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November 8th, 2009 8:49 pm To sum up... [ ] [ mood | contemplative ] [ music | Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas ] Good food. Good drink. Good company. Good times. 1

October 31st, 2009 6:43 pm Good times [ ] [ mood | pleased ] [ music | Finally Found - The Honeyz ] I've just had the BEST three days. I'm so glad I decided to take off on my little road trip. In fact, I think I'd be perfectly happy if I was still there (and didn't have to go back to work on Monday)! Never mind... I actually am back in Bath in five weeks for my friend's Christmas do. In fact, at this time in five weeks I'll be in the Assembly Inn nursing a drink, about to head for a three-course meal and lots of wine. Good times!

September 19th, 2009 3:01 pm Return [ ] [ mood | full ] [ music | Home - Michael Buble ] I haven't been on LJ for ages and, as I feel I am maturing in my old age, I'm not going to waste hours of my life as I would have done once, reading back over page after page after page of posts (although I have just read some). Instead, I'm going to head back to my kitchen table where I have an array of work spread out, awaiting my return. What a way to spend a sunny Saturday! Anyway, my point is, I may have missed some important news, so if I am completely ignorant about a big event in your life, please forgive me! The biggest event in my life is, of course, moving into my own 'palace'. I love it! I never expected to love living on my own but honestly, there's nothing like it. There's also nothing like stuffing your face with homemade scones, jam and cream, but I'm not sure that's actually such a great thing in the long run. 1

July 14th, 2009 8:12 pm Insights, apparently [ ] [ mood | sleepy ] [ music | Untouched - The Veronicas ] I haven't written anything for ages, I know. But Tenneil posted a link to this colour quiz thing so I thought I'd post my results. I'm not sure a lot of them are true, except for the fact that I suppose I am (in a way) 'stressed' about my current situation, housemate-wise, but that's why I'm in the process of getting out of here! Miranda took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Alert and very observant. Always looking for new ..." Click here to read the rest of the results. Hope you're all well, anyway. I am still reading - just not writing! It's all about Facebook these days.

March 16th, 2009 7:20 pm Baking woes [ ] [ mood | confused ] [ music | Thinking Of You - Katy Perry ] Thanks to the two people who voted on my last post. As it happens, I ignored both of you and went for the lemon griesstorte, haha. Unfortunately this was an unmitigated disaster as for some reason the cake didn't rise, so I now have a ruined cake to munch my way through, and I'm about to return to the oven for recipe number two: cinnamon and ginger cake with caramel icing. This one was chosen because I actually have all the ingredients in stock and therefore don't need to go out again! I don't know why this always happens to me; I had major issues with Kathy's birthday cake last year too. It's just not fair! 3

March 15th, 2009 9:40 am The week that was [ ] [ mood | content ] [ music | Unpretty - TLC ] I have just had, I think, the most hectic, jam-packed week known to man. How all my lessons got taught, I have no idea. But busy though it was, it was also great - and here's why: - I taught a couple of lessons to year 11 (about analysing unseen non-fiction, so a very exciting topic indeed) in which I could tell that the proverbial lightbulbs in their heads really switched on. - I also taught some great lessons to year 9 in which they were focused and settled - I think I finally have them where I want them, which, at the start of the year, seemed like it was going to be a real battle. - I got to leave work about twenty minutes early on Tuesday... - ... to go to my first poetry reading (as audience, not as reader!) on Tuesday, and really enjoyed it... - ... but not only that, I actually had dinner with the two poets, both of whom are published with their own books! I think this is the closest I've come to dining with multiple celebrities, hehe. We went to Strada where I had a lovely risotto. - And, furthermore, it was in Cambridge, a city I love. ( Read more... ) Now, lastly: it's Paddy's birthday today and Alison's on Wednesday and I'm going to make a cake and take it in to work one day next week, but after going through my cookery books I can't quite decide... can anyone tell me which of these sounds the nicest? 1. Cinnamon ginger cake with caramel icing (self-explanatory) 2. Lemon Griesstorte (a lemony, almondy cake with lemon/raspberry/cream filling) 3. Strawberry hazelnut cake (this is two layers with a ricotta and strawberry filling) Oh - and does anyone know: if a recipe says to 'blend' ricotta cheese, cream and vanilla essence until smooth... can I do that with an electric hand mixer, rather than a blender? 3

March 8th, 2009 8:46 pm One month on [ ] [ mood | calm ] [ music | Love Story - Taylor Swift ] My last entry was about the good things of this week. Well, this one is going to be a list of the good things of yesterday - because there were many! - Breakfast with Kathy (a yummy maple and pecan plait) - A beautiful, warm, sunny morning - Driving around parts of Nottingham I've never seen before... - ... and not getting lost! - Getting a free Christmas tree - Getting a free juicer (not that I have any fruit or anything else to juice at the moment... but give me time) - Seeing Mat for the first time in AGES - Wearing my new coat for the first time - Hearing With or Without You on the radio - Catching the end of the Neighbours omnibus - Not having my housemate in the vicinity for the entire day - Being productive house-wise and cleaning up the kitchen (including my new oven and juicer) - A fun night with Tali and DJ (even though I won neither of the games we played on the Playstation!) And one other thing I'm not going to write, except to say that it's something I've missed. So I have to say that 7 March turned out much better than 7 February. Although, strangely, it did involve pretty much exactly the same people. As for today, I've been productive too. I've started marking my year 11 exam scripts (unfortunately I need to finish them now), relaxed a bit and met Kathy for coffee (which, probably unsurprisingly, turned into a few drinks and dinner as well). Unfortunately 'ze housemate' has returned, but at least I haven't had to actually see him. So, all in all, I really can't complain about this weekend. 6

March 3rd, 2009 8:05 pm The good points of this week (and it's only Tuesday!) [ ] [ mood | optimistic ] [ music | White Flag - Dido ] So, once you ignore the fact that arrogant housemate seems to be a permanent fixture until about Christmas (as confirmed by my landlady/friend this evening), there are many much better things to focus on... 1. Kathy and I went for dinner to the Greek/Turkish place on Sunday night and had the BEST time! What made it even better was the fact that first of all we weren't going to go out for dinner at all, and then weren't going to go there, but I'm so glad we did. We were the only customers the whole time which meant we got very personalised attention and the waiter was so theatrical; it was hilarious. The food was terrific too! 2. Still on Kathy, she's given me a load of stuff that she was getting rid of (in addition to the dressing table mentioned a couple of posts ago), including: a CD player (that actually works - my old one didn't play CDs, haha); a corner table; heaps of kitchen gadgets and... a BOOKCASE!! Finally a bookcase to call my own. It's totally serendipitous too because it fits PERFECTLY in my room - almost as if it was made for it! So I have a new-look bedroom now which almost makes up for the wild beast living downstairs. - Tomorrow, I'm going to London to see Wicked, all in the name of 'work' - and it's not costing me a penny! I've seen Wicked before, but I love it (and The Wizard of Oz in general) so I'm very excited. I didn't have very good seats last time I went either, so there'll have to be an improvement this time. One of my favourite students is going too (yes, I have favourites - so shoot me) so I'm sure we'll have a laugh. And anyone who has a whinge and tells me teachers never do any work... I'd like to see you trying to chaperone twenty naive teenage boys on the London Underground at peak hour!! - I've (profitably) joined the Nottingham Freecycle group. I was already watching the activity in the South Kesteven, Melton Mowbray, Lincoln and Newark groups, so thought I'd add Nottingham to the list - and it's paid off! On Saturday I'll be trekking around various postcodes beginning with 'NG' in order to pick up an electric juicer and a six-foot artificial Christmas tree... absolutely free! Unfortunately this does mean a fairly colossal amount of driving, including on the Nottingham Ring Road which I don't particularly like, but it's just another reason to be in Nottingham really, because... - Also in Nottingham on Saturday I'm seeing Mat, who it seems like I haven't seen for AGES. - AND on the weekend Niki and I are going to arrange to do something, because I haven't seen her for ages either. - Furthermore, I haven't yet broken my crazy Lenten vow to give up unnecessary junk food, and feel much better for it. I'm even going to start going to the gym again on Thursday - I'd stopped for a bit because of a bad cold and some chronic muscle agony due to furniture lifting. But the health kick is back on! - OH! And this one is not so much my news, but still worth mentioning: my nana is either crazy or cool or a mix of both and has got a tattoo of a robin on her arm! She was apparently going to wait until her 70th birthday and do it then, but didn't see the point in waiting and just got on with it. So that was some interesting news to get in the post yesterday! So... Life is good!! I'm much more content, particularly as of about 20 minutes ago, than I have been in ages. :-) Stay tuned... next week has the potential to be very good as well. :-) 2

March 2nd, 2009 6:22 pm Petty whinging [ ] [ mood | irritated ] [ music | Stay (I Missed You) - Lisa Loeb ] I wish my housemate would get out of the kitchen so I can go and retrieve my cooking food without having to see him. :-P There's only the two of us in the house now - he's managed to push the third one out! What a bizarre series of circumstances I find myself in. 1

February 25th, 2009 9:13 pm Television woes and Lent [ ] [ mood | exhausted ] [ music | Bohemian Like You - Dandy Warhols ] Desperate Housewives is back on tonight, after yet another hiatus. I was quite excited about this, but there's now a problem... I am so very exhausted after a three hour parents' evening (they're only supposed to be 2.5 hours but I was just that popular!) during which I didn't stop talking once and parents were queuing up about six deep at one point... I think the chances of me staying awake through all of Desperate Housewives are remote. It's so annoying! Why does it have to be on so late?! (If I hadn't been up half the night watching Family Guy last night, I might be slightly less tired also...) In other news, rather than simply giving up chocolate for Lent this year, I've decided to do something completely radical and give up junk food altogether. By 'junk food' I mean the things I actually eat too much of - so not McDonald's-style junk food, because I never eat that, but more things like chocolate, cake, biscuits, ice cream etc... I am going to be reasonable about it, and not reject of cake on someone's birthday or something, but more just stop eating those things superfluously and unnecessarily. Who knows how it's going to go, but I've made it through the first day ok! 1

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