All I can say is mmm….they were lovely!

Cooking from Hopkinson’s book has been a real joy. To put it into perspective, whenever I cook from ‘Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals‘ I always feel really stressed. I don’t know if it’s the pressure to get the meal ready in 30 minutes or the frenetic style that the recipe is written in but I always come out of the kitchen a nervous wreck. In contrast, cooking from Hopkinson’s book is a calming experience. You ‘quietly’ melt chocolate rather than bash at rosemary; all I needed were a few cartoon woodland animals to be the picture of Disney domesticity.

Apart from trying new recipes, I have also been doing lots of DIY as the good old British summertime has, true to form, not been sunny enough to venture outside. Part of this has involved a lot of tidying up. I have discovered that I have clothes that span 4 different dress sizes and a larder stuffed with bags of a million different types of sugar and flour. The clothing triggered a nicely profitable eBay clear out whereas the larder led to me spending a disproportionate amount of time labelling storage jars using paper, fabric and (my new favourite thing) Mod Podge.

I don’t really like the pastel colours of the paper as I am more of a primary colour girl, but I wanted to label them on the cheap and this was all I had. To differentiate between the different types of flour/sugar, I wrote this on the first letter of each jar using a permanent marker before sealing.

I also used some spare fabric scraps I had tucked away in a drawer to cover the lids and brighten up the jars a little. I really should be doing bigger, grander things than labelling a few jars so this is a typical use of my time to avoid doing the things I dislike (sugar soaping the walls, painting the ceiling…). To be honest, I’ve never been this busy during a summer holiday. I have had a few health issues and found that the best way to carry on is to keep myself occupied. So far, so good!

I don’t really want to provide any kind of social commentary of the riots as so many have already done this and my main feelings about it are disappointment, disgust and a glimmer of hope in the strands of humanity and kindness that rippled through the bedlam. So, my only real comment on the riots is this, my favourite piece of advice from Neil Walker.

To join you either request an invite and join the waiting list (I received my invite in under a week) or find someone that you know who is on it to ‘invite’ you. I found a great guide to getting started here.

Speaking of great finds, one of my good friends is moving on to pastures new at the end of the month and I have found her the perfect gift.

I would be tempted to keep this for myself…if only my name was different…deed poll?!

If you have a nerdy girl/guy in your life, I’d take a look at ShopGibberish on Etsy. I am quite taken with the ‘A Geek For All Seasons‘ card collections myself.

As a teenager, I was an avid diary writer and obsessively journaled by every thought. Looking back is always a little depressing. That geekily cool teenager with a razor sharp intellect was actually just a nerdy fat girl with a love of words and a pretentious air. However, this thirty-something cynic is prepared to admit that she can learn from this misguided teen and hopes that perhaps my future self will be able to pick up a few things from my current grumpy musings.

Anyway, this diary writing idea presented a challenge. I was used to writing my thoughts in coloured gel pens within battered hardback notebooks jammed with cut outs from magazines, postcards and doodles. This doesn’t really fit in with the modern age – or the fact that I spend most of my time working and have little time to sit and dwell. I knew that I had to find an iPhone app so that I could use it on the move and edit at my own leisure. I eventually settled on two: Momento and Evernote.

Momento is less of a diary and more of a librarian. It collates your tweets, status updates, Last FM activity etc. and neatly archives them. You can even add your own little entries to make it more like a diary. Whilst this appealed to me due to its ease of use and the fact it collates information that I already write, it wasn’t quite the powerful journal tool that I wanted. In the end, I went for a note taking app rather than a specific journalling app – Evernote. It has allowed me to create an online version that is as close to my teenage version as I could muster. It allows me to type an extensive journal entry, clip a web page that captures a current event, snap a photo, grab a screenshot…endless options.

Despite feeling a little Carrie Bradshaw, who I despise, so far, so good. Now I just need to do exciting things to fill it with, rather than the naval gazing that fills ‘the early years’.

Horsey Windpipe using Hipstamatic...I made the Handyman drive us here purely because the name tickled me. Turns out it was maintained by a highly knowledgeable National Trust bloke who directed us to some seals.

I thought that this trip would be a perfect opportunity to try out Instagram – an iPhone app similar to Hipstamatic which is love dearly, but with more of an emphasis on sharing. It did a great job of capturing the colours of the flowers in the grounds of the abbey at Bury St. Edmunds. I might just be converted, although now I suffer from photo envy whenever I look at Instagram. Some photos are absolutely stunning.

We visited one of the calmest, humane zoos ever during our trip. It was called ‘Africa Alive!’ - yes, it has the cheesiest name ever – and it was a quiet revelation. No pacing Felidae, no cramped excrement throwing chimps, just content animals with loads of space to roam and a focus on conservation rather than tacky novelties. We had a genuinely lovely day and it reminded me of childhood visits to Penscynor Wildlife Park – the true 1980s retro field trip.

Lazy rhinos and elegant zebra roam the fake British Savannah...

On Friday, we decided to tale at peek at ‘Barboot’ as we have been wanting to go for a while. On the first Friday of each month from 7:30 to 10:30pm, a small part of Crouch End becomes a colourful, vintage slice of loveliness. The Canadian, the Handyman and myself knocked back a few whiskies before winding our slightly tipsy way along Middle Lane to The Haberdashery, a gorgeous little coffee house filled with vintage china and a cute little bunting strewn garden. I was dazzled by many things but in the end I picked up a couple of Babycham glasses at a bargain price, whilst the Canadian picked up a polka dot speckled necklace that she charmingly kept referring to as the ‘lady bow tie’. With the forthcoming summer evenings getting closer, I can’t wait to visit The Haberdashery again.

We then trooped off to ‘Sally Bourne Interiors’, a fantastically crafty shop filled with all kinds of gorgeous things. My favourite purchase was an iron on robot with a bluebottle iridescent sheen. I might have to look into some of their craft workshops as they offer some inventive classes and it would do me good to brush up on some of my needlecraft skills as they are shaky to say the least!

All in all, an enjoyable evening was had by all and it made a pleasant change to the usual Friday evenings where we are too tired to do much at all.

I am a little obsessed with barware at the moment. It is the Handyman’s birthday this month, so I am planning a little cocktail based soiree, hence my impulsive Babycham glass buying. I have also bought some Martini glasses and some tumblers from Habitat. Although they are not vintage, I think that they have a certain retro appeal  and remind me childhood summers visiting elderly relatives and drinking orange squash whilst sitting on the garden step.

Next stop on my barware odyssey, swizzle sticks…. 

Showing the love.

This year, I spent a weekend baking Bara Brith (speckled bread) for my workmates and the Handyman whilst listening to Gruff Rhys’ new album, ‘Hotel Shampoo‘. To revert to teen speak, I ♥ Gruff Rhys. Super Furry Animals are a band that have followed me into adulthood and are sublime in their welshness!

Bara Brith is super easy to make, although there are a million variations on the basic theme. It basically involves plonking 250ml of strong tea (how very British!) into a bowl of 250g of mixed dried fruit and 100g dark brown sugar. Some people like to add some marmalade here too or more sugar but this is sweet enough for me. I then leave it overnight to soak it all up. The next day, I lazily mix it up with a beaten egg, a pinch of salt and some mixed spice, nutmeg or whatever I have hanging around at the back of the cupboard before adding 250g of self raising flour. I put the whole shebang into a loaf tin before putting it in the oven for about an hour. My esteemed fellow educators seemed to enjoy it as there were only a few crumbs left at the end of the day much to the Handyman’s disappointment.

A little bit of Greek mythology keeps watch over the City at St Alphage Garden Podium near the Barbican.

Went on a museum jaunt around the capital yesterday taking in the Tate Modern, Museum of London and Imperial War Museum. It reminded me of how much I love a good museum shop. I have no time for the neon erasers, giant pencils and candy canes but will spent ages poring over vintage style postcards. As a letter writing obsessed teen I collected hundreds of postcards. I have curbed the habit now and restrict myself to buying the odd one or two which I then aim to post to a friend rather than hoard but still seem to have a wide array of stationary. I picked up a few postcards from the Imperial War Museum that I plan to send to a few of my vintage loving friends.

I also bought a tea towel at the Tate Modern. I know, a tea towel! Ours are so grubby and tatty that I have been obsessing about tea towels for a while. I hate them at the best of times as I think they are breeding grounds for bacteria but have decided that if I am going to have tea towels, at the very least they should be nice. My mum had a vast array of tea towels ranging from delicate whites hand embroidered by my gran to garish splashes of colour picked up by friends on their holidays. I am a little disturbed that I unwittingly appear to have joined the ranks of tea towel gatherers. I really am getting old.

Don't look too closely...my chipped post-baking nails are a shocker!

Have painted my nails a bright, fire engine red for half term. I always feel that darker colours suit the grey tones of the chillier seasons. I love painted nails but tend to resist them during term time as they can be too high maintenance. Am loving this colour though – ‘St. James‘ by Nails Inc. It makes me feel like an old fashioned screen siren.

1. Too Cool For School

Met him at a sixth form disco where he told me I was beautiful. Being naive and drunk on cheap cider and black, I believed him. The following Monday, he spotted me and told everyone how he hadn’t realised how geeky I was and regretted it. My first real experience of not being liked for who I am.

2. Karaoke Narcissus

No grown man should ever think that singing ‘Let Me Entertain You’ whilst looking deep into his girlfriend’s eyes is a turn on. I should add that we were in some dirt rough pub in the darkest, welshest valleys and that he couldn’t sing, despite his belief that Take That were missing his vocal skills. He also once commented that my bosoms were ‘disappointing’ when not harnessed in their bra. Well, excuse me for not being Barbie.

3. Axe wielding Metalhead

I really hate heavy metal, yet despite this I endured years of ear battering gigs in sweaty pubs and getting drenched in piss watching Metallica. This wasn’t enough. He wanted a domestic goddess in leathers and denim, I am more of a gingham clad mortal with smudges of flour on her nose. Once he asked me if I would dress like everyone else so that people wouldn’t look at us. Destined to fail.

This would all be incredibly depressing if I couldn’t think of at least two angelic exes. I can also think of examples of my own evil ex behaviour. Relationships really can bring out the extreme aspects of your personality!