Shiny Silver Nails

While I was in Melbourne for a conference in February, I picked up a bottle of polish that was temptingly placed on the counter at the pharmacy. It was red-dot discounted to $5! It is grandly called "Your Majesty" and is shade 239 - an opaque silver - in Rimmel's I Love Lasting Finish range.

Question is, why did I wait so long to try it out? The easy answer is that I've been working and studying for the past six weeks. Other than that, I just wasn't feeling the metallic vibe, I guess. It's a great colour, and it went on quite easily. You could get away with one thick coat but I did two thin coats, with a clear undercoat. I painted my fingers and toes with it, and it looks great! The finish is quite strong in colour, with a faint glimmer. Another blogger says there's a "glitter bomb" when you remove this shade.

I went to a hen's night on Saturday, and painted my nails in the morning before going to work. (Canadians and Americans would say stagette or bachelorette, but the bride-to-be here in Australia dislikes those terms. Hen parties are the standard term in Britain and Australia.) I nearly wore a short lavender dress with silver sequins on it, but changed my mind two hours before the party and went for a little black dress with silver thread on the bodice.

Fortunately the nails worked with my second choice, too, and I think the colour works well on shorter nails, so there's some good news for you ladies who have to type! I really hope the red dot sale doesn't mean this colour is discontinued, because I really like wearing it. My past experience with Rimmel Lasting Finish is 3-4 days before I notice any chips on the tips of my nails.

Vintage Video

It was a rainy night, and I felt like popcorn and a movie. I picked out a bunch on the 5 DVDs for $8 deal at our local rental place, from Tangled to Supernatural, but it was an Indiana Jones kind of night.

After we finished watching Temple of Doom (I'd forgotten how much screaming there was), Jody turned to me and said, "You must have had these in Canada."

"Yes, but they were on video." For some reason this got a huge laugh out of Jody. "What?" I demanded. "They're old movies!"

"You're old." A pause. "I never had any tapes."

Me: "That's ridiculous. Why not?"

Jody: "I never really had TV."

Me: "You're old!"

Fussy Coffee Cake

Occasionally, the only cure for what ails me is to spend time in the kitchen. I desperately wanted coffee cake, but I didn't want the temptation of an entire cake in the house either... so Tuesday morning, when I didn't work until ten, I made The Joy of Baking's coffee cake and brought it into work. On the bus, I might add, still in its springform pan, in a cloth bag.

Be forewarned, this is a bit of a fussy cake to prepare on a workday morning. I used three bowls and just over half an hour to mix everything together. Whether that's because I was sleepy, or it was a new-to-me recipe, or I had a husband running around me making coffee, I don't know.

In any case, it's best suited to brunch or a weekend afternoon tea. My mom makes a fabulous one but I wasn't sure I could wait to get the recipe from her. I've never made one with chocolate chips in it before - usually just nuts and brown sugar, or alternatively, blueberries - but it was nice for a change. I had to sub in a few teaspoons of cornflour to make up for the lack of cake flour in Australia, but it worked. I had a rather fluffy cake with a beautiful streusel.

Here is a snapshot of the reactions:

"It's still warm!"

"It looks so professional."

"Could I have the recipe? This is the best cake I've had in years!"

"What is it? Is there coffee in it?"

"Are those chocolate chips?"

And finally: [Groan] [Nom nom] [more happy groaning]

An Angel with Purpose

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was a tossup between three and four stars for Unearthly, and I've gone with 4 for the following reasons:
1) I'm an adult, and if I were a young adult I would rate it 4 stars
2) It was superior to the other YA angel story I read recently, Halo by A. Adornetto.
3) It wasn't predictable, and I want to read the sequel
4) The writing was good, the main characters actually had some character, and the romance didn't make me want to switch off my Kindle in disgust.

The main character, Clara Gardner, is one-fourth angel, and as she matures on Earth, she must discover her "purpose." Clara rises to the challenge, learns to trust in her abilities even when she doesn't understand them, and doesn't just wait around for things to happen. I found it fun but not laugh out loud funny. Still, quite an enjoyable read, with room for development, and it moved at a good pace.

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