Retro Egg

It feels a bit like Christmas, because look at what is currently on its way to me:



It's a 7ft 2 inch Take Off Retro Egg surfboard.

Take Off is the make
Retro is the general style
Egg refers to the shape of it, which is wider than a MiniMal and therefore a bit more stable.

It's 21 & 1/4 inches wide and 2 & 3/4 thick.

I'll take a picture of it when it arrives. The only postage option was overnight, anyway, but seeing as I bought it around midnight, I doubt it will come tomorrow. I hope it's here in time for when I go to Scarborough with Phill, Dave and Fudge! :)

Me x

Red Wine

Red Wine is a staple part of my diet... not just because I enjoy a glass whilst writing essays in the evening (it helps), or with a meal, but because I add it to a lot of recipes.

So here's a few meals that I make quite often; they're sort of studentified, and a lot of ad libbing goes on, but they're pretty nice :)

* * * * *

My version of Beef Stroganoff

-However much beef you want to use- I tend to use half a steak per person. You can use chicken if you'd prefer- follow the same instructions.
-Red wine
-Olive oil
-An onion
-However many mushrooms you want to use
-Flour
-Butter/margerine
-Milk
-Beef OXO stock cubes
-Salt and pepper

You'll need: a deep frying pan, a saucepan, a whisk, a sharp knife, teaspoon & wooden spoon.

1. (about 20 minutes before you start cooking) Cut the beef up into bite sized pieces & place in a small bowl. Pour in a quantity of olive oil and red wine- enough to allow the beef to soak, although not be completely covered! Mix up so the beef is coated. Add salt and pepper, and mix again. Cover with clingfilm.

2. Dice the onions and cut the mushrooms into slices- and fry until soft and slightly brown.

3. Add the beef to the frying pan, including all of the liquid in the bowl, and cook a bit more slowly to make sure the veg don't burn. Also, step 4 requires concentration.

4. This is how to make a generic sauce base: melt a pat of butter in a saucepan. Basically, the more butter you use, the easier step it will be, but not so much that the sauce tastes weird. Turn the heat off/totally down and add a teaspoon of flour. Stir into a smooth paste, making sure all the flour lumps have gone. Using the whisk, stir in a splash of milk. Keep whisking at a low heat. It should look like white sauce (that's what it is hah)

5. Make a stock using hot water and the oxo cube. Whisk this into the white sauce. The more watery the stock, the more watery the stroganoff sauce will be. However, sauce thickness can be sorted out later.

6. When all of the lumps have been whisked out, pour the beef sauce into the frying pan containing the meat, mushrooms and onions. Stir well.

7. Add as much or as little red wine as you want. I'd recommend at least a splash, but I often find myself pouring in quite a bit (it makes it taste richer).

8. As for the sauce: if you think it's not tasty enough, add another half, or whole, oxo cube. If it tastes a little bland, add more red wine. If it's too thin, add more flour. If it's too thick, add more water (or milk).

Keep cooking the stroganoff until it reaches the consistency you want it to. Remember, on cooling the sauce will thicken.

Serve with rice & enjoy :D


* * * * *

Stir Fry

Mushrooms
Peppers
Beansprouts
Onions
(whatever you want- courgette, carrot, cabbage etc.)
Soy Sauce
Red Wine
Olive Oil
Egg noodles
Salt

Pretty simple:

1. Fry the onions and mushrooms until softened & a little brown
2. Then add peppers
3. Then add beansprouts
4. Add whatever other veg you want
5. When pretty much cooked, add soy sauce to the pan
6. Add however much red wine you would like to the pan
7. Fry until the liquid mostly evaporated (although this is non-crunchy stir fry).
8. Add your egg noodles and a little more olive oil.
9. Fry until cooked, stirring a lot to make sure the noodles don't burn.
10. Serve straight away with a little salt

Of course- this is the veggie option; if you want meat in the stir fry, add it after the peppers, but before the beansprouts & make sure it is fully cooked. If you want, use the olive oil & wine marinating method in the beef stroganoff recipe, but don't add the liquid to the stir fry, otherwise it will be too soggy!



* * * * *

Red wine and onion thick gravy

Flour
Butter
Milk
Onions
Red wine
Bisto gravy granules
Beef oxo

This goes brilliantly with buttery mashed potato.. mm.. also it can be refrigerated and heated up the next day.

1. Fry some chopped onion pieces in olive oil and a little red wine. Soften them, but not browned. The onions should take on a pink-purple tinge from the wine. When they have cooked, put the onions and any remaining liquid (there shouldn't be much, if any) into a small bowl.

2. Make the white sauce base mentioned above

3. Make a beef oxo stock, but only use one cube. Add a few heaped teaspoons of bisto gravy granules to the stock.

4. Whisk in the oxo/bisto stock until there are no lumps

5. Add the cooked onions.

6. Serve when ready. If it is too thick/thin, use the methods above to sort it out. Remember- the more flour you add, the more floury it will taste! You can always add more liquid, but can't take it away, so be careful with the consistency of the stock before you add it.


* * * * *

Coming up next- I'll put the recipe for my risotto, which my housemates seem to like.

Katie

Sinned

I've been going through my old documents, and I found this short piece I'd written :) I hope you enjoy it! I was probably about 15-16 when I wrote it. It's unedited...

* * * *

A log in the hearth thumps down as the ones beneath it burns away into nothingness, sending out a burst of warmth into the dark room. The girl on the chair concentrates on the heat of the fire, trying to block out the line of throbbing pain on her cold cheek and the gentle movement around it. The trickle and drip of water as the other one rings out the cloth into the metal bowl, being so careful. The girl being nursed sighs and looks as though she is going to shout, or cry, or both. Mixed emotions cross her face.

(I’m sat in the huge room, on a chair, what a luxury, and she’s washing the wound. I didn’t mean to get to get so carried away, if only I’d been more careful, I swear I don’t know what came over me…ah!)

A look of guilt passes over the face of the other one as she catches the edge of the gash with the cloth.

“Ella, I’m so sorry. I…”. She gives up, looks at the floor, then raises her face to look at her face, wincing as her gaze falls on the red shining line running down the side of the pale, slender face, framed with a violent purple bruise, as though she is witnessing the whole event again.

Ella comes out of her contemplation of the fire, looks into her companion’s eyes for a moment, then looks at the hearth quickly again as tears threaten in her eyes, rendering her unable to reply, making the cut sting again as the muscles in her face tense as she tries not to cry.

(I can see my reflection in her eyes, shining unusually brightly for the lack of light in here. I have such tired eyes for someone my age. I could be sixty if you saw nothing else)

Hesitating, she turns back, and the girls look softly at each other, forgetting everything for a moment. Emotions build like cloud between them, so thick that you could just reach out and touch…

Ella’s companion turns suddenly, too panicked to gasp or whimper, and too experienced to cry out aloud. The door shakes slightly as someone approaches and starts to whisper open.

(I don’t think creaking doors would be allowed in this house- too inefficient. Sometimes the silence can be beneficial, but good luck comes so rarely these days)

Ella doesn’t bother to look up; the outcome will be the same whoever is behind the door. Her companion, however, is staring at it as though what lurks behind it is a semi-tamed wild animal; beautiful and vicious.

(I should just give up now.)

“Ella… what are we… there’s no other way, I don’t know what to do”. She stares at the slight girl next to her. “I don’t want to hurt you”

(There’s no other way)

“Talk to me!”

She is pleading, and can sense Ella weakening. Ella opens her mouth…

The door slides open, swishing slightly on the worn flags.

* * * *

ASL

ASL
AS bloody L

Some guy messaged me on myspace saying 'Hi ASL, wanna chat?'

A few things:
-If he found me through myspace, he must have searched, or at least browsed, for me. EG- browse for [male/female], age [whatever] in [area].
-If it was a random stumble upon my myspace, it clearly says on my profile that I am 20 & from Newcastle, in the corner where the information is meant to go.
-Also my picture clearly shows I am female... which he can see, by messaging me.

So I messaged back saying:

'Lol, have you actually been on my profile?
As you can see from the girl in my photo, which is me, I am female :) And I'm 20, living in Newcastle, though not originally from.'

I wonder if he replies, heehee. Funnily, the song I was listening to whilst writing this is a song called 'Photobooth' by Death Cab for Cutie, and the lyrics went 'you were so condescending'. Though, to be honest, if you message someone obviously female asking what sex they are, you sort of deserve to be... um.. is 'condescended' a word. It's not like he couldn't check to make sure. Hey, check out all this writing on her page! Maybe I should read it before asking STUPID QUESTIONS.

I guess it's that whole matter of- read the bloody FAQ before bothering the moderators. As a moderator, this subject is one of personal interest to me. I hate it when I get 50 identical 'OMGZ HELP PLZ' messages, when there is a clear label at the top of the page of the forum I work on, (and the welcome page when you join) saying 'New? Read this first'.

GRRRR

Sorry guys, it's not like I'm majorly bothered or anything. It's quarter to 5am and I'm amused. Maybe I should go to sleep? Yes... Comic book convention tomorrow, and I'm going with my housemate. Yay!

Me x

[edit, one day later: no reply.. heh heh]

BME article

Last year my friend got her nose pierced, and I thought it looked brilliant, and wanted one myself. However, me and my parents have always had this rule of: 'No facial piercings', and I'd always been ok with it, because they'd been ok with my tattoos & stretch piercings.

But the urge to go out and let someone stick sharp things through my nose was becoming overwhelming, and I was sure that it would suit me, and hopefully not hurt..

So over the Christmas holidays last year, I called my best friend (who is like my piercing buddy, we always go along with each other) and we went to Tribal Bodies in Hull; which has the reputation for being an amazing, friendly piercing salon. I personally wouldn't go anywhere else (except Hype in Newcastle, see my other article about my new tattoo).

Filled out the form saying: yes- I had eaten, no- I wasn't pregnant, you know the drill. Sat in the piercing room, Paul with a look of amusement on his face as I return for the.. um.. many-enth time. As for price, I can't fully remember, but I think it was about £15, including the stud (which was a nice one)

I was a little anxious, because I had absolutely no idea what it would feel like, or how much it would hurt. I have many other piercings, but they're all in my ears/bellybutton and I knew this wouldn't compare. But when Paul put the needle through my nose, I was surprised to find how little it actually hurt- I guess there isn't much feeling in your nose cartilage, and it was more just a 'weird', cold feeling, also odd to see a metal thingy out of the corner of my eye!

[There's this thing that happens when they stick the actual stud in the hole, where the eye on that side waters suddenly; apparently it's just a reaction triggered, so if you ever get your nose done, don't wear too much mascara or eyeliner!]

For some reason, I always seem to get piercings at really cold times of the year, and when I walked outside it seemed really heavy and obvious- I was worried that I'd just be able to feel it and see it all the time. My friend who'd come with me had explained that the reason why he took his eyebrow piercing out was that he saw it every time he looked in the mirror and got sick of it after a while. But when I saw it for myself in the mirror later, I knew I loved it, and couldn't wait for it to heal so I could put a little ring in it. As you can see in the photo, I have quite thick framed glasses, which actually stop me from seeing the piercing out the corner of my eye; when I wear contacts, I keep getting flashes of this glinty thing! This is something to consider for non-glasses wearers- would you find it annoying?

Went home, and my mum- the one who would absolutely, never ever allow me to have a facial piercing- thinks it looks nice... And my dad said that he 'didn't dislike it', which is praise coming from him about this sort of thing, believe me!


^This is what it looks like now.

It healed very well; I used a combination of salt solution & antibacterial cream on it- was pretty much sorted within a week!

HOWEVER, because of the shape of the piercing inside (a spiral to keep it in), I kept getting really irritated by it, and it became sore from me constantly poking it/playing with it- also the constant feeling that I needed to sneeze was getting on my nerves. I got around this problem by taking a very small BCR and squeezing it into shape with a pair of thin-nosed pliers (if you don't have any already, get some- they're an invaluable tool for people with piercings!) I don't use the ball- it stays in fine without it. That's what I'm wearing in the photo. Whenever I do exercise like surfing or climbing, I put in a little stud, which is ok to wear for a few hours without getting annoying; I find that without jewellery in it, it starts to heal over in a matter of minutes. I would recommend carrying a spare stud with you in your wallet or whatever, in case it falls out and you lose it. The friend I mentioned earlier, who got it done before me had this problem in a club, but I was able to lend her mine and just stick one of my own BCR rings through mine. I know, I know- it's a bad idea to share piercings, but in this case I knew that we were both safe to do it, and there was no risk!

It's definitely my favourite piercing, and I do think that I look better with it. Reactions to it have all been positive, or people just haven't noticed! I think that if the stud or ring is small enough, nose piercings can be very discreet and attractive. The fact that they heal up so incredibly quickly (friend eventually took hers out after having it repierced for a second time, and you can't even tell it was there) make it an ideal piercing for those who want something 'different' to ear piercings, but don't want anything too extreme.

Thoughts on a masculist

(This blog was originally going to be titled 'What a wanker!')

I was browsing livejournal.com and found some guy who called himself 'Masculist'.

You'll all remember the catastophic floods & storm that caused so much trouble in New Orleans about 3 years ago? Reading this guy's journal- he thinks it was a good thing!

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'The coming apocalypse

It's been so long since I updated this thing, I almost forgot it existed.

Watching the news about the coming hurricane, just on the heels of the worst destruction New Orleans has seen in forty years, if ever at all ... I can't help but remember the words of Brother Morphus as he talked about the signs of the tribulation.

New Orleans has long been known as a hotbed of iniquity, witchcraft, satanism, occult activity. The spirit of Jezebel herself has been cast out of a victim in New Orleans by an evangelical lady I know. I never went near that place that the Holy Spirit didn't warn me to get out and fast.

Hopefully Christ's Kingdom will be incorporated into the rebuilding, and the storm waters will have cleansed some of the evil that lurked there.

Now another tempest of destruction and cleansing heads for my state. We are on a prayer vigil for our brothers and sisters closer to the coast, and for the survivors of New Orleans.

We are also talking seriously about which sign will be the next one. We know it's coming ... but not like a tempest: "Like a thief in the night." But soon.'

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Ok... can anyone say 'mental?!' This guy calls himself a Christian, but seems glad the storm happened! I tried to reply, but he had it set to 'friends only'. I can see why. Here's what I was going to put:

There's no such thing as witchcraft. I can't believe some people are stuck in the medievel times thinking that that lady who lives by herself and has a black cat made all the cows sick, or caused the vicar's daughter to get measles. The worst thing so-called 'witches' can do is brew up some herbal tea, or meditate for a bit, and that's not harming anyone! And I don't see how their 'rituals' are any different from Catholic Mass. A bit of chanting, some incense, some wine & food. They're based on the same idea of an offering that will have an ultimate goal. And prayer, meditation?! Same basic principle of having an open mind for thoughts to enter- a higher state of consciousness, if you will.

I also get the idea that you think the storm was a good thing. It's not like the citizens of New Orleans deserved it or anything!

Repeat after me... there's no such thing as witches. It's all fairytales...

Thoughts, ideas? This guy makes for great blog material. I don't feel bad, because he is obviously not a very nice person; in his journal, he mentions that he goes shooting for sport, talks about 'faggots' and fat people, and even sports that lovely redneck, conservative view that women should stick to what women do best, darn it, stayin' at home, squeezin' out the babies and not reading anything...

I am personally an atheist/humanist. I don't mind people having religions. I think it's a great comfort and support for a lot of people. I just hate it when they use it back up ridiculous personal ideas, like this guy does. You should see his entry on 'rock music'

*rolls eyes*

Me x

(If you liked/disliked this, or any other, blog, please leave a comment! I would be really interested to know what people thought.)

Unproductive weekend (4th May 2008)

This weekend hasn't exactly been very productive, but it's still been great... My mum and boyfriend came up for a few days, so I didn't get much time to do any work.. ah well X) And yes, I'm writing this instead of my essay... sigh

Friday they turned up quite late, sorted stuff out, mum went to the hotel she was staying at, me and Phill went out. Met my housemates and few others at Revolution (a club, not the vodka bar), which I'd never been to before (it's at the Carling Academy on fridays)... when we first got there, I wasn't sure how it would turn out, because it was pretty much empty. But by midnight it was full, and we were all dancing to RATM, Placebo and other rock & punk stuff in a big circle around all of our bags! Haha, how very "girls' night out". Two of my friends from school- Alan and Ian- were there, too, and they came and joined us later.



Walked home in 4 inch heels. Carling Academy is probably the furthest venue to go out in from my house, except Digital and the stadium.. It's normally ok, because I'm either ver drunk in heels (and so feel no pain) or wear flatter shoes, but I didn't have much to drink, so I complained all the way home... eep... We didn't get a taxi because there were too many of us, also we fancied getting pizza & chips on the way home! Nyom nyom...

Next day attempted to get up early after mum had come round for breakfast (no food at hotel, because there was a fire a few months ago, and the kitchens are buggered).. did we bollocks... re-woke up at 1 in the afternoon. Thought 'ARGH'. We were meant to be going to South Shields, a town near the coast, to go look for a wetsuit for Phill. Got the metro there, was a lovely sunny nice day, awww :) South Shields is cool; I'd never been there before- had tons of shops and a beach and stuff :D Walked around ALL DAY trying to find this fucking surf shop. Went to the seafront. Ate icecreams. Didn't find the shop! Got to 109 on the street it was meant to be on. 109 was a terraced house. Looked like it had been a terraced house for ages. Sigh. So we go home and meet my mum for pizza :)

Think about going out later- but we're knackered from walking around all day, so stay in and watch 'Detroit City Rocks'. Had apprehensions about it, but I thought it was actually quite good heh heh.

Woken up this morning at 9 again by mum coming round to get stuff to take home. She took Sushi-poke back, nooooooooooo.... I'm getting the train home before my exams for 2 weeks, so I can't exactly take her on that.. but still : (

So yeh.. fun but unproductive weekend!

Phill brought the hard drive with the holiday photos on, so I'm going to put a few of the best ones on.









More are in my pictures and photobucket ...

Me x