Revisited post: My wish-list of American Sweets

Earlier in the month, I celebrated my 12 year moving-to-England anniversary.  Two years ago, I wrote this post and I thought it might be fun to revisit it today.  

This post was originally posted here on 29 September, 2010.


I'm American. I forgot to blog about it, but in August I celebrated my 10 year moving-to-England anniversary. Ten years! When people meet me they usually ask what I miss the most about the United States. Most people expect to hear something along the lines of close family members, childhood friends... perhaps a loveable family pet. But no. Here are the things that I miss the most.

1. Airheads - My all-time favourite type of sweet. I'd love to have these by the bucket-load. In fact, a friend recently took a holiday to Las Vegas and asked if I'd like anything. I only mentioned Airheads and (because she must know me very well) she brought back a bumper box of a variety of 72 Airheads. I was in heaven and she became my best friend. I could eat Airheads all day.

2. Bit-o-Honey - Have you heard of these? I don't think they're very popular? But my dad used to love them and because they were often in the house, I came to love them too. They're just so chewy and have the fantastic honey flavour. Love Bit-O-Honey.

3. Welch's Grape soda - How do I come to love Welch's Grape Soda as much as I do? It's a mystery, even to me. But I love that grape-y goodness!


4. Tootsie Rolls - I remember one year my dad bought this gigantic bag of Tootsie Roll Midgees for Halloween. Only he bought it in like, September. Yeah. Those suckers didn't last until the end of October! When they're that little, those things are addictive.

5. Laffy Taffy - Mmmmm, Laffy Taffy. My favourite is apple. Sour apple? I can't quite recall anymore. When I was little, I used to empty my piggy bank and walk up to the 7-11 behind my house and buy what I could. And Laffy Taffys are cheap, so they usually ended up coming home with me.

6. Almond M&Ms - This is one the whole family loves. My dad used to buy huge bags of these everytime he came over to visit and give some to me, to N and to N's mother. It was a huge Almond M&M party. Understandable, as they are delicious.

7. Mike-n-Ikes - Have you spotted a trend yet? I like fruity flavoured chewy sweets. I never really noticed that before. I have a total of two types of chocolate on this list, two drinks and the rest chewy sweets! This list is making me more self-aware! (I'm such a dork.)

8. Root beer - I have no preference for A&W or MUG. Either are very acceptable to me. There's an American restaurant (Tony Roma's) about an hour away that serves Mountain Dew and root beer from their menu. I love going there. Incidentally, Mountain Dew would have been on this list, apart from the fact that I am able to get it here in the UK finally! Certain petrol stations in my area sell it. Woohoo. But! Root beer floats = love.

9. Candy Corn - Now that Halloween is around the corner, I have candy corn on my mind. Halloween just isn't the same without it :(

10. Butterfinger - Last but not least, we have Butterfinger. As I've mentioned, I don't have a lot of chocolate on my list, but I definitely make an exception for Butterfingers. It's the peanut-brittle-type centre. Love that stuff.

PHEW! I'm getting hungry after writing all that out! Before you feel too sorry for me, there are certain websites that allow for importing all of these items! I don't use them often, and what I actually miss the most is wandering into a 7-11 (or whatever) and picking up all those interesting new varieties of my favourite sweets that are only found in America. I love that. Do you love these sweets too?

What is your favourite type of chocolate/sweet?

Revisited post: My Favourite Fictional Fantasy Places

 Originally posted October 2010!

I saw this someplace and it looked like too much fun for me to pass up. The person whose list I saw originally had Willy Wonka's chocolate factory first on their list and I thought it was inspired! (if that was you, please do comment and I will link to your blog straight away!) Without further ado, my list of favourite fantasy places...


Willy Wonka's chocolate factory - How fantastic would it be if Willy Wonka's chocolate factory were an actual place. That you could go and visit and get lost in. I would happily go there and never return. Especially with the Oompa-Loompas and that chocolate river.

Lyra's Oxford - I absolutely adore His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I love Lyra and this wonderful cast of characters, but one of my favourite things about Northern Lights, was his re-imagining of Oxford into this weirdly wonderful fantasy place, filled with daemons. It's always in the back of my head, 'if I lived there, what would my daemon look like?' Does anyone else ever wonder such things?

Hogwarts - Wouldn't everyone include Hogwarts on their list? I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the moment, and hoping to carry on soon after with Deathly Hallows, and I'm absolutely positive that if this place existed, I would be beside myself with excitement. Obviously the movies brought Hogwarts to life, and as I love the movies, Hogwarts pretty much looks like it does on the screen. That's not neccessarily a bad thing, is it? Also, I'm pretty sure that I'd be a Gryffindor. Or maybe I just think I'd be in Gryffindor because I want to be in Gryffindor? I can't tell.

Old Kingdom - Another one of my favourite series ever is the Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix. I loved the Old Kingdom, with Free Magic and Charter Magic and Moggett and the necromancer bells and the awesome characters, and the different gates of Death. Oh, just everything about it = love.

Discworld - I admit that I am a complete novice when it comes to Discworld! I've only read two adult Discworld novels and only read of the young Discworld novels: the first Tiffany Aching and Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. But I think Terry Pratchett has a wonderful imagination and living in Discworld would be the closest thing to living in Terry Pratchett's mind. I think that would be truly awesome! And I know for sure that I won't stop reading Discworld for a very a long time. I have so much to catch up on!

Neverland - Ooh, Neverland. With Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. Always on some adventure and flying. Fighting with Captain Hook. I could live with that.

Oz - How much do I love Oz?! I'd love to count the ways with you, but this post would be never-ending. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I've only ever read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L Frank Baum's first book in the series on Oz. I do have the other in e-book format and will soon be getting to them. Most of my love for the place stems from the movie version. With Judy Garland and all the singing. It makes me happy.

Camelot - Is anyone else watching Merlin? I love that show. It can be a little bit silly, but I will watch it until forever. I love the magic of the show and this great relationship between Arthur and Merlin. And I love the legend of King Arthur. And his knights. And the dragons. I can't stay that I've read widely of Camelot and all its goings-on, but it's still one of my favourite fictional fantasy places!

Hundred Acre Wood - We've just started reading Winnie-the-Pooh with the boys. And I would love to live in the Hundred Acre Wood. How fun would that be? Playing Pooh-sticks and hanging out with Eeyore and Christopher Robin and everybody? Sigh.

Runners-up: Otori and Middle Earth.

Which are your favourite fictional fantasy places?

New Year's Resolutions - How am I doing so far?

Spoiler: I'm not doing very well at all!

Below is the list of New Year's resolutions that I came up with at the beginning of the year. After each goal/resolution, I have written in italics how well/badly these have been accomplished!

Reading goals in 2012:

-Read 200-225 books. I read 209 books in 2011, and I'd like to keep reading more, though this is of course the least important goal ever. I am aware of that.  

---According to Goodreads, I am currently a whopping 7 books behind my goal for this year. 

-Complete the British books challenge. The British books challenge is the only reading challenge that I've signed up for this year. I think it's very important (and fun!) to read and support British authors. I read 68 books by British authors in 2011, and I hope to read possibly 75 in 2012! Bring it on.

---I have read 32 books by British authors so far this year! That's nearly halfway to 75, and I think if I did a push of books in the upcoming months, I could totally manage this particular goal!

-Operation Read Own Books. This is something I started last year and had varying success with. I think every book blogger I know has a towering pile of books to be read and I'm really keen on reducing the books on my unread shelves. I have a list that I mark off, but it quickly becomes out of date. I hope to do my very best to have a more manageable TBR list at the end of 2012.

---There's no possible way I can manage this, unless I give away all of my books on my TBR shelves.  My shelves are completely out of control and I really, desperately need to reign myself in when it comes to acquiring new books!

-Be caught up on review books. My stacks of review books has become slightly ridiculous of late. And while having several regular guest reviewers has helped, I really need to stay on top of this. Including e-books from netgalley, which I have a tendency to ignore.

---AHAHAHAHAHA! There is NO WAY I will ever be caught up on the review books.  None.

Reading goals: 1/4

Blogging goals in 2012:

-Get caught up on reviews. This is always something I fail at. I'm usually in double figures behind and it makes me feel slightly anxious and panicky sometimes, so I'd really like to do something about this.

---Oh dear, oh dear. Not a chance, I'm afraid.  Last count had my list of books to be reviewed at somewhere near 50.  Eep. Luckily I haven't been doing much reading lately, but still. Be hard to get 50 down to a more manageable number!

-Love Month/British month. These two themed months were quite fun and popular in 2011, and I've decided to make them yearly events.

---I managed Love Month, only just. But had to give up on British month two weeks into it.  Shame.

-Create blog buttons for regular features. I have quite a few regular features that appear on Fluttering Butterflies and I'd like them to become more visible and recognisable by creating blog buttons for them. I've really been dragging my feet with this one.

---I'd actually forgotten entirely about this goal.  I still think it's a good idea, I'm just not sure I'll get to it in the near future. I'm struggling enough as it is with just reading and blogging let alone anything extra!

-Better content and reviews. I'm always on the lookout for ways in which I can bring you a better blog. I'd like to recommit myself to my Awesome Women feature as well as talk more about things that matter to me, especially mental illness. I'd like to change up the way I review books. I'd like to bring you more guest posts and interviews with authors and bloggers. If you'd like to take part in anyway, please do let me know!

---I have sort of rebooted Awesome Women.  And I've tried on the others.  I need to rededicate myself to this goal for the rest of the year, I think...

-Reach a wider audience. Of course I'd like more followers and readers on this blog, but I've always maintained that I would do this by providing good content and by reaching out to other book bloggers, as opposed to giveaways or blog hops. So my goal for this year is to continue supporting the blogs I already read and to widen my blogging circle and looking out for other great bloggers that are currently unknown to me!

---Nope, I haven't really accomplished the widening of my blogger circle, really.  Do you know of any decent book blogs that are fairly newish? Particularly if they are based in the UK? Much appreciated.

Blogging goals 1/5

Personal goals in 2012:

-Be kind to myself. This goal has a very wide reaching meaning. I feel as though I need to take better care of myself in different ways and 'be kind to myself' covers just about everything!

---Hard to measure this one. But I thinking I'm doing very well so far!

-Do well in my university course. In February, I'm starting the course I've been most worried about. It combines the subject I'm studying and really enjoy, with a subject that I'm almost terrified to cover. I'm really scared that I'll do abysmally with this course and will be really concentrating on it once it begins.

---It feels a bit of a panic sometimes, but I'm so close to finishing this year's course, and I've passed everything, so success!

-Doing Things Differently Project and Random Acts of Kindness. These two projects were started in the past, and mostly forgotten. I still believe in them though and I hope to do more with them in 2012.

---I've since begun the Doing Things Differently Project over the summer! 

Personal goals: 2.5/3

So that's it. It's clear to see that I'm pretty rubbish at accomplishing the goals that I set out for myself.  I can be happy that the most important goal of all (Be kind to myself) has been achieved, so I feel as though the rest just doesn't matter in comparison...

How are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions?