Have yourself a truly bodacious Christmas, dudes and dudettes! With the Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles!

Dudes and dudettes, get yourselves ready for the most awesome Christmas ever!

Why? Because as everybody's favourite turtles are back and they are even bigger and better than ever before!

Well prepared for a new legion of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, Sambro have launched a turt-ally amazing range of goodies that your kids will love.

The fabulous foursome LOVE Pizza and they would love the Catapult Pizza Game (RRP £20).

This is an epic game of skill, action and... FLYING PIZZA! Use your ninja skills to knock down villains like Shredder, Kraang Droid, and the evil Foot Clan Soldiers! With four catapults launching pizzas at the same time, it's PIES IN THE SKY, DUDE! Suitable for 2-4 players, the catapult can launch the pizzas over a whopping 60cms. Everyone plays at once in a race to be the one to knock out the bad guys first. It's a nonstop action game ideal for children aged 6 and upwards.

Become a Pinball Wizard with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Arcade Pinball Game (RRP £14.99). With cool electronic lights and sounds and a double flipper, you can truly master this iconic game. Also features an electronic scoreboard so challenge your mates to a game.

You don't get named after the most famous artists of all time without being that bit creative and Sambro's Sit & Play Creative Art Desk (RRP £29.99) will allow your child to channel their inner Michaelangelo!

The self-assembly desk features 5 colouring sheets featuring all your favourite characters as well as eight crayons and eight washable markers that can slot into the desk. Suitable for children aged between 3 and 6 years of age.

For more details on the whole TNMT range go to www.sambro.co.uk The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle range is available from leading toy retailers and supermarkets.

Space toys for your boys and girls, too

Let's face it, Space Toys ae always popular! And this Christmas Santa's Sleigh with be weighed down with enough space toys to make even a NASA Astronaut a bit green with envy!

The Deluxe NASA Spaceman costume (RRP £39.99) is made from high-quality, tough material and will probably last to infinity and beyond!

The hard-wearing, bright orange, zip-fronted suit features authentic NASA badges and is guaranteed to create Christmas costume jealousy. There is also a white spacesuit available for the ultimate astronautical adventures.

The quality costumes are more durable than most dress-up outfits costumes and will last for years to come and can even be handed down to younger siblings.

The costume comes with a cool Astronaut cap but every astronaut requires a space helmet. Wear your astronaut costume with the cool Talking NASA Space Helmet and you're all set for your next space mission. The Talking Space Helmet is priced at around £35.99 and looks just like the real thing.

It features a mission control countdown and life-like blast off sounds, too!

A spring-loaded retractable visor lets them really get into character, too.

Complete the costume with cool NASA branded boots (RRP £19.99) - for your first steps on the moon as well as must-have astronaut gloves (RRP £12.99) perfect for picking up space specimens!

 Every astronaut also needs a rocket and the inflatable NASA Spaceship Ride-On to complete their mission (RRP £29.99). Once you're kitted out, load up the Astronaut Space Backpack Water Blaster (RRP £12.99) and get squirting those Aliens...or your annoying siblings!

And if Dad (or mum!)  hasn't quite grown out of his dreams to be an astronaut, there are adult costumes available too!

Get the full Aeromax range from Amazon. The NASA Space range is available from www.spacekids.co.uk

(EDITOR: Adult costumes are available? I really must check out that web address!)

Your kids can share their rooms with 24 dinosaurs!

Boys and girls of all ages LOVE dinosaurs and Brainstorm have come up with the perfect Christmas gift for fans of all things prehistoric.

The T-Rex Projector and Room Guard will delight your children.

The bloodcurdlingly awesome T-Rex is actually a special projector that allows kids to project cool images of 24 dinosaurs onto their bedroom walls.

The images can be projected up to one metre wide for a roar-some view of some of the most famous dinosaurs. In fact, the projector beams 18 different types of dinosaur and children will have fun on Christmas Day learning all about them. (If dad and mum can be kept away from the projector, that is!)

However, that's not all that this unique T-Rex Projector can do...your child's new best friend also doubles as a cool room guard to keep unwanted visitors out of your bedroom.

So if siblings won't leave your Christmas presents alone and parents want to check that you are asleep, give them the ultimate surprise when your T-Rex roars into action! As well as the projector, T-Rex also features motion sensors that detect movement. Place near your bedroom door and listen as he makes five different roar sounds to terrify your unwanted guests. Hours of fun!

The T-Rex Projector and Room Guard stands at a mighty 40 cm and makes a great room decoration too. The box also contains a secret code which allows children to take their fun learning experience even further. They can use this special code to unlock fascinating dinosaur facts online. There's also a bonus T-Rex Door Sticker included....for added room protection! RRP £29.99.

Available from Argos, Amazon, Hawkins Bazaar, selected Toymaster stores and all good high quality toy retailers.

Everyone loves New Baileys Mini Delights!

Award-winning chocolatiers, Lir, has created a real winning combination, truly delightful bite-sized milk chocolate truffles with Baileys® liqueur.

Spoil yourself or even better, a loved one this Christmas with new Baileys® Mini Delights.

The world class combination of Baileys®, liqueur, with gorgeous Lir milk chocolate, is an already proven success and these NEW light and moreish minis mean Baileys® chocolates can now be enjoyed at any time.

Each chocolate is made using the finest ingredients and they are sold in a handy re-sealable pack. If they last that long!

The Baileys® Mini Delights are available now, costing a remarkably reasonable £2.49 RRP for 102g.

Baileys® boxed chocolates are also available at all major retailers. They will be available from £5.00 RRP.

The That's Christmas Taste Team marked them as 9/10.

One member of the team said: "I have to confess, I'm not actually a fan of Baileys. But these Mini Delights are so delicious, they might change my mind on that!"

Angels, Dreams and Messages

Angels, Dreams and Messages is a book by Frederick Charles.

Frederick Charles has all the appearance of a modern renaissance man. Which what he is, pretty much.

He is an actor, a motivational speaker, a life coach and an author.

Frederick has a firm and unwavering belief in angels. He also believes in the importance of dreams, which he feels are "doorways into the subconscious and windows to the soul."

He believes that we can use our dreams to understand who we are and can be used to get a handle on what is happening in our lives.

They can, he avers, help us solve mysteries,  guide us, help us and act as teachers and mentors.

We can, he states, harness  the power of our dreams to help us to shape the reality that we want our lives to be.

He discusses the different types of dreams that we all are familiar with including sex dreams, dream where we are being chased, anxiety dreams, nightmares, psychic dreams and so forth.

Frederick describes many of the different dreams that he has had through the years.

Reading the book, I felt that Frederick was taking me on a journey through his mind, the mind of a man who is a genius, yet also warm, compassionate and filled with energy and a genuine love not only of life but a love of all humanity.

The book is an ideal present for those of us who are, generally speaking, hard to find presents for, those who are interested in esoteric subjects.

It is published by Austin Macauley at £7.99 and for a book of 324 pages, is very reasonably priced.

The ISBN is 798 1 84963 555 4.

www.austinmacauley.com.

Who's Who in Thomas Hardy

Who's who in Thomas Hardy is a book by Huw Barker Rahane that needs to be on the bookshelves of every Thomas Hardy fan in the world.

For the first time in years, certainly for the first time this century, someone has taken the time and trouble to methodically catalogue all fictional characters that grace the great works of one of the giants of English Literature, Thomas Hardy.

There's a handy key at the beginning of the book, next comes an alphabetical register of characters, cross-referenced to the book in which they appear. All 210 of them.

Part 1 covers the novels. There's a potted retelling of the story, then sometimes very detailed descriptions of the characters and how they relate to other characters in the book.

Part 2 covers the collections, the other works of Thomas Hardy.

There's even a short Thomas Hardy themed quiz at the end of the book.

At a mere £5.99 this book must be in the Christmas stocking of every student of English literature and every fan of Thomas Hardy.

It is published by Austin Macauley and the ISBN is 978 178455 020 2.

http://www.austinmacauley.com.

More from Terre a Terre for Christmas

That’s Christmas has mentioned Terre a Terre, the culinary star of Brighton, before. 

This time we are writing about the range of Christmas hampers and gifts that they have on offer.

They have hampers which are a wooden wine box stuffed full of festive goodies which are all, of course, from the Terre a Terre range, plus some absolutely delightful little extras that will help your Christmas holiday season go remarkably well.

There’s the Terre a Terre Hamper at £50. (Vegan option)

Boozy Rum Truffles, Wasabi Cashews, Tamari Seeds, Chilly Chelly, Cipollini Onions, Kalamata Crush, Smoked Sundried Tomatoes, Piccalishus Piccalilli and Merlot Onion Marmalade.

Proof is in the Pudding Hamper at £60.

Terre a Terre Salt Caramel Truffles and Boozy Run Truffles, Boozy Christmas Pudding, Calabrian Baked Fig Ball, Spiced Panforte pus a bottle of Pedro Ximenez Sherry (Piedra Luenga Fino 50cl.)

Cheese Port Pickle Hamper (£60)

Terre a Terre Damson Fruit Cheese, Quince Fruit Cheese, Crabapple Jelly Piccalishus Piccalilli, Mulled Spiced Apple Chutney, Godminster Waxed Orgainc Vintage Cheddar Round 400g, Calabrian Baked fig Ball and Finest Reserve Port (Casal dos Jordoes 50cl)

Or what about a copy of the famed Terre a Terre Vegetarian Cookbook? 100 recipes from their own kitchen and only costing £20. And they sell Terre a Terra gift vouchers in denominations of £15, £25 and £50.

They also sell the delightfully eccentrically Espresso Mushroom co. Hot Pinks Kitchen Garden at £19.95. Watch with wonder as the Hot Pink Oyster mushrooms grow before your very eyes, doubling in size every day! They’ll make a great gift for the aspiring young farmer or the foodie who is really, seriously into picking live food form their kitchen garden. But in this case the garden is actually inside the kitchen!

You can even do a sort of pick-and-mix from their range. To find out how to order and to browse their range visit www.terreaterre.co.uk.

(EDITOR: Image courtesy of Terre a Terre.)

Pick some good quality picks for the guitarist in your life

The guitarist in your life, be they a neophyte or a long-established guitar player will need to protect their fingers. And their are many trips and techniques that they can learn from older guitarists, from their guitar teacher, from the Internet and from YouTube.

But the one sure fire method of protecting their fingers that all seasoned guitarists, professional and amateur, will swear by are guitar picks.

But not any old guitar picks will do!

They have to be good, solid and dependable, guitar picks they will not bend, break or bow, that will be able to help them get the best performances ever from their guitars.

In short, they have to be decent, professionally designed and professionally made guitar picks.

One such manufacturer of professional, high grade, quality guitar picks is Jim Dunlop over at  http://www.jimdunlop.com/products/guitar-picks#brand-picks where you will see more guitar picks than you ever thought possible!

There are guitar picks for every conceivable type of guitar music. A favourite with many guitarists is the Jimi Hendrix range, for example "The Jimi Hendrix Hear My Music Pick Tin contains six picks with unique images of Jimi playing the music that made him famous. Gauges: Medium."

They are available in the UK via Amazon and most good guitar dealers up and down the country. Remember, Google is your friend. Google "Jim Dunlop Guitar Picks" but have Google set to "UK Search only".

Stag Bakeries must be on your shopping list this Christmas

It's said that Stag Bakeries is probably one of the most remote bakeries in the UK, based as it is in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis on the Scottish Outer Hebrides.

Stag produces a range with provenance include the award-winning Stornoway Water Biscuit with Hebridean seaweed that was awarded Best Scottish Speciality Product 2013.

 New for 2014 are a new range of four cheese straws, each made with a different Scottish speciality cheese. Available from independent retail stores.

They also have a range of very tasty seasonal specials. Do please check these out.

To learn more about Stag Bakeries, you can visit them at http://www.stagbakeries.co.uk.

The Seadweed Stornoway Water Biscuits are a real treat. Although I like them plain, my wife thought they tasted better with a rather nice mature cheddar.

Winter Wonder - The Florin Street Band (New Christmas Songs 2014)