Tips for Aspiring Chefs

I've been an incredibly skilled chef now for several years, and over that time, I've honed my abilities to a fine point.

First, let me let you in to my extensive repertoire:

• Toast
• Scrambled egg on toast
• Beans on toast
• Cheese toastie
• Chicken and cheese toastie
• Ham and cheese toasties

Like a boss.

And now on to my truly haute-cuisine, cordon bleu treats...

• Eggy bread
• Omelette
• and my piece de resistance...PANCAKES.

Disclaimer: these are not my pancakes.

You've probably worked out by now that my cooking ability revolves around eggs and toast. I'm not exactly a skilled chef, partly because my mom and my sister both are awesomesursumdeorsumsalit and I am not. 

However, I beat them both down to the ground when it comes to pancakes. Let me elucidate: I am, hands down, the absolute greatest in the universe at making pancakes. I flip them in perfect somersaults through the air, fry them till they're golden, season them perfectly and then eat them with one hand whilst cooking up another batch with the other.

Today I had consolation pancakes, because I failed my driving test (1 major and 5 minors, if you're interested) and I needed carbohydrate-based fuelled misery for a while. I ate six, with butter inside and a sprinkle of sugar on top, just the way I like them. I shudder to think of the calories, but who really cares? Not I. Consolation pancakes for the win.

Last week in review.

So far, so good :) you like vlogs, eh? Cool. More of that when I get time then. In the meantime, here are some meaningless pictures of the things I did last week. Because last week I did LOTS, and I didn't really have enough time to blog it all :(

(I filmed the video weeks ago, by the way. It just took me ages to work out how to upload it.)

The week started off quite slowly...I painted my nails on Monday night...as you do...

You already know I made cupcakes on Tuesday!

 

What you don't know about Tuesday is that I had ZERO lessons.

And on Wednesday, I had HALF A LESSON.

And on Thursday, I had ONE LESSON.

And on Friday, I had ONE LESSON.

Four days, two and a half lessons. My life is probably quite excellent. except that I will probably fail ALL my exams, because my teachers are always off gallivanting places. Heh.

Whilst I also had time to kill, I finally got round to counting the coppers in my copper jar (after about a year.) 

£27.32, for your information. Mildly depressing considering how heavy it is.

The whole no-lesson thing turned out pretty well though, because I've had dance shows Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Imagine doing 3 hours driving practice, an 8 hour shift at work, and then a 4 hour dance show.

I have never been so tired in my life. Anyway, here are some pose-y type photos I took in my room because my friend hasn't uploaded the real ones yet.

We wore masks for one dance (a lyrical type thing...to a mix of Parachute by our Chezza and Try by Nelly Furtado.)

And for the other one...

Leopard.

Print.

Sparkly.

Leotard.

AND A SEQUINNED FREAKING HAT.

 To She Said (Plan B) and Gramophonedzie...mixed...awesome dance.

And so endeth my last show ever :( The more I move along with this year,the more I seem to be saying goodbye to stuff. I got a tiny bit emotional when I was leaving the stage. Partly because dude, I was seriously knackered, and you know how some people get really emotional when they're tired? I am one of those people. 

Just because, y'know, I've been dancing with them since I was like, 7. I've gone through fat stages, dodgy fringes, confidence crises, moments of JOY, all with that same familiar presence every Wednesday evening.

Leaving is going to be SO strange. I'm sticking around till my last exam in September but still, the show is a big part of Learning Curves. It's weird to think I'll never perform on that stage again.

That's all I really have to say. Oh, except by Saturday at about midnight I was so run-down I ended up with a rotten flipping cold and now it's turned into a cough, and what some customer on Saturday called "the perpetual sniff."

Sigh, this has been a post. Sorry for a "this is my boring life" ramble.

A Vlogging Lark?

I have a video camera and a tripod.
I have a somewhat boring blog.
I KNOW I'LL MAKE A VLOG.

Yup, so this is just a small introductory video about me. Because you're all that interested in my boring ol' life.

Things this video has taught me:

• I should not tuck my hair behind my ears.
• My voice is a lot more pretentious and posh than it sounds in my head. Also I should not use the word crowd ever. Ignore the whole music bit, I sound like a twat.
• I say anyway too much.

Ahem...*anyway*...  whilst I was faffing around (for literally about a week) trying to get this to upload without killing my internet stone dead, I listened to this:

And enjoyed it, hopefully you guys do too :)

SO HERE'S MY QUESTION: How do you feel about vlogs, vlogging and vloggers? Personally I don't listen to them that often because I'm often blog-reading in the same room as my family, and it's kind of anti-social to just blast out some randomers voice. However, when I am alone, I enjoy the extra-personal insight into other people's lives so I guess, all in all, I'm pretty ambiguous about it all :)

That will be all. Sorry for rambling!

Emma x

Bonding bonding.

Four people, doing nothing, at the same time.
That's a pretty rare occurence in my household.
But today it happened! So we made cupcakes.

(Warning: these are not masterpieces. Don't get too excited.)

Anyway, it was nice to bond with my famo for a change.
Turns out my mom is a dab hand at the icing.
(She did the good ones.)

I think it's really sad that people today don't always spend much time with their family.
I love mine so much.
And I really think a good family dynamic is integral to growing up happy.
Seriously.

Do you guys spend much time with your families? 

Emma
x

FEAR/The Big Apple

FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR

That's what fear's like, isn't it? You know how it's all you can hear in your ears, it's all you can see behind your eyes and feel in your limbs? 

I used to describe myself, pretentious as it sounds, as phobia-centric. Basically, I spent the vast majority of 2003-mid 2010 in near constant fear; of social situations, of the future, of dogs, of heights, of people, of sex, of public speaking, and so on.

This painting is called "The Nightmare" but I think it adequately summarises what fear is like, don't you agree?

Fun phobic fact: for the first few weeks at Tesco, I couldn't actually find the courage to say hi to any of my customers. I didn't know how to approach it. I'd spend 8 hours wondering how to greet the next person in line. It was a total nightmare.

For want of a better way to put it, I "grew out" of most of my fears. Not that it wasn't a struggle, but I've mostly made it.

Except heights. I'm still absolutely terrified of heights.

Which is going to make a few aspects of my forthcoming New York trip (AHIFJSAKLJFBGAHHDKJNABDYEAHHH!) ...interesting!

I don't like flying!

It's mostly take-off I have the issue with though, so I'll just have to suck it up for a few minutes until we're airborne.

I'm also a little bit worried about this view: AKA the top of the Empire State building. Er, it's quite high up. I definitely won't feel comfortable going up in a lift. And stairs seem a little bit...unfeasible. 

Again, I'm just going to have to deal with it. This is the trip of a lifetime and I'm not going to let a stupid childhood fear get in my way!

Still.

EEP!

What are your fears...and have you ever had to overcome them?

Emma 

x

OH AND P.S, I'd still appreciate advice on how to get my vlog uploaded! Bastarding thing.

Several Questions

See? I am ringing you up on my bananaphone. My questions are that important.

1) Do the links on my blog work for you? When I click on them they link me to the "Create A Post" page. I don't want this. 

2)  To what extent should the responsibility for anti-Semitism and its consequences lie with prominent individuals in Germany in the period 1848 -1945?

3) Are there any techno-wizards in house? I tried to make a vlog yesterday but I couldn't find a way of uploading it without my internet dying a prolonged and painful death.

You don't really have to answer the second question. Thanks :) 

A trend in film, all the drafts kicking about and anything else that springs to mind.

First off, it's raining. Does anyone else find it hard to concentrate when you can hear the rain outside? It makes me just want to snuggle up and listen.

Second, I want you to listen to this, AKA my friend Olivia singing a self penned song. It's a bit avant-garde-folky and her voice is very reminiscent of Kate Bush, but it's very catchy so I hope you like it, because I do!

Anyway, what I actually came to talk about is the upcoming number of films that are being made, where the source material is the sort of "hipster" type books that get reblogged on the Tumblr machine all the time. Namely The Great Gatsby, On The Road and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Gatsby is the one of the films I think is going to be absolutely excellent. Directed by Baz Luhrmann -the master of hollow dedecance, aka Moulin Rouge and Rom+Jul - and starring Carey Mulligan, my secret girl crush and the perfect Daisy, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who is just a don, I genuinely am looking forward to this film. The Great Gatsby is genuinely one of my favourite pieces of literature ever...along with Romeo and Juliet, incidentally, and I seriously am not dreading this film adaptation. Which is pretty high praise coming from me, because I hate film adaptations.

In my opinion, On The Road (the film) can only get better. I found the book needlessly boring and repetitive, with an incessant emphasis on how boring life is...which of course made the book boring. I know that's the intention, and as social record it's great, but as a story? As entertainment? Not for me, thanks.
So really, the film can't lose out. Especially with Garrett Hedlund (fit) as Dean, and Sam Riley (cheekbones!) as Sal...oh, and a host of famous supporting actors, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams...and my secret crush Tom Sturridge. I'm immediately turned off when I see Kristen Stewart's name on the list, but having only seen her as Bella in the first Twilight film I guess I'm biased.
The problem is that a limitation to the text will be magnified a million times over on the big screen...the screenplay might have to be jazzed up a bit. But then it might lose the message underneath, so idk.


AND FINALLY

Fake poster by this person here

As you can see, it stars Logan Lerman as Charlie and Emma Watson as Sam, which is clearly going to attract a teens-to-twenties audience. I haven't read the book, but "In that moment, I swear we were infinite" sounds like such a lovely line that I can't wait to get around to it. And I have to soon, if I want to have read the book before the film comes out this year. I'm not quite sure whether it'll work in film format, though. It's quite hard to get across Charlie's mindset without words, from what I've heard. Anyway, I'm ambivalent about this one because I haven't read the book.

So there's my wordy, unecessary pre-film expectations review!

Other things of note:
- I just went into my edit posts section and I have about 30 unfinished posts going back to December 2008.
- I ought to put more pictures into my blog.
- I have two pieces of coursework, an extended essay and an oral exam to prepare for.
- Which involves reading nothing but strictly syllabus related for weeks.
- Which is very sad.

Anyway, will you guys be checking out any of these films at the theater? Have you read the books? 

See you soonies :)

Emma x

You'll have to excuse me.

I indulged myself and bought  a new camera.

 

It's awesome but I have NO idea how to use it.

Here are some very amateur-y test shots.

My little sister and her artist's palette (overexposed)

Me and my diary.

Little D

TOO CLOSE dahling, this is not my good side!

Remember the Einstein bobblehead I was rambling about? Courtesy of McDonald's. Tada.

And it turns out my dad had a brief photography phase about twenty years ago...in other words, free tripod for Emma :) I could have lenses if my camera had interchangeable lenses but it doesn't so they're just waiting until I upgrade...

Sorry to be one of those "look I have a camera and I can take photos now" people, but this is exciting for me, okay? Bear with, bear with :o)

Emma x

P.S. Do I, or do I not, have the most mutated hands of all time? I think I do.

Because I feel bad and because I'm procrastinating...also a quick question!

This is a tagged thing...I'll come to who I'm tagging at the end. But I got it off Aoife , fellow Ravenpuff and blogmistress extra-ordinaire.

I know this is a quiz, so maybe it's less interesting...but it has a Skins link, if that helps? It's called The Cassie Tag, because it's based off what Cassie does in Skins.

Total girl crush, by the way. Hannah Murray is so beautiful.

 I do have another post saved in my drafts, but I'm finding it quite difficult to finish (it's so sad!) so hopefully this will tide you over until the right mood hits me!

Abracadabra, Wow!

I like boys with pretty cheekbones and girls who don't take any bullpoop (see bottom of the blog if this perplexes you)

And you wonder why I watch Merlin.

 I like old books.
I like cookie dough ice cream from Aldi...cheap and tasty!
I like shots, but not Apple Sourz because it makes you chundery.
I like planning holidays.
I like sitting in the park with an ice lolly and a camera.
I like my dog, so much.
I like diet coke.

I like long walks with my ipod and my thoughts.
I like making friends, quite by accident.
I like speaking French.
I like the Einstein bobblehead on the mantelpiece of our otherwise pristine living room.
I love my family more than anything. Cheesy and boring but I don't care, they are a bubble of golden loveliness and I love them lots.
Today I  have done jack all, which is awkward because I have an implausibly large amount of schoolwork to do before tomorrow.

In some ways, I love everything.
Its less, its less of a thing to like, its less distinct, its less particular
I like things that I like but I love everything
There’s more choice in like
Cos even the worst things have things you love in them
I don’t know what you mean about things I hate


I hate being awkward and shy but I know I'm improving.
I hate feeling guilty when I don't do all my work.
I hate being a longtime member of the singles club.
I hate manipulative people. I haven't got the energy to work you out.
I hate that I STILL get spots.
I hate my inability to do anything with numbers.
I hate that I got rejected from Cambridge , but in a way, at least the pressure's off now. I can chill and be happily average.
I hate that I can't be one of those manipulative people when I need to.
I hate how bad a friend I am sometimes.
I hate this, wow. . .Sorry.

 And now ladies and gentleman, I have a question for YOU. I occasionally swear in this blog. Does that bother you at all? That's all. I'd feel bad if I was being rude, I don't want to do that. So let me know please :)

2010 - A Year In Review
The simple fact of the matter is that 2010 has been a very stressful year for me.
The combination of the end of Year 12 and the beginning of Year 13 has actually nearly killed me.
You only have to read back in my archives to see how stressful my year has been.


Also pretty marvellous.
I'm two hundred times more confident.
I'm fatter (a little bit) but OH so much happier.
I have a dog, and she's fucking gorgeous.
I have a job.
I'm going to New York.
I'm going to get absolutely trashed in Zante.
I'm going to uni.
I'm going to be happy.

Oh, and I'm watching this:

Followed by this:

Okay, my life is clearly just excellent.

Happy New Year guys :) 

Emma x