Delivering cake

This week I got a cake order from my sister's friend to be delivered to a place in the city . She asked for a handbag cake to surprise her friends and I was super excited to be making one of those again, had cake on my brain all week and couldn't wait to start. I designed a logo card to put on a cardboard cake box, bought all the ingredients and even borrowed a play-dough tool from work to make a zip :-p. I was so happy, was mentally making the cake a dozen times in my mind and even bought a new hand mixer to make it. I had a whole plan and timetable to get it done the night before after work so that in the morning I just have to take it out the fridge and go.
 You must know where this is going. When the day finally came, everything was fine until I finished work and was on my way home. I think it must have been sun stroke or something because the weather had so suddenly changed on Thursday from freezing cold to boiling hot. I felt awful before I even got home, nauseous and pounding headache. Decided to take some pain killers and have a nap before I started on the cake. But the nap didn't help much. Even so, I managed to at least get the cake baked and ended up going back to bed because my head hurt so bad. 
So upsetting. All my excitement about baking was ruined and I would have to ice the cake in the morning in a panic. Well luckily by morning I wasn't feeling as bad. Woke up early and made the buttercream and melted jam for the filling, sandwiched the cake and sliced a bit off the end to make the cake more of a handbag shape. Then got all my icing stuff together and carefully began decorating. The playdough tool actually worked really well, gonna have to buy me one of those from someplace.
Here's how it looked in the end:

Handbag cake

The only thing I'm disappointed about is that the writing icing sucked. It looked fine at first and when I looked at it later, it had all sort of melted into itself. I was going to make my own but there were several new tubes already in the cupboard, plus I was running out of time.
Well, I took it up to the city via 2 buses and a tube train, scared to death the whole way that I was going to kill it before I got there. By some miracle, it got to the venue intact. There was one point on the tube train when I couldn't get a seat and was worrying about it swinging about or getting bumped into but this really nice guy let me have his seat :-).
So now it is waiting in the restaurant fridge to be eaten tonight after dinner. I can hardly wait to hear how they like it.
 The problem with making a cake is that you never know how it tastes. At least when you make cupcakes or cookies you can sample one. But I didn't need to wonder this time because when I got home I remembered that piece I had cut off. It was perfectly yummy and I hope the diners all think so too.

piece of cake

Yay for cake!

Thor? Phwaoar! :-p

Yep, watched Thor last night. Yep, am in love ;-) I've never gone for a blonde before. And I usually can't stand guys with long hair. I think it was the arms that did it, just look at them! 

Thor

But in all seriousness, I loved the movie. The trailer really doesn't do it justice at all. In fact, it made it look pretty dull and I'm not the only one who thought so. Quite a few of my friends were completely underwhelmed by the trailer and don't really believe me when I tell them what a fun movie it was.


As someone who knows next to nothing about the myths of Thor and Asgard, everything was surprisingly easy to understand and get into. It's also great to see a superhero/ fantasy movie that I don't know everything about for once! The story was a bit predictable at times but of course it would be, it's a superhero movie.


Meshing the world of Asgard with the real world can't have been easy and could have been a disaster but by some miracle, they pulled it off! Asgard was amazing to look at, especially the rainbow bridge (even though at first it reminded me of super mario kart [watch here] or Michael Jackson's 'the way you make me feel' video) and also the bifrost in action as it sent them to other worlds.


If, like me, you thought "what's so great about a hammer?" you will be amazed about just how great the hammer of Thor is. The action scenes were all enjoyable and it was great to see everyone's powers and how they use them. 


Natalie Portman was perfectly cast and did a great job. I loved how tiny she is because it made Thor look even bigger plus it made it easier to put myself in her shoes ;-). Kat Dennings was funny as usual, even though it was a small part. The good thing about the movie is that despite its extremely serious dramatic scenes there was still humour. And not the kind of puerile over the top humour that killed 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.' Actually, I think everyone was perfect and Idris Alba was especially awesome as Heimdall, the guardian of the worlds. 


A few things took me out of the movie though. The first was my own problem and nothing to do with the film-makers. Whenever they had slow music it sounded a lot like a children's song I'd just heard at work that day a billion times called "koala, koala" and it kept coming into my head during the movie. The second was during the final fight when the antagonist kept saying rather theatrically "haha!" which kinda spoiled it. Don't know what idiot told him that was a good idea. Also, during most of the closeups, it seemed to me that I could see the foundation and face powder on all the men's faces, especially Thor.


In line with the latest stupid movie fad, there is a scene after ALL of the credits which we stayed to see because someone told us we should stay and watch it. It so wasn't worth the wait. I don't get why they showed it at the end of the credits instead of just putting it at the end of the movie. If I was you, I'd wait till they show it on youtube or just ask me what happens and I'll tell you.


I regret not seeing it all in 3d but never mind, will just watch it in 3d next week when I get my contact lenses :-)

Pampered at the beauty parlour...

...Well, I'm not sure it can really be called being pampered when it also involves really bad pain. 



Have you ever gone through a tough patch made worse by (or perhaps resulting in) feeling ugly and awful? Well I have. Putting on a few extra pounds over chistmas didn't help :-p. So today when there was finally a break in all the bank holidays, I went and had my eyebrows threaded and had a facial at a Nepalese beauty parlour that I  frequent.


Even though I never had a facial in London, I've had loads of facials abroad in my home country and every beauty parlour does it differently. Even so, this was one of the strangest facials I ever had. It was also actually very comfortable. I had to undress and wear a towel wrap and then lay down and was tucked up under a blanket because it was quite cold. Apart from the blanket, this was all fairly normal.


I always feel weird during a facial. You're lying there with your eyes closed, while someone slathers God knows what on your face, something you can only guess at by it's smell and feel. 


This time it started off with what I guessed was cotton wool soaked in rose water wiped over my face. Then, a herbal smelling lotion was massaged into my skin for what felt like hours but must have been around 20 minutes. Piles and piles of lotion was slathered over my face and neck, and although it might not sound it, it felt wonderful. Odd, but wonderful.


After that was wiped off with a warm wet towel, my face was gently coated in what felt and smelt like, sugar in sweet lemon juice. It probably wasn't though :-p my skin would have stung like hell. I thought it was a scrub but it wasn't massaged in or wiped off. Instead, a light muslin cloth was laid on my face and a steamer brought over to me. The cloth was an awesome idea. The last time I had a facial the steamer was insanely hot and directly on my skin and the beautician was a cow who wouldn't listen when I told her it was burning me. Anyway, not so this time. I was left for a while under the gentle steamer, all tucked up in the dark alone for quite a while. It was so cosy, even with the gritty lotion and light cloth on my face, I very nearly fell asleep.


But then the weird thing happened. My arms were gently brought out of the blanket and I thought maybe it was because the steamer would make me too warm. But no. My arms were then covered in cream and massaged all the way from my shoulders to my hands. Imagine having your hands massaged and someone sliding their fingers between your fingers while you're lying there unable to open your eyes. At first I was freaking out but once I relaxed, it was actually quite pleasant.


Well anyway, my arms were then put back under the covers and then began the torture part. Blackhead removal! Ahhhhh!!! One of the most painful things I've had done for beauty. Imagine your skin being scraped away by something sharp pressed hard into it. Because that's what blackhead removal is. I endured this for a few minutes and was then tucked up again while my face was thoroughly wiped clean.


When I got up and looked in the mirror I was astounded. My skin looked amazing! The dark patches on my cheeks had cleared up completely. I'm going to go again next month :-p it's so worth it.


My pampering was later ruined a bit when I went to the town centre and found everything closed! Even the doctor's surgery which is supposed to be open till 8pm today. What's more, they had no sign or anything to say when they would and wouldn't be open and I needed to put in my repeat prescription.


When I tried to leave the centre via the exit by the bus stop, it was locked. There was another exit at the bottom of the escalators near another bus stop so I walked there but that was closed too. I could also have gone through Matalan, gone down the stairs in the store and exited to the bus stop but even though Matalan was open, the upstairs entrance was closed. 


So I went back to where I had come in by and there were huge gates closed across there too. I was trapped! Trapped and in a panic cos all the stores were closed so I couldn't ask anyone for help. I remember seeing a girl go into the beauty parlour on my way up there so I checked there and luckily a worker was still there hoovering. So I asked him and he told me about a fire exit I could use. I opened it cautiously but luckily, no alarm went off. It would have been nice if there was at least a sign somewhere with the timings for the things, with timings for when the gates would close or some sort of warning. Oh well, they call it a modern centre.

Books and kdramas

Haven't written for a while as I've been busy with work, cooking and writing my stories in my spare time. And also, to be honest, reading more Diana Wynne Jones books :-p. Namely, Charmed Life and Conrad's Fate. They are part of her Chrestomanci series of books which begin with The Lives of Christopher Chant. She's such an amazing writer, seriously. I hope I can one day write as well as her. Plus, having one of my books made into an anime like hers (Howl's Moving Castle), would be an absolute dream!


Well anyway, I've also been recording Pointless everyday in the hope they'll show the one we saw live but it still hasn't been on! I wish they'd told us when it would air, it's been ages.


Now the easter hols have started, YAY :-D!!!!


I actually had to work today and Friday but that's it. I've resolved to make good use of my time off. Mainly, exercising more. Feel so achy after work there's no chance of exercise and I feel fat as a pig. A slimmish pig :-p but still. Saw a double chin in the mirror the other day and it gave me a heart attack. Anyway so have started a regime of cereal or fruit for breakfast, light lunch like salad, playing Just dance 2 (3 or 4 songs on the Just Sweat setting), early dinner, fruit whenever I'm peckish then biking for as long as I can. Haven't biked for a while so will have to build it up to 20-30mins over the next few days. I can barely get through 5mins at the moment :-p.


I also get to enjoy my time writing and hopefully getting nearer the end of my novel(s) and best of all, I bit the bullet and spent the £30 for my favourite korean drama called My Girl. So have been watching that in all my spare time. Sadly, it's only 16 episodes and I'm already on 11.

My Girl

It's a light-hearted yet complicated love story. A guy (Gong-chan) hires a girl (Yoo-rin) to pretend to be his long lost cousin to fulfil his grandfather's dying wish of making things right with her. His grandfather had banished his daughter for some reason (still not sure :-p maybe over her marriage) and she and her husband died in an earthquake in Japan leaving her daughter orphaned. When the grandfather gets ill he feels guilty, blaming himself for his daughter's death and wants to be sure that his granddaughter didn't suffer because of him. So Gong-chan tries to find his cousin without much success and decides to get a pretend cousin because he's afraid his grandfather might die before he can find the real one.
Gong-chan meets Yoo-rin through a series of her pranks and lies that he somehow gets involved in. He ends up choosing her to be his fake-cousin because she's so good at bare-faced lies and looks a little like his late aunty. She's reluctant because she only lies when she has to, but she's being dogged by her gamester father's creditors and really needs the money to pay them off. Only, his grandfather is so happy to have found her that he recovers and she has to keep on pretending indefinitely. A charade further complicated when she falls for Gong-chan and he starts liking her too. Then there's his ex-girlfriend come to win him back and his playboy best friend who likes Yoo-rin making it a lovely square.
There's also a Philippine version but I haven't seen it.

Goong - Princess Hours

The first kdrama I ever saw was Goong (Princess Hours) about a school girl (Yoon Eun Hye) who ends up having her marriage arranged to a prince who's in love with someone else. We see her struggling to learn all the traditions and customs that come with being a princess and also struggling with her feelings for a husband who doesn't want her. Well, not initially anyway :-p. 
The story, the characters and the wealth of Korean culture in this series is what got me hooked on asian dramas in the first place. It also got my big sister hooked when she happened to come in my room as I was watching one of the last episodes. She ended up staying to see the whole thing. By the time I was on the second to last episode, she had caught up and watched the whole series :-p.

Coffee Prince

Another of my favourite dramas is Coffee Prince, also starring Yoon Eun Hye.
Coffee Prince is about a girl struggling to make ends meet who gets a job as a waiter at a coffee shop when the owner mistakes her for a boy. She doesn't tell him the truth in case she loses the job. Yet another love square because she likes his friend and he likes his friend's ex. Alot of hilarious scenes as well as heartbreaking ones. She looks soooo different with a boy-cut. It just goes to show what a difference hair can make to a girl.




The heroine in this is also in Vineyard Man which I quite enjoyed too. She's a clothes designer who loses her job when a superior steals her ideas. She is then offered a job at her Grand-uncle's vineyard and reluctantly agrees. She goes from living in the city to living in a village without any of the facilities she's used to. A HUGE transition. She grows as a person as she learns to grow grapes. My sister didn't like this one because she thought the guy wasn't good looking. Maybe someone needs to send her to work at a vineyard :-p.

Vineyard Man

Edward vs Snape

I just saw this today and it cracked me the hell up :-p

Bayswater fun!

Can't believe it's already Tuesday and I still haven't had a chance to write about the fun I had on Saturday.

Whiteleys

 The main reason it was awesome was that I met up with my best friend after ages (yay!) and the other reason is that we met in Bayswater, one of my favourite places ever, anywhere.

 If I could live anywhere, I would live in Bayswater so if you happen to own a flat there that you have no use of, I would gladly take it off your hands :-p.

So why do I love Bayswater?

Because so many things are so convenient including some of my favourite shops/restaurants that don’t have a branch close enough to my house:

• Khans
• Nandos
• Yo! Sushi
• Noodle Oodle
• Muji

Within walking distance there is also a Post Office (for my addiction to sending cards and parcels), Tescos and M&S, Queensway Ice Skating rink/ bowling alley (for recreation), a Vue cinema, Hyde Park (for relaxation), several massage places, two tube stations, loads of other halal restaurants, a Maplin (for the geek in me), shoe shops (for the girl in me :-p), opticians (for my glasses and contact lens needs), a Frog (frozen yoghurt place) and loads more. If I get rich one day, that is where I will definitely live. At least between flitting around the world :-p.

Annnyway, back to Saturday. We started by going for lunch to, of course, Noodle Oodle. Having read my review on here, my friend was really looking forward to trying it for herself. I was looking forward to it too and hoping it would live up to my hype. And it did! The food was amazing. We had lamb skewers (formally known as shashlick), roast duck, pak choi in oyster sauce and special fried rice. We scoffed the lot before it even occurred to me to take a picture for my blog, so instead of the food, here’s a pic of the aftermath :-p

It was my first time tasting duck and pak choi. The duck was deliciously tender and flavoursome. The pak choi was ok, didn't really taste of much. The special fried rice was such a huge portion, we only needed the one between the two of us. The place was absolutely packed! I could pretend it's all down to my review, but I don't kid myself that many people read this blog :-p.

After an amazing filling lunch, we went to Whiteleys to walk it off. That lunch kept us so full all day we didn't need to have dinner.  I love Whiteleys. I bought a cool little alarm clock from Muji and chopsticks in a box to go with a bento box I bought earlier from amazon. I also bought stripy leg warmers from H&M. I have an obsession with black and white stripes. It might be influenced by my love of Tim Burton movies.

 Well in the mall they had those funny fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet. I wouldn't normally put even a finger in a tank of fish, let alone immerse my feet in one but my friend was dying to do it, so I agreed. After all, it's a new experience right? And it would have been a huge laugh :-p.

 It said on the sign "£1 a minute" and you can book in blocks of "5, 10 or 15 minutes" so we decided on 5 minutes because I didn't think I could bear much more than that apart from being incredibly ticklish. But the lady told us that the minimum time was 15 minutes and the lower times were only for children under 12. Complete BS right? It didn't say that anywhere. So in the end we didn't do it. And as we were walking away I saw the lady set a timer for two women who had just sat down and put their feet in. She set it for 10 minutes! What a B****! 

When I said I didn't think I could take 15 minutes why didn't she say we could just do 10 minutes? And those women were clearly not children, they were older than me! I was/am seriously PO'd with that woman. God only knows why people like that are such asses. We weren't asking her to eat dead skin off our feet :-p. I feel pretty guilty about not going through with it but I don't think my friend was keen on spending £15 either. I am a little disappointed too because I was curious about how it'd feel and was looking forward to showing people pics of our feet being fed on by tadpole-like fish. 

 Well, we left the fish behind and my friend tried to teach me to walk in heels. I'm not sure it was completely successful but she was encouraging and I feel a lot more confident. Don't feel like I'm walking on stilts as much :-p it helped that the heels I tried on were super comfy.

 Then we headed to the frozen yoghurt place and this is what I got:

Chocolate Frozen Yoghurt with Strawberries

The yoghurt wasn't as richly chocolatey as some I've had before but it was still delicious. I ate it quite slowly to my friend's amusement, scraping a layer off and letting it melt in my mouth a bit before swallowing. She thought I was eating it slow because I didn't like it:

Me: I do like it, it's yum! I just have sensitive teeth.
Her: Then why did you order a frozen yoghurt??
Me: Because I like it

Then we went our separate ways, me finishing my yoghurt on the train :-p.

That evening I went to my aunts house and had a great visit. Stayed up till passed midnight with my cousins playing cards and talking about random crap. I won a few rounds of Shithead too :-p so all in all a fun Saturday.

Sunday sort of disappeared in a haze of lazing about and spring cleaning. And now I'm back to work. 

Oh well, only 3 more days till the next Saturday!

The Dalemark Quartet

If anyone is looking for a good fantasy book for a child  or adult you should definitely get one by Diana Wynne Jones. I'm 27 and I have an ever-growing collection of her books that I can read again and again.
 I've been reading books since I was 4. My friends would hide their books if they knew I was coming because if I found a book in their house I'd sit and read it instead of playing with them. It was so much more fun for me to read in someone else's house because they always had books that I didn't :-p or at least hadn't read as often.
Diana Wynne Jones' books are the kind that can be read again and again.
Recently I reread the Dalemark Quartet which is about a mythological world and tells the story of the people of legend and myth and how they became so, as well as those who years later believe in them and whose lives are influenced by their beliefs. It's an absolutely amazing and imaginative creation of a world that sucks you in and keeps you hooked. After reading all four books I wish there was more!

The four books are:
The Spellcoats (Dalemark Quartet)
Cart And Cwidder (Dalemark Quartet)
Drowned Ammet (Dalemark Quartet)
The Crown Of Dalemark (Dalemark Quartet)

They are all available on amazon.co.uk at a good price. Just click on the book name for more.
There's nothing I can say that can do justice to the genius that is the Dalemark Quartet, if you're interested in fantasy then do give the books a go and find out for yourself. Meanwhile, below is some info about each book so you get a sort of idea of what it's all about. As usual, it's really hard for me to write a review/summary-type thing without giving too much away so it's a little vague :-p. The links above will help though probably because they have a sort of blurb on amazon about each book. But do not read the reviews on amazon! Some of the idiots reviewing end up telling the whole damn story! They don't seem to understand the purpose of a review. No one wants to read a book when they know the whole story already.

The Spellcoats is about a family of siblings who are driven out of their village when they are blamed for a natural disaster. The adventures that follow are intriguing and magical. Not sure it would appeal to the younger kids. It's written as a 1st person narrative by one of the sisters who weaves the words into a coat.

Cart and Cwidder is about a family of singer performers who travel Dalemark, a place which has been split up and ruled by Earls ever since an heir for the last King could not be found. The main character is a young boy called Moril who finds himself responsible for a sacred cwidder from legend. That's just a thread of the story, so many other things go on. There is conflict between the North and South and Moril and his family get caught up in it all. You really get a feel for the characters and the world and I'm sure once you've read either of this or Spellcoats you'll be eager to read the rest.

Drowned Ammet is probably my favourite because I love the main character, Mitt. He's such a flawed and yet good hearted boy. The story shows you how he goes from a sweet happy little boy to a cynical paranoid one who goes through a lot as he figures out the truth of the world. I love that he's not perfect and that he's so believable. You can understand his thought processes completely and feel for him and you're always hoping things somehow work out for him.

The Crown of Dalemark is about the quest to finally put someone on the throne of Dalemark. I usually do not like books where someone from real time goes back into the olden days into the middle of some legendary story. I haven't seen it work except in this book. And this is the book where a lot of the characters meet each other and the daydreaming boy from Cart and Cwidder meets Mitt from Drowned Ammet. Watching them interact is just so fun and interesting. Also, as it takes place some time after Drowned Ammet you get to see where the characters end up.