New York, New York

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As a city girl, I love the city and New York is a place I've been fantasising about visiting for a while now. It's so much like London - big, busy and beautiful. If I could, in the future, have an apartment in a converted warehouse or a Brooklyn Brownstone house and also an apartment or house in London, I'll know that I've definitely achieved something. I would be so much bigger and better!

I read an article which was written a couple of years ago about figuring out whether you belonged to New York.

The three questions you were asked to consider was whether you were a maximiser, whether you wanted to be on top of your field and whether you valued an interesting life over a happy one - You had to answer yes to 2 out of 3 of the questions to be a suited to New York life.

New Yorkers were said to be maximisers, lived in New York to be on top of their field and are known for being unhappy (maximisers are apparently almost never happy).

• I certainly am a maximiser - I long for the best in everything. The purpose of this blog fits right in that; it's all about being bigger and better and not settling for less than the best you can possibly be - which leads on nicely to the next point...
• I certainly want to be at the top of what ever I do. I love the idea of going into property and if I do succeed I want to be the best that I can be.
• I am not saying that I want an unhappy life but from what I know about myself I know that I have always wanted an interesting life and I am probably most unhappy when my life is in absolute stagnation and nothing's going on.

So yes, at this particular point in my life, I can answer yes to all these questions.

I've come to the conclusion that I want to go there now!

Like right NOW!

Olola
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B-Traits ft Elisabeth Troy - Fever

I love this song!! It's certainly of the best, if not the best, songs out this year.

You can hear so much of the old school 90's dance sound which I love and that house piano reminds me so much of Crystal Waters' Gypsy Woman.

Plus B.Traits is a woman - It's so nice to see female DJ in this male dominated genre.

This will definitely be the sound track to my summer this year - Summer is going to be good.

Olola

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Procrastination = Chocolate Cake

So I have this 5000 word essay to write that is absolutely killing me.

Last weekend I was craving something sweet to eat; The average person would just pop to the shop but of course I am not your average person - I decided to bake instead with what I had left in my cupboard.

The result - My first ever proper chocolate cake!

Here's what I did:

Cake: 150g Sugar, 150g Butter, 2 Eggs, 125g Self-Raising Flour, 25g Cocoa Powder, a few drops of Vanilla Extract and some Mixed Fruit Jam.

The cake was placed in my oven at 150 degrees for about 30 minutes and then left to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Buttercream: 98g Icing Sugar, 42g Butter, 1 teaspoon of Cocoa Powder, 1/2 teaspoon of Golden Syrup and a few drops of Vanilla Extract.

The cake was pretty good!

Olola

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Marcel Duchamp Pasadena



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Photograph of Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz posing for the photographer Julian Wasser during the Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art, 1963

I don't know what it is about this photo but I really like it.

I think it's just the fact that there is a fully clothed man and a naked woman which would automatic leave you wondering about why this is - but everything is just normal and they are playing chess.

It's quite captivating.

Olola

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Red Velvet

My master piece.

 This is my first red velvet cake and it took me 5 hours to bake for my housemate's 20th and it was perfect.

It maintained it's moisture (perhaps because it was kept in the fridge over night too) and was heavenly.

I cannot wait to bake miniture cupcake versions.

Love!

Olola

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Mundane Things

'It's funny how it's the mundane things in life that defines you.'

A guy I met in a bar, 2010.

We were just talking and this stuck in my head. I've found it so interesting that I'm thinking of started my novel with the exact line. It is the little things, the most ordinary things that defines us yet we don't realise it and instead we wait for the massive life changing things to happen - sort of like what I am doing.

Dreams and Goals

“It’s a dream until you write it down, and then it's a goal.”

 Anon.

I've always felt that I am able to make sense of things once I have written them down and as I was procrastinating online I came across this quote. It's so true - I am a massive dreamer but until I've written down where I want to go these dreams will remain dreams instead of actual goals I can achieve.

Flapjacks

I've been working on perfecting my flapjacks. This will now become my weekly snack.

This batch I made was just perfect with 100g of butter, 100g of sugar, 2 teaspoons of golden syrup and 200g of porridge oats. It was placed in the oven for about 20 minutes at 150 degrees and then in the freezer for about 20 minutes to cool and set completely.

I will make another batch like this to confirm that the recipe work and then I'll begin to add other ingredients to it to make it more interesting.

Though nothing beats a good old plain flapjack.

Olola.

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Driving to the Bank

'I jumped in front of her car and she was just driving to the bank.'

Owen Hunt, Grey's Anatomy.

When describing his impact on Cristina's life. She was just minding her own business and he came along and turned he life upsdie down by making a he fall in love with him. I love Owen Hunt.

Pheonix - Too Young

There's something about Pheonix that makes me want to smile and dance around.

I love this song and their sound is like no other.

Olola

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Lemon Cake

This actually burnt at the top because my oven's too powerful but I rescued it by slicing off the top and coating it with lemon flavoured butter cream. This took about 4 and a half hours to make in total and I'm very pleased with it as I made it for my housemate's 21st and it disappered in 10 minutes! Success!

Olola

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Tired of London; Tired of Life

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

Samuel Johson, 1777

This is so true - I left London to go to uni but now I know that there's no where else I'd rather be.