Glasgow may have been named the UK's most vegetarian-friendly city in the UK, but I personally scratch my head at that one. One shop in Dundee I always make an effort to swing in by whilst I'm through is The Health Store aka plant-base dieters personal Havana.

I actually never spotted this place until my final few months in the city, despite it's size and being located on one of the main streets. I mean, I think I registered something was there but it didn't look like much and when I did begin my veggie/vegan journey I kept complaining that I would have order food online (I also used to live on the same street...you can see how uninspiring it look from the outside).

But alas, I stepped in and it was God's gift to veggies. I found non-dairy milks which weren't soya, I found soya ice-cream, I found egg replacer, I found bars of vegan chocolate, I found ranges of fake meats which weren't the non-vegan Quorn brand.

Basically its's awesome. I haven't found anywhere in Glasgow as good (am I missing somewhere?) or in Aberdeen (when I am up it's the small health store off the side of Tesco Extra in Bridge of Don I frequent) and if you are ever in Dundee for some random odd reason (it's not really the sort of place people day trip to...hah) and you're into this kind of thing, then I'd completely recommend a visit.

Top Ten Community Arts Projects

I'm getting more and more tempted to add Minneapolis to my wonderlust list. 

How do you find the people that are right for you? Hint: it’s all about energy.

I love the sound of the plans for the DNA Glasgow.

Butternut Squash and hazelnut lasagna.

It's only a few days away: Halloween dessert ideas.

It's also only 16 days until I turn 23, and apparently it's not as crap as it appears.

I stayed up past midnight this week researching Christmas dinner ideas: this is one thing I found.

As someone who has moved a lot I appreciated this post.

Amy wrote an amazing post on living with both a physical disability and a mental illness.

Police quiz immigrant family on parentage of ‘confused ginger man’ HAHA - probably shouldn't read if you're a royalist ;) 

The Purity Myth - Jessica Valenti
Some of my 'geek'/non-mainstream interests are feminism, sociology as a whole, sexual health and American culture, thus this was a book I had been meaning to read forever. However, I was a bit disappointed. I agree with everything that was written but it didn't bring-up anything I didn't already know. I certainly have a few more examples of sexism when it comes to 'virginity', but for a book that was only written three years ago I expected something a bit more groundbreaking. Maybe good if you're just getting started with feminism, but if you've been identifying with the label for a good while then I would say find something that takes social constructs apart some more.

Who Moved My Cheese? - Dr Spencer Johnson
This is one of the best selling business and self-development books of all time, but I had to admit I was very cynical given that it was a story about mice and cheese. Written to help people deal with their attitude to change; it tells the story of two mice and two humans who need to look for more cheese, and how they deal with it. Change isn't something I've ever struggled with but I still - in the end - did find this quite eye-opening. Because the author applies humans' general attitude/excuses/fear mongering of change to freaking cheese, it put change into perspective, in a somewhat humorous way. I really do think this is worth a read.


The Vampire Diaries (Volume 1 and 2) - L.J.Smith
I am an absolute fan-girl of the television series, and like most TV programmes and films that were once books I did it in the reverse order. From my regular reading of The Vampire Diaries Wiki (erm, yes?) I did realise the books were different and a fair bit had been changed, which you always have to expect. However I was very surprised by just how much had been changed to for a television screen. These two volumes came as one book so explains why I've read them both with an unfavourable opinion, but I reckon I'll just keep to the television series in the future. 

Two weeks ago I was kindly invited along to the Wagamamas* to sample their new dishes coming out for autumn and winter.

I headed along to the Glasgow branch with Hayley and her Gran, which was nice as me and my wee Hayley met in real life for the first time in that Wagamamas almost a year ago.

New on their drinks menu is root juice and iki beer. I am a big fan of throwing almost anything in a blender so whilst a beetroot, carrot and orange juice smoothie might not be everyone's cup of tea juice I drank mine down. I'm truthfully not much of a beer drinker (unless it's a Millers, in which case pass me a bottle) so the new beer wasn't really up my street but drinkers around the table who were accustomed to beer were nodding their heads.

There was also wine on the table, which the waitresses kept topping up...


Obviously these three dishes were not to my taste, but I took some photos anyway. I did cheekily take a teaspoon of the sauce to try and as far as the sauces go the one surrounding the mahi mahi curry gets the thumbs up. There was also a side dish of pulled pork gyoza which I didn't get a picture of but it was definitely the dish sending the meat-lovers into a frenzy.

Whilst the meat-eaters were devouring the chicken et al, Wagamamas offered to get me something off the normal menu (on the house) to pass the time. I opted for the yasai chilli men which was delicious, albeit very spicey. Full of tofu, courgettes, red onions, peppers, magetout and some very flavourful mushrooms (my exact response to putting it in my mouth was "now that was no Tesco value mushroom") along side white rice, sesame seeds and lime.

And then we had the new veggie dish. Probably not up your street if you don't like mushrooms (thankfully I love them!) as it contained seven types of mushroom (I didn't know there were more than three...) alongside aspagarus and silken tofu with a sauce of chilli garlic, sesame and soy sauce.


New on the side dish front was wok-fried greens. The marinade was garlic and soy sauce which are two of my fav things ever so this was well and truly up my street. Apparently quite a lot of the population have a vendetta against broccoli, personally I love it and in this sauce everyone should!



And despite all that food I obviously still had room for dessert (because there is always room for dessert). This may look like just a blob of ice-cream and some pancakes but these pancakes have a date and orange sauce within the fold which make them a level above your average pancake! And the ice-cream is cinnamon, which adds some jolly festive cheer.

The new food for the Chritmas menu will be available nationwide from the 22nd of October (so tomorrow) and all my photos of the event can be found on the mo'adore Facebook page. 




* All the food shown here - including the dish from their regular menu - was paid for by Wagamamas, however I haven't been paid to write this feature.

I had always ignored the Vitamin C range from The Body Shop. Despite my break-outs and maybe some dry patches in the winter dull skin was never anything I was plagued with. However last payday I fancied trying some new Body Shop goodies and it was a 3 for 2 weekend but when it came to picking up my third purchase I hit a standstill. None of my current make-up was close to running out and I had just stopped by Lush to pick up a new solid shampoo plus my classic favourites Herbalism and Cupcake. So I was stalled.

The shop assistant was helpful and went through most of the range. I knew I wanted make-up but wasn't sure which. That is when she directed me towards this product, which despite not being a traditional make-up product actually is used for priming the skin (at London Fashion Week). I thought it sounded odd enough to try.

She put it on the back of my hand and yes it did have the same smoothing effect that a traditional primer would have. The smell (citrusy) did put me off as we all know I hate a strong smelling product. But thankfully the smell did fade from my hand within the next 20 minutes.

I have been using this product for most of the last fortnight and have been impressed. When it comes to primers I have only ever been impressed by products that are over £20; the high street ones have just never ticked any boxes for me. This isn't however going to give Too Faced, or Arbonne (review here), or Mac (boo!) a run for their money anytime soon as these products are still better, but Skin Reviver does pack a fair punch for its £14 price tag.

I found that my foundation did last longer on my skin wearing this underneath when compared to a bare face - not all day but the bulk of my make-up would still be on by midday (after having applied it at 8am) and by the time I got to bed some of it would have slid off but I certainly didn't have a bare face either.

If you can afford one of the more expensive primers I would still say go for it. But if you are on a budget and still really want a primer but a £20 primer really isn't within your paycheck, then this is one hell of a little fella for your make-up collection.