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atommickbrane

08:59 pm - all i'm saying is...

TOO MUCH FANNYDANGLE.

atommickbrane

09:39 am - urge for cape

I could totally knit one of these myself, couldn't I?

...??

atommickbrane

11:17 am - SAUSAGE

I was informed YESTERDAY by katstevens that this week is National Sausage Week. pink_weasel has covered this ground, but DEAR SAUSAGE PROMOTERS - get 1x ability to PROMOTE YR SAUSAGE! I could have been eating sausages ALL WEEK if only I had known.

For lunch I shall be hitting up "Banger Bros" (um?!) and I hope you will also all use your best endeavours to consume SAUSAGE. Salami etc all counts. Well, I say it counts and seeing as teh SAUSAGE PEOPLE have made no dissenting noise, my rules apply. W00.

Today I like:
♥ Caffe Nero free 10th coffee
♥ SWISS ROLL (M&S have to call it a 'sponge roll', lol, if you will)
♥ This Yudu screenprinting whatsit - would I like one of these? Have I ever screenprinted anything in my life?! Well perhaps not, but I am sure that I *would*...
♥ Pam is setting up a Handmade Holiday Christmas Craft Fair on Dec 5 - I plan to attend with a few pennies to spare!
♥ SAUSAGE.

Words for sausage: sausage, saucisson, banger, wurst, salchicha, ソーセージ, oh no!! The Dutch word for sausage is really actually worst... argh! And apparently, this is the Greek: λουκάνικο. Latin for sausage is probably 'eheu'. Who says my journal does not teach you all about cultures.

atommickbrane

12:21 pm - SOUP which is not tomato (!)

So, last night I made brilliant, simple pumpkin soup! It was delicious and filling and very sweet. If I'd had some bacon, I would have added that for a bit of a contrast, but as I didn't, fried bread it is. CROUTONS, if you will.

HERE IS HOW TO MAKE:

Get a munchkin from Sainsburys. These are baby pumpkins and so adorable argajgragrhkgjakr. It says do not store in the fridge, but if you have mice and you leave the munchkin out, the little fuckers will eat it. So you might as well put it in the fridge. Also get an onion and make sure you have some olive oil. Some bolst hot curry powder is good here too. And do not forget vegetable stock.

This is the annoying bit: peel and chop up your munchkin (munchkin!). This is irritating. I got better results going against the grain and can report back that leaving odd bits that the peeler can't reach unpeeled has no real effect. This takes the longest so I did it first..

Then, chop up yr onion and fry it in some olive oil. When they go all nice and caramelised after a few minutes on medium, add your chopped pumpkin and some curry powder. I used a tablespoon full. FRY for 10mins or so. When the pumpkin has gone a bit soft, add some vegetable stock and boil for a bit. The stock disappeared quite quickly for me so you might want to add more at some point. When the pumpkin is super soft and you are getting to a fairy thick mix, take soup OUT of pan, WHIZZ IT with MULTIWHIZZTHING, then put it back in the pan. You have a big thick mix, so add some MORE vegetable stock until it looks more like your favoured expectation of how thick a soup should look. Get it to that consistency, heat it up and then why don't you just EAT IT?

You can also fry up some pumpkin seeds and some bread cubes in a pan if you want to be FANCY.

Anyway, what I like about this recipe is that it is easy (apart from hassle chopping up munchkins that do NOT want to be chopped) and doesn't involve roasting the pumpkin, which takes AGES and involves heating up the oven which takes ages and feh bah nergh.

Another thing I did last night was start another attempt at making UNDERWEAR. It was all going well until I realised I had twisted the GUSSET, and upon realising you have a TWISTED GUSSET, you need to stop and have a sit down, don't you?

steam_doll

12:25 am - Rock, Paper, Cynic... how do I love thee?

RockPaperCynic.com

Current Mood: thoughtful

giro_playgirl

11:09 am - AAA-AAA THAT'S SIX A'S.

How and when exactly did it become November? I am confused - mainly because it only feels like it's been two minutes since I packed up all my belongings into a transit van and moved to Bootle. And now I've been here for three whole months! That's just bloody insane that is.

Then again, the reason time may be flying past me is because I'm having fun - even if I haven't been falling asleep in the gutters of the North West after wild nights out. I feel as though I've been slowing down recently, taking time to smell the flowers in my garden as it were. I think it's just safe to say that I'm content with my life of writing and writing and writing and baking and laughing at crap TV and the Adam and Joe show on Radio6 with the odd trip to the pub thrown in for good measure. Even bread making has become exciting to me now. I think this means that I'm getting old.

Actually, come to think of it, what do I mean that I think I'm getting old? Let's face facts here, I am getting old. It's my birthday on the 15th November - that's only a fortnight away folks - and I'm going to be the grand old age of TWENTY SEVEN. Jesus. When I was a teenager, I always thought that I'd either be dead, pregnant or editing the NME by now, so in some ways it's a bit of a shock to see that I've managed to get this far without no major catastrophe bar a minor nervous breakdown and a nasty case of eczema currently bubbling away on my right hand.

So yes. My birthday. I have no idea what I'm doing for it yet, but it's probably going to involve going to Manchester and it's definitely going to involve booze. I'm thinking of having some kind of piss-up in the Northern Quarter or thereabouts on the 13th 0r 15th November, probably somewhere like Trof or Odd. If you can read this and get to Manchester, you're invited. Otherwise it's just probably going to be me and mcgazz sat on our own telling each other knob gags. Which is a normal Friday night in for us actually. I'd quite like to go out dancing as well, but a) don't know what's on and b) you can fuck right off if you think I'm stepping foot in either the Star and Garter or Rockworld. I don't know. These things are always bloody complicated, and I usually tend to lose faith as people never can be arsed turning up anyway. Can someone - anyone - organise a birthday shindig for me whilst I just sit in the corner and neck whiskey like a more buxom version of Mark E. Smith?

thedavidx

08:00 am - A crash course for the ravers

Wham bam thank you ma'ams (and sirs) who came along to the Bowie Bash last night. What a super event. Those PopArt people really know how to throw a party. Nice to see so many people making an effort to dress up too. The Major Tom outfit was astonishing, and Sue Denim from Robots in Disguise came along dressed as the clown from Ashes to Ashes. Amazing.

White Witches gave a pretty good account of ourselves I thought. I enjoyed the other bands too. Best bit for me, though, was Indie Bingo. Not only did they play Anyone Fancy A Chocolate Digestive? but I won a Flight of the Conchords CD. Sexcellent.

Prior to that I'd been doing backing vocals on Keith's album with a veritable Who's That of indie. He's got a new song which has his cast of thousands singing "Ooh la la la, he's Keith Top of the Pops!" in a spooky falsetto interspersed with the occasional "Fuck you!" from the man himself. Class.

Coming up next: the annual Adam & the Ants convention this Saturday featuring the New Royal Family's third last gig ever. We have a generous allocation of guest tickets to dole out, so if you want to come, speak now or forever hold your peace. Need to know today. You will Kick! yourself if you Miss (Thing) this one.

Starts at 8. We're on at 9. Everything else you need to know should be here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114293899778&index=1

And so to bed.

Current Mood: accomplished

atommickbrane

07:25 pm - you can't have 'noodles' without 'snood'

Blimey! There is a lot of incredible crochet going on here! Crochet, er, bamboo water droppy thing, they have them in Okami... I am in utter awe.

Accessory time:I think I really want a MUFFLER! But but, wouldn't it be awesome if you had one with a little pocket in the inside that you could, say, keep yr travelcard in, or say £1.70 (enough for Cafe Nero requirements - oof, I think this price is reasonable but there is a voice in me going BAH COFFEE SHOULD BE 50p). Oh maybe if one bought some fun fur and one lined it with fabric that one has lying about? Perhaps?

Bizarrely, further googling for other MUFFLERS (it is a word that really demands capitals) mostly comes up with scarves (or silencers for car exhausts). Thus proving the internet doesn't know d. and we should probably diskard it all as a bad job.

Asos really is brill though, isn't it? This claims to be a snood jumpsuit - but where's the SNOOD? This snood dress is more like it. Snoodsnoodsnooodnoodsnoood.

atommickbrane

10:54 am - Sleepy

It's either the circadian rhythms or the lack of coffee that has flung me into a new lifestyle of being Sleepy all the flipping time; people: I am zonked. And there has been a strange twitch under my right eye. And you know the thing when you first wake up and you see little sleepytrails across your eyes for a while? Mine aren't going away! And the yawning, the constant yawning!

My christmas knitting (I've started!!) has been suffering as a result; I knit one row and then feel the urge just to 'rest my eyes', and the lace does *not* get done.

Goodness knows whether any of my three potential plans for tonight will pan out (rub zombie film COLIN, Music for GirlsGhouls!, Poptimism). If I had a COSTUME, I would feel obliged to go out but I have had zero time this week to get anything done, never mind sew a purple jacket and white dress and learn how to spirit channel. Bah!

I've spent this morning looking at FASHION BLOGS. This is a mistake as now I feel like the dumpiest, unfashionable person ever - well, I say 'unfashionable'... what I really mean is 'unstylish', as style is a much better tag for how I'd like to show myself rather than 'fashion'... which is just an everchanging whim from some muckymuck who thinks it'll be a larff to dress the latest tall anorexic in the 'cage skirt' or what have you.

Anyway, today I am wearing a pair of trousers which I got from a charity shop about four years ago, in order to wear to Glastonbury and then throw away (they are the only non-cropped trousers I own - the intention was to cover them in mud and throw them away, and four years later I am wearing them to work - argh!), a black tshirt (again about four years old!) and a purple cardigan. I am hardly BLOWING THE WORLD AWAY here. But then again, if I will sleep in so that I have approx 3 minutes in which to dress, what can I expect?

I expect that everyone else is far more fashionable than me, so what is EVERYONE WEARING today? Miu-Miu Cadburys Bunny pashminas I guess??

thedavidx

09:00 am - Oh frabjous day!

Happy birthday davidsmum! Thanks for making me.

This week I have been mostly swimming, reading Kafka and Lewis Carroll, watching The Night Porter too many times to be strictly healthy, working like a Trojan summarising the troubles of Hull City FC and First Quench Retail, and getting very excited about various upcoming rock'n'roll engagements.

The most pressing of these is White Witches' appearance at The Man Who Bowled the World Bowie Tribute shebang at Bloomsbury Bowling Alley this Sunday. It is FREE, we're on at 7pm and Mr Solo is also on the bill so it will be GRATE. As you may have heard, we have been recording at Jarvis Cocker's house. It's sounding quite good. And yes, he is as lovely as you probably think he is.

Then on Saturday 7th the New Royal Family will be playing the annual Adam & the Ants convention. I am so excited about this I feel like that 10-year-old boy who got to play the drums with them on Jim'll Fix It and made me DEAD JEL. But now, only 28 years later, I WIN!!!! Actual real life Ants Merrick, Terry Lee Miall and Gary Tibbs are all going to be there. We have a generous FREE GUESTLIST so if you fancy coming along please let me know ASAP. It will be fANTastic.

Then the following week we are apparently supporting Lloyd Grossman. Yes, that Lloyd Grossman. No, I can't believe it either. Sometimes life is even better than a dream.

Current Mood: saucy