Shaky shaky

Well I thought I'd join in the mass blogging about the earthquake...

JonnyB's entry made me laugh, and someone in his comments section pointed somewhat laughingly to the comments over at the Guardian. I think the best comment has to be by 7barrels:
"Small Earthquake hits UK.
Not much damage.

Please send in your stories of how this hasn't affected you very much at all."

I get that, OK, some chimneys have fallen down and it's scary to be woken like that and some people are now going to be faced with injuries and a fair bit of redecorating. I get it, it sucks.

But why so many people feel the need to say "I felt the earthquake. My house shook. Nothing fell over." is a little beyond me. How cynical of me...boo hiss.

Of course, I'm in an easy position to be faintly amused because I was on the phone to the boyfriend at the time of the quake - his house got quite a shaking, though in Wales we didn't get any of it - and his dad's response was "What did you do?!"

I guess you never outgrow that...

Crab cakes and Control

I'm loving authors that release their books for free on the internet using a Creative Commons license - I followed a link from another blog to the future of reputation, by Daniel J. Solove, subtitled 'gossip, rumor, and privacy on the internet'. I've only had time to read one chapter but it seems very interesting so far - will probably be read by many people more important than myself, but I found it very accessible.

So big is my desire to not do uni work this afternoon is that I've also been reading a copy of the Nursing Times that the boyfriend left behind. Obviously I don't really know anything about nursing...but it's kind of intriguing to read something that's got nothing to do with me! There's an article on developments in communicating with patients using email and the internet though, which is more my thing. Think I might be looking up the full paper on the internet...

It's been a while since I went on about a book/film that I've just come across, so I thought I'd take a moment to plug the film Control. The official film website is here and the Wikipedia page (because you love it) is here. Wikipedia call it a 'biopic', which apparently is a film "that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people". If you haven't heard about it, it's about Ian Curtis' life, including his rise to fame in the band Joy Division and his eventual suicide when he was just 23. It's based on a book by Curtis' wife. We watched the film last night and I've got to say, I was blown away by it. I knew nothing at all about Joy Division, and even less about Ian Curtis, but it was very moving. It was in black and white, which was different for a start, and seemed to tell a very honest story. It drove me crazy in a way because he really doesn't behave like a very nice person in places, yet you get a sense of how messed up his head is and how he genuinely doesn't seem to be able to understand his own feelings and impulses at times. On top of all the psychological stuff, he ends up on a bunch of different drugs to treat epilepsy which in those days (he died in 1980) definitely involved a very hit-and-miss approach. I didn't know if I'd really enjoy the film, given that I never really watch films of that genre, but I was surprised at how much I got into it. Which is good, given that Ian Curtis is one of the boyfriend's heroes and therefore all talking had to be kept to a minimum during the film!!

So anyway, yeah, watch it if you can!

Not much else to report really...at the risk of making this entirely mundane, I'm experiencing a slight difficulty with a new pair of black jeans which, even after being washed, still get black on my hands when I touch them. (I wore them yesterday without washing them first, as instructed by the label, and had slightly grey legs by the end of it.) Serves me right for buying £10 jeans, I suppose!

Right, I'm actually going to go and do some work now. Though in case you're wondering, before I go, the 'crab cakes' in the title of this post refer to the very nice crab cakes I had in Prezzo the other night. I hadn't been there before but the food was gorgeous! Menus are here if you want to tutor me on how to pronounce the Italian! A big group of Italian blokes arrived there soon after us, presumably in Cardiff for the rugby, which I guess says something about the authenticity of the restaurant. Plus, from where I was sat I could giggle at the chef tossing pizza bases around in the air :)

That's my answer

From http://thatsmyanswer.com:

So, tell us, do you have a special place? Where is it? Have you been there in real life?

This actually got me thinking. I don't actually do the thing that the writer describes, of closing my eyes and actually imagining myself somewhere else. Still, if I was going to - and who knows, maybe I'll start doing it! - my special place would have to be the armchair in the lounge at home, sometime around 9pm when the house is warm, there's a glass of red wine next to me and a good book in my hand.

I'm sure there are cooler answers than that, but there you go. I'm afraid that my special place is probably never going to involve a hot, sunny beach somewhere, as wearing very little in public and slowly baking in the sun both rate relatively low on my list of fun things to do.

On another tangent, going back to yesterday's food theme, I can't help but wonder how many people worldwide every year burn their mouths while eating a heated pain au chocolat? It happens so horribly easily...the pastry doesn't feel too hot so you take a big, happy bite and end up with a mouthful of scalding chocolate. I gave in to a multipack of mini ones yesterday and 24 hours later, after some rather enthusiastic microwaving and stuffing them in my face, my mouth is feeling rather tender. Still, I suppose it's my own fault.

Tuna and chips, aye or nay?

I feel that this blog has been lacking in pointlessness recently, so here's a topical question:

Is it appropriate to serve tuna steak with chips?

I think it entirely is. I did it earlier this evening and it tasted good. You get chips with regular steak. You get chips with gammon steak. You get chips as a side to your tuna mayo baguette at lunchtime, for goodness' sake. Also, I was served chips with my tuna steak by a posh restaurant just last September. (Before you ask, by posh I mean that the bill came to more than £50 for two of us and I was probably the only student there).

However, the other half says that this is totally wrong. He is possibly just being snobby before he also cooked tuna for tea tonight but his was seared and was on a bed of rocket and something or other. Leaving aside the fact that I hate rocket and anything that's ever touched it, I understand that this is a nice, lighter alternative to my chips.

But still, are the chips really wrong?

Opinions welcome...

And don't worry, I've forgiven him for his attachment to salad leaves and the proper way of doing things ^^

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Grace

I was watching the last episode of Season 2 Grey's Anatomy, and it contains a song called 'Grace' by Kate Havnevik

It contains this one line that caught me - turn my grief to grace. I love the concept...grace is one of the qualities I constantly desire more of for myself. Grace to accept myself as I am, grace to love and treat others as they deserve, grace to leave behind any bitterness and resentment, grace to live the life laid out for me without constantly doubting it.

And I'm sure you'll appreciate that this was quite deep thinking given that Patrick Dempsey was onscreen at the time...