Nutella Consumption Guide

Nutella! My favourite source of chocolatey goodness. 

Nutella has been produced since 1964, and if you want to read more about that kind of thing the Wiki article is here

Ferrero were sued last year, because "Nutella's misleading promotion led consumers to believe that Nutella carries nutrutional and health benefits, marketing it as part of a nutritional breakfast" but to the Fererro family $3m is nothing so they took it in their stride, and contnue to produce the pure chocolate ecstasy that is their hazelnut spread.

If you believed that liquid chocolate was part of a nutritious breakfast you deserve a slap for being a fool. Nutella, in all it's delicious awesomeness, doesn't have to be a source of nutrition to make it to people's breakfast / lunch / dinner tables, computer desks and small tables next to the sofa for perfect access while playing video games.

I have in the past not answered a phone call on more than one occasion because I was wrist deep in a jar of Nutella, and well.. priorities.. 

750g jar of Nutella

Anything less than a 750g jar is easy work in a mere hour or two, sometimes minutes, so obviously the 750g is the best way to go, and if you are not sure where to find this happiness in a jar, check your local supermarket, E-Mart, Costco and Sainsbury's have it for sure as that is where I go to feed my addiction. 

Consumption Guide! :D

Preparation:

You will need a knife, a spoon, and freshly thouroughly washed hands.

I suggest settling in front of the TV or computer or wherever you watch things, and put on your favourite TV show or anime series for eating this (doesn't matter what it is, the taste of Nutella even negated the gore I was exposed to while watching "The Walking Dead".) as getting up and moving around can impede the consumption process, (although if you have access to this than you can get over that problem). 

They suggest breakfast as a good time to eat Nutella, but that is way too limiting, and I rarely eat breakfast. Especially now I am unemployed breakfast = lunch anyway. Sometimes eating while playing games can be OK  but you will need both hands or the great speed and coordination to lick a spoon clean in seconds while simultaneously gripping a 750g jar between your knees and holding a console controller in the other hand (I have this coordination).

1st Stage of Nutella Eating

It all starts in a reasonably civilised way, with a nice loaf of bread or a crumpet, and a knife for application. When you run out of bread, progress to the 2nd stage.

2nd Stage

At the 2nd stage only a spoon is needed, often at this point you get thirsty so you need a glass of water at hand for this stage. Scoop mountains of Nutella out with the spoon, the more you can actually pile on the spoon the less energy you will have to waste dipping the spoon in the jar. It's all about efficiency.

After the 2nd stage you will start to find that the spoon comes back less than completely coated more often and then you need to progress to the 3rd Stage.

3rd Stage

The next stage requires one to revert to ones most basic hunter gatherer skills, the gathering eating part mainly. Before one undertakes in this part of the eating stage, although I am sure that most people would have done so already, washing your hands is essential because licking unwashed hands can lead to all kinds of sickness. 

The use of ones finger will result in the removal of all but a small trace of chocolate love from the jar. I find it is better to keep a fingernail short for this purpose, as getting chocolate out from under nails can be difficult and result in tongue cuts.

As you can see the jar opening is just wide-enough to allow an adult hand to get in there. I see this as the makers of Nutella encouraging us not to waste any of this chocolatey goodness.

I hope this guide can help you to enjoy Nutella.

(NB: Excessive consumption of Nutella could possibly lead to high sugar related disease like diabetes and obesity, and in my case eczema outbreaks but I think think there is anything wrong with a treat every now and again!!!)

Anime Addiction

Over the years I have developed an interest in Japanese animation, and naturally, you watch all the famous ones first right? So now I am in need of inspiration!

Any recommendations for something new?!.....

Any questions on the one's I have seen??

Another

Appleseed
Arve Rezzle: Mechanized Fairies 

Ayakashi Japanese Classic Horror

Azumanga Daioh

Baccano!

Battle Programmer Shirase

Black Cat

Bleach (and movies)

Blood+

Blue Drop

Bokura ga Ita

Btoom!

Cencoroll

Claymore
Colorful

CowBoy Bebop

D.Gray-Man

Darker than Black 1&2, Darker than Black OVA

Deadman Wonderland

Death Note
Death Parade

Detective Academy Q

DragonBall

Durarara!!

Eden of the East

Electromagnetic Girlfriend

Elfen Lied

Ergo Proxy

Final Fantasy Advent Children

Five Numbers

Fooley Cooley

Fruits Basket

Full Metal Alchemist

Gankutsuou

Gantz

Ghost Hound

Ghost Hunt

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 1&2 (and all

movies)

Gilgamesh: Who's side are you on?

**Gintama**

Grave of the Fireflies

Great Teacher Onizuka

Gundam Seed

Gundam Seed Destiny

Gundam Wing

Gungrave

Haibane-Renmei

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

Howl's Moving Castle

Inuyasha

Karas
Kami-sama no Memo-chou: It`s the Only NEET Thing to Do. 

King of Thorn

Kiki's Delivery Service

Laputa; Castle of the Sky

Lupin III

Mardock Scramble

Maria+Holic

Metropolis

Mnemosyne

Monster

My Neighbour Totoro

Nana

Naruto

Natsume Yuujinchou

Natsume Yujincho 2 

Natsume Yujincho 3 

Natsume Yuujinchou 4 

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion Reboot

Ninja Scroll

Nyan Koi

Occult Academy

One Piece

Origin - Spirits of the Past.

Ouran High School Host Club

Pale Cocoon

Paranoia Agent
Patema Inverted

Perfect Blue

Phantom, Requiem for the Phantom

Princess Mononoke

Psychic Detective Yakumo

Psycho-pass 1 & 2
Red Garden

R.O.D Read or Die

Rurouni Kenshin

Samurai Champloo

Samurai Xanothe

Serial Experiments Lain

She and her cat
Soul Eater

Shiki

Speed Grapher

Spirited Away

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Sky Crawlers

Time of Eve

Trigun

Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight Guilty
Vexille

Welcome to the NHK!
When They Cry

07 Ghost

5cm per second

(I have only included series that I have watched to the most current episode including movies)

"The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson

On 3:40am on Wednesday I finished reading "The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson. It was a rather interesting read, he has a really funny writing style, so the book went by and I hadn't even realised.

Safe in the knowledge that I am not a psychopath I could rest easily for one night at least. Throughout the book he interviews a number of interesting doctors, patients, convicted criminals, a hippy, and people with views on psychiatry. He also delved into Scientology's war on psychiatrists and paired up with a Scientologist for some of his investigating, which I thought was brave.

He interviewed a death squad leader, who claimed he just wanted people to like him. It was really disturbing how he thought that the worst kind of person was a thief, and to be accused of being a thief was a huge insult, and this is after his men had been raping and killing their way through Haiti.

I also found myself thinking about the plight of 'Tony', eventually he was released, but his situation was a little unnerving, as I had never really thought about how proving sanity could be a lot more difficult than showing insanity. It is in so many films, where the main character see's the ghost/monster and tells their relatives/friends only to be put in a mental home, resulting in the monster/ghost having to go all the way there to get the job done, and just for the irony, to kill the doctors who didn't believe them. The way the Terminator freaks out the psychiatrist in three consecutive movies, but he still doesn't believe Sarah's story, is one of my favourites.

But it is always something you assume right? Sane before proven Insane? If we all had to prove our sanity.. how would you do that? What is normal?

I always get into books and find myself absorbed till I'm on the last page and wondering where the day(s) went.  Papillion was the only one that I didn't finish. I don't know why, I got half way through that book and to the part where he is living in a jungle with a few wives or something, and just stopped reading. Actually I have tried a few times to pick it back up but its like my 'interest' switch is off.

I received "The Lucifer Effect" and "Nudge" as gifts from a friend so I have started on those, I found the writing style in Nudge to be a little boring so I switched to The Lucifer Effect for now, and I will get back to that later.

Might watch T2 now.....

mmmmmmmmmm........uhhhhhhhh......

Breaking my Hermit Ways - Liverpool

Breaking routine and pulling myself from the protective womb of my living room out into society for a whopping second time in no less than three days, I'm finally on my way to Liverpool.
I find long train journeys really relaxing.. chilling out to music while watching scenery.

When booking online I chose the seat with a plug socket to allow worry free phone use the whole way.. nothing sucks more than running out of battery and losing music, while also opening your ears up to potential crying babies and people who laugh louder than I do, while on a journey. However my seat choice also meant that I would have to sit facing a stranger. I sometimes wonder whether people look at me and can tell that I'm unemployed.. like a cartoon smell.. the are wavy 'unemployed' lines rising from my head.. I'm past the age where people would assume student, and I look way to chill to have an army of children, I dunno. Maybe because I like to guess what other people do, where they're going, whether they like Marmite or not, I'm just over thinking.

I managed to make it through most of the journey avoiding eye contact with the successful looking business man sitting across from me, and took some scenery pictures :)

Most of them were poo because as soon as I saw a nice view I'd unlock my phone, go to the camera app, and by the time I was ready for my pic there was a line of trees blocking the view.. or a wall.. so after a few shots I got this;

Snowy fields seen  from the London - Liverpool train

When I first took that and posted it on Instagram it seemed really eerie.. then I looked at it again to post it here and it seemed really chill/peaceful. The only difference was soundtrack;

First time;

Second time;

Soundtrack is so important..

Beware the non-sour sour Skittles!

As a sugar addict being in Korea was a blessing and a curse at the same time. Most of the sweets and chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, flapjacks, brownies, cakes etc. that I used to snack on in England were either absent or tasteless replicas in Seoul. 

I thought the cakes were generally kinda tasteless, and bread was always sweet. Of course if you wanted to spend big bucks and go to a specialist bakery it was possible, but I don't think you should have to pay through the nose for a loaf that isn't sweet tasting, when as far as I knew bread wasn't supposed to be sweet and cakes weren't supposed to be bland. Koreans often commented when eating cake with me, "oh.. this is too sweet" and I often wanted to point out that, as a cake covered in chocolate, it is supposed to be sweet, however I just put it down to cultural difference and held my tongue. 

Cupcakes were the biggest fail there, even cupcakes from shops that were dedicated to only making cupcakes. If I went to the right places and searched enough I could find really great bread, cheesecakes were almost always delicious, brownies were great, but cupcakes were always terrible, without fail, no matter how pretty they looked, or how expensive they were. There were cupcakes that looked really fluffy and well made, and every time I bought one I felt like I was cheated into buying something tasteless.

I really liked Korean snacks though, with rice cake (떡) being one of my favourites, 

and in the summer ice-flakes topped with fruit and sweets, sometimes nuts and cereal (삥수) was a nice snack, especially if the ice was flavoured. Bingsu also often contained rice cake although the toppings varied from place to place.

Cafe bene's bingsu

Found this bingsu in a google search and now I really want one.

That aside, I noticed a difference in one of my favourite sweets; 'Skittles'. 

Anyone who is serious about E numbers and sugar knows the really good Skittles are the sour ones. 

But when I bought sour Skittles overseas I noticed they have a sour coating but the actual Skittle isn't sour at all! What a con!

"Sour Skittles"

"Skittles Crazy Sours"

The lack of my favourite sweets etc. also probably contributed to the huge loss of weight I experienced when I first moved abroad, and was not a terrible thing. However now I am surrounded with all these treats again can I hold back?

Where can I find bingsu in London......??  (ㅡㅂㅡ)/

The Chop

Every time I make the decision to grow my hair I get the urge to cut it a few months later and the cycle continues leaving me with a short do. At the moment its longer than it has been in years, but I am starting to get bored with it already. I want to dye it (something like baby pink, or bright blue), I want to cut it short, I just want to play with it, but I know that as soon as I do that I throw away my chance of having long hair again.

At a photo-shoot they gave n this upstyle that looks like a short do, which was an interesting change. They used a lot of pins and just pulled it all up so the ends from the back of my hair were actually on the top of my head. My normal hair is shown next to it so you can see the length they were working with. Maybe a cut like this would be fun. I am just going to wait till my wigs get here from Korea because then even if I cut my hair I can have the best of both worlds... right.....?? I was looking at hair tints too, I don't know anyone who has used them but this one seems like fun and it has mostly good reviews.

In the winter my wig is the best because its warm and having long hair I think adds some femininity to chunky winter layers. I dunno. I don't think that many people wear them so it is a little strange, but I don't care, I see it as an accessory and its not pulling chunks out of my hair like my extensions did. Another reason why I wear the wig sometimes. If you are running late, but you still have to deal with hair, putting on a wig is like having a ready made hairstyle! This one is synthetic, but you can use flat irons on it on a low setting.

My sister recently took the leap and cut her hair into a short bob, shaved pretty high at the back, in her first step towards going all natural. I applaud her for wanting to do that, I can't be arsed with an afro at the moment. Just trying to comb through the roots that are growing through is infuriating and I have all but given up till I go for a straightening or Brazilian Blow Dry.

I feel like there is this pressure for me to go natural, like people think I am trying to be something I am not when I straighten my hair.. I just think its less hassle, and if its straight I can add curls easily, but if its curly its really hard to get it straight properly. Meh, each to their own, if I had the patience to grow out a beautiful afro that would be nice, but knowing me it would never get that long because I don't think I would do half of the treatments I am supposed to do. I am going to watch my sisters progress and see what's up..

2013

As is my regular redundant custom in the new year I always get a really cute, pretty and sometimes expensive diary from the stationary store, use it for a month and when it becomes bothersome to carry around it joins the collection of diary's past in the corner wondering where they went wrong. This time I have decided to save trees and cash by starting a blog.

The problem I had before was that, when cool things that I should write about in my diary happened, I was too busy having fun to write about it, and when I was home reflecting on life's more depressing points I was drawn to write about it and it made for some rather depressing reading. So this time I am going to just write things I remember, recent, past, whatever.

To welcome in the new year my friends and I took our hangovers to a park, or so I was lead to believe till we arrived and it was actually a graveyard. I am not one of those people who used to hang out at the graveyard as a teenager, drawing pentagrams and writing poetry, so at first I thought it all a bit odd that after all these long years, on New Years Day I found myself at a grave yard.

My initial preconceptions aside it turned out to be a peaceful and quite beautiful place. As it was sunset the light that filtered through the trees and over the gravestones gave Brompton Cemetery a glow making it more towards the peaceful and less Evil Dead.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the fresh (London) air and the stroll. Apparently this cemetery was used in the filming of Sherlock Holmes. Watching as squirrels were playing on one of the deceased's resting places was a really good reminder that life is short and I should make the best out of the new years, because once in the ground everything just goes on without you. Squirrels have no respect. I was bitten by a squirrel once at school.