The Man Saver

This clever app makes sure you (yes, boys!) don't forget any relationship milestone, and gives you advance warning so you can make romantic plans.

There may be nothing worse a man can do in a relationship than forget his anniversary. If such forgetfulness happens, one of two scenarios will likely ensue: a rushed panic to make a dinner reservation, find a gift, and locate an open flower shop before it’s too late, or forgetting altogether and get hounded for years (or until you break up) about that one time you forgot your anniversary. Trust me with this one, you will pay a price for this blunder of all blunders. While I am a fan of iindividuals who can remember by themselves or have the smarts to write that special date down, the MANsaver app (free) could be the lifesaver of those who tend to forget.

The clever app asks you to enter whether you are dating or married and the start date of your relationship. From that simple information, the MANsaver app generates reminders for every possible anniversary, holiday, and milestone that could possibly occur. It has all the important dates covered, but even reminds you about absurdities like “100 days of dating” that only the crazy girls would pull on you, so you’re safe no matter what. Push notifications give you a generous five-day notice on important dates as well as a day-of reminder in case you still haven’t made that reservation. To get even more ambitious, the app gives you creative date ideas, gift options, and sentimental drafts of text messages. I'm not so sure that plagiarising an overly-sweet text message will put you in your girl’s good graces, but remember that big one-year anniversary definitely will. If possible, I suggest also plugging in her/my birthday. Wouldn’t want to miss that one.

What...you think that I only get the ladies because I'm the most re-dunk-u-lous-ly good looking news anchor in town? Stay classy Man Saver.

- R. Burgandy

Lick It...

It's interactive. It has a cat. It makes you uncomfortable. It's so Skittles and it's so good.

A Screen Legend

Dubbed 'the last of the Hollywood greats', the much-loved actress's life had held the public imagination from the moment she first appeared on screen in 1942, not only for her beauty and glamour, but also for her turbulent personal life, her many marriages and her tireless charity work.

Born to American parents in London in 1932, Dame Elizabeth starred in her first film, There’s One Born Every Minute, at just 10 years old. She then skyrocketed in to fame at the age of 12 after her role as Velvet Brown in National Velvet but, like many childhood stars, she struggled for the public to accept her in more mature roles and for MGM, the production company to which she was signed, to give her more serious parts.

However, in 1960 Taylor went on to land one of her most famous roles as Cleopatra, complete with a million dollar pay cheque - a first for any Hollywood actress. Taylor starred opposite Richard Burton, whom Taylor went on to marry twice, marking the start of an iconic Hollywood relationship.

It was no secret that as captivating she was on screen, and it was Taylor’s glamorous, provocative personal life that lead to the most interest. She married a total of eight times in her life (she was divorced seven times and widowed once), although it is thought she never got over Burton and was inconsolable following his death in 1984, saying "perhaps we loved each other too much".

Taylor was always ahead of the times, from her controversial movie roles, to her personal life, and in 2009 she managed to break the mould again by joining - and becoming an active user of - Twitter. She used the medium to both promote the various good causes she was a supporter of (including many AIDS charities) and to share inspirational words of wisdom. One of her final tweets, referring to rumours of a film about her and Richard Burton's life together, read "No one is going to play Elizabeth Taylor, but Elizabeth Taylor herself.. Not at least until I'm dead, and at the moment I'm having too much fun being alive...and I plan on staying that way. Happiness to all."

Dame Elizabeth Taylor passed away today (23 March 2011) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in LA. She will endure as one of Hollywood’s greatest and most glamorous icons, and she will be greatly missed.

Bizarre foods: European "delicacies," by country

What constitutes "food" is relative, depending upon what part of the world you call home. In Asia, pretty much anything on no (snakes), two, four, six, or eight legs is up for grabs. Europe, however, has its own culinary oddities, as detailed below. Got maggots?

Iceland
Hákarl: Fermented, dried Greenland or basking shark. This tasty treat is prepared by burying the beheaded and gutted shark in a shallow hole in the ground for six to 12 weeks. Unsurprisingly, the end result is considered noxious to pretty much everyone on the planet aside from Icelanders.

Norway
Smalahove: Boiled lamb's head, traditionally served at Christmas. The brain is removed, and the head salted and dried before boiling. Because they're the fattiest bits, the ear and eye are eaten first. More fun than a wishbone.

Sardinia (yes, it's in Italy, but this one deserved its own listing)
Casu marzu: This sheep's milk cheese has maggots added to it during ripening, because their digestive action creates an "advanced level" of fermentation (also known as "decomposition"). Some people prefer to eat the soupy results sans critters, while the stout of heart go for the whole package. Be forewarned: according to Wikipedia, irate maggots can propel themselves for distances up to six inches. Here's fly in your eye.

Northern Sweden or Finland
Lappkok: This charmingly-named concoction consists of blodpalt--a dumpling made with reindeer blood and wheat or rye flour--served with reindeer bone marrow. Well, Santa's herd had to retire sometime.

Sweden
Lutefisk: This dried whitefish treated with lye is beloved by Scandinavians and their American Midwestern ancestors (let's just say it's an acquired taste). It's traditionally served with potatoes or other root vegetables, gravy or white sauce, and akvavit.

Scotland
Haggis: Who doesn't love a cooked sheep's stomach stuffed with its lungs, heart, and liver, combined with oatmeal?

Poland
Nozki: Literally "cold feet," this dish of jellied pig's trotters isn't as repulsive as it sounds. The meat is simmered with herbs and spices until falling off the bone, and set in gelatin. Think of how much fun this would be as a Jello shot.

Ukraine
Salo: The cured fatback of pork is actually quite delicious, and similar to Italian lardo when seasoned. It's chopped and used as a condiment, or eaten straight-up on bread. Plan your angioplasty accordingly.

England/Ireland
Black (or blood) pudding: Technically a sausage, this mixture of animal blood (usually pork), spices, fat, and oatmeal or other grains is surprisingly good. It's served uncooked, fried, grilled, or boiled. Sound bad? At least it's not called Spotted Dick.

Italy
Stracotto d'asino: A northern Italian donkey stew, often served as a pasta sauce. Donkey and horse are eaten throughout Italy, but this particular dish is a specialty of Veneto, and Mantua, in Lombardy.

France
Tête de veau: You have to love that the venerable French culinary bible, Larousse Gastronomique, describes this dish of boiled calf's head as, "a gelatinous variety of white offal." Mmm. While there are many different preparations for the classical dish, it was traditionally served with cocks' combs and kidneys, calves sweetbreads, and mushrooms.

Eastern Europe
P'tcha: A calves' foot jelly enjoyed by Ashkenazi Jews throughout this part of Europe. It's uh, high in protein.

Germany
Zungenwurst: This sausage is made of pork blood and rind; pickled ox tongue, and a grain filler, such as barley. It's available dried, or can be browned in butter or bacon fat before eating. And bacon makes everything better.


Netherlands
Paardenrookvlees: Culinarily-speaking, the Dutch usually cop grief for their proclivity for pickled herring and eating mayonnaise on their french fries. That's because most Americans don't know this smoked horse meat is a popular sandwich filling. Trust me: Seabiscuit tastes pretty good.

Greece
Kokoretsi: Lamb or goat intestines wrapped around seasoned offal (lungs, hearts, sweetbreads, kidneys), threaded onto a skewer, and cooked on a spit. You know what's good with grilled meat? Meat.

The Augmented Effect

There has been a huge rise in the amount of augmented reality advertising billboards that are creating dynamic experiences around the world, and this one by Lynx brings sexy angels to Victoria station. As you can see from the video commuters are encouraged to interact with the ads and this draws attention from around the station and creates a level of engagement that a normal billboard could only really ever dream of getting.

See the clip above to find out how they wowed people.

Word spread fast as travelers found they could interact with the angels in virtual reality on a big screen, after stepping on a special floormat. We're wondering how many people missed their trains as a result.....

The campaign was created by BBH, London.

EDIBLE PEN

Do you chew on your pen when concentrating?

Me too!!! ...and so does young Dutch designer Dave Hakkens, who has recently come up with a pen which you can chew on and entirely eat.

"When looking at the pen I noticed that you only use the ink, the other stuff is just there to hold filling more comfortably. Isn’t it possible to eat the whole cover?" He says of the starting point for his idea.

Hakkens gathered a number of pens and looked closely at which ones were the best ones to chew on.

Armed with that information, he then made three different molds and started testing out different types of candy; investigating crucial pen chewing considerations such as the breaking points, flavours and which designs and textures 'chew' the best.

"When I found the shape and candy, I made a final model in peppermint flavour. The candy which is used doesn’t stick on anything and doesn't feel dirty when you hold it in your hands or when eating it afterwards" he says.

Dave's edible pen contains twenty pieces of candy and is filled with edible ink - the only thing which isn't edible is the small point which you write with - and when it's finished you throw this nib away or put it in a new re-fill pen.

Tasty.

Shabby Chic

By now, it’s probably no secret: One of my passions is for the country. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ‘City’, but the country oozes quintessentially British-ness in abundance.

I also definitely have a thing for old houses. I have relationships with them, I will build entire trips around them, I study their crevices and crown moldings and broken floor tiles, making up stories about the people who spent lifetimes living and dreaming in the rooms.

The Lodge, my Devonshire residence, is a pretty 4 bed cottage positioned deep in a tree-filled cleft on the fringe of Dartmoor. Encompassed by fields filled with calves, lambs and miniature ponies, it’s a farmers heaven, and it’s my haven.

The Lodge itself is a 16th-century stone building (originally a 2 up, 2 down, now with a few extensions here and there), located at the foot of the long, windy driveway which takes you to the impressive, yet slightly imposing, Hall. Both the Hall, which is a candidate for the ficticious Baskerville Hall featured in Conan Doyle’s ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, and the Lodge are totally isolated, accessible only by a narrow lane edged by overgrown hedges and not so strategically placed blind bends, followed by a dirt track. It’s edge of your seat stuff, so generally a rambling old pick-up truck is needed!

As a family we’ve fixed up, furnished and decorated the space (but not too much), turning the historical stone house into the most amazingly simple and pared-down retreat–for the inner artists and writer, anyone else who appreciates scaling back, and you know, channeling their inner Laura Ingalls Wilder (is that just me?).

Inside, there’s open fires, well-worn vintage furniture, ancient books scattered across window ledges and a collections of paraffin lamps. Outside you’ll see a ‘wild garden’, a self-made pond (oh yes, we hired a digger and a dumper and got our hands dirty!), rolling hills, moor and a compostable barn with stables and sheep/cow pens). It’s a boon for those who agree that the ultimate luxury these days is peace, solitude and a dreamy old house on a big swath of pretty land.

This is where I shall be hiding out during the long 11 day Easter break. Go forth!