An Australian scientist has said that eating kangaroo burgers could help cut greenhouse gas emissions. The scientist Dr George Wilson says that removing seven million cows and 36 million sheep by 2020 and replacing them with 175 million kangaroos could lower greenhouse gases by 3% a year. Currently sheep and cattle produce 11% pf Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions but kangaroos in comparison produce very little methane. Apparently kangaroos taste a little like venison. It sounds very interesting I wonder if you can get kangaroo in Sainsbury's?

This is an interesting idea, its a pair of shoes that are also sandals. As you can see from the picture the top part of the shoe unzips to reveal a sandal inside the sole. They are made by Nat-2 design and cost £59.99. There are currently over 20 different designs available and you can also mix and match the soles with different top part. Currently the only place to buy them in the UK is Wild Goose in Twickenham. They seem like a great idea for the unpredictable UK weather.

I have tried the Haagen Bath bath bomb from lush several times and it is fast becoming my favourite product. The bath bomb has a lovely minty smell and is meant to contain real chocolate. It turns the bath a really nice pale pink colour and it feels really nice and silky almost like bathing in a milkshake. It is really relaxing and makes your skin nice and soft and did I mention the mint and chocolate? I love this product. It is best enjoyed with a nice glass of red wine (drink the wine, don't pour it in the bath).

This is an interesting idea, a solar powered handbag. The bag uses solar panels to absorb the suns rays and turn them into electricity. The bag uses laminated solar panels made of photovoltaic film to convert sunlight into electricity. It then transmits the power to a circuit connected to two batteries in the lining of the bag and to a USB port. It can be used to charge most small devices such as mobile phones, cameras and ipods. It does, however, require two hours of full sunlight to charge a mobile phone battery. If you want one, they cost £150. 

According to this article makeup for men is becoming more popular with Superdrug stocking a new range of makeup for men called Taxi Man. The makeup is aimed at men who want to enhance their features. It will include eyeliner for men which is thicker than normal eyeliner to make it easier for men to grip. Later this summer the range will also include a concealer and a lip balm. I wonder how popular it will be, I can't see my husband liking the idea very much.

I buy a lot of things online but I also like to be able to send things back if I don't like them. That's where I think La Redoute have the right idea. Although they charge £3.99 post and packing you can do what is called a replacement order. Basically how this works is you receive your parcel, try everything on and then decide what to send back (with me there is always something). Then you decide which other items you want to order to try instead. Once you have the catalogue numbers of the items you want to try, then you give them call. Simply say you want to place a replacement order, let them know what is going back and what you want instead. Then they arrange a courier to pick up the items that are going back and you get a new parcel of goodies to try without having to pay another £3.99 postage. The best part is you can do this as many times as you want, so can quite happily work your way through the catalogue without worrying about being stuck with an item you don't like and can't return. The only way they could improve this service is if they let me do my replacement order online. I wonder whether they might consider adding this option to their website.

I usually do my supermarket shopping online because I find that I spend less money and am more likely to stick to my budget. Like most people I buy similar things most times I shop and these items appear in my favourite list. I have noticed, however, that items have started appearing in this list which I have never brought. As I have the only nectar card in our household I know that it is not my husband making purchases and have simply put the matter down to bugs in the system. For one couple, however, a similar incident nearly caused them to split up. Lynn Newby has logged into her Tesco account to do some shopping and noticed a packet of Mates condoms in her favourites list. Knowing that she hadn't brought them she assumed they must have been purchased by her boyfriend who shared the account with her. She then accused him of having an affair but he had no idea what she was talking about. It later emerged that the error was caused by Tesco and they sent the couple £100 along with a letter of apology.

This article suggests that customers are more likely to buy something when the price ends in 99. It is based on a study where French researchers demonstrated how lowering the price of a pizza from 8.00 euros to 7.99 euros boosted sale by 15%. The team of researchers studied more than 1,200 customers in a pizzeria. The menu included five pizzas alongside other meat and fish dishes. In the first week of the experiment the pizzas were all priced at 8.00 euros. In the second week the Pizza Valencia was dropped to 7.99 euros with the others remaining at the original price and in the last week all the pizzas were reduced to 7.99 euros. When the prices were identical 35% of customers opted for the Pizza Valencia but this increased to nearly half of customers when the price was dropped. In the final stage of the test there was no difference in sales between the five pizzas. Researchers also found that the 99 effect appears to work when customers are choosing between similar items and often pay less attention to the end of the price.

Selfridges have launched a very expensive teddy bear that costs £43,000. The bear has eyes made of emeralds and diamonds, its nose is made of of 24 caret gold and its fur is entwined with gold leaf. It also comes with an ink pot filled liquid gold. The bear is part of the stores first ever toy collection and is a limited edition. If you want one it is made to order and is available from August this year. I think its quite ugly.

If you have a bit of spare cash to spend then you might be able to afford a box of £5,000 chocolates from Harrods. The chocolates are made by the Lebanese chocolatier Patchi. The box itself is made from the finest materials, wrapped with leather and handmade silk. It contains 49 individually wrapped chocolates which sit on suede separated by gold and platinum lining. The chocolates are made from organically grown cocoa and decorated with gold and a Swarowski crystal flower or a hand made silk rose. A little too expensive for me, I'm afraid.

If you have trouble finding a sofa that matches your living room you might want to look at a bespoke option. Sofa specialist John Alan Designs can produce a sofa to match the size, colour and style of your room. They have a catalogue of different fabrics to choose from but can also use fabrics you already have. They can also use wood to match your current furnishings. Its an interesting idea but at a cost of £2,000 per sofa, a little out of my price range. Maybe one day if I win the lottery.

I have lost count of the number of times that I have walked out of the supermarket only to set off all the alarms. This is usually followed by having to stand outside the store, unpacking all of your carefully packed shopping whilst the security guard looks for the offending item. To be fair, 95% of the the times this has happened I have been buying alcohol which I would expect to be tagged. However, on a recent shop, during which I purchased a number of low value groceries I was baffled as to what could have triggered the store alarm. It was, however, my rather ordinary looking lamb joint. It appears that supermarkets have now started to put security tags on meat. This article highlights one Sainsbury's store in Eastbourne which now tags all its chickens because they have been experiencing a rise in people shoplifting them. Whilst I am not against supermarkets putting these electronic tags on items, if they are going to start putting them on everyday items, I would appreciate it if they removed them when customers do actually pay for their shopping.

I tried this Jungle conditioner from Lush this weekend. Its a solid conditioner that contains cocoa butter, bananas, ylang ylang oil and sandalwood oil. You are meant to rub it along your hair and then rinse it out and according to the lush website the comb will then "slide through your former tangles like a hot knife through butter". Not if you have thick hair like mine it won't. It left my hair a mass of tangles and there was no way a comb was going to go through it, so in the end I had to put a double helping of another conditioner through it. I won't be buying this again. Another Lush product which is better suited for people with thin hair.

I had a very unproductive weekend last week because I have been revisiting some of my old computer games that I have never got around to completing. The main reason for doing this is because I am feeling a little poor at the moment so rather than spending money on new movies or box office films I thought I would make use of what I have already. That said, my husband is obviously not feeling poor because another box arrived today with a Playstation 3 inside. I'm not sure where he managed to find it because its one of the 60GB versions which will also play Playstation 2 games (yes I have already tried it, even though I am meant to be working). I expect there will soon be more details on Rory's blog shortly as well as a more technical view of my new laptop. I see another unproductive weekend ahead.

I do my shopping monthly so usually shop online because my ford fiesta is simply too small to take a months worth of groceries. I was surprised that the usually quite reliable Sainsbury's website was down when I tried to place an order on Wednesday. It appears the issue was caused by by a technical problem which meant they couldn't process any orders. What did surprise me was the website was down all of Thursday as well and the issue only appears to have been resolved today. Apparently during those few days more than 30,000 customers have not received their orders, with all deliveries being cancelled on Wednesday, Thursday and today. The good news for people that use the Sainsbury's online service, is it appears to be working correctly now, so fingers crossed the problem is fully resolved by next weekend when I am expecting my delivery.

Wine prices are likely to rise as much as 10% this year according to this article. The chief executive of Majestic has said that the increases are to cover increases in wine duty and currency costs. It will mean that bottles of wine that currently cost £6 or £7 will go up as much as a £1.00. That's quite a lot on the price of a case, maybe its time to cut back and save some cash.

I came across this article about a product called LipContour briefs. The makers of the briefs claim that the product can take inches off of the hips and thighs without the wearer having to do any exercise. All you need to do is wear them for eight hours a day for eight to twelve weeks. Personally I'm a little skeptical, although at £49.99 they might be worth a try.

This is an interesting idea, its a greetings card that has seeds impregnated into the paper. When you have read the card instead of throwing it away, you plant it. The card should then grow and you should be rewarded with some flowers. The cards start at just £1.99 each so are about the same price as a normal greetings card. I might get my Christmas cards from here next time.

I tried a new shampoo from Lush yesterday. It is called Curly Wurly and according to the lush website it is meant to "calm curls and tame tangles. It has quite favourable reviews on their site but I hated pretty much everything about it. Firstly the smell and texture of the shampoo is fairly awful. It contains lots of pieces of coconut and after applying the shampoo it took me over an hour and half to try and remove these from my hair. I can only think that it is meant for people with thin hair, but if you have thick hair, be warned that coconut will take a long time to wash out. Secondly rather than removing tangles it seemed to add them to my hair, it also dried it out leaving it more fluffy and if possible thicker than usual. The only thing I liked about the shampoo was that the next day my hair smelt really nice but I will not be using this again.

This article suggests that people are now so busy that they cannot find time to peel and orange. It looks at figures that show the consumption of oranges has fallen by 2% in the last twelve months. The figures from TNS are attributed to the fact that the average worker only has 15 minutes for lunch and so is choosing not to eat oranges because they take too long to peel. I'm not really sure how much true there is in this, personally I buy a lot of oranges but don't peel them, instead I like to juice them.

Asda are selling sausages that cost just 16p for eight, or 2p per sausage. The sausages contain just 34% pork with the rest made up of water, wheatflower, pork fat and pork rinds. Whilst the chef is this article didn't find them particularly appetising, with food prices rising and many families struggling to make ends meet, I'm sure there are plenty of people who will try them.

We always find that no matter how many times we clear out the shed it always becomes full again very quickly. I think I have finally found the answer this huge shed. It costs £13,000 and is available from Argos. The only problem is, its just a little bit too big for our garden.

If you like Champagne, then you might be interested to know that Sainsbury's own brand Champagne has recently won a gold medal at the annual wine awards. Judges rated the Champagne as highly as Piper Heidsieck, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot's 1998 La Grande Dame which cost around £85. The Sainsbury's Champagne, however, has a rather more modest price tag at just £23.99 a bottle.

Its my birthday today and I have just opened my present from husband. I have wanted a new camera for a while now and am now the owner of a Nikon D40. So far I have just about figured out how to charge the battery and attach the strap. As the rest of the buttons are rather similar to my old SLR camera, I'm sure I will taking lots of pictures soon so watch this space.

A man in Suffolk has found a baby tarantula in a bunch of grapes he brought from Asda. He caught the spider which was later rehomed at a local reptile centre. I hate stories like this, they always make me a little wary when buying fruit.

If you are one of those people that has never got used to calling Opal Fruits Starburst then you will pleased to know that Opal Fruits are back for a limited time. The manufacturer will sell Opal Fruits for a period of three months before reverting back to calling them Starburst. The sweets will be available in the original four flavours, orange, lime, lemon and strawberry. They will be sold exclusively through Asda from the 11th of May for 12 weeks so get them while you can.

A luxury watch with a price tag of £150,000 has sold out within 48 hours of going on sale. That might not seem surprising but the watch is unusual because it doesn't tell the time. It has a crocodile skin strap and is made from steel salvaged from the wreck of the titanic encrusted with sapphires. The face is divided into two sections which signify day and night. It is described by the manufacturer as “world unique - a watch that does not tell the time” and the chief executive of the company says “Anyone can buy a watch that shows time, but only a discerning customer can buy one that doesn’t.” Call me old fashioned I think I will stick with a cheaper watch that tell the time.

This is an interesting idea, a suit that can be worn and washed in the shower. It is made from fast drying Australian merino wool and is designed for the Asian market. It is aimed primarily at businessmen who are required to wear a suit in the humidity of an Asian summer. At the end of the day all you need to do is hose the suit down in the shower and hang it up to dry. It regains its shape and is ready to wear again the next morning without the need for dry cleaning.

This is an interesting idea, children's shoes that can extend as the child grows. The shoes are called inchworm shoes and they can extend by as much as one full shoe size. All you need to do is adjust the shoe to fit by pressing a button and pulling the toe out to the required length as shown below. They are available in child sizes only and cost £48.

I tried a butterfly ball bath bomb from Lush the other day and whilst its not one of favourites it is still quite nice. It turns the bath a rather nice shade of pink and includes little sparkling butterflies (pictured left). At £1.95 its quite good value too.

I was in Sainsbury's the other day and came across a rather disturbing sight (pictured left). Wine in plastic bottles, it just doesn't seem right somehow, wine is supposed to come in a glass bottle with a proper cork. Whilst I appreciate it is probably packaged in this way to cut costs, it has the look of fruit juice and comes across as somewhat cheap and nasty. This is only my first impression, as I haven't actually tried the wine, if I can bring myself to purchase a bottle (or should I say carton) of this wine, then I will review here later.

I don’t eat chocolate very often but when I do I like to have something a little bit special. My husband came home the other day with a selection from Hotel Chocolat. It is called a Peepster Box and contains four of what they call their mini slabs. The mini slabs are as the name suggests small slabs of individually wrapped chocolate. The pack I had included one each of Belgium chocolate, milk chocolate, honey milk chocolate and dark chocolate. I have sampled all of them and still can’t quite decide whether my favourite is the milk chocolate or the honey milk chocolate. Mmm chocolate.