Home Archive RSS Ask

Have just returned from a few lovely days in Bath. Normally when I go on holiday I try to pack as much as possible into my days, soaking up as much of the place I am in as I can. Instead, this time I wandered and meandered and sat and drank tea, and gave plenty of time to stare at beautiful places like this: 

And this:

 I am exhausted, but relaxed, and finally appreciating the good that not working for a little while can do. The return to work is going to come around all too quickly.

Feeling pretty chilly.

Once again it has been an inordinately large amount of time. Apologies for infrequency.

This Christmas has been the busiest ever, seeing friends, old and new, running backwards and forwards between my house and Cambridge on an increasingly frequent basis, eating a lot of amazing food, procrastinating over essays, baking, drinking, playing Sopio, and occasionally sleeping. 

2012 thus far is lovely. This evening I cycled through Cambridge and wished I’d done it more often. Resolution 1: cycle more. 

I really should’ve sat down and formulated my happiness project for this year before now, but in all honesty right now I feel like I don’t need it that much. There are things that I will endeavour to do more, like be more considerate and tidy as I go along, but for the time being it doesn’t seem worth making a happiness project when you are already incredibly happy. I’m still reading The Happiness Project though (I am the slowest reader ever), because it makes me feel reassured, that when I’m not feeling so great, there are options and ways that I can make myself and others feel better. 

There’s a lot of stuff I have to read about postmodernism over the next few weeks that I’m really not looking forward to. But in 5 months and 6 days I will be handing in my final essay knowing that I have finally finished my degree, which is the best thought right now. Maybe I should start a countdown clock.

Oh, hey, I didn’t see you there…

I would like to pretend that I’ve been so quiet recently because I’ve been writing on here a whole lot, but that would be a lie (although I have been writing a bit, so read that).

Instead I have been caught up in the Christmas world of retail, which at best is busy, and at worst, completely mental, learning to play Sopio and feeling cold a lot. Winter has finally hit, and having no heating in my house at the moment does not make for comfortable living. So I have been huddled up in bed watching the second season of the West Wing instead of writing on here, when I haven’t been hiding out at other places that are warmer than my house. 

On a brighter note, I am clearing some space in my schedule (or neglecting some work) to bake tomorrow evening - it’s been too long, and I need to start making Christmas-themed things. Nom. 

I’m still reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, because as well as being freezing, I have also become the world’s slowest reader. But it’s incredibly interesting seeing someone’s ideas on the small things you can do to make yourself happier. Apparently our level of happiness is 50% genetics, 10-20% life circumstances (e.g. health, age, marital status, income), and the rest is the result of how we think and act.

I took the Authentic Happiness Test which gave me something like 3.7 out of 5. That’s pretty good. But there are plenty of things that bother me on a day to day basis, and so, like Gretchen Rubin, I will be properly embarking on my own Happiness Project during 2012. I’ve already started a bit, but things have been so crazy recently that I haven’t really been able to dedicate time to setting goals and starting resolutions. Excuses excuses. I know. Some of the resolutions I particularly identified with were ‘tackling nagging tasks’ (I put things off a lot) and ‘the one-minute rule’, where you do something straight away if you know you can do it in under a minute - I practiced this regularly for a week and felt a lot better for it. Before I let it slip. Oh, 2012, you will be the year when I don’t let my resolutions slip ever. 

And now I’m going to get into bed and watch the West Wing before I freeze to death. 

I have been a little quiet of late. Things are getting busy in the run-up to Christmas. One thing I have been doing recently though is starting up this transatlantic baking blog with my Canadian friend Jordi. We are writing about all of our baking experiences, good and bad, and today I have been making maple cheesecake (which I’ve yet to taste, but man, it smells amaaazing - so you can read about that on there. 

I’ve started reading a book called The Happiness Project which is really interesting, and I’ll write about that in a few days. 

thedailywhat:

Breaking Arrested Development News of the Day: It’s official: The Bluths are coming back.

Netflix, in partnership with 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Television, will revive the critically acclaimed show, streaming new episodes to members starting in early 2013.

“Arrested Development is one of the finest American comedies in TV history and its return through Netflix is a perfect example of how we are working closely with studios and networks to provide consumers with entertainment they love,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos in a statement.

“After a long hiatus, I’m dying to finally get back to the narrator’s microphone,” said executive producer Ron Howard. “It’s Arrested…Development.”

[thr.]

YESSSSSSSSSS!

thedailywhat:

So This Happened of the Day: During last night’s annual Michael J. Fox Foundation fundraiser — A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson’s — the man himself strapped on a Gibson 1963 ES-345TD and rocked out to Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” in a reenactment of his iconic Back to the Future scene.

Best part? Whether intentional or not, the event just so happened to take place on the 56th anniversary of The Enchantment Under The Sea dance.

[dailymail / huffpo.]

LEGEND

Today was nice. My head is finally better, and I had a baking afternoon - making the above tart, jam tarts and double chocolate cookies. 

Now I am going to watch Merlin. Tomorrow I have to start working hard again…

thedailywhat:

Mr. Lovenstein.

this is me.

A few days ago now, a couple of large heavy books landed on my head. This was mostly my fault (the book has to accept some responsibility), and perhaps the only real hazard of working in bookselling (apart from paper cuts). A trip to A&E followed, because I was incoherent enough to provoke my colleague to ask me if I’d been smoking weed as well as being hit by a falling object. 

Anyway, I’ve spent the last three days wandering about feeling dizzy and tired and waiting for my head to heal enough so that I can read and watch TV and walk again without feeling like I’m going to fall over/throw up. I think that time has finally arrived. So now I’m going to go and make chocolate and salted caramel tart, and try and finally finish The Selected Works of T.S Spivet which I have been reading for at least 6 weeks now…

(Source: mylifeaskath16610)