Just after Easter last year – yes, almost a year back now – Amy from over here (and obviously the X-Entertainment following) sent the second Ominous Box from the States. This box contained all manner of goodies and treats, each individually wrapped in copious amounts of Sesame Street gift wrap.

As it is nearing Easter once more it only seemed fitting that my first ‘defeating procrastination’ post should be about Ominous Box II and its contents. You may recall that I covered some of the stuff in the post Ominous Box 2?! back in July, which included some YouTube vloggery, but now it’s actually experiment time!

Book o’ Quotes

I love quotes. Seriously, I love being able to find those short one or two sentences said by someone that so succintly summarises a feeling or event, the kinds of quotes that can amuse, inspire or emotionally affect you. I have about a dozen themed quote books and dictionaries of quotations, as well as my own Quotefile that someday I will put online to be shared for amusement. I suppose it could be in part why I love Criminal Minds, in addition to great cast and characters, enthralling storylines, mental disorders and violent crime, they also feature great quotes.

I’m not sure how Amy knew about my quote love, but she included a book of quotes which her accompanying note alluded to me needing cheering up. I know I can be morose at times, hard to read other times and manic on occassion, so no doubt this will come in hand.

There are some wonderful and inspiring quotes in the book and it is a truly great repositry.

Easter Stickers

Little pictures of bunnehs and duckies that adhere to surfaces, is there anything cuter in the world? Well, maybe little bunnehs and duckies that can be placed on velcro walls for easy storage, and then removed for snuggles. Sort of an Emergency Cuddle Zone, with cushioned floor and detachable wall fuzzies, and a regular shipment of Kittens in a Box.

Optimus Prime Mini-Kite

I haven’t tested the kite out yet, mainly because my kite flying experiences are comparative to those of Charlie Brown. Whenever I try to fly a kite, it drags on the ground until it’s torn apart from twigs and stones like condemned prisoner being drawn behind a horse. On the rare occasions I can get it up – the kite that is – it has a habit of finding something to snag on to, if we’re on a deserted beach in the middle of nowhere, it’ll pull a palm tree out of Hammerspace just to snag itself.

Egg Painting Kits

Unlike the real Easter Bunnies who lay pre-decorated shells – a result of their bizarre cultish breeding habits and psychotropic mushroom use, which basically leaves the female bunnies with a tie-dying womb and a conception that is less teachers aid video and more Hunter S. Thompson trip – Americans seem to enjoy taking time with children to apply paints and stickers to hens egg. Sadly, I didn’t buy any eggs, so I’ll have to try this another time.

The kit does seem pretty good though, with paints and brushes and even egg holders included.

Easter Bunny Growing Pet

A bunneh from an egg, the first homebrewing method of genetic engineering. I was all prepped and ready, with a bowl of water beside me, I dropped the egg in the water. Sadly, it does take 3-5 days for the egg to hatch, so we’ll have to come back to it later.

It is slightly amusing that there’s a warning label not to swallow it. Not a warning to parents that there’s a choking hazard, but a warning to people old enough to read and comprehend. No wonder Kinder Eggs are banned in the US.

The egg hatching actually took a week to finish completely, and I took a few shots throughout:
21 March

22 March

23 March

27 March

Candy Spinner

How best to describe this? Actually, the best way to describe this has already been considered awkward and embarrassing, but here goes: a battery operated device with a rabbits head at the top that when switched on lights up and vibrates. Yeah.

Actually, what happens is that there is a bulb at the top with a two-sided disc featuring a duck on one side and a rabbit on the other, around the side of the disk are a number of small LED bulbs. When you press the button on the side, the disk spins and the LEDs light up, but because of the motor inside the whole thing shakes. But honestly, given that, what would you expect me to say about it?

The spinner also contains ‘tart candy disks’ inside, and although they had a very tart immediate taste, once it subsided there was no taste anywhere to be found. But by god was the first moment of tongue touching tart, it was like licking a 9V battery. Mmm.

I couldn’t not put the three Bugs/Daffy Hunting Season Trilogy here when talikng about this little thing though.

Wonka Golden Egg

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the Wonka egg, because it could have been anything from solid chocolate to fondant or caramel, but for that matter it could have contained dog meat or crickets. I knew it was unlikely to have the latter, but given both Wilder’s and Depp’s portrayal of the confectioner I wouldn’t have deemed it impossible as an officially licensed product.

As it happens, the egg was a solid wall of Nestle chocolate – not that damnable Hershey’s crock – and a thin lick of caramel against the inside wall. It was scrumdiddliumpcious.

Baby Ruth

Hey, you guuuuuys! Ok, I really couldn’t say about the Baby Ruth without a Goonies reference. You see the Baby Ruth doesn’t exist in the UK, it’s another one of those peanutty candies that just never make it over here, but that doesn’t stop us from knowing of its existence, even if no-one would be able to tell you what it is. One of the main reasons I think so many people know is from watching The Goonies, where the Baby Ruth was probably the ultimate tipping point – it’s the redeeming Anakin moment or the Dhalsim in collapsing building.

Amy had sent through a Baby Ruth baseball that contained two funsize candy bars and I honestly had no idea what to expect. Opening the candy though, it became apparent that it was a nutty little number. Lumps and bumps all over.

My god it was delicious though, with such soft nougat and chewy peanuts and chocolate that actually tasted like chocolate.

Candy Popsicle

I haven’t actually tried it, but it seems like a form of Chupa-chup or Push-pop solid candy with a strawberry flavour. It’s leading gimmick though seems to be that you can split it in half to share, which is nice in a Barney sort of way.

Jaws Jelly Beans

Ok, so it isn’t actually a licensed Jaws product, but the name seems to fit. A plastic egg with a shark face decal and inside was a bag of teeny jelly beans. The jelly beans were surprising, they smelt strongly of the overly scented cheap candy shop in the local knock-off market, really strong and sweet but entirely generic. Strangely though, the jelly beans tasted like proper ‘gourmet’ beans, especially the Cherry red ones. Nom nom nom.

Candy Carrot Container

Yay, now you can look like you are eating healthy while actually stocking up on generic gum. I actually love this container just for the cheesy Easter tie in, one step removed from the Easter Bunny but close enough that you still ‘get it’. I can see the advertisments where the Bunny pulls them out of his vegetable garden and carrying them away. Unless the Easter Bunny is Georgia, then we alllll know what happens to the carrot.

Light Up Candy Pacifier

For some reason I thought this was a gummy when I first saw it, but it is the normail solid candy. A lovely red happy bunny with facial features that lights up when you press a button on the pacifiers hilt. I’m assuming it is called a hilt, maybe it’s a handle? Hilt or handle, the whole thing lights up. It’s not the best tasting, a little sour and a ‘manufactured’ after taste, but the level of detail is nice and it does light up!

Wind-up Gum Crapping Chicken

An actual Hubba Bubba gum laying hen that walks around. The process is simple, you load the egg-shaped gum in to the hen by twisting it’s head off and then slowly putting a maximum of five eggs inside, you wind it up and it walks around with eggs flicking out its back.

There are a few drawbacks though. The first is obvious, no-one is really patient enough to individually load each piece when the bag is open and contains a lot more than five pieces. The second is that the gum flings out and bounces and rolls, kids would have to be fast to make the ‘five second rule’ of food recovery.

Oh, and the gum is solid after a year. Crrrrunch.

Marshmallow Creatures

This was the big experiment. How well would marshmallow animals be after a year? The hardest part to answer for that was comparitavely, because I hadn’t tasted what they were like before and so couldn’t tell what they were meant to be like. Undaunted, I picked up one of the pieces and bit in. The mallow was thick and chewy, like a Flump marshmallow and tasted pretty good, it tasted ‘yellow’ which was sort of like vanilla and banana, but only the type of vanilla and banana that doesn’t exist naturally.

Still, yummy and chewy.

In summary:

Thank you, Amy, for a lovely gift. I’m sorry it took a while to cover it all, but I really wanted to dedicate time to it in proper depth.

(Revision: 19 June 2010. Found pictures of the Egg Hatching, photos added to main section)

But as I munch on my cod and chips, because that will be the type on offer, another fish is trying to get itself back on the market. Like a lot of people who try to find someone to nibble on them hungrily and devour them with feverish enjoyment, the fish in question has tried to change it’s image to become more attractive.

It isn’t a case of buying new cologne, in fact it still smells the same, and although it has changed its packaging to a more artful and stylish wardrobe, it hasn’t really changed that much of it’s look. No, instead it’s changed its name to something that people don’t mind saying out loud. But then, if your name was Pollack, you probably would too.

Pollack rebranded as Colin by Sainbury’s

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has re-named a type of fish Colin because customers are too embarrassed to ask for pollack.

The chain is promoting the seafood in the run up to Easter, as it tastes similar to cod and is more sustainable.

Ten stores will stock pollack in limited edition packaging designed by Red or Dead founder Wayne Hemingway, and inspired by artist Jackson Pollock.

But instead of the English name, it will be called Colin – the French word for hake, another member of the cod family.

Pollack is far more popular across the channel.

Mr Hemingway said: “As a keen fisherman it seems daft that pollack isn’t more popular, particularly when it’s readily available off our own coast, tastes great and is cheaper than cod.

“Image really is everything; so to help Colin stand out on-shelf we’ve used bold, bright colours and a design that is cheekily inspired by another well-known pollack (artist Jackson Pollock).”

Sainsbury’s said pollack is priced at £9.90 per kilo, while cod costs £11.49 at its stores.

Sales of cod increase by nearly a third during Easter weekend, a supermarket spokeswoman said and in March outstripped sales of pollack by 52,904 to 3,947.

Haddock was even more popular than cod with 98,722 units sold.

The specially designed packets will be stocked in 10 branches in the following locations: Islington, north London; Shrewsbury, Shropshire; Hove, Sussex; Hull, East Yorkshire; Maypole, East Midlands, Winterstoke Road, Bristol; Coldhams Lane, Cambridgeshire; Pound Lane, Norfolk; Archer Road, Sheffield; Marsh Mill, Plymouth.

(Source: Pollack rebranded as Colin by Sainbury’s, 06 April 2008, The Guardian)

This wouldn’t normally be something I’d care about, other than the amusing notion of changing a name of something basic to make it more appealing, but there was just something about the story that won me over: the ability to turn it so simply into innuendo.

Point to prove was on Facebook where the following took place after I posted a status on the topic. Name slightly changed to protect, because I never asked permission to copy (and mine because I can).

Facebook status: Guise hears that Colin tastes like cod, thats the load of pollacks Sainsburys are feeding us anyway…
A: what’s a pollack? hmmmm….
Me: Something slimy, salty and off-white in colour
A: man sperm?
Me: that was the first thing that came in to your head, hm?
A: yes, actually it really was. I’m not going to deny it.

Huzzah!

“Colin and chips” sounds wrong though, “Cod and chips” and “Pollack and chips” are good.

On a routine basis I enter a week-load of competitions and surveys for free stuff, answering questions and riddles in the hope that from the multitude of entries, my name gets picked. In truth, my big winnings in competitions over the years has been: Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles wash-on tattoos, Cinema tickets and about £50 total in multiple lottery draws. Although surveys have helped me out a great deal for little pockets of extra cash.

The one thing about competitions that I question is something that I only really noticed in the 90s with new gaming systems coming out, and that is how runner up prizes have become an item of torment. In the olden days, a runner up prize would be less valuable, but still useful – if you didn’t win Castle Grayskull, you’d still get a figure or a colouring book; if you didn’t win the Food Processor, you’d still win a cook book and apron.

These days there is a growing trend to torment runners up in ways that would make the Bullseye catchphrase “Let’s have a look at what you could’ve won” seem pleasant. Losers at least get to know that they failed, but runners-up just get tormented.

How? Enter a competition for an X-Box 360/Wii/PS3/DS/PSP and a new game, runners up get the game, or a competition for a Blu-Ray DVD Player and Blu-Ray DVD, runners up get the Blu-Ray DVD.

That’s rather cruel, opening your post box to see the runners up prize and no way to actually play the damnable thing. What happened to the days of great prizes and runners-up getting the gifts that suck? The good ol’ days.

Bonus! Bonus! Bonus!

Yesterday, I closed the Easter Egg Hunt. My inbox was full, but after I got rid of the spam I was able to see the two entries. Congratulations to our grand winner, Dan, and our just-as-grand-but-with-a-smaller-prize winner, Dio.

For those of you playing at home (you forgot to send it in, by the way), here’s where the eggs and bunny were located:

One of the survey sites I frequent introduced a new area today. In addition to being able to complete their rather infrequent paid surveys, members can enter daily surveys that on completion will enter them for prize draws daily, weekly and monthly. I am duly impressed. I can now try and get more for free!

The bread pudding recipe seemingly passed down from her mother and with very little change, at times it seemed like they were still following ration book provisions of flavour and taste. The thing is, although it was a staple of growing up, and was a very economical dessert, there was no escaping that it tasted like a milky squishy bread under a hard bread, with dried fruit inside.

Bread and butter pudding is supposed to be easy and simple. It’s bread, butter, dried fruit, and a mixture of sugar, milk and egg.

Now, at times I can be quite inventive, and more often than not I can be lazy and cheap. I realised that sugar, milk and egg is custard; a very milky bland custard, but custard none-the-less. So, if I want to make a bread and butter pudding, surely I can substitute milky custard for ready-made custard, and benefit from vanilla flavouring?

Seriously, how hard can it be?

Cooking With Guise – Bread and Butter Pudding (Cheating!)

I wasn’t going to go overboard on ingredients or expense, because I was being very cheap. I pretty much went for the lowest common denominators of what was available at my local supermarket and what I had in the cupboards at home:

• Stay Fresh White Bread (I used about 12 slices in all)

• Butter (I used Light butter, because I’m big enough, sadly)

• Dried Fruit (raisins, sultanas, dried lemon rind – all from cupboards store)

• Ground Cinnamon (cupboard)

• Ground Nutmeg (cupboard)

• Ready-made Custard (I used 2 tins of cheap, but I’d highly consider low fat)

The first step was also the most time consuming, buttering the damn bread. Now, I like to use a back-forward sweeping motion that I was taught. When I was first learning to butter bread, I met up with an old frenchman who worked as a janitor in our apartment block, I asked him to train me and he started to show me how to do all these martial arts moves like blocking and chopping actions, turns out that it was his way of teaching me his culinary arts.

After spreading the butter evenly over the bread, you must focus your energies and with deft strokes remove the crust from the slices, and then as you would a foe, quarter or cut to ribbons the remaining body. You should lay his body in to a shallow grave, or create a layer of buttered bread at the base of a container. It’s best to use a square or rectangular container to get a tighter fit.

On the first layer, I sprinkled a generous helping of cinnamon and nutmeg, and those really help the flavour after the creaminess of the custard. After the sprinkling, scatter a handful of dried fruit.

For the glory of victory, you should rest upon your first victim and additional body, laying out an additional floor of buttered bread. I left a few gaps in this layer, to allow the custard to seep through. On this layer, just add the dried fruit, as you don’t want to overpower with spices.

As a final message that you mean seriousness, apply a top body, or final bread layer. You can choose whether or not to scatter fruit here, though I chose not to.

Now, pour the custard in to either a microwavable jug or a saucepan and heat that goo up until it’s very hot and extremely liquidy; the closer you can get it to a free-flowing state the better – though avoid burning it or bubbling over. Pour this custard directly over the bread grave, making sure that it flows through to the lower regions and covers the top evenly.

If you have any custard remaining, eat it. Seriously, custard is freaking delicious.

Store the mixture somewhere cool to set for between 15-45 minutes, depending on distractions. Then put it in the oven on a medium heat for about 30 minutes or until the top starts to carmelize.

You can either serves this hot (as I did) or let it cool and set to enjoy later.

Now, it didn’t quite come out as combined as my mum makes, I could have done with leaving a few more gaps and getting the custard more spread throughout the mixture, I guess. However, there was a lot more flavour in it, from the spices and vanilla of the custard, which made it very creamy. Overall, it went down well amongst myself, a brother and even my mum.

I’m domesticated a bit more though, and it cost me very little to make, seeing as I had most ingredients left over afterwards.

Bonus! Bonus! Bonus!

While shopping today, I came across something that I had to buy, try and photograph, despite my assertions that Easter was done. I found Cadbury’s Creme Egg Ice Cream Bar (and I spent ages trying to find out if it was properly a lolly, a popsicle, or what it was).

The ice cream bar is a lot like a Magnum; thin, cracking chocolate around an ice cream block. In this instance though, the block contains a white vanilla ice cream bit and yellow fondant-flavoured ice cream bit, which actually makes it taste quite like a very cold  creme egg.

Have to admit, I prefer it to the McFlurry version.

I wear the ears, the ears do not wear me.

The rabbit ears, I decided early on – even before I started the Easter 2008 entries – would be a constant throughout the Easter entries. I wanted something to show that there was an ongoing theme to make the entries special, also I hoped that they might distract people to focusing on that par of my photographs.

I bought the ears (which are actually Donkey from Shrek ears, but are more hare like to me) before Christmas, thanks to inspiration from Matt at X-Entertainment, his character of Hssxxlllo Ussall and the likes of Dio and Kittymao who fed me with inspiration and art about the character and others.

I like to think having the rabbit ears adds to the photographs, so instead of just boring photographs of someone eating and showing chocolate, there is a little bit of humour involved.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually have giant ears sticking from the top of my head, nor do I need glasses constantly. Unfortunately, as I’d taken the first photographs with my glasses on, it became necessary in my editorial continuity mindset to keep that trend.

Arrgh! The horror! The ungodly horror!

I knew that if I wrote about them, I’d have difficulty actually making a review. I’m fairly concise about whether I like or loathe something, so I reckoned that at most I’d probably squeeze two paragraphs out of each product, and most of that would be description. With that in mind, I decided to make each entry about multiple candies and place against each other in terms of taste, nausea inducement and/or value.

These scales are completely arbitary and don’t even work against each other, the value of small mini eggs against larger eggs just doesn’t scale the same. However, it did help me to get across concisely the level of my enjoyment or disgust, while being able to post within my reviewing ability level.

Taking photographs of candy is hard, especially trying to show a fair scale for size comparison. I tried to keep in the same position and distances for photographs, but it wasn’t always possible. Details and decals on white chocolate is also a huge imbuggerance to try to take photographs of, the surface being highly reflective when using flash and highly blurred when not. 

It is only wafer thin

The problem with reviewing chocolate is that you have to purchase and eat the chocolate. I’m lucky on two fronts there, family will still buy me candy if I look pathetic enough and athough I don’t have a social circle, I do have a brother that I can share my candy with to prevent me from exploding. Quite a lot of the additional items, for example the small Creme Eggs from the multi-bag, were passed over after I’d had my test victim.

The few eggs I’ve had were quite enough.

History and Myths

To me, things from my childhood amuse and interest me as much these days as back then. I still dislike scarecrows, love the concept of Halloween and think as highly of the notion of cosplay as I did of play-acting in my back garden. As such, I wanted to share them and hopefully amuse others in the process, and one of the things I’ve learnt is that you can always find something from childhood to talk about that either someone else will recognise themselves or will appreciate the thought.

I knew from the outset that I wanted to cover the mythology that my mind had crafted for the Easter Bunny over the years. Stories of the bunnies sacrifice had gotten me told off in school and received stern looks or rolled eyes from the parents of my friends during my youth. I’d always tried to place how Easter Bunnies grew up, could be small rabbits or giant Furries, and how different types of Easter Eggs came about, and later in my life had begun to appreciate bunnygirls and cosplayers.

This all harks back to thematic linking, I wanted to establish that I wasn’t just blogging about chocolate, but about Easter chocolate. This is why I tried to ensure a reference to the Easter Bunny in entries and kept the ears.

A bridge too far

Of course, in addition to the standard mythology, somewhere along the way I lost the plot.. To be more accurate, I found a different, seedier plot. Although it had been my intention to infer that breeding causing the egg flavouring, I had no intention from the outset to write such indepth tales of bunny love, and I didn’t expect them to be as easy to write as they were.

I don’t usually talk freely about that sort of thing, unless directly to someone I trust and value highly. Although I tend to be a terrible flirt and have twisted humour, I’m actually fairly bashful about the subject. I do believe though that there are three me’s, and one of them is a hyperactive monkey with poorly controlled lust issues, that Guise tends to write things that I then feel extremely embarrassed and guilty about. Luckily, I don’t think I offended anyone too badly, and I’m quite happy that I reached the compromise of protecting entries rather than running an edit of them. 

Communication

One of the most valuable things that I’ve had over this period, which I think anyone who writes should cherish, is communication. People who have chatted here have been major sources of inspiration and motivation, and had it not been for that support I probably would have lost the will to continue writing these things up. Ideas can often spring up from comments and you can learn a lot from others. The key here, appreciate those around you, engage with them and you’ll find yourself rewarded and stimulated.

The entry you didn’t see

Yes, there was a deleted scene. I hoped to do a Cooking with Guise episode again, which if you’ve seen the archives you’ll know is usually me attempting to cook and the majority of the time succeeding to some extent.

I had intended to make Baked Eggs for Easter Sunday, unfortunately what I created was solid milky egg with a burnt top, burnt sides and burnt bottom. Only the yolk was really edible, and photographs just showed blackness.

As I couldn’t really describe it for a review or recommend the recipe, I decided to skip the entry entirely.

Hope you all had a great Easter

The Lindt ‘Lindors’ chocolate eggs are exactly what would be expected, creamy luxury chocolate. Lindt is an established brand that makes it quite clear of their luxury status and uses works like ‘craftsmanship’ and ‘chocolateur’ in advertisments. The Lindt eggs have a solid shell and a slightly less solid filling. Tasty stuff.

Click on thumbnails for full size

Click on thumbnails for full size

It should be noted that both genders of Easter Bunny are able to produce and lay eggs, the method is a prized secret and not often discussed outside of bunnidom.

New Born Bunnies

Click for full size image

Four-Footed Stage

Click for full size image

The Two Footed Stage

Bunnies in the two-footed stage have begun to take a more anthromorphic state, often hopping or prancing about on their hindlegs whilst using their front paws to perform manual dexterous tasks, such as carry baskets or tying ribbons. Bunnies in this stage will begin to care more for their appearance, adopting Human-like apparrel. Two-footed bunnies often act child-like, seeming to be of a cute playful character. Eggs laid during this stage tend to be slightly larger, and because of their increasing closeness to the Great Bunny, will sometimes be brightly decorated.

From this stage, all Easter Bunnies are expected to help in the scattering of Easter Eggs throughout the world.

The Developing Bunny

Click for full size image

A recent advent to bunnidom has been the creation of devices to assist in experimentation without procreation. Although this is generally frowned on by the more senior Easter Bunnies, advocates for the method say that it allows for the better mixing of flavours without unwanted examples. A common side effect is that eggs that are created by the encounter, although remaining miniature, can often be flavoured and recieve scaled extras similar to the standard eggs.

Virginal Easter Bunnies will continue to lay miniature eggs or larger, hollow eggs. Eggs bought about by means of self-passion with devices can often contain small plastic toys or playful statuettes. The developing bunny is able to lay eggs that will hatch in to a future generation of Easter Bunny.

The Avatar Bunny

Click for full size image

During this stage, the Easter Bunny will often not procreate outside of Bunnidum. Put bluntly, encounters with non-Bunnies will often end with an external moneyshot. As a result the Avatar Bunny’s eggs are usually hollow and accompanied with a seperate gift of a lover. The Avatar Bunny is mainly responsible for laying eggs which will hatch future Easter Bunnies and to teach younger bunnies about their faith, cultural and interpersonal relations.

On a final note, for Easter I got a Maltesers Easter Egg (large egg with bag of Maltesers), a 5 pack of Fun Galore, a bag of Galaxy Eggs, a bag of Lindt Lindor Eggs, a pack of two small Lindt bunnies with two Lindt mini eggs, and a Large Lindt Golden Bunny.

Click for full size image

The bunny hopped over to the blogger’s wardrobe and smirked. He placed the eggs about the area and then bent over to ruffle the sleeping figures hair. He rubbed his nose against the sleeper in an eskimo kiss and hopped off.

How To Play:
* Download or copy the picture and mark on the picture the location of all nine (9) Easter Eggs and one (1) Easter Bunny.
* Email the marked picture to me at guise@1me.net
* Winners will be emailed back so that they can claim their prize.
* Entrants must be received by 06:00GMT Thursday 27 March 2008.

(Lame) Prize Details:
* For all winners, I will write an entry based on a subject or question you pose to me, although the following rules apply:
- Claims can be made anytime before 1 April 2008, to allow thinking time.
- I will name the person who made the request.
- I reserve the right to answer the request in a “Log In Required” entry depending on nature.
- Subjects needn’t be about Easter as it is nearly over, feel free to think outside the box to any subjects you are interested in.
- Please, for the love of the Bunny, do not get me to eat any more chocolate. I’m seriously on the verge of throwing up now!
- I’d love to have the right not to incriminate myself too badly on highly questionable (il)legal stuff, if you don’t mind. (If you really want an answer to those questions, ask me directly!)
* For the first winner, the same rules as above apply, but they get to submit TWO suggestions or questions.

Ok, so the prize is basically the meme going around about writing outside of your comfort zone, but I like to make things a bit quirky.

Christmas may be about scoring and giving presents, Valentines about stalking and giving things that people may be allergic to (chocolate, flowers, wasp venom cocktails) and Halloween may be about ghost stories and scoring candy, but it is Easter that is all in your face about chocolates, bunnies, sacrifice and procreation. The Easter Bunny is the party animal that has always ensured that the cycle of seasons remains intact and that the circle of life is more than just a Disney song.

At this time of year, it is the rabbit who rules the animal kingdom, not from Pride Rock or a jungle ruin, but from a clover field. It is therefore only right that the bunny is given his due respect above other animals by the race of man.

For years, Cadbury’s Animal biscuits have been a staple party and ‘sometimes food’ for children. Within the ‘Cadbury purple’ reside animal-shaped shortbread biscuits coated with a layer of milk chocolate on one side – notably the flat, featurelss side.

The main players of the zoo and safari industry have commonly been represented in biscuity form, with almost constant appearances from elephant, monkey, lion, tiger, hippo and seal. At Easter time, the lucky footed, heroic hopper doesn’t get included amongst the riff-raff, he gets rewarded with his own box.

Click on thumbnails for full size images

The biscuits in the Cadbury Bunnies box are marginally larger than the standar Animal biscuits, but otherwise they are the same thing. They have the familiar taste of slightly buttery shortbread biscuits and the same Cadburys milk chocolate layer, all of which brings back memories of nibbling on biscuits and sorting out order of eating.

Heck, just opening the box and white inner bag, getting the first sniff of butter and chocolate, is enough to make me harken back to days of minty green school custard, neon bermuda shorts and trying to convince parents that SodaStreams were something worthwhile despite all readily-available and demonstratable evidence to the contrary. To be honest, I’m now actually longing for that custard again, I’ll skip on the whole bermuda shorts deal, I must have looked a complete doof in the whole handed-down ensemble.

The Bunnies have a really nice, brightly coloured box which immediately caught my eye in the shops and made me desperately want a pack. Not only that, but there is a rather nifty ‘Colour In’ picture on the back that also doubles as a ‘Find The Egg’ game.