tháng 2 2011

Fiona Cairns Bake & Decorate Book Review

About a month ago Quadrille contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing Fiona Cairns new decorating book, Bake & Decorate. I had seen her cakes in Selfridges before but I didn't know she had written any books! One look at that pretty cake on the cover and I was sold. I have a serious cookbook addiction. I've amassed about 30 baking ones in a year!

The press release says this is her first book. I looked on Amazon and there is another Bake & Decorate. I'm thinking this is a re-issue. I would be curious to know why it was re-issued a year after the first. Maybe this is the new and improved version? After I did all my writing and baking from this book I went and read other reviews (of the older issue). Some criticized the decorating ideas as childish. I think with a little imagination the basic ideas she presents are more than inspiring enough (especially for us beginners). Now on to the actual review!

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The book is billed as "easy decorating ideas for the least experienced cook for less money than you think. Fiona shows each aspiring hostess how to achieve glamorous, fun entertaining using easy techniques and tricks". I found this quite interesting. "She makes 750,000 cakes a year for Waitrose, Harrods, Selfridges...her list of celebrity clients includes Sir Paul McCartney and Bono".

I thought this would be a great opportunity. I like to think that I'm pretty good at baking but when it comes to decorating I'm about as skillful as a Kindergartner with a pot of glitter! This was a good chance to see if I could improve my skills.

It was really exciting getting a copy of the book a whole month before it was released for sale! I decided that I would make 3 different kinds of recipes each with a different decorating technique and then write my review based on how they tasted and how easy I found the decorating techniques. I made a layer cake, cupcakes and biscuits. I will post each of the recipes in the days following with full details about the decorating technique.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I do feel that I learned some new tricks. I feel confident enough to try a sugarpaste decoration next time. The book is half recipes and half decorating ideas using the recipes from the first half of the book. The book is pretty thick, I think it would be a good idea to read the front of the book and also the back of the book before getting started. There are simple decorating tips buried in there!

The one thing that a book can never teach is patience. Decorating takes patience and I don't have much! I like to get to the eating part...

Every recipe I made tasted good. No earth shattering recipes but good easy basics. I made a few changes here and there to suit my own tastes but the majority worked. Nothing is more disappointing than a book were none of the recipes work. The book contains more classic flavor cakes like chocolate, victoria sponge, etc as the focus is more on the decorating but there were also a few intriguing ones like star anise and clementine cake.

The first cake I made was a White Chocolate, Cardamom and Rose layer cake decorated with glittering roses. This was a huge hit at the office as it looks stunning. The simple addition of five roses in the center really impressed. This decorating technique for the roses was buried in the back of the book. This was the most work intensive from the three recipes I tried.

Second up I made iced, layered shortbread biscuits. These tasted great and making the cookies with a little window and an icing drizzle really made them stand out. They would have looked a bit neater if I had actually followed the directions. That's another story though. This was the easiest decorating technique of the three.

Lastly, I made Mint Cupcakes. The chocolate cake was perfectly light and moist and I tried my hand at making crystallized leafs. This was only medium hard. A few turned out really nice and the rest stuck to the pan! The icing was the biggest disappointment of the book and I had to change the ratio of ingredients to make it work (but after that it was fabulous).

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I had a great time getting into the decorating part of this book and it does exactly what it's being sold as. This is a fun book for beginners and I think that with a little practice even I will be able to make a perfectly decorated cake in the near future! I would reccomend it for anyone looking to get a start in some simple decorating.

The book is released on March 4, 2011. What I've written is not sponsored and my own opinion .

· book review, cake, chocolate, cookies, cupcakes

Caroline Overington- on being banned

This week I am going to the Perth Writers Festival. I've signed up for a few courses and have mentioned my plans to see ~~stalk~~ Caroline Overington. She is also going to be there talking about the difference between fact and fiction.

She also very kindly agreed to guest post here today talking about her experience as journalist and fiction writer.

Honoured:

Late in 2008, I signed a contract to write two novels for Random House.

Both of them – Ghost Child, and I Came To Say Goodbye, have now been published – and a third is due out in October.

I’ve been lucky: they’ve sold really well, and reviewers have been kind. Nobody has been hostile to me, for trying to cross the divide between fact and fiction; the support from established writers has been amazing.

I’ve done quite a few interviews about the books, in particular about the second one, which takes the form of a letter from a grandfather, to a Family Court judge. The grandfather, Med, is begging the judge not to be his grandchild into State care, but it’s a big ask, because his family has been torn apart by divorce, mental illness, drug abuse, neglect, and child abuse.

Everything in the book is, of course, true: we all know people who have gone through what Med and his family are going through. We’ve all wondered what we can do to help.

But if I, as a journalist, had tried to tell the story using people from real life, it would never be published. It would be banned.

Let me explain: when people ask me why I started writing novels, after being a journalist for so long, I tell them: it’s the only way you can really tell the truth anymore.

They look at me a bit perplexed.

Journalism is supposed to be about facts. Novels are supposed to be fiction.

But I spent two years on The Australian newspaper, writing about child welfare, child abuse and, sadly, child murder.

The more work I did, the more anguished I became, at being unable to tell readers the whole story.

A child would die – be beaten, or starved to death, or even disappear from the face of the planet – and there was so much we, as reporters, weren’t allowed to say.

In some cases, we were banned from using the child’s name, and photograph.

We were banned from saying whether any other children in the family had ever been abused.

We were banned from saying whether the family was known to have a history of violence, drug abuse, or whether any of them had been in jail for serious crimes.

We were banned from approaching doctors in hospitals, to talk to them about what they’ve seen.

All police statements have to come through a media unit, who do try to be helpful, but are subject to the same rules: don’t say this, and don’t say that.

Of course, journalists have ways of finding things out. They talk to neighbours, and other sources come forward, and that makes the situation so much worse: too many times, I’ve found myself in the position of knowing far, far more than I’ve been able to report, and having to hide that material from readers.

Most journalists loathe being in that position. We are very conscious that we are not anybody special. We have no right to keep information to ourselves. It belongs to you, and to all of us.

Caroline Overington is a two-time winner of the Walkley Award for investigative journalism, and a winner of the Blake Dawson Prize. She has published two novels, with a third due out in October. She will appear at the Perth Writers Festival on Sunday March 6, and Monday March 7, discussing the difference between fact, and fiction. Caroline lives in Bondi with her hubby and 10-year-old twins.

· authors, guest post, novel writing

Apologies and O.M.G

Firstly
I totally forgot to draw a winner of Lisa Heidke's book "Claudia's Big Break"
but the random integer thingy says:

Julie!!!!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-03-01 00:02:46 UTC

AND

OMG
OMG
I have an amazing guest poster this afternoon. She's writing about how journalists can only really tell the truth through writing novels these days.
Confused?
Come back and read her post.
Have a good day all.

35 years after the fall: The Vietnam War in picture

U.S. military action in Vietnam was a piece in the global Cold War struggle. After Vietnamese nationalists overthrew French colonialists in the 1950s, the country was divided between the Communist north and the anti-Communist south. In the ensuing conflict, Washington backed the south, fearing that a Communist takeover could cascade through Southeast Asia. The first U.S. forces engaged in the conflict in secret, by way of Cambodia. As the civil war intensified in the 1960s, the United States expanded its operations in the region, deploying some 3 million American troops over time, but U.S. forces struggled to gain ground as they fought in difficult and unfamiliar terrain against extremely capable in guerrilla fighters. As the war dragged on and casualties mounted, opposition to the war exploded. By the time American forces withdrew in 1975 and Saigon fell to Ho Chi Minh's Communists, 58,000 Americans and between 1 million and 2 million Vietnamese had died. It was the longest war in U.S. history and the most unpopular American war of the 20th century. In this 1965 photo, paratroopers cross a river in the rain near Ben Cat, in the south.

The South Vietnamese regime backed by the United States in the early days of the conflict was notoriously corrupt and authoritarian. President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was part of the Catholic minority, populated his government and military with Catholics, fomenting widespread unrest among the country's Buddhist majority. In this image taken June 11, 1963, Buddhist monk Quang Duc burns himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection to protest persecution of Buddhists. The picture came to represent the failure of the Diem regime and a growing public relations problem for the U.S. Several months later, Diem was overthrown, executed and buried in an unmarked grave.

Hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in March 1965. The troops were moving to attack a Viet Cong camp northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border.

A Vietnamese man holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle near the Cambodian border on March 19, 1964.

Discotheques Of The 1960s

The 1960s discotheques of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles (as well as the boutique inside of Cheetah Nightclub in NYC). The last photo shows an early Velvet Underground performance, complete with colored gels and projections of Andy Warhol films.

· bar, music, performances

Devil 3D print

Full-color 3D print of a naughty little devil, available in the Sevensheaven 3D print store at Shapeways.

· 3d pixel art, 3d print, character design, little devil, metin seven, rapid prototype, sevensheaven, voxel art

10 dagar

Idag hade jag tänkt premiärträna lite lätt (mycket lätt och kort) men jag har fått lite nya mjölkstockningstendenser och dessutom har stackars lilla Sixten ont i magen och är väldigt ledsen. Så träningen får vänta.

Det gör så ont i mig när han skriker och jag/vi inte kan göra så mycket för att hjälpa honom. Mer än att försöka trösta så gott det går. Det kan inte vara lätt att vara så liten..

En annan svår grej är att hinna äta. Dagarna bara försvinner utan att jag hunnit få i mig hälften av vad jag behöver. Jag har aldrig varit särskilt orolig för att de där extra gravidkilona ska vara svåra att bli av med, men nu är jag snarare rädd för att tyna bort helt. Trots godis och fika mest varje dag.

Nä, nu blev det lite väl deppigt. Jag är ju inte deppig egentligen, jag är ju jätteglad för världens finaste Sixten! ♥

· Funderingar, Livet, Mums, Sixten

Why Would a Climber Need a Knife?

It's not always super easy to find things to write about in this blog. So I often lurk on different websites looking for topics to write about. This particular post on rockclimbing.com caught my attention:

I am a new climber-and I've seen many climbers carry knives. Many of them are really attached to them-and consider them their favorite tool. I've met climbers that have stories about their knives and talk about them like a companion. I was thinking I should invest in one-but would love to hear about your experiences or knife stories.

I'm hoping that it will help me with this decision.

This individual must have a strange local ethic. I've never heard a climber talk about his knife like it was a companion. No, instead I've heard climbers complain that their "harness knives" aren't sharp enough or to debate whether or not carrying such an item is even appropriate.

So there are two parts to this question. First, what might a climber need a knife for. And second, why is there even an argument about whether such a tool is appropriate.

Many of you have read the book or seen the movie, Touching the Void. In that particular incident, two climbers found themselves caught in a tremendously dangerous situation. One hung over a cornice, while the other held him on a rope in a precarious stance. As the stance deteriorated and it appeared that both would die, the climber holding the rope decided to cut it...

Lucky he had a knife!

But this was an incredibly unusual situation. In over two hundred years of climbing history, this has happened exactly one time. So this isn't exactly why you need a knife with you.

No, instead you need a knife with you to deal with this:

In the picture above, there are seven or eight slings wrapped around the rappel horn. Most of them are quite bad. Some are crusty. Some have been eaten by mice. And so the best thing to do is to add one more cord, right?

Wrong.

The best thing to do is to add a cord (which you may need a knife to fashion) and then to cut the other tat away (which will also require a knife), so that there is one nice and clean redundant anchor on the horn. Clearing away the garbage at rappel stations provides great stewardship and it shows that you care about the crags where you climb.

Cutting cords and sling material is a common occurrence on long multi-pitch routes that don't see a lot of traffic. It is not at all uncommon to have to do some work to beef up anchors or to clean up old materials left years before. Additionally, a knife could be used to cut away damaged sections of rope, be used in a first aid situation, or even be used to trim materials for a makeshift shelter. There are a million uses for a knife, especially on long routes...

I alluded to the possibility that there was some controversy about carrying a knife. That is not at all the case. Every guide carries a knife. No, instead the controversy lies in what kind of knife you should carry and how you should carry it.

It is not uncommon for people to carry cheap "gas station" knives on cords hanging off their harnesses. Indeed, some people even carry more expensive knives the same way. The concern is that a knife might open and become dangerous, both from the possibility of getting cut as well as the possibility of it damaging gear. As such, there are some guide trainers that don't allow guides to carry knives on their harnesses. They prefer if they were in a pack.

There are a couple of popular harness knives available on the market that theoretically will not open on your harness. The Trango Piranah Climbing Knife (pictured above) is a very small knife that takes up very little space on your harness.

The Trango Sharktool (pictured above) is a nice hybrid between a nut-tool and a knife. It is a nice way to eliminate some of the extra baggage of the other knives described here. In other words, you will only need to have one carabiner for both the knife and your nut-tool.

The Petzl Spatha (pictured above) is a tried and true classic. I would say that I've seen this particular knife on more peoples harnesses than any of the others listed.

Certainly many climbers carry a multi-tool. This is especially useful if you are on an expedition or on a big alpine climb. Some will elect to carry their multi-tool on a harness, but most will stow it in a pack.

So to answer the original question, there are many uses for a knife. But if you start to see your knife as a companion or a close friend, then you should seriously consider therapy...

Jason D. Martin

51 7th Avenue South

Woogle - Part Two

Yesterday Eden Riley and I went to Google. We survived. Despite thinking I was going to throw up and get explosive diarrhea simultaneously. A couple of squirts of rescue remedy may have helped. And Eden saying "Nah mate - fuck it" a few times.

Eden saying "Nah mate, Fuck it"

We had 2 car spaces reserved for us but as we both went in Eden's car, we felt it only polite to park across both spaces. We were next to the hybrid Google Mobile which was plugged into a power point like a hairdryer.

We met Mr Blogger Man in the foyer. Google Offices are famous for being cool. And I did not want to appear like a tourist in the reception area, but then again I thought bugger it. Here is my furtive snap, taken while walking past so Mr Blogger Man did not think I was a loser housewife with no life and was dazzled by cushy life in the coolest offices in the world.

And here is a proper shot of the reception that I pulled off the net. Cool hey. Is that marijuana I spy on the right?

We were taken to the cafe and offered a beverage or something to eat. If you work for Google, you get to eat your pants off here for free! Chips, lollies and ice creams. But surprisingly, there were no fat people there. I resisted all temptation because I wanted to look cool in front of my new friends, when really I could have gone a couple of Chocolate Chip biscuits with a Drumstick Chaser. At my old place of work, we almost needed to take our own toilet paper. (tight ass publishing house)

We passed this room.

Google employees are encouraged to make use of the company subsidised massages on offer and then follow it up with a little snooze in one of their sleep pods. Mr McGraw-Hill would be rolling in his grave if he knew about this!

We entered our meeting room. And I looked at the audience and thought of only one thing.

The room was full of nerds with laptops. There were old nerds, super young nerds, a lot of American Nerds, Lady Nerds and one cute nerd.

Our chairs were up the front and behind us, some clever clogs had projected a moving fireplace behind us. So it really was a fire-side chat.

But we were not there to scoff free food and ask if anyone knew how to remove the 73 kids games that Harry had put on my iPhone. We were there to talk about blogging. And we did. Non stop. There were many questions going back and forth and it was great to see these Google Nerds were so into it all. I mean they were fantastically clever and smart. We discussed blogging in Australia and where it was headed. And I was really enjoying the conversation until Eden piped up with..

"So, who do I have to blow around here to get my blog onto Google Blogs of Note?"

Eden! You cannot say that! We are at Google! Shut the fuck up!

And it seemed over before it began. The folk at Google were very cool and I was pleased to have escaped without pissing myself. Until we could not get out of the car park for a bit.

So in conclusion, should you ever be lucky enough to get invited to go to Google, make sure you go. And take a large handbag with you and fill it up at the freebie canteen. And make sure you do not offer sexual favours to a room full of adorable nerds. And if you are a blogger, keep writing, because the future looks bright.

· eden needed a gag a bit. I needed a toilet.

The totally tipsy Vodka O winners are....

Randy selected Michelle Knows and Laree Throsby as worthy recipients of a bottle of the finest Vodka in Australia. Mix it up with crushed ice, pink guava juice, top it with soda and I will dare you to disagree with me.

And the Vodka O chicks thought that Glowless was a hands down winner with this poem. Very clever!

O’ how I love thee, Organic Vodka O
I sip you in a cocktail while I playing the O-boe

A charcoal filter, pure water and whey,
Then four times distilled is he O-nly way,

For a drink made in this fine nation,
To receive a well-deserved standing O-vation.

I share with you a Passion for Purity
So I’d spread the word of your brilliance, it’s a surety.

I’m O-ver the moon with your great taste,
When you're in my hands, there's definitely no waste,

In my O-pinion ‘tis a fine, smooth drink,
So I raise my glass for a little clinky-clink,

If I win I’ll be making cocktails with flair,
And keep in mind, Mrs Woog, that I share

Totally Nommy.

Please email me your name and address to mrswoog@hotmail.com asap before I get my grimy mits on your prize.

And thanks to ASM Liquor. Keep up the good work!

· vodka o winners

Week Ending Feb 27

Mon - 24 miles (2,700') easy. 3:09. This was a repeat of a run I did with Burch a few weeks back. From my house, the route goes roads to the Devils Backbone trailhead in Loveland (12 miles) via Masonville/Hwy 34 and then straight back north on the Bluesky trail: high route to the keyhole, then lefts through the Loveland-side loops, Indian Summer and then the long way home once back in my neighborhood. Nearly all the climbing on this route comes in the return 12 miles. Hit the trailhead in 1:20 flat (6:40s) at what felt like a reasonably relaxed pace, then switched to jog mode, coming back in 1:49.

Building on Sunday's 19 mile run, a still sore foot/ankle, and presumably some residual fatigue from New Orleans, my legs felt pretty beat towards the end. I took that as an opportunity to put in a late-race effort by upping the tempo through the last two miles of trail before the climb back up to my house. Redstone: 15:45; Hwy34: 62; Backbone: 1:20; 38e: 2:52.

Tues - AM: 8 miles intervals. Met up with Jane's early AM group to get a bit of turnover back into the routine. Wasn't expecting great things given 19 & 24 mile runs the previous two days, but did manage to elevate the heart rate which I guess was the only real goal. Workout went: fartlek mile, fartlek cross country hill mile, mile steady road, 1,200, 1,000. Ran with Chris M for these, which meant I was working a little harder than originally planned. 3 mile warm up with Scott, Sarah and Celeste, then:

1.05 mile fartlek - 6:21 (6:03 pace)
1.18 mile CC hill fartlek - 7:13 (6:06)
mile - 5:34 (5:34)
.75 mile - 3:54 (5:13)
.62 mile - 3:17 (5:17)

PM: 9 miles (2,300') easy. Haven't run this one since before Western States last year when it was pretty much my daily lunchtime route. Figured I'd launch back into the short-mileage vert racker and see how things felt. Physically I was pretty tired, but really this was a mental exercise to see if I've got the desire to go out and do what I did last year in getting ready for States. Jury still out on that one. Anyway: Soderberg to bench - Horsetooth down to Falls, then Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock trail - Audra Culver - back up to Horsetooth via Southridge - Rock to Soderberg - long way home (aka: Horsetooth/Audra long).

Weds - AM: 11 miles (2,500') easy. 38e - Bluesky - Towers - Secret Trail - Westridge - Rock - Audra - Southridge - home long way. Legs felt reasonably spry which was a surprise.
PM: 5 miles (1,050) easy. Falls, long way home.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') hills. On Centennial to 5 mile marker on HTH course. Out easy in 39:44, back @ conversational-steady w/Tim in 34:47.

Noon: 5 miles (1,050'). Falls, long way home.

PM: 4.5 miles in Louisville on Coal Creek Trail with PI teamates Josh and Tim.

Fri - AM: 5.5 miles (800') easy. In Boulder with PI product line managers, photographer, and others for a slippery run on the lower Boulder mountain trails from N-CAR.
PM: 6.5 miles easy on Coal Creek Trail with Ian, Scott, Josh and Tim.

Sat - AM: 11 miles easy. With PI team for run and photo shoot at Boulder Reservoir.

Sun - AM: 11.5 miles (2,800') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Mill Creek - Towers - Secret Trail - Westridge - Rock - Soderberg - home long way.

Total: 111 miles (14,600')

The WS build is officially on. Front loaded the week in anticipation of a lower mileage weekend with meetings, eating and boozing at the Pearl Izumi team summit. Managed to squeeze in a few more runs than anticipated Friday and Saturday, but really nothing but mileage padding. Anyway, happy to come in at over 100 miles on the week, although was hoping for a little more vertical.

So the summit was a huge success and as usual the folks at Pearl were fantastic hosts. A lot of great things in the works with regards to product and racing. First and foremost, the Peak II is now in full production and will be available from retailers in the very near future. I've run in most all of the prototypes leading up to this release and I have to tip my hat to Mike Thompson, the PI run shoe dude, for really listening to the feedback from the ultrarunning team in developing and modifying this shoe. While it is called the Peak II, it is essentially a complete overhaul of the original Peak with the only real similarity being the focus on keeping the shoe light. Unlike some of the other lightweight trail runners currently on the market, the Peak is built to last. I put over 600 miles on one of the protos and can honestly say that if I hadn't given the shoes back to Mike for inspection, I would have put them through many more miles before donating. But durability is just one part of the picture. The shoe rocks on many fronts, but more on that when they're on the market.

Tim Olson rocking the Peak II. Photo, Eric Wynn.

An earlier iteration. The upper material has changed, but styling is essentially the same.

In addition to Pearl Izumi fun and games, we had a great presentation from Robert Kunz, researcher/developer-in-chief at First Endurance, whose products I am again excited to be using in 2011.

Highgear also sent Dale Fleckenstein down to present on the excellent range of products those guys have in the offing. Like Pearl, Highgear has listened, and I am super excited for the launch of the new Axio HR, which will combine the features of two existing watches (Axio Max and Alterra) to produce a really great mountain running watch that will also include a heart rate monitor and associated data. The launch on that is this summer, but perhaps more exciting (for GPS junkies) is the 2012 scheduled launch date for the Highgear GPS watch, which will combine the mileage tracking capabilities of GPS with all the great vert tracking capabilities of the Highgear altimeter technology. Exciting stuff.

Axio Max Steel - the heavier 'street' version.

Eric Wynn was there all weekend snapping some great pics, which I am looking forward to seeing more of as they become available. The guy is quite the talent.

And finally, check out these short video interviews with teammates Scott and Darcy on running extreme distances while maintaining balance as parents, spouses and career professionals. Both these guys are class acts and great ambassadors for the sport.

Anyone else smelling spring?

· training log

Lots and Lots of Leprechauns!

St. Paddy's day is coming up! To be perfectly honest, I've only ever made ONE set of St. Patrick's Day cookies, some very simple shamrocks when I first began this cookie journey.

In the years that followed, I always had good intentions to make more, specifically Leprechauns, but one thing always stopped me. I just could not find a cutter I just really loved...

So, this year my mission was to find a way to use the cutters I already had to make a leprechaun I could be proud of.

Here's what I came up with =)

This one is probably my personal favorite. This Frankenstein cutter is one of my favorites. I have used it for SOOOOOOO many things!

This design was also pretty high up on my list. all I did was snip off his chin, and I had the perfect base for my leprechaun!

This snowman has also turned out the be a pretty handy dandy cutter. I could have skipped the trimming altogether, I just did it for grins...

I didn't like this cutter much as a wreath, but it sure made a cute leprechaun!

Lots and lots of you probably own this common Wilton cutter. I happen to have to old plastic one that I acquired from my mom, but the newer coated metal version is still easy to find.

This is another one of my favorite, easy to locate Wilton Cutters. I have used this one for Frankenstein, Santa, snowmen, Scarecrows, Christmas, Valentine, and Birthday cup cakes, and now leprechauns. I think this is one of my all-time most useful cutters!

This cutter actually belongs to Belle. I am constantly stealing it from her playdough kit =) I ♥ it!

And even if you have nothing else available but a simple round cutter, {or a tin can biscuit cutter} Leprechaun cookies are not out of reach!

It took me a long time to learn not to be restricted by cookie cutters. Be creative, use what you have, and make it work for you!

Happy decorating!

· cookies, creative cutting, Irish, Leprechauns, St. Patricks Day

Woogle - Part One

When you are a blogger, you sometimes get invited to do things. Like climb the Harbour Bridge and write about it. (passed - I have an issue with trying to preserve life). Or eat cupcakes and write about it. (hands up - thanks). Or sample the new offerings from a liquor company and write about it. (umm yes). Or use a new type of washing powder and write about it (pass zzzzzzzzzzzzz).

And then you also get invitations for companies and ad agencies to pick your brain. These usually come with a free lunch, so more than not I go along and see what is on offer.

So when I got issued with an invitation to go to Google and partake in such a session, I could not refuse. I mean it is GOOGLE. FUCK. Google! They host this site so have the power to shut me down with one key-stroke so I had better be on my best behaviour today.

They have invited me and uber-blogger Eden Riley of Edenland to come chat about all things blogging. We have done these type of gigs before and have ended up just talking over the top of each other. Eden also likes to say "fuck" a lot and I am not sure how that is going to go down with the Google Dudes today. I may take a gag for her. I was also wondering about this sentence from the Head Google Blogging Dude. It is making my palms sweat just thinking about it.

"In terms of the session, I was thinking we could do it like a fireside chat. The three of us would sit up front and I would just ask you questions - tell us about your blog, how and when you got started."

I almost wrote back asking if I should take my slippers and a pipe but I do not want him to think I am a total idiot. Thank god he does not know I thought the meeting was actually last Monday, a realisation I made while travelling to Google before turning around and coming home. DOH.

Going to Google is a bit like going to God, if you are anyway religiously inclined. I mean it is GOOGLE! I am already a bundle of nerves. Did I mention sweaty palms? I was speaking to Eden last night and she was all like "Do you think they will be nerds?" and I concluded that they would be all Gen Y groovy Google types who will be staring at these two old housewives on the stage thinking about the lunch hour they are missing out on.

I wonder if there will be lunch provided?

Will let you know if I survive going to Woogle, I mean Google.

· nerves

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