Impulse Control Fail

As I'm sure I've said before, my housemate Diane runs a vintage items and a handmade jewelry store. She has some really gorgeous items, and regularly has stalls at local vintage fairs.
I often accompany her on these trips, just to help out and as an excuse for me to wander round too, but there is one fair I particularly love. Its based in Stockport and is called Vintage Village. Held on the second Sunday of every month, its a veritable treasure trove of awesomeness.
Normally I don't buy anything (I purposely don't take money with me so that I don't) but at the September fair I actually picked up a few awesome finds.

Rhubarb Crumble Recipe

This is looong overdue and I apologise. Life just has a habit of getting in the way...

I promised you a recipe for rhubarb crumble and here it is, but first let me give you a quick bit of background.

I've always hated rhubarb. I have a horrible sweet tooth, so the tartness of rhubarb really isn't something I enjoy. My mum and grandma, however, love the stuff, so I've cooked it up for them for a long while.
Gran's next door neighbour has a green thumb and for as long as I can remember he's grown rhubarb - and shared it with Gran (isn't he lovely).

I've never grown it myself and don't have any idea how to harvest rhubarb, but Diane loves it, so when we moved into the new house and found a large crop of the fruit just waiting to be pulled, it was like a challenge.

After a quick google search (gotta love google) I found out how to pull rhubarb and had a go. I was quite surprised at how easy it was, and Diane followed me out with her camera. This is the result.

A whole new look!

Hey guys!

Sorry I disappeared for so long. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this so I lost interest and got distracted and it kinda petered out. I sincerely apologise.

I'm not going to promise anything for the moment as we all know how that went last time, but I'm going to do my best to make regular posts as I miss this blog.

I'm going to be posting recipes mainly I think, along with the occasional 'how my day/week has been' post, and maybe a book/film review here and there. I'll try and figure out a schedule for myself, so you know what to expect - other than lots of randomness that is.

Anyway, onto the new stuff!
As you can probably tell if you've been here before (if not, welcome!), I've done a bit of a redesign. You can thank my friend (and housemate) Diane for that. She's made the awesome background, and is going to be taking photos for me, so you'll be able to see some pictures of my food that look amazing - almost entirely thanks to Diane's camera skills :p
I've been inspired by her blog and by reading a few other blogs - I will try and add them to my blogroll. I might even do a post sometime soon listing a few blogs I like.

(Diane also makes the most awesome jewellery - check it out here)

I'll leave it at that for now, but I shall be back soon with a recipe for Rhubarb crumble (complete with pics of me harvesting the rhubarb) and I'll also give you an quick update on what I've been up to.

P.S. What do you think of the redesign? Let me know any thoughts/ideas on what you like or don't like.

TTFN!!

xxClairexx

Epic Eats!

Hey guys!
I want to share a couple of awesome recipes with you. One of which is one of my absolute fave home cooked meals.
For as long as I can remember my grandma has made a thing called Bacon Pudding. Some people have heard of it, some haven't but as far as I was aware growing up, it was something only my Grandma and Great Granny could make. It was the food we asked for when she asked what special meal we wanted for birthdays, and always makes me think of Great Granny.
This is not a healthy meal by far, but its good old fashioned cheap and tasty food.

Best dinner in ages!

Hey folks.

Happy 2011!
Its a bit late, but I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and have had a good start to 2011. I know I had a good time, it has really helped to have a couple of weeks break from everything to sort my head out. I'm determined to start 2011 with a whole new me!
I don't really make resolutions - I never manage to complete them, and I'm always disappointed in myself, so instead of 3 or 4 resolutions, this year I just have one - To have no regrets.
I want to get to this point next year, look back on 2011 and, no matter what has happened through the year, to be happy that I did the best I could in everything.

I don't know how that will turn out, but I've started off well. I've already made a start on uni work that isn't due in for ages, and I've started eating a little more healthier - well, sort of. I mean I've been cooking proper food recently rather than just reheating freezer/processed food. I'm going to a recruitment day on Tuesday so that I can hopefully get a part-time job, I'm looking after myself more and my friends are taking me shopping for some clothes so that I can actually feel like I look good.

So, enough about that, onto the main reason I'm writing this post. I've just eaten the yummiest meal I swear I've ever made.
Last night I made bolognese, and though it was nice, I didn't really fancy it again tonight. I had a huge bag of onions in the fridge just waiting to be used up, so I decided to make a soup. I really only had one option - French Onion Soup.
I used Delia's recipe with a few very minor changes. I used red onions, instant beef stock, and I skipped a stage or two. I'll write the rough recipe below.
I figured after that I'd probably want something sweet, and I have a pile of apples on the table and some bananas which if I don't use up soon they'll have to be baked into something or they'll be unusable.
I decided on baked fruit. I'd never really tried it and I have a pretty sweet tooth so I looked through my cupboard for something extra. This is what I found:

I have a jar of chocolate mincemeat which mum gave me to turn into mince pies but I never got around to making, and a jar of choc-o-toff sauce that I bought from the Christmas markets.

Half-Term Madness.

Quite a bit has happened since I last blogged. Mainly stuff to do with uni, and me meeting my new flatmate (who is awesome btw), had an awesome flat-warming party and also I seem to have managed to both gain a boyfriend and then lose him again. Bit of a mix of good and bad.
This week has been really horrible though. Everyone else seems to get a reading week but we always end up with exams. I've had three big exams, which has meant no fun - just revision. I had my last exam today - I'm so happy they're over.

Not that all the exams were horrible. I had one on Wednesday that I got 95% on. 95!!! Thats like half a question wrong. I was very impressed, especially after the day before was horrible.
Tuesday's exam was Pharmacology. I find the subject interesting, but I'm not very anamoured with the lectures and this exam was a timed essay - the one kind of exam I really hate. The question was split into six things and we had to choose 4 to write about. I think I managed to write one fairly well, but the other three were pure guesswork. I came out of the exam nearly in tears it was that bad and I feel horrible - especially since I've looked over my notes and realised I know a helluva lot more than I put down.
My last exam was a good one again - Multiple Choice Questions, and I was confident about 80% of the test. We'll see how I did when I get the results.

After the exam we made the decision to go to starbucks. I am so glad we did - THE RED CUPS ARE BACK!!!!
This has basically made my week so much better. I love the red cups.
Everyone seems to have one thing which puts them into the christmas mood. For one friend its when the christmas coca-cola adverts come on tv, another its the christmas lights switch-on but for me, it is the day starbucks bring out those red take-out cups, decorate everything with snowflakes and I take my first sip of yummy gingerbread latte.
So it is now the run-up to christmas for me. I will start considering christmas gifts and deciding which family I want to spend christmas day with (thats a whole new blog post).

It's bonfire night tonght, which means lots of fireworks and smoke. We're going to a public display close by, unfortunately without my flatmate as she's scared of fireworks :(
After the display we're thinking of going for a few drinks which may or may not turn into a girls' night out.
Tomorrow is my friend's 21st birthday aswell - he's having a house party and after the week I've ended up having, I'll be planning on getting very messy :p I think he said something about drinking so much he doesn't want anyone able to walk home.

So, here's to me hopefully being able to live through my hangover come Sunday lol.

xxClairexx

The return!

Marmalade says hi!

Hey folks, I'm back!
Im sorry for disappearing for such a long time, there isn't really any excuse but I'm gonna try hard to post regularly from now on. Feel free to shout all you want, I deserve it.
A lot has happened since I last posted, I'll update you but I'll do it slowly, over a few posts if thats ok.

Firstly, here's the update on the uni stuff. I finished my first year of uni, but I didn't pass some modules so had to do some resit work over the summer. I was working my butt off trying to get everything in on time, and I think I managed it, but I still haven't got the results yet. They're due this week, and I'm getting really impatient - I'm supposed to start again next week!
Due to the results being released so late, I haven't been able to take part in the US exchange trip I was hoping for. I would've been a month or so late to start so, when I had a chat with my tutor, we decided it was best for me to stay here and work on passing - without the extra stress it would bring.

So in anticipation of starting Uni next week, I've moved into my new student digs for this year. So much moving around ... I'll end up confused where I live by the end of my degree!
At the moment it feels like I'm the only one here. I think I moved in before the big rush, and I haven't met the girl I'll be sharing with yet. Hopefully she'll move in this weekend. I hope we get on ok.

I still have a bit of unpacking to do, so I'll leave you with that for now, but I'll post again either later today or in the next couple of days.

xxClairexx

21 Today!

.


IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!


I turn 21 today! (well technically it is today anyway, since its about 2am on the 17th here)

I'm having a party tonight, so no doubt I will post about that and how it goes. Especially since it is a fancy dress party and I plan on getting very drunk so I don't realise how stupid I look :-p
For now though, I'm heading to bed. I have a very busy day tomorrow and need sleep!!!

TTFN

xxClairexx

Sports Relief 2010

Just a very quick post today.

On the 21st March I will be running the Sports Relief mile in crazy fancy dress with two of my friends. I will most likely be hungover whilst doing this, as I am going out the night before.

We have made a team named Manilla, Mango and the Flying Squirrel! (don't ask)
If there was any chance of you donating to Sports Relief would you think about doing that by sponsoring the team or me as an individual? We have a low target, and would really appreciate any support at all. Just follow the link below to  have a look. It is a registered charity, and everything is secure...there's info on the website all about it.

Manilla, Mango and the Flying Squirrel's team page.

Bye for now!

xxClairexx

Books!

I'm incredibly bored atm, so I thought I would do a blog post and get an early night - I have a meeting tomorrow with my personal tutor at 9am, which means its gonna take me an hour or so to set enough alarms to get me out of bed...I'm just not used to getting up in the middle of the night anymore :-p


I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite books, and hope that you return the favour. I always love finding new series to read.
I always find it really difficult to pick only a few books for a list. My faves list depends on my mood, what I'm reading at the time, what books I have with me, and a few other things which I have no idea about. I often have more than one series on the go, so I'm just going to reel off a short list of books which I've been reading recently. Its just easier than trying to figure out my faves. No doubt I'll share more books in the future anyway.

Great News!!

Ok, last post for today, I promise. I just remembered I had some pretty big news to share.

I've been accepted onto the exchange program at Uni :-D

I got the letter yesterday and after dancing around the flat for a little bit I sat down and read it properly. I still have to wait for SDSU to accept me personally, and send confirmation, but I've been told there's no reason why I shouldn't be accepted. I also spotted that I was supposed to go to a workshop that day (good job I checked my mail eh?).

So off I ran to this workshop. They gave us info on the visas, and what we had to do as far as paperwork was concerned, and I met someone else who is going to the same place (a few people hadn't shown up) so that was cool. Then we got to talk to US students who are on exchange here.

I spoke to a really nice girl from Louisiana State Uni. She didn't know much about South Dakota, understandably. Its probably like me trying to give someone info on a London University, but further away. She did manage to give me an idea of what studying in the US is going to be like. And she gave us all a few tips, and basically just had a really cool conversation with us.

She also told me to go to Louisiana for Mardi Gras if I get the chance - specifically New Orleans. I've seen and heard so much about it, I might just do that. I can bet it'll be an experience of a lifetime!
So now, after speaking to her, I really really cannot wait. I'm back to dancing with impatience at wanting to get stuff sorted, but I don't want to do anything till I get confirmation. Gah! I have so much nervous energy!

We had some great sunshine today too, it kinda fit my mood. Everyone was sunbathing but I didn't join in - it was still chilly, but you'd almost think it was spring already! ;-)
I wanted to share. I'll keep you updated on any progress.

xxClairexx

Pasta recipes..

I'm just sitting down to eat some leftovers from yesterday and thought I'd share a couple of simple recipes with you, because this looks yummy!

First, Bolognese sauce.

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

1 red pepper

a large handful mushrooms

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1 packet beef/lamb mince - about 300-500g.

mixed herbs

Lee and perrins/other worcester sauce.

Insomnia - dontcha love it?

Hey folks.

I've been trying to get some sleep for the past 4 hours, but its just not happening. I've tried everything from a warm drink to playing music to counting sheep and nothing seems to work. Its now 7am and I have given up. I have an exam at 11 and I'm scared if I fall asleep now I'll sleep through my alarms and miss it. I probably should have gone to bed sooner. So I'm now drinking caffeine and hoping I can last until this afternoon.
*sigh*

In other news, I went shopping earlier and spent far too much. I've spent the entire week's budget (and a bit more besides) and I'm not sure it will last that long. Oh well. I did treat myself a bit though. I got myself a new pair of PJs which were on sale, and I bought a book I've been looking for, for about 2 years. I also went and bought a few DVDs. They were on offer, and I got 5 DVDs for £10. Bargain!
I've gone through my DVD collection so many times I'm bored of it - including the one's I've nicked from my sister...ssshhhh don't tell ;-) and I spotted some films I've wanted to watch for a while, so I figured 'why the hell not' and went for it.

So tired I just fell asleep stood at the sink...

This morning I had an exam in Genetics. It was pretty tough but I just about managed to pass, so thats spurred me on to do a bit of study work this afternoon. I'm absolutely knackered since I had very little sleep last night so I think I'm going to have a bit of a rest first - or drink lots of caffeine. Whichever works best.


I just wanted to post a quickie update. I think its been over a week since I last posted, but not an awful lot has happened. I had a pretty rough few days last week where my mood seemed to plummet and it made getting out of bed hard, and I rarely left the flat - which of course just makes it worse.
With a little help from Mum, who decided to distract me with a trip to a chocolatiere, I seem to be on the way up, and I'm feeling better, so thats good.

This weekend was Valentines. I'm normally pretty much a complete grump when it comes to V-day, but thats probably because I haven't got someone to share it with, so I don't want people to think I'm being horrible when I say its possibly one of the worst days on the calendar for me. I wasn't feelign up to going out, and I was on my own in the flat, so I decided to go all out and make an 'Anti-valentines' playlist. I know this probably makes me seem like quite a sad person, but it was actually fun! I found lots of new artists who I'd never heard of, and discovered new songs from artists I already knew. I had one rule - no love songs allowed. It's surprising though how many songs are about love.
So despite it beginning as it did, I've ended up with a great playlist full of really random, but fun songs.

I've also suddenly managed to gain about 10 books which I need to read - and I have no time to read them lol.

Yesterday was Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday. I love any excuse to eat pancakes so I had great fun! A few of us got together and went through a ton of pancakes. Its was a great night.
I got in late, and because I had been waiting for the bus in the freezing cold (puddles were turnign slushy as I watched) my knee has seized up. I ended up using a hot water bottle on it and had a pretty rough night.

Which is why I am so tired now. So I'm going to stop rambling and go get some sleep since the caffeine isn't working too well and is only giving me a headache.

Les Miserables

I've just gotten back from watching Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre.

I adore going to the theatre, whether its Opera, Musicals, Ballet, Shakespeare...Anything on stage. I love it. So going to see Les Mis has been something I've wanted for a while. I used to watch a VHS my grandma had of a performance of it. I used to love watching it, but I had forgotten the storyline. I was over the moon to get tickets for Christmas.

We had really good seats, right in the middle, with a clear view of the stage and I was incredibly impressed. The way they used the stage, the props, the singing...I was hooked from the moment the lights lowered.

I was laughing and crying and cheering along the whole way through. The actors were amazing.

It was so good the whole theatre was on its feet at the end. I've been told its like that every night they've been there. I've never seen a show like it.

I just want to go see it again!
 
xxClairexx

An Unusual Day.

I'm taking a break from a mammoth homework marathon and I wanted to blog about the other day (Sunday) because it was so unusual for me.

I woke up with a bit of a hangover (I had over-indulged on alcohol on a rare night out with the sister) so I slept a little late. About 3pm I was woken by a loud banging on my room door and a familiar voice telling me to get my butt outta bed right that minute.
Once I finally managed to stumble to the door, I was reminded about an ice hockey game we had been planning to go to and I had forgotten about.

I've been fascinated by hockey for a while, but I've never seen a live game before, and when our local radio station was giving free tickets to people who hadn't been we snatched at the chance.
So I somehow managed to get showered and ready within an hour, and we left for the tram to the Ice Rink where they were playing.
After maybe 15 minutes on the tram we got off and had to walk all the way round the actual rink to be able to get to the entrance. The wait wasn't too bad and when we got in they were just about ready for the face-off.

Spending Time.

Today I was feeling a little bit down, so I decided to meet my mum and spend the day together. Its rare that we spend much time on our own anymore, and I miss her. So she picked me up and said she'd take me food shopping.

Food shopping is one of those necessary chores which I absolutely hate. I find supermarkets too busy and frustrating, of course then it all has to be lugged home and put away. Eugh.

As much as I hate the shopping, mum makes it less of a chore. She knows I have a temptation problem when it comes to bargains and she helps persuade me away from spending my money on stupid stuff.

"Ooo 2for1! I might as well get a couple"

"But Claire, remember you said you don't like those"
"Oh...yeah"

One Last Appeal

Heya folks.

You're not going to hear a lot from me today. I just want to share something with you, and I think it needs to be spread as far and to as many people in SL as possible. If we get enough people shouting, Linden Labs might listen to us!
Lindal Kidd, who happens to be a forum regular and someone I count amoung my friends, posted a thread today in the condemned forums. I am simply going to copy and paste the text with the links from both the SL forums, and the new SL Answers blogrums thread(where it got locked almost instantly - surprise surprise). I'm hoping once you have read it you will add your support and spread the word. We need to take a stand and let Linden Labs know what their customers want!

SL Answers (locked) thread

SL Forums Thread in Resident Answers.

A Letter to the Lindens
Lindal Kidd

"Some of you may have read and laughed at Trout Recreant’s hilarious “Letters From the Lindens”, lampooning our Service Provider’s policies and the haphazard ways in which (it seems) they make decisions.

There have been a lot of those over the past year. The Homestead bait and switch, the introduction of themed, Linden-built mainland areas, the ghettoization of Adult Content, “Linden Homes”, the flirtation with FaceBook and Twitter, the purchase of a FaceBook clone, the abolition of the Mentors, and the abolition of the XStreetSL and the official SL Forums.

There’s more on the horizon. The imposition of script limits. A dumbed-down Viewer 2.0. Favored status for some, but not all, content creators.

And of course, some real problems remain unaddressed. Lag. Inventory loss. Failed teleports. Maximum stable concurrency. Content theft and its mirror twin, false accusation of content theft.

With all of that, I thought it was about time that the Residents wrote a letter TO the Lindens. It’s arrogant of me, I know, to place myself in the position of speaking for “the Residents”. We are a diverse group with a wide range of opinions. Still, I think that a great many residents will agree with what I’ve written here."

The End of an Era

What a sad week this is going to be.

LL have finally made the announcement we have been dreading. On the 9th of February 2010 Linden Labs will close the current vBulletin Forums and everyone is expected to use their new integrated Clearspace software blog style forums. This move has made me sad, but also pretty angry. The Linden refuse to listen to their customers, and insist on shooting themselves in the foot at every step. I'm disappointed that they insist on going ahead with such a stupid move to blog software which is, to put it simply - utter shit. I won't go into detail, just take a look at the discussion. The more I read the angrier I got. I wont post a response, because it wont do any good.

My New Assignment.

I love this picture. It was taken at one of my fave places in Second Life. I was researching in RL, and decided to log in and sit for a while while I chatted to friends. The place is DePaul University and I just love the land. There are hideaways I use when I want to escape, and the whole place is beautiful. They even change the look of the place to change with the seasons.

We got told about a new assignment for our 'Biomolecules & Cells' module a while ago, just as forewarning. As soon as the tutor mentioned the word 'Poster' I thought it wouldn't be so bad. I've done academic posters in the past and got good marks for them. Generally I really enjoy doing the research for it and designing the layout.
This one is going to be different though.

I have just logged into our online area for updtes, and found out the rest of the assignment. The project is to create an academic poster about the specific structure and roles of the protein they have assigned us. I was expecting a protein I have heard of before, and as I looked down the list of choices I saw a few I recognised and would have chosen. Then I saw that they had assigned the protein, and we had to check ourselves.
I went to the relevant message, and checked back to see my assignment. "Quinone oxidoreductase"

I now know this is going to be a struggle. I have no idea what this is, and its going to take a lot to research it. A quick google search tells me it is 'the largest and least understood enzyme in the respiratory chain' which is so far outside my usual focus, I have no idea where to even begin.

*sigh* I guess this is what I get for thinking things so far had been relatively easy...