cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

Spoiler: I did not write. A. Single. Word. I plotted a little in my head and then checked the deadline, decided there was still time, and probably turned on some bit of crap tv.

We went to see Thor! Tom Hiddleston movies seem all I ever watch at the cinema any more (not complaining), and oh, it was silly and colourful and had the right amount of Loki and was exactly what I needed. Plus, the concession stand had a Thor cup, so I had a fangirl moment about that (and now own a Thor cup, obviously and mostly because there was no Loki cup), because it has been way too long that I indulged in that kind of fannish glee.(The Sherlock book does not count. Though that was a little bit fannish.)

As of tomorrow, I'll have a whole week off, yessss. Plus, I will be in Canterbury in two days! I am so excited to finally travel to England again. Oh God, how have I missed it. I will travel with Enzo who is still the best travel buddy, so that is lovely, but I will miss the GF. Tonight, I'm having a bit of a glad/sad situation while packing my trusted Kanken backpack. To add a bit of bad timing, my mother will receive her second radioactive joint treatment on Thursday, and while I know it will help her and she will be fine(especially with her boyfriend around), it is tough for me to not be around. I am trusting that she will manage and it will be just as fine as the last treatment where not being able to move the treated joints was inconvenient but not painful. Just... ugh, you know?

But if I focus on the happy things: I will see Canterbury Cathedral! The cliffs of Dover on a day trip! Walk Canterbury's little streets and eat all the pub grub. And all the pudding! Banoffee Pie, here I come! I might need to roll home, but it will be so worth it.

The weather around here changed from 10+ to a maximum of 8 accompanied by fog and I love it. It makes packing worse, because I will travel light again and only have my carry-on bag, but oh, the seasons this year are just lovely.

Have a splendid time, and much love, as always.

Right. So. Hello!

In the past, I made several attempts at writing regularly again, and almost always gave up a few entries later. While signing up for this years yuletide, I posted a yuletide letter and re-read a few of my own entries, and it is so good to put a date to some of the events. I cannot believe it will be my fifth Christmas in this flat already! Who would have thought.

And yes, back to English again. German still feels weird to me when I try to express my feelings. So, well, hello! I won't try to write a catching up post about what happened in the meantime. Just as much: I have a new job since February because I was so fed up with my old one and it was stressing me out so much. I could not see straight anymore and was so upset all the time. I am still working for a hotline, but I started at the new place as an agent again, and it is only 20 hours, which is lovely albeit horrible money-wise, but I feel a lot better and almost like my old self. I have missed that old self, really.

I have no idea who is still active around here, but here's a friendly wave. Much love, as always.

In keinem Jahr war Musik so wichtig für mich wie in 2014. Ich kann die Tage nicht zählen, wo mir Songs Mut machten, mich trösteten, mir Rat gaben. 2014 hatte eine Reihe deutschsprachiger Singer-Songwriter für mich, die je nach Situation über Ihre Musik für mich da waren.

Im August verliebte ich mich sehr in das Album Das Paradies der Gefälschten Dinge von Niels Frevert, der mir zwar immer wieder empfohlen wurde, aber zugunsten von Gisbert zu Knyphausen und Nils Koppruch ein wenig weiter nach unten auf der Dringlichkeitsliste rutschte.



Eins der schönsten Lieder gibt es in einer Akustikversion auf Youtube, und ich war so schlagartig verliebt, dass ich das Album nach Erscheinen kaufte, ohne Reinzuhören.



Den Song mit der für mich schönsten Textzeile ist allerdings Das mit dem Glücklichsein ist relativ. Die Akustikversion ist einfach zauberschön, und der Song macht mich dann auch tatsächlich glücklich.

Niels Frevert - Das mit dem Glücklichsein ist relativ

Da er auf seinen Alben seit 1997 thematisch diverse Themen abdeckt, bin ich immer wieder überrascht, über was ich so stolpere: Wortschöpfungen, die ich bejahen möchte, Lieder für Situationen und Gefühle, sei es ein wütendes "Meine Zuständigkeit endet hier - Schluss!" oder ein traurig zärtliches "Ich würd Dich gern mal anrufen, es wär schön, wenn Du mir schreibst. Eine Postkarte aus dem Jenseits."

Seine neueren Alben sind vielleicht auch ein wenig Herbst- beziehungsweise Winterplatten, mit dieser leisen Melancholie, die nicht unwillkommen ist, während man bei Tee durchs Fenster in den frühen Abend schaut.

Hach.

I first discovered them while staying in England around Easter, which is when they are traditionally served, but they are so good, I want to have them all through the year! I like the ones baked after this recipe even better than the store-bought ones (shhh, don't tell anyone, especially not M&S). They have the right texture and smell, and with butter, they are heavenly. They are best fresh from the oven, but you can also stuff them in your toaster. Yay!

Again, you cannot buy them anywhere near my hometown, which is why I tried making them in the first place.

Now, there are different versions of cross buns floating around, this is one without almond paste. Because I am lazy like that. And did not have any almonds for the almond paste.



Ingredients

For the dough:

50 g sugar
450 g flour
1 p. dry yeast (you can use fresh! If you do, use 20 g)
150 ml warm water
2 tbl spoons mixed spice*
bit of salt
100 g mixed dried fruit (I used cherries, blue berries and cranberries. Fabulous!)
25 g candied lemon peel/ orange peel (if you like that stuff. I don't. So I used raisins, which should be in here anyway. I decided to have a fruit explosion and it was lovely.)
orange zest from one orange (please do not omit. It is too lovely.)
1 egg
50 g butter, melted
50 ml milk, warmed (Um, alright, so, I did not warm the milk. I just put it into the pan with the melted butter. Which kind of is like warming, I assume? Well, it worked.)

For the cross decoration:

100 g flour
50 ml water
1 egg

For glazing (if you want to.)

2 tbl spoons sugar
juice from 1 orange (neat, you get to use the whole thing in this!)

*In the UK, you can buy mixed spice. Here, not so much. So I made my own mixed spice using cinnamon, coriander, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

What to do with the above:

Mix 1 tbl spoon sugar, the dry yeast and the warm water until it is foaming. It will foam. It will foam out of the mixing bowl if you pick a too small one.

Put flour, salt, spices into a big mixing bowl. Pour in the dried fruit, the orange zest and the rest of the sugar. Make a basin (a dent? a pit?) and pour in the yeat mixture that is threatening to get out of the other bowl and run away. Put in egg, milk and butter and stir with a wooden spoon until it's a dough. Yeast does not like metal, and is pretty ambivalent about plastic.

Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Put it back in the bowl and cover it with a moist towel. Let it rest for an hour somewhere warm, until double in size.

Now, BEAT the dough until it's the same size as before it's slumber. Evil laughter optional. Make sure the gf does not get a heart attack should she sit in the kitchen as well. (Sorry. The recipe said slap the dough. I swear.)

Make 12 nice little round buns and place them on a either lined or greased baking tray. Cover them with a towel again and let them sit for 35 - 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to hot (220 C/ 430F).

Mix water and flour for the cross decoration and thus make a cheap white dough. Roll it until it's about 1 cm thick and cut into 6 parts. Roll again until they are about 5 mm thick and cut them into 24 pieces. Beat the egg (rather violent recipe, isn't it?) and brush the buns. Lay to strips of dough on each bun to form a cross. Brush again with the egg.



Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.

If you want to put glazing on them, heat sugar and juice until the sugar has completely dissolved and the sirup is bubbling. Glaze buns with, um well, glazing.

EAT.

No wait, cut in halves, spread with butter and EAT.



The end.

All pictures taken by the everlovely silme711.

Back home from field trip, exhausted.

Couldn't resist this one, though: from jb_slasher If you see this, post a poem in your own LJ today.

For Meghan, for the Haiti relief. <3

The stillness of a winter's day, revisited

The silence of an icy, altogether too early
winter's dawn is disrupted by the rustling of the wings of birds,
hundreds of them, swooping from tree to tree in smaller
flocks of twenty.

Shy red wings that don't chatter or chirp,
beady black eyes on me, white feathers like an eyebrow
raised as I pass, some seem to frown, their beaks yellow
in anticipation.

They are all changing trees until I'm inside
looking from behind my living room window, curtains half drawn
as if spying on them, my new feathered and unexpected neighbours,
feasting on red berries,

Brought here by the cold, I briefly think of
climate change, but still turn up the heat.
The coldest winter for thirty years even quiets down
those birds,

and finally me.

Oh, I liked this ep! <3

( This week's cap extravaganza features Eliot's arms. Jesus. )

Thank you so much for the support! I just came home to your lovely comments. *tear* Flist group hug! *squishes you all*

So: All clear! It's nothing! Well, it's just my normal tissue being an arse, but nothing bad! My doc is a very lovely doc who really took his time and checked me four times or something and while we agreed yes, there is a lump, he said it's really nothing, well, threatening or bad or malevolent or anything like that. Just the tissue being more lumpy on one side (bet you needed to know that! How's that for tmi?) and due to my weight loss, it was more visible? touchable? errr, you get the idea! So BIG BREATH OF RELIEF! He also told me it was very good of me to come to have it checked. (And then he even went "Omg, how much weight did you lose? 15 kg??? How on earth did you do that? That's amazing! Good for you!" Which really really calmed me down further.)

Phew. I was so relieved I bought myself chocolate cake after to soothe my nerves. ;)

God, I'm knackered now. That was enough anxiety for the whole month! But, you know, it's good to have something like this checked right away.

More tea now. And much love to you and thank you again. It means the world, really. ♥

I have an appointment today to have a curious lump checked out. In my tit. There really shouldn't be lumps in your tit. :( I'm really glad I got the appointment though. I've been meaning to go for weeks now. This is slightly upsetting even though I am sure it will be nothing.

See you after.

I found the worlds most comfortable pants and they are curderoy.

It's still a win. :D

For elebridith ♥ I hope that is the smirk you meant, hon! The cap turned out fabulous, don't you think?




And proof of life prettier hair:



Proper pic spam soon! Sorry I am so late, guys. :/

Am back from the hospital. I have minor smoke poisoning, which is why I was dozing in a hospital bed for two hours, breathing sweet oxygen through a mask. I feel like I was run over by a truck but I am better now. Will make myself some hot cocoa and go to bed. I will leave the window open for as long as I can with these temperatures, and cuddle up under all my blankets.

Thank you so much for your support and comments. It really means a lot. ♥