How to manage without hair straighteners

Say you have slightly wavy hair or hair with a bit of a kink in it and you'd like to wear it straight but have no hair straighteners or no time to mess around with vent brushes and hair dryers? The solution is simple: use shampoo and/or conditioner for curly or wavy hair - the ones that promise to give you bouncy curls.

The result is instant and amazing - just blast your hair with hot air, comb through and everyone will think you've spent ages straightening it.

I used Umberto Giannini "Curl Friends" Smooth Curls Conditioner, but I reckon any other shampoo or conditioner formulated for curly hair will have the same effect on slightly-wavy-want-to-be-straight hair.

You heard it here first.

Come again? once more

Yesterday I bought a pack of DVD+RW discs at the supermarket. On them was a yellow sticker with the following cryptic message:

Remove film before putting in microwave

What's even more mind-boggling is that ALL the packs on the shelf had the same sticker on.

I was only planning to use the discs in my computer's DVD drive, but perhaps there are other uses that I'm unaware of?

Although to be honest, after the earlier incident with the order that had been updated to the status Archive, I'm starting to wonder if I've reached that time in life when the world stops making sense? *shudder*

The check-out girl took the sticker off, otherwise I'd be showing you a picture of my microwaveable DVD discs.

Red kidney bean soup

Kidney beans don't exactly set my heart on fire, but I usually have a can in the cupboard for use in chili con carne. Sometimes I only use half a can, and then I have to find something to do with the other half. I have a great recipe for a chicken, avocado and red kidney bean salad, but that needs prior planning due to the fanciful ingredients required. So the other day, with half a can of kidney beans and no avocado or chicken in the house, I decided to make soup instead. I searched the Internet for a kidney bean soup recipe and found lots on offer, all fairly similar. In the end I chose three recipes that I liked the sound of, and combined them to make my own version. The result was truly yummilicious, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Ingredients
(quantities are approximate)

1-2 tbs olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 carrot
1 red chili (dried)
1 stick celery
1-2 large red peppers
A few fresh tomatoes
Tomato paste or passata
Red kidney beans
1-2 pints vegetable stock
1-2 bay leaves
Thyme
Parsley
Oregano or "Italian herb" seasoning
Salt & pepper

Instructions

Heat oil in a large pan. Stir in chopped onions, garlic and carrots.
Cover & sweat over low heat for a few minutes. Add finely chopped peppers and celery. Cook for a couple of minutes more.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste & kidney beans. Add chilies and herbs, mix well, cook for 3 to 5 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.

Pour in the stock, season with salt & pepper & bring to boil. Let it boil hard for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat & simmer for half an hour or so.

Once cooked, you can cool the soup and then blend it with a food processor. You could also serve it with a dollop of lime yoghurt (made by combining plain yoghurt, lime juice and finely chopped coriander). I prefer chunky soups and had no lime or coriander handy, so I had mine as it came out of the pan.

To say I was surprised by the result would be an understatement. Who would have thought that combining red pepper, red kidney beans, tomatoes and a few herbs you could get such a mouth-watering combination?

The recipes I used to create my version of red kidney soup are:

Chef2Chef Red Kidney Bean Soup
Allotment Growing Red pepper and kidney been soup
WHFoods Red Kidney Bean Soup with Lime Yoghurt

Wordless Wednesday 83

Come again?

Last weekend I placed an order on the internet for a new outfit which I'm hoping will arrive by Friday.

The supplier sent an email to confirm my order and everything seemed fine. I was expecting another email today or tomorrow advising me of dispatch and giving me an estimated delivery time.

What I got instead was an email with just one line of text. It said:

Your order has been updated to the status Archive.

Any idea what that might mean? Like, in English? I hope it's not code for "we've messed up your order and you're never to see the items, or your money, again". That would be heartbreaking.

There's nowt as queer as folk

It is a well-known fact that shutting large numbers of people in a metal tube which moves at great speed 30,000 feet above ground can create a certain amount of discomfort, and occasionally lead to tempers flaring up. But even rage has extremes. Take, for example, the Ryanair passenger who became so enraged when he was told he could not claim a scratchcard prize on his flight that he ate his winning ticket.

Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline that operates throughout Europe, sells scratchcards as well as duty-free on their flights. The man in question was flying from Krakow in Poland to the East Midlands in the UK when he won 10,000 euros (£8,765 or $13,620) on a scratchcard he had purchased on board. For some reason, he got it in his head that the crew should be taking his winning scratchcard from him and handing over 10,000 euros in cash - then and there.

When the crew explained that they didn't have the necessary cash on the aircraft and therefore he had to wait until they landed to claim his prize, he got so frustrated he decided to eat his ticket instead.

Since the prize will now go unclaimed, the money will be donated to charity. Ryanair have asked the public to choose from a list of five charities by voting here. Voting will be open until 5th March.

God only knows what was going through the man's mind at the time, or why he thought eating his ticket would made him feel better! As far as I can work out, this incident has created an awful lot of free publicity for Ryanair and will in time make a group of charity bosses very happy indeed. As for the rest of us, I guess it's left us wondering if the world's going to pot, or as Karen put it, to hell in handbasket!

For those of you wondering how the title of this post matches the text, "there's nowt as queer as folk" is a British expression meaning "there's nothing as strange as some people". The ticket-munching incident proves that there's a great deal of wisdom in that statement.

Would you wear this?

Or even a high street version of it?

According to Spanish designer Isabel Mastache, the hottest accessory for men next Autumn/Winter isn’t a man bag, a belt, a scarf, or even a hat. Oh no. It’s a big fake woolly willy. And how about a jumper that covers your face to go with it? Or maybe a fake arm?

The above text is shamelessly copied from Heatworld.com. Many thanks to Caroline for emailing me the link.

If by any chance I've piqued your interest, click here to see more of Mastache's creations at CIBELES Madrid Fashion Week.

Whoever said a catwalk model's job is glamorous ought to think again.