I have a grow your own venus fly trap kit. It all looks very easy from the instructions. You simply soak the compost in a little warm water, put it in the pot and plant the seeds. Then cover it with a plastic bag and wait for your little fly traps to grow. I have done all that and three days later, no little fly traps. Perhaps I am being impatient or perhaps I have done something wrong. Anyway, I will keep checking every few days to see if anything happens.

I don't suffer from hay fever as much as I used to, probably because I no longer wear contact lenses since having laser eye surgery. I do, however, find that I get a constant sore throat and runny nose during the summer months. I was interested to find out that a hay fever vaccine is currently being tested. It is meant to the reduce the symptoms of hay fever by training the immune system to tolerate pollen. During a four week trial volunteers who received the vaccine reported a significant  improvement in their symptoms. The only problem I can see is that it involves having an injection every week. Being scared of needles I think I will just live with the hay fever symptoms until it comes in a pill format.

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.

This is Tama the cat. She has been credited with turning around the fortunes of a loss making railway company in Japan. The Wakayama Electric Railway axed all its staff two years ago because it was making a loss. Last year Tama was appointed as station master and given her own office. Since then the company's fortunes have picked up and the number of passengers has increased by 10%. Despite the success Tama does not draw a salary, receiving cat food instead.

This is an interesting idea, a pair of pants that keep a check on the wearers blood pressure. The pants called "smart pants" contain sensors in the waistband that pick up information on how fast blood is flowing through the arteries, this can give vital clues about the condition of the artery walls and act as an early warning system to pick up any problems. They are still in the experimental stage but Phillips has recently applied for a patent for the idea so they might well be in the shops soon.

As of last weekend alcohol has been banned on the tube and its easy to see why when you see the scenes from the so called "tube alcohol party". The party was organised on Facebook so that people could enjoy the last night of being allowed to drink on the tube. During the party six tube stations has to be closed and services were seriously delayed. Predictably it ended with 17 people being arrested and four train drivers, three London Underground staff and two police officers being assaulted. All good reasons why the ban is a good idea.