Natari-himi (noun)

Menstrual cups: Hippy fad or a better friend than diamonds?

Seeing how popular my nexplanon blog was, it is apparent there is just not enough real life experiences of menses on the internet. There is lots of content on the subject, but not enough. But then, why would there be? It’s not like it happens once a month to half the world’s population. (more…)

WIN! @BookItFowardUK with the Boy Who Cried Wolf

With the new owner of my copy of Phantom Thief Jeanne now happily reading and sharing the book, I have the great opportunity to now send The Boy Who Cried Wolf to a new home! (more…)

You had me at Shakespeare the Vampire Hunter – preview

This September, a new book documenting the life of William Shakespeare as a vampire hunter is being released. Yes. William Shakespeare as a vampire hunter. What more do you need? I wonder if he has more skills that Abraham Lincoln? (more…)

The Hyde Park Squirrels – review

The Hyde Park Squirrels written by Nick Croydon and illustrated by Petra Brownis a new Children’s Book series about a couple of red squirrels and their adventures, many of which are set in familiar territory but with an adorable animal-kingdom spin. It is published by Hyde Park Editions. In a nutshell (see what I did there?) these are gorgeously decorated tales with enough substance to keep a…

The Boy Who Cried Wolf by Mahni Tazhibi – review

I saw this book online and thought it looked fabulous. The famous Aesop fable illustrated by Iranian artist Mahni Tazhibi, published by Tiny Owl publishing house. I am very fortunate that this book has been sent to me for review.

As a children’s story book, you have certain expectations, but Tazhibi’s art transcends mine. The cover is bright and inviting, and the illustration is relatable. Many…

But here we are, aged 25 and very impressed with a vacuum (I don’t think anyone could ever really ‘love’ a vacuum).

The vacuum of which I speak is the Dyson DC1 MK42. At 25, getting a vacuum is probably not high on the priorities list, especially not one you spend £300+. But this is not something you want to cheap out on. Vacuums are actually very different, and if you don’t want to waste an hour of your week going back and forth over the same patch and still grunt and how much fluff and dust is left behind, you will want to get a good vacuum.

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And a good vacuum is what the Dyson DC41 MK2 is. I can do an entire house, with stairs, in under half hour – properly, I might add.  With the extra rotation spinny thing, all the bits of fluff and dust that seem to stick to the carpet are sucked up without a second thought. Then again, so is anything you may not have realised was lying about too. I almost lost a scarf that day, its corner sticking out from under the bed… You need the extra spinny bit turned on to get the fluff and hair bits though, as without it the extra power has gone and the sticky fluff will laugh at you from your floor. Unfortunately you shouldn’t keep it on continuously if you are vacuuming your carpets, as it is so powerful it will ruin the shag eventually. So do a quick spritz over the fluff to suck it up, and then roll over without the spinny part for the rest. Compromise. Quick cleaning compromise.

A good test of our vacuum was when I had to clear some dry mud from my cream carpet. We have been doing gardening, and obviously the garden tends to follow you inside no matter how hard you try to keep it where it belongs. Just one or two rolls over and it was gone. And a quaint little brush attachment helped me dig into the corner of the wall and skirting board.

An ever so exciting picture of mud on a cream carpet, sucked away.

Don’t get me started on the ball! Maybe I am a little bit in love with the vacuum. Ever tried to hoover your kitchen, but that little bit underneath the cupboards where all the crumbs seem to live just gets missed? Then you start banging things having to awkwardly pull the vacuum back, and then bang into them again? NEVER AGAIN. With this fabulous little ball you can vacuum up parrallel to the cupboards, with the vacuum comfortably tilted away so as not to hit the side and the bottom is still perfectly on the floor! And the brilliant people at Dyson have made the lip as close to the edge as vacuumly possibly. Those darn crumbs never stood a chance.

Can’t believe I am fangirling over a vacuum.

Anyway!

The nozzle part is just as good, but therein also lies my one little, niggly problem. It extends really well. You have a stiff shaft that packs away within the slinky tube, so if you’re a shorty (like me) and have cobwebs on the ceiling, never fear! For Dyson is here. You can also get extra attachments that extend further. However, the connection between stiff and slinky is a little worrisome. I tend to use this function most on the stairs. I am higher than the bulk of the machine, and because the nozzle is so long (you need to pull the stiff shaft out fully to be able to bend) the slinky stays all neatly folded away. But that puts strain on the connection, so you constantly need to hold your hand at the end, gathering up a bit of slink to keep it from pulling away from the plastic casing. Although this is actually quite a comfortable way of holding it, so it isn’t so bad.

Also this is a great choice for people who procrastinate! If you work from home or are a writer, artist, etc, and find you tend to wander off and do chores instead of work, this vacuum will have all that completed in no time, rather than leaving you bored at how long it takes to clean and wishing you could abondon halfway. You can have your procrastination break, and still have daylight left to continue writing, etc. (Hurrah!)

Empyting the Dyson is easy too. It doesn’t have a bag, you just unclip the clip bits, and take out the centre console. Then you hand it to your partner and tell him to go and empty it into the outside bin. All the dust is compact, so it tips out easily into a bin.

*We can’t call it a hoover for legal reasons because hoover is a brand, but for the sake of SEO and that everybody says hoover and never vacuum, I am just going to insert hoover here a couple times. Thanks for your spam patience. <3

Summoner Book 0: Origins – Review

While perusing Twitter I saw a tweet stating some new book was ‘Harry Potter meets Pokemon’. Obviously I skipped straight to Amazon and clicked pre-order. To this day I haven’t actually read the blurb.

Summoner: Noviceby Taran Matharu is released in the UK on May 5. To give us all eager readers a taster of the world of Hominum, where people of noble blood can capture demons to fights alongside…

Freewriting exercise today is going to be only 10 minutes strictly. I have been suffering with a headache that desperately wants to be a migraine today, and it is exhausting me. What I need to do is get away from a screen but I will not quit either! (more…)

Today, freewriting comes from my phone. My lumia and I do not often get along, the only thing we truly agree on is that food should and will be photographed. And that’s only because the mud will stay still ling enough for the darn 1020 to stay on. But please forgive me as there will be off typos while I use a small touchscreen keypad and check everything tomorrow.. (more…)