Now, that WOULD make for an interesting Christmas

9-yo (looking at a flyer in the pile of junk mail): It says you can adopt a snow leopard. How does that work, exactly?

Me: Well, you send a donation to the charity, and they use the money to look after snow leopards. Maintain their habitat. That kind of thing.

9-yo: Oh... I thought you got an actual snow leopard to look after.

Photo credit: National Geographic

Chocolate Mingles and Jingles

This post is a review post.

When I was living in America, one of my frustrations was the lack of websites from which you could order gifts for family and friends living back in the UK. Most companies have worked out that the delivery address isn't always the credit card billing address, but lots of them hadn't worked out that the two addresses might be in different countries. Hello? Is that complicated?

So when I discovered that the Hotel Chocolat website could cope with this, it became my go-to place for presents. After all, who doesn't like receiving chocolate? And it's such high-class chocolate. Tasty, imaginative, a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds. One thing I love about the website, is that there's a good range of prices. You can give someone a treat without it being ridiculously expensive. I find it the ideal present for a family.

Hotel Chocolat sent me this lovely bag of delights.

A 'Mingles and Jingles Bag' it's called. See? What did I say about "imaginative"? Would you have dreamt up that catchy title? White chocolate bells, dark chocolate penguins, and milk caramel angels, 2 inches tall, individually wrapped, in a pretty sack-ette, plain yet sparkly, that any aspiring Santa would be pleased to be ho-ho-ho-ing down the chimney with. Lovely  presentation, and well-packaged, so no worries about boxes arriving through the post bashed and mis-shapen. These people really understand the concept of a luxury gift - but I was also interested to read about their social conscience.

There's a promotion on at the moment on their website. If you spend £60 on chocolates (I know, I know, but if you were buying for several people, perhaps?), you get a free gift sent to your home address.  

Yes, Hotel Chocolat definitely gets the Iota seal of approval. This year, a bag of chocolates. Next year, I'm hoping they might want me to review their hotel on the isle of St Lucia.  

This was a review post. I received a 'Mingles and Jingles Bag' from Hotel Chocolat, valued £21. The opinions and writing in the review are my own.

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You can spot the ones who've lived in the Midwest

The weather forecast predicts snow. I have to go to a supermarket. I have to stock up. Snow coming means you stock up.

I know the snow will be a feeble half inch which will have degenerated into slush by lunchtime. I live about a mile from three different supermarkets, along main roads. I live a 10-minute walk from a petrol station which has a pretty decent shop. But I can't help it. Snow coming means you stock up.

We're going away on Wednesday for 5 days. Between now and then, the children have lots of events on at school - which means they will be having their meals at school instead of dashing home for a quick food stop (one of the great boons of them being day pupils at a boarding school - wonderful flexibility on the dinner front). There is a bag load of sweet treats on the kitchen counter left over from a 'do' Husband organised last night. We are not short of food. But I can't help myself. Snow coming means you stock up.

So just as I found myself explaining to Mid-Westerners that no, I wasn't crazy, but if the sun comes out, you have to get the children out into the garden, even if it's winter and freezing cold, now in the same way, I find myself explaining to the check-out boy in Morrisons that I can't understand why the place isn't packed with people shopping before the snow comes. He looks at me as if I'm a little deranged, but I tell him: "Snow coming means you stock up".

Photo credit: Daily Telegraph

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More confessions about classic films

The trouble is, that by the time you get to see a classic film, so many people have raved about it, that your expectations are too high to bear the load. But since I've confessed about It's a Wonderful Life, I might as well go on and confess to my other occasions of failure to see what all the fuss is about.

Casablanca - Bogart is delicious, but what on earth was he doing wasting his affections on that woman, whose name I can't even remember? She wore navy when the nazis wore grey. That's all I can recall about her. It spoilt the whole film, because Bogart clearly deserved better.

Brief Encounter - Now here, it's the other way round. I empathised with Celia Johnson, and the music digs down into the places where heart strings are attached, but what on earth did she see in Trevor Howard?

Gone with the Wind - Total disappointment. Couldn't stay awake during it, and by the end, frankly I couldn't give a damn either. About any of it.

The English Patient - Long and a bit dreary.

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Quite boring.

Star Wars - d'you know? I don't think I've ever actually seen it all the way through.

Dr Zhivago - can't remember much about it, which probably says it all.

Any Disney cartoon. I don't know why. Perhaps it's that I just can't love a cartoon character.

I make an exception for The 101 Dalmatians. Now that's a classic I can still enjoy, because I remember so clearly going to see it when it came out (though I've just looked up when it was released, and it was before I was born, so it must just have been doing the rounds a few years later). I absolutely adored going to our local cinema, the Embassy. The thrill of the vending machine and being allowed to buy something, the excitement of entering the darkness and being shown to your row by an usher with a torch, the red plush chairs that flipped down, the way they squeaked if you sat on the top of them and rocked back and forth, the ba-ba, ba-ba of the Pearl & Dean adverts... All such a treat. My mother was going to drop me and my siblings to see it on our own, but I persuaded her to come too. Secretly, I KNEW I was doing her a favour - I mean, just imagine missing 101 Dalmatians! How could anyone even contemplate that! She kept falling asleep during it, but luckily, I spotted each time, and nudged her awake. I knew she'd be so grateful. In fact, I remember telling her so afterwards. "You must be so pleased that I was sitting next to you, and grateful to me that I kept waking you up!"

I did have to Google "Daddy, My Daddy" after your comments, and you'll be relieved that The Railway Children is not on my list of disappointments. I love that film. (Phew, you're thinking.) My only reservation is the bit that comes just before the "Daddy, My Daddy" bit, where Bobbie, who's being home-schooled, says she's feeling a bit strange, so her mother lets her off lessons for the day. My children were outraged. "Can you imagine what would happen if I said "I'm feeling a bit strange" to the teacher? D'you think I'd get the day off?" They have a point, but let's not nit-pick here.

So what are the other classics that I do love?  I'm not a great one for watching the same film over and over again. If I have time to watch a film, I'd almost always prefer to see something new. With that disclaimer, there are a few, though, that are on my personal classics list. In no particular order:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 
The Sound of Music
Thelma and Louise
Shrek (though I said I couldn't love a cartoon character)
Toy Story
The Full Monty
The Mission
Billy Elliot
The Third Man
lots of the Jane Austen adaptations
Chariots of Fire
Local Hero 
The Fugitive
The Shawshank Redemption
Elf (bizarrely)
Love Actually (sorry)
Speed (because Husband once went into a video rental shop and said "We have two small children. My wife is pregnant. Can you recommend a film she will stay awake through? She's a bit fed up with renting videos and not seeing them." I did stay awake through the whole of it, and I do still enjoy watching it.)

And if I had to name a favourite film... tough choice... I think it would be The Full Monty. It makes me laugh every time, and I love the understated warmth of the characters and their relationships. (But please may I add 101 Dalmatians as a favourite children's classic?)

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