Stuff I like: the May 2015 version.

Yep, it's good to share the stuff you like, not just whinge about the things you don't like. Here are three things floating my boat right now.


My reading this year has been pretty basic, I have struggled to get a book that I really enjoyed or to even get into reading much at all, which is very unlike me.

Over at my favourite (and world's best) online book club, I am a couple of months behind, but I was really keen to read "All the Light We Can Not See" by Anthony Doerr.

It grabbed me from the start, mixing in my love of historical stories and my fascination with how people coped during the second world war in Europe, because I just can NOT imagine, how they did. In this book, stories are woven around two teenage characters, a blind french girl and an orphan German boy. For all the books you may have read about the war or documentaries you may have seen, you won't know the story of these two and the people that surround them over the years. It's not always pretty, but it's addictive and hard to put down. The ending is a mix of sadness because the book is over and also because it might not finish as you would like, but I really don't know how I would have liked this book to end.

I recommend it, and give a rating of 9/10.

Do you have a case for your smart phone or iDevice? I had one, dropped my phone and smashed the cover and knew I needed a new one super quickly. Some of us just can not be trusted not to drop these things. As I carry my phone with me quite a bit too much,  I wanted something that included a pocket for other things - like credit cards, train cards, work security cards etc, but I didn't want the front of my phone covered. Then TA DAAAAA. I found the jimmycase. It was perfect and I had a little tweet about it with @Katrinas_Tweets who also had one.

The fine folk at jimmycase were also listening in and were super kind and sent me my very own. It's sturdy and handy, but is a little thicker then I am used to, mainly because it provides proper protection all the way around my phone. But, take a look, he's a super useful cover and cooler than any other you have ever seen. I just love using the pocket for all my little sticky note reminders.

Rating for this one would be an 8.5/10

Have you ever had a ridiculously expensive food that you wanted to try? I have been following the Pana Chocolate instagram feed for a long time and it always looks so good that I want to lick my phone to taste it.

When I see those little packets of luxury sitting in the hipster stores I sometimes stumble into, I can just never get myself to fork out the $7 for 45grams of chocolate.  You can buy 600 grams (or three packets) of Tim Tams for the same price. This week I decided to throw some Pana Mint Chocolate in with the fruit and veg, then I waited quietly all day until everyone was finally in bed. I made a cup of tea and broke off just one block of chocolate. I sat down with my slippers on, the remote beside me and slowly sipped my tea and nibbled on that little square of chocolate.

Was it good. YES IT WAS.

And it pretty much has nothing in it, no dairy, not gluten, no sugar, no whatever else that bodies don't like. So I guess that means it has no calories either.

If you were to compare this chocolate to wine, this is not a quaffer chocolate. If Tim Tams are your cask wine, Pana is your Grange, your top shelf French Champagne. A little is all you are going to get.

I think you would like it, for flavour I give this a 10/10, but for value for money, well you need to decide if you want the top shelf or not. It won't be a regular purchase for me, but if cash were flowing from me, I probably wouldn't eat anything else.


That's it from Moira this week. What about you, got any good stuff arriving in your house lately?