What is making me happy: The Power of Exercise and homemade ice blocks

Christmas party at works, 18/12/1937 by Sam Hood. From the Collection of the State Library of New South Wales.

While most of January has passed in a whirlwind of balmy days, salty swims and delicious summer food, I was afflicted by a pretty severe case of post-holiday blues after I returned to work - and it took three weeks to resolve it! I was grumpy, I was short-tempered, I suffered near-daily life-crises.

Things didn’t start to improve until last week, due to the amazing weather we were having, and my decision to start running again.

So. Running. I don’t enjoy the act of running terribly much, but I do love the effects of running. That is: increased smugness, and the ability to cope a little better with the world around me. While I haven’t found an exercise that I love since my rollerskating days, running is free(!) and encourages me to take advantage of the beach and parks near my house.

It is a total cliché to state that exercise is good for mental health, but the difference between the grumpiness of sedentary Sarah and the coping skills of exercising Sarah is marked. For me, its a good decision.

ALSO: as of this Wednesday, I started my four day work weeks - with the fifth day devoted to my own projects and hopefully drumming up a bit of copy- or web writing work. Hit me up if you like my kool style and are in need of such skills - you can contact me through my website (sarahjanemiller.co.nz).

More things

COOKING: Lately I’ve been trying really hard to perfect the Beef Rendang recipe in Slowcooked. My first attempt was delicious but too saucy, my second an improvement but still on the saucy side I think.

I am confused by the instruction to reduce the curry in the slow cooker. In my experience, that’s just not possible as in, the whole point of a slow cooker is to lock in the heat and moisture. Perhaps if I fiddled with the lid less, I’d reach the desired outcome?

Because of the heat, I’ve also been making homemade ice block. I made some lemon manuka honey yoghurt ice blocks based on a recipe for Creamy Lime Honey popsicles which were crazy delicious, and freestyled some soy iced coffee ice blocks using cold brew coffee as the base. If I can get a good photo I’ll share a recipe which will include some tips on how to avoid getting coffee grinds in the finished product (which I can attest is pretty disgusting).

READING: I spent most of Sunday with my face glued to my eReader, demolishing Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. It’s silly, but I’m loving it - it has a great pace, and it’s pretty fun. The evil characters are very mustache-twirly, the good characters have just enough flaws to make them likeable but not so many flaws that they are challenging to think about.

FAVOURITE PODCAST EPISODE: As always, I am enamoured with podcasts with lots of primary sources and little narration. The Radio Diaries podcast The View from the 79th Floor, about a 1945 bomber crash into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, had some great interviews with eyewitnesses, primary audio material from a dictation machine, and media reports from the time.

KNITTING: Always I am knitting this Featherweight, but I have almost finished the body, and I’m much happier with this size than the abortively tiny one that resulted from my previous attempt.

I have only used one skein of the five ridiculously expensive skeins that I bought. I might use another half skein, but still, it’s looking as though I could knit something else out of the yarn.

SEWING: I am actually struggling a little with the excessive number of clothes I have. I think that it would be a good idea to have a bit of a purge before I start making anything else.

LISTENING: I splashed out and bought a bunch of albums when I arrived back at work, and I currently have Sylvan Esso’s album on high rotation. I particularly love the opening track which seems to be the Mary Poppins of pop music - Practically Perfect in Every Way. When it opens it reminds me of Polka Dot Dot Dot to the extent I had to Google and make sure that it didn’t actually feature anybody from the group.

Also: very excited for a new Marina and the Diamonds album. 

Music for Monday Morning

Mmm, alliteration. Must be true.

Here is a new video clip for an older Urbantramper song. Also does rather a wonderful job of showcasing Wellington - beautiful Wellington.


My Grand Plan from ekiekieki on Vimeo.

This week, and the weekend, and the day today

Much better weekend without the hideousness of the cold. I hate the feeling of not achieving anything but TV watching and hat knitting, so it was good to get some other Doings under my belt. By Wednesday I am completely dried out as well, which has made me extremely happy. Must be all the iced tea and rum I'm drinking (match made in heaven).

On Sunday afternoon I sat out on my verandah in the autumn sun, watched the street and ate a huge slice of quiche that I'd made the day before. I felt this enormous sense of contentment - what a fabulous lifestyle. I am unbelievably blessed to have what I have and live where I live, and to eat as well as I do with a person that I adore. Giving this weekend a 8/10 rating for awesomeness.

Making good progress with the Bolero Redux. My needle points broke again (bah) but replacing them necessitated a trip to Holland Road which was very enjoyable as there was a bunch of Twitter people there knitting, and talking about yarn while they knitted. Planning on going to Tash's knit night tomorrow, and shared cake today. Look at me get my Petone community hat on!

There is a yoga place around too that I'm planning to discover, and this weekend I'm hitting the big second hand store up the road. Living in Petone makes me very happy.

More yarn news: desperately want to make a knitted pouf like these Puff Daddy ones, and I even have a suitable duvet lying around. Just trying to convince Boyf of practicality of afore mentioned pouf.

I've learnt two chords on the ukulele thus far and am so close to being able to play Three Little Birds  I can almost smell it (synesthesia?). However, my difficulties with strumming that I had when I tried to learn how to play the guitar aged 16 are all racing back to me. Apparently I am still somewhat lacking in the rhythm department.

The plan was to play La vie en rose or non je ne regrette rien by the end of the month but it really doesn't look as though it's likely to happen as those songs have so many chords in them and I'm still learning! Something I aim for I guess.

FOOD:

• Soups: vegetable with split peas, red lentils, barley and a bacon hock; and French Onion Soup which I LOVE
• This Banana Bread Crepe Cake from Smitten Kitchen - made this today and it was simply awesome
• At present I am roasting pork and trying to make perfect crackling. Why is perfect crackling so hard? I do not know

365DOP: My month of aging disgracefully; and It's Music Time?

Cross-posted from 365 Days of Peta.

Aging disgracefully over the last month has involved a lot of early nights and being cosily domesticated, and possibly drinking a little too much for me than is strictly necessary. Probably not quite enough though to qualify the adverb disgracefully: I have had no throw-backs to university days of drunken karaoke yodelling or Thursday night drinking sessions. Peta of course recommends consumption of red wine and dark chocolate in fair quantities, but I have been mostly consuming cider, white wine and cheese. (In Can We Help it if we're Fabulous, Peta comes down fairly hard on white wine (she loves her sweeping statements) and declares that it's only good for removing stains. Oh dear; I suspect that she'd be less than impressed by my quaffing of gallons of Sauvignon Plonk.)

Truthfully, my disgrace has more frequently included falling asleep on the couch with a book spread over my chest. Shannon has taken photographs of this every time it's happened. So much disgrace.

From memory, this was a particularly enjoyable snooze

The highlight of the month was the 30th birthday party - fabulous people, I was spoilt rotten, and I had a super awesome time. There were no photographs taken at all at the party, which was an inadvertently beneficial oversight. There are already too many photos extant of my drunken self and I'd like to start limiting those. I've never seen a photograph of myself boozed that I've thought was flattering in any way shape or form.

I intended to cook my little socks off, Peta-style, but in the end limited my experiments to my booze choices: I made the World's most punchy Punch, recipe from Insatiable:

• 3 bottles of rosé
• 500ml of cognac
• Some fruit and a vanilla pod

Feed to party-goers and watch as Shit Gets Weird.

From this I learnt a valuable lesson: Peta does not pull any punches when it comes to booze (thanks, I'll be here all week!).

Looking over my Peta list, I can say that I have at least thought about walking more, and have actually taken evening walks a little more frequently than I have in the past. I try to take a passeggiata at lunch time involving Stairs and Hills. I have not been as committed to vegetables as perhaps I might, but over Easter weekend I ate so much white carbohydrate cheesy stodge that I have been craving vegetables for the last three days.

This month I have marked down for Making Music.

I think that when I began this project I imagined myself joining a choir and learning to play the ukelele. The first is easiest enough - beginning next Wednesday I'll commit myself to going along to the Wellington Community Choir in Taranaki Street. Fascinated to know what it will be like; I imagine a little fruity?The ukelele is a little more difficult, but I'm hoping that the lovely Hayley will lend me one of hers and that I can learn to play at least one little song before the end of the month! Perhaps I can make a horrible video for you all.

Also: singing more around the house, and perhaps dragging some unsuspecting people along to karaoke.

Music! Fun!

Kate Bush Saved My Life

Lake (Urbantramper) has released a video for Kate Bush Saved My Life. The song is beautiful.

SCP Sunday Film Fest - Latcho Drom

So, this Sunday's video is not a Kiwi one at all, but rather a clip from Latcho Drom (1993). I've been sewing all day and listening to Tony Gatlif gypsy movie soundtracks. In my opinion, Latcho Drom is THE BEST hands down. I laugh in the face of Swing!

Watch this clip, and then go out and get the movie and watch the rest because it's fascinating and sad, and has beautiful music. And it's far more effective than Gypsy Weddings at romanticising a gypsy lifestyle. Really so much romanticisation.

So happy I get to make another mixtape

By the way, this is my 801st post. I am a blogging fiend, non?

September Mix Tape

Happy new mixtape!

In the weekend I thought I had lost my iPod, and I just about died. How else could I now mainstream my HP and Simon Schama obsessions? What about my relentless quest to make the best mixtape ever?

Luckily I discovered it on top of bookshelf. I don't know what I was thinking when I put it there.

 

Happy Sunday

The weather came out to play today, Shannon and I had lunch with his father and his father's wife, now I am procrastinating around the house with two glasses of wine inside me. Any second now I'll tidy up and get going. Truth.

It's almost September which means that I get to make another virtual mix tape. Here it is x

Enjoy the rest of the weekend lovelies. I will be tweaking my assignment-website.

Two virtual mixtapes for August

I've been rather taken with the idea of making new playlists for each month, to the extent that it's become less monthly and more bi-monthly. Ahem.

I am also rather taken with 8 Tracks. Were you into Muxtape, back in the day? I loved that too, and it was through Muxtape that I discovered the Mountain Goats, Le Loupe and Coco and Rosie. [FACT: I later paid for albums from all three of those artists. Which rather puts pay to the reason that Muxtape was closed down?]

Anyways. Here are two of my playlists for July-August, and August, respectively. What fun!

Epiphanies, of a kind

• Happiness is a big red wool-lined coat, with fur around the hood and a leather beaver applique on it’s pocket. How could a person ever be unhappy in such a garment?
• Wintery weather makes me very dry and papery, like a lizard princess. It’s right to invest more time in applying moisture to the scaley lizard skin. (For serious, right now my skin feels like the outside of an onion, like you could take great swathes of it and peel them off. This is the dryest I’ve ever felt in my whole life and it’s not my cup of tea at all, let me tell YOU).
• After a conversation with Mon the other week: There are so many opportunities to retrain and to investigate and explore different careers... As oppose to feeling one HAS to choose between the many many things that can be done in the world, it’s more a matter of deciding which one to do first. So, I can be a counsellor or an archaeologist or a novellist if the whole web architecture thing doesn’t work out, or when it becomes boring or a chore. Why not? But also: one thing at a time, and do it wholeheartedly.
• When Virginia Woolf picked up her diary again in 1917, after one of her bouts of illness, she wrote without ego: that is, without the word “I”. This is a pretty interesting experiment, especially for a blogger and compulsory journalist such as myself - it’s not always easy, but interrogating the need for the word and whether the same sentence is written better without it is a pretty good challenge. Creates less lazy writers. You should give it a go, even if it’s just in your own diary or journal and not online... that way it’s easy to just elide the word entirely and not worry so much about sounding off a peremptory sentence. Writing challenges are good.
• Finding and listening to new music is one of life’s little pleasures. You should try: Get Back Guinozzi!, The Living Sisters, The Eversons. “Low File Tropical” by Get Back Guinozzi! is my favourite track at the moment and is pretty much permanently on repeat. The Living Sisters make me think of Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. The Eversons make me think of Best Coast and drinking at Happy.

And darlings, that’s all I have for today. Your scaley lizard princess bids you adieu, and expresses a hope that we’ll be back to some kind of regular blogging program beginning next week.

Monday List of Awesome

Did you notice the awesomeness that is my new blog banner? And colours? I'm feeling the whole shebang so hard right now, so full of admiration for Becca's super work, and so excited by my own colour GENIUS, that I fear my constant refreshing will skew my own Analytics results. Never mind.

via All Things Amazing

A list of things that are awesome, collected over quite some time - being that, although I haven't been blogging my little gems, I have still been filing them away in the secret recesses* of my Reader and my Browser.

Beautiful track, please play while reading. Actually, the video is beautiful too so you should probably watch it, proper like.

Wore It Deep (The Tree Ring) from Destin Daniel Cretton on Vimeo.

• These wooden camera shaped Iphone cases are some kind of awesome.
• Alex Franzen talks about how Comfort is Good, with the help of the usual suspects.
• I am totally in awe of the person who made this hand-knit Aran sweater-style slip cover for a sofa. For two reasons, being; who has that level of patience? and: the intricacies of Aran sweaters are beyond my present knitting levels.
• I love the sound of the Mudlarks of the Thames... the historical continuity et al. Do you know that track "Skylarking" by Horace Andy? Because that's now stuck in my head, with obvious changes to the lyrics. Dammit.
• Tiny floor labyrinth! Made of salt!
• Back in the day when I didn't give a shit about money and actually had a social life (and, smoking was allowed in bars GOOD GRIEF) I used to sing a lot of karaoke. Thus, I agree with this, Three Necessary Elements of Good Karaoke.
• I read this back at the end of January, and it is Still With Me: Why the Internet Chose Cats.

Thousands of English comedians can't be wrong: French cliches really are the most amusing kind.

Pretty heads of painted ladies.

Handwoven tapestry by Erin M Riley, via Cat Party.

*The term "Secret Recesses" always makes me think about the big cavities in the top of the head of the sperm whales - the one that was full of thick gloopy spermaceti.

Monday

The following things are happening in my flat right now:

• James is harvesting the hops from the vine on the balcony.
• Hayley is dancing to Paul Simon's Gracelands and cooking with chokos and ridge gourds.
• Shannon has just returned home from diving and is cleaning a bunch of butterfish.
• I am suffering mildly from ennui and considering knitting some more.

Yesterday I finished reading Linotte and Doctor Zhivago on the same day. I loved both, which are pretty good odds, I think. Linotte has rekindled my Anais Nin love which is - a tiny bit worrying, to tell the truth. The Anais obsession can lead one to some very dark, Freudian and incestuous places. However, given previous Anais-obsession times, I feel well prepared and thus I'm now re-reading this strange fictionalised biography of Anais that I've had for some time. I haven't re-read it at all though, which is quite unlike me. 

Oh, Anais Anais Anais. Why am I so obsessed with you?? I had a conversation about Anais with my colleague Ian and I had SO MUCH TO SAY. Another thing that came out of that conversation was the possibility of writing (yet another) Anais biography. Can there be too many? She's just given so many primary resources it's almost like resisting temptation not too. I shall be like Anais and put it on my list of things to write some time in the future when I'm feeling all boho.

WWAD? Why, she would go and write about it in some high falutin' language in a hardcover notebook.

Four more days until WOMAD. I have made some lists and my picks for "must see" are Hanggai, The Barons of Tang, Horace Andy (for old times' sake) and Tanya Tagaq who I am drawn to with a kind of horrified fascination. You should go to this website and watch the first video because she gives a super amazing and very emotionally intense performance. Actually cannot wait. Coincidentally (or not??), two of my must see acts feature throat singing. I'm of the opinion that going to WOMAD and not watching at least one throat singing act is probably cheating oneself of the true World Music experience and I could not deny myself that.

Today I am grateful that my house has not been washed away in a tsunami or destroyed in an earthquake, and that I am not digging myself a latrine and living off tinned soup. Tomorrow is payday and I shall be sending money to Japan. I don't know what else to do. But I guess that the ocean is made of drops, so even another drop helps.

Just some chattiness with a glass of cider

Hello my darlings, have I told you today how wonderful you're all looking? I love to see your little shining faces staring up at me. "Ginger", you ask, "Ginger - what wisdom do you have to share with us all today?"

WELL let me tell YOU - the wisdom I have to share is merely the wisdom brought upon one by a lovely glass (read: bottle) of French cider, of the kind that tastes a little bit like feet. So it's mostly wisdom like: CHEESE IS GOOD! YOU LOOK PRETTY WITH LIPSTICK ON, YOU SHOULD WEAR IT MORE OFTEN! And also - THE BEST WAY TO COOK KAMOKAMO IS WITH BUTTER! Meaningful stuff, you know?

My big excitement of this evening is rediscovering all my Gillian Welch albums. She's like, totes a genius y'know. I'm crazy about her. Also, I quite like Neko Case, but she doesn't compete with GW, noways. GW is deliciously old-timey, and THATS what does it for me. Nostalgia for a time and culture that's like - MILES - away from my own. Yep.

SIX ITEMS OR LESS: Colour me Over It. Yes, I thought (a bit) about clothes and consumption and stretched myself a bit in terms of accessorising and won't give up before the end date (next Monday), but I went through my love of uniform/Zen stage and I've come out the other side, itching to wear bright colours. Lately I've thought a lot about the way I dress and if nothing else I guess that the SIOL has given me space to re-assess how I'm going to approach the whole "dressing" thing for the next wee-while. As in: I need to accept the fact that high waisted pants don't really look that good on me, but on the other hand lots of 50s and 60s style stuff looks amazing. Also, I feel better with a big pop of colour and pale colours don't always cut it. Also, I love playing dress ups! I get so bored dressing one specific way for any length of time. I'm Madonna! I'm a Chameleon! I'm drinking out of an empty glass now so I'm going to go off and do something about that!

Incidentally, I DO think you're looking wonderful today. I love that thing that you've done with your hair. xxxxxx

Monday List of Awesome

Hello again my lovelies. I'm writing this on a horrible Sunday night - the weather is DISGUSTING. I am cold! It's "summer" - hooray! Here is a list of awesomeness for you. Enjoy! xx

via Daily Pep Talks from a Best Friend

♥ I found this cat rather entertaining. I watched him a bunch, and laughed every time. Seven seconds of Cheer Up!

♥ The Thrifty Chick has a list of 10 Thrifty Blues Busters for all your January Troubles, which are super good.

♥ How amazing does The Human Planet look? Can't hardly wait to watch it! Love me a BBC doco series.

♥ Z-Type is a Flash game that allows you to feel really, really smug about your touch typing abilities.

♥ So slow on the uptake here but: Katherine Chloe Cahoon gives some of the most bizarre dating advice I've ever seen, I just about died laughing while watching her. I "found" her when I was reading this item on the Hairpin about unintentional comedy (which is an interesting enough concept in itself).

♥ Throwing potted handmade dildoes and merkins over the fence was considered "bad manners" during medieval times.

♥ Gala Darling raved about Catherine Baba. She's fabulous! It's inspirational seeing someone who is so OTT. I think I would like to get back into dress ups some more... Also, HER BICYCLE.

Charles Bradley "The World (Is Going Up In Flames)" - Feat. Menahan Street Band from Daptone Records on Vimeo.

♥ Gretchen Rubin has food for thought about help-rejecters and help-rejecting complainers. Of which I am periodically both.

♥ People dancing! By the way, you should dance now. GO ON. DO IT. Get up and get your groove thing on.

♥ An old list by Doe Deere: 11 Ways to Go Green and Save Money. It's all fairly self explanatory but it's good to have a reminder every now and then, non?

♥ In a similar vein is Love Food Hate Waste, which as well as having some pretty hilarious images of people who look like food (Potato Dude and Fish Girl are two of my faves) also has some great ideas about how to prevent food waste. It's a fabulous site!

♥ Early Autochrome/colour  prints for you to look at: Paris before the Great War, America in the post-Depression to WWII period, Russia a century ago.

♥ The Case of the Missing Cigarettes is an illustrated essay on Iconic Photos about the way that cigarettes have been removed retrospectively from historical photographs. Verrrrry interesting.

Annnnnnnnd that's all I got! Have a fabulous Monday my darlings; if you're in Wellington, enjoy your day off! I plan to enjoy mine. xxx

December 23: SCP Advent - Christmas Sandwich

Another one from Katherine... Kewt.

December 21:SCP Advent! Hey, I made you a mix! Edition

I made you all a mixtape! Yay, music.

December 16: SCP Advent! Christmas was better in the 80s. Discuss.

December 15: SCP Advent with MUZAK

So, there is NO embeddable video version of this song on Youtube, apparently because embedding works directly against people watching and then buying things (sarcasm).

Alright, so here is a link to a video of Mariah Carey frolicking with bunnies and puppies and her ex-husband and snow.

December 13: SCP Advent. Happy Monday!

I almost cried when I watched this one! Really, I am such a sook for big groups of people singing together. I swear, if I ever saw a live performance of the Carmina Burana I would spend the whole time bawling.

12 more days until Christmas!