I have noticed that eBay have been making a few changes recently. The first is that they will be introducing higher charges for selling items. Although the fee for listing an item will decrease from 15p to 10p, EBay’s cut of the final selling price will actually increase. This will mean that the fee charged will increase from 5.25% to 7.5% that’s roughly 68p extra per item sold. It doesn’t sound like a lot and perhaps it isn’t if you just list the odd item every now and again. For those people that make a living selling on eBay however, it is likely to mean they will have increase their prices in order to make it worthwhile. Personally I have stopped listing on eBay altogether recently because it is expensive to keep relisting products and I often find that I spend more on fees in a month that I actually make from the listings. Not only do you have to take into the listing fee, the final value fee but if your customers pay via Paypal (owned by eBay) then they take a another cut for the transaction. There is good news, however for power sellers who will get discounts of up to 40% on the final value fees, but it does make me wonder if eBay is pushing out the small sellers.

The second change is that eBay are making changes to the way their feedback system works. The change means that eBay sellers will no longer be able to leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers although buyers will still be able to leave negative feedback for sellers. eBay are introducing the changes because they believe that it will encourage buyers to be more honest when leaving feedback as they will not fear receiving negative feedback in return. On a quick visit to the eBay forums I noticed that this change has left many sellers wondering what they should do if a buyer proves to be untrustworthy. The majority of comments are from people who have experienced fraudulent transactions from buyers in the past and feel that the new feedback changes will leave them unable to highlight these fraudulent buyers so that other users know to avoid them. It will be interesting to see how these new changes affect eBay but one thing is for sure there are certainly a lot of very unhappy people out there at the moment.

If you need a new suit but are a bit short of cash then you might want to head down to your nearest Asda. They are currently selling a pair of black boot leg trousers and a classic women’s white shirt for just £5. The outfit will be on sale until the 26 February. Asda also sell a men’s suit for only £15. At that price there is no excuse not to wear a suit although personally I wonder how well made the items are at this price. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has purchased one. I might see if I can purchase one so that I can review it here.

I went to my first ice hockey game on Saturday. It was at the Guildford Spectrum, home of the Guildford Flames. The game we watched was the Guildford flames playing the Chelmsford Chieftains. It proved to be a rather fast moving game that ended 10-5 to the Guildford Flames. Throughout the game I was impressed with the player’s skill and agility on the ice. I was also impressed by the level of sportsmanship shown. Although ice hockey tends to be a rough game whenever a player was knocked down they got straight back up and commenced playing whereas in a football match for example, they tend to look for any excuse to pretend to be injured and claim the advantage. I also found the mix of people at the game very interesting. There seemed to be a base of elderly people who are obviously devoted followers as well as lots of families with their children. It appears to be a game that anyone can enjoy, one thing I would suggest though is take a thick jumper with you, as it tends to get a little cold.

I read this article that suggests some coffee sold by high street chain can contain a third of the recommended daily calorie intake. The article highlights coffee such as Starbucks large white chocolate mocha which contains 628 calories. In comparison a medium mocha with whipped cream from Caffe Nero contains 326 calories and a medium mocha flake from Costa Coffee contains 297 calories. Whilst this may seem a lot, all of these coffee brands contain whole milk, chocolate and cream so personally I would expect them to have a high calorie content.

A man who managed to build a castle behind a haystack could face having it demolished. Robert Fidler built the castle over the course of two years but kept it concealed behind a 40 foot stack of hay bales. He then lived there for four years before revealing the castle in August of last year. He claims that because the castle has been there for four years with no objections that it is no longer illegal. However, the council planners say that the law does not apply in this case because no one has had the chance to see it.

When Kelly Levy lost her cat Gracie Mae she looked everywhere without success. It was only later that she got a phone call from Texas. Rob Carter had picked up what he thought was his suitcase at the airport and taken it home. However, on opening it, he was surprised when a cat jumped out. It transpired that he had picked up a suitcase belonging to Kelly’s husband Seth, which contained his luggage and a rather curious cat. Rob later called the number on the cat’s collar and Gracie Mae made the 1,300 mile trip home to Palm Beach Gardens on an $80 plane ticket.

Nobody like paying fines but some people go to extraordinary lengths to avoid them. Shafkat Munir had been caught speeding three times in the space of two months and fearing he would lose his driving licence, he hatched a rather cunning plan. He had already contacted the police to try and contest the fines but having no luck, he instead tried to pretend he had died. A man called Rashid Hussain called the ticketing office to say that his friend Shafkat Munir had died in Pakistan in 2002. The same man then forwarded a death certificate to the police. Although the certificate had several errors Hussain still insisted his friend was dead. However when the police rang the mobile number given by Hussain, Shafkat Munir answered the phone. Not the brightest plan. Munir was later arrested.

I found this recipe the other day for beer battered cod and thought I would try it out. Its quite an easy recipe but I found it had really good results. Basically we prepared the batter by mixing the flour and beer as described in the full recipe (I used Abbot Ale) and then folding in the egg whites. See the picture on the left hand side.

 

Then I added the egg whites whilst Rory salted the fish on both sides before seasoning it. After coating the fish in the batter we cooked it in a large wok, making sure the oil was really hot first. We then cooked each piece of fish, individually for about 5 minutes (see picture on the right) and were surprised to see that as it hit the hot oil the fish immediately fluffed up. 

We kept the pieces of fish warm in the oven whilst cooking the rest in the pan. You can see the finished result below.

We also had some batter left over so made some onion rings by slicing the onion, coating it in batter and dropping it in the oil. And as a last experiment we did the same with a few mars bars (see picture below) they tasted dreadful.

I read this article about a horse called Digger who is thought to be Britain’s biggest horse. He stands 19 hands high (that’s 6ft 5 ins) and he is still growing. Digger is only four years old so he could grow even bigger and perhaps be a contender for the title of world’s biggest horse. He already eats four times as much as an ordinary sized horse and drinks 20-25 gallons of water a day.

In all the time we have had our cats we have never managed to get them all in one place to capture a photo of the whole family. We were lucky enough to snap this picture the other day. As you can see Willow (grey) and Lucy (stripy) are about to attack each other so the illusion of a happy family didn't last very long.

A man who confessed his crime to his cats did not realise he was being bugged and was later caught. David Henton was suspected of battering his partner Joyce Sutton to death but as the police had no proof they decided to bug his house. Mr Heston was recorded saying “I had to something about it. I hit my Joyce” say the prosecution. It just goes to show you never know who is listening.

I seem to have done a lot of shopping in this years sales although I haven’t actually spent a great a deal of money. I have been taking advantage of a lot of coupons and special offers I have either been emailed or have found online. Recently I have also found quite a lot of special offers that would useful for Valentines Day such as 1-800 flowers coupons. They have a good range of gourmet food gifts for Valentines Day which would make a slightly unusual present. I also found some Perfumania coupons that offer money off of shipping if you are sending within the US.

I have never really associated wine with China but apparently China is now one of the largest wine producers, in fact it’s the sixth largest wine producing country according to this article. The article looks at Chateau Changyu, a vineyard near Beijing that produces red and white wine as well as Icewine and brandy and whilst a few years ago the wines were not thought good enough for European standards it appears some wine connoisseurs are now getting rather excited about them. The wines cited in the article seem a little expensive but there are some recommendations at the end that are a little more affordable. Whilst I doubt I will be finding Chinese wine in my local supermarket just yet, I am going to try my best to track some down, and as always if I manage to find a bottle, the review will be here.

I read this article today that suggests the recent increase in food cost has added around £750 to the average family’s shopping bill. The article is based upon official figures that show wholesale food prices have risen by 7.4% in the past 12 months, that’s more than three times the rate of inflation. According to the Office of National Statistics the increase in wholesale prices has meant the average consumer pays 12% more for their basket of shopping. I wonder how much truth there is in this. Personally I have noticed that prices of certain products have been creeping up but I have not really noticed a difference in my monthly shopping bill. This may be because I tend to do all of my shopping online and have a fairly strict budget. If I notice the basket total starting to creep up, then I tend to go back and remove any non essential items. Likewise if I find I am well within my budget, because for example I have saved money on special offers, then I will browse around and add a few luxury items that I wouldn’t usually be able to afford. I would be interested to know whether anyone else has noticed any substantial increases in food prices and how this has affected you.

Quiche is one thing I can never get enough of, especially if it is cheese, egg and bacon. I cooked my first quiche in the new oven the other day. As you can see from the picture it turned out quite well but as usual it didn’t last very long.

Wildcats will be reintroduced back into the wild in an effort to save the species. There are currently thought be only a few hundred wildcats left in the wild in Scotland but some experts predict these remaining cats could die out within a decade.  This project which is led by the Aspinal Foundation will start by boosting numbers in thinly populated areas of Scotland and if successful will go on to reintroduce the cats to areas from which they have disappeared. It is hoped that eventually wildcats will be introduced to areas of England and Wales where they have not been found since the 18th century

I read this article today that suggests that expensive wine really does taste better. The article looks at new research which shows higher prices make people enjoy the product more. The research is based upon a study done on 20 subjects who were told they would be sampling a range of different Cabernet Sauvignons. The different wines were identified by price but some of the glasses were the same wine labelled with two different prices. One wine was labelled as costing £2.50 and £22.50 and the other was labelled as costing £5 and £45. The subjects were asked to report on how much they liked the wines with researchers looking at changes in their brain activity during the exercise. The results of the research were that the cortex became more activated by the expensive wines as opposed to their cheaper alternatives. The same test was later carried out without putting price tags on the glasses of wine. This second test had no reported differences between the wines.

I have been watching Hugh’s Chicken Run on Channel 4 with interest. The programme follows celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as he tries to educate the people in Axminster about the poor treatment of cheap chickens. He particularly highlights special offers that give you two chickens for five pounds, effectively a £2.50 chicken and shows how these chickens are raised and slaughtered within a 30 day period. Personally before I watched the programme I already brought free range chicken, mainly because I find it has more flavour to it. I was however, interested to see that many people shown on the programme did not know where their chickens came from and how they were reared. Judging by the shelves at my local supermarket many people have watched the programme and have been affected by it. The section with two chickens for £5 was completely full of chicken when I visited the store today. In contrast there were no organic or free range chickens to be found at all, the shelf was empty. I also noticed that people buying chicken were carefully reading the labels and in many cases putting the cheap chicken back and walking away without buying it. It’s interesting that a television programme has so much influence. I do wonder, however, whether these new converts to free range chicken will still be buying it six months later.

I got a new phone for Christmas a MDA Vario III on a contract with T-Mobile and have been learning how to use it. It has lots of cool features such as mobile versions Outlook, Internet Explorer, Word and Excel as well as a tilting qwerty keyboard. It also has Bluetooth and a 3 mega pixel camera. So far I have found the phone very easy to use and it’s great to be able to see all of my email whilst I’m away from my computer. It certainly makes it a lot easier to keep track of everything and I can use time that would usually be wasted to catch up on a bit of work. Another advantage is that as a new customer and having my phone on a web and walk contract I now get free access to over 1,200 WiFi hotspots, that’s according to this article.

It is now four years ago today since my cat Merlin died and despite the time that has elapsed, I still miss him. Merlin’s death was particularly traumatic because he was only nine months old when he died. It happened at about five a clock in the evening when I heard the sound of a cat coming through the cat flap. This was not unusual, nor was the crying sound Merlin made as he laid on the floor. What was unusual was the fact that he didn’t run towards me and jump on my lap as he usually would. Initially I assumed that Merlin had been playing with bees again and had got himself stung which was a common occurrence.

On picking him up to look for the bee sting, however, there was no sign of one. I set Merlin back on the floor and it was then that I realised he couldn’t stand up. Merlin’s back legs and lower body simply lay limply on the floor. In a panic I ran outside to start the car whilst Rory phoned around looking for an emergency vet. There was no response at all from my car so Rory phoned our friend Owen who immediately set out to come and get us, so we could rush Merlin to the vet. Despite our best efforts Merlin got weaker and weaker on the short drive to the vets surgery and when we arrived he died.

Coming back without Merlin was a shock; although his injuries were severe I had assumed everything would be fine as long as we could get him to the vet quickly. We still don’t know what happened but it is most likely that Merlin had been hit by a car and managed to crawl home. Later we made the heart breaking discovery that there were claw marks all around the path outside the house and on the gate where Merlin had dragged himself home to where he felt safe and where he knew he would find help. I still wonder whether we could have done any more to help him although I’m fairly sure his injuries were too severe, but I can’t help feeling guilty that he died in such pain and I could do nothing.

As most pet owners know losing a much loved pet is like losing a member of the family and this was very much the case with Merlin. Not only did I have to deal with my huge sense of loss but Merlin’s sister Willow spent every day looking for him and crying. It was for Willow mainly that I took on two rescue cats Norman and Ornery (now called Oliver and Oscar). For me taking on those two cats made Merlin’s death more bearable because they so were so badly in need of a loving home. Willow accepted the new cats into her home and they are now one big happy family.

Merlin was such a distinctive personality. He had a very affectionate nature but was also fiercely independent. He was extremely naughty and would swat you with his paw whenever you walked past him. Above all Merlin was full of life and that is how I like to remember him.

Several of the UK’s supermarkets have announced they will phase out the sale of battery eggs. The decision has come because of consumer concerns over the impact of cheap food on animal welfare. Sainsbury, Morrisons and the Co-op will phase out the sale of eggs from battery hens. Marks and Spencer and Waitrose have already stopped selling eggs from battery hens. Sainsbury expect to end the sale of eggs from battery hens by next year. The Co-op has similar plans and Morrisons will phase them out by 2010. Tesco are reducing the shelf space for eggs from caged hens but have not yet announced a ban. Personally I always buy free range because they tend to taste better.

There seems to be hundreds of websites offering online bingo and all claiming to offer something different. With all this choice it can be a little confusing knowing which ones offer the best games. That’s where websites such as BingoPort are useful. BingoPort was created by Scott Logan and Roo Wright who have over 15 years experience in the gaming industry between them.

Their idea is that the website functions as a resource for UK bingo players by allowing them to see where to find all the best bingo action. They monitor bingo games in action allowing you to see where the best jackpots are, how many players are using each bingo website and what the current pot size is. They then rank the bingo websites based on all of these factors.

The website also includes a forum where users can talk about their experiences of websites they have used, how much they won or lost and generally how they rate the whole experience. If you want to play by don’t want to spend any money the BingoPort also offers a free bingo game. The free game allows you to chat online with other users so you can meet people within the online bingo community. It is available 24 hours a day and simply requires you to sign up to play the game. BingoPort certainly seems like a useful resource for all bingo players whether you are an experienced player or a first time user.

I have long been dubious about the use of fluoride in the drinking water as it has many potential side effects. One that I have experienced first hand due to having too many fluoride supplements as a child is permanently discoloured and mottled teeth. However, it has also been suggested that fluoride is also responsible for other complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome (from which I also suffer). This article suggests that overuse of fluoride can raise the risk of disorders affecting the teeth, bones, brain and the thyroid gland. The report published in 2006 recommends that the federal government lowers the current limit for fluoride in drinking water because of the potential risk to health. I’m not entirely convinced that there are any real benefits to adding fluoride to drinking water but I do think that if there are potential health risks associated with it, then it should not be added.

I read this article about a cat that survived two months in a shed by licking the condensation off the windows. The cat had become trapped in the shed after she followed her owner inside. The shed was then locked up for the winter with the cat inside. Whilst it is fairly amazing that the cat survived I find it a little strange that the cats owners didn’t think to check the shed for her. When one of my cats goes missing the first thing I do is retrace my steps to see whether they have followed me and become trapped when I have shut a door.

Cats seem to love blankets. My cat Willow particularly likes newly washed fluffy blankets. As soon as she finds them she starts pummelling the blanket with her paws whilst purring loudly before settling down to sleep. This picture was taken when I wrapped the blanket around her. As you can see Willow is quite happy.

According to this article energy saving light bulbs could trigger migraines and even seizures in some people. The Migraine Action Association has said that the flickering and the low intensity of the light do trigger migraines in many of their members. There have also been warnings from epilepsy charities about the increased risk of seizures from energy saving bulbs. With the government pledging to prevent the sale of the conventional light bulbs within the next four years this could be worrying for sufferers of both conditions. As a migraine sufferer myself I have replaced most of the bulbs in my house with energy saving bulbs and so far have suffered no migraines. However, it might be prudent for the government to research this issue further before going ahead with an outright ban.

I was reading this article the other day about a man called Arthur Boyt who has a novel idea for what to do with road kill. He thinks the best thing to with it is to make a casserole. One of his favourite recipes is badger casserole made using a roadkill badger, broccoli, parsnips, potatoes, tomatoes and wild mushrooms. He has also tried fox, sparrow, horseshoe bat and even porcupine. Needless to say his wife is a vegetarian.

I watched a documentary last night about a new type of doll called a Reborn. The dolls are highly customised to make them look as close to a real baby as possible even down to features such as veins and scratches. They weigh about the same as a real baby and have rooted hair and even manicured nails. The result is a doll like the one below.


The documentary which was shown on Channel 4 last night followed a lady who customises these dolls in order to make them look as real as she can. Personally I find the dolls more than a little disturbing but what I found more disturbing was some of the people that purchase them.

The programme centred on a few individuals, one lady who has converted a room in her house into a nursery. She owned several dolls and spent her time buying them expensive clothes, changing their nappies and styling their hair. She even went as far as to take them out shopping with her in a pram. The programme went onto to show her excitement at going to the US specifically to pick up her new “baby”, only to find it was not perfect and she would need to leave it behind, despite the fact she had already bonded with it.

Another lady featured in the documentary wanted a baby as a substitute grandson. Her grandson Harry had lived with her for the first few years of his life, when his mother had met a new partner and emigrated leaving the grandmother, missing the baby. Her solution was to visit the doll maker who made her a “Harry baby” which she appeared to adore. Her husband, however, was not so enthusiastic bout the new addition to the family. Personally I felt this lady would have benefitted from either spending some time with her real grandson or seeking some help to get over her feeling of loss.

You can view some of the clips from the documentary here but I think most people will agree there is something slightly odd about a grown woman pushing a doll around a shopping centre in a pram. As for the dolls themselves I’m not sure why but they remind me a little bit of Childs Play, maybe I’m missing the point? Either way the programme made interesting viewing.

2007 seemed to go past so fast for me, mainly because I have had a very busy year with work. As I work from home I tend to find I not only work during the day but also spend most of the evening and even weekends working. The result is that I feel constantly tired and stressed. With the New Year I aim to do two things. The first is to try and switch off my laptop in the evening to make more time for me and the second is to go the gym at least twice a week. If I manage to do both hopefully in 2008 I will not only be healthier but should have more time and energy to enjoy life a bit more.