“Excuse me, Miss, this is going to sound like a weird question, but do you happen to have a baby wipe on you?”
“You are right, that is a weird question. No, I don’t.”
“I do apologise, it’s just that I seem to have scraped my arm.”

And he showed me a quite large black scrape.

Somehow that lightened my mood mostly due to its randomness. Of course, I could overthink it and wonder if he thinks all women carry baby wipes or if I fit the stressed mother stereotype, but at the end of the day it was just a delightfully random question asked very politely.

*The other weird question just shortly before was: “The word ‘team building’ has very negative connotations for me. How do you feel about it?” [I agreed]

One reason for that is, of course, that I have been back in full-time employment since March, but the real reason is that I’ve been allowing myself to procrastinate. There’s been too much gaming and too much time spent helping out a housemate.

Suddenly I’m finding myself busy for the next few weeks and will gladly spend this time writing a blogpost about it rather than spending these ten minutes doing something more productive. Additionally I am fully caught up with my feeds in Google Reader. Even with almost 29 years of age I am clearly not yet grown up!

Since then all my jobs or, to use the fancy word ‘career’, has relied on either experience or being at the right place at the right time. I’ve worked in the games industry, in gastronomy and did a lot of freelance work with customer support and community management before landing in SEO copywriting and now marketing. Even though those seem like quite drastic changes there is a clear line and pattern in my employment history, such as games testing leading to testing management and an interest in gaming which led to freelance writing about games and community management which in turn led to copywriting and eventually all those skills to marketing.

Up until this past week I hadn’t considered undertaking any kind of course, however, recently I have spent quite a significant amount of time helping a friend study for a short evening course they were doing. This involved helping with the assignments, as well as preparing practical work. Feeling fairly knowledgeable about the subject matter now than I did in January I am considering using the wealth of information gained by taking the course myself. I would still have to study and write the assignments myself and attend the sessions, but after having been there every step of the way with my friend I feel confident I would be able to do it without too much of an issue. I suppose I’ve sort of been trialling it.

The major downside asides from obviously pay for the course is that it has no evident benefits for me or rather the line of work I am in now or ever have been in. It is also unlikely that I will find myself in a situation where I can use the skills learned from the course in my professional or even private life. Part of me thinks that perhaps I should just do it to add yet another eclectic part to my CV or to give me a sense of achievement, but my current job might just be something I can see myself at in five years time though it is still a bit too early to tell in which case time would have devalued it too much anyway.

And of course I am not even sure I would actually be able to pull off academic essay writing, despite having edited my friend’s assignments.

I managed to write 41 blogposts all the way up until the 10th of February which is about 30 posts longer than I expected. After that I sort of lost my drive and it stopped. Whilst I felt guilty initally I have realised that I am proud of what I have achieved. No great novel and nothing that is actually worthwhile, but for 41 days I managed to write something every day.

Since then I have written another 20 posts [21 with this one] every time I felt like it which brings the total number of posts up to 61. As today is the 122nd day of the year that means I have technically written a post every other day of the year and mostly even without trying.

My first post this year was a post about @SatScenes and how I managed to take at least one picture for everyone of the 53 Saturdays in 2011. I have missed the past two Saturdays due to not feeling very well and appear to have now lost all enthusiasm for it. Maybe I should remind myself on how much of a great reminder those pictures have been, even if they were just pictures of a cup of coffee.

My inability to speak German has found its way into several blogposts before with the most notable one being this one.

Things have somewhat changed since then. A couple of months ago I started a new job in marketing which required me to only speak English with the very occasional checks for things in German. Easily done I thought, yet at the second day the company encountered an acute shortage of German customer service staff and I half offered and was offered to extend my weekly hours to help out with some emails. It’s the first time since 2009 [cafe assistant manager in Germany] that I had to pro actively speak and write German in my professional life.

Initially I didn’t expect it to take much of a toll on my English language skills as reading and writing German for a couple of hours a day in an otherwise English environment really didn’t seem such a big deal. However, as it turns out the other German customer service staff members only speak to each other in German and therefore any conversations I have with them, whether work related or private, also take place in German. Worse still, they all speak colloquially which enhances the fact that my German is stilted and wooden.

It only took a couple of weeks until I noticed the changes. Suddenly I found myself struggling in conversation outside of work, such as at home, and even one of my housemate’s admitted to me that they had never noticed much of a German accent until starting that job which, to the perfectionist that I am, is very frustrating.

Struggling with English is something new and I haven’t found myself in this situation since 2003. It reduces my confidence in myself and my ability to speak the language properly, such as idioms or even sarcasm.

Neither language appears to improve and I’m starting to get used to seeing myself as a blabbering idiot all the time which I don’t think is a good thing.

I recently completed Mass Effect 2 and then straightaway played Mass Effect 3. In fact, Mass Effect 3 and my worry about being unable to avoid spoilers for any longer were the reasons I decided to buy a new 360 back in February and I am still surprised I managed to avoid spoilers for this long.

I have blogged about Mass Effect 2 and my love for it before:

• Things I’d like to see improved in Mass Effect 2
• It’s time for Mass Effect 2!
• Mass Effect 2 – First Impressions
• Mass Effect 2 – Some more thoughts
• Mass Effect 2 – “Oh no, here comes disc 2″
• Mass Effect 2 – “Who observes the Observers?”
• Mass Effect 2 – Oh yes, there was that whole saving the galaxy thing..

Finishing the game in the end was strange. In some way I felt like I had spent so long playing it [over two years with several far too long breaks] that I expected more from the end than I got out of it. The ending was somewhat climatic, but the lame final boss fight [lame mostly for the character rather than the boss fight itself] and the ending that just seemed to end left me feeling a little disappointed. Additionally, just like with Mass Effect 1, I wanted the ‘perfect save’ which included saving all my squad members, as well as having everyone’s loyalty which was tricky with the last addition of Legion and the kidnapping of the crew.

Despite this I loved the game and it is definitely one of the best ones I have ever played for reasons mentioned in previous posts, as well as the great missions towards the end of the game, such as Joker’s rescue of the Normandy. Seeing squad members develop over the series was fantastic, too, and brought home BioWare’s extraordinary writing.

Mass Effect 3 started off with a bang and emotional. Leaving Earth and seeing the kid from the vents climb into a shuttle just to see said shuttle obliterated by a Reaper beam sent me crying and established the high stakes and dangers from the start.

Mass Effect 3 had many fantastic moments and scenes. Some of them include:

Seeing previous main characters reappear and play a pivotal part in the game. This includes the Rannoch, Palaven and Tuchanka missions. Having my experience shaped so much through the course of two games particularly came through with Tuchanka where my game played out with the following criteria:

• Having Wrex and Mordin survive Mass Effect 1 and 2 respectively.
• Mordin being loyal in Mass Effect 2.
• Having spoken to Mordin enough in Mass Effect 2 and getting him to sing in that same game.
• Saving Maelon’s data in Mass Effect 2 to ensure Eve’s survival.

Of course not having those would still have had the same mission, but with different characters to replace them and definitely not with the same experience and I love that the game can take all that information to shape my experiences.

Seeing previous side characters appear was great, too, such as Jacob or Thane, as well as seeing the impact they had on Mass Effect 3 and the changes they had gone through since the second game. At times it felt like they were just lining up to appear in a mission, but for the most part it was organic.

General character development yet again made the game as great as it is, as well as the writing. Too many moments made me laugh and there were a lot of emotional moments, such as Grunt’s end on Utukku, which at least for me wasn’t an end at all.

There are some things that I didn’t like about Mass Effect 3. They include:

• The Reaper fight on Rannoch with its bad design and pointlessness.
• Conrad Verner’s side mission. Whilst his appearance made sense in the context and it was lovely to see him over the series, the solution of his mission seemed incredibly unlikely and far-fetched though it was lovely to realise that the mission only played out this way for me due to a mission in Mass Effect 1 and the right choices with Conrad in Mass Effect 2.
• The dream sequences.
• The end.

The end of the Mass Effect trilogy deserves another post.

The game starts off really well. All the initial cases are well done and feature just as much slick yet tawdriness as to be expected from the noir crime genre. Cases, such as ‘The Silk Stocking Murder‘ or the hinting at a serial killer, as well as a cryptic trip around the well designed town create a fantastic atmosphere whilst guest stars, such as Greg Grunenberg, bring characters alive, even though most others still seem wooden.

“That arm of yours appears to be letting in daylight.”

However, at the half way mark the cases became too boring which meant it was nearly impossible to ignore the wooden characters, the lacklustre overall story and the annoying and quite boring constant flashbacks to the war. The main character went from being boring to not making sense, such as in his pursuit of the nightclub singer and any partner after Rusty seemed incredibly clichéd and badly written whilst digging around yet another burnt down building became old quick.

The finale was another letdown with the last two missions requiring far too much shooting, as if the writers had no idea on how to wrap up the game. The ending itself seemed tacked on and unresolved without being as tragic as it was probably intended though it could have just been because I stopped caring by that point.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the game and the slow yet fun gameplay, but I wish I hadn’t played beyond the first half of the vice cases as it ruined the game.

6/10

I should have listened to myself.

Having choices in games means that the experience is more tailored to me and I can play it the way I want it to and I will mostly choose [ha!] a non-linear game to have the chance to make choices. To be able to shape the game how I want it without having to do things that I don’t want to. Charlie Brooker recently wrote about his experiences playing MW3 which are relevant to this:

[...] my character also grabs the guard and stabs him right in the throat. And I thought, “I’m no better than moustache man: that was an appalling thing I just did.”

I have issues with games that seemingly give players a choice without actually giving them one. Such as the Ninja Gaiden 3 demo. In the initial part of the demo the player has to fight through several soldiers in London until there is only one of them left with his hands raised. The interactive cutscene allows the player to walk up to him closer whilst he is pleading for his life, taking off his balaclava and mentioning his wife and children. The only option is to keep going closer towards him and then eventually striking him down. Eurogamer describes it pretty well in its review:

It’s an illusion of choice, of course. There is no decision to be made, no capacity for mercy. You must press X to eviscerate. There is no other way.

I quit the demo just after that.

I decided to give the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) another chance and registered this number on the 6th of March. I had signed up for it in a previous house without much use so I didn’t get my hopes up, but at least the registration was quick and painless.

The service promises:

Once a number has been registered it will become effective in 28 days

Tonight I realised that, according to the log on our phone, the last cold call came through on the 23rd of March which is much less than the month. It has been nice not coming home to five answerphone messages talking about PPI.

If you are plagued by cold callers give the TPS a go – it works!

On Friday I spent close to 12 hours playing LA Noire, most of this with a housemate of mine. Turns out we found the perfect equilibrium – he does most of the driving whilst I investigate with both of us deciding whether suspects are telling the truth. Having put in about 20 hours into the game in total I’m really appreciating its pacing and the story and setting are convincing.

Saturday saw me completing Mass Effect 2 again. I finally completed it a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t manage to save everyone I wanted in the final mission and, knowing I yet again wanted the ‘perfect save’ for Mass Effect 3, I spent a good two hours replaying the end until everyone survived. It only took four attempts.

The rest of the weekend went entirely on Mass Effect 3. My single player save game tells me I’ve put in 23 hours and I’m estimating another maybe six on the multiplayer which is far more enjoyable than I expected it to be, not to mention challenging if the other players don’t play it properly or just run off.

Mass Effect 3 so far is every bit the game I expected it to be – the missions are varied and the story carries on well. It already makes me sad that this is the final instalment of the series. Just like the second game I am in awe seeing how the decisions of my previous games are shaping this one. Whether it is a main character referring to former events or characters, such as the Shadow Broker agent reappearing.

Its inevitable downsides are that sometimes it lays on a bit too much trying to bring every character in, such as the Fan’s appearance again. Whilst his appearance was plausible, his avoided death with the sudden appearance from Jenna wasn’t. I am also not too happy that my character’s facial information didn’t get imported properly and I’m now finding myself saving the galaxy with someone who doesn’t look like the person I’ve spent over 200 hours with.

I can’t wait to find out what happens at the end!

Tonight I saw ‘The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists’ at the cinema.

The film probably would have passed me by had it not been for a friend and mine’s decision to go to a cinema, as well as the process of elimination of all the other terrible films that are out.

Pirates! was fun and had an incredible amount of details from start to finish, including the credits, as well as some fantastic quotes, such as the one from this post title. The plot was a bit haphazard at times and the action scenes occasionally seemed either too long or too short, but the film went through all the emotions whilst being continuously funny.

7/10

Last night I went to see the Oxford Philomusica at the Reading Concert Hall again. I’d seen them twice before, but this was by far their best one.

They played:

• Prokofiev – Classical Symphony
• Saint-Saëns – Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
• Casals – Song of the Birds [encore for Natalie Clein]
• Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

With Natalie Clein playing the cello and Marios Papadopoulos conducting.

It’s the concert that really made me realise that the cello is my favourite instrument, having for years loved Elgar’s Cello Concertos. It’s incredible what sounds come out of the cello carrying such a wide range of emotions from sadness to anger.

I think I need to look into finding more cello pieces to listen to!

On Thursday I went to see Romeo and Juliet: Live from The Royal Opera House at the cinema.

Like many people I have discovered Prokofiev through The Apprentice, where it is used as the theme music and, liking it a lot, have listened to the rest several times since. Spotify link. Wikipedia Link.

I think I was expecting for there to be a static camera in front of the stage that would stream the production to the 800 cinemas that were involved. It actually turned out to be almost film like quality with various camera angles, as well as close-ups.

The ballet itself was beautifully done and breathtaking at times with both main dancers dancing impossibly well and showing just enough emotions at the right time.

I’m now already planning to see Rigoletto: Live from The Royal Opera House at the cinema, too.

• The Sleepless Nanny by Christa Charter
• The English German Girl by Jack Wallis Simons
• Seven Agatha Raisin books that I blogged about here and here.
• Memories of the Future – Volume 1 by Wil Wheaton
• Jessica Daniel – Locked In & Vigilante by Kerry Wilkinson
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston
• Seven Donna Leon books which I’ve blogged about here and here.

That’s 21 books which is more than I’ve read the last few years combined.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been unable to find time reading. This is due to getting back into gaming, a far too busy social life and spending pretty much an entire weekend helping one of my housemates with a college assignment.

Tonight the Kindle’s sleep image wouldn’t completely disappear and, after following the steps on the website including hard resetting and charging it [not in that order!], I realised it was pretty much dead and that I would need to contact Amazon support.

I’m really quite impressed with the customer service I have received so far. Instead of me having to call support during working hours I was able to contact them at 3am in the morning [hello insomnia] by clicking a button on the website which called my mobile and connected me to customer support. After going through a hard reset on the phone the Kindle’s screen was still mostly frozen and I was told I would receive a replacement within two days after which I would return the current device in the same box.

That is a fantastic service.

I’m hoping everything will carry on smoothly though, having just read the notification email, I realise that at least me returning it will be through Yodel who I am not on the best of terms with..

Am I annoyed that my Kindle is broken? Not really provided the replacement and return will go smoothly.

Last night I went to a crime writing workshop hosted by the Reading library:

Reading Library presents a unique opportunity to take part in a Crime Writing workshop with popular authors Danny Miller and Emlyn Rees.

Debut novelist Danny Miller [@dannymillerkmq] is author of noir thriller Kiss Me Quick. He is also a playwright and scriptwriter, working on Spooks, Holby City and EastEnders. Emlyn Rees [@EmlynReesWriter] has co-authored 7 novels with wife Josie Lloyd but has recently returned to thriller writing with pacey thriller Hunted.

Asides from writing whilst I was still in school I’ve never really approached crime and instead stuck with coming-of-age or light sci-fi. Several of the things I’ve written ended up being around 50000-100000 words, but, having identified I have issues with dialogue writing, never really got anywhere. My approach to writing is probably a bit unusual, too, with mostly just starting to write without having an idea in my mind and ultimately seeing where it goes. This can be frustrating as I want to find out where the story takes me after I lose interest in writing it.

I decided to go to last night’s workshop to get some ideas on what I am doing wrong and what I could improve on. To an extent I realised I do need to plan. There was a discussion on how much to plan with Danny mentioning that the planning stages of screenwriting is quite immense and some other people who had written books discuss how they find it useful to fall back on the scaffolding. Doing something like that myself I find difficult as it’s against my approach, but on the other hand I would quite like to actually finish something.

A quick exercise we undertook involved creating a character CV for a choice of roles which were an unlikely suspect, a quirky detective and a victim. Choosing the quirky detective I filled out the sheet feeling initially quite happy with it before realising just minutes later that I actually didn’t like the character any more. In that sense I can see planning working out well if the planning is done thoroughly as it means getting to know the protagonist and other characters well to then be able to fully concentrate on the story. This is something I can definitely see myself adopt as surely thorough planning means I’ll be more excited about writing it.

Other things discussed involved the rise of ebooks and how it would be good if books could come with a download code for an ebook. Seeing that even DVDs appear to do that now I really don’t understand why publishers don’t get behind that idea. Emlyn Rees also gave some behind-the-scenes information on publishing having previously worked in the industry.

Overall it was an enjoyable workshop if a little short and perhaps with too many people or maybe too many people that appeared to monopolise the questions. The authors led the discussion well and, if anything, have convinced me to buy their books which I am now going to download to my Kindle. Of course I would have bought the physical books if they had download codes..

I dug out the #doodleblanket on Friday after having the urge to continue it and decided to see it in all its glory on Saturday.

I reckon it is about 55% at this point and it’s massive!

For the past few months I’ve been doing various bits and pieces freelance based, but nothing has been anything major or anything that would grab my attention for longer than a day or two at the most.

Over the past week I have been starting preparations rewriting a website for a local Reading based charity who have been using a temporary site for far too long. Having had the first meeting about it on Thursday I am now really excited about the things we can create over the next few months.

The things I’ll be doing include restructuring and rewriting the website content, looking into new website solutions, integrating social media, providing social media training for the staff, as well as training them on how to use the website for updating it in the future.

A lot of work, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Tonight I went to see the European Union Chamber Orchestra at The Hexagon in Reading after winning tickets from the Reading Arts Facebook page.

• The concert featured the following setlist, as well as a couple of extra short pieces as encores:
• Warlock – Capriol Suite
• Mozart – Concerto for Flute & Harp in C Major K.299
• Debussy – Danse Sacre et Profane
• Haydn – Symphony No. 43 in E flat Major ‘Mercury’

It was the first time I had the chance to see a harp being played, with the exception of it being hidden at the back of an orchestra, and it definitely was an experience. Catrin Finch was incredible and, in addition to obviously being a very capable musician, really brought the music alive. This was particularly noticeable in her solo with the flautist Fiona Slominska, as well as their encore.

Overall it was a very enjoyable concert that I was planning to see anyway, but was very grateful to have won tickets.

I recently went through the Reading Arts website looking up concerts I might be interested in seeing and found the following:

• Henley Symphony Orchestra – Sunday 11.03.
• Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse – Wednesday 28.03.
• Oxford Philomusica – Friday 30.03. [Especially seeing I've seen their last two!]
• Noisy Kids with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Saturday 14.04.
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Saturday 14.04.
• Stacey Kent – Friday 20.04.
• Jerusalem Quartet & Alexander Melnikov, Piano – Saturday 05.05.
• Berkshire Maestros String Festival – Sunday 13.05.

Additionally I would absolutely love to see Nigel Kennedy and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in June, but with tickets starting at £40 it is a bit doubtful.

Yesterday I made my first apple crumble.

After much research via Twitter, the Guardian and various recipe sites I got confused as every recipe seemed to be quite different from pre-stewing the fruit to chucking them into the dish barely cut. In the end I opted for a recipe sent to me by @sahfenn which seemed simple and straightforward. I adapted the recipe a lot along the way though and the below is what I did.

Used a little butter to grease a large ovenproof dish [aka the only one we have].

The fruity bit:

• 5 apples, peeled, cored, cut into small chunks [I had various sizes, about three large and two small ones. This wasn't really enough for the crumble though as it turned out]
• Four tablespoons of water
• Lots of cinnamon [I added it quite liberally. I suppose it'd be about three or more table spoons. I like cinnamon!]

Put all the above ingredients in a thick bottomed saucepan and simmer gently until the apple is cooked, but not mushy.

For the crumbly bit:

• 225g Plain Flour
• 75g Butter
• 100g Soft Brown Sugar

Put the above crumble ingredients into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter until you have an even, dry mixture. Based on some tips I had read this should be done by hand and proved to be a lot of fun.

Finally I poured the fruit mixture in the dish followed by the crumble mixture, sprinkled a little bit more cinnamon on the top and cooked it in the preheated oven with Gas Mark 4 (180°C) for about 45 minutes.

The crumble wasn’t quite right – even though I felt like I had used about twice as much for the fruit mix as the original recipe demanded it came out with 1/3 fruit mix and 2/3 crumble topping which didn’t seem right to me. The top bit also didn’t turn very crumbly and was quite dry. I think in the future I’ll have to balance it better.

Overall I no longer fear the crumble. Housemates loved it which is definitely encouraging for the future, although it could just be that they’re after free food!

Yesterday I made a vegetable hotpot thing which turned out so well that I am now confident in calling myself a capable cook.

I used the following vegetables:

• One red onion, diced
• Several garlic cloves, diced
• Several carrots, cut into small chunks
• Several potatoes, cut into small chunks
• One chard, cut into small pieces
• One chicory, cut into small pieces
• One leek, sliced
• 3/4 of a large bag of spinach
• A can of baked beans

I used the following herbs:

• A chicken stockcube
• A vegetable stockcube
• Lots of dried parsley
• Lots of freshly ground black pepper
• Some dried coriander
• Some dried sage

I started by softening the onion and garlic in a saucepan with some olive oil and butter for a few minutes before adding the carrots and potatoes. Then I added the stockcubes, some hot water and the herbs and let it simmer until they were getting soft. This took about 15 minutes.

I then added the chard, chicory and leek with some more hot water allowing it to simmer for another 10 minutes before adding the baked beans followed by another ten minutes of simmering. At this point it was all getting quite gooey and smelled delicious.

Finally I added the spinach for the final few minutes and served.

Seeing this was the first thing I had eaten that day I had quite a lot of it and I have about as much left over meaning realistically that serves about four people. Or two if you like it as much as I did!

It all progressed over time starting with making notes in my diary on the day something was due to having dozens of post-it notes littering my monitor [and not leaving work in the evening until they had been completed] to complete to do lists for each day. In a way I have always used the principle that I don’t have to remember something if I have written it down.

My recent [well, it's been over six months now..] level of organisation started slipping around the beginning of February. Suddenly I was back to picking up the pieces constantly which took far more time than just being organised from the start. It initially started only with occasional chores, such as keeping the kitchen cupboard [mine is small and difficult to reach seeing I'm short] and the fridge [1.5 shelves] tidy at all times or keeping up to date with filing paperwork, but it soon became a problem with everyday tasks, too, such as laundry.

The main difficulty was trying to figure out how to best get a to-do list fitting into my daily life. I don’t use paper and didn’t want an app that I could only access on my phone. This all changed when I realised that Google Tasks didn’t only work with Gmail, but, most importantly, was also integrated in Google Calendar. I don’t know why I have never noticed the Tasks button before seeing I look at the calendar at least 20 times a day, but the past three weeks have been brilliant.

Using a to-do list in my daily calendar allows me to plan ahead without pressure. I don’t have to spend an entire day doing things, but can group tasks logically. For example paperwork with bill paying is on one day, whereas something different such as a charity shop drop off or recycling [not to be confused!] on another one. That way, once all the tasks on one day are completed, I don’t have to feel pressured about doing everything on one day knowing that it’ll come up on another day in the week and I can always shift them around if something comes up.

I also bought a whiteboard a couple of weeks ago which, asides from tracking things like my sleeping patterns, seems to mostly be used for cat pictures and random doodling.

I finally feel like I am getting back on track. There are still quite a few things to be sorted out this week, but I’m looking to be able to concentrate on my writing with no chances of procrastination by the end of the week which will be fantastic.

I love the random interaction on some social networks, especially on tumblr with its many single purpose blogs. It seems like it’s almost every week that a new Clients from Hell or texts from whoever appears.

Two random SPTB that follow me for some reason on tumblr are
Giacomo Casanova: Ciao! I am Giacomo Casanova, revered and loathed by many alike for my..exploits. Speak to me if you wish, I’m certain whatever interactions we partake in will be immensely fulfilling.
The Doctor: Hello, I’m the Doctor! But you can call me Barty. I’m a 1,000 year old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. I currently live on Earth with my family. Married with four children. I am now mostly human and have had my 2nd heart removed.

A couple of weeks ago I posted the above picture on tumblr, along with a multitude of pictures from my trip to Venice. The following conversation ensued:

Giacomo Casanova: He stands upon a small bridge, taking a deep breath, heart swelling still for this city.- La mia casa, il mio amore, non ti lascerò mai voi.

The Doctor: Barty steps up quietly up behind the younger man. He briefly considers pushing him into the water, but that silk coat he always seemed to favor was far too beautiful to ruin, in his opinion. Instead, he moved to Casanova’s side and leaned his body upon the bridge’s railing, making his presence known.- You sure about that, my friend? Great big universe out there… You could always travel.

Giacomo Casanova: Giacomo noted the stance he took, very much like his own with both lanky arms folded atop the railing before them, question bringing the younger to tilt his head back in thought. “I have traveled, do travel, and will most definitely travel again in the future.” He spoke clearly, dreamer’s eyes cast ahead of him again. “But nothing comforts me more than the sights this beautiful city offers me, you of all men should know that better than others.” He spied likewise marks of love in Barty for the canal which they overlooked, for the city, and for Italy itself. Whatever piece of him that had once been Casanova had not yet died, of that he could be certain.

The Doctor: “You know, even after all these years, it still does my hearts good to see this place again. I could walk these streets with my eyes closed and still know my way.” He smiled fondly at him, then down to a charming young couple passing them beneath the bridge, giving them a quick wave, before turning his attention back to the man at his side. “I jumped out of a high window and landed in one of those gondolas before when I was, well, you.” His smile turned into a playful grin as he recalled the little adventure he spoke of. “Practically landed into the lap of my future self! Well, specifically, I landed next to him, on my side. Completely bruised my right hip and most of my upper leg. But I survived and escaped the people chasing me, and that’s the important thing. Politicians don’t particularly like it when they come home to find you entangled with their wife, their daughter, and a maid. Well, two maids.”

Giacomo Casanova: “I had a feeling those hearts might.. one can never forget their first true love, after all.” He paused, sucking in another lung full of sweet air, lids falling half mast over their respective hues. “I mapped this city out like the body of a lover, memorized with much passion. It does offer me a sense of pride to know that you..who are very much still me in many ways, remember it.” Giacomo grinned from ear to ear with his own recollections, his memories the very same, vivid images racing through his mind of the day in question. “It was a remarkable thing, too, that such stout and seemingly out of shape hoards of men could run so fast.” He added, palm lowering to rub the spot which had been bruised in sympathy, put in mind of just how much that fall had hurt. Casanova had indeed survived said fall, but that did not mean it didn’t leave him limping for weeks. “Ahh, but do you remember the attention received for that injury? Many a lady came flocking to my door to assist, as any good nurse would upon witnessing the apparent limp in my step.” Goodness was all subjective; after all, and though they were not so good in the eyes of the church, he found them to be extremely efficient in their work.

The Doctor: Barty roared with laughter and nodded along to all that Casanova said to him, easily recalling every detail of his old life as it was brought up. “Of course I remember. They were so very good to me. Quite thorough in their little examinations, I must say.” He smirked and lightly drummed his fingers upon the railing, tapping out an old song he had once heard play long ago. “I enjoyed all the attention. Every where I turned, some young woman was waiting and willing to attend to me and my poor injured side. I could never refuse an offer of help, especially when it came from such beautiful faces. I was bedridden that first week, and they did everything for me. Never had to lift a finger. Which I was only too happy to repay them for afterwards. I always did enjoy that first gasp of surprise when they realized I could still actually move, despite my terrible injury.”

Giacomo Casanova: Casanova fell into a fit of tear inducing laughter himself at the vivid memory of those waddling politicians, and if one did not know better, they would think the pair to be twins in passing. “Oh yes, they were such kind and gentle women, and knew exactly what ought to cure the ailments of a man without a single drop of medical knowledge.” Giacomo clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth once laughter had died down, sleeve raised to brush moisture from the corners of his eyes. “Well yes, they make it absolutely impossible for me to refuse, they were so bloody persistent in their ways.” A hum followed, sly blues shifting to view his partner. “The look of surprise they wore upon seeing that I was indeed still very capable of movement was priceless, I will say that much; though not as memorable as the expression they wore experiencing that movement.” It was a strange thing to reminisce fondly with oneself, especially when said self was physically standing at his side as if it were not at all an abnormality. A curious thought filtered through all of the memories as he gazed upon Barty, head tipped to it’s right side, a tell of his curiosity. “Tell me, how is it that your eyes changed from blue to brown?”

The Doctor: “There are a number of ways I could have done it. Colored lenses being one.” A proud smile crossed his face as he briefly thought of all the rather magnificent inventions the people of this age had created. Nothing so advanced as what he’d had back home on Gallifrey – not even close – but impressive none the less, and he’d found them to be quite useful in a number of situations he’d found himself in at one point or another. “But I found the lenses to be too risky, since they can fall out. I considered hiding a small perception filter upon my person as well, but they can be broken, and I didn’t have one in my possession then that would not have looked out of place in that century. So I did something far easier. A Time Lord can change far more than just the whole of his form. I can will much smaller aspects of my appearance to change, without having to regenerate to do so. A nice little trick I learned in the school days of my youth…” Barty slowly leaned his face in closer to Casanova’s, his prideful smile turning into an almost wickedly playful smirk, as dark browns brightened and transformed into brilliant pale blues to mirror his own.

To think that all of this only started with me posting a picture..

Whilst my insomnia or very occasional somnolence have been with me for years, it seems very different at the moment. I’m exhausted and which led to me feeling incredibly anti-social both online and offline, as well as being unable to actually utilise the extra time like I have learned to over the years. Insomnia = the time at night I get things done. This past week I’ve been lying in bed awake for hours or, as in most cases, all night. The first night it started I was in bed from 10pm lying awake all the way until 8am the next morning with none of the usual tricks* helping.

I’m hoping this will normalise again soon and won’t be something that becomes a habit.

*Usual tricks that help me sleep [in no particular order]: Reading, music, podcasts, casual games on my phone, watching TV, sleeping on the floor, complete darkness, drinking tea.

Totally unrelated to my problem, but an interesting read: The myth of the eight hour sleep.

Was notified that the glasses had come in this morning and they ended up being the wrong ones. Even worse, none of the notes of my complaint were on the system.

In order to make things easier for everyone when I will go back to speak to a manager tomorrow I have spent the last hour looking up dates, diaries, Foursquare check-ins and blogposts to collect a clear list of all issues with Boots Opticians to date. Names and other personal information has obviously been removed.

Two days ago I even contacted the general Boots customer service email with no replay as of yet. If the issues aren’t resolved tomorrow or within a reasonable amount of time I might have to make a complaint to The Optical Consumers Complaints Service.

Basic dates:

• Eyetest: Wednesday, 30.03.11 plus point of sale [Staff member's name, removed for blogpost]
• Picked up second pair of glasses: 06.04.11 [No notification]
• Picked up first pair of glasses: 08.04.11 [No notification or courtesy call about delays]

Aftercare:

• Adjustments – 5 between April and September, 8 between October and January
• Arms bent – September by former D&A on Broad St
• Lenses chipping off on the right lense – October

Complaint on 30.01.12:

• Was told the different arms have voided warranty [was not explained at point of sale – ‘it’s not a problem to attach a different arm to the lenses, will do this at manufacturer’]
• Was told that bent arms would have to be fixed at store that bent them
• Was told that the lenses chipping off was not a major concern

Outcome after staff member consulted with manager multiple times:

• Would receive a new set of glasses with default arms to avoid future issues
• Purchased Boots Opticians cover which would be valid from the day of the receipt of the new glasses which is also when paperwork would be done
• Was told to expect one week until delivery – 06.02.12

Chasing up glasses:

• 07.02.12 – Called store to enquire about glasses, told they had not yet come in
• 09.02.12 – Went instore to enquire about glasses, told they had not come in and that there had been a delay with the frames. New due date 13.02.12
• 13.02.12 – Went instore to enquire about glasses, told they had been fitted and were still at the manufacturer. When asking about delays with frames was told that there wasn’t anything on the system. New due date 15.02.12
• 14.02.12
  - Phoncall from manager [no name] telling me glasses had been delayed until 17.02.12. Reason given delay in frames. When mentioning that I had been told different things before was told ‘I don’t know what was said yesterday, was not instore as at a funeral’ without offering to look into issues.
  - Received another call minutes later [either same manager or other member of staff, no name given] telling me glasses would be there 17.02.12.
  - Emailed Boots customer service. Received an auto responder stating ‘Our Central Customer Care team has received your email safely. [...] We aim to respond to all emails within 24 hrs.’ No response by 16.02.12.
• 16.02.12 – Received text message informing me the glasses had arrived.
  - Went to store at 18.30. Had to wait until 18.40 until seen. Only one staff member visible with customer, no courtesy of apologising for the wait.
  - Member of staff collected glasses, before another took over.
  - Glasses were the wrong ones [they were the alternative arms fitted, not the default ones with the frame]. Seeing that this would basically repeat the previous glasses I refused them.
  - Was told frame Colorado A was no longer available.
  - No notes available on the system from 30.01.12, only from two times I had been chasing it since.

Generally I mostly like 24, but there are many things that annoy me about it some of which I’ve already mentioned in a previous post in 2009. Some other things include government trained agents being unable to clear a building in adequate time or the general squabbling between CTU staff which clearly stops any real work being done.

The main reason I don’t like 24, however, is Kim Bauer. She makes me wonder how she has made it through everyday life so far as she has no common sense, people skills and pretty much just plays the ‘deer caught in the headlights’ angle. Things that have happened to Kim Bauer over the course of the show:

Day 1:

• She gets kidnapped.
• She and her friend try to escape, her friend gets hit by a car.
• She gets kidnapped by the same people again.
• She is handed over to the people that ordered the kidnapping.
• She nearly escapes, but then changes her mind.
• She has to flee the safe house with her mother as they’re being attacked by hitmen.
• She is in a car crash and separated from her mother.
• She is a witness to a drug deal.
• She is arrested for said drug deal.
• She is released from jail and immediately kidnapped by terrorists again when the police car she is travelling in gets attacked.
• She escapes the terrorists and swims through the water to safety.
• Her mother is being killed.

Day 2:

• She is being pushed to the ground by her employer, the father of the girl she is babysitting.
• She and the daughter escape the house in the mother’s car.
• They are tracked down and have to escape on foot.
• She is again tracked down and attacked by the father.
• She and the daughter reach CTU via the bus.
• She is inside CTU when it is blown up.
• She is accused of child abuse at the hospital.
• She and her boyfriend take the daughter from the hospital in the father’s car which again involves a confrontation with the father.
• They are stopped by a policeman who discovers that the mother’s dead body is in the trunk and arrests them.
• They are taken to the police station and then transferred to jail.
• She lights a fire in the police car and causes it to crash injuring the policeman and her boyfriend who had to have one of his legs amputated.
• She escapes the crashsite and runs away.
• She gets stuck in a trap left by poachers whilst escaping from a wild animal.
• She is rescued by a poacher, taken back to his hut and made to believe the bomb has exploded so she stays there with him. Once she realises he lets her go and foolishly gives her a gun.
• She thinks her father is being killed by an exploding plane.
• She leaves safety of the car she hitchhiked to reach a convenience store which, minutes after her arrival, is being held hostage.
• She has her gun being taken from her and its responsible for the death of the store owner.
• She is arrested again.
• She is released, taken back to the house of the family she was working for and is attacked by the father. Again.
• She kills the father on command from her father.

Day 3:

• She gets tied up by Gael.
• She exercises very poor judgement with the baby and social services.
• Her negligence is responsible for Saunders being killed.

Day 4:

• She doesn’t appear, yey!

This is a post I first wrote in 2010, but for some reason never finished. I think it’s probably because I never really watched much more of 24. The next season I’m expecting to watch will be season 6, but unlike Stargate, it’s a show I have to really pay attention to while watching it.

For the past couple of weeks I have been watching Stargate, a show I initially watched some episodes of when it was first on TV, but never got past the fourth season finale. So far I am through the first two seasons and should be starting on the third season at some point this week. The run so far has been enjoyable if a little basic. Just like Star Trek’s Deep Space Nine, it’s taken a while to establish everything in the universe and a lot of the episodes were a little too much ‘Monster of the week‘.

The penultimate episode of season two sends the team back in time to 1969 where they meet a younger version of General Hammond, their superior officer. Before their departure he gives Sam a note she isn’t meant to read. His younger self discovers the cryptic note written in his own handwriting and he is meant to help the team. Era specific hijinks ensue. So far, so boring. Eventually they make it back to present time via a detour to the future and General Hammond reveals he has known about it all along. The end.

This episode bugs me for many reasons. None of General Hammond’s reactions in the first two seasons make any sense. For example why would he oppose Teal’c joining the team or act surprised at Daniel Jackson’s existence? It also pretty much means that Sam can’t die as she will, in years to come, inform the girl from the future about sending them back. Of course it also means that neither Earth nor the Stargate can be destroyed, though there’s another Stargate on the planet, as well as many other factors.

Timetravel in TV shows works as long as it is sufficiently in the past or the future. Doctor Who manages this by travelling far enough ahead, such as the Earth’s destruction or far enough in the past to avoid meeting major characters of the show. Episodes such as the one with Rose’s dad is dealt with carefully.

Stargate’s episode is irritating and shows a disregard for the continuity and the show’s fans and it’s made me irritated about future episodes.

Tonight I went to see a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra in the Hexagon in Reading which marks the first time I’ve been inside the Hexagon, despite having lived in Reading for over ten years.

I’ve realised over the past year that I quite enjoy seeing classical concerts, such as the Oxford Philomusica and a Proms concert last year or a concert in Venice this year, yet always seem to just say ‘well, that’d be nice’ instead of actually booking the ticket.

I think a reason for that is that I don’t know a lot of classical music – sure I listen to it a lot and have some favourite composers [Elgar, Einaudi and Gershwin come to mind], but asides from that I don’t know much more and most concerts I have seen advertised in the local area feature music I don’t even recognise. Of course this could largely be down to the fact that I have a terrible memory with all artists and song titles. I would recognise most popular songs of the past two decades, yet curiously would not be able to name the artist or song title.

The London Symphony Orchestra is something I have always wanted to see, I have listened to recordings on soundtracks, such as Star Wars, countless times and any time I have seen a video it always seemed so vibrant and lively yet always professional.

Tonight’s concert contained the following setlist of which I only recognised the name Bernstein, but not even the songs by him. There was also another song prefacing the interval which wasn’t mentioned in the program and that the clarinet player announced as ‘the song played instead of the wedding march during the wedding to my first wife’:

• Adams – The Chairman Dances
• Bernstein – Three Dance Episodes from ‘On The Town’
• Copland – Clarinet Concerto
• Milhaud – La Creation du Monde Op.81a
• Bernstein orch. Foss – Prelude, Fugue & Riffs
• Ellington orch. Henderson – Harlem

Despite not even recognising the songs when they were played it was a fantastic concert. The whole concert was dynamic with the conductor practically dancing around, the clarinet player getting the audience involved with clicking fingers and telling an anecdote of the wedding to his first wife and overall the members of the orchestra seemed not only happy to be there, but also to play the music. There were a lot of smiles which made a big difference.

Looking forward, I am quite tempted to see the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in November playing the best of John Williams.

Allow me to explain: I have shoulder length medium thick curly hair which is washed at least every two days. In order for my hair to not turn into a ginormous frizzy mess I have to blow dry it each time which, with my previous hairdryer, took about 20 minutes for my hair to be completely dry. This time I normally spent catching up with Twitter or Google Reader on my phone whilst holding the hairdryer in the direction of my head and only using both hands during the final minutes.

I don’t know whether it is my new haircare products which promise faster drying time or the Remington D5020 Pro Ionic Ultra hairdryer which has a turbo button, but my drying time has been reduced to just seven minutes from almost dripping wet to completely dry hair. It’s a reduction of more than half an hour a week or over two hours a month. I feel like I should try to see if it makes a difference without the haircare products or what it’s like to dry my hair without the turbo button, but for now I just enjoy that it works so fast though I do miss the time spent on Twitter!

Overall, whilst the hairdryer doesn’t look very pretty, it does its job very well. A purchase well made.

The shampoo on the other hand isn’t that amazing. Whilst the serum has become part of my hair routine, I almost don’t want to use the shampoo, as it doesn’t seem to work too well. It doesn’t lather much and I always feel like I’m not using enough despite using more than I normally would with another shampoo. I’m glad it doesn’t work too well as it means that I can carry on buying cheap shampoos and just buy the more expensive serum. Problem solved.

It’s all part of the experience of having a vegetable box with random contents delivered to my house which can turn out well in the form of kiwi muffins or roasted savoy cabbage and can also turn out badly with fennel. Having researched recipes and realising I didn’t fancy the raw option as a salad that @swedishmike suggested on Twitter, I googled a bit more and debated between fennel steaks and potato and fennel soup before deciding on the latter.

I ended up freestyling [inspired by @swedishmike's blog] a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Instead of the things he mentioned I used:

• Sunflower oil
• 1 knob unsalted butter
• 1.5 large onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed, tough core removed and diced
• Four large potatoes
• 600ml chicken stock
• 100ml whole milk
• Thyme
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the rest I pretty much followed the recipe and first softened the onions, garlic and fennel before adding the stock and potatoes and the milk after the puréeing.

Initially I was quite impressed – the strong fennel flavour was all but gone and I was left with a very creamy soup that tasted like it had too much salt. The more I ate of it, however, the more I realised it was actually the fennel I could taste, not the salt. By the end of the bowl I regretted that I have another batch sitting here waiting to be frozen.

The moral of the story is that I think I would have been very disheartened had I received fennel in my first vegetable box from Abel & Cole, but having spent some time over the past week cooking from scratch I can live with the fact that I spent over an hour cooking something I really didn’t enjoy. I have now made sure I set fennel as a dislike with Abel & Cole and won’t be receiving any more of it in the future.

This weekend has been a quiet one as the time in between my coach trip to Germany and Venice was quite hectic and stressful and I really needed a bit of a breather. This worked perfectly well with the cold weather we’ve been having this weekend and I was glad not to have to go out. Instead I stayed in, cooked things from my latest Abel & Cole order, such as broccoli and peanut butter soup and read a lot.

Yesterday I read most of ‘Death at La Fenice’ which I finished today and also got about halfway through the next book in the series ‘Death in a Strange Country’. Only another 20 or so books to go in the series. It is remarkable just how much more I recognise the town when locations, such as Fondamente Nuove [there's a great cafe there] are mentioned and I’m looking forward to reading more.

For the past couple of days I’ve been reading Donna Leon’s ‘Death at La Fenice’ which is the first of her Commisario Brunetti books. Whilst I’ve read them before many years ago I don’t really remember them too well and am yet again wondering who the murderer could be.

It really helps with the immersion that I was in Venice just a few days ago, as I have actually been to some of the locations and directions described in the book. I have even encountered La Fenice – the large operahouse in Venice where I took the above picture.

Tonight I cooked roasted savoy cabbage with mashed potatoes and carrots loosely following the Abel & Cole recipe. With hindsight I should have probably followed it closer rather than just seeing what happens, but it turned out lovely. I used:

A whole savoy cabbage though the one I had was kind of small.

• Half of a large white onion.
• Three potatoes.
• Three tiny carrots.
• Several garlic gloves.
• 500ml chicken stock.
• Black pepper.
• Thyme.
• Some butter.

For the cabbage I:

• Cut the onion and diced it.
• Peeled the garlic gloves and crushed them.
• Added them in a pan with butter to brown them.
• Cut the cabbage into five pieces.
• Added them to the pan and left them in there for a few minutes on each side.
• Placed everything and the chicken stock in a dish.
• Added some thyme and black pepper.
• Left in the oven for half an hour.

For the mash I:

• Peeled the potatoes and carrots and cut them into small pieces.
• Cooked them until almost too tender.
• Mashed them with a little bit of chicken stock from the oven.

Served.

I had never considered cooking savoy cabbage this way, but it was lovely, if a little less strongly flavoured. I think in the future I will try to make sure the savoy cabbage has more taste as it is one of my favourite vegetables.

I went to Venice and I bought a snood. Sure, lots of other great things happened, too, but the snood has changed things. I had been looking at knitting one before, but never really saw the point in them until it was almost too cold to bear it.

The one I bought from a random small shop in the San Polo district is made out of two identically sized tubes in beige and black wool containing:

• 60% acrylic
• 30% mohair
• 10% Lana wool

As both tubes are layered with each other and contain mohair it is incredibly warm and barely allows even strong winds to go through.

Now I need to look at snood patterns or perhaps join this knit-a-long @noirem pointed out.

Yesterday I went to prison or rather a former prison. I was in the Palazzo delle Prigioni in Venice to see a concert.

It included opera performances from Rossini, Chopin and others and, particularly with the setting, was beautiful.

Venice, however, is very, very cold.

We’re planning to:

• Go to a classical concert with an opera since which is booked for tonight.
• Go to the Santa Maria della Salute church.
• Go to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.
• Go to the Rialto fishmarket.
• See Venice early in the morning, during the day and late at night.
• Walk around lots.

So excited!

In April 2011 I got two pairs of glasses from Boots Opticians after my previous ones of over three years had broken. It was the first time I had used Boots Opticians and I was already displeased with the service back then after they had neglected to inform me that my glasses had arrived and, even earlier, when I had an eye test lasting two hours. Granted my prescription had changed most peculiarly and the test was thorough, but waiting times of 40 minutes when I had a scheduled appointment isn’t that great.

The problems with my glasses started about 1.5 months afterwards. They didn’t sit properly and I had to go in far too often to get them adjusted. One of the lenses started chipping off around August or September time which, when I pointed it out to the technician, was brushed aside as normal wear and tear. As someone who has been wearing glasses for at least 1.5 years a time since she was six years old I wasn’t impressed, but, seeing it didn’t seem to be that bad at the time didn’t insist much. This also coincided with work stress and then the knee injury.

Another time after that both arms actually got bent intentionally at the screw bit meaning they wouldn’t close as well as they did before. I pointed this out the next day after inspecting them and again was told this wasn’t an issue and it made them fit better. They are so bent that when closed they would not be able to fit in even a large glasses case.

Fast forward to now and one of the lenses is showing several millimetres of chipped glass on all sides where the arm is connected and, worried they’ll break one day, I decided it was time to yet again visit Boots Opticians for what is already the third time this year.

When I pointed out the issues I had and the numerous times I had visited both of the two Boots Opticians stores in Reading [Foursquare now tells me this was 14 times since I bought them though I do remember not always checking in], I had to argue my point for over half an hour in total. The technician spoke to his manager eight times in total, each time claiming that because the frames were fitted with an different set of arms than the standard, as requested by me during purchase, there was nothing they could do. This is despite my insistence that this was a manufacturing and aftercare fault and something that was not explained to me at the point of sale. Seeing I had no proof of any of the times I had come in to get them fixed it was pretty much my word against theirs and I really don’t think they would have accepted Foursquare check-ins.

After checking with his manager three times I was made the first offer of a free eye test with 20% off my next pair of glasses which is ludicrous. An already far too long story cut short my saving grace appeared to be the bent arms at the screws as this was evidently done professionally [at one point he suggested I should get those fixed at the other Boots Optician where it originally happened] and finally I was offered a new pair of glasses if I would purchase a £25 Boots cover covering me from the moment I get those glasses through.

Whilst I am not particularly happy about having to fork out an additional £25 for a pair of faulty glasses costing me several hundred pounds under a year ago I feel that it was a compromise I should agree to. My downfall was the lack of evidence, as well as the need for new glasses.

The blogpost I had written several months ago was very negative to Boots Opticians. I was unhappy at the poor level of service I received on the majority of my visits and the fact that the aftercare generally was unpleasant with staff trying to quickly get me back out of the door. Granted I was spoilt by having a previous pair of glasses from a more upmarket optician which delivered excellent care even after warranties and cover expired, but Boots is a big name company. They dominate the market in many sectors and by pushing cheap glasses solutions on customers they are probably quite successful.

I’m glad I am getting a new pair of glasses, but I will not be using them for any future glasses I will need to get.

Yesterday evening one of my housemates made the oddest request. He wanted me to knit him a scarf for his figure to go on top his model aeroplane when he’ll fly it later this year.

How could I possibly resist this?

The scarf was another lengthways scarf with five rows knitted over 65 stitches.

I need more fun and unusual knitting projects like this one!

Today I baked some kiwi muffins following [mostly] the Kiweasy recipe on the Abel & Cole website. Not only did I bake and cook for the second day in a row, but I also did something I mentioned in the previous post so it’s pretty much a double achievement!

I modified the recipe by using eight muffin cases rather than a muffin tray which I do not have and I also mixed all the ingredients in one bowl starting with the wet ingredients before adding the dry ones starting with sugar. The mixing was done by a housemate which was great seeing the mixture was rather worryingly thick.

Preparation was about ten minutes and the time in the oven was bang on 25 minutes.

The final result was amazing. The muffins were crunchy sweet on the top and broke open slightly during the baking. The inside was fluffy and the kiwi really complimented the muffin. My brain kept telling me that I’m eating an apple and cinnamon muffin and it was uncanny just how similar the kiwis tasted. The whole muffin had a rather balanced taste to it, it wasn’t too sweet, but just right.

Seeing I have enough ingredients left I’m very tempted to make another batch tomorrow!

Unrelated – I have watched a lot of films today:

• Poirot’s Mystery of the Blue Train
• Galaxy Quest [brilliant as ever]
• Van Helsing [which will always remind me of the game]
• The Green Hornet [much better than I expected]
• The Rock [also brilliant as ever]

Today was the first delivery of my Abel & Cole box.

I had considered ordering a vegetable box for a while and Abel & Cole was always at the top of my list thanks to some of the great reviews by people on Twitter. After putting it off for far too long I finally decided to go ahead on Tuesday and was very excitedly awaiting today!

Opting for the small fruit and veg box I had the following delivered today with all the items being in perfect condition:

• A small savoy cabbage [one of my favourite vegetables!]
• One avocado
• Several carrots
• Four Fairtrade bananas
• Four kiwis
• Three leeks
• Several Sante potatoes
• Two star grapefruits

I also ordered a range of other things with it whilst having a lot of problems resisting the pies and cakes on the website:

• Yeo Valley unsalted butter
• Rude Health Early Bird Muesli
• Six free-range eggs [have selected this to be included every other week]
• 1L of milk [have selected this to be included every week]
• Two large garlic bulbs
• Rosemary
• Abel & Cole traditional houmous [180g]
• Abel & Cole mature cheddar [360g]
• Two Brown Cow raspberry yoghurts

Included with the order was the Abel & Cole cookbook which has a multitude of great recipes in it, all depending on the season. I like that the recipes don’t assume I have a large store cupboard full of obscure spices and most of the recipes sound very straightforward.

One of the first things I did when I got the box through was to look at the website for recipes. I don’t particularly like grapefruits and don’t really know what to do with it. The following recipes can all be made with the contents of the box as the primary ingredient:

• Organic Dial-a-Cabbage-Wedges
• Organic Kiweasy
• Organic Abel & Colecannon
• Grapefruit Guacamole

I also saw a recipe on the Abel & Cole website for an avocado chocolate mousse which sounds interesting.

Tonight was the first time I cooked in a while. I chose a recipe from the cookbook which was roasted vegetables and added potatoes, carrots, leeks, red onion [not included in my books] and seasoned it with several sprigs of rosemary, some garlic cloves before adding it to a roasting tin with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Even though I mistimed the carrots it was delicious.

Tomorrow I’m looking at possibly making some potato and leek soup or maybe the colecannon and I’m definitely going to have a go at the Kiweasy! I think I’m just regretting not having ordered it long ago.

In Brussels with a full on cold. Incredibly unpleasant drivers, too. #Catisonacoach

I can confirm that I am not currently on a coach and haven’t been since the 14th of January. Thanks to both of the journeys I am also not planning on any coach trips within the foreseeable future, particularly not ones that involve the use of foreign coach companies. More on that another time.

I think the last two coach trips have somewhat scarred me as I’ve had two coach related nightmares in the past two days.

One of them involved me being stuck on a coach for three days until mutiny. Why this took three days I’m not sure and I also don’t remember why I was on the coach or where I was going to.

The second one was more vivid though and whilst I don’t remember the dream so much now I do recall bits with the help of the notes I wrote down as soon as I woke up:

• Coach travel.
• Several days break somewhere for some reason.
• Handbag stolen.
• XXX helps me retrieve it.
• Then tells me to go for my real love.
• He gives me the number for that person.
• Hollywood happy ending with music.

XXX is a person I know, he is someone I went to school with back home in Germany. I haven’t seen him since 2001 and, apart from having him on my friends list on a German Facebook clone some years ago, have had no contact. In fact there wasn’t really any contact then either; he added me and I accepted the friends request. Whilst he went on to move towns and become somewhat successful in a certain sports discipline in his local area, I haven’t come across him in any news or seen him on Facebook or anywhere.

It truly puzzles me why he appeared in my dream in a manner very unlike how I remember him. In the dream he was a supportive person with local knowledge and able to help me. In a sense he reminded me of Jonathan in the Buffy episode where he made himself famous though he was never anything like Jonathan.

All in all it was one of the strangest dreams in my life and very much unlike previous dreams. And who is my real love? The person representing my allegedly real love in the dream wasn’t anyone I’ve ever met.

I wish I had never discovered the Agatha Raisin series as it is sure to bankrupt me over time!

Since then I have made a resolution that I will only buy one book each calendar week to not only draw out the series, but also ensure my bank account doesn’t hate me too much. Last week I read ‘Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage‘ fairly early on in the week and was tempted to buy the next one as early as Thursday. I managed to not only resist, but also forget all about it until remembering just now!

The murderous marriage was a good book, but it wasn’t fantastic. For most of it it changed the dynamic between Agatha and the other characters a bit too much and the overall murder and plot was completely crazy. It did, however, have this quote which made me laugh a lot:

The rendering of ‘Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina’ was, Agatha reflected sourly, music to stun pigs by.

This week’s book is ‘Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist‘ which some Amazon reviews have called the worst book in the series and which I am now looking forward to reading in bed.

Only five days until I can buy the next one!

My Kindle activity which includes shared quotes and finished books. I blog about books I’ve read in the ‘Books‘ category. And, finally, my Amazon Wishlist includes upcoming books I am planning to read.

She had no texts, no missed calls and the only emails were ones offering her enhancements she definitely wouldn’t be needing without far more invasive and complicated surgery first.

I finished the book quite quickly and enjoyed it. Jessica Daniels is a solid character with enough quirks and too few friends to be completely believable though the plot itself was a bit too straightforward. Maybe it’s because I have read too many crime novels to see patterns easily, but it was still satisfying to see I was right at the end.

Vigilante on the other hand was a little bit less obvious. It is set several months after the first book and things for the character had changed which led to her feeling isolated more. She has picked up some new bad habits which turn out to be quite annoying to read about as I can’t quite follow the character. The book itself was much more fun to read as the story was more compelling and perhaps because I didn’t guess the end.

Overall I am enjoying the Jessica Daniel’s series a lot and book three is on my list of books to read next. I am also looking forward to book four and five which are set to be released later in the year.

My Kindle activity which includes shared quotes and finished books. I blog about books I’ve read in the ‘Books‘ category. And, finally, my Amazon Wishlist includes upcoming books I am planning to read.

I first started a scarf for my friend’s birthday all the way back in October when I opted for a patchworky looking pattern out of various knit and purl stitches over four rows with two different colours until I realised that the colours, whilst matching really well, were my favourite colours, not hers. Knowing that her favourite colours are hot pink and emerald I chose to buy some wool when I was in Germany.

Initially I was dubious about the colours and whether they would really work together, but quickly realised that they were actually practically made for each other and quickly progressed.

It’s the first time I chose to knit a scarf lengthways which is surprising seeing how many scarves I have actually knitted. It was @sahfenn who first put the idea in my head at some time last year, but I never actually got around to doing it myself. With this scarf I was really looking to create something with texture and a bit of an Asian feel which the colours definitely achieve. By knitting lengthways I was able to alternate colours for a large chunk of the scarf which also automatically created tassels at the end.

The yarn is Schachenmayr SMC Bravo which is 100% acrylic and distributed by Coats Crafts and I used approximately 85% of the pink and 55% of the emerald, as well as approximately 35g of gold Anchor Artiste.

I cast on judging purely by gauging the length and lots of guessing and then alternated knitting emerald and gold with pink and gold rows, as well as a pink middle section with a double gold midsection.

Once cast off I knotted the tassels together, two at a time and normally one of each colour. This eliminated having to add tassels at a later point and meant I didn’t have to sew in any ends.

Overall this was an incredibly easy and quick scarf to knit. I now have ideas for my next lengthways scarf with an initial idea of a rainbow coloured one.

It all started early today afternoon when one of my housemates mentioned going on holiday and we then thought we should go on holidays together which led to two of us looking for cheap deals to Amsterdam, then Madeira, Marrakesh, Venice and other places in April.

Come early evening after hours of reading trip reviews and playing around with dates and locations I was caught by the holiday bug and wanted to check, just out of interest of course, what a few nights in Venice at the end of this month would cost just for me. I realised I could travel and stay in Venice for a lot less than I expected. Speaking to a friend hoping she would dissuade me only led to her saying she would be able to join me and I have just completed the booking!

I will be in Venice from the 31.01.-02.02. staying in Residenza Cannaregio, a former monastery directly in Venice, flying to Venice’s Marco Polo airport. No coach travel this time! The hotel has received a wealth of great reviews on Trip Advisor and most importantly looks really good.

Additionally we have decided to opt for a Collegium Ducale Orchestral Concert with an opera singer’s performance in the Palazzo delle Prigioni on the Tuesday.

The entire trip including the performance, hotel, flight, taxes came to less than £200 per person. Including train and bus it’ll probably not be much more and it’s quite mindblowing that it’s possible to stay in the actual Venice for that amount.

Going to Venice will be a strange experience. Even though I’ve been there before, it was always during the summer time and I’ve heard that Venice can seem like an entirely different town during the winter months. It’s also the first proper holiday I have been on in many years as I normally have to go back to Germany every time I have the time or the money or I decide to do other things with my time. I’m really very excited.

I’ve just realised the search with housemates was never completed..

If my memory is correct, which is always a caveat to add to most of my childhood memories, one of the first stories I ever read myself was the one with the sweet porridge. I had been read the more traditional ones over the years and only picked this one, because it was probably one of the shortest ones in the book. I remember leafing through the pages until finding one that was less than a page. Now, many years later, I couldn’t even remember its entire plot and had to look it up during one of the conversations.

Whilst I had been aware of the concept of Sherlock Holmes from a young age I didn’t read them until I was 11, as my parents considered some of the themes and settings to be too adult. I spent Christmas one year reading the collected Sherlock Holmes works.

It’s interesting to see what has happened to the books since. With the Grimm’s fairy tales I’ve watched the Heath Ledger film, some of Grimm and a majority of Once Upon A Time and none of them really does it for me. The latter probably is the most interesting because of its recurring characters and intriguing story, but I have no real drive to carry on watching. With Grimm I’m finding the premise incredibly difficult to swallow.

Sherlock Holmes has had many adaptations and I remember watching quite a few of the older ones. Nothing seemed to quite grab the character for me as the 2009 film though and I’m still planning to see the new film. By all intents and purposes I feel like I should like Sherlock, but, just like Grimm, find the overly modern setting irritating. Sherlock makes me feel both bored and angry at the same time.

Maybe it’s best to keep the fond memories in the past.

I have just ordered its replacement from Amazon based on the good reviews all around the internet – the Remington D5020 Pro Ionic Ultra Hair Dryer which is quite a mouthful. May it last me as long as the other one has.

A purchase I never thought I would make is spending anything above a couple of quid for shampoo, but after yesterday’s wash and cut using only these products I’ve thought that perhaps it does make a difference in what I use on my hair. In addition to purchasing the serum at the salon at the time I have also elected to buying the shampoo and conditioner by Paul Mitchell. I’m hoping this will last years as I don’t want to spend this much on my hair on a regular basis!

I feel like I need to balance this out, turning far too girly.

I got Skyrim on the PC [well, my laptop] since the week of its release and have not played it at all this year. In fact I can’t even remember the last time I did play it, but think it was after Christmas. I even took my laptop to Germany with me hoping I would be able to play some there which, but, thanks to a mixup with travel plugs, I couldn’t.

I have nothing to blame at the moment – I have the time and I have the means right here as I’m typing this post on my laptop. Yet at the same time I’ve had a long day of shopping and getting a haircut and time at my friend’s house that all I want to do is eat the white chocolate brownie I bought from Workhouse Coffee and have some Kindle time in bed.

In the past I blamed having incompatible hobbies, such as knitting and reading [though that's slowly starting to work together with the Kindle], but I can just as well play Skyrim from bed as the desk is next to my bed and I’m playing it with a 360 controller anyway. It’s not even that I don’t like Skyrim – I think it’s probably one of the best games I’ve ever played and every time I’ve played it has been rewarding and brilliant.

So why does it feel like a chore?

It’s a show I discovered years ago and, despite not really being convinced by its concept, stuck to. Mediums and premonitions aren’t really anything I give credit to.

The show was great for its characters, particularly the DuBois family. Joe’s difficulty of dealing with his wife’s abilities and the children’s daily life coming second after their mum’s job felt real. The family had to adjust and even later episodes made a point of dealing with things like the schoolrun or the girls slowly growing up. One of my favourite B plots involved Ariel having to make a difficult decision whether to accept a dead husband’s help deceiving his wife and deleting emails if his infidelity in exchange for him helping her pass the interview for university. Another involved Allison lying to her husband’s mother by telling her she had a dream about her years down the future after having been diagnosed with brain cancer leading to her not making any arrangements when it came close to her dying several years later.

There were also many things that annoyed me – Allison was too vague and often withheld or didn’t share information until the “oh, I saw that” moment which could have potentially saved lives before. In that regard I wish the writers had been more clever about important plot developments.

However, the thing that really left me with a bad taste in my mouth and really made me question the whole show was the final episode. I can’t forgive the writer’s for wrapping it up by removing all the things that made the show great – the family. I remember thinking the episode was less sad than Buffy’s ‘The Body’ and that was in equal parts the episode being sad, the end of a great show and the events of the episode.

Overall it’s a show I can see myself watch again years down the line, but I will not be watching that last episode again.

Memories of the Future was one of the first books I bought on the Kindle and the fourth book I’ve finished on the Kindle.

For most of the book I was disappointed and then disappointed in being disappointed. It felt like he was pandering to the audience’s hatred of his character on practically every page and whilst he pointed out obvious plot flaws, such as a doctor’s kid suddenly being given an important mission, I wish there could have been more on the episodes. Anything than the constant reminder on how it’s the cool thing to hate the character would have been good.

I also didn’t find his writing to be of his usual standard until quite late in the book when it got towards the final episodes of the first season.

This is where the episode, which had been flirting with a left turn at Albuquerque for the last fifteen minutes, sets a course for planet Shark and warps right over it.

Looking back at my Amazon activity I realise I shared quite a few passages which I remember made me laugh out loud, but there were too few, especially at the beginning.

It’s a fun book, but I am overall a little bit disappointed as I have seen much better writing from him in basic blog or tumblr posts and I’ll think twice about purchasing the sequel or any of his other books at full price. Or maybe I just had too high expectations?

My Kindle activity which includes shared quotes and finished books. I blog about books I’ve read in the ‘Books‘ category. And, finally, my Amazon Wishlist includes upcoming books I am planning to read.