After completing Gears of War some time ago I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Gears of War 2 but had put off buying it, in case I received it for Christmas. I did receive the game as a gift from my husband and we tried it out for the first time today. We like to play in the co-op mode as we find it makes for a better game. So far I am not disappointed. We have successfully avoided mortar attacks to go underground to try and defeat the locusts and most recently have managed to survive being eaten by a giant worm. This game is more challenging then the last but it looks like it will provide many hours of great gaming, I better get back to it, whilst I have some holiday time to spare.

One of the presents I received this Christmas was Rockband for the Xbox. I have wanted this game for a while and it was a real surprise when my husband appeared with a huge box on Christmas morning. After putting together the instruments I had a go at the drums and Rory tried the guitar before switching over and trying the other instruments. Both instruments took a little bit of getting used with the singing being the easiest and least challenging part. After a little practice, however, this game gets really addictive. I haven't quite mastered the guitar but I am starting to get quite good at the drums. This is a game that appeals to all ages as well. Rory's parents spent Christmas with us and we formed a band with me doing the singing, Rory's mum and dad taking turns at manning the drums and Rory on lead guitar. Despite it being quite an expensive game I can see we are going to have hours of fun with this. Once we have exhausted the songs on the original disk I will be off to the music song to download more.

I would like to wish all my readers a happy Christmas. I have received lots of new toys today and will be reviewing these in the coming days so watch this space.

Every night for a few weeks my four cats have been running up and down by the window shaking their tails and making hunting noises. It took a while to find out the cause of all the excitement and it was only after a week or so that I discovered Mr Nibbles (pictured) as I have named him. After several days of sitting by the window with my camera and using a little cheese as bait, I finally managed to get a picture of our elusive night time visitor. At least we know the cats are not crazy now, there really was something out there. Mr Nibbles only visits when all the cats are closed in for the night so for now he is perfectly safe and its great entertainment for the cats.

This article suggests that snorers burn more energy whilst they sleep. Apparently people who are heavy snorers burn around 373 extra calories a day compared with those with only mild symptoms. Scientists studied the link between weight gain and sleep apnoea and looked at 212 patients. On average the volunteers burnt 1,763 calories a day, whilst those with the worst symptoms burnt 1,999. The extra calories amount to the same amount that you would burn if you did a 30 minutes work out in the gym. 

This is quite cool its actually three parts of a tree that appear to look like one big tree from outside the house. Greig Howe cut a 35ft Christmas tree into three parts and put one part in his sitting room, another in a bedroom and the last part on the roof. It took  several people two days to put the tree in place and some of the branches are so big that the windows of the house need to be kept open. The tree is decorated with 160 baubles and 2,000 lights.

I appreciate that products that contain nuts need to have warnings on them to alert people who suffer allergic reactions but I sometime wonder whether this policy goes a bit too far. The reason I say this is that I picked up a large bag of unshelled mixed nuts in the supermarket the other day. The product is clearly labelled as "unshelled mixed nuts" and it is clearly what it says on bag. On the back is a large label saying "warning may contain nuts". I find the wording somewhat amusing "may contain nuts", I thought I had brought a bag of nuts, is there any doubt that the product has nuts in it, what else would it contain?

This article suggests that otters are now starting to become much more common in Britain. Otters have previously struggled to survive in Britain and have been restricted to isolated parts of the countryside. Although they were widespread in the 1950's they were nearly wiped out by the 1970's due to the use of pesticides which poisoned both the otters and the fish they depend on for food. It appears that improvements in the water quality of rivers and increasingly fish stocks now means that the creatures are becoming more common. Some otters have also started to adopt an urban lifestyle with reports of them being seen in gardens, parks and churchyards.

Burger King have released a barbecue scented cologne. It is called Flame and is being promoted as "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat". It is currently only available in the US and costs $3.99. It is being marketed as a novelty stocking filler but I'm guessing it is not suitable for vegetarians.