BEDJ: Day 10 - Most embarrassing moment

Can you believe I can't actually think of one off the top of my head? At the moment I'm leaning towards the time my drink got spiked at a house party and I went round making such a fool of myself shouting and swearing at everyone and anyone. I don't think I've ever been an angry drunk since, I'm more a funny one now. 

BEDJ: Day 9 - A moment in my day (this can be just a photo or both a photo and words)

This is my sunburn...

Parent's let me fall asleep in the sun and didn't think to wake me :/ Ouch!

Oops pictures are poor quality. Sorry

BEDJ: Day 8 - A piece of advice I have for others. Anything at all.

I'll keep this short and sweet.  Always believe in yourself.  It's as simple as that, if you don't believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to?

BEDJ: Day 7 - The thing(s) I’m most afraid of

Flying.  This is a new one for me since my fear only started recently (2011).  I used to absolutely love flying and the novelty of it, but I had one near miss experience on a flight to New York with my school.  Our plane hit an air pocket and instantaneously dropped a few thousand feet in altitude.  I hadn't had time to tighten my seatbelt back up since it all happened so quick and we'd just been served our drinks so before I knew it my seat was gone from underneath me and drinks were all over the place.   Needless to say I was seriously shaken up and speechless.  I spent the rest of our trip dreading the journey home which really was a shame.  I have flown since but it took persuasion and bribing with alcohol.

Mascots. You know those people that wear oversized costumes at sports games? Yes, the terrify me.  This always insist on making a beeline for me was they can see how nervous I look.  More recently Henry, my housemate, dressed up in a dog mascot costume and went round hugging people.  I legged it, he chased me down the corridor and I locked myself in my room, heart racing.  It's stupid I know since I knew it was him but it's still a fear I happen to have.

BEDJ: Day 6 - If I couldn't answer with my job, how would I answer the question, 'what do you do'?

Well I'd have to say basically live like a student. I like to watch tv, bake cakes, knit things and read. 

The reason why this blog post is so short and uninspired is my lack of time and competent thoughts. I'm currently nursing a hangover (with a cider) at home after traveling home today to surprise my mum for her birthday. I guess as a result of this I could say I'm loving life and family.

BEDJ: Day 5 - Publicly profess my love and devotion...

... for my favorite person, book or place. What makes it/them great? 

Well my favourite person would without a doubt have to be my mum (not including animals!).  She's more than just a mother, she's my best friend too.  She always knows how I'm feeling and how to cheer me up of make it better.  She'll be there whenever I need her and despite the arguments we've had over the years, and believe me there's be plenty, we can never stay mad at each other for too long.

Sometimes I think, do I miss home? Or do I miss my mum?  Of course I miss home, but I can't help feel that even just seeing my mum on her own would fill that little gap even if just until the next time I go home.  I do hope that I'm doing the right thing tomorrow.  I made the decision months ago and not until recently have I doubted my actions.  Deep down I do know that I can say I've done the right thing, if not for her, for myself.  I think it would have drove me insane knowing I had the opportunity but didn't take it.


My favourite book, (yes I am doing all 3), would without a doubt have to be Harry Potter.  There's the obvious reasons why people choose this, but for me the Harry Potter series has been the one constant throughout my childhood, up until the very last film, always.  I knew I could just pick up a book and re read it straight away from any chapter I felt like and I'd know instantly what was happening there and then.


My all time favourite holiday destination would have to be Dubai.  There's not much I can say about it because it's too amazing to put into words.  We went in the August and the temperature topped 40 degrees Celsius every day and the humidity was unbelievable - imagine stepping out into a sauna the moment you stepped outside.  Since we went at Ramadan, the resort was eerily quiet which is no means a bad thing.  It meant I could sunbathe without worrying about people looking at me and despite being told we needed to make reservations for dinner, the restaurants were hardly even near full.  Oh and the sea was warmer than I'd have my bath water.

BEDJ: Day 4 - Favourite quote (from a person, from a book, etc) and why I love it

I thought this one would be a tricky one for me at the start on the challenge, but since watching Casualty on Saturday it's fairly straight forward.

"There are times when we must choose between what is right and what is easy" - Albus Dumbledore

You could argue that this is infact a quote from J K Rowling using a character as a conduit, but that's neither here nor there where I'm concerned.

When we were younger, this may have crossed our minds unknowingly or not at all, but now as an adult, I've started to question my decisions and why I make them. How many times do I choose the easy thing to do over what I should actually be doing?

It's easy for you to turn down an invite for a night out because you can't be bothered getting dressed and glammed up. However, the right thing for me to do in this situation is to actually go out and get socialising. And actually, here at uni, I rarely turn down an invitation unless there is a genuine reason why.

Ok bad example, but that's all it is an example of how this quote now affects the decisions that I make. Good old Dumbledore.

Amorentia
Jaz xx

BEDJ: Day 3 - Things that make me uncomfortable

Now I'm not going to be short of things to say here but I'll try to put down the most important ones.

I think right up there has to be talking on the phone.  When I was younger I always refused to answer the phone or phone someone no matter who they were, not even family and friends were given the privilege.  I've have got better at this as I've grown up and now see this as a necessity, but in the past I've always been told by people that they could never hear me and hence why texting or face-to-face was a better option.  I also can not stand or sit still while I'm on the phone.  Maybe it's a nervous tick or something similar, but handheld phones were definitely designed for me.

Having my picture taken.  I have lots of baby photos but once I reached a certain age they number of them diminishes rapidly since my family realised there was no point having pictures of someone sulking whenever a camera was pulled out.  Even now I don't have too many pictures of myself. We now live in a world where we can instantly delete the pictures we don't like, so I'd like to think there aren't many bad ones of me knocking about.  Since coming to uni, my friend, Tasha constantly has her phone or camera out on night out, which I am glad of, but I still think how should I be 'posing'?

I think this will do for now.
Say Cheese
Jaz xx

3 Colour Gradient

While I was in town on Thursday I also picked up some MUA £1 polishes in their 3 for 2 offer. I'd intended to pick up 'Lush Lilac' which I expected to be a pale purple but is infact a very pale pink, 'Koala Bear' which is a light greyish colour I wanted to try out and 'Pistachio Ice Cream' which is a very pale green. 

Unfortunately 'Pistachio Ice Cream' was no where to be seen so I opted for 'Frozen Yoghurt' which looks like a bluey purple colour in the bottle but turned out, well you can see for yourself. 

I'd originally intended to do my first water marble but couldn't justify the time taken to do it considering I'd also have to be tidying my room in order to have enough space at my desk. 

The final result was a gradient using the 3 colours. To be honest they were so sheer and needed a lot of building up so probably wouldn't have been suitable for marbling. 

         

BEDJ: Day 2 - Educate others on something I know alot about or are good at

Now this one's a tricky one for me since I'm not really that good at anything.  I do know a lot about somethings, but nothing's coming to me off the top of my head.  I did consider describing Downton Abbey in a comical way to a non viewer, or maybe Ashes to Ashes, but both of those but take time and effort I don't actually have at this present moment in time.

I've since decided to tell you about the only thing I can bake practically perfect every single time - My Sticky Gingerbread Cake :D

Now I won't have any pictures for this as of yet, but I have the ingredients in to bake it next week.  This is usually given as a gift to grandparents at Christmas, sold at school fairs and I even gave some to my teachers when I left.  Let's just say it's a hit!

I did have a recipe written down, but I'm always losing it so tend to make up my own from what I can remember.

What you will need:

• 225g margarine
• 225g dark brown sugar
• half tin of treacle (used to be a measurement but I guesstimate every time (who weighs treacle?)
• 2 eggs
• 350g plain flour
• Ground ginger
• Ground cinnamon 
• pinch of salt
• 250ml milk (we always use semi-skimmed since that's all we buy)
• 5ml spoon of Bicarbonate of Soda

How to make:

1. Pre heat the oven to 120 degrees and line 2 2lb loaf tins.
2. Melt the margarine, sugar and treacle in a saucepan and leave to cool.
3. Meanwhile, lightly beat 2 eggs in a separate bowl. Add these to the treacle mix when cooled (no one wanted curdled eggs)
4. In a separate mixing bowl, sieve the flour, salt and spices.  You can choose whatever proportions for these, mine usually ends up different every time, but I usually aim for 15ml spoon ginger, 10ml spoon cinnamon.
5. Add the treacle mix to this and mix well.
6. Warm the milk in the microwave, 1 minute should do it, and add the Bicarbonate of Soda.
7. Add the gradually to the mixture (this will take a bit of time)
8. Split into 2 loaf tins and place in the oven for 60 minutes (after this time you should check regularly because it could take up to 80 minutes depending on the individual oven and size of the tins)
9. Lick bowl clean.

When ready, leave to cool and cut into slices or chunks, whichever you prefer.

Beware eating lots of this will act as a laxative effect so if someone is stealing it all, look no further than the toilet queue.

Gingerbread love

Jaz xx

If WW3 Doesn't Kick Off Soon...

...Then I'm Dame Kylie Minogue.

I just want to refer you back to this post, where I complained about food being stolen.  Since that incident far more food items have subsequently been stolen.  Today a housemate posted the following on FaceBook:

In the comments underneath, everyone else has listed what they've had stolen:

• panini and a jar of mayonnaise 

• chicken

• 2 petit filous

• 3 Müller rice

• and my slices of Dominos pizza. 

This isn't all that's gone missing this year, but all this has disappeared within a few days. A possible conclusion is that we think someone's run out of food and is struggling financially to buy more. 

Other suggestions are someone's having a laugh, people have been drunk or Julie's been helping herself. 

Whichever is the case, no empty pots/jars/wrappers have been found in the kitchen bins so we appear to have a ninja on our hands. 

Stolen love

Jaz xx

BEDJ: Day 1 - Write about yourself in no more than 250 words

I'm 19 and from one of the most boring places in the country.  I have a "pain in the arse" younger brother, who some would say I get on better with now I'm at uni since we don't actually have to see each other.

I'm not really a girly girl as such since I wear minimalist make up, but love decorate my nails. I used to be blonde, but now I'm a brunette who still has lot's of blonde moments!

I have a lovely, but mad chocolate labrador, Poppy, at home who I miss like crazy.  I haven't seen her for 6 weeks and just can't wait to have lots of Poppy cuddles and snoring in my ear! 117

I am currently studying Maths at the University of York and the revision is killing me very slowly...   I'm a fairly introverted person, so whilst I haven't made loads of friends since coming to uni, the ones I have made are quite like me so I couldn't have asked for anything more.  I've not kept in touch with many friends from home, only the ones that were actually worth it - you know who you are.  I actually have quite a few online friends too, and knowing that they are there for you anytime of day to share problems with is a real lifesaver.

And of course I wouldn't even be here (in more than one sense) if it wasn't for my loving parents and words can't even describe how much I miss them.