Controversy!

Hey, it's Children's Book Week! Or...not. This link says it's in October. Huh. No matter! It's always a good time to reminisce on all the fab books of our childhood. This is a new volume, of the much loved If you give a... series: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. Sounds right up my alley. Excitement in kid-lit.

***Addendum: apparently the second is in the UK. I'm so sick of my browser searching UK sites first. It should know I'm still a self-centered American. Geez.

These are strange ways you have.

Many of you may be celebrating Cinco de Mayo today. To be honest, if margaritas weren't the equivalent of $15 here, I might celebrate a bit too. Instead I'm experiencing the wonder of a Bank Holiday. It appears to be the UK equivalent of Memorial Day or Labor Day, only they're held several times a year for no apparent purpose. I kind of like that. Instead of commemorative days getting corrupted by the fact that everyone only remembers them because they get work off, these are holidays specifically designed to...get work off. Nice.

There is one significant difference between these holidays and their semi-comparative days in the US: all the shops are closed. Odd. Although it did mean I could wander across streets this morning without fearing I would be run over by a crazy motorcyclist on his way to work, so that's a plus.

That's what (he) said...

London has a new mayor, Boris Johnson. This article includes a few of his past sound bites. My favorite?

"I have not had an affair with Petronella. It is complete balderdash. It is an inverted pyramid of piffle" - on press reports of his relationship with Ms Wyatt

Note to self: Must work the phrase "inverted pyramid of piffle" into conversation this week.

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love chocolate, and communists."

While I'm on the travel report kick, I thought I'd write a little post about Paris and chocolate. I thought I was going to be writing this post in February after coming back from Belgium (mmm waffles and chocolate.) Due to my forgotten passport, a couple of impossibly late ferries to/from Calais, and yet again waiting for ages in a disturbingly empty station in northern France (I'm sure Nicholas remembers our experience with this 2 years ago...it wasn't any better this time), I didn't actually ever make it to Belgium. Whatevs...wasn't meant to be. I did get the better part of an 850-page novel read!

I ended up satisfying my chocolate lust in March with possibly the only better substitute for Belgian chocolates imaginable...the Nutella Crepe.


Mmmm, I've had this on my list of things to do in Paris for ages. I vividly remember the first taste of Nutella I had three years ago, incidentally in Paris. So good. It's a dangerous thing for me to have around though, so I save it for special occasions. The market down the street from me here in London has a vendor who sells crepes. I have remained resolute, however, and my Paris crepe lived up to my imagination.

The crepe was not the only awesome thing about Paris. Here are a few other pictures from the trip:

"Fair land! of chivalry the old domain, Land of the vine and olive, lovely Spain!"

After Italy, I was seriously ready for an actual tourist office in the train station, a clean public transport system and wide streets. Barcelona delivered! I wasn't expecting much from it, so maybe that's why it turned out so great. Regardless, I have nothing but good things to say about it!

Our hotel the first night (long story involving weird opening hours at the second hostel) was super nice. It was located right on the water, so I took advantage of that the first morning:

It was too cold for a swim, but lovely to walk along! Once we'd figured out where to drop our bags off for the next night (another nice hostel, though slightly less posh than the hostel), we wandered down the main street in the city, the Ramblas. It was so crazy. There are all these street performers lining the road. In addition to the people, the vendors are our in full force. You can get flowers, food, and roosters. Yes, roosters. No, I don't know why. Here are some of my favorites (the scene in the back is actually a pair of women dressed in serious makeup. It reminded me of OM.)


Here's me at the beginning of the street:

We saw the cathedral next. I have no idea why this thing is not more famous. It was one of the first cathedrals in a while that I was actually awed by. There were these amazing gardens inside the walls and the inside was really unique. These pictures don't do it justice. Nicole took better ones, so when I get them from her, I'll post them. It was incredibly beautiful.


We navigated the metro with complete ease. Signs are in Catalan, Spanish, and English. Maybe it's arrogant to hope for English to be spoken and used in foreign countries, but it just makes things so much easier. They're clean and even have video monitors of public broadcast. Here's an awkward picture (the guy didn't seem to pleased, but I wasn't sure if I could legally take photos, so I was trying to get it done quickly):

The next day we went up to the Olympic Park (via funicular) to see the stadium and the Olympic museum. It was so. cool. There were video screens where you could access all the old Olympic video, so I watched loads of opening ceremonies, the Magnificent 7 (gymnasts) from Atlanta's games getting their medals, and the Thorpedo. There were histories of all the sports in the games, including those that went back to ancient Greece, which was really neat since we'd just been there. The gift shop sucked, which really was the biggest indication that we weren't in the States.

It had started pouring by this point, so we went on to the airport. I boarded my train to the airport and left Nicole to go on to see another friend in Spain. I guess it should go without saying at this point that my plane was delayed getting out of Barcelona. But I eventually made it back to London. Home sweet (sort of) home! I will say that the cold was quite a shock to my system.

All in all, the trip was a lot of fun, but I wouldn't really call it relaxing! I needed the week before classes start again to actually rest! I think that's just a family tradition though... Relaxing is overrated, right Dad? : ) We saw about as much as we could have in the time we had though, so it was a great vacation. I'm just avoiding airports for awhile.

"You may have the universe if I may have Italy."

...Well Giuseppe Verdi, I will gladly take the Universe. Have fun with Italy. On that note, I saw this sign while walking around London today:

and realized that was an awesome strategy. Because honestly Italy has a lot of things going for it - beautiful scenery, really old stuff, pretty architecture - the problem is Italy itself. Suffice it to say I was not terribly impressed with country. Nicholas and I had issues in Rome, but I thought that was just Rome. (Plus, in interest of full disclosure, at that point in our trip I was rocking some hard core homesickness and a wicked sunburn). Well, it's not just Rome. The people staffing the sites were rude, the train was needlessly complicated and crowded, and the city just lacked charm. (Of course all of this in my humble opinion; many, many others have nothing but nice things to say about the city.)

Anyway, putting all that aside, I did get to see some things I've wanted to see for a long time. Ever since I read The Agony and the Ecstasy, I've had a minor obsession with Michaelangelo, so getting to see his city was pretty awesome.

Here's the Basilica of San Lorenzo, where the Medici tombs are:


I wasn't able to take pics inside the chapel, but here's a photo of the tombs I got off the internet:


I seriously could have spent all day in there. They were absolutely beautiful. I did snatch an illegal picture of these awesome statues:


They were crazy intricate in person. There's actually smaller statues inside the bigger ones. The photo doesn't do them justice.

After that, we went to the massive Duomo, which was quite impressive. I went up into the dome, but only to the second level. I kinda freaked about the height there, so decided not to go up to the outside edge. I was sooo glad when I saw that the rail around the viewing platform? Yeah, not so much with the height on that. Anyway, I did peer out of a window and the view was awesome. Tuscany is famous for a reason.


The rest of the day and the next morning we just wandered the city. The famed bridge is kind of crazy looking. There are actual stores built into it. Cool, but odd. I also did quite a bit of shopping at one of the markets near our hostel. That was a lot of fun.


The second day we were there, we left mid-day and took the train to Pisa. The clouds there were very threatening, so I basically did another bad dash through the city just to see the Tower. Some day I'll actually spend more than three hours there. (Nicholas and I actually ran the distance though. I learned better this time and took the bus. Much better decision.)

After that adventure, we headed out to the airport in Pisa to wait for our flight to Gerona, a small town an hour outside of Barcelona. This is the point where things got absolutely insane. (Even more than than our ride from Milan to Florence two days before during which we got kicked out of our seats an hour before reaching the city because they failed to tell us we needed reservations for seats. And yes, we bought the tickets from an agent. Sigh.)

The flight was delayed. And then delayed some more. And wait...delayed some more. We were very concerned about actually being able to catch a bus into the city that late at night (it was nearing 11pm at this point) and I was quite sure I was going to spending the night in the airport. Luckily, the buses waited on the plane. We got into Barcelona around 2:30am. Other than a taxi driver who ripped us off, things went much smoother from there on out. More about Spain next post!

And a long strange trip it was...

Well I can't promise this will be a comprehensive tale of my journeys (darn that essay I've been putting off!), but here are a few pictures from Greece, Italy and Spain.

I'm pretty sure I inadvertently deleted the one I made on the flight to Greece upon which I spent 5 hours sitting on the tarmac waiting while the snow melted outside, then for a new flight crew because ours had been working for too

many hours, then for them to replace the snacks that had gotten warm while we were waiting. I wish I was kidding. But. I did eventually make it on the ship:

It's kind of hard to see in the second picture, but our ship ends where the lettering starts on the big ship behind it. It was a teeny ship. The cool thing about that though was that we got to sail through the Corinth Canal, which big ships can't do. We also got to dock at some smaller ports. All in all, what we got for the price was not bad. The food was decent (though I'm def glad we got the meal plan. Individual prices were steep.) The room was small, but good enough. I do wish we'd had a pool though.

The excursions were the best part.We saw LOTS of ruins. We had tour guides for each day, plus a resident expert, Heinrich, on the ship to answer questions.

This was was Ithaka, the only port that we had a completely free day:




















My favorite excursions were Olympia and Delphi.

This is me on the first Olympic running course. Olympia was where the first Olympics were held and where the torch is first lit before every Olympic Games. It's a beautiful area, with blooming purple flowers, grassy fields, and old ruins. I could have easily spent all day there.

Delphi was a couple of days after that. It's the site of the famed Oracle and a really old theatre space and arena. It also had a wonderful juice bar. The strawberry slush was just what I needed!

Our last day in Greece was spent in Athens. Here's the famed Parthenon:


It was impressive, but Athens is seriously polluted. Apparently they've instituted driving bans where cars with odd number license plates can drive M/W/F and evens can drive T/TH. People are buying two cars according to the tour guide, but at least they're trying!

Anyway, here's a collage of some of my other favorite Greece pictures:


This entry is seriously long, so I'll save Italy and Spain for later (along with the tales of my airport and train woes.)

Confused

It's 7:15am and there is a van parked directly under my window loudly playing an Indian version of the macarena over its speakers. What did I do to deserve this?


image via flickr user susan & her 5d's

"Strange is our situation here upon earth."

Ah, Earth Day. Vindication for the hippies, an excuse for the PR machine to work overtime for oil companies, a day to celebrate our world with the other 6-some odd billion people humans here. (Aside: Did you realize that the world population has nearly tripled in the last 50 years? Crazy!)

Anyway, as pollution really is gross and we really should pay attention to recycling, driving less and walking more, and other small changes that are good for the environment, I offer, in the truly American tradition, a chance to buy something to help the globe.

Aren't these reusable bags adorable? I want one in every color. I already love grocery shopping; now here's an excuse to carry a plethora of cute bags with me. I think this graphic one is especially stylish:

My current reusable grocery bag is this adorable cupcake one:

It's oh so me, but I do realize that not everyone wants to display knitting baked goods while they shop. (Although, why not? : ) )

Happy Earth Day!

(source: fashion is spinach and cakespy)

“London is a modern Babylon.”

This is quite possibly the coolest website I've come across in a long time; Get London Reading has an interactive map where you can click on book titles set in your selected part of London. Rough Guide also put out a free literary guide to London. Apparently Down and Out in Paris and London was written just a couple of streets from where I live. That's kind of cool, and yet a little depressing.

"Books - the best antidote against the marsh-gas of boredom and vacuity. "

Perhaps after 11 days in the Mediterranean, it's a little odd that I'm posting about a magazine, but I'm decompressing before I blog about the trip. Rest assured, stories and photos are forthcoming.

Until then, I want to give a shout out to the amazing magazine Bookmarks. It's filled with reviews, recommendations, and author bios which, considering the hours I spent in airports over the last few days, were dutifully pored over and very appreciated. I now have even more books to add to my to-read list. Highly recommended!

Photoshop (and other) Disasters

The blog Photoshop Disasters is hilarious. Check out the incredible two-toned woman!


In unrelated news, all this overnight flying is turning me into a hobbit. From their wikipedia page,"Hobbits enjoy at least seven meals a day, not including snacks, when they can get them - breakfast, (arguably) second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, tea, dinner and later, supper." So far today I've had breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon and a snack. I'm not sure if a frap counts as tea? If Lufthansa doesn't find my luggage soon, I'll have to add a stiff drink to that list. I thought the Germans were supposed to be efficient?

Cake! It's berry good.

Pardon the pun and make these. They are made of win. The recipe makes gobs of frosting though, so you might want to have another cake in mind or freezer space for the extra.

If only it didn't mention Boston...

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

Happy Easter!

Man can not live on cupcakes alone.

As sad as it is, sugar and butter will only get you so far. Thus I've been attempting to expand my culinary skills beyond the mixing bowl. I started off with the simple guac, have assisted with a crazy delish (and cheap!) bean soup (recipe below), and am planning on making this garden lasagna. Details of that when it actually gets made. But I have not abandoned my roots entirely. For Easter I'm making Banana Pudding Pie and Blueberry and Meyer Lemon cupcakes. Hey, a girl's gotta have her vice!

(Image via Cakespy)

Bean Soup

Dry bean mixture (make and store in jars; use as needed): Mix 1 lb. each - black beans, red beans, navy beans, pinto beans, great northern beans, split peas, lentils, and black-eyes peas, 10 pints.

Soup

1 pt. bean mixture
1 chopped large onion
1 can Ro-Tel (tomatoes and green chilies) or 14.5 oz. can tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 pod hot pepper
1.5 t. chili powder
2 minced garlic cloves
ham or smoked link sausage, cut up

Wash beans mixture, making sure to cull rocks and bad beans from mix. Cover with water and soak overnight. Add remaining ingredients and water to cover. Simmer for 3-3.5 hours. Stir occasionally, adding more water if necessary.

That's it! Works fabulously for leftovers. Maybe pair with some corn bread?

"An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth."

Blimey! Luck o' the Irish to you. (Insert cliched Irish expression here.)

Now that I've got that out of the way...

Since I've officially discovered my lack of love for Guinness (straight from the Brewery itself), I have to celebrate St. Patrick's Day some other way. I made a fantastically easy guacamole yesterday (see recipe below), but my desire for green foods was not satisfied. So today I baked a lime pie. To my disappointment, it was not green. Apparently you have to use food coloring or actual key limes (definitely not in season or local!) What a drag. Still, the intent was good. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have some sausage and potato coddle. Then again, maybe not. My festive green socks will have to suffice.

Ridiculously Easy Guacamole

3 ripe Hass avocados, peeled and pitted
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 tsp kosher salt (sea salt works too)
1 tbsp lime juice
1 serrano chili or jalepeno pepper, chopped finely (I just did a quick shake of chili powder, since I'm not overly fond of spiciness)
1 Roma tomato, seeded and diced (I used 6 cherry tomatoes, but I would have liked a few more I think)

In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients except tomato. Pulse several times until you reach the desired consistency. It can be as smooth as you like. Spoon in tomato. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes.

Serves 16

Per serving (about 2 tbls I think): 48 cal, 4g fat, 3g carbs, 2g fiber, 1g protein

We served this with raw veggies and it was great. The carrots and cauliflower were my favorite, but I bet celery would be good too. Of course, toasted pita or tortilla chips would be good also.

(Key) Lime Pie

7 egg yolks, beaten until frothy (make omelets or egg scrambles with the egg whites...)
1 and 1/2 cans sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup key lime juice (all I had was regular lime juice; we'll see if it makes that big a difference)
Graham cracker crust shell (either pre-made or make by hand)

Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl, stir until blended.

Bake at 325 F for 15 minutes. (You'll know it's done when a knife stuck in the center leaves an indention when removed. It will not be clean.)

Allow to set in fridge. Serve with whipped cream.

Serves 8

"This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks."

Bonnie and Clyde is a weird movie. There some awesome quotes -

Bonnie: Hey, that ain't ours!
Clyde: Sure it is.
Bonnie: But we come in this one.
Clyde: That don't mean we have to go home in it!

- but the actual movie is just strange. The clothes, however, are completely fabulous:

The scene where Bonnie's eating the hamburger and deciding whether she wants to go with Clyde or not actually makes me want to find a seedy small town diner and chow down. I don't even care for beef! It's the power of the beret.

This outfit at Forever 21 inspired me to look for retro, Bonnie-ish looks for the Spring. I'm loving the golden yellow, the 70-ish print shirt, and the sunglasses.

Here are some other examples:

Urban Outfitters Deux Pointelle Beret and Kimchi and & Blue Dolly shirt dress:

Old Navy Women's Tie-Front Tunic with Roxy Kalani Wide-Leg Trouser Jeans at Macy's and some killer gray platforms from Alloy to add a dose of 2008:


Anthropologie Twill Tulip Skirt, Old Navy Eyelet Cable-Knit Sweater, Keds Classic Canvas Champion:










I think I'll remain on the right side of the law for the time being, though. Remember, CCTV is watching you!

"He went out the window... why would someone do that?"

They're making a fourth Bourne! Woohoo! I love these movies, though the first is the best in my opinion. Matt Damon can do no wrong. How can one not appreciate a movie in which the main character seriously wounds someone with a rolled up magazine? Macgyver wishes he was that cool.

"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."

I began my trip to Scotland early in the morning with a 5 hour train from King's Cross to Edinburgh. Basically I pretended I was in Harry Potter. That's not weird right?

We were met by our guide Mike upon arrival:

Yes, he really did wear a kilt the whole time. No, most people in Scotland don't. He was strange. He certainly would have agreed with Voltaire that Scotland is the center of the world. Everything comes from Scotland, including but not limited to, modern medicine, most great literary figures, the telephone, and the English word for the toilet, "loo" - which apparently is bastardized French. This theme of "Scotland rocks" was funny at first, but it got a bit old.

No matter; we wandered Edinburgh, which I loved even though it poured most of the time we were there. After spending the night in the city, it was on to the Highlands! Speaking of Harry Potter, we passed the bridge they used in the films on the way up to Inverness. I didn't see any flying cars above though. Bummer.


One of the stops we made on the way was to see Hamish the Highland Cow. He was very cute, but appeared a bit bored with his visitors. I'm surprised he's not fatter than he is, given that half our tour fed him with vegetables from the shop nearby.


It wouldn't be a complete Highland trip without a visit to Loch Ness. No monster sightings. Probably because she was scared off by these fools below. Yes a few of the kids on our tour decided to swim in the Loch. It was barely 40 degrees. They changed on the bus. They are idiots.


The next day we saw a monument to William Wallace. This is a statue that stands at the base of the monument. Highlanders hate it because basically it's a repro of Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Not the most accurate of films apparently. Police in the area actually had to guard it for over a year after it was first unveiled. Kinda embarrassing I think.


We also saw the Hermitage and the Burnam Woods. Very pretty, but by far the best part was seeing the writer's gazebo some of the famous literary figures built in the forest. Apparently it was popular place to smoke opium. Given the trippy interior (which unfortunately didn't show up well in photos: lots of stained glass looking art), is understandable. Frankly, I spent the whole time thinking about The West Wing episode "The Birnam Woods" wherein Leo has his heart attack and no one discovers him for a day. A day! Ridiculous. I think I missed the point of this stop.


We also saw Scotland's smallest distillery. The whiskey was good, but the best part was the guide. She was a spunky old lady whose personality I can best sum up with her comment, "Our whiskey can last upon opening up to 10 months. Mine usually lasts 3 days." What a character.

All in all, a good time, though the weather stunk. Edinburgh was much prettier than Dublin, and I'd definitely love to spend more time there. I slowly make progress on my comprehensive coverage of the U.K. and its vicinity...

Next stop Paris!