week in a mosaic 2

This seems to be becoming a new habit - posting weekly mosaics. I had a lot of uni work last week, although it is nowhere near as much as I have this week. Probably should have remembered my promise to myself at the beginning of the semester, I always make this resolution - to not let my work pile up. And guess what, it happens every single time.
The first picture is a key lime pie, I might attach a recipe some point soon, it's very very easy to make and very yummy to eat. Had a friend visiting this weekend who helped me make it and by help I mean he took orders and performed tasks. We actually ended up burning the top layer because my oven doesn't quite work so I was forced to put it under the grill for a few minutes. I managed to save it though, didn't have any impact on the taste, uff. The second picture is just a photo of a random block, I took it when I was playing the piano and I loved how sunny it was.
The picture in the very middle is from the Pancake Day. My first ever. Was so good I had to repeat on Saturday. Right next to it are the first snowdrops of this season, I've always found them so symbolic and to tell the truth I can definitely smell the spring around already. Was 15 degrees the other day so a lot of the Brits put their summer clothes on, haha.
Also I found out I like to use lemons as bookmarks, useful.
The last picture is my favourite coffee at the moment. It's Starbucks (I know, so cliché) caramel macchiato, not the one you get directly from Starbucks but the refrigerated one from the campus general store. Tastes like sweet caramel milk, my dream.

xx

minutes of silence

News update 22/02: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2012/02/22/tributes-to-denbigh-woman-20-killed-in-crash-55578-30379043/

News 21/02: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-17113968
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2012/02/21/woman-20-killed-in-whitchurch-crash-from-north-wales-55578-30374102/
http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2012/02/20/woman-killed-in-shropshire-road-crash/

This post is dedicated to Catrin Pickles who has tragically passed away Sunday night. We were on the basketball team together. I have only known her for a short time, but it has still caught me by surprise. She was involved in four sports societies, lived life on full. Amazing person, patient, caring and dedicated. It's not yet clear why the accident happened, she collided with a lorry coming from the opposite direction. I'm still shocked. There's nothing to say but I wanted to share, just to get it off my chest. I don't wanna be writing cliches like 'rest in peace' or whatever else people say. Beautiful girl, great loss.
Cat, I'm thinking about you.

Cat and Katy at a basketball social

Pyjama party a week ago, Cat is in the middle wearing a black hoodie

♥

creative writing: water

His feet touched the ground after half an hour of intensive flying. The wings of the little plane made of durable metal covered the sun for a minute. He looked up at the sky. It was turning pink. He took off his sunglasses and fixed his sight on a large flight of mosquitos that was quietly buzzing a few yards away. How fast, how gross, how unimportant they were to him. He could smell the melting asphalt and admired the perfect straight lines of white paint, the arrows and the black wheel marks that spoiled the flawlessness and yet made it so perfect. Made it so human. The airport was almost empty. There were about four other planes, same as his, spread across the hangar in comfortable distances. He felt good. He always did after flying.

“Time to go Mark” It was the voice of the co-pilot. Mark hated him for it, for spoiling his moment. He grabbed his bag and started walking towards the tower. There was only a couple of things he needed to do before he was done for the day. He opened the door and took the steps, two at a time. The remains of the ecstasy were still there. Once he was inside the tower room he got undressed. He grabbed the plain white towel that smelled of bio wash and proceeded to the bath shower. He liked the feeling of water on his skin. A hot shower would recharge him. He stood there, the water flowing and slowly flooding the bath. He turned the tap to the hottest temperature. The water started to burn his skin, leaving it red and irritated. He just stood there watching the steam move under his breath, watching the drops slide down the glass and disappear forever. He decided to take his time and plugged the bathtub. It was filling up quickly.

Mark lied down. He was looking outside the window, staring at the the pink sky. It was open and there was a little air draft. It got tangled up in his hair with a soft whistle. He let his mind wander off. He felt at peace. The bath was full now but Mark didn't stop the water. His thoughts were too loud for the silence that would arrive. It was like the sound of rain. The bath was large and he started sliding down, inch by inch. He submerged.

Everything is amplified underwater. Everything sounds different. Mark's eyes were closed so that he could fully focus on the sound. He tapped his fingers on the sleek walls of the bath changing the rhythm every few seconds. He unsealed his mouth and let out an air bubble. He opened his eyes and focused them on the white ceiling and the yellowness of the bathroom light. It was blurry. His eyes started to sting and he could feel them getting red from the chlorine. He blinked a couple times. It was the only movement he now allowed himself. He was holding still so that the motion of his body wouldn't cause the water to plop. All he wanted to hear was the murmuring tap. He turned his brain off and it became blank. Clean.

Mark felt strangely disconnected from his body. He could still feel the little wavy movement of the water on his skin. It was like silk. Almost not there. Invisible shield. His lungs started filling up with water. It slowly creeped in tingling his insides. It was painful at first but then it didn't matter. He was lying there defencelessly with no protection on hand. He took a deep watery breath and closed his eyes.

It was like he had fallen asleep.

week in a mosaic 1

I'm a little ill this weekend so I won't be talking much, just a mini picture post.

My reinvented addiction is warm milk with honey and cookies, I cannot get enough. I also keep eating meringues, I find that the best possible way to have them is not with berries but with banana. I slice half a banana and spoon a little nutella on top, then microwave for about 20-30 seconds. The banana caramelises a little and it's so good! It can be a little too sweet for some though.

The the middle row now, the tree is a the one I see from my bedroom window. I like looking at it, the shape is lovely. I might actually do a self challenge and take a picture of the tree every day for a week or two at certain hour and then post them up. Also I started practicing piano again, I am very proud of myself that I finally found the time to. Spent almost two hours playing it on Friday, fairly long time for me.

The last two pictures at the bottom have been very characteristic for me lately. I keep eating toasties and apples. The apple addiction is a long one, I was nominated an apple princess when I was 11 or so. It's easier to keep the apple addiction to the strawberry, all in all strawberries can sometimes be hard to get.

xx

creative writing: I don't feel like dancing tonight

Today is my Birthday. Is it October 19^th. For many of you Birthdays are the days when you have a good enough reason to go out and celebrate. For me it's no different than any other day. It only reminds me how little friends I've got. None, to be precise.

I suppose my disadvantage is that I'm not pretty. I am not ugly, don't get me wrong, but I'm no ideal of beauty. I'd be lying if I said I didn't mind. Of course I'd love to be good looking and have people stand in line to be friends with me. Everybody wants to be friends with pretty people and I am the same so I guess I can't objurgate. 

I light up a candle on the cake I got earlier today.  I lied to the man in the bakery and said it's for a friend's surprise party. I always lie to strangers. 

I think of a mature wish to make. 

Birthdays are my least favourite days of the year. It didn't always use to be like this but I can't exactly remember when it changed. It's all a little blurry.

I close my eyes and blow the candle. Dad has already called me today to wish me Happy Birthday so the apartment is completely quiet. I grab the sound system remote and put it back down immediately. The silence is somehow comforting.

self portrait challenge

My friend Ade found this online and said I should do it. Chelsey from The Paper Mama has a photo challenge up on her blog, she asks her readers to take a self portrait and blog about themselves. So this post is about me and me only. I am using the Currently posts of Danielle's blog. I went crazy and took more than one portrait and spent a good few hours playing around with the pictures in photoshop.

Obsessing over

creative writing! I am taking a module in it and I am enjoying it perhaps a little too much. Only need to actually produce more short stories. I have also met a guy yesterday that does MA in Creative Writing and we have decided to do a fiction swap. He's going to send me some of his pieces and I'll send him mine (at this very moment I only have 3). I am still very much excited about it. Also, I hope he writes a short story about me. Haha.

And also blogging! Lately I have been playing with the design of this blog and just been thinking about how I could blog about this or that. I try to justify it by thinking it's time wisely spent. Photoshop much?

Working on
a presentation for my Politics and Cinema class. Me and my friend watched 2 films by Ken Loach - Carla's Song and Land and Freedom and we are discussing 2 set questions. Which reminds me I should be making the powerpoint right now.


Thinking about

people, and how you can love them and hate them at the same time. Friends, and how they change. How there's always something to do and yet you're still bored. Also dreaming about what I would do or more like where I'd go if I won the euromillions.

Anticipating
Keele Varsity in March. My trip to Norway and Denmark on the 4th of April. My Birthday on the 19th of April even though I am dreading to be 20. My trip around England at the end of April, Edinburgh, York... Also trying to figure out what to do with my summer, what flat to get in September when I'm back at Masaryk Uni as I am so over halls.

Listening to

Oh Land is my current obsession. I absolutely love her music. My three favourite tracks are Perfection, White Nights and Voodoo. Her albums are currently on repeat. Then Feist. And Toro y Moi. Also I have recently discovered Regina Spektor and I love two of her songs Samson and Laughing With.

Eating
noodles! Stir-fries, Rice and ready-meals. Not proud of the last one. And then toasties. My favourite would be a decent bread, as decent as English bread can get, with philadelphia spread, slices of brie and on top of that chorizo. And then pancakes, I love pancakes. I have discovered meringues and I even hand whipped the cream to go with them. You are meant to eat them with berries but what I do is I have them with sliced banana topped up with a spoon of nutela. I eat so healthily.

Wishing

for real friendships. For ideas to write fiction about. For self-discipline. Wishing I could be snowboarding as so many of my friends back home are. In waist deep powder. Oh and... wishing to win the euromillions, that goes without saying.  Or just to find someone insanely rich to marry.

xx

feature

Today I'm posting a song that has been on my mind for the past 2 weeks. The song is by Zuzana Navarová, czech singer, songwriter, musician and producer.  I remember my mum buying her CDs and listening to them at home when I was smaller. I don't really care much for country genre but I grew to like her music. Zuzana Navarová died in December 2004, aged 45. She had breast cancer. She fought the illness for many years and tried to keep it a secret. The song is called Angelical. The lyrics are a challenge to translate and perhaps don't make much sense in English. The chorus would go:

I am counting the skies
The kisses I will never get
I love you
and then I fall asleep and wake up
And so...

xx

last days of autumn semester

Perhaps I am fast forwarding a little, I have not posted anything about Keele yet and I am already posting about the end of the first semester. I have just finished editing these so I thought why not share them. These pictures were taken on the 19th and 20th of January, just a couple days before Hannah, Theresa and Mareike - my German friends - left. We went out to do a little photoshoot and have KPA lunch (will post a picture of the famous KPA sandwich later) after everyone's exams have been finished. The lowest of the diptychs is their leaving dinner in the Sneyd Arms, local pub. Visit soon girls!

xx