Bel Says

With the closure of the Angus and Robertson Grand Plaza, Sunnybank, and Garden City, and Borders closures at Garden City and the CBD stores; it has left the book-aholics on the south side of Brisbane really left out in the cold.

So what options do we have left to us? I’m not overly fond of buying books online but if it’s your thing, you can still buy books with Borders online, Amazon, Book Depository, and Ebay. I like my solid bricks and mortar stores far better.

The Really Good Book Shop on Jackson Road at Bowns Plains is very cool. There is still an Angus and Robertson near Anzac Square and I believe one at Loganholm and Indooropilly. There is Dymocks both in the CBD and at Indooropilly. QBD is in most decent sized shopping centers and one in the Myer center. Pulp Fiction is in the arcade down the escalators at central train station. There’s Rosemary’s Romance in The Blocksidge & Ferguson Arcade on Adelade Street (just go up in the lift) and a fantastic second hand book shop on Charlotte Street near Pancake Manor.
Oh and I forgot that Target, Kmart, and Big W seem to be stepping up to the plate in place of the two major stores that have taken a hit this year.

These are just some of the stores I frequent on my travels. I’m sure there are so many more stores out there my head would explode. I’d love to hear where you go on the South Side of Brisbane to feed your craving for books.

A P.S from Bec: Yes, it’s always sad to witness book store shrinkage/disappearance. I thought I’d add a few of my faves to Bel’s list. If you haven’t visited Black Cat Books in Paddington, go & have a looksee. It’s a small, indie store that stocks a great range of titles & features a gorgeous coffee shop/back yard wonderland downstairs. They also hold regular author events, so check their website for deets.

There’s also Riverbend Books on the ever-popular Oxford St, Bulimba, and TLC Books in Manly. Riverbend enjoy regular author talks and appearances, so check ’em out. My absolute fave is West End’s Avid Reader. Home to a couple of my favourite authors, Trent Jamieson & Krissy Kneen, Avid’s another indie wonder that hosts regular events & signings.

The wonderful Bent Books is just a stone’s throw from Avid, btw. In the CBD, you can always swing by the fantastic, Folio Books, American Bookstore or McGill’s Technical Books.  Last, but not least, are the Coaldrake’s stores. Whether you’re closer to the Paddo Barracks or Valley Emporium, you’ll find yourself spoiled for choice in these gorgeous stores.

1.       He’s going to like Asian and French foods, especially deep fried crickets and escargot.

2. He’ll love sunny warm spots. He’ll be rock climbing, sun baking and bike riding, so stock up on your sunscreen if you want to be able to spend the weekends with him.

3. Brief your folks that the nickname Jimmy is not acceptable, unless his name really is Jimmy, in which case tell them to find a nick name to avoid them thinking of his cousins flitting around in your backyard every time someone mentions Jimmy Lizard.

4. Book the two of you in for exfoliations regularly to keep his scale care regime right on track. You don’t want bits of dead scale around his tail. It’s a little off-putting.

5. Avoid scary movies and startling him suddenly. He’s proud of his tail, and it would be a shame to have him drop it from an unnecessary shock.

6. If he’s not using a curl taming product it might be to your advantage. No lizard man wants to be frizzy.

7. Don’t let you little sister pick the lollies for afternoon snacks. She’ll get the ones that make your tongue turn blue… yep, she’s got a bad sense of humor.

8. When meeting his sister, Anna, avoid doing so at a sporting event she’s participating in. Nothing like screaming out ‘GO ANNA!” to make people cringe.

9. His family holidays on Lizard Island. If you really want to go, be ready to mingle with hundreds of his very distant relatives or to go do things on your own. Either way, it is a beautiful place, so enjoy yourself regardless.

10. If you plan on inviting him back to your place you might want to cover all bases and get a license to keep reptiles. That way you’ll avoid fines, and slaps on the wrist by government officials for taking a native animal out of the wild.

Since we can now all stop playing R.E.M’s End of the World, ‘cause it’s all a freaking hoax (not to mention really annoying after the 50th time), and the zombies didn’t eat our brains; it is time to party.

To party hearty you’re going to want to look amazing. Here’s a makeup, nails and hair combo of tutorials from youtube (my favourite place to look for cool stuff) to have you looking spiffy for the first party of the rest of your life.

Nikkietutorials has a fantastic tutorial on some smoking hot rainbow eyes here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ENIKpr36k

I love how she throws away the conventions of white on the waterline, and those face sticker thingies look just wow.

Next I searched around for a really different hair do. This one is so cool I may even try it myself someday. Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present (hah hah!), so why not show it with your channelishot’s take on an easy bow made from your hair.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UBj2x1swIE

Nails are the last tutorial, and there really is no limit to how epic you can make your nail art. There is now a way you can cheat at some amazing nail effects with Sally Hansen’s Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips.  They come in quite a few variations of patterns and visual effects, and look to be really easy to work with. Here is a tutorial by sccastaneda from earlier this year of how to put the strips on. *Remember to add a coat of clear nail polish to give extra strength to the finished product*

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSt7hs0Gyt0&feature=related

So now your hair is done, your makeup looks glamorous and your nails are a visual treat all by themselves, you can chuck on your best party dress and head out to whichever post Rapture party is still going.

Have a blast… safely.

1. Horticulture is his strong point. Mushrooms are his specialty. Though, unless you want fairy rings all through your front lawn, I wouldn’t fiddle with your garden.

2. His wings are fragile, so be careful when hugging, snuggling with and walking next to him.

3. He’ll appreciate a bunch of flowers, probably more than your average boyfriend. So when he’s done something wonderful and made your day special, return the favour and give him a pretty posy of pansies.

4. Fairies don’t do to well when coming into contact with iron. But don’t let this aversion fool you into doing his chores… very rarely, these days, is an iron actually made from iron. He has two arms and a heartbeat, let him press his own shirts.

5. Despite people’s misconceptions male fairies are not pixies. Pixies don’t have wings… pretty elementary when you think about it, and I’m sure your friends would be looked down upon for making the mistake. You may need to educate them.

6. When the parental units are meeting for the first time, be sure to keep your folks out of the fairy circles and make sure they’re not going to use the word fairy instead of very. It will really ping off his ‘rents.

7. No matter how amusing you may find ‘Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairies Book’ by Terry Jones funny, it will be enough to send your special guy into inconsolable fits of tears. How would you like it if your aunt’s last moments will forever be immortalised with her butt hanging out?  Remove the book from your library.

8. He may or may not have the ability to fly thanks to those wings of his. They may be spectacularly huge, and they may be a smidge too small. As with most other things, it doesn’t have too much to do with the size of them but how he uses them that matters.

9. If you ever have to look after his little sister, try the Winx club. Just try not to get the theme song stuck in your head or you’ll be begging for someone to sing you the Smurfs song just for something a little different.

10. When deciding to get both your friends and his friends together, refrain from describing his mates as ‘a bunch of fairies’; it may be taken the wrong way, and they’re an extremely masculine bunch… even if they are a bunch of fairies.

Sup everyone! Phil is here to satisfy your tech lust with juicy tidbits of info on the latest & greatest.

These wonderful little gizmos have taken the world by storm. With them we can surf the Net, read books, chat with our BFFs, and update Twitter and Facebook as much we want. So it’s safe to say we NEED these things right? Right! 🙂

Let’s start with the simplest of the bunch: E-readers. These serve only one function: for reading electronic books and magazines. The good thing about these is that they have loads of internal storage; you can put as many books and magazines as you want, so you won’t get bored the next time you’re on a five hour ride in a car with nothing better to do than to count how many power posts just passed by. Ugh.

Nowadays these come with Wi-Fi or 3G Internet, so you can buy/download books straight to the device without ever having to plug it into a computer. Nice, ‘eh?

One of these is called the Kindle. Being the most popular of its kind, it has the widest selection of electronic books available. It’s e-ink display is sharp and easy on the eyes, and you can read it under the sun if you’re out on the beach getting a tan 😉

Its competition, the Nook by Barnes and Noble, and the Kobo (you can get this one at Borders), are also very good readers at around the same price. These can display multiple file formats, so don’t worry if all you’ve got is a bunch of PDFs.

Higher up the food chain, we got tablets. These do a little more than just display e-books. You can surf, e-mail, chat, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and all the other ones that escape my brain right now. Sitting right up there at the top is the iPad. The sexiest of the bunch, this gorgeous piece of technology is available in 16, 32, or 64GB versions with Wi-Fi (that’s plain ol’ Internet sans cable) or 3G. The latter will fetch a monthly fee with the mobile carrier specified.

If Apple products aren’t your thing, fear not! There are PLENTY of alternatives, and among these are two of my favorites: the Samgung Galaxy tab and the brand spankin’ new Xoom from Motorola. These carry Google’s famous(or infamous?) widely used smartphone: OS, Android. Of course, all of these will perform all the functions I mentioned above, and perform them well.  So, next time you go tech shopping and think you’re spoiled for choice, you are! 🙂

~Until next time!~