Author: Snoskred

True Story Time

4 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

One day in Mid-January on Grocery Shopping Day, around 4:30 in the afternoon, I realised we needed to go and get some chicken breast in bulk. So off we toodled.. On arrival back home, I noticed some rubbish in the street. This is not unusual for where we live, unfortunately. We have one set of neighbours who seem to think it is totally fine to leave stuff on their verge for random folk to collect any time, and wind blows it across to our side of the street. But something about this rubbish seemed odd to me, so I went to check.

On looking at it, I discovered it was stuff most folks would keep in the glovebox of their car. Rego papers, car purchase paperwork, receipts from hotels and shops, a temporary frequent flyer card. It all had the same name on it.

We’re normally “don’t get involved” people. However on the 26th of December 2017 there was a big crash down our way. You may have heard about it, because one of the people involved was once on Home and Away. If not, this article has some info.

A few weeks before that, we had driven down to Ulladulla. On our way back we saw some very bad driving from a white Pajero with P plates on it. But we see a lot of bad driving on the roads, and what can you do? Not much, really. I will never know now if this was the same guy or not, our footage overwrites the old footage and by the time this crash happened it was gone.

The guy who ran into this lovely family and murdered them all – plus himself – was driving a white Pajero with P plates. He had a terrible driving history and had been disqualified from driving and even jailed for driving while disqualified. They believe he was returning from the methadone clinic when he crossed to the wrong side of the road. I can’t help thinking all those what if thoughts. What if I’d taken that footage to the police? Would it have made a difference?

So when I saw all this paperwork, I said to the other half, I’m going to go collect it all up and put it into a plastic bag because I would not want that stuff out there in the street if it were mine, and while I do that can you check the CCTV cameras and see when this stuff appeared here?

How do you do that, I hear you asking. We’ve done it before many times, but here is a quick rundown on logistics. I’ll give you our stolen bin example. First, you want to find the item on camera both in daytime and at night time – because things look different at night when it switches to infra-red. Then you check the camera at 10pm – bin still there? 11pm – bin still there? Midnight – bin still there? 1am = bin gone. Ok, lets go back to midnight then fast forward through this hour and find where the bin theft happens.

It turned out the paperwork had arrived just after 8:30 in the morning. There was a guy walking up the street, then a car comes into frame. He tells it where to park, which is right out the front of our house. The front passenger gets out, and he and the street guy go take a pee against our fence. Their faces are clearly caught on camera.

The driver of the vehicle appears to be looking through the car. The front seat passenger finishes his pee and gets back in the car. The street guy finishes his pee and gets into the rear of the vehicle. Just before the vehicle leaves, the front door opens, and all the papers are shoved out of the vehicle by the front seat passenger.

None of this seems like normal behaviour of a car owner to me, so I am now assuming this car has been stolen. And stupidly one of the papers they threw out had the car rego, so I get on the phone to the police. I give the call centre operator the rego, and she suddenly gets very excited. Can we send someone around to collect the footage, she says. Of course you can.

I type the name on the paperwork into The Google And Tubes, and the first person with that name who pops up happens to work behind the scenes in television for one of our major tv networks. Oh, that can’t be the guy, says me. I find a few others with the same name. I wait for the police. Nobody arrives. We have to put off grocery shopping because we can’t leave until they get here. Time passes, and passes.

I do a little more searching and find a Facebook Profile. This guy with the same name I see on the paperwork seems just like us, he likes planes, and Star Wars. But I am not sure about contacting anyone. What am I going to say? Around 10:30 I figure the police are not going to show up and it is time to take matters into my own hands, so I send a message to Star Wars Facebook Guy. Are you the (name) whose (vehicle name) was stolen today?

The answer comes back almost right away. Yes, that is me. How do you know that? I suddenly have a lot of explaining to do. I let him know I have all his paperwork, and am waiting for the police to come and get it, and that we have the car thieves on CCTV. He lets me know he is down on the South Coast on holidays and the car was stolen sometime overnight.

We chat for about 20 minutes, about this and about other things, it turns out he *is* the guy who works behind the scenes in television and eventually he says he is going back up to Sydney tomorrow and if the police don’t get the paperwork would we mind if he stops in and grabs it. He has a friend who is going to take him back to Sydney. I go and talk to The Other Half – who is a bit more concerned with this concept, but I talk him round, and I suggest to Star Wars Facebook Guy that they drop in for coffee the next morning.

We did not get very much sleep that night. First of all, every noise we heard had us checking the cameras. Secondly, I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind. One of them was.. if this was our car, I might find it difficult to watch this footage. We are people very attached to our cars. Some people aren’t, and that is fine, but we sure are. Another of them was, this walking down the street guy must live around here. That is a disturbing thought.

Bright and early the next morning, Star Wars Facebook Guy and his friend arrive. I check in with him and say hey, I have realised this footage might be a bit upsetting to watch, are you sure you want to see this? He says yes, so into the computer room we all troop, and watch the footage several times from different angles. On rewatching, we could see that these guys were not at all worried about fingerprints, and that made me think this car would be found burned out somewhere. That happens quite a lot these days, sadly.

Then we spend the next two hours chatting and drinking coffee. It turns out this guy has been at almost every major event of significance to happen in Australia for some years now. Any event I can think of and name, he was there. Everything from fires to floods to political happenings to royal tours. He was completely fascinating, and his friend was just as much so. We are now friends on the Facebook and I hope we will get to meet up again sometime.

The police arrived a couple of hours later, viewed the footage and were provided with a copy of their own. The truth about our local police is they have a large area to cover, they are so overworked and have so much to do, and then when things go to court the judges do not really hold criminals accountable for their actions. I think that needs to change.

A bit of time passed. One day I got a Facebook notification that Star Wars Facebook Guy had sent me a photo. As I feared, his car was found burned out. He’d gone to see it and taken some photos. The car was used in an armed robbery then set alight.

So why am I telling you this story. I debated whether or not I should, as this one is not really my story to tell. There are two reasons –

1. I want to remember this many years from now, so I am writing it down.

2. I want to make the point that sometimes getting involved in someone else’s business is the right thing to do. It actually can turn out to be a great thing if we are brave enough to step up. Sometimes picking up some rubbish in the street might save someone else a lot of heartache – that paperwork had all the information I needed to steal the identity of Star Wars Facebook Guy.

The spot where the accident happened now has been upgraded with guard rails to protect those on the other side of the road, and the NSW police are initiating Strike Force Puma as a result of this accident. They are now specifically requesting dashcam footage –

“We need the assistance of the public and we want anyone on the road who witnesses dangerous and menacing driving, such as overtaking several cars across double unbroken lines and narrowly avoiding other vehicles, or has footage of it to contact local police or Crime Stoppers,” Assistant Commissioner Corboy said.

We both have dash cams in our cars though mine is a bit less technically capable than the camera in the other car, which also captures a rear view. We will be submitting footage as requested, if we get any worth sending. We all have to live in this world and drive on these roads and people have to realise there may be consequences for bad behaviour even if they cannot see a police car nearby, as this nearby driver found out recently.

things to remember, wrong world

Things I DID Buy June

4 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

I received $500 in birthday money and here is some of the items which I purchased with it –

We needed new sheets for the bed. We’d bought some sateen sheets at Aldi in mid 2017 and they were fantastic, until one of the seams on the fitted sheet broke in February or so this year. Now it was still useable, and we loved those sheets so much we kept using them for a while but I was always on the lookout for a bargain set.

I found them at Harris Scarfe for $19.95. Can you guess what colour we bought?

The first clothes I bought were these – 1 longline chenille cardigan (24.99) & 1 chenille scarf (20) from Rivers. I love chenille, but I once owned one chenille item and I killed it with washing, mainly I think because I did not wash it in a garment bag, and I had a top load washer way back then. Hopefully with our Miele front load washer. I will not murder these clothes with washing.

I was only going to get the cardigan – which finishes about the knee on me, it is a good long length – because I felt $20 for the scarf was up money, but then The Other Half said to me – you deserve the scarf, you have been so good all these months not buying any clothes. Little did he know of the spending spree about to occur this month. I have worn them both once and I have to say they are toasty warm, soft, fluffy and perfect for this very cold weather we are having.

2 pairs of new leggings – one with “sueded” lining @29.95 and one houndstooth pair $34.95. Seriously the sueded lining has spoiled me. Now I want all my clothes lined this way.

2 pairs of fleece lined leggings @ 24.95 each. All 4 of these are from TK Maxx. If you are looking for workout leggings with any kind of lining this would be #1 on my list to search. These are super stretchy and incredibly warm without being too hot if you are running.

3 ponchos $29 each from a local store that was having a sale. I had been looking for a poncho for some time but every one I saw was so boring, these at least had some personality and almost give the impression of being gold and silver.

I also got some wool scarves $29 each these are chunky and can be used as a wrap as well.

1 set of SOLIDASTER curtains @ $89. You may recall these appearing in the what I did not buy at IKEA post. They were one of the first things I thought of when I knew I had birthday money, because I had made the mistake of washing the blockout curtains in the lounge room and the block out part stuck together, meaning I have sections where light comes streaming through as an unpleasant surprise.

Unfortunately one of the Aspergers sensory problems I suffer with is “sensory sensitivities” – everyone has slightly different sensitivities. Light around the periphery of my vision is a big one for me, and these holes in the blockout curtains are right in the wrong place for me. If the sun is shining, I find it difficult to focus on my laptop or the tv screen.

We had to hem these, and we also hemmed the ruined blockout curtains so they could replace the blockout curtain in the bedroom. Most of the stuck together parts are right on the sides of the curtains and with a little creative cutting and thought, the lounge room curtains may be able to be repurposed as we do not need length or the same kind of width in the bedroom.

The Solidaster have now been hung and I am delighted with them. They are incredibly gorgeous, photos do not do them proper justice at all.

The final item I purchased in June was a replacement rug for my recliner. The current rug was just not bringing enough warm this winter and while I will keep it and use it again in spring, I’m switching to a warmer rug for the rest of winter. It cost me $42.50 as I am a rewards member and I got a discount on top of the sale price.

There are two creatures in the house who are extremely pleased with this purchase. Grumpy sits on my legs as I type this, and I have put together a montage of her happiness. If we covered every surface in the house with these rugs, we would have to change her name to Happy.

But we already have a Happy, and despite not being a lap cat at all, she too enjoys this rug. My lap is now The Place To Be. With a cat on ones lap, this rug is almost too warm. I’ve had to take my indoor beanie off most nights since we got this rug.

The total money spent in June = 485.24.

The kitties might say, you could have bought us 10 fluffy rugs with that birthday money.

My question to you – does birthday money count as spending? I’m going with no myself, though I have counted June as a spend month because technically I did spend money on clothes and stuff for the house.

2018yobn, Things I Did Buy 2018

Will You Like To Know More Part 2

2 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

More Decathlon!

The goggles start from $3.50 and they have an enormous range of them. If you can’t find a pair here I would be very surprised. They also have corrective lenses for same goggles at very reasonable prices.

There is a huge choice of swimming outfits.

When it is time to pay, you place your items in this box and it reads the RFID chip. Also Decathlon is a membership warehouse though membership is free. You can sign up on arrival and scan the membership card on your phone into the Stocard app, so that you can use it when you check out.

That was the first time I ever saw the Stocard app but you can be sure I am now making great use of it – I have scanned in 15 membership/loyalty/rewards cards which I used to carry with me everywhere – which is MADNESS if you think about it. Madness! And I am going to check my special hiding place because I took out a lot of cards I don’t use a while ago.

The app has an option to turn on the “card assistant” so when you approach a store your phone will pop up a notification to easily access the card for that nearby store. This does not seem to work for Coles, though, at least for me.

After we bought the rollerblades, we wandered back over to IKEA for afternoon coffee and a wander, and to get my curtains. They had this little setup which looked like perhaps Harry Potter or Indiana Jones might have just walked away from.

Our favourite KALAS is now available in a new colour. I’m not such a fan of it – I prefer the rainbow set – and apparently The Other Half is banning me from buying any more of these anyway. I feel like you can never have enough KALAS bowls and plates. Microwave and dishwasher safe, unbreakable, so useful.

We did not buy this even though both of us really wanted to. We flipped it over and stood there and watched the gorgeous gold “sand” melt through the hourglass, and then we did it again, and yet another time, while we debated whether we could/would/should buy it.

What would we use it for? Did we need it, or did we just really want it? In the end we chose not to buy it, but will it be like Indiana Jones choosing the holy grail? Did we choose poorly, or wisely?

We left IKEA around 3pm and headed back down the coast. We had a destination in mind – Eat Street is on every Thursday night in Wollongong and the weather was perfect for it – cold but not windy. We have been once before and apparently I did not blog about it here, which surprises me but then again there is a lot of stuff I don’t post about.

I got Poutine from La Poutine food truck. Mine had bacon and ground beef on top with the cheese curds and gravy. It was awesome. Perfect for a cold night.

The other half got some loaded fries – they had cheese and a spicy chipotle aioli – from Norma’s Burger Bar plus a burger.

He chose the same stall last time and when he enjoys something he tends to stick with it.

Soon after we finished our food, we were on our way home, after a very long day out. We planned to head out for a run & rollerblade (I run, he rollerblades) the next day, and a bushwalk sometime over the weekend, too. But that is a story for another day.

Decathlon, food, IKEA

Year Of Buying Nothing Update #6

2 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

June was a spend month, but for the most part it was not technically my money that I was spending, so does it really count? I’m not sure. I will write a separate post on this as there were quite a few things. I received $500 in birthday money, and I spent $485.24 for the month. The spending had some very interesting mental side effects, but I think that might be best covered in the 6 month overview post which I am writing.

No Spend Days

This was yet another epic fail, and I tried really hard to make this a win this month! First of all, on day 1 of June I set out to cover as many spending things as I could. On a Friday which here means bad traffic and trouble finding a park where I want it. In that one day I managed nails, a haircut, a big pharmacy spend which was needed as we were running out of stuff we use, to take hot donuts to the other half at work as a surprise treat, and we did the grocery shop that night.

The next day we went to Shellharbour for a wander, and got a new sheet set, some bulk hair dye items which I needed and potatoes. Mostly we wandered and really enjoyed looking in the shops without *needing* to buy any of the things we saw. After 6 months we have separated wants from needs and we have begun to enjoy feeling the wants without any desire to actually spend money. In effect I exploded two spend days right at the start of the month without any intention to spend any more until the next grocery spending day.

Then chicken went on special, so I had to sacrifice a spend day to buy in bulk. On checking the letterbox around this time, I discovered that my rego had run out on the 31st of May as a surprise to myself.

This is actually happening to a lot of people now that they have taken the stickers away, because people do get some paperwork at least a month or even two months earlier and we put it aside to deal with when the time comes – and then we forget all about it, and there is no sticker on the car to remind you when it is due. There is now a reminder in my Google Calendar.

So I had to arrange the safety check, insurance, etc. This also cost me a spend day. And now we have used up our goal of 4 spend days and I still have grocery shopping to do, and I have this birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, and then The Other Half gets some unexpected days off.. so the train falls off the rails entirely.

11 days of spending out of 30. ;) This was very bad.

No Spend Goals For July

I think I am being unrealistic with these goals and that is why I am having trouble meeting them. This month I will need 3 days for grocery shopping, I’m going to budget two days for experience spending as we are going up to Sydney for an overnight, and I will budget two days for other things but hope not to use them. 7 days is the goal.

Grocery Spending

June grocery budget – $600

Coles – 26.70 (-10, was 36.70) + 86
Aldi – 212.06 (13.99 mens jeans 4 the other half work) +221.32
Bulk Veg – $20.70
Pasties – 32.00 (2.66 per pastie)
$598.78
$19.95/day

Just under budget. I did count the jeans as part of the spending because it was on the grocery docket but realistically I should take that off. The Other Half is not having a great time with jeans for work, several of his old reliable pairs have been thrown out after developing holes in places there should certainly not be holes.

Grocery Spending Goals For July

Grocery spend = $620
Bulk Items Budget = $100

June Thoughts

I’m actually going to post my overall thoughts on the past 6 months in another post. June was a tough month weather wise and I expect July to be even more so, it is time to hibernate and keep warm.

2018yobn

Where My Kibble At?

5 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

This grumpy land shark is staring at me.

I suppose it is better than the land shark circling on the bed that we get in the mornings and way better than land shark biting! ;)

This face regularly appears towards the end of the afternoon here. The kitties get a small tuna feed in the morning which is why they circle us on the bed. If we were made of tuna, I expect we would be eaten at this time. They only get a 15g serving, it usually is snarfed up in two minutes or less.

Kibble could be fed as early as afternoon coffee time at 4pm, or somewhere around 5-6pm – we like to keep it varied so they don’t know exactly when to expect it. But keeping it varied means we get stared at from 4pm onwards. I’m ok with it, and I do not let it influence me at all. Kibble time will not change no matter how evil the stares!

kitties

Will You Like To Know More

4 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

I ask this question a lot to the great annoyance of people around me. Sometimes *I* will like to know more, and finding this new building in the carpark of IKEA Tempe was one such occasion.

It was recently my birthday – no, I don’t tell people and I don’t celebrate them for the most part – but I was asked by The Other Half where would I like to go for dinner, and I chose the Korean BBQ that we have visited a few times in Campsie, a couple of hours drive away.

My parents were most unthrilled by this concept – a 4 hour return trip just to eat dinner? But they did not understand, this is two hours of all you can eat Korean BBQ with a sushi buffet, a hot food bar, and desserts. It is like the old days of all you can eat Pizza Hut, only more healthy.

But when I told them our nephew would be meeting us, they got on board. Well, mostly, there was still some grumbling and “I can’t believe we’re going all that way“. I mean these are people that complain about going 7km to eat dinner, so I was expecting this. I was also expecting the end result – which is they go, they eat, they LOVE it, and they demand to go back.

I did not take any photos as we were too busy eating, drinking, cooking on those little charcoal BBQs in the middle of the table, and me personally I was peeling a lot of prawns, who wants to pick up their phone in the middle of that with prawny fingers? Oh, the prawns, you guys. They are so delicious cooked on that bbq. I set a target of eating 19. I failed. Mainly thanks to the sushi, which was also great.

Here is a lovely blog post with photos – Se Jong Korean Bbq Buffet, Campsie. Since that post they have installed extractor fans inside which make things a lot less smoky.

On the way home we stopped in at IKEA so Mother could get some small side tables for her guest rooms, and just so we could wander the halls happily. This is when we discovered the Decathlon building. We resisted the HUGE slices of cheesecake because we’d just eaten for 2 solid hours but we did get coffee before the long drive home.

How do I find out more? Usually via my phone. I went to the Decathlon website and the very first thing to appear was a set of rollerblades – a secret message to us that we needed to return soonest – as The Other Half has been looking for rollerblades for some time now after his wheels biodegraded as a surprise to us. We decided we would return the next weekend, BUT..

The following week, it turned out that The Other Half had little work to do at work, and instead of wander about trying to make work or create work, he arranged to take 2 days of his 5 weeks of holidays which he has been collecting up for some time now. And thus we found ourselves in the Polo on a Thursday, heading up to Sydney. We ate the Swedish Meatballs overlooking the store, and when we finished lunch we strolled across the carpark to check out Decathlon.

It turns out this place is bizarre. A sports warehouse, you would expect all the usual brands, Nike, Adidas, maybe Reebok, etc. But there was not a single known brand to be found. The brands here are all brands I had never seen before. They are all specially made for this company.

Even so the range of items is incredible, and the sports they have specific equipment for are many not well represented sports in “regular” sports stores in Australia. When have you seen a horse riding aisle at your local Rebel Sports? I was so stunned to see it I did not even take a photo! But I might have to go back for some jodhpurs and riding boots – both starting at $28.

Would you like to know more? Here is the Wikipedia page, here is their Tempe website where you can take a 360 degree tour of the store, here is their regular website where you can search for items, and here are some of my photos from inside the store.

These are jumpers suitable for golf, and walking. I liked the teal one.

I took this photo to send to Sephyroth – cricket bats are not exciting to me but he is a fan. ;)

Look at all these socks especially sent to tempt me, but I did not buy any. Good Snoskred!

This is part of the camouflage section, for hunting, fishing, and various other hiding yourself in plain sight sports.

I just really liked this photo but I also thought the camo shorts $29 and trousers $36 were very good value. The Other Half will like to try some, at some point.

Most of these skate shoes were between $30-49. This would be excellent value when you have teenagers, I suspect. In fact I saw a lot of great value kids stuff, it felt like they cater very well for kids here.

Ah, finally the section we are looking for.

But our day out was by no means over yet, and this day was so full of awesomeness, I will need to make another post to tell you more. If you’d like to know more tune in next Wednesday! :)

Never fear those in Melbourne, Decathlon will be opening in Box Hill in November. As usual Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Tasmania, you are SOL. Jump on a plane, Tempe is right next to the airport though it is a bit of a hike from either terminal, mainly because there is a large container terminal in the way and no access road. I would recommend a taxi, if you are in urgent need of reasonably priced sports equipment.

Decathlon, food, IKEA

Bizarre Comments

7 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

Sometimes you receive a comment on your blog which is just flat out bizarre. Here is such a one.

You go, girlfriend! But spamming the web with comments like this is not a good idea. For one reason you will end up in the spam bin – which is where this comment was found. And secondly, because even if this comment did not go straight to spam, I am never going to approve this to be posted on my blog. I mean can’t you just pretend even for a moment that you read my blog post and have your first paragraph relate to that in some way? You might have half a chance of getting some comments posted then.

When I get a comment like this, I enjoy looking up the IP address. In this case we got –

How can I put this delicately? I’ve never been there but from what I have seen on COPS and the teevee, perhaps Las Vegas may well have a larger percentage of “unchaste” women than you would find in most towns.

Here’s the thing, Boycott Guy. What intelligent woman – American or otherwise – would want to get involved with someone who posts this kind of thing all over the internet? I’m gonna go with “one who wants a green card.”

Why bother with a woman at all? Why not get a maid/chef and be done with it? That sounds like what you are looking for and I am sure it will cost you less in the long run. But if you are looking for value LEARN TO COOK, CLEAN, USE A SURROGATE OR ADOPT, and bypass the ladies completely?

commenting on blogs

Black Box Number Two

5 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

The box inspectors hard at work.

This month we have some definite keepers and some very definite never buy again for me products. And the kitties get in on the act as well!

There is a small packet of kitty food in this box.

I think someone can smell it, and maybe almost taste it already. So what do we have here?

Bic Flex5 razor, Vitasoy Coconut Milky, Korma paste pots, Kewpie sesame soy Japanese dressing, Heinz classic barbecue sauce, Jordans low sugar granola, Fairy Platinum, Hills Science Diet sachet, Urbane Mess resurfacing face scrub, Blessed by Nature tinted moisturiser, Harvest Snaps baked pea crisps.

Was anyone reading this a fan of the D-Gen on ABC? They had a spoof ad about razors once where the razor had 16 blades. I feel like we are on track to get to that amount of blades one day in the not so distant future. The Other Half does not like to use a razor but he might give this a try.

The Vitasoy Coconut Milky and Korma paste pots will be teamed together with some chicken and plenty of vegetables for a future meal. We don’t really eat much Indian style food but we’ll give it a try.

Aldi had avocado on special the week after this box arrived, so I bought one to try out the Kewpie dressing. This was too savoury for me and yet it contained over 5 grams of sugar per serving. Not a fan.

The Heinz BBQ sauce was a good chance to plan Sticky Chicken for dinner, the recipe is so simple it is not funny but it is incredibly delicious. Just put BBQ sauce, soy sauce and honey together in a bowl, marinade the chicken breast in it, then bake in the oven. I like to slow bake now, so cover the dish with alfoil and cook for a couple of hours at 160C. You won’t even need a knife to cut this chicken.

Our family has been using ETA Barbecue sauce for the sticky chicken recipe since I was a child. That sauce is made in Australia – the Heinz one is made in the Netherlands. While it was super delicious and added a smokey element not normally found in this meal, I would prefer to buy and use Australian made where I can.

OMG the cherry in this granola. OMG OMG OMG. So GOOD! I wish I could just get a huge bag of these freeze dried cherries. They are crunchy and delicious. I had this sprinkled over the top of some Aldi Hi Protein Yogurt. This is a product I will be buying again. The almonds were great too. LOVE.

The Jordans Low Sugar Granola is now $3.50 on half price special at Coles until Tuesday the 26th June, if you would like to experience the awesomeness of freeze dried cherries for yourself.

The Urbane Mess resurfacing face scrub is a product designed for use by men and I deeply appreciate that it uses crushed walnut shells instead of plastic beads. It smells fantastic but very man flavoured – I personally love that – and contains lavender and rosemary essential oils. We both gave it a try and loved it. We will both use this and we will buy it again.

In fact we may well buy other products from their range based on how much we liked this. It turns out my Dad already uses their hair wax and loves it. It is really good value – the photo is the price at Priceline.

When I read about the upcoming box on Facebook and learned what might be in it, there were three different possible moisturisers (Sensitive Moisturiser, Pure Balance Matter Moisturiser or Multi Effect Tinted Moisturiser) from Blessed by Nature and I hoped they would not send me the tinted one. Of course they did.

I tried it and wiped it straight off again with a cleansing cloth. I am just not someone who likes makeup, even if it is “hidden” in a moisturiser. It is Up Money, too.

Saving the best for last, these Harvest Snaps.. wow. I was not sure when I ate the first one. When I ate the second one, I decided these are pretty awesome. Like a more healthy twistie. When I looked at their website and discovered they do a Wasabi flavour, that went to the top of my must try list. I *love* wasabi. Only I have not been able to find that flavour at all, not anywhere.

I don’t know how they make these, I have no idea how a pea goes from being a pea to being this crunchy and awesome. If you stumble upon them I do recommend giving them a try. I have tried lightly salted – great, highlights the pea flavour. Chicken – tastes like a much better Chicken Twistie. Chili – not too spicy, just a nice amount of heat. Salt and vinegar – they did not bring the salt or the vinegar.

The Texas BBQ flavour was interesting and a little bit spicy, so the recommended serving size of 18.5 grams was actually perfect for me. The Other Half really loved these too. We will be buying more – Coles now stock three of the flavours and luckily Chili which has been my favourite is there.. :)

Black Box, reviews