2014 Blogger Challenge // Nine

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From here

Unsure of original source. Help?

Topic :: Music

Currently, what I listen to.....

 in the car // Muse, Florence & The Machine

 in the mornings before class // Arctic Monkeys Glastonbury 2013 set, The xx

 to relax // a Ben Howard acoustic set, Beirut

 to feel // London Grammar, Daughter, Bastille

 to remember // Laura Marling, Damien Rice, Regina Spektor

 to cheer myself up // Arctic Monkeys

 to study // the Harry Potter soundtrack, silence

 to exercise // The Black Keys


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This is entry 9 in the 2014 Blogger Challenge.

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Paris // L'as du Fallafel

Wandering around Parisian streets with a bundle of THIS in my hand and learning from A about the Jewish quarter was quite possibly my favourite part of the trip. The deliciousness you see above was a L'as du Fallafel creation, dubbed by the New York Times as "the falafel destination in Europe". 

I like chickpeas just as much as everyone else, but I'd never really tried falafel before and remembered it. That makes it sound like I've only ever eaten it on hazily-recollected nights, but what I mean is that if I've ever eaten if before, I can't remember. It just can't have been that good. However, served out of a window and subject to creative adjustments, the falafel here is not only memorable, but also simply delicious.

Mine featured shawarma kebab whereas A opted for the vegetarian option. They were bloomin' marvellous and I would eat one every day if I could!

Obviously walking around wearing the lightest coloured clothing was the perfect equation for making a salsa and aubergine related mess, so we headed to some gardens a few streets away to sit in the sunshine and attempt to eat these gracefully. By the time we perched ourselves by a chess table (why on earth do we not have these in London?!) I had devoured most of mine anyway (completely stain free I might add) and we pondered whether we had room for dessert (answer: always.)

Marks out of ten = 9. A point being docked only for having more pieces of aubergine than falafel itself. 

The Jewish Quarter is, by the way, awesome. 

Now, what I would like to know is (a) falafel or hummus? and (b) do I get a prize for the lack of spillage?

Address: 32-34 Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris

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Challenge Eight of the 2014 Blogger Challenge is an outfit post. I think sharing this outfit (H&M, Zara, New Look, Longchamp combination) should suffice! 

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2014 Blogger Challenge // Seven

Dear readers,

Topic Seven of the Challenge was a photo diary, so here is a sample of recent experiences of Beeta's (now broken) iPhone camera.

Love from, London x

P.S. The third from last photograph has an excellent story attached, but before I tell you, I'd like to hear your guessed version of events.

P.P.S. Those of you who know me IRL will know that I'm somewhat notorious for my patterned trouser collection. This week the weather was lovely so they resurfaced from the depths of my wardrobe and now I am excited for spring, and picnic season in particular. To that end, pop over to Lost Arrows, where I have guest-posted for Chloe about picnic essentials this evening. I plan to have my first one next week :)

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Part of the #2014BloggerChallenge.

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Baking with Beeta // No bake edition // Rocky Road

This recipe is one of my favourite types - it involves minimal possibility of burning anything. Oh and it tastes pretty incredible and is the perfect thing to take to a friend's when you pop over for food, especially when last time you took them over-baked fairy cakes. (That's obviously a story about somebody else...uh hurrr hurr hurr) 

So today, followers, I give to you Rocky Roads ft. zero fruit and loads of sweets. Sure, they aren't the most handsome of desserts out there, but trust me on this one - they taste ridiculously good. And go pretty well with vanilla ice-cream too. Or a cup of tea. Or both if you fancy a mixed temperature experience.

To make a box of these, you will need:

- 300g dark chocolate (Bourneville is yummiest), broken up into squares
- 100g butter, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp golden syrup
- 140g rich tea biscuits, roughly crushed
- any many marshmallows as you fancy
- a couple of chocolate bars e.g. Twix, Mars, Turkish Delight, Malteasers variations

Method:

1. Line a cake-tin/tray with greaseproof paper or foil to avoid too much mess.
2. Melt butter, golden syrup and chocolate together in a pan, on a low heat. Stir lots of avoid the chocolate going crazy.
3. Once smooth, leave the mixture to cool for 10 minutes.
4. Stir the biscuits and sweets into the pan until well mixed.
5. Pour into the tin and spread the mixture to roughly level it.
6. Chill until hard, then cut into pieces.

Original recipe found here.

I'm pretty sure you could put whatever you wanted to in yours. Let me know if you come up with any exciting variations.

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This post ties in quite nicely with this fortnight's #2014BloggerChallenge which was the topic of Food, so consider this Challenge Number Six.

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2014 Blogger Challenge // Five

Topic: Nails

via Pinterest

I was never going to do a review of nail varnish or a nail art tutorial. I toyed with the idea of giving you a list of facts about nails (akin to the skin one) but I'm not sure I'm the writer for that, nor you the audience. Instead, in as brief as possible a post can be, here are the two occasions on which I have ever had my nails done in a salon.

1 // for May Ball at the end of sixth form, with my Mum.

2 // for my 21st birthday party (joint with M), with my best friend.

Oh and if, on the off chance, you needed a little pick-me-up, may I direct you to this all-time classic. You're welcome.

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This post is part of the #2014bloggerchallenge hosted here. This fortnight's post has caught me a bit off-guard in among exams and revision so this isn't as abstract a post as I would have liked to attempt for a topic that is not really very me or my blog. Anyhow, you can find my take on the other topics of this series here. Enjoy!

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2014 Blogger Challenge // Four

Topic 4: High-end vs high-street

Source unknown

Why are we so concerned with what other people think? Do we buy names and brands because we KNOW them to be good, or because we have heard someone else say they are good or cool or the hip thing these days in those circles, and wish to impress the people who said they were good or cool or the hip thing to know that we also think these things to be hip, cool and/or good? Why do we buy things we cannot afford, yet are conditioned to believe we need? High-end or high-street, I wish we felt more empowered as consumers to buy the things we WANT without compromising our morals, ethics and/or succumbing to societal pressures. Neither market caters to everybody yet we feel like we have to be pigeon-holed. More charity shops please. I may be talking in code here...but let me know if you deciphered any of it. My brain is clogged with legal jargon for the moment. Either way, I like the photo above.

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This post is part of the 2014 Blogger Challenge, hosted here. I aim to post in response to each topic released every fortnight. Hopefully, you'll enjoy my take on them.  If you're also taking part, please let me know as I would love to see your interpretations of these challenges. You can see my other posts here.

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2014 Blogger Challenge // Three

From here

I have a good friend, S, who always makes excellent recommendations. She said Alain de Botton's book "Essays in Love" was a perspective-changing read. I started reading that one on my iPad but need to get hold of a physical copy of it to really soak it in, I think. I did find "Status Anxiety" in a charity shop, however, and must say de Botton's writing style is quite exquisite. He has this ability to make you see the world through completely altered eyes and blows your mind in the most satisfying of fashions.

On an aside, isn't it a lovely thing when you find a special book in a charity shop? Sure, it's easy to let go of books that you thought were average and didn't love, and even easier to give away books that you despised or which sent you to sleep. But to give away a book that means something to you, that awakens your soul and causes you to think, now that must be an act of love and a desire to share something so excellent you feel compelled for somebody else to have a magical moment discovering it. Either that or an attempt to get rid of clutter. One or the other...

Anyhow, this fortnight's 2014 Blogger Challenge post is about books and I would like to share with you a passage from it which I wrote out last summer in my notebook of special words, when I first read this book. I hope you can connect with it on some level.

"There may be no better way to clear the diary of engagements than to wonder who among our acquaintances would make the trip to the hospital bed.

As conditional love starts to seem less interesting, so too may many of the things we pursue in order to secure it. If wealth, esteem and power buy us the kind of love that will last only so long as our status holds, and yet if we are destined to end our lives defenceless and dishevelled, longing to be comforted like a small child, then we have an unusually clear reason to concentrate our energies on those relationships which will best withstand the erosion of our standing."

- From "Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton

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This post is part of the 2014 Blogger Challenge, hosted here. I aim to post in response to each topic released every fortnight.. I hope you enjoy it. If you're also taking part, please let me know as I would love to see your take on each challenge. You can see my other posts here.

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2014 Blogger Challenge // Two

Other than that time I did a somewhat tongue-in-cheek review of some Lush products, I don't think the topic of "skincare" has ever had reason to crop up on my little piece of the web. I mean, if I wasn't so obsessed with getting out my deepest (hmm) thoughts and wise words/ramblings of a maniac, perhaps I would have let you know on more often a basis that I have eczema and up until the age of 22 I probably got a spot about once a year but since hitting 23, they've all arrived and are here to stay. Or maybe I wouldn't. No, probably not.

However, I signed up to the #2014bloggerchallenge and this week's topic is "Skincare".

I thought long and hard about posting a skincare routine (ONLY JOKING) and then almost wrote a post about scabs, spots and grazes, but luckily for you I came across this infographic just in the nick of time. I like it because it's sciencey and full of fun facts. And technically it is "skincare" because it basically tells you that your skin is really cool and that should make you want to care for it, right?

I have been thinking of featuring more sciencey posts, maybe even a Science Saturday series (don't you find that alliteration ever so satisfying?) so let me know what you think. I am by no means an expert but I am fascinated and truly impressed by it all. I studied Biology and Chemistry in sixth form and have forever loved the solar system and beyond. When I was little my room was decorated with a space theme, with starry wallpaper, glow in the dark solar systems and stars, a spacecraft and astronaut duvet set and encyclopaedias dotted around for maximum galactic absorption.

Anyway, I digress. Enjoy the biology lesson :)

Found here

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This post is part of the 2014 Blogger Challenge, hosted here. I aim to post in response to each topic released every fortnight.. I hope you enjoy it. If you're also taking part, please let me know as I would love to see your take on each challenge. You can see my first post here. 

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2014 Blogger Challenge // One

Task #1: Share a quotation or picture that inspires you and you think will inspire others in the new year.

"Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim" - Tyler Knott Gregson.

This is me, running without a care in the world, in a beautiful field in Devon over three years ago. It was empty except for my sisters and I. We spent the sunset dancing around, getting damp shoes from treading in dewy greens, spinning in circles and practising yoga poses. Most of it was caught on camera and it gives me great joy to look back on the pictures my sisters and I took, laughing giggles of love and togetherness. It's those moments which I'll remember forever which often inspire me to refocus when faced with battles.

The quotation is one I noticed on Pinterest recently. I think it is the perfect depiction of the danger of getting caught up in the difficulties or supposed mundaneness of a task, whatever that may be, that you forget what you like about it, the reason you're able to do it and the motivation for doing it in the first place. Equally, when something is getting you down, it is very easy to become consumed by it but this is a nice little nudge to remember that you are alive.

Make time for what you love, act with passion and aim to do the best in whatever it is you're doing. Easier said than done, I know, but if you aspire for 100%, the results will be pride-worthy nonetheless.

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This is my first post in the 2014 Blogger Challenge, hosted here. There will hopefully be a new post every fortnight based on a different task set. I hope you enjoy it. If you're also taking part, please let me know as I would love to see your take on each challenge.

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