Window shopping in Genoa

Shopping in the old quarter of Genoa is always a pleasant experience, as the warren of narrow, winding alleyways hides a multitude of tiny specialist shops, many of which are Ali Baba’s caves of exotic foodstuffs, equipment and knick knacks. Even if I don’t always want to buy the stuff, it’s usually fascinating to look [...]

This is why the internet exists

So that I can see a toad on a friend’s flickr stream, express my amusement and approval, and not long later receive my very own amusing toad ornament free of charge in the post.

T-shirt politics

I wouldn’t normally dream of using my child’s body as a platform for my political or ideological views, but I must say that I’m sorely tempted by this product from Stardust Kids Clothes. We’ll be in America around the time of the Royal Wedding which will probably mute its potential for edginess and eye-catching dissent [...]

Italian leftovers

After returning from ten days in Italy this summer I found myself with the usual memory card full of photos, many of which didn’t make the cut for the family blog report, so I thought I’d dump some of them here in no particular order. Yay for sloppy, half-assed summer blogging! First up, baby food. [...]

Coriander and Lime

I haven’t read Niki Segnit’s The Flavour Thesaurus, but this extract in a review caught my attention and made me smile. “The first time I ordered Vietnamese beef and coriander noodle soup, a wedge of lime turned up in it, I put it to one side and left it there, grinning at me as it [...]

Liège

Recently we decided to go on a daytrip to Liège, one of the largest cities in Wallonia and birthplace of Georges Simenon, Justine Henin and (allegedly) Charlemagne. But we weren’t interested in history or culture, of course. We wanted to see the fancy new Médiacité shopping centre. There has been much media hoopla about this project [...]

Easy Life

The Easy Life catalogue which fell out of my Sunday newspaper this week may not have been quite as wacky a collection of nonsense as Skymall or Maison et Confort, but it contained at least two amusingly silly products. First up, vapour cigarettes:   How many times do you think you’d be able to blow “realistic” [...]

Maison et Confort

Not that this blog is going to turn into an endless series of posts mocking catalogue tat, but I found this one lying around, inexplicably abandoned in a bookshop the other day, so I had to pick it up. Pictures can be clicked to view large on flickr. Erik and sgazzetti – you’ll both be receiving [...]

SkyMall

During our recent flight to New York, having exhausted all other entertainment possibilities, I took to browsing the SkyMall catalogue which was to be found in our seat-back pockets. Imagine my surprise to find such a cornucopia of delights, a small selection of which can be seen below. I don’t feel the need to comment [...]

guffaw

Two bits of nonsense: xkcd is always brilliant, but this one made me squirt milk out of my nose. Which is weird, because I wasn’t even drinking milk at the time… I know I said recently that I’m not interested in buying any more Star Wars merchandise, but today I find myself dreaming of a Jabba [...]