Seeing as i'm stuck on the ferry to shetland with nothing to do, except blog and read blind willow sleeping woman, a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami i thought i would treat you all to a nice christmassy blog... and yes i do know its a little early but i probably won't get another chance to update this till after the new year so i figured i would get it done before Christmas was actually upon us so without further ado here it is a round up of christmas inspired things from recipes to books and songs/poetry all about that special winter holiday (god that sounds cheesy when i read it back)...

 CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS CAKE
 the following recipe is a copy from nigella lawsons feast book and can be found in the chocolate cake hall of fame chapter. It has now become the cake of choice in our family and imo is much better than a traditional fruitcake...
 you will need
 350g prunes
 250g raisins
 125g currants
 50g piece candied orange peel
 175g softened butter
 175ml runny honey
 125ml tia maria ( or any other coffee flavoured liquer, for a change cointreau would probs work as well)
 juice and zest of 3 oranges
 1tsp mixed spice
 4 tblsp cocoa powder
 3eggs beaten together
 150g plain flour
 75g ground almonds
 half a teaspoon each of bicarb and baking powder.

 prepare the tin in the normal method for baking a fruitcake and preheat the oven to gas mark 2 or 150 degrees celcius. Place all the ingridients except for the eggs, flour, almonds bicarb and baking powder in to alarge heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil simmer gently for 10 minutes then REMOVE  from the heat and let it cool for 30 minutes. Once cooled add the remaining ingredients and stir gently, pour into prepped tin and bake in prehated oven for 1 and 3/4 - 2 hours it should feel firm on the top when cooked although the skewer method doesnt actually work as this makes quite a sticky cake so it the skewer will come out ;looking sticky even when its had the full cooking time ...

 we've all heard the traditional 12 days of christmas song but this is one of my favourite versions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2O0GOfolNA&feature=related i dont think i would be able to sing the traditional version now even if i wanted to ....

lazy student 10 minute supper

right the following recipe is the results of me staring in frustration at the contents of my cupboard/fridge and wondering what in the world i'm going to have for my tea so without further ado i give you the "lazy student 10 minute supper"

 you will need:
 3 fish fingers
 2 rashers of smoked back bacon
 half a mug of pasta and the same of frozen peas
 a dollop of ketchup
 a knob of butter
 a smallish saucepan
 boiling water ( enough to cover the pasta in the pan)
 a grill set to the ighest temp it'll go to

 what to do:
 1. wack the bacon and the fish fingers under the grill at the same time put the pasta onto the hob to cook. Once 5 minutes are up turn the bacon and the fish fingers.
 2. about 7 minutes into the cooking time add the peas to the water the pasta is cooking and boil on high for remaining 3 minutes
 3. once 10 mins are up drain pasta and peas and tip back into saucepan.
 4. tear bacon (which should be nice and crispy by now) and the fish fingers in to the pasta add ketchup (as much or as little as you like) and a good knob of butter and give everything a quick stir before tipping the lot into a bowl and tucking in

 nb the above definatley isn't something you would serve at a posh dinner party and is more the kind of thing that you would cook up and eat after coming home at 3 in the  morning from a wild night out and hey its semi balanced after all it contains the 3 major food groups and the fish fingers could be substituted for sausages although i would reccomend cutting the sausages in half lengthways to cut down on cooking time. finally any of the meaty ingridients can easily be swapped for vegeterian substitutes :)

 let me know if you've tried this and what you think of it

mouldy cheese, comments etc to the usual address or you know just post a comment on here lol

10 things that have made my week

10. rediscovering my love for classical music
 9. having the week off college due to snow even though i only live 2 minutes walk away
 8. i finally got around to reading all my etsy newsletter emails and whilst i've got a snowballs chance in hell of actually being able to afford the items i want i still had a very pleasurable evening of drooling over pretty things
 7. cups of tea and mr kipling festive bakewell tarts omnomnom
 6. taking part in the bbc book challenge and discovering i'd read 96 of the books listed , the bbc book challenege for anyone who doesnt know is a list of 100 books compiled by the bbc  and there is a group on facebook where you can tick all the books on the list that you've read popular belief is that the average person will have read only 6 of the books on the list.
 5. its nearing christmas time yay for advent calenders and christmassy stuff in general
 4. i have a bottle of wine sitting in my fridge which is just crying out to be cracked upon and have acheeky glass taken out of it :)
 3 this tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0faT_aNicGc&list=QL&playnext=5 its making me feel slightly teary eyed but so what its pretty :)
 2 www.flutterbydaisy.co.uk check it out there's loads of pretty things on there and her blog is just the right mix of whimsical fairytale prettiness and and something a little harder to decipher
 1. playing with my makeup i managed to get a passable makeup look for an elfin warrior/archer concept that i'm working on and once i've perfected it i'll put a couple of pictures up on here :)

harry potter and the deathly hallows part 1 and Jrock

so after 2 weeks i figure i should update the old blog ...
as you can probably all guess from the title i went and saw the new harry potter film a couple of weeks ago or so... and this is what i thought of it
i absolutley loved it this film in particular is so much darker than the previous films which isn't that surprising as i reckon the deathly hallows is probably the darkest book out of the lot of them i have to admit that there were certain issues that annoyed me in the film but thats more to do with me being picky then anything else, in general though the film is a fairly good representation of the book and i can't wait to see what they do with the second film and the battle scene, although i'm not looking forward to watching the bit where fred, tonks, remus and severus die mainly because i know i'll probably spend most of the time crying at those points, i cried when dobby died and i knew it was coming so the fact that i'm going to have to watch some of my favourite characters die is going to be even worse :(
On a slightly more cheerful note i've recently refound my collection of Jrock music and have been having a fabulous time with getting reaquainted with bands like:

Nightmare
TRAX
Gackt
MiYaVi
Alice Nine
Malice Mizer
D
Janne Da Arc
Due 'le quartz
Kra
Kaggra
X-Japan
Raphael
Antic Cafe
Vidoll
Baroque
SID (Shido)
Merry
Sex Machineguns
The Dead Popstars
Phantasmagoria
Rentrer en Soi
DAIGO STARDUST
Clavier
the Pumpkin Head
CRAZE
ANTHEM
Scar.
FAIRY FORE
GARI
KING
MUCC
12012.
Kagerou.
Deathgaze.
Balzac.
GISM.
i'd actually forgotten how much i love Jrock and visual kei :) 

filthy gorgeous, harry potter and book of the week

well today was an eventful day...
 As a treat one of the makeup lecturers on my course organised a trip to the filthy gorgoeous counter in glasgows debenhams, filthy gorgeous for those of you that don't know is a salon and beauty brand who originally started in london, they are a fairly new company but i can already see them doing well for themselves especially as they are so much more than just a salon they also do airbrushing, tempory tattoos and various treatments as well as having various beauty products for sale which include evry thing from cleansers to bath products and scented candles, they also have their own range of jewellery which is fabulously quirky i'm rather enamoured by the charm necklace with mini coke tins.
as part of the trip one of the things we got to do, after having a quick demo, was use the air guns i have to say i would whole heartedly reccomend getting an airbrushing kit as once you get used to the application technique its really easy to use and you get perfectly flawless and even coverage, yet it doesn't feel heavy it just feels nice and light weight...
 after we'd finished a couple of the other girls and myself went a long to kfc to get something to eat which was a goode laugh.
 I have to admit that i really enjoyed myself not only was the trip enjoyable and informative but it was also nice getting to know some of the lasses a bit better outside the clasroom environment and i had a really good laugh with some of them.
In other news i'm planning on seeing harry potter at some point this weekend, here's hoping it'l be as good as it looks as i couldn't help feeling slightly dissapointed by the last couple of movies, there were just too many instances where the film deviated from the books the order of the pheonix being a particular culprit, now i expect films that are based on books to deviate from the books slightly but not to the extent that the last couple of harry potter films did... i swhall let you all know my thoughts on it over the weekend
one final thing is my reccomended read of the week and that is..
please don't make me go by john fenton, its one of those true life books much like a child called it and whilst there are some harrowing scenes, its set in a catholic run correctional facility for juvenile delinquents, there are also some really touching scenes and you can't help feeling glad when something nice finally happens to the main character... i would reccomend this book purely because its a good tale about the ability of the human spirit to withstand various hardships, and whilst there is a strong religious theme throgh out the book its not preachy or condescending in the slightest but rather allows you an insite as to why some people find religon a comfort.

twilight rant

i have decided to write about some thing that has annoyed me for a long time and that is the twilight franchise. Now i have several reasons for disliking twilight, not least because Stephanie Meyer has single handed raped the world of literature as we know it, i shall however do my best to keep the list to 30 reasons. So without further ado here it is.

30. Despite her obvious efforts, Valley author Stephanie Meyer is simply an awful writer. I feel horrible saying it, but at this point it has been made clear to the entire world. Sadly, I think her overly simple and cliche writing is what makes the book so appealing. Cracking open a thesaurus doesn't make you a novelist.

29. I want to hit Bella. Not only does the character lack any sort of emotional depth, she allows herself to fall into the arms of an effing vampire. Any sane person would be weary of the situation. Not only that, but she proceeds to continue a bizarre codependent relationship with him. This "I love you … but stay away from me … but come here anyway," BS that Edward pulls is just unhealthy.

28. the books aren't well written, just because every other word is a fancy adjective doesn't make it a good piece of literature, hell i know 5 year old who could probably write better than her

27. S Meyer breaks all the rules for vampires set by more esteemed authors, somewhere out there Bram stoker is turning in his grave.

26. if Bella is so plain why do so many guys fall for her within the first couple of chapters? last time i checked if you were plain and had to move schools and countries it took months to fit in properly, Bella seems to be all popular pretty much as soon as she steps through the doors of forks high school.

25. Bella teaches women to let the man handle everything, which pretty much is a huge step backward for women everywhere, who have fought for equality 

24. Edward is extremely possessive, borderline abusive - he mentally abuses Bella which IMO is worse than physical abuse as there is no way to prove it, a point in case is when he removes the engine from her car and refuse to let her see one of her best friends. he's also boring as hell. 

23. read Anne Rice - those are vampires not the girly men that Meyer has created. 

22. Stephen king himself has said that Stephanie Meyer cant write worth a damn.

21 VAMPIRES DO NOT EFFING SPARKLE, they die a horrible and painful death when they go out in the sun. 

20. and on that note who the hell has heard of a vegetarian vampire before this, just because they drink animal blood instead of human blood doesn't make them vegetarian FYI its still blood it shouldn't make a difference as to whether its human or not. 

19. Edward and Bella are not in love they are in lust there is a rather significant difference between the two of them look it up. 

18. Edward is a 107 year old virgin who enjoys watching a 16 year old girl sleep at night because that's not wrong at all

17. the books promote the culture of rape, abuse, pedophilia, suicide and the idea that its perfectly okay to get pregnant and drop out of college. 

15. the twilight saga has single handed set feminism back a 100 years, insulted literature and turned 14year old fan girls bat shit insane all in one nice little package.

14. Bella is the biggest set back to female self esteem since we were all expected to do all the housework. 

13. Bella swan means beautiful swan someone please shoot Stephanie Meyer. 

12. the plot contains nothing original and is overused. 

11. glittery vampire = FAIL  

10. how to make your ex get over you, give him your new born child. 

9. twilight teaches teens that boyfriends who stalk you and stop you from seeing your friends are the good kind of boyfriend (they're not) #

8. the entire series is poorly written and researched 

7. how can a vampire someone who is already dead have a child with someone even if the other person is living? 

6 twilight implies that its rather touching when your boyfriend says he cant live without you and will kill himself because you don't love. no just no 

5 the books wouldn't be half as time wasting if Meyer would just shut up about Edward's eyes, they're amber we get it. 

4. the books are completely sexist 

3. Meyer constantly contradicts her own plot. 

2. there's a fine line between fantasy and illogical crap and Meyer has found it. 

1. how can the Cullen's (especially jasper who has a problem with self control) attend high school every girl there must have started their period by then, how can they stand the blood. 

and there you have my 30 reasons as to why i dislike twilight 

the perfect winter coat

hello there,
now i know i haven't updated in awhile *ducks rotten food stuffs*so i thought i would just write a quick piece so that no one thinks i've died a horrible and painful death... I would makeup an excuse about not having oodles of time on my hands due to college but that would be a blatent mistruth, i'm just lazy >.<
Now as a slight deveation from from the usual bookish type blog i thought i would post something about my search for the perfect winter coat, cause i figure it deserves a blog and i'm rather pleased with my purchase :)
I first decided that i needed a new coat in the middle of august, the old one was looking decidedly the worse for wear several buttons were missing, the seams had pretty much gone and it had faded to a rather icky grey there was also the rather irritating problem of there being no firetruckin pockets... Now believe it or not i am actually very fussy about the coats that i wear and the coat i had in mind was very specific, it would have to be wool either pure or a wool polyester mix, in either grey, black or purple, i cant stand this trend for camel coloured coats etc anything camel coloured should be left in the past where it belongs. The coat ideally would be militaryish in style, with double breasted buttons and it would nip in at the waist. See i told you i was fussy,
after getting an idea of what i wanted i immediatley set out  to track down the elusive item, starting in my hometown i went into every possible shop that sells coats, not including charity shops this really only amounts to three possible shops, shop number one threw up a couple of possibillity's that contained at least 4 of the requirements i wanted, unfortunatley they ddn't fit, casing me to curse my cleavage quite viscously, shop number two was the same and shop number three had nothing. I decided to carry on the search when i came down south to attend college and for the next few months went into every possible clothes shop from primark to peacocks and everything in between, still nothing, even my searches in the internet were fruitless, i did manage to find a couple of coats that i really liked but i couldn't justify spending the amount of money that they required on them - modcloth i'm looking at you-
time was swiftly moving on and it was coming up to the middle of November, i needed a new coat by the end of the week or the winter was going to be extremely unpleasant, so after getting rather frantic i decided to try the one clothes shop i hadn't tried thus far NEWLOOK, and miracle of all miracles i found the perfect coat, i could have wept and if i was the kind of person given to public displays of emotion i would have.
 This is the coat in question, i'm afraid that if i tried to describe it i wouldn't do it justice but suffice to say it is exactly what i was looking for and at the very reasonable price of £50 quid with a student discount i couldn't say no
http://www.newlook.com/shop/womens/jackets-and-coats/hankie-hem-coat_198781209
 well i hope you enjoyed reading that and i shall blog again soon.

I Shall Wear Midnight

hmm well i feel like i should write up a small blog even if its just to let you all know that i have every intention of keepin this up :) the only problem is that i have no idea what to write about ...
i could write about the most recent terry pratchett book that i've read i suppose
right here goes hopefully i'll do it justice and give it a review that it deserves :)
I Shall Wear Midnight is the most recent in a series of books about a witch called Tiffany Aching by Terry Pratchett like the rest of the books about tiffany its set in the disc world, a world which bears some similarities to ours and also some very noticeable differances the main one being that the disc world is flat and sits atop four elephants riding on the back of a giant turtle which drifts through space.
this particular series started of with the wee free men and carries on into a hat full of sky, winter smith and i shall wear midnight. of course it goes with out saying that all 50 of the discworld books are linked to each other although its not entirely neccessary to read them in order it does help to gain an understanding of the discworld.  Anyway i digress, as stated before I Shall Wear Midnight is the latest in a set of books about tiffany aching
Tiffany Aching is a witch. And she thinks she's doing a good job for the people of the Chalk (which bears a startling similarity to the area in england which has a rather infamous carving of a giant man on a hill side). Even if the job does seem to involve a lot of bandaging legs and cutting old ladies toenails and not a lot in the way of well magic or sleep.
However they're is a rather malevolent presence around which was first seen around the time when burning witches at the stake was considered a popular pastime and it waking up all the old stories about evil old witches, just imagine all the usual stuff spinning wheels, tall towers, and that age old tradition of witches turning milk sour anf generally being the cause of everything going wrong and you're pretty close.
suddenly Tiffany isn't entirely sure she's doing the right thing and matters are not helped by her allies the nac mac feegles, think ancient celtic warriors only imagine them being 3inches tall and even more fond of fighting and drinking then the real thing and that gives you a good idea of their character, they are also extremely loyal and they speak in very broad scottish accents.
Things are supposed to look better after a good nights sleep but needless to say they don't they look a whole lot worse, and tiffany must use all her knowledge to deal with it as a witch must deal with whats in front of her.
Tiffany is by far my favourite fictional heroine mainly because of the fact that she is perfectly capable of looking after her self and isn't taken to having fits of the vapours nor needs saving by some dashing young man like a lot of other fictional heroines indeed she seems to do most of the saving including hitting the faierie queen with a frying pan so that she would release a captive (see the wee free men for more details)
the great theing about the Terry Pratchett books is that they have a brilliantly funny dialogue with high peaks of imagination as well as a passion for language, wordplay and puns burst from the pages frequently making one laught out loud (not so good when your on  a bus or train as it causes you to get several funny looks from the other passengers...
I think this is definatley my favourite Discworld novel after the amazing maurice and his educated rodents which will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first Pratchett book that i read back when i was 10 and at a very impressionable age i have been hooked ever since :)
I await the next Discworld installation with bated breath heres hoping that i wont have very long to wait

my first blog :)

so i decided after reading a few other blogs on this site that i would have a go a creating my own...
i feel like i'm jumping on the proverbial bandwagon a little but to be frank its quite a nice bandwagon to be on and i refuse to jump on the twitter bandwagon.
I should probably tell you a little bit about myself ...
well my names sophie and i come from shetland much like another blogger on here (no prizes for guessing who though) Although i am currently situated in greenock studying the NQ to makeup artistry and hairdressing at the james watt college and enjoying it very much :)
i am also a massive terry pratchett fan to the point where its a bit of an obsession really as the rest of this blog will probably prove, just to give you an example a while back i was watching telly as i tend to do when i'm bored and have nothing to read which luckily doesn't happen very often on the reading sense anyway, and i saw an advert for a film version of going postal now imagine my delight at this and then my dissapoitment when i realised it was on a fecking sky channel cue much begging on my part for mum and dad to get a sky subscription just so that i could watch it, they didn't to which i spent the grand total of 2 days not speaking to them , i told you i was obsessed.
well i should probably sign off now before i bore whoever reads this to tears...
ttfn
sophie