Home » Archive by category "London" (Page 26)

Sweet!

8 Oct 2008

Over the weekend, Ann and I accomplished something huge.  It took a great deal of time, effort, creative thought and, in some cases, danger.  That’s right, we finally hung the paintings that Ann bought ages ago and we’d kept wrapped up in a corner because we didn’t know where to put them.

You might scoff but this is truly a daunting task.  Have you ever tried to place small pictures in a wide expanse of white wall? It’s quite difficult.  We finally decided on placing the two smaller ones in the hall, where there was a small part of the wall that jutted out and didn’t feel like an ocean of whiteness swallowing our her little paintings.  The longer, taller one ended up in the living room where the lamp and bookshelf made a convenient frame.  I absolutely love the paintings Ann had picked out and am so excited they’re finally on the walls.

In celebration, and as a host gift for the people with whom I was having dinner the next night, I decided to try my hand at cinnamon rolls again as the last batch hadn’t turned out quite as well as I had hope and I was pretty sure it was because I had failed to let the dough rise properly.  I used a different recipe, found through SuperCook.com (where you can enter in the ingredients you have and they suggest recipes):

1/2 ounce dried yeast (2 envelopes)

1/2 cup warm water

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons milk

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon salt

4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

3/4 cup raisins (optional)

2 cups confectioners? sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

And the instructions:

1. Combine the yeast and warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Warm 3/4 cup of the milk in the microwave. In a large bowl, combine 4 tablespoons of the melted butter and the warm milk. Using an electric mixer with a dough hook at low speed, or a wooden spoon, slowly stir the dissolved yeast into the butter and milk. Add 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, the egg and the salt, and mix until combined. Add 4 cups of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time; mix until smooth. If the dough is sticky, add up to 1/2 cup of flour.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, place in a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. Stir together the brown sugar, the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and the cinnamon. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to form a 12-x-24-inch rectangle. Brush the remaining 3 tablespoons of melted butter over the dough, and sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on top. Scatter the raisins over the dough.
5. Starting with a long side, roll the dough up into a log, jelly-roll style, then cut with dental floss or a sharp knife into generous 1-inch slices. Place in 3 greased 9-inch round cake pans (about 7 rolls per pan). Let the rolls rise for 45 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°. Bake the rolls, uncovered, until crusty and golden on top, about 25 minutes.
7. Stir together the confectioners? sugar, vanilla and the remaining 3 tablespoons of milk until smooth. Drizzle over the rolls and serve.

They ended up absolutely wonderfully this time, as far as I could tell, and although at home our family doesn’t normally do them with raisins, I thought it was a nice touch.  I kind of forgot to take pictures along the way but here are a few pictures of the final stages:

Another Sunny Day in Even Paris and Rome…

7 Oct 2008

Well, for better or for worse the digg traffic has mostly died down. I got another 1500 visitors today but that should really be about it. Today was a pretty low key day, although there have been two very exciting new advancements in my day-to-day life.

1) The tube station near to my flat, which has been closed since I moved here for renovations, has finally reopened, cutting about 20 minutes off my travel time if I’m lucky.

2) The gym right around the corner from the office is offering membership for a monthly rate of 25 quid which is amazing and means I might actually be able to start working out.

Besides those points, however, today was one of the first somewhat low days I’ve had, well, since I got here (had to happen eventually, of course). I felt constantly behind at work, I could feel myself getting sick and, despite getting plenty of sleep the night before, I was utterly exhausted all day. I didn’t really think that much of it until I got home and saw the nicest email from my boss at my old company in Palo Alto asking if I could come back sooner to work for them (to learn, as he put it, all they know about usability and interaction design and to make me an online acquisition superstar). The parting comment about how lovely Palo Alto weather just about made me lose it all together.

It was so nice to hear from them, and although I can’t possibly image leaving London or Spoonfed until the end of next summer as planned, I have to say, some times after a long, tiring, somewhat sickly day, it’s easy to think about going home.

(Don’t worry, I’m in London for a while yet but what good is a blog if I can’t make the occational self-indulgent pity post?)

Alice

5 Oct 2008

I have a pretty soft spot for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I read it, of course, for enjoyment when I was young; I read it academically in a Victorian literature class; and I based my novel for my novel-writing course at uni on the original plot, creating a modern re-imagining of Alice set in the internet age (don’t expect to see it on bookshelves any time soon – it’s only half finished and I’m not sure when I’m going to get back to it).

I also really like Tim Burton. I think this started when my sister, and some ridiculously young age, decided that The Nightmare before Christmas was her favourite movie and deserved to be watched every single day for three months. Alan Venning and I think his newer films are pretty awesome too.

So imagine how excited I am to hear that Tim Burton is filming a live version of Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter. They’ve just started filming here in the UK (I missed the extras casting call by a few weeks which would have been fun!) and there have already been some leaked pictures of Mia Wasikowska, the actress playing Alice:

Although certain die-hard fans of the original are already nervously speculating about why Alice seems to be on a boat (a scene not taken from the text), I’m pretty excited to see how this turns out. As someone who has already subjected Carroll’s classic text to a modern reworking (and with no where near the skill or creativity that Burton is sure to manage) I’m just excited to see another take on one of my favourite stories.

Alice is set to be released in March of 2010, and the cast is also set to include Michael Sheen and Matt Lucas.  Helena Bonham Carter has also been seen around the set and is rumoured to be playing a role as well.

Want to take a look at more upcoming movies? Check out the heavy hitters of the British Film Festival to see what else is hot right now including (god save us) Hamlet 2.

In Sickness

3 Oct 2008

It’s about that time of year when everyone in the city is getting ill.  My flatmate is coming down with a cold, my boss is sick, everyone at work has the sniffles and worst of all, today I had to interview a guy with what sounded like the chest infection of doom.  I’m pretty sure it’s my turn next – a belief supported by the fact that I am definitely not getting enough sleep and public transportation seems to be better than a nutrient-rich petri dish for growing bacteria.  Thank goodness it’s the weekend and I can stock up on sleep, soup and sanity.

Generally when I feel myself getting sick, I just try to eat a lot of fruits and veggies (right, so, need to go shopping for said healthy things tomorrow), sleep a lot (already failing… it’s late and I need to get to bed!) and not think about stressful things.  This weekend I’m going to take a day trip to Windsor Castle as I haven’t been there year but other than that, the plan is to eat, sleep and maybe, if I’m feeling particularly motivated, do some laundry.

What do you do when you’re starting to get sick to ward off the germs?

Concrete and Glass

3 Oct 2008

Every week, Spoonfed does a city-wide newsletter that selects the best upcoming event and recommends them to our (limited but enthusiastic) fan base.  It’s not often that I have the chance to attend any of the event, unless they’re art exhibitions that are open on the weekend, but yesterday I had the opportunity to swing by part of the Concrete and Glass festival to hear the Errors play at the Old Blue Last pub.  I was accompanied by an incredibly gentlemanly man who bought me both drinks and entrance to the concert although I don’t get the feeling I’ll be seeing him again (I don’t know which was more offputting for him – the fact that I was just barely 22 or the fact that I was a fiscal conservative and didn’t think Obama was God’s gift to mankind.  Shame, he was quite a great guy.)

In anycase, we arrived at the Old Blue Last at about 9:30pm just in time to hear the openers which were called something like Screaming Years… or Scream Year… or Scream and Cheer…. Whatever their name, they looked about fourteen years old.  They had stepped in at the last minute to fill the place of the opener who had dropped out (supposedly to attend a funeral.  What kind of excuse is that?).  I was completely distracted by the fact that the lead singer/guitarist/keyboardist looked absurdly like my brother which was a good thing not only in that I miss my brother but that I was distracted from their rather screamy vocals.  The music was great, however, very indie-rock, but it wasn’t a very long set and soon they were clearing the way for the Errors themselves.

My friend for the evening had heard the Errors before while at a music festival but hadn’t seen them lived since.  I had been warned they were fairly heavily influenced by electro sounds in addition to being instrumental rockers, which in general wouldn’t have sounded like my cuppa tea but I ended up really enjoying the show.  It was jam packed with barely room to move, let alone dance, and it was a great atmosphere for a concert.  The Errors wouldn’t have been my first choice of gig but they were fun, enthusiastic and, as my friend put it, apologetically Scottish.

Really, what more could you ask for?