It’s that time of the week again when I ramble on about five random totally unconnected things that I’m sure you look forward to every week (though I’m guessing not lol).

1) Chocolate and Coffee is actually a nice combination, who knew?

As I commented recently I’ve joined the Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Tasting Club, the first selection which arrived this week contained a tasting baton which combined chocolate with coffee (playing a bit on the cappuccino idea I’m guessing.

I’m not going to lie, I hate coffee, I’ve never been able to drink a whole cup, nor have I enjoyed any cakes that have coffee as an ingredient. So, I didn’t expect to like these, I thought I’d eat the one’s I most likely wouldn’t like first.

And then as it turned out I liked them, the coffee when combined with the sweetness of the white chocolate creates a very nice tasting chocolate indeed!

Yet, I still can’t drink coffee (I’ve tried cappuccino before as well and that went the same way!)

2) I Have A MacBook Pro – I know, I know – strange thing to get excited about, but I switched to Mac last year when I bought a Mac Mini. I love my Mac Mini but it has one little problem – it’s not portable – and this meant I hardly ever saw my family (oops!).

So, this week I bought a second hand MacBook Pro (and it arrived this morning), I only opened the package when I got home from work about two hours ago and I’m already in love with it and lovingly stroke it! And guess what I did first? I hopped over to Twitter – some things will never change!

Ooh! And check back next week for why I’ll take Mac over Windows any day of the week!

3) Writing Update In order to enable me to write a different range of posts I’m dropping my writing in review posts and merging it with regular updates in this post

So, here is the writing meter:

It feels a little weird watching that little pile of paper in the centre of the image grow – and 8% complete, I’m very happy about this at the moment

4) Dad Likes YA! Well, some YA – well all the YA I’ve given him hehe It started last year – I was reading Rockaholic by C.J. Skuse and had left it lying about and well, Dad picked it up. He finished it within a day and loved it – the music theme in that book helped. Anyhoo, a few days later he was looking really bored so I offered him another book, I picked out The Hunger Games and that too was gobbled up quickly, yesterday he started Catching Fire!

Yay! It just shows that YA is just as good as any other fiction being published today (and I think that’s fab! )

5) The Lion King is going to be EPIC! For those who don’t follow me on Twitter (or who plain just don’t know) Disney’s The Lion King is kicking off it’s tour at the Bristol Hippodrome (my local theatre ), if what I’ve heard is true (that the theatre is closing for six weeks before hand to accommodate the production) I can only imagine that the production is going to be one heck of a production and I only hope that I will be able to get tickets.

It’s running for six weeks while it’s here so I’m hopeful!

Another video that I found on a blog recently that I thought you might like, I’m sure I’ve used some of these phrases myself when reviewing books…

If you review books – have you said any of these? If you write books have you seen these used? I know I have

I put my hands up – I LOVE chocolate. But then I have to put it up again and say I dislike dark chocolate – it’s too bitter for my taste buds unless it’s combined with something VERY sweet that is. I also dislike anything with alcohol in it (being somebody who doesn’t drink).

So as much as I’ve drooled every time my favourite chocolate company Hotel Chocolat sent me leaflets about their Tasting Club I’ve always successfully ignored them.

One recently dropped through my letterbox advertising their new milk only selection. I thought perfect and promptly investigated … only to find out that some of them contain alcohol. Oh well, I thought … but then I looked on their website – big mistake!

I discovered that the Chocolate Tasting Club have a selection of mostly milk chocolate non alcoholic chocolate – it’s called the Elements Selection and I’m afraid I couldn’t resist. And look what arrived yesterday

Mmmm, it looks (and smells) delicious and for being part of the club I get to taste my favourite chocolate companies chocolate before they hit the shops – win win!

I must make it last, I must make it last!!

It’s Friday again and that can only mean it’s time for my new (as of last week… which was when I restarted this blog) feature, Friday Five where I ramble on about five completely random things (a bit this like blog really hehe).

1) Check me out, over on the Hot Key Books blog – Okay, this is actually to do with my book blog Books 4 Teens (and might happen a few times in this feature). Hot Key Books are a new Children and YA publisher in the UK and they are currently asking bloggers a few short questions and I thought it would be quite fun to take part. My answers are the second set down on this post but do read the much more interesting answers from Lynsey and then why not check out the other bloggers too!

2) Mark Grist on Girls who read – I saw this first on a couple of YA book blogs in the last week and thought it appropriate to share it here!

3) A guide through a publishing contract – I found this series posted to the Stroppy Author blog via Nicola Morgan’s Help! I Need A Publisher blog (which is well worth a read for any aspiring (and published)) writer. And of course with my ever so slight interest in the law I found this series really interesting, I think anyone reading this blog might too!

4) Talking about the law I posted last week that I will soon be starting Y186 Starting With Law (an OU Openings module). Now the modules official start date is next Saturday but I’ve been having sneaky reads here and there (you know to get ready) and it looks really good! I think I might properly start looking at it tonight!

5) Serenity arrived today. After discovering to my horror that I had watched all of the Firefly episodes it was a relief to see this little parcel on my doorstep, my journey with the crew of Serenity can now continue

lol, okay – maybe not hehe!

This post is really referring to yesterday evening. Shortly after I got back from work all the power went from our house and all houses in the surrounding area (not to mention all the streetlights going dark too!).

In contrast to what has gone in the past this was relatively small – 20 minutes or so without power, not really a big deal (well unless you’re me and having post work Twitter withdraw symptoms lol).

It was wierd, with all the power gone I’d expected it would be quiet – peaceful perhaps, fat chance! The first thing I heard was three or four house alarms blaring out over with there constant sirens going on and on and on and on and on ….

Then there was the sound of the engines nosily working there way home from work on the main road that runs not far from our house. Not to forget the people who had come out of there houses to double check that it wasn’t just there electricity that had suddenly gone off.

So, yeah – not so much quiet – much more noiser than ever!

It does make you wonder though what would the world be like without electricity? We rely on it to keep food fresh, to entertain us, to deliver us news, to keep us warm to enable us to read (though we could use candles – actually paper and candles probably not a good idea!) and so much more. It’s quite scary to think what would happen if / when it all just … runs out.

Of course that didn’t happen yesterday, 20 minutes later lights in windows across the streets start flicking back on and then a gentle escalating hum that sounded a bit like the buzzers on catchphrase (but a lot quieter) and our lights and TV flicked back on …. and TWITTER WAS RESTORED TO ME!!!!

Hey, that was fun hehe!

It’s true, well at least it is in the eyes of banks, building societies and financial institutions.

In the UK in order to open a bank account or other financial product you need to prove who you are, fair enough. But the ID required is particularly limited. The two big one’s that banks can accept – I don’t have:

Passport – I have never left the UK and to be honest I don’t intend to – not because I don’t want to see the world but I don’t like the idea of flying, I worry a ship would sink and that the eurotunnel would crash down around my ears if I was ever to go through it. Completely irrational I know but there you go. Disney world is never going to happen for me lol. As a result I begrudge paying £75 and going through an incredibly long process just to get ID!

Driving License – similar really, I don’t particularly want to learn how to drive, I’m far happier relying on public transport. Seriously, I think I would be a danger to the people of Bristol if I was let loose on the roads! And again I don’t want to spend £50 just for ID

There are other forms of ID that can be used … all of which I don’t have, birth certificates are only accepted for those under 20 and while I used to have student ID (this is surprisingly on RBS’s list), that is now out of date lol.

So technically speaking as it stands I can only open an account with banks I already have accounts with, so I’m slightly thankful I went on a bit of a bank account opening spree when I was younger and have three current accounts with different banks hehe (those free gifts were just a little too tempting!).

Would you get a driving license / passport just for ID?

Friday Five is a feature inspired by Jackson Pearce’s vlogs where I will try each week to come up with five probably completely random by hopefully interesting things. That’s the plan anyway!

1. Bus Stops
Well, okay not bus stops themselves, that would be really uninteresting unless you want to talk about the nifty GPS signs that some of them have in Bristol to let you know how long the bus is going to be…

I digress (this is quite common in me territory ), what I’m actually talking about is conversations on Bus Stops. They don’t happen often. I’ve been seeing the same guy on my local bus stop for the last few months. We both get the same bus at the same time, Monday – Friday yet we never spoke. Until a couple of weeks ago we started saying morning and then today we actually had a kind of conversation!!!

I discovered he was an Immune System Research Scientist for Bristol University – it was awesome! You never know who is standing just a few feet away from you when you wait on bus stops!

2. Snow
When it started snowing lightly last night I thought I know what I’m going to do tomorrow when I get back from work – I’m going to take a picture of the snow, it honestly looked quite pretty this morning (and was soft too). But when I got back it had all gone!

I can’t say I’m not pleased that it’s gone, I like to go out in safety and I like the buses running hehe but it was pretty none the less and now I don’t have a picture for this bit. Oh well.

3. I’ve written over 1,000 words
Full update on this on Sunday so for now all I’ll say is that the words are okay. I want to try and switch it from third person to first person POV though as I have an inkling it might work a teensy bit better. So that’s my challenge for tomorrow (better to try it out now than find out it’s wrong 65,000 words later )

4. Things an agent has seen (and not seen) in YA
An interesting post on the Greenhouse Literacy Agency blog which highlights areas in YA which have been to death and which haven’t in the submissions that they have been receiving (and reflects largely what’s being published in YA at the moment).

Big thanks to the Hot Key Books blog for adding this link to there blog or I would have missed it!

5. Firefly
I started watching Firefly a few weeks ago after receiving so many recommendations on Twitter. From the description on Amazon I wasn’t sure it would be my kind of thing. But the lovely people of Twitter were so raving about it I bought a copy and I’m so glad I did. (Yay, Kaylee!!!)

I shouldn’t of worried – it’s Joss Whedon after all (the genius behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer (one of my all time favourite TV series)). Now alas I only have one disc of Firefly left to watch and I’m going to miss that show (especially Kaylee!!!) – will have to buy the film I think!