Slow Cooking

It was my birthday last month (getting closer and closer to that 30 mark) and I got a slow cooker from my parents!

I am so excited about this. So far I have used it twice (the second time is today, so my dinner is cooking away while I type) and have started a board of recipes on Pinterest if you have suggestions for recipes you've tried and loved please let me know!

Saturday I cooked Weight Watchers Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Curry which was fabulous. The chicken was so tender, the only issue was the veg was a bit under cooked and it could have done with 6-7 hours rather than the 5 I gave it. That said I like my carrots crunchy so it was good for me.  I served with rice and half a lime rather than a wedge because lime is underrated.

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On Love

I saw Alain de Botton speak at Hay a few years back with Roisin. I think he was talking about an Architecture project he's involved in I can't really remember now. I'd heard of him before but never read any of his books until this one. I'd felt that while they might be interesting topics they might be a bit pretentious - dealing with philosophy as they do - but it was really well written and covered a few theories without getting too heavy or too light.

I read the book on holiday. It tells the story of a relationship and brings in various theories in line with the what's happening to the narrator. It was pretty good and interesting enough that I'd read sections out to my friends and we'd talk about how it related to us.

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The Naked and Famous

I don't appear to have written about these guys before which is crazy! Anyway I saw them a while back with Mark and Jenny (Hello if you're reading I miss you guys!!) in Southsea and they are amazing. Passive Me, Agressive You is according to Last.fm one of my most listened to albums over the last year.

This is one of those songs that makes me feel like I own the world:






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The Adoration of Jenna Fox

This book is not what I expected. 

OK so it's set in the not too distant future and it's about teenagers, there's even a romance in there. But really this is about Jenna Fox and what makes her herself - what makes us human, the parent child relationship, and the ethics of science and medicine. It's well written, quick to read and made me think about a lot of things. I won't say more or I'll give it all away. Some of the plot is predictable but that's not really the point - it's the discussion that's interesting. 

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Electric Guest

Have you heard Electric Guest? Their album is the latest produced by Danger Mouse and it's pretty brilliant. A couple of tracks sounds a bit Broken Bells-y (no bad thing!) but in all it's varied.

Who doesn't love everything Danger Mouse does!

This first one doesn't have a proper video but please listen to it because it's amazing - one of my fav songs of the year so far.

13 for 2013: Holiday!

I haven't been abroad for a non work trip since I went to Florence about 4/5 years ago. I love to travel the reason I hadn't been away was having a mortgage and not much money. So having some money from my redundancy I wanted to make sure that some of it went on holidays!

I managed to get a cheap-ish trip to Iceland with some friends through their mums (it was basically a staff field trip that we gatecrashed). I didn't get to see the Northern lights so I'd like to go back again and see the north of the island. It's a stunning place.

My highlights:

 The back sand beach complete with ice chunks (it was in Stardust!)

Coming straight of the plane to swim in the Blue Lagoon Spa

Coming second in the Rock Off best rock competition

Seeing glaciers

Seeing Geysers explode!

Going on a glacier hike - even if my foot fell out my crampon!



We went lava tube caving and I now have bruises on my knees so whenever I see them I get this stuck in my head. Worth it. Awesome song and an amazing day.

My camera (not photo) snaps are all here if you'd like a look.

Addiction to wool

I've gone a bit crazy with the wool lately. I bought a load of Irish aran again from www.connemarayarns.com they are my fav to knit with at the moment and really lovely to buy from.

I also just got back from holiday in Iceland! It was amazing and I'll bore you with pictures later if I haven't already on twitter. Souvenir wise I figured what better than wool. These are going to be knit in a scandi fair isle something. I don't know what yet...

I'm headed to Portsmouth tonight to catch up with parents and friends so not much knitting time but hoping to get some more cushion covers made up ready for a possible Etsy shop in the not too distant future...