Sunny Skies and Sunny thoughts July 1, 2008

We finally made it to the UK, only 15 hours late!  I’m quite proud that I didn’t completely freak out about having to change all our plans due to the delay.  A year ago I would have flipped, as all my carefully timetables things fell apart but this year I nearly took it in my stride.  I figure by the time I finish Don’t sweat the small stuff I’ll be so laid back things like this will just wash over me.

 

I may have freaked other passengers out by crying during most of the plane journey.  If you’ve read The Book Thief you’ll know why.  If you haven’t go out and buy it. It is AMAZING.  Maybe not life changing (as claimed by the NY Times) but a really fabulous book.

Also the sun has been shinning and the sky has been blue for the 3 days we’ve been here.  It must be some kind of record!  We’re planning a walk on the beach and a ferry ride tomorrow though so I’m predicting grey sky and drizzle!

 

Bullet Points are good, right? May 16, 2008

So Friday is bullet points day here at Marmite and Tea. You know you love them (yes J even you!).

So this is what’s up with me!

• I have an interview - yeah - T knows how to rewrite a resume!

• Reading Life as We knew if - I am very freaked out now and want to stockpile food and batteries and things to burn. I keep looking at our cupboards and thinking “This would not last long!” Although if I couldn’t have bread would I have the will to carry on?

• Also reading Looking for Alaska and loving it. This is going be one of those books that I am bothering my friends to read. When I love a book I really need everyone to read it too.

• Watching Gossip Girl. I resisted and resisted this show like crazy. Watched one episode and was hooked. I just love Chuck. I love when he twitches his eyebrows and don;t get me started on his wardrobe.

• Getting totally annoyed with myself at how often I press ; rather than ‘ who designed the keyboard this way? I am constantly writing don;t and haven;t.

• Making Apricot Brunch Bars. Supposedly wholesome but I know how much sugar and butter is in them! Still healthier than store bought I guess.

• Making bread - see what happens when the internet goes down for a day.

• Thinking Radiohead are absolutely lovely to give us tickets to another show in August, very generous. Thanks Thom Yorke and the rest of them.

• Wondering how I can get T to come and see Prince Caspian with me this weekend. I did after all watch Ironman last week, it’s very dull.

So that’s all folks, as Bugs would say or was it the Pig.  I can not remember I think it was Porky, right?

Have a fabulous weekend everyone

xoxo

(You have to imagine it in Kristin Bell’s voice)

Chatting April 29, 2008

So I am in the mood for chatting today but as everyone I know seems to be busy or getting ready for bed. I’m going to have to make do with typing and you lucky lucky people get to read my ramblings or, you know, skip over them to a more interesting blog! I don’t mind, I know how much interesting stuff there is out there and unless you’re like me and barely sleep there’s only so much time to read it.

Anyway I was shopping today. Which for me means a quick whizz round the clothes shop where I hate pretty much everything I try on and then on to Barnes and Noble. Where I drift about for hours. Lusting after books. I LOVE new books so pretty and untouched and they smell so good not to mention all the lovely worlds between their pages.

After my B&N overdose I headed to Starbucks for a tall skinny cinnamon dolce latte (phew what a mouthful). Form the window upstairs I watched the Baskin Robbins queue grow longer and longer. They were giving away free cones. I’m wondering what is the longest people will stand in-line for something free? Seemed to be quite a while. Poor Hagan Daz, two doors down, was deserted.

Behind me a very smartly but quirkly dressed man was being interviewed for a job. It seemed a strange venue an interview. He was very very perky. If I ever get a job interview here I think I will have to have several regular cokes beforehand to be upbeat enough (sugar + caffeine makes me a motor mouth and very bouncy). Anyway I eavesdropped away and he was interviewing for Juicy Couture and sales assistants get a 65% discount!!!!!! Do you think B&N offer the same because seriously I would work behind a till for a 65% discount on books.

I don’t think he’ll get the job because he kept interrupting the interviewers anecdotes, to agree, but still I don’t think that’s good interviewing technique.

So I didn’t get much of my book read but it was interesting. I wonder of there are any jobs where you just get to listen to people’s stories I would like that.

Cookies, books and April Showers April 28, 2008

So despite the atrocious weather, it had rained all day, I have managed to have a very nice day.

After getting the shopping and other household drudgery out the way; I made Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies and settled down with them, a cup of tea and a book. I’m really enjoying The Thirteenth Tale and the weather seems to add to the enjoyment, it is not the kind of book to read in the sunshine.

The cookies were a success, it’s always hit and miss with me in the kitchen. They did expand to fill up the whole baking tray (does anyone know how to make them stay cookie shaped?) but having extra large cookies doesn’t seem too bad a problem.

I got the recipe from a book I just finished Scrambled eggs at Midnight, great title isn’t it? Every so often there were recipes or lists of places to visit or the characters rules for things inserted into the story. I’m still undecided whether this was quirky or annoying but as the cookies were a success, I guess I’ll go with quirky.

If you fancy giving them a go here is the recipe. I do love cookies with lots of things in!

1 cup of butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup of oats

1 cup dried cherries

6oz chocolate chips

1 cup roasted peacans

Cream butter and sugar

Add egg and vaillia

Add flour, baking soda, oats, cherries, pecans, choc chips - Mix.

Bake at 350c for 10 to 12 minutes.

It claims to make 3 dozen but mine made 18 which merged into two giant cookie

Reading Club April 27, 2008

I know lots of you like to read so I thought I’d just mention Becky’s online reading group. During May we’ll be reading and talking about Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer. To sign up go here.

Amazon Synopsis

It’s almost the end of Miranda’s sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver’s license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda’s voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.