course, I had to singing Total Eclipse of the Heart (spin around ninjas!)

I headed up to bed about 2am, but I think there was still some Singstar going on. I’m jut getting too old, obviously.

In the morning, we persuaded Alec (king o’eggs) to make us all breakfast which was eaten whilst watching Glee. Happy people singing and dancing about…who knew that was such a good hangover cure?

There’s quite a few videos lurking on Facebok and YouTube, but I’ll leave you with mine and Alecs rendition of “I Touch Myself” which took place after many gins and wines. Luckily, the amount of skanky dancing in this video is minimal considering how much I drank! Zoe’s got her own version of the evening here

It was a great weekend, so good to see so many friends. As we’ve gotten older, the amount of houseparties has dropped, which is a real shame! Thank you all so much to our friends that came to the party, it wouldn’t have been the same without you (no, really, it would have been my housemate and I sitting in our front room)

Yeah, so yesterday was the big Apple announcement. It was pretty hard to look at any tech related website for the past few weeks without at least a mention of the long awaited tablet version of a Mac.

Look at it. LOOOOOK AT IT. Its nice, and shiny, and yeah, I kinda want one, but I’m not going to. Why? Well, if we ignore the fact that I have no money, ever, I just bought this netbook (er, that I’m typing on. I forgot that you couldn’t see me pointing) for the same reason why I would have the iPad.

This might surprise some people. Most of my friends refer to me (I hope in what is an affectionate way. Cause if not, you guys are lame) as a Mac Whore. But…I like Windows 7. Sure, its not as shiny, and ace as a Mac, but I don’t know. I’m using the netbook more, mostly because it balances on my chest quite well when lying on the sofa. Thats totally a good reason to choose a computer.

There was a point to this blog. I just can’t remember it.

So, remember how the pain. Oh god, the PAIN amazing and fulfilling pleasure that running the Race for Life gave me last year? No, me either. (I lie, it was pretty awesome)

Well, its that time of year again when I debate about running it again, and this time, I’m wondering if anyone else would be interested in joining me?

Race for Life in Bristol is on 12th and 13th June at 11am. The first time that I did Race for Life, I was with a few friends, which is definitely what I missed about running it alone last year!

Don’t worry, I’m not planning on running it this year, more a leisurly jog/stroll/skip. (Skipping works quite well actually. So if you’ll be in Bristol (or thinking about it!) for that weekend, drop me an email [hi (at) ceriselle.org] or leave a comment.

If you don’t fancy coming to Bristol, or want to do it with your own group, check out the Race for Life website.

So the current meme floating about is to sign up for a Formspring.me page and get people to ask random anonymous questions. I’ve had a fair few questions sent my way, so thought I’d post the ones that made me laugh the most:

Why do you love Singstar?
Really? Thats a question? If you haven’t played it, then maybe you should. Singstar is so much fun, its like singing in the shower, except with clothes on, and with your friends.

What will you name your first child?
Lord Megatron
Actually, I’ve never given it too much thought.I’m supposed to have a list aren’t I? I am a bad girl.

rank yr top 10 root veg
1) Parsnip
2) Butternut Squash
3) Potato
4) Onion
5) Carrot
6 – 10 oh god I don’t know any more veg

What size shoes do you wear, and would you rate your obsessiveness with footwear as being 1 (very low) or 11 (very high)? Do you need to me to invent a ‘12′ on this scale to cover your passion?
Actually, I wouldn’t class it as an “obsession”. Its a healthy love between a girl and some shoes.

do you know we think yr the cat’s jimmy’s?
You lovely bastards.
Of course I don’t, I don’t do compliments. I think this is a compliment. I hope it is.

Terminator or Transformers? Beware, the one known as Lord Megatron may be watching your answer to this one…………
Fuck, none of them. I have never seen any Terminator movies, and was only forced to watch both Transformers movies in one night to “understand the Lord Megatron better” I already understand the Lord Megatron. He’s a massive homo.

Vital statistics! Dress size, bra size? How are the masses supposed to send you gifts if the info remains a closely guarded secret with NDA attached?
Dress size: 12/14.
Bra size: far too depressingly big since the Wife made me get molested by a little old woman in John Lewis. She called it being measured. Huh.

If you would like to see the rest of the questions, or maybe add your own, head over here like, now.

One of my best friends (aka The Wife) has a “slight” addiction to that purveyor of crap, QVC. (She says “slight”, I say not being able to sleep unless QVC is on in the background is slightly insane)

I personally love QVC – I remember watching it for the first time when I was about 8 or 9, where they were selling microwave bacon crispers. (I was a strange child, I loved reading cover to cover the Betterware catelog that would be put through the door, and even now, get slightly excited when I go to Lakeland. DON’T JUDGE ME.)

Nowadays, I’ll watch it occationally – not for the amazing products (although I do love the storage solutions – its like porn to me) but watching the presenters try to stretch out selling something for an hour.

Selling something is difficult enough when the product is good (as much as I love brands like Liz Earle and Benefit, I couldn’t talk about them for 10 minutes, let alone an hour!) The real skills of the presenters can be found when the products that hour are a little more…unusual.

Introducing Quacker Factory.

Go for a fun and unique look with Quacker Factory! Bursting with personality, this colourful range features denim, velvet, moleskin and corduroy, and each piece boasts beautiful embellishments and vivid designs.

I can’t even type any more…I am mesmerised by the amount of sequins . Here, pictures. (With links to the relevant pages, you know, incase you feel the urge to buy them)

You can check out the full range at QVC here, or the company’s website here

The first Barbie thing I remember having was a Dr Barbie playcase. It was pink plastic in the shape of a doctors bag, and opened out with a bed, a curtain and a plastic trolley. I loved it, along with my Barbie camper van, both were used first with Barbie, then when I was a little older, with my hamster who would wreak havoc on Barbie. GIANT FUR MONSTER AHOY.

It seems that Barbie has done most professions, and can’t actually stick with one job for long. With that in mind, the makers are now asking what she should do next.

Click that image to see it in more detail. The choices are:

• Enviromentalist
• Surgeon
• Architect
• News Anchor
• Computer Engineer

The first four choices, lets face it, are pretty damn girly. Enviromentalist? Thats just faffing with pretty flowers. Surgeon? Upgraded doctor, which is the upgraded nurse. Architect is drawing pictures of houses with flowers around the door, and a news anchor is getting paid to chat crap. (Hmm, maybe thats a job for me…)

The job that sticks out (at least to me) is the computer engineer. I know a lot of computer engineers, so I say this in the nicest way possible. Its not a job for a pretty blonde girl. Computer engineers are (generally) fat, sweaty blokes who eat pizza and drink beer. And probably haven’t been near a girl.

So, if you think that the next Barbie doll should come with her own laptop and crate of Mountain Dew, go here and vote.

(p.s. Any of my friends that are computer engineers, or anything related. I loves you. You are not who I mean in the above entry. )