Resilient Russian

Quite an impressive achievement from the Russian Fella.  Imagine their surprise the first couple of times he came back to life.  I suppose they must have got used to it eventually.  Either that or they hated him so much, they had a medic on standby to revive him just so they could shoot him dead again...

I'll Take A Crate!

Only £7,200 a bottle, it's a bargain!  What I don't really understand though, is a standard 75cl bottle of Cristal 2002 is £290, and six litres is equivalent to 8 bottles, so I could buy exactly the same amount of overpriced champagne for £2,320 if I went for the more convenient to refrigerate normal sized bottles.  Or to put it another way, I could buy 24 bottles of exactly the same overpriced champagne for the same money as the giant bottle.  Could it be the bottle is worth £5,000?  Because it doesn't look that great.

Every Hotel Needs...

...giant plastic snails in the lobby!  Courtesy of the Golden Tulip Noailles in Paris.  You might think it's a little weird, I certainly did, but as a marketing strategy it was spot on (for me.)  As soon as I saw the pictures on their website I knew that was where I wanted to stay.

It also helps if you have an army of plastic gummi bears watching you through the window!

Armistice Day

"Mummy, I didn't know any soldiers who died in the war.  So how am I supposed to remember them?"

The girl has a point.

Trickle Treat

"Daddy, what's Trickle Treat?"
"Trickle Treat?  No, Poppet, it's Trick, Or, Treat."
"Oh.  How do you trick or treat?"
"Well, you knock on someones door and say 'Trick or treat!' and if they don't give you a treat, you play a trick on them."
"OK.  Shall we play trick or treat now?  I'll knock on the door and you say you won't give me a treat."
"Sure."
"Knock!  Knock!"
"Hello?"
"Trick or treat!"
"Errr, trick please."
"Ask me my name."
"OK, what's your name?"
"Rubella Witchy!"
"Hello Rubella.  Rubella?  Why is your name Rubella?"
"I've tricked you, my name isn't really Rubella."

Sorry Heston

I'm a big fan of Heston Blumenthal.  I'm also a big fan of gin.  So the combination of the two should be great, right?  Errr, sadly not really.  In fact, if I'm honest, it's just horrible.  I keep thinking I must have made some kind of mistake.  Surely, Heston Blumenthal knows more about how things should taste than I ever could?  In this instance though I'm forced to admit that maybe he doesn't get everything right.  

Writing this I've just remembered that I also didn't like his Pine Fresh Toilet Cleaner flavoured mince pies.  Ahh well, never mind, I'll go and console myself with some snail porridge.

An Unlikely Princess

I took Phoebe to a kids party at the weekend.  The parents had laid on an entertainer and while she was trying to get the children involved she gathered them round her and asked them who their favourite princesses were.  Yes, they were all girls.  She got the usual answers I was expecting - Cinderella, Rapunzel until she came to the birthday girl herself.  When she was asked, she just pointed and said "Phoebe!"

I'm glad to say Princess Phoebe didn't let it go to her head.