Monday 14 January 2013

Grrr Argh!

So weirdly I was staring at the back of my chair on the train this morning and it was flipping me the bird.
Is it weirdly irrational and stupid that I got angry at it?
I mean how very dare it!

GBM

Sunday 13 January 2013

Check this Out: Natures Healthbox



Ahhh the day is finally here. I've been building up to this for an age, the Natures HealthBox website has finally gone live y'all!

Natures Healthbox is a family run online business, specialising in the sale of natural, organic and eco-friendly products. It's the brainchild of three very passionate young entrepreneurs Jon, Keeley and Kerri. There are many reasons I am excited by this new development, it's not just that they kindly sent me some products to review, or that they are starting a really great niche and needed, online retail space at a time when others wouldn't dare, or that their available product list is making my credit card provider start to look nervous (Buy all the things!). I'm also excited because Kerri and Keeley are two personal friends of mine and I could not be prouder of my girlies at this time. You fucking go sisters!

Hmmm, I do wonder how much detail I can go into about my ladies without ruining thier newfound businesswomen chic. We happened upon each other on the tropical Island of Kao Tao in Thialiand and bounded over our lack of interest in diving and a whiskey bucket. Without saying too much more, our time together had many a laugh, at least one full moon party, some drunken tattoos and the girls kindly trying to help me locate my missing pants on a beach in Kao Phangnan.

That was then and this is now. We were young and now today we are business women, well they are, I'm still a big goofball.


So more than a month ago I was pleasantly surprised by large package arriving on my doorstep (don't you just love it when that happens). The guys from NH had kindly sent me some of the Bulldog Natural Skincare products for men, to review for them. Skincare products! Ladies (and you too Jon) how did you know? I am an easy sell for facial scrubs and moisturisers with being a gay and all but knowing my straight friends as I do, a proper daily skincare regime can be a harder sell to some men due to their fear of coming off a bit nelly. Cleverly averted by this product range with their very macho name-tag used to describe products containing effeminate ingredients such as green tea, algae, pumice and coconut shell, a sort of subscription to the 'Pepsi Max' school of advertising for men. Bravo Bulldog, Bravo. In fact the name makes me want  stick out my chest, like I am well 'ard and continue the rest of my review in a cockney accent but I'll spare you all my embarrasment of trying.

So I was kindly given three products to review, the Original Face Scrub, the Original Shave Gel and the Sensitive Moisturiser (how did you know again?). What can I say about these products? Well let's start with the scrub anyways because funnily enough Husband and I were actually in the market for a new one (our current one had us feeling a bit meh). Whoosh! What a refreshing way to snap the sleep out of you in the morning.  This beats our current scrub hands down and has had my skin looking all kind of fabulous. BG and NH you have converted me on this one and I just had a price check on your site there and whoa, what value for money. Yesum!

I improvised!
Shave gel, hmmm, eh a harder sell for us Homos who subscribe to the ideals of bearded is best and don't actually clean shave. Still I managed to improvise a use for this one. Also a massive thumbs up here, clean shave with zero break outs. Sure to smoothly aid in the shave of many a face, chest or ballsack. Yesum also!


So lastly onto the sensitive moisturiser, I've decided to be completely honest about this one because by letting you dear readers know that these guys are friends of mine, you might suspect some bias on my part when it comes to reviewing these products. Basically on a whole this moisturiser meets most of my needs, leaves my skin feeling great, gives me a refreshing jolt in the morning, tackles the patch dry skin I get around my nose, apart from one thing. A need that is satisfied by my current moisturiser, that as a forgetful and pasty Irish pale skinned ginger is kinda important to me. This moisturiser does not contain SPF. Probably because it is not a natural ingredient so makes sense, but on this basis I probably won't switch to Bulldog on this front. Sorry guys, you know what Meat Loaf says!

Now's your chance to sample some of the Natures Healthbox products for yourselves, as the guys over there have kindly offered a 10% discount voucher code for you dear readers. Isn't that lovely!

The code is BLOGTASTIC2013 and will be valid until midnight on the last day of January. It will be valid on all products available on the site and is in addition to the January offers on: 

25% off Salcura (amazing treatments for eczema, psoriasis, dry and irritable skin)15% off A.Vogel (a vast range of remedies and tinctures extracted from plants)20% off Amy's Kitchen (Seriously delicious soups with no nasties)


So you guys could receive up to 35% off of the selected lines!


Did someone just say bargain?


Any who you can check the guys web address below and don't forget to like them on Facebook and follow on Twitter to keep up on their latest offers.


Website: www.natureshealthbox.co.uk


Facebook: www.facebook.com/natureshealthbox


Twitter: @NaturesHBox


Enjoy my babies!


GBM


PS. NH guys if you are reading this thanks again for everything including my bar of Dairy Free Chocolate, it was Nom.


Friday 11 January 2013

Oh Joyous Love of Joy


What was I thinking with my previous post? Why sure as long as I love things with absolute boyish wonderment then there will always be a place for GBM in my life and my writing. Thanks to all my Blog friends for the lovely comments and help whilst I had my mid-blog-life breakdown, especially my Fairy Blog Mother, Mynx for her truly inspiring email. Much appreciated.

GBM will be going through a redesign and I plan to come back stronger than ever and even resurrect my Hot Ginger of the Week section and maybe throw in a few new ones.

So I found this song on the net and that's what made me realise that I don't need to walk away from GBM even if I was feeling I wanted to write about different things. I love this song, love love love it. I love the video, it's fantastic, shot in Iceland, oh my god wow. The styling is amazing, some kind of hipster meets pikey fashion statement, oh feels so right to me. An that up skirt shot just as a plane flys overhead, Wowsers!

A fantastic video and song from an emerging new talent. Here's hoping she will follow through with a great album. I am counting down the days.


GBM

Friday 4 January 2013

Where to go from Here?


I'm at a loss for words, a loss for words to fill this wee Blog of mine with. I honestly don't know what to do or how to proceed with this, with Ginger Blog Man any more.

My Blog was a place for me to come to be happy-go-lucky, to be silly and write funny stories about my integration to Swiss society. Yet now that I'm here, now integrated, I feel that continuing this tone is not an accurate representation of who I am any more. Life has really and truly has caught back up to me after my sabbatical in all its wondrous and difficult glory. My time is limited and I want to utilise it to the best of my ability. I know I want to continue to write because that is what I love but I am beginning to wonder if this Blog in it's current form is the right fit for me now.

Born from a desire to change my career direction and gain some hands on experience of this social online world, I created GBM almost 9 months ago and the decisions made about how I promoted it and who I allowed access just don't seem to fit anymore. I crave anonymity, crave the shadows so I can write my truth, the happy, the sad, the fears, the love, the anxiety. With great pain comes great creativity and my creative juices have been flowing lately.

Trouble is I am not sure what I want, if I am looking for a forum to write about any anxiety I am feeling, does it make more sense to keep a diary rather than air it publicly for all to read? This then brings me back to the issue of time again, I have less free time than I use to and time is so precious to me at the moment (though you wouldn't know that from seeing me laze about the house during the Christmas holiday period). With time being so precious I've been truly internalising what exactly I love to write about and when I genuinely walk away from a post feeling quite proud. Music is always what comes out on top, I really feel like I have something to say, something eloquent when I touch on this beloved subject matter. Do I focus on this then?

Then there's the problem of letting go, I am really proud of this Blog and I don't just want it to disappear either. If anything it is a collection of my memories, my accomplishments and the space I met so many great and wonderful people. My fellow Bloggers, my Blog friends, coming into this world I really and truly did not expect to be so pleasantly surprised by this thing called the Blogosphere. When deciding to be quite open about my sexuality when writing online, I initially began to wonder if I would experience any form of hate because of my openness. Truth is, in my 9 months I never experienced one negative comment but what surprised me and what I did not expect was how much love and encouragement there was out here in this little online world. All of you guys have truly made this experience for me and I just wanted to thank you all, for sharing your worlds with me and for joining me, on my ride.

So I guess, I am still undecided at the moment. A lot to give up, if I do leave this world or start from scratch. Blog friends, Becca, Mynx, Pikelope, J. Day, Hey There Monkey Butt and all the rest of you guys, if you have any advise or thoughts I would really appreciate it at the moment. If any of you have been through something similar please, send me an email. I think it would really help me figure out where exactly I should go from here.

Thanks a mill guys.

GBM