Happy Half Term...roll on horrendous guilt complex?

After the summer holiday, which of course wins hands down, for me February half term comes a close second. Why, I hear you ask? The simple reason is: no exams!

It seems monstrously unfair to me that almost every school holiday after the age of fourteen is ruined by the dreaded burden of revision. October half term is prime mock exam preparation time; Christmas can easily be spoiled by the thought of January modules, whilst, as our teachers keep kindly reminding us, Easter and May are designated no-go areas: revision-only territory.

Of course, I would never advocate dedicating the entire holiday to revision, but, if you, like me, are one of that fair breed of panicky and conscientious students, school holidays can produce a horrendous guilt complex. Going shopping? That’s at least two hours of productive cramming time down the drain. Lie-in? Tut, tut, everyone knows your brain works best early in the morning.

So, it was with great pleasure that I looked at my diary for this week and saw…absolutely nothing. February half term is an oasis of white blankness in a diary full of frantic scribbles and fiercely underlined reminders. Bliss.

I am somewhat unsure of with what to do with all this newly-acquired free time. Part of me wants to do absolutely NOTHING for a change. A whole week of duvet days seems very, very appealing. My history teacher kindly set us a load of work and then told us to get some rest because this was our last holiday until July. To dedicate over twelve hours of my life to watching Steph’s Gossip Girl Season 1 box set would, therefore, only be following the advice of an expert.

However, on the other hand, this week is a gift for that control-freakiest of tasks: getting ahead. Think of all the work I could get done in advance! All that French vocab I could learn, all that extra reading I could do!

Three days in, and it looks like that latter is not going to happen. I seem to have opted for doing the bare minimum of work and filling the rest of the day with more relaxing activities, such as sleeping, mainly, and seeing friends.

So, whilst one part of my brain is luxuriating in doing very little, another part is  beating up that dormant, school-work programmed part for not doing enough work. See? Horrendous guilt complex. 

I need to get over my revision-based issues.

As I said before, for me and many others, this is my last chance of a revision-free break until July. So, grab it with both hands and enjoy your holidays! Don’t work too hard! (Better still, don’t work at all!)

Failure Biscuits

This post in itself is also a failure, as it seemed much more amusing in my head about four days ago when it actually happened. But sadly, there is not always time in my busy, busy life to just bash out a blog, so this is a retrospective account of my biscuit botching.

Once apon a time...well, on  Tuesday to be exact, I was feeling very productive and grown up, having just come back from a meeting with a magazine who want me to write with them (but more on that another time...). I rushed back home, quickly dashed off a piece of homework, and was preparing to go out and babysit when I remembered that there was a form picnic the next day, and that I'd promised (more to myself than to anyone else), that I would make cakes.

I looked at the clock. Half an hour before I needed to be round the corner to spend an hour munching on a kind lady's biscuits under the pretence of looking after her children. The newly-empowered, 'have it all' me scoffed: 'That is plenty of time to bake!"

To the fridge, I thought! I will make like Nigella and just dash off a batch of fairycakes in my spare time. Plus, it will be fun-how cool and domesticated am I if I can relax through cooking?

Then my plans were scuppered-only one egg in the fridge! Never mind, said my capable self, I'll find another recipe.

And find another recipe I did-this time for biscuits. There it was, naively and neatly written in blue fountain pen  from my days as an 11 year old food technology student, with such helpful hints as "Step 1: "Put on apron, wash hands, prepare workstation, tie up hair."Well duh.

So, as they say in France, on commence! I magically found a bar of Cadbury's in the cupboard and decided to whack that and some marshmallows in for good measure. To cut a long story short, I seived and mixed and mixed and stirred and diced chocolate and mixed some more until I had what my teacher said should resemble "dough".

My efforts did not resemble "dough". In fact, it was as far away from "dough" as it is possible to be. Breadcrumbs with lumps of chocolate, maybe, but definitely not prime biscuit material.
It was at this point that I realised my efforts were in vain and  I would not be presenting beautifully soft and chew choc-chip cookies to my class in the morning. No applause and cheers for my culinary genius, no sir.

But, I persevered! Alas, my dough would not come together to be rolled out no matter how hard I tried and time was ticking on. So I gamely took five pitiful handfuls and squished them down with my hands to make five blobby messes. Then, I dashed out of the door, leaving behind a dirty kitchen and a trail of flour.

When I returned from babysitting, I was greeted with this:

The observant ones amongst you will realise that there are only four pitiful handfuls on this tray. Wellll...I have to admit that I ate one. They looked so disgusting that I just had to check that I wasn't going to inadvertantly poison my loved ones.

Luckily, they tasted delicious! The chocolate was just at the perfect stage of half meltyness. The marshmallows had disappeared (one of life's great mysteries that) but the biscuits tasted as yummy as ever and were quickly gobbled up by my family in record time of about 17 hours.

So there you have it. Like cross-stich, knitting and card-making, another one of my attempts at being domestic goddess-like has ended in f-a-i-l-u-r-e. I like to think I am an excellent cook, but in this case, I think I will have to admit defeat.
Ah well- I had fun failing!

Album Review: 21

Never one to shy away from challenge, I have decided to turn  music critic for a one-off post. Not one of those poncey self-important "I'm so indie, I hate manufactured pop" types- I hope. Just me writing about music that I like. So, here goes...

The reason behind this sudden reinvention is, quite simply, my love of the album in question. Adele's 21 is the best album I have bought (ok, downloaded, but totally legally), in a very long time. Usually, I like a few songs out of the dozen or so (Bombay Bicycle Club's Flaws, for example), but in this case I am struggling to pick a favourite track.

The follow up from her equally great 19, 21 is a beautiful mix of  husky soul, catchy pop and pure girl power. From the mellow Lovesong to the sassy Rumour Has It, there is something for everyone. The album tells the tale of love lost and found...mainly lost. But, Adele seems to say, pick yourself up, write a song and show them what they're missing.

Feeling depressed? Wallow in self-pity as you let the pleading lyrics of Don't You Remember wash over you like some sort of tearful tidal-wave. At the other end of the scale, Rolling In The Deep with its pounding bass drum  is the perfect 'go get 'em' song.

The lyrics of 21 latched onto something in my brain and I soon found myself singing along...although I will  never be able to compete with Adele's voice, which has the power to simulataneously wrap you up in a musical hug and slap you round the face. Perhaps the only advantage of the cold which has currently taken over my entire being is that I am gradually perfecting the perfect Adele husky warble.

One of my favourite bits which I can't get out of my head is from Someone Like You. You can hear the emotion pouring out of her voice in the chorus.
"You know how the time flies,
Only yesterday was the time of our lives
We were born and raised in a summer haze,
Bound by the surprise of our glory days"

Poetic genius...well I think so.

The only downside I can see  is that some of the songs are a bit same-y. But, as I am slowly becoming obsessed with her, I like more of the same. If same is so good, why have variety?

I'll leave you with a live version of  the next single to be released from 21 ( I think). Whilst Adele isn't very hard, I love her. Enjoy!