Prezzybox.com surveyed 886 people from all over the UK on their chocolate eating habits. They found some fun, weird and amazing facts.
Top 5 Friendly Towns & cities where chocolate is shared by women.
5 Towns & cities where chocolate is LEAST shared by women.
Top 5 Chocolate Eaters in the UK, average per person per year.
Superdry are not content just making fabulous clothes. Their beauty range is expanding all the time and their new Bento Beauty Box (£25) is funky and great value. It contains Superdry Beauty miniature versions of Lip Fix, Eye Marker (a great eyeliner which looks like a felt tip, perfect for thick or thin lines), Nail Paint, Highlighter, a mirror, a full size nail plane and a full size Mascara. You could almost create an entire beauty look just with this stylish beauty box.
Superdry Bento Beauty Box
The mirror is something you can keep forever and looks like a badge. The nail polish colour is a colourful hot pink that will make you happy – and is apparently their bestselling shade, their lip fix is great for chapped lips and the highlighter is great for sculpting the face and giving you a glow. The mascara is jet black and volumising. This recycled cardboard gift box is a great Christmas gift full of Superdry’s bestselling beauty products. Great stuff. It is out this month (October 2013)
We get sent a lot of stuff to review but this Victorian inspired Orange Flower collection from Dr. Dulcamara really caught our eye. It is both original and stunning. It looks so beautiful on the bathroom shelf you almost don’t want to use it. But use it you must. It smells divine and just looking at it creates happiness.
We reviewed the hand cream, which leaves the hands silky soft and smelling great. It is a really good cream, rubs in well and works. The bath essence looks like a magic potion and sitting in the bath just sniffing it is a potential hazard to look out for. It makes bathing even more enjoyable and is good to the skin.
We really loved the Orange Flower collection from Dr. Dulcamara and already have a few people in mind who will be getting these as a Christmas present. Frost loves….
Orange flowers are the source of neroli, an essential oil distilled from the freshly picked blossoms of the bitter orange tree. Neroli is named after the Italian city of Neroli, where it was used to ward off a plague in the 17th Century. Today, the oil is mostly produced in the South of France and in Italy.
The rich flower-scented aroma has long been regarded as a symbol of purity and eternal love, and was a great favourite of Marie Antoinette.The oil is also used frequently in Middle Eastern recipes to add fragrance to food, water and tea.
Neroli oil has a reputation for its calming, relaxing properties, and is regarded as a mild sedative.
In the words of Fresh Off The Boat co-writer, Sarah Pitard, ‘the UK is fucked’.
As the economy struggles, redundancies are commonplace and the political parties are divided on a solution, the blame knocks on immigrations door.
And Sarah Pitard, a pretty, white American gal whose only vice was to fall in love and marry her UK man is one of them – an immigrant, an illegal alien.
A Border Story (the first act of Fresh Off The Boat) follows Pitard’s real-life story in a touching, witty and unusually comical way, but I can’t help but notice that behind her calm exterior, it’s also a chance to display ‘two fingers’ at the Immigration Officers.
Having been refused a marriage visa, it seems marrying a UK citizen is not enough to secure a place in Blighty.
From the airport scene with the questions about her dress bag which alluded to her being a whore, it is no surprise her stage double, Amy, tells the audience: “England’s not a very positive place for a person other than the British.”
Only having married on 12/12/12 and expecting a baby, (I sighed in relief when Pitard explained this was an addition for dramatic effect) the couple attempted to exploit a legal loophole to gain entry to the UK.
Amy and Brian would move to another European country where Brian would get a job (the only one was sans va va voom flipping burgers in Paris) to reach the minimum six-month threshold whereby they would then be eligible for UK citizenship.
Now the good news is that Amy, aka Sarah, and her stage hubby Brian, are able to spread the word on this loophole and somehow this production was pulled together while they were living in France.
The bad news is that they’re still stuck in limbo, still awaiting to hear their fate and still uncertain about their future in the UK.
Despite the serious content of this first act, Pitard shows her determination, and through sympathetic Amy (Lee Lytle) and Brian, played by Paul Tonkin, we saw the emotional fragility laid bare to the audience and no doubt, it acts as an open letter to the Immigration Officers too.
Act two can’t help but lift your spirits, again in a satirical, comedic way as it broaches the important subject of immigration.
‘The Utility People’, written by Michael Ross, is opened with a couple casually celebrating with a bottle of prosecco when all the noises from the rather large utility cupboard finally spills out into the living room in the form of an immigrant mother and her son.
Ironically, Jake (played by Mike Houlihan), who used to work for Amnesty International is far from welcoming, and Chloe (Antonia Reid) almost overcompensates saying £they are humanity” which is abruptly followed by Jake’s “humanity can go somewhere else”’.
As the British Empire plundered everyone in history, Chloe feels it is only right that the mother and son ought to be able to stay and she soon starts giving them chores so they earn their keep.
She even provides them with the nicknames Goldilocks and Bear (obviously named after Paddington).
In scenes that had me chuckling, Matt and Antonia played the couple with enough sense of confusion, surprise and nerve to pull off their treacherous steps towards slave labour and human exploitation in their own home.
The son, played by Theo Ancient, really comes into his own as he’s given a real voice to proclaim damnation of the way immigrants are treated around the world.
As he eloquently sums up the moral and legal system of immigration in the UK, I was literally blown away.
Articulating and applying a magnifying glass to the situation, he underpinned the hopes, fears and realities of immigration against the privileges of those living here.
Richard, the narrator, punctuated each scene beautifully with spark and character which illuminated the harsh content with the right tones of comedy.
A very deserving play, well structured, rehearsed and it definitely had me thinking about the privilege associated with my British passport. Good luck to the Pritards.
Struggling with an addition can be a very isolating process. However, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. Estimates suggest that somewhere between 15 and 30 percent of Americans will struggle with alcohol or drug dependency during their lifetime. Read on to discover how to come to terms with your own addiction and take steps towards recovery.
Image via Flickr by Alan Cleaver
The first step towards recovery is admitting that you have an addiction in the first place. This can be challenging, especially in the case of social drugs such as alcohol. However, there are some key signs to look for.
Addicts become consumed by their vices, generally at the expense of their professional and personal lives. They notice they can tolerate greater amounts of alcohol or their drug of choice, and often experience withdrawal symptoms if they have used it in a while. They also find curbing their habit is difficult. Are these characteristics sounding familiar to you? If so, it’s probably time to admit that you have a problem.
Coming to terms with your addiction requires you to understand that it doesn’t exist in isolation. Carefully consider your behavior and the way it’s affected the people around you. This process is likely to be painful, but confronting the damage your addiction’s done will help you start doing things differently.
Remember that even though you’ve hurt your nearest and dearest, these people love you. You have a responsibility to them and to yourself to turn your life around.
Addiction isolates drug and alcohol abusers from friends and family members, but these loved ones are crucial in recovery. Reach out to those people who’ve been there for you throughout your life and spend time with supporters rather than enablers.
Also consider looking outside your immediate circle to professional help. This can be confronting, but therapists and staff at rehabilitation facilities are trained to guide addicts towards recovery. Drug or alcohol detoxing at 12 Keys or a similar treatment center can put you on the path towards sober living and minimize your chances of relapsing. Joining a support group can also help you share your experiences with others who understand.
People don’t usually become addicts for no reason. Many addicts suffer from psychiatric disorders. Many have struggled with economic or emotional hardships, or both. As you start overcoming your addiction you’ll look more closely at your life and discover what void your vice filled for you. Analyzing your life in this way can be challenging, but it will also help you discover what you need to bring to your life to survive without alcohol or drugs.
Addiction can be a lonely place that seems impossible to get out of. However, to see only such negativity is not completely coming to terms with addiction. Many people beat their addictions, and with hard work and perseverance you can be one of them. Coming to terms with addiction involves coming to terms with the potential of a brighter future.
At times coming to terms with your addiction will be challenging and confronting. However, once you do you can take steps towards overcoming it.
Caroline Flack is still on good terms with ex-boyfriend Harry Styles it seems. The pair were snapped together at the launch of the ‘Vinyl Collection’.
The TV presenter looked amazing in a Gerard Darel coat. Flack is a huge fan of the brand and this week was spotted at the launch in this statement number.
The chic, teal coat looked effortlessly elegant, bringing an edge of masculine tailoring to Caroline’s sultry look. The coat is from the new AW13 collection from Gerard Darel, retailing at £325 and available to buy instore and online at gerarddarel.com
Released earlier this year, Sudden Elevation, Ólöf Arnald’s acclaimed third full album – her first sung entirely in English – captures a rare and idiosyncratic songwriting talent in full bloom. Ólöf releases a new single from the album, Call It What You Want on 25th November to coincide with international shows including a UK date at the The Lexington (19th November) and Iceland Airwaves (1st November).
The full dates are as follows:
Oct 13 Le Poisson Rouge New York
Oct 18 Fitzgerald Theater St Paul, Minneapolis USA
Oct 24 De Centrale
Oct 25 Cultuurcentrum
Oct 27 Arkaoda
Nov 01 Iceland Airwaves Reykjavik
Nov 02 Around Iceland Reykjavik
Nov 13 The Slaughtered Lamb London
Ólöf also makes available a free download, The Matador EP comprising 4 Icelandic songs originally included as a cover-mount with Spanish art magazine Matador last year. Three songs (Lát vaxa, Blóm, and Hlið) were composed by Skúli Sverrisson with lyrics by Ólöf, while Af stað was written for Bjork’s Náttúra concert in Reykjavík in June 2008. The lyric of the latter song is based on an old Icelandic nationalist poem. “I twisted all the words around” explains Ólöf, “Making fun of the over-romanticised pride of our country and put the emphasis on how much nature gives us as people; the rest, the piece of mind, the inspiration, the big picture… I sung about how the Icelandic nation was literally getting drunk from individual gain and self-importance. Three months later the country´s economy collapsed…”
Produced again by long-time collaborator, Skúli, Sudden Elevation was largely recorded in a late autumn 2011 stint in a seaside cabin in Hvalfjörður (literally ‘Whale-fjord’), in the west of Iceland.
