holy hectic week batman!

first of all, cheers to ben for these 2 lovely photos! and happy summer solstice to you all...sorry it's a little late, but i've been a wee bit busy.

i went up to stonehenge for solstice with ben. it was good fun, staying up all night and driving into the early hours of the morning. once the rain stopped the sunrise was looking to be fantastically beautiful but unfortunately the clouds soon moved in and obscured the colours.
then last weekend, i went to shropshire (somewhere in the midlands) for play, a juggling/camping/festival. it was the best 2.5 days i've had in a while! i've learned how to hoop. and i don't just mean swinging it round your hips....which is a feat in itself, believe me...but hoop tricks that involve arms and necks and knees and thumbs. it's such fun and i have the bruises to prove it. i'll post some pictures of the festival soon.

and last night ben and i went to victoria park (my local ghetto park) for some opera. the marriage of figaro was beamed live (and free) from the royal opera house in covent garden to a large screen in the park. we had a picnic, wine, summer sun, and opera. how very civilized. we're going back for turandot on the 7th.

and the prelude to all this excitement of the past week? i met a boy...he accompanied me on my adventures...swoon. his name is alex.

fags are a hoot

how sexy is mike?! i've said it before and i'll say it again, every girl needs a gay boyfriend.

i went round mike's last night for a bit of fancy dress picture taking fun. it was such a randomly entertaining night!
mike's flatmate darren came home part way through, donned a suit and joined the festivities!you can check out the full photographic carnage over on 23. you can play the game 'spot the picture without the wine glass'.

carrots of many colours

how lovely is this photo? i completely stole it from wiki. sorry....

this is my island in the sun

i haven't slept for days. the temperature has averaged 28 degrees during the day and 19 degrees at night since friday. i haven't slept for days.

i stole the fan from my classroom and placed it directly beside my bed.

but as we speak there is a vicious rain/thunder/lightening storm happening all around me. maybe i'll sleep tonight.

happy day of the devil

6.6.06

 

i love educational BBC documentaries

i'm currently in the middle of the climate chaos season on the BBC and i have to say it has been a horrifying and fascinating journey. david attenborough plays a large role in many of the episodes and tonight is the 2nd part of his most recent documentary 'are we changing planet earth?/can we save planet earth?'. it's apparently the first time he has spoken out about climate change. i'm looking forward to it with a great deal of trepidation, the first one made me cry.

speaking of crying about the earth, the planet earth series that was recently on also brought me to tears. i only watched 2 of the 5 but i will not hesitate to recommend the series. it is the most beautifully shot

ambitious factual series ever commissioned by the BBC. It is a breathtaking exploration of our world.

6 more episode should be coming out in the autumn. i plan on buying the first 5.

i thoroughly enjoy the BBC and any of you canadians that have the fancy cable tv packages should really invest in the BBC channels. sure you have the CBC and david suzuki, but did the CBC dedicate an entire season to climate change? maybe they did, i don't know, did they?

UPDATE: i cried...a baby elephant dead because of drought in africa. doom and gloom! the icecaps are melting, the amazon will burn up, the coral is dissolving. but things can be done. don't leave your appliances on stand-by. eat locally. take the train. drive less. switch to wind or solar power. only fill your kettle with the amount of water you need. this was a good article...technology already exists to stabilize global warming.

who doesn't like a bit of cockney rhyme?

it's all gone pete tong = it's all gone wrong

what a bizarre and suprisingly touching british movie! i suggest you go out and rent it. maybe i need to credit lydia with telling me about this flic....someone gave me the heads up ages ago but i can't recall who.

i also went to see confetti in the theatre the other day. another good british addition to the movie world. unless you know british sitcoms/tv shows you may not appreciate the comic genius involved. the best bit? the whole movie is completely improvised. some parts made me laugh out loud so hard i almost wet myself.

and finally a movie i won't be able to see, an inconvenient truth. it's playing in vancouver on the 9th of june at tinseltown and 5th ave theatre. but there is no european date as yet.

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

please go and support it if you live in vancouver, or any other city it's playing in.

may i introduce....

jamie oliver twist

i will be the first to admit that i am a cat person, i don't have much interest in dogs. but look at him! he's just so edible.

he belongs to robin and jonathan. i call him pukka although i don't think jonathan approves. officially it's ollie for short.

there are some more pictures over on 23, can you handle the cuteness?

recipe of the week: chocolate mouse cake

are you ready for the heart attack inducing, painful decadence?

300g green and black's dark chocolate
300g green and black's milk chocolate
400g (!) butter, plus some for greasing a 10inch loose bottom baking tin
4 large eggs
120g plus a spoonful of caster sugar
lots of strawberries, quartered
drizzle of hard liquor (i used brandy)
vanilla ice cream or sour cream or double cream

macerate the quartered strawberries with a spinkling of sugar and drizzle of liquor, mix occasionally, leave for at least and hour.
preheat oven 160C/325F/gas mark 3.
line the baking tin with parchment paper and grease.
melt all the butter and chocolate over a double boiler on medium heat, stir regularly, set aside to cool completely when silky and smooth.
beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl with hand blender until trebled in volume.
add a quarter of the cooled chocolate to the eggs and mix gently until thoroughly incorporated, add the rest of the chocolate and fold together until well mixed.
pour the cake into the tin, bake for 8 minutes.
lick the chocolate bowl clean.

8 minutes wasn't long enough when i made this last night. i left it in for about 15mins but it still could have done with longer. it needs to be squiggy but firm enough to hold it's shape when cut.

serve a sliver of cake with ice cream and juicy strawberries.

if you're thinking you'll leave out the cream to save calories, you'll be sorry. you need something creamy to cut through the rich chocolatey goodness. go hard or go home, this is not for the faint of heart!

guess what happened to me the other day

4/5/6 year olds really enjoy giving teachers hugs - especially when they have left over lunch or snot dripping down their face, it is a fact i have come to terms with. 5 year olds are also bosom height, another fact of life i have come to accept. they give me a hug, and they are in danger of getting smothered if they don't turn their heads to the side.

a 5 year old (who, i'm sure, is the love child of the halifax bank man over there ----->) ran up to me on the playground. i was wearing a button up shirt. he goes in for the cuddle but instead of being sensible and releasing the hug....he gives me a motorboat. the urban dictionary defines a motorboat as,

v. int. The act of pushing one's face in between two ample breasts, and rocking one's head side to side very rapidly while making a vigorous, lip-vibrating "brrr" sound.

but it gets worse! as i stare down at him in shocked horror, he sticks his tongue in between my buttons and licks me! that's the sort of thing that could get a girl fired! i rapidly pushed the giggling youngster away whilst exclaiming, "GET OFF!" i almost added 'you bloody little git' but i controled myself.

that was a fun moment i'll cherish for a long while.

congratulations finland

lordi are the champions of eurovision 2006!

and the controversy begins

rock out!

oh dear god!

i just had to call 999 - the britsh version of 911. i fight broke out in the chicken shop over a girl and someone was stabbed. nice.

i know i joke about living in the ghetto, but my neighboorhood is seriously going downhill beyond general ghetto standards.

update: i just gave a statement to the most yummy ginger bobby.

the girl is ok, but there's a chav who has been beat up quite badly. and apparently it's not the first time it's happened to him in the chicken shop.

the count down is over

the time is here! i'm not ashamed to say i'm staying home on a saturday night to watch the eurovision song contest 2006. you cannot understand the seriousness which europe takes this musical tournament unless you live here. there's always accusations of political voting, certain countries banding together to ensure victory. and i find myself sucked into the furore every year.

but this year is special. england's entry is daz sampson. a middle aged, white, double denim wearing, football hooligan look-a-like, asbo who is rapping about teenage life. unbelievably a large portion of the british public is slightly crestfallen that daz was voted in, but that's what happens when you trust a public that kept the crazy frog ringtone in the number one spot on the singles chart for too many weeks last year. let's hope he does better than jemini from 3 years back...they scored "nil point" (say with a fake french accent), i don't hold out much hope.

but then a light in the tunnel, news of finland's entry into the contest became known.

Lordi, the hard rock monsters from Finland. Wearing platform shoes that must be 12 inches high, lead singer Lordi growls out '‘Hard Rock Hallelujah'’ in front of a stunning display of pyrotechnics, this isn'’t just a few sparks; we'’re talking huge jets of fire. Huge bat wings unfurl from Lordi'’s back and by the end and the now-smoke-filled arena is stunned. Terrifying but brilliant.

there was such who-haa over lordi. some fins blamed russia for tactically voting in lordi to ensure russia's victory, who would vote for a metal band over a greasy russian? but a large british audience has embraced the finnish competitor. it's an exciting time to be alive! i know who i'm voting for in a few short hours.

glory be the age of technology

my hunt for more live music in life is going quite well. i can share some of the evidence with you thanks to my fancy-pants new phone which take pictures. i really didn't think i'd ever use a camera phone but finding a mobile in this country without one is near impossible. i will admit, this little camera has proven it's worth. normally i wouldn't ever share such poor quality photos but my evening was just so wonderful i feel i must.

i went out on tuesday to a lovely pub called the abbey. they specialize in belgian beers which come in all sorts of regular and fruity varieties. strawberry or cherry beer = alco-pop = yum! it's like drinking juice, but you get a buzz.

anyhoo, there were 4 acts on the bill. angel anderson (backed by jonny berliner and his guitar) was first up and she set a high standard. why this girl is singing in pubs i'm not sure. you can listen to her here. she's funky, soulful and sexy. if i was a lesbian.....

next up was jamie woon and his guitar, listen here. he took a while to work up the crowd but once he got going i was in awe. for one song, a friend joined him on stage, whose name escapes me. he did some beautiful spoken word poetry over jamie's strumming and chorus singing. but the highlight was when jamie put down the guitar and got out this little green box on the floor. he started making beats into the mic which would record into the box and loop. then he's add a different beat which would record and loop and this whole layering-looping process was fascinating. in the end he had created a 4 part backing harmony over 3 drum beats with 2 clapping beats all layered and looping. then he sang over it! i looked like a fish the whole time, mouth gaping open catching flies.

i'm gliding over the 3rd act....

last up was jonny berliner who i've mentioned before. he's just fun to watch and listen to live, anyone who writes a kazoo part into their songs is ok by me! i think i may have to turn into a groupie. i got his new cd, it's lazy sunday afternoon listening. very enjoyable, you can listen to some of it here.

go live music!

it's officially official

tickets have been booked.

i pack up my life at the end of july.

i head up to edinburgh for fringe in early august.

i arrive in victoria sometime on the 9th of august. i'll probably be too tired from the jet lag to do much on my birthday, unless you want to party with me at 4am when i'm guaranteed to wake up. 27 is a lame birthday anyways. i almost had a little panic attack when i typed that....

i'll be in parksville with the family from the 12th to the 19th, then the family goes to hawaii for 2 weeks and leaves me in charge of the cats. nice!

so after the 20th of august i'm free and easy until christmas! please arrange your schedules accordingly.