My 5 A Day Challenge

I've been ill and finding it hard to complete the bare minimum of work for the last month - consequently the rest of my life has been left to it's own devices. My diet in particular has been awful, very little in the way of actual meals or food that goes off as it's usually gone off by the time I get to it, so it's mainly been cereal. Mother Dearest was rather unimpressed that I've had next to no fruit or veg and reckons that's the key to getting better. So I've set myself a challenge to have the recommended 5 a day of fruit and veg. Since this is recommended by the Government (and hence possibly as arbitrary as the weekly alcohol limits (14 and 21 have suspicious divisible-by-7-ness)) I'm following their guidelines and their definition of what makes a portion. It's full of contradictions but I'll pretend not to notice. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 26 Nov 2009 17:07 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My first german lesson

Well, technically not my first ever, but first in a long long time. Back in the days of my youth, I was traumatised by the experience of my GCSE oral exam and vowed never to put myself through that again. However, now I'm grown up I'm made of tougher stuff so have gone for it again. A decent grade at GCSE means I have to do Level 3, which is a shame as I wanted to do Level 1 with the absolute beginners. I am determined to do this properly (and absolutely ace it, the pure cringworthy idea of being as rubbish in my oral exam as I was in Algebra II is motivation enough to put in lots of effort) and queued for over 2 hours to even enrol for the damn thing. I was told at the time I had to buy two certain books, and not the combined version which also exists. Tom had done the module 2 or so years ago and gave me the combined version which I figured would do and I happily avoided buying my first course textbook ever. Unfortunately I arrived at the class (slightly late, a housemate had blocked me in so I was late leaving the house) to find everyone had two shiny new textbooks in front of them. We actually used them too, me sharing with the friendly guy next to me, until I hurriedly buy some cheap ones from somewhere. 

I assumed the teacher would expect us to know nothing, but whizz through the basics at an alarming pace. Instead she launched straight in to talking german and setting tasks requiring actual knowledge. I have to be somewhat tougher in this class than I am doing maths (where I blend into the background most of the time). I sort of figured that beforehand and resolved to speak in class and not get embarrassed and such like. During the register, where everyone's names were called out in the standard way, they stopped after me (pronouncing my name wrong, they said the K in Knapp) proclaiming knapp to be a german word, who knows what it means? (only me, surprise, surprise, it's hardly a common word!) and telling me I pronounce it wrong (really? My own surname?). The first activity was to talk to the person next to us. Which was fine. Except for when she told us to stop then asked me (in german, which I barely understood) to tell the class what I'd found out. I wasn't expecting to have to talk german at this stage, and had nothing in my head. I like to think my rubbish but brave attempt set the tone for the rest of the class and helped everyone just have a go. Thinking in german again felt very unnatural but I got used it quite quickly and I guess that's the case for everyone who hasn't done it for a long time. Lots of words felt familiar although I'd forgotten what they were, and I found words that I couldn't translate for my partner came into my head as I was writing a sentence. 

We've been set homework, which is cute. I'm dying to do it tonight while I'm in the mood, but I'm also shattered. I've been really tired the last few days, and have been taking ages to get to sleep and wake up frequently. According to the internet I need a proper sleep routine. I'm therefore going to turn my computer off at 10pm, finish all my tasks for the day and write a list of tomorrows (I often think of things as I go to sleep and have to get up and write them down, hopefully this will avoid this happening). I'll have my lighting dim, my clothing comfortable, and read a nice book. At 11pm I'll drink the herbal tea which was on offer at Tesco's that claims to help you sleep. It has "Warning: may cause drowsiness. Do not drive or operate machinery" on the side, which is nice to know and I will leave my machinery unoperated for now.  By 12 o'clock I'll be sound asleep, and at 7:30 I'll wake up thoroughly refreshed and start a really efficient day. What a great plan. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 15 Oct 2009 21:58 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Sleeping Efficiently

This year is to be the year of achievement and success and hence I will be living my life with maximum efficiency. To do that properly, one could argue, I shouldn't waste my time writing on my blog, but I do this when I need to talk and Mark isn't around. Otherwise I can't sleep. 

Sleeping efficiently is my focus as the moment. My first issue is that I sleep a lot. I also find it easy to lie in bed drifting in and out of sleep for several hours, especially when I'm with Mark and get to wake up multiple times lying in his arms with him stroking my hair which is very romantic. I also like to nap, which is impractical when some irritating sod has timetabled lectures over nap-time most days. Also, I feel bad when I sleep in random parts of the maths building. My second issue is finding it hard to sleep, for example I currently feel mentally shattered by physically energetic. 

When I was in Romania I had to get up at 7am every day, which was really hard as I didn't get to bed until several hours after pure exhaustion set in and I'd die in a chair until I was allowed to go to bed. We had naps from 2 until 4 which were brilliant, I was out like a light despite the mayhem around me (my kids didn't want to sleep so would play and jump on my bed) but people found it hard to drag me awake after 2 hours. When I got back I was still waking up at 7 or 8 and this lasted a week or so until I started staying up late and shifted my life back by around 4 hours. 

I now walk to campus, a pleasing 25-35min walk with beautiful views if I look right as I go there and left as I walk back. Yesterday was my first 9am and I couldn't help but notice the gigantic queue leading up to the roundabout by Varsity. Google maps says it was 0.2 miles which is quite a lot just for one roundabout. I did walk past faster than the cars were progressing. Since I had to drive in today for my 9am, due to having half an hour after my last lecture finished to get to Kenilworth for my art class, I decided to go in earlier and miss the queue. I'd gone to Mark's and got back late thereby parked blocking in my housemate who leaves the house at 7:30, this turned into a seriously early morning for me. I went swimming at 8am then did some work in maths before my lecture. This sort of activity makes me feel very smug and efficient so should definitely be repeated. 

I have also found that I can't sleep when I haven't exercised. Except for my quite weedy attempt at swimming this morning, I have done nothing. Now my legs ache for a run. But I can't run, firstly it is late at night and I'll be at the mercy of all the strange blokes that my mother warned me about. Secondly I have wreaked my ankles. I have never had long-term ankle pain before and it's annoying. I have slight ache when walking but generally ignorable, certainly not the case when running. I have been climbing 3 times a week for the last month and the 4 days when I haven't been I really ache for it (on a slightly vain (ha, hilarious unintentional play on words) sidenote, my arms are getting really veiny, how can I stop looking so weird?).  I was planning on early morning runs and actually really liked it after only a few days of adjustment but it's not worth it as my ankles got worse each day until it was no longer ignorable. I saw some people doing weights this morning and I quite like the idea of an exercise class at 8 each day. I will look up the timetable. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 08 Oct 2009 23:17 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My Dinner Party

Follow-up to Dinner Party Ideas from Elizabeth's blog

So, avid readers, I am sure you are wondering how my dinner party went. I thought it was awesome, wine and conversation flowed and I didn't burn anything. It was so great in fact, that I am planning the next one. This makes me happy in not only do I have another great evening ahead of me, but I have some serious planningto do which is always good. I think I will make it a monthly occasion, and given that one fell conveniently at the start of the month (give or take a day) I think I will have a "welcome in the new month" party. October 31st is a Saturday so I think I'll have one then or the day before. Awesomeness. 

In keeping with this theme, I want to learn to cook a large variety of different meals, and since I am a student, a large variety of cheap meals. This will have long term use too. As the perfect housewife that I am training myself to be (with the help of Anthea Turner's "How to be a Perfect Housewife"book), being able to produce a beautiful meal for family and friends on a budget (and little notice) will be one of my fortes. 

In other news, I started some art earlier. I've had several attempts at a mountains around a lake watercolour. I did the background fine but the mountains themselves bleed into the background again. I used the smallest amount of paint ever, but I need to stick on more to add shadows, that's damn well unavoidable so not my fault and I can only conclude the paper is to blame. It's awful stuff, textured with horrible regular rows of circles rather than looking rough so I am not using it for watercolour any longer. I have heavier paper of excellent texture I can use anyway. While impatiently waiting for it to dry however, I turned it around and used the other half (I'd done A5 on an A4 piece of paper, not turning it over and using the back!) to see what I could do with my black chinese ink stick. I mixed up a dark, medium and light and messed about with my 3 paintbrushes. It was a copy of trees with misty stuff over the place but I soon forgot the picture and just drew at random. It's a mess as I wanted to see how far I could push it in the way of painting over other bits (not well, it doesn't mix as such but loses crisp lines), and the effect of drawing lines and dots with the different brushes. Small sections look quite good so painting it in the style I did those particular bits should produce something quite nice. Plus I find some of my best pieces are produced in less than 5 mins so it's exciting to have found another one of these. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 05 Oct 2009 00:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Kseniya Simonova

Kseniya Simonova is this years winner of Ukraine's Got Talent. And no, not for singing, dancing, or jumping round looking like an idiot as the British contestants are prone to doing - she did Sand Animation. I've never seen this before which instantly had me hooked, I love unusual things. Secondly, she's damn good at it, I don't imagine it's easy to draw in sand like that. I've just been feeling very arty, to the extent that I'm going to start my next piece after I finish writing this. I went on my laptop to find something inspirational (I've found some silhouetted trees I rather like the look of, I was going to do a watercolour but I think have a go with Chinese ink), along the way I got distracted by this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

Ukraine has talent far beyond anything on the British version. I found this so awesome I simply had to tell someone about it. Mark is not here and I don't know my housemates well enough to go bother one of them (plus I might look crazy). For anyone who can't or won't watch it, it's some girl who appears to have chucked a load of sand over a lightbox. She tells a story of WW2. I'm a big fan of arty, poetic ideas, in this case, communication through language barriers. Especially, in this case, an actual concrete story, not some wishy washy conveying of an idea or feeling. But even though the way she can tell a story by drawing in sand is interesting enough, the thing I really love about it is how talented she is. I can't draw faces when I've got something to look at, pencil and rubber, and all the time in the world. She draws with such speed, moving her hands with such confident strokes which are always perfect. I'm picky with art, I don't like it to look realistic, you might as well just have taken a photo. But I don't respect things that look like a cartoon or "modern art", there is no skill in that. Her faces are brilliant, simple brilliant, I doubt there are many people who can draw faces that well, or draw in sand that well either. 

I want a really weird talent. I think I'll add that to my list of New Year Resolutions. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 27 Sep 2009 21:28 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The end of my life as I know it

It's not something that I've really thought about lately, and certainly not the topic of one or more blog entries, but today is my last day aged 20. Who knows what awaits me in the mystical ranks of the 21 year olds. My parents house contains a ginormous ornate key, which has lived by the fireplace for as long as I can remember. As a child I assumed it was the key to a giant's house, I later found out my dad was given it as a 21st birthday present. Since my parents have already given me a printer and a satnav I don't think I'll be given a giant's key.

During my childhood, whenever I asked my grandmother how old she was she would tell me she's 21. Clearly I demonstrated mathematical ability from a young age as I knew her age couldn't be less than my dads. It was her age of choice for many years though so there must have been something pretty spectacular about it. Since she spent her 21 year married with a 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son, I suspect my year will be rather different to hers. 

Rather than dreading getting so incredibly old as I have been doing a little bit recently, I think it could be quite good. I've been interchanging "21 years old" and "22nd year" so much in my head, with something of a focus on "22nd year" that 21 seems like quite a small number. My main reason for not wanting to age (in my mind, ageing occurs only on birthdays) is that I've not achieved anything yet, I mean, I'm still in full time education like a child. This won't be an issue for my 22nd birthday, should my life go to plan I'll have graduated, be about to start a PGCE ie be actually beginning my career, and have reached a record breaking 18 months and a bit in my Best Relationship Of My Life Thus Far, making it both the best and the longest. 

So I am feeling distinctly positive about turning 21. Plus now I can buy knives in IKEA. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 21 Sep 2009 01:30 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Dinner Party Ideas

In an effort to welcome in my 22nd year with sophistication, I will be holding a dinner party. Although I don't know who is attending (perhaps due to lack of a proper invite/mention of a dinner party at all) I am sure it will be a merry evening and everyone will get on great. My main problem is that holding a dinner party means I will be expected to provide food of some sort and I don't know what on earth to do. Pudding is easy, I love Key Lime Pie (although it does not contain Keys or Key Limes) and it's nice and light and melt-in-the-mouth-ey. For my actual meal though...hard to know. I am a great fan of roasts but I've cooked roasts for my friends a million times now and it would be nice to do something new. Ditto green thai curry, which Stu or Jonny or Garth or other maths housemate (I forget which) was scornful of "you're cooking that same curry again?" so I'm never cooking it in their presence ever again. While Mark and I enjoyed a rather spectacular lasagne the other night, with some improvised I-don't-own-a-garlic-press-so-lets-skip-the-garlic garlic bread to use up the almost stale baguette we impulse bought for 5p, I realised it was perfect to cook for lots of people, especially as it can be done almost entirely in advance. Not posh enough though. So I think I ought to do something entirely new. Which of course means I'll have to make it with Mark one night beforehand to check it is edible. Which means I really need to decide soon. Suggestions?  

Elizabeth Knapp : 20 Sep 2009 01:14 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Fencepost Error

It's my birthday on Tuesday and I'm feeling seriously old. I was rather depressed that I've spent 20 years on this earth already and was mentally preparing myself for starting my 21st. Last night I startlingly discovered that my 21st year started a long time ago, turning 21 means I'm about to start my 22nd year. Cue lots of panicked swearing. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 19 Sep 2009 18:41 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I like to…

It's been a while since I did a strange pointless quiz, so I feel no guilt in clogging up my blog with another one. For this one I have to google "Elizabeth likes to" and write down the first 10 things that come up. Presumably with hilarious consequences. 

1. Elizabeth likes to be able to categorize.
2. Elizabeth likes to collect rocks, leaves and flowers during family walks. 
3. Elizabeth Likes To Wii.
4. Elizabeth likes to sit with Philip in the evenings and watch television
5. Elizabeth likes to be involved.
6. Elizabeth Likes Horses.
7. Elizabeth likes to have CHILDREN WITH DIFFRENT MEN.
8. Elizabeth...likes Air Ships.
9. Elizabeth likes the outdoors.
10. Elizabeth likes: hot tubs, seltzer with copious amounts of lemon, beedogs, bad ' 90s pop, The Simpsons, the movie UHF with Al Yankovic, historical fiction, ...

Perhaps unsuprisingly, lots of the things that came up were about the queen. And it appears I have lots in common with the queen, I too am fond of watching TV and horses. In fact, this does a half decent job of describing me, in that 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9 actually apply. 7 less so that this stage in my life. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 16 Sep 2009 14:01 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Countryside

I come from the Countryside. A tiny place called Old Down, which while not tiny enough to be ignored by google maps, lacks enough to be a hamlet, not a village. [I just noticed, while testing it on google maps, that its postcode is apparently BS35. So it isn't significant enough to be given the correct postcode, BS32.] I now consider many of its features to be signs of the Countryside: low ceilinged cottages built in the 1800s, no streetlights or road markings, roads wide enough for one car only, woods, fields, farms, smells of farms, hundreds of footpaths through the farms but no pavements, sweeping driveways, garage and ample road parking, old people, a general lack of nice things such as shops and friends. It is picturesque, oh yes, but not the best place to grow up so I didn't half hate it as a teenager.

I happily lived in the Town last year, good ol'Leam, with wide streets with many houses [I lived in No. 59, and that wasn't even the end of the street, never before had I lived a street with so many houses!] and lots of pleasant things I can walk to without risking being run over. I had a beautiful high ceilinged room with a giant window with an oversized windowsill that I would sit on and watch the street. Trainee guide dogs were walked along that road. It was good.

I now live in Westwood Heath, which is definitely in the Town. I find it hard to sleep due to the streetlight and we are a little too close to No.19 for my liking. I'm not far from campus and in my first year Stu and I would go walking for hours on end at silly times late at night. I have no navigational skills whatsoever so he directed where we go, I remember Gibbet Hill, dodgy areas as we headed into Cov and a sign saying a large number of miles to uni. We also walked past the very street I live on, I remember as the streets are all called olde money names. My overwhelming impression was that we were in the Town. Yet I went for a run today in a different direction. Instead of turning right out of my road and running along the sensible pavement, I went opposite down a little lane. This lane was just wide enough for 2 cars to slowly pass each other but lacked road markings and was national speed limit, a reasonably dangerous combination and one commonly found in the Countryside. Even more astonishingly, I could later turn off to a farm, which of course I did and walked across a seriously uneven field full of cows and footpath arrows pointing all over the place which no actual paths being visible. There were also some hilariously placed stiles which I must take a photo of. The wind was blowing rather strongly in my face and made progress uphill almost nonexistent, which is a distinctly countryside like thing to happen. So it appears I also live in the Countryside. It's rare to get the best of both worlds and I'm happy to have managed it completely unwittingly. Good times! Google maps backs up my Countryside claims, revealing both fielded lands from here to Kenilworth and awesome wooded areas calling out to be explored. I think I shall go look round now, and take Mark back later for creepy nighttime adventuring. 

Elizabeth Knapp : 15 Sep 2009 15:58 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem