the picture says it all

list-a-mundo

I know I have things in common with my friends, hell I wouldn't be friends with them if we had nothing in common but sometimes the points of commonality surprise me. Like a fondness for lists. I'm all about the list. Over the past year or so I have been fighting it a bit- given my OCD tendencies, I figured some living-life-on-the-edge and sans-list would be good for my spontaneity and on the whole I've lived relatively list-free but now my days in the UK are numbered and I have a lot of things to do so it's all about the list now.

Having returned to 90% full list-ability, I am becoming more aware of fellow list writers around me. Take my boss for instance. If I thought I was all about the list, I have nothing on her. In full-blown times of lots-to-do, this woman has sub-lists. And geek that I am, I don't mock, oh no, I'm in awe.

My sister, her friend, and I will be spending a week traveling around Venice and Rome later this year and I found out totally by accident that Amy-san is also (in retrospect I shouldn't be surprised) all about the list. As is my sister. It's glorious. We may just go list-tastic in Italy.

I have also spent some time this morning catching up on blogs I haven't read in ages and upon skimming Hong Kong Ham I found a tonne of them. You could call it bullet-pointing but the spirit of the list is still there. And as Hamish wrote Um, what do I usually do in these situations? Write a list of favourite things, of course.. Again, there should be no surprise here, I worked with the guy for a year.

I have no real idea why this commonality of pro-list-ness makes me feel comforted but it does. Maybe it's because:
1- I like having something in common with ppl.
2- If other ppl write lists, maybe my list writing isn't OCD*
3- Being organised is good

*I'm starting to think that I mention my OCD tendencies a bit too much on this blog. Some people might think I have a fo' real problem. I don't. I'm normal. Really. Plus I figure if I can fight it, then it isn't a real problem.

the stuff Fridays are made of

I checked my Dad's blog this morning and the entry, Young man stabbed in 'potato peeler game' was all that I could possibly have asked for for a Friday morning. I was laughing out loud (I have a rather warped sense of humour). He's got the full thing on his blog, check it out.

cupcakes on the brain

some people have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.....

This guy has geekishly embellished lots of Mr. PotatoHeads in various sci-fi/comic/fantasy themes. I'm not gonna bother to ask why but if you want to check out a slide show of them all, just click here.

made for me?
At the moment it seems like I don't even have to search for cupcake-related items, they just find me. Click on the images for links to the Etsy pages.


I know these aren't cupcakes but they're just so gosh-darn cute.


also cool...

This skirt is cute. And she has several variations on these theme, all charming. I may appropriate this idea....

procrastination

I'm not entirely sure why it's taking me so long to get my portfolio together. It's about half-way done and the bit that isn't done is the one that involves actually having to narrow down choices of layouts from my time at DIVE (as well as dredging up various marketing bits and pieces that I've done) and maybe that's the bit that's putting me off. So to avoid this but to still feel like I'm doing something, I've pretty much nailed my packing. I've sorted stuff into ship it/keep it/chuck it and this morning I called up the shipping company, put down a deposit and ordered boxes. So one major headache is practically finished. Now I just need to deal with the portfolio. Oh, I remember now- it's not just as simple as making a PDF of my portfolio, ideally I need to update my website HEADACHE and make a hard-copy version as well. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I imagine I'll be in at work on my bank holiday Monday doing it. I keep bribing myself with the prospect of how much better I'll feel once it's out of the way.

Olympic Fever

How on earth does anyone get any work done with the Olympic on? HOW?!

I have the day off work today. My plan was to sort out stuff in my room to give me an idea of volume and what I need to ship, what I'm keeping until I stay and what goes to friends or charity. Well I did some in the morning, went out and got some groceries, came back and doodled for quite a while (but I consider this productive as it's creative) and then made the mistake of turning on the tele. I was going to watch one of my rental DVDs that had arrived but I saw that the Olympics was on. I haven't caught any of it prior to this. Partially, I was staying away because I remember my tendency to get hooked on it and boy oh boy was I right. I came in at the end of the women's whatever-horrible-distance-run and was actually crying when the lady won. Since then I have spent the last almost 2 hours watching weight lifting, diving prelims, gymnastic and now table tennis. I can't seem to stop myself taking part- I yell at the weight lifters (they're totally listening to me and not their coaches), I hold my breath with the divers and gymnasts- I'm there.

So, unfortunately, is my room. I woudl like to feel by the end of today that I know roughly how much of what I will be keeping/taking/chucking. I may just have to turn off the tele and walk away....

Fort Du Guesclin

So I guess you guys would like to see some pictures from my weekend on an island fort huh? It looked an awful lot like NZ to me and made me a bit I'm-missing-home-ish. But here are the pics:

mocha cupcakes

And this one I did make.


INGREDIENTS
2tbsp instant coffee powder
85g butter
85g cater sugar
1tbsp clear honey
200ml water
225g plain flour
2tbsp cocoa powder
1tsp baking soda
3tbsp milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

• preheat oven to 180˚C (I put them on 160˚C for my gas oven). Put 20 small paper baking cases in 2 bun trays.

• put coffee powder, butter, sugar, honey and water in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until sugar has dissloved. Bring to boil, then reduce hear and simmer for 5 mins. Pour into a large heatproof dish and leave to cool.

• when mixture has cooled, sift in flour and cocoa powder. Dossolve the baking soda in the milk, then add to teh mixture with teh egg and beat together until smooth. Spoon mixture into paper cases.

• bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins (I only needed 10 mins in my fan oven!) until well risen and firm to touch. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

To top these, they recommend whipped cream but I used a chocolate icing from a different recipe:

ICING:
85g butter, softened
175g icing sugar
25g dark choccie, melted

Put butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Sift in the icing sugar and beat together until smooth. Add melted chocolate and beat together until well mixed. (I had to add a little bit of water as well to get it to a consistency that was good to drop onto the cupcakes but I did that right at the end.) I then grated some white chocolate and sprinkled that on top.

obsession

*
Those who know me well enough will be well aware of my slight propensity for OCD. Those who know me well enough will also be polite enough to stop laughing at that potentially mild understatement. Well right now my obsessive gaze has turned to that which I had previously scorned- the cupcake.

I can't seem to help myself, I mean they're amazing- it's a mini cake and there is SO much potential for art and beauty and you don't have to commit to the size of a whole cake and can have so many variations in one batch. I'm hooked. So in my spare time, instead of updating my portfolio (must crack on with that, I have started, really I have), I'm scouting the web for cupcake images to get inspiration. The contents of the cupcake are pretty much 2nd priority for me, my obsession is the decoration. And it seems I am not the only one out there. For that matter I'm not the biggest cupcake freak by any stretch of the imagination. There are some total and utter cupcake fruitloops out there. I was looking into the difference between cupcakes and muffins and came across this blog. There is a full blown debate in the comments here about what makes a cupcake or a muffin. I was nearly crying from laughter at one point. Among the more impassioned comments were:

Fuck you. If you put frosting on a muffin it becomes a cupcake. Why is that so fucking difficult. No matter what a frosted muffin is a cupcake. But an unfrosted cupcake, becomes cake.

HILARIOUS! I did however find the answer to please me and put my mind at rest:

Muffins are regularly frosted in Australia, and can be either sweet or savoury, however, they are still muffins.

Generally muffins are larger than cupcakes and will always have a more bread like texture.

The difference is in the making process.

As muffins are not beaten, but rather, ingredients are gently 'folded' during the making, the gluten strand of the flour does not break down and they have a more bread like texture.

Cupcakes are made with a cake mix, beaten until smooth and the gluten strand is ripped to pieces, so you get a smoother crumblier texture.

Either can be dry or moist, frosted or not, big or small.

But generally cupcakes are sweeter, frosted and a great quick bite size treat, making them very popular with children.

And if you want to see a tonne of cupcake pics, check this out.

And on a non-cupcake note, just as I seem to have a knack for finding random pictures of things and weird websites, my father seems to have a knack for weird news stories. His latest post is a mine field of things from interesting to downright surreal. Check it out.

*Again, not cupcakes made by moi.

food art

I'm off to Brittany tomorrow so won't be blogging for a few days but I'll leave you guys with this.

You can find more here or if you want something more science geeky, there are also some earthy ones. Awesome.

bar raising

DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT MAKE THIS CUPCAKE.


Well not yet anyway. But superübermega cool an idea is this. I am going to have to try it, or at least something very similar. I'm wondering if I can utilise this idea to make other types of flowers. Like maybe cutting out pink ice cream wafers and using pink icing to make something like a gerbera or a daisy. And how about just using giant Pebbles/Smarties with black icing to make larger ladybugs? Sooooooooooo many possibilities. I'm away this weekend but I think my Banker (Aug 23-25) may be spent in the kitchen getting creative. I can't wait!

smorgasbord

I have all these drafts kicking around so have decided to tidy up and shove them all together in one entry so it's a bit of a mixed bag for this entry folks. Or, to make it seem more intentional, a little something for everyone.

beaker sings ode to joy
I always had a soft spot for Beaker, I'm not exactly sure why. I think maybe it's the whole speechless and easily frazzled thing. He's so cute when he panics!


This t-shirt design is just cool. Aaah good old subversive-ism.


Geek bling!

So awesome. I'm all about celebrating the inner geek and this stuff even looks pretty.

Ever since coming to the UK and being exposed to a record number of tea drinkers, (many who want a cup at the same time and all have slightly different preferences), I have maintained that they should specify their tea colour in a Pantone manner to ensure accuracy. (I work in publishing, Pantone geek jokes are acceptable.) So when I came across this blog entry, I was pleased to see that I wasn't the only OCD ideas man out there.

This is one of the coolest (I'm using that word a lot this entry.... Hmmmm.....) websites I've come across in a while. Each section has a unique way of merging into the next and it's incredibly well thought out as well as being funny and creative. Can you find all five secrets? I have but can't activate one. Pooey.

And this? Well this I stumbled across and thought it was both sad and cool.


And last but not least, a pic of moi. My friend had a birthday at the Rollerdisco at the weekend. About 10 of us headed along together and everyone embraced the kitsch-arama 70's/80's dress-up spirit. It was enormous fun and being back on rollerskates (I was quite the rollerskater in my youth)was enormous fun. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the dress-up as well. I haven't used that much hairspray in, well, forever. Apart from maybe dance recitals, those were all about the hairspray.

WARNING: this may be offensive to the religious people out there

My friends over here are great ones for forwarded emails of the fluffy variety that are potentially chain letter-esque. I haven't yet gathered up the heart to tell them that I HATE this kind of crap. 10 things that make a great friend, 25 ways to bring warmth and light to someone's day. Blah blah woof woof hatehatehatehatehate. Especially as most of these supposedly altruistic emails usually end in something like, "Forward this to your 10 closest friends, including the person who sent this to you so they will know they are loved and appreciated." Or some such bullshit. It really grates on my nerves. Can you tell?

I also have some friends who are whatever degree of 'religious'. Now this is not an issue amongst us although I highly suspect they might have some issue with existentialism and I don't abuse them when one of these forwarded spam pieces of crap has religious overtones or ends in 'God Bless'. I understand the spirit in which it was sent so that's fine. But this morning I got one which nearly made me go on a rant:

CELL PHONE vs. BIBLE

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to Kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we travelled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go..hmm. Where is my Bible?
Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.
Makes you stop and think "where are my priorities?"
NO REJECTED calls!
NO FLAT BATTERY!!!!
NO "pls call me's" coz He will call on you ALL THE TIME!!!!
P.S. DO WHAT YOU THINK GOD WOULD WANT YOU TO DO WITH THIS E-MAIL.

I'm sorry but WTF?!? Let's ignore my standard grammatical Nazi issues with liberal usage of block caps and exclamation marks. My instant reaction? I'll tell you exactly what God can do with this email.... But it's not God's fault that someone wrote this unbelievably stupid (and is it just me or potentially Evangelically toned message? I mean "we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill" WTF? Is anyone else laughing?) message and that someone else forwarded it on under the mistaken impression that I might appreciate it.

And if perchance the person who sent this message to me reads this (and the likelihood is VERY LOW) well I'm very sorry for not having the spine to say all this to your face. But I'm sure God will forgive me.

Not right....

Sometimes you come across really bizarre stories in the news but this one takes the cake. It's about the third annual Festival of the Guinea Pig in Huacho, Peru. Yup, Festival of the Guinea Pig. They dress them up (more pics here ), have a little fashion show, and then they eat them. Weirded out man. Just totally weirded out.

Land ahoy!

So I got an email from a friend asking if I wanted to go to Brittany for a long weekend and this picture was attached. So of course I had to write back and say, "Fo' real? Is that where we'll be staying?!!?" Coz if so, how does a girl say no?

Budget is tight at the moment, this is true, but the picture sold me and how can you turn down the chance to stay at an old fort on an island? Well on my way home last night I was talking myself out of it but when I checked my email that evening, I was informed that the island is located near Saint-Malo which used to be an old pirate haven. An old pirate haven. Which veryvery firmly sealed the deal. Could we get any closer to Aynia Heaven?
1- island
2- ocean
3- boats
4- PIRATE HAVEN
5- old medieval fortified city
6- "one of the highest concentration of sea food restaurants in Europe"
In fact I may never come back...

Now I just have to convince my friends that when we visit Saint-Malo, it will be compulsory to talk like pirates......

Arts and Crafts Aynia-stylz

Sunday was Cake Sunday (again) but due to the request of the person whose turn it was to choose the baked goods, it turned out to be another Cupcake Sunday. I don't know what my objection to cupcakes is. I guess it's because I hear cupcake and I think fairycake which in the UK seems to mean any cupcake but to me is some sponge-esque thing (translates in Aynia Taste-bud Speak to blaaaaaaaaaaaaaah tastes like nothing) with some sweet butter icing and maybe the butterfly wing thing on top and most likely hundreds and thousands. So it looks cute but tastes like sugary nothing BORINGNESS.

But my friends seem to love cupcakes so I'm branching out and finding exciting recipies and so far, so good. Of course I end up 'doing an Aynia' on most of them. Like the recipe for coconut cherry cupcakes? Well I hate those maraschino cherries so decided cranberries would do instead and if you're having cranberries, you might as well throw in some white chocolate. And I can say, unequivocally, that my Coconut, Cranberry and White chocolate Cupcakes were a roaring success. The coconut made them reminiscent of macaroons which are yumyum yummy.

I also decided that it was time to embrace the spirit of the cupcake and went decoration crazy. And then I went macro-documentation crazy. Look at my works of art:






Hours of fun! The girls even had a go at decorating a few themselves when they came over. Fun for all the family, whatever the age.

the harsh yoke of reality

So I've gallivanted, I've holiday-bonanza-ed, I have worn of the jandal, sweltered in the heat, swum with the fishies, been on the boat and now my fling of carefree tomfoolery is at an end and it's time to knuckle down again. I got back from Egypt last Sunday and gave myself a week of token gesture exercise and eating what I want and having my room still be a bomb site (haven't quite entirely remedied that one yet...) but I have told myself that one week of post-holiday wallowing is enough and now it's back to reality. I started with a run this morning which went much easier than expected which leads me to believe that my body was, quite simply, in shock, and it is only tomorrow when I try to do the same thing that it will, with quiet indignation, refuse to cooperate. Or, because it's more my style, sabotage me in some subtle way.

Egypt (this latest jaunt was to Sharm, or more accurately Naama Bay) was great. It was 37degrees most of the time and the water was usually 28 but as long as I was on the boat and in the shade or in the water, the temperature wasn't so bad. Coming back to a muggy 26 in London actually feels almost as bad. Being by the water and on a boat (Hello, my name is Aynia and I'm addicted to boats) did its usual job of reaffirming my decision to head back down south. The decision feels right and I know it's what I want to do but as the time looms closer (and it is looming folks), I find that what I'm really going to miss is my people. If I could take my friends and associated social groups back with me, life would be perfect. The sad thing about leaving Egypt this time is that people would say, "See you next time!" and I'd be replying with a plaintive wail of distress, "No you won't! I'm moving to Australia!" I've been to Camel (the hotel/dive club I stayed at) three times now, it's where I learned to dive and in a way it feels like a home away from home. There are people there who I catch up with each time, people I look forward to seeing and I may only see them every 8 months or so but still, the thought of never seeing them again (or at least not for years and years and years- I would like to dive in Egypt again at some point) is very sad.

But I still don't regret my decision. In fact I was having one of those hypothetical, "If we won Lotto" discussions with my Mum at the weekend and I realised that even if I was suddenly filthy rich, I still wouldn't stay here any longer, I'd still be headed home for Christmas. I'd be back here for a long holiday in very short order, yes, but I'd still be headed to where the sun shines for longer and I can have quality Mum and Dad hugs on-tap. So I'm coming to grips with the conundrum of know-I-need-to-leave-in fact-I-WANT-to-leave vs want-to-take-my-possé-with-me.

For those who care about actual diving things, this trip was a reasonable success for me. I went in July as it's meant to be the season for 'big stuff' and I think I had a reasonable degree of success. We did countless jumps into the blue and swimming into the blue in search of schooling hammerheads but had to luck at all on that front. In fact by my last day I was starting to think that the reef shark I'd seen on my first day was nothing but a tease. And then I hit last-day-luck. Whilst kitting up for our last dive, a whale shark decided to come and visit so we promptly ditched the tanks, slapped on snorkel gear and jumped in. You've never seen people kit up so quickly... I was told that it was only a baby, about 2.5m long but it was my first and, as far as I'm concerned, pretty amazing. (Except of course now I was to see bigger ones and closer up.) And then on the last dive we went in search of sharks and found 2 of them, white tipped reef sharks (again) but still bloody awesome. They were a fair way off, at the drop-off of one of the reefs but still, I saw them, they were cool and it was the perfect way to finish a dive trip.

But now my holiday bonanza is over and done with and I shall pretty much being staying put in London until it's time to head south. With three holidays in such quick succession, my room slightly resembles a bomb site. There have been many things that there seemed no point in packing away because I'd just be pulling them out again in a week or so. But not now. Oh no. Now is the time to pack away the sunscreen, insect repellent, ratty straw cowboy-styled sunhat, miscellaneous toiletries and holiday paraphernalia. I have to remember all my gym kit, put away the tent and diving kit and get on with life as it is. What's that? Shut up with my self-indulgent and mildly melodramatic whining? How rude! Totally justified but still, a girl's gotta be allowed to wallow for a while. So I guess this is where I remind myself that last week was my one allowed Week of Wallowing and Excessive Cheese Consumption. All that is now over and so here ends my little violin solo...

subtle as a brick to the head

I've been stumbling again and in my travels came across this website (which is really truly awesome if you're interested in propaganda posters/art)which had this image on it:

I mean dude, that's not even a little bit subtle, is it? I'm fascinated my propoganda posters. You'd think they'd go for something subliminal but really, they're about as blatant as they can be. Or at least this one is.

I'm also fascinated by the posters promoting safe sex during the war. I mean it makes things sounds really dire. Were they really losing such huge percentages of soldiers to STDs that they felt they had to advertise?


And please tell me I'm not the only one who saw this and thought, "Darth Vader!?!". Maybe Lucas was inspired by this poster.

Coz that's how we roll...

This past weekend I had my second ever outdoor climbing adventure in the UK and I can say without a doubt that this one went a lot better than the previous one. I was a lot more confident on the wall and wasn't really scared by the outdoor aspect as much although there were times when I was very aware that my brain was compartmentalising in order to keep me sane. You simply have to not think about the fact that you're 15m up a piece of rock with some shitty little hold and whole hill falling away beneath you.

Possibly my favourite sequence of photos are these two of Steve. Before is an oh-so-typical "aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh, where's the hold?!" and the after is the "aaaah, there's the hold" look of joy.


Despite being a girl who does like her amenities, I coped very well with no shower all weekend and having to run off and pee behind bushes (a tricky thing to do when you're camping in a paddock). We had brilliant weather and it was great to get out of London and do something with my weekend. I think we'll be cramming in a fair few more trips before the summer is out.

slumming it

So this weekend I'm going climbing and camping. I was quite excited about the whole thing when I heard the word 'camping'. I have fond memories of family camping trips when I was growing up and was looking forward to sitting around a fire making damper, toasting marshmallows and singing anything but Kumbaya. I know some people don't like camping but as long as I'm warm and dry, it's all good. Except for one thing- I also like to be clean and non-sweaty/stinky and I found out that we are not staying at a camping ground, we are staying in a field in the middle of nowhere with only a port-a-loo (and you know that's gonna be scary) for amenities. I must admit that the lack of running water took a slight bit of shine off my rose-tinted camping glasses but I can pack baby wipes and, as my friend Kerri pointed out, we'll be near the ocean, we can always just run in to clean off. And then be all salty.... Aaah well, it's all fun and games really. I just had to laugh at myself because I really want to be Little Miss Outdoors, I really do. I love nature (just not bugs) and I like being outside (mostly) and I like being active (as a general rule) but when it comes down to the crunch, I'm afraid that I think I'm quite fond of my mod-cons, top of the list being good cooking facilities and a nice bathroom. I'm almost ashamed of myself.