While sitting on the sofa this afternoon I had a craving for something sweet to go alongside my cup of tea, so peeling myself off the cushions and in to my kitchen I opened up my 'treat tub' and found sat on top of the packets of mints and chewy choccy bars a lone bar of Frys Chocolate Cream. I have no really recollection of buying this one as it's not a chocolate bar I would routinely choose to buy but here it is so I really ought to give it a try. This is the plain fondant version, there are also peppermint and orange versions avaliable.
Opening the wrapper the shiney surface of the dark chocolate peeks out appealingly, at this point there is little scent (though I have hayfever so my sense of smell is slightly impaired at this time of year). Breaking off a chunk the white cream fondant centre is revealed, again there is no real notable scent until you put it up close to the nose.
Putting this chunk in to my mouth there is a decidely sweet sensation but little taste, after it has had a little while to warm up in my mouth the flavour of the dark chocolate comes through but not strongly, getting slightly bored and feeling a little bit silly sitting on the sofa with a chunk of chocolate on my tongue - this kind of thing is why it's best I live alone- I decide it's time to chew.
The slightly feelin of resistance as you bite through the chocolate layer gives way to the smooth cream of the centre. The flavour at this point is strangely fresh though I couldn't quite put a name to the taste which is combining with the dark chocolate.
Swallowing there is no aftertaste but the fresh feeling continues in my mouth. In an attempt to put a name to this I take a mouthful of tea thinking my vast experience of eating confectionary products while drinking tea will help me but nope there is still no recognisable flavour other than the tea itself.
Eating the rest of the bar I think it's probably best to describe the flavour of this as simply dark chocolate, the fondant doesnt seem to have any apparently flavouring beyond the sugar used to make it.
Overall I while I didn't dislike the bar I do feel that the flavour is at best bland, but it does seem to make a good palate cleanser thanks to the freshness I felt after eating and lack of flavour interfering wth the taste of my tea at the same time.
In terms of the allergen information there are no nuts and though the bar itself does not contain milk it does note that due to the possibility of cross contamination they cannot claim that the product is dairy free. It is suitable for vegetarians.
Sometimes I wonder what I'm getting myself in to before I do it, others I just launch in to it without a second thought. This latter habit is one which has found me preparing for two charity swims over the next few months, one being the Sport Relief Swimathon at the end of March (indoors), the second being the Manchester Great Swim in July (outdoors, in Salford Quays).
After a few weeks of swimming for between 60 and 90 minutes at a time I've found that while I'm not bored I tend to find that at the ends of the pool I'm stopping to rest for longer than I need to so I can evesdrop the gossipy conversations of the other women "swimming" so decided that as when I'm out running listening to music it helps me keep pace and distracted from the scenery around me it was worth looking to see if water proof MP3's were in my price range yet.
Happily for me they are and there are plenty of options, being slightly overwhelmed by the choices available I narrowed it down to the Sony product and this Speedo Aquabeat. I figure that Speedo are an expert in swim wear so chances are their product would be suitably water proofed.
I bought mine from Amazon for around £40 for this the original model. The MP3 comes with earphones - over hear bud styles ones which should help to make them more secure in the ear whilst swimming, three sets of different sized buds to make sure you have the ones which fit best, a USB charger/data cable, a net bag to keep it all in and an extension cable for the ear phones in case you need to secure the MP3 away from your head or shoulders.
Opening the box I find a small - large matchbox - rubber feel unit, grey buttons set in to a curved red 'frame'. One end has the headphone jack/charging port, the other is simply a smooth curved surface, the back has the clip enabling you to fix it to the strap of your goggles or costume.
The initial set up is very simple, plug it in to a computer and charge it up, I found that the first time this took just over 2 hours, the player automatically installed the appropriate drivers to my laptop. When it is fully charged the small LED on the front glows green, while charging it's red. Adding music to it is a very simple drag and drop process, either direct between folders or using the 'playlist builder' software which comes with the MP3. the box includes instructions to convert music purchased on itunes to MP3 so it can be played on this too.
I find that the player clips easily on my goggles when I wear them but unless placed in exactly the right place on the back of my head the extra drag from the unit pulls my goggles out of place making it rather uncomfortable, so usually I clip it on to the shoulder strap of my swim suit, I'm not particularly tall and don't have an unusually long neck so the ear phone cable is long enough to reach without pulling the buds uncomfortably while I swim, this is helped by the cable having a coiled section so it is kept fairly taut but still has some give to it. That said having bought a second costume lately I find that it's almost impossible to attatch securely to the newer one as it has thicker stitching on the straps so I prehaps need to get used to the more annoying goggle fixture.
One of the male swimmers who borrowed it said that for him the irritation of having it on his head was worse than listening to the gossipers, and even with the extension it wasn't the most comfortable fit when clipped at waist level - though Speedo do also sell an armband I would imagine that this for me at least would be even more of an annoyance due to the wires being so very much in the way of your arm movements.
The sound quality dry is decent, its not stunning but it's acceptable through the provided earphones, in the water as long as you manage to keep your earbuds in place the quality remains great, if however one comes out the water in the ear canal and in the bud itself will cause it to sound muffled - just like when pools used to play music through loudspeakers and you were listening to it from underwater. As these are designed for use in the water once they have got wet it's not a problem I tend to rinse the whole unit in the sink when I get home - obviously it would be a bad idea to let it all get wet without the earphone jack firmly in place!
For me the big downside to the unit is the earbuds, they fit comfortably and feel secure when I have the right size of covers on them, but the hooks which are designed to keep the buds more securely in the ear are too loose over my ears and are not solidly fixed to the bud so can move independently of the bud which means that unless I'm wearing a hat I'm uncomfortably aware of them moving around as I swim - if I tumbleturn I tend to find it pulls one of them out more often than not. If I don't get more used to them I plan on looking for an alternative set of water proof ear buds without the hooks. I also feel that this join is most likely to be the weak point in the set, the cable between the hook and bud must be under some strain with the two solid surfaces either side so I would guess it'll be the bit that splits, I'd actually have liked if the hook part was removable so you could choose if to use them or not.
The Aquabeat is advertised as having up to an 18 hour battery life, as yet I've not used it for longer than 90 minutes at a time and due to being fussy about my swimming music end up plugging it back in to my laptop to alter the tracks on it thus recharging it.
Operating it is very simple the front has two buttons, forward/on and backward/off, when turned on it has a green flashing LED, if the battery is low the LED flashes red and green. On the top is the volume control. To make turning it on easier in the water the forward/on button is textured with small raised dots while the other half is smooth. If you want to repeat a track you can do so pressing the backbutton for a second or two after the track as been playing for at least 15 seconds - but pressing it too long turns the whole thing off.
As I also scuba dive I would like it if this unit was rated as suitable for withstanding pressure but among the literature in the box with it there is no mention of its ability to accompany me on dives so I won't be risking it.
Overall I really like my Aquabeat, the sound quality is good, it helps me focus on what I'm supposed to be doing and strangely when I'm using it people seem to keep out of my way more - presumably because they think I'm less aware of my surroundings and more likely to swim in to them. The netbag is far bigger than it needs to be for just the MP3 and headphones, so I use it to keep my hat, goggles and locker token together instead of them being loose in my kit bag. My minor gripes about the ability to fix it to my swim suit reliably and the hooks on the ear phones have lost it that one star.
First of all, it looks nice, that of course is what initially gets your attention. It has a lovely big screen, but not so big that it looks like a tablet. Unfortunately being a girl, we don't have the biggest pockets to fit these phones in! This one fits into most of my jeans but usually pokes out of the pocket slightly, and I have to take it out to sit down, as it is uncomfortable. It is quite lightweight, but sometimes I find it a little wide to hold in my hand. As with all these sort of phones it is best to get a cover and screen protector, I have dropped mine a number of times which has not resulted in any damage, which maybe due to these important accessories.
User friendly?
As with every new phone, especially if you have not had a smartphone, it can take some getting used to. Most of it I found was easy to work out as you went along. These are Android phones, which means your apps are available from the "play store." There a great variety of apps available to download, and with 32GB of data you are not short of space to download what you want. The touch screen is responsive, and has given me no problems so far. It has some nice features, such as the news feed on the front screen, where you can select what subjects you are interested in, such as design or TV, and it will keep you updated with the latest articles. The camera works well although not as fast as when I first bought it.
Would you recommend to a friend?
Yes. HTC are one of the best on the market currently. I personally am an Android girl, and try to stay away from Apple as I think you are mostly paying for the brand, and they seem to overcharge a lot on apps compared to Android.
I love to wear makeup and I just want to look attractive and glamorous but I always try to look decent and simple as I am a university student. So that's the reason I always search for new products which gives me natural and pretty look than fake look.
I used to prefer light products that I can wear on daily basis and I also have to focus on the purchase price of the products In my opinion .I am a cost efficient girl as I have to purchase a product from my pocket money so I always focus that the product which I am going to purchase is reasonable for me or not.
After focusing on all other factors then I suppose to buy something. The gloss which I was wearing before was of local brand and was not long lasting even. I personally did not like it fragrance. So I had no reason to stick with it anymore.
One day I was just searching for glosses. Finally I had found something amazing on Internet. The light purplish and glassy look attracted me and made my mind to buy this gloss. Well, I am talking about the LO-REAL CO LOUR RICH LIP GLOSS, SOFT MAUVE - 1 EA .After studying the features and other reviews of people about it. I came to know that it has very light weight, not as much shimmery comparing to other glosses and also long lasting .I don't like those products which gives lots of shiny and oily sort of look. In my opinion this matte gloss gives more refined look. The gloss is enriched with vitamin E and Omega oils which nourishes and moisturizes my lips.
In my opinion whenever I put it on my lips I have not even realized its existence because of its light weight, as it is appearing in advertising. I can wear it occasionally by putting two coats of it and then this time it appeared as slightly different as before. So what else? I am enjoying with it .Because it gives me pretty look all that I want...
But the little factor which teases me is its price which is $7.52 I think which is little bit costly than other glosses. In my opinion it is not affordable for all...
HMV's my favourite shop; always has been and always will be. Can you imagine the horror I felt when they said they were in administration? And the relief I felt when they'd been bought out! Sure, you can buy CDs from Amazon or Tesco, or download music from iTunes or listen on Spotify or YouTube, but to me, nothing beats having an actual physical copy. And the best place for that is HMV.
It has a massive range of music, from metal to rock to folk, and some of the larger stores have more specialist music. Nowadays many stores even have small record collections. This is much better than the small selection available at supermarkets, most of which are chart CDs and useless if you're like me and prefer older and more specialist music. Again, you can purchase CDs from Amazon, and maybe even cheaper, but what you pay the extra for in HMV is the experience of the place, in my opinion. Much more exciting to peruse through endless amounts of CDs to find what you're looking for, and maybe even things you weren't looking for than to simply spend 5 minutes online and buy things in a few clicks.
HMV is a longstanding icon of our high street and if I can get the CD I want from there, I will definitely make the effort: it would be heartbreaking without it and, in my opinion, make going into town to shop pointless. Yes, it is ridiculously easy to buy CDs from Amazon but nothing beats going into HMV and being surrounded by music.
HMV also sells games, which I don't often buy and therefore haven't got much of an opinion on: my brother is a keen gamer and says that they are quite expensive compared to other gaming shops, however. It also has a huge selection of DVDs, which I feel is important to hold onto, especially since Blockbuster's gone under. Obviously, this has to compete with rising giants such as Netflix and LoveFilm, but, as a subscriber to Netflix, I'd definitely say that I prefer going to HMV than using it. It is much cheaper, but the quality of films on it doesn't match HMV at all.
The main disadvantage I'd say there is with HMV is the price, but the 2 for £10 deal is great and mainly combats that problem. For HMV to keep on going and getting stronger I would also say that more specialist music would be great, and different offers since sometimes I can't find other CDs or DVDs to qualify for the 2 for £10 deal. All in all, HMV is a great shop and I'd hate to see it squished under the massive uprising of Amazon and Netflix.
