Review - Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg

I had a rather lovely surprise package arrive in the post towards the end of last week:  A Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road to Caramel Extra Thick Easter Egg.

With Easter Sunday only one week away, I thought it only right and proper to devour the whole thing - all in the name of research you understand - so that I could let you know what it's like, just in case you were thinking about buying one to treat yourself your other half.  Oh, the things I do for you...

The Hotel Chocolat website says this egg is "cast in our mellow 40% milk chocolate, with one half-shell studded with crispy puffed rice, cookies and chocolate chunks.  The other half-shell with a layer of caramel chocolate over a base of milk chocolate.  And inside the dreaminess continues – with praline with cookies, liquid caramel and silky smooth milk chocolate ganache along with solid bunnies and chicks cast in milk and caramel chocolate and more."

Sounds exquisite, but what is it really like?  Come and find out...

WSPA: Have you seen my horn?

To celebrate my little boy turning one-year-old, I took him and his sister to Colchester Zoo.  Sophia told me with great authority how much she was looking forward to seeing the cats and how Dexter wanted to look at the rhinoceroses.

Rhinos don't tend to be the first animal you think of when you talk about visiting a zoo - I always find lions, tigers, polar bears and elephants are higher up the list - but it turns out that the rhinoceros is a desirable animal..Desirable, that is, for its horns.

These horns were found by the Metropolitan Police's Wildlife Crime Unit in Westminster in the mid 1990s. 

But what's unbelievable, is that criminals are so desperate to get their hands on these horns, they're willing to break into a zoo and saw them off the animals during the night.

From baby to boy

There's been a transformation in my household.  It happened very suddenly, without warning.  I almost didn't notice.

My baby is a baby no more.  He's now a little boy.  A one-year-old little boy.  A beautiful little boy.  Crawling around, sitting, laughing, playing with his sister.  It's so wonderful to watch.

It seems like yesterday, Dexter joined our family.  And how I have enjoyed watching him grow...

Fun in the sun

 

Making the BiB Award Shortlist

From today, I'm going to be busy writing my best Kate Winslet / Gwyneth Paltrow / general over-emotional woman speech.  Why?  Because - and I can't quite believe I'm writing this - I have been shortlisted for two Brilliance in Blogging awards (BiBs)!

Thank you to everyone who considered my blog worthy enough for such an honour and who nominated me in the first place.  Chez Mummy is *counts on fingers* barely five months old and, although I hoped I might make the shortlist, I never really thought I would.  There are so many great blogs out there, I feel humbled and honoured to be mentioned among them.

Review - The Gruffalo Live

A little girl took a stroll through the deep dark wood,

She spotted a theatre show and thought it might be good.

But what, dear reader, was the show all about?

And did we like it?  Come and find out....

Sophia and I had our own little adventure at the weekend.  We felt brave; we felt courageous; so we packed our bags and went in search of...the Gruffalo!

The Gruffalo Live is a stage show of the ever-popular book.  Performed by just three actors, it is currently travelling the UK and tells the story of the mouse that...wait, you don’t need me to tell you what the story’s about, you’ll probably – no, definitely – already know. 

London politicians support WSPA campaign

As you probably know, I've been supporting the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) charity.  At the start of this month they launched a campaign called Cruelty in a Concrete Jungle to call on whomever becomes London Mayor after the May elections to ensure the Metropolitan Police's Wildlife Crime Unit is properly funded and resourced.  The unit does great work to try and stamp out the illegal wildlife trade in London but has suffered from budget cuts and lack of manpower.

WSPA are calling on us to sign their e-petition and pile pressure onto the London Mayoral Candidates to pledge they will raise funding levels once more.  So far, over 7,000 people have supported the campaign and placed their (electronic) signature onto the petition.

And people are taking notice.

Shiny happy people