Posted by Cottontimer on 17 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Shopping
Let the festivities begin! This Sumo Omni beanbag is my Christmas gift to the family. Stephen’s resting here in the boat shape but we’ve had lots of fun pummeling it into all sorts of configurations, including the wonton!
Posted by Cottontimer on 23 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Parenting, Reading, Shopping
Here are a few items that we currently can’t live without at our house.
The LEGO brick separator. If you’re like me with a little LEGO artist in the house, chances are you’ve cursed the LEGO bricks for a number of offenses including moments when they can’t be separated. This brick separator can be used in a number of ways. The head area has sockets that you can fit onto a brick that’s stuck and leverage it off. The flattened tail section can be used to pry off pieces that are too flat and small to hook on to the head of the separator. Buy more than one. You’ll be glad you did.
Stephen was doing fine at reading according to his teachers but I could tell he was struggling with the concept of “sounding it out.” Using this book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelman, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner, he’s already made noticeable progress and we’ve only finished 25 lessons. Everything is scripted out for the person teaching the child so it’s an easy way for both teacher and pupil.
The Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 has some great features but the two that I like best are auto-focus and light adjustment. The picture quality and built-in microphone are excellent as well.
Technically we can live without this magazine but Real Life Bugs & Insects is the most fantastic magazine for kids that I’ve ever seen. Sponsored by the London Natural History Museum, each bi-weekly issue comes with a bug encased in plastic resin. All of us look forward to each new issue!
And I can’t forget about my fabulous Nespresso machine. I haven’t been to Starbucks in weeks because I can get my cappuccino and almond latte fix at home and all with an automatic nozzle for steamed milk and froth. It’s so easy to use, I hope to train Stephen to make me my daily cup soon!
Posted by Cottontimer on 10 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Expat Life, Shopping
Ernie at little. yellow. different. recently went to Hong Kong and Tokyo for vacation and dropped in on some aunts and cousins:
My mom has given me bottles of multi-vitamins to give to them, which seems to be the universal gift of what someone from America gives to family members in Asia.
That is so true!! My family gets our vitamins from Costco. Other popular gifts seem to be:
Snack food - dried fruit, nuts, CornNuts, Jelly Belly jelly beans, candy barsWhat regional gifts do you bring to relatives when you visit?
Posted by Cottontimer on 27 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Shopping
Royal Robbins is one of my favorite casual clothing labels. Great for weekend wear. While in Singapore, I picked up two pairs of these Backcountry Shorts and was tickled to see they had adjustable button waistband tabs.
Adjustable button waistband tabs let you compensate for weight lost over long backpacking trips or the added bulk of varied layers of clothing.
I wonder if I’ll ever have any need for these waistband tabs. I can button them to the tighter fit now but if I loosen them up, it’ll be because of the added bulk of a good meal rather than layers of clothing.
BTW, I only wear shorts at home. I stopped wearing them out over 10 years ago. 
Posted by Cottontimer on 14 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: London, Me, Shopping
My monthly personalized coupons from Sainsbury’s supermarket arrived today. Not only did I get six with my name on it, I was mistakenly sent another six for a Miss A.T. What do the different offers tell you about our shopping habits?
For Mrs. H Lei:
For Miss A.T.:
These coupons tell me that Miss A.T. makes a lot of sandwich lunches with a piece of fruit included. She makes so many of these sandwiches that she has to buy £80 before she gets triple reward points.
In contrast, my own coupons show that we buy quite a bit of prepared meals (most are actually pre-marinated, uncooked meat). And, we’re not big shoppers at Sainsbury’s because of the lower purchase amount needed to receive triple reward points. Makes sense because we do 1/4 to 1/3 of our weekly grocery purchases at Marks & Spencer.
What do your personalized shopping coupons say about you?
Posted by Cottontimer on 18 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: London, Reading, Shopping, What the @#!
Don’t look back.
So hard to do especially when it comes to books. I need to tattoo Amazon on my arm to remind myself never to buy a book from an actual bookstore.
This morning, I finally went to Hatchards, “booksellers since 1797″ and “booksellers to the Royal Household.” (Nobody looking remotely like Royalty was in the store at the same time as me although the clerk had a posh prep school air and there were a few businessmen wandering about.) I’ve never bothered before because it didn’t look like the type of place that would welcome children. Knowing that books are almost always cheaper at Amazon, I would have been happy to buy a canvas bag or a bookmark emblazoned with HATCHARDS but they had none of that.
Imagine that! A bookstore that only sells books. 
I was determined to get my shopper’s experience, though, and picked up The Rough Guide to Genes & Cloning as well as The Changing Face of China: From Mao to Market at full price. Not content to say I’d been, I could not resist double checking the prices when I got home. And of course, the books are both selling at Amazon.co.uk for about 30% less than cover price.
AHHHH!!!! Why oh why do I never learn?
At least I got two free paper bookmarks out of the deal but do you think they’re worth £7?!
*By the way, Hatchards is owned by retail giant Waterstone’s. Yet another reason why Hatchards is really nothing more than a name.
Posted by Cottontimer on 11 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Food, Shopping
Last Friday, I was minding my own business when I saw this note on Chris Garrett’s Facebook:
Chris is wishing he had ordered more Nespresso pods.
That piqued my interest because I had recently used a picture of someone’s display of Nespresso capsules at Eye on DNA although I had no idea what those things were. The wall hanger happened to look like two colorful X chromosomes and I liked that. Definitely a sign.
So I spent the rest of Friday researching and obsessing over Nespresso. By the end of the day, I’d put in an order for a Nespresso D290C Concept Automatic Espresso Maker. It arrived this morning. And exercising great restraint, I only tested one regular cappuccino and one decaffeinated. Marv even went out of his way to get me amaretto syrup for my latte tomorrow morning.
The Nespresso coffee is hot, strong, and smooth. Perfect! Here’s a video demo of the machine I purchased.
Happy 35th birthday to me! (Six weeks early to boot.)
Update: Nespresso is clearly not going to leave any coffee lover high and dry when they run out of coffee capsules. I ordered the one-time offer welcome package yesterday and it was just delivered a mere 24 hours later. Very impressive.
Posted by Cottontimer on 01 May 2007 | Tagged as: Knick Knacks, London, Shopping
Of all the household chores I have to do (and that is ALL of them), I hate vacuuming the most. The hand-me-down Sanyo vacuum I’ve been using for the past year is so old that I can only get replacement bags online. At some point last year, I noticed the wiring in the plug was loose so I pried it open and tried to rewire it without a clue as to the proper configuration. I promptly shocked myself and didn’t feel quite right for the rest of the evening.
I survived and managed to get the vacuum working again, but I’ve had to repeatedly rewire the plug because one of the wires inside broke and is too short to stay connected properly. Anyway, I don’t know why I’m going on about this except that vacuuming is the bane of my existence.
So when the old vacuum had to be rewired for the balumpteenth time last week and I was down to the second-to-the-last vacuum bag, I threw a fit and said that I MUST HAVE A NEW VACUUM. Preferably one that is capable of sucking up hair because the old one was utterly useless. (And it’s plain old human hair no less, not from furry fuzzy fizzy pets.)
Marv said, “OK. We can go compare prices this weekend.”
To which I replied, “I don’t want to compare prices!! I want to get a @#! new vacuum cleaner.”
And this is what we came back with:
An Electrolux PowerPlus 1900W Z4494 (the vacuum in the picture is the same color as ours but is only 1800). It’s tons lighter than our old machine, which is especially important in our four-story house. And the suction power is fantastic.
But does having a new vacuum make me want to hoover it all up? Does a new vacuum give me joy and hope for a cleaner tomorrow? Does a new vacuum that hums instead of whines bring a song to my heart?
Nope. Vacuuming still sucks.
Posted by Cottontimer on 13 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: California, Shopping
I’m having a fabulous time on vacation even though I caught another cold. That’s 4 for 4 this year. AHHHH. Doesn’t keep me from shopping. So far, two great pairs of shoes and a watch. Woohoo!
Posted by Cottontimer on 04 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Shopping
Nothing beats a new bag to help you see things in a different light.
Linen bag with white faux leather trim from Benetton.
