Seasonal marketing never sleeps

Popped in quickly to B&M stores on the Friday before Christmas and saw this rollover holiday marketing.

I've got to admit I'm a bit tempted by a Biscoff version of a creme egg. It will be disgustingly sweet, I'm sure. But I'm still tempted...

Snack of the Month - Crispello

This is a bit of an odd one. A Cadbury's branded product, made in Egypt, imported into Europe by a Dutch company and sold in a discount shop (B&M Stores). Cathy found this while looking for something else and thought I might like to try it. She was right. 

The "crisp" in Crispello is apparently some kind of biscuit, although it had the crunchy consistency of puffed rice. There's a slight salty tang to it that offsets the sweetness of the chocolate really nicely.

The bar is composed of 4 decent-sized pieces which makes it easy to break into bits to share. If you want to share, that is. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't!

Made in Egypt...eatcn in Cardiff.

Things that make me feel sad / angry (sangry?)

A couple of nights ago I was driving home and as I turned onto the Taff Embankment my car headlights shone very briefly into an alleyway, lighting up the heavily made-up face and bleached blonde hair of a prostitute.

You do occasionally see working girls down my end of town, if you know in which dark corners to look. And when I see them I feel both sad and angry. Sad that there is a trade in sex and people are exploited. Angry that there are some people out there willing to use another human being for their own gratification.

I'm beginning to term the feeling as 'sangry'.

I felt sangry when I found out that Royal Bank of Scotland, who you may remember are one of the bunch of banking bastards who helped precipitate the current financial crisis and are now publicly owned, loaned Kraft 7 billion pounds so Kraft could buy Cadbury's. So, basically British taxpayers own a bank that gave an American firm the money they needed to buy a British firm that will eventually result in job losses among the very tax payers who own the bank.

I feel sad because such roundabout deals seem impossible to stop. I feel angry because there is just something about that that is wrong and part of me feels like it will never end unless we take it to the freakin' streets and start smashing windows in the name of justice.

10 'Best Bits' of 2009

These aren't the only good bits, but they are ten things that made me feel good this year.

1) Getting prayed for by a Bishop before he interviewed me for a job at Lambeth Palace. (I didn't get the job but it was a great experience.)

2) Buying my first new phone in a decade. I need never be out of reach of Facebook ever again!

3) Being rated the number one presentation at our work's Staff Conference, beating all the 'star names'.

4) Being interviewed in the studio by Premier Radio. I've also done several interviews for UCB and will now be doing a monthly slot!

5) Finally getting copies of the book I wrote a chapter for in the post. (I'd written it back in 2007!)

6) Seeing The Tragically Hip in Manchester and Glasgow. And getting to sing into the mic in Glasgow - I still haven't really come down after that.

7) Getting the weather we wanted at Soul Survivor, for once.

8) Two early morning dips in the sea on our youth weekend on the Gower. The water was freezing and yet surprisingly I loved it.

9) Playing on Cathy's Nintendo Wii - getting a gold medal on Tank is one of my ambitions for 2010.

10) Cadbury's going fair trade on a growing number of their chocolates. (Okay, there's rumours they may be bought out by Kraft or the scumbags of evil Nestle, but even so one of the big boys has finally, finally, got the Fair Trade label on their chocolate and apparently others are going to follow suit.)

Some better, and unexpected, news

So, on a day where I had some of my saddest news ever, I also heard that Cadbury's are moving their Dairy Milk brand into fair trade certification by the end of the summer, instantly trebling the amount of cocoa traded fairly from Ghana in any given year.

Compared to my other news that was completely unexpected. In the past Cadbury's have been very defensive about their trading policy. In fact, I think we still have the letter they wrote to us saying they weren't considering it as an option.

There's power in persuasion, people.

Overdone

Cadbury's Caramel - one of the nicest chocolate bars around, even if we do miss the sultry bunny rabbit who used to tell the woodland folk to 'Take it Easy'. People said the Flake adverts were sexy, but compared to Caramel...

Cadbury's Caramel Eggs, however, are far too caramelly. And, frankly, are not very nice.