A random doodle.
I quite like elephants.

Ladies and gentlemen, this morning I woke with a solemn intent to proof-read my dissertation and create a final first draft. Instead, the circus came to town and now an elephant is sitting on my Appendix. I didn’t plan this one, I just followed my pen… I think the fact that he is staring maniacally at a water droplet reflects my current mental state.
Anything is more interesting than doing work!

An Asian Pear.
Sitting on a free literature review magazine… 

Anyway, so this isn’t a complete waste of time, I am going to review the above fruit. The Asian Pear. I believe this one is closer to a Chinese pear; it is pyriform, whereas Japanese pears are round – there is your fun fact for the day! I didn’t particularly enjoy it. It had little to no taste, however this is England we’re talking about, and getting good foreign fruit here is nigh on impossible. To it’s credit, the Asian Pea was crisp and refreshingly juicy, but not so juicy that it would drip down your hands. It started to taste a little bit sweet near the middle.
I feel I’ve probably had a bad experience; my friend was raving about this fruit a month or so back. So, give it a shot; who knows, you may be more lucky!

:)

A very tasty burger and chips.
Courtesy of The Rusty Bicycle (Oxford).

Last night was… interesting. I went clubbing for a friend’s birthday, and it was the first time I’ve done said activity in over a year. I’m not a tom-boy but I’m an enemy of all high-heels and whilst I love some good loud music, I prefer band performances to DJ sets. Anyway, that’s not really the point. The point is I had a bit of headache when I woke up this morning. I know, I’m terrible. But it was a lovely day so my housemates and a friend and I decided to get out and find ourselves a pub lunch. Nothing better for mild hangovers than good food!

The pub we “discovered” has actually been visited by us in the past, but only for drinks. All I can say is I wish we’d eaten there sooner; the food was fantastic, but the experience has a nice unique flare to it. The flare mostly involved blocks of wood; the menus are blocks of wood with brown paper stuck to them with the creatively written options. I don’t think they were handwritten but it would be amazing if they were… I spent about five minutes freaking out over the menu form, I forgot I was supposed to be choosing something to eat. I made my housemate, Nick, pose with it for you:

His enthusiasm is inspiring! Oh, and that’s Hugh’s thumb…

Anyway, the food came on big blocks of wood also. Again, I couldn’t contain my excitement; how unusual and exciting and just plain awesome! We wondered how close they were to the first invented plate. This made the sophistication of trying something novel seem more like we were just regressing to being cavemen.

A pleasant was had by all. I definitely recommend this pub; great atmosphere, and not massively crowded. One great memory I have of this place is one time my housemates and I and Lara’s boyfriend went for a post-coursework-deadline drink. I had a little too much red wine and whilst reaching to grab a crisp I managed to throw my glass all over some poor gentlemen’s bag. He was French, and had a great sense of humour; he said “Oh, that’s Spanish wine, you can throw that on the floor any day!”

Have a good day people and go explore a new pub/food place!

:)

Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Vol.9: The Kindly Ones

—

I felt this had to be shared.
Gaiman is an incredible author, if you haven’t read any of his work yet, do it. Do it now!

My newest creation.
Spicy bean and chickpea curry. 

Right-o! In the name of being healthy I have been gathering ideas for more vegetarian dishes that I can make. This here is Exhibit A – Chickpea and Mixed Bean Curry. It’s fairly mild, cost me £1.50 to feed four people and took 15 minutes to make. If you are a student or anyone else who is squeezed for time/lazy/almost too tired to lift the saucepan, then I recommend this for you. Though I will stress right now, it’s very basic…

You will need:

• Rice (however much you eat yourself, multiply by the number of people)
• 1 x Can of Mixed Bean Salad
• 1 x Can of Chickpeas
• 1 x Can of chopped tomatoes
• Some mild curry powder (again, this is to your taste, I won’t give you measurements)
• 2 x Medium-sized saucepans.

The “How-To”:

Bagheera and his girlfriend.

Let me tell you something about my garden in Oxford. Firstly, we were told to “keep the grass in good condition”. “The grass” consists of dandelion leaves and occasional tree sprout (courtesy of the family of squirrels that live in the tree next door). Secondly, it is a battleground for upwards of three cats. Who knows what they are fighting over; the territory is far from classy and, whilst I love cats, we don’t leave any treats out for them. The battles are sometimes fierce and scare me when I’m trying to take a shower. Actually one of them popped in through the bathroom window once… we worried that it was a clever thief sending in a camera on a cat to assess our wealth. He didn’t come back, clearly because we’re poor as pennies.

Anyway, today we were visited by one of my favourite felines, Mister Bagheera (on the wall). As you can see, he is a big black cat, somewhat akin to a baby panther. He is my favourite because he provokes a round of Disney’s The Jungle Book songs. But today he was a particular ray of sunshine because he brought with him a beautiful little girlcat. Clearly the panther of the back-garden has proven his brute strength and won himself a lady friend.

Happy days!

:)

My kiddy food tower!

You’re never too old to enjoy eating spaghetti shapes. Today for lunch I had Bob the builder. I chased Pilchard all the way round the plate and then onto a piece of toast before devouring him… I mean, sending him on a mysterious journey to a magical place…

I’m on a bit of food discovery drive at the moment so I bought several snack-sized packets of nuts (various), some Asian pears, some curry powder and a tin of mixed beans. Here’s to healthy  new discoveries!

I really should be getting on with work, so unfortunately this is a short one. Today’s words of encouragement are: play with your food. Seriously, it will improve your day just that tiny bit…

Slowly they walk.
Relentless in their pace.

Ok, technically this is an old photo, it’s not from today. I was on the road to university today and it was hectic and I completely forgot to take a photo. Anyway, this one is from Reading station, upon which I planted my bottom earlier having missed a train. This was the exact same scenario in which the photo was taken several months ago, and it gave me a massive sense of dé-ja vu.

I called the photo “Zombie Nation” because in train stations people automatically follow a certain pace; if you don’t you get shoved, pushed or trodden on, and trying to go faster rarely gets you anywhere. Everyone is also very anonymous; character isn’t often seen at a busy train station because everyone is too busy trying to get somewhere, or too tired after coming from somewhere. It’s surreal and sometimes frightening.

I am totally wiped from the journey so that is all from me. I hope you enjoy the anonymous legs. I like to think that is how a friendly station rat might see the world in rush hour.

Obviously the first word has been changed slightly so as to cause less offence to those who don’t like swearing/cussing. And it is my solemn duty to point out that this is not a genuine or accurate analysis of the phrase “shiz and giggles”; if you are looking for seriousness, move on!

The context:

The phrase “shiz and giggles” is used in reference to doing something that you know is impossible to achieve, or is believed to be so, but you are going to try anyway. Example: “I’m going to apply to Oxford University with my three E grades, just for the shiz and giggles”.

The Analysis:

Used to describe an event that has the ability to a) make you defecate in your pants, b) laugh like a crazed hyena, and c) both simultaneously. Example: “If I got an interview at Oxford University on my three E grades, I would defecate and laugh my head off out of pure shock”.

The Origin:

Clearly events like these have been around for centuries; applying for impossibly positions in education or work,  having babies because you marriage is getting somewhat dull,  jumping off bridges into rivers whilst drunk, eating cat food… the list goes on. But when was this phrase first coined?
The answer lies with the Neanderthals. Clearly when they started haring around after woolly mammoths they were doing it with this exact attitude in mind. Example: “Hey, those mammoths are huge and terrifying! They may charge us and make us defecate with fear, or they may make us laugh our heads off with their silly trumpeting noises… or both! Let’s do it! For the shiz and giggles!”.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen.

This is what happens when language-loving undergraduate anthropologists get bored.

Snowdrops.
Pretty, pretty snowdrops.

Well, today has been very busy! I’m heading back to university tomorrow so I’ve been doing a lot of packing and tidying. Saw Alex (my now ex-boyfriend) a last time until whenever, just to prove we could be friends, as you do. And I have just got back from my dad’s birthday meal at a gorgeous Indian restaurant.

Honestly, I’m a bit too drained physically, mentally and emotionally to write today. But those pretty little snowdrops made me happy so I hope they do the same for you! A lovely thing about flowers is how they never give up reaching for their goal; the sun. Maybe they have no conscious choice in the matter but to me it’s still a little cause of inspiration… Keep reaching for yours, people!

:)

We went to Brighton…
And stumbled across Naked Tea and Coffee Company.
It was a revelation. 

This tea place was AMAZING! They had so many types of tea, and uncommon tea, and RARE tea. It’s one of the best things I’ve stumbled across in ages. And not just because of all the new and unique flavours I could pick from, oh no, it was a totally new experience…

As you can see in the photo, we got teacups, we got spoons, but we also got this funny transparent containers. These containers, my friends, are the bees knees. Basically, you put your tea and your hot water in them. You watch your tea brew. And then you take the container and clip it on to the top of your mug, which releases a seal, and it filters the contents through a hole in the bottom.
If you are not a tea fanatic, or have seen this before, then it’s not that exciting. But for me it really was; I’m squeaking a little at the memory!

If you’re looking to try a new café haunt then I really recommend this place; the upstairs has all kinds of seating from regular tables and chairs to bar-height stools and even a section where you can just sprawl out on the floor with cushions with little tables to put your tea on. Needless to say my friends and I took to the cushions. It was so comfy…

Today’s little message, I guess, would be to make sure you try something new! Adventures, even of a small “new tea shop” variety, are fun; we could have gone to Costa or Starbucks, I could have had normal PG Tips tea. But we didn’t, I didn’t and it was great!

I actually ended up drinking an “uncommon” tea that was once only served to emperors.  I think it was magical tea; my boyfriend and I have split up, I’m devastated and I won’t bore you with the details here, but the tea actually managed to make me feel happy, hyper and frisky for a good hour. If you’re miserable – DRINK IT!

I forgot its name though… oops.

Oh, and you can buy one of those groovy tea-brewing containers here.

:)