Reconnecting #9: Knowledge is power

I’m not saying this to get compliments by any stretch, but I’m not smart. Yes I have a degree in Journalism, please look at this lovely picture of me at my graduation below. But I’m not academically smart.

At school although I was good at creative subjects, I really struggled with Science and Maths and ended up getting 2 D’s at Science and an E at Maths in GCSE. I work hard don’t get me wrong (both my parents were/are teachers so education was very important growing up), but with all the hard work it didn’t get me the results I wanted. When I was younger my sisters would repeatedly tell me that their lowest GCSE results was my highest, and even though I excelled at double Media A Level, getting 2 A’s, to some its seen as a ‘mickey mouse’ subject.

And add that recently my flatmate said I’d been washing my clothes the wrong way, and I hadn’t even noticed, I knew it was time to start doing things to become smarter, but what?

Stylist magazine, one of my favourites have started a campaign about reclaiming your lunch hour back. It gives you lots of ideas of things to do in your lunch break, other than have lunch and quite often continue working. Two things from the ideas they gave caught my interest. The first is free online courses. I doubt they actually give you an actual qualification, but the fact that my brain will start the process of learning is something. I’ll be starting my first one of these soon.

The other thing is there is a series of podcasts I’ve started to listen to called Stuff You Should Know, and it has 2 guys called Josh and Chuck discussing a topic at length for half an hour or so. There’s a huge variety of things they discuss. There are nearly 300 podcasts, and I’ve downloaded 70 of these to get me started! Topics range from how black holes work, to if we can live without a refrigerator. I listen to these to and from work and already have learnt all about myths about the brain and how jet lag works. The most interesting ones I’ve listened to so far is how ice cream works, why men have nipples and how Jim Henson worked.

So here are some fun facts on the above; ice cream was first sold to the public in Paris in 1606, and ice cream sundaes were made in rebellion. This is because ice cream floats were first sold and religious groups were offended when they were sold on Sundays. So the shops took out the drink element, and changed the spelling of Sunday as a result. In the first couple of weeks some baby boys can lactate but this soon wears off; a bit like how some babies can automatically swim straight away. And Fraggle Rock was HBO’s first hit, way before Sex and the City and Entourage. Who know’s what I’ll learn next?!

New film #16-18: New doesn’t always mean the best

I recently watched 3 films that were on my tivo; In Time, American Reunion and This Means War. They were okay, but were all lacking something. I thought the concept of In Time was a good idea, but the depth wasn’t there, the characters weren’t developed enough and overall it was flat. American Reunion, although funny I wouldn’t be able to tell you any of the jokes a week later.

                                       My face of not being impressed by the new films.

This Means War was the best out of the three, the plot was far fetched and Tom Hardy was a bit of a drip, but it was fun and different.

So over the past few weeks I’ve watched new films and so for the next few films in the challenge I’m going to watch some old films. I did this a few years ago, watch an old film, and then a new one, and 9 times out of 10 I preferred the old. Let’s see if this is the case this time round.

New Film #15: Critics try to spoil the big day

Over the weekend I saw the film Wedding Ringer. It’s a comedy with Kevin Hart who many people might not know, but if you’ve seen the most recent lip sync off on Jimmy Fallon, you’ll recognise him. It also starred a guy called Josh Gad, and the name isn't a familiar one, but his voice is as he is Olaf the snowman in Frozen!

I went to see it with my guy, and Jen and Mark who are in this picture below. The picture was taken during the 8 long months I worked as a Wedding Coordinator. I have many stories of the weddings I organised, and the cupcakes were from a wedding that had a cupcake wedding cake. Only the wedding party barely ate them, and I was left with 60 odd cupcakes! So I went on a cupcake blitz of all my friends in the local area. My sister even made me a cupcake tiara for the occasion.

Anyway back to the film. I was chatting to a cashier at Natwest before seeing it and she had heard on radio 5 that the critics thought it was awful. Okay it’s not going to win any Oscars, but it was very entertaining. Not as funny as another comedy wedding film I love which is Bridesmaids, and the Wedding Ringer wasn’t far behind.

New book #5: Not so great Gatsby

There are some books that people are supposed to read, the ones that regularly top the classics list. The Great Gatsby is one of them. My friend Rachel lent me this book when I was going to Rome which was a while back, as I thought I’d have time to read it. I read a bit (see below,) but sightseeing got in the way.

So I've been reading it on/off ever since and today I finally finished, even though it’s a really short book being 9 chapters. Maybe it’s because I didn't read it all in one go, but I just couldn't get into it. I felt I couldn't get to know the characters, as every time the book let you, you get stopped. It was only in the last couple of chapters you get to know Gatsby himself. For me I like books that get straight into the action, and less on the description.

So I’m afraid The Great Gatsby wasn't so great, but I'm really intrigued about how the Baz Luhrmann film turned out. That might be one to watch for the challenge.

New Activity #18: I’ve got a ticket to ride

It’s a well-known fact to my friends and family that I have a lot of stuff. I’m constantly sorting and chucking out things and I’d love there to be a day when I have minimal possessions.

Part of the problem is I keep things for sentimental reasons, and one of these is tickets to things, and I’ve been wondering what to do with loose tickets. This is how I came across Pinterest. For anyone who doesn’t know what it is, its basically a virtual noticeboard to pin ideas, pictures, recipes, pretty much anything that takes your interest. I searched Pinterest for what to do with loose tickets and came across two ideas. The first being a ticket stub diary, which although sounded great, I knew it would gather dust and never be looked at again. So I saw another idea of using a shadow box to put tickets in, and this is what I went with for my first Pinterest project.

Thanks to my mum getting presents from pupils in her class, one of them gave her a piece of art in a deep glass frame. I’m not sure what happened to the art, but I got the frame.

My sister Lisa who is really into her craft, (she even has her own art blog,) always has an endless supply of materials that could be used for future projects. So the background is a page from an old calendar as it had tickets on.

I’ve put all my loose tickets with the Opry House Tour ticket from Nashville and some cricket tickets taking pride of place. To be honest it looks good, but most of the tickets you can’t really see. Anyone got any ideas as to how to improve it?

New book #4: Sporting Inspiration

I’m a big fan of autobiographies, in particular ones about actors or sportsmen or women. Usually I read books about people I’ve heard of, but the latest book I read is about someone I’ve never heard of. It’s about Nikki Emerson who after being involved in a near fatal car crash and breaking her spine in 2008 took up Paralympic sport.

The book explored all aspects of her life since the crash, how she adapted to life in a wheelchair, carried on her studies and trained for races. It was really interesting hearing about how Nikki was seen when commuting to work in London, how some commuters either completely ignored her, or was really helpful. One commuter would chat to her every day and they ended up forming a book club together on the train!

I haven’t read a book about sport in a while, but it’s got me wanting to read more of them. So a few more sporting books will definitely pop up in the challenge.

New Recipe #9 and #10: A cooking challenge

Last Sunday my guy was going to have a week away on business, and he had a lot of food he was going to chuck out. So he said that I could have it, here’s what I got.

This gave me an idea for a challenge, to see how much of it I could use before it went off. I think I’ve used quite a lot of it so far.

The first thing I made was a new recipe from my favourite recipe book of the moment Jamie Oliver’s Save with Jamie book. I made a grated rainbow salad and feta fritters.

Friends and family of mine would laugh at this, because I hate salad. I eat plenty of fruit and veg, but I just don’t do salad. But I thought it had couscous, so with a bit of carbohydrate it might be okay. And it was fine, however the best bit was the feta fritters, they tasted amazing. As my flatmate pointed out, so your favourite part of the salad was the fritters, and not the actual salad. Very true!

I then made some more Stilton burgers one evening, and some pasta with Peperonata which is a tomato sauce with peppers. I also made steak with Stilton crumb and some of the baby corn and mange tout that I had. I’m not a big fan of steak, my family don’t really eat it and it was only last summer that it appeared on my radar. But I cooked the steak medium and it tasted great. As my old housemate from uni Lizi reminded me; she remembered that in 2^nd year I would just eat quorn as I was worried I’d give myself food poisoning. How far I’ve come!!

Learn a phrase in a different language #4: Sounding wise

My colleague Fabiana is Brazilian and can not only speak English, she can also speak Portuguese and German. How talented she is!

One lunchtime this week she got round to giving me a phrase in Portuguese. The phrase roughly translates into English as ‘May it not be immortal, since it’s flame; but may it be eternal while it lasts. Pretty deep for a lunch time! And Fabiana said I did very well with the pronunciation. As I said before she also speaks German, so I need another phrase from her soon!

New food #16 and #17: Strong tastes and unusual combinations

I’m not mad on cheese. I like it but not a big fan like some people. I love melted Camembert in a box and your bog standard cheddar and Brie and cranberry. But with my dad and one of my sisters not liking cheese, growing up there wasn’t lots of adventurous cheese in the house.

On Saturday I tried Stilton for the first time. My new guy loves cheese couldn’t believe I hadn’t tried it before. So I tried it and it was okay. I can eat it in small portions, but it tastes even better when melted. We made pork and Stilton burgers and having the Stilton oozing out of them tasted great.

Also on Saturday I tried a caramel chocolate with an unusual filling….balsamic oil. My friend Jen got me these as a thank you for feeding her pets while she was away. I was wondering how they would taste, but they tasted amazing, and I still can’t put my finger onto the reason why. I guess I’ll have to try some more, it will be such a chore!

Reconnecting #8: Local catch ups are the ones you take for granted

To finish my 4 day weekend I had another catch up with one of my uni mates, who goes by the name of Vicky but I call her Scrunchie (an inside joke about hair) and she either calls me Jofo or Grandma because I’m older then her….albeit only by a few months. At uni she would get me happy birthday Grandma cards and put inside them, sorry its late I thought you’d be dead!

I’m not sure when we became friends at uni, we were in the same halls, only not on the same floor which meant we were ‘worlds’ apart. But eventually we became friends, shopping trips; cinema outings and nights out were standard.

                                                                           Vicky and I in 2008

We only live about 30 minutes away from each other and after uni we used to meet up every few months, but like so many things, life got in the way. I last saw Vicky when we went to see Pink in concert in 2013; she had purple hair then (Vicky not Pink.)

So on Monday we met up again and did our main tradition of a Channing day (which usually ended up being an afternoon.) Back at uni Channing Tatum was a fresh face and only had a couple of films to his name; Step Up and She’s the Man. Vicky and I could probably quote She’s the Man in full. ‘Am I right, am I right?!’ (For anyone who hasn’t seen the film, that quote would make no sense.) Now Channing has over 20 films to his name, but on Monday we settled for watching The Vow and Step Up.

Just like all strong friendships, even though we hadn’t seen each other in a couple of years, it was like no time had passed and soon enough we were bringing out the old jokes. Good to see you again Scrunchie, lets not leave it so long next time!

                                                                     Vicky and I today 

Reconnecting #7, New people #10 and new food #15: Midlands meet up

After finding out at work I had 2 and half days holiday to use before my contract finishes I thought I’d catch up with some uni friends.

The first being my friend Humaira, but to me she is known as Di-Lowe because she fancies Rob Lowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, so the name combines both guys. And to her I’m known as Doll, because when we went out for lunch once a waiter called me Doll, and the name has stuck.

                                This is us in 2009 at the Capital FM Summertime Ball.

We've been friends since uni, and we’re both firm believers in the quote that Carrie Bradshaw says in an episode of Sex and the City: ‘Friendships don’t magically last forty years….you have to invest in them.’ Upon leaving uni we’d text or email nearly every day, support each other through job hunts and have regular catch ups every few months. Even though she is based in Birmingham, and I’m in Hitchin, distance wasn't a barrier for us.

But then life happens and somehow the close contact we once had got lost. A few months ago we kick started our friendship and now we’re back to how we used to be. I last saw Humaira in 2013 which is a lifetime for the pair of us, so Friday was a happy reunion for us both, and it was if no time had passed.

I also got to meet her son Ayden who is 5 months old (correct me Di-Lowe if I got his age wrong!) and apparently I was a calming influence on him.

Di-Lowe not only made us Nachos and got my staple of appletiser, but she also made Biryani which she suggested I make. It tasted great, not as spicy as I thought and very filling. Can't wait to try cooking it myself.

New Recipe #8: Frittata it makes me happy

This is another recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Save with Jamie book. I'm not really into egg dishes, but the sweet potato and spinach frittata has made me think otherwise.

There was a near cooking disaster as in the recipe it says to put the pan straight in the oven. I nearly did before my flatmate pointed out that the handle would melt. Good point well made, so once in an oven proof dish, everything went to plan.

The frittata tasted pretty good, and as recommended it tasted nice cold as well. Anything with sweet potato is usually a hit for me.