...and a Happy New Year!

Christmas has been and gone! That is it, people. Did you miss it? More fool you, because it was a pretty good one this year.

Eric wins at presents! Viz:

[x] One pair of knee-length toe-socks
[x] One pair of the biggest, warmest, most marvellous slippers in the world
[x] One sensible haircut (kind of)

Also in Santa's sack this year: money, Tarot cards, a new journal, the latest Atwood, a Miffy toy, a huge box of Lush, whisky, more slippers, an impossible puzzle, a yard of Jaffa cakes, perfume, make-up, poker!

There has been a lot going on these last few days, and I am not going to make any attempt to detail it because it will just make you sick with jealousy and I don't want to be responsible for that.

(snowbllfightsfoodfightsballoonfightssecrettexts"Hellodarling!"
mindlessmoviesrediscoveringdrivingSNOWSNOWSNOW
shoppingpantomidnightphonecallssleepingin)

I am declaring myself Breakfast Queen. No one can scramble eggs as good as what I can.

Now, I am not the sort of girl to make (keep) resolutions, but this year, I am braving it! I hereby Resolve to:

1) Let my nails grow + find another way to cope with the crippling stress caused by reading books (poss. chocolate?).
2) Stop unquestioningly believing everything I am told - OR - ask more questions.
3) Only date people who like me more than I like them (sorry Dawn).
4) Final nail in the GOD EMO coffin.

(Subject to change, please see Terms and Conditions)

Full of spirits

A festive haiku
Between Christmas and New Year.
So much fun for you!

'Annual Review', or, Things I Can Remember

THINGS I HAVE ENJOYED ABOUT THIS YEAR (in no particular order):

- Housemates (as a group and individually, you are always fantastic and I do not tell you this enough. Thankyou!)

- Dawn making fun of me and Dawn in general

- Making new friends

- Work over the summer

- Understanding last semester

- Sleater-Kinney in Camden

- Birthday surprise from my housemates!

- Cute pants

- Having fun for the sake of having fun

- Denmark, which fixed me, somehow.

Best. Sister. EVER.

Track listing CONFIRMED:
1. July, July! (Decemberists); 2. The Party's Crashing Us (Of Montreal); 3. The Owls Go (Architecture in Helsinki); 4. Soldier Girl (Polyphonic Spree); 5. Heartbeats (Jose Gonzalez); 6. Neighbourhood #1 [Tunnels] (Arcade Fire); 7. Like a Call (Architecture in Helsinki); 8. Dance Hall (Modest Mouse); 9. Ode to Divorce (Regina Spektor); 10. Words + Guitar (Sleater-Kinney); 11. A Cautionary Song (Decemberists); 12. Sunshine and Clouds (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah); 13. The View (Modest Mouse); 14. The Legionnaire's Lament (Decemberists); 15. What You Meant (Franz Ferdinand); 16. Carbone Monoxide (Regina Spektor); 17. Nothing Better (The Postal Service); 18. This Boy (Franz Ferdinand); 19. Oslo in the Summertime (Of Montreal); 20. Little Discourage (Idlewild); The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (The Postal Service).

Laaaaame

I am so slack recently. I haven't touched uni work in a frighteningly long time.

I am also sad, the camera shop says £173 to fix my poor abused Cybershot. I hate it when students moan about being broke (especially when they have spent all their money on sweeties and comic books) so I am not going to.

Speaking of New Years, I managed to get out of the London-promise with the minimum of fuss and hurt feelings (hurrah!). There might have been a little fib involved (boo!). Sometimes fibs are OK though (hurrah!), and in this case I deserve any bad karma that comes my way as a result.

Current New Year's plans:
- tell everyone I am going to New York / the Caribbean / Iceland for big fun
- deck the house out in millions of fairy lights
- rent some good black and white films
- make/buy good things to eat
- curl up on the sofa in the most glamourous party dress ever and snooze my way through midnight
- maybe kiss the fish if I remember.

Technology wins again!

New discoveries from Saturday night/Sunday morning:

- Huge bruise on my left knee (fell over trying to go outside to make a phonecall)
- One text I do not remember sending
- One text I do not remember receiving
- Implicit agreement to go to a New Year's Eve party in London
- Crippling ache in my calves from dancing barefoot for far too long

Also: CAMERA'D. Unfortunately, my ability to take decent photos (slight at the best of times) deteriorates rapidly and perceptibly when combined with drinks. Also, I appear to be overly-fond of the 'sepia' setting which makes everyone look like they are part of an old-timey movie (good!)



















































This is my favourite picture from the night, I think, because this was one of my favourite bits of the night. I have never seen two people dance so hard and so enthusiastically! <3

LEEDS

Leeds is ENORMOUS!

It is also FANTASTIC!

After morning cake-presentation and hurried cake-sharing in the morning (during which we managed to set off the fire alarms), Em dashed off to Leeds at midday and I spent a bit of time mincing around getting ready before half-sleeping, half-indie'ing my way two and a half hours north, musing at passing fields and wishing I hadn't run my thumb along the plate of my hair straighteners to check if they were off (they weren't).

I love travelling to and from places so much it verges on a compulsion, but I think I love being met at stations even more; I feel like I am in a black and white French film.

Em's mum had bought a house specifically for the party (this is what I am choosing to believe) and there is something so magical about having the run of an empty house with wooden floors and unexpected cupboards and fairy lights on every wall that it was only with great restraint that I managed not to climb into each and every wardrobe along the way.

Emma having spent the previous night frantically making a mix CD, it (luckily) transpired that Emma's mum had not hired a DJ (as was the initial rumour) but had hired an entire band. I can't stress enough how cool this was. I have no idea if they had a name, but I have paid good money to go to shows that weren't as good as these guys. There was a fair amount of energetic dancing on Emma's part - doubly impressive in four inch boots - and I might have forgotten to mention the shocking amount of alcohol jointly put away.

It was fun!

I dropped out at about 4am and curled up in one of the many empty bedrooms. Somehow I managed to sleep through not only another two hours of DJ but also some couple blowing up and installing an airbed in the same room as me (although it turned out I could not sleep through his snoring).

I woke up with the world's worst headache, no shoes and with my beloved camera in a rather distressing state. Also my MP3 thing is missing in action, although I am not too worried about that because it was worth less than my return ticket (although I would have been glad of the company on the coach this afternoon).

Currently-broken camera means there are no pictures YET, although I know for a fact I took about 50 and that they are living on the memory stick just waiting to be released (and retouched, and resized). Just you wait.

So, happy birthday again Em! And cheers, it was a really really good night!

Love and kisses,

Lucy.

See you in Leeds!

Does everyone in Scotland live in a castle?

I am moving to Scotland!

I am so very excited about this prospect.

I would be doubly excited if a certain young lady came with me.



I can't wait until I am done with my degree!


In other news, I met my brother's new girlfriend today! She seems very nice. My brother however looks like a ginger Abraham Lincoln with a hillwalking fetish.

Sometimes beards are nice. Mostly they are not.

This is one of those 'not' times.

Housewife Corner!

In a return to our (sort of) regular feature, I would like to present: Cake Porn Attempt 2005, or, How to Suck at Baking.

One will require:
- 12oz plain flour
- 2 tsp bicard of soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 12oz granuated sugar, sugar
- 4 eggsies
- 2 egg yolks
-4 tsps vanilla extract/flavouring
- 125ml milk
- 8oz butter

Optional:
- Fantastic friend to make cocktails and feed you Cadbury's Ripples and prawn crackers.
- Extra butter, icing sugar and food colouring, to make icing.

1) Make (and consume) first cocktail. This is essential, as otherwise you might produce something edible at the end of the recipe.

2) In a bowl, whisk (or, you know, just stir) the flour, bicarb of soda and salt together. Maybe sieve them, but it doesn't make a lot of difference as far as I can tell.

3) In a saucepan (you have already used the only bowl you own) beat the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar until very light and fluffy. Make sure basically everything is light and fluffy.

4) Have an argument with your housemate about whether the recipe actually means 'beat' or 'whisk'.

5) Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and egg yolks.

6) Realise that, when you separated the eggs, you have thrown away the yolks and kept the whites by mistake.

7) Spoon the cake mixture into cake cases. See that the recipe recommends a muffin tin, but choose to ignore it and place the cake cases straight onto a baking tray.

8) Bake the cakes at about 180*C for about 20 mins.

9) Make another cocktail.

10) Start to construct icing.

11) Start to act like fools.




12) PANIC! Realise at this late stage that you have done it wrong. Cake trays were invented for a very good reason. Decide to leave the cakes to their own devices anyway.







13) See right.







14) Let Frankenstein's Monster cool before icing. Go into the living room, try and order Chinese, realise the takeaway is shut. Cook frozen spring rolls instead. Hang out with cool people!

15) Try and salvage something vaguely artistic from the delicious but unpresentable mess.






Voila! Beautiful. You successfully graduate School of Inept Baking (Class of 2005).

Not what you want (it's everything!)

1) I have the BEST HOUSEMATES in the WORLD.

2) The Great Leeds Dash might be off (thanks a lot, Dawn!)

3) I think I have acquired a bike (thanks a lot, Dawn!)

4) Geez.

5) I have almost finished editing the Great English-Place Names Essay (it is currently 400 words over the limit and lacks both an introduction and a conclusion).

6) Is it just me or is it not as cold as it was?

7) This is the best album currently in my CD player.

Failing a little bit, maybe.

I have figured out a 'friends-only' LiveJournal where I can (and will) continue to be deliciously indiscreet. Lucky friends! Of course this does mean that I have pretty much cornered the market in terms of self-indulgence and am therefore expecting to spontaneously combust at any moment now.

Promises promises.

I am a very lucky girl! I have already received from the Christmas List of Greed (2005 Edition):

[x] One kick-ass frying pan

[x] Sleater-Kinney, 'Dig Me Out'

...and it is still only early December! Thank you Santa!

Next weekend Dawny & I are doing a cross-country dash to lovely Leeds for Emma's birthday. We are going separately, I think we are having a race. I have never been to Leeds before, which is strange when it seems like half the people I know live there, but I am assured it is better than Nottingham so I am going to measure this in the name of science (and rivalry). I am rather excited. The prospect of cakes and jelly and ice-cream is making my many toes curl.

Term is semi-officially over this week. Now I have a collective 11,000 words to write before mid-January, so I suspect last week was as festive as I am going to be able to get this year (it hit a pretty good level of festivities, however, so this is not really a complaint). I am wondering if I will get away with only going to my parents' for the purpose of fetching and delivering presents (and when I say 'delivering' I mostly mean 'buying on the way and wrapping in newspapers on the bus').

I haven't had a single mince pie yet this year.

I QUIT THE INTERNET

You know those days where everything you do, even if you think it is for the best, just ends up a disaster?

Gay.

I am quitting the internet for a bit. No message boards, no websites, no blogs, minimum email.

This is not an internet problem per se. It is just the most obvious solution.

That and stamping around muttering under my breath.

I am going to make someone such a good wife one of these days

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!

(For the record, anything in brackets are my additions to the generic recipe. Also, I work in Imperial when I cook. Sorry! I know it is un-PC but it is just easier.)

You will need:
Cookies:

- 4oz butter

- 2oz soft dark brown sugar
- 4oz golden syrup
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 8oz plain flour
- 1.25oz self-raising flour
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp bicarb of soda
- (1 tbsp ground cinnamon)
- (100g mixed peel)
- (1 bag Smarties)
Icing:
- 1 egg white
- 0.5 tsp lemon juice
- 4oz sifted icing sugar
- (1 box 'Writing Icing')

1) Using electric beaters, beat the sugar, butter and golden syrup together. (A whisk + old-fashioned wrists are just as good.) Add the egg gradually, beating well after each addition (or just tip the whole lot in by accident, it does not seem to make much difference - come up with something like this:



2) Sift the flours, ginger and bicarbonate of soda onto the butter mixture and use a knife to mix until just combined. (I added candied mixed peel and a heap of cinnamon at this point, as these are the best bits).

Use a well-floured hand to combine the dough thoroughly, then turn onto a floured surface and knead for 1-2 minutes, or until smooth.

(At this point, if you have followed the quantities above, you will have a disgusting sticky mess which you cannot touch because you are afraid it will suck your entire being in. Assume that the recipe is wrong, rather than that you suck at baking, and just keep adding and mixing flour until you have something that actually resembles dough and then turn the bowl upside down. Expect to use basically a whole sackful of flour.)

3) Line a large board with baking paper. Roll out the dough on the board to 5mm thickness. (Flour the rolling pin. Flour your hands. Flour the floor if necessary. This dough will stick to everything.) Put the dough on the board into the fridge for 15 minutes.



3a) TURN ON THE OVEN! 180*C/Gas 4.

4) Cut out the dough with people-shaped biscuit cutters (or whatever you like!). Press any remaining dough together, then re-roll and cut out again. Put on greased baking trays and bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool the biscuits on trays, and then ice.



5) SUCCESS! Gingerbread Army!




















(This guy is my favourite! He was supposed to be an indie kid - comb-over, badly-fitting black trousers, bleeding heart - but looks more like Emo Hitler. He is so angry with that star!)

Two birds, one stone.

SUCCESS

I am hoping this lady will make me the ring I want for my 21st. It is basically a combination of these two pictures; a silver ring with a quote which I am still thinking about around the base and maybe diamonds in place of the 'o's in said quote.

It is not really what I thought I wanted at all but now I have seen it, it is perfect!

Also - to make the day extra-specially good - I think I have finally found an excuse to write about Isobelle Carmody!





Also also, while I was eating my tea tonight I watched a very pretentious show about 'culture'. The presenter was a chubby man with a very strange hair-do, which was upsetting while I was eating, but they did show basically the whole of a short film called 'Non-Fat' which made me laugh for about five consecutive minutes, and then do that thing where you remember something funny later, out of context, and laugh again.

I think it will only really strike a chord if you have ever worked as a barrista.