I came across this story some time ago about a man who had decided to put his life up for sale. Ian Usher decided to sell his house and its contents his car, his job and his friends in an ebay auction. The auction ended last week and the winning bidder paid £192,000 for their new life. Mr Usher was disappointed that he did not get as much for his life as he expected but he went ahead with the sale and will spend the money travelling.

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 never knew there was such an event as the World Nettle Eating Championships but according to this article it does exist. The event is held in Dorset and competitors come from all over the world to eat as many nettles as they can. The competitors have one hour to eat the nettles and the winner is the person who eats the most. This years winner was Paul Collins who managed to eat 64 feet of nettles but he fell just short of his record of 76 feet and hopes to beat this next year.

If you like are are married and live in England or Wales, then you might be interested to know that you have just become a minority. That's according to this article which states that most over 16s are now single, divorced or widowed. The figures from the Office for National Statistics also show that in 2006 there were 236,980 weddings in England and Wales. That might seem like a lot but its the lowest number since 1895.

I hate injections and unfortunately have a history of passing out when I have had to have one. A new patch, however, could offer a vaccine without the need for a injection. The patch has been developed by the University of Queensland and tests on animals have shown it can be even more effective than a normal vaccination. It is the size of a 5p piece and contains thousands of tiny projections coated in the vaccine on the underside. Once applied to the skin these projections push through the outer layer of skin. The nanopatches need a fraction of the dose that would be needed for an conventional needle vaccination. They could also be safer, because they would avoid incidents of needle prick and cross contamination. They are also potentially cheaper to produce. All this sounds great, but for me the best part is that there are no needles involved, unfortunately they are not likely to available any time soon.

It was our wedding anniversary a few days ago and I was surprised to receive a parcel from my husband. I was even more surprised to find that it contained a new laptop from Dell. Its a Dell Inspiron and it makes my old laptop look very inferior. I am currently busy installing everything, so am still mainly working on my old machine for now. So far I am very pleased with the new one, its certainly a lot faster and it has the advantage that it doesn't constantly overheat and of course its nice and new and shiny.

This article is interesting, its about a new type of contact lenses that can help to correct short sight. Unlike normal contact lenses you wear them at night. They help to reshape the eyeball by pressing on the eyeball and correcting the problem that causes short sight. The interesting thing is that because they correct your sight overnight, they do not have to be worn during the day. The lenses are basically like normal gas permeable or hard lenses rather than the soft type. They are shaped to the contours of your eyeball and then press on the cornea reducing the curvature and restoring it to the shape of normal vision. They do need to be worn every night because the effect is temporary and the eyeball will gradually spring back to its original shape. Whilst I can see it might take some getting used to wearing lenses whilst you sleep, this seems like a good idea. The lenses are suitable for people with short sight and a prescription of -5 or less.

This is Gus. He is this years winner of the World's Ugliest Dog competition. He certainly is ugly.

I read this article that suggests eating a large breakfast can help you lose weight. It is based on research carried out on a group of women. Over several months the women who ate half their daily intake of calories in the morning lost more weight than those who ate a smaller amount. The bigger breakfast apparently helps because it makes you feel fuller during the day, meaning you are less likely to snack.

An elephant that lost its leg when it stepped on a land mine has been given a new prosthetic leg. Mosha lost her leg when she stepped on a landmine in 2006. Her leg was severed by the explosion and had to be amputated. She is now getting used to her new leg which is made from a sack packed with sawdust. So far she appears to be adapting well to the device.

We found a recipe for strawberry souffle and thought we would give it a go. Unfortunately we must have done something wrong because although the end result tasted quite good, our souffles failed to rise. Below is the recipe we used.

Ingredients
Souffle aux Fraises
Strawberry souffle
to serve 6
450g of strawberries
350g if frozen
3 eggs size 2 separated
1 extra egg white
200g of caster sugar
25g of cornflour
50g of double cream
1 dessertspoon strawberry liqueur or kirsch
juice of 1/4 of a lemon
18cm / 7 1/4 in diameter souffle dish
Strawberry Souffle

Heat the oven to 190c or 375f gas 5 hull the strawberries and blend to a puree.
If frozen thaw and drain first. Butter the souffle dish, beat the yolks and sugar together until white and frothy.
Add the cornflour, cream, liqueur and a few drops of lemon juice and beat until smooth.
Add the strawberry puree and mix well.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff peak and fold into the strawberry and egg yolk mixture very carefully.
Pour into the souffle dish about three quarters full.
Bake in the oven for 30 mins serve straight away.
You now have a strawberry souffle

The mixture before it went into the oven.

I and Rory checking the progress of the souffle.

The finished dessert, tasty but disappointingly flat.

We will try this again in a few weeks, perhaps with a different recipe. Watch this space for attempt number 2.

Apparently it is no longer acceptable to have a brainstorming session, instead you should have a thought shower. That's according to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council which has suggested staff stop using the term in case it offends epileptics. Its the first time I have come across the term thought shower, it seems to be one those very pointless office terms that exists just to irritate. It certainly irritates my husband so I will use it frequently.

I often come across articles that make me think scientists have a little too much time on their hands. This is a good example. A group of scientists have been working really hard and have found the formula for the perfect sandwich. What a relief. It is based on algebraic variables and takes into account factors such as the thickness of the cheese and the bread and the amount of margarine that is used. You can give it a go here and can be sure you will never mess your sandwich up ever again. Thank you science.

In case you are wondering my perfect sandwich had the following dimensions.

White Bread : 10mm
Farmhouse Cheddar : 2.25 mm
Pickle : 3 mm (3 teaspoons, random chunk distribution)
Butter : 1 mm (average spread thickness)
White Bread : 10mm

The optimum thickness of Parkham Mature Cheddar for your sarnie strata selection is 2.25 mm.   

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.

According to this article gardeners are likely to see an invasion of slugs this year. Apparently the warm and damp spring has provided the ideal conditions for slugs to breed. It certainly seems to the case in my garden. The slimy little critters have been enjoying my nice ripe strawberries before I can get to them myself and I took this picture of a particularly large and slimy slug crawling down my patio door this morning.

If you have £3.2 million to spare then you might want to spend it on an island. Sanda island in Scotland has just been put on the market. The new owner will be able to issue their own postage stamps and even mint their own gold. The price also includes two smaller islands Sheep and Glunimore. Its just a little bit out of my price range.

This is BMW's latest concept car and surprisingly it is made of cloth. The cars skin is made of an expansion resistant textile which stretches across movable metal wires controlled by hydraulics. The car is more flexible than a car with a metal skin and it is able to change shape at a touch of a button to suit the owners mood.

This article suggests that tea could be good for you. According to the article drinking at least four cups of tea a day can be good for your health and can help prevent heart attacks. It can also help to improve alertness and mood levels and can strengthen bones. It certainly makes me less irritable in the morning.

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.

As a hater of gnomes I read this article with some disbelief. It appears some people actually spend time stealing the things. The article is about a French man who was arrested in Brittany suspected of stealing over 170 gnomes. Apparently thefts of gnomes are becoming quite a problem along the French German border where people liberate the gnomes from German gardens and release them in France. The question still remains, why would you want to steal a gnome?

This is quite interesting, its an advert for Doritos that was made for just £6.50. The advert was the winner in a competition to find a "consumer generated" TV advert for the brand. It was made by two 25 years old using stop motion filming and cost just the price of two packets of Doritos, two pots of salsa and some Blu-Tack. The advert will run in a peak advertising slot during the Euro 2008 coverage on Sunday and the makers of the ad are splitting the prize money of £20,000 between them. You can see it here, it just goes to show that you don't need a huge budget to create a TV advert.

I read this article with amusement. Its about a small boy who on a holiday to Skegness spent his time trying to win a cuddly animal from the crane machines. After finding that the crane was rather ineffective at picking up the cuddly toys he crawled in through the hatch to claim his prize another way, and of course got stuck. I can sympathise here, as a child I wasted most of my pocket money trying to win cuddly toys from these things. I eventually did the sums and realised that based on the price to play the machine and the amount of goes it took to win a toy, I was better off just buying the toy and saving myself a bit of time and money.

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.

A cane toad managed to survive despite being eaten by a dog. The dog ate the toad which can release a poison known to kill a dog within minutes. The dogs owner immediately called a vet who gave the dog an injection to induce vomiting. After 40 minutes the dog then vomited a live cane toad. Dog and toad are both doing well.

Researchers have found that a chemical derived from red wine can help keep the heart "genetically young". The chemical called resveratrol appears to stop age related changes in the function of heart genes producing an effect similar to eating a very calorie diet. Unfortunately the chemical does not stay in the blood for very long and a researcher said "In order to have any effect, you would have to drink literally gallons of wine, and that is not recommended."

I am slightly happier today after my bad day yesterday. My laptop is alive once more, for how long I'm not sure, but for now it works. I might still look into purchasing a new one soon, as the problems appear to be caused by it simply overheating.

I have had a really bad day. It started when I turned my laptop on this morning, only to get a blue screen of death moments later. The laptop appears to have died completely and I'm not sure whether it will live another day, it depends on whether my husband can do anything to fix it. In the meantime I have been using a really old really slow computer. It doesn't have most of the software on it that I need to complete my day to day work and I am also unable to access most of my email. It has been a very frustrating day. My only consolation is that I don't store any work locally so whilst I am inconvenienced I have not lost any data. If my laptop is dead though, I might have several more frustrating days ahead whilst I wait for a new one to be delivered. Watch this space, will the laptop live again? Who knows?

I have just found another reason (excuse) to drink wine. According to this article drinking five or more glasses of wine or beer a week can halve your chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis. It is thought that alcohol helps to suppresses the inflammatory process behind the condition.

When a kitten became stuck in a drain it was rescued by firefighters using just a vacuum cleaner. They put a sock on the end of the nozzle and this little guy was soon freed from his hiding place.

A slightly odd topic for my blog but I came across this article about a porn star called Maxi Mounds ( obviously not her real name). She holds the world record for having the largest breast implants in the world and has a 36MMM bust. My first thought was where does she finds clothes that fit?

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.