No snowflakes for me...

Pay day has come and gone and I found myself in a position to buy some new clothes today. However< walking around the shops today I found that this winter seasons fashion is not really giving me the 'I have to have everything' sort of attitude.

Some people will think I haven't got my head on straight but it seems as if the high streets grasp of this seasons trends are somewhat left me wanting more. 

Its safe to say that even the most fashion blind of us out there know that to have a chunky knit cardigan with snowflakes on it is the 'in' thing this winter but unless you got yours from primark you'll have a £30 cardigan that will look stupid as soon as boxing day. I'm sure that I'm safe in saying that not everyone can afford to update their wardrobe when Grazia tells us we must. When Christmas is over the magazines will be an the countdown to summer and the snowflake cardigan will be left forgotten at the bottom of our wardrobe. 

On the other hand there are a few things this winter that will stand the test of time in my wardrobe, luckily it seems that winter has come early and the military coat will happily see us through to the end of March. In desperate need of a new coat I bought a olive green military coat from primark which was cheap enough to forget about when the sun decides to heat the air enough for a blazer to suffice (yay). I love it already and my new coat can lovingly collect my rubbish in its pockets until the first rays of spring sunshine sneak through the October to March gloom.

So long the live the military coat and snuggly winter boots we have to wear until it's warm enough to wear gladiator sandals and bare legs again. 

Despite the cold, this week has been filled with clear skies which provide a air tight excuse to wear our sunnies to keep the bleak winter sun out of our eyes.

As a believer that I should inhabit a warmer country I am very susceptible to the cold and keeping warm is on the top of my list... gloves will be bought as soon as possible and fleecy jammies and thick socks and more layers... the list goes on. No snowflake cardies will be found in my shopping bags though, thats for sure.

NEVER deviate from the recipe...

I am fully aware that I have not posted anything in a while but getting a job in a nightclub really will turn a person nocturnal! I am aware that the internet works at any time of the day but I'm terribly lazy and Gilmore girls is always on... I shall hereby promise to write more things on here more often.

With fear that this will turn into some Delia schmelia blog about cooking stuff I have to write once more about the hilarity which ensues when Kirsty and I attempt to cook anything substantial. It  is our Sunday to host board game night. (which seems t have turned into pub quiz night because we have played all the board games under the sun) This week we have decided to make coq au vin, which at this point in time has not been begun... the cheesecake for dessert on the other and may have turned into an unholy disaster!!

Having decided that instead of caramel sauce, which couldn't be found for love nor money in our local Tescos, (to be fair we didn't really look that hard, nor ask anyone for help) We decided that melting toffees in a saucepan would do the same job. Well it turns out that no, it is not the same thing, not remotely. The toffee did melt to be fair, but it didn't stay melted for long. So we have a very nice shortbread base, a really yummy cheesey, white chocolatey and in-between these two fabulous (if i do say so myself) layers, is a rock hard slightly burnt toffee layer which may or may not break the teeth of our brave guests. We will just have to wait and see. If the speed at which our secret layer set was anything to go by and the fact that despite being washed with boiling water the pot that we used still smells a bit sweet, our layer may not have been the best idea after all...

The cheese cake has been baked and is now cooling on the side. i don't know whether its supposed to still smell like cheese and sour cream instead of white chocolate...

The next step in our woeful day of cooking is the coq au vin, again we decided the recipe wasn't what we wanted...who needs recipes anyway? sure they're only there as a guide, jeeze I should be a chef.

find something to love...

I know it's easier said than done but learning to love your body is definitely a necessary quest. I returned to the gym for the first time in a very long time on Saturday. Oh God it was dreadful.

First of all my trusty gym shorts were noticeably tighter than they were when I last had them on. I ploughed on and decided that with hard work and dedication they would fit nicely again (and besides i convinced myself that everyone looks bad at the gym). I finally talked myself into doing this and I wasn't going to back out now so I clambered onto the cross-trainer with trepidation. It was not as bad as I thought, it was actually quite fun getting all sweaty listening to my ipod and just being by myself for a while. Our flat can get quite crowded at times and is nice to do things alone every now and then.

With my confidence building I thought there could be no harm done jumping on the treadmill for the last 15 minutes of my workout. Oh how I was wrong. My too tight shorts had put pressure on my thigh flab and running in front of a mirror all I could see were my legs struggling to pass each other and made sure with each stride the make a prominent jiggle just to take my self esteem down to its lowest ebb.

After the disastrous first day back at the gym I decided that the flab I had accumulated since February wont go away overnight and that I need to find something else to feel that I can focus on until my muffin top recedes back to the murky depths from whence it came.

If this wasn't enough my favourite mascara ran out and was forced to buy a far cheaper replacement because I have no money because I don't have a job. When I got it home and tried it out for the first time I was dumbfounded... I think I have pretty nice eyelashes...score! The one part of a women's body she wishes was fat and lo and behold I have pretty decent ones. Don't get me wrong I am a fan of falsies for a night out but either I have good eyelashes or the cheap mascara does wonders. I don't really care which is true but for now my lashes take my mind off my larger than life jiggly thighs and too small shorts.

So ladies I implore you to do the same, find something to keep your mind off the things you don't like and hopefully if we don't think about them for long enough we will forget about them altogether.

Baking a cake

For my first post I envisioned something terribly profound and interesting but it turns out that in the life of a university graduate with no job, much hilarity and entertainment can be had from simply baking a cake.

The story begins few months ago when one seemingly normal night my flatmate (Kirsty) informed me that the handle of the oven had broken. Much to my dismay nothing could be done to fix the aforementioned handle until the next day. Me, being me, forgot to buy any fixing materials the following day and decided that one more day of the handle swinging footloose and fancy free would do us no harm. Oh how I was wrong. I should have known the very minute that I had uttered the damning phrase "uck I'm sure it'l be grand, cook the pizza anyway..." that something horrific would happen. I was minding my own business, cooking my dinner when lo and behold a poor, unsuspecting Kirsty tried to prize the  oven door open, it smashed into a million pieces and one second of stunned silence passed until we collapsed with laughter and then decided to check if ether of us were hurt. (we were fine)

Months passed with our landlord (my dad) badgering us to buy a new one on his behalf we decided to take an uniformed trip to Currys... Four trips later, having to return many times with the correct information we had an oven purchased, with the help of wonderful Currys employee Daryl. (no help from other rather grumpy employee, who didnt much like our lack of correct oven purchasing proceedure )

Today was the day of reckoning, the oven was installed yesterday and twas christened this fine evening with the baking of a marvellous chocolate cake. It is a thing of beauty, almost too good to eat...yes almost. The baking adventure began with a trip to the supermarket where the appropriate ingredients were purchased.

Flour was measured and eggs were cracked and the batter began to take shape. Mixture separated as instructed and placed in the shiny new oven :) like children we sat on the kitchen floor and watched our cake slowly rise. It was magnificent! The rising continued until the overspill began. We tried to save the shiny newness of our oven but alas there was nothing we could do. The cake had split and the hardened top of the cake was slowly sliding over the side of the baking tin unveiling a torrent of molten cake mixture, which, instead of rising up just spilled over the edge, we screeched and tried to mend the fissure but to no avail and came to rest in a big poo-y pile in our new roasting tin.

10 minutes later the overflow had ceased and the cake was hardening again. the rest of the process was incident free and the creation sits on our kitchen counter taunting us with its goodness.

Who would have thought that by being bored and deciding to christen our oven turned into a good hour of laughs, screams, spatula licking and sitting on the kitchen floor.