Saturday, 8 May 2010

i know i should go to bed, but

- this is fun
- this is saturday
- i'll have to go to bed early for the rest of the week so i should take advantage of the opportunity to stay up
- there's still wine left
- it's nice to have time on my own

*yawn*

- i feel creative - maybe i'll have a fantastic idea that will give my life meaning for ages
- i need time to digest the events of the week
- i love this song
- i love this song even better
- i'm making plans
- i totally love this song

*air guitar*

*yawn*

WAAAA!!! I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED !!!

*yawn*

and when, exactly, does the wisdom with age turn up?

Thursday, 6 May 2010

swimming tonight was
very.
hard.
work.
indeed.
i swear the only thing pulling me through the water was the vision of a juicy pork chop, new season asparagus and a glass of rioja waiting for me at home. this probably explains why i am not getting any thinner. well cry me a river. perhaps i will just embrace my belly fat although technically i suppose my belly fat is embracing me.

if the polls are correct then by tomorrow i will really have something to cry about. i will know if the tories get in by the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the flat above ours and if that sound reaches my ears i will turn off my alarm and snuggle into the duvet and possibly not bother getting up at all. for 4 years. (belly fat: "cool - that sounds good - endless breakfast in bed!" me: "no catering - you'd just waste (waist?) away" belly fat: "sod that. did you say there were pork chops?" )

sigh

on the up side, we're going to see gogol bordello tomorrow night at the hammersmith apollo - stall tickets. i'm going to dance like the fool that i am and abandon all decorum. or at least such decorum that remains after my 35 years on this planet (not alot in case you were wondering). and i found a library i'm allowed to join (post grads only! can't be me, but apparently is) that has all the books i could ever dream about for my dissertation. and it's asparagus season. (belly fat: "now we're talking")

here's what we'll be dancing to tomorrow:

Friday, 30 April 2010

she said yes!

after months and months of procrastinating ("i'll just get through this term..." "i'll wait to get this paper back..." "well this is the last term i'll just get this out of the way...") i finally got around to trying to disinvest myself of my assigned dissertation supervisor and getting the one i wanted. and she said yes!

thank you thank you thank you!

now i have alot of work to do as we are meeting on tuesday and i have no idea what the hell i'm writing about and i am supposed to have been thinking about this for the last 2 years.

details details

Sunday, 25 April 2010

Sunday, 4 April 2010

hoppy easter*

* favourite ale at margate beer festival last friday

after having cooked, then squaffed a (may i say so myself) really really good lunch, our friends having gone home to nap ("nap"?!), we are now outside in the garden for the first time this year, fire raging, humph all tucked up in a fleece blanket, listening to odd music (neal's player - mine ran out of battery). there's wine left over from lunch (oh happy days) and contentment runs high.

this easter weekend has been cold, rainy and windy. not at all what we had envisioned but probably what we should have expected, y'know, living in england and all. it was, however, perfectly conducive to staying in, napping, and getting all comfort food-y. risottos and carbonaras, curies and natchos. yum.

and today, i finally made a successful caramel (on the 2nd try). this was almost a disaster as i only had enough double cream for one batch of caramel and one batch of ganache (dark chocolate tart with salty-peanut caramel base - and yes, it was as good as it sounds). and, yes, i burned the first batch of caramel beyond belief. and then i STILL poured the cream in, thinking, (not believing) maybe it's SUPPOSED to be that way. there really is such a thing as being too open-minded.

so, no cream, no problem, this being 2010 and all, we'll just nip to the shops and pick up some more. except that due to some historic (hysteric) law, stores with more than a gnat's crotchet of floor space are not allowed to open on easter sunday in the uk, which knocked out the 2 main supermarkets. This left the small co-op ("smaller than a gnat's crotchet" - you heard it here first). we rushed (literally) to the shop, only to gaze upon an empty shelf bearing the sign "two for one double cream".

"maybe" we said to ourselves, "tesco won't really be closed and we can still buy double cream." neither of us believed this for one second but desperate times, desperate measures, and lo, our faith was rewarded . the tesco garage was open, and had two cartons of long-life double cream, which we snapped up with unseeming (and, undoubtedly to the cashier, inexplicable) haste. i will never understand the workings of uk supermarkets.

anyways 2nd time lucky, tart a triumph, and if anyone has further recipe suggestions for the pint of single cream (bought at the co-op just in case) or the pint of double cream (just in case i needed multiple caramel attempts) please let me know.

insurance cream. good grief.

Sunday, 28 March 2010

adopt a greyhound!

you know you want to...

Friday, 26 March 2010

and an unfortunate author name...


well of course it is!

"the sales boost that will now inevitably occur..." !!