October, 2009

Until recently, I wasn’t a ‘puter game kinda girl, the only ‘puter game I was familiar with was Singstar - I LOVE the Singstar! - that was however, until I discovered EyePet.

I freakin’ LOVE this. If you’ve ever wanted a pet and your ‘rents keep saying no, this is most deffo for you! It won’t make a mess on the floor or claw at the curtains – EyePet is the ultimate pet!

It’s a virtual creature who reacts to your every move. You can feed, play with, and dress it up, and basically spend a whole lot of time fussing over your new pet o’ lovliness!

A loveable, simian-like pet, EyePet lives in an on-screen picture of your sitting room as captured second by second on PLAYSTATION Eye. Working in ‘Augmented Reality’, EyePet is fully aware of people in the room and will interact with you and your environment. Place an object in front of the camera that EyePet hasn’t seen before and it’ll know exactly what to do with it, give it something new and it’ll examine it thoroughly. Tickle it by waving your fingers in front of the camera: it laughs, poke it: it jumps, roll it a ball: EyePet chases around the screen after it.

An incredibly lifelike little critter, EyePet gives you all the lovable benefits and interaction of a real-life pet without tearing up your sofa or making a mess on the rug - officially my new favourite thing. EVER.

EyePet for Playstation 3 is available from October 23rd - buy for £29.99 from www.zavvi.com

Good news - the boys from Elliot Minor are back with an awesome new guitar-filled album - woop! The even better news - they’ll be hitting a venue near you this November as they’re going on tour - woop! And the best news of all?! I’ve got 3 pairs of tour tickets to give away to a date of your choice - woop woop!

To win yourself a pair of tix, all you have to do is leave a comment below telling me why you think Elliot Minor rock before the 25th October 2009!

You can check out the boys and their guitar playing goodness at: www.myspace.com/elliotminor and watch their latest video here - www.youtube.com

I am sad x 100000000000.

As you know, I was a HUGE boyband fan as a teen girl and Boyzone were one of my favourites, so the news this weekend that Stephen Gately died knocked me for six.

I met all the boys lots as a teen girl and then when I was working at SM:TV live I had the total treat of having to travel with Stephen in a taxi to Harvey Nichols to buy hair gel - he was the nicest, sweetest and funniest man and so, so charming. I moan all the time that I’m 30 and I’m getting old, but Stephen dying at 33 has just made me realise that 33 is no age at all so I plan on being hugely grateful for everything in my world, and not wasting one minute more moaning and groaning.

Stephen - you made my awkward teenage years fun and almost bearable - I heart you.

This is how I plan on remembering Stephen….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA2cQzxbZgM

Ohhh, I’m excited - controversial and kick-ass super-talent Amy Winehouse, has launched her own record label, Lioness Records and her first release is Introducing Dionne Bromfield, the debut album from thirteen year old Londoner, Dionne Bromfield.
Speaking about Dionne, Amy says, “The first time I heard Dionne sing, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing… such an amazing voice from such a young girl. I’m just so proud of her.”

Dionne started to think seriously about singing when she turned 10 and her aunt recognised her potential. A year later she sang for her Godmother, Amy Winehouse for the first time. “I said, ‘You’re an amazing singer’,” Amy recalls. “We also played guitar together, and the way she accompanies herself on guitar is amazing too.”

Amy put Dionne together with Jon Moon, a crazy-popular producer who worked on the deluxe edition of Amy’s Back To Black album and whose also worked with N-Dubz. Dionne says: “The first song we did was Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. I played it to Amy and she said, ‘Oh my God, that’s the nuts!’ Eventually we started doing more and more songs and it’s turned into an album.”

We’ll be shouting ALL about Dionne’s new album Introducing Dionne Bromfield next week, but right now, we’d love for all you Pink Ladies to turn journo-girls and interview Dionne - if you’ve got a question for the newbie soul queen, we’d love to hear from you! Leave your question in the comment box below before Friday October 16th and we’ll whizz them over to Dionne next week to answer in a Pink-world interview of fabulousness that will go live at the end of October - woop, woop!

Today is National Poetry day and to celebrate I’d love to share my favourite poem of all time with you, it’s called Phenomenal Woman and it’s by poet, author, activist, producer, actor, director and inspir-o girl, Maya Angelou. I have this poem hanging in the boudoir of the Pink Palace - buy yours here - so that it’s the first thing I read every morning and the last thing I read at night - I love it, hope you do too…

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Care to share your favourite poems, Pink Ladies?

Now as you know, I have a LOT of love for Gok Wan, but as of tonight, if it’s even possible, I love him a gazillion times more, because Gok and the winner of Miss Naked 2008 - Shona Collins - are fronting a teenage body confidence campaign calling for a body confidence lesson to be included on the school curriculum.

Obviously as a self-esteem queen, PSHE practitioner and author of confidence boostin’, go-for-it-guides for girls - Think Pink, Beauty*licious, It’s a Girl Thing and Viva La Diva - I am 100% backing this campaign and think that all you gorgeous Pink Ladies should too.

Shona has spent the last few months investigating young girls’ body image issues and has been speaking to parents, teachers and teenagers.

‘It was shocking to me how depressed and down young girls are about their appearance and body shapes… Girls want the schools to ‘catch up’ with the pressures on teenage lives and address the issues openly. Body confidence issues are one of their biggest worries,’ she says.

Later this year the petition will be presented to policy makers at Downing St to try and secure body confidence on the PSHE syllabus - how awesome would that be?

Go sign the petition now and check out www.howtolookgoodnaked.com for more Gok goodness.