I taught I taw a puddy-tat

Apparently our house is like catnip for errr...cats. They just seem to  love the place, and will take any chance they can get to chill out in the living room. First came the Dude/Slytherin Cat/Tybalt/Minion. He was pretty awesome, and a return visitor, but wasn't much for fussing. 

Next came Geri/Jerry (couldn't decide if it was male or female). S/He came over one evening, did a bit of wandering, bit of chilling, and (apparently) a bit of taking photos of him/herself

And then  came the newest one. Hasn't a name yet, but she really didn't want to leave us, V had to actually pick her up and carry her outside

How To:Cook Rich's Mega Veg Soup

Yesterday I made some soup, and it was really really really good. I didn't even use a recipe, the total price was ~£2 for 6 meals, and it tasted like heaven. So I'm going to share it with the world:

Ingredients

Photo from this guy

-One leek, chopped

Photo from this guy
-A few carrots and parsnips (Peeled and chopped)

Photo from this guy
-A couple of potatoes
- 3 stock cubes
-A couple of garlic cloves
-Flour to thicken it-Hot water
-Salt & Pepper to taste
Put them all in a pan & put the lid on. Biol for about half an hour before blending and serving with cheese on toast
Heres one I made earlier

Photo by V, who also blogged this, and did a much better job of it 

To Do:Nothing

Today, after a week of actually doing stuff most of the time, I'm having a bed day. I don't have lazy days, they seem  lazy and a waste of a day. But a combination of it being cold outside, my bed becoming super comfy and a plethora of TV I want to catch up on mean that today I will do my procrastination without any guilt attached. So far I'm up to date with QI, How I Met Your Mother, and half up to date with New Girl. I've completed a level  in Mario  Advanced 4 I've been stuck on for ages, and I've been listening to a album that a random guy on the internet sent me for no reason other than sometimes people are awesome

You can here how great the album is here

My plans for later include watching Back to the Future for the first time, finishing all christmas shopping I can do online, and generally following the wisdom of Cat Empire's 'Nothing'

"Something about this instance 

Something about this minute 

Striving for the future 

But don't realise that we're in it 

A moment just to float 

To ponder and to dote 

To dry and to soak 

And to take a little toke of that 

Nothing 

Oh sweet nothing 

Today we're doing nothing at all" 

Sun arise early in the morning

The last two weeks, I've been waking up stupidly early. Like,  sometimes as early as 7am. I know, mental right?!And because I have a new baby camera and an east facing bedroom window, and winter has decided the sunrise should be at 7ish, I've been taking photos of the sunrise. I once even had the energy to actually leave my nest of warmth and try and see the sunrise it-self. Although I went to a west facing hill. Because I'm an idiot.

A Walk on the Wild Side

Today, I walked dogs. It was great. They weren't my dogs. They weren't anybodies dogs. They were shelter dogs, and frickin adorable ones at that. We (H, V, the GF and me) took a bus across the whole width of the city, before getting off about an hours walk from the kennels (Thanks to H's awful navigation skills!). We got to the kennels, and the  lady gave us two dogs that both seems extremely eager to go on a walk

Ella, a shy golden German Shepard that doesn't like getting her photo taken

 and Vinnie, a badgercraprolling, drooling, excited bag of adorable 

We took them for a rambling yomp through the woods and across the fields, dodging the cavalry

   

and finding stunning views 

before returning the dogs, tongues lapping and tails wagging.

I'd never really thought about walking dogs for a rescue kennels, but it seems like a win-win-win-win-win scenario
A)You get the pride that comes from donating your time to do some good for others

B)The dogs get a good long walk, a chance to explore, and interaction with humans that might help them with trust problems they have due to their abandonment

C)The kennel people have 2 less dogs to walk that day, so can do other things

D)You get to go for walks and go exploring, when otherwise you (I) would probably be inside on the laptop

E)You (I) get to try out your new camera, before realising you know none of the settings, and go home and read the book V got you for your birthday, and understand it just a little bit more

20 while I'm 21

This post is definitely not a copy of my housemate Vics post a while back. I've decided to make a list of 20 things I'm going to do while I'm 21. Some will (hopefully) be straight-forward, others will challenge me, some will be quite hard. I'll blog whenever I complete one (if I remember)
1)Finish 3rd year Environmental Science- This really should be completed.
2)Go camping in Iceland-Again, this should be done. Seeing as I've paid for it....
3)Take over 1000 photos with my new camera
4)Bike across the Peak District-I'm determined to bike home from uni at some point. If not, theres a planned bike from sheffield-manchester, so either way.
5)Cook a three course meal-I can't make puddings, this could be tough....
6)Pass my driving test-third time better be a charm
7)Learn 5 cocktail recipes to perfection

Photo from this guy

8)Start up jogging again. I keep making excuses for not doing it, but my fancy-ass trainers are pissed at me.
9)Get a Guinness world record- This might be cheating. I'm taking part in the Reddit Secret Santa, which broke a world record last year. If it does it again this year, mission complete. If not, I'm gonna have to learn to break pumpkins on my forehead.
10)Meet another Richard Jones- There are a lot of us, so this will most likely be by coincidence, but it would be cool and all.
11)Start a campfire with northing but my flint

12) Find somewhere new in my own city- Its a big city, but I seem to stay in the same regions, so I need to find a new area.
13)Watch a sport live that I've never seen seen before-I kinda wanna go an ice-hockey match, or cricket, or  something
14)Go 24 hours without technology (as in my laptop, phone, camera etc)
15)GO TO THE SEASIDE- I frickin love the seaside

16)Keep up with blogging for more than a month
17)Watch every one of the top 10 films on IMDB- Probably not at the same time as I do 14
18)Lose a stone-If I actually do numbers 4 and 8 this could be do-able,
19)Learn a fact a day, every day. Its amazing what I know that I don't know I know.
20)Successfully bake a cake. I might as well finish this list with something that is impossible.

Birthday Times

It seems instead of having just one day in which my birthday celebrations were done, this week seemed be one big celebration of me. Birthday eve was cocktails and burgers with H, V and the GF. Birthday was a turkish meze with GF and fireworks. Friday was a meal of pineapple and cheese cocktail sticks, sausage rolls and cheese sandwiches with the family, and then birthday presents, including money from fam, 21 presents off my sis, and a FOTHERMUCKING camera :D

Photo From This Guy

 Sat involved the new James Bond, an all-I-could-eat-and-a-little-bit-more indian meal, and trying out the camera. And next Saturday, I'm having a kids birthday party followed by  a night out at a 90s cheesy pop club. All birthdays should be as awesome as this...

HOLY CHRIST I'M NEARLY 21

Picture via this guy:

I really hope making this blog isn't a midlife crisis. Because 41 and 364 days would be a rubbish age to live to. I'd never get to live to be the meaning of life, the universe and everything. But, I can't imagine being 21. It was always so far away. Now its wednesday. I have 27 hours left of being able to use being a kid as an excuse for things I do. I won't have the sparkle of Christmas, the scariness of Halloween, the magic of Bonfire Night. 

No. Wait. I will. I'm going to be exactly the same person, just with the ability fly a helicopter, be an MP, or drink in the USA. Just because I'm a year older, doesn't mean I have to be a year wiser, a year more sensible, or a year more professional. Growing older just means knowing when its appropriate to act like a small child. This guy:

 (Picture via this guy)

has the right idea. You shouldn't have to give up being a kid just because you are a grown up. You shouldn't have to give up on being a pre-teen just because you're not a teenager any more. You shouldn't have to give up on your dreams, just because you have a job and a house and responsibilities. 

As the great Bob Monkhouse once said: "Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. "