LOTR, baby!

Okay, I was wrong. Five years ago when I tried to watch The Lord of the Rings I was tired and I couldn't really follow the plot. I got bored, so I turned it off and went to bed. And for the five years since I have been mercilessly mocked. When I have told people I didn't like it, asking them to keep in mind the fact that I had never read the books, they have scoffed at my lack of taste. I didn't say it was bad, really, just not interesting- a very unpopular point of view. But as I grow older and ever wiser, I realise the importance of flexibility. While some might consider it a sign of strength to take a stand- to form an opinion and then to stick by it no matter what, I completely disagree. I find it far more admirable to be open to new ideas- to be flexible, to evolve, to allow one's opinions to change in light of new information. And thus I freely admit that I was wrong. (Do you admire me now?) I watched the first film again last week, and it was good. Quite good. This time, instead of thinking, "why does this short dude have to take this ring everywhere?" I had Gordon to explain some things to me. I feel that I am a reasonably intelligent person- generally capable of following the plot of a blockbuster movie, but some of the details in this one are never really explained in a satisfactory way, and I am not one to be impressed or distracted by big battle scenes and a whole lot of special effects. I need to understand what's going on. So with the Gordon Commentary switched on it all made much more sense, and I found that it was really quite good. =) Then we rented the other two movies and had ourselves a nice little hobbity marathon. It was excellent. =) I must be off- it's coming up on elevenses and this hobbit is getting hungry. =) Mmmm... elf bread. =)

Domestic Goddess

Being (almost completely) vegan is wonderful. I feel great, physically, and I know I am greatly reducing my risk of developing a lot of serious heath problems in the future. Heart disease and cancer are bad. =( More importantly, I am doing what I can to distance myself from the almost inconceivably torturous and corrupt affair that is modern animal agriculture. Cute, fluffy animals are good. =) Then there’s the environment... Trees and potable water are good, too. =) So all of these things are good, right? Why isn’t everyone vegan? Well, my friends, there is downside. What is it they say? "If it seems too good to be true…" There’s one unfortunate fact that nobody ever mentions when they tout all of the many benefits of the vegan diet- one terrible truth that lies hidden between the lines of all the books… You have to learn to cook. It’s true. Tragic, but true. Especially true if you are unemployed. You see, here in Nottingham there are few options for a vegan meal out on the town, and even if there were thirty vegan restaurants I couldn’t afford to go to them. So I must cook. And even Sarah can’t eat linguine with garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots every day. (Well, I probably could, to tell the truth, but there was that little episode when I was a kid where I turned orange from just that kind of beta carotene binging, so I try to mix it up.) It’s hard to know what you’re getting when you eat out at a place where they don’t label things veggie or vegan on the menu, and I find that even if you ask about the food, often the employees have no idea if there’s chicken stock in the vegetable soup, and the guy who made it left at three, so there’s no way to find out. And frankly, I think Gordon is going to go shopping for a new girlfriend if I force feed him Bombay Potatoes one more time… There’s got to be a better way to get our daily ten servings of fruits and veg! To this end, I went to the library and checked out a couple of vegan cookbooks. =) I have tried two recipes so far with great success! =) A couple of nights ago we had Rigatoni & Spinach Crumble, and last night we had Leek & Potato Soup (both taken from this book) with bread that I actually baked! :o Who woulda thunk? So, perhaps this downside of my diet is actually an upside? An educational experience? An optimistic person would say yes- it is allowing me to develop new skills and enhancing my quality of life immeasurably. And I am an optimistic person. =) Martha Stewart I am not, it’s true, but definitely a domestic goddess in the making! =) Here is the recipe for the pasta dish! Try it! If I can do it, so can you! =)

Rigatoni & Spinach Crumble
From Cook Vegan by Richard Youngs

Ingredients
8 oz. (225 g) rigatoni pasta
2 Tbs. (45 ml) olive oil
1 medium onion
1 small pepper
2 generous handfuls of spinach
4 tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic (triple this if you’re me)
Sufficient breadcrumbs to cover
Handful of flaked almonds (I used ground almonds)

Method
Boil the rigatoni according to packet instructions. Drain and rinse. Meanwhile finely chop the onion, pepper, and tomatoes. Crush the garlic. Wash and roughly chop the spinach. Heat the oil in a large pan or wok and sauté the onion. When it has turned transparent add the pepper, tomatoes, garlic, and spinach. Cook until the spinach has softened and most of the liquid from it has evaporated. Add the cooked pasta, season, and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Top with enough breadcrumbs to cover and the flaked almonds. Place in a medium pre-heated oven and bake for about 15 minutes until brown on top. Serves two if you are a piggy like Gordon and me.

Birmingham (not Alabama)

Just returned from an overnight jaunt to lovely Birmingham! No disrespect to my UK home, but in the battle of the Hams (Birmingham v. Nottingham), I'd say we have a clear, undisputed champion, and it's simply not the Notts. =/ From the moment we got off the train we loved it! =) I didn't expect much- from what I had heard it was a dreadful place, polluted and industrial. But it has been though a renaissance in recent years- refurbishing, rebuilding, re-everything, really, and it is lovely! =) In a nutshell, the city was clean and beautiful- flowers everywhere, a lovely series of canals with footbridges, pedestrian areas, free museums, nice cafes, and very few scary young men with their hands down their track pants leering at you from in front of boarded-up businesses like you might see in some places... (In fact, I didn't see any of those in B-ham.) The purpose of our trip was to see Bright Eyes at Carling Academy. Never a dull moment when traveling... Our train was parked at the wrong end of the platform, and we wound up on a train going the total opposite direction... Not to worry, others had been fooled by the bad signing, too, and so four of us were stranded at Netherfield (not nearly as nice as it sounds, and most certainly not the country home of Jane Austen's Mr. Bingley). The next train back to Notts wasn't for hours, so we all got a cab back to the station together. The cab took forever to get there and one of us (possibly me) made the mistake of saying "at least it's a beautiful day out." Then the rains came. When our cab driver finally found us, we were wet and cold and intent on catching the 18:oo train. The driver wanted to get us there, too, and it was a ride right out of Pole Position. We arrived unscathed (except for the nausea) and got on the train with 4 minutes to spare. =) We stayed right in the city centre at Nitenite, a mini luxury hotel of sorts. Everything is very nice there- cozy beds, huge flat-screen tv, wifi, etc, but the rooms are TINY, so the prices are low. Adorable if you're not claustrophobic at all. I, for one, loved having a bed with walls on three sides and no windows to let in pesky sunlight in the morning. Seriously. If I had a million dollars I'd build myself a room like that (and a library for all of my books with a ladder on wheels). The concert was great- Bright Eyes was far better live than I had anticipated, and we went for post-show cocktails at The Shakespeare, a nice little pub in town. Saturday we hungrily wandered into the Mailbox, which used to be a postal sorting office, but is now a multi-story open-air shopping oasis. If you go all the way through it you end up at what is basically a very posh food court- tons of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating right on the canal. There's even a Nando's there for Andy. =) From there you can take footbridges and walk all around the canal, galleries, convention center, Brindley Place, Gas Street Basin, etc. We had lunch at the Canalside Cafe, which was excellent! Vegan food galore! Chilli, soups, bangers and mash- hard to find that stuff around these parts! It was delicious! =) The rest of the day was spent wandering around- bookstores, cafes, Muji, galleries, etc. Lovely. Got the evening train back and are now home, eagerly anticipating the Wimbledon final this afternoon. =) Tentatively planning to go back to Brum while we're here if we can swing it. Vegan bangers and mash are calling!

Wimbledon

I love Wimbledon. In fact, I have become almost obsessed with it over the last week or two. Never really been much of a tennis fan- I've seen a few matches here and there over the years- but now I can't stop watching! My two favourites at the moment are Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Not surprising considering they are the two highest-ranked players in the world... I do know how to pick 'em! =) Gordon is a Federer fan all the way- and why wouldn't he be? He is one of the best players in the history of the sport! His game is beautiful to watch- he makes every perfect shot seem effortless. I really hope he wins this year so he can have his five Wimbledon titles in a row. There's a reason he's number one, and I think it is likely to remain that way for a while. =) And then there's the surlier Spaniard- adorable young Rafael Nadal- his massive, unevenly pumped-up arms rippling out of an always-sleeveless shirt like a fiddler crab... He is slightly less cool on the court than Federer- he always looks a little bit angry and brooding when he's trying to concentrate. He is very powerful and exciting to watch. Sad to admit it, but I have been watching so much tennis this week that little Rafa (though he's not actually little at 6'1") was actually in my dream last night! He didn't say anything, which was disappointing, because his very thick Mallorcan accent is quite endearing, especially when he talks about playing on various "soofraces." Clay is definitely his best soofrace. His weird rituals involving sock adjusting, water bottle placement, and obsessive toweling off are unusual, and you know how I like unusual! (Though it seems as if he may need to invest in some new undies- he's always pulling at them through his capri pants during matches...) He's right-handed naturally, but plays with his left, which is even more impressive if you've ever tried to hit a ball over the net with your wrong hand (or any hand at all, in my case)! My hope is that he ends up in the final with Roger Federer, which is not unlikely. I'm glad Wimbledon is only a couple of weeks, because it's hard to watch so much tv without your eyeballs popping out of their sockets. That, and watching tennis only serves to remind me that I'm not the world number one... Last year I had decided it was my goal to win Wimbledon. Gordon bought me rackets for my birthday and we hit the ball around a couple of times. I was well on my way, really. But my game has been thrown off by the move. Yeah, packing up my rackets and storing them was a real blow, psychologically, and tennis is really won between the ears, you know... Really threw me off... Yeah, that's it. And Sharapova's looking quite good this year, so I doubt it's going to happen for me. Curses! So, I'll stick to watching it on telly for now, but don't be surprised if I pull a Martina Navratilova later in life and end up in the Olympics! (Maybe I'll be playing mixed doubles with Rafael Nadal!) It could happen! =)

Blog, Blog, Blog

Once upon a time in a land far, far away (and in a city quite noticeably more interested in recycling and juices not from concentrate) I started a blog. I wrote at least a couple of times a week- sometimes twice in one night, sharing stories about my life and links to videos about sheep. Those were the days, my friends. Now, as my young life flies by, my days filled with cooking, cycling, shopping, international travel, and eating crumpets, my priorities seem to have shifted. My zeal for communicating with the vast array of people who once flocked (in twos and threes!) to read my very important musings seems to have diminished inexplicably. Wherefore art thou diminished, zeal?! One would think that a state of unemployment would perhaps allow for more time to compose and expect to see a flourishing blog. And yet no. I have not worked a day since the end of April, and still my blog fields lay fallow! Disgraceful! :o So, in an effort to reestablish good relations with the throngs of readers (i.e. my mom), I offer an assurance that I shall try to be more consistent. Anything more and we'd all be disappointed in me when I didn't follow through. =/ Soooo... an update. This minute I sit downloading every song I have ever wanted (JJ Fad, Whodini, Falco anyone?) on my mom's computer in Atlanta. I am taking a much-needed (and yet somehow very tiring) break from last-minute preparations for her upcoming nuptials, which take place two days from today! Very much looking forward to a fantastic party- mom's wearing a sassy red dress, cousin Jodi is cooking up a mean Italian feast, and the venue is Le Moulin Rouge at Paris on Ponce. Fabulous. =) I return to the UK on the 26th, whereupon I shall present my shiny, new work visa and begin the fun, fun process of finding a job for which I qualify. Looking for something that will allow me to keep weekends off for wacky adventures with my dashing kiwi gentleman friend- very important, as many of these weekend jaunts have already been booked and paid for (in a pretty nonrefundable kind of way)... So, I leave you now with pictures of the countryside- okay, really just a few miles away from our flat! There's a ten-mile bike path around Nottingham which takes you to some very green and pretty areas alongside the canal and the river Trent. Midway around you can pop off the path and explore Attenborough Nature Centre, which we did. Even saw some sheep! A lovely day. =) More lovely days and lovely blogs about them to come. =)

"Look! I made your piggy stripy!"

This is our pink stripy piggy. He is technically a doorstop. Gordon bought him to keep our lounge door (which is weirdly spring-loaded like our other interior doors) open. But to me he is much more than a doorstop. He is my friend. He is the only friend I have in Nottingham so far. I know things will be different when I have a job, but since the Eurovision party the longest conversation I have had face to face with a human (Gordon doesn't count) was with the guy who tried to sell me vision insurance in the mall. He was nice. And the postman dropped off something once and said a whole sentence to me. That was good. But the piggy is there for me every day, holding the door for me when I come in after a long day of shopping, "struggling with bags from Tesco", Aldi, and Holland & Barrett. Sometimes we have a nice cup of tea and a chat about the weather. When Gordon comes home the piggy holds the salt shaker for us while we eat dinner. He likes to wear my shoes (the piggy- not Gordon). He has buttons for eyes, for nostrils, and for hip flexors. I know that if one of our shirts lost a button that the stripy piggy would sacrifice his own comfort and donate a hip flexor or a nostril, because that's the kind of piggy he is. I only wish that everyone could have such a lovely piggy friend. Then nobody would eat bacon. Especially not the stripy kind.

Flying the Flag

It was all worth it. Packing, moving, leaving my jobs, my apartment, and my home country- all of it. Because I have seen the light. I have found something brilliant, something dazzling. The void in my soul, heretofore inexplicable, has been filled, its mystery unraveled. I know what I have been missing all this time, why I could never be completely happy. And I can tell you now what it was, in one simple word. It's a word I had heard previously in passing, but I never really knew its meaning. (No, I am not talking about crumpets, though I could write an equally adulating bit of prose about those-- amazing little syrup-permeable English ambassadors that they are.) What is it- this thing that my soul cried out for, that I would wait 30 long years to know and to understand? In a word, Eurovision. That's right. The Eurovision Song Contest. Brilliance. Sheer brilliance. I can't think of another way to put it. All of the adjectives I can muster seem inadequate. And, I regret to inform, that it seems it must be seen to be believed. And you've missed it. But I saw it, and believe me when I say that I am forever changed! =) Okay, so what is it, this Eurovision? Well, it's a contest where each European country gets to submit one song, basically, and there's an enormous final- a raucous and over-the-top affair characterised by campy music, dizzying light displays, and nutty costumes, where they all get together and perform their songs and all the people of Europe vote for the winner. It's fantastic. Confused? Learn the basic rules. One of the best things about the UK broadcast of the show has to be the wry commentary, provided by Sir Terry Wogan, who is terribly rude at times, but hilarious! I enjoyed my first official Eurovision experience at a party thrown by a couple of Gordon's friends. I didn't know anyone there, but we were quickly bonded by the international spirit and the frenzied emotions brought about by this unique and fantastic event. =) It's amazing how much I have missed, but my hostess and her friends were veritable founts of Eurovision knowledge! They taught me, for instance, that Celine Dion had actually represented Switzerland in 1988 and won! And that Katrina and the Waves (who used to walk on sunshine in the 80's) came back and won for the UK in 1997. Who woulda thunk? They seemed to know just about everything there was to know about the contest's history; they could quote Terry's commentary from years past, and could sing along with every song when they flashed back to clips from decades ago. I was amazed at their ability to sing along with this year's entries, regardless of language (having purchased the cd's in advance) and to predict to whom exactly each country would give it's highest scores. Amazing. Where have I been all of these years?! How could I have missed all of this?! Never again, my friends. Much to Gordon's dismay, I have bought this year's cd set and shall definitely be tuning in again next year- no matter where I'm living! :o Now, I have not been able to locate much footage of the finals online, but I did find this gem from the Ukraine, one of the highest scoring groups on my personal scorecard. (Yes, we had scorecards at the party with categories ranging from best gratuitous key change to weirdest lyrics or costumes- extra points for wardrobe malfunctions, along with a rousing game of Pin the Tail on Macedonia. Quite the shindig!) Other favourites included the entries from the UK, Greece, France, and Sweden, none of which actually did very well in the official voting. The Ukraine actually did quite well, but they were sadly kept in second place by the unimpressive ballad-y entry from Serbia, to my surprise. The western countries did quite poorly on the whole, and there are quite a few rumours going around about some kind of corrupt Eastern European "block voting" practices, the details of which I do not yet understand... Anyhow, Eurovision may have its critics, but I found it fantastic! Many thanks to Craig and Kate for inviting an ignorant stranger to the party of the year (and for making vegan chili)! And for those of you in the States who can't be here to enjoy this, don't worry- I'm "Flying the Flag (For You)!"