Unlikely combinations

 Tinie Tempah's latest single, Wonderman, features one of my favourite artists of them all, Ellie Goulding.

On paper, this should not work. R n B/Hip Hop street-cool meets Acoustic/Folksy/Pop/Electronic blond starlet. When I first heard about the song, my first thought was 'Ellie, what have you done?!' Because after seeing her live, I am now entitled to judge her musical choices, of course. But somehow, it just works-they complement each other perfectly!

This made me think of other unlikely combinations-things which are so wrong...yet so right.

1. PBJ
The most famous combo of them all, and one which still divides opinion the world over. In my opinion, peanut butter and jam (or jelly, if you're going to be picky and American) is the food of the gods. But when I tell people that I had this on toast with a cup of tea, expecting a coo of understanding, people often look at me like I told them I breakfasted on roadkill. 'WHAT? Eeeew. That's sick.' I ignore these non-believers. One day they will be converted to the crunchy salty sweet jammy mixture of a pbj sandwich. But- 1) the peanut putter has to be crunchy, and 2) the jam has to go on top. Just the way it is.

2. Peanut butter and apple?
Imi informs me that peanut butter also goes well with cut-up apple, but I am yet to test this out :)

3. Black and brown
I remember my mum telling me when I was little and had no clue about which items of clothing went with what, that black and brown were colours you did not, on any account, mix. Much like green and red for their Christmas elf-connections, or purple and yellow for just pure grossness, brown and black were a no-go in my house. But recently, it seems colour rules are being broken. I am currently wearing a black dress with a brown belt, for example, and I've just bought a lovely pair of brown shoes that I intend to wear with black skinny trousers. Take that, colour wheel! But-again, another condition of unlikely combinations, the brown should ideally be tan, not too red that it looks orange, but not too chocolately to be an obvious clash.
Pah, who am I to give fashion advice! I am sure I will be corrected on that last point.


3. Tomato ketchup and macaroni cheese
This could also be entitled 'tomato ketchup and...anything and everything' if you are my good friend Hannah. It is entirely down to her that I discovered this scrummy combo. The sweet tangyness of the nation's favourite sauce sets of the creaminess of the mac and cheese to perfection. Not very gourmet, but delish all the same.

4. Chili chocolate?
I've seen posh bars of this in shops, but I have never been tempted to try out this flavour mix. It may be nice, well...it must be, or why on earth would they sell it, but I'm still unsure. I think the combination of spice and sugar could be too much for me.  
Has anyone ever tried this? Please let me know what it was like! Are you and your tastebuds permanently scarred, or are you a convert?

5. Cheese and marmite
Especially in a toasted sandwich, mmmm. Imi also tells me marmite works well mixed into pasta. Excellent student carbo-loading cuisine :) Marmite cereal bars on the other hand, my word. The texture and slight taste of an ordinary sweet cereal bar, with the sourness of Marmite. Not good.

I didn't mean all of these to be about food, but hey, that seems to be how my mind works. Leave me a comment if you can think of any others that I should include :)

New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It always seems like we draw the short straw at this time of the year. After all the partying and celebrating and eating, we are suddenly expected to snap back into dismal January routines with nothing to look forward to, feeling fat and having overdone it on the mince pies. Just to improve what is, let's be honest, a pretty pants month, some  bright spark decided to invent New Year's resolutions. So we can become healthier, friendlier, more caring and generally better people in the following year, of course.

However, in my experience, this often has the opposite effect. When I was younger, I would try desperately  to achieve my resolution of not biting my nails...only to forget and break it in about two hours. Then, I would beat myself up about not being able to stick to it, bite my nails some more, give up and resolve to try harder next year.

So, I stopped making New Year's resolutions for a while. It seemed silly to make a special effort at the beginning of the year when realistically, I knew it would never last past January 10th.

This year though, I decided to try again. It's my last year at home, I should make try even harder to be a nicer person and do all those things I've always wanted to do while I still have the cosy comfort of my parents to fall back on, I thought.

As you all know, I like lists! So I decided to make a list of ideas for resolutions in my beautiful Emma Bridgewater spotty notebook, because having them all written down nicely would of course make keeping them instantly easy.

Sadly, the first attempt quickly turned into a list of all my failings. I managed to come up with thirty two, yes thirty two things that I wanted to change in approximately four minutes. And this is without even touching the surface of those psychological gremlins that we all have deep down. The more I wrote, the more I disliked myself for not having done any of these things before, so the more things I thought of, the more I wrote, and so on... I would not recommend this exercise for a self-esteem boost!

So you can see the extent of my madness, here is my initial list. Click on it if you need to see it bigger, my scanner has created a monster formatting nightmare.

 Looking back on it, what was I thinking? Number eight, stop watching romcoms?! Never going to happen! Ditto controlling my frizzy hair-it has a mind of its own and I will just have to accept this fact. Speaking French like a French person is also impossible, considering I am about as blandly British as a shepherd's pie. Going on a protest march is unlikely to happen now I've seen the footage I missed at the time of police on horses charging at the students protesters against the education cuts. I am waaay too much of a scaredy cat for that! Oops, guess there goes 'break out of my comfort zone' too, sigh.

I did, thankfully, realise how stupid list number one was, and did another:

Number one: be more realistic- that's more like it.  I do need to achieve number two before going to university, otherwise I will arrive at university looking what I like to call 'bohemian' and 'non-conformist', but what others call 'tramp' due to lack of funds. Stopping procrastinating is also essential so that I can actually get to a university! But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter if I watch fewer romcoms, does it? And eleven resolutions is rather too many!

I'm not really sure how to conclude this post, and I'm aware it seems quite negative! The post-Christmas slump obviously unleashed my inner pessimist, who is usually kept in check by sprinkles of optimism and not thinking about it-ness.
But I guess my point is: why bother making unrealistic resolutions anyway? It would be much better if we all just tried to do little things throughout the year. Here's to February Resolutions, to Easter Resolutions and to Summer Resolutions! Good luck! I know I'll need it.

Merry Listmas! (I know, comedy GOLD)

Well, the festive season is finally upon us, and what better way to spend my long, snowed-in  holidays than by running up a list of my favourite Christmas simple pleasures?

1. The smell of the Christmas tree
Nothing beats walking into a room and smelling pure, unbridled CHRISTMAS. I noticed the other day that you can get air-fresheners in  'festive scents' like this. This is surely for people who a) have an artificial Christmas tree and make a sneaky effort to pretend it's real or b) want it to be Christmas every day. But even I would not purchase Christmas tree flavoured air freshener in an attempt to fit into either  category-it screams desperation.

2.  Real Christmas trees
None of this "Oh but I hate how it drops needles all over the carpet, an artificial tree looks just as good and is so practical" rubbish. Also, Christmas trees should be green. Not white, not  pink, and especially not 'sophisicated black with moody silver undertones'.
If you are the (shameful) owner of one of these, I apologise. I am a traditionalist at heart.

3. Slightly tacky Christmas decorations
Going through the decoration box on Friday, my sister and I discovered remnants of my parents' awful taste. I think the best one is a scrawny green tinsel garland with tiny shiny red holly leaves and a big red bauble in the middle. Trust me, it's hideous. My mum has finally admitted defeat and banned it.
When I was younger, the highlight of this time of year was driving back from school in the dark and seeing 'The Gingerbread House', which was, funnily enough, not made out of biscuits, but an actual house covered in what must've surely been the world's entire supply of Christmas lights. Giant sleighs, flashing bells, blow-up snowmen...you name it, they had it. In an attempt to be the Christmassy-est, they managed to make their house look like it had survived some sort of fairy-light tsunami. To my horror, those owners must have moved because now The Gingerbread House is no more! Cry.

4. Christmas Biscuits
I made these for a Secret Santa present...and ended up eating half. But they are so delicious. You know the ones I mean, with the boiled sweet in the middle? I left out the sweets, to get a massive spice-fest. Mmmmmmm :) In French we also had German (yes, I know, but I don't think LIDL go in for French cuisine) special biscuits. I now find out the are actually called Lebkuchen, but I  like to think of them as "those gingery-chocolately-buttery" things. If you happen to be in LIDL, or indeed any other non-German biased supermarket, try some. You won't regret it.

5. Carol Singing.
Abby invited me to go carol singing this year with people from the Scott's Project, who work with adults with learning disabilities. On turning up at the pub in the blizzard, I was promptly issued with a festive hat, a folder of words, a tambourine and I was all set. We made what can only be described as a joyful din, but very joyful and festive it was too. Never have I felt so Christmassy as when I was belting out Little Donkey for the third time, shaking my tambourine, surrounded by others doing exactly the same to half bemused, half appreciative diners. It also gave me the opportunity to meet my apparent Number One Fan (Hi, Elaine), who also bought me a lemonade, so thank you very much! A true simple pleasure :)

6. Christmas cards from people you never, ever see
I  have a large extended family, with lots of complicated second-cousin once removed-s, adoptive second cousins and fake aunties and uncles. My parents also have a whole multitude of university friends who only get in contact at Christmas. This of course, gives way to SO many mistakes. There is one Canadian relative of some sort, who each year without fail addresses her card to "Katharine, Rodney, Katie and Elizabeth." Those of you who know my family will notice the many, many errors in this. For starters, there is no Elizabeth in my house. Last time I checked it was my middle name, not a mysterious second sister. My mother is called Kathryn, (note the spelling Canadian lady!) and I am Katie (not Kathryn Junior), which also creates a plethora of spelling/mother-daughter name confusion opportunities. Those who opt for the slightly safe but still personal option go for 'Kathryn, Rod and the girls'. Confirms you know the parents' names, and know they have...a certain number of daughters, but without specifics. Safe. I advise people with no clue at all togo for 'To, all of you' to avoid embarrassment.

7. Round Robin Letters
It's always good to hear everyone's news at Christmas, but some families take it to extremes, hopelessly exaggerating their little darlings' signs of brilliance. "Not one to follow the crowd, this year, Alfred has taken up the accordion and made an appearance in the Junior School Christmas Nativity play which can only be described as Oscar-worthy. There was not a dry eye in the house as Innkeeper 2 spoke his one line with an amazing level of sensitivity and maturity"
Nothing makes me laugh more than the family who try to create the ultimate Christmas family newsletters. Every year for a long time we got one family who must have forced their middle son to write a rhyming, may I point out, poem describing what they'd got up to in the year. They certainly got points for originality.

8. Christmas stamps
You know it's nearly Christmas when the shops start selling festive stamps. I believe this year's offering feature Wallace and Grommit. YES! The best thing is when you receive non-Christmas serious letters with a Christmas comedy stamp. Or, be like one of my relations and make your own stamps with pictures of your grandchildren pulling horrendous faces. Just a suggestion.


9. Advent Calendars
My family has never gone in for the chocolate variety so my sister and I get our excitement from putting on the characters onto our wooden one. WOAH. No seriously, it's great.  No one ever gets what it is when it's not full, and I've never seen anything like it, so here is a picture of how it stands at the moment.

Basically, you put on a shepherd, a cow, an angel etc each day and eventually create a nice nativity scene. The only issue is that they all tend to fall off rather dramatically when you even so much as breathe on it.

10. Watching rubbish Christmas telly
A family tradition in my house is to spend the run up to Christmas slobbing around, cooking, eating and watching horrendous films with a blanket on the sofa. Last year I think my mum and I watched Jump In! It's awful, don't watch it. It's like High School Musical but with, wait for it, skipping. Bad times. But it didn't matter, it was a bonding experience.


That's the end of my list, but before I go back to my roots in York to spend Christmas en famille, I'd like to take the opportunity to say a massive thank you for all your views and lovely messages this year. I will soon be writing for Kent Online (http://blogs.kentonline.co.uk), which I  never would have even considered without you. Who knows, maybe this is the start of great things?

Have a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011. 

See you soon!
Katie xxx

Simple pleasures

Today was an INSET day, a day off school for those of you who aren't in with all these technical terms. My 13 year old self would have probably gone shopping with my mum perhaps progressing to seeing friends by the time I got to year 11.
So what did I do today on my day of freedom I hear you ask? Wild 24 hour party? Trip to a theme park? Go up Laaandaaan?
No such luck.
Today, I worked for THE WHOLE DAY. That's right, on a day off, I did more work than I would usually do in a normal school day. There is something wrong here.
To keep my spirits up, I left the house briefly for about 20 minutes at lunchtime, and rewarded myself after a 2 hour History marathon with a magazine. This cheered me up no end, although some school girls did pinch the last copy of 'Look', and I had to settle for 'More', which is in danger of being confiscated by my mother because of the rude bits at the back.
But it is simple pleasures like these which make life better, so here is a list of some of my favourites.

1. Finding money you didn't realise you had. 

The best thing that happened to me once when  I was tidying and when I lifted up a book that I'd got for my birthday but had never read.... and £5 dropped out from my Grandpa! It made me feel loved and rich at the same time! I also love it when I put stuff in the secret pocket bits of my purse and discover a cheeky ten pounds about a month later. I should probably do this more often to save my money for a bit...

2. The song you actually want coming up on Shuffle.  

In my world, this is a sign from above that the day will be A Good Day. 

3. Finding leftovers in the fridge and making a veritable feast out of them. 

 My personal best is when I was confronted with: a packet of feta cheese, some chickpeas, butterbeans, a lettuce and some frozen sweetcorn. I produced a mean couscous-Greek-salad thing. Sadly today, my only choice was baked beans, but I can't wait to be a student and have a whole host of leftovers to make crazy meals with.

4. Getting a train you thought you'd missed.  

I almost get a rush of happiness when this happens on the rare occasions when I arrive at the station at 16.01 and still manage to make the 16.02. Most days, however, I get down to the platform, the train is STILL THERE, but the doors are shut. Swines.

5. Having the exact change for something.

Especially when you can use up all those pesky coppers

6. Fairy cake French Friday. 

 A phenomenon known only to my small but perfectly formed  French class. Last year, we had French every Friday before lunch, and it became a tradition for our teacher to bring in biscuits for the five of us. We adopted this ourselves for this year, and so far I have twice had the lovely surprise of rolling up (late) to class on a tedious Friday afternoon to discover a box of beautiful cakes. When it comes to my turn to provide cakes they will definitely NOT live up to the high standards set by the other two. The day I manage to position a sugar-paper flower or use crystallised violets or make a ginger fairy cake is the day when I will also magically become able to sew, paint, take beautiful photographs and generally morph into a domestic goddess.

7. NOT being late to French.  

Carrying on the theme, I made the rookie error of arriving late to our first class with the new teacher, thus earning myelf the nickname Latie [Lay-tee]. Previously, I considered myself to be a very puncutal person, but sadly I am now living up to my nickname. These days it is a nice surprise if I am not found trying to subtly sneak round the door while Mademoiselle's back is turned...never going to work in a class of five. 

8. Coming home to find tea in the teapot. 

 Saves the hastle of having to boil a kettle, and seems very homely. Even better if it is actually a drinkable temperature and not lukewarm.

9. Waking up before your alarm.  

This is about as likely to happen to me as someone asking my advice on Physics. So, when it does, it is a thing to be celebrated.

10. Clean sheets.

Guaranteed to erase worries and ensure a good night's sleep.

I was going to stop at ten, but there are just too many!

11.Finding a pair of tights without holes without having to raid someone else's supply.  

I constantly enrage my family and myself by getting 90% ready and then going off and doing something else. In the mornings I usually get completely ready except for tights and start making a cup of tea or having another slice of toast...and then have a manic two minutes trying to find a pair which do not have gaping holes in inappropriate places/ are not navy blue/bobbly/nail varnished beyond belief.

12. New socks. 

 I have no idea why, and this will definitely fix my reputation as a granny, but there is something about wearing new socks that are all soft before they get a hole in the toe or lose their elastic or get stolen by members of your family.

13. Tidying your wardrobe.   

When I get round to it, I always feel super efficient when I've had a good wardrobe clear out.  I class myself as superwoman if I separate my winter and summer clothes and put the unused ones into one of those vacuum bags under the bed.

14. Getting home just before it starts to rain

Phew.

15. Coming home when someone has done the shopping and the house is full of FOOOD!  

Shopping day is Thursday in my house and you have to be quick, because by Saturday, most of the good stuff is gone. In the same way, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, even Thursday afternoons if my dad is preoccupied, can be desperate times.

16. Because I just thought of another one. Unexpected bargains

One of these can transform my mood. The other day I bought what I thought was going to be a rip-off sequinny hairband, but turned out to be a steal at just £2.70! What a nice surprise at the till. But the ultimate bargain was when I bought a collection of Jane Austen books in a very pretty box (quiet you), which was labelled £30 reduced to £15. 'What a good price for five books', I thought to myself, only to get to the till and pay just a fiver for it! That is £1 per book! RESULT.

Before I destroy the limited street cred I ever had, I think that is enough for now. I'm off to go and watch one of my favourite programmes, The Apprentice-another simple pleasure!

Old age sets in...

Although I have just turned 18, I feel like old age is already upon me. I realised my true age when one morning, my sister had put on Radio 1 at breakfast and I came down and demanded that the radio be changed to Radio 4 because it was "too early for boom banger banger FM". I then proceeded to listen to the Today programme over a bowl of porridge.
See?
I'm ready for retirement RIGHT now. I might as well start claiming my pension.
Continuing the list theme, I'll start with a list of my favourite elderly things to do. But, it's going to take a computer form, because...yeah I won't lie, I can't be bothered to scan in a written one.
So, here are my guilty pleasures. Possibly the most uncool things ever, but they make me happy. Please don't laugh.
Here goes:

1. Radio 4. Obviously the best radio station. Who needs pop music when you have the comforting voices of the newsreaders to ease you into the day? And, apart from the horrendous Archers, there are some gems of programmes. Trust me.

2. Earl Grey tea. For when normal tea just won't do, the lovely added lemony taste is perfect, and feels very sophisticated.

3. Drinking tea, of any kind, at every opportunity. It seems that cool kids drink coffee. Yuck. Give me a cuppa anyday and I will love you forever.

4.Baking. My cakes may look to the untrained eye, like they have been made by a blind four year old, but to me, they are perfectly formed.

5. Wearing  pyjamas or bedsocks at every opportunity. So. Warm.

6. Reading the newspapers on a Saturday morning. I like to know what's going on in the world, and what better way to do it than with a paper as big as your whole armspan stretched across the breakfast table, resting on the marmalade?

7. Doing the crossword. My Granny once came second in the Yorkshire Post crossword competition, and I am obviously following in her footsteps. During study leave, I got into a routine of taking a break with some tea (Earl Grey, naturally) and the easy crossword in The Times, and always felt very pleased if I managed to finish it.

8. Arranging my bookshelf in height/colour order. To be fair, I am not as bad as my sister, who has arranged hers alphabetically.

9. Costume dramas. My absolute favourite thing about Sunday nights. Lark Rise to Candleford, Cranford, Downton Abbey-you name it, I've watched it and loved it. And the best thing is my late night texts to Abby discussing the relative benefits of each episode.

10. National Trust houses.  Perhaps the worst sin of them all, I actually ENJOY being dragged round stately homes by my parents. Shocker. But it's just like Pride and Prejudice, Miss Bennet.

Any other suggestions of granny things I should do are gratefully received, as are assurances that I am not the only one who enjoys one, or all of these things!

Listmania

I stumpled upon this beautiful blog, with my head in the clouds, where the girl (I presume it's a girl) has put together a collection of photography, book quotes and just general cool stuff to look at.

Iida (she's Finnish) has done two things that really caught my eye. She's put together a list of her favourite quotations from books, and done a really cool thing here where she's written down lists in one of those leather notebooks that I really want!

I am, if i say it myself, a mistress of lists. As we speak, I can see four lists papering the walls of my room, of various shapes and sizes. One of them is on a mini-whiteboard with a really cute picture of a little girl having a picnic with a rabbit, one is on the back of a letter from school, one is one some crazy French squared paper I stole off my dad, and one is on a horribly luminous pink Post-it. I do not know what I would do without my lists. I just need to write stuff down to remember it, otherwise it just gets lost in the soupy UCAS-dominated mess of my thoughts. I admit I have been know to write down things that I have already done just for the satisfaction of ticking them off. Ssssh...some may call it O.C.D-I call it organisation!


The bad thing is that recently, I have begun to forget my lists! When I wrote a list, it seemed to mark itself indellibly on my brain, like that horrible quill of Professor Umbridge's in Harry Potter, but without the blood. But now I can write a list, and forget I've made it, let alone what's on it. I blame the stress of Year 13...

To get back to my original point about with my head in the clouds, I am going to take her idea of lists, and add it to the idea of favourite book quotes to make what I hope will be a series of slightly different blog posts. I will take photos of my scrappy to-do lists as well as making new ones of my favourite things: book quotes, song lyrics,  French words, things about winter, cakes or er, socks? You name it, I will make a list about it!

So, keep your eyes peeled as my list obsession makes itself know on here. Let me know your suggestions via the Facebook Page. Enjoy!