I’ve always failed at Lent before and i’m chuffed I did it! Not to say it wasn’t hard and i’ve developed an unhealthy co-dependent relationship with Mr.Kipling and his sugary bastard offspring but still, yay me!

That’s two more down on the list now!

12. Give up chocolate for one month

59. Give up something for Lent and actually stick to it

 

If you’ll excuse me, I have some tidying up to do…

So Zoe was given 11 questions to answer, she in turn had to ask 11 bloggers to answer 11 questions she’s thought up!

Here goes -

1.      What is your favourite possession?

My Bou Bou bunny. She was given to me at birth and has been everywhere with me, school, hospital when I had an operation, University, various house moves. She’s been lost and found again, through the washing machine countless times and has no fur or nose left but I love her. I don’t care if i’m too ‘old’ to keep her; we have too much history

I also feel naked without my engagement ring. I take it off when I go to the kennels but I constantly stroke it throughout the day so much that I really miss it when I don’t have it on.

I also feel pretty naked admitting to the world that I am a 27 year old woman who has a toy rabbit.

One of my online handles is Bookwormbecca – that pretty much sums me up! Reading nourishes me like nothing else. I think the worst form of torture for me would to be trapped somewhere without books or words. I will read everything and anything, fact, fiction, leaflets, posters, books, graphic novels, magazines, textbooks, the list goes on.  I was such a bookworm as a child, my grandma would joke that I would get absorbed by the back of a cornflake box. This became such a running joke that she actually once rang me to tell me that the value bags of cornflakes in her Asda now come in plain bags and not boxes.

I’ll read anything, highbrow stuff, classics etc., complete trash, fact, fiction, horror (even though I’ll have nightmares) but I adore Crime fiction by the likes of Mo Hayder, Karin Slaughter (the gorier the better), anything that involves animals and trashy lady books. I am in love with the Song of Fire and Ice books, late to the party I know but goddamn I am hooked. I also love re-reading all my books from childhood, especially my pony books.  At the moment i’m reading The Hunger Games, Little Women, Genesis, Dominance in Dogs: Fact or Fiction, Walking Dead Vol 11 and A Feast for Crows. I can never read just one book at time. God bless you Kindle.

I am such an animal lover, living in rented accommodation is like torture for me as we’re not currently allowed a dog. Luckily they’ve been nice enough to let us have our ratties! We (as in myself and Mr Becca) have five fancy rats. They are our babies and we adore them. I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea and I get a lot of “eurgh” or “Why do you have those as pets!?” but they are the nicest, friendliest, most misunderstood animal and make fantastic pets. They’re clean, sociable, great to handle, trainable and each has their own little personality. I wanted a pet rat since being little but my mum was phobic so we compromised on hamsters. I much prefer rats. My hamsters used to bite and be quite grumpy and unsociable but our ratties are lovely. They’re more like really small dogs, they’re pleased to see you when you come from work and run to the cage door for a cuddle! We’ve got a lot of our ratties over the years as rescues. They tend to be described as ‘hard to handle’ or ‘they chew things’ and have been given up for adoption. Jess was curled up in the back of Pets at Home, up for adoption and all on her own. Ratties need other rats for company and there was no way I was leaving her there. Even when the staff said she was hard to handle and bit everyone, even when it took ten minutes to get her out of the cage as the staff member didn’t want to get her. The minute she was in my arms she calmed down and snuggled into me, I knew she was coming home with us. In the three months we’ve had her, she is a different rat. She comes to us of her own accord, has never bitten us and when she had to go the vet to have a tumor removed, the vet nurse commented on what a lovely friendly character she was. I love seeing them blossom from shy scared little things to interacting with their new sisters and with us. We’re house hunting at the moment for a place of our own to buy so Neil is bracing himself for our moving day when I can start planning the introduction of ex-racing greyhounds, ex battery hens, snakes, more ratties, foster dogs…

Ooh Cheeseburgers but probably anything cheese based! And yes, absolutely it still is!  I consider myself to be something of a connoisseur.

5.      What is your favourite thing about blogging?

That I get to write loads of random crap informed opinions on subjects I’m passionate about on an open, huge platform that can be found by anyone, anywhere. And connecting with other bloggers is great

6.      If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

By the sea. I love the sea, I grew up in the Channel Islands and went to Uni in Aberystwyth and was never more than 10 minutes from a beach. There’s nothing more calming to me than the sound of waves. I also would love, South Africa or Portland, Oregon (which has nothing to do with my new found obsession with Grimm. Maybe. It has been voted one of the five best places in the world to live!)

Number 3.  Maybe it’s because it’s the sum of my birthdate, maybe because like me, it’s unassuming, odd and everyone forgets it in favour of 1 & 2. I <3 you 3.

Reading. Without question. I like Coffee but don’t find it a necessity, never smoked (don’t do it kids!), and chocolate, while one of my favorite things, is far easier to give up I’ve found; see various posts about Lent!

9.      If you could make your life into a movie, what would you name it and who would you want to play you?

Curl, Interrupted. (Oh yeah, can’t beat the pun master.) Playing me would be Felicia Day, Claire Danes or Zooey Deschanel. But with better hair.

1.    Rescue Greyhound

2.    Amazing new collar for rescue greyhound from Holly & Lil

3.    Everything off my Amazon wishlist

4.    I have some left over? Trip to Disneyland baby:D

11.     If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be?

             I find it impossible to pick just one so I’ll go with a list and if any of them fancy        lunch with me, please contact me through this site..

Quentin Tarantino – The only person I am aware of who talks us as fast as I do, unashamedly geeky and probably the coolest man on the planet.

Sarah Fisher – Does so much good work for animals and helps so many that would otherwise be put down. And her partner is Giles from Buffy. Squee.

Ian Dunbar – He doesn’t whisper to dogs, he talks to them.

Felicia Day – Geeky, smart, incredibly hard working and motivated. Everything I look for in a role model. And she’s been in some of my favourite ever films/programmes.

Questions, I choose you!

1.    What’s your earliest memory?

2.    Who do you idolise?

3.    What was your favourite toy growing up

4.    What’s your biggest regret?

5.    What’s your favourite film and why do you love it?

6.    As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

7.    If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you’d buy or do?

8.    If you could do one job in the whole world, what would it be?

9.    What food/drink item can you not live without?

10. What’s the one thing in the world (within reason) that you’d like to own

11. What’s your favourite animal?

And in turn, I choose (you’ll have to imagine there are 10 other bloggers below. I’m a baby in the blog world and don’t know that many ) -

Sarah Hamer – The Waki Way

@NeilCrosby – Neil Crosby

Which is why, last weekend, I traveled to the home of the lovely Zoe of Mama Geek to stay for the weekend. Zoe’s mum in law breeds and shows Norwich terriers so goes to Crufts each year and Clan Corkhill descend  to man the Discover Dogs stall and generally wallow in woofs. Zoe had kindly invited me to go last year but time and money meant that I wasn’t able to but being such a lovely, she invited me up for this year instead. I didn’t need asking twice. (To be fair, I barely needed inviting once, I think the whole of Twitter heard my squeals.)

Me and Zoe attempt to enter in our cunning disguises.

There’s been a lot of negativity surrounding Crufts over the past few years, the Jemima Harrison documentary, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, which aired back in 2008 blew the lid on the health problems that dog* pedigree breeds. I’m not going to cover that here as there are people out there who can go into it better than me and at the end of the day I went for an enjoyable day out with friends to surround myself with an animal I love.

*I’m going to hell for that pun.

I think it tends to baffle people who know me that I don’t have a dog yet considering that a) how many dog things I have (books, training manuals, canine psychology books, pictures, mugs…)  b) how passionate I am about them and C) How many dog shows I’ve been to (Discover Dogs, The London Pet Show). Unfortunately, due to renting (don’t get me started) we’re not allowed a dog which I haven’t let limit me! My volunteer work at my local rescue kennels at weekends helps me get my canine fix, not only is it therapeutic to me, it helps the dogs that are waiting for homes get socialized, looked after, trained and most importantly loved! Even better, me and Mr Becca are looking to buy a house this year which means I’ll finally be able to give a rescue dog a home

But I digress.

James and Zoe are great hosts, Zoe had found out that the day we were attending was Hound day (I am absolutely passionate about Greyhounds) and had found the ring no that they were being shown in. When we arrived, I was steered towards there. (I almost needed blinkers, there was so much to see) and found a seat and drooled over Greyhounds. They were beautiful but I had never realized how much of a size disparity there is between show Greyhounds and racers. The show ones are MASSIVE.

Crufts is like heaven for a dog lover, not only is there showing to watch but there are various displays, Agility competitions and hundreds of stalls. There is literally everything and anything you could imagine (and probably stuff you couldn’t) to buy. I was pretty restrained, half of my haul was freebies I picked up or stuff I got cheaply (the best day to go to anything like this is always the last day as the stands want to get rid of stuff!).

I did treat myself to some Canine Psychology and training books, The Culture Clash,  The Evolution of Canine Social Behavior and Canine Body Language. I’m fascinated by it, love learning  and everything I learn helps with my work at the kennels.

I swung by both the Greyhound rescue stalls as well, Perry Barr and RGT. I got  a very cute Greyhound t-shirt, a lovely print for Mr Neil as a present (Greyhound dressed as a pirate? SOLD!),every leaflet going in terms of re-homing a greyhound and some supporter goodies.

I had such a great weekend, and I wasn’t the only one who had their first Crufts, Georgie had never visited before either so we were novices together! And seriously, why can’t all children be this amazing? Not a peep out of her for the whole day despite how loud and busy it was. (I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to Georgie for any biscuit induced nightmares she might now have. You might think it’s funny to stick Party Rings over your eyes and dance around but small children find it terrifying and will cry).

I think it’s true that you discover  a lot about people when you stay with them. James and Zoe are not only very patient (as I spent literally hours stroking Greyhounds and dragged them around at the end of the day to find a Crufts Magnet. “BUT I NEED IT FOR MY COLLECTION!!” ) but also very strong (It took them both to unwrap my arms from one of the Greyhounds that were looking for a home “BUT HE HAS NO ONE TO LOVE HIM!!!”)

Oh hey, almost forgot! That ticks off 22 on my list!

PS – If you’re wondering where my blog title comes from, for the love of all that is holy, follow this link – God loves a Terrie

82 -Inspire someone to start their own 101 in 1001 list

I always joke that I find the Becca way of doing things – i.e doing something in the most difficult way possible. It’s almost like I like to challenge myself (or set myself up for failure.) The timing of me starting with my 101 in 1001 has coincided with Lent. So, I though what the heck,  let’s start as we mean to go on and give up something for Lent this year rather than waiting another twelve months to be able to tick something off my list.

So my first two projects to tackle from my list are:-

12. Give up chocolate for one month

59. Give up something for Lent and actually stick to it

I could cheat and give up something I rarely eat anyway but like or really cheat and give up something I don’t eat anyway. But as the whole purpose of this list is for ‘self betterment’ and I see it as a worthwhile challenge, I figured I’d make it difficult and give up something I actually eat all the time quite a bit. Chocolate.

Ah sweet, sweet food of the gods. EVERYONE gives up chocolate for Lent and rarely is it that anyone sticks at it, but as I also have the challenge of giving up chocolate for one month, I have two projects at stake.

It was easier as kids, you weren’t inundated with Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs until the week before Easter. Now we get these sweet ambrosial delights from Boxing Day (i’m not even exaggerating.)
A hundred hearts would be too few
To carry all my love for you.

Yesterday was my final meal. KitKat at lunch, Chocolate pancakes and a Wispa Gold after dinner. (Look at number 15 on my 101 list, is it any wonder I need to?)

Sweet, sweet Wispa Gold. How I rejoiced when you returned to us.

Bring it on you sugary bastards.

John Lewis adverts have become a bit of a British advertising staple these last few years. The woman shown growing through the years to a Billy Joel track – a huge hit, the rather obscure Guns & Roses cover from last year -  they’ve got people talking and they’ve obviously tried to capture the nations hearts again with this recent Christmas themed offering

Another hit, yes? I love this video right up until the end – the cover version is great, there’s some lovely imagery and the first time I watched it I was hooked.  But what’s with the dog in the snow!?

The little boy wanders out, we’re waiting with baited breath… is the poor freezing hound going to come inside to be by the fire and with his family? Like a lump of coal in your stocking, we’re left disappointed and poor ‘Rannoch’ gets a stocking and some fairy lights. The clincher is the text over the end – ‘For those who care about showing they care….’

If there weren’t any fairy lights and a twee little stocking it would remind me very much of the dog at the end of  this advert.

I know, I know. It’s an advert, it isn’t real and the dog is obviously looks very well looked after and this is all no more real than the RSPCA ad above or Father Christmas (dammnit John lewis, you mean Father Christmas isn’t real, you mean I should blame my parents for my lack of a Mr. Frosty!?) but why show something like that? Why not have him by the fire inside and with his family? Dogs are social creatures who like to be with people. Having one outside in conditions like that is considered abuse and no good dog shelter will re-home to people who intend to keep the dog outside.  I accept that some dogs (mostly working) do live outside but these are in proper kennels with heat lamps and warm bedding and if the temperature drops dramatically many are brought inside.

There are those who argue that most people know that you shouldn’t keep a dog outside or it wouldn’t make them think it was OK and that we’re all being ‘stupid’ and soppy mutt lovers. You’d be surprised what people think is acceptable and how easily influenced people are by advertising or what they see on screen. Costa came under fire this year from the Rainforest Alliance for their advert featuring monkeys as they feared that people would want them as pets and how many owls/fish/rats have been dumped after the hype of the latest Harry Potter/Pixar film has died down?

Come on John Lewis, get with the times! The amount of people who have been upset by this is huge. There’s a Facebook group set up and a petition to get the advert changed so the least I would expect from them is an apology or an offer of a donation to a rescue charity.

The response from John Lewis (which seems to be a standard reply as other people have had the exact same e-mail back) when the group founder e-mailed them ? -

The inclusion of a dog at the end of our Christmas advert is there to inject a feeling of the importance of pets in a family and show how much they are an integral part of Christmas festivities. The kennel has been lovingly decorated with fairy lights and the boy hanging up the special ‘doggy’ stocking, is sharing a private Christmas moment with his dog. Many dogs have outside kennels, and that does not mean, nor do we intend to imply, that they don’t spend most of their time in the house. Rannoch is a very well cared for dog and his owner, who is also his breeder, is more than happy with the way her pet has been portrayed on screen.

Yours sincerely,

John Lewis.com

It might seem silly to talk about something as small as an advert but as a rescue kennel volunteer, when you see some of the horrific things that happen to dogs you don’t want to see it reflected in a national advertising campaign. If pets are so important, why are they shown to be kept outside in snowy, blustery conditions?What was it Gandhi said – “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated”.

This blog – ‘For those who care about showing they care’

EDIT – It appears that John Lewis have had a rethink and decided to cut the last section of the advert. Kudos to them for listening, I don’t agree that it was a ‘small number’ (1,250 people in a group over two days…) but I respect them for backing down on this issue and cutting it. Maybe inserting a scene with the dog happy by a fire instead? It would make the advert perfect for me as otherwise it puts me right in the Christmas mood!

Which is why I want to pimp Sarah’s website to you.

I met her through work (but don’t let that put you off, she’s only on here because I think her work’s great ;0)  but I just think she’s so talented that she should be blogged about.  I think it has to be the pencil sketches that I love so much, her lion sketch is simply beautiful and i’d kill to draw this well.

She’s also very talented wielding a knife (sadly she’s limited to wood whittling and not ninja skills) and has some beautiful carved wooden necklaces.

I think it’s so important to support local endeavours and I love that since moving to Bedford that we’ve had that opportunity more. Some of the most special pieces of art work and crafty things we own were bought directly from the artists from stalls at the local market, both here in Bedford and more further afield such as Aberystwyth and Alderney.

I have a lot of respect for Sarah’s work and the fact that she seems to really love doing it in whatever spare time she has.  Please do check her out if you’re looking for a special gift for someone and or that one off piece of work to complete your home.

You can find out more about Sarah and view her gallery at http://sarahhamerartist.weebly.com/index.html. She has prints, greetings cards and handcrafted gifts for sale and will undertake commissions.

Call us crazy if you will but that’s just what Mr. Becca and myself did one day when we were still living in London.  We like adventures; we’d had our first hit from ‘Tillos (we stumbled across this milk mecca the last time we were in Brizzle staying with relatives) and we were hungry for more so we rode the MegaBus for two and a half hours. For a milkshake. But that’s how good they are!

Rocotillos is an American diner at the top of Park Street in Bristol. Its cool blue mirrored interior is very diner-esque, you can sit on the stools watching the food being cooked and (pretend you’re meeting Bobby for a soda) or squeeze into one of the booths that they’ve managed to fill the rest of the rather small space with. This place is so cool that it’s even featured in an episode of Skins.

The menu is typical burgers, fries, hot dogs etc and of course the shakes. No one really goes just for the food, the burgers are huge and nicely cooked but…just ok, the fries are a little bit too thinly cut for my taste so you mostly get a mouthful of oil which is disappointing. I can’t comment on the rest of the menu but the Quesadillas did look really good when I saw another couple munching down on them. But the shakes… thick and bursting with flavour, you get the usual strawberry and chocolate etc but also the more exotic Chocolate/Hazelnut, the Honeycomb flavoured one and my all time favourite the Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food (they also do Cookie Dough). They’re served straight from the blender in glasses with the rest of it waiting to be drunk from the huge metal jugs  and they might be expensive compared to a regular milkshake but you get alot of shake for your money. Pace yourselves though, after a burger, fries and two milkshakes you’ll be glad Park Street is on a hill as the only way to get home will be to roll.

Seriously, nothing compares to a Tilllo’s shake, a fact shared by our Bristol living friend Hayley who, without persuasion, met us there with James and Zoe when we came to her Housewarming (she lives right around the corner from the Being Human house – I was very excited by this) last month.

No one is going to know your name, but it sure is a nice place to get away to. Next time you’re near, pop in.

Rocotillos, 1 Queens Row, Clifton, Bristol (0117 929 7207)

Open Hours: 8am-5pm Mon-Thu, 8am-8:30pm Fri-Sat, 10am-5pm Sun

Ok, so it’s a bit dramatic but we all know someone who moans about how strong the smell is and they can’t go in because it gives them a headache and yadda yadda yadda. These people are wrong heads and are missing out, in my opinion, on one of the best shops on the High Street.

Lush is a handmade cosmetics company with more 600 stores in 43 countries. Lush makes and sells handmade beauty products including face masks, soaps, bath bombs, hand and body lotions, and hair treatments. Lush has been around since 1994 when husband and wife team Mark and Mo Constantine (all the best people have this surname) opened the first Lush store in Poole (where the company has their headquarters). Lush are super against animal testing and only use human volunteers. Their ingredients are animal friendly and some of their products are suitable for vegans.

Lush are firmly committed to a policy which not only precludes testing its products and ingredients on animals, or engaging with third-party suppliers to do so on their behalf, but we will also not buy any ingredient from any supplier that tests any of its materials on any animals for any purpose. This policy is unique in its field and is pioneering a new way to stop animal tests for cosmetics. Lush runs its own Supplier Specific Boycott Policy. There are clear benefits to this policy, which is different and distinct from the Fixed Cut-off Date policy employed by the Humane Cosmetics Standard.

Each store is such a delight they come across more as an individual than a chain store. The outside of the stores are a bright zesty yellow, there are fun puns advertising the products and It’s like entering an Aladdin’s Cave,  tables are stacked with jewel like hunks of soap and solid shampoo. There are tubs of edible looking face masks and piles of bath bombs studded with dried rose buds or flower petals and glitter.

It’s great to find somewhere that are not only animal friendly, but the products are divine.

The piles of bright glittery soap bars are always what I make a beeline for whenever I go in. (Do use these with caution though as they get glitter everywhere! I had glittery hair for days after touching one of these and was struggling to find a plausible reason to explain why to people other that I’m actually a small child and not a fully grown adult). Like a small child I’m attracted to sparkly things and when I say these are glittery I mean it. Not just a bit of shimmer, pick them up and your hand becomes caked, great for a night out or if you want to feel like a princess (and who doesn’t). Or maybe you’re like me and think its incredible fun to look like you have the skin of a killer until you realize you can’t the damned stuff off.

The gift boxes are lovely as well with lovely names like ‘Happy’ or ‘Stardust’. Beautifully wrapped in funky wrapping paper and ribbon, the smell of the products inside permeates so that it’s impossible for your recipient (if you don’t keep it for yourself!) not to guess that they have a lovely Lush gift!

I was lucky enough to get the Happy gift box from my lovely friends for my birthday last year and I’m still working my way through it! Sadly I currently live in a house without a bath (I know, it’s bizarre…) but my lovely mates picked this box especially as it’s rammed with zesty, designed-to-wake-you-up shower products. The divine Happy Hippy shower gel which has a scrummy grapefruit smell which makes you smell lovely and which you can use on your hair as well! An Emotibomb, lovely shower jellies and soaps. Everything is packed in a recycled cardboard box and the products are nestled in popcorn (though they’ve recently moved to using a potato starch based packaging which is just as friendly) which is a brilliantly green way to save on packaging waste (just don’t eat it…)

I think Lush is great value for money, the bath bombs make great stocking fillers and they’re cheap enough that you could buy a few and display them in a nice basket as a gift or something.

The Gift boxes range in price from around £10 to £99.50 (for the massive box with practically the whole store in. I wouldn’t mind this as a gift one day!) so there’s something affordable for everyone.

Staying in to have a bath just became the new going out..

You can buy Lush products online on their website or use the store finder to find your local Lush.