Tackiest Travel Souvenirs

OK, so three blogs in one day is a little excessive, but I just had to get this one in. Courtesy of my Wanderlust newsletter, here are the tackiest travel souvenirs that are sold around the world:

1. A gravy boat bearing a picture of Saint Therese de Lisieux - the 'Little Flower of Jesus', one of the most popular Catholic saints.

2. A Virgin Mary ashtray from Rome, bought, perhaps, in a bid to gain some divine help in giving up smoking?

3. A donkey that dispenses a cigarette out of its bottom when you pull its tail.

4. A wooden toilet seat with a Spanish flag on the lid - a male appendage pops out when it's opened.

5. A Betty Boo flamenco pottery doll.

6. A Chairman Mao cigarette lighter.

7. A gold waving cat from Hong Kong.

8. A leprechaun bottle opener/magnet with a rainbow, pot of gold and an 'I Love Ireland' banner.

9. An Apron with a picture of a naked Roman statue. (I have to admit that Ollie and I bought one of these for a friend on a trip to Sorrento)

10. An 'I Love Hawaii' fridge magnet in the shape of a surfboard.

My personal travel tat includes an 'I LOVE NY' fridge magnet with a hologram that switches from Manhattan Island to a subway train, Tootise Rolls from LA, manga postcards from Japan and of course some wooden tulips from Holland xx

Coughs and Sneezes

I wish this cold I have would FUCK OFF. Sorry, but crassness is totally justified. This week I have been through a whole family sized pack of Beechams, a zillion tissues and almost a whole Body Shop concealer trying to cover my red nose and the dark circles under my eyes. How attractive. Plus, today I sneezed on the bus and the lady across the aisle looked at me as if I just pulled a pin out of a grenade. I swear some Londoners think their is a secret band of terrorists targeting public transport to try and terrorise the public with...possible swine flu.

I have to admit that the cold is on its way out, but it is lingering around a little longer than I would like. If it lingers around much longer and ruins Hallowe'en, Crystal Palace Fireworks or my birthday trip to Paris I will be very unhappy xx

Hallowe'en Tomorrow

Last year -

Foxy

If you like a bath scented of fennel, peppermint and good deeds, go down to Lush and buy yourself a Fabulous Mrs Fox bubble bar. They smell amazing and all of the proceeds go towards the Hunt Saboteurs Association. Lush and the HSA have had a lot of bad press lately which has led to shops being vandalised and staff threatened.

This is not OK. FOX HUNTING IS NOT OK. Furthermore, it's illegal. If people were to uphold the law and not hunt there would be no need for hunt sabotage to take place. There's an old saying which says that you can judge a society by how it treats it's animals and hunting for sport is just barbaric.

Love You Short Time...

Following a long morning at work and a quite traumatic Medieval Monsters Lecture, I was looking forward to cheap cider about as much as the yummy mummies of Dulwich look forward to the opening of yet another baby boutique on Lordship Lane. Don't ask.

So I went to the Student Union and that was where the chaos began. £1.20 for a pint of cider and black and a full packet of cigarettes. I drank one, then Sam turned up and I drank another one, and then Kerry kindly bought me one for my looming birthday - that was the third pint. Laura was moaning about being hungry so after buying some raffle tickets to buy the Goldsmiths Rugby Team a new kit, we all stumbled perilously across New Cross Road for what was promised to be some good food.

Funny how that never happens.

There's a little blink-and-you'll miss it restaurant across the road from Goldsmiths college called Noodle and Rice. I think it once was an Indian restaurant that changed hands. In short - it was dire. I didn't resent too much paying nearly £5 for what can only be described as udon in stock with a teeny bit of fried tofu chucked on the top - this is London after all, I have paid far more for far worse, but the service was pretty awful. Sam and I ordered sushi to share which was forgotten, so we cancelled it, and then it turned up as we were about to leave, by which time we are in no mood to eat it. Everybody else's looked less than appetising and poor Fabio didn't even get fed at all.

Fabio and Matthew ran off and hid behind the Marquess of Granby which resulted in Sam and I being embroiled in a drunken war of words with the manager of the restaurant who insisted we should pay. We managed to wriggle out of it, but she still wanted the boys' addresses. Presumably so she can go round and collect the money? Doubtful. Following this, we all went back to the evils' house for more wine, cigarettes and tales of embarrassing sexual experiences. Lucky for us the Trivial Pursuit remained in the box.

The funniest part was when I woke up this morning to see that Mike had set up a Facebook group called 'Noodle and Rice: Love You Short Time'. The description is as follows:

For refusing to feed Fabio, serving chicken in yellow shit, forgetting Sam and Gemma's sushi, making Laura feel ill and making us all piss in the dark. Bad times.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=317443210575

Sleepyhead...

Is it just me or does putting the clocks back completely fuck with one's body clock?

I am SO tired.... too tired to write anything deep and profound.

Would just like to wish my very good friend Rowena a very VERY happy birthday. Miss you loads and loads. Can't wait to see you in Sydney December 2010. Mwah xx



(London Film Festival October 2008 - a rare moment of composure!)

One Exhausted Cook...

My lovely kitchen has been used and abused over the past few days as I have been on a cooking and entertaining frenzy. Therefore I am closing it down for at least twenty-four hours and am tonight going to indulge in the age old gourmet classic: cheese on toast. Perfect.

First there was Dan's birthday dinner for which I made a poached leek and dorset blue vinny tart with buttered potatoes and salad, followed by the biggest and stodgiest chocolate caramel cake ever.



Then on Friday it was butternut squash and paneer curry for Jen and Sam. And today I have made lamb rogan josh, tarka dal and mountains of rice and naan for my family who came to visit this afternoon.

It seems silly to just blog about food, but you may have noticed that I actually adore cooking. I am even a bit pissed that so many international foodie documentaries have been made as I myself would love to make a film just eating my way around the world. Bliss. I did a cooking course once in Siem Reap in Cambodia. The woman who was running it soon tired of my fussy ways and I'm sure at one point she wanted to make me into a Khmer Gem-Mok.

Anyway, my family came up to see the new flat today, which was lovely. A very chilled out day of eating, drinking, walking on Peckham Rye and watching Liverpool beat Manchester United. I never realised how many Liverpool supporters there were in East Dulwich. I might start calling it Little Liverpool. Just during football season.

So I am now thoroughly exhausted and need sleep. Ollie is watching Roger Moore as the world's most suave spy, so I am going to do my Medieval Monsters reading and read my brand new copy of Wanderlust xx

Mozza

Get well soon xx

Cold Coldy Cold

The weather today has been shockingly bad. So much so that I have ventured out of the flat precisely once to walk Jen to Lordship Lane and buy some milk. I'm starting to get used to the sad fact that autumn has very quickly become winter and have already packed away some of my wardrobe until the sun comes out again.

My flat is amazingly warm, partly because it's brand new and partly because the sheer amount of cooking and baking I do provides a never-ending supply of warmth. The chillies are still growing on the windowsill despite the bleakness of outside and everything is ace.

Sometimes when it's cold outside there is nothing better than curling up under a blanket, watching a great film with some yummy food and remembering how lucky you are to have such an ace home xx

Jen's Going to Borneo!!

So, the good news: I am feeling SO much better and my senses have returned, it is not long until I go to Paris, and my lovely friend Brock will be coming to London in just over a month.

And the bad news: The wars of words continue, although I am determined not to dwell on this.

Aside from news, good or bad, I had a lovely evening last night being local. Sam and Jen came over to the flat for one of our South East Asia reunion evenings. We ate some curry that I made from the new Anjum Anand cookbook (amazing), drank some Katy and watched a whole series of League, quoting the good bits and doing the voices. This may sound like an obscure way to spend an evening considering all that London has to offer, but they are the best times.

Jen has had some completely amazing news that Sam and I are so totally jealous of. Jen has obtained a bursary to go and work in Borneo for three months in building and environmental projects. The problem is that despite having a bursary, there is still so much money to be raised towards the expedition. So, Sam and I have decided to help with some fundraising to help Jen get to Borneo and continue some of the amazing work done by the Raleigh International Trust. The first part of the fundraising will be collecting sponsorship for a 5k run in Greenwich Park in December dressed in a Santa suit. I am going to be very persistent about sponsorship, so BE WARNED!! Also, I must stress that we are not fundraising to send our friend on a wonderful holiday, but help the Raleigh International Trust continue with their invaluable projects overseas. More details of what they do can be found here.





xx

Essential Film

Oh, and just one more thing...

Series 6 of Peep Show finishes on Friday (tear...) and when you all get bored of Strictly Come Dancing / X Factor / Britain's Got Talent and all of that other rubbish. Go out and rent/buy this film... it's amazing.



I saw it at the London Film Festival in 2008 and just got it on DVD. Even bought Ollie some Forest Hills...

Notes From the Sickbed

The dreaded lurgy has finally caught up with me. After smugly telling friends over drinks last night how "I never get sick", I now have all of the symptoms of a sick person: headaches, cold, sore throat and the inability to regulate body temperature. This has resulted in me spending two days in the flat feeling sorry for myself and venturing only as far as Barry's to stock up on more Beechams and trash magazines. Poor Ollie is also at home recovering from a minor eye operation, so the two of us are feeling a little pathetic at the moment.

However, it is better that we are ill now and not in a couple of weeks when we are going to Paris. So excited.

Also, this is the point where I offer another half-arsed justification for not writing the blog for a couple of weeks. The truth is, I have actually been really busy. The history department at Goldsmiths have seen fit to pile huge quantities of work upon their students in the first couple of weeks of term. I thought this would be at the detriment of my social life, but previous commitments and obligations have been kept, so what I have actually sacrificed is my sleep and my alone time. This probably explains why I am ill.

So over the past few weeks I have been to watch Flash Fiktion play in Brixton followed by drinks in Ivans Retreat (sadly the lovely Laura was working and unable to hang out with us), I have been to Bristol for the engagement party of Simon and Natalie and for breakfast with Thom the following day, I have entertained friends and family and had many great dinners out and home-cooked dinners in. I am ashamed to say that I have not yet made it to Club Sandwich, although my early start on Thursday kind of prevents this. My office is not very hangover-friendly.

So I fully intend to write more. But hopefully I will make time in my life for it, not just wait until I am housebound and bedbound xx

Slipping Into Old Habits

OK, so it's been a really long time since I wrote anything - but in my defence, I have been really busy. I am even supposed to be busy right now reading for my Empires lecture on Friday but I am procrastinating. Oh, how I miss the joys of procrastination. Last year I stressed and stressed over deadlines and still managed to spend hours trying to beat my score on Geo Challenge. Oh dear.

So this is my second week back at uni and all is well. I have managed to turn up to all of my classes and have only had to endure one lecture hungover, which is pretty good going so far (avoiding Club Sandwich may have been key in this). I would like to claim that it has been an alcohol free couple of weeks, but I cannot. There have been two drunken nights in the living room of some fellow evils Sam, Laura and Mike which usually descended into us playing as much 90s tunes as we can find, downing multiple bottles of the 2-for-£8 wine (not, I might add, the 2-for-£5 - things aren't quite that dire just yet) and performing random acrobatics both in the house and on the street.

On the subject of 90s tunes, we finally made it up to I Love the 90s in Islington, which is somewhere I have wanted to go for ages. It was ace, I drank vodka and red alert and danced to Britpop all night. It would have almost been like the 90s except I am not fourteen anymore.

So I have three habits that I'm slipping back into: procrastination, midweek drinking and blogging. The latter is certainly a good habit and I am as yet undecided on the other two. I guess in a weird way they are all linked. So more blogs can be expected in future.

This has been vague and a little random. I think this is because I know there is something else I should be doing right now. Will make much more of an effort next time. Done. xx