On Stationery and Becoming Stationary | Happy Day #9

Day nine! Not exactly cloud nine, but close enough. Today was dedicated to running errands in town, grocery shopping and watching more Good Wife. Stationery lovers among you will understand the eternal struggle that is resisting a splurge whenever you're in the vicinity of  Paperchase, WHSmith's... just about any similar retailer. Well, guilty as charged: I couldn't help myself. Here's my happyday's snap:

Leatherbound from Globetrotter | Kraft from Paperchase

I'm telling myself that these are for strictly revision-based purposes. Truthfully, I haven't started my revision yet. Some of you will be alarmed, others not so much, to find out that I've 3 weeks until my first exam and I've come to a complete academic halt. My brain has been completely stationary since Thursday. It's probably wise for me to start revision ricky-tick if I want to pass, but TV and internet calls.  Maybe tomorrow will be more revision weighted, who knows?

Red Sky at Night | Day 8

Day eight has arrived, and I'll be the first to say it's not been exciting. I've spent the majority of my day doing washing and watching The Good Wife, but I did manage to blag a pretty nice shot for my 100happydays today. Here it is:

Red sky at night?

I was outside my flat just as the sun was setting, and the sky was bright orange. I make an effort to look at the sky more often, and this is why. Beautiful, right?

Until tomorrow,

Egg Free, Effort Free | Happy Day #7

Good afternoon! What a lazy day I've had. I'm aching seven ways to hell after the gym yesterday and I've got a nasty feeling that I'm in for a cold. So what's the solution here? Cake, obviously. But that means I have to leave the house... so maybe not. After racking my brain for a while, I remembered a recipe we tried in Vienna: Chocolate Microwave Mug cake. It's perfect for a lazy student like me - it's cheap, easy, and it's made of things you've probably got in your cupboard. Here's my photo for the day, and underneath is the [egg free] recipe!

The rather attractive result of our experiments in Vienna

So this is the kind of recipe which you can bend until it breaks. Some versions call for cinnamon, some vanilla, others mint. So here's what I used. 

...

In addition, you'll need 70ml of water and 2tbsp of vegetable oil. I'd advise not using olive oil for this recipe, it's got quite a distinct flavour and olive isn't exactly chocolate's life partner. The recipe I looked at called for a splash of vanilla extract. I'm inclined to think that it would be a happy addition, but I'm a student so I don't have vanilla extract lying around; that's why I added the Golden Syrup. The method is plain enough: you add the dry ingredients to your mug [flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, cinnamon], and mix them together with a fork until they're evenly blended. 

I also recommend putting the flour and cocoa through a sieve so that you avoid lumps

Next comes the wet ingredients [water, vegetable oil, golden syrup and/or vanilla extract]. I added in my water a little at a time, like you'd make a hot chocolate - this just avoids any of the powdery mixture floating onto the top of the mixture and making it lump. Stir this all together with a fork until the lumps are rare, if there are any. 

Now you just need to pop it into the microwave. My halls microwave is terrible, so it took about 3 minutes on full power to cook. However, this version says that a 1000 watt microwave will cook these to perfection in 1.5 minutes. I'd advise a minute, then a prod with a fork, then a further minute etc. until it's just how you want it. Be warned, even when it's finished, the top is glossy - don't let this fool you into thinking it's not cooking! 

See what I mean? It looks uncooked, but it's actually cake under all that shine!

Then you just need to garnish it and enjoy! Most people add cream or ice cream to this. In Vienna we topped it with "Schlagobers", which is essentially just thick cream. I'm a bit of a sucker for fruity pudding though, so I've added a dollop of raspberry jam to mine. What a perfect way to be unhealthy without even leaving the house! So have your cake and eat it too!
Until tomorrow, P.S. You should check out Libbi and Katie's instagrams; they were the head chefs for the Vienna masterpieces, I was just photographer.

Squats, Soup and the Sixth | More Happy Days

Day six is upon us! After leaving the house at 7am to start a 3-hour gym session, I'm not ashamed to admit that the happiest part of my day so far has been my lunch. Squats and toning is great, but I do prefer my food. Covent Garden soups have been an expensive treat of mine for a few years: few and far between, but oh so delicious and under 200kcal for an entire carton (we'll ignore that half a carton is one portion, shhhh). With a soft ciabatta warmed in the oven for a few minutes on the side, I couldn't have wished for a better student meal. Here's my snap:

Beautiful, right?
Take care sweeties.

Pretty Presents | The Fifth Happy Day

Don't worry - I haven't forgotten the fifth day. Here's today's dose of happiness:

I'll admit that I'm a bit of a tea junkie. I've got a box full of herbal teas in my kitchen cupboard and I've been known to receive boxes of foreign tea from pen pals. My sister, being the wonderful person she is, showed up at my flat with this gorgeous present today. That's a cutsie floral mug, chocolate chip cookies, a sachet of English Breakfast tea (yum!) and a tea egg for loose leaf teas. She knows me too well!

Five down, 95 to go!

Stars and Strikes | Starred Up Film Review

As promised, film reviews! A couple of weeks ago I saw the new Brit-Grit drama Starred Up on the big screen. I'm a huge fan of raw British dramas (This is England and A Clockwork Orange being the obvious examples), so I'm critical whenever a new one hits the cinemas. Here's what I thought of the Film 4's new cockney convict film.

Following Eric Love - a “starred up” 19-year old young offender - as he makes a transition from juvenile detention to an adult penitentiary, David Mackenzie’s new drama is an intensely graphic account of the British Prison system.

Starred up Eric goes from being a leader in Juvi to an underdog Adult Pen.

First things first, credit where credit’s due: Mackenzie and his cinematographer Michael McDonough need to be applauded for the astonishing aesthetic here. What’s best about it is how subtle it is - it’s not showy, there aren’t any frills, and most people will go the entire film without noticing it. That’s what makes it so fitting. The entire film is raw, and the shooting joins in with that element seamlessly.

As for performances, it’s worth an all-round applause. The cast is crammed with fantastic supporting actors, perfectly chosen for a movie this gritty. Rupert Friend fits into the cast nicely as an out-of-place voluntary therapist; Sam Spruell plays the textbook baddie as the Deputy Governor; and Ben Mendelsohn gives a truly incredible performance as Neville Love - a father struggling with his relationship with his son (his character development also involves a poetic little twist). And leading them all in the performance of a lifetime is Jack O’Connell as Eric Love. He’s indescribable, so I’ll start a new paragraph.

O’Connell has always played a rough-around-the-edges kid; the mouthy Pukey in This is England (2006), bad-boy Cook in Skins, and Marky in Harry Brown (2009) being his more notable performances. Eric Love might measure up to these roles in an aesthetic sense, and share Cook’s strife with his dear old Dad, but he shoots past them all in terms of emotional depth and character development. O’Connell has been truly lucky with Starred Up in having a writer like Jonathan Asser (who based the script on his experience volunteering at HM Prison Wandsworth) who could portray the character in a way so close to true life that it’s impossible not to feel for him. The flawless writing, combined with O’Connell’s breathtaking ability to play a role as if the script was based on his own life, creates a character which is indisputably moving scene to scene. But maybe it’s just because he’s gorgeous, who knows?

A final tip of the hat to the realism of the movie. As far as prison movies go, there is a potential to royally bugger up and portray the justice system as some kind of Clockwork Orange descendant, or to hit the nail so precisely on the head that the work will resonate for years (I’m talking Hunger, Bronson (both 2008) etc.) Starred Up might not share the historical value of these two, but it’s undoubtedly in the same league. Filmed principally in HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland, where the infamous hunger strikes of 1981 took root, the grit in the movie literally seeps through the walls. It’s this setting - Prison Maze - which makes the comparison to Steve McQueen’s Hunger (based on the hunger strikes in Maze) so appropriate. That’s not to say they are identical, or even hugely similar - it’s the fact that they are so dissimilar which is great. Where McQueen focused on the history, the precise moment, Mackenzie gives a timeless and ever-true account of the inmate’s time. What they do share is an astounding open-wound style.

All in all, nothing less than you’d expect from Film 4.

DormDiary's Back | Easter Resurrection

Long time no see, right? You'll have to forgive me, the dorm lifestyle has been a little relentless lately - eat, sleep, slave, repeat seems to be my new motto. After a seven-month-long hiatus, I think it's time for a much-needed update on the DormDiary.

Since September last year I've started University, put a deposit on a house, passed January exams, and been buried under piles of revision for the upcoming summer exams. But not that much has really changed. I still spend time I should be working watching films and TV shows instead; and I still spend far too much time on the internet (she writes on her blog - how ironic). After a healthy dose of reflection, I decided that the only thing that was really wrong with this kind of procrastination is that it's not productive. But how do you make procrastination productive? Isn't this the eternal problem of every internaute? 

And then I found this little gem. 

100happydays is a challenge spread across various social media sites which aims to make users, internet-wide, see the beauty in life. How? It's pretty simple actually: you just have to post a photo each day for - you guessed it - 100 days, of things that make you happy. And because you go looking for things to take pictures of every day, you realise just how many little things make you happy. According to their manifesto, people who completed the challenge even began receiving more compliments and falling in love easier. And as a bonus, if you complete the challenge they'll send you a book of your 100 happy photos. Pretty rad huh? Now that's productive procrastination. 

Wait a minute, is this even relevant? It might not seem it, but it is applicable. 100happydays has made me think hard about what really makes me happy. When it came down to it, it turned out to be mainly film & TV, travel, and reading (original, right?). So if I take what makes me happy, and  add my method of procrastination (vigorous internetting), then surely it will be easier to make that procrastination productive? That's the theory. Now I just need to put it to the test, and here's how.

From here on out, I'm going to post my 100happydays photos (which you can find on my Instagram) right here to DormDiary. Where does film fit in? TV? Reading? Well, the posts here are going to be extended versions of my hundred happy days. That means reviews of films, TV show theories, travel photos - paying attention to what makes me happy, not just snapping pictures of it. C'est parti!

To make up for lost time, here are the pictures of my first four happy days

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See you tomorrow for my fifth, sweeties!