Archive for November, 2008
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
I’m not a perfect human being but I try and recycle everything I can, I sell gadgets I don’t love rather than have them sit in a drawer, I try not to take long showers despite the cold weather, I take public transport, I turn things off standby.
And sometimes it gets annoying when all you see is advertisements for anti-climate-change. If it’s not recycle more it’s reduce your international travel or by local produce to reduce your food miles and I even saw an article about peeing on your lawn to save water by not flushing your toilet.
That’s why I’m glad when Top Gear comes on. For once it’s something that isn’t all about climate change. It’s not scaring us all into submission when some of us actually do what they can. It gives us a much needed break from all the hype and blah blah blah.
Tags: carbon footprint, climate change, food miles, recycle, standby, top gear, travel
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Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
After being back in NZ (not that I got a taste of it then) I had a hankering for some ginger crunch. So I whipped up a batch over the weekend and polished off the last piece today. Of course I at least doubled the amount of ginger in the recipe for a bit of a kick.
Ginger Crunch Recipe (thanks to Edmonds and Chelsea)
Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups standard grade flour
1 teaspoon baking power
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Ginger Icing
75g butter
1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
3 teaspoons ground ginger
Method
Preheat oven to 190°C.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder and ginger together. Mix into creamed mixture. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board. Knead well. Press dough into a greased 20 x 30 cm sponge roll tin. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until light brown. Pour ginger icing over base while hot and cut into squares before it gets cold.
Ginger Icing
In a small saucepan combine butter, icing sugar, golden syrup and ginger. Heat until butter is melted, stirring constantly.
Tags: baking, chelsea, edmonds, food, ginger, ginger crunch, new zealand, NZ, recipe
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Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
I’m not a complete purist when it comes to food but I know when to draw the line. Fusion food has never been high on my list of foods to eat/try. In some cases it works perfectly, for example, Kai in the City serves up delicious Maori fusion food. Why does it work? Because without the light touches of fresh veges and splashes of olive oil here and there it can be quite stodgy and uninviting. Bravo on fusion there.
My one horror story of fusion food was to find out that Chow do a blue cheese wonton. There are two things in this world that you just do not mess with: wontons and Chuck Norris.
Tags: blue cheese, chow, chuck norris, food, fusion, kai, maori, olive oil, wonton
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Monday, November 17th, 2008
I found the bag I was looking for a few weeks back in Reading today. It looked better in my memories. It was brown in reality and not nearly as pretty but still just as cheap. I resisted seeing as I’d just purchased a new set of snowboarding gear when I’ve yet to use my other (brand new) set… eep.
In other news, I bought my first pair of girly shoes today… in all their pointy glory they stand.
Tags: bag, handbag, heels, jacket, pants, pointy, pointy shoes, reading, shoes, shopping, snow
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Sunday, November 16th, 2008
The last time I paid for a haircut must have been around 2000. Say you average around 3 haircuts a year at £30 (is that how much it’s meant to cost???), that’s £90 a year and a total of £720 saved. What could I get for that?
More importantly, how much fun do I have cutting my own hair?! Of course it’s easy because it’s so long that if I make a mistake a ponytail will disguise it.
More hair history:
Mum had cut my hair short (chin length) when I was around 10 or 11. Needless to say it’s never been that short again. I bleached my hair when I was 17 and it took three years to grow out completely. In 2005 I sprouted a weird fringe out of nowhere. Turns out that my long hair had fallen out and was being replaced by wispy annoyances. I’m still growing it out and it’s below my chin now (would be longer if it hadn’t been for my free at home haircuts).
Oh the joys.
Tags: bleach, dye, hair, haircut, mum
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Saturday, November 15th, 2008
While on the train into London today I saw the following graffiti on the back of a train seat:
- I ♥ Ricky P Smith 4 eva ♥ Georgia
- I LUV U HAPPY
- I LOVE AVERY FOREVER (thank goodness this one at least had correct, non-SMS spelling!)
I fought the urge to add my own. If I had, it would have read: I love lamp.
Tags: graffiti, heart, Henley, i love lamp, lamp, london, steve carell, train
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Friday, November 14th, 2008
That’s right. It’s getting to be that time of year where people are bantering around the word “Christmas”. The Christmas lights on Regent Street are already up and Christmas parties are being organised. I have had my Christmas plans since last Christmas and just need to fine tune the minor details now.
The reason I’m mentioning all this now? Because I’ve just bought the second lot of gifts I’ll need for this year. I tried a combination of creativity with do-gooder for this batch. The first batch was pure style.
Tags: christmas, creative, gift, present
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Thursday, November 13th, 2008
That darn cat. I’m becoming more and more attached to her which I believe is a hazard. What if I want to keep her? What if I have to give her away? Maybe all this staying home is unhealthy for mine and the cat’s relationship…
Tags: cat, home, stumpy
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Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
When I was in high school I decided that I was never going to “get drunk”. I was more than happy to drink but being the goody-two-shoes I was I decided that I would last my entrie life without getting drunk.
Then I tried drinking for the first time…
It was at a wedding and I had intentionally tried to drink lots. I ended up having four glasses of wine and an Export Gold all on a pretty much empty stomach. Needless to say by the end of the night I was being held up while trying to “whisper” to my parents that I wasn’t drunk and was later found sitting in the bathroom throwing up all sorts of nasties while the people I was with were trying to convince me to tell my parents that I ate some bad chicken (I was sober/drunk and smart/dumb enough to say, “Why don’t I just tell them I’m drunk?!”). And if that wasn’t enough, I have a literal Kodak moment where my dad took a photo of me throwing up in our garden.
First moments are so precious.
Tags: alcohol, drunk, first, kodak, kodak moment, teenage, teenager
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Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
It’s actually quite amazing the amount of stuff I’ve managed to collect in the past year.
After two weeks of being back in the country and the recent purchase of five storage boxes (thanks Eddy) I have finally decided to unpack. The discovery of many great items lurking in my closet comes at a great time when a) I’m seeking employment (read: unemployed) and b) there’s a recession going on.
Leading on from point a) I really need to do this before I get a job because apathy and procrastination will set in and it will never be done and my belongings will be destined to reside in the homeless suitcases they have resided in since March.
Aside from turning Ed’s master bedroom into nothing short of a bombsite I am making progress… although five was not enough boxes.
Tags: ed, homeless suitcase, organise, tidy
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