stephanoffle waffle...

Xmas mix 2011

2011-12-07T21:59:00.004Z

Yes, it's that time of year again. A spotify playlist can be found here. So here's the run down of this years mix cd...

1.wintersleep – drunk on aluminium

I first discovered Wintersleep through the black cab sessions website. Their song "weighty ghost" just got stuck in my head and refused to budge. I starred the track on spotify, but didn't really listen much further until October, when I listened to the album obsessively for a week. And so should you...

2.efterklang - alike

I'd heard of Efterklang, but never heard any of their music until I went to go and see a showing of their film with Vincent Moon, An Island, at the Cube early in the year. To be honest, I mostly went because most of my friends were going, and it was free. I was completely captivated by the film and the music in it and highly recommend checking it out - a lovely mix of beautiful music in significant places. This song is one of my favourite performances from the film.

3.okkervil river - westfall

I missed Okkervil River at End of the Road, but my friend Chris recommended I checked them out as they were playing in Bristol. The first time I heard the first few bars of this song I knew I'd like them. I'm still working my way through their back catalogue, but they were awesome live - great performance, a really long set and generally really lovely music.

4.first aid kit – i met up with a king

Oh First Aid Kit, how I love thee. I can't remember how I discovered them, but I cannot stop listening to them. Two sisters with beautiful interweaving haunting vocals and songs that make me want to go and lie in a forest and look at the stars. And you should definitely check out their version of Tiger Mountain Peasant Song by Fleet Foxes (their youtube cover is what made them famous).

5.sweet baboo – how i’d live my life

This discovery was stolen from my friend Jess's facebook. She posted the video to this song (see below) on her facebook wall, and it was so full of summer that I couldn't help but listen to it again and again. And the further away from summer we get, the more I love it...

6.blind pilot – 3 rounds and a sound

I saw these guys supporting the lovely Decemberists earlier this year. Often support acts can be a bit disappointing, but these guys were amazing, and I'd have paid to go and see them alone. I mean, what's not to like about a band that has a vibraphone as an instrument. Lovely album that's been one of my most played this year.

7.she keeps bees – ribbon

I haven't listened to much she keeps bees stuff in general, but I CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO THIS SONG. Such a strong and distinctive voice. Lovely. I don't know what else to say, other that I love it.

8.soulsavers - revival

My friend Gavin shared this on facebook. Cue obsessive listening for a week. I love the gospel tones with Mark Lanegan's vocals cutting through... Beautiful.

9.sia – breathe me

I got introduced to this song when my friend Liam used it as the backing track for the video he made of my origami bombing. So for me it is a beautiful reminder of a project and will forever remind me of that. Just those beginning few bars are enough to make me smile...

10.this is the kit – birchwood beaker

Last year a few of my friends made me mix cds in return for the ones I gave out. My friend Paula put this song on hers and I love it. I saw This Is the Kit last year at a gig that my friend Joe put on, but I didn't get round to listening to any of the albums until I heard this song again on Paula's cd. It just reminds me of snow and wintery walks and cold fingers...

11.james vincent mcmorrow – hear the noise that moves so soft and low

I spent a lot of time at Green Man festival sorting out and running the treasure hunt that we put on. On the Friday evening when my friend James arrived, I decided it was time I heard some music, and so we went on a bit of a wander to see what was on. We stopped at the big top and heard this guy play. We were both so taken with the music that we stayed for the rest of the gig.

12.dan mangan - robots

Oh Dan Mangan. *Sigh*. I love Dan Mangan. Yes, it's true. And it's not just that he's Canadian and bearded. He also happens to make rather lovely music too. I managed to see him at Green Man festival this year, and this song was probably my festival highlight. When it got to the "robots need love too" refrain, he jumped into the audience, and walked through, playing unplugged and getting everyone to sing. And everyone did. Awesome. Kudos to Chris H for the intro..

13.curtis eller – taking up serpents again

My friend Dan posted about Curtis Eller earlier in the year, but I couldn't go to the gig as I was telling a story at an event that night. Fortunately he decided to grace Bristol with his presence again, and so I got a second chance. Definitely one of my favourite gigs of the year, featuring high kicks and yodelling. He also performed most of the gig sat on the bar in the middle of the venue as he claimed he couldn't see the audience at the back...

14.josh ritter – girl in the war

I genuinely don't know who recommended Josh Ritter to me. So whoever it was, thankyou - I found a note on my phone last month telling me to listen to him, but I can't remember when Iwrote it. But I listened to him, and liked his music a lot, so here he is.

15.detektivbyran – e18

My friend Patrick was in Bristol for a training course and played me some Detektivbyran, and I was instantly hooked. I have no idea how to describe it to people, but I love it. I was pretty gutted when I found out they're no longer together and that I therefore won't get to see them live. This album also provided much road trip entertainment for a couple of friends on their honeymoon, and so will also always remind me of them...

16.delaney davidson – i slept late

My friend Scruff puts on gigs at the Cube, and she'd arranged for Delaney Davidson to come and play, as she'd seem him in New Zealand and raved about him. I went along, camera in tow, and was blown away. With just a guitar and a loop pedal, he crafted some amazing songs. And he organised the first waltz competition that I've ever seen at a gig....

17.herman dune – my home is nowhere without you

Another one that I discovered through my friend Dan, who posted this video on facebook. I mean, what's not to love about a furry blue thing... I managed to catch them at the Thekla earlier in the year, and then saw part of their set again at End of the Road too...

18.lulu & the lampshades - cups

This is probably my most listened to song this year. It gets stuck in my head and I sing it for weeks. My friend Paula posted it on my facebook wall, and I loved the concept and the video. Watch and love...

19.shout out louds – very loud

Another one where I'm not quite sure how I discovered it. It might have been my friend Chris H, but I'm not sure.. Either way I love it and it makes me want to get up and dance...

20.los campesinos! – you! me! dancing!

Now this definitely was an introduction via Chris H. And it's awesome. The clue is in the title, but it will make you want to dance. With an exclamation mark. And it's an excellent song for a road trip, driving through windy roads in the sunshine...

Steph's xmas mix 2010

2010-12-19T12:08:00.003Z

One of my favourite things about making an annual mix cd, is looking through and working out where I found out about all the songs. Previous years can be found here and here. You can find a spotify copy of the mix here (there’s a few missing cos they’re not on spotify)

Matt & Kim – Lessons Learned

Bizarrely this band were introduced to me by ending up on a friend’s “Best of 2009” list. I went to visit my friend John in Bath, and he played me a couple of their songs (and showed me the awesome video. Toe tapping, catchy and fun.

The Black Keys – Everlasting Light

A bit of an “I’m not sure” about how I found this one. I’m pretty sure that someone put The Black Keys on at a party I was at. But I didn’t remember much about it. Bored one day, I stuck in into Spotify, and got hooked, especially to this song.

The Tallest Man On Earth – The Gardner

This was an introduction from my friend Jo that led to obsessive listening of his first album, which was soon joined by obsessive listening of his second. I saw half of his set at Green Man (clashing with another band) and was so blown away that I travelled to London to see him again (well worth the trip). I *love* his voice, although it turns out that he’s actually pretty short...

The Avett Brothers – Paranoia in B-Flat Major

I discovered The Avett Brothers from an interview with one of the guys from Mumford and Sons. The first album I discovered was The Second Gleam, which is a beautiful and mellow album. Then my friend Jon suggested I listened to Emotionalism, which is more upbeat, but equally great. I love this song – makes me smile every time I listen to it.

Fanfarlo – The Walls Are Coming Down

Another one that I have no idea how I discovered it. If you’re responsible, then thanks, and give yourself a pat on the back from me! This song is very me – I mean, it’s got a banjo in it! Lovely and catchy.

Peggy Sue – Yo Mama

I discovered Peggy Sue through the Laura Marling/Mumford and Sons/Johnny Flynn London group of artists. This is the first one of their songs I heard (they had an EP before releasing their album this year), and remains my favourite.

Matthew and the Atlas – I Will Remain

I knew the name, but I’d never heard the music til I caught them supporting Mumford and Sons in October. Instantly grabbed by his soulful and unusual voice I bought the EP that was on sale that evening. Which was followed the next day by their first EP. It’s very predictably my kind of music – folky with a banjo and accordion – but they do it so well.

Cherbourg – Never Love Again

Another one I read about in the Mumford and Sons interview. In typical style, I discovered them after they’d split up, but nevermind. Probably never would have really listened to them without Spotify, but now they’re on my regular listening list...

Bowerbirds – House of Diamonds

The third (and final) discovery from the Mumford and Sons interview. Again, another great band and awesome song. Not much else to say really.

Boy and Bear – Mexican Mavis

I saw Boy and Bear supporting Laura Marling earlier this year. It’s not often that I see a support act that I really like, but these guys were great. They’ve just released an EP, but at the time I made a mix, it wasn’t yet released and this was the only song I could get hold of. Lovely though.

Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life

I’ve had Bright Eyes on my mp3 player for a few years. I’m not sure who first told me to give him a listen, but I’d not got round to listening to any of his music until this year. A bit overwhelmed by the number of albums that he made, I simply picked one and listened to it. And it was great – especially this song.

JayMay – Gray or Blue

A couple of my friends run a mix cd swapping night every couple of months (you should go, it’s great). At one of these, my friend Shonette gave me an extra copy of a cd she had, made from sessions from Daytrotter. One artist stood out to me, and this is her. Whenever I listen to her album, this is the song that gets under my skin.

Angus & Julia Stone – Just A Boy

This was an introduction from my friend Jonathon at CAT. But he told me about them about 8 months ago and I only got round to listening to them recently. Whoops. But they were worth the wait. Their songs are a mixture of both of their vocals, and some lovely harmonies. Gentle but beautiful.

Joanna Newsom – ‘81

I was convinced I hated Joanna Newsom. I tried several times to get into her music but failed. And then I went to Green Man festival, where she was playing, and didn’t go and see her. This caused outcry amongst many of my friends, leading to a discussion with my friends Mima and Mike one evening. This discussion ended with Mike insisting that I go home, go on youtube and watch her performing ’81 on Jools Holland. I did, and something happened. I no longer hated Joanna Newsom. Persevering with the listening, something even stranger happened. I actually started to quite like her music. And then like turned to really like. So here she is. This isn’t my favourite song of hers, but it’s the one that started it all.

Baba Yaga’s Consort- The Knight

I first saw this Bristol based band at Folk Tales, and they blew me away – three female vocalists (and a bassist) with weaving interlinking vocals. I’ve seen them a few times since, and they’re always great. They’ve just released an EP and it’s lovely.

Blue Roses – I Am Leaving

No idea where this one came from. Someone possibly told me about them at some point. So thank you whoever you area. Lovely and slightly ethereal vocals, this is definitely the stand out song from the album.

Dry The River – Shaker Hymns

These guys were supporting Johnny Flynn on the Thekla earlier this year. I’d been up at CAT for two weeks back to back, and was completely knackered. The prospect of going straight to a gig and standing up for 3 hours didn’t really appeal. But Dry The River came on and I just got really into it – the lead singer has a really unusual voice, but they’re really great live. Not to mention being a nice bunch – I went to buy a cd afterwards, and was persuaded to buy this one because they had to sit in a pond to take the photo for the front cover.

Erland And The Carnival – Trouble In Mind

A discovery from The Black Cab Sessions, which is one of my favourite websites. Basically they bundle a band into the back of a random black cab and film them singing a song. Simple but awesome. These guys were particularly awesome, especially since they managed to cram so many band members into the cab...

The Correspondents – I Wanna Be Like You

Friday night at Green Man. Mud was abundant, wellies were firmly attached to my feet. I’d taken shelter in Chai Wallah. And then The Correspondents came on. For the next hour, I danced like a crazy fool with a couple of friends and marvelled at the band that had burst into my musical existence. They’re an unusual pair. Mr Chuckles is a quiet looking guy with a beard. Mr Bruce is the opposite – extravagantly dressed in lycra, possibly with a ruff or two attached. And while Mr Chuckles stands quietly by his decks, Mr Bruce dances around the stage (possibly with a treadmill for added fun) with incredible bottomless energy. This song made me instantly love them – but for the full effect you really need to see them live.

Caravan Palace – Dragons

I don’t even know the name of the person who told me about Caravan Palace. I was talking to a friend of a friend’s girlfriend at a house party, and we were discussing gigs. I told her I’d just discovered the Correspondents, to which she replied that a few months ago, someone had told her to listen to the Correspondents and Caravan Palace, but she hadn’t got round to it yet. Dutifully I wrote it in my phone, and stumbled across the note a few days later.

2010 xmas mix cd post...

2010-12-18T23:15:00.001Z

It's on its way. I promise...

A song for the moment...

2010-01-19T22:13:00.003Z

I've been listening to this song slightly obsessively for the last day or so. I don't know why, but it's just really fitted my mood over the last 24 hours or so...

New year, new things....

2010-01-07T11:50:00.003Z

Well, I successfully made it to the end of my 6 months without buying new clothes. It wasn't as hard as I'd expected, and quite liberating to be honest. I realised that I was only buying things because I felt like I needed them. Turns out I didn't. I made some great charity shop purchases too(I have to admit that my "taking one item back to the charity shop for each one I purchased" was less successful though).

In celebration, I went shopping on Saturday. Gah. Overwhelming. So much choice. I desperately needed some new jeans (mine were getting embarassingly full of holes...), but it was a bit of a "keep my head down and just get on with it" situation. I think I'm going to unofficially keep the no buying clothes thing going on for a while - the exceptions are things like black trousers and jeans, which I'll replace when they fall apart/no longer fit.

And onto new things.

I've started doing a bit of writing for a website called The Love of It, which is a directory of good wholesome fun. I've got a few things up there at the moment (a "how to" guide for guerilla gardening and homemade hobnobs, and an article on why I love nightwalking). I'm also now officially Events Editor, so I'm in charge of hunting out fun events and writing little spiels for them all. Brilliant! I'm especially loving the Project 2010, a series of 52 challenges over the course of 2010.

On that note, I came up with a challenge for myself (which in turn has now become part of Project 2010) - take a photo every day throughout 2010. I set up a facebook group for it which is growing by the day, with loads of different people participating. The idea is that each photo represents a place/memory/moment, and over the course of the year they build up a bigger picture. Stay tuned to see if I keep up the motivation!

Also on the agenda is some writing for Ecojam (working on my first article at the moment), and of course, International Homemade HobNob Day - photos of the day and activities to follow...

So 2010 looks to be off to a pretty damn awesome start!

xmas mix 2009 - the breakdown...

2009-12-21T07:32:00.002Z

I woke up stupidly early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so decided to blog a breakdown of my 2009 mix cd, giving a bit of background as to why I picked each song... There's a playlist on spotify here (which is missing a couple of tracks but has most of them...)

1. Florence & the Machine - Dog days are over

My friend Elaine and I swap music recommendations regularly - she's got good taste so when she recommends a band to me, I know they're probably worth checking out. I'd heard of Florence + the Machine before, and liked what I'd heard, but not enough to get hold of the album. But following Elaine raving about her, I listened to the album and found myself loving it - especially this song which is the first track on the album.

2. Patrick Wolf - Overture

This was a random one I picked up from my friend Jen. I was feeling in the need for some new music, and she posted a facebook status referencing Patrick Wolf and Blood Red Shoes. It was when I'd first got Spotify, and I remember listening to "The Magic Position" on repeat all afternoon. I saw him at Dot to Dot festival at May where he was suitably glittery and awesome.

3. Beirut - Scenic World

I can't remember where I first heard Beirut. I quite liked them, but something didn't quite click. Then one day I was sitting playing board games in my local pub and this album (The Gulag Orkestar) came on and I was filled with love for it (Much the same as my Broken Social Scene conversion last year). Makes regular appearances in my daily listening now...

4. The Miserable Rich - Pisshead

I got a text from a friend I hadn't seen in a while telling me that there was a gig on at The Croft and did I want to go. The headliners weren't a band I was particularly enthused about, but I thought it'd be a good chance to catch up so I said yes. The first band on were not bad, and then The Miserable Rich came on. They were great. Really great. The headliners were predictably underwhelming, but it was worth it to see these guys. And then they gave me a free cd at the end of the night. Bonus.

5. Mumford and Sons - The cave

I'm sure anyone who reads this will know all about my love of Mumford and Sons. Their folk rock with a hint of bluegrass is top of my favourite music at the moment. Toe tapping, catchy and full of soul. I've seen them twice this year and loved them both times - they put on a great show, come across as genuinely nice guys, and are clearly passionate about their music. "Sigh No More" is without a doubt my album of the year...

6. Bon Iver - Skinny Love

When my friend Piet first moved to America, we tried to set up an Anglo American mix cd exchange (to match the one running here), which sadly never got going. However, on the facebook page, his friend Jon recommended a bunch of bands. One of his recommendations was Bon Iver. I got hold of the album and gave it a listen. I liked it. However, during the snow last year, my mp3 player had died and the only way I could listen to music was via my phone, and "For Emma, Forever Ago" was one of the albums I had on it. I remember the precise moment I fell in love with this album - I was walking along the edge of the downs, towards Whiteladies Road. Heartbreakingly beautiful...

7. City and Colour - The girl

My discovery of City and Colour is also thanks to the aforementioned Jon. "Bring Me Your Love" is an album that everyone should listen to. Brilliant. It's an album I keep going back to again and again and and I often find myself listening to this track on repeat.

8. The National - Slow show

I first heard The National courtesy of an old housemate a few years ago. I remember thinking "Ah yes, they're not bad". I've had an album of theirs on my mp3 player ever since, without listening to it much. And then during my recent spate of walking around Bristol at night doing some writing and taking photos, I put on "Boxer" and listened to it on repeat for 2 1/2 hours. And now I can't stop listening to it.

9. Laura Marling - Ghosts

I started listening to Laura Marling because I kept seeing articles about Mumford and Sons that mentioned her. And I haven't stopped listening to her since. Astoundingly talented for her age (she wrote "Alas I cannot swim" when she was 16 or 17), her music stands out amongst the other female singer songwriters around at the moment. I can't stop listening to this song and never seem to get sick of it... Am mostly very excited about seeing her in April!

10. Jay Jay Pistolet - Happy birthday you

Again, discovered via the Mumford and Sons/Laura Marling connection, and cemented by seeing his Black Cab Session, it's more of the modern folky stuff that I love at the moment. As far as I know he only has a four track EP at the moment, but it's definately worth checking out.

11. Johnny Flynn - Eyeless in Holloway

Woo Johnny! Yet another of the Mumford and Sons/Laura Marling group of musicians, "A Larum" is one of my favourite albums I've discovered this year. Catchy, distinctive and a bit different. I saw him at The Cube this year and was captivated by his incredible guitar playing. Beautiful.

12. Frightened Rabbit - Old old fashioned

I saw Frightened Rabbit supporting Death Cab for Cutie last year and enjoyed the set, but it wasn't until early this year that I got hold of "The Midnight Organ Fight". I love it when you can hear an accent in someone's singing voice, and you can definately hear the Scottish twang with these guys. Toe tapping fun.

13. PJ & Gaby - Time well spent

Ah this one is a good story. I went to Cafe Kino with one of my friends for a cup of tea and a spot of backgammon. Turns out they had a gig on (in true Kino style, it was about 25 people crammed into the teeny back room), and we were sat on our own in the other downstairs room. As we were playing backgammon, I kept getting distracted by the music playing in the other room. At the end of the gig, I went into the other room. Suddenly being faced by a whole load of people and having no idea who the musicians were, I had to ask who was in the band (a duo from London). Once I'd identified, I proceeded to buy two cds from these guys. Random but awesome.

14. Wild Beasts - All the kings men

This band ruined my playlist for this year. I had it all sorted and ready to go, and then a few days later in the pub, my friend Jonny recommended these guys to me. So I dutifully went home and listened, sighed and then tried to work out who I'd have to bump off the cd to make room for them (sorry Slow Club). At first I wasn't sure about the guys voice, but it's really grown on me...

15. Coconut Records - West coast

Another recommendation by Jon, this song stands out on an album that itself is pretty darn good ("Nighttiming"). Coconut Records is the band of actor Jason Schwartzman, proving he has many talents by actually being pretty good. Was destined to make it onto this mix from the first time I heard it.

16. Emmy the Great - Dylan

No idea where I discovered Emmy the Great, so thankyou if you recommended her to me. I remember watching her Black Cab Session several times and loving it, before getting the album. She writes some truly suprising lyrics - a song that at first listen sounds lovely and pretty may actually turn out to be about something really dark... Sadly I was too ill to make it to her gig in Bristol this year, but hopefully I'll catch her soon. Definately give "First Love" a listen, and then listen to it again, carefully.

17. Spoon - I summon you

An introduction from my friend Dave, via Black Cab Sessions. A group of us were sat at my friend Geoff's flat, infront of his huge tv screen, playing about on his computer (who needs a monitor when you have a forty something inch tv). I shared the joy of Black Cab Sessions with everyone and we started watching some sessions. Browsing through the list of artists, Dave suggested Spoon. And that was it. "Gimme Fiction" became a regular listen, but this song still remains my favourite...

18. Brendan Benson - What I'm looking for

Again, a mystery as to where this one originated from. I just started listening to him one day. Slightly poppy rock, he does it really well. Not my favourite music, but I just really enjoy it.

19. John Butler Trio - Better than

On a car journey back from a youth group weekend away, my friend Mike and I discovered a common taste in music. This led to a bunch of recommendations being made either way, and one of his was the John Butler Trio. "Grand National" is a great album, with this song being my favourite - I love the rhythm of it and it always puts a smile on my face.

20. Dispatch - The general

Another of Mike's recommendations. A band with a lot to say, but sadly only a few albums to their name (although all three members now have other projects). A reggae/ska/funk/rock fusion, the music is matched by well written and often thought provoking songs. "Bang Bang" is probably my favourite album so give it a listen.

21. The XX - Islands

Recommended by one of the guys on my Masters, I fell in love with The XX on first listen. Their self titled debut is a wonderful album, and up there in my top 5 of this year. I'm a sucker for bands with male and female vocals and these guys do it really well.

The 8 best films of 2009 (in no particular order), according to Steph...

2009-12-18T09:23:00.002Z

Milk

Based on the true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in America, this film belongs to Sean Penn. He is fantastic as Harvey, from his quiet beginnings, through activism, election and ultimate death. Surrounded by a solid supporting cast, Sean Penn draws you in to the story, breaking your heart even though you know what’s coming. It’s also horrifying to discover that issues that he was battling at the time are still related to those being fought today (Proposition 8 for example). Not exactly a light film, but one that is definitely worth seeing.

Watchmen

I loved it. I didn’t mind that the ending was changed. The rest of it was so astoundingly true to the novel, and the finale retained the feel of the original, whilst removing the oddness that might cause the mainstream audience to struggle. A dark and complex tale of superheroes like no other, set in an alternate reality where nuclear holocaust is imminent. It benefits from almost perfect casting, stunning visuals and the best opening titles I’ve ever seen. My only quibble was the added violence – what was suggested in the novel was shown in the film, bordering on gratuity in my opinion. See it if you’ve read the book, see it if you haven’t (but read the book after).

Synecdoche, New York

Allowing Charlie Kaufman to direct a film as well as write it was always going to be risky (given the wonderful but confusing back catalogue of films such as Eternal Sunshine, Adaptation and Being John Malkovich). He pulls it off though, producing a film that is puzzling, beautiful, at times incomprehensible, but genuinely moving. Philip Seymour Hoffman carries the film, his character the centrepiece to a deconstruction of life, love and death, told through a man putting on a theatre show. A remarkable achievement and one I look forward to rewatching and unravelling. See it if you like to be beautifully confused.

In The Loop

I have to confess to never having seen The Thick of It before seeing this film (a fact I have since rectified). I wasn’t sure what to expect, but In The Loop exceeded it all. A political satire that places a hapless politician in the middle of a government power struggle. Funny, sharp, frightening accurate in parts, and full of some of the most innovative swearing I’ve ever come across. It’ll make you laugh, cringe, and probably teach you a thing or two about politics along the way.

Moon

It’s hard to say much without giving things away, and this is one of those films that the less you know, the better. It focuses on Sam Rockwell’s character, serving out his last few days of a three year posting aboard an isolated moon base. Beautifully paced, the story just flows effortlessly. Science Fiction at its finest, it’s stunning, riveting, puzzling and surprising. This was the completely unexpected find of the year for me.

500 days of Summer

The tagline sums it up “Boy falls in love, girl doesn’t”. A quirky and charming film about a relationship, this film is elevated by the acting (Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel), some witty writing and great music. Gordon Levitt nails the everyman role, and Deschanel is all wide eyed and unpredictable. Fitting into the same indie rom com genre of Garden State, it steers clear of the obvious cheesiness. (until the last minute of the film, but I can ignore that). Funny, endearing and you’ll never look at ikea the same again…

The Brothers Bloom

The follow up from the director of Brick, Rian Johnson again shows his flair for revitalising forgotten genres in a new way. This tells the story of two con artist brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrian Brody) and their latest mark, a reclusive millionaire (Rachel Weisz). Oh, and not forgetting their weapons specialist, Bang Bang. Great casting, and a storyline so full of twists and turns you don’t know where it’s going next. The beauty lies in the details – there’s as much to watch in the background as there is at the front (the camel!). A funny crime caper with a heart…

Where the Wild Things Are

I waited until I’d seen this before I wrote this list because I was convinced I would love it. And love it I did. A magical tale of Max, a young boy who runs away from home and retreats into his imagination - a world habituated by strange creatures who crown him as their king. This is one of those films where things really fit together – the magical story, beautiful visuals and the music. Oh the music. Karen O weaves a wonderful soundtrack that carries Max on the ups and downs his journey and draws you deep into its world. Beautiful, captivating and one I’ll definitely see again. And again.

Honerable mentions must also go to An Education and The Hurt Locker, both of which were good, but not quite good enough...

Night walking...

2009-11-08T01:12:00.002Z

(In a high tech moment, if you have spotify, I've even got a suggested soundtrack to this post here)

So it's half one in the morning. Inspiration sometimes strikes at the oddest of times. However eloquence tends to fail me at this hour, so I apologise for being unable to articulate what I want to say. I've just walked back from a housewarming party, and ended up sat on my doorstep for half an hour, listening to Death Cab for Cutie (hence the suggested soundtrack) and watching the world go by.

I love nighttime. There's something wonderfully peaceful about it. One of my favourite things to do is walk along listening to music. I like the way that it blocks out all other noise, playing a soundtrack to my walk.

Firstly I love listening to music through headphones. You hear everything. It seems personal. Nobody else is hearing it - only you. Certain music just has to be listened to that way.

Secondly I love to walk. At night it's much quieter. Less cars, less people. The pace of life is slower. I notice things I've never seen before, even in areas I walk through regularly. Like I'm seeing the world through different eyes. Cities look beautiful at night - the streetlight gives a different atmosphere to them. The rhythm of a place changes after dark. Walking and watching inspires me to write more.

My favourite places in Bristol at night are the top of Nine Tree Hill, and down by the Scout Hut on the harbour. I don't know why but I could sit there for hours. I guess both are slightly cut off from the busier areas, so you feel like you're observing something from the outside.

I should probably go to sleep and stop waffling now... Here endeth the late night slightly philosophical post. I'll be back to blogging about cooking or music soon.

fun gig times...

2009-10-08T16:59:00.002+01:00

(N.B. Reading this over, it appears to be a gig AND facial hair review...)

Last night was fun. Four of us piled into my car and went on a little trip to Bath for a Mumford and Sons gig. First port of call was a picnic. The weather dictated that it was to be a car based picnic, but a picnic it was none the less. There’s not much else to say other than there was chocolate cake so it was pretty darn good...

And then to the gig we went. Or tried to. Turns out none of us knew where exactly we were going. Helpful. Luckily for us, we happened to walk straight past half of Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling (woo!) having a drink outside a pub and figured we had to be close... We arrived in the middle of the first support band. The most memorable thing about them (they never said their name) was the pretty impressive moustache that the guitarist was sporting (with an accompanying wife beater too). Very 1970’s. Anyway, we firmly planted ourselves near the front (Moles is a shockingly bad venue in many ways. If you’re not at the front, you don’t get to see anything...) and waited.

Next up was Pete Roe. Sporting a pretty splendid beard and an excellent hat (and you know how I appreciate a good hat), he played a set full of wonderfully intricate guitar playing and melodic vocals. A pleasure to listen to and definitely someone to follow further. He also appears to be a Very Nice Man (TM), and was unofficial roadie for Mumford and Sons later in the night. Check out "The Devil's Dancefloor" below...

He was followed by Shoreline, who were definitely one of the most interesting musical experiences of my gig going career, combined with some slightly underwhelming songwriting. They were 9 of them on stage (a bit of a squash), armed with a motley assortment of instruments, ranging from double bass to glockenspiel. And there was whistling. Added to this was one of the most distinctive voices I've ever heard – rich, deep and incredibly soulful. To top that off there was bell playing. Yes, bells. One of the songs started with a minute of bell playing by three (or four) different band members, weaving the small bells into an intricate and beautiful melody. Awesome. Sadly, after all that, the songs weren't particularly memorable and they definitely didn’t do justice to the level of talent in the band.

Here's a video that's actually Sons of Noel and Adrian, who essentially seem to be Shoreline with a few lineup changes. I couldn't find any videos of Shoreline, and this is actually a song they played last night and lets you hear the distinctive voice guy...

And then it was time for Mumford and Sons. And it was awesome. The combination of four vocals, a double bass, a banjo, a guitar and a keyboard produce one of the most individual sounds I've heard. The lead singer has a beautiful and distinctive voice, complimented well by the harmonies of the other three. The banjo player plucks with incredible skill and variety, and elevates the songs to another level. The songs are memorable, catchy and frequently want to make me stamp my feet and have a bit of a dance round the room (difficult when you’re packed like sardines in a teeny gig venue). The lyrics are beautiful, poetic, intriguing and meaningful. I think they are musically, one of the most talented bands around. Each of them is a master at their instrument, as well as showing other skills – there was a drum kit on stage, which 3 of the 4 band members ended up playing at some point during the gig. There were also some serious moustaches going on from the lead singer and bass player. Turns out they've labelled it the moustache tour...

They played with enthusiasm and passion, despite being at the end of a long tour. They clearly love what they do and the music they play, something that is infectious. They've just got signed and their album came out on Monday (“The first rule is don’t let anyone tell you what to do. The second rule is buy the album!”). They even had a barn dance for their album launch. Amazing. This may well be the last time I’ll get to see them in such a small venue, which is a shame, but if any band deserves recognition, these guys do. And I’m already planning when I can get to see them again…

To finish off, have a squiz at the official video for "Little Lion Man" which is their new single...

0 days...

2009-09-29T15:07:00.002+01:00

It feels odd to finally be at this point. Tomorrow I won't be coming into work. Or next week, or next month (at least not to this job anyway). It doesn't really feel real at the moment to be honest, and probably won't for a week or two, when the reality of having to motivate myself to get up and do reading and essay writing every day will hit. But it feels good anyway.

I have no doubts that it's the right decision. I had the first residential week of my masters a couple of weeks ago and just loved it. A combination of high quality and challenging teaching and a really great bunch of people. I came back mentally exhausted from all the teaching, and physically exhausted from all the socialising! I've spent the last week boring everyone to tears talking about it fairly constantly (sorry). It's just so great to be doing something that I'm really passionate about and interested in after having felt lost for the last couple of years. I wish I had more time just to sit and do all the reading that I want to do because it interests me so much. I want to change the world - make it a better place, and I finally feel like I've found something that can practically make a difference. And did I mention that the other people on the course are awesome? I can't wait to go back for the next "hit", and the October course is only a fortnight away! Woo! Need to get started on that essay in the meantime though...

Now I've finished work I feel like the new chapter of my life is finally starting - I've made the decision to not spend much time job hunting in the next couple of months, and give myself a chance to get used to the whole studying thing again. The prospect of having a bit more time on my hands is exciting - obviously I've got studying to do, but I'm hoping to put a bit of time into doing some writing, and joining the gym is top of the list of things to get round to when my student card arrives. It's going to take a bit of adjustment - scheduling my own days and weeks to ensure I get the work done, budgeting my money properly - but I can't wait.

More blogging of a music/film/waffle type nature to follow...

31 days and counting...

2009-07-24T14:27:00.001+01:00

To be honest, that's 30 more days than I'd like, but such is the disadvantage of 3 month job notice periods... I was expecting this week at work to be pretty rubbish - partly because last week at work was *really* rubbish, and partly because my sanity (otherwise known as Sara) is off work due to the company's over the top policy on making people stay at home for a week if they have had contact with someone who considered that they might have swine flu, despite it turning out that they probably didn't and have already returned to work.

Ahem.

However this week has been pretty good. I mean, the work bit is still sucking (kind of inevitably), but it's been made a whole lot more bearable thanks to seeing lots of my friends, doing a fair bit of exciting cooking (char siu bao, baked alaska, seafood gumbo amongst others), finding a bit of time to do some writing and generally listening to a lot of really good music.

I've really noticed over the past 6 months or so how much joy I get from music - if I'm having a bad day (especially the type of day when I'm just being grumpy for no real reason), listening to the right music can really lighten my mood (sadly the "right" music varies and it often takes me a while to find it). There are certains songs, for example "Little Plastic Castle" by Ani Di Franco and "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver, that just make me smile every time I hear them. I even have a playlist especially for songs that make me smile. If I can't sleep, I listen to music ("Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap is a favourite), if I'm driving a long distance I listen to music ("Plans" by Death Cab for Cutie is the current late night driving favourite), if I'm walking more than 10 minutes away, the mp3 player goes with me... Plus I listen to music all day at work, which tends to make it much more bearable (it's hard to be grumpy when you're listening to Ella Fitzgerald!).

So this week, as usual, Mumford and Sons, City and Colour and Laura Marling have featured on the mp3 player a fair amount. A new addition to the list is Johnny Flynn. Awesome. I definately need to get some more of his music. I've also been rediscovering a bunch of things I haven't listened to in a while - Frank Turner, Brendan Benson and Neutral Milk Hotel. The first time you discover a band or an album, there's the excitement of the unknown, but the second time round there's an element of comfortable intimacy to it, balanced by the gentle unfamiliarity of not having heard it in a while.

However, I've realised that I have a lot of stuff on my mp3 player that I've not listened to in a very very long time. Or ever. I genuinely have no idea where some of it came from. Erm... I tend to fall into the habit of listening to things that are familiar and therefore easy. But potentially this means I'm missing out on some great stuff. So next week I'm going to try and listen my way through those albums, hopefully discovering some new music along the way...

A wardrobe challenge...

2009-07-20T14:50:00.002+01:00

When I moved house (the most recent time...), I realised that I have quite a lot of stuff. So I got rid of a bunch of stuff - to friends, charity shops and the bin. However, turns out I still have quite a lot of stuff (those assisting me in my move will vouch for this), especially clothes. None of the clothes were particularly expensive (about 1/3 come from charity shops) and while I'm not going to get rid of any at the moment, I really don't need more. Also, I don't want to be a consumer who just buys things because I think I need them (or might need them). Especially when it's cheap clothes that can't result in a fair price being paid to the workers involved (or indeed expensive clothes that still don't pay a fair price) and use up raw materials and energy in their production. Plus I'm about to be a very broke student again, so spending money on clothes shouldn't really be my priority...

So I've set myself a bit of a challenge: No purchasing of new clothes for 6 months. Since I started at the beginning of July, this takes me through til the end of 2009. This is going to be pretty hard... However the one light in the darkness is the word "new" in the challenge - charity shop shopping is still permitted, since it's essentially recycling old clothes and supporting a good cause at the same time - the condition for this is that for every item I buy, I have to donate one back to a charity shop (therefore preventing further wardrobe expansion).

This was a bit of an impulse decision, as demonstrated by the fact that I only have three pairs of trousers at the moment, 2 of which don't fit me very well, and I've never found a pair of trousers that fit me in a charity shop. Erm. So expect to see me wearing a lot of skirts over the next 6 months...

My latest musical obsession (plus a question)...

2009-07-12T21:55:00.004+01:00

I've had a weird week music wise. I have about 60GB of music on my mp3 player, but I haven't been able to settle listening to anything for more than about 5 minutes without skipping on. The three exceptions to this have been Mumford and Sons, Sufjan Stevens' Christmas music (bizarre but true), and Laura Marling. Now Laura Marling is a new and exciting discovery for me, and I'm really loving it, especially her song Ghosts.

So here it is...

The random question is this: who are you people? I realised the other day that I genuinely have no idea who reads this. I know people do, because the little numbers at the bottom go up, occasionally people tell me they read something, and even more occasionally people post a comment, either on the blog or when it gets imported to facebook... I'm just curious really. That and it's probably useful to know for future post writing-ness. I mean, if noone who reads it has the slightest interest in culinary experiments or weird and wonderful films, then I should probably write about them less...

Words and wonderings...

2009-07-07T12:19:00.003+01:00

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently. Mostly due to moving house and then going on holiday resulting in minimal internet access, a sudden burst of enthusiasm for reading, and a long to-do list.

It's also been a while since I updated on the state of my novel writing attempts. To be honest, this is mostly because I haven't really got any further with it. Life got busy and novel writing got deprioritised for a while. I still intend to go back to it, but I find I need to set aside entire evenings purely for writing in order to make any significant progress on it. I'm still thinking through the ideas behind it though and seem to have come up with a couple of new plot developments which means it feels like it's still alive.

But I haven't stopped writing completely. Instead I've been expanding into some different styles of writing. A few bits of what I guess is classed as poetry, some short narratives bits, even the words to a song (I blame rewatching "Once" a few weeks ago for that one). What I've really enjoyed is being able to really work on something- rewrite parts, play around with words, and generally get it to a point where I'm remotely satisfied with it. I've realised that's something I've been missing with the novel writing stuff - I've been trying to get the first draft (prob 50,000 words) finished before I start rewriting any of it. Which is hard because I'm writing to a much lower standard than I'd like in an attempt to get it finished. When tackling something shorter and new, it's much easier to get it into reasonable shape and be able to indulge my perfectionist side.

Also, through going to folk tales (a monthly storytelling and folk music night) I've also been thinking a lot about the art of storytelling. It is a different art to straight writing - obviously there is the skill of the actual performance to factor in, but also the style of the writing is different - it has to be told in a way that will engage your audience and draw them into the story. Long narratives or extensive dialogue don't work so well, and the pace needs to be kept up in order to retain the attention of those listening. Plus there's a limit to how long people will sit still for. Anyway, as a result of that I've been playing around with an idea I found in one of my old ideas journals (basically a pad where I write down any potential writing ideas I have) to see if it has any potential for being written in that kind of style.

So that's all been good to be honest. I'm still writing regularly which is bringing me a lot of joy, and I get to play around with a thesaurus from time to time (yes, I know I'm a word geek).

On a completely random and unrelated note, go here for some awesome but very unseasonal music...

Music I love at the moment...

2009-06-16T16:26:00.002+01:00

I think the title probably says it all...

1) Mumford and Sons
Definately my favourite band of the moment, they're folk rock, with a hint of bluegrass thrown in. I have no idea how I first came across them, but they ended up on my list of "bands to check out", and I just fell in love with them. I caught them at Dot to Dot festival this year, and they were without a shadow of a doubt the highlight of the day for me (apparently I just grinned solidly for the half hour set). Guitar, banjo, double bass and keyboards, combined with four part vocal harmonies and lashings of energy and passion in their performance. Their songs are distinctive and varied, from the melodic ballad of "White Blank Page" to the beautiful opening refrain of "Roll Away Your Stone" that builds into a fast paced folk tune. As I have no internet access outside work, I can't nicely embed videos, so you'll have to settle for watching this. Not much more to say other than I frikkin love them.

2) Newton Faulkner
Now this is a bit of a random one. I like Newton Faulkner, but in all honesty, I don't really listen to his music much. However, I had tickets to go and see him a few weeks ago (postponed from January, when I'd bought them during a quiet gig patch), and I was so glad I did. He was just... phenomenal. Firstly he played for over two hours - I think that's even longer than the Foo Fighters played for when I went to see them. There was an interval and everything. Secondly, the man is sickeningly talented - I didn't know it was possible to make a guitar produce sounds like that... The seamless combination of guitar playing, tapping, playing pedals with his feet and singing meant that your forgot it was just a single person on stage because the sound produced was so rich. Thirdly, the music was interspersed with amusing annecdotes, random "oooh I wonder if I can do this" type musical moments, and a healthy sprinkling of crowd participation. It's definately the first time I've been encouraged to act as a rabid pirate, approaching shore, where there are barbarians who just kissed my mother...

3) Dispatch
An introduction from one of my friends, they're a bizarre hybrid of reggae, ska, folk, funk, rock and probably some other things. They are also awesome. Their songs are catchy, largely upbeat and diverse, whilst also containing lyrics that delve into wider issues than most modern day artists. Sadly they've now gone their seperate ways, but each member has gone on to form a new project, demonstrating the level of talent that the band possessed. From the simple acoustic "Carry You" to the funky and toe tapping "Bats in the Belfry", they execute it all brilliantly and adding a little sunshine to your day in the process.

4) Slow Club
One guitar, two vocalists (one male, one female) and an assortment of additional random instruments = folk music that will make you smile and is the perfect soundtrack to your summer. They somehow manage to stand out from the crowd of generic boy/girl duos and succeed in staying the right side of the twee line. They made it onto this list purely on the back of the fact that they managed to make a Christmas song ("Christmas TV") that I genuinely really like (a feat only equalled by Frightened Rabbit and Sufjan Stevens at the time of writing) - a harmonius and uncomplicated tune that showcases their vocals beautifully. The rest of their music is equally as lovely, especially "Summer Shakedown" and "Let's fall back in Love".

5) Bon Iver
I had an odd experience with this album (For Emma, Forever Ago). My mp3 player broke last year, and in the following months (until my insurance company finally replaced it), the only way I could listen to portable music was using my phone. Turns out it takes a paaainfully long time to get any music copied onto my phone, therefore meaning I only ended up having half a dozen albums on there, one of which was Bon Iver. I confess that the first 3 or 4 times I listened to the album (usually my limit - if I don't like it by then, I tend to give up) I wasn't that taken with it. And then it clicked. I remember the moment - I was walking along the edge of the Downs on a sunny winter day, phone tucked in the pocket of my scarf (yes, I have a scarf with pockets, and yes, I know that's awesome), and I was suddenly filled with joy for this honest, small, captivating album. The pure rawness of the music adds to the beauty and intimacy of it. The opening "Flume" and "Skinny Love" are the two standout songs for me - with the latter as a definite to make it onto my best of cd this year.

Rather big changes of a job and life related nature...

2009-05-26T15:17:00.004+01:00

So I just unofficially quit my job... (in an "I told my boss I was going to be handing in my three months notice in a couple of weeks") type of way. Starting in September I'm returning to the land of studentdom and studying for a Masters. The official title of the course is MSc Architecture : Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies, but it's basically sustainable building with a renewable energy focus. It's at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales, and the course runs as a five day residential block at CAT every month, then the rest of study is done from home, so I can stay in Bristol. Woo! I'm particularly excited about the bit where I get to build a straw bale house :o) It's a really alternative and practical course, and just feels like the right course for me.

If you're having a "what on earth?!" type of response to this information, don't worry, so am I... I haven't been keeping big secrets from everyone - more a case that I only decided to do this a couple of weeks ago. I've been vaguely thinking about it for a while - I strongly considered it a year or so ago, getting so far as to bookmark some courses before convincing myself that the timing was bad and I'd be better off waiting. Well, the timing hasn't really got any better, but neither has my current job. Now, I don't hate my job by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't find it fulfilling either, and the dreamer/idealist part of me craves a career that I really care about. A moment of clarity happened about 3 weeks ago - my job isn't going to miraculously improve, and a dream career isn't going to magically appear and fall at my feet. If I want to do something else, I need to do something about it. I feel like I gave my current career a good chance, and it just isn't what I want to do, so now seems the time to change - I have no morgage, no responsibilities like kids, so I've just gone for it. Within a 2 week period, I found the course I wanted to do, applied, got a place and told my work I'm leaving. Speedy...

To be honest, it all feels weird. Not quite real. I guess that's the thing about making decisions that aren't really going to come into effect for another 3 1/2 months. But it's exciting - I mean, I'm finally doing what I've been dreaming about for years and the thing that I'm passionate about. And that's such a great feeling - I feel... alive! I have no idea what the future holds, but I'm excited about it and feel like there's so many possibilities infront of me. I have no idea what the course is going to be like, whether I'm going to be able to find a part time job to fund myself through it, or what I'm going to be doing on the other side, but I feel really peaceful about it all. At the end of the day, I have some savings I can use to help pay for it all, and this is the rainy day I've been waiting for. And if I don't at least try, I'll never know...

Chickpeatastic...

2009-05-21T09:14:00.004+01:00

Life at the moment is a big bundle of uncertainty and change. A bit cryptic, but I shall hopefully expand in a few weeks when it's all less uncertain. Needless to say there's some other life stuff going on other than my impending house move...

Ahem.

Anyway, when stressed, I have a tendancy to cook. At the weekend, my chosen food was houmous. Now, I make houmous quite a lot, but I've never managed to make good plain houmous - every time I've tried, I've been left with slightly bland mush. So my usual lazy recipe consists of sticking a can of chickpeas, some sundried tomatoes, tahini, lemon juice, salt and garlic in my food processor and keeping it fairly chunky...

But I was determined not to be beaten - it must be possible to make good plain houmous at home. Then last weekend, success! I tried a new recipe that I found online - a bit more time consuming, but the results... delicious, light, fluffy, tasty, smooth houmous! It's now definately my go-to recipe for houmous, and I feel the need to share it... The only warning is that it makes a *lot* of houmous, so you might want to consider halving the recipe...

So for any other houmous lovers out there:
- 1/2 pound dried chickpeas (about 450g)
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 7 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1/4 cup olive oil (1/4 cup = 4 tbsp)
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (I added an extra couple of tbsp)
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- salt
- paprika

1) In a bowl, cover the dried chickpeas with 2 inches of water and add the baking soda. Refrigerate overnight. Drain the chickpeas and rinse them under cold water.

2) In a pan, cover the chickpeas with 2 inches of fresh water. Add the garlic cloves and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat until the chickpeas are tender, prob about 40 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking water. Rinse the chickpeas under cold water. Peel the garlic cloves.

3) In a food processor, puree the chickpeas with about 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking water, the olive oil and 6 of the garlic cloves. Add the cumin along with the tahini and lemon juice and process until creamy. Season the houmous with salt and transfer to a serving bowl.

4) Sprinkle with paprika and serve!

Culinary Wafflings...

2009-05-13T09:22:00.003+01:00

I've done a lot of cooking over the past few weeks, which has been really nice as the last couple of months have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to do much other than throw stuff at pasta.

A few weeks ago I made some Sunday morning bagels (half cinnamon and raisin and half plain) for some friends (in honour of all the bagels we ate in Dublin!). Both lots turned out really well and it's definately something I'd do again - a bit of effort but *so* much nicer than the store bought ones (especially the cinnamon and raisin ones!).

A half eaten cinnamon and raisin on the left, and a plain on the right...

Then a few days later, I decided it was Dal o'clock... I'd been meaning to make Dal for a while, and came across a great sounding recipe - more complicated than a lot of other recipes I'd seen, but had some raving reviews, so decided to give it a whirl... Oh so good and definately worth the effort (which turned out to be less time consuming than it looked from the recipe).

And then came the cookies. And by that I mean THE cookies. The cookies I've been rambling on about for months. The infamous NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. I found a partner in culinary crime who was equally as excited about the slightly geeky recipe as me and we set about the baking. The main point about these cookies is that you make the dough (which in itself is quite fussy - 2 types of flour, 2 types of sugar, quite specific and expensive chocolate in large quantities (40% chocolate to 60% dough)...) and then chill it. Yes, you make the dough, then stick it in the fridge. For 1-3 days. And then you get to weigh out the balls of dough, sprinkle them with salt and bake them. Finally you get to sample the fruits of your labour (and patience). And boy were they worth it. The result is an incredibly rich, very chocolatey, huge (almost 5 inch in diameter - I measured it...) cookie, with a really interesting (in a good way) twist from the salt... Perfect cut into quarters (they really are that rich!) with a nice cup of tea...

The dough in it's ready to be chilled state... Note the huuuuge chunks of chocolate...

The balls of dough, sprinkled with salt, awaiting their baking destiny...

A truly terrible photo of the finished product that doesn't do the size or awesomeness of these cookies justice...

So the current tally on the "52 things to learn to cook" is 33 down, 19 to go which isn't too bad. Plus hopefully wonton soup should be tickets off tomorrow with a bit of luck... An updated list is located below...

1) Jambalaya - done
2) Yaki Soba
3) Dal - done
4) Clam Chowder
5) Spring Rolls and Sesame Prawn Toast - done
6) Roasted Red Pepper Houmous + pitta bread - done
7) Mussels and Chips - done
8) Stifado - done
9) Kleftiko
10) Coq au Vin - done
11) Moussaka - done
12) Fish Pie - done
13) Olive Foccacia
14) Hollandaise Sauce - done
15) Thai Green Curry Paste - done
16) Stollen - done
17) Gravalax - done
18) Tortellini
19) Bagels - done
20) Pumpkin Pie - done
21) Jerk Chicken - done
22) Chicken Chow Mein - done
23) Falafel - done
24) NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies - done
25) Borscht
26) Seafood Gumbo
27) Char Siu Baau
28) Gnocchi - done
29) Enchilladas and Refried Beans - done the enchilladas
30) Frikadeller
31) Dolmades - done
32) Crumpets - done
33) Goan Fish Curry
34) Jamaican Goat Curry
35) Bakewell Tart - done
36) Won Ton Soup
37) Lamb Rogan Josh and Pilau Rice - done
38) Biryani
39) Miso Soup
40) Tabbouleh - done
41) Pad Thai - done
42) Parantha
43) Saag Aloo + Naan Bread - done
44) Chicken Adobo - done
45) Baked Alaska
46) Chicken Mole - done
47) Bobotie - done
48) Sticky Toffee Pudding and proper Custard
49) Meatloaf - done
50) Nettle Soup
51) Jam - done
52) Brioche

Random life shaped updates...

2009-04-20T15:46:00.003+01:00

It's been a bit quiet in blog land recently. This is for several reasons:

1) I've been busy
2) I've been lazy
3) I've been trying to write a post about religion and struggling to finish it

So I feel I should offer a few updates in order to plug the gap until I:

1) Become less busy
2) Become less lazy
3) Finally working out what I'm trying to say and manage to vocalise it to my satisfaction

Anyway. Things on my mind.

1) Cycling is awesome. I cycled to Bath and back last week and it was a lot of fun. The cycle to and from work is beginning to kill me less too... I even overtook someone going up a hill the other day!

2) My sister and I have almost finished Battlestar Galactica - only the finale left. Very very very exciting...

3) New music joy is currently being brought to me via Brendan Benson and Johnny Foreigner. I'm also falling in love with City and Colour and Bon Iver all over again...

4) I'm house hunting. Again. Anyone getting a sense of deja vu?! This time, there's no mould related nightmares - simply it's because my sister is moving for a job in June and I want to live closer to town and my friends... Fingers crossed this one lasts longer than 6 months!

5) Culinary updates - have ticked moussaka, hollandaise sauce, gravlax, falafel, chicken mole and enchilladas off the list recently, and am attempting bagels this weekend (in memory of Dublin based holidays). A shocking lack of photos to accompany though, so will try to get one of the bagel making...

6) I'm full of joy for graffiti at the moment - I went to the Crimes of Passion exhibition a few weeks ago and have also been ambling around taking photos (I even took my new holga out with me for the first time). My favourite from the exhibition was this one (painted directly onto the gallery wall)...

7) Progress on the novel has slowed somewhat. When I started writing it, I had a good chunk of the storyline mapped out in my head. Sadly that chunk is now written, so I'm now progressing the story and expanding vague ideas as I write, which is a lot harder work. Still, 23000 words done, which puts me about halfway to a first draft...

Lent... the results!

2009-04-08T16:40:00.001+01:00

Ok. I have a confession - a measley 9 days short of Easter, I watched television. Whoops. I blame being ill and too tired to face a dvd or a book on Friday - my body craved ER and Chuck and resistance was futile. One of the things I've learnt through the 38 TV-less days is that I find watching TV relaxing - just a 45 minute episode when I get home from work or if I'm tired is really welcome.

So, was the whole thing a success?

Well, I've left several shows by the wayside that I no longer want to watch - Masterchef, Being Erica, The Mentalist and Heroes off the top of my head. Battlestar Galactica and ER have both finished (though I still haven't seen the end of BSG so it's still a no spoiler zone!) and Lost ends soon, so they're now out of the picture. Which leaves How I Met Your Mother and Chuck. 2 shows. Well, actually make that 3 - after listening to other peoples opinions on the matter, I've decided to stick with Dollhouse as apparently it gets really good as soon as the studio stopped interfering. So, it's early days, but I appear to have shed the group of shows that I didn't care about, and I have no intention of going back to them. In order to avoid picking up too many things again, I'm going to try to limit myself to less than 5 shows at any time - enough to give me that hour of relaxation when I need it, but not so much that I stop doing other things.

In terms of giving me free time to do other stuff, it's been a tremendous success. I've watched a few more films than normal (the mostly highly recommended being The Fall), I've definately read a lot more (9 or 10 books since the start of Lent, compared to the zero that I'd read in the preceeding few months). The biggest success though has to be in regards to my writing. When I started Lent, I had a few notes in a notebook, but not much else. I now have about 20,000 words. Which is a pretty good start to a first draft of my novel. I've also discovered the delights of devoting a spare evening to writing in a cafe, rather than using it to catch up on tv at home.

So I did miss TV, more than I expected if I'm honest. But I also did manage to use the time to do other things and get back into the habit of writing and reading in my spare time, so I'd say on the whole it was a success... However I'm now really looking forward to catching up on all the stuff I've missed :o)

Steph versus stupid sizes

2009-03-12T11:29:00.000Z

Today I cycled into work (about 6 miles) for the first time in 6 months. It was fine - took less time that I was expecting and I actually quite enjoyed it. Feel free to mock my confidence when I die on the way home though...

Now, yesterday, one of my friends from work who also cycles in, was extolling the virtues of padded cycling shorts (NB these are to be worn *under* my cropped trousers). Contemplating the possibility, I toddled off to the website she recommended and hunted down the women's cycle shorts.

At which point I became slightly annoyed.

See, I'm a size 18 in normal clothes, which according to this cycle shop's warped logic translates to a 3XL. Extra extra extra large? Seriously?

Now I say this as someone who's reasonably happy with her size - life is too short to be miserable and all that. I know I'm more than a little bit overweight and considerably larger than most of my friends. Sure, I'd like to be a bit smaller than I am, as at my smallest I was a large 14/small 16 and I have some nice clothes I'd like to be able to fit into again. But in comparison, at my largest, I was a size 26 and weighed over 21 stone. So an 18 seems ok.

The thing is, I distinctly remember having a hoodie at my largest point - a Fruit of the Loom one iirc - which was a size 2XL. So, after a lot of work I lost 6 stone, dropped 4 clothes sizes, and now get greeted with a size 3XL pair of cycle shorts... Hmmmmmmm.

To be honest, that seems a little unfair. I mean, the sizes go from an 8 (which is a S) - why not make the 8 an XS and shift the unfairness a bit more in the other direction. In all honesty, I think they should be commending any size 18 girls who are brave enough to get on a bike - I mean, we're destined to spend most of our time getting overtaken by super fit serious cyclists, so why not encourage us with a pair of "Good on you!" or "Don't let that hill defeat you" size shorts, with a 10% discount for being brave/stupid enough to cycle. Interestingly enough, the 3XL shorts are currently out of stock, suggesting that I'm not the only one daft enough to give it a go.

Ahem.

I guess I'm just a bit fed up of shops not catering to me or putting stupid labels on clothes. I go shopping with my friends and usually end up in shops that only make clothes up to a size 14 (sometimes labelled as an XL, just to make me feel even better about myself). I've become an expert in killing time staring blankly at accessory stands, or sitting next to bored looking boyfriends on the token couch whilst everyone else tries on clothes. These shops have clearly taken the class "How to make you feel like a freak 101", because if you're a little overweight, you're evidently not worthy of wearing their clothes.

Meh.

Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy at the situation, I just really needed to have a bit of a rant...

My thoughts about Watchmen...

2009-03-09T17:15:00.005Z

Since every man and his pet rabbit appear to have been offering their opinions on Watchmen across the internet, I've decided to throw in my (spoiler free) tuppence worth, in case anyone hasn't yet read enough about it... It's not so much a review, more a collection of thoughts and wafflings about different aspects of it.

I'm in a structured mood today so it's in the form of a list, which is always a good place to start if you're me...

1) The film was never going to be as good as the novel. As a review I read recently pointed out, the masterpiece has already found its medium. I loved the novel - it was (and still is) completely unlike anything else I've ever read - a true piece of originality in a world that specialises in regurgitation. That's part of its beauty. Therefore that can't be recreated in an adaptation. However, the visuals really add something to certain elements and sections of the book. Fight scenes are brought to life through excellent choreography and characters enriched in the hands of skilled actors.

2) You can definately still enjoy the film if you haven't seen the book. Zack Snyder has achieved something remarkable in crafting something that the average cinema goer can appreciate, whilst still pleasing the cult fans. Although, I recommend reading this before going, just to give yourself a bit of background.

3) If you don't like violent films, don't see it. It doesn't shy away from the brutal violence from the novel. In fact, one of my main criticisms is that it (IMHO unnecessarily) added a few bits of (again IMHO gratuitous) violence in a couple of parts, where they were simply alluded to in the novel... The violence is generally handled well though, used to capture traits of the characters and the uncivilised world they're living in.

4) The opening sequence is one of the best I've ever seen. Bob Dylan plays over a montage of clips that beautifully set the scene for many of the forthcoming events. A masterful and subtle introduction of backstory to the uninitiated, and a elegant reminder for those familiar with the story.

5) The film is incredibly true to the book (apart from the ending). With scenes being noticeably lifted directly from page to screen, very little has been changed. The altered areas are handled skillfully and modified for good reason. I think the decision to remove the "Tales of the Black Freighter" animated sections from the theatrical release is an intelligent one, keeping the pacing up and the running time manageable. I'm also a fan of the new ending - the spirit and point of the original ending is retained, but with less need for large amounts of setup during the story and a bit of a WTF moment at the end...

6) The casting is 75% perfect. And I mean, perfect. The three standout leads for me were The Comedian, Rorschach and Nite Owl. Jeffrey Dean Morgan captures perfectly The Comedian's lack of regret or feeling for his actions, whilst retaining the audiences sympathy for his demise. Jackie Earle Haley is truly remarkable as the deeply disturbed Rorschach, a key character in the second half and narrator throughout. He captures the sadistic character perfectly, leaving the audience equally horrified at his actions, but rooting for him still. Patrick Wilson plays Nite Owl, the everyman of the group. His character is the most important connection between the audience and the Watchmen, as he is the one that people can identify with. I'm on the fence with Dr Manhattan - nothing to do with Billy Crudup - more an uncertainty about the effects I guess - something just didn't quite work. Malin Ackerman is ok, but outclassed by the others. The final key character, Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt didn't sit quite right either, but I'm struggling to decide as to whether this is the performance or the script. He never reaches that God-like status that the character in the book achieves. But to be honest, this is all just me being picky.

7) Visually, the film is stunning. The city looks grim and troubled, and believably inhabited rather than just a set. The special effects used fit in seamlessly, only marred bya few moments Dr Manhattan and Veidt's pet Lynx looking slightly out of place. Snyder's use of speed changing in some scenes is utilised to excellent effect, and the fight scenes are beautifully choreographed. It goes beyond simply doing justice to the art of the novel and takes it to a new level of excellence.

8) I am very glad they made it into a film. For years they claimed it was unfilmable, but Zack Snyder has proved the cynics wrong, and proved them wrong in astonishing style. The glee I felt at watching the initial fight scene unfold was undeniable. Seeing someone take something you love and craft it into something new with such care and respect is a great thing. Yes, it's not a flawless film. Yes, there are details I would change if given the choice. But I am also a very happy bunny. I've been thinking a lot about both the film and the story it tells over the last couple of days, and am itching to both re-read the novel and see the film again already.

Stream of consciousness : Newcastle

2009-03-03T15:55:00.006Z

For an explanation of what a stream of consciousness is, go here. I've just got back from a long weekend in Newcastle and ended up doing a stream of consciousness while I was there... Although I have just realised that I've been spelling consciousness wrong all this time. Meh.

---

waiting impatiently at bus stops. see-sawing on the bus. friendly law students. no queues. unlacing shoes. tea and maltesers at the airport. restarting a book from the beginning. amazing suprises and unexpected visitors. iced buns on the metro. first views of a new city. rivers and bridge reflections. colours changing. buskers. curtains across the flat. solving crosswords whilst squashed on the sofa. out of date altases. random films. catching up after far too long. tiredness. waking. tea. catching the millenium bridge on the way down after missing the boat going through. art projects. reading the walls on the way in. glass lifts. wishing trees. bizarre exhibitions. unusual shaped jigsaws. a moment of sadness. bizarre films that we didn't understand. people cutting yoko ono's dress. holes in the wall. fire alarms and many flights of stirs. beautiful bridges up close. people fishing in the muddy river. unfinished developments. modern flats done in a new way. abandoned shipping structures. sitting on railings. discussing old friends. changed plans halfway across the bridge. making pancakes. spinach. bitter ice cream. exhaustion from illness. hopscotch at the bus stop. yellow buses. art shops with interesting jewelry. postcards and buying keyrings to wear as necklaces. closed jazz cafes. graphic novel browsing. charity shops and ill fitting clothes. chai latte with a free chocolate. card games in another cafe. farewells. more card playing. chatty friends of friends. dumplings and plates of my favourite noodles. ideas for blank games cards. messing around with camera settings. crowds of drunk people on the streets. laughing at comedy. sleep. museli and rice krispies. long walks uphill to church. lost irish men. giant stadiums. cute children with plaits. many faces and names. white chocolate and cranberry cakes. luxury transport. closed restaurants in china town. disappointing calzone. waiting forever for change. hundreds of milkshake options. finishing someone elses drink. decisions. alleys covered in chalk grafitti. spotting grafitti in unexpected places. empty buildings. interlinked bridges. dreaming of converting amazing abandoned buildings. buying dinner. knocked over displays. reflections in sheets of plastic. stamping peace over the world. exciting shops. buying an awesome new pad. looking at cameras and feeling inspired again. sofas and books. cool t-shirts. houmous and carrot sticks. burnt fingers from hot bread. funny postcards with holes in. blue cinema seats. good films provoking long discussions. talking about life changing events. explaining. sleep. waking up angry at someone in a dream. lounging in bed. packing. getting exciting by bridges. buildings looking lonely. walkways to nowhere. space invader mosaics. buying gifts 3 months early. tea and writing in my new notepad. more friends. book hunting. restraint. cookery books in a charity shop. remembering forgotten gift vouchers. cold metro entrances. bagels and cherry coke. getting lost and rewalking the same routes. thorntons cafe and discussing life in your twenties. more goodbyes. failed jeans shopping. looking for legwarmers. good chai lattes and retro music. final goodbyes. escalators that sound like applause. emptying metros until i'm alone. no queue at security. perfume. chocolate buttons and finishing two books. waiting for buses. alexi murdoch drowning out beyonce on the bus. writing. returning to an empty flat.

Tip jar photos...

2009-02-26T19:41:00.004Z

Yes, I did say tip jar photos. But you should know that I am odd at times by now... So, for some unknown reason, I have started a collection of tip jar photos... It's made up of places I've been to that either have awesome tip jars, or are places I love.

So I present the collection (so far - it's only small at the moment).

1) The Folk House, off Park Street.

This is where the collection began. I fell in love with the random tin and took a photo...

2) Cafe Delight, Gloc Rd.

Home of an awesome Chai Latte and a funny tip jar

3) Boston Tea Party, Whiteladies Rd.

I ended up having a conversation with one of people working there about my photo collection. I think he thought I was a bit odd. Anyway, they do very good breakfasts and I spend too much time there...

4) Porto Lounge, Fishponds Rd.

I went to the dentist in Fishponds for an emergency appointment and had to get a prescription afterwards. Having no idea where the closest pharmacy was, I asked in here and also spied their awesome tip jar. Upon discovering my tablets needed to be taken on a full stomach, I returned for food and tea, and ended up staying for 3 hours after feeling too ill to drive home. Turns out taking a photo of a tip jar usually leads to an explanation of why, and these guys seemed to think I was much less of a weirdo...

Lent...

2009-02-23T13:50:00.001Z

I've decided to give up watching TV for Lent. This is not because I think TV is bad. In fact, a lot of it is very good. However, there's a lot of average stuff out there, and I think that I watch too much of it.

Currently, my weekly watching schedule involves the following shows:
- Lost
- Heroes
- Battlestar Galactica
- ER
- Chuck
- The Mentalist
- Being Erica
- The United States of Tara
- How I Met Your Mother
- Dollhouse
- Masterchef
(And Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone until they got cancelled)

Added up (counting 50 minutes for the longer shows and 25 for the shorter), that's nearly 10 hours of my week. Plus the dvd series of Black Books and Flight of the Conchords that I've been given as gifts and am working my way through.

Now, which shows am I actually bothered about?
- Battlestar Galactica is top of the list. Brilliant. Genius.
- Lost is also up there as the last couple of seasons have been great.
- Chuck is enjoyable and always entertaining.
- How I Met Your Mother is very funny, mostly due to Neil Patrick Harris.

And to be honest, that's it. So that's about a quarter of what I currently watch. Hmmmmm.

Lent to me is about trying to break some of the habits that are a bigger part of my life than I'd like. My TV watching isn't at the point where I've turned into a hermit with no social life, but it does take up a lot of my spare time when I'm in the flat. I can't remember the last time I read a book (and finished it). Plus, as I'm wanting to devote more time to writing, that time needs to come from somewhere. And so I'm hoping that I'll be able to put those 10 hours to good use over the coming weeks.

When Lent is over, I will go back to watching a couple of shows (probably the four listed above, plus ER as it only has a couple of episodes left before finishing forever). But I want to break the habit of watching shows that I watch just because I watched the previous episodes, despite not being that keen on them. The Mentalist is probably the best example of this - I started watching it when I was ill, and have just carried on losing 50 minutes a week to it simply because they keep churning out episodes. And Dollhouse? I'm watching on the blind faith that it might get better. Hmmmmmm.

I realise this is truly terrible timing. Battlestar Galactica has something like 4 episodes left before finishing. Lost has a few more, but is still going to be getting pretty interesting over this period. So I'll just have to cope with that and threated everyone not to ensure they don't let slip crucial plot points til after Easter.

I'm also a fan of taking something up over Lent too. So this year I'm taking up letter writing. With these extra 10 hours a week, I'm sure I can knock out one a week...

Welcome to Geekdom level 6

2009-02-17T10:39:00.003Z

I am a geek. This is not news. I'd say there are many aspects to my geekiness. I am a complete nerd when it comes to films (armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of who was in what and when), and suffer from a not insignificant obsession with all things culinary. However, this post is referring to the more classic definition of a geek as the evidence in support of the aforementioned is overwhelming. This post is highly biased towards what came to mind when I was writing it, so therefore I am using the Steph Geekiness Scale (TM) to assess myself. This scale can be applied to others, but I take no responsibility for the results...

Today I feel I progressed up the geekiness scale by a level. I have moved from being the kind of person who borrows graphic novels off other people, to someone who buys them. Yes, I impulse bought the first Scott Pilgrim graphic novel this morning. Splendid. Like the abundance of people who've recently bought it (thus making it out of stock in most shops and meaning it'll take 2 weeks to arrive), I became aware of it through the upcoming film adaptation currently being directed by Edgar Wright.

So what other evidence supports my level 6 status...

1) I read xkcd. I understand at least 85% of the jokes. I have this and this stuck up in my bay at work. Enough said.

2) There are other 9 webcomics on my GoogleReader subscription list (Scary Go Round, Questionable Content, Cyanide and Happiness, Bunny Comic, A Softer World, Exploding Dog, Amazing Super Powers, Pictures For Sad Children and Tiny Ghosts). Feel free to suggests additions to the list. I own t-shirts making references to the aforementioned webcomics.

3) I use Linux at work. I am fluent in 2 programming languages and can get by in about another 3 or 4. Plus, I know regular expressions...

4) I subconciously make xkcd references.

5) When my mp3 player broke recently, my first response was to take it apart, replace the battery, and when that didn't work, go down to the lab at work and start probing around with a multimeter. I didn't find out what was wrong with it, but it was fun.

6) I've read enough graphic novels to need two hands to count them (Watchmen, Ghost World, Persepolis, Sandman 1-3 and Atomic Robo).

7) I can successfully have an indepth conversation about Cryptography after consuming several glasses of Sangria.

8) There was a geek test that went round work a while ago. One of the questions was, "Are you female and taking this test". This instantly upped your geek rating by 10%. *sigh*

9) When I tell people what I do for a job, 60% adopt a confused glazed eyed smile and nodding approach. The other 40% make a perceptive comment about how not many girls do that. Really? I hadn't noticed...

10) I'm a bit of a nut about sci fi and fantasy stuff. Terry Pratchett, LOTR, Battlestar Galactica, Nightwatch, Firefly, John Wyndham, Star Wars (the original ones)...

11) Steampunk stuff makes me happy...

12) The last computer game I played was called Crayon Physics. It was awesome. I appreciate the delights of a computer game where objects obey the laws of gravity and motion.

13) The King of Kong was one of the best documentaries I saw last year, even though I've never played Donkey Kong.

My defence of not yet being a level 7 geek is as follows:

1) I still don't understand 15% of xkcd jokes. Mostly the ones about Python. And I'm happy about that.

2) I don't own a soldering iron or multimeter. I feel I am letting the electronic engineering profession down, but nevermind.

3) I don't need to use my toes to measure my graphic novel tally. Yet.

4) I don't have linux installed on my home computer system. My sister and I don't have our computers networked. It's all ok, the world hasn't fallen apart.

5) I've never played WoW. I do however know what MMORPG stands for.

6) The last time I played a computer game (see point 12 above) was over 6 months ago. It wasn't mine. I don't own a console.

7) I'm so up to date with buying the latest gadgets, my tv came from freecycle and I still have VHS tapes and a player.

I rest my case...

Bizarre weekends...

2009-02-15T16:32:00.004Z

I have had a strange weekend. Not strange bad or strange good... just strange!

I had Friday off work, and went on a day trip to Malmesbury with a friend - basically it's a sleepy little town in the Cotswolds with an Abbey and not a whole lot else, but much fun was had regardless.
Things I learnt:
- There is a pub that may take forever to bring you food, but the burgers are worth the wait.
- All roads eventually lead back to the high street.
- My sense of direction is good. John's is not.
- Parking is incredibly cheap. 25p for an hour, 50p for 1-4 or £1 for all day.
- They are using the inside of the Abbey as a Christian skate park over half term. This is very cool indeed. Most of the old people in the Church seem to disapprove!

Saturday was an odd day. I decided to devote a majority of it to doing some writing. For years, I've been playing round with the same idea, and it's ended up thoroughly overworked and remained just an idea, never really getting written down... So when I had a new bit of inspiration recently, I decided that instead of talking about how much I wanted to get back into writing, I should just get on with it. Therefore 7 hours were spent in Cafe Kino, a *lot* of vanilla rooibos was consumed, a stiff neck and shoulders were obtained, and I seem to have convinced the guy working there I was a nutbar. The conversation went something like this (whilst purchasing cup of tea number 6, and asking him to restart the router for the 6th time):

Him - What are you doing down there? Writing a book?
Me - Yes
Him - Oh, I was just being facecious...

Anyway, it was good to get started on something, but horrifying to realise how out of practice I was. Everything came out a bit awkward and cliched, but I figure I can work on that later - the most important thing is to get started. So 5,300 odd words later, I've got a beginning that needs a lot of work, and to be followed by a middle and an end... But I have a start, and that's more than I've achieved in a verrry long time. Plus I listened to Bishop Allen a lot which was definately a good thing.

However, it appears the major problem with spending 7 hours writing, lost in your thoughts and with no significant human contact, is that it's actually quite hard to adjust to normal life after... I went to a gig in the evening with a friend, but just couldn't settle into it, so we ended up leaving and eating Ben and Jerry's and watching Dollhouse instead. Dollhouse was disappointing, the ice cream was not...

Then I woke up this morning in a bad mood. No reason. Mostly just feeling tired and irrationally grumpy. I dragged my sorry arse off to Church in an unenthusiastic manner. I don't often get to see a sermon any longer as I'm either away at the weekends or doing youth work. But it being half term, there was no youth stuff happening, so I got to stay in for the whole service. I've being going through a funny faith patch at the moment (which deserves a whole blog post of its own, not a paragraph plonked in here), but today was good. This was followed by looking through the photos of last weeks youth photo treasure hunt with the group which was very entertaining and amusing...

I then cycled down to Boston Tea Party on Whiteladies. I've suddenly realised how terribly unfit I've allowed myself to get over the last 6 months, and I'm pretty horrified. Last year I was cycling to work several times a week (a 12 mile round trip), but after a string of stupid but slightly comical injuries, I haven't been able to for many months. So now I'm trying to build up to that again, and re-realising how much I enjoy cycling (what can I say - I geekily enjoy the efficiency of it). Anyway, the cycling was followed by coffee with a friend. Fun was had, and another member of coffee shop staff now thinks I'm a nutbar (this is what happens when you tell them you have a collection of tip jar photos it would appear).

So I survived the cycle back up the hill, and started cooking. And carried on cooking. I think I cooked enough for a small to medium sized army - Bobotie, yellow rice, flatbread and baked aubergine. Coupled with red wine drinking and Mah Jong playing (and I mean this, not this game that comes loaded with windows), a fun evening was had. And now it's Sunday evening and there's the horrible realisation that I have to go to work in the morning... Bah bah bah... Still, there is much fun planned in the form of pool playing, exciting food cooking, birthday party attending and gig going, all before next weekend arrives so it could be worse...

£1000...

2009-02-12T15:43:00.003Z

I've just impulsively signed up to Plinky - yes, an indication of a productive day... Basically each day it sends you a question, and you can set it so your reply goes to your blog or Twitter (I've got it sent to the latter to avoid clogging up the blog).

Anyway, I was looking back through the older questions and one was "How would you spend $1000". The reason this one made me think was that I had a similar discussion with some friends a while ago, which was "How would you spend £1000 (slight currency change) if you had to spend it on something for yourself and be completely selfish" - so no rent, bills, food etc - nothing remotely practical or sensible, and nothing for anyone else! I think we even dismissed travelling as an option and made the rule it had to be something physical or lasting... It was fascinating the range of replies that people had - jewelry, clothes, electronics, music, dvds... Many of them were nice things, but not something I'd even consider spending that much money on. I'd count myself as a big film geek and a music fan, but I don't think I'd spend it on those if I had the choice of picking other things...

So I've been sitting here thinking about what I'd do with it, and I'm not sure I want to spend it on a single thing. Well, I could, but I think I'd prefer to split my imaginary money down into chunks, and allocate it as follows...

1) £250 - A nice camera. Nothing too ridiculous, but I'd love to have a proper camera again, given that my two present options are my Holga (which I still don't know how to use) or my camera phone... Something above a standard point and press, but still something relatively compact...

2) £350 - A pretty guitar. Given that one of my guitars was free (crap, but lots of sentimental attachment) and the other came from a charity shop (slightly less crap, and less sentimental attachment), I'd love one that's not crap. Maybe an electro-acoustic job. I don't know anything about guitars so can't be more specific than that... Not that it'd make my guitar playing any more bearable, but at least it'd look pretty as I deafened you all...

3) £150 - A shiny set of knives. I'm well known for my kitchen geekery, and now have some really splendid pans. My knives are fine, but I'd loooove a set of really good ones (maybe some Globals)... This doesn't qualify as a practical item, because I really don't need them - they'd be a pure indulgence item.

4) £225 - Singing lessons. Yes, I know this may not qualify as a physical thing (though my vocal chords are a physical entity, and I'm in charge of the rules now!), but I've always wanted to be able to sing... I seem to have spent my entire life surrounded by sickeningly musical people, while I pass as mediocre. I believe that I have the ability, but it's hidden well amongst bad technique - apparently as I'm not tone deaf and can kind of hold a tune, the rest should be teachable... So I'd spend some money on testing the truth in that.

5) £25 - Really frikkin nice houmous and pitta bread, washed down with a really good bottle of red wine. And maybe a toblerone cos I haven't had one in ages. Because however great things are, this can only make them better...

Spend away...

Food, glorious food!

2009-02-09T13:21:00.002Z

Last night I was looking through my cupboard in the kitchen for some stock cubes. Yes, that normal ingredient that everyone has. Sadly I appear have run out. However, I found the following items (amongst other equally bizarre items):

- Vine leaves for making Dolmades
- Chinese dumpling flour
- Dried Galangal (I had to wikipedia this to find out what it was)
- 8 different types of rice. Yes 8. If I try buying rice in your presence in the next few months stop me. Those 8 types were - Jasmine, Paella, Risotto, Basmati, Long grain, Easy Cook, Brown Basmati and 10 Minute Brown (best.invention.ever).

What kind of fruit loop has no stock cubes, but does have most of the incredients on hand to make stuffed vine leaves and chinese steamed dumplings?!?

Hmmmmmm....

Anyway, I finally got round to have a bit of a re-jig of my list of things to learn to cook this year (a couple of the items had been there purely to pad it out as I'd run out of ideas) - so a few things have been swapped off the list for things I want to cook more, and I've updated what I've done in the last couple of months. So here is the updated list.

1) Jambalaya - done
2) Yaki Soba
3) Dal
4) Clam Chowder
5) Spring Rolls and Sesame Prawn Toast - done
6) Roasted Red Pepper Houmous + pitta bread - done
7) Mussels and Chips - done
8) Stifado - done
9) Kleftiko
10) Coq au Vin - done
11) Moussaka
12) Fish Pie - done
13) Olive Foccacia
14) Hollandaise Sauce
15) Thai Green Curry Paste - done
16) Stollen - done
17) Gravalax
18) Tortellini
19) Bagels
20) Pumpkin Pie - done
21) Jerk Chicken - done
22) Chicken Chow Mein - done
23) Falafel
24) NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
25) Borscht
26) Seafood Gumbo
27) Char Siu Baau
28) Gnocchi - done
29) Enchilladas and Refried Beans
30) Frikadeller
31) Dolmades - done
32) Crumpets - done
33) Goan Fish Curry
34) Jamaican Goat Curry
35) Bakewell Tart - done
36) Won Ton Soup
37) Lamb Rogan Josh and Pilau Rice - done
38) Biryani
39) Miso Soup
40) Tabbouleh - done
41) Pad Thai - done
42) Parantha
43) Saag Aloo + Naan Bread - done
44) Chicken Adobo - done
45) Baked Alaska
46) Chicken Mole
47) Bobotie - done
48) Sticky Toffee Pudding and proper Custard
49) Meatloaf - done
50) Nettle Soup
51) Jam - done
52) Brioche

I'm still looking for willing victims who are happy to be experimented on, so feel free to pipe up if you fancy any of the ones I've not yet done...

A weekend of illness containing a suprising amount of joy...

2009-02-08T14:50:00.003Z

I have had the strangest weekend. I've been pretty sick but still managed to have a really splendid time!

It all started with birthdays and biscuits... Friday night was split between two birthdays, both of which involved much joviality and some cider. Conversation varied from deep theological discussions drawing analogies between relgion and hats, to me waxing lyrical over my wonderous pan collection, with an abundance of stops inbetween. I had lots of fun, and an amazing magic roll.

Saturday morning was less cheery, after waking up at 7.30am beginning to feel less than well (the early wake up would have been less of an issue had I gotten to bed before 2.30)! However, the bad start was quickly turned around by the winning combination of porridge and Battlestar Galactica (so frakkin good this week). I then experienced the unfathomable delights of a mid afternoon breakfast. This may be a better invention than brunch. See, the major shortfall of brunch is that I miss out on my porridge on a Saturday morning, and I'm quite fond of porridge. However, a mid afternoon breakfast trip allows for a lie in, porridge when I get up, as well as the wonderous event that is going out for breakfast food. Mmmmm.

I then started feeling pretty darn ill. Being the kind of person who doesn't like letting illness disrupt my social life, I vegetated fo a few hours until I started to feel human again, then bimbled off to the pub. A game of Carcasonne, some frankly incredible M&S chocolate biscuits, splendid company and some not bad live music made for a fun evening. The highlight being Roddy's attempt to further my inexplicable blushing (seriously, all it takes is someone to point at me and exclaim that I'm blushing and I will. No genuine reason is required) by persuading the musician playing in the pub to dedicate his rendition of "Most Beautiful Girl" by Flight of the Conchords to me ("You're so beautiful, you could be a part time model..."). Ahem.

Then it went really wrong. Upon returning from the pub, the illness finally hit me with avengance. Sleep was in short supply, late night writing and blogging wasn't. Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling like death that had been warmed up, then rechilled. Lounging around wasn't on the agenda, as I was down to lead the youth group, and I'd been planning a fun photo based project for weeks. So off I trundled over the icy pavements to Church, where people proceeded to tell me I looked tired and a bit like death. Good to know that I'm easy to read then. But then just when I was contemplating dragging my sorry for myself ass back home, something awesome happened. I had a whole heap of fun! The project all came together - we had enough young people to split into two groups, arm each with a leader and a list of things to photograph (ranging from "everyone in your group in a phone booth" to "a photo of the best thing you can buy for a pound in Waitrose"). That hour of slipping and sliding round local street with my group was really really great. They threw themselves into the game with enthusiasm and creativity, dragging my sleep deprived self along with them. And I feel so much better now - the sickness has passed, and it's only the minor exhaustion that remains...

This afternoon has continued to be good - I've caught up with a friend who I miss like crazy and haven't spoken to in ages, done some writing and eaten toast. Splendid. So now I'm resting, armed with the complete Black Books box set that I was given for my birthday.

And as the well known saying goes: laughter, good friends, toast, Bill Bailey and an early night really are the best medicine...

Hopes and dreams...

2009-02-08T01:55:00.002Z

I'm a self confessed idealist and definately a dreamer. I have great ideas about things I want to do, places I want to see and the way that I want to live my life. I know things never work out exactly how we want (both in a good and bad way), but I guess my biggest fear is that I'll compromise and settle in my ideals and aspirations, especially as I get older and the responsibilites and practicalities of life become more prevalent.

Take ethical living. I want so much to live an ethical life, and an environmentally responsible one. I want it to influence my every day decisions and acts - I want to treat people and the planet in the best way that I can. However, the possibilities of how to do this are so overwhelming, it's easy to end up doing nothing, or making efforts that seem token and concience easing. I support the work of organisations like the World Development Movement, but haven't got any more involved because it clashes with other things in my life. I believe in fair pay for all workers, buy fairtrade food where possible, but still own clothes made by Matalan and Primark. I am passionate about renewable energy and reducing the impact we have on the planet, but drive a car and still use aeroplanes. I have an ethical pension but not an ethical bank account. I know I can't do everything, but at what point am I compromising on my beliefs and letting myself off the hook too easily?

And work? I want to change jobs at some point in the next couple of years. I dream of a job where I feel like I'm having a positive effect on the world and something I'm passionate about (or at least more passionate about!). I don't want to end up 30 years down the line, still working in the same area that I am now. But at the moment, I'm just hoping to keep hold of my current job during the recession, reasoning that it's secure and pays the bills, and my career dreams have been shelved with no current unshelving date. A sensible and practical decision, or letting the practicalities of everyday life like rent and bills hinder my dreams?

What about things like travelling? Since a couple of my friends have gone off on trips over the past couple of years, it's become more on my mind that I'd really like to take 3 or maybe 6 months off to see a bit more of the world. It's not necessarily something I want to do right now, but a series of excuses consistently present themselves - I don't want to go on my own, I don't want to have to quit my job without having something to come back to, it doesn't fit in with plans for houses and housemates. Am I letting my fears to miss out on a potentially amazing experience or should I hold onto the hope for a better opportunity a few years down the line?

I know when I was a teenager my dreams and hopes were pretty fantastical, and as I've grown up they've become more grounded in reality. This is good and bad. Good because you weed out the ones that you realise are insignificant - with a bit of maturity comes the understanding of what is important in life, what you truly care about and believe in, and a better idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are. However you also tend to lose the energy that comes with youthful undampable belief that you can achieve things beyond your current abilities, and that things can change. With age also comes cynicalness and an ability to overthink and overrationalise things...

This isn't supposed to be a negative waffle by the way. I like my life a lot - my friends are flippin awesome and I wouldn't swap it for the world. I'm not being self critical in an attempt to illicit sympathy. I just want to keep challenging myself about stuff like this - dreaming can lead to great things. If I keep asking myself the questions I hope I'm less likely to allow myself to settle for averageness and have a pretty amazing time in my quest for something more.

Disclaimer - I wrote this at 2.30am when ill, so I'm not really sure how much sense it makes (I actually had to look up cynicalness cos I wasn't sure if it was even a word and I'm pretty sure it's seasoned with a healthy dose of grammatical mistakes) and whether this is something anyone else ponders (especially at 2.30am) or if it's just me...

To twitter or not to twitter, that is the question...

2009-02-04T10:01:00.003Z

So I impulsively signed up to twitter this morning. A combination of feeling a bit poorly, work avoidance and the discovery that it's not (yet) blocked from work... Not sure what I think of it really - not many people seem to be on it yet, but it seems to be on the rise so I'll give it a go...

https://twitter.com/stephanoffle

Anyone else on twitter?

Oscar noms...

2009-01-22T14:43:00.004Z

As a certified Film Geek, I felt the need to make some kind of comment on the freshly announced Oscar nominations... I haven't seen all the films, so it will be far from a complete assessment, and I'm only going to waffle on about a few of the major catagories...

Best Picture + Best Director : The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher), Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard), Milk (Gus Van Sant), The Reader (Stephen Daldry), Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
Since the nominations for both catagories cover the same films, I thought I'd lump them into a single block rather than repeating myself. I've seen all of these apart from Benjamin Button (which I'll be seeing at a free preview over the next week), so a quick look at what I thought about each of them...
Frost/Nixon - interesting, but probably worth catching on dvd rather than forking out for at the cinema, and one to miss if you've no interest in politics. Not one I'd rush back to see again - the film is all about the tension and build up to the interviews and I don't think that could be replicated on a second viewing...
Milk - probably the film I enjoyed the most out of the group. A truly compelling and engaging film that I highly recommend. A genuine insight into an important political moment as well as an enjoyable film, and a valuable message in the light of the current Proposition 8 situation that echoes some of the issues covered in the film...
The Reader - having read the book, there's always that slight difference between what was written and what's seen on film, but they captured it well. A moving film, marred slightly by a slightly slow second half, but still a fascinating glimpse at a generation struggling to come to terms with the actions of their parent's generation.
Slumdog Millionaire - a thoroughly enjoyable and well made film. While there wasn't anything wrong with the film, it never quite reached excellence in my opinion. Definately worth catching though and probably the one I'd recommend most to the average film watcher...
General comments - Firstly, it's a crime that The Dark Knight didn't make the Best Picture catagory at least. If it had been, it would have had my vote... Although I haven't seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button yet, I fear it's a bit long to win Best Picture and has more of a chance in Best Director... My vote would go to Milk for Best Picture and Slumdog Millionaire for Best Director, but in reality, I expect Slumdog Millionaire to take both...

Best Actor : Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Sean Penn is outstanding in Milk and deserves and Oscar. However, Mickey Rourke has had rave reviews of his performance in The Wrestler (another one I'm yet to see), and it would be a suitably unexpected but deserved shock career comeback if he were to win... I would be disappointed if Frank Langella if were to win, and to be honest, I'm not sure Brad Pitt has much of a chance... I have no idea about Richard Jenkins, but Hollywood loves an outsider... My money would be on Sean or Mickey though.

Best Actress : Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Meryl Streep (Doubt), Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Again, an outsider in this catagory in the form of Melissa Leo. I'm not convinced of Angelina Jolie's chances either - while she was good in Changeling, it was nothing in comparison to the calabre of her performance in Girl, Interrupted for which she won an Oscar. Could it finally be Kate Winslet's year though, after 5 nominations and not a single win? She's up against serious competition in the form of Anne Hathaway, who's been receiving serious praise for Rachel Getting Married, and twice winner Meryl Streep for awards material Doubt. It may be heretical for me to say it, but I don't really like Meryl Streep, so I'd rather it went to Anne or Kate...

Best Supporting Actor : Josh Brolin (Milk), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)
A tricky one to call. As much as I love Robert Downey Jr, I don't think he's likely to win - similarly to Johnny Depp not winning for Jack Sparrow in the past - comic performances don't tend to win awards... Josh Brolin and Michael Shannon were good in their roles, but not mindblowing... Philip Seymour Hoffman is reliably great, and criminally undervalued as an actor, so he's in with a good chance. However, along with much of the rest of the planet, I'd love to see Heath Ledger win... His take on the Joker was magnicient and one of the most impactful performances I've seen in years. Of all the people in this catagory, his portrayal is the one who people will still talk about in 10 years...

I'm not going to say anything about any of the other catagories (I've not seen any of the Best Supporting Actress films yet!) other than to say it's nice to see both Waltz with Bashir and Man on Wire getting nominated in the Best Foreign Language and Best Documentary catagories respectively. I haven't seen any of the other films in either section so can't comment on their chances, but both of these are definately worth checking out...

Stop motion for adults...

2009-01-20T21:03:00.001Z

Ooooh this looks exciting. Definately one to watch out for...

Quarterlife crisis...

2009-01-20T10:56:00.003Z

My fellow girl-in-a-geeky-company Sara coined an interesting phrase recently. A quarterlife crisis. This came to light after several coffee room based discussions regarding the fact that a lot of our friends (and indeed ourselves) who fall into the "mid twenties" catagory seem to be undergoing some questioning about the direction our lives are taking.

In my case, it's the fact that I've spent 4 years at uni training for one career, and now I'm here, I'm not sure it's what I want to do long term. I enjoy it most of the time, but I don't want this to be what I spend the next 40 years doing. The main problem lies in the fact that I'm still not sure what it is I want to do, and I can't face another 3 years of studying to retrain... And I'd quite like to get some travelling in there somewhere before being tied down with a morgage... For a number of my friends it's manifested in some kind of living abroad period - a year, two years... some kind of adventure while looking for that direction. I know other people who've started questioning the relationships they're in or not in. Is this what I want? For the rest of my life?

I guess the reason this kind of questioning often manifests itself around this time is that if you go to Uni, your direction is mapped out for you for the 3 or 4 years you spend there. Upon graduating, you are thrown into some kind of job. New things have novelty - there are things to learn, people to meet, and the time flows by. 18 months or so down the line however, there is often a crash back down to earth. Is this it? Is this my life now? All those dreams you have when you're younger are easily lost under the practicalities of paying the rent and keeping your job in a recession. Jobs aren't always what you expected them to be. Frustrations arise about the difficulties of changing things in large companies, or not having the necessary support in small companies. But is the grass really greener elsewhere or do you just need to deal with it? And I guess that applies to relationships too - all relationships will go through good and bad patches, and the honeymoon period will undoubtedly end, but is it worth sticking with or is it time to call it quits?

All these questions come from uncertainty and having to make life changing decisions essentially on our own. As children and teenagers, parents often have a big say on the decisions we make. At Uni, the course we take dictates our route, reducing the choices. And the decisions we make are not so significant - whether I'd taken one module or another was a big decision at the time, but regardless I'd still have graduated with a degree. Now the magnitude of job and career choices that face me, and the consequences of my actions dwarf those decisions. But one of my reflections on last year was that I should start taking more risks in life. I tend to the safe and known route, meaning that I may miss out on something really great...

Enough waffling from me. The whole thing has got me kind of inspired with writing again and I've started working on a script based around the whole idea. It's still at the initial trying-to-get-my-head-round-it stage (lots of notes, lists, diagrams) and we'll see whether it goes anywhere... But it's nice to be writing again!

(And before someone points it out, I know there was some kind of web series called quarterlife a few years ago)...

breakfasting...

2009-01-19T14:41:00.002Z

Over the last year or so I have become a big fan of going out for breakfast (or brunch as it often ends up being due to the lure of a Saturday morning lie in). It's become a semi-regular way to start a Saturday, and is often followed by a bit of charity shop shopping... Regular partners in crime are Elaine or my sister, with Helen making a debut appearance last week... Boston Tea Party (especially the Whiteladies one) is a bit of a favourite (the scrambled eggs and chai lattes are splendid), but Havana Coffee and Cafe Delight have also proved worthy venues...

I'm not sure what I like about it so much. Maybe it's the feel of a cafe on a Saturday morning - the pace is so much more relaxed and laid back than it is during the week or later on a Saturday. People with a coffee and a paper mingle with hungover post revellers, tucking into a big fry up. Maybe it's the sheer indulgence of going out for a meal that too often is a hurried practicality during the week... Monday to Friday, I opt for efficiency in the form of museli. At the weekend I choose porridge, enjoying having the extra time required to cook and eat it. Going out is in a whole different league - it's making an event out of what is often gobbled down in a frantic hurry. And the range of breakfast food available is amazing. Waffles, croissants, toast, bagels (mmmm bagels), fry ups, bacon sarnies and everything inbetween. Things I'd probably never buy for breakfast at home...

Catching up with a friend over smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on a bagel... a pretty perfect way to start the weekend in my opinion...

Film: Waltz with Bashir...

2009-01-14T13:43:00.003Z

So I trundled off the to Cube cinema last night with a bunch of people who I'd persuaded to come with me. I'd heard a lot about Waltz with Bashir - it's just won the Golden Globe for best international film, it's featured highly on lists of best films of 2008, and generally generated a lot of positive buzz. I'd also heard the words harrowing, powerful, upsetting and moving associated with it, so I knew I wasn't there for a romantic comedy...

So the descriptive bit. Waltz with Bashir is unusual in that it's an animated documentary... At the start of the film, in the present time, a man who fought in the 1982 Lebanon war meets up with an old friend who tells him about a recurring nightmare he's been troubled with related to his war experiences. The story itself is told as a series of conversations and flashbacks. I'm not going to say anything more about what happens during the film, as part of the power of this film is the journey it takes you on. The visual style is captivating, and is used to perfection by the film maker to achieve maximum impact from the story he is telling.

I honestly can't remember the last time a film affected me this much. As the credits rolled, there was deathly silence in the cinema. No words seemed appropriate for what we'd just witnessed. Several minutes passed before I spoke, which to anyone who knows me is an unusual thing. All those words I'd heard used were completely appropriate to what I'd just witnessed and yet seemed insufficient to describe what I was feeling. I still struggle to find words to vocalise it.

This is not an easy film to watch, but an important one. As a film, it's extraordinary and unique. As a life experience, it's a provocative and affecting look back at a conflict that is widely unheard of.

Christmas mix cds...

2008-12-22T16:57:00.002Z

Well, I finished my alternative-to-an-xmas-card-mix-cd. It's a bit late though, so most people probably won't get it til after Christmas... Whoops. It's more of a "best discoveries of 2008" cd anyway, so I don't suppose that matters too much.

Anyway, without further ado, I present the final track listing... If you want a proper copy with a random cover let me know (I may already have one set aside for you anyway...).

1. Frank Turner - Photosynthesis
2. Biffy Clyro - Who's got a match
3. The Mountain Goats - Lion's teeth
4. The Decemberists - Yankee bayonet
5. Elbow - The bones of you
6. James Yuill - The ghost
7. Cloud Cult - Everybody here is a cloud
8. The Postal Service - Such great heights
9. Ryan Inglis - If I fall
10. Death Cab for Cutie - I will follow you into the dark
11. Alexi Murdoch - All my days
12. Menomena - Wet and rusting
13. Tunng - Woodcat
14. Sufjan Stevens - For the widows in paradise...
15. Caribou - Hello hammerheads
16. Broken Social Scene - Almost crimes
17. Feist - When I was a young girl
18. Elliot Smith - Waltz #2
19. Audioslave - Until we fall
20. Ben Harper - By my side

The curse of the cancelled TV show...

2008-12-15T15:52:00.005Z

TV executives have no taste. Either that or I watch programs that have no commercial appeal, because the programs I like keep getting cancelled...

Case #1 - Firefly
Yes, the sci fi western may not have made any money, but it was so good! A wonderfully diverse and well cast group of characters, witty dialogue and a variety of entertaining storylines combined to bring a refreshing and different show. The most annoying thing was that the cancellation happened so early on - a lot of the early ground work for later storylines had been laid, but it was cancelled just as it was starting to get really interesting. Thank goodness for Serenity. Yes, it may not be a flawless film, but at least it answered some of the issues raised in the TV show, removing at least some of the frustration and leaving the door open for further films.

Case #2 - Arrested Development
I have to confess that I'm less upset over this one than some of the others. The story of the disfunctional Bluth family was very enjoyable and amusing and I think it was a shame that they cancelled it. However, at least it didn't leave any tantalising open storylines to nag at me (possibly due to the fact that they were aware of the impending end of the show)... There's been a lot of talk about bringing it back as a film, but I for one hope they don't to be honest - in my mind it's fairly done and dusted...

Case #3 - Veronica Mars
I knew when I started watching Veronica Mars that it got cancelled at the end of the third series, but decided to give it a go anyway. Murder mystery set in a high school? Hell yes! The first two series are brilliant - an intriguing overarching storyline stretching over the whole series, enjoyable episode based subplots, entertaining and amusing characters that develop beautifully over time... The third series is definately weaker, forgoing the series spanning storyline for some frankly baffling smaller storylines at times. The chemistry that is so intriguing between two of the main characters over the first two series gets pushed to one side, and the series ends in a pretty obscure and frustrating way. Again, there's been discussion about bringing the show back in a movie form, and while I'm not sure there's much new ground that can be covered, I'm definately pro this simply because of the ridiculous way that the third series ended...

Case #4 - Pushing Daisies
The story of the Pie Maker and his bring-back-the-dead-to-life abilities is entertaining, but I'm not too suprised it's not made it past a second season. Yes, I enjoy it and have seen all the episodes so far, but it's usually the bottom of my TV watching priority list. The problem with having the central two characters as nice people who are in love but can't touch each other is that there's not much you can do with it - in short, it's lacking a bit of disfunctionality from the central characters to make it a bit more... well... interesting. The episode length plots pass the time pleasantly enough, and there are a couple of longer length storylines, but nothing to really stretch interest much beyond the first series.

Case #5 - Eli Stone
Now this one I really am annoyed about. Mainly because I've only just discovered how awesome it is (thankyou Mr Walker). The story of a lawyer who begins having visions that are either caused by his inoperable brain tumour, or are messages from God. And by visions, I mean full on song and dance routines. With George Michael. The first series focuses on Eli's battle to cope with the effect the visions have on his life, while the second is less about Eli and more about the effect he has on those around him. The irritating thing about the cancellation of this show is not the fact that storylines probably won't be tied up, more that there is just so much potential in the show (similarly to Firefly) that is left unfulfilled... I'm not sure how many episodes are left to air, but this one I'm really going to miss...

#51 - Creative cocktail making...

2008-12-15T15:27:00.003Z

So I've been a bit quiet over the last 2 or so weeks - I've been battling some kind of annoying unpredictable lurgy. It keeps coming and going - just when I think it's gone after several days of feeling fine, I wake up feeling like death again. Hrumph.

Fortunately it decided to behave itself on Friday - however I think this is the first time I've organised an event that enables me to complete an item on my list of things to do before I die completely unintentionally. My sister and I decided to have a small flat warming to celebrate our mold free residence. After much contemplation we decided to make it a cocktail party. However, it wasn't until a few days before the party that I remembered that #51 on the list was "invent a cocktail". Awesome.

Grace and I threw ourselves into this challenge with gusto and a complete lack of fear. The first attempt was a daring mix of amaretto, malibu, rum, orange juice and lime. Named a sleazy hawaiian, it was pretty good. But we didn't stop there. Next was a spin on a springbok (baileys and creme de menthe) made with chocolate cream instead of the baileys. This was followed by a martian sunset (like a tequila sunrise but with rum instead of whatever you normally but in with the tequila). However, I refined my choice down to a simple combination by the end of the night - amaretto, orange juice and a reaaaaaally generous amount of lime (1/4 - 1/2 a lime). I hereby name this tasty combination a "number 51". Mmmmmmmmmmm. A very enjoyable way to complete an item on the list....

Thursday joy : black cab sessions

2008-12-04T15:39:00.002Z

I discovered Black Cab Sessions today. Complete genius.

Enjoy Emmy the Great - I love this song...

Thoughts about music...

2008-12-04T12:30:00.000Z

It's December. Which means it's approaching the time of year when I acknowledge that Christmas is not too far off (as opposed to the middle of September when supermarkets and shops start shoving it down your throat)... Therefore it's time to start drawing up the playlist for my (now) annual Christmas mix cd. Fear not - it's not a cd of Christmas songs (no no no no!), instead it's a mix cd of all the good music I've discovered over the last year... It doesn't have to be a new artist - just one that's new to me. This is a new tradition that I only started last year, mainly cos I'm not a Christmas card person, and I don't tend to give presents to friends at Christmas - so it seemed like a good alternative. Plus I love mix cds so it was lots of fun to put together and do the cover for...

So I've got a list of artists, and a short list of tracks for most of them. Now I just need to narrow it down and get the ordering right...

Out of interest, I've been listening to last years cd to see how much my tastes have changed/developed... here's the listing from last year:

1) Hundred Reasons - I'll find you
2) Mutemath - Noticed
3) Reel Big Fish - What are friends for
4) Five Iron Frenzy - Dandelions
5) Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Fresher than the sweetness in water
6) Eels - Last stop: this town
7) Dave Matthews Band - Crush
8) Incubus - Drive
9) Newton Faulkner - All I got
10) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - When your minds made up
11) Show of Hands - Suntrap
12) Nick Drake - One of these things first
13) The Wraiths - Silent Grove
14) Mono - A thousand paper cranes
15) Portishead - Glory box
16) Rose Kemp - Morning music
17) Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Deus ibi est
18) Regina Spektor - Hotel Song
19) Bizali - Shiny Things
20) [spunge] - Roots

The first thing that struck me is that I haven't listened to a lot of it in a while... Some of the stuff I still love (Hundred Reasons, Mutemath, Incubus and Dave Matthews Band continue to bring me a lot of joy), some I love even more (Nick Drake), some I still going to see when possible (Bizali), some I revisit from time to time (Portishead, Regina Spektor) but a lot of them just aren't part of my regular listening any longer.

It's partly a change of taste - I've seem to have definately moved away from ska music in a bit way. But I guess a lot of it is just that I've found things I like more - why listen to Show of Hands when I can listen to The Mountain Goats? Nothing against Show of Hands - I just prefer The Mountain Goats...

I'm not going to give too much away about this years cd - partly cos I haven't picked everything yet. But there's a definite move towards folk rock/modern folk and electro indie in my taste... It's probably a result of further exploration on my part, but also coming into contact with people with a different music taste to mine...

Hmmmmmmm.

25 years, 10 months, 7 days and 8 hours.

2008-12-02T23:04:00.003Z

This is how old I am.

I wrote a big old long self analytical post after eating too much chocolate (especially given that I don't eat many sweet things) caused me to get a little hyperactive in the pub and kicked my brain into a weird overdrive on the drive home. But then I deleted it because it was all a bit nonsensical and waffley really. I feel better now.

In summary:
I am me.
I sometimes get frustrated by myself.
Life has many possibilities in it.
But there we go.

Strange girl...

2008-12-02T09:47:00.003Z

I had a realisation yesterday - I'm a little bit strange. Now, I've been aware of my minor oddities for a while. However, my unconventional response to illness over the past few days took this to a whole different level. Sunday I was pretty ill - so I had the predictable "curl up in bed and do very little" response. So far so normal. After 12 hours sleep on Sunday night I felt significantly better, but not quite up to going into work, so took the day off.

Exhibit A : After discovering a completely empty fridge, my first mission was to acquire some food. So off I trundled to the shops. Now, when ill, you crave comfort foods right? I don't know what this is for most people - maybe chocolate, biscuits, toast... I came back with red kiwi fruit and sharon fruit. Yes. Exotic fruit. I actually got quite excited in the fruit and veg shop about the red kiwi fruit (new foods tend to have that effect on me). They were indeed red (well, a bit anyway) and tasted much like normal kiwis except without the hairy skin (which is a bonus for odd souls like me who eat the skins). Sharon fruit is one of my favourite foods, but it's only possible to get ripe and affordable ones for a short portion of the year - they should be soft to the touch when ripe, not hard as nails like they're usually sold in supermarkets. I returned with 4 perfect specimens much to my delight.

Exhibit B : I also returned from my shopping trip with some veg to make soup with. This is not an unusual thing to do. However, once I'd finished making soup, my cookery cravings were not satisfied. So I made some houmous. Mmmmmm. Since making home made houmous for the first time a few months ago, I can't go back to store bought stuff (at least not supermarket varieties) - I indulged my experimental side this time with some sundried tomatoes, pimento peppers and smoked paprika. A resoundingly successful combination. However, this still didn't satisfy the cooking urge. So I made Coq au Vin in the slow cooker for dinner with my sister (first use of the slow cooker - I'm converted!). I bought the bread to go with it, but in all fairness this was only because I'd run out of yeast...

(Before anyone states that I can't have been that ill if I managed to cook all the aforementioned stuff, I would like to point out that there were an abundance of sitting down breaks and tea drinking to recover from the dizzy spells).

The verdict - when ill, I crave exotic fruit and cook bizarre food. I don't think this is normal. To balance this out, I did try to watch some crummy tv (made trickier by the whole "not having a tv" thing) so I had to settle for getting addicted to Veronica Mars and watching back to back episodes of that instead... (Sorry Helen, The West Wing was just too heavy going for my poorly brain!).

All better and back to work today though...

Stream of conciousness : my weekend

2008-11-28T23:36:00.008Z

See here for an explanation of what stream of conciousness is...

learning that olives and chai lattes don't go together. re-emergence of the travel bug. friday traffic. fighting my way through children in the nursery. youth group planning. washing up pie dishes. worrying over silly things. recycled glass necklaces. driving in fog. nabbing a great parking space for free. postcards. tea and carrot cake. random adverts. a harrowing film. thinking. cold fingers out of the end of my gloves. great music walking past a bar. feeling seperate from the world i walk through. smoking waiters. drunk people crossing the road. tea towels on stair gates. contemplating the options. circular windows in the wall of my room. porridge and maple syrup. wet hair in the cold. friendly big issue sellers. flower sellers. watching my sister graduate. overhearing people discussing graduation hats. purple lights. removing curtain hooks. freshly squeezed orange juice with star shaped ice. parking nightmares. cold ears. battling through crowds. pretty red holgas. funny pink hats. chorizo. wrapping up in long scarves. getting excited about canapes. cabbage and sultanas. the prison at night. failing to recognise people. admiring engagement rings. catching up. funk and jazz. comparing morocco experiences. headaches from tiredness. sleeplessness. cold. watching eli stone in bed. not making sense. tea. lying on the chairs in church. drawing on maps of bristol. being suprised by my youth group. going back to bed. strange films. chocolate fudge brownie ben and jerrys. generous friends carrying washing machines upstairs. looking for plugs. trying to get my brain to function and do maths. bed again. porridge. 12 hours sleep finally.

Return of the chef...

2008-11-24T16:26:00.004Z

Annnnnnd I'm back.

One of the things that frustrated me most about living in limbo was not having a kitchen I felt comfortable cooking in. But fortunately the new flat has a shiny new one, about three times the size of the old one. So I've been taking advantage of this to throw myself back into my love of cooking. So a few old favourites have been revisited - kedgeree, chilli and bobotie. However, I've also been reinspired by my list of things to learn to cook and had a bash at a couple of them...

Up first - meatloaf. I've heard meatloaf talked about a lot, but never actually tried it or thought much about what's actually in it... So when Helen picked it off the list following an offer to cook for her, I went on a hunt for recipies... I ended up with an amalgamation of two different recipies. Here's the rough outline:

800g beef mince (I used lean)
200g pork mince (Again, I used lean stuff)
~90g breadcrumbs (2 thick slices of bread)
1 egg
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
1 onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sage leaves
1 tbsp parsley
salt and pepper

Mix it all in a bowl, pop in a loaf tin and place the tin in a baking tray with an inch of hot water in. Cover the loaf tin with foil. Cook at 150deg C for 2 hrs ish - I took off the foil for the last 10 mins... I also drained off all the fat (despite using lean mince). Wait til cooled then turn out of the tin. I served with mash, peas and gravy.

The verdict - I was distinctly "Meh" about it to be honest... It tasted nice enough, but if I'm going to have a big hunk of meat, I'd pick a tasty stake, not some mince... Maybe my recipe wasn't the best, but it's just not my kind of food - I froze the rest in slices and am thinking it'd be better chopped up and thrown in a tomato type pasta sauce... We shall see.

Here's the slightly crummy photo of the resulting dinner...

Second in the experimentation stakes was mussels and chips. I *love* mussels, but have always had a bit of a fear of cooking them, mainly due to the fear of food poisoning someone. But I embraced the fear and found a willing victim (my sis). Mussels were purchased from the fishmongers round the corner, washed and sorted to get rid of the bad ones. I decided to go classic with the recipe, which is roughly as follows:

700g ish of Mussels (enough for 2 smallish appetites for a main meal) - scrubbed and any open/broken ones discarded
25g butter
1 onion/2-3 shallots
2 cloves garlic
200ml white wine
1 bay leaf

Add the butter to a large deep pan. When hot, add the shallots, garlic, bay leaf and wine to the pan. Cook until the shallots go translucent, then add the mussels. Replace the lid and cook over a high heat for 2 minutes. Strain the mussels off, reduce the sauce slightly and return the mussels. Serve with home made chips (I chopped up some potatoes, tossed them in oil, salt and pepper and bunged them on a baking tray in the oven for 45 minutes or so).

All I have to say is - YUM. A definite success.

A few photies for you:

To headphone or not to headphone, that is the question...

2008-11-21T11:50:00.003Z

I was sat in the pub last night when the Broken Social Scene album "You forgot it in people" came on. Suddenly I was filled with a lot of love for the album. This might seem fairly normal, except for the fact that I've been listening to the album at work on and off for the last two weeks (after a recommendation to check it out) and had got as far as liking it, but not really feeling the joy.

So what had changed? I mused this for a while before I realised that at work, I listen to my mp3 player, so therefore hear all the music through my headphones (and they are in ear ones that pretty much block out everything but the music). A theory began to form. Maybe there are some albums that need to be heard in an open room?! I'd already established that there are certain albums best listened to through headphones, but this is the first time I'd properly considered that headphones weren't necessarily best for all albums...

I could list a dozen albums that should be listened to via headphones to fully appreciate them - "In Rainbows" by Radiohead (after it was pointed out by Piet that listening to it in my car with only one speaker working was incorrect), "Speak for Yourself" by Imogen Heap, "Comments of the Inner Chorus" by Tunng, "Pink Moon" by Nick Drake to name a few. I also think I can enjoy a majority of albums in either setting... But this Broken Social Scene album is the first time I've found significantly more enjoyment not hearing it through headphones. Hmmmmmm.

Am I alone on this or does anyone else agree?

Gigs and culinary ponderings...

2008-11-19T11:41:00.004Z

Hmmmm. It's been a while since I last posted - the perils of not having an internet connection at the moment (roll on friday)!

Have had a really good week - settling into the flat, winning a pub quiz, dressing up as a lollipop lady for a friends party, discovering an amazing veggie burger to rival the cafe kino one, and free bingo and beer to mention a few things. But the highlight was definately going to see Death Cab for Cutie on Sunday. I got into DCFC the same way as most people I know - I discovered the amazing Postal Service album "Give Up", got frustrated that they only had one album and then discovered that the Postal Service was actually a collaboration between Jimmy Tamborello from Dntel and Ben Gibbard from DCFC, so I started listening to DCFC.

Firstly, the support (Frightened Rabbit) were pretty good. Which is quite refreshing as I seem to have been cursed with poor support acts recently. So that's always a nice way to start a gig. DCFC were great - they played a long set (about an hour and a half), covering a really good balance of old and new stuff. They also played two of my favourite songs together, both of which were a real highlight of the gig. "I will follow you into the dark" is a beautiful acoustic track about death and love - the performance was stunning and unadorned, made even more powerful by hearing the echoes of the crowd singing around me. "I will possess your heart" was a wonderful contrast to this - over 8 minutes long, the first 4 minutes are spent building up the music before the simple and repetative vocals begin. A great song to see performed live.

So that was pretty darn good.

In other news, I've discovered the most addictive food blog ever. Well, actually it's a collection of recipes from different blogs. There are just too many recipes out there, and I've read so much about the NY Times Cookie, I'm going to have to give it a go at some point... I've been really enjoying cooking again since moving and having access to a kitchen again! I've also starting bookmarking recipes I come across on these blogs that I want to cook and am so far up to about 50... so I hope all my friends are hungry. I'm also hoping to get back on track with my "52 things to learn to cook in a year" list which kind of went on hold during the whole house crisis... This is the current state of the list:

1) Jambalaya - done
2) Yaki Soba
3) Dal
4) Clam Chowder
5) Spring Rolls and Sesame Prawn Toast - done
6) Roasted Red Pepper Houmous + pitta bread - done
7) Mussels and Chips
8) Stifado - done
9) Kleftiko
10) Coq au Vin
11) Moussaka
12) Fish Pie - done
13) Olive Foccacia
14) Hollandaise Sauce
15) Thai Green Curry Paste
16) Stollen
17) Croissants
18) Tortellini
19) Pretzels
20) Pumpkin Pie - done
21) Jerk Chicken - done
22) Chicken Chow Mein - done
23) Falafel
24) Pierogi
25) Borscht
26) Seafood Gumbo
27) Char Siu Baau
28) Gnocchi - done
29) Enchilladas and Refried Beans
30) Frikadeller
31) Dolmades - done
32) Crumpets - done
33) Goan Fish Curry
34) Arancini
35) Bakewell Tart
36) Won Ton Soup
37) Lamb Rogan Josh and Pilau Rice -done
38) Biryani
39) Miso Soup
40) Tabbouleh - done
41) Pad Thai - done
42) Bara Brith
43) Saag Aloo + Naan Bread - done the Naan bread!
44) Chicken Adobo
45) Baked Alaska
46) Chicken Mole
47) Bobotie - done
48) Sticky Toffee Pudding and proper Custard - Ali & Jez, James, Rae
49) Meatloaf
50) Nettle Soup
51) Jam - done
52) Brioche

Hmmm. Looks like I have a little bit of catching up to do...

A weekend in summary...

2008-11-10T13:30:00.003Z

I've realised at several points over the last couple of years that I am blessed with some particularly awesome friends, and this was proved once again on Saturday, when a big group of them gave up a good chunk of their day to come and help my sister and I move house. To be honest, the whole experience was much less hideous than I was expecting and everything got done so much faster than I'd hoped, to the extent of being able to pick up my mattress that afternoon instead of on Sunday. I even started to enjoy driving the big van of doom (though parking was still not a fun experience, especially when the space you're trying to get into is only 2 foot longer than the van... kudos to Henry's directions for that one...). Looking at Helens photos from the day (mine to follow at some point) made me realise I had a whole lot of fun (especially when being serenaded with Ronan Keating songs caused me to stall twice in the middle of the road...)! :oP

So two van trips, 8 fantastic people, 24 rashers of bacon in sandwich form, countless cups of tea, 1 bottle of bucks fizz, two flights of twisty stairs, lots of biscuits, 1 sore knee, and too many boxes/bags later, we're in. Unpacking and sorting has begun, but it will probably be a few weeks til we get it all settled. It was also nice to hear people comment on how nice the new place is (we think it is too)...

Saturday was topped off with tasty Cafe Kino food and then seeing Feeder at Colston Hall. Now, this was an interesting experience for me - The first time I saw them was about 10 years ago, at the L2 in Liverpool (ooooh pretty fairy lights), at a tiny gig just before they got famous (I think "Yesterday Went Too Soon" had just come out) - I was in the middle on the barrier at the front, shook hands with the lead singer and managed to nab a playlist at the end... Oh I felt old as I stood halfway back, nursing a sore knee on top of the sore ankle and getting overexcited every time they played one of their old songs. Was a pretty good gig (despite the lack of interaction with the crowd) and a fairly balanced mix of old and new stuff... Also had an awesome moment walking home. It was raining torrentially as I walked between the bus stop and the flat and I was listening to cloud cult on my mp3 player, through headphones that completely block out any other noise other than the music. It was just a perfect moment - beautiful music, a post gig high and stunning views of the streetlights catching the rain as it fell...

Sunday morning was spent at Church, then much of the afternoon was taken up with unpacking and sorting... My room is starting to take shape (the bed is up, the boxes are mostly gone, things are in the general proximity of where they should be)... The annoying thing is that we won't have internet there yet - it takes a couple of weeks to transfer across the broadband, so I'll be facebookless for a while (given it's blocked from work which is my only internet access at present...).

So it's all good. Once we've got the old place sorted and our deposit back, we can hopefully put the whole mouldy thing behind us. Whoop indeed...

Hmmmm....

2008-11-07T12:46:00.004Z

Is it a sign that I'm getting old that I wore earplugs to a gig last night? It was lovely to go home without ringing ears...

Joyous things this Thursday...

2008-11-06T13:08:00.003Z

1) Toasting marshmallows in the pub
2) Almost getting to the bottom of the endless list of things to do related to moving... And while some have been mightily stressful, others have fallen into place with suprising ease. So bonus points for the council and evil stares at tiscali...
3) We get the keys to the new flat tomorrow. Whoop whoop. Then some exceedingly splendid people are coming to help us move our mountains of stuff... (I didn't mention the 2 flights of stairs did I...)
4) New musical recommendations to get my teeth into - currently evaluating Broken Social Scene, Caribou and TV on the Radio
5) How I Met Your Mother - The best show to pack to. Fact. I was a bit late getting into it (I started watching from the start about a month before the fourth series started airing), and have almost caught up now... Could also have been named "Barney is AWESOME"...
6) Thali... Is three trips with my tiffin too much in one week?!

Words, words and more words

2008-11-04T12:24:00.003Z

One of the things I'm enjoying most about this whole blogging malarkey is that I've started using a thesaurus again in my daily life (since I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I like to to avoid repeating words where possible), and am filled with joy generally for the delights of the English language again... I find the variety (or plethora even) of words on offer delightful. I catch myself congratulating people on their use of notable words, and getting a bit of joy when I use a particularly gratifying one myself. Plus it's resulted in an abundance of pub conversations establishing and discussing the meaning of certain words - I can identify something as being "jaunty", but struggled to give a nice neat definition of it...

But I'm not talking about intentionally dropping over complicated and incomprehensible words into sentences and I'm definately not a fan of conceited people who like to appear intellectual through using words that a majority of the population don't understand. I'm referring to the selection of a less commonly used word in a given situation. It's not necessarily a big complicated word, just the less frequently chosen one. For example, why agree when you can concur? Why participate when you can partake? I never use these words to intentionally exclude people, but certain words just carry an intrinsic satisfaction or pleasure.

I hope I have a relatively varied vocabulary, partly from reading a wide assortment of books at a somewhat terrifying rate of knots, partly because I always make a point of looking up unfamiliar words that I come across. I like learning new words.

Whoops. I've waffled on a bit. The point was that I came across this article and was full of joy for the discovery that a "?!" is called an interrobang. Now this falls firmly into the catagory of words I'm not going to use in everyday life, as it'd just result in blank faces from whoever I was talking to (plus I can't really think of an abundance of practical situations when I might need to refer to it)... But what a flippin awesome word. Interrobang. This pretty much matches my joy when I discovered that a "..." was called an ellipsis. Genius!

48% joy, 52% stress...

2008-11-03T12:50:00.003Z

I seem to be living in a constant state of flux between happiness and stressfulness at the moment...

The end of last week was definately at the stressful end of the spectrum - first the old landlord emailed us with a pathetic offer of £100 compensation for everything that's been damaged and the dehumidifier running costs, which doesn't even begin to cover all the stuff we've had to pay for... Then on Thursday it suddenly dawned on me just how much there is to do - book vans, change bills, mail forwarding, council tax, sorting out dry cleaning a bunch of stuff, washing everything else I own, disposing of damp mattresses, buying a new mattress and that's all before I can start to think about packing. However, after a panicky phonecall to my Mum, I was slightly less stressed and armed with a practical list of things to do... And lists are good.

The weekend was a weekend of much joy - Friday night featured a great halloween party, courtesy of the house of Awesomeness. And yes, it does deserve a pointless and incorrect capital, for they are Awesome. Great costumes, fantastic company and an abundance of halloween themed gingerbread men. I still can't believe I somehow ended up playing Breakfast at Tiffanies to a roomful of people whilst dressed as pirate wench though...

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Harpenden with 3 old friends, celebrating thanksgiving almost a month early. It was great to catch up with them, much tasty food was consumed and a large amount of chilling out was done. Kudos also to Abby for her amazing Thanksgiving decorations, including a crepe paper turkey centrepiece and pilgrim wall hangings...

The weekend was ended in my favourite manner - thali and a dvd. Joy indeed.

Then today I'm back into the realms of reality. Phone calls to landlords, ploughing on through the endless list of things to do, and then a fun evening spent doing washing and packing and coughing in the damp flat to look forward to. This definately does not come under the joyful banner. Plus the decision hanging over us of whether to take the old landlord to court over the money stuff, or just take the financial hit and have the instant closure on the whole thing...

Hum. Har hum.

The following things are getting me through this currently:

1) Cloud Cult. I spent all of Friday afternoon and all of today so far listening to the stuff on their website and I love it. Refreshing and beautiful.

2) Alternating the mundane with the fun. For example, this week I am packing and cleaning and doing all the practical things need doing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. Tuesday and Thursday are set aside for fun. Tomorrow I'm getting Thali with Helen, then a free cinema trip (whoop whoop for seefilmfirst) and maybe a stop off at the Barley Mow on the way home... Thursday I'm seeing my old housemate then heading off to see Less than Jake on the way home.

3) Awesome people. That includes everyone who's coming to help me move this weekend, all those who've listened to me moan/rant/get frustrated by the whole thing, and people who've helped me to forget about the whole thing by being great.

So there's definately more things that are sucking in my life than I would like at the moment, and occasionally it all gets a bit overwhelming, but I'm trying to focus on the fact that there's also a whole load of great things and fantastic people in there too...

The grand blogsperiment...

2008-10-30T12:31:00.000Z

This whole blogging thing was supposed to be a 30 day trial. Except I lost track of time, and the 30th day slipped by without me noticing. Hmmmmm. I think that's a good thing - I'm still blogging away, still finding things to waffle about, and from time to time someone tells me they read it (always nice to know who the people are who make the numbers go up).

So I'm going to carry on for now.

I think it needs a bit of a redesign though - the original layout was one I threw together in about 10 minutes and little things are starting to bug me about it. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to do it though, with moving house and everything. But hopefully at some point it'll get a bit prettier...

Gig : Frank Turner

2008-10-29T12:14:00.002Z

And so begins my busy few weeks of gigs - currently 4 (and maybe a 5th) in the next 3 weeks.

Last night I went to see Frank Turner at the Anson Rooms at the Union. I was introduced to his music a few months ago by my friend Sara, so when she told me her she was going to see him, I tagged along. I like his albums a lot, but seeing him live was a whole different experience... He's incredibly engaging to watch - a really dynamic presence on stage (not to mention slightly foxy...), giving 100% to the performance and rattling through songs at an astonishing pace whilst still finding time to interact and chat to the audience. The crowd were great - a real mix of people, but mostly genuine fans, singing their hearts out during each song...

The songs themselves suit being sung live - a lot of them are quite narrative in nature, and seeing them being performed with such energy raised them up to a whole different level. One of the things I love about his music are the lyrics - he has a real gift for telling stories with his songs and an eloquence that I'm envious of, covering a variety of topics with honesty and intelligence.
For example - the lyrics from "The Real Damage", one of my favourite songs:

"I woke up on a sofa in an unfamiliar house, surrounded by sleeping folks I didn't know.
On failing to find my friends, I decided it was clearly time to go.
So I made my way out of the door as quietly as I could - there was no one there I knew to say goodbye,
Squinting in the sadly sobering sunshine of the Sunday morning light.

I started the night with all my friends and I ended up alone.
I started out so happy now I'm hungover and down.
It was about then that I realized I was half-way through the best years of my life.

I scanned the local landmarks, trying to find out where I was, and maybe even find a bus back home,
Longing for a shower, and for clean sheets, and a charger for my phone.
Suddenly it hit me - I got paid this Friday last, and so I rifled through my pockets for some change.
But all I found was a packet of broken cigarettes and a sinking sense of shame.

I had to ask myself:
Is is really worth it? Is any of this worth it?
Well the whole thing's far from perfect,
But I've yet to figure out a better way to spend my time.

Too many suits and dirty looks made me rack my brains - the real damage started to sink in.
It'd been quite a heavy weekend and I could just about remember where I'd been.
Well I started the night with all my friends and I ended up alone,
I started out so happy now I'm hungover and down.
I stood on a street corner and I felt a little sick.
It was about then that I realized I was halfway through the first day of the week"

He also did an awesome encore - most bands just save a couple of their better known songs to play during the inevitable return to stage - which he did, but he also got some of the support acts back on stage and playing along - somehow the choice of songs, the extra band members and the way this was performed made it such a high note to end the gig on...

Enjoy a video of Photosynthesis - prob my favourite of his songs...

All in all, one of the most enjoyable gigs I've been to in a long time - definately someone I'd go and see again.

The art of the mix cd...

2008-10-28T13:42:00.004Z

I love mix cds... Which would explain why I'm a member of a mix cd swapping group and gave them to people as an alternative to Christmas cards last year.

But there's a number of things to consider when making a good mix cd.

1) Consider your audience.
If you're making the cd for a single person, first veto any bands that they've introduced you to, unless you're just wanting to stroke their ego. It's ok to pick artists you know they like, but I aim for a majority of new artists (or at least different albums) that I think they'd like, or believe they should be introduced to. Don't be afraid to throw in at least a couple of random choices - whilst it may be risky, you could introduce them to a whole new music area they've never explored. If your cd is for a number of people, duplication of artists is inevitable, so just go for it...

2) Decide on a theme.
There doesn't need to be a "theme" as such, but if there is a purpose to the cd it can affect things considerably. For example, a driving cd will look very different from a chillout cd! If you have a theme, this will inevitably narrow down the possible options further, or at least identify what's unsuitable. Is the aim to give the person something they'll definately like, or to try and introduce them to new things? Does it need to be loud or mellow?

3) Pick the songs.
I think a mix cd should contain a range of things - If you're picking songs by artists you know the recipient likes/owns, try and find more obscure songs or even cover versions. I tend to deliberately avoid anything that's been widely released as a single and pick something they're less likely to have heard... The songs that you choose by a certain band will definately depend on the person - for example - I love "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap, and it's probably my favourite song of hers. However, most of my friends wouldn't like it, so I'd avoid that for most people unless I knew they liked experimental stuff. I easily fall into obvious choices from certain bands, so I gave myself a personal challenge for the last cd I made of avoiding all the songs I'd usually pick by certain artists. It turned out to be a good choice as I rediscovered a lot of the more obscure tracks that I often forget about... Chances are that if you're making the cd for a wider audience, you'll probably end up picking the songs with wider appeal/greater accessibility.

4) Order your songs.
I have a bit of an obsession when it comes to the "flow" of a cd - sadly this is often the bit I run out of time for... It's not a loud/mellow thing - more about tempo. I can't really explain it, but I usually spend about as much time getting the order right as picking the songs themselves. I tend to opt for something bold as the first song though - my Christmas cd last year started with "I'll Find You" by Hundred Reasons... perfect! Variety is good - a cd that doesn't change is a bit dull - it should be like a mini journey.

5) Make a pretty cover.
Where possible, mix cds should have an awesome cover. Pretty photos, hand decorated, collages... It doesn't matter which, but it makes such a difference to the finished product. A good title never hinders things either...

6) Suprise someone.
I'm a fan of posting things - an unexpectd mix cd through the post is a joyful thing...

Things are looking up...

2008-10-28T08:07:00.003Z

Finally. Life eventually seems to be approaching normality again. I'm still in limbo, but the end of the limbo is now in sight. Firstly, we found a new flat. It's a huge 2 bedroom flat (with a small spare room), with no mould! Whoop! It's in Westbury Park - kind of between Waitrose and the Downs. The odd thing about it is that it's above a nursery - in fact, you actually have to go through the nursery to get to the flat... but seeing as it runs monday - friday during office hours, it shouldn't bother us at all, and realistically, we could never afford somewhere this nice if there wasn't something a bit quirky about it.

Secondly, the evil landlord of doom has released us from our current contract, which means we no longer have to pay double rent. We're still waiting to hear whether he's going to cough up for the damage to my stuff and running costs of the dehumidifier though...

So that's all good really. We're moving in 10 days or so, which means that sometime between now and then all my life has to go back into boxes. Again. Joy. And then with the assistance of some very splendid friends, into a van, driven down the road and out of the van again. At some point I then need to find the time to unpack it all...

Just don't mention the fact that I have to do this all again next June...

When is a local not a local...?

2008-10-24T13:55:00.007+01:00

When it's a 15 minute drive away!

I have found a pub I love - the Barley Mow in St Philips. I'm a relatively recent convert to its veritable delights, but now it's become my pub of choice... The significant distance away from my house is definately outweighed by its benefits.

Reasons it's great:

1) Mulled cider. Mmmmmmmmm.
2) Quizzes, board game nights, musical bingo, robot making... in short, an awesome variety of activities.
3) Friendly customers (not in a scary way - more in an "introduce themselves to you whilst at the bar" type way).
4) An open fire. Maybe I should take marshmallows...
5) Tasty food, including Pieminister pies. Yum!
6) The people who run it and work in it are great. And chatty.
7) It's not too big, but you can always find a seat.
8) There's a book/dvd swapping shelf. Genius...
9) There's no drunk students on pub crawls in there, which makes a refreshing change...

So apart from it's non-geographic locality, it's very much my local in spirit! I can't wait for the pumpkin carving on Thursday...

Happy happy joy joy

2008-10-23T15:36:00.002+01:00

Today is indeed a day of joy. I didn't even need to search for it today - it came and found me

1) We found a new flat. Hurrah. I'm putting down the deposit and filling in the forms in approx 2 hours. No more mould :o)

2) The evil landlord is a bit less evil. Apparently they're happy to release us from the contract. This doesn't solve all the problems, but it's a huuuuuuge step in the right direction.

3) I'm going to play board games in the pub tonight. This makes me happy... This is irrelevant but still bringing me joy!

Finally things seem to going a bit better. Now we can actually begin to think about moving and getting settled again. Goodbye limbo, hello flat...

Things that intrigue me

2008-10-21T18:30:00.006+01:00

1) Urban Exploration
Ever since I discovered weburbanist a year or so ago, I've been fascinated by the photographs they gather of abandonments around the world. Ranging from mental hospitals to Russian submarine bases to Japanese theme parks, these empty and unused places exist alongside our modern lives. A lot of the places retain a haunting beauty, often due to a combination of their barren state and historical significance. Basically people access (read: break in to) these abandoned places, dodging security if it's present, then photograph what they find and share it with others.
My curiosity went up a level recently upon discovering that there are some interesting buildings in Bristol - most notably the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Apostles (replaced by Clifton Cathedral). I had no idea this place even existed! It's in a central location (just off the Triangle), but is so tucked away that you'd never know it was there. I think I'm going to have to go for a wander past just to have a look for myself and check it's still there...

2) Burning Man
Burning Man describes itself as "An annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada". Basically, each year about 50 thousand people gather in the desert for a week, building a temporary city and community. It's a participatory festival - meaning that the festival is whatever people bring to it and there is a theme which people are encouraged to explore and bring to life. Large art installations make up a part of it, but it's also about partaking in and experiencing the festival for yourself - vending is banned, with sharing and trading encouraged. I think the reason it appeals so much to me is that it's so radically different from my life and everything I've ever done. I'm a creative person, but the idea of it slightly terrifies me as I don't know what I could contribute. But I think answering that question is part of what Burning Man is about...

3) Vegetable oil powered cars
The environmentally minded side of me loves this - yes, I know that vegetable oil isn't emission free! But I'm not talking about going to Asda and stocking up on bottles of the stuff. I'm talking about going to my local chippie and taking their waste oil, filtering it, treating it, then bunging it into a converted diesel car... Upcycling! I know it's not a perfect solution as it's still using a car, but compared to a straight petrol or diesel car it's a dramatic improvement. Plus my car would smell like a fish and chip shop when I drove past you! So when the bennymobile reaches the end of his journey with me, the current plan is to do get an old diesel and get it converted...

4) Light graffiti
I just don't quite understand how you do it... I mean, I know in theory it involves a long exposure, people standing veeeeeery still and other people running around with bright lights. Oh and lots and lots of attempts. But how you can create something that looks that awesome and slick?!? There are some inspiring examples of light graffiti around on the internet so maybe I'll get round to giving it a go when I get a new camera... Ooooooohhhh pretty lights :o)

2 photos from today

2008-10-21T18:22:00.004+01:00

1) This is what happens when you're a stupid idiot and fall over, spraining your ankle. Note that the colours are much prettier in real life, and I have neglected to post a photo of my bloody knee for the sake of the faint hearted...

2) This is correct. The sale price should be less than the number of litres. Hurrah.

Emptiness...

2008-10-21T16:14:00.007+01:00

(Thanks must also go to Mr Dave Grohl for the musical accompaniment to this post. I recommend listening to My Hero as you read it to get the full effect.)

I'm completely uninspired today. So I'm going to talk about inspiration and see where that gets me.

When I was a kid, I used to write all the time. I wrote short stories which were imaginative and overflowing with creativity, unaffected by the self consciousness of adult concerns about what other people thought. I could pretty much churn them out on request. Admittedly they were stylistic clones of whatever book I was reading at the time - I found a childhood English book recently with a beautiful imitation of a Gerald Durrell tale in it...

Then I went through the pubescent angst period. Cue self awareness about my writing and lots of astonishingly bad poetry. I probably exhausted all the major cliches in the world during that period, and most of my characters are a little too similar to myself for comfort. I've kept most of the stuff I've ever written, and that's by far the most painful period to read...

Teenage self counsciousness about my writing combined with an unsupportive English teacher at school pretty much killed my writing for several years. During Uni I dabbled a bit - lots of beginnings and ideas, but no commitment to seeing things through. I turned into a perfectionist and would give up almost immediately because what I was writing didn't come out perfectly first time. Either that or I'd spend so long playing around with an idea in my head, trying to mould it precisely into the perfect story that I never got round to putting any of it on paper.

And then I moved to Bristol. A fresh start, and a renewed interest in starting to write again. I joined a scriptwriters group at the Watershed - partly to meet other people interested in films, and partly to try to kick myself into writing again. Although I didn't really have a desire to write scripts, it somehow seemed less scary than joining a creative writing group. I wanted to be inspired but was not at a point where I desired having to share my writing with others in such a public setting. Writing requires practice, like most things in life, so after a long time of not doing so, I sucked. While the scriptwriters group worked to a point - I would be motivated for the following 48 hours, when I'd have great intentions and inspired beginnings. And then it would stop. And for the next 28 days (or so), I'd not look at any of it again. The bonus was that the stuff I was writing had finally stopped just being an imitaton of others. Of course you're going to be influenced by other writers, but my voice seems to have settled into something more consistent, instead of switching from book to book.

That leads me to about a month ago. I'd missed a few scriptwriters meetings due to prior commitments, and was a bit bummed about not having written much. So I started this blog as a bit of an experiment. I don't mind if noone reads it, cos while it's nice if the little counter goes up from time to time, I'm mostly doing this for me. And for now, it seems to be working... Just the process of writing (even if it's about films and mould) is getting the creative juices flowing. And forcing myself to do it regularly is keeping the momentum going. I've written more in the last month (outside the blog!) than I have done in the entire of the last year. I take a pad with me when I think I might have a spare half hour. I am using a thesaurus and marvelling in the delights of the English language again. I'm even capitalising. It's not like I've been inspired to write an epic novel, or that I'm churning out short stories at a rate of 3 a week - In fact, I've not written anything of note or significance. It's more simple than that. I'm writing. I'm putting pen to paper and getting enjoyment from the process itself. If I don't know what to write about, I write about things I see or random thoughts that drift through my mind. A paragraph, a page... it doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm exercising these muscles again and using a whole area of my creativity that has been dorment for years. That's a bit exciting really...

And this is what I mean. I started off with nothing to say and no idea where to go, and just the process of writing has launched me into a wonderfully random waffle. And now I'm smiling.

Musical journeys...

2008-10-20T12:12:00.005+01:00

Constructing my latest mix cd for the cd swapping group on facebook has led me back into my musical past. I always liked music, but it's only really been in the last couple of years that I've come to love music passionately. Having friends who like going to gigs means that I'm often out a couple of nights a week seeing some live music. I also bought an mp3 player, meaning that I can sit at work and listen to music all day, as well as playing it in the car, on the bus, whenever I walk anywhere...

But how did I get to where I am now? What were the significant points in my musical journey?

1) Symposium - One day at a time
Some of my friends from school bought me this album when I was about 14... Before this, I'd listened to some blur, ocean colour scene, lightning seeds, but never quite found anything I really liked - I always felt like I was listening to other peoples taste in music. And then I heard Fairweather Friend on the radio and found something that was truly mine. This album was the soundtrack to my GCSE revision, listening to it over and over again. I know they're not the most musically or lyrically complex band in the world, but they were fun, loud, and rocked my 14 year old world...

2) Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
This was the first band I ever loved. In an "I have to see this band before I die" type of way... (and I have). My friend Mike lent me this and "There's nothing left to lose" during sixth form (yes, I know I was behind)... Varied, rocky but in a musical way, this was my introduction to the geniusness of Dave Grohl. I revisit it from time to time and am still struck by the greatness of this album - I never skip through tracks, and would happily put any of them on a mix cd... Plus the singles off it have some of the best music videos ever made (Learn to fly, Everlong). Awesome.

3) Aimee Mann - Magnolia soundtrack
This was a complete impulse buy. I watched the film and enjoyed it, and when needing a 3rd cd to get a 3 for whatever deal on amazon, I decided to buy it. Good call. Firstly, as a soundtrack it's perfect - inseperable from the film itself (I believe the song "Deathly" was actually the inspiration behind one of the characters - possibly due to the fact Aimee Mann was dating the director at the time...). Secondly, it introduced me to Aimee Mann, who was the first singer-songwriter I ever really got into. Before this, I thought I only liked bands who played loud music...

4) Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle
In all honesty, Uni was a bit of a quiet time for me music wise - I listened to the albums I already had and bought cds by artists I knew, but I didn't really get into any new stuff. However, when I was down in Bristol for the summer between my 3rd and 4th year, my friend Chris made me a couple of cds (the other one was a Jack Johnson one iirc). I fell in love with the opening track the first time I heard it - the combination of the distinctive guitar, her beautiful voice, the lyrics... every time I hear this song it makes me smile... The rest of the album is a joy too - the political statements of Fuel, the unconventional love song that is As Is... I never got much further into Ani DiFranco as somehow every album was a disappointment after this one...

5) Karl Jenkins - The Armed Man
Having grown up with a Dad who only listens to classical music, I got put off a vast majority of it at a young age. Yes, a lot of it is very pretty, but that's about as far as I got... However - when I went to go and see my Uni housemate Anna sing in a concert I discovered The Armed Man. It was commissioned for the Millenium by the Royal Armouries and dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. Taking source material from the Bible, the Islamic call to prayer, Kipling and Tennyson, The Armed Man is a beautiful piece of music about the tragedy of war. Seeing the whole piece in Bristol a year ago was a real highlight, as was seeing the world premier of his latest piece, Stabat Mater, earlier this year. Beautiful, haunting and full of relevance.

6) The Mountain Goats - We Shall All be Healed
Ok. Before someone points it out, I know this song is not off that album, but it's one of the best videos around so I couldn't resist... This is a John introduction, and one of his finest - eloquent lyrics, imaginative instrumentation - it was completely different to anything I'd listened to before. Gone were the polished and over produced sounds of many of the more mainstream albums I owned - instead a certain roughness (especially in their earlier albums), and an introduction to I guess what you could call folk rock...

7) Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise (I tried so hard to find a better video...)
Sufjan Stevens was one of those artists that about 10 different people told me I should listen to. About 6 months later, one of my friends sat me down and put Chicago on. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was my kind of music... From the stupidly long but fantastic track names to the imaginative choice of song subjects (serial killers, superman), there's not much I don't love about it. Folky, uplifting at times, thoughtful at others, varied, he brings a really welcome and unique sound to his music. Added to this is his achievement in creating some Christmas music (5 cds worth) that I don't hate passionately...

8) The Postal Service - Give Up
Two people are to thank for this - Roland for giving me a copy of the cd, and Zane Lowe for playing Such Great Heights on the radio 2 years later and persuading me to actually listen to it. And a week has barely passed since when I haven't listened to it... The combination of tuneful vocals, broken and often irregular beats and the electro pop fuse perfectly. I don't know what else to say other than it's great. Listen to it.

I'm out of time. That'll have to do. Ignore the gaping holes...

Stream of consciousness : Dublin

2008-10-17T17:32:00.007+01:00

I've been messing around with something I call "stream of counsciousness" on and off for a while - I guess it's a way of recording life through lots of moments. Each point can be pretty much anything - somewhere I visit, a passing comment, a detail I notice... I find it a really interesting way of recording stuff, but I have no idea how it'll come across to anyone else. It probably just seems like a bunch of disjointed things, which I guess it is. But it's my disjointed things...

A trip to Dublin earlier this week with some friends seemed like a good candidate for a bit of experimenting, so I present my stream of conciousness for 4 days, 3 nights in Dublin (apologies to the people who were there for the things I've missed)...

Early morning radio. Nick Drake in the car. Airport queues. Bacon butties and spilt tea. Scratchcards on the plane. Grumpy hotel receptionists. Random pointy spikes. Rae Bedford street. Caffinated beverages and bagels. Cheese and jam discussions. Random ambling. Taking turns picking directions at junctions. Silly photos. Castles. Fake gas lamps. Stuffed birds nailed to sticks. More photos. Strike a pose. Breaking through gates for the sake of art. Faces in the dirt. Wandering without destinations. Wavey paths on circular lawns. Reflections in statues. Random signs. Posing. Grafitti men. Wooden stick art. Bryan Adams. Extended smoothie breaks. Sunshine then showers then sunshine. Awesome photos. Burnt fingers from lighting hte hob. Grapes and games of Shed. Two rounds of scrabble. A homeless man playing the harmonica. Kissing punks with brightly dyed hair. Hot wax on hands. Too much red wine. Girlface mining. Sleeplessness. Listening to music at 3am. Sugary tea in the morning. Girly chats on the sofa. Rain. Wet umbrella against bare legs. Doughy bagels and hot spiced apple juice. Free photography exhibitions. Railway turntables. Curvy wooden floor tiles. Black and white postcards. Leather sofas and iced mochas. Tiredness. Flooded roads and pavements. Green steel girders. Beer projections. Waterfalling. Barrel making videos. Guiness drinking overlooking the city. Incorrect gravity signs. Smoothie hunting. Chocolate raisins. Feeling inspired and writing again. The Notwist bringing me joy. Clarity. Tripping over pavements. Drummers in the street. Folk music in the basement. Statue of liberty posters. Random people talking about stealing tanks in St Pauls. Beer mat towers. Guiness spillage. Hunting for chips and non garlic mayonnaise. Waiting for empty toilets. Sleeptalking Portugese roommates. Tea and toast. Returning for hot apple juice. Spandex. Napkins. Shooting gallery art installations. Cathedral with scaffolding. Bible story bracelets. Comfy coffee shop chairs. Napkin postcards. Sharing chai lattes. Hugging camera shops. Indecision. Busty statues. Soggy shoes. Smoothie sharing. Making a mess eating burgers. Inappropriate conversations infront of waiters. Sunsets. Throwing away shoes. More writing. Back to the Globe. Putting out candles. Interpol and headphone splitters. Bagel breakfasts. Photos through frames. Awesome hats. Cherry lipbalm. Funky cameras. Helpful bus drivers. Airport picnics. Horrific aeroplane music. Radiohead.

Girlface...

2008-10-17T11:16:00.002+01:00

The phrase "Girlface" came into existence almost two years ago, coined by my friend Kasia and referring to the look on my face at a moment in time. It's now part of my everyday vocabulary, so I feel the time has now come to launch the word into wider use.

1) Urban Dictionary. This of course required a careful consideration of the meaning of the word. This is what I came up with:
"The inability to stop smiling because of someone you are romantically interested in/involved with. Both men and women suffer from Girlface regardless of whether they are interested in a man or woman."
The word can be used by yourself
"Oh my word, I have such girlface..."
Or as an accusation
"Oooooh. You have girlface! Who's giving you girlface?"

The girlface smile is distinguishable from a regular smile by the fact that it is usually unplanned and is almost impossible to prevent. It also usually involves more cheek muscles due to the attempts to prevent it. Therefore I figure it probably burns more calories than the avergage smile and can aid weight loss as part of a calorie controlled diet...

2) Get my friends using it. This has been remarkably successful so far, with accusations of girlface being made in the pub, texts received admitting extreme cases of girlface and facebook statuses informing on the quantity of girlface being experienced... So go forth and label girlface when you see it. Explain its meaning to those you meet and spread the joy. It's a suprisingly useful word, and a look that isn't covered by any other word I can think of...

The first recorded case of word evolution was made this week, when Piet introduced the term "Girlface mining". This involves saying a whole bunch of names (random or intentionally selected) at someone until they get girlface, in an attempt to find out who they like. I would like to point out that this is a very very mean game.

3) Sit back and watch it grow.
When I'm old and wrinkly, I want to be famous as the first person ever to have a correctly termed case of girlface...

What a wonderful world...

2008-10-10T09:22:00.004+01:00

I am currently thinking very bad celine-dion-my-heart-will-go-on-looping-continuously-in-a-permanent-nightmare type thoughts in the direction of my landlord.

I have reached the point of being thoroughly fed up. Environmental health came round - the guy was very friendly, but pretty useless... He said the most he could possibly get the landlord to do (touch and go as to whether we qualify apparently) was put in some new heating. And maybe he could "recommend" that the landlord changes the (mouldy) carpets. Right. So we might get new carpets... until they go mouldy cos of the damp that is!

He recommended I phoned Tenancy Relations, who apparently could offer advice as to whether we can get out of our contract. I phone them, only to be informed that they are overworked, and so currently only deal with "oh my word, my landlord is kicking me out of the flat as we speak and making threats as he throws my tv out a third floor window" type cases.

I then try Citizens Advice. Who I've been trying to phone for an hour. Because instead of living in the 21st century and having a system which puts you on hold in a queue, you just have to keep phoning back until you get through to someone...

So in short it's pretty impossible to find any advice.

The general result is that the world sucks. My sister and I appear to have no choice (legally) except to pay rent on a flat in which all my possessions are going mouldy (the list is getting longer - clothes, shoes, bags, belts, chairs, curtains, wooden furniture, and now BOOKS!), and in which my sister can't breathe due to an allergy to the mould spores that has developed as a result of living in a flat with mould! And my landlord doesn't legally have to do anything except offer advice that cost us more money (run a dehumidifier 24/7 and put the heating on high). What a wonderful world huh!

Thursday joy - pointless timewasting...

2008-10-09T14:26:00.002+01:00

Elbow Wars - possibly one of the most pointless things I've seen in a while... loving it!

7 films you should consider watching...

2008-10-09T12:26:00.009+01:00

I'm enjoying being a film geek at the moment, so I'm going to carry on for a bit... This is a list of films I recommend watching - not all of them will be your cup of tea, but at least thing about watching a couple of them...
Incidently, I've avoided a lot of the obvious films I love that many of you will already have seen in an attempt to pick some more obscure ones.

1) My Life Without Me
What's it about? A young woman discovers she has terminal cancer and after deciding to keep it a secret from those she's closest to, she writes a list of things she wants to do before she dies.
Why is it worth watching? Ok - this isn't the cheeriest film around, but I find it strangely hopeful given the subject matter. It somehow never strays into cheesy cliched territory, instead giving a thoughtful and moving look at a woman dealing with her mortality and the effect this will have on those around her. Sarah Polley shines as the woman in question and Mark Ruffalo as a lonely man who falls in love with her, but there isn't a weak link in the cast. Each character is beautifully written, even down to the doctor who diagnoses her. Put a bit of faith in this film being more than a heart string tugging churned out hollywood clone and you will be richely rewarded...

2) The City of Lost Children
What's it about? A crazy scientist who cannot dream kidnaps young children to try to steal their dreams. When his brother is taken, a man called One and a street child called Miette set out to rescue him.
Why is it worth watching? Warning - if you thought Amelie was weird, don't even bother. This is the first film by the same director, and his films get more perculiar the further back you go. Also, never watch the dubbed version - I used to own this on VHS and it has the worst dubbing I've ever seen.
Onto the good though - Outstandingly imaginative, stunning visually, creative and unique in every way... It does come with a disclaimer of also being very very weird though, with some of the oddest characters you will ever meet - evil siamese twins, narcoleptic clones, a brain in a tank - think Tim Burton on acid...

3) Renaissance
What's it about? When a young employee of Avalon, a large beauty company, is kidnapped, her sister and a police captain are drawn into a conspiracy that stretches further than they ever imagined.
Why is it worth watching? This film looks *amazing*. It's animated, but only in black and white, giving it a striking visual style. It's also "shot" in a similar way to a live action film - and by that I mean that the "camera" moves (i.e. pans, zooms) in a very similar way, something I've not seen before in an animated film. The futuristic Parisian setting gives a Bladerunneresque feel to it all. There are a few flaws - the combination of a slightly noir feel with a classic thriller, some moral themes on the side and some slightly shakey dialogue thrown in for good luck never quite achieves its fullest potential. However, the stunning animation and film noir feel mean it's definately still worth seeing (especially if you're into graphic novels)...

4) Before Sunrise
What's it about? An American guy and a French girl meet on a train and end up spending a day together in Vienna.
Why is it worth watching? Two people walking around a city talking sounds like one of the dullest premises for a film ever, but somehow this works. In fact, it doesn't just work, it shines. Under Richard Linklater's direction, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke bring these personas to life, producing believable and rounded characters. Honest and simple, maybe the less I say the better. Watch it, love it, then get hold of a copy of the follow up, Before Sunset.

5) Ed Wood
What's it about? The film tells the story of Ed Wood, the worst director in the world, documenting his film making efforts, bizarre groups of friends and unconventional hobbies.
Why is it worth watching? This film epitimises to me why Johnny Depp is great - in his hands, the character of Ed Wood is transformed from a failed director into a hopeless but lovable enthusiast. You know he's a terrible director, but you will him on at every step. The surrounding characters are odd and eccentric, reflecting the only place where Ed can find acceptance and support in his creative quests. It's an unconventional film in its suject, and struggled to find an audience when it was released. But it's refreshing different, whilst also gives Tim Burton a chance to show that he can step away from wacky colourful visuals and produce a more subtle result.

7) The Station Agent
What's it about? A dwarf moves to a remote abandoned train depot that he inherits on the death of a friend, but his idyllic solitude is disrupted as his life becomes intertwined with some local residents.
Why is it worth watching? There's no epic storyline in The Station Agent - instead it focuses what happens when peoples lives overlap. The characters are wonderfully written - the reclusive dwarf Fin, the over friendly hot dog seller Joe, the grief stricken Olivia. Watching the character of Fin over the course of the film is fascinating, as his solitary life is rudely invaded by the people he encounters. A quirky and gentle film, but possibly a bit too subtle for some - if you didn't like Lost in Translation, give it a miss...

8) Night Watch
What's it about? In modern day Russia, the forces of good and evil live under a truce, with light agents policing the dark (the Night Watch), and dark agents policing the light (the Day Watch). When Anton is recruited into the Night Watch, he finds himself in the middle of an ancient battle for power.
Why is it worth watching? Where do I start? It's stunning to look at, with mindblowing effects (especially given that it was made outside Hollywood) that aren't overused. Many people class it as a "vampire" film, but I think it looks at the bigger picture, instead giving a refreshingly different take on the classic good versus evil, where sometimes they are more similar than you'd think. The pacing is possibly a little off in parts, but not enough to detract too much from the film. It's also quite refreshing to have a completely unknown cast (unless you're clued in about you obscure Russian actors that is). Innovative and different, a film that shows sometimes gems can come from unexpected places...

Literary cravings...

2008-10-09T10:11:00.008+01:00

I'm getting the urge to read my favourite book (The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth) again - There are very few books I can read again and again, but I tend to read this at least once a year and enjoy it every time.

I'm not a big poetry fan - I like the odd bit, but I never go out of my way to read it. However this is an entire novel written in verse (Iambic Tetrameter apparently), covering life, love, sexuality, religion, politics and loss. It's a masterpiece of writing with realistic characters, an absorbing story, truly beautiful language and stunning attention to detail (even the acknowledgements and table of contents are written in verse). It's definately not the book for everyone, but if you can get used to the structure within the first few chapters, by the time you finish the book it will seem wrong that the world doesn't normally rhyme...

A quote for you...

"Liz burst into astonished laughter.
Phil watched her with uncertain eyes.
She wiped her streaming tears, and after
A sneeze or two asked, "Is that wise?"
"Wise?" "Sure, Phil - we don't love each other!
To borrow wisdom from my mother,
It's love that makes the world go round!"
"That's bullshit!" grunted Phil. "I've found
That love's a pretty poor forecaster.
I loved a woman - and was dropped.
I loved a man - and that too flopped.
Passion's a prelude to disaster.
It's something else that makes me sure.
Our bond can last five decades more."

Positive Mental Attitude

2008-10-08T13:18:00.003+01:00

I am feeling thoroughly fed up with house related things today. However, I am making a concious decision to try not to whinge about it and instead focus on things that are rocking my Wednesday...

1) Rediscovering old music... I'm in the middle of making a mix CD for a facebook CD swapping group. The current round theme has caused me to delve into my musical past. I'm currently listening to Yesterday Went Too Soon by Feeder, an album I most likely haven't listened to in about 5 years. And while some of my musical history causes severe cringes, there are some hidden gems worth rediscovering...

2) Tim Burton is directing an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. I love about 80% of Tim Burton's films (Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas) - the Burtonesque visual style, the loveable characters, his frequent casting of Johnny Depp... I think he's the perfect director for Alice in Wonderland, which to be honest is a pretty odd story - white rabbits, magic cake, talking caterpillars (and I could go on)... If anyone's going to be able to capture that strangeness, whilst still making it accessible to people it's Mr Burton. Apparently it will be a mixture of live action and CGI (I'm having hideous flashbacks to Who Framed Roger Rabbit right now), which I guess might be necessary to enable some of the more fanciful story elements. New people are being added to the cast all the time - a relative unknown to play Alice, Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Helen Bonham Carter (Red Queen), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), Matt Lucas (Tweedledum, Tweedledee))... However, it's going to be a 2 year wait til it hits screens :o(

3) Bunny Comic - a bit hit and miss, but amusing when it gets it right...

4) This - If you lose several hours trying to make it onto the leaderboard, blame John.

5) Being able to leave work early as I was in stupidly early this morning. Waking up at 5.30am and not being able to get back to sleep is not ideal, but it does mean I can run away at 4 o'clock...

6) An awesome sounding weekend - including a Boston Tea Party breakfast, charity shop shopping, Benny and Joon watching (with some iron toastie making), Sunday lunch, Stitch and Bitch at Cafe Kino and maybe (just for a change), Thali and a dvd...

Dublin?

2008-10-07T15:18:00.002+01:00

As I am offski to Dublin for 4 days next week, anyone got any tips or hints of places to see/pubs to visit/things to avoid?

Guiness drinking is already part of the plan so that doesn't count as a valid suggestion unless it includes a tip on an awesome place to drink it...

Films, films and more films (part 3)

2008-10-07T09:59:00.003+01:00

I think this is going to be the last part. I'm not sure I can handle any more excitement...

11. The Time Traveler's Wife - December 2008?
What's it about? It tells the story of a librarian who involuntarily travels through time and his relationship over time with the woman he loves.
Why get excited? I am banning anyone who hasn't read the book from seeing the film. This is not because I think the film is going to be bad, but because the book is so wonderful that reading it when you already know the story will lose some of the magic. And I think some of the magic of the story is in the fact that it's a book, which is a difficult thing to quantify, so I'm not going to bother. Read it, then you can disagree with me. Now, I'm usually cautious about film adaptations of books that I love, especially ones I adore as much as this one. Don't mention the film of Charlotte Gray unless you want to start me on a rant. And yes, I think that some of the magic is going to be lost... However, there's a whole lot of awesomeness left, and I still think it could work well as a film, if they can get over some of the practical issues of telling a story over time with the same actor/actress. This is primarily the story of a relationship between two people, with very few supporting characters. Therefore the fact they've got Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana on board is a good sign. I'm excited, but approaching with caution - will await reviews before deciding whether to risk it or not...

12. Choke - 21st November
What's it about? A sex addict who works in a colonial theme park devises a fake choking scam in order to pay for care for his mother who has Alzheimers...
Why get excited? Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the book behind Fight Club also wrote the novel that this is adapted from. It's a typical Palahniuk - self destructive anti hero trying to find himself, surrounded by an assortment of dysfunctional friends and family. Hopefully the film will manage to retain the dark humour and wry comments on modern life that the book is bursting with, and while I don't think we have another film in the caliber of Fight Club on our hands (the story itself isn't as strong, the director is unlikey to be of the caliber of David Fincher as it's his first film, and while the cast is good it's not a patch on FC), I'm remaining hopeful... Given that the main character is a sex addict and remembering a fairly key book plot point, I'd say this is probably one to avoid watching with your nan though!

13. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - 30th January
What's it about? Seeking to make his ex-girlfriend jealous, a guy asks a random girl he meets to pretend to be his girlfriend, sparking off a night searching for a legendary band's secret show and an unconventional first date.
Why get excited? To be honest, this film is not on this list because I think the script will be a truly original gem, or the cinematography will blow my mind. No, it's here because I think I'll really enjoy it. Music, random adventures and an sprinkling of unconventional romance just sounds like it should be fun. Plus it has Michael Cera in it, and although it looks like he's playing the same character as he did in Arrested Development and Juno, he does a pretty good job of it. Touted as this years Juno, it may not live up to the hype but I'm sure it'll make trying a very entertaining experience...

14. Me and Orson Welles - Sometime next year
What's it about? In 1937, a seventeen year old is directed in a broadway version of Julius Caesar by a young Orson Welles, but egos and romance get in the way off stage.
Why get excited? The casting of Zac Efron in this almost made me run a mile. But the director (Richard Linklater) drew me back in - responsible for some of my favourite films (Before Sunrise, Waking Life), I'm hoping he can pull a decent performance out of the High School Musical star, because the premise itself sounds promising... So this one is on here with a certain amount of blind faith in his ability, and a sincere warning that Zac might ruin it all...

15. Coraline - 20th March
What's it about? A girl discovers an alternative, seemingly better version of her life through a secret door in her new home.
Why get excited? The wonderful equation of Neil Gaiman (awesome writer) + stop motion animation + Henry Selick (director of Nightmare Before Christmas) = happy Steph. The storyline might at first glance seem a bit childish, but I'm hoping that the film will retain some of the trademark Neil Gaiman darkness, whilst also utilising the amazing potential of stop motion. If this is a patch on Nightmare Before Christmas (though sadly probably lacking the songs), I'll be a very happy bunny indeed. Plus did I mention that Lovejoy is doing one of the voices?!?

Ok. Think I'm done raving about films for the time being...

Limbo...

2008-10-06T14:01:00.003+01:00

I am currently living like a nomad. I am staying at college with my sister until Wednesday, then moving somewhere else. Which is also temporary. Hopefully. Living out of a suitcase sucks. I miss having everything in one place.

So this is the update on the fun damp/mould situation:

- My sister and I are house hunting for something more permanent - however, both of the places we've seen thus far have damp. And as I have learnt from bitter experience over the past weeks, damp = bad.

- We've called Environmental Health and they're coming round on Thursday to do an assessment... We're hoping they'll declare the place unfit for habitation, meaning we can get out of the rest of our contract. This might seem like an odd thing to be wishing for, but our landlord has made it clear that he's not prepared to fix the problem (he seems to think that a dehumidifier will fix the three large patches of damp and mould in my room and spores being infested in my carpet, plus my sisters asthma)... Yes, moving is going to be a royal pain in the butt, but it'll be nice to have a place where my sister can breathe and all my stuff isn't going to go mouldy again.

- My mouldy clothes have now been de-spored with the assistance of a bit of googleing and a bottle of white vinegar. My shoes and bags have been tackled with Milton, thanks to the advice of someone else who'd had a similar experience. Naturally I've left a few special examples of both for when Environmental Health come round...

- I've sorted out the rest of the wardrobe stuff that needs washing (after being in the damp wardrobe, although not mouldy, it has a not exactly pleasant smell) - I'm hoping the landlord will foot the bill as I don't have the time or inclination to do this myself... Turns out I have quite a lot of stuff.

- I've thrown out things that should have been thrown out months or years ago (do I need 2 pairs of old tatty jeans I've not worn in years?), and charity shopped a whole bunch more stuff that I just don't wear. Thus I'm slightly decluttered. This is good.

- I have great friends. I've had many offers of sofas/floor space from people, dinner invitiations and people graciously putting up with me ranting about mould and mildew, which isn't exactly the most gripping subject around.

Fingers crossed for Thursday now. I'm sorry, but in order to make the situation as bad as possible for Thursday, I'm praying for rain this week...

Films, films and yet more films (part 2)

2008-10-06T10:33:00.003+01:00

More films to get excited about (no trailers for some I'm afraid)...

6. The Road - 16th Jan
What's it about? Set in a post apocalyptic time, a man and his son set off on a journey in search of safety and a warmer climate. They must try to survive in a world where there are bands of killers roaming the roads and a shortage of food, whilst still retaining their humanity.
Why get excited? The book is written by Cormac McCarthy and is one of my favourite books from the last year. The way the book is written is hard to explain but has a beautiful but bleak feel to it. A moving and involving story that is told with simplicity. Although there's no trailer for the film yet, the images I've seen seem to capture the starkness of the book perfectly. The director is a bit of an unknown to me, but Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce make it sound pretty promising...

7. The Wrestler - December. Maybe.
What's it about? A retired wrestler takes on one last fight with his old nemesis, despite the fact it could kill him.
Why get excited? To be honest, the synopsis of this film doesn't massively appeal - all a bit Rocky-esque for me. However, I'm placing my faith in Darren Aronofsky (the director) to do something pretty special with it... His three previous films certainly make him one to watch - "Pi" is a low budget jumble of mathematics, paranoia and a bizarre but effective soundtrack. "Requiem for a Dream" is definately not everyones cup of tea - I wouldn't watch it again, but it definately stands out as a brave and remarkable film in a world where the box office potential of a film calls the shots - devastating, visually distinctive and one of the most harrowing things I've ever seen... I'm not really sure what to say about "The Fountain". 90% of people will hate it, 10% of people will love it. An challenging and stunning look at mortality. Beautiful cinematography. A puzzle that it's a pleasure to unravel. Possibly bordering on pretentious but falling on the right side of the line. Anyway, because of the above I believe in The Wrestler and that Darren Aronofsky will produce a film that is far more than the synopsis suggests - the buzz from Sundance certainly suggests he's managed this. Added to this is a Clint Mansell composed score, and inspired casting - who better to play a washed up has-been who threw his career away than Mickey Rourke...?

8. Gonzo: The life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson - 19th December
What's it about? Does what is says on the tin - a look at the drug fueled and bizarre life of Hunter S. Thompsons from 1965-75. Includes archived footage, unpublished writings, interviews and is narrated by Johnny Depp who played Thompsons alter ego in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Why get excited? Thompson was a remarkable character, refusing to conform to any sort of stereotype. Probably most famous for popularising his distinctive "Gonzo" style of first person narrative journalism, where accuracy is less important than telling an entertaining story, Thompson was also well known for being outspoken on many issues such as politics and drug legalisation. The only one of his books I've read is "Fear and Loathing", but it goes down as one of the most oringinal things I've read. I'm excited about this film because I'm fascinated by him, and the support behind the film suggests it should be a fairly accurate look at a truly intriguing man...

9. The Soloist - 6th February
What's it about? A journalist in need of a story comes across a talented schizophrenic homeless musician on the streets of LA.
Why get excited? I don't really like Keira Knightly. In fact, the only two films where I find her tolerable are the new Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, both of whom are directed by Joe Wright. He evidently has a gift for getting the best out of his actors/actresses, and definately has a fair for visually stunning shots (maybe I should be thanking his cinematographer for that though). For his third film, thankfully he's got rid of Keira, and brought in Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Junior. An excellent decision. I love Robert D-J. He's pulled his career out a drug addicted gutter and produced some outstanding performances in some great films (Zodiac, A Scanner Darkly, Good Night and Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man). I'm hoping it'll manage to steer clear of the cheese factor though...

10. Burn After Reading - 17th October
What's it about? A disc containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two gym employees who attempt to blackmail the agent. Cue a bunch of intertwined storylines and some dark comedy...
Why get excited? The Coen brothers don't always get it right (The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty), but when they do, it's flippin awesome (O Brother Where Art Thou, Fargo). So a new Coen brothers film is always cause for excitement, because it might well fall into that second catagory. Bringing back some of their old favourites (George Clooney, Frances McDormand) as well as some new blood (John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton), the Coens have once again assembled an inspiring cast, so fingers crossed it falls into the awesome end of the spectrum...

Potentially a part 3 in the pipeline...

Films, films and yet more films (part 1)

2008-10-03T11:52:00.004+01:00

I like films. That might possibly be a minor understatement, but there we go... To be honest, it's been a bit bare in terms of exciting films over the past couple of months, but the next 6 months is looking to change that. And now I shall explain why, in a list format naturally (with added trailer link joy)...

1. Blindness - 28th Nov
What's it about? A city gets struck by a blindness epidemic, after which the infected are quarantined. It's about the journey of a woman who goes with her husband into quarantine (despite not being infected herself) and their quest for survival in the new society.
Why get excited? It's directed by Fernando Meirelles who also has a great history with book adaptations (City of God and The Constant Gardener) and the cinematography will be stunning. Plus it has Mark Ruffalo (one of the best actors around) and Julianne Moore in it.

2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 23rd Jan
What's it about? It's about a man who ages backwards, so he's born old and gets younger as time goes on. The film tells the story of his life, his loves, friends and struggles.
Why get excited? David flippin Fincher, that's why. When he gets it right (Fight Club, Zodiac), he's one of the best directors around. Ok, we have to excuse him Alien3, and Panic Room wasn't his finest hour, but the good most definately outweighs the bad. Again, he's a director with an incredible eye for visuals, so it'll be stunning to look at. The fact that the film is directed by him is enough to make me go and see it. However, it's also got Brad Pitt (who's at his best when directed by Fincher), Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett in it. If he gets this right, it should be stunning...

3. Synecdoche New York - 28th October (at London Film Fest)
What's it about? Well, that's probably a good question. A theatre director creates a replica of New York inside a warehouse, and he hires a cast to live out their lives in the replica. Or something. It's probably best not to know.
Why get excited? See my very long Charlie Kaufman appreciation post. Yes, he's directing as well as writing it. Plus a cast littered with some great names (mostly a bit on the more indie/obscure end of the spectrum). Also, Philip Seymour Hoffman seems to be finally getting some proper recognition and leading roles... It'll be surreal and random for sure, but potentially a work of genius...

4. The Brothers Bloom - 28th October (at London Film Fest)
What's it about? A pair of con men brothers take on one last con - a rich heiress, but things don't exactly go according to plan.
Why get excited? As far as first films go, Rian Johnson's "Brick" was fairly remarkable... A classic whodunnit film noir in the wrappings of a modern day high school film, complete with its own lingo and style. Which makes this his tricky second film. But the buzz is good (so hopefully this won't be a Richard Kelly) and the cast is promising (Rachel Weisz, Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo). With a bit of luck, he'll manage to add a bit of magic to the con men caper and turn out something definately worth seeing.

5. Watchmen - 6th March
What's it about? A tricky one to sum up to be honest. Set in an alternative society, an ex costumed superhero is murdered, sparking one of his former colleagues to begin an investigation that brings him back into contact with many of the retired superheroes.
Why get excited? I'm especially excited about this one because I've just finished reading the graphic novel. The book is considered by many to be the best graphic novel around, and it's definately the best I've read (although I've only read three!). The characters go past their costumed characters, and the social and political themes running through make it an interesting and rewarding read. Sorry. Back to the film. From the trailer and images released, it looks like an incredibly faithful adaptation, with many shots matching the frames of the novel exactly... Considered by many to be unfilmable in the past, maybe our special effects have finally reached a point where we can do it justice...

More to follow...

Joy sharing Thursdays...

2008-10-02T11:31:00.004+01:00

Now I'm sure most of you will have heard me waffle on about "Joy Sharing Thursdays" a fair amount. But a blog is a new place for me to witter on about things! If you have already heard my spiel, skip the next paragraph. If you haven't, read on...

Basically I dislike Thursdays. They serve no purpose other than to inhibit the arrival of Fridays. And Fridays are good. Therefore I declared Thursday to be the day when it is every persons responsibility to share some joy with others. This could be as simple as making someone a cuppa tea, or as extravagent as taking them to the zoo. As it started originally with one of my friends in NZ, it has developed a strong base in internet shareable joy - bands, trailers, videos - anything that can bring others joy... There's even a facebook group, which you should join if you haven't already.

So, I come bearing some joy this Thursday. I've raved about wefeelfine.org to a bunch of people - well, this is similarly hypnotising... Happy Thursday (or Joyday as I like to call it)...

Stephs vs Starbucks...

2008-10-01T16:28:00.005+01:00

I work at Aztec West, the souless centre of Bristol. It's a fairly generic business park, where the highlights include a lake (with ducks!), an overpriced newsagents and two seemingly identical sandwich shops. There is pretty much nothing to do here. Except work, which I'm guessing is the point.

Anyway, about 5 months ago they opened a Starbucks here (to accompany a new hotel). Such is the dullness of Aztec West that this caused me a great deal of joy. And a great deal of pain. See, I love frappuccinos. Specifically, a grande coffee light frappuccino, double blended (trust me, the double blending triples the joy).

It's become a weekly ritual that Sara and I head down to Starbucks at 3 o'clock on a Wednesday. We know most of the baristas - they know our order when we walk in, we often get charged for the smallest size and given the biggest, there's joking and banter (they call us "the crazies") and it adds a certain amount of happiness to my Wednesday afternoons...

The problem lies in the fact that deep down I dislike Starbucks. I generally try to support local independent businesses and avoid massive corporations. Added to this is their tendancy to deliberately open up near independent competitors, dubious ethical policies (such as opposing attempts by Ethiopia to trademark three varieties of local coffee beans) and only the fact that only 65% of their beans meet "ethically traded" and "responsibly grown" criteria...

Now, I'm not completely slating Starbucks - compared to a small independent fairtrade coffee shop (Kuvuka or Cafe Kino for example), they do indeed suck. But they are trying. Gently. Whether they should have gone Fairtrade rather than launching their own "Shared Planet" brand is debatable, but they are aiming for 100% of their coffee to end up meeting this criteria. Which makes them better than your average jar of supermarket instant coffee I guess.

So, they may not be the most evil corporation on the planet (there's stiff competition for that one...), but I feel that's not really an excuse for me to be a blind consumer. Just because they're not the worst culprits doesn't make it ok for me to give them my business...

I just wish my taste buds were more strong willed at 2.55pm on a Wednesday afternoon...

100 things to die before I die... 18 months on...

2008-10-01T13:22:00.007+01:00

In may of 2007 I wrote a list of things I wanted to do before I died. It was partly inspired by one of my friends having an awesome list, and partly by a holiday in Cornwall with some friends... It started with a few things, which grew over a number of weeks to the nice round number of 100 things.

18 months later, I've completed 30 of them. Which is pretty impressive until you consider that I've completed 28 easy ones, one moderately hard one and one tricky one. Leaving a whole bunch of tricky ones, several moderately hard and only a few easy ones. But hopefully more than 18 months to finish them in!

Touch an iceberg? What was I thinking?

Completing things on the list has resulted in significant amounts of fun. With the exception of reading War and Peace. Fun doesn't quite describe that experience. But apart from that one, I've been really amazed by the extent to which my friends (and family) have embraced this obsession, joining me in a weird and wonderful assortment of adventures and undertakings from fancy dress cinema trips to escapades around london, camel riding in the Sahara to eating an assortment of bizarre foods... My conclusion - I have awesome friends!

However, the enjoyment hasn't just come from the fun involved - it's also been amazing to achieve things that I've always wanted to do. A good example of this is going to the Globe in London to see some Shakespeare. It's been one of those things that has been at the back of my mind to do someday - but once it was on the list, I purposefully went out of my way to create an opportunity to go. And it was wonderful. And hopefully I'm going again. I guess it's helped me to focus on some of the things that I want to achieve in life (some silly, some more serious), when otherwise they may have just got forgotten through the busyness of daily life.

I am contemplating a few minor changes though - is this allowed? The original list writing was done in a bit of a hurry, and a few were in there just to bulk it up to 100. It's not that I don't want to do them given the opportunity, but on reflection, I think there might be things I'd rather do...

So here are a selection of photos from the highlights so far, and for anyone who hasn't yet seen it, the list itself is attached at the bottom... Let me know if there's any you fancy assisting with...

Going to the Globe

Learning to make balloon animals

Sending a message in a bottle

Walking down Abbey Road (with Abby)

Riding a camel in the desert

1. Attend a major sports event
2. Attend a music festival
3. Be a bridesmaid
4. Be an extra in a film
5. Be silent for a week
6. Become a really great cook
7. Build an igloo
8. Busk, then go to the pub and stay until all the busking money is gone
9. Buy a telescope and learn lots of constellations
10. Buy something that's more than a century old - DONE
11. Catch a fish, cook it and eat it
12. Celebrate Christmas day on the beach
13. Celebrate Thanksgiving
14. Climb Snowdon
15. Climb Table Mountain in Cape Town
16. Complete reading the complete Sherlock Holmes collection
17. Cook a souffle that doesn't sink - DONE
18. Do a cartwheel
19. Do fire poi - DONE
20. Drink coffee in Central Park
21. Drink Guiness in ireland - DONE
22. Dye my hair red - DONE
23. Eat everything on the BBC 50 things to eat before you die
24. Eat grasshoppers (when they are dead...) - DONE
25. Eat jellied eels in London - DONE
26. Eat snails in France
27. Eat sushi in Japan
28. Experience weightlessness
29. Finish reading War and Peace - DONE
30. Get taught how to play poker and master a poker face - DONE
31. Go hand gliding
32. Go on a road trip with no predetermined destination
33. Go skinny dipping
34. Go scrumping for apples
35. Go to a drive-in movie
36. Go to a jazz club - DONE
37. Go to bingo - DONE
38. Go to Israel
39. Go to the cinema in fancy dress - DONE
40. Go to the Globe Theatre to watch Shakespeare - DONE
41. Go to the Pyramids
42. Go to Venice with someone I love
43. Go to Wimbledon and eat strawberries - DONE
44. Go wine tasting - DONE
45. Grow my own tomatoes
46. Have a curry in India
47. Have Breakfast at Tiffany's
48. Have singing lessons
49. Hike up Ayers Rock (Uluru)
50. Inhale helium - DONE
51. Invent a cocktail
52. Kiss someone in torrential rain
53. Learn how to make really good curry
54. Learn a language well enough to be able to converse with a native speaker
55. Learn the guitar (so I do infact know all the chords)
56. Learn to cook paella - DONE
57. Learn to develop photographs
58. Learn to ice skate backwards
59. Learn to make balloon animals - DONE
60. Learn to play the game "Go" - DONE
61. Learn to snowboard
62. Learn to waltz
63. Make a fire without matches/lighter
64. Make a piece of furniture
65. Make chelsea buns - DONE
66. Make fresh pasta by hand - DONE
67. Meet a rollercoaster designer
68. Milk a cow
69. Overcome my fear of rope bridges
70. Own a second hand bookshop (and cafe)
71. Play Mah Jong in China
72. Read Robinson Crusoe whilst on an island - DONE
73. Read the BBC's top 100 books
74. Ride a camel in the desert - DONE
75. Ride on a motorbike - DONE
76. See a total eclipse
77. See the Northern Lights
78. Send a message in a bottle - DONE
79. Sing at karaoke
80. Sleep in a wigwam
81. Sleep under the stars - DONE
82. Solve a Rubiks cube - DONE
83. Spend Christmas day helping out at somewhere for people who have nowhere to go
84. Stand under an aeroplane as it takes off
85. Stand with one foot either side of the Equator
86. Stay in a lighthouse
87. Stay in a windmill
88. Swim in the Dead Sea
89. Take the Trans Siberian railway
90. Throw a boomerang and catch it
91. Touch an iceberg
92. Travel to San Francisco and walk across the Golden Gate bridge (whilst pausing to read Vikram Seth)
93. Visit Canada and make maple sugar
94. Visit every continent
95. Walk down Abbey Road - DONE
96. Walk the Great Wall of China
97. Watch opera at Glyndebourne
98. Wear a bikini with some degree of confidence - DONE
99. Win a pub quiz - DONE
100. Write a book

Charlie Kaufman's brain...

2008-09-30T13:13:00.003+01:00

My sister recently asked me who I'd be if I could be anyone for a day. At the time, I couldn't come up with an answer, but on reflection, I think Charlie Kaufman would make the shortlist.

I'd imagine at least 50% of you haven't the faintest idea who Charlie Kaufman is, so I'll elaborate. He's a writer - some stage, some tv, but most famously, a screenwriter for films. His most well known films are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation and Being John Malkovich (though if you're being a geek, he also wrote Human Nature and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind). His films are famous for being extremely odd and fairly surreal. And also some of the most original things to come out of Hollywood...

Adaptation, apart from producing one of Nicolas Cage's few credible performances and making Meryl Streep bearable for me, is a wonderful crafted concept and film. The film tells the story of Charlie Kaufmans struggle to adapt a book (The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean which I highly recommend), with Nicolas Cage playing Charlie and his twin brother Donald. To say too much would give away the beauty of this film, but I recommend watching it twice. At least. The first time I watched it, I was a little disappointed by the ending, but it wasn't until I watched it a second time that the full remarkableness of the film became obvious...

Eternal Sunshine is a film that would unquestioningly fall in my top 10... probably even my top 5. To me, it's one of those films that works on so many levels - acting, directing, music, cinematography (I'm a sucker for a film that looks pretty). This time, Charlie Kaufman takes an old concept - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy tries to get girl back - and completely turns it on its head. The first time I saw it reminded me of my reaction on seeing Memento, which was something along the lines of "Wow, I didn't know you could do that with a film"... Again, it allows the opportunity for an actor to shine (Jim Carrey in this case), and Kate Winslet has a blast being the outrageous bubbly one...

Anyway, back to the point. Charlie Kaufman seems to have an amazing imagination with the ability to see the world in a different way to other people. His ideas are often completely off the wall (Being John Malkovich anyone) and don't always work so well (Human Nature?). But he is one of the really original voices working in Hollywood at the moment. And I would love to see what it was like to possess a mind like that... just for one day. How someone begins to come up with ideas like that intrigues me as a writer... does it start off as a relatively straightforward concept that gets distorted over time, or does he look out on the world through those eyes 24/7?

One last Charlie Kaufman related thing. Someone has decided to let him direct a film as well as write it. It might be a horrendous mistake, or an incredible masterpiece. The only guarentee is that it'll be very strange... Check out the trailer below...

btw - for anyone interested and as clueless as me, "synecdoche" means "a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man."

Less mould, more music...

2008-09-29T08:23:00.001+01:00

James Yuill is rocking my week. I stumbled across him one day while I was hunting for new music on facebook (pre it being blocked from work) and since then, his album has been brightening up my day at work frequently. And the even better news is that he's playing at Start The Bus in Bristol this Wednesday. And just when you thought things couldn't get any better, the gig is also free. So now you have no excuse not to come.

Always look on the bright side of... mould?

2008-09-28T18:20:00.000+01:00

This week really hasn't been a good week as far as my flat goes... The evidence in support of this follows:

1) The council decided to install an alley gate between the road and our front door. Without thinking through the fact that (a) the postman couldn't then get to our front door and (b) no visitors can get to the doorbell. This week, they tried to lock the aforementioned gate without warning us first. Our key for this gate was therefore in our flat...
2) The shower in the flat upstairs has been leaking into our lounge in an impressive manner, leading to "please don't let the shower fall through the ceiling" type prayers. And mould on the ceiling.
3) The icing on the proverbial cake - at midnight on thursday I discovered that approximately half my clothes, almost all my shoes, most of my bags and a bunch of other stuff has grown some rather fetching patches of mould (or mildew - I'm not sure on the exact definition). I had a bit of a crisis upon discovering this. I knew there was a bit of damp in the corner of my room that the landlord was going to sort out. However, upon emptying out the contents of my built in wardrobe, it appears there's a whole *heap* of damp in there. Plus some lovely fungus type growth. Lovely. A quick look on friday evening found mould on my curtains and my chair, so it's not looking too good...

So in practical terms I have to (a) wash all my clothes that were in there (b) wash all my bags and shoes with something that'll kill all the spores (c) search through the rest of my room and discover else what is affected (d) hope that (a) and (b) stop it coming back and (c) doesn't miss anything. There's also the fear that my sister and I may have to move flats. Yes. More moving. And even if we don't have to permanently move, I probably need to find somewhere to stay while they sort out the damp and dry out the room, as apparently sleeping surrounded by damp and mould isn't good for you... Ah the joys of imminent homelessness...

However. I am *attempting* to look on the positive side of this. Yes, it's a royal pain in the butt. Yes, there's stuff that I can't replace if I have to throw it out (due to my yeti feet, it's taken me a long time to find nice shoes that fit)... However, it's only stuff. And at the end of the day, I can buy new things. Plus it might give me a kick to declutter my life a bit and take a bunch of clothes that I don't need to the charity shop and finally throw out those grotty trainers that I only ever wear to gigs. And if I have to move house, I will offer tasty tasty food in exchange for assistance. Again.

But if the mould spreads to my books, there will be tears...

To blog or not to blog, that is the question...

2008-09-28T13:14:00.000+01:00

I've been musing for a number of months about blogs and my place in blog land. I read a number of blogs, some of which are written by my friends. and I enjoy them. Maybe I'm blessed by friends with interesting lives, or possibly just the ability to make their dull lives sound interesting. Is this my place? Am I simply a blog consumer or has the time come to throw my tuppence into blog land... hmmmmmmm. I like the idea of a blog, but in all honesty, am I too boring?

Another motivation is that I love to write. I've been writing since I was a kid, but currently seem to be stuck in an inspiration wasteland. I have the desire to write, but no ideas that are worth investing time in. So I seem to have stopped writing completely. And writing is like most things in life - if you stop doing it for a while, you start forgetting how to. I was lamenting this very issue to a friend a while back, and their advice was just to write something. It doesn't really matter what it is - the important thing is to keep the skills alive and begin to find my voice in amongst all the influences that besiege me from the books I seem to devour at an alarming rate.

So in light of the above, I'm having a trial run at the blogging malarkey. Probably a month. Less if I hate it. More if I love it. opinions of the "stop please" or "blimey your brain works weirdly when you're tired" are gratefully recieved.

Guarentees I can give you :

1) If I'm tired, I won't capitalise my sentences properly. I know this kills certain gramatically correct people, but life sucks sometimes.
2) Lists are awesome. They will feature a lot.
3) My brain reaches a special place when I'm tired.
4) I waffle. And ramble.

So in light of all of that, here we go...