It’s not uncommon to find stuff that has fallen out of someone’s pocket. The odd coin or watch, a cigarette lighter, perhaps even a set of keys but today we found something quite unexpected.
Julian and I were in the midst of returning from our routine walk with our beloved (although at times scheming) Golden Retriever [...]

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Raising an eyebrow
Remember the days of the wafer thin eyebrows in the 90s? For the average person, this might not be terribly difficult to recover from but if you are of the Greek persuasion you would know that growing out your thick black eyebrows without humiliation can be quite a laborious and lengthy process. [...]

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You wouldn’t think that burning my hand with hot wax could get me thinking about how lies and other assorted pieces of misinformation are served by our parents, peers and society in general. Yes it’s a leap but then again I am famous for just this type of disjointed thinking.
It all started with a few [...]

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The obsession

Have you ever been so obsessed that you lived and breathed someone? Well I have and as a teenager my obsession went on for 3 long years. To make things worse the guy had absolutely no interest in me yet I would agonize over his every word and action, looking for any sign. If [...]

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Recently I stumbled upon my diaries from age 11 - 20 stashed away in my old keepsake boxes.  Curious to re-discover my youthful thoughts and secrets, I plonked myself down on my beanbag.  After thumbing through a few pages, the addiction kicked in and I found myself spending days wading through pages of my self-centred [...]

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There are various forms of torture, Chinese water torture, a medieval rack machine, plucking out eyes with hot pincers and then there is hair laser removal.
Although I have been having hair laser removal treatment on ‘painfree’ body parts for some years I avoided treating my upper lip after overhearing a remarkably tough looking woman claim [...]

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The facebook login page boldly states ‘facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life’. Suitably ironic, given that facebook frequently does the opposite.  Of course this is true of any forum where face to face interactions are replaced by a keyboard and screen.
Before I launch into my ‘down on facebook’ campaign, [...]

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For those of you who are not familiar with the wonders of Google Analytics allow me to enlighten you.  Analytics is a program that tracks traffic to my website.  The most interesting feature is its ability to show the search words or phrases that lead people to this site (nothingvanilla.com)
Admittedly I feel like some sort [...]

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Have you ever been accused of something that you didn’t do but couldn’t find your accuser to defend yourself?   Well I have, and my story involves a swimming pool, a steep hill and a large boulder.
If you are familiar my article, ‘Reviving the Spanish Revival’ you would know that we are in the middle of [...]

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This isn’t a ground breaking discovery but I am compelled to write about the U Chromosome.  I know what you are thinking there is no such thing as the U chromosome. That’s where you’d be wrong and at least 2 billion people on this planet can attest to its existence – the U Chromosome is [...]

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