Songs: We Didn't Start the Fire

Gotta love a bit of Billy Joel.   Though as we discovered, this is very hard to do at karaoke!  

Book Reviews: Married to a Bedouin

This book first came to my attention a few years ago on a trip to Jordan.   The book was in every book shop there.   It's the true story of a New Zealand woman who went to Petra in Jordan on a gap year and fell in love with a Bedouin tribesman.   They got married, had children, and she stayed in Jordan until his death.   Petra is such an amazing place, and it was great to learn about it from the point of view of someone who's lived there.   The book describes in detail what it was like to live as a Bedouin in the 70s, in an ancient tomb, carved into a cliff.   It's fascinating!   Despite the author's strong feelings on the subject, I was quite glad when all the Bedouin were moved from the ancient site that they'd been treating so carelessly.   Its is sad that their way of life was lost, but in my eyes an ancient site as amazing as Petra is more important.   It gave me a real insight into another culture as well.   Made me more understanding.   And she's kind of living my dream too.   I often think I'd love to run away and live in a cave.   There are certain aspects of the writer's personality I didn't like, but apart from that I would thoroughly recommend this book.

Songs: Fire

Some 60s glory to celebrate Friday night:

Book Reviews: A Venetian Affair

A Venetian Affair is a really interesting book.   It's the true story of an 18th century love affair between a member of the Venetian ruling class and the illegitimate daughter of an English baronet.   They couldn't get married because she illegitimate, foreign and a protestant, but they carried on their passionate affair for many years.   The story was published by one of the man's descendants, and is told through the couple's real love letters, with commentary by the author.   It's a fascinating look at 18th century life, and a reminder that people never change.   Sadly this isn't a fairytale and there's no happy ending here.   The couple end up splitting up. What I enjoyed most about the book wasn't the love affair (bits did get a bit tedious, with jealousy and lovers' tiffs), but the historical aspects.   We get a first hand glimpse of 18th century Venice, Paris, London and people like Casanova and Napolean.   It's a really interesting read.

 

Songs: Budapest

Song to brighten up your Friday:

Book Reviews: These Happy Golden Years

This one is possibly my favourite of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.   It's the book in which Laura leaves home to be a teacher for the first time, starts spending more time with Almanzo, and at the end of the book Laura and Almanzo get married.   It's a very sweet and old-fashioned courtship.   They have their first kiss only after they get engaged.   But what makes Laura such a likeable character is how she doesn't just fall into his arms.   She resists his advances for months, and when she thinks he prefers someone else she gets angry and tells him to sod off, rather than dissolving into tears.   She's so feisty!   The first few chapters are truly painful to read too.   When Laura is stuck staying with a highly unpleasant woman and she feels so trapped and homesick we feel her despair.   It's great writing.  

What always strikes me about these books is how different everything was back then.   Laura becomes a teacher even though she really doesn't want to, to please her mother.   The idea that my mother would tell me what job to do is very alien to me.   As is Laura's becoming a schoolteacher at fifteen, and teaching pupils older than herself.   Mad.   These books have taught me so much about the past, and Laura is possibly one of my favourite book characters ever.   And it's even better than she was real.

Songs: Wetsuit

I love the Vaccines.   They're a great band with a lot of very original songs.   This song is one of my favourites.   It reminds of fun summers and exciting adventures, but there's something very melancholy about it too.   Seems very pertinent when we're all so busy growing up.

Book Reviews: The Bride's Farewell

I have to say I find Meg Rosoff a bit hit and miss.   I loved How I Live Now, hated Justin Case, quite liked What I Was and didn't think much of There is No Dog.   This one falls firmly into the Loved It category.   It seems to be a more grown-up novel than the aforementioned others.   The pace is slower, the writing less frenetic, but it still has the Meg Rosoff twists and turns and rambling adventure in which the characters are buffeted to and fro by Life.   It's about a young woman called Pell who runs away from home on the night before her wedding.   Her little brother follows her, and it looks like the two are setting off on a glorious adventure together.   But then her brother is kidnapped, and her horse is stolen.   Pell begins a meandering, often disastrous journey to get her brother and horse back.   It's a totally unpredictable book.   I'm usually a slow reader, but I got through this in a day.   Well worth it.

Film Reviews: Star Trek, Into Darkness

I was a huge Star Trek fan when I was younger, but haven't watched the series in years.   The original series is the one I've seen the least of, so I went to see the previous Star Trek film without much idea of what to expect.   I loved it!   It was very different to the Star Trek I remembered, and I loved the new incarnation.   So I was very eager to see this sequel when it came out, and overall I was impressed.   It had the same sort of flavour as the last film, with impressive visuals, spunky characters, great jokes and lots of nods to the original series for the fans.   Like its prequel, it was also a film for everybody, not just one for the fans, which I thought was great.   The plot is slightly on the forgettable side, but the visuals, script and acting more than make up for it.   Again, Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Bones and Scotty are brilliant, and Benedict Cumberbatch is, of course great as Khan.   He's everywhere at the moment, isn't he?   And I loved Spock yelling Khan! at the end!   Even someone like me who has never seen Wrath of Khan knows what a famous scene that is and can appreciate what they did with reversing Spock and Kirk's roles.   I do think, though, that it isn't quite as good as its predecessor.   Still great though, and I hope they make lots more!

Songs: Les Fleurs

I'm not the world's biggest Minnie Riperton fan, but this is gorgeous.   Sweet and unusual.   And I've still got absolutely no idea what it's about.   

Book Reviews: Little Town on the Prairie

Another Laura Ingalls Wilder book.   They're semi-autobiographical books about life growing up as a pioneer girl.  This one is just as good as the previous ones.   It's more joyful than The Long Winter.   In stark contrast to the books like On the Banks of Plum Creek this one sees Laura beginning to spend a lot more time in town, socialising with other people.   And it's good to see out heroine having some fun.   A lot of the focus of this book is on the family trying to get together enough money to send Laura's sister Mary to college.   Laura gets a job in town sewing shirts to help raise money, and sees things she's never seen before, like drunkeness.   It's odd to think how taboo it was for a respectable young girl to get a job back then.   And of course there's the start of the great romance with Almanzo.   Not that Laura really knows what's going on at the time. All in all, despite it being a very different type of book to the earlier ones, this book is still just as charming and engaging and I would highly recommend it.  

  

Songs: Walking on Broken Glass

I love this song so much it was my ring tone for ages.   And look, look!   Prince George from Blackadder is in the video!   This makes me happy!   I do like Annie Lennox as well.   She's a bit different.

Photography: Other People's Pot Plants

I went round my neighbourhood with my camera and took macro photos of other people's pot plants.   This was my favourite.   No idea what it is, but it's very pretty.

Songs: Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

This song never fails to make me giggle:

Books: Hook's Pictorial Edinburgh

I got a lovely present from my grandparents a little while ago.   It was a book of photographs of Edinburgh, called Hood's Pictorial Edinburgh.   They bought on a holiday to Edinburgh during the 30s.   All the photos are from that time, and I love it!   I've always loved old photos of familiar towns, because I find it very interesting to see how they've changed.   It really is a lovely book.   Here are a few photos from it:

Songs: Con Te Partirò

Here's something beautiful and powerful for your weekend.

Shopping: Camden Market

Camden Market in London is one of my favorite places in the world.   Here are some of the awesome purchases I've made over the last couple of years:

 Awesome watch pendant

 Leather jacket.   Love it!

 Military jacket

 Pretty halter neck dress.  Please excuse the lack of ironing.

 Lovely rockabilly dress.   the skirt is sooo big!

 World's most enormous skirt.  It's wonderful.

Funky gothy coat

Songs: Fooba Wooba John

Have you seen Fantastic Mr. Fox?   Odd film.   Really interesting animation though.   And a kick-ass soundtrack!   This is Fooba Wooba John:

Photography: Rome, Day 6

The 6th and final day of my Roman Holiday included going round St. Peter's and the Castel Sant'Angelo.   The latter is a fascinating building.   It was built as the emperor Hadrien's mausoleum, but was later turned into a fortress!   How odd.   Anyway, here are my favorite photos from the day:

 View of Castel Sant'Angelo from the top of St. Peter's

View of Piazza San Pietro from the top of St. Peter's

 

   Tricolore by Castel Sant'Angelo

Songs: Chinese and Who'd Have Known

I've gone from really disliking Lily Allen to really respecting her as a singer and liking her stuff.   Here are two less well known tracks from her second album.   I like them because they're simple and talk about everyday things we can all relate to.

TV Reviews: Planet Earth

Planet Earth is a truly impressive David Attenborough documentary.  Everybody knows and loves David Attenborough, and I think this offering is definitely among the best things he's ever done.   It takes us through some of the most interesting habitats on the planet and has some really extraordinary footage.   Each episode deals with a different type of environment, such as mountains, caves and deserts, and takes us to different kinds of each across the planet.   Each episode also has a charming little section at the end which gives us an insight into how some of the filming was done.   It's fascinating!   Some highlights for me include seeing Ethiopia's amazing volcanic landscape, snow leopards, the Pantanal, the Lechuguilla Cave, the Borneo rainforest, a baby humpback whale and undersea volcanoes.   Gorgeous and all very interesting!

Show Reviews: Matilda

Yes, I know there have been a lot of show reviews lately, sorry.   So today I'd like to talk about Matilda, which is quite a new show.   It's based on the book by the amazing Roald Dahl, and was written by the wonderful Tim Minchin.   It was a great show!   It's about a little girl called Matilda who has horrible parents and magical powers.   She uses them to help her lovely teacher get her inheritance off her horrible aunt, who is also the headmistress.   The headmistress, Miss Trunchball, is played by a man in drag, which works really well.   The cast includes a lot of children, and they were all very impressive!   Bruce Bogtrotter especially was a great little performer.   Matilda's family were also excellent.   Really ignorant and vapid.   The sets were great as well.   Really clever with lots of bits to climb.   I have to say though that I wasn't that much of a fan of the changes Tim Minchin made to the story.  For example he made Miss Honey the teacher's parents circus performers.   I don't get it.   As for the songs, there are some great ones.   The cleverest is the song when the kids start school.   The older kids sing about what a terrible place school is, and you don't realise until the final chorus when they start using props that the entire alphabet has been incorporated into the song!   Amazing!   And I love Naughty.   It's so empowering.

Some of the best songs:

     

Book Reviews: Traction City

Traction City is a short story, written for World Book Day 2011, by Philip Reeve, one of my favorite writers.   It was published along with some short horror stories, called The Teacher's Tales of Horror, by Chris Priestley.   Philip Reeve wrote a series of books called the Mortal Engines Quartet (which is brilliant!), and this little story takes place in that universe, and uses some of the same characters.   It's about a policeman hunting a Stalker aboard the moving city of London.   A Stalker is a piece of ancient technology, a half-mechanical, half-organic warrior.   It's very well-written, and even though it's only very short it manages to be very exciting and scary.   For fans of the series it's a very interesting look at some parts of the universe that weren't explored in the books, but it works as a stand-alone story too.   The Teacher's Tales of Horror is worth a read too.   Some genuinely creepy stories.

        

Songs: Odds Are

I love the Barenaked Ladies.   I've seen them live twice and their songs are so catchy and happy with clever lyrics and some seriously impressively fast rapping.   And it turns out their new stuff is awesome too!   This is odds are.   It makes me happy.   Also, Ed is a sexy sexy man.

Show Reviews: War Horse

I've seen this play twice in the past year: once in London and once in Edinburgh.   It's based on a Michael Morpurgo book about a horse called Joey.   Joey is raised and trained by a boy called Albert who is heartbroken when his father sells Joey to the army.   Albert joins up and goes to France to try and look for Joey.   Both the horse and the boy see horrible things, but eventually, miraculously, find each other again, though both are in bad shape.   Unlike a lot of other Micahel Morpurgo stories, this one has a happy ending.   What makes the play so special is that the horses in it are portrayed by the most incredible, complex, lifelike and beautiful puppets.   They take three people to operate them, and it's so well done that you forget that you're watching puppets at all.   I really enjoyed the singing in it as well.   It was bittersweet and beautiful.   It was interesting being able to compare the two performances too.   I thought I was going to enjoy the London show a lot more than the Edinburgh one because the London theatre was so much more intimate and I was much closer to the stage, which was also bigger, but actually it travelled surprisingly well.  Recommended.

Show Reviews: Wicked

I went to see Wicked in London last year.   I think it's one of favourite musicals of all time.   It's based on the character of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, giving her a background story, and presenting her as misunderstood, not wicked.   I love the soundtrack and I listen to it all the time.   So I already knew the music when I went, and I knew the story as well, from reading the book (stupid book, don't bother).   Happily they did change bits if the book though, taking out the more gruesome parts and changing the ending so that the witch doesn't die.   Anyway, I loved the performance I saw.   The sets and costumes were gorgeous!   As for the singing, I think I prefer the recording I have with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, but the singers in this one were still great.   I can't wait to see it again in a few months!

        

Some awesome Wicked songs:

Songs: Bubbles, The Captain

More Biffy Clyro love, coming your way!

Show Reviews: The 39 Steps

I saw this play a little while ago, and loved it!   It was so clever and funny.   It's based on the novel and Hitchcock film of the same title, about the ordinary man, who through a chance encounter, finds himself caught up in an espionage mystery.   What's so entertaining about this play is that's it's done with 4 actors, who play 130 roles between them!   The changes are very slick and well rehearsed and add to a lot of the comedy.   Without such a great cast, it would never have worked.   The sets are very simple, with the actors themselves making them convincing, for example everyone jiggling when they're sitting on benches to represent the train.   The Forth Bridge is just done with ladders and it looks great!   All in all, a very funny show, out on brilliantly, by great actors.  Well worth seeing.

Songs: Off to the Races

Here's a ridiculously sexy song to brighten up your Sunday.   You're welcome.

Photography: Rome, Day 5

Day 5 of our Rome trip included a trip to Villa Borghese (lovely art gallery) and an evening trip to the Vatican.   My favorite photo of the day was an HDR photo of a statue of a statue at the temple of Asclepius in the gardens of Villa Borghese.   There's a lovely golden quality to the light.   It looks like somewhere straight out a myth.  

  

Songs: Born on a Horse

God, I love Biffy Clyro.   One of my favoritest bands ever!   But what's up with their name?   This one is great.   Great tune and bizarre, almost chili-esque lyrics.   enjoy!

Projects: Home made alcohols

Last year I bought some strawberries that weren't very nice.   Rather than eating them anyway I decided to turn them into strawberry vodka!   I sliced them up small, put them in a glass bottle and added enough vodka to cover them.   I left them in the vodka for a week so, slowly adding sugar to taste, and shaking.

After a week the vodka tasted really strawberryey, so I strained the vodka with muslin (tried coffee strainers first, didn't work) and voila!   Pretty red vodka that tasted like strawberry jam!   Brilliant!   And I had lots of decoloured vodka soaked strawberries at the end.   Well I had to eat them, right?   That was a merry evening.   The vodka isn't very strong, being half fruit juice and sugar now, so you can drink it neat.   It seems to keep very well too.  


  

Well, I wasn't going to stop there now, was I?   So far I have tried raspberry, blueberry, peach and plum.   The raspberry took a little longer to taste good.   Almost two weeks.   But I think it's the best I've done so far.   Tastes so good.   I've also found it's best not to leave it longer than it needs.   If you take the fruit out sooner it tastes fresher and fruitier.   If you leave it for longer it seems to go more syrupy and less natural tasting.   Blueberry took even longer to be done, about three weeks, and it wasn't quite as good.   It tasted nice, but on a blind taste test you probably wouldn't guess blueberry.   Same with the plum.   Nice, but not particularly plummy.   The peach I'm not so happy with.   It was nice for a little while, but didn't keep as well as the others.   Perhaps it's because peaches have a higher water content or something.   Who knows.

 raspberry

 blueberry

       Plum and peach

So next I decided to branch out from vodka and make sloe gin!   A friend's mum gt me the sloe berries.   It worked really well, though I think I added a bit too much sugar.   Ah well.   

And there's been one other thing I've tried so far that's a little different.  Coffee liqueur!   I forgot to get a picture of it, but it was brilliant.   This one has an actual recipe, which I got from a friend (but only followed approximately).   3/8 L cream (186ml), 10g vanilla, 1/8 L (62ml) coffee, 1/8 L milk, 100g sugar, 1/8 L dark rum, 1/8 L 96% alcohol.   It lasted really well and was very delicious.   I know that 96% alcohol is hard to come by in this silly country (I brought mine back from Italy) and I don't think it adds much to the flavour.   It would probably be nicer with just rum, but I'm not sure how well the cream would keep then.  I'll have to experiment.  

Songs: Royals

You know Royals?  Of course!   Who doesn't?  It's a great song.  

Well, what about this cover?   It's by the amazing Walk Off the Earth.   Check out the video!   It's so awesome!   how many times did they have to rehearse that??

While we're on the subject, I quite like this cover too.   It's sung by a 7 foot clown.

Film Reviews: The Great Gatsby

Despite what the critics say I really like this film.   I love the colour, I love the over-the-top splendour, hell, I even love Tobey Maguire!   People complain that the film has lost all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's subtlety and poetry and that he's killed the spirit of the book.   But I think that books are open to interpretation and I like this one.   It wouldn't be a Baz Luhrman film if it wasn't a big and bold, dazzling, colourful, loud spectacular.   I think it's possibly even more so that Moulin Rouge.   It's about Gatsby, a wealthy but enigmatic man trying to win back Daisy, the wife of wealthy but nasty Tom Buchanan, in 1920s New York.   It doesn't end well for anyone.   It's told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin.   As I said, I love Tobey Maguire as Nick, and usually I don't have a lot of time for him.   I think Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker (Daisy's friend) were perfect as well.   Exactly how I imagined them.   Contrary to the rest of the world though, I'm actually not that keen on Leonardo diCaprio as Gatsby.   Can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like...   One thing I would say though is that the story is a bit tricky to follow, but well, I suppose it was in the book as well.

  

Ballet Reviews: Highland Fling

I went into this one knowing very little about it.   I'm not sure I liked the story.  It's about a young Glaswegian man who becomes obsessed with a fairy he saw while on pills.   In the end his obsession kills him.   Having said that, it was very interesting and very cleverly done.   I've never seen ballet mixed with gritty that way before.   The dancing was really clever too.   Somehow the dancers managed to use ballet to convey drunken stumbling out of bars and crap dancing.   And it really worked.   There was also tartan absolutely everywhere.   Not sure I really liked that either.   We get that it's Scotland, there's no need to ram it down our throats.   Still, a really interesting and clever show.

 

Film Reviews: Apollo 13

Obviously this is quite an old film, but I only saw it for the first time recently, and I loved it!   Being a nerd it obviously appealed to me in the same way that anything to do with space and NASA does.   It's about the real life Apollo 13 mission that went horribly wrong.  The astronauts barely made it back to Earth.   It's an amazing story of courage and ingenuity made all the better because it's true, though obviously the film makers did use a little dramatic license.  I really enjoyed Tom Hanks's performance as Jim Lovell, the mission commander.   He portrayed him as a really warm and charismatic person, which must be very hard to act.  Well done!   I also loved the historical context.   For most people these days it seems NASA doesn't figure much in their everyday lives, but this film really gives an idea that back then everyone was excited by it.   Apollo 11 had just been to the moon and everyone seemed to be celebrating the amazing achievement.   It looks like it was an exciting time to be alive.   If you haven't seen it, it's well-worth a watch.

   

Songs: Don't You Worry Child

Again, this is another of those rare times when I actually like something on the radio, and it's very very unusual for me to like a dancy number like this, but I really like the raw emotion in it.   Enjoy!

Photography: Rome, Day 4

The fourth day of our Rome trip took us back to the Palatine Hill for a proper look round there, and to the forum, and to the Pantheon as well.   The two photos I liked best from the day weren't really of any of those things.   I really liked one HDR photo over the roofs of Rome.   The normal version looked pretty mundane, but the HDR version really brought the scene to life.   You can see a little bit of the forum in the foreground, but the focus is on the rooftops.   The other is a photo of the Colosseum from a different angle.   I really like the warmth of it.   It looks almost autumnal.

   

Songs: Wake Me Up

One of the very rare times I actually liked a song that was on the radio.   It's very different to the usual chart rubbish.  I understand the sentiment, but I don't agree with it at all.   Live your life!   Still catchy though.

 

Baking: Millionnaire Shortbread

This is some good, tasty, unhealthy stuff!   It's a layer of shortbread, with a layer of caramel on top of it, topped off with chocolate.   Yum yum!  

For the shortbread:

500g plain flour
150g sugar
350g butter

For the caramel:

200g butter
200g sugar
800g condensed milk

For the topping:

400g milk chocolate


Despite the three layers, this is a pretty easy recipe, though it is a bit time-consuming because you have to wait for things to cool before adding the next layer.   Start by making the shortbread.   Mix the flour and sugar together and rub in the butter, to make a dough.   Press the dough into a baking tray with your fingers and bake at 180 degrees until slightly golden on top.   This should take about 20 minutes.   This also works well as a stand-alone shortbread recipe.  

Next, make the caramel.   Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sugar and then the condensed milk and bring it to the boil.   This takes longer than you think it will, and I can never manage it without ending up with a few burnt bits.   Simmer it for about 10-15 minutes, then pour over the cooled shortbread.  

Finally, melt the chocolate and smooth it over the top of the cooled caramel.   Leave to set and cut into squares.   Yum!

Ingredients

 

 

 

Shortbread pre-baking

 Caramel, complete with burnt bits

 Chocolate set and cut into squares

Cross-section! 

 

Songs: Bulletproof

This is my new favorite karaoke song!  It's so easy to sing and everyone sounds good singing it.   I first came across it in Pitch Perfect, and have subsequently has it stuck in my head a lot.   A LOT.   It's great.   Really simple, but effective.

  

Fossils: Trilobite and ammonite

Seeing as how I'm a massive nerd, I love fossils.   They're awesome!   Here are some cool recent fossil purchases.   This little guy is a trilobite.   Trilobites are sadly extinct, but were very succesful in their day.   They were marine arthropods, and one of the awesome things about trilobites is that their eyes had CRYSTAL LENSES!  Yes, crystal!   The lenses of their eyes were crystal prisms, not at all like the round squishy lenses we've got.   Nature is amazing.   Evolution is amazing.   And I love my trilobite fossil.   It's so well preserved and perfect!

And this is my ammonite.   They're another pretty common type of fossil.   Here's what I know about ammonites:   They were an octopus and squid relative, and looked a bit like a modern day nautilus.   They lived in the outermost compartment of their shell, and as they grew they added on an extra compartment and moved next door, with their head and tentacles protruding.   The smaller vacated chambers were then used to help control buoyancy.   They were free-swimming animals.   I love my ammonite fossil because it's so pretty.   The inside is full of nice crystals and the outside has a lovely pearly sheen.   No wonder so many people use them as mantlepiece decorations.