Review: Glossybox February 2015 Reveal: The Love Edition

I first took out a subscription to Glossybox a couple of years ago when they launched in the UK.  

For those of you not aware of the concept, Glossybox is a monthly beauty subscription box containing 5 hand picked beauty samples wrapped in a signature pink box.  

Some of these samples may actually be full size products.

Glossybox February - The Love Edition

Lift the lid to reveal the cute pink ribbon and tissue paper

I think it's fair to say, that in the beginning, there were a few issues with the safe delivery of the samples and the perceived value of the items in the box.  

I cancelled when the HD Brows compact in my box arrived smashed, having covered the remaining box contents in black brow powder! 

February goodies

That said,  Glossybox  has certainly built its profile on social media, together with a faithful following and the company now offers an 'Beauty Unboxed' tutorial video which shows you how to use the products you have received and a website which highlights trends and features new products. 

The price has remained pretty constant too - depending on your subscription plan, boxes cost around £10 per month plus delivery around the £3.25 mark.

The other previous gripe I recall is that, despite entering details of hair colour, eye colour, etc, early customers felt that the boxes were not sufficiently tailored but, in fairness to Glossybox, doing this would be a logistical nightmare and I think they would be better off concentrating less on individualising the boxes.  

I'm also interested to see how appropriate the samples may be across the age ranges, or whether the products are firmly aimed at the 20-30 age group.

So I have taken out a six month subscription to see if I can 'feel the love' again for Glossybox as I like the concept of the beauty box.

It's a monthly treat at a relatively budget friendly price (speaking as someone who seems to be unable to leave Boots these days without having spent at least £30 just on basic toiletries).

So, what's in the box? 

The box contains 3 full sized products and 2 sample products

- a Wilkinson Sword Hydro Silk (full size - £9.99) razor which has a water-activated bar of moisturising serum infused with marine extracts and shea butter.

- a Marsk mineral eyeshadow (full size - £14.49) in "Fifty Shades" (no prizes for guessing which movie this refers to), a highly pigmented, mineral, powder-based eye shadow which is 100% natural.

- a Royal Apothic Tinties lip balm (full size - $14 for 3.4g) - this is a Los Angeles brand allegedly favoured by Victoria Beckham.  

The balm contains shea butter and a trio of oils (argan, grape seed and almond) to nourish lips.

- a So Susan Rose Quartet Lip & Cheek Palette (sample size) in pinks or crimson

- Vichy Liftactiv Plus (sample size) - a cream that works to banish the signs of ageing as they appear.

I estimate the value of the box to be at least £30 which is certainly good value given the £10 cost of the box.

Am I happy?  

So far so good.  

Everything arrived in pristine condition and nicely packaged.  

I'm looking forward to this month's tutorial video to give me some more information about these products.  

And the March box will contain a full sized Naobay moisturizing peeling, a facial milk which is said to gently peel skin with the natural properties of Acai and Gotu Kola (a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine).

My feelings towards Glossybox have certainly warmed up.

Glossybox can be contacted at www.glossybox.co.uk, on Twitter at @glossyboxuk and on Facebook as www.facebook.com/GlossyBox.co.uk.

*This is a completely independent review;  The Glossybox subscription is my own purchase.

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Can You Spot The Signs Of A Stroke? Get Your Blood Pressure Checked!

Can you spot the signs of a stroke? All you need to know is HERE at Stroke.org.uk/fastforward. 

This is a new campaign to raise awareness of the FAST test which highlights the importance of treating stroke and mini stroke symptoms as a medical emergency and calling 999. They want as many people as possible across the UK to know how to spot the signs and to act swiftly to ensure that patients arrive at a specialist stroke unit as quickly as possible.




Every 3 1/2 minutes stroke strikes in the UK but since the FAST campaign began, there has been a 66% increase in stroke and mini-stroke related calls to 999.

So how do we prevent a stroke? Factors which can increase your risk of stroke include things such as your genes, age and diet, the amount of alcohol you drink, whether you smoke, how fit you are and any other medical conditions you may have.

It makes sense, therefore, to take good care of yourself and get a medical check-up if you are concerned.



Free blood pressure check at Cardiff Radisson Blu Hotel

If you are worried, why not come along to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cardiff on Thursday 12th February between 9 am and 1 pm to talk to someone from the Stroke Association and for a free blood pressure check? High blood pressure is one of the major causes of strokes so it makes sense to know whether your blood pressure is normal.

You may be glad you did.

Further information: Radisson Blu Hotel, Cardiff, Meridian Gate, Bute Terrace, CF10 2FL
Phone + 44 (29) 20454777

Stroke Association Tel: 0303 3033 100 www.stroke.org.uk

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PDSA - Take The Big Pet Survey & Win Prizes

The PDSA are carrying out the UK's largest pet survey in partnership with leading research agency, YouGov.  The survey takes just minutes to complete but it could make an immense difference to the animals we share our daily lives with. The results will be used in the PDSA Animal Welfare Report 2015 and you can download last year's report here.  The report is full of facts and figures about the nation's pets' health and wellbeing.  In it, you'll find lots of top tips an expert advice on pet care.

Plus if you spare a few minutes to take The Big Pet Survey, by leaving your details you have the opportunity to win prizes worth over £450 including:-

*  £150 of Vetstore.co.uk vouchers
*  6 months' supply of pet food
*  6 months' supply of joint supplements
*  SureFlap microchip pet door
*  SureFlap pet feeder 

This year, the PDSA celebrates 98 years of caring for the sick and injured animals of people in need.  They are the UK's leading veterinary charity.  They provide more than 2.7 million treatments to sick and injured pets each year and they are funded entirely by public support.

Find out more at www.pdsa.org.uk. Twitter @PDSA_HQ, Facebook www.facebook.com/pdsa.

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Review: ClaireaBella Jute Bags - Handmade With Love

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, I'm sure you will have seen these lovely personalised jute bags made by ClaireaBella. 

These are loved by celebs and have been featured on ITV's This Morning. 

I managed to get one from their stockist Toxic Fox at a marvellous £20 discount, but there are frequent offers to look out for.

My Claireabella Jute Bag

How are the bags personalised? Simply go to the Toxic Fox website, click on ClaireaBella and then select the most appropriate dress design, hair style, hair colour, eye colour, skin tone and name (up to 12 characters) for you, then sit back and wait for your unique bag to arrive. 

You can design your own 'aBella' character in about a minute and it is really easy to do. 

My only quibble is that a few extra variations of hair colour would be good.

Claireabella Jute Bag - Detail

In terms of quality, the bags are very well made and the jute is of a sturdy quality. 

Mine is a large bag which measures 40 cm wide x 33 cm high with a 17.5 cm gusset. 

The handles are nicely rounded so that the bag is comfortable to carry.

The Hand Made With Love silver charm

The bag also features Swarovski elements, a cute rosette bow, a 'hand made with love' silver charm, 2 painted hearts and some sparkle and glitter.  

Because there are so many ClaireaBella impersonators out there, each bag also says "yes it's a ClaireaBella" on the reverse.

Proof of authenticity!

Large Jute Bags can take up to 15 Working Days to produce as they are hand-made with love. 

Because each bag is hand painted by a fully trained ClaireaBella artist there may be some slight colour variations, but this makes every bag unique.

It's all mine!

The large jute bag is currently priced between £39.99 to £44.99 but Toxic Fox are offering a £5 discount at the moment and, for orders over £40, delivery is free. 

The medium jute bag measures 30cm wide by 27cm high with a 17cm gusset and is priced at £34.99 with the smaller Polo Fashion bag measures 21cm wide by 15cm high with a 10cm gusset and is priced at £24.99. 

There is a range of other types of bags too, including canvas, satchel and occasion. 

Better still, there is a whole range of merchandise bearing the ClaireaBella name, from suitcases to wine glasses, mobile phone cases, stationery and cushions.

If you want to treat yourself, or find a unique gift, I recommend that you visit ClaireaBella at Toxic Fox. ClaireaBella can also be contacted at @ClaireaBellaLtd on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ClaireaBella.Designs.

And, you might want to draw your loved one's attention to the fact that there are only 20 or so left of ClaireaBella's 2015 Limited Edition Valentines Jute Bag featuring two gorgeous feathered angel wings.

*This is an independent review based on my own ClaireaBella purchase.

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My Son Is A Hamster And Other Suspicions

Right.  I've blummin' well had enough now. The husband has legged it to his annual jolly (or 'sales conference' as he refers to it) and, whilst he is building camaraderie by walking up snowy mountains in Canada, I am going quietly mad trying to feed his offspring.

This is how every mother is in the kitchen, isn't it?

I had hoped that, by now, both Caitlin and Ieuan would be vacuuming up food to nourish their ever increasing frames. To be fair, Caitlin will try most foods and is pretty good at eating - as long as you have about 90 minutes to spare for each meal. Ieuan is STILL vegetable averse, although he claims to eat carrots and broccoli in school and has developed the trick of hiding pieces of food in his cheeks to make it look like he is eating. Last week, I presented him with a plate which had a microdot of cucumber and a slither of greenery and he promptly burst into tears. Hamster-boy will eat fruit till it comes out of his ears but we have got into the bad habit of designing meals around what he may, or may not consume. This makes meal planning nigh on impossible unless we eat pizza or curly pasta on rotation.

A temporary lull in tea time hostilities

Caitlin has a fear of peas but will eat olives. Ieuan's food of choice would be Quavers. Now I know you are all probably tsk tsk-ing at this point, but short of sitting on them and feeding them intravenously, I am a woman short of a strategy. Some would make them sit there until they eat and reserve the hated dish for each subsequent meal. Some would just remove the uneaten food but offer nothing else. I find myself worrying that they may starve or wake up hungry, ignoring the fact that they are both already so tall they reach my chest.

I watched the BBC's Eat Well For Less programme recently which featured various families and looks at how they can reduce their shopping bills whilst not compromising on the taste and quality of their food. I was transfixed not by the advice being handed out (although I recognise I have a weakness for a BOGOF and yellow stickers call to me from miles away), but by how the children ATE ALL THEIR FOOD. Not only did the kids eat but they managed to do so in about 30 minutes - not the hourly endurance test the Husband and I have to sit through.

The Husband finds it equally hard to deal with and after half an hour of cajoling, threatening and pleading, resorts to shouting "eat, eat" like a malfunctioning robot.  I caught the kids shouting "eat, eat" at one another behind our backs the other day which adds fuel to the Husband's suspicion that, as usual, we are being "royally played".

Still, I'm not giving in. I have just bought Nadia Sawalha's "Fabulous Family Food" and will be trying out old fashioned cottage pie (Ieuan hates mashed potato - go figure) and other family favourites because our current family menu plan is duller than a rainy bank holiday Monday.  

I'm not expecting them to turn into foodies overnight but, since Ieuan is given a pot of strawberry jam for his chicken nuggets when we go to Cafe Rouge (as bribery so he'll eat them), something needs to be done.

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Primark SS15 - Favourite Pieces

Primark SS15 - Favourite Pieces by linda-hobbis on Polyvore

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Water Way To Spend A Day With Brecon Carreg

To celebrate the launch of their new kids pack, we had a fun time yesterday with the lovely team from Wales' favourite mineral water, Brecon Carreg, learning how to be eco-friendly and crafty with our used water bottles. 

Brecon Carreg are doing their bit by making slimmer, lighter bottles which use 24% less plastic and are reducing our carbon footprint by 450 tonnes per year.

Since restocking the kids' craft supplies is currently costing me enough to refinance a small nation, the chance to be creative with something that is generally just thrown out into our council's delightful recycling bags was welcome.

Ensconced in the warmth and culinary happiness that is Waterloo Tea, we were fed and, erm, watered and then it was over to Caitlin and Ieuan and the lovely Amy from @ScienceBurp to unleash our inner Mr Maker.  

My own inner Mr Maker has sadly transmogrified into Anne Teak from Gigglebiz but still, I gave it a whirl.

The suggested brief, which was of course swiftly overridden by the male contingent of the party, was to make an animal.  

True to form, Caitlin chose to make a puppy.  

Ieuan, egged on by The Husband (whose birthday it was, and who was clearly remembering a childhood now in particularly dusty and far off hills), decided to make a robot.

Here's what they both used:-

- two water bottle ends (just cut the bottoms off carefully, and under supervision)

- sticky tape

- double sided tape

- coloured paints

- googly eyes

- coloured card

So you need to:-

1. cut the end off two same sized bottles

2. create a hinge between the two bottles using sticky tape so that one end will sit on top of the other

3. stick on your googly eyes (we used double sided sticky tape for this)

4. cut a tongue shape from red card and, using double sided sticky tape again, attach it to the inside of the lower lid by creating a fold so that the tongue sticks out.

5. paint the inside of the bottles and leave to dry.

Let the creation begin...

Assembling the body

Making a puppy

Not entirely sure of the breed though...

The fearsome Stewart

And, voila, introducing Lucy the Puppy and Stewart the Robot.  

Ieuan had a lovely time racing Stewart around with his fellow crafters' creations and The Husband was particularly proud of the antennae he'd fashioned out of green card. 

Caitlin was just happy to be 'doing crafts'.  

Puppy Lucy and Caitlin

It was a great way to spend the afternoon.  

Big thanks to Brecon Carreg, Waterloo Tea, Science Burp and Brighter Comms (who I suspect had more than a hand in the mayhem).  

The finished creations

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Silent Sunday - 25/01/2015

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Date Night With Christian Grey & Bonprix

Now a date night with Christian Grey is highly unlikely to arise (cough) on the grounds that I'm not sure Mr Hobbis would be too happy about it, but if I were to embrace my inner ingénue / floozy, and being a budget conscious gal, I'd definitely visit Bonprix for inspiration for my date night with Mr Grey.





The faux leather shift dress  £49.99 features a nipped in waist and flattering cap sleeves whilst the Metallic Glitter Party Sandals are a bargain £19.99.  

Add in a stylish metal link watch at £29.99 in case you get unavoidably tied up and a simple but elegant clutch £19.99 and you'll be good to, er, go. 

The total value of this lovely outfit is just under £120 and I like to think it combines just the right mix of sophistication and naughtiness.  

Bit like me really.

So there you have it.  50 shades of wa-hey!

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Tit-ter Ye Not Page 3 Haters - No Nudes Ain't Necessarily Good News

Much has been written today about whether The Sun newspaper has finally put the vest back on its dubious tribute to the female form and scrapped its page 3 glamour photography.  Feminists have been celebrating.  Glamour girls have been decrying this slur on their profession.  

Source:  beforethedot.co.uk

On the face of it, the removal of the embarrassment of having to explain to junior why Titania has been photographed in just her pants, and the risk of shocking the more puritanical amongst us on the train in the morning by forgetting to turn straight from the front page to page 5, can only be a good thing.  I make no comment here about the quality of the paper's journalism, nor its prurient enjoyment of all things knobs, knockers and salaciousness because, sadly, most of the British Press is happily cantering that well worn path these days.  The Daily Mail is rapidly becoming the Daily Kardashian and its website's side column is a paeon to a bunch of American celebrities that I have neither heard, nor care about.

Isn't the truth here simply that Page 3 has lost its ability to shock?  That the amount of exposure breasts get is so great that interest in them has faded to a certain extent.  Are we more, thanks to the Kardashian clan, more interested in bottoms now?  Is The Sun about to launch "Arse of the Day" instead? Here's the lovely Stephanie aged 23 from Staines showing us how to park a bike?  Mind you, I can think of a much better use for a column named thus - particularly in the run up to the General Election.

In a more disturbing vein,  the increased availability and consumption of pornography thanks to the internet is a more probably cause of Page 3's possible demise.  There are thousands of sites offering far more disturbing and exploitative pictures of women, all easily accessible via mobile technology.  I am not suggesting that those who enjoy glamour photography are teetering on the edge of subterranean perversion.  I am suggesting that there seems to have been a sea-change in our views about sex and nudity which seems to be removing us farther and farther from the bedrock of culture and morality we used to have.

In comparison to some of the material which passes as daily newspaper fodder, the page 3 photograph has almost an innocence about it.  And that, as a mother to a 7 year old daughter, does concern me.    

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Caring For Poorly Little Ones - This Nurse is Terse and Worse....

We have not got back into the New Year groove.  

No sign of the smooth running routine we usually carry out on autopilot, hindered only by my odd peri-menopausal brain farts where my memory is blanker than Perez Hilton's fan book. 

Cuteness abounds - but not at 3 am

And, of course, we have "the bug" - a random collection of germs, possibly viral, probably bacterial and symptoms that would challenge Florence Nightingale who Caitlin is currently learning about in school.

Almost every night at 3 am since the new term started, I have been woken by shouting and muttering (Ieuan), wailing due to a bad dream (Caitlin), sore ears, sore tums, and a gushing toilet flush which the Husband has finally agreed to mend after approximately a month of asking nicely (obviously this has been interpreted as nagging). 

There are bottles of Calpol and Nurofen littering most surfaces.  

We have no less than 3 digital thermometers - none of which I can hear due to my reluctance to wear my hearing aids.  

In fact I now have more plastic syringes than cutlery.  

Ieuan has been running a fever and Caitlin, after we applied Hello Kitty eyeshadow yesterday to which she had an allergic reaction, now looks like she's about to attend a Venetian masked ball. 

When I haul myself yet again into the early morning darkness, I know I should be as I imagine Florence Nightingale would have been - crisply efficient and able to administer comfort and loving calmness.  

In reality,  I find myself a charmless harridan in a blue dressing-gown on the look out for acting up and attention seeking.  

For the first few times I am able to smooth brows and rearrange bedding, to offer water and, if needed, brandish the plastic syringe.  

By the fifth or sixth disturbance I am like a mad, sleep deprived woman who would probably tell you my bank details and sort code if you asked and likely to tell the children to "just ruddy well go back to sleep". 

In the morning 'mummy guilt' strikes and I wish I could have been more Florence.  

The Husband does not do illness.  

He is of the staunch 'no pain, no gain' crew who, deciding they won't be ill, just aren't.  

He also says that the kids play me royally which doesn't help when I'm trying to assess what kind of mother I'm supposed to be and how deep the well of sympathy should be.  

For those parents dealing daily with serious childhood illnesses, I can only stand and marvel in admiration at their fortitude. I wish I had more of their strength and courage.

Everything seems clearer in the morning, doesn't it? 

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I'm just not crafty

I fear I am letting the side down drastically.  Caitlin's favourite pastime is anything that can be described as 'crafts'. Unfortunately,  the only craft I am really familiar with is the cheese manufacturer. 

Caitlin colouring at Cardiff Bay

When I was in school in the 70's, benefiting (I use the term loosely) from a move towards equality for boys and girls in Arts and Crafts, I endured woodwork lessons and metalwork lessons.  All I can remember is the smell of each workshop and the amusement on my parents face when I presented them with a piece of wood with a dent in the middle and a piece of metal with a bend in it.  Both ashtrays for my pipe-smoking father.

I was unable to draw anything which wasn't square or, on a good day, cubed.  My pottery was always too dry and fell apart.  We still have an evil, open mouthed clay gremlin I made, glazed in a haphazard manner in a strange purple.  He lives on my parents windowsill by the front door to ward off cold callers.

Caitlin will sit and draw for hours on end.  Card is cut into random shapes.  Glue is applied to pom-poms and glittery pipe-cleaners.  Posters, door plaques, beads and endless pictures of butterflies adorn the house.  Ieuan is still in his angry artistic phase and has moved from doing violent scribbles with such vehemence that the paper shreds to marginally less angry pictures of Spiderman and Ironman who both wear the expression of someone who has spent 45 minutes on the phone to the Tax Office and has just been cut off.

It's strange really because I used to spend hours telling stories to my niece Emily, now 20 and a budding film-maker.  It's almost a kind of performance anxiety.  The fear of not being good enough.  The fear of having lost my imagination which,  as my comprehensive medical files will probably attest, is just not the case.

Caitlin will sigh and say "Mum, I WISH you'd do some crafts with me" and I shuffle along behind her to the big table and we sit whilst she takes charge and creates whilst I just observe. 

This state of affairs is, of course, not helped by the army of ghostly mummy bloggers who hover constantly over my shoulder whispering "we've just built a fully working model of the Forth Road Bridge out of matchsticks and now we are going to reconstruct Big Ben and the House of Parliament out of sponge mix and a light buttercream icing". 

These women are all Cath Kidston-ed within an inch of their life and have houses so clean that Barry from Cillit Bang is offering them a speed rush on the kitchen table.    I, on the other hand, would frighten Juan Sheet from Plenty and attract nothing more than a very stern glare from his grandmother.

Still,  craft duffer I may be, but I show willing.  I know where our local Hobbycraft is and I also know that hours of amusement can be had by covering your palms with PVA glue and peeling it off like alien skin.  (This was how I spent most of my primary school craft sessions).  I'm hoping this will be enough.

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It's January - rage, rage against the dying of the fairy lights

It is dark, dank and rain spattered outside.  January is here with all its gloom and unspoken chastisement for finishing a huge box of Thorntons and being compelled to finish all the mince pies currently reaching their suspiciously short 'use by' date.

Christmas 2014 - where did it go?

The school run (I walk, the kids run) is an opportunity to study the various shades of grey the sky can muster up and to marvel at the chocolate brown muddiness of the local brook, swollen with heavy rainfall. 

Is there anything sadder than passing houses which were previously aglow with fairy lights and are now shrouded in darkness?  

Some poor souls haven't even taken their Christmas trees down - generally the people who put their trees up as soon as the last firework has gone off at 1 am on November 6th and annoyed all the neighbourhood dogs.

I am really missing the Christmas tree and the twinkly glow of the fairy lights, the heavenly sound of Carols from Kings and candlelight in every room downstairs.  

It's no wonder we're all watching Broadchurch to cheer ourselves up a bit and considering blowing the budget on a trip to Barbados.  

Incidentally, why do holiday companies this year think it's hilarious to make their slogans sound like swearing?  Will your holiday be totally 'beachin'?' Is your holiday 'booking' fabulous?  

Because we all love to sit in Thomas Cooks swearing like troopers, don't we?  Is that the level of sophistication the Brit abroad is considered to have?  On second thoughts, it's probably best if we don't answer that one. I'm not even sure if you can still sit in Thomas Cooks.

Some of us have become "Dry Athletes", some are eschewing sugar and some are relying on hypnosis to make eating chocolate seems as appealing as a week trying to sort out Tesco's accounting problems. 

We can take comfort in the fact that there are a group of highly dysfunctional people, troubled and entertaining to various degrees who think nothing of baring their innermost souls for all to comment and tsk tsk about.  

No, I'm not talking about Prime Minister's Question Time but that paeon to quality television that is Celebrity Big Brother.

In the name of psychological research (cough), I may have to watch the launch night programme I accidentally recorded.  Whilst drinking up my Disaronno Amaretto before it goes off.

Like what you've read?  Why not join me on the Mother Distracted Facebook page, tweet me on @lindahobbis or follow me on Instagram.

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Happy New Year! These are the resolutions you REALLY need to make

Over the last 48 hours, we've all read ACRES of poems, pithy thoughts and witticisms, resolutions, revolutions, advice about ablutions, diets, regimes and the rantings of Piers Morgan.

Just wear the bloody paper hat!

Hopefully you have managed to distil from this copious verbiage those philosophies and ideals which will carry you safely through this new year and out the other side.  

Fuelled by Thorntons Continental and red wine, I thought I'd share some bon mots with you, honed from my odd 50 years (and some of those years have been extremely odd) so that you may gain some clarity about the swirling cloud of Facebook cats and celebrity idiocy that by now will be reaching toxic levels.

1. Don't hang around with people you don't like.  

There are approximately 7 billion people on the planet.  Surely you can find someone else to go for a drink at the weekend?   

This includes those people who specialise in back-handed compliments or who can't resist dragging up that thing you did in school which was hilarious in the 70's but means absolutely nothing to anyone now - but them and you.

2.  Try something different occasionally. 

Obviously I'm thinking of gentle activities here like crochet or anything that doesn't involve lifting.  Or much movement.  

3.  Smile.  

Apparently it's a fact that if you smile, your whole physiology changes and you feel better. Gritting your teeth is a short route to the dentist.  Or in my case, the jaw clinic at our local hospital.

4.  Tell people you love them. 

Life's too short and all that.  I like to tell the husband this occasionally, not least for the look of shock he usually wears, swiftly followed by "what are you after?".

5.  Treat yourself.  

For God's sake, if you can afford that bag and you want it, buy it.  Is it really worth 48 hours of arguing with yourself as to why you should / shouldn't when you know you'll buy it in the end anyway?  

If you feel really guilty about making yourself happy, make a donation to your favourite charity to balance up your karma.

The rest?  Guess what?  You already know what to do.  

The question is will you choose to do it? 

Will you choose to exercise, eat right, not get bladdered every night, be a decent person? 

Unless you have the moral compass of the Marquis de Sade you really don't need ANYBODY to tell you what to do. 

So my last piece of sterling advice (at least today) is simply this.  

When the cracker of life is pulled and the novelty that falls out is either complete rubbish or in someone else's half of the cracker, just put the bloody paper hat on and smile.  

There's always another year.  Hopefully.

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