What a week!

The last few days have been really lovely as my 'really busy week' concluded with the visit from my penpal, and friend, Annelies.

You can't visit Birmingham without having your photo taken here!

She arrived on Thursday and we spent the afternoon wandering around a little bit of Birmingham and exploring the jewellery quarter a little bit. Of course, I hardly know my way around the jewellery quarter as I've only been there once so I didn't really manage to show it off but oh well! That wasn't the important bit!

Friday we went to The Black Country Living Museum which is a museum chronicling life in the industrial area around Dudley. Although it didn't seem as 'alive' as other times I've visited it was great to look around again. I went to this museum many, many times as a child but hadn't visited for a good five years or so. It was also a good place to challenge Annelies' English because goodness knows a strong Black Country accent (and dialect) is hard for even a native speaker at times.

Yesterday was another day in Birmingham. First we went to the new(ish) library, somewhere I hadn't managed to visit since it opened. My goodness, what a library! I really cannot wait to go back there and actually borrow some books. It's huge. I think it's the largest regional library in Europe or something so I guess I should have expected big but my so many books... what a dream! And how exciting to have those resources available for research! Ahem.

So big. So many books. Happy Havanah.

Later we mooched around the shopping areas and also visited the Bullring markets. I was a bit sad that I couldn't find a sheeps head this time but it was still good fun to walk through the stalls with butchers (and other salesmen but it's the butchers that stand out) attempting to sell their wares. We also spent a bit of time in the Selfridges food hall. For some reason, I've not spent a lot of time there although I've been in the store for makeup and clothing. I'll be revisiting the food hall, no doubt!

Anyway, today Annelies went on to London for a few days and, I hope, is having a wonderful time down there. I was so happy to meet her and I think we got on really well so hopefully we'll see each other again soon when I'm out in the Netherlands (or when she comes over here).

Now, I'm going to enjoy catching up on my sleep!

Rain, friends, and cakes

What a couple of days!

I managed to go down to Devon for a few days to meet up with Nené and give her the present I’d made for her 18^th birthday and also to get my Extended Project dissertation off Haydon.

It was so, so good to be back, if rather strange. My mother and I actually stayed in the hotel that we lived in most of the time when we were going through our nomadic stage. I cannot tell you how strange that was. The staff were really happy to see us, which was lovely. The new manager (well, technically she was away on maternity when we were there and has since returned so she’s not really new!) seemed to know a lot about us so guessing we’re pretty notorious hehe

I might not have been able to photograph
Nené but I did photograph cakes!

Meeting Nené on the Monday was quite wonderful. I didn’t manage to take any photos because it was bucketing down with rain (incidentally, I found out that my boots leak) but I don’t really care because it’s been so long since I last saw her! We mooched a lot, chatted a lot. It was lovely. It was also nice to be with someone who appreciates my musical theatre obsession interest. Hopefully it won't be long until I get to see her again.

It was also great to see Haydon again, having not seen him since I finished college. Of course, he insisted on buying me drinks (one day I will manage to buy him a drink!) It seems like he's getting on pretty well even if his university are causing havoc. He also brought me down my dissertation which he kindly picked up for me and put up with me reading all the marker's comments while we were supposed to be socialising. What a lovely chap!

They're heavier than they look!

As Haydon and I were wrapping up I got a bit of a surprise as he said he was going to go and get a tattoo done... rather him than me! Anyway, I faced my fears and actually walked into a tattoo studio just to see Tegan, another college friend, for a brief moment as she is now doing a  tattoo apprenticeship (and did his tattoo in the end but there was no way I was hanging around for that!)

The drive home was pretty hectic. It was sad to see how weather bashed my old area of the country has been and, naturally, the weather made the drive a bit tricksy. Nature couldn't help but send a reminder that, while she might be a bit harsh at times, she's an amazing, beautiful thing.

Book review - 'A Game of Thrones' by George R.R. Martin

 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Plot:

"Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones."

-from 'A Game of Thrones' on Goodreads

Review:

If I told you that it took me about two years to read this book you’d probably wonder why I have still given it a five star rating. If I didn’t keep losing the darn novel I would probably have finished a lot quicker!

I’m not going to go into great detail in this review. The books are popular, partially due to the wonderful writing and partly because of the great television adaptation (of which I have only watched  a couple of episodes but found it relatively close to the book and rather impressive). Anyway, the point being, if you don’t know what they’re about by now, or you’ve not read them by now, then my review isn’t going to change anything.

The length of the novel, the seemingly constantly switching viewpoints, and the goodness-knows-how-many characters are the most risky aspects of this novel. When you’re juggling this many things there’s a chance that you’re going to sacrifice clarity for the sake of detail. Interestingly, at no point did I feel overwhelmed with information, or lost, so Martin must be a darn good juggler!

In fact, it is perhaps the number of threads that helps to make the novel so special. It feels real. The characters are realistic, understandably flawed with individual personalities. Their actions make sense within the constraints of their lives and they interact as one would imagine. The politics is complex and the reader works with the characters to attempt to understand the intrigues going on around them. In a very short time, the reader has invested so much in the novel, in the characters, that there is no way one could put this book down… or at least that’s how I feel!

I have a physical copy of this book and it's that annoying size that's uncomfortable to hold so I would buy the kindle version if you have that option.

Book review - 'Bake: Beautiful baking recipies from around the world'

Rating: 5/5 stars

About:

"Explore a whole world of baking with this stunning collection of recipes from across the globe! From the stylish patisseries of France, via the vibrant panaderias of Mexico, and the cosy coffee shops of the United States, discover a wealth of delicious baking recipes, both familiar and new. Enjoy the classics, such as Swedish Carrot Cake or American Brownies, or try something mouthwateringly different, such as Australian Lamingtons or Japanese Milk Loaf. There are also fascinating features on the history of baking and different cooking methods from around the world. This book features the most tantalizing cakes, biscuits, cupcakes, muffins, pastries and breads on the planet, so get baking and travel the world in one big bite!"

-from 'Bake' on Goodreads

Review:

Oh, my. What a cook book.

I’ll start with the superficial. The book looks and feels lovely. It’s the kind of book you could give as a gift and would be really pleased to receive. Each page is packed with colour photos to illustrate the recipes (no doubt showing things 10x neater than we mere mortals could ever achieve). The pages are formatted in an elegant, beautiful, yet easy to read style. It’s really a joy to flick through the book.

The book itself contains various recipes for baked goods from around the world. There are chapters focusing on certain areas (i.e. America or Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). Something that makes this book extra special, in my opinion, is that each recipe comes with a little bit of text regarding its cultural significance or history. There are also pages that focus on baking traditions from the area and just give the book that extra something.

Regarding the recipes themselves, I have only tried one or two (so far) but there are many, many more I look forward to making. Obviously, there are a few recipes I can’t see myself being interested in but those are by far the minority. The range and selection of baked products included is great, savoury and sweet. The instructions are, for the most part, quite clear and are, probably, accessible to most people and those recipes I have tried have worked out well. The only (minor) issue I’ve had so far is that amounts of yeast are calculated for fresh yeast which isn’t really practical for me as I’ve yet to manage to find some in the area but this can be adjusted to use dried packet stuff so it’s not really a problem.

All in all, I like this book a lot and, while it might not provide recipes for dinner it’s up there with my favourite cook books!

This one's a bit hard to get hold of for some reason but it's available, within England, at The Works.

Onwards and upwards!

It seems that, after a couple of months of rather painful stagnation, life is moving forwards at an amazing pace.

This morning was my singing lesson, as normal, and it went exceptionally well. Okay, I actually had my singing teacher jumping up and down clapping her hands because she was so pleased with the progress I was making. She also ran out to the car and told my mother. You have no idea how amazed this made me. It's been under six months and I have gone from someone who was afraid to sing in front of someone, unable to get more than a few sounds out in a lesson, to the position I'm in now. I still can't say that I feel that my voice is 'good' or even 'okay' but there are moments when I actually like what I hear. There are moments when I feel more confident. Physically and mentally I can see so much progress and you have no idea how much that means to me. It's nothing short of a miracle!

I also received an email regarding my university interview and 'meet-and-greet'. It's going to be a challenging day, I'd wager. There are group activities, mock classes, discussions and question and answer sessions (as well as some optional social activities which I think it might be best to hang around for). I'm  really excited but a little daunted too. Mind you, I guess that's a healthy state of mind because a little adrenaline helps us to do our best, right? I've been given a choice of dates but, as long as I can arrange the flights, I'm probably going to go in about four weeks time. Goodness, this is way too real for my liking!!

This evening has been an evening of writing to people about meeting up. I'm going to have to rearrange meeting with Aimee because of the interview. I'm meeting the amazing Nené (i.e. one of the best friends a girl could have) a week today and I am so so excited. It's been way too long! Haydon and I have also managed to arrange our meeting up, at last, and it's going to be great to see him too. Considering I used to see him almost every day at college, it's been strange to not see him for ages. And then we have the impending visit from Annelies which is really exciting as I will get to meet my penpal :-D

Gosh, it's going to be a wonderfully busy month or two! I will also return to taking photos as I will take my little DSLR round with me. My compact has rather given up the ghost hence the boring text only posts.

A rant about the presentation of flood victims in the media

This is, as the name suggests, a bit of a rant. In short, because of personal experience, I am finding the media coverage of the current flooding a little offensive, in particular the emphasis on how the government (and various services) aren't doing enough to help. I wrote this for myself to vent and it might not be the clearest 'argument' but that's what I'm annoyed about. All the same, if you're affected by the current situation you probably don't want to read this. Good luck and stay safe. <3

Not what one means by river side views!

Flooding is awful. No arguments there.

I've had friends from around the world asking me about the weather in the UK - we're getting notorious. The national news is filled with stories of people suffering and pictures of the power of the weather.

Of course, that's what we have all, seemingly, forgotten: the world is a heck of a lot more powerful than we are. If we are going to build a train-line alongside the seafront then we have to allow for the fact that one day that sea might just decide that it doesn't belong there. We humans who have tried so hard to conquer the world are rediscovering that she is a lot stronger than we could ever be.

Something that is really making me angry is the way the media is focusing on these floods. I only have to be in the room when the news is on to hear something about the government not doing enough to help flood victims or someone whining about the situation. The worst bit was a lady who was interviewed and was dramatically proclaiming about how she was "going to loose everything" and "why isn't anyone doing anything!?" As she did this interview you could watch military personal helping her family empty the house and help them evacuate. She's not been the only one acting like this, a lot of interviews have been similar. I wonder how much is the media hyping things up and taking things out of context. Whatever the reason, it's making me quite angry and actually really upset

Once the water's in the house it's tricky to get it all out

In July 2012 there was a flash flood. We got very little warning about it. It was unexpected. My mother and I were abroad, my father was at home. He moved as much as he could with no help. The entire bottom floor of the house was flooded, quite badly. We lost a lot. Over the next three weeks we fought to get stuff cleaned up. Sweeping water out. Lifting sodden, sewerage ridden, heavy carpets out. Finding the book that you bought when you were six and loved dearly swollen with flood water. Finding a fish in the sitting sitting room. Finding half of you dissertation research half way down the lane, ruined of course. This is without the whole rigmarole of getting dehumidifiers, redecorating...

In November/December we had no more warning really and we flooded four more times. It was more expected because of the month but you get six hours if you're lucky. On the bright side, so much was destroyed the first time that there was not much left for the water to claim.

This is not what one expects from the emergency services

During this time, we were offered no help. Actually, I tell a lie. Down the road from us, on higher ground, lived a family who we had spoken to a couple of times. They had an autistic son, he must have been 13-14, who came down to look at the water rising and who offered to help us move things. The fire brigade came down while we were stuck in the top floor of our house, the water creeping up the stairs... they stood there and took photos on their smart-phones. No-one even asked if we were alright. We were really let down by those who were supposed to, I guess, help us. At the time I felt really let down and seeing all the moaning in the press has re-inflamed that for me.

After the water receded, the clean up started once again. As I said, we had already lost the majority of the material things in July so this wasn't so bad. Our landlord wanted us out, however, as he'd had enough so we had to move things out of a house that was, for all intents and purposes, contaminated. I ended up seriously ill. It took me six months to be anything like healthy again. We had no where to go. We ended up, quite honestly, homeless. Luckily, because of my mother's savings we were able to stay in Travelodges for a while. This is the reality of flooding.

So yes, in short, it is horrific. If you know anyone at risk, or an area at risk, and it is safe for you to do so, I would urge you to go and offer your help. Remember that the clean up takes months at best, realistically years.

As for the media, or anyone else who is saying things about lack of help from the government etc., you stayed quiet a year ago when others were struggling (it wasn't just my family, of course). There is a lot more help this time and, ultimately, no one is going to be able to hold back the power of nature. I do seriously believe that this constant moaning is coming from media spin and hype but it's upsetting me quite a lot really. 

If your someone who has been flooded, or is faced with that possibility, no matter how much help you're getting, my heart does go out to you. Also, as impossible as it sounds, laugh about it. It's better than the alternative <3

Photos were taken by me when my house was flooding in 2012/2013. They were mainly taken as the water receded and we came to see what damage was done. The one of the fireman was taken as the water rose but after we were trapped upstairs.

I'm still not quite sure it really happened...

Every now and then there is a band, a musician, a song that comes along that means the world to you for some reason. It might not be the best but something happens that means that it will always be special. 

Within Temptation are one of those special bands for me (and are brilliant, just in case my previous sentence implies differently). They were one of the first bands I really got into, although not the first, and their style really opened my eyes and inspired me at a stage when I was first discovering music. My first band covered a lot of Within Temptation songs as we played together, my A level drama piece had a section inspired by the song 'Faster'... they're just a band that have been in my life constantly since I discovered them and always had some influence on my life.

The lighting wasn't great and my camera is poorly so I didn't get decent pictures.

Yesterday, I attended a Within Temptation acoustic show and signing, promoting their new album Hydra. It's a bit overwhelming. Did it really happen?

The performance itself was wonderful. Playing songs stripped down to vocals and acoustic guitar, and sometimes piano, it was possible to appreciate the pure talent of these musicians. It was brilliant. The band's interaction with the audience was free and relaxed and the 'niceness' of their personalities really did shine through.

If I remember correctly, which I probably don't, all but one of the songs was off of their new album Hydra. However, the opening song, from The Unforgiven, really made my night as it was 'Faster'. I believe I owe Celena, my A level drama co-conspirator, a bit of an apology as she'd said they would play it and I doubted her ;-)

They also played a cover of Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness, which features on the second disk of Hydra, and this was, perhaps, one of my favourite songs of the night. You could see how much Sharon was enjoying singing it and that was a joy to see!

Of course, me being me, things couldn't go smoothly and during the last song muggins starts to feel faint. In my defense, it was very hot in there! Mind you, considering that I got sunstroke when I was in the Netherlands, was ill and couldn't fly to Amsterdam, and then felt faint during the concert of a Dutch band, maybe I should just avoid the Netherlands all together hehe. Luckily, for me, the show ended quite quickly and I managed to sit down as opposed to falling down and the brilliant Kim and her mother (and others but I wasn't really paying attention at this point!) really looked after me. To be honest, this was embarrassing at the time but it adds to the memory, right?

Next came the signing, which I recovered for, thank goodness. We were towards the end of the queue which, in reality, meant that we were less pressurised and therefore managed to speak to the band and take photos with relative ease. My mother had also managed to get into the room to play photographer somehow... The band themselves were completely delightful and, I think, managed to make every fan feel special and appreciated. They just came across as genuine people!

All in all, I had a wonderful evening. I met (part of!) one of the bands that I love, met some amazing people who were at the show, and had an all over wonderful time.