It's Halloween! In honour of the occasion I took on the 30 Day Horror Film Challenge - here are the results, handily condensed into a single blog post.




The Dark, 2005. Okay, it wasn't actually made in Wales - but it is set here. It didn't get great reviews, but I really enjoyed it all the same.






White Zombie, 1932. Bela Lugosi creates his own army of the undead, using his evil voodoo powers. It's the original and (arguably) best zombie film. Watch it on YouTube HERE.


Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984 - 2010. It's not the 'best' franchise by any stretch, but it's always good fun. Well, until you hit Freddy vs. Jason, at any rate.


Asylum, 1972. I love anthology films, they should make more of them. Asylum edges it's way to the top of the list by containing 'Mannikins of Horror', a story which played on my once young and impressionable mind for weeks. Watch it on YouTube HERE.


9. Favourite Horror Actor It's a three way tie between these fine gentlemen: Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee.


10. Favourite Horror Actress


A Fool There Was, 1915. Theda Bara was the original movie 'vamp' and, while it might not be of the bloodsucking kind, she still manages to send her beau to the grave. Watch on YouTube HERE.











Poltergeist, 1982. Kids today will never understand the terror of the TV static.


Audition, 1999. Weird isn't the word.



The Woman in Black, 2012. It had so many of my favourite horror film elements.


The Amityville Horror, 2005.


Fright, 1971. Really a proto-slasher, but still manages to be one of the better examples of the genre. Watch it on YouTube HERE.


I Spit On Your Grave, 1978. There are many, many, many bad horror films out there. Few come anywhere close to the awfulness that is I Spit On Your Grave.


Let the Right One In, 2008. Swedish horror romance.


Shaun of the Dead, 2004. So many references for the horror nerd to uncover.

I know, I know, it's not even Halloween yet. But. There are only 57 days until Christmas and it's never too early to start preparing... Here are my top ten tips for getting ready for Christmas when your budget is next to nothing.


It can feel like a bit of a nightmare, with Christmas looming closer and closer, and your bank balance sinking lower and lower. Panic will only make things ten times worse. Tell yourself everything will work out okay. (Alternatively, draw a little doodle of Santa meeting with a violent accident. It will help with the stress levels.)

You've got to be in it to win it because competitions can really ease the burden of the Christmas shopping. They might not provide you with the 'main' presents, but smaller value items like DVDs, books, toiletries, chocolates, etc, are fairly easy to win and still represent a big saving on all those 'little extras' you end up buying. I comp all year round but in the run up to Christmas there will be thousands upon thousands of prizes up for grabs - click HERE for my guide to getting started.

Me (looking down) as a Christmas angel many moons ago.
Don't be afraid to buy second hand. Ebay is full of unwanted gifts, unworn clothes, and unused impulse buys. Lightly used DVDs, computer games, and electronics also abound. Freeads, freecycle, local selling groups (just search Facebook) and even the humble car boot sale can be great ways of sourcing things like bikes and bigger items like doll houses or play kitchens. The savings can be huge and the difference to their brand new counterpart negligible.

This won't work for everyone, but you might be able to come to no present agreements with some of the people you habitually swap gifts with. My brother and I have a longstanding no present pact, along with another that we pool our resources to buy for our parents. It saves money and halves the stress of finding the perfect present. If you don't want to just straight out ask someone, try bringing it up as a suggestion you read in a magazine and ask your friend / relation / parakeet's opinion of the idea.

Wise owl says it's always a good idea to keep an emergency 'catch all' present (chocolates are always a safe bet) on hand in case someone doesn't stick to the pact.
It's so obvious it's painful, but bear with me. There are sales, and offers, and discount stores on the high street which can help you stock up on everything from food, to decorations, to electronics. Then there are the online marketplaces. One of my fave ways to find stocking fillers is to use eBay's advanced search for super cheap items. With a bit of perseverance - and perhaps turning off email notifications for a few days - you can pick up ties, costume jewellery, craft items, nail varnish, and similar items for under 10p a piece, all with free shipping from the Far East. For inspiration, click HERE to see the haul I accumulated a few months back for 22p.

Let's face it, you're not getting away with a no present pact with the kids. What you can do is try to manage their expectations. Get them to write a 'want, need, wear, read' list, swapping out the categories as appropriate, and so making everything else you're able to get on top is a bonus. When it comes to fellow adults, just be honest and say that things are tight this year.


They say we eat with our eyes, and I say we get half the excitement of a present before we ever touch the wrapping paper. By taking a little more time with the presentation you can turn a poundland box of chocs into something your recipient will ooh and ahh over. In this YouTube is your ally; it's full of tutorials for making bows, tying ribbons, and wrapping like a pro. For younger kids, my top presentation tip is to wrap everything. Literally. School socks, a 10p mini pack of sweets, and a huge box full of tissue paper and a balloon are all super exciting when there is wrapping paper to be torn off and strewn all over the carpet.

The temptation at Christmas is to massively overspend on food - even on things nobody particularly likes. (80% of the chocolates in the Christmas tin, I'm looking at you.) Really think about what your family likes and cherry pick accordingly. Try and spread the cost over every weekly shop, and do your best to find some room in the freezer so you can stock up early. Make use of any rewards schemes your supermarket is running, and remember that you really don't need to have twelve different kinds of desert on offer. Anthony's top tip is not to worry about buying cheap booze; after the third drink none of your guests will care anyway...

If you're not having any luck winning your Christmas presents, don't despair. Check out freebies sites like freebiesiteuk, magicfreebiesuk and freebiersclub to start building a stash of samples and promotional merchandise. With a bit of imagination these can then be turned into nice little gifts. Samples of tea, coffee and hot chocolate can be combined with a mug, a teaspoon and some fancy tissue paper, ribbon and cellophane. Complete with a printable label imploring the recipient to 'make time for tea' or similar. Free packets of seeds can be teamed with a plant pot as a 'growing pack' for kids, while cosmetics samples and sweets / edibles can be used to form a mini pamper hamper. Remember, it's all about the presentation.

It all depends how creative you're feeling. You can make your own soap, cookies, cakes and chocolates. (We're doing fudge this year. Yum.) You can up-cycle empty jars into snow globes (or snow globe cookie jars), tubs of baby food into funky caddies, plain tiles into personalised coasters, old sweaters into tote bags, a whole host of things into fridge magnets, etc, etc, etc. Get the kids to help you make your own Christmas cards, as well as your own gift bags and wrapping paper. If that all sounds like too much, there are still some really simple gift ideas you can make yourself. Put together your own gift hampers from all your free and almost free finds, with the help of tissue paper and patterned cellophane. Or create your own super simple reindeer hot chocolate cone.





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Work was a bit doom and gloom this week - a seminar on Monday about how we're going to deal with cuts to the adult education budget, and then full council on Tuesday (webcast HERE) followed by a scrutiny session on whether or not we should go ahead with the consultation to close Victoria Primary and Brynteg nursery (webcast HERE). It will be challenged again after the consultation, I'm sure!

When I got back from food shopping on Tuesday I felt so ill. I went to bed about 6:30pm and slept through until almost 11am the next day. I still felt awful Wednesday and Thursday but, on the plus side, we finally got the new shower fitted on Thursday night. It was so great to be able to wash my hair properly again.

Saturday saw me, Anthony and Marianna in town for the launch of the poppy appeal and a flash choir for the Cwmbran's Urban Buzz project. In the evening Anthony went to the pub while I stayed home and cleaned the kitchen. There is something very wrong about that sentence...

I love this photo of Marianna from Saturday.

☆ READING: Whistling in the Dark by Tamara Allen. I'm only about halfway through.

☆ WRITING: Some random words for a handwriting quiz - find out what your writing says about you HERE. 

☆ WATCHING: Life of Crime. It's a three part ITV mini series from 2013, following Denise Woods from her first day as a WPC in 1985 to her promotion to Superintendent in 2013 - and her fixation with tracking down a killer. I really enjoyed it, even if I cried loads!

☆ LISTENING: The Cwmbran's Urban Buzz anthem - check out me and Marianna in the video HERE.

☆ WEARING: Curlers. Only in the house though. ;)

☆ EATING: Jaffa cakes. Yum.

☆ FEELING: Tired.

I reviewed Odins Miniatures, posted a round up of linkys, and got to be the featured blogger in this week's #SoMe2 instagram party. I also wrote a 'You Know You Were a 90s Kid When...' post, check it out HERE. I briefly managed to hit 60 on Klout this week too, but I'm back down to 59 now. Still, it's going in the right direction. :)

My tutu basket giveaway ended with a total of 964 entries. The winners have been contacted and the prizes sent out. Thanks so much to everyone who entered! 

On Monday Marianna and I went to Barry Island with my parents. It was the first time Marianna had seen the sea! You can read about the day HERE. Tuesday I had planning committee, and then did the food shopping at Lidl instead of Aldi. It was quite a novel experience, which suggests I really do need to get out more. Wednesday was so uninteresting I literally cannot remember anything about it.

I had a couple of meetings on Thursday, then on Friday Marianna and I went over to star in the Cwmbran's Urban Buzz video. More on that when it goes live next week! Marianna stayed over my mum's on Friday night so we had a really fun evening catching up with Louise and Mark. It was great to speak to other adults about something other than babies!

On Saturday I slept in late while Anthony cracked on with painting the hall and the stairwell. Now that's the life, eh?

"Locked up for the crime of terrorism against the state of my mental health." - So read Anthony's Facebook status on Thursday after he put the fireguard together.
☆ READING: Trashy magazines. I bought a couple last week to read on the train back from Cardiff. Actually got round to them this week.

☆ WRITING: I wrote up my thoughts on the proposed Hinkley C nuclear power station in 5 Reasons To Say No To Hinkley C.

☆ WATCHING: We watched Scream for the first time since I was about ten and it is so much more ridiculous than I remembered.

☆ LISTENING: PoP! Goes My Heart by PoP!, the greatest 80s anthem that never existed.

☆ WEARING: Leggings with skirts - warmer than tights.

☆ EATING: We tried out the newly reopened McDonalds. It tasted exactly the same but the restaurant is looking much swankier.

☆ FEELING: Annoyed with myself. I was doing really well with my CSP (picking the skin on my finger), then I was stressed last week and started all over again - it looks awful now.

I spent way too long formatting a scanned copy of Photo-Love from April 1979, reviewed Purple Parrot 1/12 scale miniatures and blogged about the difference between BHC and AHC poverty.

Yesterday I did the 30 Days of TV Blog Challenge. I love those things!