Review

London

Things to do in London: All-Nighters at the Prince Charles Cinema

November 6, 2014

Before and after the Arnie All Nighter @princecharlescinema. Survived it, somehow.

A photo posted by Mrs D (@hellothemushroom) onOct 10, 2014 at 1:11am PDT

I’ve been hearing about the legendary nights at the Prince Charles for a while, as they have some of the funniest cinema events in London – the singalonga and themed events are an absolute must. I have yet to go to a Singalonga (The Wickerman, please, please!) but recently I got to do something completely new: I went to an Arnie all-nighter.

A photo posted by Mrs D (@hellothemushroom) onOct 10, 2014 at 12:55pm PDT

The first film was Commando and it started around 10 pm. Everyone was still well awake at this time – all the woooos! and aaaaawwsss were very lively as the film went on. Next we had Predator, and I also stayed awake for this one. Hilarious moments were had when the whole room quotes along with the great Arnold Schwarzenegger “Get to the chopper!“. During the break it was time to “get to the bar and the loo” and as expected there’s a few lines but nothing too bad. Luckily the break is long enough to give everyone time to do whatever they need. Halfway through Running Man I started falling asleep, as I had insomnia the previous night… but the reality is, the film was super cheesy and it was boring me a little. I woke up just in time for the ending and when the lights were on, I could see the levels of geek in the room were from high to very high. It doesn’t matter, it was still fun and I’m probably a geek too, just by being there haha! Next up we had Total Recall and then Terminator 1 and 2. I fell asleep several times but was awake for long enough to see Linda Hamilton’s mom jeans on Terminator 1. I know many a blogger who would definitely kill for them.

By the time the last film ended, there was daylight outside and we just went out for breakfast, before I crawled into bed for the rest of Sunday. Would I do this again? I said I wouldn’t but since I saw they are having a John Carpenter all-nighter at the end of the month I’m inclined to change my mind a little.

If you want to find out more details about what’s going on at the Prince Charles Cinema check out their events page.

Lifestyle

Ozeri Pedometer Review

October 28, 2014

On my constant struggle to try and get motivated to stay fit, I have recently started running in the mornings before work, every now and then.
As this is something very difficult for me (I’ve said it before, I am not a morning person), every bit of motivation is welcome. To do this, tracking any sort of progress is important.
I usually have a pedometer on my phone where I track how many miles I walk every day but as you may well imagine, running with a huge phone is not very practical. So, when I was offered to review the Ozeri Pocket Pedometer and Activity Tracker, I said “Yes, please”.

The pedometer comes with a strap that you can hang around your neck and I suppose you can also wear it on an arm strap, if you have one. I have only worn it around my neck, under my shirt. The instructions are fairly easy to follow and you can program it with date, height and weight, and it keeps records for up to 7 days, of how long you’ve walked, the distance and calories burned.

I’ve also taken it with me on my trip to Mallorca, to measure how much walking I was doing (that’s where the picture was taken). As the pedometer doesn’t have an on and off button (it goes to sleep automatically after 30 seconds of no movement) I noticed it was still measuring some kind of movement when we were in the car and for that reason, the measurements done on that day were inaccurate. I think this is a problem, if you drive somewhere for a hike or a run. If you’re just going around your home for some exercise, the pedometer works perfectly fine and I will continue to use it.

Have you tried any sort of pedometer when running? What are for you the main advantages of doing so?

art, London

The Nervemeter

October 22, 2014

One of these days, after one of those networking events (can’t complain, really, met some interesting people), we were approached by a homeless man, selling a magazine. I expected it to be The Big Issue but he said it was something else. Something that was started by people who did work for The Big Issue before but had left, to do something different.

I recognised Edgar Allan Poe in the cover, we all had a laugh over that (I’m so clever, aren’t I?), I gave him the £3 and as soon as I opened the magazine, found a quote by Aleister Crowley, right on the 3rd page. ‘This could be interesting, I thought’. And indeed it

The Nervemeter is much, much darker than The Big Issue could ever be. It’s a mish mash of images and quotes and images about all sorts of addiction: Sex, heroin, alcohol… you name it. The imagery is right up my street. Creepy, dark, thought provoking.

Reminds me of fanzines from back in the day. The collages, the black and white printing, the ‘forbidden’ themes. You can see the current issue and download previous issues here. I’m devouring them.

This was very welcome with someone of my tastes but I wonder how well it was received by the public in general?

Uncategorized

Great printing service

August 20, 2014

Recently I was approached by Printed.com, a company that specialises in… you guessed it, printing services.

I picked the option of having some postcards printed and was offered 100 opf them to try the service. You can also have a great variety of other things printed, such as wedding invites, business cards, stickers, posters and a few other things.

The registration process is really quick. Then all you have to do is upload your image and pick the type of paper you want, the finish, etc. Sooo simple! I picked a drawing of mine that you might have seen already here on the blog and in a couple of days, they were delivered. The quality is good, and they came very well packaged.

Printed.com really live up to their slogan – “Click, Print, Deliver”. Two thumbs up from me!

Uncategorized

Round One! Fighting for a white smile!

May 20, 2014

Any excuse is good to come up with a fun photo concept, and this is what I thought of when I was asked to try and review the Smile Brilliant LED teeth whitening system. So what is it? It’s a teeth whitening product that uses a small electronic device with LED lights to accelerate the process.

It’s very simple to use and each kit will come with the LED light device, a gel pen (or more, depending on what you end up buying), a silicone mouth guard and a little brush.

All you have to do is apply a generous amount of gel with the twisty pen over your teeth, avoiding contact with saliva or your lips. The next step is to put on the mouth guard and turn on the LED device, which you’ll have to hold in your mouth – it’s not as hard as it sounds. I would recommend doing all this when you are able to just sit back, relax and watch a bit of TV, as you will have to keep the LED on for 20-45 minutes. It is also recommended that after you remove the light, to leave the gel on for another hour, which I did.

Excuse the extreme close up of my ugly teeth but it’s for comparison purposes. I did see a slight improvement, as I am a heavy tea drinker and it tends to stain my teeth. The first photo is the “before”, the second, of course, is the “after”. Can you tell the difference? I think that it’ll look a lot whiter once I do a few more treatments. I’d like to also add that each pen has enough product for several sessions. That is, if I don’t get them knocked out with a boxing glove first. Tee hee hee.