Snaily Thoughts

Snaily's Clog-Popping List

2013-01-27T19:13:00.001+00:00

I've been inspired by Alice Pyne to write a bucket list. She passed away recently but her charity Alice's Escapes will go on raising money for unwell kids to have a holiday (donate to her sister Milly here) and her family is still raising awareness of the bone marrow register (see the Anthony Nolan website). Alice's motto was "You only have one life... live it!"

I personally prefer the phrase "popping one's clogs" to "kicking the bucket" so here is my Clog-Popping List:

1 - Visit Japan

2 - Do a random act of kindness, e.g. paying for a stranger's shopping

3 - Take singing lessons

4 - Make a blanket - *done* Dec 2016

5 - Learn how to jive

6 - ~~Keep a diary~~ - Note: 4 years later - I think this one is just too difficult! I did 100 days of Instagram photos a while back. Maybe that will have to do?

7 - Get into a routine of properly exercising for at least an hour a week

8 - Learn Japanese to a passable level - I finished the whole of Japanese for Busy People 1 in my classes in 2016. Would like to continue onto JBP2 when I can find the time!

9 - Get dressed up and eat at at a fancy restaurant, e.g. World Service - *done* 30 Jan 2012

10 - Survive grad school, one way or another - *survived* July 2013

11 - Fit into a size 14 again

12 - Get over my needle-phobia and give blood

13 - See an opera

14 - See a ballet - planned for Nov 2017

15 - Join a choir

16 - Volunteer for a charity

17 - See the aurora borealis

18 - Own and regularly use a decent camera, preferably with a macro lens and flash

19 - Learn to drive *done* Nov 2014

20 - Own a car *done* June 2017 - and I love my little Honda Jazz!

21 - Join the Bone Marrow Register - *done* Jun 2013

22 - Own a house

23 - See the pyramids at Giza

24 - Take part in a beach clean

25 - Learn about investing money and buy some stocks/shares (via work scheme doesn't count!)

26 - Go to a museum of surgery

27 - Go to a US National Park

28 - Do 5 Wainwright walks

29 - Stay overnight in a posh hotel just for fun (preferably with a spa)

30 - Try a new activity, e.g. an exercise class, wine tasting, pottery making, blacksmithing and/or stone carving

Homeware!

2012-09-07T15:12:00.000+01:00

The other day I was in Primark and found a cute canvas which I bought for my kitchen (but ended up hanging it outside the bathroom..) for a mere £4. I’m not the biggest fan of the “Keep Calm and…” movement but I like the pastel colour and the suggestion that tea will fix any problem. Which is true. Unless your problem is scalding. You should seek medical attention. Stat.

Mine is a cornflower blue with a nice teapot picture but you get the gist.
Image from here.

Anyway, this purchase got me to thinking about how I would design my own house if I ever got one and if I was filthy rich. I think I’d like an old fashioned kitchen with oak and slate and a giant American style four-door fridge, but I would accessorise it with colourful things like this tray from Darling Clementine:

Image from here.

It would probably be a designer’s nightmare and it may look like a collection of woodland creatures had thrown up on my surfaces but that’s what I like and I would be happy baking in there.

My bathroom would be a tranquil spa paradise, all fluffy white towels and bamboo greens with one of those wicked rainfall showers. Somewhere there would be glitter. And a bath with feet on a pedestal by a window facing something secluded and awesome (my own zillion acres of private grounds perhaps). Hmm… Do they make glittery baths with feet..?

…A quick Google later…

Image from here.

Yes, I found a tub made of actual amethyst. It wasn't quite what I had in mind, I'm not convinced by the “bathing-in-an-oversized-Fabergé-egg” thing it has going on there. Maybe I’d just settle for glitter tiles.

My lounge would not have a real log burning fire because a recent experience with a fire-pit made me very aware that the smoke from burning wood permeates all clothing and makes me feel nauseous and headachey. Instead I would have under-floor heating everywhere with snuggly chairs and fleecy blankets left, right and centre. There would also be a cunningly disguised door which would lead to my amazing library of dreams (I blame Frances Hodgson Burnett and Enid Blyton for my love of secret passages). It would have those brass stepladders on rails and the overall feel of a Victorian gentleman’s club but without the cigar smoke. Preferably high up in a turret and round like this one:

Image from here.

All the other rooms in my castle/mansion I'm not too fussed about. I guess I'd like a bedroom with fancy fitted wardrobes and a walk-in closet but that's about it.

The last important part of ~~Barbie's~~ Abbie's Dream House would be the epic garden. I would have a traditional walled kitchen garden with an English country feel and plenty of herbs, and I would have a spiffing fountain arrangement, and a heated swimming pool, but also, and most importantly, I would have one of these immense tree houses!

As it would be a fully-functioning wooden house, I'd probably let it out as a holiday home or use it mainly for throwing awesome parties. I blame Enid Blyton for this one too. I would probably go a bit mad and try to convince everyone I was Silky the Fairy from The Faraway Tree series. It's OK though because as mentioned earlier in this homeware fantasy blog I am incredibly wealthy and thus allowed to be eccentric, somewhat like the Marquess of Bath.

Image from here.

I will leave you with this Keep Calm poster generator which is entertaining for a while:

The Keep Calm-o-Matic

And also with some links for sites where you can find nice doodads and whatsits for the home:

Fab

Pussy Home Boutique

Sass and Belle

To Dry For

Atomic

BALTIC Shop

Games of the Week - Song Pop and Pocket Planes

2012-06-25T18:58:00.001+01:00

Song Pop

If you have been awake the last couple of weeks you've probably heard of SongPop. I started playing a couple of weeks ago thanks to the recommendation of my friend Bex. Since then it's gained about 70,000 likes on Facebook. I will take all the credit for the trend!

It's an highly addictive name-that-tune game available on Facebook, iOS and Android. The idea is pretty simple. You get to listen to up to ten seconds of a song whilst being shown four possible answers of either song title or artist. You answer five per round and try to get a higher score than a friend (or a random opponent) by guessing quickly and by getting chains of correct answers.

I have a feeling it will be around longer than Draw Something because of the ease of play and the option to buy more playlists.

Some things which would improve the game for me:

1 - A choice of rewards at the end of the weekly tournament (I never use those power-up things. I'd prefer some coins. Thanks.)

2 - A lifetime high score table. I got +22k and this was lost at the end of the week. This made me sad.

3 - A little preview of some songs on each playlist, it's rubbish if you buy a playlist and realise it wasn't what you thought. Especially the ambiguously named "I love NY". Apparently it's just songs about New York. How odd!

4 - A limited time refund option in case you accidentally choose the wrong playlist. Easier than having to email customer services.

Here's me getting thoroughly beaten by Toby:

Pocket Planes

Another recommendation from a friend, thanks go to Angela this time. Pocket Planes is a lovely little time-wasting game for the iPhone (no Wi-Fi required) where you purchase airports all over the world and fly people and cargo around. I'm currently dominating Europe with plans to expand business into the US and Asia ^_^

It's quite easy to make money in the game by completing journeys and so gameplay does not rely on those in-game real-money purchases I loathe so much. Have a go, but be warned it's rather addictive!

In other news, I think asshat may be my favourite ever insult. "He's such a total asshat!"

Things I like - 7- Kawaii Stuff and Japan

2012-06-07T14:09:00.001+01:00

Those who know me will know I have a minor obsession with anything Japanese or generally kawaii. Kawaii means cute in Japanese and the word tends to be used to describe things such as cartoons of food with faces, miniature items or plush toys.

Here's my new kawaii desk tidy from Paperchase!

Hello Kitty is kawaii. Especially when she's wearing a kimono and is accompanied by a big pink bow! My housemate Kate got me this wicked-cool necklace for my birthday from Tragic Stitches:

Image from here.

I also love Japanese animated movies and TV shows (anime). I'm currently awaiting the next new episode of Naruto Shippuden on Crunchyroll (it's all getting very exciting in the Hidden Leaf right now with another Great Ninja War kicking off) and I own a number of Studio Ghibli movies. The Hayao Miyazaki range includes some pretty beautiful and random typical-Japanese stuff, like Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle, but also includes an anime version of The Borrowers, entitled The Secret World of Arrietty (Karigurashi no Arrietty). This story is a bit Americanised but with the lovely animation and charm of Miyazaki I'd give it a watch if I were you!

Image from here.

I first got introduced to Japanese music by listening to the theme tunes from the Naruto series. If you like Japanese music or think you'd like to give it a try, listen to G3 radio online on Tuesday evenings. My friends in Area 11 have a radio show where they play lots of sweet tunes and there's a chat room type thing so you can request songs and answer the question of the week if you are so inclined!

Here's a video with lyrics for Bluebird by Ikimono Gakari:

I have never been to Japan, a fact which makes me sad, and I will go one day I'm sure. Until then I will keep watching anime, eating sushi and katsu curry, listening to J-rock and buying stuff I think is cute. In short, continuing being an embarrassing Westerner who doesn't really know anything about Japan. I tried to learn more about Japan by taking a module of Japanese language in my second year of my undergraduate Biology degree. I spent months learning hiragana and katakana and trying to remember the Japanese for post office, business card and newspaper but instead remembering aisu-kurimu (ice cream), hanbaga (hamburger) and terebi (television) because they're pretty much just English words put into Japanese syllables. They're fun to say, give it a try!

Here are some sites I enjoy:

Ji Ji Kiki: A jewellery shop named after the characters in Kiki's Delivery Service. They sell lots of cute necklaces and earrings, a large proportion of which have cute faces on them. Say it with me now: Ka-wa-iiii!

Flutterscape: This is a marketplace which sells many things from Japan. Lots of collectibles and accessories to be found here.

Tofu Cute: A UK based store which sells accessories, stationary and Japanese snacks. I love the great selection of Puccho and Pocky, and the endless edamame popping keyrings!

Tokyo Kawaii Etc.: A website/blog written by a Japanese lady called Kirin. She writes about things going on in her life, makes videos and explains how things in Japan are different from other countries.

Japanese lunches are the coolest!

Exercise

2012-05-14T19:23:00.000+01:00

I haven't put "Things I Like" before "Exercise" because I'm not really sure if I like it yet. I was one of those kids at school who would fake a parent's letter or forget my gym clothes accidentally-on-purpose to get out of PE lessons. On the rare occasions I was forced to play team sports I'd loiter in a corner in my knickershorts (not to be confused with knickerbockers) hoping an errant kick wouldn't send the ball into my face and break my glasses. My teachers would despair on sports day trying to find something for me to do because I was crap at everything but eventually they dropped the "it's the taking part that counts" spiel and let me get away with being a spectator.

Unfortunately our school-issue knickershorts were not girly and flowery.
They were maroon. Nobody should be made to wear maroon.
Image from here.

Approximately 10 years later I was feeling optimistic and thought it might be fun to join my friend Katy in a spot of jogging. I downloaded an app for my iPhone called 5K Runner (there is a free download from the NHS which does the same job) which assumes you are a couch potato and starts you off slowly doing a minute of running and a minute of walking and builds you up over 8 weeks to be able to run a solid 5km. A nice male voice (we named him Lionel) tells you when to walk and when to run. Despite it being an easy introduction into the world of running I very nearly threw up after the first one and probably lost half my body weight in perspiration. It was a total of six minutes of running. Yes that is how unfit I am!

My body was pretty shocked by this sudden attempt at faster-than-a-stroll movement and promptly punished me for trying to get fit by giving me a nasty bout of shin splints. For those who don't know, it feels pretty much like your shin bones are about to snap in half and just pop on out of your skin. It is highly unpleasant and may make you cry a bit.

That meant I had to stop the running for at least two weeks and so I thought I'd try a bit of swimming instead. Unfortunately the day I chose to start my new regime was the day the under-15 Nottingham swimming team practises. It's not great for the ego when little wiry 13-year-olds with six packs are tumble turning all over your best effort at a breaststroke. Plus one of them chucked up in the loos. I was a little sympathetic knowing how nauseated I felt after my first run, but it was still gross and has put me off going for another swim in the near future.

The shin splints also stopped me playing badminton (now there's one sport I really do enjoy playing), because the stop-start nature of the game means there's a lot of pressure put on the ol' shins. Now I'm better I will start playing again and I will also return to Zumba classes (it's a mix between aerobics and latin dance) so one day I will look like this:

Image from here.

Since I went on holiday I've put back on the few pounds I'd managed to shed with the running. All-inclusive buffet meals will do that to ya. I am determined to start eating better (as soon as I finish this last bag of Cadbury's Caramel Nibbles), to start exercising properly again and to catch up to my mum who also started the 5k running challenge when I did and is almost at the 30 minute continuous run stage. It's nice to have a goal to aim for!

In the spirit of sports, here's a dog called Maddie who's really good at standing on stuff. Check out the blog maddieonthings for more!

Image from here.


Image from here.

On Ho-li-day!

2012-04-24T10:21:00.001+01:00

From today all will be quiet on the blogging front for two weeks. I'm off on holiday! Yay! I'll bring you back a gift ok?

Things I Like - 6 - Games

2012-04-20T12:00:00.002+01:00

I started gaming at a fairly early age. Having an older brother probably had something do with this because there were consoles around the house. I guess I must have been about 5 or 6 when I started playing. I'm just gonna name some games here that I was pretty obsessed with at some time or another in my life.

The first game I properly got into, along with the rest of my family, was Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I was pretty good at it until the stupid motorbike level where there are spikes on the ground and monkeys which throw killer leaves at you. I used to get my dad to do it for me. The video below shows someone doing it in ~30 seconds which upsets me because I still repeatedly fail at this level now I'm grown up!

Whilst Googling for things relating to this game I found this in the Wiki article:

"The game did have an undocumented "continue" feature, where the player could continue the game with three lives from the beginning of the level where Alex had died, by holding the up button and pressing the 2 button eight times during the GAME OVER screen."

WHAT?! I did not know this! In the dark days without saves this would have been good to know! A lack of save ability also meant if you got tired and wanted to play another day you had to leave the console on pause overnight. I wonder if any house fires were started this way.

Other games of note for the Master System include: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap and Taz-mania.

Scene from Discworld II. Image Here.

When we got our first home PC (a Gateway 2000) I couldn't find anything more exciting to play with than MS Paint (which has come a long way on Windows 7), Encarta 96 (which is amazing) and MS Bob (which I had lots of fun with but didn't comprehend the actual purpose of) until someone in the house bought Dragon Lore: The Legend Begins, Simon the Sorceror and Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? I hadn't read any Discworld books by this point so I was mostly amused by the characters of the Luggage, the wizards and the beggars (favourite being the Duck Man, least favourite being Coffin Henry), but I've since realised the game is based on three really good books from the series, namely Lords and Ladies (the elvish stuff), Moving Pictures (the movie set stuff) and Reaper Man (Fourecks and missing DEATH stuff). I no longer own this game but would really love to play it through again. I think it should be re-released for download on Xbox or PS3. I'd also like to have a go at Dragon Lore again. It was much too hard for an 8 year old me, but I think I could figure it out now. Same goes for Myst.

Weird dog thing from Dragon Lore

One Christmas I got an N64. This was probably the best Christmas ever. I think I got a bike too. Spoiled much? For weeks and weeks on Friday film night I would go to Global Video and rent out Banjo-Kazooie and hope my save game from last weekend was still there. Recently I downloaded it for Xbox 360 and got as far as the final battle with Gruntilda but she kept on kicking my ass and I got grumpy and gave up. Even the Jinjos couldn't save me. I think it goes without saying that Zelda: Ocarina of Time was also an obsession and so, too, was Diddy Kong Racing. I still believe that Nintendo make the best games for pure fun purposes.

Image Here

Next, the advent of the PlayStation. I had a PS1 and PS2 and was introduced to the Final Fantasy series by my cousin Rob. I wasn't too into FFVII. Sacrilege to some I know, but I couldn't get past the stupid snake at the start and I got sad when Aeris died. I was instead firmly addicted to FFIX. I liked collecting the cards for Tetra Master and I love the towns and scenery and the airships. After that I played a lot of FFX, and once when I had some teeth extracted and had a general anaesthetic, I had an incredibly vivid dream that I was a character in it. It was the best dentist trip I ever had.

Image Here

Most recently I got my hands on an Xbox 360 and entered into the absorbing Bethesda world of Oblivion. And then Skyrim. Both of these games have eaten a huge chunk of my waking hours. I think they're so addictive because they feel impossible to complete and fully explore and this keeps me turning on my console and trying to get my Archery skill to 100. [Insert arrow in knee meme here]. Although I will say that I wish some of the quest lines like the Thieves Guild and Companions could have been a little longer. I still enjoyed playing them through though!

Image Here

Feel free to educate me if I missed out on some awesome games so far!

Things I Like - 5 - Reality TV

2012-04-15T20:29:00.000+01:00

I think of the term "reality TV" quite lightly. I'm fully aware that everything you see on telly is produced and edited for entertainment purposes and is not "real" in almost any sense - and it's a darn good job it is edited, otherwise shows would be incredibly boring (like when they used to show 24 hours of live Big Brother. Yawn).

Image Here

When I'm home in the day and able to select from the pretty dull rice, beans and pasta smorgasbord that is UK daytime TV, I've got to admit I'm partial to a little bit of The Real Housewives of Orange County (above) and Supernanny (below {in case you couldn't tell which was which}). I don't have kids but I do have big respect for Jo Frost who is incredibly good at her job, and who seems to have to work more on the parents than the kids. She goes from being your typical nanny to mediator to councillor with a mere flick of her ponytail. I just want to be her friend!

Image Here

Two "reality" shows I have drawn the line at watching are Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex. Luckily, to this day, I have only seen adverts and not actually seen the shows. I feel like I've had a lucky escape. Frankly I'm a bit of an inverse snob, I'm pretty working class and watching a load of toffs get drunk and embarrass themselves is just too much for me to take. I saw enough of that kind of behaviour during the rugby team initiations at uni to last me a lifetime. TOWIE on the other hand turns me into a regular snob. I find myself looking down my nose at them and their common vajazzling ways and would rather stick pins under my nails than watch either of these shows...

Image Here

...buuut maybe you think the same about shows like Britain's Got Talent, The Voice UK (who is that Irish guy anyway?!*) or The X Factor. I suppose I should confess right now that I'm a massive fan of talent shows. I never went to Butlins as a kid but I imagine that's the kind of place where the British fascination with talent competitions began! Since Diversity (and Ashley Banjo *swoon*) became so successful and awakened me to the existence of modern street dance I have harboured this secret desire to join a crew. Yeah that's right, a street dancing scientist! Unfortunately my dancing looks like someone put me in a straitjacket and set my feet on fire so it's unlikely my dream will become a reality.

Anyway, daydreaming aside, I just watched last Saturday's episode of Britain's Got Talent and was really impressed with Hope Murphy's cover of Maxwell's cover of Kate Bush's 'A Woman's Work'. Skip ahead to 2:40 in the video if you want to avoid the small talk. I love the kind of stunned silence at the end when the audience are unsure if it's over and then everyone starts cheering. My heart got truly warmed!

Another BGT video I've added here just for good measure is the one with Charlotte and Jonathan who sang something (from 1:55) that I've never heard and were incredible! Well I have to say Jonathan was incredible... Charlotte was lovely but unfortunately paled in comparison.

And just to round off on the reality theme, here are some minature foodstuffs a talented dude from Israel is selling as jewellery on Etsy which look very real but aren't. Please don't eat them!

*Interestingly when I just Googled "That Irish guy off The Voice" the first hit was Peter Griffin. That's right, even Google doesn't know who he is! Eeek!

Things I Like - 4 - My Kindle

2012-04-02T16:50:00.002+01:00

Two Christmases ago I was given an Amazon Kindle (thanks Mum). At the time it hadn't crossed my mind to get one and I was a bit unsure what I'd use it for. I mean, I LOVE books. I'm a great fan of that musty, papery smell and I'm a bit hooked on the excitement of finding a literary treasure in a second hand bookshop. What would I do with an e-book reader..?

Original Image Here

Well! I use it all the time! I never go anywhere without it because it fits perfectly in my handbag. I get the bus and train a lot and so it's really useful to have instant entertainment. It stays charged up for a really long time too so it's better than reading things on my iPhone. The only vaguely negative things I have to say about it is that it's very easy to spend money on the online shop, it's hard to gauge how far through the book you are even though there's a percentage read bar at the bottom, the majority of Discworld books have not yet been made available (come on Terry!) and, because I have one of the older versions, the QWERTY keyboard is a bit unnecessary day-to-day.

Since getting, what I think of as my "Amaz-ing Kindle", people have started talking to me randomly on the bus, in the lunch queue, as I'm wandering around with it in my hand and asking me if it's any good. After stammering for a bit (I'm a bit shy around strangers) I eventually find my words and I tell people it's great. Especially if you're someone who takes public transport a lot, hasn't the space for many books in the home or are going on holiday. It's fantastic to have hundreds of books available at the touch of a button and e-books tend to work out cheaper than hard copies, or in the case of classic novels, are even free.

Image Here

After I've explained just how handy e-book readers are, these people tend to respond with: "Oh, but I just love real books" or "I enjoy going to the library" or "I like the feel of a book in my hands". It's like they started speaking to me just because they want to berate me for abandoning paper books and want to feel smug that they are still in the "real book" club.

My answer to these comments is always: "You don't have to give up paper books!!" It seems like people believe there is some unwritten rule that states you can no longer buy hard copies of books once you own an e-book reader! Trust me, it's not like a siren goes off when you step over the threshold of Waterstone's. A security guard does not come over and say "Sir/Madam, I see you are carrying an e-book reader. You no longer appreciate the ink and paper world of the written word. Please leave."

Owning a Kindle is not scary, it does not automatically make you a member or a weird book-burning cult. E-book reader owners simply appreciate the convenience of reading books any time on a lightweight gadget. For example, think about when you're lying in bed with The Lord of the Rings (or equivalent) hardback trilogy and you get hand and neck cramp from trying to keep the pages open at a suitable reading angle. Compare this thought to one of holding a little grey thingy at whatever angle you like, turning pages with a press of a finger. In my mind it's not much of a contest.

Original Image Here

Saying this, I have only had experience with using the Amazon Kindle. If anyone out there has used and can tell me more about pros and cons of other brands of e-book reader I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Here are some books which I recommend:

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins - Recently made into a hugely succesful movie, The Hunger Games is book one of a trilogy of the same name following Katniss Everdeen before, during and after she takes part in the fight to the death that is the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The book and movie are both excellent. Supposedly they're aimed at children, but everyone else I've spoken to who has read them had enjoyed them as much as I did (I'm 23 in case you were curious).

The Help - Kathryn Stockett - From the point of view of a few different characters, this book details the world of 1960s African American maids working for white families. I don't know much about American history so I found this quite enlightening as well as a great read with engrossing characters. I haven't seen the movie yet. I hope to do so soon!

Confessions of a GP - Benjamin Daniels - I do not work in the healthcare sector so I can't share in the frustrations vented within, however, from the point of view of a patient I learned what I should and shouldn't do when visiting my GP. It's a faintly amusing collection of anecdotes which made me feel amused, guilty and a bit sad in turns. Pretty cheap as an e-book, well worth a read!

QI Book of General Ignorance - John Mitchinson & John Lloyd - I'm a big fan of the QI TV show. After reading this I kept on spouting facts to everyone around me. I guess they thought it was pretty annoying but I revelled in that smug feeling which comes from arguing back with the words "it was in the QI book so I must be right".

The Painted Man - Peter V. Brett - I'd like to know what the 'V' stands for. This is the first book of the Demon Series and is also known as The Warded Man in the US. It's based in a world in which the human inhabitants have to use magical "wards" to keep night-time demons at bay. It's pretty epic!

Storm Front - Jim Butcher - Book One of The Dresden Files. About a modern-ish day wizard who helps his buddy in the "Special Investigations" US police department and ends up kicking lots of magical beasties' butts in a charmingly candid fashion. I feel the writing style is aimed at men but I have been appreciating the lack of flowery language sometimes thrown about in fantasy fiction.

Darker Things - Rob Cornell - Book One of The Lockman Chronicles which I discovered via Twitter. This book is about an ex-secret agent type of chap who is thrown into all kinds of supernatural drama following the appearance of a teenage girl at his front door claiming to be his daughter. I'm not usually one for action type books but I really enjoyed this due to it being coupled with the element of magic/mojo. The story was refreshing and at one part I was actually surprised at the turn of events. Normally I see things coming from a mile away so this gets a big thumbs up from me!

Things I Like - 3 - Travel

2012-03-24T15:18:00.006+00:00

In case you have just tuned in, today I present item 3 of "Things I Like". I'm trying to blog seven days in a row about things I enjoy and feel the need to share or ramble on about. I might miss out Sunday cause I'm off to a Joe Bonamassa gig in Newcastle, but for now I hope you enjoy!

*edit* A technical error (i.e. I got blocked from work internet cause I was abusing it looking for pictures for this blog) means I am a day late posting this. Failed my mission already!

***

Last Friday I got a credit card delivered. Last Saturday I maxed it out. On a holiday! Eeek! Although really it's not as bad as it sounds, I got the card purposefully to pay for the holiday so it wasn't exactly an impulse buy ^_^

Original Image Here

Me and my mother are jetting off to the sunny (hopefully) Greek island of Rhodes in a few short weeks. Rhodes is the one with the green arrow in the picture above, right near the coast of Turkey. I've been there before with my friend and housemate Kate and we had a really good time. It was out of season so many of the attractions were closed but the local buses were running and the Old Town area of Rhodes was open for business. The Old Town is spectacular. I'm really looking forward to exploring it some more and introducing it to my mum who has never been. I'll probably write a review or something on Trip Advisor in May when we get back.

I must admit I feel a little responsible for us having a successful trip, mainly because I've chosen not to book airport transfers, (£50 for a coach to the hotel? It's less than 5 Euro on the local bus service!) but the pressure is on because I now have the job of making sure we actually find our hotel. Hopefully some forward planning, printed out Rhodes bus timetables and my iPhone will help!

Whilst booking I was thinking about where I've been and where I'd like to go. If you know me you will know I'd love to visit Japan for a month or so. I'd visit the Ghibli Museum and a hot spring and the Ginza shopping district. I'd also love to return to New York. When I went in 2006-7 (I went for New Year) I was a little younger and I don't think I experienced it like I could now. I did see the Statue of Liberty, which was incredible, I didn't imagine her to be quite so tall, and went to a cool museum on Native American history. However, I didn't see Central Park, didn't go inside the Empire State Building and didn't flounce around pretending to be Serena Van Der Woodsen from Gossip Girl, It's definitely worth a return trip.

Times Square, New York , NY. Original Image Here

Closer to home I travel around a lot on buses and trains. My typical journeys are between Barrow-in-Furness, Nottingham, Sutton Bonington and York but I'm pretty comfortable travelling anywhere in the UK by public transport. I love getting on a train for a long journey and knowing I'll be sat for a good hour or two with nothing to do but read a book or listen to music. It's like time stops for a little while and I can forget about the general stresses of life!

(Yeah, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna start a sentence with...) BUT, there is something which can easily spoil my journey (and I hold Apple firmly responsible): having to listen to other people's music. How hard is it to chuck away those crap earphones they give you with iPods/iPhones and buy some in-ear noise cancelling phones? If I can manage it, then so can you Mr Businessman on the seat in front listening to Nicki Minaj (?!).

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I got better earphones because I'm just super considerate. (Actually I did this swanky personality test recently and that was one of the words which came up to describe me. I guess I think it's accurate but please do tell me if you find things I do really annoying and are struggling with a daily desire to flush my head down the toilet. I'm so considerate I'd probably stop doing it right away!)

Anyway I think the world would be a better place if people would keep their choons in their own ears and stop forcing them on me. Thanks!

Things I Like - 2 - Stationary

2012-03-22T17:08:00.001+00:00

Ever since I was a kid spending my pocket money on watercolours and visiting The Pencil Museum (Oh yes, there is such a place, and they even have an online shop *swoon*) I've been hooked on stationary. I love when you go into a shop and there are incredible rainbows of acrylic paints, pencils of increasing B's, reams of snowy white paper and those brill scratchy-offy-foil-pictures with dolphins and deer on them (Like the one below. Remember those?).

Original Image Here

Now, writing-wise, Muji produce a lovely gel-ink pen. They make my writing look fancy and the ink flow is just right. I must say that the ink does run out quite quickly but you can buy refills from Muji, who, incidentally, used to have a shop in Nottingham but it shut down a few months back. Now I have to buy my favourite pens online which makes me a little bit sad. I quite liked browsing around Muji with its minimalist shop style and t-shirts in little cubes!

For any kind of felt-tip colouring in, I love my Staedtler Triplus Colour fibre-tips. I like having nephews and a niece (Someone needs to invent a term for multiple nephews and nieces, like 'grandchildren'... How about 'sibchildren'..?) because spending time with them means I can do colouring in without looking like a person who has severely regressed to their childhood.

Original Image Here

For a lighter, more-pencilly colouring in requirement I prefer watercolour pencils. They are super blendable and of course can be painted with. Just add water! My favourite brand is Derwent, maybe because they are based in Cumbria not too far from where I grew up, or maybe because their statement about watercolour pencils is "The beauty of watercolour. The precision of pencil". I mean, it's just so true! ^_^

Something I recently found, and am desperate to find a supplier of in the UK, is the Beetle Tip Highlighter. It's a highlighter which has a nib I suppose you could loosely describe as being shaped like a little weevil nose (I was going to add a picture of a weevil but they're just too gross, Google them if you wish) and can be used to either highlight over words like usual, or, to highlight around words in one fell swoop! This would be SO useful when reading through journals, in order to make certain parts stand out. I must own a beetle tip pen!

Original Image Here

Lastly but my no means least...ly, for all my kawaii stationary needs I immediately turn to www.tofucute.com. They have a great selection of erasers shaped like food, tape with adorable friezes and themed paper stationary. I recommend a visit to their site if you haven't yet been and, whilst there, go ahead and browse the food section. There are some wicked Japanese snacks for sale! Hooray! Everyone loves miracle flavoured sweets!

Original Image Here

Things I Like - 1 - Movies

2012-03-21T16:58:00.001+00:00

Ever since I worked at the Savoy Cinema in Nottingham I've been hooked on going to the movies. I'm happy to go any time, alone or with friends to see any film - expect scary ones. I draw the line at scary anything. I love the popcorn (sweet and salted mixed please), the slushy drinks and the chocolatey snacks (expensive though they may be) and tend to feel quite at home sitting in the screens, be they traditional or modern.

- Just a note on working at a cinema. When I first started I got told to go and "clean the screen". To which I responded "Ok, do I just brush it down or use a mop?". I got a pretty blank look. You see "screen" can of course refer to the room in which the movie is shown, not just the big white thing at the front. I think this is the cinema staff equivalent of an electrician's apprentice being sent for a left-handed screwdriver. If you ever get asked to do this this, be a pro and go and get the hoover. Don't go hunting for ladders like I did. -

Original image here

Most recently I've been to see The Muppets and John Carter. The Muppets blew me away with how funny it was. I was expecting outdated jokes and cutesy storyline. Indeed, the storyline was the usual formula of "ARGH! They want to cancel The Muppet Show, quick, we need to make money!" but anything cutesy was served with a side order of slapstick/ironic/situational comedy which just made the whole thing ace. Fans of Flight of the Conchords will love the musical numbers. Brett McKenzie himself was musical director and contributed to a lot of the songs (won a few awards for them too). I'd say this movie is a must see for anyone with a sense of humour. There is also an impressive string of cameos from the likes of Dave Grohl and the dude who plays Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory which made it all the more fun. I for one am going to buy it on DVD as soon as it's released.

Original image here

John Carter, on the other hand, is a film which I think lacks humour. I think it would have benefited from a Jack Sparrow type character with a few one-liners, just to make it stand up as typical Disney fare. Saying that, there is a pretty cool Martian dog in it which was funny and cute (in a toothy, slobbery way), and, aside from the humour stuff, I personally thought it was an enjoyable movie. There wasn't anything really spectacular about it which blew my mind as such, but my mum (49) and nephew (12) both thought it was really good, and it was definitely aided by good use of 3D. I feel quite sad that it's reported as a flop by the BBC. I think this could be due to harsh reviews given to it by websites and newspapers putting people off going, but Rotten Tomatoes shows that, even though it was given a review score of 51%, 71% of people who actually went to see it enjoyed it and I think that speaks for itself. If you have a free evening I recommend giving it a whirl.

Original image here

One must-see movie, which I'm so excited to see I get a funny feeling in my tummy when I think about it, is The Hunger Games which will be released on the 23rd March (that's only two days time!!). I intend to go watch it this weekend because sadly I can't do cinema during the week when I'm away working in Yorkshire, but hopefully I will be able to book tickets and it won't be too busy.

I'm super excited about this movie because I recently read the book trilogy by Suzanne Collins and enjoyed it immensely, despite the fact that the concept of post-apocalyptic survival isn't really a new one. I'm expecting it to be pretty dramatic and I saw the trailer last weekend before John Carter and it looked like it would be emotional. However, I heard on the radio yesterday a snippet of a review that said the extreme mortal peril wasn't really put across properly in the movie. I figure this is to be expected in order to make the film a 12A rating. Personally I'd like to see it properly souped up and aimed at adults, with a lot of emotion, fear and gore but hey, that's just me. I like book-to-movie adaptations to be intense in order to meet my expectations.

Original image here

DVD wise I recently bought The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, a Japanese animated movie about a girl who, in a minor lab accident, gains the power to be able to jump backwards in time. She uses this power to go back and fix events and help out her school friends. It's a really sweet story with a fairly simple time travel angle and I think it's going to be one I'll watch over and over because I find animated movies pretty relaxing. I'm also going to get hold of the book of the same name which is loosely described as a prequel, but I imagine it will be more of an inspiration for the story in the movie.

If you've been to see a movie lately that you think is a must-see, or you think is a do-not-see, please let me know. I definitely appreciate recommendations!

Advice for First-Time Conference Goers

2012-03-04T15:01:00.002+00:00

Recently I went to a conference. It was the first time I've been to one and I wasn't sure what to expect. Since coming back I've thought of a few tips for people who don't have a clue like me, based on things I saw last week.

- What to wear -

This can depend on the type of conference. If you are a business person then I'm sure suits will be all the rage but this farmy/sciency crop protection conference seemed more chilled. People were still expected to look smart but some students wore jeans and converse and nobody commented. I like a little bit of dress up though, I find wearing smart clothes makes me feel more confident.

Ladies: I'd recommend aiming for the mid-ground that is smart-casual. General office wear is good - I wore a knee-length skirt with flat black pumps and a blouse. Unfortunately that's not me in the picture on the right (those images came from a pretty cool dressing room function on the H&M website where you can plan oufits easily by clicking on items you like) but that's the look I'm gonna aim for next time I go.

Gents: Simple! Trousers and a shirt! Or a nice jumper if you're wanting to look more casual. Again only the real pros wore suit jackets so maybe think twice about that if you're a student. If wearing a shirt please, please, please tuck it in. One bloke who gave a talk had his shirt hanging out and it looked like he had just rolled out of bed. I couldn't take him seriously.

Looking smart is important because you are representing yourself and your institution but looking too formal will make people think you're too big for your boots! I'm pretty sure I ended up looking like a schoolteacher on the second day but hey, you live and learn! Following the above suggestions will hopefully make sure you don't make any faux pas.

Hint: The venue might be air-conditioned to feel like the North Pole so do take some extra layers along just in case.

- Giving a Talk -

I wish I'd given a talk instead of presenting a poster as with hindsight I think my work would have gone down well with the audience. If you're deliberating over whether to give a talk or make a poster I'd say go for it and give a talk. It's more stressful to plan but it is a good opportunity to show off your project, make your face familiar to potential contacts and the relief feels pretty darn good when it's over!

Things to remember when giving a talk:

If there is a microphone at the podium, please stay still and speak into it. I know it's important to engage with the audience but turning back and forth to face them makes it hard to follow what is being said. Take some time before you begin speaking to angle the mic towards you and position it a reasonable distance from your mouth - about 30cm away should be fine.

Don't go crazy with the laser pointer! People don't need each line of your presentation highlighted for them, it can be taken as a given that most of your audience can read so try to keep the pointer for essential uses only. Also when designing your PowerPoint, think ahead about what you want to emphasise and make an animation to do this for you when you click.

Don't read out reams of raw data and results. People just don't care. Explain your methods, have a few graphs and tables and then spend most time on the conclusions or discussion. Numbers don't mean much to other people but the facts you have deduced from them are what people want to know, so, be a crowd pleaser!

- Poster Presenters -

Do try to stand near your poster during the coffee breaks and lunchtimes but don't stand guard by it like the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace. That can make people too nervous to come and read your poster or, alternatively, can induce your audience to start poking you in the face, taking pictures with you and telling you jokes to see if you will move from your post. Instead I recommend standing a little way back and approaching people once you have seen that they have already begun reading the poster. Don't do what I did and get scared and avoid staying with my poster altogether, I missed speaking to someone who I really wanted to network with. Luckily I managed to catch her later in the day but she was disappointed I wasn't available earlier when she had more time to talk.

As for things to bring along, it can be helpful to provide A4 handouts for people to take away with them. It will make you more memorable and it should have your contact information on it so people can email with questions. Also get some business cards printed, they're always handy to have just in case.

----

Feel free to comment with questions and if I think of anything else useful I'll put it up here.

Morals of the story are: look good, be confident, be prepared, don't wear bearskin hats and maybe go have a little fun with that H&M dressing room thing!

Not an Animal Lover...

2012-02-10T15:22:00.003+00:00

Anyone who knows me will know I am not a huge animal lover. Don't get me wrong, I'm not heartless, I got upset when Bambi's mum and Simba's dad died but to be honest that's probably because they could talk. I do appreciate that larger animals can have their own individual personality but I'm not one of those who thinks animals are like people. I'm also pretty strongly allergic to anything bigger and hairier than a hamster (they make me sneeze too but just with less intensity).

- As an aside: I hate the Dog's Trust charity advert, which, amongst other charity ads, try to give dogs human characteristics and say they will send you a card in the post. How can they lick the envelope? How can they place the stamp? The answer is they cannot and thus I feel so obviously lied to that I get annoyed and grumble loudly at the TV, irritating those around me more than the advert probably did. I'd feel much better about donating if they said "Billy is a grumpy dog who won't fetch your paper but he'll lie happily on your feet for a bit. He also likes chicken but it makes him fart.", although I suppose guilt-tripping people does make money. -

Anyway, back to the point, I am not a typical animal lover. I do have pet gerbils who entertain me hugely, but I think of them as pets instead of friends. Some people might think this is isn't right but I look after them as best I can (with some help from my kind friends), I buy them new houses and toys which they destroy in 3 hours and I sometimes try to give them a sand bath but they just eat the sand instead. Idiots. I am under no illusion that they see me as anything other than their primary food giver and besides doing that important task I am unimportant to them.

So, it is safe to say I have never wanted a large, uncaged house pet like a cat or dog... until this day. When I saw this Youtube video my heart officially turned to mush and I Googled hard to see what kind of breed he/she is. I then discovered the Munchkin Cat. They have teeny-tiny legs. Here's the Japanese website linked in the video which sells them and you don't have to speak Nihon-go to enjoy this site because the pictures, like the ones on the right, speak for themselves! It is all I can do to not shout "AWWWW!" out loud but rest assured I am doing so in my head!

If there is some way of overcoming my allergies, when I am a grown up with a house and a proper job I will be getting one of those little fluffballs. Preferably a grey one. And maybe he or she will send me cards in the post. More likely they will just behave like any normal cat and do this instead.

Here's what's left of my gerbils' destroyed wicker teepee:

One for the Ladies!

2012-02-07T22:01:00.002+00:00

Last weekend I went shopping in Nottingham. I stopped by Boots as I usually do just to grab a few essentials and check the offers for my advantage card. There were a few offers I liked the sound of on the automated machine. The first was 'buy something from the Tea Tree and Witch Hazel range and get 100 advantage card points' - that's equal to £1.00 to spend in store. I got a face mask for 99p which was very nice, satisfying to peel off and made me a profit of £0.01!

The second offer was for 'free blusher if you buy something from the 17 range'. I thought, great I'll get something for cheap and get the freebie (even though I didn't reeally need a new blusher in the first place). Unfortunately (or fortunately) a fancy nail polish caught my eye. 17 magnetized nail polish contains small particles of black metal which give a lovely stripy textured effect after you hover the magnet provided over the nail while the polish is still wet. It takes a little practise but is quite straightforward to use. I bought the teal coloured one which does work well but I think the effect would be more striking on the gun metal grey polish. That cost £5.99, but the blusher would have been £3.99 so I guess I didn't feel too bad about buying it, especially as it looks really cool!

The final thing I bought was actually something I went into Boots for. New foundation. I always have issues with buying foundation as it's so expensive. It's not something you can repeatedly buy and discard if the texture/colour isn't perfect so I usually dread buying a new foundation. I stick to Maybelline as they have the best range of tones for my skin. I had been using the Dream Matte Mouse type since I was a teenager but that seemed to dry out my combination skin. Switching to Dream Satin Liquid had the opposite effect and my skin became incredibly greasy about an hour after application.

The one I chose on a whim at the weekend has been amazing! It's called Dream Nude Airfoam and it gives a lovely matte finish without drying out my skin. Admittedly the coverage of blemishes isn't great because the texture is very light but a bit of concealer on problem areas fixes that issue easily. It comes in a pressurised container and is a mousse, very similar to hair mousse, so it expands when you dispense it onto your hand. A small amount goes a long way and, importantly for me, it's labelled SPF 16. I've never been so happy with a foundation!

Images from here and here.

Now in the spirit of 'One for the Ladies' I thought it necessary to include a hen-party type willy image. Below is a type of chilli pepper which grows without modification into a decidedly phallic shape. We're thinking of getting some to grow in the office at work! Spicy!

Original image here

Sherlock Sunday Spoiler Alert

2012-01-17T11:26:00.006+00:00

At the moment I am suffering from complete demotivation at work. This morning I arrived at 9:00 but instead of going straight to the office I had a hobbit-like second breakfast of a seeded bagel and Nutella - which is the closest I can easily get to a sugary doughnut in the mornings. Now it's >11:00 and I've perused facebook, twitter, congratulated my friends Gemma and Kieron on the birth of their super-cute baby girl (Elise Grace in case you were wondering), found a naughty calendar of Disney ladies and begun writing a blog. I've also sat here for a good few minutes thinking about that Sherlock episode from Sunday.

I knew he wouldn't be dead after reading the original story a few months back (and the BBC know a cash-cow when they see one) but I can't figure out how he survived it. In the story (novella? article? thing?), and in the recent blockbuster movie A Game of Shadows, Moriarty and Holmes appear to have fallen to their doom down a raging waterfall, indeed in the stories Moriarty does never appear again, but Sherlock was resurrected by Conan Doyle for more adventures. It's more easy to believe he survived in this case because they fell into water, but on the BBC he fell onto a pavement. Solid, non-cushioning pavement. And people saw him fall.

As an aside I read this morning in the QI book I have on my kindle that cats survive any fall from higher than seven storeys as they reach a non-terminal velocity of 60 mph and manage to, I think the quote was, "parachute to earth like a squirrel". I've never seen a squirrel parachute, but hey ho. Going by this fact it would seem my gerbil Sherlock could probably have survived it but I doubt BBC's non-rodent Sherlock parachuted anywhere and I think Watson would probably have noticed him gliding down to earth like a floaty-light Quaver (although Watson was pushed over by a bicycle and seemed a bit concussed).

Those I was watching with on Sunday quite rightly pointed out that the hospital staff wheeled the supposedly-deceased Holmes away rather quickly after the fall, suggesting he was showing vital signs. If he wasn't then it would have been a crime-scene and the area preserved for the police surely..?

So, I suppose I figure he wasn't dead after the fall, he escaped the hospital and somebody (Molly?) swapped in another cadaver in place of Holmes' to be buried and provide Watson with a headstone to which he could pour out his heart and bring a tear to my eye.

This all makes sense although I can't help having a fanciful thought that the man who knocked John off the bike was actually Sherlock and it will all work out as some David Blaine/Copperfield style magic trick. Please do comment if you have any other ideas about how you think it could be explained.

I guess I'll find out Christmas 2012 when the series returns but for now I'm eagerly anticipating a Sunday session of Birdsong with the beautiful Clemence Poesy (Harry Potter, Gossip Girl) and unusual-looking-but-rather-attractive Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl, My Week with Marilyn). It's based on a book I haven't read but it looks positively dramatic and I am looking forward to it.

I'm Still Alive (and criticising and baking)!

2011-12-30T19:50:00.001+00:00

Yo! It's been a while! I've been trying to finish a paper for a conference in Dundee. Ok, so it's not the Caribbean or whatever but I'm just happy to be getting my name in print! The conference is by the Crop Protection in Northern Britain people and I'm going to be presenting a poster on my PhD subject. Eeek!

Since the last time I posted (October - wow!) my friend's band Area 11 have had a pretty successful video on Youtube in collaboration with Yogscast. You can see it here, if you aren't one of the 1.4 million who have watched already: http://bit.ly/ts3gdb

In case you missed it, it's just been Christmas! I got an awesome present - a Totoro cushion! I would put a photo here but Ye Olde PeeCee I'm using won't allow it. You'll just have to take my word that it's just the coolest thing! He's all fluffy with a soot sprite on his head ^_^

I also got a recipe book from the Hummingbird Bakery. As I type there's a Lemon & Poppy Seed Loaf baking away in the oven! Pretty sure I've done something wrong though as the recipe says one hour cooking time and I'm already pushing two and a half hours.. Uh oh! Hopefully it will taste ok.

I've just finished watching the 2nd episode of the 2011 Royal Society Christmas Lectures recorded from BBC2 (so I guess it's probably on iPlayer). This series are really interesting, the lecturer, Professor Bruce Hood, is very compelling and it's all about the brain with bits about optical illusions, MRI scanning and senses. It's also pretty cool to see the audiences' minds carefully blown by a number of well-executed illustrative experiements.

Also I watched the new adaptation of Great Expectations (also on iPlayer). It's a fantastic version of the Dickens novel with a perfect atmosphere and lovely sets. It still doesn't make me like the story though. I hate the charater of Pip. I know he's supposed to be arrogant and a pain in the arse and then change his spots towards the end. I know it's a classic tale about the effect of money and influence on an impressionable young mind... But I dislike him constantly and, maybe it's just me, I like to like my protagonist. It's one novel I've not been able to finish because I've been irritated too much by the main character.

Oops, I smell burning lemon sponge! Gotta go!

Mads Langer/ The Feeling/ Peachykeens

2011-10-06T14:51:00.001+01:00

I went to see Mads Langer last night at Rock City. He was supporting The Feeling on their tour. After a speedy buffet dinner at Peachykeens, Linda and I sprinted to City to catch his set.

It was amazing. Mads' voice is so beautiful and way better live than on record. The worst part was that his set was really short, about 6-7 songs and so it was over much too soon. If you haven't listened to his stuff it's mostly laid back acoustic-type tracks. Personally I get a lovely, oxymoronic shivery-warm feeling when I listen to his voice.

Neither myself or Linda are really fans of The Feeling so we stuck around for a few songs to see what they were like and decided it was a bit too loud (even with earplugs!) and the lead singer was a bit too irritating to stick out the whole gig. He kept spinning around and waving his arms and generally being so full of himself I started to feel the urge to slap him with a wet fish. I didn't though. The fishmongers were all shut at that time of night.

Overall it was a fun night and in case you were wondering, Peachykeens is an all-you-can eat 'live' buffet restaurant. That doesn't mean lobster tanks and loose livestock, it means they cook things for you there and then so it's hot and fresh and 'live'. I left feeling very full and sick. Happy days.

I Won!

2011-09-29T18:39:00.002+01:00

Wow! I actually won first prize in the Ji Ji Kiki competition!!

I'm so excited! Alongside a wicked cool t-shirt and lots of pretty accessories I also won a £35 voucher to spend at their online store.

Of course I intend to buy the party ring earrings I mentioned earlier, and as well as these I think I'm going to get the bunting necklace which I've wanted for ages.

Whilst browsing the site for more things I want (of which there are many) I found the little cutie (right). After further research I found out his name is Pusheen and he has his own website/blog with super cute animated gifs!

There are pictures for all occasions, like broomstick riding and eating pizza and also graduation and sombrero-wearing and dressing like R2-D2. Enjoy!

It's that time of year again..

2011-09-26T10:54:00.001+01:00

That's right, it's fresher's week! I knew it was coming but somehow it has still managed to surprise me. I'm looking forward to the BandSoc first social but apart from that fresher's is just a big noisy mess on campus after the peace and quiet I've been used to! At first I thought it was kinda cute, seeing the newbies arrive with their entourage of parents and younger siblings. My views quickly changed after I did a 12 hour day in the office and got the bus home where I was surrounded by puke and condoms and the sound of feet pounding on the top deck of the bus.

I think it's time I passed my driving test...

Last week was internationals week and so there has been a massive influx of international students. There have been a few tell-tale signs of people unused to the UK. I saw one guy with his top-notch SLR camera taking photos af magpies and pigeons, and another chap on the hopper bus frantically pointing out a field of maize to a friend. This made me think it must be really weird to live and study in a strange country. I think I'd like to try it, even if it was just for a year or so. Then I can point out weird-looking crops to the locals who would think I was crazy too :)

Buuut then there's the language issue. I'm okay at picking up choice phrases but there can be odd results if you pronounce things wrong or get the words in the wrong order. Recently I saw a link on a friend's facebook page to a site called Bad Translator. It translates a phrase into many different languages and is a bit like a multi-lingual, online Chinese whispers game. For example I entered the phrase "I love doughnuts more than life itself" and 20 random language translations later ended up with "More than a ring of life". Things like this amuse me more than they probably should and can keep me entertained for a long time.

I'm also happy to while away the hours on websites such as www.engrish.com sniggering at messages which take on a whole new meaning when badly translated. One such example being "Safeguard the scenic spot. Show your mercy" which I guess should properly translate to "Take care" or something..

But anyway, I found a pen recently with some classic badly-translated English. There's a photo of it at a jaunty angle at the bottom of this page. Here is what it said:

Available for any surface
Please close the cap after use
Special ingredient of ink, permanent and less effect of pollution
Keep out of children
Convenient to mark
May not be washed if staining clothes incautiously

You gotta admit. 'Keep out of children' is pretty good advice!

Morning Parade - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

2011-09-20T00:21:00.000+01:00

I first stumbled upon Morning Parade when they were supporting Feeder at Rock City last February. I recognised one of their songs from an episode of Gossip Girl and started paying proper attention. I then discovered I really, really liked their stuff.

Since then I've been listening over and over to the four tracks listed on Spotify and lately have been trying to catch their daily stream of their album tracks on their website.

Tickets for tonight's gig at Rescue Rooms, Nottingham were crazy-cheap so when I saw them on sale I snapped up two hoping to make a friend go along with me. After a number of unsuccessful pleas to friends to keep me company thanks go to Sparkles* for manning-up through flu and being my gig buddy.

The band were visibly nervous when playing their new stuff and I think the first few dates of the tour will be a bit of a practice for the international dates. It was obvious when playing the older and more tried-and-tested tracks that everyone on stage was comfortable and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Anyway the band had no reason to be nervous, the new material came across really well, the frontman, whom Wikipedia tells me is called Steve Sparrow (charming alliteration), interacted nicely with the audience and the older tracks such as Under The Stars got people, including me, singing along and dancing.

Overall I had a jolly good time and wish I had more cash to see these guys again at another venue near the end of the tour. It would be cool to see how the confidence with the new tracks develops. Roll on new album release!

P.S. Don't buy the new wristbands from McDonalds, it's not really worth it, you save like 50p on a lame Mayo Chicken and you have to buy the thing for £1 in the first place. Credits for this advice go to the staff at McDonalds Angel Row who will not be winning gold stars for salesmanship any day soon.

Forbrydelsen - Spoiler Alert

2011-09-19T17:40:00.002+01:00

So last week I watched the final episode of The Killing (or Forbrydelsen in Danish) on BBC4. My Danish post-doc supervisor told me about it and so I gave it a try - mainly because I wanted to hear what spoken Danish sounded like - and I ended up well and truly hooked.

I can't recommend this series highly enough. The atmosphere generated in each episode is amazing and, maybe it's the language barrier, but the mystery surrounding the inner thoughts of main character Sarah Lund, played by Sofie Gråbøl, got me as obsessive about the programme as Lund is about the murder case of Nanna Birk Larsen.

Generally speaking, the series begins with the body of a girl being found inside a car in a canal. Lund, who was supposed to be moving to Sweden, gets wrapped up in the case to her replacement Jan Meyer's dismay. A series of constantly unravelling clues lead the detectives to investigate many possible culprits. More often than not they get it wrong which, in my mind, made it seem more like a real investigation and kept me interested throughout.

The interactions between Lund and Meyer grow throughout the 20 days of the case. Most of the time Meyer encourages Lund leave for her new job in Sweden but eventually they are almost, almost, working as a team and Meyer starts to trust Lund's incredible instincts.

Alongside this Lund and Meyer thread there is an intertwining politics-related plot which follow Troels Hartmann as he runs for election as mayor of Copenhagen. He and his team are under public scrutiny throughout the series and as a viewer I became in turns angry, empathetic, frustrated and moved by the reaction of Hartmann and his team to the events in the murder case.

The main thing I enjoyed (but not in a sadistic way) about the series was watching Lund's personal life degenerate whilst she came closer and closer to solving the crime. At first she is in denial about how single-minded and obsessive she is about the case but eventually she ends up taking incredible risks and losing everything she has to the investigation.

I loved the techniques the writers used to reflect the feelings of the characters in their surroundings and the most moving scenes tended to have minimal dialogue; which I really appreciated being a subtitle reader. I properly appreciated the subtlety of this when a couple of weeks ago I caught one episode of the American version on Channel 4 mid-way through the series. I was taken-aback by complete difference in take on the story, characters and atmosphere. From what I saw the American version loses all the mystery surrounding the character of Lund and seemed to turn her into a bit of a sap. Personally I feel there was too much emphasis on dialogue and making things a bit obvious in case you hadn't grasped the point.On the other hand the Danish version seemed to excel by using actor's expressions, music and scene-setting. After all one draw towards watching a crime drama is trying to work things out for yourself and trying to guess whodunnit and feeling smug if you got it right. I did get it right. I do feel smug.

And so, I could write much more but I will now end my essay on The Killing. Hopefully I haven't spoiled it for you if you want to watch it - after all I barely mentioned the crime itself - and I will leave you with an item I desperately want from the show: The Sarah Lund Sweater. It's a beauty!

Online Shopping - Ji Ji Kiki

2011-09-16T14:57:00.003+01:00

Ok so one thing I do a lot is browse for shopping online. I have a minor obsession with all things Japanese so I was super happy when I found Ji Ji Kiki last year.

One reason I set up this blog today is because they are having a super giveaway to celebrate their brand-spanking-new website with a goodie bag of things up for grabs. The contents represent a good range of things you can buy at their online store. Not only do they sell kawaii jewellery but they have an amazing range of cute homeware and clothing too.

Today my number one items are the party ring biscuit stud earrings. I must own them! Party rings are a key ingredient for every gathering. I enjoy putting them behind my glasses lenses and having party ring spectacles too!

New Blog

2011-09-16T14:28:00.000+01:00

So here is my first post! I set up this blog because nearly every day (when I should be working) I usually find something online I want to share or I feel like talking about a topic and social networking posts just aren't enough.

The title of my blog is a lame-ass pun on 'Daily Thoughts' because my nickname/username for most things is Snaily, or a variation of it anyways. There's a short, boring story behind it and maybe I'll write it here one day for anyone who's curious.

So there you have it, introductions over, proper post number 1 coming up...!

Snaily Thoughts

Snaily's Clog-Popping List

Homeware!

Games of the Week - Song Pop and Pocket Planes

Things I like - 7- Kawaii Stuff and Japan

Exercise

On Ho-li-day!

Things I Like - 6 - Games

Things I Like - 5 - Reality TV

Things I Like - 4 - My Kindle

Things I Like - 3 - Travel

Things I Like - 2 - Stationary

Things I Like - 1 - Movies

Advice for First-Time Conference Goers

Not an Animal Lover...

One for the Ladies!

Sherlock Sunday *Spoiler Alert*

I'm Still Alive (and criticising and baking)!

Mads Langer/ The Feeling/ Peachykeens

I Won!

It's that time of year again..

Morning Parade - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Forbrydelsen - *Spoiler Alert*

Online Shopping - Ji Ji Kiki

New Blog

Sherlock Sunday Spoiler Alert

Forbrydelsen - Spoiler Alert