Balancing Act

Soupa Doupa

2007-06-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

I love soup. Soup for lunch , soup for supper. But since there is not much soup cooking time left in my week, thank the lordy lordy that The New Covent Garden Food Co decided to make soup that tastes just like I had that quiet evening in to prepare the next day's lunch.

I am the - in a hurry but need something healthy kind of NCG eater. Need good food quick, well there must be at least one of my five a day lurking in there somewhere.

Well I set off in search for other soup fanatics to see whether NCG was their secret answer to the love of home made soup you haven't got time to cook.

Using my netvibes page (which by the way was worryingly easy to set up and has already been unbelieveable useful!), my google alerts (with a bit of help from google searches) and an obsession with facebook I have found that there are people out there taking the whole 'soup/NCG thing' really rather seriously.

They discuss consistency, duncability and salt.

The general consensus seems to be that its rather pricey but worth every penny.

Firstly I found Orlando. In his extensive review entitled - Meal in a mug in more ways than one - Orlando describes his search for a cure of his vegetable deficiency. A veggie not eating his veggies. That was until he claims to be rescued by NCG Carrot and coriander. As I read on it began to become clear that what this guy was missing was not vegetables at all, but, in fact, his mum. He likes these soups because they remind him of home. Well 'being mum' is perhaps not a bad thing for a brand to have achieved.

It also seems that people are happy that NCG are not precious about there soups. Many people such as Kerry say that its great that 'NCG let you add' pepper or milk to the soup. Well, it is quite obvious that you could do this to any soup. The difference with this brand is that they have almost given the buyer permission meddle with their original recipe. Again coaxing out the chef among us, and as we sit down to our soup we really feel like we have had a hand in it.

I have also found that NCG are quite clever. Picking up on the fact that they are popular with people who like homemade soups they have hit the nail on the head with their recipe book. For all those people like me and Princessoapy who, as we eat the soup, feel we should have made it -well now we can.

The New covent garden soup for all season recipe book gets five stars and 9 people raving about it on Amazon. Particular Helen who describes it as the most used recipe book on her bookshelf.

Well its fair to say that there is plenty of good buzz around NCG, so well done them. With a facebook group in its infancy with only fifteen members it is safe to say that there's much more buzz to come.

Sel sell sell

2007-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well I am now in the process of selling my key. I have done a little research into how much keys can sell for and have been quite surprised. Know the date that the key was made, and if it's handmade, then you're really in the money - with the grand total of $200 not being unheard of.

Well, for fear of getting into serious trouble with trade description I thought that claiming I know anything about this item could throw me into the cheeky seller pot. What I could see though is that it is clearly the same shape as all the other keys listed as Victorian - so a Victorian key it is.

I still have a day to go and unfortunately it appears that I have no views or bids. Maybe mad key fanatics (such as people who frame hang keys in their sitting rooms!) only come out to play at the weekends. If so a late bidding war could be on the cards.

My item number is : 160101353212 (In case you you are one such fanatic and fancy you chances...)

What kind of Ebayer are you?

2007-03-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

A must have - can have.
For some, buying on ebay makes the unobtainable 'must have' obtainable. The very fact that 'Luis Vuitton' is the most common ebay search term shows that it's a ticket to that ipod/handbag/glad rag you are just dying to possess.

Or, perhaps your homesick. Well, not to worry, because for if you cant get hold of those crisps your mum always used to buy back home in Ireland, you can now. Buy a 24 pack on ebay for $1.50 - perfect.

A one off flogger.
Maybe your a sporadic seller - needing to embark on the highly secret operation of flogging Auntie Pat's ridiculous Christmas present. A yearly business venture during which you quite enjoy seeing the back of your new nasal hair remover.

A money hunting penny pincher.
Could you have suddenly realised that a Wednesday night booze up in the student union isn't on the cards unless you can come up with that all important $20 note. Then it comes to you. Someone somewhere would just love your old rugby boots, wouldn't they.

A Scrooge
And then my favourite. Are you at the end of your tether. Desperate to find a way to discipline your children.. Well, maybe you are like the dad that, in what can only be described as pure desperation, decided to flog his children's Xmas presents on ebay. Cant find the original auction because it has expired but you can see it on this guys blog - hilarious. http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/seb/comments/dad_auctions_off_christmas_presents_on_ebay_after_kids_are_naughty/

Ebay entrepreneur
For some people ebay is their livelihood. 70000 people in the UK earn 25% of their income on ebay - the percentage needed to qualify as an 'ebay entrepreneur'. See this article on ebay and income http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:X3aCqP-e8tIJ:www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html%3Fin_article_id%3D406867%26in_page_id%3D5+ebay+make+a+living&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk

Cheeky bidder
I love the cheeky element of the ebay world. It's amazing. The cheek of what people get away with selling, and the cheek of what people get away with buying. And why do they do it. Because they can!

Want to be a 'cheeky' ebay bidder? In my view the cheekiest way to buy on ebay is through http://www.fatfingers.co.uk/. This website is fantastic. As it's strap line says, 'other people's typos save you money'. When some grammatically challenged person misstypes/fatfingers there ebay lot they should beware. As, waiting in the cyberspace wings are the fatfinger buyers. They rely on the fact that no one will find your entry, and therefore not bid on your entry - and therefore get themselves a bit of a bargain. If your not a cheeky bidder yet then this site might change that.

Cheeky flogger
Well last, and by no means least, we have the cheeky flogger. The bottom line is that you sell something utterly useless to anyone else - just to see if someone will buy. Like the guy who sold his rubbish bin and its contents. You can find his blog here http://www.magicgoat.com/ebay/ebay.htm

Or even the guy who made himself an easy $5 out of flogging an air guitar.

However while looking for my ebay item over the last two weeks I have found my favourite members of this group. These members sell worthless items and pretend that they have some kind of value through 'magical powers' and the like. I found a guy whose name was not unlike something out of Harry Potter. He was selling what he himself described as a 'a twig broken off a tree', for the sum total of nine pounds.

He declared that this was a magic wand. He had blessed it with his magic powers. Powers unrivaled by other ebay wands. Well you cant knock him for trying and I bid for his wand. (Sorry Phil, probably not the best way to spend 9 pounds but I could resist). Unfortunately the moment that I bid he blocked me so it wont be my useless item. Maybe he was just shocked someone had bid. I am now in the process of looking for something equally useless.

Maybe it's for the best - perhaps I underestimated the power of the twig and could have got more than I bargained for.

In the end I settled for another item which has completely no use to me. An item that my seller has sold to me knowing that it will be completely useless to me. Winging its way to me I have a huge cast iron key. I have no idea what it opens - where its from. Great - or not. It intreagued me because in the house I rent in London there is a safe. The safe is a big old style thing that we have no key for. Our landlord says if we can open it we can have whatever is in it.

Well it appears I now have a lock without a key and a key without a lock. Brilliant.

Why The Scales?

2007-02-22T15:47:00.001-08:00

Pondering, procrastinating, contemplating, deliberating. It's exhausting. The fact that I can't choose is just part of being me.

This constant swaying of my mind moulds my identity in 2 ways.

Firstly because it means I like a bit of everything and live a crazy scatty life where I dash from friends to sport to books to eat to sleep to work. Desperately striving to balance everything.

Too long in the city and I start hyperventilating - too long in the country and I get major cravings for a gastrobar.

Secondly it means I have the phenomenal inability to make a decision about trivial matters. As I sit here I cant even decide to tell you which decision it is that I can't decide. All I will say is shopping is excruciating and that, as is often pointed out to me, 'you cant have more that one favourite thing'.

Something I have noticed about being online is people love to share their opinions. So that's why instead of telling you what restaurant is the best, which book I cant live without or why fishing is the only hobby.....

Why dont you start telling me?