If you’ve been following my baking posts you may already know about the abundance of rhubarb growing at my parent’s house – and my lemon and rhubarb cake. I like to try something different, so rather than sticking with the classic crumble, my next rhubarb-themed bake arrives in the form of muffins:
Learning Code
I see myself as someone who loves learning and always wanting to better themselves. So when I heard that Coding is now on the curriculum for primary and secondary school pupils in the UK, I thought: time to brush up my skills!
I already have a basic knowledge of HTML but really want to push my skills in terms of coding and getting my head round words such as ‘algorithms’, ‘PHP’ and ‘JavaScript’.
I decided to start with Codecademy, a great online training course that takes you step by step, right from the basics like learning the difference between HTML and CSS. I can’t wait to get started!
10 Facts About Me
A latest craze on Social Media (particularly Facebook) seems to be nominating people to admit 10 facts about themselves that most people don’t know. I don’t usually participate in these nomination chain-mail type things, but I thought I’d give this one a go. It might be nice for my followers to know a little bit more about the person behind these ramblings. So here is 10 things you didn’t know about me, until now…
1. I am Left-handed but struggle to use left-handed scissors and can never remember which hand I am best at in sports (it’s probably neither).
2. I learnt to play the trumpet aged 10 and passed my Grade 1 exam shortly after with a Merit. I continued to play up until passing my Music A level (I haven’t played since though, I miss it lots).
Trains, Tweets and Time-Keeping
I know I’m not alone in taking to Social Media to vent my anger about trains, whether they are delayed, overcrowded or even cancelled due to god knows what- signalling issues? Leaves/animals on the tracks? I’ve heard them all.
Whilst ironically on a train that was delayed, I was reading the Metro that announced that last year there were more than 70,000 Twitter messages concerning cancellations and 62,000 about over-crowding. A whopping total of 280,960 tweets were counted that used words such as ‘delay’, ‘late’ or ‘stuck’. Continue reading
Happy Pancake Day!
Shrove Tuesday- one of my favourite holidays! I love pancakes but always struggle when it comes to deciding the topping/filling. Do I go sweet or savoury? Stick with the traditional sugar and lemon or try something new? Last year I tried Bacon and Syrup Pancakes, this year I went for a more healthier (kinda) option: Blueberry, Banana… and Syrup (if you haven’t already guessed, I have such a sweet tooth) – yum!
What kind of combinations are you trying this year? Keepin’ it traditional or mixing things up?
Happy Flippin’ Pancake Day!
50 Shades of V-Day
I’ve never really bought into the hype of Valentine’s Day- a commercial holiday to fill in the gap between Christmas and Easter.
Call me cynical, but I’d much prefer a chilled night in with the people/person I love than sit down to an overpriced meal on a restricted set menu with smaller portions. But that’s just me.
Whether you are Anti-Valentines or not it seems that this year we just couldn’t escape it- every shop was filled with sickly sweet messages, heart-shaped gifts or 50 Shades of Something (I’m so sick of hearing about that film and I’ve heard NO good reviews!). On the plus side, now Valentine’s Weekend is over, it means we can indulge ourselves on discount chocolates…
But what exactly is Valentine’s Day all about? Continue reading
Life Before the Internet
(or Rather From the Beginning)
Remember when ‘internetting’ used to consist of asking a fake butler to ‘Google’ stuff for you?
I do. I remember first using the Internet at school and researching a topic on Ask Jeeves (said butler) for my homework. I also remember the days BEFORE the Internet. *Gasp* Yep, there really was such a thing, and I’m not even that old (22 years and 9 months, actually).
#EffYourBeautyStandards
Some of you may already be aware of EYBS already, as it as been trending worldwide. For those of you that don’t, EYBS (Eff Your Beauty Standards) is a campaign started by Plus-size model Tess Holiday.
“I created the hashtag [#EffYourBeautyStandards] because I was tired of being told what I could and couldn’t wear by the media and how I should cover my body because of my size”
When I hear of a plus size model, I groan thinking of a size 14-16 AVERAGE woman, not because I think that is plus size or over weight by any means, but because that is what the media tells us it is. Tess Holiday is size 22 and has recently been signed by MiLK Model Management as the largest woman on their books. Now if that isn’t a step in the right direction then I don’t know what is.
There has undoubtedly been a lot of criticism of this. Many have complained that the EYBS movement is ‘normalising’ obesity and giving teenage girls the wrong message. If you agree with this I think you’re missing the point. In no way is this brave woman saying she’s healthy. She admits to being overweight but the whole point is that beauty shouldn’t be measured by size.
The #EffYourBeautyStandards movement means that we are refusing to give in to society’s impossible standards of beauty and instead are choosing to love ourselves how we are- you go girl!
10 Stages When Applying for a Job (In Gifs)
Looking for a job can be stress inducing, psychically and emotionally tiring and seem like a full time job in itself sometimes. Here are the ten stages I often go through during the application process and the gifs that accurately display my emotions… would you agree?
Flapjack in a Jar
So I finally got round to properly opening one of my Christmas presents today: a flapjack in a jar! I received this wonderfully crafted baking gift- which I think is a great idea for all baking (and crafting) enthusiasts- that includes all you need to make granola flapjacks (just the dry ingredients, mind).
My Mum bought me this (and another cute Gingerbread one) at a Christmas Craft Fair back at home, and the credit goes to ‘Celebrate With Jackie’. You can see more of her lovely crafts on her website: http://www.celebratewithjackie.co.uk
Kayleigh May Media 