He was here to change the world

Millions of words have already been written and, no doubt, million more will be written about the sudden death of Michael Jackson. He touched so many lives (not always in a good way) and he was simply the most famous person on Earth. He was also a part of my life in many ways.

When I was a teenager I idolized the man, like mostly everyone else did in the 80s. One of my first scrapbooks was all about Michael Jackson! My dream then was to see him in concert and I would have done except for my inability to get good grades in Math (long story...)

When my family finally got satellite TV and I discovered MTV, the very first video I saw was Thriller and I was amazed. It set the bar very high for all other videos and I remember at the time being very disappointed that other videos weren't 15 minutes long and had movie-style credits at the end. And the dancing: WOW. I loved the whole thing and of course bought the Thriller album, like millions of people did.

His connections to Disney are well documented and of course his most famous was the Captain EO 3D video that played for a long time in Epcot. It was some amazing piece of film - directed by Coppola, written by George Lucas and starring music by Michael Jackson himself. How cool is that? I know that a lot of people didn't quite rate the video but I loved it. I also remember watching the "making of" show on the Disney Channel more than once.

I could identify with his Disney obsession, after all, if I had the money I probably would also try to build Disneyland in my back garden! Recently there was that auction that never really happened, of items from MJ's house and within it there were hundreds of items made by Disney especially for him, like a gorgeous Peter Pan installation that was designed especially to fit the space on the inside of the house, with characters flying all around the ceiling - I loved that. I was also so jealous that he owned so many priceless pieces of Disney art!

As I got older I suppose the obsession tapered off to appreciation and while I still loved the music, I didn't quite get the person that he was turning into, with all the weirdness and the court cases. It was the mid 90s and was then when I moved to Florida to work at WDW for a year. I did in fact see Michael Jackson while I was working in Disney, in his disguise as an arab woman and while I wasn't allowed to approach him or even show that I knew who it was, it certainly was an exciting day for me. I was also struck by how small he was in real life. And how big his entourage was.

While living and working at Disney I met a lot of lovely people and among them was this guy who was very cute and also happened to like Michael Jackson. On a trip to the mall he bought the History album (2 disc set) and as he didn't have a CD player, I suggested he come round to mine so that we could listen to the album. It turned out to be a memorable evening, where we heard the whole thing twice (remember, 2 disc set!) and talked about everything and anything. That night things changed and we went from friends to a couple... all because of a Michael Jackson CD.

We got on so well that we eventually got married and I moved to the UK to be with him! One of the first things that we did when we moved to the UK was to go to Wembley and see Michael Jackson in concert - finally! It was an amazing show and I am almost embarrassed to admit that I too cried when he came out, just like you always see his fans do on every concert... it was very emotional and the show blew me over.

So Michael Jackson has always been there, sort of moving my life along. Every year we celebrate our 'anniversary' on the 25th June - the date that we got together to listen to History. We celebrate by listening to the album again and chatting like we did then... and we were doing just that last night... and then woke up to the sad news that the dude is gone.

So lots and lots of words will be written, some good, some bad but there is no doubt that Michael Jackson was a talented artist and perhaps a little bit weird; he was the most famous person in the world and also the most famous Disney fan of all; he was Captain EO and the father of 3 children. He was weird and wonderful and, like it was said of Walt Disney when he died, we shall never see his like again.

RIP Michael and thank you for the music.

Teacher presents

It will soon be the end of the school year and time to get creative and put together something nice for my son's teachers... and this year I am trying to be organized so I've done them already!

I always try to make something (rather than just buy it) and also try to get my son to participate or at least to have some sort of input into what we're doing. This year I had the idea to make photo note cards but I thought that using a photo of my son would not make these note cards incredibly useful to the recipient. I mean, my son is cute but why would any of his teachers want his smiling face on a note card?

So instead I scanned a picture he made in school, which had his name written on the front, and used that as the artwork in the note cards. To make my life simple, I simply uploaded the image to the Kodak Gallery and ordered the note cards there, as I bought quite a few they were very reasonable. But I could have also simply ordered prints and then glued a photo to the front of a blank note card. Or even cheaper is to make my own note cards and envelopes but to be honest, I was into saving time.

Once the note cards arrived, I had to think of a clever way to present them and I had the idea to make some sort of note card holder. After some searching I found this video tutorial on how to make a very cute and easy note card holder (the tutorial also has instructions on how to make cute postcards for the inside, which is another cute idea). So I quickly whipped up a few of these holders using supplies I already had and voila! Teacher presents all sorted out. All I need to do now is slip them into some clear plastic wrappers, add a nice gift tag and present them to the (hopefully delighted) teachers.


I'm very pleased with how they turned out - they are all different as I'm using different papers and ribbons so the one pictured on this post is just an example. I think I may use this idea more often as it makes lovely presents that are easy to post!

The 80s are back! Or are they?

Last week I was in the shopping center and when I went to one of my favorite stores, I was amazed to find an incredible amount of neon clothes - just like I remembered from the 80s! They had the lot: the legwarmers, fingerless gloves, bangles, head bands... everything in bright pink or orange or yellow. It sure took me back to my younger days.

I know that the 80s are big right now (and I'm not looking forward to shoulder pads again, but apparently they're on the way back) and like all fashions, it will eventually give way to another revival and that will go and another take its place... and so on. In fashion everything old is new again, eventually.

In the scrapbooking world it is often the same thing: trends come and go but somehow the 80s never really come back. I know not many scrappers remember those heady days when we cut photos into shapes, used bright patterned paper for everything and put together paper piecings. Sure, the trend for brighter colors seems to be making headway into the scrapping world, but what about the more embarassing 80s scrapbooking trends? Were they really that bad (like poodle perms) and bound never to return? Do I have to get rid of my Paperkins and page toppers?

To be fair, horrible 80s trends like blue mascara and enormous hair are NOT making a comeback, at least not this time around and the trends focus instead on a more 'refined' version of what we wore in the 80s. I guess as time goes by, we pick the good bits and leave the bad ones behind, and scrapbooking is simply doing the same. But I would just love to see someone cutting photos into cutesy shapes again!

I went into my pile of old scrapbooks to find an authentic 80s layout to use as illustration on this blog post but, like my embarassing 80s photos with huge hair and blue lashes, I think it's best to keep them where they are...

Sainsbury's vs. Marks & Spencer - the battle for nostalgia

It appears that the latest marketing trend is to look back nostalgically at the 'good old days'. For example, Sainsbury's latest TV ad is all about heritage and history. The theme is "Trying something new for 140 years" and takes the viewer on a visual journey across the company's main milestones in these years.

Marks & Spencer, a competitor, have a very similar campaign out there also, celebrating 125 years. In this TV ad they have Twiggy going back in time on a visual journey across the company's milestones in these years... sound familiar?

I wonder what the marketing teams in both companies think about these very, very similar campaigns!! I also note that both commercials include the mention of avocados and the claim of having 'introduced' them to the UK...

The ads are so similar that I wonder what happened there - coincidence or something more sinister?

Which one do you like best?

Travels around the World (Showcase) - Japan

I’ve already taken you around World Showcase twice: Italy and France. In my long-awaited continuation of this series, we will go a little further away into the amazing country that is Japan.

As a pavilion, Japan has quite a few things going for it. First of all, it looks absolutely stunning, especially at dusk. It has a wide open courtyard and is surrounded by a pagoda and a large building housing the shops and restaurants that make up most of the pavilion. The open courtyard gives the pavilion a very airy feel, but it also has some secrets.

At the far end of the courtyard is a replica of a castle or fortress and inside there is a gallery. Currently I seem to remember there is an exhibit on tin toys (a must, and almost always quiet!) but it has housed other exhibits in the past. Another quiet spot is the garden in front of the Yakitori House (incidentally, probably my favorite fast food restaurant in all of WDW). This garden is a lovely Japanese garden, full of gorgeous plants and even a koi pond, a great place to relax.

But my absolutely favorite part of the pavilion is the Mitsukoshi department store, which is a shopper’s paradise and full of absolutely everything Japanese – from chopsticks and candy to expensive kimono and pearls, but not forgetting Hello Kitty merchandise, sake, origami, bonsai... well, the list goes on. This shop is also my favorite in all of World Showcase and I can happily spend hours there. Above the shop is the restaurant which is also an experience that must not be missed – the food is incredible and the service amazing.

Japan is a country I have always wanted to visit, for some reason. I guess it was the Hello Kitty obsession in my childhood or something but for some reason I’ve always wanted to go there. My interest was further ignited when I visited the Japanese pavilion in Epcot and the more time I spent there, the more I wanted to see the real thing. Fortunately my husband had also always had that wish so finally in 2002 a combination of factors meant that we could go to Japan and we spent around 3 weeks there.

We traveled in the spring (and got lucky enough to see the cherry blossom) and stayed with a very good friend in Tokyo and also with other of our Epcot friends. This gave us a great opportunity to not only see the country but see how people really lived and we had a mixture of accomodations: from the single girl’s city appartment to a family home in the suburbs of Tokyo, a grand house in the country, and even a mixture of Japanese B&Bs and the most amazing hotel I’ve ever stayed at.

We spent some time in Kyoto and Hiroshima as well and the beauty and emotion we experienced there is of course much more than what visitors to the pavilion can even imagine. The tiny garden in front of the Yakitori House is a symbol of hundreds (perhaps thousands) of gardens all over the place, each one more beautiful than the next and tended to with meticulous care and a love of nature. Even the torii gate that stands in front of the Japanese pavilion is a replica of a real one, which we got to see in Miyajima.

We even went to Tokyo Disneyland and of course I loved it! The comparison between the US parks and the Tokyo park is probably another blog post in itself but suffice to say that it was incredibly busy, even though it was a weekday and not a holiday and everything was very familiar but still had a certain exotic touch that constantly reminded us that we were not in one of the US parks. I guess Disneyland Paris has a little of that too... but Tokyo Disneyland has many more "American" touches than the Paris park so sometimes it was easy to forget where you were - then you'd see a huge queue for gyoza sausages and you'd be reminded of exactly where you were!

I quickly fell in love with Japan (and to this day I dream of returning someday, with the kids) and there wasn’t a thing I didn’t like: the bustle of Tokyo, the amazing punctuality of the trains, the warmth of the people, the incredible food, the fantastic shopping... I could go on. We even spent a few hours in the real Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo and I can say that the Epcot version is of course smaller but it does the real one justice as the variety of items available is dazzling.

One thing that I did with my Japanese friend in Kyoto is get a “Geisha makeover” which is a much more elaborate version of the princess makeovers already available at WDW. We spent a couple of hours (yeah, hours) getting dressed and made up to look like Geiko (a sort of Geisha-in-training), then having our photos taken and then proceeding to remove the heavy makeup and finally getting to see the photos. It was a great experience and I’m glad we did it, for we got some very unusual photos at the end! I think this would be a great addition to the Japanese pavilion but they would probably have to find a way to make the experience not take hours but still end up with great results.

My time in Epcot’s Japan had made me aware of the warmth of the people and we experienced this in droves in the real thing. I even knew that they gift wrapped all purchases in the most detailed way and when in Japan I wasn’t disappointed! I just think that the pavilion needs another way of conveying just how wonderful this country is and that it is so much more than just food, shopping and gardens. But at least this pavilion, in my opinion, does a very good job of giving Epcot visitors a little taste of what the real country is like.

All about (my) running skirts

As I've said before, I have now discovered running skirts and this is probably the best thing to have happened to my running. Not only are they very practical, they make me look cute (at least I think so), come in great colors and are something a little bit different and more modest than running shorts. I love wearing them so much that sometimes I go out on runs even when I don't feel like it, just so that I can wear one of my lovely skirts! So I am a total convert and would urge anyone who hasn't tried them to do so.

I actually only have five running skirts (well, six really but more on that later) and I love them all for different reasons. Lots of people have been asking me about my running skirts lately so here is the quick guide to all my skirts and the different reasons I love them.

One of the first skirts I bought was this navy/aqua from runningskirts.com:

Runningskirts.com have athletic skirts and running skirts - the difference being that athletic skirts have compression shorts underneath, while running skirts have spankies (yes, that is what they are called!) or briefs. I prefer their running skirt style because it makes layering easier. I tend to wear the skirts over capris or tights, and my favorites come from Thoosa.com. The top I'm wearing is one of my favorites and is from Under Armour. These skirts all have side pockets which are great for carrying keys, gels and even MP3 players so no more armbands for me, which is another great advantage.

I find that running skirts from runningskirts.com are available in lots of great colors, so I just couldn't resist buying a few more. So I got the navy pumpkin (above) which I love to match with my Thoosa v-neck tee in this fantastic shade of blue (I think they call it ocean). This top is one of my favorites and I like it so much that I have two and I wore this when I ran the WDW marathon in 2008.

A lot of my running wardrobe tends to be blue for some reason - I didn't plan it that way but there is a lot of blue and black in there... but what about pink? It is one of my favorite colors so of course I had to get a pink skirt!

Again from runningskirts.com, this one is the pink/sunset skirt, no longer available. You can just about see that the skirt is pale pink with a light orange panel on the side. It is a lovely combination and when paired with that pink top (an ordinary cotton top) it looks very nice. Still, I think I could do with another pink skirt someday, something a bit brighter... but anyway.

I also have one skirt from skirtgoddess.com - the very amazing commitment skirt in carbon/orange:


This skirt is hands down the best skirt I run in. You will notice it has compression shorts underneath (in a fab shade of orange) and this is the one skirt I can actually wear without layering over tights if the weather is right, and not feel uncomfortable, chafe or have the shorts ride up. It fits so well and is incredibly comfortable, it is well worth the money. It also has pockets for essentials, one on each hip. Here I am wearing it with an ordinary cotton t-shirt in orange but it also looks great when paired with my long sleeve pink tech shirt from Thoosa.

You may have also noticed that there is something of an orange theme emerging... well, I have always liked the way blue looks with orange, they contrast very well together, so it is natural to have that color in my running wardrobe. But a bigger reason is that the folks over at disneyrunning.com have chosen orange as the 'official' color so when t-shirts were created, they were in a VERY bright shade of orange! So of course I had to get a few skirts to match... The DR t-shirt looks fantastic with the carbon/orange skirt and with the navy/orange and also the pink/orange but it probably looks the best with my last skirt:


I told you the shirt was bright! It's great for being spotted when running outside, though. Anyway, the skirt is a New Balance one I picked up for almost nothing in the Sports Authority sometime last year, on one of my trips to the US. It has compression shorts underneath and even a small pocket on the hip, although as it's on the shorts (and not on the skirt as the others) it can be a bit uncomfortable when using it to hold my MP3 player because the cable gets a bit twisted with the skirt. But out of all my skirts this one is my favorite color and I love the fact that it is even a little 'flippy' when I run - makes me feel cute!

Those are my five skirts. There is, as I mentioned before, a sixth skirt - the very useful and highly recommended Fit Momma from runningskirts.com. This maternity running skirt was the most useful garment in my wardrobe for months and even now I still use it once in a while, as the extra-wide band can be folded down and provides some much needed support to my post-partum belly. In fact, this skirt is the only item of maternity wear that I have kept now that the baby is here and I plan to keep it for a little while longer. The only downside is that this skirt is only available in all black and I prefer my skirts to be bright colors.

So there you have it - everything you ever wanted to know about my running skirts. If you are a runner and haven't tried one, I suggest you do because once you run in a skirt you will never run in anything else!

Who does she look like - 2.0

I've done this before but it's time to play the game again: who does Jessica look like? Because I'm biased and I think she looks like her brother, here is my evidence.

This is what Jessica looks like right now, at 3 months:


And this is what Samuel used to look like at the same age:

Very similar, don't you think? The same chin, same mouth, same nose and very similar eyes but Jessica does have bigger cheeks and her eyes look a bit more scrunched up. Also Samuel had bright blue eyes by this age whereas Jessica's are already turning sort of hazel (but they look brown on this shot). And of course Samuel was growing new, blonde hair by 3 months while Jessica still has her mop of brown curls.

Unfortunately there isn't a photo of me at that age (not that I know of anyway) but trust me on this one - Jessica looks like her brother! Or what do you think?