Living on a street corner

My house is on the corner of the street and my room downstairs and at the front of the house. The snatches of conversation I hear as people walk past, loiter on the corner, or wait to cross the raod always amuse me. I wonder how they'd feel if they knew someone could inadvertantly hear nearly every word.

Sometimes in the middle of the night it is annoying but the druken arguments can also be quite funny. Last night: 'No Jack, don't do that, Noooooo Jack'. I couldn't hear what Jack replied to his friend but hearing just one side of the argument kept me amused for quite a while.

And then there's the people stating the obvious and you wonder what sort of conversation they must be having for that to be invloved.

And after that pointless waffle here are some muffins:

I had some left over coconut milk from a curry in the week so I knocked up 6 coconut and chocolate muffins. They were going to be coconut and cherry but Tesco had no cherry! I'm very pleased with them although I think they could do with some desicated coconut added to them to make the flavour stronger!

Epic Craft Post

Ok so I didn't keep my New Years Resolution, but who does? Anyway I have been a busy little bee with uni work and lots of crafty things. So here is an epic craft update with lots of pictures as this does claim to be a picture blog after all!

First off, I don't think I posted this at Xmas, here is the Xmas cake I made (well helped make!) but I decorateed it all by myself! For my first solo attempt at Xmas cake decorating I think it went pretty well. Especially my discovery of edible glitter!

I've also started in two bags. One for me and one for my best friends birthday (which was in January so yet another 'I owe you') I only have a picture of the one I'm making for me as the other one is in fact a pile of fabric still as I've only cut pattern pieces out. These should both be finished during the Easter break when I can use my better sewing machine that lives at home with my parents. I only have a mini one here which is good for making plushies but not s good for bags. But thanks to my Mums xmas present I have inherited her old sewing machine which I can use when I go home or if I'm really good I can use hers which has lots of fancy stitches! Here is my bag:

It's made up of 4 different fat quarters and a fifth will make the base and strap. I like how the chinesey and japanesey fabrics fit in with the shape that reminds me of a Far eastern boat!

Keeping with a Japanesey theme I made this card for my best friend who had an interview for at the Japanes embassy for a job teaching english in Japan for a year.

As I said it was best friends birthday in January so I made her cupcakes. This also meant I could use some of the very pretty cupcake cases I had given to me! Here they are:

Sticking to a cupcake and birthday theme it was my sisters birthday last week and I made this cupcake card for her!

I have also added a new craft to my collection - knitting. Thanks to the loom my lovely friend Talia gave me for Xmas. I've made two hats on it and have a third one in production. Here are my first two attempts:


And last but not least here is the cross stitch I have recently finished. I have no idea what to do with it now! If I frame it I'll have nowhere to hang it so I want t do something different with it.I had thought about putting it on a folder which I could use to keep patterns in but any suggestions are more than welcome!

I think thats all of my recent projects now! Apart from a little black cat plushie which I made for a fancy dress costume (I was a witch!) which I forgot to take a photo of before sending it off to Kent to its new, rather wonderful owner! It wasn't very well made so I think the lack of picture may be a good thing. I also have just started on my last xmas present - a plushie (but I can't tell you what yet!) which I need to have done by the 12th March when its wonderful owner comes to pick it up!

I shall try not leave it so long that I have to do such an epic blog post again!

New Year, New Blog

Yes, I have decided that as one of my New Years resolutions shall be to make this a proper blog where I actually update it and update it about interesting things not mindless nonsense! There may even be pictures!

Since I seem to have found a new fascination with quotes I feel that is the way to go with the blog for now. Using quotes to give me inspiration. So here we go first post of the new blog!

'The most exciting phrase to hear in Science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not 'Eureka' but 'That's funny...' '
Issac Asimov

I seem to find that most discoveries come quite by accident; take craft for example. I set out to do one thing and it all goes dramatically wrong but somewhere along the way I discover something else that works well. Another example is searching books in the library - I search the library catologue, note down the call number and then wander towards the appropriate shelf and never leave with the book I went looking for - always one I've discovered quite by accident on one of the surrounding shelves.

Does that mean we should just leave everything up to fate? Probably not, if we didn't try out and do things; set out to make a certain discovery or to reach a certain point we would never discover the little things along the way. It's the little things that make the end goal even more special.

So if things aren't going right, don't fret as something good could be just around the next corner. Something I could do with taking into account a lot more often. Surprise can be the best thing in life.

Something other than Pirates

Yes I have been neglecting this place. Not entirely sure that matters as I'm pretty sure that no one actually reads this but still I waffle far too much and so writing to no one is just as good! I have been far to busy with work and too lazy to update this plus it would all be on pirates anyway and frankly even Mr Nobody would get bored!

This post is mostly going to concern Wuthering Heights and Turn of the Screw and is mostly for me to collect my thoughts and decide what essay to write. Either one on gender in Wuthering Heights or one looking at if Turn of the Screw is a ghost story or a story of madness.

Heights is full of gendery stuff - with both Cathy's transgressing gender roles as fulfilling gender stereotypes. There is even a theory that Heathcliffe is a woman (not literally of course!). But then again I would also have a lot to say about Screw and if the ghosts are real or not. I personally don't think they are and the governess is just a bit crazy! (Inflicted by sexual hysteria through repressed sexual lust according to some theorists :p).

I think I will probably end up writing about Heights simply because I love the book (mostly because I'm weird and like to hate all the characters!) but then I have quite a bit of love for Mr James and Screw. Coincidentally there is an adaptation of Turn of the Screw over xmas - I must watch it although I see differences already. First off they have given the governess a name when she has none in the book. I also wonder if they will show that the story is being narrated by someone who is narrating what it is being narrated to him by another man who is narrating what the governess told him. (Yes makes your brain hurt! Even more confusing that the Heights which is narrated by a man who is narrating what the housekeeper tells him!).

Piracy and other assorted things that form a general update

I haven't actually posted here for ages - haven't really felt like it to be honest and besides I've had nothing interesting to say. Still not sure if I actually have any incites that are noteworthy but still.

My life seems to have been consumed by the big blob that is work and spend most hours of the day working meaning I have completly negelected all of my hobbies for quite some time! But work has at least been relatively interesting. The essay on Hamlet was quite tedious but it is done and handed in now!

Most of the rest of work has focused around either reading Shakespeare (and watch Shakespeare based films!) and Pirates. Two documents have been analysed. One a proclomation from the King offering Pirates a pardon in return for their surrendour and the other the infamous Captain Charles Johnson's 'A General History of Piracy' (shortened title). Johnson was the first history book on Piracy and it portrayed an exciting world of adventure and dastardly deeds making it an instant best seller. However the content is often exaggerated to excite public opinion and because of its vast influence it has shaped modern day perceptions of Piracy - as the romantic hero. Despite this no one actually knows who Johnson is - he doesn't show up in a single record and many have speculated about his true identity - is he real person who just flew under the radar, others have suggested that he is the playwright by the same name (minus the Captain bit :p) simply becuase he wrote a play about pirates! But the most popular idea is that Captain Charles Johnson is in fact Daniel Defoe - author of 'Robinson Crusoe'. Defoe wrote many histories that explored piracy and this wouldn't have been the first time he had attempted to pass off a fictional character as the author of his works - when 'Robinson Crusoe' was first released it was sold as being a true account.

Next came a book review - looking at three books on the topic of Piracy and focusing on the 'what is the reality of Piracy?' All three books were interesting and I was particularly interested in a book on Women Pirates named 'Bold in her Breeches' which leads me to think that for my masters I could expand my study of Piracy and look into Women and Piracy. I'm sure there is a lot to explore - how many women were involved in piracy, how pirates viewed them, why there is so little evidence and sources including women and piracy?

Waffled enough now I think. I will be back...

Mostly Shakespeare

Having a bit of a Shakespeare fest at the moment with one module dedicated to the great man and studying Hamlet in the other.

Having re read Hamlet I still don't like it but this time had much more fun as I imagined David Tennant as Hamlet :) I do think that it would be much more enjoyable if it had been written as a comedy instead of tragedy. Gertrude is a bit of a cow frankly, not becuase she remarries so soon after her husbands death - that bit is more understandable - she would have lost everything if she had not - but she is rubbish at Mothering; calling Hamlet 'fat', not even recognising him in the scene with the gravediggers and also she basically drive Ophelia to suicide and is unfeeling. Just after Hamlet kills Polonius her and Claudius are just like 'oh well'. Also all the 'alas I am dead' makes me giggle. I can imagine my last words 'alas I have been hit by a bus' or 'alas I should have worn my seat belt' - the first one being more likely!!

King Lear on the other hand is much more enjoyable as a tragedy (although I have awful visions of the time I saw a RSC performance with a nude Gandalf!). Although I feel that he is mean - calling his daughter Goneril!! He also has a bit of a Gollum complex - with frequant uses of 'our' in relation to himself.

I also would like to sing the praises of my local library and world cat. Worldcat.org is a database of all books in publication and lists every library that holds a copy. Very useful for tracking books for my dissertation - seems like I will be doing a fair bit of inter library loaning!! However several of the books I were keen to get hold of apparently are in my local library - I wasn't even sure they had much other than Jackie Collins books!