In focus is a fortnightly, online update on things that the focus team has loved. New places we have discovered, food we’ve enjoyed and events that have made us happy – here’s a glimpse into our lives from the past two weeks.
The Green Seed coconut chips
We’ve found the perfect healthy snack for you for those times when you’re craving something crunchy to eat. Say hello to Coconut Chips by The Green Seed! Touted as a super snack to support a vegan ketogenic diet, these delicious crunchy chips are also gluten-free and have no added sugar.
Working directly with small-scale coconut farms in Thailand, the Auckland based creator of these scrumptious delights, The Green Seed, is on a mission to revolutionise the way the world snacks and has developed these chips using organic ingredients with no preservatives or additives. The chips are also soy-free and come in four different flavours – Coffee (our favourite), Smoking BBQ (a close second), Raspberry and Chocolate.
We love the fact that the coconuts used to make these snacks are grown in Thailand, using sustainable farming practices, and with every pack of coconut chips sold, The Green Seed sends money back to the Thai farmers who can, in turn, support their own families.
The chips are available at supermarkets and healthy retail outlets throughout the country or you can purchase them directly from The Green Seed website for $3.95 per packet.
Quarry Road candles
We love receiving gifts and when a package from Quarry Road Candles arrived on our desk we were unwrapping the boxes and inhaling their gorgeous scents in no time. Created and hand-poured right here in the Bay of Plenty, these fabulous candles have a long burn time and are made using soy wax with 100% natural cotton wicks that are zinc and lead-free. There are three ranges to choose from – citrus, vanilla and masculine – with fragrances ranging from delicate to strong.
The candles are clean burning with little to no soot and each threw a pure and wonderful non-toxic scent throughout the building. It wasn’t long before inquisitive folk started popping their heads around the door to comment on the lovely fragrances coming from our office.
We often write about the importance of taking time out to meditate and reflect on your day and, with these cooler evenings, can think of no better way to relax than lighting a few beautifully scented candles and slipping into a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine.
Quarry Road Candles are only sold online which is why they can sell them for the really reasonable price of $29.95 each, which includes shipping within New Zealand. You can purchase the candles individually or as part of a subscription service which means you’ll receive a delightful new fragrance every month.
The candles are beautifully presented and would make a great gift at any time of the year.
MCU Phase Four reveals
The Marvel 90-minute presentation at Comic-Con this week got our heads spinning and our hands clapping with excitement. Brace yourself MCU fans – 10 new projects are coming soon, both on big screens and as TV shows.
And we don’t know what’s the craziest part about it – that our very own adorable Taika Waititi is back to directing the new episode of Thor, named Thor: Love and Thunder, that will show the triumphant comeback of Natalie Portman as FEMALE THOR; or that Angelina Jolie has joined the outstanding cast of Eternals alongside Salma Hayek and Richard Madden? Oh wait, there’s also Mahershala Ali playing Blade; everyone’s favourite Tom Hiddleston, who now has an entire Loki TV show all for himself; the long overdue Black Widow solo movie with Scarlett Johansson… Need we even continue?
The year 2021 looks to be the busiest for the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 3 movies and 4 TV shows launching throughout the year: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (February 12, 2021), WandaVision (Autumn 2021), Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (May 7th, 2021), Loki (Autumn 2021), What If…? (Winter 2021), Hawkeye (Spring 2021), and Thor: Love and Thunder (November 5th, 2021).
But it doesn’t mean they’re leaving us dying from boredom and rewatching previous movies in 2020. Black Widow, Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV show) and The Eternals are all scheduled for the next year.
Stranger Things
We know, we know, where were we in 2016 and 2017, right? To be honest, we don’t have a decent excuse for why we hadn’t hooked into this extraordinary TV show earlier! But with Season 3 exceeding the number of viewers of any other Netflix show, we just couldn’t ignore Stranger Things any longer.
The events of Stranger Things happen back in the early 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, where nothing sinister has ever happened before. One day, a boy disappears under strange circumstances and his friends bounce into an unknown girl with psychokinetic abilities while searching for him. The boy’s mum (Winona Ryder) discovers she has a strange connection with her missing son and can communicate with him through the Christmas lights. But only that strange girl, who doesn’t even have a name, only a serial number – 011, can identify, where the poor boy is really hiding and how to get him back.
OMG, the production team of this show definitely made both Stephen King and Steven Spielberg proud, proving that the true science fiction horror genre isn’t dead but, rather, even better – it has evelated into something modern but with strong connections to the classics. Apart from being intrigued by the plot, we also loved finding all the cultural and pop references throughout the series. Definitely one to add to our list of the best TV shows of the last few years!
Need we even mention it only took us four days to binge-watch the first two seasons? Season 3, here we come (no spoilers, please!)
