Stingy Chocolate Makers!

Why, why, why! We were all devastated only a week ago to find out that Cadbury were repackaging, to a "new sleek, stylish and modern carton, enhanced by gold-stamping and embossed features". Yeah, right. Because we buy a bar of chocolate as a piece of art. But more devastating than the packaging was what was held inside - "a more contemporary design chocolate square size" which "provides greater ‘mouth-feel’ enhancing the chocolate delivery". Basically what they're trying to say is that they've downsized - 150g block is now 100g/110g, the 250g is 200g/220g and the 400g is now 350g. No joke. As well as all this (yes, there's more, my poor readers) they have changed their classic recipe, now adding vegetable fat to their chocolate. What more can my poor heart take!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it gets worse. Today, Mars Snackfood Australia have announced that Mars Bars, along with Mars' 90 other products (think Milky Ways, Maltesers, Snickers and Twix) will also be downsized! !!!! !!!!! !!!! The bar will drop from 60g to 53g - that's over 11% less! In their new advertisements, Mars says, "Our products are never going to be as healthy as a piece of fruit. But we also recognise that our consumers have become increasingly concerned about the nutritional content and portion size they eat." Yes, your chocolate will never be healthy, but isn't that kind of the point? You don't buy a chocolate bar and think 'Hm, I hope one day this will be as healthy as an apple", you buy it and think "Yay, sugary goodness! Yum Yum!" And a little question for you Mars people - if this is just about being 'healthier' than how come the price is, suprise suprise, exactly the same? Hmm?

With all the global recession, people are all focusing on how hard it's hitting industries, the unemployed, pensioners - but the key demographic they forgot is chocaholics. Seriously, life is getting hard for us, chocolates are getting smaller, more expensive and (I think I may be a little sick) 'healthy'. Ah, what ever shall I do...

xx Miss Moi

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I try not to give into the whole Disney team. I do.

You know, the teenage stars made by Disney Channel - Hannah Montana, High School Musical, the rapidly dissapearing Hilary Duff and the like. But seriously, it's hard. I mean, take High School Musical for example. Everyone is constantly euphorically happy (the meanest they get is fighting for a part in the school play. O, wow, the claws are coming out now) and break out in song and awesomely choreographed dance every five minutes. And throw Zac Efron into the mix, and how can you expect me to resist?

I am in no denial about my love for Zaccy, and I apologise to the hundreds of people I've just offended by saying that. But the Jonas Brothers? Now that's a different story. The goody-too-shoes, hair-straightening, pop-singing trio, the latest creation from Disney who publicly flaunt their 'promise' rings. Their songs are cheesy, their shows make me queasy (note my amazing poetic ability) and they optimise tweeny-bopper trash. Yet I am hopelessly in love with them. What should be for 11 year old girls I lap up - I mean, what's not to love? Okay, I acknowledge I just spent the last paragraph bad mouthing them but we all know I'm in seious denial here. And who wasn't expecting that? I love Zac Efron, for god's sake. Let me introduce you - there's Jo, the middle child, the one most people love, the one who straightens his hair on a daily basis; there's the weird older one who no one knows the name of and just kind of stands at the back looking dorky; and then, there's Nick... the youngest, with massive curly hair and baby-est face you have ever seen. Ah, why does my heart taunt me so?

I don't think their's anything Disney puts out that I won't fall madly in love with, as hard as I might fight it. This has been a long standing tradition - at eight I watched with complete fascination every single thing Hilary Duff made, even the weird stuff after Lizzie Maguire finished. Now the new wave threatens to keep me as a tween until I'm 90 years old. At least there's one thing I can say for sure - I will never succumb to the Cyrus. But that's another blog.


xx Miss Moi

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What are we coming to when almost on a weekly basis more schoolyard bashings are showing up? I was absolutely shocked and disgusted to hear about the 15-year-old girl from Queensland who was bashed by three other teenage girls, while bystanders filmed it on their mobiles. The year 11 student was confronted on her way home from school and bashed repeatedly in the face and thrown onto the road. A crowd formed, some of whom started filming it. Her attackers than warned her to 'get her coffin ready' if she told anyone what happened and left her, bloody and bruised with a broken nose. The police have charged one seventeen year old girl with assault and warned more arrests were to follow.

And yet, this isn't unusual in the least. In fact, it become part of the norm in news headlines. A culture of bullying, and more recently cyberbullying, has been in schools and teens for, well, ever. With new advances in technology, it, unfortunately, creates a new forum for people to be harrassed and tormented. While I've never seen or experienced anything as disgusting as this, everyone, and I mean everyone, has seen, and maybe done, some kind of bullying. It's just those little things that you don't really think much of but that can have a huge effect on people, like posting a bad photo or making a mean comment. You just don't know what will tip people over the edge. So please, please, please, make sure you think before you act, especially online where the entire world can see it, and just think what effect something might have on everyone involved. In saying that, if there's anything that offends you in anyway on this blog, please just comment it and I'll modify or take it off straight away. And if you have any problems, please call the Youth Helpline on 1800 55 1800.

I'm sorry to have such a serious blog, but rest assured tomorrow it will be back to Twilight and bad haircuts tomorrow.

xx Miss Moi

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This week I'm obsessed with things too cute for words and making a statement...

Harajuku Lover's Fragrance

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Let me set the scene for you - I sit eating my sandwich one cloudly day, just minding my own business and, let me note, not bothering any member of the wasp family. Suddenly a scream rips through my peaceful existence and my friend stares in horror at the beast sitting on my head. What ensues, I do not wish to impart on my dear readers, but let it be known that horrors witnessed that day will haunt me for the rest of my life. The aftermath paints enough of a picture - myself, gripping a wall for support and struggling for breath, my saviour, screaming in the corner and two innocent bystanders on the other side of the path, attempting to comprehend what has just happened. No, this isn't some old 80's horror flick, this is real life. This is a wasp.

It might seem like I'm overreacting to the unintiated, but to those among you who have experienced such an attack, only you can truly understand.

So, where does my insane fear come from? I see myself as a pretty level-headed person, but I end up screaming and running around like a headless chook at even the thought of wasps, bees, cockroaches or basically insects in generally. But, if I think about it, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I mean, humans are scientifically acknowledged as the most dangerous predators on Earth and a wasp doesn't even make the top ten. So what am I really scared of? Is it the sting the wasp can give me? Sure, it stings a bit, but not that much and I can inflict a lot more damage on it - just by stinging me it's now dead. Maybe I'm afraid of fear itself? Hold on now, I think I'm getting a little too big for my boots (leather, mid-calf, to die for) here. I guess my point is that sometimes we can be scared of the stupidest things, and if you just step back and look at it, it ain't that bad after all - but there are times where fear is really good and really necessary. Each year more people die from bee stings than all other venomous animals combined, and you're more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark. So maybe I'm not crazy after all.

xx Miss Moi

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Just a quick blog for all The Sims fans out there - the third installment is released down here on June 4th! With even more flexibility and customization, I can't wait for it to come. According to it's website, The Sims 3 allows "new realistic personalities.. every Sim is now a truly unique person, with a distinct personality". Even better than meeting real people! See the trailer at thesims3.ea.com and you can preorder at ebgames.com.au, but it will set you back 100 big ones - not suprising compared with the ridiculous prices of the originals.
I am a self-confessed Sims addict, and have spent too many hours to count playing this totally addictive game. A fan since it's early years (so many eons ago), I've bought a steady flow of all the new additions (I swear I've kept there business afloat!). But I'm not entirely sure whether I'll buy this one yet - I've found The Sims has the unsavoury quality of sucking away my time and leaving me with nothing to show for it (apart from a pretty impressive family tree). And I've often become frustrated with the (very effective) marketing strategy of adding key elements - that you have to buy another game and spend $50 for. It ends up costing more for my Sim to have pets and parties than for the game itself. I say all this, but I know in my heart that I'll be the one queueing up at the crack of dawn to have the first copy... Ah, my sole weakness...

xx Miss Moi

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Awkward Silences!
We've all had 'em, we all hate 'em. And unfortunately, there seems to be no way to get past a really big awkward silence. Whether it's with your 90 year old Grandma or a friend you've known for years but never actually had a conversation with, it doesn't matter how long you sit there trying to think of something interesting to say (and "It's raining" doesn't count, as Cady showed us in Mean Girls) it seems to just get more and more quiet. The depressing thing is how these silences can pop up without you even noticing it - one moment you're chatting and the next that creeping feeling comes over you as you realise you've said everything there is to say!
A particularly horrible place to be gripped by an awkward silence is on the phone - that pause when you don't know whether to hang up or keep talking. Then a silent struggle ensues, when you can't tell if that noise was a 'bye' or a 'yes' or a 'if you hang up that phone you're dead!'.
While there really is no real sure fire way to stop an awkward silence, avoidance is necessary and possible. In my experience, talking about anything to do with the weather only adds to the problem and silent nodding - well, you're just digging your own grave. Ask the other person open-ended questions such as "What did you do on the weekend?", rather than "How was your weekend?", which more often than not is anwered with "good". Not very helpful when trying to start conversation! If the other person continues to keep quiet, then these questions can be used for yourself - talk about anything and everything and just keep talking until you get some conversation flowing! Outline an entire football match you saw, or explain why your dog is the cutest in the world (a competition which, by the way, you've already lost. Mine is so much cuter).
But at the end of the day, sometimes awkward silences are unavoidable, and in these situation, there's only one thing to do - embrace the awkwardness! Relish in the panic that grips you as you search the recesses of your brain for something, anything, while secretly planning your escape!
Good luck!

xx Miss Moi

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I have to admit, I was a bit sceptical of the whole Twilight saga. I mean, a highschool vampire romance. A bit ridiculous, yes?


For those of you who have been living under a rock, Twilight is a series of books that have had teen girls, and those few adults who admit to reading it, going crazy. Late last year I decided to finally read the first installment after much encouragement from my fanpire and twihard friends. Oh. My. God. Sure, it's not mastefully written and you hear a lot avout how perfect Edward's face, smile, eyelashes and nose hair are, but it is ridiculously good. I read it pretty much constantly for the next week. I have to warn you, although you've probably already read it, this stuff is like a drug. It cloud your every waking (and dreaming) moments and makes it ridiculously hard to do just about everything. I scabbed thenext two off friends and the saw the movie as soon as it was available. I'm bow half way thorugh the last one, Breaking Dawn, and read snippets every so often. I have to admit, I'm purposefully trying not to finish it because I think I might go into serious depression when it finishes.


But do I recommend it? To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure. I have some major problems with the whole concept. Throughout the entire series Bella, our main character, and Edward continiously tell of their great love for eachother and how it will overcome anything, and Bella goes through a few traumas for this, given they aren't intentional. I may just be reading into it too much, but it seems to me to be sending the message to young girls that 'hey, a guy can hurt you, but as long as he love you, it doesn't matter'.


Well, no matter what I think about it, I should get it out there here and now that I'm not in fact suffering from OCD (Obsessive Cullen Disorder) but... on Team Jacob! I'm sorry to offend all the thousands of Robert Pattison fans, but my heart will always be with the werewolf... ;)


xx Miss Moi

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Everyone has had at least one bad haircut, so you know the feeling that your entire world is collapsing because you share some uncanny resemblances to a poodle.

I have been lucky enough to have had very little bad haircuts, a part from a few manic streaks that, instead of disappearing, turned a weird shade of orange. But this all changed when I decided to get a ‘quick trim’ while getting my hair straightened at the hairdressers. I’ll let you in on a little secret about my hair; there is no ‘quick trim’. As much as I love my hair, there is so much of it that it often blows out to insane proportions and I wonder how I manage to hold my head up with so much weight on it. The poor hairdresser looked at it with obvious terror in her eyes, but bravely set to work. I told her I normally have a side fringe type thing (really just a cowlick gone wrong), and she swept it all to side. This whole fiasco is really my fault, because it is at this point that I should’ve stepped in and said something, but instead I quietly nodded as she snipped along this line. She then asked me to style my hair as I normally would, and in doing so I saw with great terror the small tuft of hair popping up. I’ll be the first to admit it, I am an extremely dramatic person and I had to fight hard to hold back tears as she tried to flatten, spray and eventually just chop at this horrible mess. After smiling my way out of the shop, I sat in tears on my bed and refused to speak to anyone, mourning the loss of my perfect hair and devising ways to avoid being seen with it. Running away and joining the circus crossed my mind. I could be part of their freak show, "The Girl with the Demented Hair".

After a few hours of private contemplation, I realised I might have slightly been overreacting. It was nothing some careful handy work with a straightening iron and a can of hair spray couldn‘t fix - but people don’t seem to realise the great importance hair is to us. Celebrities and everyday people alike spend hundreds of dollars to get the perfectly ‘natural’ hair. There are scientific methods to do just about anything to your hair, from making it straight to curly, long to short, frizzy to smooth, and everything in between. But there is one thing that can’t be changed - the fateful snip snip of the scissors and the disgusting mess you’re left with. Oh well, maybe poodle’s coming back in.

xx Miss Moi

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