28th November 2010
Before I begin my actual apologies, I just want to throw it out there – apologies is a horrible word. There's something about it that just doesn't look right and I find it very difficult to spell.
Moving along, Tiny Netbook, Big Adventure has really gone down hill. I said I would get back into Blogging but it just isn't happening because,
A) My life isn't that exciting.
B) Queen's University Belfast is using assessed essays to ruin my life.
C) I've definitely misplaced some brain cells – I don't know how it happened but I'm really, really stupid. This new found stupidity is a real pain because I can't write Blogs and I can't write essays. One essay question in particular is causing me great distress - “How did the institution of slavery develop and evolve between 1619 and the end of the Civil War in 1865?” It might seem fairly straightforward but I have managed to complicate it to the extent that it's taken me an entire week to write 176 words, including the title and my name... If you would like to write a 4,000 word essay on my behalf then please do so – I would say answers on a post card but it would have to be a very large post card and I'd probably get distracted by the picture on the front...
I suppose there's nothing else for it – I'm going to have to bang out a 4,000 word essay, worth 40% of my overall grade before tomorrows 12noon deadline. Fifteen hours... Can I do it? Probably not but I'm past the point of caring – the Christmas Market is in town and come 4.00p.m I'll be sipping hot chocolate with Classy Classy Crilly. I might also eat meat. Maybe. Probably not. I'll keep you informed.
xx
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Nasher.
9th October 2010
I love Kate Nash. No, seriously, I adore her. She's a brilliant singer, she writes brilliant songs and she's just a little bit weird.
Mr Ticketmaster informed me that she was coming to Belfast so obviously I had to go. The only problem was that just about everyone I know is poor. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rolling in dough, I'm pretty poor myself but I'm perfectly happy to spend my limited funds on going to see a gig, besides it makes a nice change from the usual suspects - Boojum, dates with Rachael Crilly and DVDs from Play.com.
I did a little bit of detective work and found out that a few lovely anthropologists were going to see Nasher. Being the creep that I am, I decided to tag along; best.decision.ever. Mucho thanks to Becca, Christie and Mel who didn't desert me when I went a little bit mental – Kate Nash and the song Mariella tend to have that effect on me, sorry girls!
I feel like a complete geek, I should have been infinitely cooler but I can't lie, I was ridiculously starstruck for most of the night; Kate came out to watch the support bands and was literally a few feet away from us, chillin' with her famous and oddly attractive boyfriend Ryan Jarman. We're talking butterflies and adoring stares. Oh well. I suppose it's just good practice - I now know how not to act when I meet Richard from Friends.
xx
I love Kate Nash. No, seriously, I adore her. She's a brilliant singer, she writes brilliant songs and she's just a little bit weird.
Mr Ticketmaster informed me that she was coming to Belfast so obviously I had to go. The only problem was that just about everyone I know is poor. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rolling in dough, I'm pretty poor myself but I'm perfectly happy to spend my limited funds on going to see a gig, besides it makes a nice change from the usual suspects - Boojum, dates with Rachael Crilly and DVDs from Play.com.
I did a little bit of detective work and found out that a few lovely anthropologists were going to see Nasher. Being the creep that I am, I decided to tag along; best.decision.ever. Mucho thanks to Becca, Christie and Mel who didn't desert me when I went a little bit mental – Kate Nash and the song Mariella tend to have that effect on me, sorry girls!
I feel like a complete geek, I should have been infinitely cooler but I can't lie, I was ridiculously starstruck for most of the night; Kate came out to watch the support bands and was literally a few feet away from us, chillin' with her famous and oddly attractive boyfriend Ryan Jarman. We're talking butterflies and adoring stares. Oh well. I suppose it's just good practice - I now know how not to act when I meet Richard from Friends.
xx
Friday, 1 October 2010
The Town
01 October 2010
Would you like to know something about me? No? Ok, I'll tell you anyway; I like movies and I like babes. I especially like movies that feature babes and last night I was lucky enough to see one such movie. Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about how beautiful Ben Affleck is, I won't even mention his magnificent six pack (it's really more of a ten pack) or his beautiful Boston accent... Instead I'll just say that for the first time in a long time, I actually enjoyed a movie.
Don't get me wrong, I love the cinema experience - the Slush Puppies, the Hot Nuts, the Student Ticket prices, but most of the time I leave the theatre thinking, “that wasn't bad, but it wasn't good”. I hate that feeling of disappointment. Last night I wasn't expecting much from The Town, I hadn't heard a lot about it but I thought I'd give it a go and I'm so glad I did! It's one of those movies that really makes you think – I was completely glued to the screen and as the movie went on I found myself caring about the characters. Plus, it's the definition of action packed – not one of the 124 minutes was dull! Here's the trailer, to get you in the mood :)
I could go on and on about this movie, but I won't – I don't want to ruin your cinematic experience! It's a brilliant movie and I think that everyone should go see it, right now. If you need someone to go with, give me a ring, my student loan is in and I'd gladly re-watch this bad boy!
Xx
Would you like to know something about me? No? Ok, I'll tell you anyway; I like movies and I like babes. I especially like movies that feature babes and last night I was lucky enough to see one such movie. Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about how beautiful Ben Affleck is, I won't even mention his magnificent six pack (it's really more of a ten pack) or his beautiful Boston accent... Instead I'll just say that for the first time in a long time, I actually enjoyed a movie.
Don't get me wrong, I love the cinema experience - the Slush Puppies, the Hot Nuts, the Student Ticket prices, but most of the time I leave the theatre thinking, “that wasn't bad, but it wasn't good”. I hate that feeling of disappointment. Last night I wasn't expecting much from The Town, I hadn't heard a lot about it but I thought I'd give it a go and I'm so glad I did! It's one of those movies that really makes you think – I was completely glued to the screen and as the movie went on I found myself caring about the characters. Plus, it's the definition of action packed – not one of the 124 minutes was dull! Here's the trailer, to get you in the mood :)
I could go on and on about this movie, but I won't – I don't want to ruin your cinematic experience! It's a brilliant movie and I think that everyone should go see it, right now. If you need someone to go with, give me a ring, my student loan is in and I'd gladly re-watch this bad boy!
Xx
Friday, 24 September 2010
Como Esta Blogger
24th of September 2010
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – I am back... Obviously I haven't written anything in a while and I could say that it's because I'm so busy living my life to the full, but why lie; we all know that I'm just ridiculously lazy.
A fair few things have happened in the past month, I could start at the very beginning (it's a very good place to start) but I really can't be bothered and something tells me that you don't want to listen to how I spent the past month sleeping late and sunbathing.
Instead I think I'll write about why I love summer so much,
1. School/University takes a nice long break and I'm able to chill' 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
2. Swimming, in the sea, without a wetsuit – complete and utter freedom :)
3. Summer Soundtracks – I love when all the summer tunes come out, I also thoroughly enjoy chillin' to a home made summer playlists; last year it was Jack Johnson and Bon Iver and this year I've been mixing it up with some Sufjan Stephens, The Strokes and a lot of unsigned Youtube artists. They're the future, literally.
4. The sun comes out to play (or at least it should – Global Warming, where are you?)
5. If the sun does come out to play then I get an amazing tan – some might say that it rivals (and by rivals I mean beats) Emma Joanne Wood's tan ;)
6. This healthy glow means that I don't have to wear any make-up... I see this as a blessing, you may disagree...
7. Rory cracks out the ol' Barbecue – this hasn't really happened this year, which I'm actually pretty pleased about... If Esther got the Chicken Kebabs and Smoked Sausages out then I'm 100% sure that I wouldn't be a vegetarian.
8. It's socially acceptable to wear shorts, all day, every day.
9. Holidays! This year was a bit of a disaster when it came to overseas excursions... I won't lie, I'm feeling very claustrophobic and a little pale, but next year I will be organised and then I'll finally be able to write something exciting in this Blog!
10. This will be my last point... Why? Because ten is an even number and that's how I'd like to finish up. I also have a habit of writing ridiculously long blogs (remember that Sufjan Stevens one? I get exhausted even thinking about it) and I'm fairly confident that if I keep writing you will die of boredom. So instead I will finish with this – Summer is great. I can't really explain why it's so great, maybe it's just the freedom that comes along with summer that I love. Either way, I like when it rolls around and I'm quite sad that it's ending...
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm really not that sad – when Summer ends it means that it's almost Halloween, which means that it's almost Christmas and when Christmas ends it's January, the month of my birth. January is closely followed by February, the month of chocolate, cards and chick flicks and when that ends then it's Easter and egg shaped chocolate fills the shelves and my tummy. When Easter is over it's May and Summer starts again... Now that I think of it, I'm pretty fond of the whole year, which is good I suppose because I plan on being around for quite some time :) Now stop reading the muddled musings of my simple mind and go enjoy what's left of summer!
xx
P.S I had some excellent summery pictures to upload, but I've looked and I can't find them on my computer haa!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – I am back... Obviously I haven't written anything in a while and I could say that it's because I'm so busy living my life to the full, but why lie; we all know that I'm just ridiculously lazy.
A fair few things have happened in the past month, I could start at the very beginning (it's a very good place to start) but I really can't be bothered and something tells me that you don't want to listen to how I spent the past month sleeping late and sunbathing.
Instead I think I'll write about why I love summer so much,
1. School/University takes a nice long break and I'm able to chill' 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
2. Swimming, in the sea, without a wetsuit – complete and utter freedom :)
3. Summer Soundtracks – I love when all the summer tunes come out, I also thoroughly enjoy chillin' to a home made summer playlists; last year it was Jack Johnson and Bon Iver and this year I've been mixing it up with some Sufjan Stephens, The Strokes and a lot of unsigned Youtube artists. They're the future, literally.
4. The sun comes out to play (or at least it should – Global Warming, where are you?)
5. If the sun does come out to play then I get an amazing tan – some might say that it rivals (and by rivals I mean beats) Emma Joanne Wood's tan ;)
6. This healthy glow means that I don't have to wear any make-up... I see this as a blessing, you may disagree...
7. Rory cracks out the ol' Barbecue – this hasn't really happened this year, which I'm actually pretty pleased about... If Esther got the Chicken Kebabs and Smoked Sausages out then I'm 100% sure that I wouldn't be a vegetarian.
8. It's socially acceptable to wear shorts, all day, every day.
9. Holidays! This year was a bit of a disaster when it came to overseas excursions... I won't lie, I'm feeling very claustrophobic and a little pale, but next year I will be organised and then I'll finally be able to write something exciting in this Blog!
10. This will be my last point... Why? Because ten is an even number and that's how I'd like to finish up. I also have a habit of writing ridiculously long blogs (remember that Sufjan Stevens one? I get exhausted even thinking about it) and I'm fairly confident that if I keep writing you will die of boredom. So instead I will finish with this – Summer is great. I can't really explain why it's so great, maybe it's just the freedom that comes along with summer that I love. Either way, I like when it rolls around and I'm quite sad that it's ending...
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm really not that sad – when Summer ends it means that it's almost Halloween, which means that it's almost Christmas and when Christmas ends it's January, the month of my birth. January is closely followed by February, the month of chocolate, cards and chick flicks and when that ends then it's Easter and egg shaped chocolate fills the shelves and my tummy. When Easter is over it's May and Summer starts again... Now that I think of it, I'm pretty fond of the whole year, which is good I suppose because I plan on being around for quite some time :) Now stop reading the muddled musings of my simple mind and go enjoy what's left of summer!
xx
P.S I had some excellent summery pictures to upload, but I've looked and I can't find them on my computer haa!
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Have that Queen’s University Belfast...
29th June 2010
Exams results are in and have been for quite some time... Instead of updating my Facebook status like every other person on the planet, I decided to update my Blog. In reality, I just wanted to say “have that” to someone and as I don’t have a friend called Tarquin to ring up and say “I’m literally going into second year, yah”, I thought I’d write a Blog. So yah, looks like I’m coming back for second year, which I’m very pleased about because,
A) I will get to see all my lovely friends on an almost daily basis.
B) I will get to learn about some really interesting stuff.
C) I will have the opportunity to further develop my analytical and writing skills, the latter will come in handy and will hopefully enable me to write infinity better Blogs with some sort of sentence structure and flow (unlike the one you’re currently reading)
D) The government will give me money and I can put off the job hunt for another year! In all honesty, this is probably the only reason I’m actually going to University at all...
I also wanted to write about my very good friend Jennifer Harkness, who in all her wisdom, saw my wisdom and quoted me on the social networking site Facebook. What ridiculously wise thing did I say? Obviously I’m full of great advice, but on this occasion it was “it’s not the heat of the day but the strength of the ray”. This is a statement that I truly believe in and as a seasoned sunbather, you can take my word for it - it might not be a scorching hot day but you can still get a tan. It’s all about ray strength and personal endurance. So the next time you think, “Oh, I live in Northern Ireland and am therefore doomed to live a life of pasty whiteness”, think again! Man up, fight through the subzero temperatures and you too can become a bronze goddess or god if you’re a bloke (I feel that it’s also worth mentioning that tanned men are not to be laughed at – if you don’t feel comfortable being known as “one of those guys who sunbathes” then just lie and say you got your all over tan while you were out wrestling sharks or painting the shed)
Over and out :)
xx
Exams results are in and have been for quite some time... Instead of updating my Facebook status like every other person on the planet, I decided to update my Blog. In reality, I just wanted to say “have that” to someone and as I don’t have a friend called Tarquin to ring up and say “I’m literally going into second year, yah”, I thought I’d write a Blog. So yah, looks like I’m coming back for second year, which I’m very pleased about because,
A) I will get to see all my lovely friends on an almost daily basis.
B) I will get to learn about some really interesting stuff.
C) I will have the opportunity to further develop my analytical and writing skills, the latter will come in handy and will hopefully enable me to write infinity better Blogs with some sort of sentence structure and flow (unlike the one you’re currently reading)
D) The government will give me money and I can put off the job hunt for another year! In all honesty, this is probably the only reason I’m actually going to University at all...
I also wanted to write about my very good friend Jennifer Harkness, who in all her wisdom, saw my wisdom and quoted me on the social networking site Facebook. What ridiculously wise thing did I say? Obviously I’m full of great advice, but on this occasion it was “it’s not the heat of the day but the strength of the ray”. This is a statement that I truly believe in and as a seasoned sunbather, you can take my word for it - it might not be a scorching hot day but you can still get a tan. It’s all about ray strength and personal endurance. So the next time you think, “Oh, I live in Northern Ireland and am therefore doomed to live a life of pasty whiteness”, think again! Man up, fight through the subzero temperatures and you too can become a bronze goddess or god if you’re a bloke (I feel that it’s also worth mentioning that tanned men are not to be laughed at – if you don’t feel comfortable being known as “one of those guys who sunbathes” then just lie and say you got your all over tan while you were out wrestling sharks or painting the shed)
Over and out :)
xx
Monday, 28 June 2010
Falling behind...
A fair few things have happened recently, but I’ve been too busy/lazy to write about them. I’ve decided that some sort of “record of events” may come in handy in the distant future, so I’m going to (very quickly) write about some of these moderately exciting adventures.
The first event of note was the Snow Patrol concert in Ward Park. Ward Park is a few minutes away from my house and I used to walk through it every day after school. It’s full of memories (some good like GCS tennis matches and some not so good like that time a horrible goose bit me) and I think it’s pretty swell that Snow Patrol chose to have their “homecoming” gigs in the park. How very festival-ish of Sunny Bangor!
There were a fair few support acts, General Fiasco from Londonderry, Band of Horses from the U.S of A and Lisa Hannigan from regular Ireland. I like a few Band of Horses songs but I was really surprised by Lisa Hannigan; I think she’s just lovely. If you like Damien Rice then you’ll have heard Lisa Hannigan - she’s the girl he was always singing with. Anyway, I’m posting my favourite Lisa Hannigan song for your listening pleasure. Snow Patrol themselves were quite excellent. They played all the goodies and really got the crowd going. It’s nice to see someone from your hometown succeed – one day I hope the Two Door Cinema Club boys will have a homecoming gig with over 40,000 people in attendance! After the gig I located some good friends from school and we headed to Donegans where I met a slightly intoxicated Rachael Crilly. All in all it was a very good night – when Bangor gets it right, they really get it right. And in other news, I would quite like to marry Gary Lightbody.
Item number two on the “try to cover everything” agenda is Darren’s Birthday Camp. My good friend Darren was born a wee while ago and to celebrate this special occasion he organised a little camping trip. It was a little Thursday to Saturday event and the campsite was close to the Bloody Bridge in Newcastle. It was a brilliant camp and I could go on and on about just how great it was, but I don’t want to bore you and this Blog is already longer than it should be! Basically, I was in my element - the weather was brilliant, the river was freezing and the people were excellent... Camping is my absolute favourite :)
Last but not least, I had a lovely friend from England come and stay for a few days. I met Laura through University and I she needed a place to stay when Elms closed for summer – she wasn’t here for very long and I’m sure she was very bored (all we did was watch the first few matches of the world cup) but we did manage to get out of the house and along Ballyholme Beach. When it’s sunny there’s no place I’d rather be and when we were out walking around Ballymacormick Point, it was beyond beautiful – here’s a little picture of what Ballyholme and the surrounding area has to offer you on a sunny day :)
Well, there you go (or there I go really as I’m the only one who reads these pointless entries) a brief summary of the past few weeks!
Xx
The first event of note was the Snow Patrol concert in Ward Park. Ward Park is a few minutes away from my house and I used to walk through it every day after school. It’s full of memories (some good like GCS tennis matches and some not so good like that time a horrible goose bit me) and I think it’s pretty swell that Snow Patrol chose to have their “homecoming” gigs in the park. How very festival-ish of Sunny Bangor!
There were a fair few support acts, General Fiasco from Londonderry, Band of Horses from the U.S of A and Lisa Hannigan from regular Ireland. I like a few Band of Horses songs but I was really surprised by Lisa Hannigan; I think she’s just lovely. If you like Damien Rice then you’ll have heard Lisa Hannigan - she’s the girl he was always singing with. Anyway, I’m posting my favourite Lisa Hannigan song for your listening pleasure. Snow Patrol themselves were quite excellent. They played all the goodies and really got the crowd going. It’s nice to see someone from your hometown succeed – one day I hope the Two Door Cinema Club boys will have a homecoming gig with over 40,000 people in attendance! After the gig I located some good friends from school and we headed to Donegans where I met a slightly intoxicated Rachael Crilly. All in all it was a very good night – when Bangor gets it right, they really get it right. And in other news, I would quite like to marry Gary Lightbody.
Item number two on the “try to cover everything” agenda is Darren’s Birthday Camp. My good friend Darren was born a wee while ago and to celebrate this special occasion he organised a little camping trip. It was a little Thursday to Saturday event and the campsite was close to the Bloody Bridge in Newcastle. It was a brilliant camp and I could go on and on about just how great it was, but I don’t want to bore you and this Blog is already longer than it should be! Basically, I was in my element - the weather was brilliant, the river was freezing and the people were excellent... Camping is my absolute favourite :)
Last but not least, I had a lovely friend from England come and stay for a few days. I met Laura through University and I she needed a place to stay when Elms closed for summer – she wasn’t here for very long and I’m sure she was very bored (all we did was watch the first few matches of the world cup) but we did manage to get out of the house and along Ballyholme Beach. When it’s sunny there’s no place I’d rather be and when we were out walking around Ballymacormick Point, it was beyond beautiful – here’s a little picture of what Ballyholme and the surrounding area has to offer you on a sunny day :)
Well, there you go (or there I go really as I’m the only one who reads these pointless entries) a brief summary of the past few weeks!
Xx
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Two things... Ok, maybe three things.
10th June 2010
The first of the three is a question... I’m wondering what we think of the Hunky Dory adverts? I know they’re old news and most of them have been replaced but I’ve been thinking about feminism and perceptions of beauty and all that jazz and it made me think about the adverts... I have such a bloke-ish sense of humour and I totally get them. However, I think that they are potentially damaging. I wouldn’t want my daughter to grow up thinking that she needs to look like that. I think these adverts promote an unrealistic, unattainable and unnatural idea of beauty. Yes they’re fun to look at. Yes I wouldn’t mind having a rocking bod like the girls in the adverts, but I think people need to understand that this kind of advertising (and we’re not just talking about a few crisp advert, I’m thinking magazines, movies, just about everything) promotes low self esteem and that’s so sad. As a pretend grown up I’m past all that sillyness. I can see the picture objectively, but maybe a few years ago I couldn’t. I’ve never been overly affected with appearance issues but some people are and it really worries me. Anyone have any thoughts on this sort of stuff?
On to the second thing... I’m going sound very hypocritical but I’ve just got to throw it out there, how unbelievable attractive is Chris Noth?! It took me a few years to come to this realisation as I don’t watch Sex and the City – I wanted to watch the DVD a few days ago and when I told Esther this she said, “Isn’t that a little bit old for you”... I’m twenty. I’m a real grownup and yet, I think she’s probably right. But anyway, Chris Noth. I’ve been watching The Good Wife (which is a very good show about, well, a good wife and a not so good husband) and Chris Noth plays the not so good husband. It seems like he’s in everything I watch these days – I watched some terrible Hillary Duff movie yesterday and guess who was in it? Chris Noth, obviously. He might not be pretty in the Hollister “you can’t even see how attractive I am because this shop is so dark” sense, but he is ridiculously handsome. Maybe it’s the suit. Maybe it’s the tall dark and handsome thing. Maybe it’s the accent. I’m not really sure, but I do know that he is divine and while I may not be the next Mrs Noth, I can certainly admire from a far. In the meantime I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for a real life, suit wearing man, who may or may not be of Genevan descent.
The last thing I wanted to touch on was... another man. Stephen Ferris to be precise. I have heard the stories, but I finally saw it with my own eyes – Rain is where the hotties spend their spare time. It would appear that when the Rugby Men aren’t sporting short shorts and getting bloodied and bruised, they like to put on their finest attire and head to the nightclub formerly known as Milk. Niall O’Connor was there in all his PURE BEAUT glory as was Rory Best, who despite looking about 40 is only 27. Anyway, Crilly and I got some tickets to the S.F Gun Show and managed to fit in a sneaky picture before the camera died. Much thanks to my favourite Rugby player, Mr Rory Kelleher for taking such a beautiful picture... Sorry it died just as you and S.F got up close and personal... You can get one at our wedding :)
So there you go, the three things I wanted to talk about. Sorry for being such a hypocrite and for objectifying these poor men.
xx
P.S Babe :)
The first of the three is a question... I’m wondering what we think of the Hunky Dory adverts? I know they’re old news and most of them have been replaced but I’ve been thinking about feminism and perceptions of beauty and all that jazz and it made me think about the adverts... I have such a bloke-ish sense of humour and I totally get them. However, I think that they are potentially damaging. I wouldn’t want my daughter to grow up thinking that she needs to look like that. I think these adverts promote an unrealistic, unattainable and unnatural idea of beauty. Yes they’re fun to look at. Yes I wouldn’t mind having a rocking bod like the girls in the adverts, but I think people need to understand that this kind of advertising (and we’re not just talking about a few crisp advert, I’m thinking magazines, movies, just about everything) promotes low self esteem and that’s so sad. As a pretend grown up I’m past all that sillyness. I can see the picture objectively, but maybe a few years ago I couldn’t. I’ve never been overly affected with appearance issues but some people are and it really worries me. Anyone have any thoughts on this sort of stuff?
On to the second thing... I’m going sound very hypocritical but I’ve just got to throw it out there, how unbelievable attractive is Chris Noth?! It took me a few years to come to this realisation as I don’t watch Sex and the City – I wanted to watch the DVD a few days ago and when I told Esther this she said, “Isn’t that a little bit old for you”... I’m twenty. I’m a real grownup and yet, I think she’s probably right. But anyway, Chris Noth. I’ve been watching The Good Wife (which is a very good show about, well, a good wife and a not so good husband) and Chris Noth plays the not so good husband. It seems like he’s in everything I watch these days – I watched some terrible Hillary Duff movie yesterday and guess who was in it? Chris Noth, obviously. He might not be pretty in the Hollister “you can’t even see how attractive I am because this shop is so dark” sense, but he is ridiculously handsome. Maybe it’s the suit. Maybe it’s the tall dark and handsome thing. Maybe it’s the accent. I’m not really sure, but I do know that he is divine and while I may not be the next Mrs Noth, I can certainly admire from a far. In the meantime I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for a real life, suit wearing man, who may or may not be of Genevan descent.
The last thing I wanted to touch on was... another man. Stephen Ferris to be precise. I have heard the stories, but I finally saw it with my own eyes – Rain is where the hotties spend their spare time. It would appear that when the Rugby Men aren’t sporting short shorts and getting bloodied and bruised, they like to put on their finest attire and head to the nightclub formerly known as Milk. Niall O’Connor was there in all his PURE BEAUT glory as was Rory Best, who despite looking about 40 is only 27. Anyway, Crilly and I got some tickets to the S.F Gun Show and managed to fit in a sneaky picture before the camera died. Much thanks to my favourite Rugby player, Mr Rory Kelleher for taking such a beautiful picture... Sorry it died just as you and S.F got up close and personal... You can get one at our wedding :)
So there you go, the three things I wanted to talk about. Sorry for being such a hypocrite and for objectifying these poor men.
xx
P.S Babe :)
Friday, 4 June 2010
In conclusion...
3rd June 2010
What can I say? My first year at Queen’s University Belfast has officially ended. Well, maybe not officially – I’m tempting fate and presuming that I have in fact passed. I hope I’ve got my 40%, if not then this Blog (and my current state of happiness/relief) will be null and void. But I digress, let’s get back to the important stuff – first year is over and I think I’ll sum it up by borrowing a few words from my main man Charles,
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”
Ok, now just ignore the latter half of that sentence and you have my first year experience – it really was the best of times. Like the McCune’s before me I decided to live at home. This decision had its Pros and Cons but I’m glad that I stayed at home – I saved lots of money, enabling me to spend all the money I borrowed from the government on important things like Boojum and DVDs from Play.com. Yes it would have been nice to be living in Belfast, calling in to see the Anthropologists whenever I wanted, but free-ness trumps everything and my current living arrangement is pretty sweeeeeeet.
As for the course, Social Anthropology with Modern History, that was pretty sweet too. Italian History was hell on earth but this semester I studied American History and really enjoyed it – who knew Americans actually did stuff?! Anthropology is PURE BEAUT... We study a little bit of everything - Globalisation, Christmas Markets, Fertility Treatments, Gossip, Symbolism, Cults and thanks to the Expressive Cultures module, people who dance around, sing some songs and kill pigs. I feel full of wordly wisdom after just one year of Anthropological studies!
The people also deserve a little mention... I managed to befriend an excellent bunch of people. They're an eclectic bunch, some are from Norn Iron, some from England and Emma, well, she’s from Genovia (like in the Princess Diaries). Despite their varying (and in Emma's case, made up) geographical locations, I still like them. In fact, I really like them. I could tell you that I love them all, but I find declarations of love to be a strange thing. Anthropologists – you know who you are. I’d like to think that we’re tight and even if I don’t leave you hundreds of Facebook comments, know that I’m thinking of you and yes, missing you – but shh, don’t tell anyone how much I actually like you, I don’t want to ruin my reputation.
I also became involved in the QUB Surf Club and what an excellent decision that was! With JJ as the founding member and President I didn’t really have a choice, but it was definitely one of the best Queen’s related decisions I made. Surf Club is full of babes, both male and female. You don’t even have to surf to be in the Surf Club – you just need a good attitude and an appreciation for the art of spooning. The people in Surf Club are also worth mentioning – I’ve made a great little group of friends, The B Team are PURE BEAUT and the rest of them are full of great BANTAH. So yes, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Surf Club is my absolute favourite!
A great deal of other things happened throughout the year, but they would take far too long to write down. I just wanted to throw something together to document this momentous occasion and now that I have I will wrap it up...
Despite being rubbish at everything, QUB got first year spot on. I made lots of friends, got involved in extracurricular clubs, went to a few lectures, learnt some interesting things and in general, had a really good time. I don’t think there’s anything I would change... actually I would have gone to Josephides lectures... NAT!
Xx
What can I say? My first year at Queen’s University Belfast has officially ended. Well, maybe not officially – I’m tempting fate and presuming that I have in fact passed. I hope I’ve got my 40%, if not then this Blog (and my current state of happiness/relief) will be null and void. But I digress, let’s get back to the important stuff – first year is over and I think I’ll sum it up by borrowing a few words from my main man Charles,
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”
Ok, now just ignore the latter half of that sentence and you have my first year experience – it really was the best of times. Like the McCune’s before me I decided to live at home. This decision had its Pros and Cons but I’m glad that I stayed at home – I saved lots of money, enabling me to spend all the money I borrowed from the government on important things like Boojum and DVDs from Play.com. Yes it would have been nice to be living in Belfast, calling in to see the Anthropologists whenever I wanted, but free-ness trumps everything and my current living arrangement is pretty sweeeeeeet.
As for the course, Social Anthropology with Modern History, that was pretty sweet too. Italian History was hell on earth but this semester I studied American History and really enjoyed it – who knew Americans actually did stuff?! Anthropology is PURE BEAUT... We study a little bit of everything - Globalisation, Christmas Markets, Fertility Treatments, Gossip, Symbolism, Cults and thanks to the Expressive Cultures module, people who dance around, sing some songs and kill pigs. I feel full of wordly wisdom after just one year of Anthropological studies!
The people also deserve a little mention... I managed to befriend an excellent bunch of people. They're an eclectic bunch, some are from Norn Iron, some from England and Emma, well, she’s from Genovia (like in the Princess Diaries). Despite their varying (and in Emma's case, made up) geographical locations, I still like them. In fact, I really like them. I could tell you that I love them all, but I find declarations of love to be a strange thing. Anthropologists – you know who you are. I’d like to think that we’re tight and even if I don’t leave you hundreds of Facebook comments, know that I’m thinking of you and yes, missing you – but shh, don’t tell anyone how much I actually like you, I don’t want to ruin my reputation.
I also became involved in the QUB Surf Club and what an excellent decision that was! With JJ as the founding member and President I didn’t really have a choice, but it was definitely one of the best Queen’s related decisions I made. Surf Club is full of babes, both male and female. You don’t even have to surf to be in the Surf Club – you just need a good attitude and an appreciation for the art of spooning. The people in Surf Club are also worth mentioning – I’ve made a great little group of friends, The B Team are PURE BEAUT and the rest of them are full of great BANTAH. So yes, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Surf Club is my absolute favourite!
A great deal of other things happened throughout the year, but they would take far too long to write down. I just wanted to throw something together to document this momentous occasion and now that I have I will wrap it up...
Despite being rubbish at everything, QUB got first year spot on. I made lots of friends, got involved in extracurricular clubs, went to a few lectures, learnt some interesting things and in general, had a really good time. I don’t think there’s anything I would change... actually I would have gone to Josephides lectures... NAT!
Xx
Friday, 28 May 2010
Aren't exams just great?
28th May 2010
Today I would like to Blog about... exams! I’m not particularly fond of exams, revision or work of any description, but I have found that Exam Season has some perks. You might disagree, but humour me and I’ll explain why Exam Season can be a beautiful thing...
1. When the exams begin, lectures and tutorials stop. This means that I can happily sleep in until 1.00pm every day and not feel guilty about missing anything (other than the beauty of the morning and attractive post men)
2. As soon as you have an exam (or an essay deadline for the Sociology dossers) the sun decides that it wants to come out and play. Surely this is a bad thing? I don’t think so but then again I might be biased – I believe that sunbathing is infinitely more important than revision. I also think that when you absolutely have to revise, it’s much nicer to do it outside, perhaps on a picnic table, sun lounger or on the freshly cut grass. I can see that there may be objections to this, namely by people who don’t have a garden to revise in or by people who think that revision and doing well is more important than being tanned. I see your point, it’s quite sensible really, but what do you think of this – I’m not going to be the next Einstein, if I’m going to be mediocre I might as well do it with a suntan.
3. In an attempt to avoid the revision that comes along with Exam Season I procrastinate in various ways, each more rewarding and time consuming than the one before. In fact, the Art of Procrastination deserves more than one point...
4. I usually begin the procrastination process by tidying my room. It has been said (usually by my mother) that a tidy bedroom means a tidy mind. So when the exams roll around, the duster rolls out. I do an aesthetic tidy of my room – making sure everything is in its proper place. Then come the windows, mirrors and work surfaces. Once they are sparkling I move onto the floor, a good hoover is essential for good revision. This is followed by the sleeping area because we all know that smart people need fresh sheets. Once the room looks nice and clean it’s important to move onto the drawers and wardrobes – a good clean out is needed – clutter isn’t good for the mind you see.
5. Now that I have a nice tidy bedroom I like to reward myself, usually with a good book. Reading is an excellent for of procrastination; you should be reading about the Expressive Cultures of Brazilians, but reading a book about the junk in your food is much more interesting. Did I revise for my A-level Religious Studies exam? No, I read Prince Caspian and the rest of the Narnia books soon followed. Do I regret this? Not at all! The things that I learnt from my procrastination books are far superior to anything I could ever learn about art in Aboriginal Australia.
6. An excellent way to waste time is... Television! Now, I don’t go down the traditional route of watching television in the living room - that leads to being told off for not doing revision. Instead I watch it in the comfort of my bed on my laptop. My only memory of AS and A-levels are the following T.V shows (all of which I watched in their entirely – as in from start to finish) 1. Gossip Girl 2. Grey’s Anatomy 3. Chuck 4. House 5. Pushing Daisies and 6. Bones. That might not seem impressive, but think about this, in 2008 when I started watching Grey’s Anatomy there were four seasons. With roughly 22 episodes in each series that’s around 3696 minutes of uninterrupted television and that’s only for one show. Just thinking about that much television is quite disgusting... But, I have yet to see any devastatingly negative side effects (other than becoming slightly obsessed with characters like McDreamy and McSteamy)
7. Another brilliant way to procrastinate during Exam Season is to listen to some new music – I initially started this Blog to say all the great music that I was listening to, but it became a bit of a monster... I’ve been listening to – KISS, Barenaked Ladies, Simon and Garfunkel, Tupac, The Fugees, TLC, Billy Joel, all things Glee, Ingrid Michaelson, The Beatles, The Mamas and Papas and and a lot of Classical, particularly Tchaikovsky.
8. Exam Season is also a time when vast amounts of food will be consumed – this can be directly linked to procrastination and while it’s probably not a good thing in the long term, it’s definitely fun at the time. It was totally a good decision to eat that entire jar of Nutella, right?
9. I save a ridiculous amount of money because I no longer spend £20+ a day at Uni!
10. You might start to get Cabin Fever (or is it Stockholm Syndrome?) but you become real tight with your family and pets – spending time with real friends and real people takes too much effort.
11. The exploration of Social Networking Sites and of course Wikipedia become exciting and can last for hours.
12. You become a master Blogger. Well, you don’t actually become good at the art of Blogging, but you spend most of your evening in a state of Blogging Procrastination (the best of all) where you write twelve bullet points of complete rubbish. You also get to read several Blogs written by your nearest and dearest. You discover new things about them and your friendship grows stronger – now surely that makes Exam Season worthwhile?
So, you see that Exam Season can be a beautiful thing. Yes, at times you may despair. When you’re sitting in the exam you might start wishing that you had spend some of that sunbathing time reading lecture notes. When you’re forty and still unemployed because nobody wants to hire someone who failed a degree in Anthropology, you can look back and think, “at least I had fun during Exam Season”. Life is far too short to be stressed out – the next time you start to dread Exam Season, just think about all the exciting things that come along with these hellish exams :)
xx
P.S If that doens't convince you, think about this - the END of exams means a 4 month long summer :) :) :)
Today I would like to Blog about... exams! I’m not particularly fond of exams, revision or work of any description, but I have found that Exam Season has some perks. You might disagree, but humour me and I’ll explain why Exam Season can be a beautiful thing...
1. When the exams begin, lectures and tutorials stop. This means that I can happily sleep in until 1.00pm every day and not feel guilty about missing anything (other than the beauty of the morning and attractive post men)
2. As soon as you have an exam (or an essay deadline for the Sociology dossers) the sun decides that it wants to come out and play. Surely this is a bad thing? I don’t think so but then again I might be biased – I believe that sunbathing is infinitely more important than revision. I also think that when you absolutely have to revise, it’s much nicer to do it outside, perhaps on a picnic table, sun lounger or on the freshly cut grass. I can see that there may be objections to this, namely by people who don’t have a garden to revise in or by people who think that revision and doing well is more important than being tanned. I see your point, it’s quite sensible really, but what do you think of this – I’m not going to be the next Einstein, if I’m going to be mediocre I might as well do it with a suntan.
3. In an attempt to avoid the revision that comes along with Exam Season I procrastinate in various ways, each more rewarding and time consuming than the one before. In fact, the Art of Procrastination deserves more than one point...
4. I usually begin the procrastination process by tidying my room. It has been said (usually by my mother) that a tidy bedroom means a tidy mind. So when the exams roll around, the duster rolls out. I do an aesthetic tidy of my room – making sure everything is in its proper place. Then come the windows, mirrors and work surfaces. Once they are sparkling I move onto the floor, a good hoover is essential for good revision. This is followed by the sleeping area because we all know that smart people need fresh sheets. Once the room looks nice and clean it’s important to move onto the drawers and wardrobes – a good clean out is needed – clutter isn’t good for the mind you see.
5. Now that I have a nice tidy bedroom I like to reward myself, usually with a good book. Reading is an excellent for of procrastination; you should be reading about the Expressive Cultures of Brazilians, but reading a book about the junk in your food is much more interesting. Did I revise for my A-level Religious Studies exam? No, I read Prince Caspian and the rest of the Narnia books soon followed. Do I regret this? Not at all! The things that I learnt from my procrastination books are far superior to anything I could ever learn about art in Aboriginal Australia.
6. An excellent way to waste time is... Television! Now, I don’t go down the traditional route of watching television in the living room - that leads to being told off for not doing revision. Instead I watch it in the comfort of my bed on my laptop. My only memory of AS and A-levels are the following T.V shows (all of which I watched in their entirely – as in from start to finish) 1. Gossip Girl 2. Grey’s Anatomy 3. Chuck 4. House 5. Pushing Daisies and 6. Bones. That might not seem impressive, but think about this, in 2008 when I started watching Grey’s Anatomy there were four seasons. With roughly 22 episodes in each series that’s around 3696 minutes of uninterrupted television and that’s only for one show. Just thinking about that much television is quite disgusting... But, I have yet to see any devastatingly negative side effects (other than becoming slightly obsessed with characters like McDreamy and McSteamy)
7. Another brilliant way to procrastinate during Exam Season is to listen to some new music – I initially started this Blog to say all the great music that I was listening to, but it became a bit of a monster... I’ve been listening to – KISS, Barenaked Ladies, Simon and Garfunkel, Tupac, The Fugees, TLC, Billy Joel, all things Glee, Ingrid Michaelson, The Beatles, The Mamas and Papas and and a lot of Classical, particularly Tchaikovsky.
8. Exam Season is also a time when vast amounts of food will be consumed – this can be directly linked to procrastination and while it’s probably not a good thing in the long term, it’s definitely fun at the time. It was totally a good decision to eat that entire jar of Nutella, right?
9. I save a ridiculous amount of money because I no longer spend £20+ a day at Uni!
10. You might start to get Cabin Fever (or is it Stockholm Syndrome?) but you become real tight with your family and pets – spending time with real friends and real people takes too much effort.
11. The exploration of Social Networking Sites and of course Wikipedia become exciting and can last for hours.
12. You become a master Blogger. Well, you don’t actually become good at the art of Blogging, but you spend most of your evening in a state of Blogging Procrastination (the best of all) where you write twelve bullet points of complete rubbish. You also get to read several Blogs written by your nearest and dearest. You discover new things about them and your friendship grows stronger – now surely that makes Exam Season worthwhile?
So, you see that Exam Season can be a beautiful thing. Yes, at times you may despair. When you’re sitting in the exam you might start wishing that you had spend some of that sunbathing time reading lecture notes. When you’re forty and still unemployed because nobody wants to hire someone who failed a degree in Anthropology, you can look back and think, “at least I had fun during Exam Season”. Life is far too short to be stressed out – the next time you start to dread Exam Season, just think about all the exciting things that come along with these hellish exams :)
xx
P.S If that doens't convince you, think about this - the END of exams means a 4 month long summer :) :) :)
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
This little piggy went to market...
25th May 2010
It feels like an absolute age since I last Blogged, but it’s only been a few days – the problem is, I have all this stuff in my head. It’s buzzing around and I’d quite like to get it all out by writing about it, but it’s impossible. I’m actually lost for words, even though my head is crammed full of junk!
One thing that I did want to say was... I think I might be a vegetarian. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it’s something I want to do. The only problem is that I actually love meat. I love Cow and Pig and Chicken and I eat meat at least once a day. I dream of Kebabs and Crispy Chicken Strips. I was raised on medium rare steaks and nothing beats a Chilli Chicken Pita from The Jamaica Inn. I literally live for Sunday dinners and a life without a Boojum Chicken Burrito just doesn’t seem right.
But (there it is, the word that is ruining my meat related happiness) I have started to read a really great book and it is totally changing my opinions about food. The book is called Skinny Bitch but it’s not about becoming skinny, because that’s disgusting. It’s about eating foods that are good for you and it talks a lot about what is actually in the food we eat every day. The authors are trying to promote a healthy lifestyle – they do have a bit of a Vegan agenda, but what you should take from this book is that you need to READ what’s in your food. There’s a lot of stuff in there that I don’t want anywhere near me, let alone my body, which while it isn’t rocking, is still quite useful and I’d like it to be around for a few more years. They say ignorance is bliss and if you want to be kept in the dark (the happy, tasty dark) then I wouldn’t suggest reading it, but I’m one of those people who love learning. I like to know everything about, well, everything. I think that before you can make a choice, you need to be informed and that’s what I’m trying to become – informed and aware.
I’ve always eaten meat and I do have some intelligence, so I’ve always known that at some point that steak was a cow, but when I’m in the middle of a BBQ I don’t think about that. I don’t think about what that animal went through in order to end up on my plate. I envisaged a cow, frolicking in the fields, living a happy life until he magically dies a pain free, quick and humane death. Now that the content cow is dead, there’s no point in throwing it out, so Mr Farmer sells it to my mother who, in honour of the cows long and happy life, marinates it and chucks it in the oven. Well, that’s not what happens. In fact, that is so far from the truth. I like meat and because I like meat I’m willing to overlook what happens to the animals that end up as my dinner. It’s perfectly natural – we like something, we want to keep doing what we’re doing, so we don’t think about it too much. Well, this book has definitely got me thinking.
I haven’t finished the book yet. When I do I’m going to re-read it and then decide what I can and can’t eat. Then I’m going to write a bit more about it, sort of like a little book review. Reading the first few chapters has been such a wakeup call and not just in relation to the meat and dairy industry. There are things that I always presumed were good for me, Diet Drinks for example. I had heard that they weren’t actually that good for you, but I never knew why. Now I do and I will NEVER be touching a caffeine free Diet Coke. Ever. Just in case you’re wondering why Diet drinks are so bad, it’s because they contain aspartame. Look it up, you’ll be horrified – it was denied FDA approval eight times as it wasn’t safe for human consumption, but wait, why are we drinking it then? Because when a rich man wants something, that rich man gets it. How? By starting a few lawsuits, bribing some people, hiring the competition and tampering with evidence. Voila – it’s magically safe and not only that, thanks to advertising, Diet Coke is “better” for you than regular Coke. Even the National Soft Drink Association didn’t want aspartame to be approved! Did you know that when aspartame breaks down it become formaldehyde? It’s pretty freaking bad for you, like cancer causing bad. There are over 92 FDA recognised side effects of aspartame and here I was, thinking it was better for me to drink Diet!
I’m actually so shocked – I have been so ignorant for so long. Obviously not everyone will want to read this book, but I need to know and hopefully I’m becoming informed and aware – I never really cared but now I NEED to know what I’m putting in my tummy :)
I don’t know if you found that interesting or if you think I’m preaching or whatever, but that’s so not the case. I eat the worst food in the world. The amount of junk that I consume is actually disgusting, I stick to the four food groups – meat, chocolate, milk and ice-cream. I hate those people who stand on their soap box telling everyone else that they’re wrong, especially if you know they eat like a little piggy. I might not kick vegetarianisms ass, but I reckon I’ll give it a go. When I have time I’d really love to go into why I’m making this decision – it’s so interesting and I knew so little about it before. Until then, I suggest you give the book a read, you don’t have to live by what it says, but it’s still good to find out – making an informed decision and all that jazz!
xx
It feels like an absolute age since I last Blogged, but it’s only been a few days – the problem is, I have all this stuff in my head. It’s buzzing around and I’d quite like to get it all out by writing about it, but it’s impossible. I’m actually lost for words, even though my head is crammed full of junk!
One thing that I did want to say was... I think I might be a vegetarian. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it’s something I want to do. The only problem is that I actually love meat. I love Cow and Pig and Chicken and I eat meat at least once a day. I dream of Kebabs and Crispy Chicken Strips. I was raised on medium rare steaks and nothing beats a Chilli Chicken Pita from The Jamaica Inn. I literally live for Sunday dinners and a life without a Boojum Chicken Burrito just doesn’t seem right.
But (there it is, the word that is ruining my meat related happiness) I have started to read a really great book and it is totally changing my opinions about food. The book is called Skinny Bitch but it’s not about becoming skinny, because that’s disgusting. It’s about eating foods that are good for you and it talks a lot about what is actually in the food we eat every day. The authors are trying to promote a healthy lifestyle – they do have a bit of a Vegan agenda, but what you should take from this book is that you need to READ what’s in your food. There’s a lot of stuff in there that I don’t want anywhere near me, let alone my body, which while it isn’t rocking, is still quite useful and I’d like it to be around for a few more years. They say ignorance is bliss and if you want to be kept in the dark (the happy, tasty dark) then I wouldn’t suggest reading it, but I’m one of those people who love learning. I like to know everything about, well, everything. I think that before you can make a choice, you need to be informed and that’s what I’m trying to become – informed and aware.
I’ve always eaten meat and I do have some intelligence, so I’ve always known that at some point that steak was a cow, but when I’m in the middle of a BBQ I don’t think about that. I don’t think about what that animal went through in order to end up on my plate. I envisaged a cow, frolicking in the fields, living a happy life until he magically dies a pain free, quick and humane death. Now that the content cow is dead, there’s no point in throwing it out, so Mr Farmer sells it to my mother who, in honour of the cows long and happy life, marinates it and chucks it in the oven. Well, that’s not what happens. In fact, that is so far from the truth. I like meat and because I like meat I’m willing to overlook what happens to the animals that end up as my dinner. It’s perfectly natural – we like something, we want to keep doing what we’re doing, so we don’t think about it too much. Well, this book has definitely got me thinking.
I haven’t finished the book yet. When I do I’m going to re-read it and then decide what I can and can’t eat. Then I’m going to write a bit more about it, sort of like a little book review. Reading the first few chapters has been such a wakeup call and not just in relation to the meat and dairy industry. There are things that I always presumed were good for me, Diet Drinks for example. I had heard that they weren’t actually that good for you, but I never knew why. Now I do and I will NEVER be touching a caffeine free Diet Coke. Ever. Just in case you’re wondering why Diet drinks are so bad, it’s because they contain aspartame. Look it up, you’ll be horrified – it was denied FDA approval eight times as it wasn’t safe for human consumption, but wait, why are we drinking it then? Because when a rich man wants something, that rich man gets it. How? By starting a few lawsuits, bribing some people, hiring the competition and tampering with evidence. Voila – it’s magically safe and not only that, thanks to advertising, Diet Coke is “better” for you than regular Coke. Even the National Soft Drink Association didn’t want aspartame to be approved! Did you know that when aspartame breaks down it become formaldehyde? It’s pretty freaking bad for you, like cancer causing bad. There are over 92 FDA recognised side effects of aspartame and here I was, thinking it was better for me to drink Diet!
I’m actually so shocked – I have been so ignorant for so long. Obviously not everyone will want to read this book, but I need to know and hopefully I’m becoming informed and aware – I never really cared but now I NEED to know what I’m putting in my tummy :)
I don’t know if you found that interesting or if you think I’m preaching or whatever, but that’s so not the case. I eat the worst food in the world. The amount of junk that I consume is actually disgusting, I stick to the four food groups – meat, chocolate, milk and ice-cream. I hate those people who stand on their soap box telling everyone else that they’re wrong, especially if you know they eat like a little piggy. I might not kick vegetarianisms ass, but I reckon I’ll give it a go. When I have time I’d really love to go into why I’m making this decision – it’s so interesting and I knew so little about it before. Until then, I suggest you give the book a read, you don’t have to live by what it says, but it’s still good to find out – making an informed decision and all that jazz!
xx
Friday, 21 May 2010
More Nom.Nom.Nom.
20th May 2010
How do you know you’re becoming addicted to Blogging? Well, I can answer that question with a simple, “when it becomes the highlight of your day” :) It’s very sad, but I’ve been dying to write this Blog all day, not because it’s particularly interesting, but because it’s a food related Blog. Now why is that exciting? It’s exciting because in order to write this Blog, I actually had to do the baking and the thought of getting my bake-on has made this day of curly hair and history exams completely worth it!
I came across this recipe a few days ago and I’ve been dying to try it, so today after my History exam (more on that later, maybe) I bought a few ingredients and began the very slow process of making Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes – what a name, eh? If you’d like the original recipe I can send it to you, but I just did my own thing (I think it’s called improvising/being lazy) and they turned out really well :)
For the Cupcake part of the Cupcakes I just used a packet of Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake – they haven’t got the dense consistency of an actual Cupcake (or myself), they’re much lighter but they’re easy to make and the batter tastes really yummy – if you have a recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes I would say give that a go instead, but anyway...
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Make up the Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake – this part is ridiculously easy, you literally add water, oil and 3 eggs – voila, a calorie riddle cake with very little effort
Spoon one tablespoon of batter into a cupcake case
Place a Reeses Cup on top of the batter
Top with another spoonful of batter and place in the oven
The original recipe says to bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, but I baked them at 150C for 14 minutes – oddly specific I know – I really recommend putting one batch in, seeing how they come out and then putting the second set in – that way you won’t ruin them all, or maybe you’re not as challenged as I am, in that case, let’s move on...
When the cupcakes are done, leave them to completely cool before frosting
Now here comes the fun part... Peanut Butter Frosting :)
1 Cup of Peanut Butter (for us regular people that’s 260g – you can use chunky or smooth, I stuck to smooth and it worked out really well)
½ Cup of Butter at room temperature (again, that’s 115g)
2 Cups of Powdered Sugar (also known as Icing Sugar – 220g)
3-4 Tablespoons of milk or cream
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract/flavouring
Clearly the best part of this recipe is the mixing – remember to use one of those electric whisk thingys, I’m pretty sure it would be physically impossible without one, but anyway... Combine the peanut butter and butter in a large bowl, mixing together until they’re light and fluffy.
Stop the mixer and then take it out – trying to do this without turning it off will result in a messy kitchen and an unhappy mother :) Add the icing sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk/cream and the vanilla extract/flavouring. Start the mixing slowly (brrrrrrrrr – that’s the sound of the whisk) and gradually increase the speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy. If the frosting is too thick you can add a tablespoon of milk/cream – make sure you thoroughly test this mixture. Just to check. Ya know?
So yes, cupcake mix + Reeses Peanut Butter Cup+ more cupcake mix + oven + frosting = yummy! Obviously this recipe contains nuts, so don’t make it if that will, well, kill you. Also, they are really yummy, but they are soooooo sweet and I wouldn’t recommend them unless you really, really like peanut butter. Thankfully I enjoy ridiculously sweet things that contain vast amounts of peanut butter :)
These, along with Liam Neeson in Taken, were the perfect end to an otherwise rubbish day. The day started well, my hair was b-e-a-utiful and then I walked to the train station. Quickly. This was a bad move – I was all hot and my hair went all wavy. Bad times. I eventually made it to the Library, only to find that there were no seats. Seriously QUB, what’s that all about? Also, would it kill you to crack a windy? The third FLO was ridiculously warm – made even hotter when Mr. Rory Kelleher came up for a visit, or two ;) The lovely Becca Patterson was also in the vicinity, with her excellent work ethic and texts that never fail to brighten my day :) I actually love the library – it is the place to be during exams, literally all the cool people are in the library, pretending to revise! After chillin’ in the library I bought some pens (they usually come in handy during exams) and headed over to take the exam. Well. What an epic fail that was. I can’t even think about that exam without feeling sick, it was just so terrible. My structure was appalling and it was as if I knew nothing about the subject, which is so far from the truth – I literally memorised everything that happened in America from 1861 to 1949... That’s a lot of stuff. Unfortunately knowing a bunch of dates isn’t much use when you don’t know anything about what happened on these dates. Ahh well, it’s just an exam :) After a sneaky Boojum with the Surf Clubbers I headed back to Bangor and began baking. My mum was cooking/baking a whole bunch of stuff for school tomorrow, so we were just chillin’ in the kitchen, listening to some Bob Dylan! For now life is good, or should I say sweet, in reference to the cupcakes? Nah, I think I’ll stick with good :)
xx
How do you know you’re becoming addicted to Blogging? Well, I can answer that question with a simple, “when it becomes the highlight of your day” :) It’s very sad, but I’ve been dying to write this Blog all day, not because it’s particularly interesting, but because it’s a food related Blog. Now why is that exciting? It’s exciting because in order to write this Blog, I actually had to do the baking and the thought of getting my bake-on has made this day of curly hair and history exams completely worth it!
I came across this recipe a few days ago and I’ve been dying to try it, so today after my History exam (more on that later, maybe) I bought a few ingredients and began the very slow process of making Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes – what a name, eh? If you’d like the original recipe I can send it to you, but I just did my own thing (I think it’s called improvising/being lazy) and they turned out really well :)
For the Cupcake part of the Cupcakes I just used a packet of Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake – they haven’t got the dense consistency of an actual Cupcake (or myself), they’re much lighter but they’re easy to make and the batter tastes really yummy – if you have a recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes I would say give that a go instead, but anyway...
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Make up the Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake – this part is ridiculously easy, you literally add water, oil and 3 eggs – voila, a calorie riddle cake with very little effort
Spoon one tablespoon of batter into a cupcake case
Place a Reeses Cup on top of the batter
Top with another spoonful of batter and place in the oven
The original recipe says to bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, but I baked them at 150C for 14 minutes – oddly specific I know – I really recommend putting one batch in, seeing how they come out and then putting the second set in – that way you won’t ruin them all, or maybe you’re not as challenged as I am, in that case, let’s move on...
When the cupcakes are done, leave them to completely cool before frosting
Now here comes the fun part... Peanut Butter Frosting :)
1 Cup of Peanut Butter (for us regular people that’s 260g – you can use chunky or smooth, I stuck to smooth and it worked out really well)
½ Cup of Butter at room temperature (again, that’s 115g)
2 Cups of Powdered Sugar (also known as Icing Sugar – 220g)
3-4 Tablespoons of milk or cream
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract/flavouring
Clearly the best part of this recipe is the mixing – remember to use one of those electric whisk thingys, I’m pretty sure it would be physically impossible without one, but anyway... Combine the peanut butter and butter in a large bowl, mixing together until they’re light and fluffy.
Stop the mixer and then take it out – trying to do this without turning it off will result in a messy kitchen and an unhappy mother :) Add the icing sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk/cream and the vanilla extract/flavouring. Start the mixing slowly (brrrrrrrrr – that’s the sound of the whisk) and gradually increase the speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy. If the frosting is too thick you can add a tablespoon of milk/cream – make sure you thoroughly test this mixture. Just to check. Ya know?
So yes, cupcake mix + Reeses Peanut Butter Cup+ more cupcake mix + oven + frosting = yummy! Obviously this recipe contains nuts, so don’t make it if that will, well, kill you. Also, they are really yummy, but they are soooooo sweet and I wouldn’t recommend them unless you really, really like peanut butter. Thankfully I enjoy ridiculously sweet things that contain vast amounts of peanut butter :)
These, along with Liam Neeson in Taken, were the perfect end to an otherwise rubbish day. The day started well, my hair was b-e-a-utiful and then I walked to the train station. Quickly. This was a bad move – I was all hot and my hair went all wavy. Bad times. I eventually made it to the Library, only to find that there were no seats. Seriously QUB, what’s that all about? Also, would it kill you to crack a windy? The third FLO was ridiculously warm – made even hotter when Mr. Rory Kelleher came up for a visit, or two ;) The lovely Becca Patterson was also in the vicinity, with her excellent work ethic and texts that never fail to brighten my day :) I actually love the library – it is the place to be during exams, literally all the cool people are in the library, pretending to revise! After chillin’ in the library I bought some pens (they usually come in handy during exams) and headed over to take the exam. Well. What an epic fail that was. I can’t even think about that exam without feeling sick, it was just so terrible. My structure was appalling and it was as if I knew nothing about the subject, which is so far from the truth – I literally memorised everything that happened in America from 1861 to 1949... That’s a lot of stuff. Unfortunately knowing a bunch of dates isn’t much use when you don’t know anything about what happened on these dates. Ahh well, it’s just an exam :) After a sneaky Boojum with the Surf Clubbers I headed back to Bangor and began baking. My mum was cooking/baking a whole bunch of stuff for school tomorrow, so we were just chillin’ in the kitchen, listening to some Bob Dylan! For now life is good, or should I say sweet, in reference to the cupcakes? Nah, I think I’ll stick with good :)
xx
Thursday, 20 May 2010
A literary revolution!
20th May 2010
Recently I’ve been on a bit of a Crusade – to get people to join Blogger :) And I must say that it’s worked pretty well thus far :)
I’ve managed to recruit some of my lovely friends from Surf Club and now, from Anthropology –they’re even convincing their friends to join! This is actually making me so so so happy :) Now I can not only avoid revision by writing a Blog, but I can read about what all my chums are getting up to! I remember back in the day when I only read Morgan and Kelsey’s Blogs and now look at me – following and being followed! If there is anyone reading this who hasn’t been initiated into the Blogosphere – sort it out! There’s nothing better than being able to get all the stuff that's buzzing about in your brain out and on paper (or should I say screen?) Blogger will come in really handy this summer when we all go our separate ways/the Anthropologist go back to England... It’s also like, permission to be nosey and who doesn’t love that?
Anyway, I just wanted to say how happy I am that everyone’s getting into this little Blogging craze! If you all fail your exams because you spend all your time creeping on Blogger, it’s not my fault - I’ll be right there with you :)
Xx
P.S I must admit that I’m a little bit worried... These Blogs are all really good – it’s been a day and you’re already better than me! Stop being so good :)
P.P.S I nicked that title from Miss Lucy Proudlock – who I hope will be joining us Bloggers very soon!
Recently I’ve been on a bit of a Crusade – to get people to join Blogger :) And I must say that it’s worked pretty well thus far :)
I’ve managed to recruit some of my lovely friends from Surf Club and now, from Anthropology –they’re even convincing their friends to join! This is actually making me so so so happy :) Now I can not only avoid revision by writing a Blog, but I can read about what all my chums are getting up to! I remember back in the day when I only read Morgan and Kelsey’s Blogs and now look at me – following and being followed! If there is anyone reading this who hasn’t been initiated into the Blogosphere – sort it out! There’s nothing better than being able to get all the stuff that's buzzing about in your brain out and on paper (or should I say screen?) Blogger will come in really handy this summer when we all go our separate ways/the Anthropologist go back to England... It’s also like, permission to be nosey and who doesn’t love that?
Anyway, I just wanted to say how happy I am that everyone’s getting into this little Blogging craze! If you all fail your exams because you spend all your time creeping on Blogger, it’s not my fault - I’ll be right there with you :)
Xx
P.S I must admit that I’m a little bit worried... These Blogs are all really good – it’s been a day and you’re already better than me! Stop being so good :)
P.P.S I nicked that title from Miss Lucy Proudlock – who I hope will be joining us Bloggers very soon!
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Worm-ing through books.
18th May 2010
When my sister moved out she left a whole bunch of books behind – I’m a huge book worm so I looked through them and (if she lets me) I plan on keeping a couple/all of them :) There are a few novels, a few fashion books, a few classics and a few Anne Geddes books. Most people know who Anne Geddes is – if not, she’s a photographer known for her “stylized depictions of babies and motherhood”. Know who she is yet? No? Ok, she takes pictures of cute babies dressed as bunnies and bears and flowers. I challenge you to look at some of her pictures without smiling :)
Anyway, this particular book “Thoughts with Love” is a collection of photographs which are put alongside famous quotes. The book is full of beautiful quotes, but one in particular really stood out to me...
“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again... And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them; Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven... You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work – we all must work – to make the world worthy of its children.”
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
I really love this because it’s so true. Children are a marvel. Everything about them is absolutely amazing – from their tiny fingers and toes to their little (or should I say big) personalities. They are remarkable and they need to be told just how special they are. Grownups aren’t that bad either – we were once those children and we’re just as extraordinary, even if we sometimes forget. I particularly like when Casals talks about harming others – everything he says is completely true. If we truly believed that we are marvels, if we truly understood our worth and the worth of others, then we couldn’t (or at least wouldn’t) seek to harm others. We must behave as if we are marvellous. We must understand our potential and be at our very best. If only people truly understood this then the world would be a much greater place. I’ve been thinking about war a lot recently and this quotation has really got me thinking. Imagine if all the dictators and warmongers believed this. Imagine if they actually understood the value of each person. The world could be so different. Casals said that “the love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?” – I know that the idea of world peace is idealistic and naive; it will probably never happen but there is always possibility. We really do need to work to make the world worthy of its children. I suppose I’ll start by working on myself. I’ll let you know how that goes, but until then, have another Casals quote...
Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
xx
When my sister moved out she left a whole bunch of books behind – I’m a huge book worm so I looked through them and (if she lets me) I plan on keeping a couple/all of them :) There are a few novels, a few fashion books, a few classics and a few Anne Geddes books. Most people know who Anne Geddes is – if not, she’s a photographer known for her “stylized depictions of babies and motherhood”. Know who she is yet? No? Ok, she takes pictures of cute babies dressed as bunnies and bears and flowers. I challenge you to look at some of her pictures without smiling :)
Anyway, this particular book “Thoughts with Love” is a collection of photographs which are put alongside famous quotes. The book is full of beautiful quotes, but one in particular really stood out to me...
“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again... And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them; Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven... You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work – we all must work – to make the world worthy of its children.”
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
I really love this because it’s so true. Children are a marvel. Everything about them is absolutely amazing – from their tiny fingers and toes to their little (or should I say big) personalities. They are remarkable and they need to be told just how special they are. Grownups aren’t that bad either – we were once those children and we’re just as extraordinary, even if we sometimes forget. I particularly like when Casals talks about harming others – everything he says is completely true. If we truly believed that we are marvels, if we truly understood our worth and the worth of others, then we couldn’t (or at least wouldn’t) seek to harm others. We must behave as if we are marvellous. We must understand our potential and be at our very best. If only people truly understood this then the world would be a much greater place. I’ve been thinking about war a lot recently and this quotation has really got me thinking. Imagine if all the dictators and warmongers believed this. Imagine if they actually understood the value of each person. The world could be so different. Casals said that “the love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?” – I know that the idea of world peace is idealistic and naive; it will probably never happen but there is always possibility. We really do need to work to make the world worthy of its children. I suppose I’ll start by working on myself. I’ll let you know how that goes, but until then, have another Casals quote...
Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
xx
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Nom.Nom.Nom.
16th May 2010
Today Esther told me that I need to start learning to cook and clean “because you never know what might happen.” What she really meant was, “hopefully someone will marry you and you can’t be this useless when you’re married.” Obviously I explained that I won’t be getting married anytime soon and that when I do, I will employ someone to do these menial tasks for me. If employing scores of servants/having a live-in mother are not a possibility, my husband will cook and clean and do all the un-fun married chores. He will also wear suits and be good at everything. If that doesn’t work out then I can always live at home for the rest of my life, sponging of my parents and never paying back my student loan. I haven’t yet decided which path my life is going to take...
Anyway, I digress. Instead of learning how to cook, I decided to bake cookies. Ok, so they’re not “real food” but who cares? I know how to boil pasta. Chicken is fairly easy to cook and Betty Crocker Chocolate cake comes with idiot proof instructions. One day I will attempt to make a Sunday Dinner, but apparently your mother’s Sunday Dinners are always the best, so why even try? The one thing that I can actually do is make Snickerdoodles – and they’re actually really yummy! They taste like Christmas and happiness and all the good things in the world (which really isn’t a surprise given the amount of butter and sugar in the recipe). I fist tried these bad boys when I was living in America, Steve and Trish, the people I lived with had a really good recipe (which is probably better than mine) and when they made them I would eat the entire batch. I’m sure they loved having me as a guest! Anyway, this is the recipe that I used – it was from an American website, so I worked out the equivalent measurements/ingredients.
Snickerdoodles
1 Cup of Butter (225g)
1 ½ Cups of Caster Sugar (337.5g – don’t worry about being exact, that .5 of a gram won’t make a difference)
2 Large Eggs
2 ¾ Cups of Flour (412.5g – again, it’s not a life or death measurement)
2 Teaspoons of Cream of Tartar
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda (In the U.K this is called Sodium Bicarbonate)
¼ Teaspoon of Salt
3 Tablespoons of Sugar
3 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
• Preheat oven to 350°F. (In the U.K this is gas mark 4 or else 180°C.)
• Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl. You can use an electric mixer for this, I’m hard core and do it by hand (but really that’s just because I don’t know how to use the mixer.) It also helps if the butter is softer – try microwaving it for a few seconds!
• Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
• Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture. Again you can use an electric mixer for this.
• Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet (a flat baking tray for all the Brits out there) for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
• Scoop into 1 inch globs of dough.
• Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture. I roll the dough into little balls in the palm of my hand and then add them to the sugar/cinnamon mixture – it makes them much easier to work with.
• Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet (baking tray), and bake for 10 minutes. When I put the balls on the tray I slightly flatten them with the palm of my hand – you don’t need to crush them, but if they’re a little flatter they come out better.
• Remove from pan immediately and place on cooling rack.
If you follow this recipe you shouldn’t go too wrong. I make mine quite small/thin but the occasional fat one is also good! I cook them at just below 160°C as my oven is really hot and I only cook them for 7-8 minutes. I guess it’s trial and error and different people like different things – some people say to wait until the cookies are golden brown but when they cool they’re quite hard. I prefer it when they’re soft and chewy so that’s why I cook them for a shorter period of time. I wait until they start to firm up but before they’re golden brown – you can check if they’re cooked by poking them in the middle (with a cocktail stick, not your fingers) and if it comes out clean (i.e not gloopy) then they’re done! After the first tray you should know if you’re on the right track and if you’re not, then hopefully you’ll know what’s gone wrong and you can correct yourself!
These really are the nicest cookies I’ve ever tasted –the only cookies that come close are Trish’s Chocolate Chip Cookies – one day I’ll master them too :)
Good Luck! And one last thing, try one when they’re right out of the oven with a glass of milk – I’m actually really excited for some other people to try these. Your life will be changed forever :)
Xx
P.S Crilly had nothing to do with baking these cookies, I just thought I'd include her to show you all how fun it is to drink milk!
Today Esther told me that I need to start learning to cook and clean “because you never know what might happen.” What she really meant was, “hopefully someone will marry you and you can’t be this useless when you’re married.” Obviously I explained that I won’t be getting married anytime soon and that when I do, I will employ someone to do these menial tasks for me. If employing scores of servants/having a live-in mother are not a possibility, my husband will cook and clean and do all the un-fun married chores. He will also wear suits and be good at everything. If that doesn’t work out then I can always live at home for the rest of my life, sponging of my parents and never paying back my student loan. I haven’t yet decided which path my life is going to take...
Anyway, I digress. Instead of learning how to cook, I decided to bake cookies. Ok, so they’re not “real food” but who cares? I know how to boil pasta. Chicken is fairly easy to cook and Betty Crocker Chocolate cake comes with idiot proof instructions. One day I will attempt to make a Sunday Dinner, but apparently your mother’s Sunday Dinners are always the best, so why even try? The one thing that I can actually do is make Snickerdoodles – and they’re actually really yummy! They taste like Christmas and happiness and all the good things in the world (which really isn’t a surprise given the amount of butter and sugar in the recipe). I fist tried these bad boys when I was living in America, Steve and Trish, the people I lived with had a really good recipe (which is probably better than mine) and when they made them I would eat the entire batch. I’m sure they loved having me as a guest! Anyway, this is the recipe that I used – it was from an American website, so I worked out the equivalent measurements/ingredients.
Snickerdoodles
1 Cup of Butter (225g)
1 ½ Cups of Caster Sugar (337.5g – don’t worry about being exact, that .5 of a gram won’t make a difference)
2 Large Eggs
2 ¾ Cups of Flour (412.5g – again, it’s not a life or death measurement)
2 Teaspoons of Cream of Tartar
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda (In the U.K this is called Sodium Bicarbonate)
¼ Teaspoon of Salt
3 Tablespoons of Sugar
3 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
• Preheat oven to 350°F. (In the U.K this is gas mark 4 or else 180°C.)
• Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl. You can use an electric mixer for this, I’m hard core and do it by hand (but really that’s just because I don’t know how to use the mixer.) It also helps if the butter is softer – try microwaving it for a few seconds!
• Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
• Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture. Again you can use an electric mixer for this.
• Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet (a flat baking tray for all the Brits out there) for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
• Scoop into 1 inch globs of dough.
• Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture. I roll the dough into little balls in the palm of my hand and then add them to the sugar/cinnamon mixture – it makes them much easier to work with.
• Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet (baking tray), and bake for 10 minutes. When I put the balls on the tray I slightly flatten them with the palm of my hand – you don’t need to crush them, but if they’re a little flatter they come out better.
• Remove from pan immediately and place on cooling rack.
If you follow this recipe you shouldn’t go too wrong. I make mine quite small/thin but the occasional fat one is also good! I cook them at just below 160°C as my oven is really hot and I only cook them for 7-8 minutes. I guess it’s trial and error and different people like different things – some people say to wait until the cookies are golden brown but when they cool they’re quite hard. I prefer it when they’re soft and chewy so that’s why I cook them for a shorter period of time. I wait until they start to firm up but before they’re golden brown – you can check if they’re cooked by poking them in the middle (with a cocktail stick, not your fingers) and if it comes out clean (i.e not gloopy) then they’re done! After the first tray you should know if you’re on the right track and if you’re not, then hopefully you’ll know what’s gone wrong and you can correct yourself!
These really are the nicest cookies I’ve ever tasted –the only cookies that come close are Trish’s Chocolate Chip Cookies – one day I’ll master them too :)
Good Luck! And one last thing, try one when they’re right out of the oven with a glass of milk – I’m actually really excited for some other people to try these. Your life will be changed forever :)
Xx
P.S Crilly had nothing to do with baking these cookies, I just thought I'd include her to show you all how fun it is to drink milk!
Time for a change.
16th May 2010
You may or may not have noticed that I’ve changed my Blog about a bit. I got really fed up of having the same boring background and every Blog I read is always so fancy and they really put mine to shame :( So I did a little Google search for free Blogger backgrounds and I found a few good sites. My last background was from The Cutest Blog on the Block and I really loved it, but like I said, time for a change. I quite like Hot Bliggity Blog but I ended up going with a background from Shabby Blogs – I was in Blog Heaven! Their designs are really lovely and there are so many! They also have “buttons” and all sorts of extras, but I don’t know if I’m that adventurous...yet! Anyway, you’re probably lightyears ahead of me on the Blogging front, but if not, give those sites a wee visit, they’re idiot proof, which always helps me :)
Xx
You may or may not have noticed that I’ve changed my Blog about a bit. I got really fed up of having the same boring background and every Blog I read is always so fancy and they really put mine to shame :( So I did a little Google search for free Blogger backgrounds and I found a few good sites. My last background was from The Cutest Blog on the Block and I really loved it, but like I said, time for a change. I quite like Hot Bliggity Blog but I ended up going with a background from Shabby Blogs – I was in Blog Heaven! Their designs are really lovely and there are so many! They also have “buttons” and all sorts of extras, but I don’t know if I’m that adventurous...yet! Anyway, you’re probably lightyears ahead of me on the Blogging front, but if not, give those sites a wee visit, they’re idiot proof, which always helps me :)
Xx
Saturday, 15 May 2010
The Never Ending Blog.
In relation to the Blog below – I DID NOT realise it was that long when I was writing it. Like actually, it’s a complete monster – I can’t even read to the end and I wrote it - so please feel free to skip it! I promise I’ll try to keep all other Blogs to a readable length :) I'd also like for them to be interesting - is there anything you would like me to write about? My daily activities aren't actually that interesting and as it's exams time they're just going to be full of information like "today I realised that I only have four days worth of lecture notes, for the entire semester" and "today I went to have a revision snack, a Rachel's Rice Pudding that I bought for an occasion like this, but it was gone because my little jerk of a brother ate it"... So yeah, suggestions are very welcome :) Also, you might have noticed I deleted and reposted a few Blogs – I’m a bit of a neat freak and I needed to get Mr. Blogger organised :)
xx
xx
And he takes and he takes and he takes.
09 May 2010
I’m not really sure how I should start. This Blog is a little bit different; instead of telling you about a specific adventure or event, I just felt like writing about a song I’ve been listening to recently. The song is Casimir Pulsaki Day and it’s by a really amazing artist, Sufjan Stephens.
Casimir Pulsaki Day is a sad song, in fact, it’s heartbreaking but that’s what makes it so special. It’s painfully honest and it deals with a difficult situation beautifully, truthfully and with a great deal of grace. I’m not a particularly emotional person, I don’t enjoy talking about my feelings and I’m having difficulty with this Blog – I can’t seem to find the words to adequately describe this song. I think it’s one of those songs that you just have to listen to. So please do. Try to think about the words and what they mean. I apologise if you don’t like it – you might think it’s too sad, which is fine, but maybe someone will get it. It’s really quite complex for something so simple.
Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone
Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car to the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry
In the morning through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade
I could see what you were reading
Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth
Tuesday night at the bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens
I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse
In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared
Oh the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you
Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I find the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of your mother
On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom
In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window
In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing
Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications when I see his face
In the morning in the window
Oh the glory when he took our place
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face
And he takes and he takes and he takes
(Please stop reading... I got a little bit carried away and wrote a few thousands words about, well, nothing really. I can't bring myself to delete them, yet... You've been warned - read at your own risk!)
I should probably finish on that, because I can’t really follow it. But there are certain parts that really stand out for me. A part of the song that I really thought about was how they prayed over her body and nothing happened. How often does that happen to us? I would say that this is far more common than the miraculous healings that we all hope for. What does it mean? Does it mean that there isn’t a God? Does it mean that if there is, he doesn’t care? I can’t answer all these questions, but personally, I think that these things are out of Gods control. I choose to believe in an all just God, as opposed to an all powerful God who simply stands by while his children suffer. We are conditioned to believe that if we do good we will be rewarded and if we do bad, if we sin or slip up, then we will be punished. Essentially, we are taught that we will get exactly what we deserve. This theory is all well and good, until we consider the tragedies that affect even the best people. Of course we can stand back and say that God knows what he’s doing and that we shouldn’t worry, but what about when it happens to us? What happens when your life is affected? You’re a good person so this stuff shouldn’t be happening to you, right? The misfortunes of good people are difficult because they call into question what we know and believe, they call into question the existence and intentions of God. The only conclusion that I can come to is that we do not live in a fair world. By propagating the idea of God as a righteous judge, we give people a reason to be good, to be on their best behaviour and we make God and the world comprehendible. This is all very well and good when things are going well; we believe that God is all powerful, all loving and totally in control – but when things go badly, we blame ourselves. Sometimes the bad things that happen to us will be our fault. If I got ridiculously drunk and then drove my car, I would probably crash and that would be entirely my own fault. We must take responsibility for our actions, but what about when there is no apparent cause? What happens if I’m driving home and someone else crashes into me? Am I being punished and if so, what for? Is it because I forgot to read my scriptures last night? Some people prescribe to this view – it’s not hard to blame ourselves, we are imperfect and there will always be something we did or didn’t do, but personally, I cannot think like this. I cannot think, as some others do, that the earthquake in Haiti was because they worship the Devil and practice Voodoo. For every “bad” person who died in Haiti, a child died. In fact, I have no time for people who think like this. It’s ignorant and unfeeling and an insult to the God that I believe in.
We are taught not to question. We are told that God has his reasons and this is easy enough to say to someone else, it’s not as easy to listen to when you’re the one whose life is falling apart because of some divine reason. I know all the divine reasons – God is testing you, he’s making you a better person, everything happens for a reason, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, God is teaching you a lesson, he wants you to learn from this, God wanted you to depend more fully upon him... These reasons make perfect sense when you are sitting beside the hospital bed, comforting a friend, but what about when you are in it? I’ve also heard it said that God only sends us what we can deal with. He knows our strength and so gives us only what we can cope with – we should feel blessed that he has singled us out, we should feel honoured and privileged. We “should” but the reality is that we don’t. In my opinion, you can believe in a “good God who is not totally powerful, or a powerful God who is not totally good” (Kushner; 1981. 45). I choose to believe in Gods goodness.
The laws of nature make no exception for good people – if a righteous man and a wicked man fall from a building, the laws of gravity ensure that they both hit the ground. A cancerous tumour doesn’t care if you go to church every week. Sometimes there is no reason or logic. Sometimes bad things happen to good people but that doesn’t mean God caused it, it doesn’t mean God can stop it either, most of the time it means that life is really unfair. Pain and Death – two very unfair things. (Or are they? Without pain we would surely die. We need to be able to feel pain to know that our body is injured. Dying ensures that our lives are lived to the full – immortality is not something that anyone could truly want, more time perhaps, but not infinite time). Being a human is so much harder than being an animal. Animals lives are ruled by instinct and our lives are ruled by morals, which sometimes involve the suppression of instinct. By entering a world of good and evil, life is automatically more difficult – we develop emotional connections, our feelings are easily hurt. In fact, while all animals will die, humans are the only ones who know and comprehend this. We are also free to make our own decisions. We can decide to be good or bad and God does not intervene – he has to watch as we make these decisions, in the same way our actual (biological or social) parents do. I think that God would love to reach out and help us. He would love to stop us from making that bad decision or from getting into an ill fated car, but sometimes he can’t – he just has to watch. Another example of this is the Holocaust. If God is all powerful then why didn’t he zap Hitler into oblivion? Why did he let millions of innocent people die? Sometimes it’s easy to attribute natural disasters to the “Hand of God”, but what about something like this? One evil man and thousands of passive people enabled the Holocaust to occur, but where was God during all this? If you were in Auschwitz, would you blame God for not saving you? Would you thank him for teaching you a valuable lesson or would you understand that God knows what he’s doing, even if you don’t? I don’t know how I would feel – I would probably be angry. But I would find great comfort in an all just God who hadn’t abandoned me, but who was simply not able to help me in the way I wanted.
When something bad does happen, it’s tempting to try and minimize the mourner’s pain. You can offer the explanations that “they’re in a better place” or that “it’s what God wanted” – in fact, this is something I would have done. But this is the last thing that a person should do. In tragic times people need compassion, not superficial explanations. The idea of an all just but not all powerful God is the only thing that makes sense to me. It’s the only way I can make sense of senseless situations. I also have to think that God understands what I’m going through. I believe that he has felt every pain and every emotion that I have ever had. I don’t know if this is legit, but I’ve always thought that when Jesus was on the cross, he literally felt the pain and suffering of every person. He knows how it feels to have your heart broken, to lose someone you love and because he has experienced this, it makes him more real to me. If he cared enough about me to feel that pain, then he wouldn’t willingly let me experience it, this idea I suppose supports the claim that God is all just as opposed to all powerful – he would take away all that pain, if he could, but he can’t.
Do I believe that you can lift your hands and pray over someone’s body? Do I really think that prayer can save a person’s life? If prayer worked the way we wanted it to, then nobody would ever die. If our prayers don’t work, then how do we feel about God? Do we feel angry and disappointed? Do we lose any faith we might have had? If you have prayed and received a problematic answer, or no answer at all, you may attribute it to one of the following – you didn’t deserve what you prayed for, you didn’t pray hard enough, God knows what’s best for you and it wasn’t what you were praying for, someone else’s opposing prayer was stronger, God doesn’t hear prayers or even there is no God. If you don’t believe in these explanations and still have faith in prayer, it helps to rethink our ideas of prayer. Prayer shouldn’t be overly specific – you can’t pray for a baby boy or a baby girl, God can’t change what is already determined (no matter how much you want that essay to be an A). God doesn’t answer some prayers and not others – God doesn’t save one person in a plane crash because their prayer was better than the persons beside them. God can’t be invoked to change the course of nature; you can’t expect that flood to leave your house untouched while destroying your neighbours. You cannot pray for harm to come of someone else and you cannot pray for God to do something that is within your power – God can’t make you thin when you could achieve the desired result by going for a run. God can help but you cannot expect him to do anything and everything. I think that miracles come from something more than prayer – if miracles were purely a result of earnest prayer, then nobody would die and it would work every time. One of the most powerful things about prayer is that is brings people together and it can bring you closer to God, sometimes just talking is enough, even if he can’t zap you skinny. Prayer helps you find God and it helps you find people. It can comfort you and the belief in prayer can be strong enough to give people the strength to persevere. People who pray for miracles very rarely get them. People who pray for strength and courage and grace are far more likely to be successful. God does not send the problem – he gives us strength to deal with the problem.
I believe in God but I recognise that he is limited. I believe that he is bound by the laws of nature and I do not think that he sends illness or misfortune to anyone, good or bad. “I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it” (Kushner; 1981. 159). Kushner states that God does not cause our misfortunes, instead they are caused by bad luck or bad people or even the bad decisions we make, the natural and imperfect world we live in is a key contributor. If I believe this then I don’t need to feel anger towards God when I see someone I love suffer, instead I can turn to him, knowing that he only ever wants to help me. Instead of thinking about “why” something happens, I would rather think about “what” I’m going to do. If God neither kills nor cures, then what use is he? The only way to answer that is, God inspires people. He inspires people to help each other, to be there for each other – people are Gods hands on this earth and he inspires people to act. We are God’s hands and God’s language. What are you going to do about that? Can you forgive and love an imperfect world full of imperfect people? Can you forgive and love God, even though he has limitations? Do you understand that it is this ability to love and forgive, to be courageous, even when it’s difficult and you are faced with sorrow, that God has given you to make this life bearable?
This is something that I barely understand. I’m sure there are holes and contradictions in my theology. There is so much more that I need to learn, but I get closer every day. I would love to live in a perfect world where everyone was rewarded accordingly. I would love if all my prayers were answered, the way I wanted, every single time. I would love for the world to be in a perfect state where we didn’t have to worry about natural disasters destroying millions of lives. I would love it if God could zap all the bad things away, but that’s just not possible and my belief in a limited but all just God as opposed to an all powerful God who sits and watches while his children suffer is the only thing that makes sense to me. I know that rationally, God can’t exist – there are aspects of religion that make no sense at all and sometimes I think life would be easier if I didn’t believe in anything. But then I think that we all need something to believe in, my life needs a purpose and I suppose religion gives it that. Even if it turns out that there is no God and that all religion is fabrication, then I really wouldn’t mind – I live a good life and there isn’t anything I would change about it, even if there was no God to care about how I was living. Religion and religious institutions are not perfect, but the Gospel and the messages are, so I choose to believe in that. I believe in myself. I’ve been called a Cafeteria Mormon/Christian, taking the bits I like and living by those, but that’s ok. Religious beliefs are highly personal and I don’t see anything wrong in incorporating teachings of the various religions if they’re going to make you a better person. If you managed to get through all that then congratulations! I really don’t like talking about religion – I don’t want to give off the impression that I’m preaching or getting at anyone who is or isn’t religious, but I suppose I just got a little bit carried away. It’s very late and I really shouldn’t be allowed near a computer at this time of night because I tend to talk an awful lot of rubbish. I just needed to vent and now that I have, I think I might sleep for a week! I also really recommend the book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by Harold Kushner, a Jewish Rabbi. It’s an amazing book and he is such a wise man, he’s made sense of a lot of the things that I never really understood and while you may not totally agree, it’s still an interesting read. Again, sorry for going way off track – I just wanted to tell everyone how great a song was and I ended up talking about, well, I’m not really sure! I promise that my next Blog will be full of fun adventures :)
Xx
I’m not really sure how I should start. This Blog is a little bit different; instead of telling you about a specific adventure or event, I just felt like writing about a song I’ve been listening to recently. The song is Casimir Pulsaki Day and it’s by a really amazing artist, Sufjan Stephens.
Casimir Pulsaki Day is a sad song, in fact, it’s heartbreaking but that’s what makes it so special. It’s painfully honest and it deals with a difficult situation beautifully, truthfully and with a great deal of grace. I’m not a particularly emotional person, I don’t enjoy talking about my feelings and I’m having difficulty with this Blog – I can’t seem to find the words to adequately describe this song. I think it’s one of those songs that you just have to listen to. So please do. Try to think about the words and what they mean. I apologise if you don’t like it – you might think it’s too sad, which is fine, but maybe someone will get it. It’s really quite complex for something so simple.
Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone
Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car to the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry
In the morning through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade
I could see what you were reading
Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth
Tuesday night at the bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens
I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse
In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared
Oh the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you
Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I find the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of your mother
On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom
In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window
In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing
Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications when I see his face
In the morning in the window
Oh the glory when he took our place
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face
And he takes and he takes and he takes
(Please stop reading... I got a little bit carried away and wrote a few thousands words about, well, nothing really. I can't bring myself to delete them, yet... You've been warned - read at your own risk!)
I should probably finish on that, because I can’t really follow it. But there are certain parts that really stand out for me. A part of the song that I really thought about was how they prayed over her body and nothing happened. How often does that happen to us? I would say that this is far more common than the miraculous healings that we all hope for. What does it mean? Does it mean that there isn’t a God? Does it mean that if there is, he doesn’t care? I can’t answer all these questions, but personally, I think that these things are out of Gods control. I choose to believe in an all just God, as opposed to an all powerful God who simply stands by while his children suffer. We are conditioned to believe that if we do good we will be rewarded and if we do bad, if we sin or slip up, then we will be punished. Essentially, we are taught that we will get exactly what we deserve. This theory is all well and good, until we consider the tragedies that affect even the best people. Of course we can stand back and say that God knows what he’s doing and that we shouldn’t worry, but what about when it happens to us? What happens when your life is affected? You’re a good person so this stuff shouldn’t be happening to you, right? The misfortunes of good people are difficult because they call into question what we know and believe, they call into question the existence and intentions of God. The only conclusion that I can come to is that we do not live in a fair world. By propagating the idea of God as a righteous judge, we give people a reason to be good, to be on their best behaviour and we make God and the world comprehendible. This is all very well and good when things are going well; we believe that God is all powerful, all loving and totally in control – but when things go badly, we blame ourselves. Sometimes the bad things that happen to us will be our fault. If I got ridiculously drunk and then drove my car, I would probably crash and that would be entirely my own fault. We must take responsibility for our actions, but what about when there is no apparent cause? What happens if I’m driving home and someone else crashes into me? Am I being punished and if so, what for? Is it because I forgot to read my scriptures last night? Some people prescribe to this view – it’s not hard to blame ourselves, we are imperfect and there will always be something we did or didn’t do, but personally, I cannot think like this. I cannot think, as some others do, that the earthquake in Haiti was because they worship the Devil and practice Voodoo. For every “bad” person who died in Haiti, a child died. In fact, I have no time for people who think like this. It’s ignorant and unfeeling and an insult to the God that I believe in.
We are taught not to question. We are told that God has his reasons and this is easy enough to say to someone else, it’s not as easy to listen to when you’re the one whose life is falling apart because of some divine reason. I know all the divine reasons – God is testing you, he’s making you a better person, everything happens for a reason, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, God is teaching you a lesson, he wants you to learn from this, God wanted you to depend more fully upon him... These reasons make perfect sense when you are sitting beside the hospital bed, comforting a friend, but what about when you are in it? I’ve also heard it said that God only sends us what we can deal with. He knows our strength and so gives us only what we can cope with – we should feel blessed that he has singled us out, we should feel honoured and privileged. We “should” but the reality is that we don’t. In my opinion, you can believe in a “good God who is not totally powerful, or a powerful God who is not totally good” (Kushner; 1981. 45). I choose to believe in Gods goodness.
The laws of nature make no exception for good people – if a righteous man and a wicked man fall from a building, the laws of gravity ensure that they both hit the ground. A cancerous tumour doesn’t care if you go to church every week. Sometimes there is no reason or logic. Sometimes bad things happen to good people but that doesn’t mean God caused it, it doesn’t mean God can stop it either, most of the time it means that life is really unfair. Pain and Death – two very unfair things. (Or are they? Without pain we would surely die. We need to be able to feel pain to know that our body is injured. Dying ensures that our lives are lived to the full – immortality is not something that anyone could truly want, more time perhaps, but not infinite time). Being a human is so much harder than being an animal. Animals lives are ruled by instinct and our lives are ruled by morals, which sometimes involve the suppression of instinct. By entering a world of good and evil, life is automatically more difficult – we develop emotional connections, our feelings are easily hurt. In fact, while all animals will die, humans are the only ones who know and comprehend this. We are also free to make our own decisions. We can decide to be good or bad and God does not intervene – he has to watch as we make these decisions, in the same way our actual (biological or social) parents do. I think that God would love to reach out and help us. He would love to stop us from making that bad decision or from getting into an ill fated car, but sometimes he can’t – he just has to watch. Another example of this is the Holocaust. If God is all powerful then why didn’t he zap Hitler into oblivion? Why did he let millions of innocent people die? Sometimes it’s easy to attribute natural disasters to the “Hand of God”, but what about something like this? One evil man and thousands of passive people enabled the Holocaust to occur, but where was God during all this? If you were in Auschwitz, would you blame God for not saving you? Would you thank him for teaching you a valuable lesson or would you understand that God knows what he’s doing, even if you don’t? I don’t know how I would feel – I would probably be angry. But I would find great comfort in an all just God who hadn’t abandoned me, but who was simply not able to help me in the way I wanted.
When something bad does happen, it’s tempting to try and minimize the mourner’s pain. You can offer the explanations that “they’re in a better place” or that “it’s what God wanted” – in fact, this is something I would have done. But this is the last thing that a person should do. In tragic times people need compassion, not superficial explanations. The idea of an all just but not all powerful God is the only thing that makes sense to me. It’s the only way I can make sense of senseless situations. I also have to think that God understands what I’m going through. I believe that he has felt every pain and every emotion that I have ever had. I don’t know if this is legit, but I’ve always thought that when Jesus was on the cross, he literally felt the pain and suffering of every person. He knows how it feels to have your heart broken, to lose someone you love and because he has experienced this, it makes him more real to me. If he cared enough about me to feel that pain, then he wouldn’t willingly let me experience it, this idea I suppose supports the claim that God is all just as opposed to all powerful – he would take away all that pain, if he could, but he can’t.
Do I believe that you can lift your hands and pray over someone’s body? Do I really think that prayer can save a person’s life? If prayer worked the way we wanted it to, then nobody would ever die. If our prayers don’t work, then how do we feel about God? Do we feel angry and disappointed? Do we lose any faith we might have had? If you have prayed and received a problematic answer, or no answer at all, you may attribute it to one of the following – you didn’t deserve what you prayed for, you didn’t pray hard enough, God knows what’s best for you and it wasn’t what you were praying for, someone else’s opposing prayer was stronger, God doesn’t hear prayers or even there is no God. If you don’t believe in these explanations and still have faith in prayer, it helps to rethink our ideas of prayer. Prayer shouldn’t be overly specific – you can’t pray for a baby boy or a baby girl, God can’t change what is already determined (no matter how much you want that essay to be an A). God doesn’t answer some prayers and not others – God doesn’t save one person in a plane crash because their prayer was better than the persons beside them. God can’t be invoked to change the course of nature; you can’t expect that flood to leave your house untouched while destroying your neighbours. You cannot pray for harm to come of someone else and you cannot pray for God to do something that is within your power – God can’t make you thin when you could achieve the desired result by going for a run. God can help but you cannot expect him to do anything and everything. I think that miracles come from something more than prayer – if miracles were purely a result of earnest prayer, then nobody would die and it would work every time. One of the most powerful things about prayer is that is brings people together and it can bring you closer to God, sometimes just talking is enough, even if he can’t zap you skinny. Prayer helps you find God and it helps you find people. It can comfort you and the belief in prayer can be strong enough to give people the strength to persevere. People who pray for miracles very rarely get them. People who pray for strength and courage and grace are far more likely to be successful. God does not send the problem – he gives us strength to deal with the problem.
I believe in God but I recognise that he is limited. I believe that he is bound by the laws of nature and I do not think that he sends illness or misfortune to anyone, good or bad. “I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it” (Kushner; 1981. 159). Kushner states that God does not cause our misfortunes, instead they are caused by bad luck or bad people or even the bad decisions we make, the natural and imperfect world we live in is a key contributor. If I believe this then I don’t need to feel anger towards God when I see someone I love suffer, instead I can turn to him, knowing that he only ever wants to help me. Instead of thinking about “why” something happens, I would rather think about “what” I’m going to do. If God neither kills nor cures, then what use is he? The only way to answer that is, God inspires people. He inspires people to help each other, to be there for each other – people are Gods hands on this earth and he inspires people to act. We are God’s hands and God’s language. What are you going to do about that? Can you forgive and love an imperfect world full of imperfect people? Can you forgive and love God, even though he has limitations? Do you understand that it is this ability to love and forgive, to be courageous, even when it’s difficult and you are faced with sorrow, that God has given you to make this life bearable?
This is something that I barely understand. I’m sure there are holes and contradictions in my theology. There is so much more that I need to learn, but I get closer every day. I would love to live in a perfect world where everyone was rewarded accordingly. I would love if all my prayers were answered, the way I wanted, every single time. I would love for the world to be in a perfect state where we didn’t have to worry about natural disasters destroying millions of lives. I would love it if God could zap all the bad things away, but that’s just not possible and my belief in a limited but all just God as opposed to an all powerful God who sits and watches while his children suffer is the only thing that makes sense to me. I know that rationally, God can’t exist – there are aspects of religion that make no sense at all and sometimes I think life would be easier if I didn’t believe in anything. But then I think that we all need something to believe in, my life needs a purpose and I suppose religion gives it that. Even if it turns out that there is no God and that all religion is fabrication, then I really wouldn’t mind – I live a good life and there isn’t anything I would change about it, even if there was no God to care about how I was living. Religion and religious institutions are not perfect, but the Gospel and the messages are, so I choose to believe in that. I believe in myself. I’ve been called a Cafeteria Mormon/Christian, taking the bits I like and living by those, but that’s ok. Religious beliefs are highly personal and I don’t see anything wrong in incorporating teachings of the various religions if they’re going to make you a better person. If you managed to get through all that then congratulations! I really don’t like talking about religion – I don’t want to give off the impression that I’m preaching or getting at anyone who is or isn’t religious, but I suppose I just got a little bit carried away. It’s very late and I really shouldn’t be allowed near a computer at this time of night because I tend to talk an awful lot of rubbish. I just needed to vent and now that I have, I think I might sleep for a week! I also really recommend the book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by Harold Kushner, a Jewish Rabbi. It’s an amazing book and he is such a wise man, he’s made sense of a lot of the things that I never really understood and while you may not totally agree, it’s still an interesting read. Again, sorry for going way off track – I just wanted to tell everyone how great a song was and I ended up talking about, well, I’m not really sure! I promise that my next Blog will be full of fun adventures :)
Xx
The Kebab Hangover from Hell!
Thursday 6th May and Friday 7th May
Today I had my first hang over! Now before everyone starts freaking out, it wasn’t an alcohol related hangover, it was a Kebab related hangover! I didn’t even know that this was possible, but it’s the morning after the QUB Dance Showcase and I feel beyond rough! It was a miracle that I made it out of my bed and onto the train – I managed to miss my lecture but I just about made it to tutorial... It was touch and go when I was on the train, I truly thought that I was going to CHUNDER EVERYWHERE.YAH. (I hope everyone got the Gap Yah reference there, if no then please Youtube it so you can fully appreciate what I’m talking about)
After my tutorial I really should have went home, crawled into bed and slept off the mother of all Kebab Hangovers, but instead I paid 71C a wee visit. The occupants of 71C are my good chums Rachael Crilly and Rachel Davis, two vital members of Surf Club, who are collectively known as Cravis. Unfortunately Rachel “hardcore” Davis was at the library so I was chillin’ with Rachael “hung-over” Crilly and what a day we had! Crilly very kindly introduced me to an American style restaurant called Springsteen’s (goodbye student loan, hello gigantic potions of yummy food) where we spent a considerable period of time. When we rolled out of Springsteen’s, we decided that a trip to the cinema would be an excellent idea – sitting in a dark room, nursing my Kebab Hangover and Crilly’s Double Vodka and Redbull Hangover may not be an effective cure, but it sure is fun! We saw The Joneses, which was actually quite good – it was different and quirky, subtly funny and it had a very interesting message about consumerism. It’s one of those movies that you’ll think about for days to come, you might even re-evaluate some of your personal opinions/views/goals... or... you might forget about it as soon as it finished. Each to their own!
Today was one of those lovely one off days... or was it? Clearly it wasn’t. In fact, the next day I gave Crilly a ring and we went back to Springsteen’s, ate some yummy food and then we came back to Bangor to meet Davis and watch Iron Man. Cravis had never seen the movie (which had to be paused a few times in order to explain what was happening) but I think they enjoyed it. Actually, I know they enjoyed it. They’re a very vocal team and they managed to express every emotion/thought that they had during the movie. When Iron Man finished we headed over to Bangor Omniplex (not to be confused with a Multiplex) to see Iron Man 2 – yes, that’s right, two helpings of Robert Downey Jr. in one day. His face was literally sculpted by the angels and sent to us women as a gift from God. Well, perhaps that’s exactly accurate, but I think you get the picture; Robert Downey Jr. is a complete Babe! I actually really enjoyed the movie and I obviously enjoyed Cravis. They’re top notch girls and I’m actually quite glad I met them, even if they Fraped me in my own home ;)
Xx
Today I had my first hang over! Now before everyone starts freaking out, it wasn’t an alcohol related hangover, it was a Kebab related hangover! I didn’t even know that this was possible, but it’s the morning after the QUB Dance Showcase and I feel beyond rough! It was a miracle that I made it out of my bed and onto the train – I managed to miss my lecture but I just about made it to tutorial... It was touch and go when I was on the train, I truly thought that I was going to CHUNDER EVERYWHERE.YAH. (I hope everyone got the Gap Yah reference there, if no then please Youtube it so you can fully appreciate what I’m talking about)
After my tutorial I really should have went home, crawled into bed and slept off the mother of all Kebab Hangovers, but instead I paid 71C a wee visit. The occupants of 71C are my good chums Rachael Crilly and Rachel Davis, two vital members of Surf Club, who are collectively known as Cravis. Unfortunately Rachel “hardcore” Davis was at the library so I was chillin’ with Rachael “hung-over” Crilly and what a day we had! Crilly very kindly introduced me to an American style restaurant called Springsteen’s (goodbye student loan, hello gigantic potions of yummy food) where we spent a considerable period of time. When we rolled out of Springsteen’s, we decided that a trip to the cinema would be an excellent idea – sitting in a dark room, nursing my Kebab Hangover and Crilly’s Double Vodka and Redbull Hangover may not be an effective cure, but it sure is fun! We saw The Joneses, which was actually quite good – it was different and quirky, subtly funny and it had a very interesting message about consumerism. It’s one of those movies that you’ll think about for days to come, you might even re-evaluate some of your personal opinions/views/goals... or... you might forget about it as soon as it finished. Each to their own!
Today was one of those lovely one off days... or was it? Clearly it wasn’t. In fact, the next day I gave Crilly a ring and we went back to Springsteen’s, ate some yummy food and then we came back to Bangor to meet Davis and watch Iron Man. Cravis had never seen the movie (which had to be paused a few times in order to explain what was happening) but I think they enjoyed it. Actually, I know they enjoyed it. They’re a very vocal team and they managed to express every emotion/thought that they had during the movie. When Iron Man finished we headed over to Bangor Omniplex (not to be confused with a Multiplex) to see Iron Man 2 – yes, that’s right, two helpings of Robert Downey Jr. in one day. His face was literally sculpted by the angels and sent to us women as a gift from God. Well, perhaps that’s exactly accurate, but I think you get the picture; Robert Downey Jr. is a complete Babe! I actually really enjoyed the movie and I obviously enjoyed Cravis. They’re top notch girls and I’m actually quite glad I met them, even if they Fraped me in my own home ;)
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