So there I was out in Dalston in a bar with all my friends. We had been dancing pretty hard to some old school classics for a few hours and decided that at 3am it was time to call it a night as we are getting older now and apparently have no stamina.
We all made a start towards the front door when the most vile thing happened. Some man thought it would be appropriate to run his hands down my body and grab my arse. Not just a pinch either, this was a full on assault. I turned around and shouted at him and we tried to get him kicked out but to no avail.
My question is this. Why do some men think that this is acceptable behavior? What gives you the right to make me feel grimy and disgusting? Do you really think that I am going to turn around and beg for more?
I had been round a friend's house previously with no intention of going out (I'm easily persuaded when alcohol is involved) so therefore I was in leggings, a cami top and flat pumps with my hair pulled back. I was in no way dressed provocatively or looking for attention. So why on earth do I have to suffer this gross invasion of my personal space?
To make thing worse this isn't the first time it's happened. I stopped wearing low cut dresses on nights out a long time ago because men used to think it was ok to grab at my breasts and laugh about it or make some lewd comment. THIS IS NOT OK. I should be able to go out with my friends without feeling like I have to change what I want to wear just in case I get molested by some guy.
Perhaps you are thinking "Oh she's overrating, she should be flattered" but nothing about this is flattering. It makes me feel cheap and as much as I have tried to shrug it off and say "Oh well it was just a grab" I realised that I feel strongly enough about this that I needed to write something down, And if everyone who has been grabbed at against their will just said "Oh well" then nobody would say anything any more and it would become acceptable.
I'm a confident person, I called him out on it, but he still managed to make me feel small. I wonder if he knew how much this had affected me he would be sorry?
Really the point to this post is just to highlight that even if you think something is a joke, or you are feeling a bit randy or touchy feely, maybe just think about it for a second. It might still be playing on that person's mind several days later.
C x
Monday 29 September 2014
Sunday 28 September 2014
September Favourites
I can't believe we are on September Favourites! With only a few months (88 days) to go before Christmas we are getting very close to the end of the year which really does mean that the years fly by quicker the older you are!
Now on with the proceedings!
Music
Learning to Fly - FKJ
I feel like I might be a little bit late to join the party with James Blake's 'Retrograde' but it was played on a new show Leigh and I are watching called The Leftovers and I love it! The song. Not so sure about the programme yet....
Don't even get me started on alt-j's 'Every other freckle', I have listened to this song on repeat and I adore the lyrics! I also love that their are two different versions of the video which are really quite clever - make sure you watch both types. The link to the male version is below:
Books
The Secret Place by Tana French has FINALLY broken my bad reading spell and made me want to keep reading the book in every hour that I had which I haven't found in a novel in a while. As a murder mystery I expect there to be some twists and turns and I wasn't disappointed by this. I would definitely recommend giving this a read.
Fashion
I LOVE that it is coming into winter and I can start to wear all the rich reds and greens again. Here are a couple of pieces I have picked up this month:
Dorothy Perkins have a 30% off sale at the moment on all stock and Free Express Delivery on a basket over £30 so I took advantage of this! Sale ends at midnight!
Home
I picked up this adorable little chap earlier in the month and I just couldn't leave him in the shop. Perfect for every door stopping need!
Leigh has been asking me to get some kilner drinking jars for a while now and who am I to refuse a reason to go shopping?! I like the Cheers on these as it's a little different from plain jars.
Food/Drink
Chai Tea Latte has become my new favourite hot drink. I'm not really a hot drink fan but this is just bloody lovely and autumnal.
What do you get when you cross a doughnut and a muffin?
Duffins. Yes that's right. Duffins.They are just a little bit tasty if not very good for you!
Pesto Houmous is also a new discovery for me and I'm glad that I have found it because I could just eat tubs and tubs of it,
Quite a few favourites for the month! I love sitting down and writing about everything I've loved for the month, I hope you've like reading it :)
C x
Now on with the proceedings!
Music
Learning to Fly - FKJ
I feel like I might be a little bit late to join the party with James Blake's 'Retrograde' but it was played on a new show Leigh and I are watching called The Leftovers and I love it! The song. Not so sure about the programme yet....
Don't even get me started on alt-j's 'Every other freckle', I have listened to this song on repeat and I adore the lyrics! I also love that their are two different versions of the video which are really quite clever - make sure you watch both types. The link to the male version is below:
Books
The Secret Place by Tana French has FINALLY broken my bad reading spell and made me want to keep reading the book in every hour that I had which I haven't found in a novel in a while. As a murder mystery I expect there to be some twists and turns and I wasn't disappointed by this. I would definitely recommend giving this a read.
I LOVE that it is coming into winter and I can start to wear all the rich reds and greens again. Here are a couple of pieces I have picked up this month:
Dorothy Perkins have a 30% off sale at the moment on all stock and Free Express Delivery on a basket over £30 so I took advantage of this! Sale ends at midnight!
Home
I picked up this adorable little chap earlier in the month and I just couldn't leave him in the shop. Perfect for every door stopping need!
Leigh has been asking me to get some kilner drinking jars for a while now and who am I to refuse a reason to go shopping?! I like the Cheers on these as it's a little different from plain jars.
Food/Drink
Chai Tea Latte has become my new favourite hot drink. I'm not really a hot drink fan but this is just bloody lovely and autumnal.
What do you get when you cross a doughnut and a muffin?
Duffins. Yes that's right. Duffins.They are just a little bit tasty if not very good for you!
Pesto Houmous is also a new discovery for me and I'm glad that I have found it because I could just eat tubs and tubs of it,
Quite a few favourites for the month! I love sitting down and writing about everything I've loved for the month, I hope you've like reading it :)
C x
Monday 22 September 2014
Recipe - Apricot and Ginger Chutney
I've been wanting to make a chutney for ages but thought I needed to go out and buy a jam pan and so I kept putting it off. My lovely mother told me that she just used her deep bottomed pressure cooker pan so I set about to do the same!
I love ginger in recipes so this is perfect for me, especially as we are starting to go into autumn/winter so it feels appropriate to be bottling fruits and it smelled delicious whilst cooking.
Ingredients
350g dried apricots
100g sultanas
110g blanched almonds
350g granulated sugar
375ml white vinegar
3 onions
6" stem ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp ground ginger
Method to the Madness
Heat a large stainless steel pan over a medium heat until the pan is hot. Once hot combine the sugar and vinegar in the saucepan, stirring until a syrup mixture forms.
Add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer the mixture, uncovered for 45mins/1hour, until a thickened chutney forms.
NB. I burnt the first batch I made as it didn't seem to be cooking and it was in the same state after 45 minutes of simmering so I turned up the heat and went back to The X Factor resulting in a very blackened sludge at the bottom of my pan. YOU MUST SIMMER.
Preheat the oven to 170c and place your intended jars in the oven with it's lid to sterilise for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before spooning your chutney in and shutting the lid tight until you want to spread this very tasty chutney on some cheese and crackers!
C x
I love ginger in recipes so this is perfect for me, especially as we are starting to go into autumn/winter so it feels appropriate to be bottling fruits and it smelled delicious whilst cooking.
Ingredients
350g dried apricots
100g sultanas
110g blanched almonds
350g granulated sugar
375ml white vinegar
3 onions
6" stem ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp ground ginger
Method to the Madness
Heat a large stainless steel pan over a medium heat until the pan is hot. Once hot combine the sugar and vinegar in the saucepan, stirring until a syrup mixture forms.
Add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer the mixture, uncovered for 45mins/1hour, until a thickened chutney forms.
NB. I burnt the first batch I made as it didn't seem to be cooking and it was in the same state after 45 minutes of simmering so I turned up the heat and went back to The X Factor resulting in a very blackened sludge at the bottom of my pan. YOU MUST SIMMER.
Preheat the oven to 170c and place your intended jars in the oven with it's lid to sterilise for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before spooning your chutney in and shutting the lid tight until you want to spread this very tasty chutney on some cheese and crackers!
C x
Tuesday 16 September 2014
Lack of Inspiration
I have been a little bit quiet on the blog front this month. No special reason, I've just been a little stumped when it comes to blog post ideas.
Once again I wish I could tell you about all the fun and interesting things I have been doing but really it is just a case of me working late, drinking on the days I'm not working late and sitting in bed eating fried chicken at 3am.
I walked through London earlier today, and when I say London I mean the center of it all. The hell that is Oxford Street. It wasn't actually that bad at 8.30am, there was still some ducking and weaving, but there were no shops open at that hour so there was less agro than normal. Anyway, I was walking through Oxford Circus heading toward Piccadilly with a Starbucks in one hand and my mobile and cigarette in the other and I thought, 'Oh get me, people might think I'm a proper Londoner',until I ruined it all because I'd forgotten to plug my headphones in and the incredibly helpful Google maps lady told me to 'turn right at Regent's street' and I lost all credibility because only a non Londoner would need Google maps to get them from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus. Unless you just happen to be utterly crap at directions like me. The illusion I'd created was shattered by this point though and I thought to myself 'well it can't get worse, I might as well be a legit tourists and take some photos'. I tried to resist the urge to tell my fellow commuters I do in fact live here and they shouldn't judge me.
I've also been watching The Riot Club trailer on repeat because those boys are just too good to look at and well... why not? Other things I like to do in my spare time include:
Once again I wish I could tell you about all the fun and interesting things I have been doing but really it is just a case of me working late, drinking on the days I'm not working late and sitting in bed eating fried chicken at 3am.
I walked through London earlier today, and when I say London I mean the center of it all. The hell that is Oxford Street. It wasn't actually that bad at 8.30am, there was still some ducking and weaving, but there were no shops open at that hour so there was less agro than normal. Anyway, I was walking through Oxford Circus heading toward Piccadilly with a Starbucks in one hand and my mobile and cigarette in the other and I thought, 'Oh get me, people might think I'm a proper Londoner',until I ruined it all because I'd forgotten to plug my headphones in and the incredibly helpful Google maps lady told me to 'turn right at Regent's street' and I lost all credibility because only a non Londoner would need Google maps to get them from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus. Unless you just happen to be utterly crap at directions like me. The illusion I'd created was shattered by this point though and I thought to myself 'well it can't get worse, I might as well be a legit tourists and take some photos'. I tried to resist the urge to tell my fellow commuters I do in fact live here and they shouldn't judge me.
I've also been watching The Riot Club trailer on repeat because those boys are just too good to look at and well... why not? Other things I like to do in my spare time include:
- Eating burger cheese slices
- Getting lost in Buzzfeed
- Questioning why as of late I keep going out drinking without eating first resulting in a whole load of toilet bowl hugging
- Watching my cat stalk flies
- Doing anything but blogging really
Things I should be doing in my spare time:
- Going to the gym or in fact doing any form of exercise that doesn't just consist of getting up to turn the TV on
- Churning out blog posts at an alarming speed so you can all share my joy in life
- Going to the bank to sort my finances
- Being proactive in enjoying London and all it has to offer
I'm hoping that this is just a brief lapse in creativity but I need to find it soon because my course has started again and it requires me to write stories. If they need me to write a story about procrastination I'm the girl for the job. Or I might just have a sleep.
C x
Sunday 7 September 2014
Recipe - Chocolate, Cherry & Honeycomb Parfait
Ingredients
200g chocolate - I used milk as I'm not a massive fan of dark chocolate but the choice is yours!
85g blanched almonds
150g margarine
85g glace cherries
100g dried cranberries
For the honeycomb:
5tbsp granulated sugar
2tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method to the madness
Begin by making the honeycomb. Generously grease a baking tray with vegetable oil. Melt the sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat. Once it has all melted together turn up the heat until it bubbles into a gorgeous caramel colour.
Whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. The syrup will foam up and once it has pour it immediately into the greased baking tray and set aside in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Once set whack with a knife until you have broken it all up.
Line a loaf tin with enough clingfilm so there is some clingfilm hanging over the edge and try to make it as crease-free as possible. Roughly chop up the almonds before moving on to the chocolate mix.
Break up the chocolate into a glass bowl and add the margarine before heating over a pan of simmering water until they are melted together.
Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the chopped honeycomb, almonds, cherries and cranberries.
Spoon the mixture in to the tin and fold the overhanging clingfilm loosely over the parfait and pop in the freezer for an hour.
Remove from the freezer and transfer the parfait to the fridge until completely set. Once you're ready to serve, carefully lift the parfait from the tin, unwrap the clingfilm and cut into slices.
I think the second time I make this I will pour the mixture straight from the pan into the tin and freeze. I let the mixture cool for too long and as such the butter slightly separated itself. The mixture is a gooey, sticky sugary, melty taste explosion and I would recommend making this.
C x
200g chocolate - I used milk as I'm not a massive fan of dark chocolate but the choice is yours!
85g blanched almonds
150g margarine
85g glace cherries
100g dried cranberries
For the honeycomb:
5tbsp granulated sugar
2tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method to the madness
Begin by making the honeycomb. Generously grease a baking tray with vegetable oil. Melt the sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat. Once it has all melted together turn up the heat until it bubbles into a gorgeous caramel colour.
Whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. The syrup will foam up and once it has pour it immediately into the greased baking tray and set aside in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Line a loaf tin with enough clingfilm so there is some clingfilm hanging over the edge and try to make it as crease-free as possible. Roughly chop up the almonds before moving on to the chocolate mix.
Break up the chocolate into a glass bowl and add the margarine before heating over a pan of simmering water until they are melted together.
Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the chopped honeycomb, almonds, cherries and cranberries.
Spoon the mixture in to the tin and fold the overhanging clingfilm loosely over the parfait and pop in the freezer for an hour.
Remove from the freezer and transfer the parfait to the fridge until completely set. Once you're ready to serve, carefully lift the parfait from the tin, unwrap the clingfilm and cut into slices.
I think the second time I make this I will pour the mixture straight from the pan into the tin and freeze. I let the mixture cool for too long and as such the butter slightly separated itself. The mixture is a gooey, sticky sugary, melty taste explosion and I would recommend making this.
C x
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