The Art of Baking

Good evening all! I hope we are all well.

As many of you may know, I love to bake. I used to bake ALL the time; cookies, cakes, brownies, everything. I love to see how things are going to turn out! I also have a baking partner, my wonderful friend Tara Mani Lundie. I love my baking partner. She's one of my bessies :)

Some of you may have been lucky enough to taste my chocolate chip cookies at some point in your lives. I used to make these with my Mum when I was about 11, and I attempted to make them in Food Tech once and they didn't go too well looks-wise, but by George did they taste nice! I didn't think I was going to get a very good mark, but then the teacher tried them and gave me 20/20, oh yes! I then didn't make the cookies again for a rather long time, until about year 12, when it was my friend's birthday. We were deciding whether to make him a cake or something, then I thought about my cookies. I tried them again and they were a great success! Well, at first no-one ate them but I thought okay, fair enough, random cookies at a party. T

hen I made someone eat one and they loved it. Therefore, within 2 minutes they had all gone and life was a GREAT SUCCESS (Borat). From then on, they were in high demand. They made an appearance at almost every gathering of friends we had, and were eaten rather quickly. I once made them at my friend's house, and we ate them warm. They were delicious. For another friend's birthday, I made her a GIANT cookie (see picture). It was YUM! As you can see :) I tried throughout first year to make some cookies but our oven was shocking so it burnt everything and they obviously didn't have the same effect so I didn't let anyone eat them. I made an excellent batch fairly recently, which obviously got gobbled up pretty quickly!

Now onto my other culinary successes. These include a marble cake, an Owl Cake, 2 wonderful chocolate cakes for birthdays/Christmas meal and chocolate fondants. Tara and I made the marble cake and chocolate fondants. However, we had a slight mis-hap on the marble cake making. Tara believed that putting the oven on at 230 degrees would be a reasonable temperature to put the oven on at; she was being impatient, and wished to make the cake be ready to eat quicker. This definitely did not go well, and just resulted in a burnt cake. However, we cut off the burnt bits and made some amazing icing (after Tara poured boiling water onto the chocolate to melt it!) that covered it and you couldn't tell it wasn't brilliant looking. However, again, it tasted amazing. A success. Tara and I have also made the Owl Cake and the chocolate fondants. Both were incredible, both to look at and eat!

I have definitely ranted about this, but I do love to bake. Baking is amazing, and makes me feel good. If anyone would ever wish for me to bake them something, just let me know. I am good. :)

Love and peace to all,

kjxxx

The Lives We Lead

Good evening all! I hope we are all well.

You currently find me hungover in bed, and having already been in bed for at least half an hour (time is now 10pm). I know it has been a very long time since I last blogged, but time has not been my friend recently. So little of it, and so much to do in that time. We've had so much work, and Christmas was hardly a holiday; more of a break from lectures and seminars just to do our assignments. I know the moment I step into school on Monday I'll be fine and I'll know why I'm doing it all, but I know I'm not the only one whose feeling like I'm losing sight of why I'm doing all this work in the first place. But tomorrow, we're going to go shopping and enjoy our last day of not having an urgent need to do work right that second and shop our little minds away.

Now, for the main reason of my blog. The drama that we have had this week has been UNREAL. After waking up last Saturday morning to discover that friend #1 had gone back with friend #2's friend after Fruity, things went from bad to worse. Friend #2 found out, and was ignoring friend #1. #2 had every right to do this of course, but it just made an already awkward house even more uncomfortable. Then friend of #2 piped up thinking #1 has 'issues'. And told me that I needed to tell her this, along with him saying a lot of other stuff that upset me greatly. So on Thursday night, I told #1, in the nicest possible way, a few things that upset her. The situation really upset me too, because I hate being the bearer of bad news, and yes, it does always seem to be me being this bearer. It was with the house, and it was with the issues, and I am actually quite fed up of it. It's one of those things; regardless of if one person is portraying the views of many, they will always be the one to hold the blame because its just a psychological thing to associate the awful feelings you have when you hear bad news with the person who told you. So I'm now going to be associated in her mind with bad feelings because I'm always the one to tell her. Now, does this make me a good or a bad friend? Personally, I feel shit about it. I've had a shit week, and I just can't wait to get on placement and forget about this all. My main hope is that once we get on placement and we're all tired in the evenings, the atmosphere will just start to get better. Because at the moment, its unbearable. We can't all sit in the same room together without someone getting pissed off. It's really upsetting because these are two of the most stubborn people you'll ever meet, and while they've both been wronged, we all have to live together. They've never been the best of friends, but it's never been this bad. You can never please everyone, and at the moment, I'm pleasing no-one. I feel crap. I literally hate talking about this all because it just upsets me so much but I've had to get this off my chest.

Love and peace to all,

kjxxx

Miss Kayleigh O'Brien :)

Good evening/morning all! I hope we are all well.

I haven't written a blog for ages, so here I am, bored and looking at fetish underwear on ebay, and Kayleigh thought it would be nice for me to write a blog, solely about herself. I willingly obliged! ;)

Kayleigh is well cool. She has brown curly hair and brown eyes, and has recently turned 22. Here is her photo:

As you can see, she is very pretty. The bell she is holding says 'Ring for Sex' :) And lets face it, if she was the one responding to that bell, you would ring it ;)

Kayleigh is from Northamptonshire. She works in a care home when she is not at University with me :) (We do Primary Education woop woop!)

Kayleigh is a very good friend of mine. We talk about lots of things together and spend lots of time together, and now we live in the same house. We go on late night trips to ASDA and to boys houses. We insult each other, but also know that it doesn't mean anything. That is why were are good together. We are good.

Last year, in halls, Kayleigh and I would eat dinner together almost every night. Sausage pasta bake, eggy mess, quiche ... the possibilities were endless. This is when we decided to get married on Facebook. We would sit for hours on end discussing the most controversial topics, like religion and war and everything to do with education.

This isn't a very long blog, but it is a good blog.

I love Kayleigh. She is my wifey4lifey.

Love you babe.

Love and peace to all,

kjxxx

Eventful Times Ahead

Good afternoon all! I hope we are all well.

Today I wish to discuss a few things again. Today is my last full day as a fresher in halls. I've been packing for the last two days gradually, and I actually think I have generally everything packed. I know I have a few little things around that once I have everything else loaded up I will have to go around and collect to take home but for now I feel pretty ready to go. However, I am not actually going home - I am going to my Aunty's for a week, and am dogsitting at the weekend, which means I will not get home until next Tuesday, 1st June. Yes, JUNE! How is it almost June already?! Then once I get home I'm going straight up to Bronwen's on the Wednesday for a couple of days, and then we are off to our DoubleTake day in London on the Friday :D I've seen loads of people have these days and put the photos on Facebook, and however much I would like to do this, I have looked at the prices and there is nooo way that I could afford these, but it will be a really good experience. After this I am home for a couple of weeks, then back up to Leeds to see the house girls for next year and move the stuff I'm leaving here into the new house. We will probably go out on the 1st July, then I will go home on the 2nd July, spend 2 days at home, then I'm off to Ireland with Emma on the 5th July for a week ... I am non-stop until then really. But then I will be home properly for the summer and I can just do my thingg :)

Next off, saying goodbye. Kayleigh left us on Monday straight after our presentation, but I know I'll talk to her like every couple of days on the phone because she's clingy like that :P. It was weird only cooking for myself though! I went back with Leanne to Stoke/Alton Towers on Tuesday, and then came back to Leeds on Thursday. It was sad times leaving Leanne, but I know I'll see her again in about 6 weeks anyway when we move across to the house. I also said goodbye to Faye on Friday. This was somehow harder than saying bye to Leanne. I will miss them both the same, but Faye's more emotional I guess so saying bye was quite weird, although it was good that she was on the phone and we were in the middle of the pavement so we had no time to get upset or silly! Which was good. I'm seeing Sam in a bit but I won't be sad leaving him cause he's a loser. :)

Item number three - I have just applied for a job as an extra in "Adult Films". LOL. It's really well paid apparently and you can just be a background extra, a voyeur or get really into it with the 'popular porn stars'. HAHA. What an experience it would be!! My brother John is also really keen for me to get it, so he and his friend can pitch their ideas to a real producer lol. This could generally be a really good thing. Or it could be awful. But we'll hope it's brilliant lol. Fingers crossed for me guys! Haha.

Well I best be off,

Love and peace to all,

kjxxx

Anything to not do work!

Good afternoon all! I hope we are all well.

This afternoon I wish to discuss a few things again. The first of which is the weather. Today was, apparently, meant to be the hottest day of the year. Yet it is now cold and raining. Why can the Met office never get it right? They say it's meant to be sunny with clouds tomorrow, and I hope it is, because the kids at school don't burn off their excess energy when they have indoor play, and there are so many more problems when they don't go outside. I also hope that we haven't had the hot summer that's meant to follow a very cold winter already, because that would suck. I go home from uni on the 25th May but if it's a crappy summer I will be stuck inside, going insane, for the entire thing. Bring back the good old hot British Summer! I want ice cream on the pier!

The next is the ridiculous amount of work I have to do. I don't feel like it is that much, but then I remember something ELSE I have to do and then I start to panic. I thought I had finished my subject knowledge files, but my English one is looking too thin, even though it did take me a while to do. Not the alloted 30 hours of course, but it took me a fair amount of time. Ahhh why do we do this to ourselves?! Why don't we do work when it gets set?! I'll tell you why. Because we don't anticipate that we will have assignments in for every topic within a week of each other. I hate this!! I want to be enjoying my weekend away from school, not having to get up at half 6, but I'm here 'doing work' ... aka doing anything other than work! And realistically I only have one night this week to do work - Monday night Palace are playing West Brom on tv, so GOT to watch that, Wednesday-Friday I'm away with the children from my school on a residential [which I'm REALLY excited about!!], so Tuesday is the only night this week that I can realistically do any work. And I am going to the Palace match against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday, so that is another day gone - however there is a bank holiday on the Monday so not too bad. Oh Oh Oh! I have just received a phonecall telling me that the emails asking for Maths and English subject knowledge files have been sent out soooo I have not received one, meaning I am most likely safe from the terrors of handing mine in! Oh the joys!

I'm so happy about that I'm going to go celebrate.

Love and peace,

kjxxx

It's been a while

Good evening all! I hope we are all well.

This evening I wish to discuss a few things.

First of all, I am proud to say I got sunburnt over my Easter holidays, at home, in Purley. It was 18 degrees centigrade apparently, and I did not anticipate that I would be in the sun ALL DAY. I was asked to work at my tennis club from half 9 until half 12, and that was fine, so there I went with my friend Emma from down the road in the car. The next thing I knew I was being asked to work all day, and due to my need for money I obviously agreed, not really appreciating that I didn't really have the time to go for lunch. But half 12 came, and after watching Dan attempt to change the tyre on his car I went home to grab some lunch, assuming John would be in to drive me back for half 1. I was wrong; he was not in. So I grabbed a banana sandwich and ran to get the bus back - thank God for Amy's oyster card! I managed to get back and was only 3 minutes late. At this point I realised I hadn't left my jumper at the tennis club, contrary to my earlier thoughts, so I text Emma asking if my jumper was in her car. It was not. Know where it was? In Dan's car. I was next to his car for 2 minutes and I managed to leave my jumper in it. Anyway, in my quick lunch break I hadn't managed to get any sun cream, so I burnt that afternoon. Which then threw my outfit for that night's trip to Tiger out the window! So I had to wear a sleeved dress. Boo! End of part 1.

Secondly, I will talk about a great night out I had over Easter. Lydia, Joe and I all started off going to Tesco and purchasing a lot of alcohol - around £35 worth? - including the biggest bottle of Vodka I have ever seen! :
It was 1.5 litres. Wowza I think is in order! We made a few jugs of Woo Woo, Sex on the Beach, Vodka, Schnapps and OJ then Lemonade and then some Vodka Jelly [which didn't set] lol. So you'd be right if you thought we would be rather drunk! Here is a photo of me DOWNING the jelly:
Courtesy of Luke! Not sure if that's what made me ill? Most probably was. Anyway, after all this downing, having my nails painted by Lewis, and random/weird photos being taken, we left to get the bus to tiger at the early hour of 8 pm. Those of us that got in were in by 9. Had 3 glasses of Champagne and was home by 1.45. Good times! Until I was horrendously ill. But that is all part of a good night out!

Thirdly [and finally] I wish to talk about appreciation. When I was 4, I visited Malaysia for the first time. As far as I remember, I loved it. Then, when I was 11, my Dad moved there for 3 years. I visited him 5 times [free flights each time lol] and I loved it each and every time. And obviously, it was a family holiday. I have also been to Thailand, Singapore, Borneo, USA [many parts of it] France, Spain, Lanzarote, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. I loved every one of them. I love travelling, I would do it for my entire life if I could. I know other people who are also well travelled, who go skiing every year, go on great holidays every year, yet it isn't appreciated by the 14 year old. She cried the whole night before and morning that they were leaving, and wrote it all over Facebook that she didn't want to go. Okay then, you don't go, I will go in your place. ANYONE would happily go in her place. Silly girl.

Anyway, that's me done - only taken me about 2 hours to write this!

Love and peace to all,


kjxxx

Home.

Good evening all, I hope we are all well!

Tonight I wish to discuss the concept of "home". This is because I am going home, to Purley, in two days time. This time in two days I will be at home - this is a very exciting thing for me. Because you see I have not been home since the 9th January - so this weekend would have been 11 weeks since I have seen my house, my friends, and my Dad (I saw my Mum 9 weeks ago, and John a month ago). This is a really scary thought.

When I was starting year 7, my Dad moved to Malaysia with his work. While this was great as we got free flights to go and see him, so in essence free holidays, we obviously missed him greatly. We as a family have always had an emotional attachment to Malaysia from a holiday in 1996, so any chance to go back there was willingly jumped at. We have so many great memories there, from riding elephants to snorkeling in the shallows of tiny islands to seeing orang-utans up close in their sanctuary. Anyway, I will now relate this to "home". In an exam once, I think it was in year 9 or 10, I was asked to describe my home. I took around 5 minutes to decide whether I was going to describe my home in Purley, or describe my Dad's flat in Malaysia, and roughly describe the country. So I decided to do both, which was a nice idea but in the end, a bad choice, as I ran out of time! But as I wrote my "essay", I realised how much I really missed Malaysia, so I knew I could have written the whole thing on home being in Malaysia. But although I think this, I know I'd've missed my "other home" in Purley. Confusion, confusion.

Next, saying "I'm going home." I often used to use this term when talking to Lydia when we were going back to her house. I suppose her house was a home from home for me so it is understandable, but I have recently found that I refer to the place I am staying that day/night as "home" - for instance, Mum came to visit me in Leeds and we stayed in a hotel for the night and when we were at the pub having tea, I said something about going "home", and Mum knew what I meant because she does the same, but that's when I really realised that I do it. But I think this just indicates that I feel comfortable wherever I call "home."

Having said all this, I know there is only one home for me, and that is in Purley. I LOVE my house, I love my garden, I love my road, I love the area, for me, it is everything that "home" should be. I don't know how I'm going to establish myself in a home that isn't in Purley, but I will try my hardest! And you know what they say, you don't know what the future holds. You never know I may settle down really easily!

Love and peace to all,

kjxxx