papervolcano

I'm about to move to Reading. This has been in the works for about 2 months, but got kicked into gear a month ago when I got my new job. I'll point out that in the last 8 years, I've moved 12 times. I am good at moving house.

However, this move is turning into an epic arsemonkey. Mainly because I allowed someone else to plan The Carting Of The Crap.

This is the first time since uni that I'm moving into a new house with housemates I picked, rather than moving into a pre-established houseshare. As we're both converging on the new house from the same direction, it was decided that we'd move together - get one van to pick up him, then pick up me. This seemed like a reasonably, if complicated idea, with just some minor details to sort out.

Ha.

I offered my little brother as a mover/driver. Sibling is an Army Engineer, and so is very good at carrying heavy stuff from one place to another (and then blowing it up). Nooo, said housemate. I am Man, I will Sort It Out. I offered to go halves on a man-with-a-van - 'Nooo,' sayeth he, my mate said he might be able to do it, I will Sort It Out'. Unwisely, I did not strongly voice my opinions of said mate, who is known far and wide for his inability to throw a piss-up in a brewery, and suggested that we each move our own crap 'Noooo', he doth spake, 'my stepdad will be back from holiday at the weekend, surely he will assist'. 'Alas, I need to... get my hair cut?' said the alopecic stepfather. At this point, I did point out that it was 4 days until the intended day of moving and that fingers should really be removed from orifices. Also, that Sibling had dedicated this week to a scientific experiment involving vast quantities of alcohol and the point of liver failure, and so would be unlikely to be capable of lifting anything heavier than a pint glass, so that was one option down. 'I am Man', flatmate did say 'I will Sort It Out'. And Lo! On Monday, He did arrange a Man With A Van for a suspiciously low price. Alas!, said Man With A Van did call at 5pm on Tuesday to offer apologies for the mysteriously not-working van.

Which brings us to 6pm. Sibling has been roused from his drunken stupor, I now owe him half my organs and a million billion squillion quid, but he will be moving me to the new house tomorrow. Flatmate will be arranging his own transport. Possibly, even before he has to move out.

I am mildly tense. Cider is helping, as is expensive cake (fuck the diet). Still. Tense.

Have recently been writing and deleting very short LJ entries. Rather than spam away with those, I'm going to try resurrecting my twitter account as an actual repository for such nonsense, rather than my stalking of people.

I am Here. Anyone else I should be following?

Went to Bristol Comic Expo. Was fun. Finished my collection of Judge Dredd phonebooks, picked up the Mega-City Underground trade (pure awesome) and a stack of an indie comic - Fetishman, which is possibly best described as suicide bunnies do Batman in a fetish shop on Earth-something. Which probably isn't a good sales pitch, but it is silly nifty fun.

Didn't get any sketches or look at other indie books - negotiating the hall with my cane was wiping me out. I may end up going to Birmingham comic-thing purely to get some. I can't afford a page of Doug Braithwaite's comic art, but I can afford a convention sketch.

Panels were kind of crap, as they'd buggered up the overhead projector. Somewhere, I have a list of Vertigo stuff I need to buy (and why do I only hear of awesome Vertigo stuff to buy at these panels? Advertise, you fools!)

I really need to do some cooking so I have food for next week. So very not going to happen.

I've not commented on any of the recent fuckwittery for a lot of reasons. I'm not ignoring it, I just can't formulate a response that doesn't consist of one long string of expletives.

This is a recipe I've been meaning to post for a while. I nicked it out of my mum's collection of recipe cuttings (I have a stash of recipes almost an inch thick I've begged, borrowed and flat out stolen from her collection. It rivals my weekly comics haul), and I think she got it from Good Food magazine - the formatting looks like them (should I be able to identify cookery magazines by their layout? It seems a strange skill). I'm not sure why she hashad it, as she's not especially fond of this kind of stuff, and I've never seen her cook it. Never mind - this is one of my favourite things to have in the freezer, particularly for when I'm feeling fatigued/lazy/peckish/hungry

( Hot Sour Corn Soup )

Also! Adorable Boba Fett Amigurumi Also, Indiana Jones and Darth Vader crochet cuteness! Sometimes, I wish I were better at crochet and/or sculpy, because I keep seeing adorably cute things like this, and I'd love to make a Titans set (tell me you can't see Kory in that style). Alas, I'm a better knitter than crocheter. One day!

Oh Cock.

(I mean, I kind of knew this was coming and have been steeling myself for it, but Boris Johnson. The man is a pillock, a bumbling fool. I dread the day his handlers forget to gag him.)

(also. The fucking BNP have a seat in the London Assembly. London, I don't like you any more)

I had intended to post another recipe before now, but I am a slacker and also forgot.

Tonight, I am mainly attending this talk. Women and science and research and communication and debate and THIS IS RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS. Also, my degree, should I get round to restarting it.

It's the first time I've been to the Dana Center, and all I can say is that I am Fond. There is a very nice bar/cafe which serves nice food and very nice wine. They give me free wifi, and there is no shortage of power sockets. It's modern and grownup and there are tasty French waiters with dreadlocks.

People keep complementing my laptop. As I said, Fond.

Hopefully, I'll get round to writing up my thoughts on the actual lecture at some point. I've my first appointment with my ME specialist tomorrow, and that's making me a little nervous, mainly because I don't know what to expect.Meh, I'll find out soon enough.

There's a guy outside my window wearing a toga. I think it's liable to be in a non-ironic fashion (what with the rain and the Sunday afternoon and the conspicuous lack of parties nearby)

London? ♥

I do a hell of a lot of bitching and whining in this space, and it's annoying me. So I want to make a conscious change, and start posting about stuff I like. I'm not good at the kind of book/comic/tv reviewing I like to read, but I figure I can probably manage to talk about food and cooking.

I love food, you can tell from the size of my hips. Most of my earliest memories revolve around being in one kitchen or another. As soon as I was able to see over a kitchen counter and reliably hold a knife without killing myself, I was helping out. My mum trained as a chef, and prior to their divorce, my parents ran a pub together. It was in one of the most impoverished parts of the UK in the middle of a recession, so we're not talking about fancy gastropub food, but without her skills, the pub would never have done as well as it did. I can't hope to match her, but I can try.

I love cooking, but I've not really had the space before. I feel guilty when I use a shared kitchen to do big cookery, and the last time I lived alone, it was in a really quite dodgy bedsit. In my new flat, not only do I have the space, but I also appear to have inherited an entire kitchen full of stuff - most of which I kind of want to throw away. Balti pans and ice cream makers are fun, but what they're mainly doing is taking up space.

I want to do more cooking for a couple of reasons beyond the fun. First - in general, it's cheaper, and second - it's probably more healthy. I don't need to add umpteen preservatives, colourings, stabilisers or whatever, because I don't need to sell it to anyone else or have it stand on a supermarket shelf for however long. It's so much easier for me to monitor how much oil/butter/salt/sugar I use, and to substitute ingredients to be healthier or whatever. Also, I'm awkward to feed - have you ever tried to avoid tomatoes, olives and mushrooms when you're a vegetarian? Not fun.

Today, I have mainly been making bread. I don't know if there's a single thing I like making more than bread. It's easy, it's quick enough, and it's just full of sensation - the feel of kneading bread, the smell of it baking, the *taste* of just-baked bread. It also sounds sounds impressive, which feeds my ego. It doesn't take any particular skill or knack, but there's this perception of bread baking being difficult - so very not. I'd post photos, but my camera has decided not to talk to non-windows machines, git that it is.

( A really easy white loaf )