If you like a cup of hot chocolate then you could soon find you are paying a little bit more for it. That’s according to this article which claims the wholesale cost of cocoa powder has jumped by 32% over the past year. The price rise is largely down to failing crops earlier in the year and disruption from suppliers in the Ivory Coast. As a result cocoa powder has risen to as much as £3,000 a ton.

This interesting looking tree has been created in a garden in Somerset. it has taken the homeowners six years to prune the trees into the perfect Christmas pudding shape. It took them an additional two weeks to create the robin which sits on top. It certainly is impressive.

According to this article product placement could soon be coming to UK TV. The practice whereby shows can receive revenue for placing brands in the programme will be allowed on British TV shows from February 28th. Characters in shows will be able to refer to products by name and be seen eating, drinking and wearing branded goods. The new rules will allow product placement in all dramas, documentaries, soaps, entertainment and sports programmes but it will still be banned from all children’s and news programmes and in UK produced current affairs, consumer affairs and religious programmes. Personally I don’t really see a problem with product placement as long as it doesn’t detract from the content of the show I am watching but I can see that prime time shows are going to be attractive for large advertisers.

I have been following with interest the argument that we should block pornography at the source. The argument appears to be that it would stop vulnerable children from coming into contact with porn if we were to block it at the source. I do wonder, however, whether it is such a good idea to start censoring peoples viewing habits. Whilst I can appreciate some people might want to block porn completely, if you don’t want to view it, you don’t have to. If the government were to start censoring certain web pages, however, I wonder where it would stop. I have the feeling it would start with hard core pornography and before we know it we would find there are many other sites that we can no longer access because they are deemed not appropriate by the government. Personally I would rather choose what I want to view without restrictions, if we get into this type of censorship its a slippery slope before we go the same way as a country such as China which simply blocks any content which doesn’t tow the party line.

If the recent bad weather is starting to get down then you might want to try listening to some bird song. Naturalists claim that listening to five minutes of bird song is just the thing to improve your mood and give you a much needed warm glow. Not only does it ease tension but it also reminds us that spring is just around the corner. The National Trust has compiled recordings of the dawn chorus as a reminder that spring is just around the corner. They can be heard and downloaded at the website at the following link.

According to this article gardeners could soon be banned from using peat. Ministers want to force gardeners to use more environmentally friendly alternatives rather than taking more peat from bogs. The problem is that millions of tons of greenhouse gases are released from disturbed peat bogs each year. Rare plants and animals are also at risk because peat is often stripped from bogs more quickly than it can be renewed. Many garden centres already sell peat free alternatives but many gardeners and growers feel these are inferior and so would not support a ban.

I have been unlucky enough to suffer from a bout of swine flu recently. As someone who is rarely ill it took me a bit by surprise. The illness is much like normal flu but with an extremely high temperature. What surprised me, however, was the fact that I was confined to bed for two whole days. Usually I would quite happily struggle through a bout of flu but I can honestly never remember being so sick. It was impossible to lift my head for two days due to the feeling of dizziness in my head and resulting nausea if I tried to sit up. This coupled with the fact that I was running a high fever and could not get warm did not make for a happy time. It appears the only way to shift this evil bug is to simply stay in bed and rest. Two days of bed rest later I was left with a constant cough but no other symptoms. Lets hope I have built up some immunity and don’t suffer so badly next time.

That’s according to research carried out by Oxford University. It found that if everyone ate five portions of fruit and vegetables a day it would prevent 15,000 early death. This would include an estimated 7,000 from coronary heart disease, 5,000 from cancer and 3,000 from stroke. Increasingly dietary fibre would save another 4,000 lives whilst watching fat intake would save another 7,000.

According to this article sales of British blue cheese have outsold their French counterparts for the first time. The figures are according to Britain's biggest food retailer, Tesco and indicate that people are choosing to buy more British varieties. The supermarket has sold 16% more British blue cheese than French blue over the past 12 months. Favourites appear to be Blue Wensleydale, Yorkshire Blue, Blacksticks Blue and Shropshire Blue. Personally I always buy a British cheese where available, so it’s good to see other people are starting to do the same.

At a time when it is generally assumed that newspaper readership is declining this article makes an interesting read. It suggests that 12,681,472 people still buy a newspaper every day. The figures come from ABC figures and show that the 10 London based national titles sell an average of 9,540,993 a day. The 68 English regional dailies (mornings and evenings) together sell 2,085,116. In addition the non paid for dailies sell 1.344,959 (Metro) 700,000 (Evening Standard)  and 113,321 (City AM) making newspaper readership nearer the 15m mark. Personally I don’t buy a printed newspaper anymore but I do still read those that are still freely available online.

According to this article aliens can now declare themselves on the Serbian Census. There is now a new section for visitors from other planets to declare themselves if they should wish to do so. They can list themselves as aliens but do not have to give any details of their sex, religion or ethnicity. It will be interesting to see how many aliens take advantage of this.

I have always avoided store cards because of their extremely high rates of interest but was interested to read this article which suggests some may now charge you for not using them. Santander have written to customers to tell them that their terms and conditions have changed. The company which issues store cards for House of Fraser, Debenhams, Laura Ashley and several other high street chains will now be able to charge a £10 fee to customers who do not use their cards for six months. The article suggests that many shoppers take out store cards to take advantage of introductory rates over Christmas without intending to use them on a regular basis. Bearing in mind that many store cards charge almost 30 per cent interest this seems to me another good reason not to use them.

This is a rather strange idea, its a sweet that claims to make you better looking. Apparently it increases energy levels, boosts health, slows down the aging process and improves skin complexion. The product contains no fat preservations, sugar or sodium and few calories. It does contain collagen and vitamins and is supposed to care for the body from the inside. It is already on sale in Brazil and will soon start appearing in the UK. At £7.50 a pack it’s not cheap either. I wonder if it works.

Just when the remains of the last lot of snow were starting to disappear it appears to have started again. It has been snowing in Sevenoaks all morning again and is already at the stage where I don’t think its safe enough to take the car out of the drive. Unfortunately as I learnt last time, the only thing to do in Sevenoaks when it snows is to give in and build a snowman.

According to this article if you want to lose weight all you need to do is imagine eating calorific food before you eat. Scientists have found that going through the metal motions of eating something such as chocolate bar will make you eat less when you actually eat your meal. In a study volunteers were asked to imagine consuming some food such as a M&M or a cube of cheese. They were then given a bowl of food and asked to eat it. There was a 50% reduction in the amount of food consumed by the participants who has been told to imagine eating before being given the bowl of food. Personally I’m not sure it would work for me, if I imagined eating a bar of chocolate I would have to go to the shop and buy chocolate.

The Tate's Christmas tree this year is a rather bare affair. It has been created by Giorgio Sadotti and features a circle of silver postcards around the base and a coiled bullwhip. The artist is know for an art practice that “celebrates the power of nothing”. That may be so but a few fairy light wouldn’t go amiss.

In one of the more bizarre stories I have come across regarding the recent bad weather a swan has to be rescued after it became frozen to the ground. The swan was stuck on a driveway by its feet which had frozen to the ground. The home owner managed to release it by pouring warm water around its feet but one of its feet appeared to be damaged. It was later collected by Bishop Wood Swan Rescue a local voluntary group.

A clever cat has been hailed a hero after he saved his owners home from burning down. Pepper (pictured) has developed a way of opening windows to let himself out. When fire broke out the cat opened the window to escape the smoke alerting neighbours to the fact that there was a fire inside. Neighbours called firefighters who were able to put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the house.

This is interesting, it’s a video looking inside what is thought to be the world’s most expensive book. The book is John James Audubon's Birds of America. Apparently it caused something of a sensation when it was published in the 19th Century. It has been valued at between £4m and £6m and is being sold as part of the collection from the estate of the 2nd Baron Hesketh. Whilst quite impressive what is interesting is that the illustrations would have been completed by people who had never actually seen a live example of the birds in question, hence why they lack background detail and in some case they were dismissed an inaccurate.

If you like whisky and have a bit of spare cash then you might be interested in this idea. Based on the book 101 Whiskies to Try Before you Die it is the ultimate package of just that, 101 whiskies, in fact one of each mentioned in the book. The special offer is available from Royal Mile Whiskies until the end of December and even includes a free copy of the book, bargain.

A man has survived eating nothing but potatoes for two months.  Chris Voigt ate 20 potatoes a day during the diet and managed to lose a stone and half in weight as a result. He is the the executive of the Washington State Potato Commission and embarked on the diet to try and draw attention to the nutritional benefits of eating the vegetable.

I came across this article which highlights some of the creations by fashion house United Bamboo. As you see they have been made exclusively for cats. The poor things don’t look very happy and not I’m sure I would get my cats into any of these outfits. They do look funny though.

According to this article we will see less robins this year as their numbers are 27% lower than average. In fact robin numbers are at their lowest since 1997 according to a recent study. It is thought the decline is down to last years harsh winter which reduced the amount of food available for the birds. As the robin does not migrate in winter they tend to suffer more than other birds in freezing conditions. I have quite a few robins in my garden and have been keeping them well fed with seed, bread and kitchen scraps particularly during the recent snow when their food is harder to find.

I have been following the Royal Mail Twitter tag with interest over the past few days to try and gauge how badly the service has been affected by the recent bad weather. As someone who uses both Royal Mail business collections and deliveries, 15 inches of snow in the local area has meant 3 days without business collections and 4 days without receiving mail. With the snow starting to disappear both were working yesterday but there are obviously massive delays within the Royal Mail network as mail has backed up at the sorting office.

Looking at the various comments on Twitter there seem to be a lot of people awaiting parcels and getting frustrated because there is no snow in their local area, hence in their mind no reason for delay. I wonder how many of them have taken into account where there parcel is being dispatched from and the fact that many areas have been cut off completely for several days. It seems obvious to me that in many cases mail has to move through regions with problems in order to reach them but judging by the general opinions I have seen, people do not understand this.

I do also find it interesting that many people are of the opinion that the postmen refuse to deliver in these difficult conditions when in fact they are simply not allowed out to deliver mail due to health and safety rules. In all I think Royal Mail are getting a fairly bad press at a time when I am also waiting for deliveries from 2 major courier companies, Royal Mail has delivered to me but a week later still nothing from the couriers.

This is interesting its a soft drink that claims to burn calories. Called Aspire the cranberry flavoured drink claims to burn 209 calories within three hours of drinking it. It does this because caffeine and green tea when combined with amino acid and ginger create a thermogenic effect where the body generates more heat in order to digest food. The drink has only been tested on 20 people so it is not clear whether it could be used as part of a weigh loss plan. Personally I think you are better of eating less and exercising but if you want to try this its available from Holland and Barrett at a cost of £1.59 for a 250ml can.

Over the past week the snow has been causing all sorts of problems which is hardly surprising since we have had 15 inches of it in Sevenoaks. With that amount of snow I think people expect roads to be blocked and train services to be cancelled. The situation has been that no trains have been running out of Sevenoaks at all for nearly four days with the service just starting to get back to normal.

South Eastern who run the line have been getting a very bad press as a result. The main problem, however, seems to be the fact that they have not given their customers any information. Rather than tell people there have been no trains running their website and the National Rail website were for most of the time showing all services as running normally. This resulted in frustrated commuters turning up at the station expecting a train service when there was none. In fact the only reliable information available has come from Twitter where customers have been venting their frustration.

The one TV interview with South Eastern’s Sarah Boundy failed to address the problems. She highlighted the fact that South Eastern have a new website that was able to cope with the increased traffic. Unfortunately she missed the point that a new website is not very useful if it doesn’t contain up to date information. It took South Eastern two days to change the site to indicate which routes were running by which time customers had already stopped trusting the information given. All in all this has been a complete disaster for South Eastern. It will be interesting to see if they learn from the experience.

According to this article McDonalds has launched its own degree course for its managers. The course which is accredited by Manchester Metropolitan University is a two year foundation degree in managing business operations. It is a customised version of Manchester Metropolitan University's management development programme and allows McDonald’s employees to get a recognised qualification without leaving their jobs. The course will be a combination of classroom study, e-learning and training in the workplace.

If you are looking for something a little more unusual for your garden then you might be interested in this black petunia. Called Black Velvet it has been developed using natural breeding techniques to turn the petals a dark colour. They will be on sale next spring for around £2 to £3 a plant.

Some of the largest drug and cosmetics firms have backed plans to cut animal testing. AstraZeneca, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and L'Oreal have endorsed an initiative to end the use of animals in research and safety testing. Instead they believe the future of safety testing for new drugs and chemical products lies in new technologies that use cell culture and computer models. It has long been argues that animals are poor models for testing drugs and products to be used by humans because their biology is different, however, scientists maintain that animal testing is an important safety step.

This is a slightly odd story. It’s an incident where a man left £80,000 in a carrier bag on top his car and drove off losing the money. The cash appears to have vanished and the man reported a case of lost property. The situation is now being treated as theft by police. If you find a bag full of cash in Westcliff on Sea, Essex then you might want to contact Essex police.

That's’ according to this article which highlights how reliant the birds are upon human intervention. The birds have been brought back from the brink of extinction by a programme to install nest boxes. However, without a continued conservation effort the birds could be at risk. Between the 1930s and 1980s numbers of barn owls fell by as much as 70% with only 4,000 breeding pairs of birds. It is thought that the installation of nest boxes has now halted the decline and in some cases it has been reversed. Barn owls are largely reliant on areas of ungrazed and unmown grassland where their favourite food field voles like to live. With less of this type of habitat available barn owls tend to hunt alongside roadside verges which is unfortunately a risky pursuit with large numbers being killed by cars every year. Whilst the nestbox scheme is encouraging it appears it needs to be an ongoing project in order to save the species.

I thought we had a lot of snow yesterday but today we must have at least 18 inches in the garden today. You can get an idea of the conditions from the picture of our log cabin. It is now more than knee deep and in places where it has drifted much deeper. Currently no trains are going out of Sevenoaks station and the car is stuck in the drive. Even if we could get it out the roads are simply too dangerous. A walk into town yesterday found that most of the shops were shut and our local Co-op whilst open is limiting bread to one loaf per person. Personally judging by the state of the roads I’m surprised they have had a bread delivery at all. This is certainly the most snow I have in Sevenoaks in my lifetime and the bad news is its still snowing. I have a feeling it might just get worse before it gets better.

According to this article Heston Blumenthal’s Christmas pudding is selling for more than £100 on Ebay. The pudding is unusual because it has a whole candied orange inside it. It was on sale for £13.99 at Waitrose but having proved very popular it quickly sold out. It appears, however, that it is much sought after and people are prepared to pay a lot more than the original value for one. It does look nice but I’m not sure I would pay that much for it.