The Graduate

So after three years of working my butt of and having an awesome time I have finally graduated. I managed to stay on my feet the whole time - no falling over in sight! However I swear my robe was longer than everyone else's. Most came down to the calves yet mine seemed to be dragging on the floor!

We (me and my family) travelled up to Swansea first thing in the morning stopping off in Bridgend Designer Outlet for some shoe shopping before continuing to the rainy city just in time for a yummy tapas meal before it was time to go and robe up. The day was nicely rounded off with a trip to one of my favourite places - Verde's in the Mumbles.

Lots of pictures were taken on the day yet no one has uploaded them yet so for now you shall have to be content with a picture; drawn by your resident 'artist' me!

Please don't ask why my face is very pale and my legs and hands are very pink!

You find them in the strangest of places

Friends that is.

I haven't blogged in ages. A combination of not really feeling like it and not having enough time. I'm not really sure what to blog about to day. I had some vague idea about finding friends in the strangest of places but I'm not sure I have enough to say but lets give it a go anyway and then there might be cake!

They say that friends can be found in the strangest of places (actually I think they say love can be found in the strangest of places but close enough (and no I have no idea who 'they' are. I did a bit of googling and found nothing.)) Friends really do pop up where you least expect them to. Take my best friend for example. We met on our first day of uni and have been inseparable ever since. Nothing odd about that is there? Well let me tell you we met in a queue. An epic queue. You see we had to sign up for our modules on the first day and get a bunch of things signed. Not so easy when you're doing a joint honours degree where the subjects aren't even in the same school! Added to that is that History and English are two of the biggest courses in terms of people at the university. First there was a queue to pick up registration packs before joining another queue for module selection. That's where I first met Maddy. We didn't talk at first; we were both too shy. But after several hours in that queue and another few hours spent hopping between departments and standing in various queues we were soon talking. And the rest is history.

So watch out behind the next tree or boulder you never know who may pop out from behind it to befriend you!

Now I believe I promised you cake. You remember here where I made some muffins from left over coconut milk. A curry made for last weeks camping trip left me with half a tin of coconut milk and I decided to try to actual recipe those muffins were adapted from so here I present to you Coconut Lime Muffins. Yumm.

This is why I will never get to the bottom of my reading list...

I have a large pile of books that are to be read and a large list of books to read after I've made my way through the pile. But neither ever seem to go down and not only because I keep adding to them but because I keep going back and rereading books.

You see when I'm reading a book I get attached to the books; the story, the people, the places. They become part of my world: I care about them and I know my way around their world as if I have lived there all my life. So when the book ends I miss the characters and the places. I miss the authors writing style, the little quirks and everything.

Sometimes, after having not read a book for a while, I find myself longing to immerse myself back into the world. To hang out with the characters, see the sights, feel the excitement, travel on the journey. So then I have to go and reread the book, or in the case of series', books. My biggest weak point is Garth Nix's 'Old Kingdom' trilogy. I consider Sabriel, Lirael and Sam to be friends, I feel like I know Mogget and the Dog personally.

I try to always wait until all the books in a series are out before I start reading as I'm to impatient to be left hanging! There have been two exceptions: Harry Potter and Pamela Freeman's 'Castings' trilogy. The latter because I did not realise it was a trilogy! I'm still sitting on the edge of my seat to read the third book and find out what happens to Bramble, Ash and Saker because the book is somewhere among my 'to read' list.

Perhaps that's why I enjoy Terry Pratchett's  'Discworld' books because I can dip in and out of the world that I love so much and meet new people each time.

Me, in pictures

At the beginning of this month it was my 21st birthday and on Saturday my sister gave me my birthday present; a rather awesome canvas printed with pictures from my life. It really made me smile and got me thinking about pictures of me as a child so I turned to our stacks of photo albums.

Ok I'm not one of those people who gets embarrassed about their baby photos mostly because I was damn cute! (Shame that didn't last...). And so I've decided to give you the opportunity to laugh at me by showing you some of these pictures. So here is a guided tour of my life in pictures with your tour guide, me:

 Wasn't I adorable? Come on give me an aww...

However not everyone thought I was adorable:

Please note the terrified expression on my sisters face. (I'm the baby, my sister is the three year old). 

Speaking of my family. There is some things you should know. In our family it is perfectly normal to have a giraffe come to dinner:

Or to find yourself reading a story to a pink elephant: 

There is a good chance I could be under that pink elephant in that picture. It was very unlike me to miss out on story time. 

However this is not perfectly normal:

And I don't mean my sister getting starring role as Mary in the nativity scene! I mean the police officer that can be seen just in front of Mary and Joseph. Since when was there a police officer present at the birth of Jesus? And what is he doing? Looks like he could be arresting baby Jesus. For crimes of being plastic perhaps? 

Now to continue with the tour. Firstly I've always been stylish: 

Just look at that hat. Even as a baby I dressed impeccably!

And are those not the most amazing dungarees that you've ever seen?

Sporting the Yorkshire terrier hair do!

 However at certain age I lost my style and all pictures were better taken at this distance: 

It's ok, don't worry, I got my style back: 

Such up to date fashion!

Not only am I stylish, but I'm an awesome dancer:

TRAGEDY!! 

I also did more classical styles:

(I'm on the right in the ballet kit)

Now I love to boogie: 

Just look at those moves... 

(I'm the one in the dark purple dress that looks like it has a leafy pattern on it)

I also had other hobbies. I've been in guiding all my life:

Wonder if anyone told Rainbow me that my trefoil is all squiffy...

You can even hire Brownies out for weddings (well Guiders need to make their money somehow!) I'm the one on the far left of the picture. 

I've always been rather adventurous and brave:

 

I'm the kid who's head has been lopped off by the plant pot. And if you look closely you will note that I am managing to walk around the very high, and narrow, almost Bridge of Khazad Dum like wall without holding my mums hand whereas the boy just behind my sister is having to hold his fathers hand. And I was a whole month younger! 

From Khazad Dum my adventurous exploits progressed to jungle rope bridges:

 

I even rode wild animals:

There seems to be a bit of a giraffe theme.

I also trained for the Winter Olympics:

I also did a fair bit of extreme boating:

No I do not have my eyes closed in fear, the sun was shining in them. Clearly. 

Look at my feet - I'm even peddling despite my legs being miles from the peddles! 

Anyone for a bit of gorge walking: 

Aren't wetsuits flattering! (I'm on the right!) 

There was only one thing I was scared of:

Well not SuperTed but people dressed up in animal/ bear suits like that. It's just not natural. You see I'm not in that picture because I'd run 20 miles. Ok I am in that picture. I'm the kid on the right in turquoise who looks like the only reason they haven't fled for their life is the fact that their older sister is holding their hand in a vice like grip. 

I also had a few career options. I could have been a baker:

Unfortunately it's not a brilliant picture but they were biscuits decorated to represent the four seasons using mainly dessicated coconut, food colouring and playmobil figures. And look I won first prize!! And there were clearly other entries because I can see a plate in front of it! 

Or perhaps I could have been a nurse:

Every nurse needs a pair of fluffy blue slippers! Admit it, you'd want to be treated by that cute little thing, wouldn't you?! 

But my main ambition was to be a pirate:

I still think I'd be an awesome pirate:

So for a bit of a summery: I was an absolute doll when I was small!

And just a little bit crazy: I liked boxes.

But at least I wasn't as crazy as my sister. 

Ok everyone lets just point and laugh. 

Now it's time for me, your ultra cute tour guide, to bid you farewell. Until next time! 

WTF?

So I haven't blogged in a whole week and now I am blogging and still no epic dinosaur story. Unfortunately moving out of my house and applying for jobs has meant that I have had no time to blog or finish the dinosaur story. However you will be glad to hear it is nearly finished.

Anyway today's blog is a WTF post. And that has a double meaning. Clever, huh? I'm going to write about a couple of things I've seen that deserve a WTF award (and make me question the sanity of the human race) and also the WTF stands for the fact anyone reading this will be asking themselves this by the time I finish. I apologise if I make you're brain hurt!

Firstly this: (I am referring to the toys not the rather busty lady in front)

Despite the obvious horn what exactly have do Unicorns and Narwhals have in common? And since when have they been locked in some kind of legendary epic battle with each other for the last millennia? And they have magic battle horns. Why? They say that computer games and TV are encouraging violence, well what about this?

And they didn't really think this through, did they? Unicorns live on land and Narwhals in the sea. How do they have epic battles? And plus Narhwals live permanantly in the Artic where I don't think there has ever been a unicorn sighting. Then there is the obvious fact that UNICORNS DON'T EXIST or at least it's unlikely that they do exist anywhere other than my head.

My second WTF award of the day goes to a product from the Kings of WTF JML.

Now I get that it's to make bumps or something in your hair. But it might just be me but it seemed like a bad choice of name. When I first saw it I thought it was two different words and one of them wasn't 'bump'. Yes, I read 'bum pits' which sort of turns them into more of a painful torture implement. Owwww.

Ok it really was me, wasn't it?

Oh well moving swiftly on.

Something to distract you and make you forget I ever said anything.

CAKE!!

I got a cupcake stand for my birthday so I just had to make cupcakes. Mocha flavoured ones with coffee buttercream frosting to be precise.

An edible interlude

The promised Best Dinosaur in the World Story is nearly ready; the pictures have been drawn and scanned on to the computer and are being coloured as I type (well not literally as I type as I can't do two things at once, well I can just not everything). And will be posted, all being well, in the next couple of days. 

Anyway to keep my blog updated while its in preparation and because I have no other ideas since my time is mostly being devoted to watching the World Cup here is some edible treats for you to admire (or laugh at!) 

First off as my parents came to stay last weekend to celebrate my birthday I baked a cake:  

It's a plain sponge with cream cheese and white chocolate topping and filling. It's all filled with raspberry jam and decorated with fondant icing circles. It was very yummy and received a full seal of approval from the parents and the best friend. 

I also made a meal for them when they arrived which clearly needed a dessert. When I was growing up my favourite dessert that my mum used to make was Lemon Meringue Pie so I decided to try and recreate it. My mums recipe comes from somewhere bizarre and as I wanted to keep it a surprise I used Delia's recipe; can't go wrong with a bit of Delia! I think it's pretty good for my first attempt: 

Now I've made myself hungry so I'm going to feast upon some dessert myself.

New Rules

Dear Risk Computer Game, New Rule: Stop frakking beating me. In fact stop making it so damn impossible for me to beat you. I swear you materialise extra troops out of nowhere. Oh and stop ganging up on me. Even when you have no one to gang up with you still gang up on me. I know it's a fix. Now stop it; I'm on to you. You don't get to do this any more.

Dear Twitter, New Rule: You have to get a grip. Seriously how can you be over capacity 80% of the time. How come facebook never does that? There are never too many people on facebook is there. You want people to think facebook is better than you? No? Then sort it out. The whale was cute the first time but for the 92nd time in one minute when all I want to do is make a tweet ranting about Risk I'm pretty damn pissed off. I'm beginning to think you have some kind of deal with that whale? Did you get involved in drugs? Is he some gangsta Mafia boss? Or a loan shark perhaps? Whatever I say you have to get a grip so go do it.

Dear Brain, New Rule: Lie ins. I know it's light but seriously brain we don't have to get up. There is no work to be done so what's the rush? Now I wouldn't complain so much if it was 7am we were talking about but no 5 or 6am seems to be your new get up time. Well guess what brain, since you don't let me sleep until gone 1am I don't want to get up at 6 I want to be a rebel and stay in bed and I'm in charge so that's the last I want to hear of it.

Dear Posters, New Rule: Stay on my bloody walls. So you can quite happily hang on my wall for months at a time and then all of sudden you just fall down with no explanation and then no matter how much new blu tak I put on you still keep falling down. Why do you do that? Do you want me room to look bare? Do you want me to come home and think my room has been raided because you are strewn across the floor with the stuff from the shelves littering the floor around you?

Dear Megavideo, New Rule: Go fuck yourself. That is all.