Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Song of the Week

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So, I have a midterm on Thursday, but instead of revising yesterday, I may or may not have watched all of the episodes of Misfits so far in about 12 hours. Oops. I honestly didn't mean to, but it turned out to be so good, and my desire to study was so small that I couldn't stop. I don't really know why I didn't catch on to it sooner, I've heard so many people raving about it. I guess I was scared that it would be really violent - I tried to watch the first episode once and had to stop because I was so scared that something gross was going to happen!

Anyway, after my Misfits binge, I bought the soundtrack from iTunes and I've picked one of the songs from that to be my song of the week. (Minor spoilers ahead) It plays in a fairly pivotal scene between Alisha and the man in the mask (who incidentally have got to be the most attractive couple on television) and I can't get enough of it.
The song is "Paradise Circus" by Massive Attack, from their 2010 album Heligoland

Monday, October 17, 2011

Treacle Tart Debacle

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So last week, when I said I was about to make treacle tart? I was lying. Well, that's not to say I didn't try, but apparently the universe just didn't want me to do it.
For one thing it turned out that I didn't have enough golden syrup, but that didn't really matter because I only found that out after this had happened:

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Yes, that is meant to be the pastry case. I'm not sure what happened, I followed the recipe exactly. I think it was a combination of my scales not being very accurate and trying to use canadian ingredients to follow a british recipe. But never mind. A couple of days later, I went and bought more golden syrup, and, I have to admit, a pre-made pastry case *guilty face*. I made the tart on Friday and it turned out very well

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I used the recipe from the Peyton and Byrne cookbook my sister got me for my birthday. The filling was delicious, though I used bread crumbs instead of cake crumbs, and there was a bit too much to fit inside the pastry case.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Song of the Week

Hi there! Another busy week, full of quizzes and lab reports. Two midterms next week too - yay!
Sometimes I get a bit fed up of how big my university is. In some ways it is great because there is a huge variety of people, and it means that we get some really awesome facilities. However, on the other hand it does just make one feel completely anonymous sometimes. I've had over 25 professors in the past two and a half years, but a maximum of 3 have ever actually learnt my name, some of the classes are so huge. It was quite a big shock in first year. I came straight from my sixth form, where the biggest of my A-level classes contained only 17 people, and where almost all of the teachers in my school knew who I was, sometimes even though I had never been taught by them.
Thank goodness, then, for my swedish class. Our class only has about 30 people, and our professor learnt all of our names within a week. Learning a language makes it easy to get to know people in the class because we are all struggling through conversations in swedish together.
Every Friday, we finish the class by singing a song in swedish. Last Friday we sang this song, and I really liked it so I have decided to make it my song of the week.

Satan i Gatan by Veronica Maggio
(if you don't speak swedish, there is a helpful translation of the lyrics here)

Monday, October 10, 2011

Song of the Week

Happy thanksgiving! We are having a rather non-traditional dinner today - Turkey chili and treacle tart! We did make up for it by having the proper thanksgiving meal upstairs with our landlords and their friends last night - my first proper thanksgiving - which was lovely.
I'll tell you all about today's dinner soon, but in the mean time, here is the song of the week for this week!
This week's song is "Cat in the Hallway" by Tiny Ruins, from her debut album Some Were Meant For Sea. I bought her album after hearing "Old as the Hills" on the radio a few weeks ago, and I am besotted with it.
Tiny Ruins, aka Hollie Fullbrook is a musician and songwriter from Aukland, New Zealand.
I've heard that Hollie was recently involved in a motorcycle accident in Zanzibar and has had to cancel her tour dates, so here's wishing her a speedy and complete recovery :)

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Song of the Week

Well, my computer is finally fixed, and just in time too, since I have a lot of work to do on it at the moment!
For this week, I have chosen a song which I must have listened to on average at least three times a week since I first heard it.  As well as being amazing to just sit down and listen to, it is perfect for playing when doing homework or trying to go to sleep. It is chilled and relaxing, but with an interesting complexity that you can tune into if you so choose.
The song is "Child Song", by The Cinematic Orchestra, from their 2007 album Ma Fleur. If you like this at all, I urge you to seek out some more of their music, they really are great. You'll probably have heard at least one song before.