Last week I received a little something in the post that kinda made me go “yay!!” and made a few people go “I WANT!!!” on Twitter and me giggle at them and tease back with photos like this one here:
They look yummy don’t they?!?!? I can assure you they taste even yummier than they look… The peoples at The Chocolate Library really do know their stuff!!!
They carefully make them with premium quality handmade Belgian chocolate and contains higher than average cocoa solids ensuring the milk chocolate has a smooth texture and creamy taste while the dark bar has a rich and intense flavour. Minimum cocoa solids: 35% for milk, 70% for dark. They say making chocolate is an art… and I believe the peoples at The Chocolate Library have totally nailed it.
That is actually not all! Their chocolate bars are like a personalised card – only more delicious.
You pick a design, then add you message to the back. It’s a truly original gift and at just £4.95 is great value if you have a few people to buy for. The fact that you can add your message on the back means there’s no need to worry about a card. And if the person you are buying the yummy card is a book lover, you can get one of their great Bundle Deals (book + Choccie) straight from their website and they will be delivered straight to your door packed with all care and personalised as you requested.
Great stuff isn’t it!?!?!?! The perfect Xmas Gift for your Chocolate/book lover! Another amazing tip from the UrbanVox HQ….
Ah… of course… I’m not done yet…
Who Wants some Chocolate??!!?!?
The UrbanVox HQ has teamed up with the awesome people from The Chocolate Library for a small little competition.
One of our readers/Twitter followers will get a prise that goes pretty well with the festive holidays.
The one and only Hungover Bar
A bar that is guaranteed not to make you fall over – unlike the other type!
2 – @ me telling me how much you love chocolate using the hashtag #iwantchocolate
3 – For an extra chance of winning leave me a comment in this post saying I LOVE CHOCOLATE or something along these lines…
The competition will be open until midnight of November the 30th and you can leave your entries here on the blog or via twitter until then when we’ll be picking a winner from the sorting hat. The winner will be announced on the 1st of December and your bar will be with you shortly.
Now that you have the rules… WHO WANTS SOME YUMMY CHOCOLATE?!??!?!!?
For those that know me a little better you will know that I am a bit of a petrol-head… Not in the I know everything about motors kinda sense, because believe me I don’t… but in the I LOVE TO DRIVE FAST sorta way is a totally different story…
I guess I’ve got my dad to blame on that one… you see…When I was about 6 years old my dad arrived home from a prolonged business trip loaded with 6 boxes of Scalextric Race Tracks which we promptly (and for my mum’s dispair) we started putting together straight away. The track was so long that basically took over the whole house going from the lounge and dinning room into the garden in front of the house and back inside again. That caused some envy in most of the kids in my street… But it was also loads of fun and laughter during the makeshift championship we ran for the rest of the weekend.
Last week I had the chance to introduce Tb & A to one of my biggest kid passions.
We received an invite from the guys and girls at Threepipe that look after Scalextric to come to Blogger event that happen at Cupcake in Parsons Green in London (BTW, thanks Sophie!!! You Rock!) and even though we got there VERY late (silly me decided to drive into London… which wasn’t SO bad apart from the fact that I couldn’t find where to park and then walked past the streed 3 times before finding it) the time we spent there was GREAT.
The Big Monkey was on his environment so didn’t take him long AT ALL to find his crowd and go race them in one of the sets that was set up all over the floor in the studio where the event happened. I was actually incredibly excited as to how much he loved the tracks trying each of them in turns…. And I have to say… The Olympic Games Themed Tracks look awesome! You get to run Bikes instead of car. Quite creative.
We’d gotten there a just in time for the Scalextric Racing Championship in which Tommy got beaten by a girl (GOSH he was not impressed by this feat and made me promise not to tell any of his school friends) and I was beaten by a 5 year old!!! We both got kicked out on the 1st round… oops… No comments…
Little monkey was a little harder to please… that is, until we found the Chocolate Brownies and the Scalextric cakes (available at Sainsbury’s I am told) which he proceeded to shove at his own face, my hair and the floor… And then he found out there were Cars 2 characters to play with by which point he decided the pushing the car (yes… pushing.. using the controllers wasn’t fun… he had to PUSH the cars on the track)… and to hell with whoever else was running at the time… yeah… THAT…
I hadn’t been to a PR even targeted to MAD Bloggers in quite a while so it was great to see a few faces that I hadn’t seen in a while. Still missed out on my Clumsy Off competition with Sophie though…. maybe next time!!!
Was an excellent day out… and the best thing is that it didn’t end there…
We’ve been loaded up with goodie bags (including what Tommy calls “modern yellow racing car” and not one but TWO Scalextric Tracks (a CARS 2 and a 007 Aston Martin track) to play with… erm… review and report back… So… THAT we shall do..
Starting with the CARS 2 Track that came out as a companion of the new Disney Pixar movie where we join Lightning McQueen and his rival Francesco Bernoulli in the ultimate Disney/Pixar Cars 2 adventure speeding along the huge Scalextric Start circuit which represents McQueen’s iconic “95” race number.
It comes with instructions on how to put together another nine alternative circuits (bridges included). And over 7m of track which you can then extend by buying spare pieces and being as creative as you can be.
The 2 controllers for the the cars have two-position selector switch which allows the driver to choose slow or fast speed settings to reflect the driver’s experience (of course we didn’t know that when we put the track together so we had a SERIES of incidents with cars flying out of the tracks… in special when Vic joined us for some racing fun. Should have read the manual… but I’m a man… man don’t usually do that…
The Scalextric START track has a very easy push-together, pull-apart system keeping assembly time down to a minimum and making the build enjoyable and quick for adults and children. The set contains bridge supports so that a fly-over section can be created. The vehicles are tough and robust… although… I have to say that Lighting was abit worse for wear after flying against a wall a few times… And we managed to take apart Francesco’s wings… but that is okay… Vic fixed it with some acrylic glue… don’t ask…
All in all… It is a great fun for kids 5 years+ but if you want to be adventurous like I was trying to teach Alex to race them (he will be 2 soon… need to get him in the right way, right?!?!?!) and see him flying the cars out of the track and laughing at itI’m sure you will have LOADS of fun too…
Other thing! I love the attention for detail on the cars! And the “Ciao McQueen on Francesco’s backside actually made me laugh… I am SOOOO juvenile… LOL!
Another great Christmas idea fro the Urban Vox HQ…
Me being me of course took quite a few photos which I’ve uploaded a few to Flickr (you can see them by clicking here) But I wanted to end this post with some humour… and the Little Monkey provided the BEST opportunity ever… You see… I had this dog when dad bought me my 1st Scalextric set… and I remember making the car race just so the dog would chase the car, which always made me laugh LOADS!
Well… if I EVER needed proof that Big Monkey really IS too much like me all I had to do was watch this video of Little Monkey chasing the cars as Big Monkey raced tem… And well…I thought I should share the laugh with you guys… hehehhehe… Enjoy!
Now… the 007 Aston Martin Scalextric Track is more of a grown ups toy… so well… THAT shall be reviewed by a more… erm… grown up panel… Coming soon ;-)
The guys at HotWheels sent us a couple of their brand new Wall Track sets to play with and let you know what you think of them… THAT is the result.
Christmas is coming guys… and THAT is an awesome idea for kiddos of all ages! (specially if you are tired of all the mess being on the floor… hehehehe)
We had LOADS of fun putting it up together… Apart from a little wait for the Command Strips to dry out… but that was beside the point (We played XBox while it dried up… heheheh)
With soft light, low sun and a rich colour palette to play with, autumn is a great time of year to introduce your kids to photography – guest blogger Joe Bond offers advice on how to go about it.
Keith Levit, The Canadian Press, Press Association Images
Birds sing. Fish swim. Kids play… right? That’s why photography is a great activity for kids. It’s playful because it’s experimental by nature – you can learn an awful lot just by trying different things. Whether shooting from upon high, or crouching down in the long grass – entrusting kids with options and getting them to think about what interests them makes photography fun, and quite grown-up.
While you can now buy durable digital cameras specifically designed for kids, with robust rubber shells and bright coloured buttons, they tend to sacrifice on photo quality and are only about ten or twenty pounds on average cheaper than a compact digital camera. There’s no reason to keep your camera out of reach of your kids if they’re being supervised, although you might want to attach the cheaper lens to your SLR camera if you’ve got one.
What’s great about digital cameras is that you can hold your child’s attention by attaching the device to your regular or internet TV screen and look at the pictures together. Having such instant feedback is great for learning photography skills super quick – and carrying on the experiment.
Alternatively, you could always buy a cheap disposable camera for them to start with. Remember them? You don’t have to worry if they break, and there’s still all the excitement of getting the roll developed. With a limited amount of photos, they demand a little more thought as to what goes into each one.
When it comes to what to shoot, there’s plenty of fun to be had playing with perspective and shadows. These are concepts which are familiar to adults but can be new discoveries for children. Cutting out a frame from some cardboard can encourage your youngsters to think about photos before they take them, and to experiment with different angles and types of composition.
Photography is a great activity to get them out and about: for once the digital revolution doesn’t have to be about sitting inside staring at a TV screen, but can involve a walk in the park or a trip further afield. Then when you’re back home, you can pick your favourite photos and add borders and effects to them with free online tools such as PhotoFactory and Picknik – letting them get hands-on with your PC, Mac or iPad 2 and in the process learning even more creative technological skills.
What happens when you give your camera to the little ones?
This post is sponsored by www.johnlewis.com, which sells a wide range of digital cameras.
One of our readers/Twitter followers will get a prise that goes pretty well with the festive holidays.
