Hiassen could not have written better himself

I had other things to blog about today but nothing of real consequence until I came across the article below in today's Metro. If I had a devil and an angel on either shoulder, one would be telling me that this is not something to laugh at and is a real tragedy. The other would be rolling around on my shoulder, holding its belly as it laughed with tears streaming down its face. Say it with me folks- natural selection.


Hopefull it's scanned well enough that you can read it when you click on it...

Also, for those who don't get the Hiassen reference- tsk tsk I say. Get youself educated.

an entry that speaks of eyes and endorphins

Well I figured out why my eye was sore and I've got one word to say to you: conjunctivitis. Yicky. I woke up this morning with one eye gummed shut and thought, "Oh. That's what it was..." So this morning after the gym I promptly took myself over to Boots and got some golden eye ointment. Conjunctivitis is definitely at the top of the list of things I don't want when I fly home. Everyone at work is dropping like flies with one flu or another and I'm just trying to keep away. I only have 12 days in NZ. I can't afford to be sick.

We had daylight savings on Sunday and I swear it's thrown my body clock totally out of whack. Usually I'm the one to scoff at people who complain about losing an hour of sleep but this year it's me. I've really been noticing it at the gym too. I had to have a little talk with my body this morning which went along the lines of, "Dude. We have a deal, I drag this lazy ass out of bed and make it run/cycle/row and sweat copiously and in return I get my daily rush of endorphins. But as of late there's been no rush so be a honey and hook a brother up would you?" And maybe it worked because today things were much better. Or maybe I was just feeling smug at heaving my way through 2000m on the rower in 10 mins. (Which for me is a very decent effort.)

Ooh- and pictures of my new hat hotness. I have two shots for you- one from the front and one from behind to show the cute tassley thingy.

my eye hurts

I'm trying to get back in to wearing my contacts but right now all I want to do is scratch out my right eye. They were fine up until about an hour ago and now my right eye just itches but I don't have my glasses with me and have to keep the contacts in anyway and I'm getting a headache and I blame our horrible dry office and I'm all sore and grumpy and tired and want some sympathy.

Poor widdle Aynia-kins.

At the weekend I went down to Poole to see my cousin and her family and I had a lovely time. I'll admit to being a little surprised- I was apprehensive about staying with people I did not know at all and had no link to whatsoever apart from the fact that our mothers are sisters. But Charlotte was cool, her partner Neil is a total laugh and the kids are cute. And it turns out my aunt was there too so it was all good. It pissed down all weekend but that didn't stop three stubborn Irish women (note how I'm all Irish when it suits me) from going out in the wind and rain and having their umbrellas blown inside-out and getting completely soaked. It was a riot.

And the highlight of the weekend- I found a hat on sale that was exactly the same as one I had bought in Richmond on sale and it was all blue and lovely and I looked supercutey in it but I lost it when I went to the London Aquarium and it was cheaper in Bournemouth anyway so now I have my hat back (picture coming soon) and I'm so happy. The weekend was worth it for that alone.

10 sleeps till I leave for NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Virtual Critic

W00t!1!!

Virtual Critic for 2006 is up and running. You should check it out here.

Just latest issue at mo,, but more soon.

P.S. Aynia, don't know bout mappy thing, it might just be lame-o sometimes. It seems to work for me the 10-15 times I click on this site each day...

deadlines

Well it's deadline day for us here at Geographical and this has been one hella stressful issue. I won't be sad to see it gone. In fact there is still a smidgeon of stress hanging over me in the form of niggly bits and pieces that I don't want to go in to. Basically it's not like the good old days of Critic that laugh in the face of copyright and just grab any old thing off Google image search. *sigh*

Even getting to pop out at lunchtime (at the early hour of 2:30pm) to buy a book for my 2nd cousin didn't help. He turned 4 yesterday and I'm going down to visit his family this weekend and I thought I should bring a pressie. So at lunchtime I headed down to my favourite kiddie's bookshop and said I wanted a pirate book for a 4yr old boy. The people who work there are great- I was taken around and shown a range of books but I had to get 'Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs'. With a title like that how could you NOT? Also the pictures are way cool.

Alas the thrill of Captain Flinn and his piratical dinosaurs is not enough to rid me of this nasty hairball of stress building in my insides. God I just want this issue to be done.

P.S. TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S. Kitty my love- I don't always get that cool map thingy coming up in my sidebar. Do you know why that would be?

It's that time again...

Proofing time!

So I have a little bit of time to click on my favourite blog again. And notice how big the big dotty thing is on the map? Yeah, that's because comicallysans is on my "micro break web surfing routine". I click it about once an hour or something.

And I have NO idea who we know in South America, or along the entrie East Coast of America...


I think it has just started sleeting outside, which sucks for two reasons. One is that it's the first really stormy sleety night of Autumn, so all the pretty leaves on the ground will turn all mucky and smell yeasty; and the second reason is that this morning it was a balmy 17 degrees, so I put on a cute little pink sundress which I now have to run home in. Brrrrr

love you long time

spring?

With my mouth still tingling from the chilli I just had for lunch (home made and supergrood), I thought it was time to catch up on blogging. Fresh air and sunshine can wait.

It would seem that the British version of spring (think September/October in relative NZ terms) does not involve a rise in temperature but merely extended daylight hours. This weekend that's just passed was freezing- and I'm talking 2 degrees (can't find the shortcut for the symbol) and I was bundled up to 'Nam when I trotted over to my friend Sam's place on Saturday night. (See picture at left- and that's a long woolen coat I have over my hoodie folks.) I have decided that from now on I will have to bring my camera with me whenever I might be walking back from Sam's late at night. Weekend before last as I was walking home I saw a lacy g-string hung over one of the poles of a fence and last weekend there was a fox curled up in the middle of someone's front lawn. Moments that will live on only in my memory thanks to my lack of camera at the time.

This week has been almost as good as Xmas, I've been getting that many pressies. Kerry came back from 3 weeks in SA and brought us all back kitschy ethnic pressies- so glorious! Then I got a puffin badge from Ali (no camera with me=no pic) and all week long I've had packages arriving from Amazon. AmazonUK is having a massive sale at the moment so I did a stock up on pressies for myself and others and took requests from family. As a result I don't know that I will succeed at just bringing back a daypack any more and even if I do, I'll feel like a smuggler. Oh well. I'm also starting to compile a list of stuff I need but should hang out for until duty free- headphones, new watch, makeup. I'm gonna have to get to the airport ultra early just to get all my shopping in. That's the way to start a holiday! ;-)

16 SLEEPS TILL I LEAVE FOR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To answer your question Kitty my sweet, I will be in Dunners from April 9-21. I only get 12 days in NZ due to bloody time travel/zones/bollocks. I feel gypped. I think most of the pressies I bring back will be picked up from Duty Free as airlines never care how many DF bags you're carrying but they can get shirty about hand-luggage. It'll fab to see everyone again- I'm looking forward to shenanigans and high-jinx.

Ooh and finally- the blog is lookign hella-tight Kitty. Ka pai. Also that map link thingy is ultrafly. Who do we know in Sth America?

Fiddly diddly

As you can see, I've been fiddling with how this blogs looks... I can't decide if this is worse or better, kind of "minty fresh', is what it reminds me of.
I've also added a nifty little link in the side bar which is a map that shows where all are hits are coing from. I mean, if we have any that isn't us...
You'll also noticed the old links list was clensed somewhat, so please add yours again!

Fet's Emily came to visit yesterday. She is leaving the country in a couple of days to head over to ye olde England, so maybe you can have a Fet and Emily party! Apparently Fet has an interview for a job at Cambridge University Press, exciting!
But more exciting is that Aynia's comign back! Yay! Can you email me dates of when you'll be in Dunedin? I want to plan some exciting yee-har fun!

I'm in the process of making Issue 5 (OMG) and putting old issues on virtual critic. I forgot what an absolute fricken chore VC is, so will take me hours and years of my life to do it. But will be up soon, I promise!
Issue 5 is the "Middle Age Rampage Issue". Basically the ODT has been beating up (and off) over 'the student menace', so we went in search of middle age menace... or something llike it. Basically it was just an excuse for John, Hayden, Ryan and myself to hit the South D. pubs. You name it, we went there: the Cock and Bull, The Southern, Heffs...
Here are some sneaky pics of our night, you'll have to read the ariticle to see the rest. Booya!

<------ Some dude we met at 'Heff's' who wanted us to think of an excuse to tell his wife to explain why he was so late coming home.

<-------- AHA's 'Take on Me' at The Southern. They had $3 drinks, and a karaoke list in comic sans.

<-------- John and I won $20 on the BlackJack table at 3am. Woot!

<------- 'Come on Aileen' at Brimstone!

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Well I'm going to have earned my Guiness by the end of today. Which looks like it will be about half an hour away. Not too shabby. Most of the office is away today at the Outdoor Show so it's pretty much just the art department and a few stray animals. It's been a weird mix today of being quite chilled out because the office is empty and stressed out because I actually have a shite load of work to do. I even got up at 6:15am so that I could get to the gym before work which I was starting earlier than normal too. At home we've run out of gladwrap, tinfoil and baking paper- basically all out kitchen handy bits and pieces. So last night I told Sarah I'd grab them at lunchtime as after work I was going to the pub and she gave me A Look and said that maybe I should just leave it till Saturday because I'd probably leave them behind in the pub. Good point. Tonight I'm headed out with one bag only and even though it is my backpack, I'm sure I can remember one bag. Fingers crossed.

And finally, this is the Calvin I got this morning:

Have a good weekend!

There but for the grace of God...

This morning I picked up the Metro, a free newspaper that you usually find on London transport and flipping through it, came across a story about 6 people who have "fallen ill" (more like- have got seriously fucked up and could well die) while partaking in trials of a new drug. Check out the BBC website for stories on this in more depth. This had probably been on the news but I never get home in time for the news so the Metro this morning was the first I'd heard of it.

"First they began tearing their shirts off complaining of a fever, then some screamed out that their heads were going to explode."

"The head of volunteer Ryan Wilson, 21, swelled to three times its normal size as his limbs turned purple. The trainee plumber, who was being paid £2,000 to take part in the trial... begged doctors to put him to sleep because he was in such agony. Medics says chances of his survival are slim."

Now it's not Iike I had a close call with this or anything but it still seriously freaked me out. When I arrived in the UK, it took me 6 weeks to find work and by the end I was seriously strapped for cash, had borrowed what I could from whom I could and was pretty much at the stage where if I didn't get a job by the end of the week, I was going to have to change the date of my return flight from 2006 to ASAFP. (And as a self-defensive disclaimer, it's not that I'm an unemployable bum, it was a hard time to find work in general. Thank you terrorists, you did wonders for people wanting to hire foreigners. Nice one.) So I was looking for anything- secretarial/catering/pubs/cleaning etc. And I saw some ads for test subjects for drug trials and I remember thinking, "Well why not? It's bloody good money, you're stoney fucking broke, you're quite healthy, you'll be fine." But something stopped me. Thank Christ. And I've known people back home who, as poor students, have done drug trials and they've been fine but my advice- don't.

learning from Calvin

This is the kind of day I've had, hence my cop-out of a blog entry.
But when I was searching for a suitable cartoon I came across this one which reminded me how much I DO need a haircut. I am very Cousin It right now.

And finally this one, because it's cute.

Lazy blog sorry.

So I blogged here again finally, which shall give you some kind of update as to what is going on at the office. Basically same ol. same ol.
I must commend you on your plumbing nous Aynia, and yes, 'stopcock' is fricken hilarious.


The other night while a ceratin someone was proofing, I was blogging on this site. Then he suddenly finished so I had to do some quick outlining/.pdf-ing, and when I got back to his computer he had closed the window because he "didn't think I was using it anymore"... Hrrmmph.
It was basicallly about the Las Vegas hotel Excalibar, and how awesome it looked. I did all the virtual tours, including the one where you could see what an Excaliber wedding would look like!

Also:


aweesome!

the legacy of MacGyver

Well I had an eventful weekend. On Saturday night, after a leisurely evening of DVD and TV watching with Sam, I came home to discover that we had a leaky pipe. I went to get a clean dish cloth from under the sink and when I took the packet out, they were wet. So there's me standing in my kitchen at midnight going, "Hmm... there shouldn't be water under my sink... Soddit." So I took out all our cleaning products, wiped everything down and dried it and then located the leak. A few half-hearted attempts to tighten the screw/tap/thingy came to nothing and I didn't feel like putting some back in to it because water pissing all over me and my kitchen at midnight on a Saturday did not seem the ideal way to spend my weekend. So I stuck a plastic bag under it and bowl and went to bed. When I woke up the bowl was full- all 2.5L so I decided to get a bit inventive. I stuck a bucket under the sink but it didn't fit under the leak so I rigged up a little ramp/funnel thingy out of tinfoil that ran from the pipe to the bucket and et voila! The day was saved. (Or so I thought...) I'm telling you, some duct tape and a bit of fertiliser and I could have made a bomb.

So I rang the landlady, told her about the leak and went on my merry way. Arriving home at 5pm, I saw the bucket was full so I emptied it out and two hours later it was full again. Oh dear. So I called the landlady again and we decided to turn the mains off overnight so the bucket didn't overflow. Goodluck. TUrns out we've got some hella dodgey piping in our flat. No stopcocks in sight and no way to stop water leaking. (This was also the first time I ever had to find/use a stopcock or even say the word and I was tired and trying not to laugh. What a funny name. Stop. Cock. Hee hee) So I did what any girl would do in this kind of situation. I called my Dad. Stopcock located, eventually managed to turn it off (this took several attempts and I am not a weak person, I swear this thing was rusted in place) and I went to bed to sleep the deep calm sleep of those who know that they will not wake up to a floor full of water.

As of yet, I haven't heard from the landlady so I'm just hoping that she has indeed come by and fixed it- or at least looked at it and booked someone to come in and fix it. If not, she will be dealing with a not so cutey-cutey Aynia.

If you were a Simpson's character, what would YOU look like?

I had comtemplated posting a picture of my resculpted leg- I even took a photo at home. Actually I took more like 10. Ones taken looking down my leg made my ankle look fat, ones taken looking up my leg just made it look freaky and ones taken directly above the wound got whited out by the flash. But then I decided to get a life...

Salvation came on Friday afternoon when one of the guys at work pointed us all towards a site where you can make your own Simpson's character. It doesn't have a great range of options for the ladies. You're gonna look pretty hein no matter what you do but I did get to have blue hair. In fact I couldn't decide so I went for two.

Better than this though was the create-your-own Southpark character. This one is totally awesome and offers hours of fun for all the family. And you can accessorise (not that I did). Enjoy!

Viva Las Vegas

I thought it was time for a bit of Calvin & Hobbes. I had a free 10 day trial at Ucomics where I got sent one C&H cartoon every day and this is my last one. I have a great fondness for C&H. There are a wide range topics and it's hard to say which is my favourite. I love the ones with the snowmen, the minimalist ones, examples of Calvin's evil genius, his alternate realities or just the simple ones involving a boy and his cat. (As a side note, once my free trial runs out, these links may not work so get them while they're hot folks.)

I know I have already mentioned my talent for leaving my backpack behind at the pub after a couple of quiets with workmates but this morning I exhibited my other talent- resculpting my ankles with a fresh razor blade. I think those fuckers are blood thirsty because the number of times I have carved chunks of skin out of my lower shin/bit on the outside of my leg just above the ankle bone can be counted by the scars that I have to prove it. I don't know why this happens to me (apart form me being totally un-co and retarded) but this morning- at the gym of all places, I decided to deforest my legs and next thing I know, I'm pissing blood all over the shower stall. Well that's a slight exaggeration, it was just doing the nice razor cut trick of enthusiastically dribbling down my leg. It's bad enough doing this kind of thing at home but I didn't really feel like scaring the other women in the stalls beside me as red-stained water flowed past them in the drain (again I exaggerate but still...). I even had to go to Boots afterwards and buy Savlon and a Band-Aid strip. Oh the indignity.

But enough of my unmarketable talents- for the next five days I shall be living out my life trying to ignore the fact that my flatmate Sarah is in Las Vegas. That's right folks, she and her buddy decided to jet off to LV for a Bon Jovi concert. Why? Because they could. They're both travel agents so I'm guessing there's some kind of discount in the works somewhere but still... Dude. Jealous. Vegas. Wow. They are staying at The Excalibur which apparently has a male stripper in the foyer. Oh Vegas you are so classy. I think the Excalibur looks absolutely glorious and my enthusiasm may have scared even Sarah. I mean look at it. There is no way you can tell me that that is not a thing of beauty. Neon coat of arms decorate that walls AND, Sarah's book tells her that every hour on the hour, a mechanical dragon comes out and has a battle with a mechanical knight. Oh the glory. Since looking through Sarah's books and brochures, I would have to say that LV is now pretty up there on my list of places to go if I'm in the States. I'm not that big on crowds and don't gamble (I suck) but when one place has SO much glorious kitsch and tack and on such a grand scale, surely you owe it to yourself to witness it in person.

it's not a habit it's cool I feel alive

I've been aware for quite a while now that I actually NEED to go to the gym in the morning and it's not just guilt that's making me go, it's something else. But what? Well this morning I figured it out fo' shizzle. I was slogging away on the cross trainer, complete with super-trendy iPod in its armband, feeling quite tired and grumpy and hot and sweaty when suddenly the song changed on my iPod and WHAM, it hit me. Endorphins.

I like them. I like them a lot.

And then I knew for sure what I had previously expected. I'm not getting up at 6:45am every weekday for my health, it's for my daily injection of endorphins. One minute I'm some sullen lump on a machine and the next I'm this smirking athletic body racing off to some nirvana with scantily clad, buff young men.

What I can't seem to figure out though is exactly what sets it off. The funny thing was that this morning I was listening to songs which usually get me going at a fast and happy pace but this morning they just didn't seem to be working and I was resigned to a hard slog. But then it kicked in. It doesn't always happen at the same time or when I'm doing the same type of exercises or when I'm listening to the same song. Maybe my body's keeping me guessing, trying to add a little spice to my life. And to be honest, I don't really care. As long as the endorphins kick in, this girl is happy.

At the same time, I'm in no danger of becoming a complete junkie and spending 2 hours at the gym every day, just to get my fix. This is for at least two reasons: 1- I would have to get up earlier in the morning and that is so not happening 2- my body just wouldn't make it. I'd implode and if that didn't happen then limbs would start to drop off.

Oooh and I nearly forgot something I meant to mention yesterday in connection with the Oscars- Keira Knightley is a fake. For years now I have only just made it through movies she is in because her accent pisses me off SO much. She has the kind of ponsed-up hoity-toity British accent that non-Brits put on when they want to pretend to be upper-class and I've been thinking to myself, "That cannot be real." And guess what? It isn't. On Monday night there was a section of the news dedicated to the Oscar awards and there was a part where they talked to Keira who was all excited about having sat beside Jack Nicholson and when she opened up her mouth to talk, out came The Broadest Accent Ever. Hell yes, I love being right. I can understand how she may have had to tidy it up a bit seeing as she's been in several period dramas but dude, it is NOT her real accent. And you know what, it actually made me like her more. It's quite cute/funny when this delicate and sophisticated looking thing opens her mouth and out comes this broad and kinda nasty British accent. Bless her. This will not however not stop me being super annoyed whenever I hear her talk in movies in the future.

it ain't me babe

Well I had a relaxed and movie-filled weekend. On Saturday I finally got to see 'Walk the Line' which I just loved. Reese absolutely deserved that Oscar (in my oh-so-educated and acting-savvy opinion) and almost stole the movie from Joaquin. As a result I had Johnny Cash songs stuck in my head all weekend so spent almost all of yesterday listening to Cash as I went about my work. And although I knew and liked his songs before, this movie has given me a new appreciation of them. If you haven't seen it, DO.

I had planned to do an indepth foray into Chinatown's supermarkets on Sunday but Pirate Rob wasn't really in the mood although we were both mesmerized by some tacky waving cat statues. I'm sure they're something symbolic and traditional but they just made us laugh. So instead of loading myself with rice products, tofu and unidentified dried vegetables, we got Rob a new mouse for his computer and then went to see 'Syriana'. I haven't seen a movie like this in a while- like since I left NZ- since this is the kind of movie I go to with my Dad. The movie was almost ruined by the fact that Rob and I had been talking about 'Team America World Police' just before the movie (Rob had watched it again a couple of weeks ago) and then we sit down to this serious movie and on walks Matt Damon and Rob and I start sniggering. Luckily we settled down quite quickly.

And today has been a really good day- I've had 2 woffy (warm and fuzzy feeling) moments but one is private and the other would sound like I was bragging but still, two special things in one day. That ain't too shabby. And don't get your hopes up Kitty, they're not boy related. ;-)

Shame!

I though of a *fricken hilarious* visual design gag this morning in the shower! (Awwesome!) And when I say "fricken hilarious", I of course mean, not really funny at all ... infact pretty lame.


Are you ready? ...

My collection of whitespace:

35 sleeps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not that I'm counting or anything...

Poor Kitty for Critic-induced sleep deprivation. At least you have a weekend coming up. You could sleep for 48 hours straight if you needed to. I do hope you are keeping up the tradition of the dance break while the editor is proofing. Oh and those new iMacs- v sexy. In fact that's what I'm using at work. And they take up so little space! Just watch how much RAM you get with them because mine only came with 256 megs and had to be supersized so that Photoshop didn't take like a million years to open an image. And it's also slow for just general editorial stuff too so just be aware of that.

I'm looking forward to a weekend of not being sick- in fact I have plans for dinner and movies with the girls and catching up with Pirate Rob on Sunday. Hopefully more crazy "art" pictures from those escapades.

I need a neck rub and some voltaren gel

Now, Aynia, that is just insanely luxurious by the looks of it!

I've decided that when I come stay with you, we shall travel some of europe, particularly visiting this hotspot of bliss! Babies! Swimming pool! Sun! heaven!

It has been a rough last two weeks with Critic. The late nights have been extreme, and the issues relentless, plus I'm being tested for a revisit from the glandular fever fairy -- suck!

One thing that has been on the back boiler is the prospect of getting shiny new computers in the office. Lots of them! That would be awesome considering, the present gaggle's age, the hassel of beefing them with ram and memory, and the promise of technical lads doing ALL the re-networking and file backups. Heck they may as well do my job for a week.
The plan is to do a simultaneous trickle-down/broad sweep effect with new comps. Leave the G5 for a year, and replace G3s, then when Adobe put out their intel compatible CS Suite at the end of the year, upgrade the G5 to a pro, and pass present G5 to Ad Designer. So I'm thinking lots of shiny imacs, no more unexpectedly quitting, and fast fast fast. Letting the editor deal with that whole, you know, "money" thing.

Sheesh! My post is boring compared to yours Aynia! It's just because I haven't been anywhere else but home and the office all week, which is a mere 622 steps in total. The post office is inbetween, so whenever I go pay a bill, it's a really exciting detour, and proves how much I need to be getting out a bit more.
Will keep pestering Straylight for virtual Critic mouth-to-mouth, there has been a lapse in functioning somewhere...
Otherwise, y'all can email your street address hasty-like, and I'll send some your way!

Waiting fro some proofing to finish...
too doo doo do do do...

dum dee dumm daaaa...

Coming soon: More exciting weekend post next with pics, I promise!

eat my bib

So. Portugal. Well as you can see from the picture, Cathy's house has an AMAZING view (in fact the entire house is amazing). And I will definitely be back there is summer to soak up sun and frolic in the pool. The whole thing just was as restful as I might have hoped. In fact it wasn't really restful at all- poor innocent Aynia had no idea how much energy a sick 1 1/2 year old and precocious 3 1/2 year old can use up. I got to feed kids, change nappies, be a gate, read books, sing to ears that are too young to realise how crap I am at it, blow bubbles, be a human climbing wall and so much more... But I wouldn't have swapped it for anything. If the photo of my and Daisy looks like it was taken in a public toilet, that's because it was. She was sick and didn't like it when Cathy had to palm her off on to me so I was trying her keep her happy/distracted by taking photos of us. As you may gather from the photo, she wasn't buying it. That child is also attached to her dummy in a way that could only make me think of Maggi Simpson, it only came out to eat or drink- so hilarious.

Portugal itself is beautiful. This photo is from a walk I did by some natural springs. It was quite like NZ- in fact a lot of the inland stuff I saw was very like NZ but the coastal areas are totally different. What I loved about Portugal's coast was that you get this totally weird juxtaposition of plants. You get prickly pears and other cacti and then beside that a palm tree and looming behind them all, pine trees. It's all very green and the buildings are white with terracotta tiled roofs and arched doorways and entrances and gave me the wonderful peaceful feeling that I remember from travelling through Greece. Roll on summer!

help!

The Homestar Runner website is having a sale on their messenger bags and I've got me a massive hankering for one. It's the accessory for every girl. And boy. But which do I choose? I think I've ruled out the Homestar one because it's blue but do I go for grey or timeless black? And if I go grey, do I go for Strongbad or The Cheat? Oh the choices! At the moment I think my choices are between The Cheat and Trogdor. Which do I choose?