New recipe #5 and New food #13: Festive food

Christmas is time for family, friends, fun and festive food. And so for the first time I tried Turkish Delight and thanks to my sister Lisa’s skills, she created a GIF of me trying it. See below!

I’ve been cooking a lot recently, thanks to binge watching Jamie Oliver’s Money Saving Meals and getting inspired to cook leftovers. So Christmas Day evening I cooked turkey soup and turkey and vegetable pie. Then on Boxing Day I cooked Baked chocolate and Clementine cheesecake.

It was a fairly straight forward recipe, although my mum did have to save the chocolate mixture as for the first time I over melted chocolate!

The baked cheesecake was a success and tasted of Christmas. And as you can see I unintentionally coordinated my outfit with the cheesecake.

New Album #4: If they remade a classic

Last month I caught up with my old friend Tom, and while we were catching up I explained about the 29 challenge, and he gave me a list of albums I should listen to. And today I listened to the first album he recommended, which was Saturdays=Youth - M83.

 

It’s not my usual sort of music I listen to, but as soon as I heard the first song and then the second it immediately reminded me of the classic film The Breakfast Club. When I was a teenager it was one of my favourite films, and when I went to uni I went to the traditional poster sale in fresher’s week, and bought a Breakfast Club poster. I thought it was the coolest; it had the essay they wrote on the poster as well.

So going back to the title of this blog post, if and I hope they don’t, but if Hollywood ran out of ideas and had to remake The Breakfast Club they should use the album as the soundtrack.

New film #7 and Cooking #4: Whimsical turkey

Today was a typical day that happens in the Christmas holidays (although I'm still at work till Christmas Eve.) I watched a random film that was highlighted during the traditional highlighting the Christmas Radio times and I cooked a turkey (well the crown of a turkey!)

The film I watched was Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium which starred; Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Jason Bateman. Hoffman played Mr Magorium who was 243 years old and owned a toy shop, who wanted to give the shop to Molly Mahoney who worked in the shop alongside him. It was whimsical film, and one that was only 90 minutes which is rare these days. Most films are at least 2 hours long.

This is a picture of the little boy in the film, he was an average kid character in the film, until they showed his hat collection and then I was in admiration of him from then on in.

Later in the afternoon I had a few school friends over for a bring and share Christmas lunch. I thought one of the others would take charge of cooking the turkey, but as I was host, it came down to me, which I was a bit daunted about. But following the instructions on the packaging, and using my trusty meat thermometer which looked pretty lethal, I think the turkey was a success. I've asked my friends to text me tomorrow just to tell me they haven’t got food poisoning!

New Albums #3: Mixing it up

When I said I was going to do this challenge quite a few people gave me recommendations straight away and this guy Coops was one of them! This is me and him at my Halloween party. I know him because he is my sister Lisa’s geeky sidekick back in the day.

So one of the albums he recommended me was Girl Talk-All Day. I listened to it while doing some housework and I loved it. It’s an album full of mash ups, and the variety of music being sampled is unbelievable.  I don’t think you’d find an album with samples of Bruce Springsteen, ELO, Madness, Blur, Jackson Five, Beyoncé and Daft Punk to name but a few.

It also has that nostalgic sort of feel as well, and reminds me of uni days when me and my mate Chris would guess which song was going to be next just by the overlapping beat being played by the DJ. Although the DJ at our student union pretty much played the same playlist every Wednesday, so it didn't take long before we knew the songs and mixes inside out.

I highly recommend the album; whether it be for housework, gym, journey to work, it works with anything.

New activities and places #16, and new album #2: Lectures and Live Life Living

This is me and my friend Laura, also known as Twinee and as you can see we look quite alike. We've only known each other since June, but it feels so much longer. We were both temping at the local council and kept each other going when the days dragged on with not much to do.

I've moved onto a different job but Twinee is still there and wants a new job, so I gave her a motivational day to help her get a job. There was a bit of job hunting, some life lessons from Susan Sarandon in a Oprah Masterclass and then we watch a few TED Lectures. During the job hunting we had Example’s new album Live Life Living on in the background. I was meant to see him in concert a few weeks ago, but my plans fell through. I've heard a few of his songs before, but not heard a whole album of his. It’s a bit strange listening to a summer style album in winter. It’s not what I’d usually listen to but with this challenge, in particular the new albums part, it’s all about broadening my horizons.

The TED Lectures is a free lecture series and there are hundreds on YouTube to watch. The first one we watched was by Susan Colantuono and was called ‘The Career advice you probably didn't get.’ To be honest most of it went over my head, as it was about middle management and higher management career women. Lots of buzzwords and business jargon, which one day might make sense to me. We then started to watch a lecture by Meg Jay called: ‘Why 30 is not the new 20’ but we stopped it after a few minutes as it said your 20’s mark out your future career style and how you should be set up and establishing yourself during this time. This freaked me and Twinee out as my career so far has changed quite a bit, so we stopped the lecture promptly.

The final one we watched was by Matt Cutts who works at Google, and it was called: Try something new for 30 days. This one reminded me of what I'm doing with the 29 challenge. So not an amazing start with Ted Lectures, but there are quite a few that look good. In particular one by Jane Fonda, who was one of the main inspirations for the 29 challenge.

Cooking #3: The pain of perfecting the panna cotta

Earlier this week I tried panna cotta for the first time, and having seen the dessert repeatedly on Austalian Masterchef I thought I should attempt making it.

It was the first time of using gelatine leaves, and as you can see I was pretty nervous about it. It seems so technical.

They set perfectly, but like what happened to Emelia on aussie masterchef, whose signature dish was panna cotta, they didn't come out of the ramekin. I was so disappointed!

Even though I was disappointed, they did taste pretty great, and I made nice raspberry sauce to go with them. I think it’s a major dessert to master.

The contestants used metallic ramekins and a blow torch to help the panna cotta's get out; maybe I should put them on my Christmas list!

New film #6: Seeing my old workplace

From the end of last year to the beginning of this year I worked at the Royal College of Surgeons. Quite often there were film and TV crews outside as filming took place either in the college or in Greys Inn Field which was the park opposite. Sherlock had filmed there, the new Night at the Museum film and The Imitation Game filmed there as well. For the latter I walked past the trailers and learn that if there was well known actors, their names wouldn't be on the trailers, instead it would be their character names.

So last night I went to see The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. It was about Alan Turing who with a team cracked the enigma code during the 2^nd world war. Their efforts shortened the war by two years and saved 14 million lives. Even though he could have been a hero for this, the efforts were kept secret for around 50 years.

The film ends sadly, so don’t want to give too much away in case you want to see it. It’s a gripping film, and even though its 2 hours long it didn't flag at all. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing and surprisingly funny at times.

I did get to see a glimpse of the Royal College of Surgeons, in one of the scenes where the war was getting worse, but like most locations its blink and you miss it as they all merge into one.

New Albums #1: Visiting a highway

It takes me nearly an hour to drive to work, so this gives me a chance to belt out my favourite songs, with nobody being able to hear me. Today I thought I’d do something different, so I listened to an album I hadn't heard before. My friend Rachel is a huge Bob Dylan fan and when I told her about the challenge, she put Bob Dylan on the list.

The album of his I listened to was Highway 61 Revisited and there were 9 tracks. What I didn’t realised with Dylan tracks is that they all quite long, the longest being 11 minutes! While listening to the album, it did feel like I was driving in America, instead of driving to Cambridge.

What I like about the album is how each song has a strong narrative; you can really build characters from the lyrics. Now whatever I say about what Bob Dylan songs remind me of, I will get slated, but with the narrative element it does remind me of Billy Joel songs as he does the same. You only have to listen to All for Leyla and Allentown to hear this.

I'm glad I've listened to a Bob Dylan album as he has been an enigma to me for years. 

New food #12: Perfect pudding

Last night I went out for a Christmas Meal with my school friends. Hard to believe I've known some of them for 15 years, some even longer! As always its lovely to catch up.

With the challenge in mind I decided to try something new off the menu, and I went for panna cotta. The main reason for trying this is I am a huge fan of Masterchef Australia and on the latest series of the show there’s a contestant called Emelia whose signature dish is panna cotta. When the show started there were around 25 contestants, so a lot of names to remember. So me and my flatmate Charlotte just called Emelia panna cotta until we remembered her name!

How I haven’t tried panna cotta till now I have no idea, but it was delicious, creamy but not too heavy. I’m hoping to make some myself soon, but as I’ve learnt from aussie masterchef, they don’t always go to plan. Fingers crossed I have beginners luck when I create them!

New food #11: Festive Fettuccine

I’m very close to my Granddad, until I started my current job we used to speak every other day. But with my commute being longer to work I can only talk a couple of times a week.

Over the past couple of years he has increasingly liked his chick flicks. He likes watching films, but ones that are easy going so he can get a good night’s sleep. Until recently his go to film was The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. My granddad loves Sandra Bullock and seen most if not all of her films. It’s the dream to get them two together for afternoon tea, it would be comedy gold.

His new favourite film is The Holiday, and last Monday to get December off to a festive start I went round to watch the film with him. He also sees the films as being educational; with The Proposal he learnt what a latte was. In The Holiday he was disappointed as they talked about Fettuccine but never showed what it was. So I found out what Fettuccine was (its pasta) and I cooked some for my granddad. So it’s a new food we both tried, and it tastes just like tagliatelle, maybe a little thinner .

Upon watching the film, we discovered there was something else we didn't know; what is pinknuckle? It was mentioned but we had no idea whether it was a food or something else. A quick google and it is a game. Could this be another new activity I could do for the challenge?

New activities and places #15, and new phrase #3: Excuse the selfie stick

I’m not the greatest at taking selfies. A couple of years ago I went to New York on holiday and met Jake Gyllenhaal and had a picture with him. But I didn’t even chance taking a selfie in case I cut off his head!

Now when we my friend Linsey and I were in Rome there were lots of street sellers who were selling selfie sticks. Linsey jokingly said a much lower price than what one of them said, and he said yes. And after a bit of haggling, she bought one for half the price he said.

After that we seemed to only take pictures with the selfie stick. It took a few attempts so the stick wasn’t in the photo, but we mastered it by the end. The shots actually captured a lot more of the surroundings then normal pictures.

The day Linsey got the selfie stick was also the day we learnt the phrase; Excusee my umbrello, which translated is excuse me my umbrella. A useless phrase, but when said is a flashback to Rome for me.

New activities and places #15: 180!

My flatmate Charlotte and I love the show called A League of Their Own, and we are quite influenced by the show. If Freddie Flintoff, Jack Whitehall and Jamie Redknapp like something, we think we’ll like it too.

One episode they played darts and watching the darts looked great fun. So when we saw it advertised a few months ago in the local paper, we decided to book some tickets. Yesterday we went with a group of friends, and there were 8 of us in total.

After a quick google of the rules I was all set for a night of darts. It was good fun; the compare sounded like Darth Vader occasionally, and after a few drinks the atmosphere started to build up. It would have been great if there was more music as it was quite quiet at times.

Being a tad too organised, I thought it would be fun for me and my mates to think of darts names for ourselves, and I brought along paper and pens to write them down.

We went to a local competition called Apocalypse 2 at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre. Maybe next stop Ally Pally?

New places and activities #13 and #14: I’m with the band

A couple of years ago I went to a music festival in Hitchin where I live called Rhythms of the World, and saw this great drumming band called Toque Tambor. They said that they hold classes and I thought that would be fun to do, but upon checking timings I wouldn't have been able to go as I was working in London at the time, and the commute meant I would miss the classes.

In September I heard about the band again and now could make classes, so I signed up to an 11 week introductory course. Toque Tambor is a Brazilian carnival drumming band, and a variety of different drums and percussion instruments are used to create the sound.

Over the first few weeks I decided to try each instrument; these included the Surdo which is a big bass drum. Although this drum is providing the back beat, it’s quite heavy to carry for a 90 minute class, and because the sound is so low and you’re the only person providing that beat, it’s easy to hear if you make a mistake! I then tried a Caixa which is a small snare drum, but making a beat with 2 sticks is more difficult then it seems. The Tamborim, the smallest but the loudest drum is the one that I settled on, and I picked up the rhythms to this instrument pretty quickly.

After the 11 weeks we joined the band (that’s the first new activity.) And yesterday I took part in my first parade (the second new activity) in Ware. It was part of a Dickensian festival, and even though the band and Dickens is a strange mix, the band said that people in Ware think it’s the highlight of the night.

Before the parade started I was a little nervous as the Tamborim players (of which there were 4 of us) are right at the front. Would I remember all the rhythms, would I stay in time? As soon as I heard the initial beat I was fine.

                               Me with Sue and Toni, some of the other newbies of the band.

Although it was freezing, the atmosphere was great and people in the street did start dancing and taking pictures. I've definitely got the bug now, here’s to the next parade!

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month: Where it all began

For any eagle eyed readers of the blog, you will notice that I haven’t put an entry about writing 29 pages of a screenplay for November. Well I'm afraid I didn't have time in November. Sometimes life gets in the way. So I'm going to roll over the pages. So in December I'm going to attempt to write 58 pages in December. That equals to nearly an hour of film; here’s hoping to being snowed in a few days this month!

So instead of writing about my progress, which there isn’t any, I thought I’d say about my background when it comes to screen-writing. From the age of 5-19 I went to drama club, and below are a couple of pictures of the first play I was in. It was Winnie the Pooh and yes I was Winnie the Pooh! Seeing scripts from an early age means they weren't a daunting thing. So when it came to school, taking part in plays was automatic, and I did GCSE and A Level Drama as well.

When I went to uni I made a decision to stop acting. I didn't get the usual ‘buzz’ from it that other people got, and saw it more as part of a weekly, sometimes daily routine. If I missed acting then I could join the drama society, but I didn't miss it.

I've always been into films and taking Media A Level heightened my interest. I learnt a great deal about the construction of film, in terms of structure, and how every film uses Propp's theory. For example, how there is always a hero and a villain, a princess and so on.

Around my penultimate semester of my journalism degree I realised journalism wasn't for me. I signed up for a 4 day intensive course about screen-writing, and it was here my interest ignited. I started having ideas for screenplays, but when life happens the ideas take a back burner.

A couple of years ago I went to a Raindance film school for a day course and this was a great opportunity to learn about different techniques for screen-writing. Once again my interest in screen-writing reignited.

The ideas for screenplays have been flowing ever since. Now it’s just about making time in my daily routine to write them.

New foods #8 #9 #10: An apple a day does not keep the doctor away in Rome

Fun fact for you, you can’t find apple juice in Rome, at least not in the hotel or shops we went in. Considering my favourite drink is appletiser and I like apple juice to go with my breakfast, I was wondering where I could get one of my five fruit and veg a day. (Yes appletiser does count as one of my five fruit and veg a day, it says so on the label!)

So Salvidor our trusty barman recommended peach juice, and I loved it. Although its probably got a day’s worth of sugar in it! I also tried grapefruit juice. I'm expert on the stuff, well grapefruit as I served a lot of it when I was a breakfast helper at an old people’s home. Grapefruit juice has a weird taste to begin with, and it was okay afterwards. I’ll stick to my apple juice though, apart from when I'm in Rome.

On our last night I also tried clams, but there was a lot going on with the meal, as you can see below. There’s tagliatelle, mushrooms, truffle, and clams. Clams, well the edible part of it, not the shell is tiny so if you’re eating it with pasta it could be quite well hidden. Eating it on its own is nice, not too salty as some seafood can be. It would be great to try again in a risotto.

New places and activities #12: Ho Ho Ho- Run Run Run!

I’m not a stranger to running, having done a Tough Mudder, but running in fancy dress is a new one for me. In particular running in a santa suit! Myself and my colleague Fabiana and lots of others took part in a santa fun run at work this lunchtime.

The main challenge wasn’t the running the 2.5km, but keeping the santa suit on, as it was quite baggy. I thought I’d be running with the red trousers round my ankles!

I think we completed the run in about 20 minutes which isn’t too bad, although the office was a lot quieter this afternoon!

As it’s the season for giving, if you want to donate for the charity we ran for, then here’s the link; https://www.justgiving.com/TheSilentKnights/

Meet new people #2-9: Don’t be a stranger

Going on holiday is probably one of the easiest ways to meet new people, and even though there was a language barrier; Rome is a place that most people can speak a bit of English.

My partner in crime Linsey is the same as me in the fact we’ll talk to anyone, and we meet a guy called Stefano while trying to find out hotel (see previous post about getting lost!) Not only did he give us directions, he actually walked us to the hotel himself which was 10 minutes out of his way. We were a bit wary at first, but he was harmless and took a shine to Linsey.

The next person we met, became our new best friend; the hotel barman Salvidor! He was the nicest guy, got to know us well and even gave us free drinks on the first night, and on the afternoon we were leaving. He gave us great recommendations, such as going up the dome at St Peter’s church. And at a fountain we posed by we did wonder why people were drinking the water, was it sacred? Salivdor’s view on this, no they are crazy, I hope you didn't drink it!

Mario at the hotel reception was the third person we got to know and he also had great local knowledge, even though he lived in New York for the past 10 years. Now I thought that this only happened in films, but Mario was quite weary of the mafia, he’d whisper the word if it was in conversation. Both Salivdor and Mario both asked when we'd be coming back to Rome halfway through our stay!

Our second night was when we met 4 people, and all were British. Going out to the restaurant opposite the hotel (our feet were very achy), we ended up sitting next to two guys from Southampton called Mike and Russ. Unlike us having a girlie weekend in Rome, they were off to the football. It was great to compare views on Rome.

After dinner Linsey and I went to see our good friend Salvidor at the bar on the roof terrace. In an inspired move Linsey had bought a selfie stick, and upon hearing the couples behind us talk about them, she promptly pushed it in front of the couples. What a way to enter a conversation! One of the couples were American, but we didn't catch their names. However we ended up chatting to Darren and Kelly from Kent. The best part of the conversation was the American guy thought I was posh. If you’ve ever heard me speak you’d think otherwise!

The last person we met was a guy called Martin on our train back. He was from Vienna and loved Rome, visiting regularly. He was great to talk to as he gave us recommendations as to which cities we should visit next, and why we should go to Vienna.

Our hotel features a lot in this blog post, and for anyone interested in stayed at the Marcella Royal Hotel, and I highly recommend staying there. Good breakfast, great views and friendly staff, what more could you ask for. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of any of the people we met, so you'll have to make do with more pictures of me at the roof terrace.

New places and activities #11: When in Rome

On Friday evening my friend Linsey (who features on the blog regularly) and I went on a long weekend to Rome. I've never been to the city before or Italy, so couldn't wait to get to warmer climates, even it was only for a couple of days.

The city didn't disappoint and we packed a lot in over a couple of days. We started off the Italian way by having pizza and gelato on Friday night. Our hotel we stayed at had a bar on the roof terrace and we even got free drinks from the barman!

Saturday was our main sight-seeing day, and we went on one of those hop on hop off tour buses, which was a great way to see the city and get our bearings. We saw from a distance the colosseum but quite a bit of it was covered up with scaffolding.

The main area we had a look around was Vatican city; we walked the 500 steps of St Peter's Basilica and we at the top we saw great views all around. The Sistine chapel was amazing, really hard to believe that it was painted in 4 years!

On Sunday we took it easy and just browsed the shops which we found while lost on Saturday afternoon. In fact getting lost was a bit of a theme, but the great thing about getting lost is you get to see more of the city.

I’ll be doing a few more posts on Rome as it covers quite a few things on the 29 challenge. But I highly recommend visiting. It’s a great city to explore and it’s made me want to go back to Italy and see the different cities.