A Q&A about books

I really love reading, and after seeing this by Little Miss Busy, I decided to do one for myself.

I've mentioned it before, but I'm trying to read a bit more, so there's not a better time to do this post!

What are you reading right now?

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. Its a nice rest from uni work, and gives me a type of wanderlust which can be done on a students budget, as all the places mentioned are in the UK! 

Do you have any idea what you’ll read after you’ve finished this book?

Undecided between two Michael Palin books, either Sahara or Himalaya. This wanderlust might be a bit harder on the wallet though :(

Five books you’ve always wanted to read but have never got round to?

The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit- I HAVE read them, but I was around 10 at the time, so its fair to say, most of it didn't sink in. I keep meaning to get round to reading them again, especially after  each bi-monthly watching of the films, but I always find myself too busy

The Shining- I never dared read it because I was the biggest scaredy cat in the world, but I quite liked the film, so I'll give the book a go!

Looking for Alaska/The Fault in Our Stars- Arguably John Greens best two books, but  I am yet to read either of them. Being a skint student without a job means I only really buy books firsthand if they are on offer, and although I've found a couple of his other books (Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson), and really loved them.

 What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now?

National Geographic is the family favourite, with incredible photos and interesting articles every month. We also have about a million Nursing Standard mags in the living room, but thats just because my mum never seems to get round to reading them!

What’s the worst book you ever read?

Casino Royale- It seemed badly written, all about the actual poker games, and full of casual racism and sexism!

What book is really popular but you really hated?

I didn't hate it, but I found the Song of Ice and Fire books very tough to read in some places, and dragged on a lot. But people seem  to treat them as the greatest thing that has ever been written ever.  

What was your favourite book as a child?

As a small child I loved The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. It was about a barn owl called Plop, and as a lover of all things wild, I really really really enjoyed it!

What’s the one book you recommend to everybody?

Fahrenheit 451- A  book which demonstrates the importance of reading, and of books. It also gives me another 'fun fact' to bore people with (the temperature at which book paper sets alight= 451°F)

What are your three favourite poems?

Have a Nice Day- by Spike Milligan -I used to know it off by heart

If-byRudyard Kipling This poem should be known off by heart by every English male. And once they do, they will be a man, my son.

And 'Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Richard, Happy Birthday to you. Because it often coincides with presents and cake.

Where do you usually get your books?

Either Amazon, Charity Shops, or a big torrent of ebooks (yes, I know)

Where do you usually read your books?

In bed, in the bath (being terrified about dropping my Kindle, on the loo, or sat on the sofa. 

What’s the last book you stayed up half the night to read?

It was also the last book I read, but Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. The last third of the book is talking about the chaos of the 1996 Everest Disaster, and the fact that it was true and from a first hand perspective meant I just couldn't put it down.

Have you ever ‘faked’ reading a book?

The closest I've got to this is a book I referenced in an exam about mycorrhizal fungi. I never read it, but got a 'good' comment for the reference!

Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. It was a mixture of the cover and the title that made me want to read it, and I'm so glad I did. It was the first Robert Rankin book I read, and definitely not the last! 

Which book changed your life?

Guards  Guards! Its crazy that I could get this far down the list without mentioning any Terry Pratchett books, and this was my first, and is still my favourite. It started the second wind of my love of reading, as I soon read almost all Terry Pratchett books back to back.

What is your favourite passage from a book?

"It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life."- Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent 

Its the kind of quote that sticks with me, and makes me realise that I'll only have one life (probably), so I'd better make the most of it!

Who are your top five favourite authors?

Pratchett, Robert Rankin, JK Rowling (EVERY person of my generation MUST love the Harry Potter books, no?), Terry Deary and Nick Arnold (I loved the Horrible History and Horrible Science books, and the TV show is a guilty pleasure, although I disagree with Deary's idea that libraries are rubbish! ) 

What is your favourite classic book?

Romeo and Juliet- Forced into reading it during high school, but still really like it, and so quotable!

Four notable mentions?

A Brief History of Time- A bit geeky, but it blows my frickin mind!

The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart- my housemates and girlfriend would vouch about my enjoyment, and frequent quoting, of this book

The Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith- It was a hard choice between this and The Owl Who Was       Afraid of the Dark for childhood book, ad it was a major factor in my love of hedgehogs!

Jingo by Terry Pratchett- A close second to Guards Guards for favourite Pratchett book

It would be great to know other peoples answers, mention below if you do one, I'd love to have a read! Also, any things you disagree with?

Guess what, its 'Spring'!

Apparently its spring,

So how come there's so much ruddy snow?

I  took Molly out for a couple of walks (yes, more photos of my dog, and no, I'm not sorry)

I finally got round to having a play with photoshops 'curves' fixer, and I love how the snow became the right colour

She loves the snow, until she gets snow and ice in her paws :(

And just so we can remember March from previous years, here's how it compares to the last two

 

Things I love about coming home #3

I really like cooking

Making dinners, 

inventing meals,

 learning what does/doesn't go together

But when at uni, its mainly same old, same old.

Frugal spending means that most meals are repeated for a few days- the onion soup mentioned in this post lasted 4 days, (much to the joy of Vic and Matt)

But now I'm home, I have full range to work with

Its like Masterchef meet Ready Steady Cook

'OK, What can I make with butternut squash, some chicken and cream'

(I ended up making a mild, yet very nice, curry!)

Next thursday my mums going for an op, and seeing as she will be under doctors orders to not strain herself, and as my sister and dad are god-awful cooks (my sister could burn cereal, and my dad somehow makes everything look and taste of vegetable stew, its like a very strange superpower)

So for the week, I will be in charge of all meals, and I plan to make them all damn good ones.

Heres hoping!

Do you have any recipe suggestions that are easy to make? Whats your go to meal?

Things I love about coming home #2

Sometimes I forget how beautiful the area around me is, until its gone.

Only 5 miles out from the Peak District, only a 10 minute walk from the countryside.

Its basically the same distance in Sheffield, but without the dog as an excuse to go for  a walk, I can never find an excuse to go for a walk instead of doing work. 

It can be tough ( it seems to snow constantly from November to March) and when its not, its normally not the best weather. But when its good, and clear, the views are amazing.

Things I love about coming home #1

This little girl, she's frickin amazing. An idiot, an absolute idiot, but an amazing idiot.

She might be nearing 11, but she acts like a puppy most the time, chasing her tail, pouncing on torch light and getting confused when the cat meows at the start of corrie. 

Now I'm back for easter, its my 'job' to walk her 3 times a day, but really its not that much of a chore (except the picking up the dog poo bit, that's never nice)

People say the internet is full of crazy cat ladies, 

well I'm their nemesis, 

crazy dog-man.

Just...Because

I'm not really sure what to blog about
I feel I should blog though because I haven't in a while
I have absolutely no clue what to say though

Why does it always have to be me who starts the talking, you never start
So, how are you?
OK, I just realised you can't reply because this blog isn't published yet

That was quite silly of me, wasn't it?

What can I put...what can I put...
I haven't really done anything, I've had to much work to do
I went home last weekend though, but didn't get that many good photos. Got one of my dog, she's a cutie

But shes also an absolute idiot.
What else can I say

You may ask "Whats the point in writing a blog post if you don't know what to write about"
(If you did, you're probably thinking "How did he know I was thinking that". I'm psychic, thats how I know you thought that too)

Well, I want to make sure I blog whenever I feel I should blog, so I don't give up on it.
So here I am, blogging.
Yes, I realise that you may feel that you've wasted time reading this

No, I don't  care that your not too bothered

Yes I'm still going to keep writing

Well stop  reading then 

No, you can't have your time back

Well that's because its not possible to reverse time

Well I don't know why, ask Stephen Hawking, its probably something to do with Space-Time

Well now that's done with, goodbye





PS: As a reward for getting to the end, heres an interactive section of the post

Ten Top Tips to Stop Procrastination

As anyone who knows me (yes, you Vic), I am absolutely awful at procrastinating, I will spend as much time as I can not doing work. Because of this,I am full of tips for people who have slightly better self-control that myself in order to make their working most efficient!

1)Give yourself breaks. As Jack Nicholson said "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

And its true, if you try to work non-stop until the work is done, you will go mad, your work will be bad quality, and you will not be having fun. Having 10 minutes off now and then is fair enough, and you might actually get more done.

2)Give yourself a daily deadline- If you give yourself a time each day you want to work till, then you will try and get it all before then, instead of thinking 'well I have plenty of time, I can just check twitter for another 20 mins, then finish 20 minutes later'

3) StayFocusd- A great little add-on for Google Chrome/ Firefox (and maybe others), where you can give yourself limits on what sites you can go on, how long you can go on them, and even do a complete nuclear  attack & ban the internet. Link here- /http://stayfocusd.en.softonic.com/

4)Work in a public place- For me at least, nothing makes me more like I should work than people tutting over my shoulder when they're looking for a computer and you're there browsing facebook. It also makes the distinction between working and playing, home is for play, uni/the library etc is for work.

This doesn't work if you're Mark Zuckerberg, and browsing facebook IS your work

5)Work offline- If you have sets of work that you can do while not connected to the rest of the world, then do it while not connected to the rest of the world. Without the distractions, you might get more done, and when you are unable to see where your friends just 'checked in', then you won't really be fussed.

(I was going to do another five, but then there was a thing, on reddit, and then there was a link to facebook, and some really interesting stuff on wikipedia about ex-Liverpool players, and a there's that new sporcle quiz, and yeah)

What ways do you advise to stop yourself procrastinating? 

Photo from here

To York! An anniversary adventure

For Holly and my 4 year anniversary, we decided to go to York for an adventure. Because sometimes adventures are just needed. I'm a geographer (kinda) goddamn it!

This involved getting up early, which was hard seeing as we were up late in a long drawn out game of trivial pursuit, before being crowned king and queen of all things knowledge related. 

 Even when still in Sheffield the weather seemed to be suggesting that it was going to be good today, which is always a bonus when you're planning an exploration  

 Although it doesn't actually look like it in this photo, the soil border on the right was around 7 foot down from where we were walking (the city walls). This is messing with my head.

 I rather like old castley-churchy things. Thats why I love this country, so much history.

 These ruins were rather big, around 5 Hollys tall (not yet an official measuring unit)

 And there were lots of places to explore

 The minster was rather grand, and I bet it was even more impressive inside, but £9 entry is a little too steep for this explorer. 

 It seems this guy is asking God why he paid so much for a model of the minster

 I love when statues have expressions (but not in the way those creepy Dr Who ones do)

 One thing that I really love about exploring is finding things that most tourists won't find. This church was just off a busy street, but the fact that there was no obvious indicator it was there meant it was as peaceful as it should be

 I don't know how I lived without a Vodka Revs card, the pizzas are to die for & so reasonably priced!

 Seriously, this city was oozing history.

 The Shambles- this upset me because it has the potential to be really quaint but instead every shop was selling tat to capitalise on its quaintness. Most were called 'Ye Olde Blahblah' 

 I loved how different the minster looked at night, all sinister. My girlfriend said she liked the way only one side was lit up, as if to symbolise good and evil, the light and the dark, but I think there was just a burst bulb.

I want to live in a castle when I win Euromillions.

Have you been on an exploration anywhere recently? What did you find?

Rich makes: French Onion Soup

You will need:

A hell of a lot of onions (I had a kilo)

5 Beef stock cubes

A knob (snigger) of butter

Loads of containers for all the extra soup to go in because you accidentally made enough for the whole of France

1)Buy onions during a 'big shop' and decide a big bag is better economically

2)Forget you had onions

3)Notice you have a kilo of onions that are going out of date very soon

4)Google 'What can I cook with a shitload of onion'

5)Decide to make French onion soup, despite having no Sherry, because you need to use up all the onions

6)Ignore the fact the recipe serves 6

7)Chop up a kilo of onions (TOP TIP:This is the perfect time to try and copy Gordon Ramsay's method to chop onions that you saw on the internet, before deciding to go back to how you've always chopped onions when you nearly lose a finger)
(method here)

8)The emotion of the occasion of chopping a kilo of onions leads to you crying like a little girl

Not me, obviously. Its James Van Der Beek

9)Be told by Holly how the onions led a good life, and its their destiny to be made into soup, and stop crying

10)Put the knob of butter in a large pan, add the onions and cook on a medium heat until the onions start to go soft (~15 mins)

11)Cook on higher heat until the onions are fully browned and lovely (TOP TIP: Realise that the person writing the recipe who said 'you only need to stir the onions every 5 minutes or so was either a)lying, or b)liked the smell of a burnt pan bottom

12)Make stock using the stock cubes and 1.5 L of water (I didn't mention the water in the ingrediants because I assumed you'd have access to  running water, if you don't I'm sorry for wasting your onions)

13)Add stock to browned onions and bring to the boil

14) Add salt and pepper to  taste (I never know what to taste means, I presume 'throw them  in and hope for the best')

No, not Salt N Pepa

15)Leave to simmer for 10 minutes

16)Get concerned about how your soup looks nothing like any on google images

17)Eat soup

18)Have seconds

19)Try and find every container you own  to put the extra soup in, and find you have one more container than lid.

ENJOY!

New Experiences-Ice Hockey

Last weekend V, H & I went to watch the ice hockey. It was part of the university varsity against Sheffield Hallam, and for three quid, was well worth the money!

We soon realised not one of us knew ANYTHING about Ice Hockey, but we started to pick it up as it went along (apart from illegal equipment, I still have NO clue what that means).
I also found that the zoom function on my camera is infinitely better than my last one (as in it actually zooms)

 Who'd be a keeper? Your job is to stop a speeding puck with anything you can, you spend most the game on your own and if a goal goes in then you're to blame.

Apparently, Sheffield University have NEVER EVER won, so the fact they took it to penalties was rather quite good (and a moral win)

Hallam eventually won though :(

Have you ever gone to an ice hockey game? Enjoy it?