London Town (Sunday)

This gallery contains 12 photos.

In English universities, at the moment we’re on holiday study leave over Easter. I decided to use my well earned time to go down to London (why yes, England is made of more places then just London) and have a peek … Continue reading →

Betty Crocker

I used to be the kid who bought in ‘Betty Crocker’ cakes that you bought from the supermarket freezer, then one Christmas (as is documented on my alternate blog) I decided to make cookies- and it changed my life.

Since then, I had only used packet mix to make a cheesecake (much simpler and cheaper, I assure you) as I knew how much better home-baking tasted. Only yesterday, I bought a Betty Crocker brownie mix.

Brownies are something that I never managed to secure; they always turned out too cakey and wrong. However, with this packet mix I found them coming out exactly the way I always wanted them.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not endorsing packet mixes at all; however, my point is that there’s no harm turning to the tried-and-tested if you desperately want to get something right.

In the photo, there’s a squidge on the top right hand corner, and that would be where I glazed the brownie with my home-made marmalade. I like my marmalade chunky, and decided to make a vat that morning as I had nothing better to do.

I haven’t got a recipe for it, as I just did what I thought was right. However, I can tell you that far too much sugar for my liking was involved. Turned out alright though, and I used it as topping for my next jammy tarts.

Tarts

I entered the kitchen today today to get a cup of tea and ended up with jam tarts instead. Oh dear. Here’s the recipe, it was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s.

INGREDIENTS

• Zest of a large orange
• 100g unsalted butter
• 150g plain flour
• 20g oat bran
• 3 tablespoons of marmalade
• 100g caster sugar
• Jam for the jammy tart bit.

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Put the sugar, oat bran and flour in a bowl together.
3. Cut the butter into cubes and stir it into the dry mixture. This works best with margarine.
4. Add in the orange zest and marmalade, stir.
5. Rub the wet and dry together until it forms large, wet crumbs.
6. Push into a dough.
7. Using about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough, push it flat and make ‘star shapes’ ensuring there’s enough of a dent below to add in jam.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are browning and allow to cool completely before eating.

Kony 2012

There’s currently a viral video going around on Facebook and the internet in general at the moment titled “Kony 2012″. What’s it about? Well, the number 1 most wanted man on the ICC’s (international criminal court) list at the moment! Why have you not heard of him? Because he’s not famous- yet.

Watch the video here. I promise you’ll want to help after.

—

Some quick facts (in case you don’t have half an hour to spare).

1. He is wanted by the ICC for crimes including rape, murder, crimes against humanity and more.
2. The leader of the LRA (Lords Resistance Army) that has been in existence since 1986, his party has no known goals.
3. He had kidnapped over 30,000 children to use in his ’cause’ often forcing them to murder family and friends.

For more detail, see Kony’s Wikipedia page here.

You can support the cause by purchasing a kit through here (the website went down on the 6th of March due to all the traffic), donating here or participating in your local ‘Blanket the Night event’.

Important Links:

• Kony 2012
• Invisible Children store
• Tumblr

Note: Apparently there have been fraud reports on the Invisible Children charity. However, $5 USD isn’t that much; donating that much will get you posters to participate in blanket the night. Besides, this is raising awareness for a good cause.
I have also checked Interpool and found no record of Kony.

Incy’s Home

For more, check my Flickr out here.

Listen, it’s really good!

For the last few days I’ve had ‘Born to Die’ by Lana Del Rey on repeat. I’ve never had a CD on repeat before, except for the Christmas ones, but I think they’re a bit different.

The first time I heard it, I didn’t like it. However, for some reason after about a month of having first previewed it, I got a craving to listen to the whole album. I listened to it and decided that it was quite nice, so I played it again, and again. I couldn’t get enough so after a week, I caved in and downloaded it off Itunes. Since then, it’s been playing non-stop on the stereo.

What makes it so special? Well, it’s refreshing compared to the current chart-toppers; I don’t like being told to ‘put my hands in the air’, or that ‘sexy b*tches’ actually have allure despite having just been compared to the ‘neighborhood whore’. The album is also passive; it doesn’t demand you do something or listen to a message you would (hopefully) never have in real-life. When it does, you can barely tell as it’s been disguised by Del Rey’s surreal voice working with the instrumentals. The album has a resounding beat that echoes through the whole piece uniting all the tracks, the effect comes out as promoting a sense of calm. A really nice sense of calm, and even though you can’t understand Del Rey for most of the songs, you have a feeling she’s on your side.

Del Rey’s album bridges the older genres- jazz, blues, classic- nicely with hip-hop, pop and all the other material they have playing at the moment. Like wine it goes with everything, but isn’t to everybody’s tastes. One of the flatmates described it as ‘whiny’ (gasp!). To those people, I would prescribe some Adele and when you get tired of listening to songs about break-up, try some Lana; upbeat but rather foggy-messaged.

Bottom line? Try it, it won’t hurt and sounds lovely. Del Rey’s done a good job.

 

How to be a University Student

So you’re about to go off to University and want to make sure you do it right, huh? How many drinks can you have before being called a drunk and how many until you’re safely out of the ‘prude’ zone? Is it finally safe to go around in your Marx paraphernalia because it’s ‘cool’?
University is a whole new experience and whether you think you’re prepared or not, it never hurts to take some advice from an expert (which, for the record, I’m not). So… Here it is!

1. Being a university student requires dedication! You can’t just rock up and expect to be able to get top marks; you need to read! By read I mean pretend to read, then cram a week before the exam by using Wikipedia and other various ‘legit’ sources. Practice leaving essays off until the last moment then writing them in an hour. This is a vital skill.
   In all seriousness though, try to find books that minimize the other reading you might have to do. If you have one book on Marx, and another book on Weber, why not get just the one on ‘The Founding Fathers of Sociology’, then boost the knowledge with the free (your new favorite word) resources of the library?
2. You have to have an appreciation for alcohol. Are you willing to do a midnight run down to the local store to grab a bottle of Vodka for your dorm? If not, don’t worry; you’re sober and have to stay behind to make sure they don’t set the house on fire anyway!
   Know your limit and also know how to maximize the potential of a single bottle. Two words: Jelly Shots.
3. Think keeping a diary is old school? Invest in a phone that has email push functions; you never have to check your emails again, and this can be a life saver when your lecturer decides to cancel their lecture twenty minutes ahead of schedule. If it’s a smartphone then you can also sync your calender with the university’s. Oh, the emails about ‘first come first serve specials’ also suddenly become a lot more relevant to you as well.
4. Get yourself a thermos. This means that you can bring your (still hot) coffee into the lecturer theatre with you without stinking the whole place out. Your friends, and other coffee-deprived individuals will thank you. You could also save some money with this method since some coffee shops will give you a discount if you bring your own thermos. We’re looking at you, Starbucks.
5. If you’re going to a catered university then cooking isn’t important. However, if you aren’t then don’t think you can just live off take-aways (EXPENSIVE!), frozen meals and instant noodles. Think using one day to cook yourself enough portions for the week then zapping them in the microwave. Think tinned ingredients so you don’t have to buy fresh and watch them wither. Think a bag of frozen vegetables to ensure you get enough fiber for the day!