Not an Animal Lover...

Anyone who knows me will know I am not a huge animal lover. Don't get me wrong, I'm not heartless, I got upset when Bambi's mum and Simba's dad died but to be honest that's probably because they could talk. I do appreciate that larger animals can have their own individual personality but I'm not one of those who thinks animals are like people. I'm also pretty strongly allergic to anything bigger and hairier than a hamster (they make me sneeze too but just with less intensity).

- As an aside: I hate the Dog's Trust charity advert, which, amongst other charity ads, try to give dogs human characteristics and say they will send you a card in the post. How can they lick the envelope? How can they place the stamp? The answer is they cannot and thus I feel so obviously lied to that I get annoyed and grumble loudly at the TV, irritating those around me more than the advert probably did. I'd feel much better about donating if they said "Billy is a grumpy dog who won't fetch your paper but he'll lie happily on your feet for a bit. He also likes chicken but it makes him fart.", although I suppose guilt-tripping people does make money. -

Anyway, back to the point, I am not a typical animal lover. I do have pet gerbils who entertain me hugely, but I think of them as pets instead of friends. Some people might think this is isn't right but I look after them as best I can (with some help from my kind friends), I buy them new houses and toys which they destroy in 3 hours and I sometimes try to give them a sand bath but they just eat the sand instead. Idiots. I am under no illusion that they see me as anything other than their primary food giver and besides doing that important task I am unimportant to them.

So, it is safe to say I have never wanted a large, uncaged house pet like a cat or dog... until this day. When I saw this Youtube video my heart officially turned to mush and I Googled hard to see what kind of breed he/she is. I then discovered the Munchkin Cat. They have teeny-tiny legs. Here's the Japanese website linked in the video which sells them and you don't have to speak Nihon-go to enjoy this site because the pictures, like the ones on the right, speak for themselves! It is all I can do to not shout "AWWWW!" out loud but rest assured I am doing so in my head!

If there is some way of overcoming my allergies, when I am a grown up with a house and a proper job I will be getting one of those little fluffballs. Preferably a grey one. And maybe he or she will send me cards in the post. More likely they will just behave like any normal cat and do this instead.

Here's what's left of my gerbils' destroyed wicker teepee:

One for the Ladies!

Last weekend I went shopping in Nottingham. I stopped by Boots as I usually do just to grab a few essentials and check the offers for my advantage card. There were a few offers I liked the sound of on the automated machine. The first was 'buy something from the Tea Tree and Witch Hazel range and get 100 advantage card points' - that's equal to £1.00 to spend in store. I got a face mask for 99p which was very nice, satisfying to peel off and made me a profit of £0.01!

The second offer was for 'free blusher if you buy something from the 17 range'. I thought, great I'll get something for cheap and get the freebie (even though I didn't reeally need a new blusher in the first place). Unfortunately (or fortunately) a fancy nail polish caught my eye. 17 magnetized nail polish contains small particles of black metal which give a lovely stripy textured effect after you hover the magnet provided over the nail while the polish is still wet. It takes a little practise but is quite straightforward to use. I bought the teal coloured one which does work well but I think the effect would be more striking on the gun metal grey polish. That cost £5.99, but the blusher would have been £3.99 so I guess I didn't feel too bad about buying it, especially as it looks really cool!

The final thing I bought was actually something I went into Boots for. New foundation. I always have issues with buying foundation as it's so expensive. It's not something you can repeatedly buy and discard if the texture/colour isn't perfect so I usually dread buying a new foundation. I stick to Maybelline as they have the best range of tones for my skin. I had been using the Dream Matte Mouse type since I was a teenager but that seemed to dry out my combination skin. Switching to Dream Satin Liquid had the opposite effect and my skin became incredibly greasy about an hour after application.

The one I chose on a whim at the weekend has been amazing! It's called Dream Nude Airfoam and it gives a lovely matte finish without drying out my skin. Admittedly the coverage of blemishes isn't great because the texture is very light but a bit of concealer on problem areas fixes that issue easily. It comes in a pressurised container and is a mousse, very similar to hair mousse, so it expands when you dispense it onto your hand. A small amount goes a long way and, importantly for me, it's labelled SPF 16. I've never been so happy with a foundation!

Images from here and here.

Now in the spirit of 'One for the Ladies' I thought it necessary to include a hen-party type willy image. Below is a type of chilli pepper which grows without modification into a decidedly phallic shape. We're thinking of getting some to grow in the office at work! Spicy!

Original image here