Did I mention I'm not a big fan of spiders? Really? Just a few times then...
Actually, this is one spider I'm not scared off. Despite the fact it is quite a lot bigger than my hand, it looks so cute and furry, I do quite like it. Although the scuttling thing it does still makes me give it a second glance.
This remote control beasty is here thanks to the Natural History Museum, who have thoughtfully created it to be on a par size-wise with the Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula. All I can say is, if I every really do meet a Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula, you won't see me for dust because this thing is big.
Thankfully this one is under the control of my remote and gets around on wheels so I have no fears for my safety. There's a clever bit of design that makes the legs move very realistically as you steer it around, although the illusion of life is lost a bit if you put it in reverse. Real spiders don't seem to have reverse.
So full marks to the Natural History Museum for creating a spider that's fun to play with yet cute enough not to freak out a self confessed arachnophobe like me.
Radio Controlled Tarantula - £24.99 from ShinyShack.com
Remote Control Tarantula
Man Trainer Toilet Roll
This gave me pause to smile to today. Toilet roll with Put the Seat Down printed on it. As a lady I can admit I've occasionally not only wanted that printed on the loo roll, but tattooed backwards across certain foreheads, so they'll read it in the mirror as they wash their hands.
Of course the hand washing might just be wishful thinking on my part.
*Grumpy Female Alert*
I'd probably also want to add 'Aim Carefully for the Bowl' and 'Floors Don't Clean Themselves You Know'.
Nice idea though.
Man Trainer Toilet Roll - £4.99 from ShinyShack.com
Freakeys
Key decoration is all the rage now. I mentioned MonKeys a while back as a cute way of telling one key from another. Well, now things have gone further and we have Freakeys.
Do you recall in the dim and distant past those little rubbery finger puppets you could get? Squidgy things with wibbly wobbly arms?
Well these are basically the next generation of the finger puppets, but for keys. Give them a shake and their arms will wobble around in a cute but distinctly unmenacing manner.
I like them, they've definitely got novelty appeal, but I think I'd only ever have one for each set of keys. The arms are both an asset and a problem. An asset because they look really funny, but a problem because if you had six keys on your keyring, each with a Freakey on, you'd never the set in your pocket. No matter, great decoration for individual keys, and lots of fun.
Freakeys - £3.99 from ShinyShack.com
Roman Candles
No, I don't mean fireworks. These roman candles belong on top of a birthday cake.
This struck me as a piece of genius design for those of us for whom birthday candles are now more of a fire hazard than a delight. No one wants their icing melted by the sheer heat of a huge number of candles which only serve to remind you that time is moving on.
The candles come in the shape of roman numerals, which can be used to provide a nice short-hand to replace one-candle-one-year. Instead of 30 individual candles blazing away, singing your eyebrows you can have a nice and elegant XXX. Cute eh? The best thing is the pack contains enough numerals to do any number from 1 to 89 - catering for most people who are still able to blow out a candle.
Roman Candles - £3.99 from ShinyShack.com
Bonechillers
It seems that strange and novelty shaped ice cubes are all the rage these days. An ice cube that's actually cube-shaped is really very unusual indeed now you can get ice trays that'll turn boring old frozen water into all sorts of things: ducks, fish, mice.
This ice tray really caught my imagination. I've got a bit of a soft spot for pirates and the idea of serving up little frozen skulls and crossbones tickled my fancy. Just the thing to have with drinks on the poop deck - Arrr!
Bonechillers - £3.99 from ShinyShack.com
Stripy Toe Socks
I got very excited when I saw these. I always thought socks with individual toes looked really cool and I never understood why socks were just foot mittens rather than dressing each toe.
I couldn't wait to try a pair on, and once I had, I could honestly say they did look very funky indeed. Unfortunately my shoes were designed for feet that have the standard amount of room between the toes. Put woolly toe socks on and the toe bit of your foot is suddenly much too wide for shoes. But what the heck, wearing shoes means that no one gets the benefit of the cool stripy toe socks right?
Cool but slightly impractical footwear. But so what? Sometimes form has to come before function.
Stripy Toe Socks - £3.99 from ShinyShack.com
Nite Glowring
This is a proper pocket glow gadget. It glows, it doesn't need batteries and it doesn't lose its glow if it's kept in the dark for a while. Small enough to fit on a keyring and sit in your pocket, the Nite Glowring also kicks out a steady coloured glow. Sure it won't be enough light to find your way home in the dark, it isn't a torch, but it's plenty bright enough to let you find those keys you just dropped on a pitch black night.
Apparently these were originally used to provide emergency lighting in submarines during the cold war. This has no impact on the way we use them now, but it does make them sound seriously cool.
The science of how it works is simple. A tiny amount of tritium gas is sealed inside the little vial which has an internal coating of phosphor. Electrons emitted from the tritium cause the phosphor to glow for up to ten years. So cool and long lasting too.
Nite Glowring - £8.99 from ShinyShack.com
Lichtenberg Figures
Whether you're a science geek or not, there's something undeniably cool about sculptures created using a particle accelerator.
This is how it works: an acrylic block is packed with high velocity electrons and then discharged, creating the Lichtenberg Figure permanently engraved within the acrylic. Polish up the acrylic block and put it on a bottom-lit display stand and you have your very own Lichtenberg Figure display.
Who said science isn't cool?
Lichtenberg Figures - £99.99 from ShinyShack.com
Perpetual Motion Machine
Perpetual motion machines tend to be created by the kind of people that would have been alchemists in the Middle Ages. The kind of person who longs for the impossible dream, even though scientifically they know deep down it's never going to happen.
This perpetual motion model is just great, it has all the features that you'd look for in a perpetual motion machine, including the way it can almost fool you into thinking that's just what you've got.
Look at it and you can see how it might work. The ball-bearings moving within the fly wheel cause it to roll one way, while the narrowing track for the cone-shaped spindle encourage movement in the opposite direction. You could almost believe that you'd start it off and it will keep going FOR EVER.
It won't, but there's good fun to be had with it anyway. Not least convincing your friends that perpetual motion is here and free energy for all is just round the corner.
Perpetual Motion Machine - 19.99 from ShinyShack.com
Chopstick Kids
Now here's a handy idea that's not just for the kids. Eating with chopsticks can be something of a challenge if you don't do it regularly. But if you hate to admit defeat and pick up your fork, then Chopstick Kids will at least give you the chance of eating that Chinese food, rather than just flicking it randomly across the room, (been there, done that, got the permanently stained t-shirt).
This silicone invention can be attached to the end of any set of chopsticks to allow them to be used by the dexterously challenged. They come with a set of melamine chopsticks, or use your own and get to enjoy your noodles for once!
Chopstick Kids - £5.99 from ShinyShack.com
Flop Tops
Continuing with my slightly bizarre cutlery obsession, I'd like to introduce Flop Tops. This is a spoon and fork set which is designed specifically for children. I think this is sad, because I wouldn't mind an adult-sized Flop Top set of my own. Basically Flop Tops are stainless steel cutlery with silicone grips and little faces above which waves a mass of floppy silicone hair.
Cute, lots of fun and dishwasher friendly. Why is it that kids get to have all the fun stuff?
Flop Tops - £11.99 from ShinyShack.com
Drinks Monitor Badge
Understated yet eye catching, the Drinks Monitor badge is a twist on the old position of Milk Monitor, for those of us that can remember the regulation milk drink at primary school every day.
The Drinks Monitor badge is the grown up version for those who take their drinking seriously. A cute gift idea too. The metal pin badge has that traditional old school enamelled finish.
Drinks Monitor Badge - £3.99 from ShinyShack.com
Bug Catcher
It's safe to say I'm not a fan of spiders. I generally try to cultivate a live-and-let-live attitude to the fellow creatures on the planet, but I've got something of a bigotted, knee-jerk reaction when it comes to spiders.
Firstly, little ones are not a problem. Money spiders, and even ones a bit bigger are fine, I can pick them up in my hand and put them outside. I'm not even that bothered about the ones with the long thin spindly legs, although I'd always use a cup to move them. It's those big black ones that can move like lightning that bother me.
My home has beams and high ceilings. This is spider paradise and I'm ashamed to say there have been times when I've resorted to an extra long extension on the hoover tube to get shot of creepy things in the rafters.
The Bug Catcher has allowed me to ease my conscience a little. It allows me to suck up creepy crawlies into a special little chamber, then empty them undamaged outside. It isn't big enough to do the real monster spiders, but to be honest, I struggle to get within a few metres of them anyway. At least this way some of the littlies get to grow into biggies in the great outdoors.
Bug Catcher - £11.99 from ShinyShack.com
Sporks
I'd like to explore the world of cutlery a little. Yes, I know, not overly exciting you might think, not much weird and wonderful going on in the world of cutlery... or is there?
Intrigued? You should be.
The Spork has appeared to meet the needs of someone who needs to travel light. Or just someone who wants to always carry cutlery. The episode of Friends where Chandler and Rachel are eating cheesecake off the floor springs to mind. Joey appears and takes a spoon out of his pocket and joins in. He clearly travels prepared.
The idea of the Spork is to put all your cutlery into one handy instrument. I've seen Sporks before that had only one 'business end' and one handle. That meant you basically got a spoon with prongs on, which meant you had to watch you didn't stab yourself in the tongue when eating yoghurt and you could just forget soup.
These Sporks take a different approach. You've got a standard spoon on one end, a fork on the other, and one side of the fork is serrated to use as a knife. Now you wouldn't want to try and cut up your Sunday roast with this, but if push came to shove, you'd be able to make do quite comfortably.
Not only that, these Sporks are tough, lightweight polycarbonate and can even be chucked in a dishwasher once you make it back to civilisation. Not bad huh?
I give these Sporks the thumbs up. Congratulations Spork - you're evolving.
Spork pack - £5.99 from ShinyShack.com
Ducti Messenger Bag
Canvas as a material for bags went out of fashion for a while, but I'm delighted to see it's making a come-back. Ok, it may not be particularly waterproof, but it is hard wearing and as it ages it gets that wonderful faded, naturally distressed look that suggests it's been around since the beginning of time. It's also nice and soft and resilient enough to chuck in a washing machine.
I havent' tried any of that with my Messenger Bag as yet, but it looks pretty cool even brand new. I love all the little pockets for bits and pieces, and the main bag is big enough to fit a folder and note pad in, making it practical too.
Ducti Messenger Bag - £24.99 from ShinyShack.com
