A Domino Effect

A list of things I love you say?  Well OK then, but only because it’s Thursday…

Edinburgh sunsets. Tonight’s was a bluey pinky haze that set off all those church spires to perfection.  When Edinburgh looks like this there really is nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.  Of course when it looks like this there are plenty of places I’d rather be.  Swings and roundabouts, chaps, swings and roundabouts.

Swimming. After what feels like an eternity, the Royal Commonwealth Pool is back in business.  When browsing the opening times earlier in the week I came across this page.  It’s a timeline of peoples’ memories about the pool, going right back to the 60s when it opened.  It’s actually quite touching reading about peoples’ memories of school holidays and “chips on the way home”.  I had only been to the pool once prior to it closing for its mammoth refurbishment, as part of a school trip when I was 11.  I went back this evening and was mightily impressed all round, especially with the lane spacing (what? it matters!).  Wide enough to allow me to pass another swimmer without accidentally punching them in the face, not so wide that the lane divider was so far out of my reach that I should worry about drowning.  Such is the standard by which ALL swimming pool lanes should be measured, I think.

The return of The Apprentice. And here I was wondering what would fill the void left by Masterchef.  Disgustingly compelling viewing.

Kit Kat Chunky. Belgian Waffle was talking about these recently, and as soon as the idea had lodged itself in my mind I was all but powerless to say no.  I’m glad I didn’t: these things are lip smackingly delicious.  I think it’s the thickness of the chocolate: a good 5mm either side of the crunchy wafery bit.  No messing around.

Storytime. This week has been all about getting to bed by 10pm and opening up a book.  I’m currently reading A Week in December, and have plans to move onto Shalimar The Clown followed by Wuthering Heights (I’ve bored you all before with tales of my apathy towards “the classics” but given my undying love for Jane Eyre I’m considering making a standing exception for the Brontë sisters.  Considering).

Manning up.  It’s no secret that I hate using the phone.  I wish I loved it, but I don’t.  I wish I could pick up the receiver with abandon, be awesome at the small talk and instinctively just know how to fill all those awkward pauses where neither participant in the conversation actually knows what’s going on.  But I can’t.  Sometimes in life, however, we don’t get the luxury of a choice.  So today, faced with an absolutely unavoidable phone call I decided that I could either freak the eff out or man the eff up.  In the end I managed it, albeit with a small measure of internal bribery (you’re not drinking a SINGLE DROP of coffee until you pick up that piece of plastic and DO THIS THING.  This turned out to be a winning strategy: my feeble phone phobia is small fry compared to my wanton caffeine addiction).  I might have run to the bathroom and fist-pumped the air afterwards.  Might have.

Anyway, more than enough about me.  What’s happening in your world today?

Image above from here.

This weekend has been brilliantly quiet and relaxing.  I wasn’t in any particular need of such a peaceful window of time, but it’s never not nice to enjoy a couple of obligation-free days of reading, walks and cycling in the sunshine, eating pizza and cake, drinking wine and coffee and watching the usual quota of films and TV.  The weather over the past couple of days has been truly Spring-like.  Still nippy enough to warrant a jacket, but dazzlingly sunny nonetheless.  After months of cold, dreary Winter (when we didn’t even get any snow!) it feels so good to finally have the sun on my face again, to look at daffodils, to feel the afternoon light stretch into the evening.  My boyfriend and I cycled along the Union Canal towpath last night, just as the sun was beginning to slink its way down beneath the Pentlands.  The atmosphere down on the canal was almost carnival like in its bustle: dogs, runners, walkers and cyclists, all out to enjoy the first proper day of Spring and to bid a firm goodbye to the shackles of Winter.

The upcoming week holds holiday planning, swimming (I’m excited to visit the newly refurbished Royal Commonwealth Pool here in Edinburgh, which seems to have been closed forever) and -- wait for it -- the start of the 2012 caravan season!  On the blogging front, I’m due to guest post here at some point during the next couple of days.  Congratulations to Paul on his reaching 500 paragraph film reviews (500!).  Keep your eyes peeled blog buds.  In the meantime, enjoy a mash-up (or three) on me.  Found yesterday when I was researching my post on music -- Grease vs Snoop Dogg is my favourite.

I used to come over all paranoid when people asked me what kind of music I liked.  For some bizarre reason I regarded it as one of the most loaded questions there was; one that required an answer worthy of grave head nodding and deep throated ‘mmm-hmm’-ing.  Needless to say, I could never give one.  I always ended up mumbling something about “liking a bit of everything” before retreating into a corner and berating myself for not being very cool.

At one point I actually asked myself whether I was into music at all, so unrefined were my responses to this kind of question.

As I’ve grown up, however, I’ve come to appreciate my taste in music for what it is.  That liking The Four Tops, Rhianna and the Manic Street Preachers in equal measure doesn’t mean I’m not into music, all it means is that I don’t have a particularly niche taste, or a ‘go-to’ genre.  Some days I listen to this and think melancholic thoughts, while other days I listen to this and jump up and down on my bed.  Some days I play Bowie on repeat, other days I watch dance videos from the 90s on YouTube for three hours straight, pining for the lost days of glow sticks and Smirnoff Ice.  My musical proclivities aren’t a reflection of the brains in my head, the people I associate with or the job I do.  They don’t inform my political views, they don’t (usually) inspire my writing and they rarely help me out at pub quizzes, because the chances are high that I’ll nothing about a song apart from the fact that “I LOVE THIS!”..

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  All anyone’s taste in music comes down to is a bunch of songs and artists that we like to listen to because it makes us feel something when we do.  It’s about happiness, expression and creativity, and anyone who tries to make it into an exercise in pretentious oneupmanship is, if I may be so bold, fundamentally missing the point.

So here’s to us, non-niche music lovers!  Now where did I put that Faithless vs Eurythmics mash up…

What’s your taste in music like?

Having very little to say sometimes is, I think, all part of the blogging experience.  One week the ideas burst forth quicker than my fingers can translate them into words, while the next is characterised by blank screens and very little motivation.  Where that’s the case, I’ve always considered sitting tight, saying nothing and waiting for the tide to come in again to be the best approach.  It takes a will far stronger than my own to force any words past a clod of writer’s block!

This last week I’ve been doing just that: sitting tight.  Well, sitting tight and doing other stuff.  Including, but by no means limited to, the following:

Eating: scones at Loopy Lorna’s with a friend.  A Sunday carvery dinner with four kinds of meat and many, many roast potatoes.  Spicy empanadas with pineapple salsa and guacamole, all home-made by my sister and by far the best treat of my week.

Making: (yet) another crochet blanket.  I managed to find twelve balls of wool all the same shade of turquoise in a charity shop the other day and am now busy transforming them into a toothpaste-coloured throw for my bed, edged in dark chocolate brown.  Crocheting round and round and round without having to stop to change colour is the ultimate therapy: it’s mesmerising just watching what started off as a tiny little knot morph into an actual blanket that will actually keep me warm.

Laughing at: the total stranger who, seeing me puffing my way up a hill on my bike, shouted at the top of his voice “KEEP GOING PRINCESS, YOU’LL GET THERE, YOU’LL GET THERE!”.  He spurred me on and made me laugh when I needed it.

Pondering: taking up yoga this Spring.  Anyone else practice?  Any Edinburgh-based readers able to recommend a class?

Reading: Having (finally) finished this book about Africa, I’m giving myself leave to enjoy a few easy going stories over the next couple of weeks. All recommendations welcome!  I’m also dipping into the The Rough Guide to Happiness for inspiration and Ideas That Matter for interest.  And then there’s the pile of books about India that’s starting to accumulate by my bed…

Looking forward to: Increasing my feeling of lightness by planning a big trip, packing away my Winter coats and paying down my debts.

Thankful for: health, wealth and quick cook pasta (seriously, does anything hit the spot quite like it?).

What’s been happening in your world this week?

Image above from here.

Wow, Edinburgh.  What’s with the wind and the rain?  Haven’t you heard it’s March and I’m completely sick of this sh*t?  Can’t you be all golden and gorgeous and make make want to wear white linen and plan camping trips?  No?  OK, reading the internet before sinking into a carbohydrate coma it is then.  Someone wake me up when Spring actually has arrived…

Budget Bytes reminded me the other day that carrots can actually be awesome, as opposed to just things-I-really-think-I-should-eat-more-of.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love Beth’s blog.  Pure, unrivalled magic for the financially restricted yet adventurous cooks among us.

This really freaked me out.  What crazy looks like, found via Pose 83.

Lady Smaggle’s post about dresses that won’t die made me laugh.  My DTWD cost me £3 in a sale five years ago.  I must have worn it a few hundred times since then.  I once lost patience with wearing the same damn thing so often that I consigned it to a pile for selling on eBay.  I regained my senses just in time and it’s still in my wardrobe.

I love the words on this print.

I can’t rave about travelling alone enough, so I was delighted to see this post and the ensuing discussion on A Cup of Jo yesterday.  Although it did make me miss this place like crazy.

These t-shirts are cute, but looking at them all at once only reminded me how many of those books I still want to read.

The Frenemy is never not hilarious, but sometimes she actually also really makes me think.  I love this post for that reason.  What little things make you hopeful?  My list includes Alain de Botton, fried halloumi cheese and having weirdly serendipitous, funny moments with complete strangers.

This article on “banter” makes me laugh.  A lot.

Finally, here’s a little sumthin’ I worked out this morning.  I always knew these were the bicycle racks outside the Scottish Parliament, but I never really got the design of them until this morning when I glanced at them from just the right angle and saw this.  It kind of made my day…

What’s the internet teaching you at the moment?

Image above from here.