Yellow chocolate?! Sweet, sickly, and disturbingly unlike chocolate. Really? I haven’t tried it, so I can’t pass judgment there. In the wake of yellow chocolate, we as consumers seem to have forgotten that we have actually tasted yellow foodstuffs previously. Butter and cheese maybe?

But whatever it tastes like, there’s no denying that it was a clever marketing campaign on behalf of Yellow Pages, following their previous tree house-come-restaurant project.  Not only did the Yellow chocolate bar sell out and top the list as the highest selling bar in New Zealand last week, they upped their standing in the public arena. A new web page (very nice I must say!) and twitter feed following the journey of Josh Winger as he lets his fingers do the walking to create his product from start to finish, has landed Yellow with a whole lot of media coverage, on Breakfast and Campbell Live.

Writing this blog has made me hungry – I’m off to crack open the chocolate – but I think I’ll be sticking with Whittaker’s for now!

I might be a little biased here as Minuit originated in Nelson, and Ryan Beehre regularily plays at a couple of bars in town that are clients of ours. Minuit consist of Ruth Carr, Paul Dodge and Ryan Beehre.

Big news today is that one of their tracks from their new album "Find me before I die a lonely death.com", recorded and produced right here in little old Nelson, is to feature on top rating show Grey's Anatomy. That is pretty major really.

Not familiar with Minuit? Check out their website - it is very cool.
http://www.minuit.co.nz/

There you can buy their music, create your own interactive creature and explore the Minuit world. 
I could put a link here to a global mega site where we get an affiliate payment for each sale, but in this case I would rather any purchases go straight to the artists via their website.

Last weekend it was time to attack the garden again and get rid of an overgrowth of weeds. All of the rain recently, followed by long hot days, has resulted in dramatic weed growth in our ornamental gardens at the front of the house. As good friend Warwick continues to remind me, "one day of seeding, seven years of weeding" - this is a handy mantra, as the fear of seven more years of weeding motivates action as the seed heads begin appearing.
Unfortunately whilst ripping through the garden I got a nasty bite from a very large spider. In  the past I have been very comfortable handling this large, and very scary looking spider as I was unaware that they could bite. I make it a point to carefully move spiders to safety whenever they are in my way and I need to work where they are. On this ocassion however I failed to see it and must have really upset it - the result a very painful bite on the top of my finger.

For those that know us they also know about our sometimes full house of animals of various shapes, sizes and species. Most of these animals come to us in some form of distress for a bit of R&R (rest and recovery) and sometimes never leave. Lucky them!

If you are in the market for a family pet this coming weekend is for you. Look no further than the SPCA for your next family addition - or even a thoughtfull Valentines Day gift for the person that has wanted a new pet. They are a great organisation, and work tirelessly on behalf of the animals. Just click on the web ad and go to the website where you can find out more.

Famous vegetarian and all round nice guy Mahatma Ghandi once said "the wealth of a nation can be best measured by how it treats it's animals"

Today I received another newsletter from the bank detailing their forecast for the coming 6mths based on the NZ Reserve Banks report released last week.
It reminded me of a gem I received in my inbox last year around the time the respective Government's of the "Free" World decided that their economies needed stimulus packages to rescue an ailing financial system.

This tale may be over simplified, but I think the general intention of the story is how we choose to look at our current financial climate, and how we choose to place ourselves within it.