Can't anyone even do a flipping POLL?! I will have to do a MEME at this rate...

If you have a specific subject you would like me to talk about, please tell me in the comments and I will see what I can do.

PANTS: I went to a class to learn how to make knickers! But... sigh~... it looked so wonderful, but my skills didn't come up to scratch. And then I messed up at mid-stage, and whilst that was being corrected I missed the instructions for the second part, so I fell behind again, and I'm afraid that PMT was almost making me cry. Still - I made myself a pair of shiny blue pants! With purple trim and an exciting geometric print GUSSET! I haven't taken a photo yet... SHOULD I? Should I SHOW YOU my PANTS?

Here's the things:( More about undercrackers here! )

SORPRISE!: My Dutch colleague has brought us back some chocolate gifts for Sinta Klaas! *pets the Netherlands* Sinta Klaas is from Spain, and has Morrocan helpers (who are not depicted in the most PC of manners...). He has a big pointy bishops hat, and makes his way from Spain to the Netherlands by steamboat, which we have all concluded is a fairly inefficient way of getting across THE LAND. And how does he deliver to all the houses? A series of bikes on the boat, I suppose. I suppose it IS the Netherlands...
UPDATE: I decided to ask, and apparently he has a big white horse that comes along on the boat. And it's spelt sinterklaas... oopsie! Here he is, on a boat. Horse not pictured.

GAMES: Have you all seen the Hello Kitty MMORPG! I have never quite understood the point of MMORPGs, but thought I would try it for Hello Kitty. However, you need to download something that is about a billion GB, my computer STILL hasn't done it and the demo, quite frankly, is terrible. And I *still* can't see what you're meant to do! It looks like maybe... Animal Crossing? But with even less point and charm?! Jerky stilted animation - in fact, all MMORPGs I have seen look like they have polygonal issues - and the WORST voiceover EVER. Then again. I do suppose the game is actually... for the under 10s... sigh... Instead, I have downloaded two Wii Demos - pokemon rumble and world of GOO! Both = awesome, MMORPGs can bug off too.

SCANDINAVIA: did I tell you all about the Finnish christmas fair? I don't think I have! Well, it was brilliant. Imagine my surprise to find the Finns much... friendler! than the Norweigans! There were lots of Moomin goodies, and I bought some delicious Finnish coffee and Finnish rye bread. This week is the Danish christmas fair! I don't quite know... what sort of Danish things I could get! From my Finnish studies, I have gathered that Danish people are quite... opulent? Danish pastries and all that? Hmmm. I am also informed that Finnair are doing an offer for flights in Japan called "Moomin Saver". I have explained that going to Tampere via Narita airport is NOT A PROBLEM for me. Let's see! Sadly, Moomins are in hiberation at the moment. Has anyone explained that to Finnair?

PS: I had a haircut... applause! Applause please!

101 Things In 1001 Days is over. How did I do? Well, I achieved 75 of my goals, which is really quite respectable! Here are the 26 that didn't make it...

( the ones that didn't make it )

So that would be £26 to a Charity of My Choice! Goodness knows who. Dear Macmillan, if you didn't keep sending me all this flipping junk mail I would like to send it to you... perhaps I will send it to you anyway, because you are great.

Perhaps later, I will do a list of all the things that I have done. Perhaps that would feel nice, god knows I need something that feels nice in this c.rappy year eh?

Now I have to come up with another list, and see which of the above I would like to carry over - if any!! I still can't believe that in 1001 days, I have not managed to drink 6 French 75s (nver mind 75 75s).

I met Juliet and Pete's dog on Sunday. He is called Finlay, he is wonderful and far too big to fit in any bag I own. Darn it. Now, see, that would have been one of the times that HAVING YOUR CAMERA would be a good idea, atommickbrane. Anyway, I didn't want to stop cuddling him, which proves I should never have a pet. Doesn't it? Perhaps it proves I should... maybe... in 2010. Criteria = MORE DOGS. Works for me.

Now let's see if this Rich Text to HTML thing has entirely fvcked up the post...

On how to get to the Norweigan Christmas Fair...."Or the East London Line"?

Well done, Norway, there.

Perhaps you CAN get the East London Line from Norway, it is as likely as catching it from New Cross to Rotherhithe...

BLERG, basically.

Ow - have somehow done my back in. Suspect it was from sitting on the floor faffing about typing up blog posts about CHOCOLATE MOUSSE (you guys! you should all make chocolate mousse! it is so easy!) on laptop whilst watching Gilmore Girls s3*. Cannot be good for posture :( It hurts big time - woke up at 4am going owowowowowoowwwww. First time I attempted to go down stairs, SOMETHING jarred - and I had to sit down going -you got it - owowowowow. Am hoping that attempt to sit up straight through today will sort out whatever knack it is and get me back to normal.

SOLUTION: no using laptop at home for a week - if hunching over it is causing the problem I shall identify it and then ensure that I only use it when Sitting Properly, at a Desk (perhaps I should also get a proper computer chair if I'm going to be working at a desk - this goes for use of sewing machine as well as use of pooter). Or perhaps the problem is an auld mattress not giving back support. Or maybe it is sofa which is now somewhat saggy.

Must identify problem as right now I feel like I am about 72... anyway, now to throw down some painkillers. Wah!

*It went a bit like this:
"Oh, why don't I just pop into Fopp on my way home"?
...
...
1x Pains of Being Pure At Heart cd, 1x Clean cd (Mister Pop), 1x Euros Childs cd, 1x Tim Harding cd, 1x dvd box set (the aforementioned Gilmore Girls - it's only £12, if this is relevant to yr interests...)
...
LOSS!

You may have gathered from my earlier post this morning that I was feeling a bit miserable (alternatively you may not have given a baby elephant [collect circus peanuts!] botty -which is fair enough).

ANYWAY, I have cheered up by making my lunchtime shopping into a smell-o-theme! I am very very excited, as I bought:

- durian crisps! I have never had a durian... I may possibly have seen one in Chinatown, but as I couldn't smell it from Leicester Square station, I'm not sure! I have been excited about durians since reading about this durian farm; I want to try one! Even though the author gets cross because Anthony Bourdain opens his durian with a small knife instead of a GREAT BIG MACHETE. If I had a machete I would... um... ... cook with it. Yes, definitely that... anyway! Durian chips, will they smell?! Should I open all the kitchen windows and doors and have a dosepeg to hand just in case? (Cor, durian doughnuts?!)

- Epoisse cheese! on recommendation by hoshuteki and blogged about by marnameow. I have put my small slice in the fridge, just in case, but must admit that I didn't smell anything when I picked it up. Am looking forward to unleashing it at room temperature... I just saw 'epoisse' and went for it - hope it's the right one. Well, it's squidgy, it's cheese, it'll be all good...

Er... er... okay, I'm not sure if I bought anything else stinky, but I bet it's STINKIER THAN YOU!

(And also a block of tamarind from a shop on Marchmont Street which, argh argh, had every type of lentil - including toor dal but no moong dal, arghhhh, why so hard to find? It is some of the best lentil)!

Hey - New Moon is out this week! I will have to go and see it. But... I haven't actually read the book yet! I have a PDF copy, but reading on the screen really b1tches my ass, if you know what I mean. Does anyone have an old fashioned paper copy they could lend me?

In exchange I could lend you a billion of the rub old books I have or buy you a pint or one of those things.

Oh, and if anyone wants to see the movie, I was thinking Peckham or Surrey Quays er, next week I guess?

Not that I am doing anything this week either, apart from whining about my bad back and feeling cross at myself for not leaving the house on Sunday due to minor social anxiety. Am making far too big a deal out of it of course. Am miserable and want cuddles, but given that I don't leave the fvcking house ever and apparently have regressed to myself at 16, no dice there. Anyway, yes, so if you can lend me those vampire novels... arghh!! IT IS FULL CIRCLE!

ALSO: I am knitting a sparkly purple scarf and I don't like it and meh, knitting something you don't really like that much is rubbish. (It is not for me tho' and I think recipient will like it).

AND there's a fly in my office. It is huge and fat and has been here for the past week!

:(

English language demo of 1st Miles Edgeworth case released!

Of course I cannot resist. Let's see how accurate my on the fly Japanese translation was. Hey, so far, so good: ウワアアアアアアアアアアア！ = aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!　

I am pretty much covered in crumbs from a croissant I ate half an hour ago, I am wearing a big red knitted THING over my hair because frankly I haven't been bothered to wash it, (my hair, that is) and it is horrible, (the hair), I have just noted a STAIN on my dress, and frankly, I think my deodorant has not withstood this morning's humider than Humid Jack McHumidity, winner of this morning's Northern line sponsored HUMID TIME competition.

EWWWWWWWWWW :( I feel horrible...!

Anyway, last night I went aux magasins pour acheter de loads of old toot. I bought some of this (delicious silky green yarn for xmas secret project), a t-shirt with a wolf on it, which I shall wear when I go to see NEW MOON (when will I go? can someone tell me?) and... um... what else? It was a thingie sponsored by Grazia mag, with pretty much everything in Carnaby Street 20% off. Sadly we did not spot any 'slouchy cr0tch drop' sequinned harem trousers, but how glad am I that I can put those words together in a sentence? SUPER GLAD!

A new Magnetic Fields album is out in January! One of the songs is called We Are Having A Hootenanny. So, my question is, if I were to have a listening party hootenanny (is that a taut...ology?), would you like to come? Apparently it's not quite as... distorted...?

(Looking up the etymology of hootenanny, it turns out the word wasn't invented by Jools Holland! Who would have thought? Also, there is a song called Surfin' Hootenanny written by... LEE HAZLEWOOD? Apparently we can find it on track 15 of Cowabunga! Set 2: Big Waves (1963.) Well well...)

TOO MUCH FANNYDANGLE.

I could totally knit one of these myself, couldn't I?

...??

I was informed YESTERDAY by katstevens that this week is National Sausage Week. pink_weasel has covered this ground, but DEAR SAUSAGE PROMOTERS - get 1x ability to PROMOTE YR SAUSAGE! I could have been eating sausages ALL WEEK if only I had known.

For lunch I shall be hitting up "Banger Bros" (um?!) and I hope you will also all use your best endeavours to consume SAUSAGE. Salami etc all counts. Well, I say it counts and seeing as teh SAUSAGE PEOPLE have made no dissenting noise, my rules apply. W00.

Today I like:
♥ Caffe Nero free 10th coffee
♥ SWISS ROLL (M&S have to call it a 'sponge roll', lol, if you will)
♥ This Yudu screenprinting whatsit - would I like one of these? Have I ever screenprinted anything in my life?! Well perhaps not, but I am sure that I *would*...
♥ Pam is setting up a Handmade Holiday Christmas Craft Fair on Dec 5 - I plan to attend with a few pennies to spare!
♥ SAUSAGE.

Words for sausage: sausage, saucisson, banger, wurst, salchicha, ソーセージ, oh no!! The Dutch word for sausage is really actually worst... argh! And apparently, this is the Greek: λουκάνικο. Latin for sausage is probably 'eheu'. Who says my journal does not teach you all about cultures.

So, last night I made brilliant, simple pumpkin soup! It was delicious and filling and very sweet. If I'd had some bacon, I would have added that for a bit of a contrast, but as I didn't, fried bread it is. CROUTONS, if you will.

HERE IS HOW TO MAKE:

Get a munchkin from Sainsburys. These are baby pumpkins and so adorable argajgragrhkgjakr. It says do not store in the fridge, but if you have mice and you leave the munchkin out, the little fuckers will eat it. So you might as well put it in the fridge. Also get an onion and make sure you have some olive oil. Some bolst hot curry powder is good here too. And do not forget vegetable stock.

This is the annoying bit: peel and chop up your munchkin (munchkin!). This is irritating. I got better results going against the grain and can report back that leaving odd bits that the peeler can't reach unpeeled has no real effect. This takes the longest so I did it first..

Then, chop up yr onion and fry it in some olive oil. When they go all nice and caramelised after a few minutes on medium, add your chopped pumpkin and some curry powder. I used a tablespoon full. FRY for 10mins or so. When the pumpkin has gone a bit soft, add some vegetable stock and boil for a bit. The stock disappeared quite quickly for me so you might want to add more at some point. When the pumpkin is super soft and you are getting to a fairy thick mix, take soup OUT of pan, WHIZZ IT with MULTIWHIZZTHING, then put it back in the pan. You have a big thick mix, so add some MORE vegetable stock until it looks more like your favoured expectation of how thick a soup should look. Get it to that consistency, heat it up and then why don't you just EAT IT?

You can also fry up some pumpkin seeds and some bread cubes in a pan if you want to be FANCY.

Anyway, what I like about this recipe is that it is easy (apart from hassle chopping up munchkins that do NOT want to be chopped) and doesn't involve roasting the pumpkin, which takes AGES and involves heating up the oven which takes ages and feh bah nergh.

Another thing I did last night was start another attempt at making UNDERWEAR. It was all going well until I realised I had twisted the GUSSET, and upon realising you have a TWISTED GUSSET, you need to stop and have a sit down, don't you?

Blimey! There is a lot of incredible crochet going on here! Crochet, er, bamboo water droppy thing, they have them in Okami... I am in utter awe.

Accessory time:I think I really want a MUFFLER! But but, wouldn't it be awesome if you had one with a little pocket in the inside that you could, say, keep yr travelcard in, or say £1.70 (enough for Cafe Nero requirements - oof, I think this price is reasonable but there is a voice in me going BAH COFFEE SHOULD BE 50p). Oh maybe if one bought some fun fur and one lined it with fabric that one has lying about? Perhaps?

Bizarrely, further googling for other MUFFLERS (it is a word that really demands capitals) mostly comes up with scarves (or silencers for car exhausts). Thus proving the internet doesn't know d. and we should probably diskard it all as a bad job.

Asos really is brill though, isn't it? This claims to be a snood jumpsuit - but where's the SNOOD? This snood dress is more like it. Snoodsnoodsnooodnoodsnoood.

It's either the circadian rhythms or the lack of coffee that has flung me into a new lifestyle of being Sleepy all the flipping time; people: I am zonked. And there has been a strange twitch under my right eye. And you know the thing when you first wake up and you see little sleepytrails across your eyes for a while? Mine aren't going away! And the yawning, the constant yawning!

My christmas knitting (I've started!!) has been suffering as a result; I knit one row and then feel the urge just to 'rest my eyes', and the lace does *not* get done.

Goodness knows whether any of my three potential plans for tonight will pan out (rub zombie film COLIN, Music for GirlsGhouls!, Poptimism). If I had a COSTUME, I would feel obliged to go out but I have had zero time this week to get anything done, never mind sew a purple jacket and white dress and learn how to spirit channel. Bah!

I've spent this morning looking at FASHION BLOGS. This is a mistake as now I feel like the dumpiest, unfashionable person ever - well, I say 'unfashionable'... what I really mean is 'unstylish', as style is a much better tag for how I'd like to show myself rather than 'fashion'... which is just an everchanging whim from some muckymuck who thinks it'll be a larff to dress the latest tall anorexic in the 'cage skirt' or what have you.

Anyway, today I am wearing a pair of trousers which I got from a charity shop about four years ago, in order to wear to Glastonbury and then throw away (they are the only non-cropped trousers I own - the intention was to cover them in mud and throw them away, and four years later I am wearing them to work - argh!), a black tshirt (again about four years old!) and a purple cardigan. I am hardly BLOWING THE WORLD AWAY here. But then again, if I will sleep in so that I have approx 3 minutes in which to dress, what can I expect?

I expect that everyone else is far more fashionable than me, so what is EVERYONE WEARING today? Miu-Miu Cadburys Bunny pashminas I guess??

I have heard of a few of these 'pop up boutique' things lately. I thought they were just tiny stalls that 'popped up' here and there for a day or two (there was one in the Strand which was a sausage shop, and also things like the Traid sewing stall on the South Bank), but this one involves webcams and '... watch over the internet as your parcel is wrapped by a real life shop girl'... therefore my deres I MUST ARSK:

Poll #1478006 sexist anyway innit
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

The ASOS 'pop-up boutique'?

And all that for a free scarf with a sodding Cadburys Caramel bunny on it?!

OMG FOUND ACTUAL PICTURES UGH UGH ARGH it is worse than I thought!

...the scarf is also decorated with bows, studs and the Caramel Bunny's eyes.

ARGH!!!

First CRAPITAL Connect more like. Argh, argh, argh, argh. I AM NOT KIDDING, 20 minutes outside EACH STATION (just past London Bridge, outside Blackfriars, WITHIN City [shitty more like] Thameslink and then I spotted my opportunity and RAN at Farawayingdon). Argh, argh, argh, arghhhhhhh! For non-Londoners - this SHOULD take about TEN MINUTES. It... did not. Never again! I think my commuting destiny is going to be tube reliant, unless London ever introduces those handydandy rentabike things so I could cycle from London Bridge to office (provided I ever work up the nerve to try cycling in central London which is a hellhole full of people and cars and people within cars etc etc)...

Aaaand I forgot my office pass today, which means I am reliant on borrowing a card from coworkers whenever I need to MAKE TEA or WEE. These are the two most important functions of my working day! They have complete control over me! IN SOVIET RUSSIA THE COFFEE DRINKS YOU! Um etc.

Must go and play relaxing Farmville. Ah, growing flowers! So pretty! So calming! Aaaah.

(Unfortunately my work differs in opinion from me re: most important functions so I suppose I had best go and pretend I know what I'm doing for a few minutes or so).

This kept me sane on said Crapital Connect: Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh, which features a BARRISTER, at a BAR (in the Plume of Feathers PUB). Do you see? Already there are violent tensions between the barrister, the "Coombe Left Club" (YES!) and a lady called Decima. Whee! \o/ So I suppose life can't be all that bad.

Work, then :(

Poll #1477446 Radishes
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39

RADISHES

Now what do you think?

If radishes are not your favourite red food, please tell me what *is* your favourite red food!

I have learnt through experience, that if you steam radishes, they lose a lot of their taste and are a bit rub. They kind of turn into... TURNIPS?! One of the best things about cooking red radishes is that they tend to turn all the other food pink! Most excellent! I am going to try steaming some radishes with rice to make pink rice* which you might *think* would be a good idea...

*Pink rice, of course, being a big thing in the 65-80ish era of vintage cookbooks, masquerading as "rosy rice". Rosy baked rice or whatever, is rice cooked with either V8 (?? I want to type V6, but that's not right... muuuusic for the people somethin'/chiikara o shinjite~ bosh bosh) - tomato juice anyway - or TOMATO KETCHUP. The horror!!

Dazzling update: we are still in the new office. Further issues: this going down a flight of stairs and through three sets of heavy doors to get a cup of tea is proving extremely difficult. Theoretically, two of these doors are also access doors, so I am wearing my security pass on what, I believe is called a lanyard, around my deck. I feel like my institution's... groupie. It's all for the shafu!

Anyway, without a kettle on the same floor as me, shafu can go whistle... it's OWN company song. Yeeeeeow!

Last night I was desperate for banh-mi. Having MOVED from easy access to Viet Baguette, I could not live without satisfying my craving. What joy, when I got home and found half a baguette in the fridge! "I wonder what else I could do with this", I thought.



Ta daaaa! Here is how to make your OWN viet baguette, with whatever ingredients that I had in my house on 26 October!

1/2 BAGUETTE
1x tin of Wild Boar paté that katstevens got for you last christmas, that you lost underneath the sofa but found last week, yay!
1x bit of chopped coriander
Gratuitous butter for spread
Carrots
Radishes
La-Yu chilli oil
Nanami togarashi (Japanese seven spice powder) (The internet seems to prefer calling it shichimi, but my packet says nanami, they both mean 'seven' anyway...)

1. Split yr baguette widthways and shmear in butter. Well, more than shmear, of course. It's butter, it's delicious.
1. Julienne your carrots to the best of your ability. This may not be very well. Who cares?
2. Chop up some coriander. Realise your knife is incredibly blunt. But you don't care. You're very tired.
3. Cut up radishes
4. Stick carrots and radishes on one half of the baguette, smear paté on the other
5. CORIANDER ON TOP!! This makes it a proper meal!
6. Realise you have no chillis. So pour on a bit of la-yu chilli oil.
7. Add some shichimi/nanami togarashi as well.

Put baguette together, EAT.

Outcome: the (oh sod it) 7mi togarashi is super, but the la-yu doesn't work very well. I would do more of the former and not bother with the latter if I were doing this again. To make this extra fancy, you could also fry up some thinly sliced pork chop and have this as well as the pate, but I was absolutely exhausted and didn't bother.

Ahem, I ate this with some steamed brussels sprouts, which I understand is not very Vietnamese (or human), but it is quite atommickbrane - so if you care about atommickbrane authenticity, steam yr sprouts in a basket for 12 minutes and add black pepper. I was going to add mustard, but the first bite of the sprout was so delicious that I saw no need for further alteration.

Found out that Donovan had a song called Sunny Goodge Street! How come I haven't been aware of this? I listened to it, on Spotify. It's pretty terrible. Donovan is a hippy.

However, I have listened to Sunshine Superman on repeat, and Donovan is forgiven for his crimes. (Please don't tell me that Donovan IS actually a criminal now, then I will feel bad...)

This week I start work in my new office! I have left Sunny Goodge Street behind, and now work near Euston station; gateway to the (best bits of the) North! I am unpacked, there are some frightening looking plants next to me, my mousemat is lost in the aether but I am willing to sacrifice Corporate Mousemat and purchase my own... bahahahha.

Where can I go for lunch? Given proxmity to the North, I could get on a train to Preston and go to the jacket potato man on Market Square. Monday isn't it... perhaps I should go tomorrow, Tuesdays and Thursdays is the car boot fair... *sigh*! They were so great... I remember the lunchtime where I found a brilliant vintage typewriter and a banjo for £2... on returning to the office I admit I got some strange looks, but it was all worth it.

And as of today, I'm going to start posting publicly again. I see less point to hiding entries! However, perhaps I should, as I am actually considering making a Halloween outfit... to be... Maya Fey! Yes, being Mia (see icon) would be easier, as I already have the hair, some breasts and a suit jacket... but... Maya is so great! I have actually looked at cosplay forums. I am 27, AND I spent my Sunday night swapping Pokémon with a, ahem, co-conspirator...

I'll probably just wear a sensible jumper...