Big Fluffy Clouds

High Maintenance vs. Low Maintence

2009-04-21T20:58:00.003+01:00

Apparently I need to be more high maintenance. Or so my boyfriend says. I just did an online survey that said I was definitely low maintenance. I thought that was a good thing, but obviously not! Here's what it said:

You Are Low Maintenance: Otherwise known as "too good to be true". You're one laid back chica - and men love that! Just remember that no good guy likes a doormat. So if you find your self going along to get along... Stop yourself and put up a little bit of a fight.

So basically he's saying I'm a doormat. Unfortunately I can see what he means. I'm really laid back and easy going. I wouldn't want someone to always agree with me, I'd want someone with all their own opinions and their own interests and someone you could have some good banter with. I don't think I flirt enough with him - y'know, be a bit cheeky, etc.

But how do I be more high maintenance without turning into a pain in the ass? According to someone on Yahoo! Answers 'high maintenance' is "usually someone you have to 'take care of' or 'needs a lot of attention' or 'costs a lot of money' or 'spends a lot of money on herself' or 'someone who is insecure and/or jealous', also, someone who is NEVER satisfied!". High maintenance requires a lot of time, effort and money. Well, if he wants to spend more money on me then cool. I think he might just want me to be more assertive. Which normally isn't a problem I have, but if I'm not bothered about something I won't pretend I am. Maybe that's it?

Someone else on Yahoo! Answers said: "for me "high maintenance" means that the other person is very demanding emotionally...like she is needy and needs things like attention, assurances she is desirable, you know, like come over and spend time with me but don't really expect me to do anything for you, but rather you must do everything for me...take me out to dinner, spend money on me, tell me i'm beautiful, buy me gifts, show me off, and don't expect anything in return..."

Here's an interesting article about it too.

I wonder if he really means it. I'll check before I start being all super-demanding. I'm sure I've got it in me...

Fusion cooking

2009-01-18T14:56:00.002+01:00

I am a cooking genius. Well, that's stretching it a bit. Quite a lot actually. But I did invent a new recipe yesterday. Apparently it's a fusion of Mexican, Indian and Italian - a chilli con carne and mango lasagne. I know it sounds a bit weird, but bear with me - it actually tasted great! Still to work out the quantities to put on here, but the basic recipe is...

Ingredients
Beef mince
Large onion
Dried mango
Tomato paste
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Tin of kidney beans
Schwartz chilli con carne dried spice mix
Mango chutney
Sour cream and creme fraiche mixed together
Lasagne sheets
Oven at about 200 degrees C

Chop and fry a large onion in olive oil. Fry some lean beef mince (at least 500g) until browned all the way through. Season with salt and pepper and squeeze on a load of tomato paste - stir in. Empty a regular sized tin of chopped tomatoes and half a tin of water. Chop up a small packet of dried mango and add that to the mince. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20-mins. Add a regular sized tin of kidney beans and a packet of chilli con carne Schwartz mix (ok, I cheated with that part - if I put this in a cookery book obviously I'd work out the 'official' way). Anyway, you'll probably need to add some more water so it's not too gloopy. Bring to the boil again and simmer for another ten minutes. Ish. You might need to stir quite a bit as the spice mix for some reason makes it burn a bit to the bottom of the pan.

Get a lasagne dish. Layer the chilli mix, mango chutney and sour cream and creme friache mix, then lasagne, then chilli, mango chutney and the cream mix, then grated cheese.

Put in the oven for about half an hour. It might be a bit sloppy but is great with a green salad. Promise!

Ode to Paris

2008-08-07T17:21:00.002+01:00

Some funny stuff.

Paris Hilton's ad for a presidential campaign in response to something John McCain did is classic. Very good piece of person PR there.

Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Adfunny videosFunnyOrDie.com

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

And this blog is funny - cute cartoons.

Row Row Row Your Boat

2008-07-27T21:36:00.001+01:00

Nearly Olympics time. Very exciting. This is the men's 8+ doing it's bit for team morale...

I'm back!

2008-07-23T14:57:00.000+01:00

Woo hoo! I had forgotten my login details or didn't change to the new Google login thingy or whatever, so haven't posted here for months and months and months. Plus I'm just stupid busy all the time. But I'm back! I might even post something. I'm thinking cakes. And interesting stuff. We'll see...

The Mindless Menace of Violence

2007-01-10T12:21:00.000+01:00

Just saw a couple of minutes of The Oprah Winfrey Show and they played a speech that Bobby Kennedy made after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. It's pretty good. Looking forward to seeing the new film by Emilio Estevez actually - 'Bobby'.

THE MINDLESS MENACE OF VIOLENCE
Robert F. Kennedy
City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
April 5, 1968

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

Get On With It

2007-01-08T17:31:00.000+01:00

'For twenty years he amused himself with thinking about what he would write when he really got around to it and for another twenty with what he could have written if the fates had been kinder.'

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T12:02:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year to anyone who happens to read this...

I have been feeling particularly uninspired recently hence no posts. Maybe I'll think of something soon.

Happy Christmas!

2006-12-22T12:10:00.000+01:00

Please sir, can I have some more?

To anyone who reads this, have a very happy Christmas.

HURRAH!

2006-12-16T23:20:00.000+01:00

Leona won the X Factor! If she hadn't won then, well, it would've been STUPID. This evening has been trash TV central.

SHOCKER

2006-12-16T23:04:00.000+01:00

Emma Bunting didn't go through to the Strictly Come Dancing final. It's a shocker. She so should've gone through. I agreed that Cricketer Man should've won (amazing Argentinian Tango Mark and Karen...), but not Dawson through! He's improved and I like him, but it's going to be no contest next weekend now. I just think Emma deserved it more. I can't believe I'm blogging about Strictly Come Dancing.

Not Much To Say

2006-12-12T01:43:00.000+01:00

I can't think of anything interesting or much to say at the moment cos my brain's not working. I've been in London for a week, this is my second and last week, on work experience at Good Housekeeping magazine! It's fun, and I'll have some bits I've written in the March and April 2007 issues. Hurrah!

Merry Wintermas!

2006-12-01T13:00:00.000+01:00

Political correctness gone mad - several councils and other stupid people saying they can't use the phrase 'Christmas' because it might cause offence to people of other faiths. Well I'm sorry, it's Christmas, the whole reason there is something happening on 25 December is because of Jesus CHRIST, hence CHRISTmas. It is not Wintermas, or Winter Festival or whatever - you can't deny the 'involvement' of Christianity!

Why should the term 'Christmas' cause offence? It's just ridiculous. People have to understand and tolerate other people's beliefs, faiths, opinions all the time. It's part of living in a diverse, free-speaking society. It just really, really, really winds me up such stupidness and narrow-mindedness.

Antarctica

2006-11-29T19:54:00.000+01:00

Check out these really pretty pictures I found on the blog Antarctica by a guy called David Ruth.

Les Choristes

2006-11-29T19:38:00.000+01:00

I watched The Chorus last night. What a lovely, lovely film.

Birthday Cake

2006-11-29T19:20:00.000+01:00

Hurrah! After writing about the cake I made for my friend but didn't have a photo of, she sent me a photo... Ok, so it looks very amateurish, but apparently it tasted good!

Obituary: Flip Flop Flying

2006-11-27T21:53:00.000+01:00

I've never written an obituary before. I think it must be quite hard. Benji (fellow FFF appreciator) has written this. Although perhaps obituary is too harsh, perhaps just an 'au revoir'. Mr Robinson - Craig of Flip Flop Flyin' fame - has stopped writing his blog 'Flip Flop FlyinG'. I am very sad about this - I have been reading it and commenting on it since the very beginning. He's done so much stuff since then. Him and Billy, his very cute dog.

Unfortunately it doesn't surprise me - recently it seemed more of a chore and some people were getting a bit abusive on the comments. I wish him the very best of luck in whatever he does. Here is the man himself from Ju's fotoblog - creator of Pocket Films for Travelers.

Some of my favourite things from Flip Flop FlyinG (and Flyin' cos most of it's on there)...

1. 30 Ballparks

2. Monday is red day

3. Billy running (19 May 2006)

Actually, have decided there's too much. One of my really favourite things though was his 'The Bench' pictorial story. I really really liked it. Also, The Cnuties. And minipops. And his random photos. And the trip to Miami.

Ah, so long.

Things to do with my time

2006-11-27T21:24:00.000+01:00

I am getting a bit fed up with myself and not having a proper job and not knowing what to do. So apart from spending too much time emailing (but not really achieving much) I am doing some other not useful things to pass my time. I really don't know what my problem is at the moment.

Etsy.com
This is seriously cool. It's sort of like eBay but it's for people to buy and sell handmade, crafty type stuff. Perfect for unique presents. And perfect for someone like me who makes a few things. Not that I've actually sold anything yet. I have to say I haven't given it much time or effort yet. My shop is called 'sparkle and shine'. You can see it here. If anyone fancies doing me a snazzy little banner for free, let me know! Teehee.

Baking
I haven't put a recipe up here for ages. I'll find a nice one... My mum's apple cake is scrummy. I made two the other day. I also made sticky ginger parkin last weekend. It wasn't as nice as I thought it would be. I made a pretty good Victoria sponge cake for my granny for her birthday, and also some cupcakes, but I didn't have muffin tins to cook them in so they went a bit wrong. Ooh, and I also made a pretty jazzy chocolate cake with vanilla icing decorated with chocolate iced writing for my friend's birthday present. I forgot to take a photo of that too. Bum.

Watching films
I can't be doing with daytime television, but the odd film is super duper (actually I'd watch them more if I didn't think my mum would shout at me for being lazy). I love films. I loved the new James Bond film by the way (Daniel Craig - nice big hands, mmm). And The Departed - the latest Martin Scorsese (Leonardo DiCaprio - surprisingly good). And other films I've watched recently (or re-watched) are School of Rock, The Station Agent, Transamerica, Legally Blonde, Layer Cake, The Recruit, The Goonies, Bridget Jones' Diary, Pretty Woman, Pride and Prejudice, Sweet Home Alabama, Out of Africa, Madagascar, Jerry Maguire.

Writing bits...
...but never finishing anything. Other than blog entries, emails and the odd letter. I'm writing to a soldier in Iraq. I thought it must get quite lonely out there. I don't necessarily agree with the war, but as we've sent all those people out there I decided to do my little bit to support them. My guy's in Basra. He's an officer. His room used to be one of Saddam Hussain's loos.

Of the writings I have started and not finished... a screenplay (adaptation of a pretty cheesy chic-lit book), a children's storybook (I have an idea for a whole series of countryside based stories, seeing as that's where I live, but can't seem to fully form the ideas), a novel (hahahahaha - I joined the National Novel Writing Month thing last week. You have to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. From 1-30 November. I joined last week. Basically it isn't going to happen!), a business plan (for one or many of several ideas I've had), a TEFL book for tourism in rural places (an idea I had in Mozambique), articles for a new youth website I thought of a few months ago (just need to learn how to build a website as well), a newsletter for the rowing club (need a good name for it), I think that'll do for now (there are sure to be more) but I'm sure you get the picture.

Can someone spur me into action please?

Some things about me

2006-11-07T12:13:00.000+01:00

Investigating Benji's blog I decided to copy one of his entries cos I thought it was cool.
So, here are some true things about me:

I'm right handed, but left eyed (annoying for archery).
I cry at a lot of TV programmes (especially ones with dying polar bears) and films (romantic ones).
I thought the English Patient was boring.
I think I am friendly.
I think I am sometimes too nice.
I love skiing.
I like sailing, and swimming, and rowing, and water skiing, and scuba diving.
I have a tattoo of a shark on my back.
I have just taught myself to knit (but having a bit of an issue with purling).
I don't have a job at the moment.
I am always having ideas but I don't know where to go with them.
I love watching films. Well, good ones anyway (went to see The Departed last night - great film).
I am currently trying to write my first screenplay.
I can't drink coffee - it gives me a headache.
I prefer Gordon Ramsay to Jamie Oliver.
I like watching sport.
I like summertime.
I love animals.
I don't have a boyfriend at the moment.
I also don't have any money at the moment.
I don't really drink much.
I love making cakes and biscuits and also I like cooking for lots of people but not just for myself.
I think the Queen is great. I'd really like to meet her. I've met the Duke of Edinburgh.
My first crush was on Adam Ant.
I love my sheepskin boots.
I like wearing brightly coloured boy-pants, not those teeny g-strings.
I love the British countryside.
I love sitting in front of a fire with a book and a freshly cooked scone with strawberry jam.

Covert advertising

2006-11-07T11:59:00.000+01:00

I wonder whether the Telegraph Group (publishers of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph) are getting payments from cigarette manufacturers in a sort of covert advertising way (perhaps it's allowed?). Before cigarette advertising was banned they always used to have their ads on the back cover of the magazine. I have noticed now that a high proportion of the celebrity interviews that are featured in the Saturday magazine particularly always mention that the celebrity in question has 'just lit up a Marlboro Light', or that they 'smoke Marlboro Lights'. Hardly necessary for the integrity of the article, so I just wondered whether they are actually getting paid to include it?! Ooh, is that slander? I hope not! Also, if they have a celeb on the front cover they do often seem to be smoking as well. I don't care if they smoke - they can do what they like - but I don't think it should be promoted and associated with 'cool' people in such a blatant way. Don't want to influence impressionable young folk!

Save the rainforest

2006-11-06T10:43:00.000+01:00

I had an idea a couple of weeks ago to do with carbon footprint stuff. There are loads of companies now set up where people can offset their carbon emissions by planting trees. But surely they will take ages to do much. Why not preserve the amazing forests we already have that are busy photosynthesising already? The rainforests are still being cut down at a shocking (and criminal) rate. Why not just buy acres of rainforest to offset your carbon emissions?

Anyway, I was obviously onto a good thing cos Andrew Cave in the Daily Telegraph wrote about it today. Apparently for £12million the British Government could buy enough rainforest to allow us to meet our Kyoto Treaty thingy targets. If airlines bought all the rainforests then they would offset all of their carbon emissions. Plus obviously saving an amazing natural resource and habitat. However, not sure if the countries that contain the rainforests would 'sell' them all?

It's kind of sad though that there's all this money in the world, all these hugely successful businesses and some vast personal fortunes for some people and it's only through Government intervention, setting targets and things that, they do anything about it. Rather than building ridiculous 123-room mansions (Aaron Spelling apparently had two 'present wrapping' rooms in his Beverley Hills mansion) why not live a little more modestly and actually do something properly good with their money. I'd think it was seriously cool to own a rainforest and make that environmental impact, and also save all those species of flora and fauna.

I'm not perfect, so I can't preach, but I do try and do little things as I know that every little helps and if everyone, e.g. didn't leave appliances on standby, didn't leave chargers plugged in, didn't leave taps running, didn't leave lights on when they're out the room, didn't recycle plastics and paper and metals, we would all save quite a lot of energy. I think we need to have recycling bins on the streets, in stations and airports, etc - like they had when I was in Hong Kong. And teach school children the importance of buying locally produced food. And perhaps there should even be lessons on energy efficiency?

I just think it's quite sad. Talking of quite sad and still relating to global warming, I watched the first programme in the new series of Planet Earth last night. That programme is amazing. The photography is amazing. The things we get to witness are amazing. But also quite upsetting. Last night the programme was talking about the Arctic and the Antarctic - Ice Worlds. It talked about global warming and the effect it will have on the polar ice caps. One particularly upsetting story was about a polar bear who swam more than 50-miles in a desperate attempt to find food. Due to ice caps melting earlier their traditional method of finding food - getting seals resting on ice floes - is getting harder. The exhausted polar bear in the programme eventually found land again and a colony of walruses. It was so desperate for food that it tried in vain to kill one of the walruses. It was desperate to watch. One of those don't-want-to-watch but can't-look-away things. It got stabbed by the walrus's tusks so badly that it could hardly walk anymore, certainly couldn't get any food and it just curled itself up to die. God, I was in floods and floods of tears. In fact, it's making me cry again now just thinking about it now!

Tag and the Dinosaur

2006-10-26T10:10:00.000+01:00

Tag the wire-haired fox terrier meets new squeaky toy - Dino the Tyrannosaurus Rex (since deceased).

Hurrah for Hats!

2006-10-26T09:48:00.000+01:00

Here is my first ever proper big hat that I knitted myself yesterday whilst having a 24-fest. I am very proud of myself for this! I didn't have a pattern or anything. Just lovely Rowan Big Wool and some massive knitting needles. Hurrah!

Now my brother wants one too. Minus the bobble. And in a different colour. He's a 'cool' snowboarder, so my design will be gracing the slopes of Tignes in the not too distant future. If I can find a colour he likes... I wish the Big Wool wasn't so expensive though.

By the way, after taking this photo I realised how awful I look at the moment - check out the bags under my eyes. Even my mum commented on them. Great.

Flip Flop Flyin' Pictorial Atlas of the World

2006-10-24T14:33:00.000+01:00

Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Flyin' (and FlyinG - the blog) is working on his third book! His is the blog I read the most and also the one that made me have my own blog (whoopee, I hear you cry). Anyway, I think he's great. The book is his version of an Atlas. He had the idea, did some bits, then decided to do it properly, mentioned on his blog that he needed a publisher and then lo-and-behold two approached him on the same day. I made a suggestion for that Atlas (24 January 2006 entry)... hurrah!

And, small world stuff - when I went on the ski trip in March this year one of the girls I was sharing an apartment with, Siaron, actually knows Craig. She used to work at Lateral and now does fashion illustration, textile design and other graphic design-type things and has her own brand called su-ma. When she was at Lateral she contacted Craig to do a website thing called 'sneakerbuilder' and he told me because of that that she was instrumental in him realising he could do the graphic design thing for a living. How cool is that? She's such a lovely person too. Hurrah!

p.s. sorry for being a bit of a name dropper, but I like to talk about interesting people - especially when I've met them or have something vaguely to do with them. People doing their own thing inspire me!

Fantastic photography

2006-10-24T14:19:00.000+01:00

Wow. Just been browsing the Designers' Block blog and discovered photo.net. The images on there are amazing and diverse.

Here's a very small selection from their Photo of the Week:

Where should I take my ideas?

2006-10-20T17:44:00.000+01:00

Working stifles creativity. Or so I said last week, or whenever it was. But not working for more than about two weeks also seems to do the same. I don't know what I spend my days doing at the moment. A bit of emailing checking, a bit of MSN-ing, a bit of rowing club women's squad organising (that's a job and a half - semi-volunteered to help out. Why?), walking the dogs or walking the ponies with mum, eating (waaaaay too much), not exercising enough... and that seems to be about it at the moment.

I don't really want a job though. Or at least I don't know what type of job I want. I don't really want to just fall into something again if I don't have to. I'm not work shy. Maybe I could/should go and work in a nice shop somewhere for something to do for a bit. But it's probably not really what parents had in mind for me. Or that I had in mind for myself after leaving my previous job. Not that I really had a plan. I had lots of ideas though. Too many to be any use.

I think I also thought now was the time to Do My Own Thing. I always thought I'd have my own business after working with or knowing people who do and thinking I could do better (or at least do some things better). But doing what? I don't know. I really really really don't know. I don't have one burning ambition, one thing that I think needs bringing to this world. Something that I want to work all hours bringing to fruition. I want to have a life as well. Not that I'm actually doing much at the moment. The old cliche about busy people doing even more stuff is true.

I can't decide what I'm good at either. This is going to sound big headed, but I think things change a little when I'm working somewhere. I have had my 'randomness' commented on a few times, which apparently brings some different ideas to the table. And also just changes things a little in the atmosphere. I don't know if that's actually true. It's nice to think it is though. And whilst I'm here in my own little blogging world, I can have whatever I want to be as the truth! I also question things. And I have ideas about things. But not on the spot. It doesn't work like that.

Anyway, rambling now. My one big problem is having ideas and not knowing where to go with them (hence today's blogging title), how to develop them, which people to talk to, how to protect the ideas, etc, etc. Just don't know.

I've had a few ideas for little books. Not novels, just little books. Do I write them? Or sell the idea first? Or try and get an agent? Or try and find a publisher? Which publisher or agent would I go to? Do I find my own illustrator? Can I protect my idea?

I've also had an idea for a documentary/travelogue for TV and a book, etc. Again, who do I go to? I can't afford to just go an make it. How do I get financial backing? What do I need to do to sell the idea? Who do I go to? How can I protect it from being copied?

I've had some ideas for clothing lines and brands. How do I find a manufacturer? How do I get them to make the designs I want in the fabric I want? Where do I go to to source fabric? And how on earth do you do a cash flow forecast for a business plan?!

And then I've had some bigger ideas and some ideas that some other companies might like to use. Can I sell them the ideas? Can I be a silent partner in something bigger with people with real money to make the bigger ideas happen?

See, I just have no clue at all. Road to nowhere... (actually the road to Exmouth in Western Australia).

Freedom

2006-10-18T17:28:00.000+01:00

©2005-2006 ~tyt2000

In another aimless internet ramble I came across this photograph entitled 'Freedom'. I think it's great! I found it on DeviantART, but I have no idea how I came across that.

Help the old people

2006-10-18T13:38:00.000+01:00

So, prior to today the only thing I've ever knitted is a scarf. And I just knitted it (as opposed to purling as well). I did it last Christmas. I was actually knitting it for the Boy (you know who), out of non-wool yarn cos he's allergic. But he laughed about knitting (when I hadn't told him it was for him) so I kept it for myself. Anyhoo, innocent drinks do a regular campaign over the winter called Supergran to knit hats for their little smoothie bottles to raise money for Help the Aged. They were sending out 1000 knitting kits and I got mine today. They are so good with their marketing stuff. So I decided to knit a mini hat today. Some people do some amazing things. I was proud just to make something that vaguely looked like a hat. Had a bit of an issue when it came to sewing on the bobble (how are you supposed to do that??), but I think you'll agree (you'd better do) it's not a bad effort!

What Am I Meant To Do?

2006-10-10T20:01:00.000+01:00

So have been working for a couple of weeks now. The three days a week thing turned into all five days last week. Think of the money, think of the money. Anyway, they have a new person now (after I turned them down, natch) so only need me for another week. Which means I have to ponder what to do again. Grrr. I really have no clue. I don't think PR on a permanent basis is for me though. Too much annoyance. At least I know I can actually do it if I put my mind to it. It's definitely not rocket science, as everyone used to say to me (and I agreed with them then anyway), and some of it is admittedly fun. But to be honest, at the moment, I can't be arsed.

Went to London at the weekend to visit friends. Had a really nice chilled time. Haven't seen them since before I went away. We chatted, boogied, ate lots, drank a bit, went for a run in Regent's Park past London Zoo (quite surreal and I'm sure I heard a lion roar). Great.

And then went to a gig last night as part of Oxjam. Great gig at the Waterfront in Norwich: Lick the Dice (all about 12 years old I think, but very snazzy on the guitars), Lot 55 (cute guitarist who looked like a a slightly rosy cheeked younger brother of Gary Oldman), The Pistolas (freaky lead singer, bit too heavy, but great last song) and CORD, who I have mentioned on here before. Their first album is out this week. James (lead singer) is looking more and more like a rock star. And despite the skinny jeans, dodgy shiny jacket, side-parted slightly longish hair and MAN JEWELLERY, he is still incredibly sexy on stage. Don't know what it is.

Sorry (although by reading this you have no idea that I've been elsewhere on the internet for the past half an hour since writing the previous paragraph), just got totally distracted by You Tube. Another one of those 'damn-why-didn't-I-think-of-that' things. Just been bought by Google for $Xbillion!

Anyway, you know what, I really don't have anything interesting to say. Working every day really does stifle creativity...(!)

Astrology-schmology?

2006-10-01T22:04:00.000+01:00

Just found a new website, via a blog via a blog via a blog that I found randomly the other day whilst researching something completely different. Anyway, the most recent blog lady is an author called Elizabeth Crane and the website she recommended is Free Will Astrology. I was just looking at the archive of my lovely star sign, Leo, from last November time (around the time of meeting man-boy - sad I know) and found an entry I really like, just as something to remember/think about anyway. It's from the week of 17 November 2oo5...

Psychotherapists talk about how each of us has a false self and an authentic self. When we're in the grip of the false one, we don't love ourselves unless other people love us. We're addicted to status and other superficial standards of success, and we chase after all sorts of meaningless desires that can't possibly bring any lasting gratification. When we're anchored in our authentic self, on the other hand, our motivations are rooted in a love of life. We pursue our dreams because they're interesting and exciting, not in order to impress anyone. The coming weeks will bring a showdown between your false self and authentic self, Leo. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the authentic one.

Also, from the week of 25 May 2006...

Commit random acts of the coolest kindness and most intriguing beauty you can dream up.

And from the week of 1 June 2006... (these are great!)

A team of Japanese cultural analysts was assigned the task of figuring out the best possible pick-up line. The winner: "Rainen no kono hi mo issho ni waratteiy-oh." In English, that's "This time next year, let’s be laughing together." I present this expression for your consideration, Leo, because I think it's a perfectly poetic way to alert you to imminent developments in your life. As I understand the astrological omens, you're about to experience transformations whose power to fascinate and amuse you will not fully ripen until June of 2007. They may be subtle at first, but will slowly build in intensity as the months go by.

Ooh, and this one from 13 July 2006. It's all very encouraging (and probably quite dull for anyone reading this - so go and do it for yourself and be encouraged/spooked out!)...

"Nature loves courage," said visionary philosopher Terence McKenna. "It shows you it loves courage because it will respond to your brave commitment by removing impossible obstacles." While I believe this is always true, Leo, it's especially apropos for you right now. You've fallen short of your potential because you have not yet summoned more than a fraction of the boldness that lies within you. But this is a turning point when you finally have what it takes to tap into your dormant reserves. I hope you rise to the occasion, and so does nature.

And this one from 17 August 2006. It's all kind of ringing true in some parts. Quite pertinent. But also good things to think about anyway.

"Raising kids is like making pancakes," muses Brian Copeland in his show Not a Genuine Black Man. "You always mess up the first one." A similar idea might apply to a certain multi-pronged project you've been working on, Leo. I'm not saying you should abandon or throw away your initial effort. On the contrary, like rookie parents whose inexperience has slightly tweaked their first-born, you should be thorough in trying to undo your mistakes. But I also suggest that you immediately get started on the next creation in the series, being sure you've learned all you can from the consequences of your earlier ignorance.

And so it goes on... 24 August... (by the way, if anyone got reading this far, you can probably stop now, I'm just putting them in here for my own benefit now so I have them written in one place!)

Psychologists Ed Diener and Martin E.P. Seligman cite 150 studies that suggest economic factors have little to do with happiness levels. For example, the Masai of Kenya, whose per capita income is under $300 a year, are as satisfied with their lives as the 400 wealthiest plutocrats in America. People living in the slums of Calcutta are slightly less filled with well-being, but not much. Your assignment, Leo, is to explore the personal implications of this. Can you get to the point where you truly feel that your ability to enjoy life has little to with how much money you have?

And 14 September...

Every year 1.5 million Turkish students take a day-long college entrance exam. It's a grueling maze of complicated yet often inane questions--an absurd attempt to quantify intelligence with a one-size-fits-all standard of measurement. Three quarters of all students fail, and thus face the prospect of unemployment in a country where only higher education guarantees a decent job. This year a lone rebel rose up in defiance against the oppressive tradition. Sefa Boyar announced he'd strive to give the wrong answer to every question on the multiple-choice test. Naturally, he had to study hard to make sure he wouldn't accidentally get a few right answers. Be inspired by Boyar, Leo. Resist or subvert the soul-shrinking hocus-pocus of a bunch of humans acting like machines. Unlike Boyar, do it in a way that enhances your chance to achieve success on your own terms.

Enough navel gazing now.

Lovely lemons!

2006-10-01T20:01:00.000+01:00

Had some friends over for lunch today and made my favourite party pudding - chilled lemon flan. It's sooo easy to make but tastes lush. The recipes from an old copy of the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook that my mum won for being Head of Choir at school! Ha, just looked - published in 1970! Anyway, it's a dinner party staple seeing as you can make it the day before and it doesn't take long (apart from the chilling bit).

Chilled lemon flan

For the flan case:
4oz (it's an old book remember! or 115g ish) digestive biscuits
2oz (55g) butter
1 tbsp castor sugar

For the filling:
Quarter of a pint of double cream (ish - doesn't have to be exact)
6oz can of condensed milk (I think the cans you can buy in the UK are a bit bigger than that - I used most of a can though)
2 large lemons

Crush the digestive biscuits until crumby (my word, not Hamlyn's). Melt the butter in a pan, add the sugar then blend in the biscuit crumbs. Mix well. Turn the mixture into a 7-inch pie plate or flan dish and press into shape round the base and sides with the back of a spoon. Bake in a slow oven (bottom Aga oven!) for 8 minutes (how exact do they want to be?!). Remove from the oven and leave to cool. (Obviously leaving the flan case in the pie plate or flan dish!)

Mix together the cream, condensed milk and finely grated lemon rind. Slowly beat in the juice from the lemons. Pour the mixture into the flan case and chill for several hours until firm.

Serve with cream. Yummy! Nice and fresh and zesty.

Hey Gringo!

2006-10-01T19:32:00.000+01:00

Well, the party went really well! We had 35 people, so I think we raised about £400. My chilli con carne went down a treat. As did the chocolate chilli cake. It was a great idea to open the invitation up to the juniors - they added to the numbers, they're a nice bunch, and they behaved really well. Everyone did the salsa lesson, which was cool! Some of the guys didn't have a clue. The instructor made the girls go to a new partner every time we did a new move, so that was good too cos it made you talk to more people. So funny everyone crammed into the gym. And I'd put a washing line in zig-zags across the ceiling and roped fairy lights round it. It looked pretty! Everyone loved the sombrero raffle. And the pinata worked as well. We didn't have anything to hang it from so I had the idea of attaching it with string to the end of a broom handle! Worked a treat. Those pinata things are much sturdier than they look as well. In the end one of the juniors ended up bashing it in on the floor to get the sweets out! So, yes, I think a good time was had by all.

And now to another recipe...

Chilli con carne! This is an excellent recipe from Waitrose.com. I'll write it down in here again, just in case that link ever disappears (plus I made a couple of minor amendments, and I only did the chilli, not the salsa stuff, and just served it with rice and a green salad and grated cheese).

Chilli con Carne

Serves 8-10

4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped (or just buy the ready chopped stuff like I do and put in 2 heaped tsp)
1kg lean minced beef (well Tesco only had 800g packets, so I used that much and didn't alter any of the other amounts)
2 tbsp (heaped) of tomato puree
2 large red chillis, halved, deseeded and chopped (or, again, buy the ready chopped stuff you can buy in a jar and put in 2 heaped tsp)
2 tsp mild chilli powder (unless you like your chilli hot hot hot, Tesco's mild chilli powder was just right)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
150ml water
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
15g dark chocolate, broken (I had that organic fair trade chocolate - Divine - and just used a row of four pieces)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2x 400g tins of red kidney beans, drained (it also says rinsed, but I didn't bother and I'm still alive)

Heat the oil in a large, deep pan (or a nice Le Creuset casserole). Add the onion and garlic and fry gently until really soft. Add the mince and fry, stirring, for 10-15 minutes, or until browned. Add the tomato puree, chilli and spices and fry for a further 5 minutes.

Add the chocolate, tomatoes and water, and season. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the meat is tender (if you have an Aga and a nice Le Creuset casserole then shove it in the bottom oven for 30 minutes).

Transfer the meat to a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the juices in the pan. Add the beans to the meat. Bring the juices to the boil and reduce by about half. Skim (or pour) off any fat. Pour over the meat, mixing well. Season.

Cool and save or later, or heat through in a new pan and serve with rice, grated cheese and a green salad (we had lettuce, red peppers and tomatoes). Ta dah!

Chilli celebrity

2006-09-29T13:11:00.000+01:00

Right now I am in the middle of making vats of chilli con carne for the Mexican Party at the rowing club tomorrow. I'm on my third batch now. People better bloody turn up. No one's actually bought a ticket yet. I've just been reserving them for people to pay on the night. Even if they don't come I think I'll make them pay. I'm also listening to latin music very loudly to get me in the mood! I'll probably be sick of it by tomorrow evening. Anyway, it's all coming together at last. Had a bit of a panic earlier in the week when only about ten tickets had been reserved, but we've got more than 30 now. Hurrah!

The celebrity part of the title is to do with my friend and her boyfriend. They're going to London tomorrow and wanted to have lunch at The Ivy (celeb restaurant extraordinaire!). They said they were very busy and she would have to go on their waiting list in case a table became available, could they take her name? She told them to take her boyfriend's name instead... Derren Brown!! (For those not in the know, Derren Brown is also a famous magician and illusionist person in the UK.) Someone from The Ivy called back a few hours later, apologising that they were on the waiting list, and now they have a table for two at 12.30pm tomorrow. Brilliant!!

Travel Writers Wanted

2006-09-26T20:19:00.000+01:00

Hurrah! I am a published travel writer. Well, sort of. It's just online. So actually it's like a blog really. But it's someone else's, and they've put my writing on there. So that's really cool! If you want to read it click here. It's about my time in Mozambique. Just about the place and the people - nothing about the work I was doing or anything like that. Quite exciting for me though.

Party On!

2006-09-26T00:03:00.000+01:00

Friday: went for a lovely walk in Hope in the Peak District. Didn't go on the lovely walk we'd planned due to following signs to the wrong hill! But we had a very nice picnic at the top of Loose Hill, until a sheep decided to (literally) butt in and stole half of my friend's bread roll! In the evening we went to the Interval Bar at Sheffield Uni Union. It was Fresher's Week last week. I felt old. It was NINE years ago that I was a fresher at Sheffield Uni. Depressing.

Saturday: went shopping in Meadowhell and then went to a fabulous 21st birthday party (which also made me feel old!). It was for one of my (all gorgeous) cousins. Fantastic starry marquee, loads of champagne and wine, and lots of dancing. Here is a photo of me in my finest taken by my mother. As you can see, she is quite a photographer.

Sunday: not much. Slight headache. Drove home. Mum and dad gone to the States.

Monday: back to work - freelancing for three days a week. I don't think it'll be too bad. It's a bit dull, but the people are nice. I just can't believe they're paying me as much as they are for what I'm doing.

Tuesday: not working tomorrow. Must sort out other aspects of my life. Plus have a great idea for a diary...

Baggy & Tottie

2006-09-21T12:43:00.000+01:00

These lovely doggies are Lottie (on the left, or on the right in the photo of them together) and Tag (on the right). Tag has since had a haircut.

Get Well Soon Hamster

2006-09-21T11:47:00.000+01:00

Poor little Hamster. Richard Hammond, cute Top Gear presenter, had a mega mega crash yesterday. Possibly going up to 300mph in a jet car. He was critically ill last night, but now it's seriously ill, so I hope he is on the mend. Apparently he was conscious when they got him to hospital. Get Well Soon Hamster!

I'm a believer!

2006-09-20T16:07:00.000+01:00

Just did one of those personality type tests. It was on Jobsite. According to the 15 question test, I am a BELIEVER. Which apparently means:

As a Believer you believe the world has almost infinite possibilities. You believe people should be pursuing their passions and not be caught up by what others say they should desire. Your entire life involves continuously having new experiences and learning from them. It is the challenge, the risk, the prospect of what you can achieve that drives you, rather than simply making money. You're a self-motivated individual driven by your passion and so need a job and environment with loose boundaries and maximum freedom.

Which I guess some of is kind of true.

Another matter... men. How am I going to meet any? I've been in Norfolk for four years now and have actually met one guy I fancied, and even him I wasn't that bothered about until he turned on the charm offensive and made me feel wanted, even if it was only for all of about a month. Then he got bored, or maybe I scared him off, or whatever. But he led me on for a very long time (coward). I'm totally over that whole 'thing' now. Thinking about it reasonably, we weren't even that well matched - he's all a bit too non-spontaneous, career-focused, scared of heights, allergic to seafood and wool, and doesn't seem to do foreplay for me. It's all his fault I liked him. So he can't complain, he brought it on himself. But he's still being a bit of an arse to be honest. We get (well, we did get) on really well as friends - lots to chat about, similar backgrounds - but he's just being a knobhead with no knob and still thinks I fancy him I reckon. He has to get over himself. Do I really want to be friends with someone like that? I probably shouldn't. But it's quite a small world around here and it would be easier to be friends than not. Plus I like being friendly.

He has a new girlfriend now (all of a sudden he's 'over' the ex - an excuse to me. So he's a liar too. Not that I'm bitter - I just haven't been able to vent at him at all cos he's too self-obsessed to see me!). She looks like Portia de Rossi. The blonde, skinny, lesbian who used to be in Ally Macbeal and now goes out with Ellen. Obviously she's not a lesbian. And she's not skinny, just slim and petit. And cliche of cliches - she's a cox at the rowing club (albeit still at uni, so young too). In fact, she's a lot of things he used to say he didn't like. Hypocrite as well! I do know her though. And she's all right. Very middle-class, mummy and daddy give her a Very nice allowance, doing a law degree but wants to go into fashion PR in London, they go on holiday to Rock for f**k's sake! I did see it coming a mile off. Ha! Predictable too!

Wow, I love having a blog. I can rant all I want and surely no one cares?!

Anyway, back to the man thing - I think I have to go to London. My cousin's just moved there and is currently dating three (very different) guys and loving it. I just looked on My Single Friend and there are some fit guys on there. Just can't reconcile myself to the whole internet dating thing yet. Possibly because at the moment I'm near a small city - people would know. Whereas London's huge and none of my best friends there are single so they wouldn't know/care. Hmmmm...

Boredom

2006-09-20T12:44:00.000+01:00

Today I am bored. I read an article in The Guardian on Saturday about being bored. It's a modern affliction. Well, ish. Some of the writing in the article was a bit poncy for me, but it was interesting, especially considering my current state of being-at-home-ness and having no job. Although I will be doing three days a week freelance PR for five weeks starting on Monday. I'm kind of looking forward to it. At least I won't have to be thinking of something to keep me busy, it'll be there for me on a plate.

I'm bored, because everyone else is busy. All my friends are busy. I was writing in my diary in Mozambique about how life goes on. People say they'll miss you, which is a nice thing to say. But generally they don't, because modern life is too busy. And you might have moments of boredom. But there's always something to do. And so life goes on. And you forget about people. Or at least momentarily. And it's never really the same again.

To completely distract from that moment of 'melancholy', here is another cute photo of Beetle.

Spooky Spooks

2006-09-19T22:30:00.000+01:00

Ooh, MORE strife in the world - a government coup in Bangkok. A friend of mine is supposed to be going on holiday there in a month... Spooks (new series started on Sunday) was playing close to the bone again (storyline about a government coup in the UK). I still can't believe they killed Colin.

Virtuousness

2006-09-19T21:24:00.000+01:00

I am feeling quite virtuous right now... went for a 5k run, 10-minute ergo, 1-mile swim this evening! I really really need it though. I have put on over 6kg in the the last two months. It is depressing. I measured my waist this afternoon. It's increased in size by FOUR inches. How bad is that? I have to control my constant-throughout-the-day eating at home thing. And get back into serious exercising again. I am going to train for the British Indoor Rowing Championships. Mustn't forget to fill out the entry form actually... My last 2k ergo time is good enough to put me halfway up the lightweight women's field. Not that I'm lightweight at the moment.

Fun with treadmills

2006-09-18T22:49:00.000+01:00

On another note, this video is brilliant! I found it on You Tube the other day. And then realised it was an actual music video. Fantastic treadmill dancing choreography (apparently by a sister of one of the band members)! The band's called OK Go. The song's called Here It Goes Again. Brilliant!

What Is The World Coming To?

2006-09-18T22:28:00.000+01:00

So, glancing at news headlines today there are major things going on in:

* Sudan - possibility of mass genocide if African Union troops pull out of the country and UN troops aren't allowed in. But already at least 200,000 people are estimated to have died and more than two million displaced during the three-year conflict.

* Iraq - same old stuff. Bombs, terrorists, suicide bombers, etc, etc.

* Afghanistan - same old stuff. Bombs, terrorists, suicide bombers, etc, etc.

* Somalia - bomb outside the parliament, but the president's not killed.

* Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Zimbabwe...

What's going on? Why does everyone seem set on killing people? Making people's lives a misery? Blah blah blah blah blah. And then you can go somewhere and be completely oblivious to all of it. And some people don't even care. But really there's just too much going on and too many people not thinking.

I like the way you mooooove!

2006-09-15T08:21:00.000+01:00

Cool demo on the BioMotionLab website about how just by seeing a few points of a person's body lit up you can tell a lot about them. Interesting. A friend of mine is studying psychology (after doing ancient history first time around!) and told me about it. She's into the science of happiness. A very worthwhile thing to study I think. And I'm sure she'll write a best-selling self-help book before too long.

Fly so high up into the sky

2006-09-14T10:17:00.000+01:00

Just heard from an old friend of mine I grew up with. She's in South Africa working as a drop pilot at a skydiving centre. She's one of those really cool people who just goes out and does stuff. I think that's so great. I'm trying to be more of a doer too. I think it just makes life more interesting. Who wants to be predictable? She's so lucky that she's found something that she loves doing though... flying. And it is lucky, as she didn't plan it. She worked at a small airfield near where we grew up and then just ended up learning how to fly in her lunch hour pretty much. Well, I guess luck and a sense of adventure and openness to trying to new things.

Cookies and stuff

2006-09-13T13:15:00.000+01:00

Today I have mostly been doing not much. I just made the most amazing banana milkshake ever. And have been pottering on the computer. But apart from that, zilcho (is that a real word? I doubt it).

Anyway, another recipe that I really like... Phoebe's Fabulous Oatmeal Raisin Cookies! I wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies cos they're my favourite (at the moment) and I found this recipe in loads of places, including the blog a Spoonful of Sugar. I took the recipe from there. It's originally from 'Cooking with Friends' apparently. I made a couple of additions to the recipe.

Phoebe's Fabulous Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

175g butter
160g firmly packed light brown sugar
130g white sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (and don't ever lick the spoon by mistake - it tastes disgusting!)
170g rolled oats
160g plain flour
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp bicardonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon (my addition)
A pinch of salt
200g raisins (or mix up the dried fruit for variations - I did raisins and dried cranberries the other day)
Milk to bind (also my addition)

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F, or bottom of top over in the Aga, or Gas Mark 5 apparently).

Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl mix up the oats, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt. Pour into the butter/sugar mixture and mix together. Then add the raisins. You might also need to add a bit of milk to make the mixture a bit more sticky.

Make walnut sized (ish) dough balls and put onto an ungreased baking sheet with 2" spaces between the balls.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for a little while before transferring to a rack.

Mine were a little bit crunchy round the edges and quite soft in the middle and tasted just as good the next day. Yummy. Oh, and no photo again. I am rubbish. They did look a lot like the ones on a Spoonful of Sugar though. Honest.

Other stuff:
* Bracken and baby Beetle are still cute (Bracken is mum's fluffy lawnmower, Beetle is her first foal). Here's an arty photo of them...

* Lottie and Tag the wire-haired fox terriers are still cute (Tag is Lottie's mum, I think she's feeling her age a bit as we had to pull her out of the river the other day when we took them to cool off). Here's a picture of them at the river...

Chocolate chilli cake

2006-09-12T11:00:00.000+01:00

I said I'd probably put some recipes on here, and here's the first one from a food blog called Chocolate & Zucchini. I'm helping to organise a Mexican Fiesta Party as a social for the rowing club. Actually, I've done most of the organising so far. Anyway, I wanted to do something a bit different for pudding, remembered having some chilli chocolate sometime, and did a Google search for chocolate chilli cake knowing that there's everything on the internet and sure enough up came a few recipes. This one appealed. I've made it twice now - once yesterday with cocoa powder instead of chocolate and quite mild chilli powder (ok, but not greatand there wasn't much of a kick from the chilli at all), and once today with scrummy organic chocolate and hotter chilli powder. It's actually really nice - a little bit gooey in the middle, you taste the chocolate and then your mouth starts to feel warm from the chilli! Here's the recipe...

Chocolate Chilli Cake

200g butter (I've been using normal butter, but apparently unsalted is better)
200g good-quality dark chocolate
250g sugar
5 eggs (at room temperature)
1 rounded tbsp self-raising flour
2 tsp chilli powder (quite strong chilli otherwise you won't taste it, and you can add a bit more)

I just used a greased loaf tin, or baking tray, but you could also do it in bun tins to make mini 'bites' as on Chocolate & Zucchini.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°c (400°F) or, if you're lucky enough to have a lovely Aga where you are (like I am at my mum and dad's house), just use the bottom of the top oven.

Melt the butter and the chocolate in a small pan over a low heat. Transfer into a mixing bowl, add the sugar, mix well with a wooden spoon and allow to cool a little bit. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well with the spoon after each addition. Add the self-raising flour and chilli powder and mix well.

Pour the mixture into whichever cakey tin you're using and put into the oven to bake for about ten minutes (you need to keep an eye on it though). The top should look cooked - there should be some spring-back - but not so well done that it's totally dried out! The inside should still be soft.

Turn out onto a rack to cool (unless in a baking tray - cut into pieces after it's cooled for a little bit and put the pieces on the rack)...

Chocolate & Zucchini lady says to refrigerate in a plastic container and take out an hour before serving, but nothing ever lasts that long in this house. I'll do that for the party though. I forgot to take a photo before we ate half of it, so I'll have to try and remember photograph the ones from the social... I also think I might serve the cake hot with creme fraiche or something like that.

The Wanderer Returns

2006-09-11T14:30:00.000+01:00

So, I've been away for a while and even though I know only about two or three people have ever read my blog I thought I'd write a little update on my life, just to practise my writing skills... or something.

Well I guess quite a lot has happened since I last wrote about ski instructors and online shops. I'm back at my parent's house. I have no job. The sun is shining.

To the no job thing - I quit in July. That's nearly four years in the same place. Not bad for me. Just felt like forcing myself to do something different - it was 'comfortable' there, but I wasn't really enjoying the work on most of my clients. Anyway, I quit (all very amicable) and went to Mozambique. For five weeks. Quite random, I know. I was right in the north in the Quirimbas National Park working on a fair trade eco-lodge. It was in a totally gorgeous location. Right on the Indian Ocean. I don't think I'll write about it all now, cos I'd be here for ages, but I worked Really hard. I had two days off in the whole time. BUT I did get to go diving, and visit Rolas Island and Ibo Island and meet some really nice and some really interesting people. I took loads of photos. This is one of my favourite ones...

I got back three weeks ago tomorrow. Then had three days in the UK before heading off to France for the Dragon Gold Cup in Douarnenez. Was a great week. AND we managed to come 30th in our last race (out of more than 100 boats), which is pretty good considering 20+ boats had professional crew on board and we had never sailed as a four before (it used to be 'illegal' - three crew only - but now you can do it if you're under the weight limit of 285kg). We were actually the first four-man crew in a Dragon Gold Cup!

There is a really cool island just off Douarnenez called Tristan Island. Well, there are two cool buildings and a lighthouse. I really want to buy it and do up the houses. They are crying out for refurbishment. I would LOVE to do it. Unfortunately, I'd probably need at least £1M to do it. But it would make a great hotel. So if someone reads this who has loads of money (and good taste), please please buy it and make it gorgeous.

So the thing now is... what to do next?! I seriously have no clue. I have business ideas coming out left, right and centre. But no direction. No experience. No real passion. It's difficult. Oh, and also no money. Mustn't forget that one. So at the moment, I keep coming up with ideas... and I've started my first film script (an adaptation of a chick lit book) just to see if I can do it... and I might have to do some freelance work... and I've realised I really like photography and baking. So don't be surprised if this blog morphs into a sort of foodie one. With photos.

Thank you for the good times...

2006-04-03T15:09:00.000+01:00

I have set up shop! Well, a silly little online one. It's funny. Visit it here.

The story behind it is this... On my lovely skiing holiday (it was GREAT!) one of my friends kissed her skiing instructor (a slightly dodgy very low res John Travlota lookalike) on the last night. She was drunk, he was trying hard so she thought she'd kiss him to get him off her back and we were leaving the next morning anyway. Ha! He had her mobile number and sent her LOADS of text messages, plus this FANTASTIC email (one of our other friends gave him my friend's email address!). I'm calling it fantastic because it was just sooo funny. And that email was the inspiration for my little shop! All the quotes on the t-shirts are from his email to her. Classic.

Hope you like! Someone's actually ordered a top as well. How cool is that?!

THANK GOD...

2006-03-17T09:11:00.000+01:00

...for holidays! I am off. Tomorrow. For a week. Skiing. I NEED it.

Oscar! Oscar!

2006-03-06T18:15:00.000+01:00

Well, at least my movie star double is an Oscar winner. Nothing but the best for me!

Movie star double

2006-02-23T14:00:00.000+01:00

I just did one of those silly questionnaire things to find out who my movie star double is...

Reese Witherspoon

A space cadet (in the nicest sense of the word) like you needs to be played by someone who has her own rosy outlook on life, someone who is completely loyal, someone who is unbelievably endearing, someone like Reese Witherspoon.

Whether she's lighting up the stage as the dreamy darling in The Importance of Being Earnest, or pushing passed her blonde image in Legally Blonde, Reese's perfect for the part of someone who's seemingly clueless at times, but oddly intuitive when it matters most (even if we know that in real life she's a clever cookie).

Maybe you sometimes get preoccupied when people are talking around you, but who cares if you jump back into the conversation with a slightly bizarre comment or two? It just means your mind has been wandering in interesting places. You, like Reese in her leading lady roles, probably prefer to dedicate your full attention into the things that give you the most joy: your friends, your family, or a cause you're dedicated to. But ultimately, that's part of what attracts people to you and why they love having your good heart and supersensitive brain around. And that's also why Reese Witherspoon would be a box-office hit in the movie of your life.

Sugar and spice...

2006-02-16T14:06:00.000+01:00

These past three days I have been a complete sugar fiend. Wham bars (still 10p!), strawberry chewits (make me hyper), drumsticks, jaffa cakes, cookies... oh dear. I LOVE eating them, but the come down from the sugar high isn't good. God job I don't ever do drugs, I'd be rubbish!

My friend Annabel should write a book on relationship counselling, or at least helping people understand what might be going on in the heads of other people when it comes to things like that. She is GOOD. I think she should start a blog, like an agongy aunt type thing. Ooh, that's a great idea (only just had it, see)... watch this space.

Here is some of her advice I want to remember so I can be more empathetic towards some of my friends: "I think if you get to the stage in a relationship where you realise that you are bumbling along, but it isn't enough, then it is time to call it quits. Takes a lot to get over that though, I would think. It is sadder than a forced breakup. Makes you feel much more empty inside. A forced breakup makes you feel angry and upset, but you fight back from it. A natural breakup makes you more reflective, thinking about investing in someone, thinking it is right and in the end it isn't. Harder to work out and justify and get over and build up your strength again. Makes you feel so sad about relationships. Makes it hard to trust yourself or anyone else. Bit of 'what's the point?'. Perhaps you can go with the flow with someone new for a while but then you get the overwhelming 'stop' feeling. Doesn't mean that you can't have fun and won't again - just takes a bit of time."

Aaah, time...

Very nearly the weekend...

2006-02-10T16:44:00.000+01:00

Is it bad that I really really want it to be the weekend?

Not much has been happening recently. I've been eating too much sugar (e.g. spoon's full of pure golden syrup). Mega highs, mega lows! Ooops.

What else? I can't even think of a story in the news that has made me laugh or go yuk this week. Haven't got very far with the new year's resolutions... quick update on those then - that'll fill some space!

1. Be strong (in mind) Hmmm, I have moments of clarity. But basically am needing affirmation from other people to tell me I'm a nice person (or not). And whether I'm an attractive person (or not - this one is the b*gger...)
2. Stay fit (get fitter) Not doing too badly on this one. Apart from eating too much suger. At least I'm still doing training and stuff. And I ordered an iPod shuffle yesterday (even though I have no money and tonight am going home to my parent's house to raid my cupboards for things to sell on eBay) to listen to whilst training. Have you seen one? They're teeny weeny!
3. Drink lots of water (to stay young looking!) Not consistently. Bit rubbish really.
4. Be positive and optimistic Grrr. I try. Mostly. Like I said above - moments of clarity marred by feelings of rubbishness and 'what-am-I-doing-with-my-life' type stuff.

Ok, so that's the 'overarching' ones... how about the more specific jobbies...

1. Actually write the text for the children's books I've been thinking about for months Nope, haven't even looked at this. Just have two main story ideas so far. Just need to write them down...!
2. Write the synopsis for the 'Place Called Victoria' TV documentary to sell-in with Mille in May Mille keeps asking me about this. I really should sort it. I think I'll come into work one weekend and do it. I really need the internet to do it (so I can copy someone else's work!).
3. Start my first ever screenplay, i.e. get beyond the initial idea and actually start writing it! However bad it might be... got to start somewhere! What do you think?!
4. Start my own website - e-commerce or otherwise Ah, well I have actually started to progress this one a little bit. I bought a domain name the other day and have started researching the products that I want to sell... watch this space (but don't hold your breath!).
5. Work out what I actually want to do - or at least sort out my 'career', cos it's not going anywhere at the moment Who knows? Not me.
6. Have regular facials! Ooh, and do a reflexology or Indian head massage course... Annoyingly can't afford it! There's a place about two-minutes walk from where I live. When I've sold some stuff on eBay I am definitely booking a facial. Or this really nice back massage thing they have.
7. Find a man of my own. No no no. And the one I want is definitely keeping me at an arm and a half's length! It's just an ego dent I guess. That and when someone tells you they really really like you then it's nice to believe them, until they go cold turkey on you. ANNOYING.

So, there you are - not much has progressed really. Except that I weighed myself last weekend and I was under nine stone. This is very exciting for me (sad I know) as I don't even remember the last time I was this slim. Yahoo! So, one thing is good at least (until I weigh myself again and realise I've put all the weight back on again. God, I'm such a girl talking about things like that. I'm not really that bad. Honest!).

Have a lovely weekend everyone... anyone...

P.S. This song is great. 'Ooh Child' by The Five Steps. I've just stolen it from Mr Lurchyboy at Beesnthings Blog! Hope he doesn't mind. It's a good song to start the weekend.

Fame at last

2006-01-25T10:31:00.000+01:00

Ha ha! My name was mentioned on Craig's blog yesterday... He's doing this new Minipops/Atlas thing and I made a suggestion about some Minipops for Monaco. Coooool.

Also, just checked out Cord's blog after the gig. Their press guy is the same guy who looks after the Arctic Monkeys. That must be very exciting for them considering the amount of publicity those guys are getting at the moment. Well, their music is great but you do need good people supporting you too. Coooool.

Today is going to be a productive day. It has to be. I have been seriously lacking in any kind of work-related motivation recently. It could have a little bit to do with the fact that not much is going on in my world at the moment, and when there isn't that much I tend to do even less. How does that work?

Great gig!

2006-01-24T12:53:00.000+01:00

Cord were really good. Some of the songs were a big 'heavy' for me, but I really enjoyed it. Very charismatic frontman - James. Quite fit actually! Married. Ah well! Ha ha. They are going to be successful. Sure of it. A famous band from Norwich. How exciting!

The support band were pretty good too - Tiny Dancers. From Sheffield (the place of the moment what with the Arctic Monkeys. Obviously I was way ahead of the times choosing to go to uni there...!).

The gig was at the Norwich Arts Centre and there was a really cool exhibition on at the same time. The Little White Art Show" by Mary-Colleen Rabb. Miniature white figurines in everyday places.

Cord

2006-01-23T14:28:00.000+01:00

Going to a gig in Norwich tonight. Haven't been to a gig for ages. It's to see Cord. They're a Norwich band. I reckon they're going to be big. They're on Island records and will be releasing their first album soon. They're kind of Muse vs. Radiohead. Ish. I think! Not being very up on music-y stuff, I'm not sure if that makes sense. It's guitars and stuff. Anyway, tickets were only £6 and apparently the parents of one of them own the pub that's my local in Norwich! Maybe I'll know them before they're famous...!

Art and stuff

2006-01-18T17:58:00.000+01:00

So, newly discovered stuff I like via a post on Flip Flop Flying again directing me to a website... and found some super cool artists. I wish I could be an artist. Although, actually, I think everyone can be. So I don't know why I just said that. Some people have more to say I guess. More to express. Or at least can do it in a way that other people identify with.

Margaret Kilgallen
She's dead. She died from breast cancer when she was 33. Isn't that just the saddest thing. I love her designs, especially this one...

Anyway, there are loads of other cool people on there so check it out.

Hmmm, what other artists do I like? I have quite particular taste, but don't really remember the names. I just know what I do and don't like. Will try to think and give examples of people who do super stuff...

Pack of dogs kill crocodile in Florida

2006-01-12T11:32:00.000+01:00

Sometimes nature is cruel but there is also a beauty in that cruelty. The crocodile as one of the ultimate predators can fall victim to the kind of implemented 'team work' strategy which is possible due to the pack mentality and social structure of canines.

See the remarkable photograph courtesy of Nature Magazine:

Heart warming story

2006-01-12T11:18:00.000+01:00

Am just trying to clear out my inbox at work and found a cute story...

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and stablished a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

No DIY

2006-01-12T10:08:00.000+01:00

Oops. So, I was kind of bored last night. My flat mate was out. Again. So I decided to be productive and do some jobs around the flat.

Task 1: Fix one of the sliding cupboard doors in the kitchen.
Result: I was trying to fix the cupboard door cos it doesn't slide very easily and so was trying to make it run a bit more smoothly... and I have no idea how I managed it but it's now a detached cupboard door. Somehow I got it out of the sliders and now I can't get it back in!

Task 2: Clean the bathroom.
Result: The bathroom is fully tiled from floor to ceiling and goodness knows when it was last cleaned. So I was scrubbing the walls. And then I cleaned the bath. And then I pulled the shower head down to rinse the bath and must've pulled it too hard cos now the hose leaks where it comes out of the shower unit thing and nothing comes out of the shower head. Oops.

I gave up after that and watched 'Lost'...

Cinema city

2006-01-09T12:49:00.000+01:00

This past week I have been to the cinema THREE times. I can't afford it (I am in serious negative money at the moment... what went wrong?!) but I love it. Three very different films...

Jarhead
This hasn't even been released yet! There's a 'secret film' thing at the UCI in Norwich every two weeks where they show a film before it's release date to help create the buzz around it. You don't know what film you're going to see at all, not even the genre. It's a great idea. So, yeh, saw 'Jarhead' last Monday. I really enjoyed it. Not much happens, but that was kind of the point. Plus Jake Gyllenhaal is in it.

Brokeback Mountain
I had originally thought I didn't want to see this, but after reading some very good crits and weighing up the pros and cons of seeing Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger kissing, decided to go and see it with my friend Annabel. It was a really beautiful film. In terms of cinematography and scenery and setting. But also in terms of the love story. We both came out crying.

Running Scared
Not a good one to end the week on. Saw this last night. Violent, graphic and a bit weird. Only saving grace was Paul Walker. Not sure he's the sharpest knife in the block, but he sure is pretty.

Interesting things

2006-01-05T15:00:00.000+01:00

I think I need to put more photos in here. Makes it more interesting. Craig at Flip Flop Flying is always putting loads of photos in his blog.

Here's one...

Photo Scavenger Hunt

2006-01-04T16:45:00.000+01:00

Am trying to organise a Photo Scavenger Hunt for a friend's birthday on Friday. Found a great website called 26 Things that posts a list of words every year. People have to take a photo to represent each photo and send in their entries. Cool idea! I'll let you know how I get on with mine. Can't decide whether to tell people what to do, e.g. get a photo of someone doing a star jump, or the random word thing for people to then get a bit more creative about?! Hmmm...

Some things I didn't know this time last year...

2006-01-04T13:50:00.000+01:00

I like lists. There's a list on the BBC website of 100 things we didn't know this time last year.

Here are some of my favourites from the list:

3. While it's an offence to drop litter on the pavement, it's not an offence to throw it over someone's garden wall.
9. The energy used to build an average Victorian terrace house would be enough to send a car round the Earth five times, says English Heritage. [Why do we knock them down then and not just renovate?]
11. One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed. [Ha ha ha! Sweden is taking over the world...]
12. Until the 1940s rhubarb was considered a vegetable. It became a fruit when US customs officials, baffled by the foreign food, decided it should be classified according to the way it was eaten. [I disagree with the current classification then! Rhubarb should be a vegetable, like a tomato is a fruit... I thought it was classified according to seeds and pips, or not.]
14. It's possible for a human to blow up balloons via the ear. A 55-year-old factory worker from China reportedly discovered 20 years ago that air leaked from his ears, and he can now inflate balloons and blow out candles. [How do you discover that?!]
18. If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth's equator. [Mmmm, Smarties! Shame they got rid of the tubes. I used to collect the lids with the letters on.]
34. The Little Britain wheelchair sketch with Lou and Andy was inspired by Lou Reed and Andy Warhol. [Random.]
35. The name Lego came from two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". It also means "I put together" in Latin. [Clever! Apparently the word for 'Volvo' - another Swedish brand as my friend Christina tells me - comes from the Latin meaning 'I roll'. So there.]
36. The average employee spends 14 working days a year on personal e-mails, phone calls and web browsing, outside official breaks, according to employment analysts Captor. [Oops, I am definitely one of them!]
38. Nasa boss Michael Griffin has seven university degrees: a bachelor's degree, a PhD, and five masters degrees. [That's just ridiculous.]
53. It takes 75kg of raw materials to make a mobile phone. [Obscene.]
59. Oliver Twist is very popular in China, where its title is translated as Foggy City Orphan. [Tee hee!]
63. It takes less energy to import a tomato from Spain than to grow them in this country because of the artificial heat needed, according to Defra. [So many moral dilemmas in the modern world.]
68. The Very Hungry Caterpillar has sold one copy every minute since its 1969 publication. [Maybe my children's book will too!! Ha ha ha.]
78. One in 18 people has a third nipple. [Have you ever met a person with a third nipple? The probability is that I have now!]
81. George Bernard Shaw named his shed after the UK capital so that when visitors called they could be told he was away in London. [Like the pub called 'Walk the dog'...]
100. Musical instrument shops must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognisable riff before they buy, thereby making a "public performance". [I definitely didn't know that!]

So there you go!

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T10:38:00.000+01:00

Not that it's been a particularly happy one for me thus far... I have been a fool again re: boys. It always happens. Beginning to think there is something wrong with me! Am I really ugly? Or really horrible? Or really stupid? I think I'm ok. Oh well, fingers crossed 2006 will be a better year...

So, the plan for 2006. There are lots of things I need to decide about my life. And I'll probably decide nothing. I didn't last year.

The vague 'over-arching' resolutions are:

1. Be strong (in mind)
2. Stay fit (get fitter)
3. Drink lots of water (to stay young looking!)
4. Be positive and optimistic

Things I want to do (possibly) or sort out:

1. Actually write the text for the children's books I've been thinking about for months
2. Write the synopsis for the 'Place Called Victoria' TV documentary to sell-in with Mille in May
3. Start my first ever screenplay, i.e. get beyond the initial idea and actually start writing it! However bad it might be... got to start somewhere!
4. Start my own website - e-commerce or otherwise
5. Work out what I actually want to do - or at least sort out my 'career', cos it's not going anywhere at the moment
6. Have regular facials! Ooh, and do a reflexology or Indian head massage course...
7. Find a man of my own.

That'll do for now. At least I've written something down so I can read it back. If I remember, I'll keep this blog updated with progress. Just for me to read again. I can't imagine anyone actually reads this.

Making money and other good ideas!

2005-12-30T13:55:00.000+01:00

Wow, I am getting quite rubbish at this. That and I probably haven't got much of interest to write... Hope anyone who reads this had a great Christmas.

So, unfortunately I'm in work this week. Me and my two bosses. That's it. Everyone else is away! Huh. But, it's actually been quite good to sort out my filing system (there isn't one) and go through my email inbox (about 1500 emails at last count). 2006 has got to be my year for organising my life.

I've also been doing a lot of looking round the internet and stumbled across a few great sites...

1. The Million Dollar Homepage - why oh why oh why am I not clever enough to think of something like this? It's brilliant! Simple and quirky. And he's nearly made the million... Good luck to him! [Grrrr.]

2. gapingvoid - an interesting blog with cool cartoons and useful guides to being creative and things like that. I like it. Download the 'How To Be Creative' guide...

3. ChangeThis - on the homepage it says it's 'on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds'. Basically they print 'manifestos' from people about all sorts of things to make people think about stuff (that's not very descriptive is it?! You'll just have to visit the site!).

The manifesto I've found the most interesting so far is one called: Cherry Bombs: A Supplemental Kit to "Radical Careering". Being stuck in a bit of a career rut at the moment, it was quite interesting. Didn't provide any answers, but made me think a bit. If only I could come up with the million dollar idea and then I wouldn't have to worry about the whole career thing right now... The thing is, I don't know what I'd really really like to do. When I say I've had enough of my current job, people say what would I like to do? And I really don't know. It's very frustrating.

4. crocs - one day I will make money from being 'on the consumer pulse'! Maybe. I need to take a few risks first. Aaargh, scary! So, crocs. They're shoes. They look a bit like the jelly shoes you (well, I... once) used to wear on the beach when you were little. So they're really ugly. But they're supposed to be really comfy. And they are massive in the USA. Huge. I'm sure they're going to come over here. Like UGG boots. I was ahead of the game there too. One day...

5. Anatomicals - shame about the homepage, but this company is cool. Strapline: we only want you for your body. Brilliant! Really nice toilettries, not too expensive and really witty copy on the packaging. Product names include 'giving good head' (shampoo), 'snog me senseless' (breath freshener), 'no old bags allowed' (under-eye gel) and 'help the paw' (hand cream). Excellent!

6. Everyclick - a search engine that donates to charity every time you do a search. Another nice idea!

7. The Breast Cancer Site - does anyone know if this actually works? Click everyday on this site and the others (The Hunger Site, etc) to help people for free. Easy. Job done!

That'll do for now. Better get back to work... Eurgh. Sorry, think positive! New Year's Resolution: be positive, be organised, be creative.

That's a rubbish resolution. Will have to have a think about that...

Ooh, other news - I just knitted my first ever thing. A scarf (surprisingly!). I'm rather proud of myself actually. It's not bad for a first attempt I don't think. Was going to give it to a boy (will talk more about him another time maybe) for Christmas, but I didn't finish it until today and he only went and bought himself a scarf in the sales. Huh!

Oh, and it's snowing today. Lots. I want to go sledging!

It's cold

2005-11-28T23:20:00.000+01:00

Hello! Long time no post... just been a busy bee recently with work and actually having a bit of a social life for once. Oh, and sport - doing lots of training for rowing stuff. It's obviously paying off though - have lost nearly a stone so far. Fantastic!

Ok, a couple of weeks ago I saw the funniest video I've seen in a long time with two Chinese guys miming to a Backstreet Boys song. Here's their blog. It is soooo funny. If you ever need cheering up just check out these guys!

I went to a fancy dress ball on Saturday night. The theme was Icons of the Seventies and Eighties. I went as Blondie. Well, Debbie Harry. I found a great photo...

So, I just changed the white bits to black cos funnily enough I don't have any white mules... blonde wig (hideous), black very mini dress, red knee-high football socks, black four inch heel mules, and red electrical insulating tape wrapped around the dress!! Very funny.

There were some excellent outfits there though. A few Wonderwomen, lots of Ghostbusters, a couple of Adam Ants, some Elvis Presleys, Dangermouse, Timmy Mallet, Tina Turner, Madonna, Princess Leia, Indiana Jones, John Lennon... Loads and loads.

I got very drunk and danced the night away. Brilliant!

Soppy romantic

2005-10-11T23:43:00.000+01:00

Have finally been to see the new Pride and Prejudice film. I thought it was lovely. Very English and lovely and nice. And oh how I want a Mr Darcy to love me too. I am such an old soppy romantic it made me cry at the end. And much as Keira Knightly and Matthew McFadden previously annoyed me with their poutiness, they were both very good. Especially Matthew McFadden. He's just so manly!

FRUSTRATING

2005-10-07T15:38:00.000+01:00

I am really annoyed with myself today. I'm even annoying myself now. I am sooo unproductive at work at the moment. I need to be physically banned from looking at or writing emails. And I need to just sort out my work. I have had too many bad days of NOTHING. It is getting really bad now. I just can't seem to help it. I am so easily distracted it is untrue.

On another note, but still on work avoidance, one of my colleagues sent me this link to and article about the 50th anniversary of the World Press Photo Foundation's annual photo competition. The photos and the stories behind the photos made me cry. I am so stupidly emotional sometimes. My mum told me a story the other day about when I was about 18-months old and watching a programme about these little monkeys in a house and there was one little monkey left all by itself, and apparently she came in the room and I was sitting there with tears streaming down my face! Obviously a very empathetic child.

Rubbiiiish

2005-10-04T22:38:00.000+01:00

I went bowling tonight and I was rubbish rubbish rubbish. I hate being rubbish. My friend was really good. She got three strikes in a row in the third game. Huh.

Was much better at archery at last week. I am currently the bestest in my beginner group by a long way, so that's cool. The plan is working thus far...

Here's a pic, just to spice up the postings a bit. It's one of my favourite places, Holkham beach on the north Norfolk coast.

Ok, so that's not Holkham. I couldn't find the photo I wanted of Holkham. This is a volcano in Washington state in America and I can't remember its name right now because my brain is frazzled. Answers on a postcard please...

Beetroot face

2005-10-03T21:34:00.000+01:00

I haven't done as much exercise as I did this evening in a very long time, and actually, it was great! It was the first session of the winter training programme at the rowing club, and I was kind of dreading it cos I know how unfit I am. But actually, relatively speaking (i.e. compared to everyone else) I wasn't too bad at all. We had to do 15 minutes on the ergo (rowing machine), then a 20 minute run (am not sure I actually did 20 minutes, didn't have a watch) and then another 15 minutes on the ergo. My face was like a beetroot by the end, and nice and sweaty. Lovely. And then, to undo all that good, I came home and ate a chocolate Gu (with two little dots over the 'u') souffle pudding with lots of double cream and it was really really nice.

On Thursday it's circuits. I'm DREADING it. I hate circuits (lots of different exercises, a lot and really hard). I may not live to tell the tale...

I want to be somewhere hot and sunny

2005-09-28T18:21:00.000+01:00

I rediscovered some photos on a CD the other day that a friend took when we were travelling round Australia. Oh how I wish I was there again now...

Not quite Einstein

2005-09-28T17:27:00.000+01:00

Today I have mostly been doing quizzes. Well, not mostly, but I've done a few. And I'm not stupid! Not too much anyway. I did the 'Test the Nation' IQ Test. I don't think it's a proper proper IQ test, but I got 122. So that wasn't bad really. That's really not that interesting is it. I haven't written much recently because there really hasn't been much to write about recently.

Archery again tonight. I'll let you know how my Olympic plan is coming along...

Robin Hood

2005-09-21T22:09:00.000+01:00

I took my first steps on the ladder to Olympic glory today... (you will come to recognise my whimsical ways) have started a beginner's archery course. For some reason archery is one of those sports that might be seen as 'geeky', or definitely a bit walking boots and khaki, or maybe I just thought that was the perception of it. It was really cool! Some skill, some relaxation and some competition. I even managed to get a few bullseyes (I'm not sure if that's what they're called in archery). We have four arrows, and I got a couple of 33 scores (out of 40), so I didn't think that was bad for starters. Interesting bunch of beginners though...

A Few Good Men

2005-09-20T09:30:00.000+01:00

Went to the theatre last night to see 'A Few Good Men'. I really enjoyed it. It made me want to watch the film again. Rob Lowe was in it. He looks quite young still. And his mouth does a funny wonky thing when he shouts. But, yeh, very well written play. And I thought well acted, but what do I know.

Changing a lightbulb

2005-09-19T11:13:00.000+01:00

This post is inspired by a bloke called Dave whose blog I stumbled upon this morning.

This is the joke that was on his blog:

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Only one. But the lightbulb really has to want to change.

And then I tried to remember changing lightbulb jokes I've heard before. But I couldn't. So I Googled the joke instead. Here is a random selection (NB: just because they're on here, doesn't mean I agree with them/like them)...

Q: How many students does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Two. One to hold the lightbulb, one to get so pissed the room starts spinning.

Q: How many Socialists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None. It's not the lightbulb that needs changing, its the system.

Q: How many chav's does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Not as many as it takes to change a heavy one.

Q: How many egotists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One. He holds onto the lightbulb, and waits for the world to revolve around him.

Q: How many Mafia hitmen does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three. One to screw it in, one to watch, and one to shoot the witness.

Q: How many chiropractors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Only one. But it takes nine visits.

Q: How many witches does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: It depends on what you want to change it into.

Q: How many actors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Only one. They don't like to share the spotlight.

Q: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. The bulb will change itself when it is ready.

Q: How many mystery writers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Two. One to screw it almost all the way in and the other to give it a surprising twist at the end.

Q: How many computer programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None, it's a hardware problem.

Q: How many paranoids does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Who wants to know?

Q: How many philosophers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three. One to change it and two to stand around arguing over whether or not the lightbulb exists.

Q: How many countries does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Seven. The Germans to start it and get most of the way. The French to try and give up. The Italians to start going one way and then change their minds. The Swiss to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary is happening. The British to stand firm at home without doing much. The Russians to throw loads of people at it without doing much for ages. The USA to turn up late, twist it the last bit and take all the credit.

Q: How many dogs does it take to change a lightblub?
(This one's too long to fit on here, so check it out at the above link.)

Well, there you go... anymore I really need to know about?

Pets

2005-09-18T19:02:00.000+01:00

There was a really disturbing photograph in one of the Sunday newspapers today of two pit bull terriers attacking a cow somewhere outside New Orleans. They were starving and despite being tossed in the air, sometimes as high as 15ft, they kept at it because they were desperate. The photographer flagged down a Highway patrol car and got them to shoot the dogs. It took two shots to kill one of them.

That is such a sad story. There was another one about a guy with his little old daschund dog that he'd saved and they were both in a tree and the rescuers came along and said he couldn't take his daschund with him, so he had to kill it because otherwise it would starve. That is just awful. Really upsetting. A little old dog, he could have carried in his arms, it wasn't going to live that long anyway. The man's just lost everything except the thing that was most important to him, his dog. And some stupid jobsworth wouldn't let him take it with him? I know there's loads of people to save, blah blah blah, but surely you could use your discretion? I don't know. It's just sad. I know there is no way I could have left Lottie or Tag (our doggies). I just couldn't do it. This is Lottie...

Summerton Mill

2005-09-16T16:26:00.000+01:00

This is a new stop-frame animation called Summerton Mill. It is really really cute. The chickens (the fluffy yellow things with orange feet) are brilliant! Some friends of friends of mine animated it, so that's double-cool (and this is a blatant plug!). Dr Naybhur's song is especially catchy...

A bad and very long winded joke

2005-09-15T22:40:00.000+01:00

I can only remember bad jokes. Here's one that's stuck in my mind for a very long time. It's quite good cos you can make up your own bits to extend it (if you can be bothered)...

Q: What do you call a donkey with three legs?
A: A wonky donkey.

Q: What do you call a donkey with three legs and one eye?
A: A winky wonky donkey.

Q: What do you call a minature donkey with three legs and one eye?
A: A winky wonky dinky donkey.

Q: What do you call a minature donkey with three legs and one eye that can play the piano?
A: A plinky-plonky winky wonky dinky donkey.

Q: What do you call a minature donkey with three legs and one eye that can play the piano and has a bad case of wind?
A: A stinky plinky-plonky winky wonky dinky donkey.

Q: What do you call a really clever minature donkey with three legs and one eye that can play the piano and has a bad case of wind?
A: A thinky stinky plinky-plonky winky wonky dinky donkey.

Q: What do you call a really clever minature donkey with three legs and one eye that can play the piano and has a bad case of wind and wears blue suede shoes?
A: An honky tonky thinky stinky plinky-plonky winky wonky dinky donkey.

Q: What do you call a really clever minature donkey with three legs and one eye that can play the piano and has a bad case of wind, wears blue suede shoes whilst driving a truck?
A: F***ing talented.

Big fat tummy

2005-09-14T21:08:00.000+01:00

My tummy has got fat. It's all bloaty and horrible. I think it's something I ate. Well, probably all the crisps and chocolate and snacks that I've been eating recently. Why, when I know what's good and what's bad for me, do I not have any will-power to eat good stuff and not eat too much. Anyway, that's all very dull.

Watched Spooks last night. I wonder if it's anything like that at all in MI5. I don't think I could join it. MI5 that is (I'd join Spooks, I think Adam's quite fit!). I'm too much of a wimp. And don't have enough faith in my ability. It's all very well working in PR and doing something wrong and it might affect a client, but if you're in MI5 and you do something wrong it might, y'know, affect the whole country. Well, that's the impression I get anyway. I don't think I could be in MI5 unless I was an orphan, or something like that. No one to mind if something happens.

Completely changing the subject, just seen a trailer on TV for the new Pride and Prejudice film. I think Keira Knightly pouts a bit too much when she acts, but it looks like a good film. Well, I just like Pride and Prejudice. Matthew McFadden pouts a bit too so they'll make a good pair! I'll give you the verdict when I go to see it...

Cricket CAN be exciting!

2005-09-12T20:02:00.000+01:00

Ha ha! England have done it! They won the Ashes! Fantastic stuff. All for a teeny weeny trophy that you can hardly see. Ah well, it's not like the footballers who need a big cup to prove their manliness... ha ha. Anyway, very impressive stuff. And so close. And everyone's been so nice about each other and all very respectful of each other. It's all jolly friendly and cucumber sandwiches. But seriously, it is really good, and a great example for kids looking up to their sporting heroes. And if Freddie Flintoff doesn't win the Sports Personality of the Year this year then I'm the Queen of England.

Nice one Zara Phillips at Blenheim too - two Gold medals at the Europeans.

And well done Jensen Button for his third at the thingymajig Grand Prix on Sunday.

Anyone else? Well, there were lots of football matches, but I only follow England on the football stuff, and they were rubbish last week against Northern Ireland. Or rather, Northern Ireland were better than them. So we won't talk about football.

Oh, and get better soon Johnny Wilkinson who's just had his appendix out.

Let's finish on cricket again... WELL DONE ENGLAND!

Monday Monday

2005-09-12T10:21:00.000+01:00

Good morning! How much do I not want to be at work today? Quite a lot. I'd rather be vegging in front of the telly watching the cricket. Not that I know the rules or anything, but Freddie Flintoff is quite cool. And it's something to do. Just fancy doing not very much.

Had quite an action-packed weekend. Sailing on Saturday (we were rubbish) and rowing/sculling yesterday (I was rubbish). I only took up the whole rowing/sculling in May this year, so am still very much a beginner. And yesterday it showed. It was just a local regatta in Cambridge. I was doing a sculling double thingy, and then rowing in an eight. In the eight I caught a massive crab (for those not in 'the know' with the rowing lingo, that's when your blade, or oar, goes in the water at the wrong angle and you can't get it out the water and the end of the blade comes flying towards your head like it's going to decapitate you and then it all goes horribly wrong) and then when I eventually got the stupid blade out the water, my seat had come off the slide thing, and I couldn't get it back on, so I had to row just leaning when everyone else was sliding and it was just a bit rubbish cos if I hadn't messed up then we might have won cos we were coming back at them at the end. RUBBISH! Very frustrating at my crapness.

Anyway, back to work I suppose...

Doing nothing

2005-09-06T23:27:00.000+01:00

At the moment, I am mastering the art of doing nothing. Kind of. I sit at my desk at work, and don't really know what to do. I'm kind of having a crisis of confidence or something. So, I check out some websites, read my emails, read some magazines, shuffle some papers, and think about tidying my desk. I don't usually get round to actually tidying my desk because that's a bit too obvious for everyone else to see. And it seems to pass the time. But I have to say, doing nothing's not all it's cracked up to be. I need to get motivated. They randomly gave me a pay rise today. Good job they are in another office, away from the procrastination. Perhaps they twigged I've been going for interviews and maybe they do actually want to keep me there?! Who knows. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth though, so thanks very much!

This post was inspired by 'La la la', today's post on Flip Flop Flying

Why am I here?

2005-09-05T23:31:00.000+01:00

And other rubbish. I turned down a job today. I've done that three times this year. Not the same job, obviously. I think I must be turning into some kind of interview whore - see how many I can get and then turn them all down NYAH HA HAAA. It stresses me out every time. And every time I do the whole 'soul searching' and 'what do I want to do with my life' thing, and then actually end up doing nothing. So, there we are. I could have changed my life, but I didn't.

But of course, that all pales in comparison to all the mega horrible stuff going on in the world at the moment. New Orleans and the whole hurricane thing is just horrendous. And the death stampedes in Bagdhad. And just general nastiness in the world. It's so upsetting that generally I try not to think about it. It's a bit of an ostrich perspective, but it would properly overwhelm me and then I'd spend most of my time crying. So perhaps I should be happy all the time, and try to make other people a bit happier and then that's my bit done?!

Nearly the weekend

2005-09-02T10:05:00.000+01:00

Well, in today's quiz I got a BIG FAT ZERO!! How amusing. Some really bad guessing going on today. Oh well.

Here's another photo. It's Lance Armstrong at this year's Tour de France. His last one. He's AMAZING! Look at his face. This was near the end of one of, if not the, toughest stage. It finished at the top of the Pla-d’Adet in the Pyrenees. My dad and uncle cycled up it before the Tour came through. It's totally mad actually. Hundreds of people waiting hours and hours to see them cycle past in a few seconds. It's better on the mountains because it probably takes about ten seconds for them to cycle past instead of about two on the flat.

Sticky art

2005-09-02T00:10:00.000+01:00

Just experimenting with the photo thingy again. Here are some pretty clematis (not sure if that's the plural too) from our garden this summer. It appears we are having a bit of an Indian summer this year. It was BAKING yesterday. Why is it called an Indian summer?

So much is not going on in my life at the moment. Well, the potential is there for lots to be going on but actually I'm rubbish when there's too much to choose from.

Was wondering (for the 1000th time) the other day, how many photos are there in the world that I am randomly in? Who has got me in the background of their 'London tourist photo' or 'Sydney tourist photo' or 'Live 8 concert photo' or anything?! It's a weird thought.

Read something today about a guy who does 3D pavement art who has also taken to making mini masterpieces out of chewing gum that has been spat on the pavement. I think it's horrible to spit chewing gum on the pavement. This guy, Ben Wilson, started doing the art as his statement against horrible people who spit their chewing gum on the ground. Here's a couple of examples. Apparently there are 300,000 pieces of gum stuck to Oxford Street. Whilst trying to find a link for Ben Wilson, I also happened upon Gum Blondes. A guy called Jason from Canada chews bubble gum and then sticks it to plywood to make portraits of famous blonde ladies. People are so weird aren't they - how on earth did he come up with that idea?! "I know, I'll do art from bubble gum!" Hmmm. Anyway, there's Paris Hilton on there, Anna Kournikova, Sarah Michelle Gellar. I'm not sure if No.II is meant to be Britney? You can definitely see the skill level increase from the rather, well, childlike 'Gum Blonde I' to No.XII pretty impressive Marilyn Monroe creation. Excellent!

TFI Friday

2005-08-26T10:13:00.000+01:00

Yahoo, it's Friday at last and it's a bank holiday weekend. Yippee!

It's quiz time again: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4185542.stm I got 3 today. I'm really quite rubbish. Everyone else so far has got 3 as well, so not too embarrassing today.

Watched the fourth episode of LOST last night. I'm going to keep watching it. Even though apparently they don't get rescued until the end of the second series. By then I'll have invested nearly a year of my life watching it once a week! Oh well.

Sudoku

2005-08-25T16:59:00.000+01:00

These Sudoku things drive me mad. They are everywhere now. Who invented them? I wish I'd thought of it, I might be rich by now. It took me weeks to actually complete one of the 'gentle' ones. I got fed up and gave up before I finished (cos obviously I could, if I wanted to!). But then, on Monday I completed the HARD level on Yahoo! Sudoku (http://www.nonzero.it/yahoouk/). Well, sort of. I was having a Sudoku race with my friend Kirstie, but neither of us could take the pressure and made mistakes. Which is REALLY annoying because then you have to start again. Except I didn't. I just clicked 'View Solution' to find the wrong ones. Does that make me a cheater?

Crash

2005-08-21T11:09:00.000+01:00

Went to the cinema last night to see Crash. It made me cry. Quite a lot actually. I do cry at films and TV programmes quite a lot. Lassie, a regular fixture in my viewing schedule when I was little, always used to make me cry. Crash made me cry because of the tragedy of some peoples' lives. And because of huge injustices and prejudices in the world. It was actually quite depressing. There were some uplifting moments. But the over-riding feeling I had was sadness. Mostly because the stuff being depicted is almost definitely true, to a certain extent. There are people like that in the world. And it gets me so cross because it's such a huge deal, and it seems that really things like racism, bigotry, injustice, misunderstanding, disrespect, violence, crime, narrow-mindedness, discrimination, inequality, extremism... they'll never stop. I'm sure I've been guilty of some of those things myself at some point or another, deliberately or not, but it seems like there's a cycle of feeling and attitude that's hard to shake but also very hard to pin down. Humans are complicated beings.

It's QUIZ time!

2005-08-19T10:21:00.000+01:00

We do a weekly quiz at work. It's the one on the BBC's website. I am RUBBISH! I think my average is about 2 out of 7. Have a go: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4164034.stm I got 3 today. It's hard. And you have to be good at guessing. I used to be good. But now I'm not. It's getting a bit competitive at work now. And I'm last. BUM!

The Siiiimpsons

2005-08-18T10:17:00.000+01:00

So, I read today that Princes William and Harry are going to be in The Simpsons. I think that's really cool. I have to say, I am a fan of the Royal Family anyway. For their 61p per person a year, I think they're good value. They're a great tourist attraction if nothing else. But actually I think Queenie does good stuff. I'd like to meet her. One day maybe...

Testing testing one two three

2005-08-18T00:46:00.000+01:00

Brad Pitt at Live 8

Hello again, just trying to figure out this whole photo on the blog thing...

All alone

2005-08-18T00:31:00.000+01:00

Well, I thought I'd give this whole blogging thing another go. I forgot my password and stuff for a while, but had an epiphany or something this evening and remembered it all! I'm home alone at the moment, which is why I'm up late (this is late for me) and writing rubbish. I keep reading Craig's blog at Flip Flop Flying and it's always really good, but he always thinks of something cool to write about. Perhaps random, but always interesting. And then photos too (haven't worked out how to do that bit properly yet) and his illustrations. Hmmm, what can I talk about. Well, as it's my blog I can talk about me! No one's ever going to read this, ever, so I guess I can just ramble and type until I can type no more. Or get bored. Or whatever. Oh yes, I know what I wanted to talk about - did you see that guy in the news who built a boat out of lollipop sticks? He said it was (and I quote) a "dream come true". Who has a dream to build a replica Viking ship out of lollipop sticks and sail it across the Atlantic????? Did I miss something? Should my ambitions (small as they are) be directed elsewhere? Perhaps I should be making a scale model of the Eiffel Tower out of Jelly Babies. No, that would be silly. Jelly Babies would get eaten. But you know what I mean. How do people think up these weird things to do? Or, more to the point, why? Why spend two years of your life making a Viking ship out of small sticks of wood? As you can probably tell, I'm just not getting it. It looked cool though!

Bored

2005-04-28T16:23:00.000+01:00

I keep thinking it's Friday. I really wish it was. One day closer to the weekend. Just sitting at my desk being bored. Which is stupid really because I've really got lots to do but I just can't be bothered. Have just had a very yummy oatmeal and raisin cookie though, so all is not that bad really.

A brand new day

2005-04-26T08:58:00.000+01:00

Hello. I've decided to give this blogging thing a go. Not sure how long I'll last. Not sure why anyone would be interested in reading about my daily comings and goings, but anyway! Will try and make it interesting. Well, hopefully something interesting will happen in my life!