KXC Kandy-Blog

Few people, especially in the UK and Europe, can be unaware of the sad case of four-year-old Madeleine McCann who was abducted on 3rd May 2007 while on holiday in Portugal.

If you wish to find out more about the case please visit the official Madeleine McCann website for the latest news and ways in which you can help.

We here at KXC fully support the search for this precious little girl and have a banner and link to her official site on our home page in the hope that it may raise awareness of the case and perhaps help in some way to bring about the safe return of Medeleine.

At this time we hope you will join us in our hopes and prayers for a happy outcome.

 UK News - Cadbury has pleaded guilty to three offences under food and hygiene regulations in connection with a salmonella scare last summer. 

Birmingham City Council alleged the firm put “unsafe” chocolate on the market for a period in 2006, which led to one million bars being recalled. 

Thirty people were affected, the Health Protection Agency said. 

Cadbury will be sentenced for the offences at Birmingham Crown Court on 13 July. 

Anthony Scrivener QC, entered the pleas on behalf of the firm during a 10-minute hearing at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court. 

‘£30m bill’ 

The company said the bill for dealing with the contamination may reach £30m. 

Birmingham City Council is responsible for enforcing health and safety laws at Cadbury’s plant in Bournville. 

Mr Scrivener told the court that although certain facts in the case were still in dispute, Cadbury accepted its responsibility and was pleading guilty to the charges. 

He added that they had already spent £20m on improvements. 

Cadbury was accused of putting contaminated chocolates on the market between 19 January and 10 March last year. 

Other charges include the firm failing to immediately inform relevant authorities about potential dangers and failing to identify “hazards” posed by the salmonella contamination. 

Separately Herefordshire Council is also prosecuting the company over the state of its factory near Leominster where the bars originated. 

The charges include not keeping a drainage pipe and roof vents in good repair, not permitting adequate cleaning of the premises, inadequate drainage facilities, and not carrying out proper cleaning of the conveyors or storage silos. 

Each of the six offences carries a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine and/or two years’ imprisonment. 

The company is due to appear before Herefordshire Magistrates on 24 July. 

‘We have apologised’ 

In a statement released after the hearing in Birmingham, Cadbury said: “Mistakenly, we did not believe that there was a threat to health and thus any requirement to report the incident to the authorities - we accept that this approach was incorrect. 

“Quality has always been at the heart of our business, but the process we followed in the UK in this instance was unacceptable. 

“We have apologised for this and do so again today.” 

“The processes that led to this failure ceased from June last year and will never be reinstated.” 

They added that it was inappropriate to comment on the second set of charges brought by Herefordshire Council. 

A major review of global health and safety procedures has since taken place.  

Source: BBC News

Due to the heavy commitments moving house is demanding upon my time this Kandy X-Change competition will be open until JULY 1st 2007 and not June 1st 2007.

Sorry for any confusion this may cause.

Due to the heavy commitments moving house is demanding upon my time Kandy X-Change will be left as it is until I am able to get up and running at the new house.

Fear not – I shall be back just as soon as possible after our move completes on Thursday 24^th May 2007 – this should be a matter of days rather than weeks.

Please stick around to see the new and exciting developments coming in the near future.

Here’s a quick and fairly easy recipe to make 8 Delicious Banana-Chocolate Spring Rolls

Ingredients
2 medium bananas
Eight 7 1/2-inch-square spring-roll wrappers
1 egg white, lightly beaten
32 semisweet chocolate chips
8 teaspoons shredded sweetened coconut
Vegetable oil, for frying
Confectioners’ sugar and cocoa, for dusting 
 

Directions
Cut each banana in half lengthwise and halve each piece crosswise.

Work with 1 wrapper at a time; cover the rest with a damp paper towel.

Lay 1 wrapper on a work surface and lightly brush the edge with beaten egg white.

Place a banana quarter 2 inches from the bottom of the wrapper and top it with 4 chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon of coconut.

Fold the bottom edge over the filling and roll up 1 complete turn.

Fold in the sides and continue rolling to form a tight cylinder. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

In a medium saucepan, heat 2 inches of vegetable oil to 350°.

Add 2 spring rolls at a time and fry until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.

Drain on paper towels. Dust the spring rolls with the sugar and cocoa and serve.

At last, the rewiring has been completed in the new house; the bathroom and kitchen have both been rendered and plastered on all walls and ceilings. The kitchen units and sink have been put into place and the new bathroom suite has been plumbed in.

I will be spending Monday night there alone in the empty house to be ready for the builders to arrive on Tuesday (Monday is a bank holiday so no work that day).

I want them to know I am taking up residence so they might hurry along at an increased pace as nothing seems to have been done on Friday.

As well as me taking up residence it seems I may not be the only resident of our new home. While at the house yesterday taking in some boxes and cleaning up I was approached by a man claiming to be the previous tenant of the house.

He went on to tell me he vacated the property because it was haunted – hardly the news I wanted to hear shortly before spending a night alone in the empty house but interesting news none-the-less.

It seems strange things happened in the house, according to the man who was very keen to tell me about the ethereal lodger.

He went on to report the ‘ghostly’ events including the living room door opening by itself and the taps turning on by themselves for no earthly reason.  During the renovation I have had all new interior doors fitted and a new plumbing system installed so it will be interesting to see what occurs in the future.

So on Monday night I will be sleeping with the TV on to hopefully cover any creaks and bumps in the night, a crucifix will be firmly clutched in my clammy little hand and the Ghostbusters on fast-dial on my mobile phone.

I’m also considering taking my digital camera just in case - BRING IT ON!!!

Director Lasse Hallstrom had to stop his stars eating too much chocolate during the making of CHOCOLAT - for fears they’d get too fat by the end of shooting.

The movie made in 2000 stars Johnny Depp, Juliette Binoche and Carrie-Anne Moss and centres on how the sweet treat affects a French town. But with truck loads of chocolate on the set, award-winning director Hallstrom had to take drastic measures to stop it all being eaten.

Speaking at the Los Angeles, California premiere of the movie in December 2000, he explained, “Most of the chocolate was covered in dust, as we were shooting there for weeks and weeks and we never really bothered to dust it off.”

He continued, “We had plastic chocolate; 50 per cent of it was plastic and people couldn’t really tell. People kept eating it anyway and so there were big teeth marks in the plastic chocolate, it was disgusting.”

I’m delighted to say that after three days offline the complete site is back online and running normally.

The forced absence of our website was due to a malicious hacker attack on the servers of our web host Ignite Web Hosting Services. They have done all they could to get things up and running as quickly as possible and thanks to their security and back-up measures nothing seems to have been lost from the site so despite the site being offline I am delighted with the outcome and even though they had to format their entire server system I have not had to use any of my own back ups, this saved me a lot of time and effort.

So while many people are proud to state they are ‘hackers’ I personally would like their collective backsides to become acquainted with the raggy end of a Pineapple!!! I see nothing cool or smart causing disruption to innocent people simply trying to produce something positive on the Internet.

Next time I may not be so lucky so I have learnt one thing, I was wise to back up my site and would suggest everyone does the same. You can be sure that your hard work will be destroyed when you least expect it and when you can least afford it.

So thanks to the good folks at IWHS for keeping me up to date with what was going on PLUS they even gave everyone affected a month’s FREE web hosting for the disruption. This together with the services and pricing structure already offered proves that they have to be one of, if not THE best providers I have come across.

I recommend their services without hesitation. Thanks guys!!!

I went to the new house at 6 o’clock last night to drop some more boxes off to discover the windows open and the front door open.

I went inside to discover that builders who have been working on the house simply finished work for the day and left the street without locking the doors (or even closing them) and left their set of keys in the back door.

So I am going down there this morning to put a rocket up someone’s backside for it.

I’m not happy because we have some of our stuff there not to mention over £300 worth of new carpets rolled up and ready to lay on the floors (or simply lift up and walk off with). Goodness knows what would have happened if I hadn’t happened to go to the house last night.
 
Anyway, I am leaving this house now to be at the new house in time to see the builders gain access to my house without their keys - should be fun.
 
I’ll keep you posted.

Dear faithful, please be patient with me over the next few weeks if Blog entries and website updates become a little less frequent. Please rest assured there is no other reason for this other than that my wife, the kids and I are in the middle of a house move.

During the next four to six weeks we are packing up our (not inconsiderable) belongings and trying to move them to our new home ten miles up the road.

At the same time as we are packing up and arranging removals we are overseeing a complete bathroom and kitchen rebuild at the new house as well as a complete electrical rewiring job. Then comes the decorating and carpet laying the entire house etc BEFORE we can actually move our packed belongings to the new abode.

No doubt at some point I will lose my internet connection for a period of time but I will be back as quickly as possible and pushing the club harder than ever. Then we can get on track and really see where Kandy X-Change can go.

So please keep the faith, keep checking back and contributing to the blog and forums. I really hope the move will not get in the way of the club too much but we are very busy of late (even more so than normal) so it may become unavoidable.

I will use the Blog in this extraordinary event to be a little more personal to try and keep you up to date with how the move is going on. If you grow tired of this just shout and I will try to add more candy stuff and lay-off the personal diary type entries.

Thank you for your patience and for your continued support.

KandyX and family.