Leap Year

"A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one addition day (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, a month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year." - Wikipedia.

Get it? Nah, nor do I. What I do understand is that every 4 years we randomly get an additional day, subtly placed at the end of the second month in our calendar year, aka February. On this day, the 29th of February, and on this day alone, apparently, women are allowed to propose to their other half. 

Apparently it's thanks to Julius Caesar that the month of love lasts one extra day every four years as he designed it to align to calendar with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. But even before the Roman calendar was set, my insightful fellow ancestors, the Ancient Egyptians realised that the 365-day calendar shifted one day every four years. Aren't they clever?

Family photo - look how clever!

APPARENTLY: the rule of Leap Years is that it must occur in years divisible by four (as I've mentioned) except for those which are divisible by 100, and not divisible by 400. Seems complicated. Let's just deal with that when we get to it, ja?

I chose this image because it actually has the words 'leap' and 'year' in it, and how else can we fully express ourselves but via the power of language? I haven't actually seen this film - it looks a bit crap really. But yeah...

Faberge Big Egg Hunt, London

It seems the Faberge Easter Bunny already arrived in London, a few months early this year. And with him he seems to have brought 200 pretty faberge eggs, which he had 'hid' all over the city...Enough of the baby chat.

There seriously is a massive Egg Hunt going on in the capital at the moment though. The event is aiming to raise funds and awareness for Action for Children and Elephant Family, and has scattered 200 fibreglass eggs, measuring two and a half feet each, designed by some famous names, all around the city. High profile artists such as Marc Quinn, Sir Peter Blake, Roger Dean, the Chapman Brothers and Rob Ryan have all contributed one-off designs to the Faberge Big Egg Hunt and from Tuesday 21st February (i.e. 5 days ago - soz I'm a bit behind) you can start your search.

Other famous name who have added their designs to the Hunt include Vivienne Westwood, Sir Ridely Scott and singer MIA (amongst a couple of other people I'd never heard of). "Egg hunters with an eye for fashion will also want to keep an eye out for the designs by iconic department store Selfridges and fashion house Mulberry!" The piece de resistance in the collection is a stunning 127 carat emerald and gold pendant designed by (apparently) legendary Faberge jewellery house, titled Le Collier Plume D'Or.

"Taking the concept of public art to the next level, the Big Egg Hunt follows in the footsteps of the Elephant Parade, which saw over 250 brightly coloured, life-sized model elephants pop up at locations across the city" - Do you remember them? Life-sized models of baby elephants, adding a bit more character to the city. I haven't seen these eggs yet, but if they were anywhere near as creative and beautiful as the elephants, I know i'm going to love them :)

Here are a few of my favourites - it sounds simple, but they really made me feel like a child, going round the city hoping one would be lurking nearby. They also look like Babar :)

At the end, the elephants got auctioned off to raise money to save the endangered Asian elephant. This year, organisers are hoping to raise up to £2million at the auction from the giant eggs, which went on show on Shrove Tuesday and will remain in place throughout the 40 days of Lent. Genius!

JOIN THE HUNT! I KNOW I WILL!

London Bed & Breakfast

After almost 2 months of hard work, the website I designed for my parents for their Bed & Breakfast has finally gone live!

The old website my parents designed was totally dated and didn't look appealing for potential guests, so I volunteered (at the price of one of my dad's Box Mirrors and mum paying for an Asda delivery to my uni house once term began again) to redesign it for them. It looks so much tidier now, with separate tabs for each section (Location of our B&B, room prices and what there is to do around us) and a bit more colour to jazz it up a little. I'm so happy with how it looks, and think it's amazing how lenient my parents were with me when I was creating the designs. I think they realised I know better than them, as all kids do, really.

The Homepage :)

Just because I can't really talk about their work without selling it a bit, if you ever do want to come to London, have a look at the site - if only to send an e-mail of praise to a clearly incredibly talented designer... It's £70 for a single, £90 for a double and £110 for a triple room per night, including breakfast. Have a look at the Rooms & Rates section for more information. You're actually not going to find any cheaper, for the central location our B&B is in - really though. Hostels will be cheaper, but all other B&B's and Hotels will be much more (we have checked)!

UPDATE: At Home Inn Chelsea now have our very own Facebook page! Click here and become a fan to hear about the latest London events, and any deals!


I think the presentation of a website (especially a hotel website) can totally change peoples perceptions from what looks unorganized and not up to date, to what looks modern and well kept. It's a bit like a haircut in that way. Which version of Take That do you trust more, based on their haircuts? See what I mean now?

90's Take That

Noughties Take That

..I always do end up going off on a tangent don't I?

Welcome to the House of Pun

We love a good pun at Blaus.

NB: Blaus is the name of our student house in Leeds - there is a blue theme running through most of the rooms in the house, so we were going to call it the Blue House, which then evolved into Blaus. It even has it's own Facebook page! 

We try for at least one an hour - at the moment our preferred topic of pun is body parts. For example, "Don't get lippy with me," "I feel a right tit," or "Eye-liderally don't know what you're on about. Sket."

But who can really resist a good visual pun, eh? NOT EYE!... never mind. Here are today's collection of pun lols.

Guess the pun!

Click to enlarge

Kurt Cobains 45th Birthday

So today marks the day that the wonderful Kurt Cobain would have turned 45. It's odd to think that if he hadn't commit suicide 18 years ago, he would still be reasonably young. It's a shame, really - he hadn't even entered his 30's.

Bless him - he looks like such a cool guy as well

For those who don't have a finely tuned ear/have been living under a rock since forever, Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and guitarist for Nirvana. A life of frustration and never fitting in after his parents divorce when he was 7 led him to vent all his pent up anger in music. His uncle had been a big inspiration for Kurt when he was growing up, as he had a band of his own, but also because it was he who introduced 11 year old Kurt to great British bands like Sex Pistols and The Beatles; bands that would later influence his own music in Nirvana. Some say Nirvana was direct descent from Joy Division, in mood, form, melody and lyrical quality. And the rest is history.

I remember my oldest friend Dom (who introduced me to some good music when we were little) introducing me to Nirvana when I was about 11 - he played me Heart Shaped Box, which still is one of my favourites to this day. I adore the video too.

I wouldn't say I was ever a manic devotee of everything Nirvana every produced as a band together, but I can definitely appreciate their music and the emotion behind their lyrics. (That's me pretending I know about music.)

I still can't quite get over Dave Grohl being Nirvana's drummer back in the day though. It's only when you see video's of them together that you realize that all this didn't happen all that long ago.

Happy Birthday Kurt

The Little Hipster Mermaid

Happy Valentine's Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

I've now made this post look like it was written by a 10 year old girl

It's amazing how much I'm enjoying all the Valentine's day stuff that have been all over the shops recently - i think it's cos I'm secretly a massive girlie girl who loves hearts and pink and red. :)

I read this a few days ago and thought it was brilliant - Valentine's day for under a fiver! The perfect guide for any cheapskate. Not sure how I'd feel about this if my (fictional) boyfriend treated me to a bouquet of bacon or a plate with a squirted Ketchup heart on it though..

xxx

Dining in Leeds, when you're not paying

I love it when my parents come up to Leeds for the weekend because we always go out for such nice meals. The hotel they stay at has a deal that, if you spend £75 in the hotel restaurant on a Sunday night (which is easily done if you get wine, and you are three people, and the food is amazing) you get the hotel room for £20. So, for £95 you get a tasty dinner, some wine AND a bed to sleep in, which is always nice. 

They arrived at 13.30 yesterday (to be European) with an empty stomach. I had done a small amount of 'research' (otherwise known as typing 'Leeds restaurants' in Google) on where we should go. We wanted somewhere new, and, of course, somewhere nice. What we found could definitely be ticked off both those checklists - Jamie's Italian. Pretty much everything on the menu sounded so appetizing, we took a while deciding what to get. The best thing is that it is totally affordable - no more expensive than chains like Pizza Express, GBK or Strada. 

The menus

The bread came drizzled in olive oil and chopped basil

Gorgonzola, pear and walnut salad

Burrata Mozarella

Polenta 'chips' 

THE most incredible amaretto and raspberry brownie

This brownie was the most incredible desert I had ever tasted. I don't even like chocolaty things that much (until fairly recently), but this, I would have a million times again. It wasn't heavy at all, and you could really taste the amaretto in it. I love amaretto!

We then went for a nice little walk around town, going around certain areas of Leeds I never even knew existed, but quickly got too tired and cold so we went back to their hotel room to chill. After a painful hour of explaining to my parents how Deal or No Deal works, and feeling totally relaxed, it was dinner time. This hotel, the Malmaison had really amazing things to eat. It's slightly pretentious in their portions and the way it's presented (I mean, two scallops?!) but the flavours are perfect.

My starter - scallops with sweet potato puree

Mum's starter - goats cheese souffle

Dad showing us his starter of wild mushrooms and a poached egg on toast. His, surprisingly, was the nicest. 

Then onto the mains:

I had mussels :)

Mum's cod on bean and chorizo cassoulet

Dad, again, wanted to be in his picture. He had hake.

Can't wait for them to come up again - I'm definitely returning to Jamie's Italian though, just to have that brownie. The waiter told us that it's not uncommon that people get incredibly angry and start complaining when the brownie is not on the menu. They sell about 1,000 of them each week. I really suggest you go!

RIP Whitney Houston

It seems we have lost, in the last 2 or so year, some of the most talented singers, and biggest personalities around. First Michael Jackson in 2009, then Amy Winehouse last summer, and now Whitney Houston. It just makes me wonder if fame is to blame for their deaths, and our losses. Although, obviously, non famous people can also die of drug related problems too, it does seem that with fame often comes a period of time where a celebrity can't cope, and temporarily isn't able to suppress the temptation to make their already out of the ordinary life even more surreal. Sometimes this phase can shift from being a short-term state of mind, and, sadly for everyone involved (their family as well as devoted fans), can lead to them totally losing it.

From the mid-1980's to the late 1990s, the gospel-trained Houston was one of the world's bestselling record artists. She mesmerised audiences with her powerful vocals, released seven studio albums and sold 170 million CDs, singles and videos.

Everyone has a favourite Whitney song, whether they realized Whitney sang it or not - mine has to be I Will Always Love You, purely because of the last minute of the song, where Whitney so perfectly belts out  the chorus for the last time. I can guarantee, that song is a lot more fun if you, like me, do not have the suitable vocal chords for such a powerful verse.

So young, so beautiful and SO talented - RIP Whitney Houston x

Shame - Film review

I'm going to give my very honest opinion of the film early on in the review: it was weird. It was weird, and, quite frankly, nowhere near as amazing as it has been portrayed to be. Another case of Don't Believe The Hype.

Directed by Steve McQueen, British artist and winner of the 1999 Turner Prize, Shame is a little bit of a let down. It's no doubt intense, and incredibly expressive, letting us in to the realm of male sex addiction. But it seems the plot follows no real story, as far as I'm aware. Things happen, of course, but I don't think that's really enough to create a 95 minute film about. All the reviews I read before watching it mentioned different aspects of the film to be the main plot: it was either 'A story of a damaged sibling relationship', or 'A story of a successful male sex addict'. Unless McQueen's intention was for it to be another of his video art installations, in extended form? It's kind of like he's got a bit confused - he's not sure what angle he wanted to approach the film from, so went with both the arty angle, and the Hollywood blockbuster angle - at the end of the day, we all know that sex sells.

The 'story' is about a good looking successful guy called Brandon (played by Michael Fassbender), who is lives a comfortable life in his minimalist, black and white Manhattan apartment and is addicted to sleeping with people - anyone. His life would seem pretty attractive to most guys who have watched the film, probably, but slowly (sometimes really slowly) we see the downside of his fantasy lifestyle emerging. His inability to maintain a conversation with one of his female colleagues over dinner, and (like with any addiction) his constant need to satisfy his needs. The acting is really good, totally convincing, and I can't even imagine how awkward it must have been to get a few of those scenes on film. It's just how it's all put together and the kind of characters that McQueen chose for the film that I think let it down.

Unlike his boss, who is a "charming philanderer when not being a responsible family man", Brandon hardly has to try to pick up any woman. He is a natural. His attitude to picking up women is"curiously obsessive, lacking in joy." His sissy, Sissy (played by Carey Mulligan), is a totally unstable character, in that she drifts from place to place, naively wearing her heart on her sleeve, and relies on her brother to put her up for a while as she tries to pursue her dream to be a singer. You can tell from the start that having Sissy around is not good for Brandon, and is going to escalate to an intense argument between the sibling, presumably filled with sexual tension between them, as their relationship hints at having some sort of incestuous past. They seem to always be catching each other naked, and, apparently, she drops a hint at the end suggesting something may have happened between them in the past. I say 'apparently' as I didn't catch it at all.

The film consists almost entirely of scenes with his sister (fighting or shouting at each other), awkward scenes with his female colleague, and a few scenes with other random people he is trying to sleep with. The lack of narrative didn't make me very willing to follow it, as I kept getting distracted with other things, like this, for example. I hear you thinking "Well, that's probably why you didn't enjoy the film - because you weren't concentrating", but before you say it out loud, think why I wasn't concentrating. Hint: start reading this review again.

Magnolia Bakery, NYC

With everything going a bit wrong for me in Leeds right now, I thought I'd do a post about the next holiday booked for November. You all must be thinking "Bloody 'ell! Swear she only came back from Egypt a month ago. Why the hell is she booking another holiday already?"(this is how I imagine you all talk). Well, yeah, I did just come back from Egypt, but this trip isn't happening any time soon - it's to celebrate my graduation, my 23rd birthday, and my dad's 70th. We're off to one of my favourite places on earth - NYC!

There is so much I want to do there - I want to see all the art I possibly can fit into my eyes, I want to go out for some nice meals and, top priority, i want to enjoy being a free person - all in the space of 6 days!

I've been looking up some nice things to see and do while I'm there, and stumbled upon Magnolia Bakery, a land not too dissimilar to Candy Mountain. To quote Charlie's spaced out friends, "It's a land of sweets and joy...and joyness," and to quote this girl's little sister, "It's YUMMA!" (Click the link - you will not regret it)

yum...

...and yummer

It's not the cheapest of bakeries, but what is appealing is the fact they made their yummy baked goods seasonal, and dedicate many to public holidays or special events like Christmas, Valentine's Day and the Super Bowl. I mean, if the sight of these babies don't make you wanna go "dude..." they you have got some screws way to tightly screwed in, my friend. I cannot wait to sink my face in one of these little cupcakes of joy :)

Bedtime Story from Banksy

  "Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a great and glorious nation. Favourite amongst his subjects was a court painter of who he was very proud. Everybody agreed this wizened old man painted the greatest pictures in the whole kingdom and the king would spend hours each day gazing at them in wonder.

However, one day a dirty and disheveled stranger presented himself at the court claiming that in fact he was the greatest painter in the land. The indignant king degreed a competition would be held between the two artists, confident it would teach the vagabond an embarrassing lesson. Within a month they were both to produce a masterpiece that would outdo the other.

After thirty days of working feverishly day and night, both artists were ready. They placed their paintings, each hidden by a cloth, on easels in the great hall of the castle. As a large crowd gathered, the king ordered the cloth be pulled first from the court artist's easel. Everyone gasped as before them was revealed a wonderful oil painting of a table set with a feast. At its centre was an ornate bowl full of exotic fruits glistening moistly in the dawn light. A the crowd gazed admiringly, a sparrow perched high up on the rafters of the hall swooped down and hungrily tried to snatch one of the grapes from the painted bowl only to hit the canvas and fall down dead with shock at the feet of the king.

'Aha!' exclaimed the king. 'My artist has produced a painting so wonderful it has fooled nature herself, surely you must agree that he is the greatest painter who ever lived!' But the vagabond said nothing and stared solemnly at his feet. 'Now, pull the blanket from your painting and let us see what you have for us,' cried the king. But the tramp remained motionless and said nothing. Growing impatient, the king stepped forward and reached out to grab the blanket only to freeze in horror at the last moment. 'You see,' said the tramp quietly, 'there is no blanket covering the painting. This is actually just a painting of a cloth covering a painting. And whereas your famous artist is content to fool nature, I've made the king of the whole country look like a clueless twat.'

G'NIGHT