That Yucky Feeling..

I've realised after I painted this page that 'try and start' is perhaps not the best way to say that. It should be 'try to start'. Look past that please! 

Today I am ill. Yesterday I woke up with a blocked nose and a general yucky feeling. Today I woke up and it is even worse, it has added woozy-ness and a muted headache. 

So this is the perfect day to stay in my bed and catch up on some tv, eat and read. 

My Graze Box arrived today and it is by far the best one I've had yet. For those who don't know what a Graze Box is, it's a box that is delivered to you every week with a fine selection of nibbles and treats tailored to your likes! It's a really good way to get something healthy into your diet and they're the perfect size for a snack. 

Here's the link for those interested.

I'll also be reading The Magdalen which was being distributed earlier. This is Dundee University's student magazine, edited by my flatmate Finlay who I've mentioned on this blog once upon a time.

Speaking of Once Upon a Time, (see what I did there) I'm loving the program! If you love fairy Tales like I do you'll really enjoy this program. I can throughly recommend! 

And finally I wanted to mention that I'm starting to paint again as of yesterday. I wrote this down in my visual diary as a reminder to myself, and I'm blogging about it to motivate myself. I used to love to paint in acrylic and I think I got quite good at it, however i'm really out of practice. Watercolour is really different from acrylic though so it may take me a while to get used to the differences.

This post was just my way of keeping on top of a few things. 

I hope everyone else is having a lovely day!  

I eventually got around to watching Submarine this evening. I remember reading a review of it in Total Film ages ago and making a mental note to give it a watch. The movie is set in Wales and directed by Richard Ayoade, who based it on the book 'Submarine' by Joe Dunthorne. I haven't read it yet but now plan too. 

Submarine is about a young boy called Oliver Tate who narrates the movie in his brilliant Welsh accent. I was going to give you a rundown of the story but I think I'm just going to post the book description from Amazon; 

'The dryly precocious, soon-to-be-fifteen-year-old hero of this engagingly offbeat debut novel, Oliver Tate lives in the seaside town of Swansea, Wales. At once a self-styled social scientist, a spy in the baffling adult world surrounding him, and a budding, hormone-driven emotional explorer, Oliver is stealthily (and perhaps a bit more nervously than he’d ever admit) nosing his way forward through the murky and uniquely perilous waters of adolescence. His objectives? Uncovering the secrets behind his parents’ teetering marriage, unraveling the mystery that is his alluring and equally quirky classmate Jordana Bevan, and understanding where he fits in among the pansexuals, Zoroastrians, and other mystifying, fascinating beings in his orbit.'

The movie wasn't what I expected it to be, but I must admit I loved it. What was the most fascinating to me was the way in which it was filmed. It had a very homemade, vintage feel too it. I particularly loved the scene where Jordana a takes pictures of them kissing for blackmail.

I recommend giving it a watch! 
I don't really do movie reviews on this blog but I wanted to mention this one because I loved it so much and thought it was quite a quirky and interesting film. 
If you watch it, I hope you enjoy it! 

(pictures are not mine obviously, I got them from google. ha.)

Today my grandparents came to visit me in Dundee and we decided to go a walk through Balgay park. It was such a nice walk and I took so many photos! The colours of the leaves when the sun was shining was amazing, it really feels like autumn has come. 

My gran wanted to have a look at the observatory so we trekked up to the top of hill and went to look at the telescope, which was run by a very nice guy who you can tell really loves space and stuff.. ha. Like a child trapped within a man. 

He showed me the tiger eye heart, which is in one of the pictures below. It is apparently my birthstone, although I always thought mine was the clear quartz! It was pretty though so I took it home with me.

The place was really quiet, we were practically the only ones there. On top of the building there's this shadow clock that allows you to stand on the correct month and it tells you the time according to the position of the sun, like a human sun dial! 

The place didn't have much else to offer, but the walk up was lovely. 

I seem to be getting exceedingly more excited with every holiday we have. Halloween last year I was a little bit enthusiastic and this year that grew and I was even worse!

(This is not taking into account christmas, which I adore at home and look forward to every year.)

I got to celebrate Halloween twice this year. Once in my hometown on Glasgow and the other in my house in Dundee. 

Halloween in Glasgow was amazing. It was really fun to see my friends from back home, we had such a blast catching up and dancing. I usually don't like dancing at clubs, it's not really my type of night out, but it's always fun when you decide to just let loose and not care that you can't dance. Which I can't, however hard I may try. 

In Dundee we decided to have a party at our flat to celebrate instead of going out, simply because it's less hassle and we get to remain warm and stress free! 

It was incredibly fun this year, our party was really busy and lively. The costumes really were fabulous, some had gone above and beyond to impress! 

I decided to dress up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz as a sort of last resort idea. I ordered it in plenty of time, which is quite unusual for me, and bought all of the little bits and pieces I needed. It was nice to avoid the last minute panic trying to find a costume! I might try to do this in future! 

This is a picture of me at the party this year versus the costume I had last year when I decided to go as a mouse. I thought it would be fun to compare the two nights! 

I really liked my costume this year. 

In an attempt to make our flat spooky we put up a few decorations around the place.

We have a downstairs den that is already quite spooky and dark, so we decided the main party should be held down there. Louisa and I put a trail of bats and some cobwebs leading down the stairs. 

There was also the obligatory craved pumpkin! We carved 3 this year but I only have a picture of the one I did, which I then made into a bowl for the sweets.

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween! 

xcx

Hey guys! Today it's been raining pretty hard in Scotland (when is it never?) so most of my afternoon has been spent cooking and being cosy. 

As halloween is nearing I thought it would be fun to decorate my room a little bit to try and get myself in the Halloween mood. I cut out little bats and stuck them on my wall and I think they turned out really nice! I saw the idea here! 

I also bought some super comfy socks yesterday in preparation for the cold. They are so comfortable that I even wear them over my jeans! 

This is what I made on my rainy day. 

What you need: 

450g/1lb pork OR 350g/.7lb of lamb

3 tbsp of soy sauce

1 tbsp cornflour

250ml/9fl oz of hot chicken stock

2 leeks

2 cloves of garlic

2.5cm/1inch of root ginger

100g/4oz of unsalted cashew nuts

salt and black pepper

I got the recipe from one of my mums old cook books that I technically stole from her and took to university with me. Don't worry, she doesn't use it much anymore! The book is called 'Warming Winter Favourites' and I think it was part of a collection. The recipe adds in 100g of button mushrooms for those who are a fan, however, I am not so I chose to leave them out.

For the stock I used a stock cube in boiling water and although the original recipe suggests pork I decided to use lamb. I like lamb better.

Note to self:

As much as I liked this I think the sauce could have done with an extra something. I personally would have added a little bit of chilli or something to give that little extra bite. In saying that, I still enjoyed it.

Step 1.
Cut the lamb up and set it aside for later. I chose to cut the lamb into cubes for this, but I was given stewing lamb on my online shop instead of pre-diced lamb. The choice is yours!
In a bowl mix together the soy sauce, cornflour and stir in the stock.

Step 2. 

Cut up the leek into thin slices. Peel, crush and chop up the garlic. Peel and grate the ginger.

Heat oil in a large pan until it is medium high (hot but not smoking)

Step 3. 

Add cashew nuts to the pan and stir-fry until golden. Remove them from pan and set aside on some kitchen paper to drain.

Step 4.

Add a little more oil to the pan and start to cook your lamb (or pork). Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, or until it is no longer pink. Remove from the pan and set aside. 

Step 5.
Add the leeks to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute, then add the garlic and ginger. stir-fry for a further 2-3 minutes.

Step 6. 
Return the lamb(or pork) to the pan and add in the soy sauce and cornflour mixture. Bring it all to the boil and then simmer for about 2-3 minutes, whilst stirring, until the lamb is super hot. Add cashews and season!

xcx

I've tried to make cinnamon pull apart bread before and it worked, but I always felt I had done it wrong and it wasn't as tasty as it should be. This time I tried cinnamon rolls instead and they worked out perfectly. I used this recipe and really recommend sticking to it, it worked out well and I don't think I strayed away from it at any point. 

I left the dough overnight because I started making them quite late and when I woke up in the morning the dough had risen so much that the shelf above the bowl in the fridge was being pushed up! 

I recommend these, they were delicious!  

 xcx

Life Update

So recently I've been a bored out of my mind. 

I really wish I could take something away from this summer because I haven't been working or snowed under with things to do, however all I seem to want to do is watch meaningless TV programs, produce pretty pictures on photoshop and plan little walks into town.
It's a shame because next week I'm going to be back at university and starting a part time job, so my free time will be limited. 
My motivation has left me this summer. 
I guess it has been nice not doing anything and catching up on sleep, but I'm really looking forward to getting back into a routine. I miss that feeling of constantly having a due date in the back of my mind and it slowly pushing me to do something.


My other news includes: 

• My dad decided to buy me a macbook pro! - I was originally going to start saving up for one and asked a few of my relatives to donate money instead of presents for my birthday this year, so that I could get started. One of those people was my my dad, who asks me every year what I would like. After hearing that I was saving up he very kindly offered to buy the entire thing for me! A generous gift indeed! 
• Remember those lovely boots I got? - well I had to take them back.. They keep scuffing and flaking away far too easily and after my second pair I gave up on them. It makes me sad because they were so comfortable and went with nearly everything in my wardrobe. 
• I'm in love with this song - Turn and Turn Again by All Thieves
• I've started to paint again - I don't know how long this will last but for now it's going smoothly. 
• A few of my flatmates move home soon - One moved back today and the others will be joining us next week along with Michael. This makes me happy. 
• I start my job tomorrow! - I'm a bit nervous about this one because I haven't had a job since I worked in the chemist in 2009. Luckily I'll only be working 1-2 times a week so it shouldn't be stressful juggling it with university at all! 

That's all I can think of for now.  Now back to Greys anatomy and my new favourite, Private Practice!


xcx