Thumbs Down/Bubbly bumph: A new Kir royal type drink aimed at women was launched in Ireland last week and PriceWatch was quite taken with the accompanying press release.
Called Jolie, the drink "offers women a fashionable and refreshing alternative to the current alcoholic beverages on offer". It is, the release gushes, "served in a dazzling gold and red champagne snipe, which echoes the opulence of the burlesque Moulin Rouge" and "oozes contemporary glamour and sophistication, particularly as it is drunk with its own signature gold straw". Jolie would make "the ultimate fashion statement and is the perfect accessory to any outfit".
Just reading about it left us with a dizzying headache so we shudder to think what a Jolie hangover would be like.
Teenage texts
More than half of all British 10-year-olds own a mobile phone, according to a report published last week, and, by the time they go to secondary school at the age of 12, that number climbs to 90 per cent. The findings, compiled in the Mobile Life Youth Report, reveal that, on average, 11- to 17-year-olds send 9.6 text messages a day - almost three times as many as their parents.
Tinsel town
Brown Thomas on Dublin's Grafton Street has joined its northside rival Clerys on the recently erected PriceWatch wall of shame for its ridiculously premature launch of a Christmas section. One reader could scarcely believe her eyes last week when she left the blazing sunshine of the capital's mini Indian summer and happened upon a fully decorated Christmas tree on the top floor of the department store. Have they no shame?
Thumbs Up
Offload to Oxfam
People are being asked to make space on their shelves by filling the shelves at Oxfam Ireland's 44 shops. The charity is looking for everything from books to T-shirts to teapots, as long as they are of saleable quality.
