Infuse Your Booze


So a weird thing happened recently, we had 20 or so people over for pre-drinks and instead of leaving the house dry, we actually gained booze. I know!! So, armed with several litres of vodka, I decided to create some weekend flavours. 



What you need

1. VODKA
2. Some sterilised jars
3. A tablespoon of sugar
4. Delicious things - citrus, berries, mint, 
    spices, vanilla - whatever tempts you



Very Berry Vodka



Two handfuls of strawberries, a handful of raspberries and one of blueberries went into the jar. Followed by a tablespoon of brown sugar and a lot of vodka. Then I shook it like a polaroid picture. 



Lime and Ginger Vodka



The juice and rind of 3 limes and about 5cms of sliced ginger went into this one. The ginger was thoroughly stabbed for extra flavour. Then sugar, booze and shaking. 


These then need shaking every day. The longer you leave them, the more flavoursome they become, but a Monday batch should 
be ready for weekend cocktails :)


Let me know what flavours you try.

Top Happiest Music Videos Of 2014

In honour of a truly incredible music video being released yesterday, I thought I would share some of my favourite happy creations of the year. 


They Might Be Giants - Am I Awake?

Ever shared a bed??
Calzones are my fav, but sometimes my friend requests are denied and sometimes Duncan gets exiled...




Jamie xx - Sleep Sound

"Music is a medium formed by silence and sound." This quote is at the heart of this lovely Jamie xx video which shows the dancing of several deaf people. The music is played sufficiently loudly that they feel the vibrations and form music in their own minds to which they dance.
I love the exploration of silence as a part of the music. Thinking of music as both silence and sound, instead of just sound makes it feel richer to me. It reminds me of negative space art.




Kiesza - Hideaway

Kiesza is contagious in this one-take video with style, moves and attitude. One take!
Also the twisty push it at 1:54 is one of the best dances to do.




OK Go - I won't let you down

OK Go, true to form, have produced another masterpiece! I also quite want a scooter chair now. 

Diego: Hamster, Filmstar

Following the critically acclaimed 'Diego the hamster beatboxing', Diego returns with his much awaited sequel, 'Rollin'.



See Diego's beatboxing debut below. 


Police Are Bear-ing Down On Animal Thieves



Animals cannot always be trusted.

Like Sam the Seagull and his tangy cheese Doritos based crime streak





Bear...where are you going with that dumpster?





You need to be constantly vigilant.



Just look at these getaways...





Ruthless. 

funny gifs

So you might not want to leave your car unlocked.



And hold on to your hubcaps.



These guys will get you when you least expect it 

11 Minutes of Truly Brilliant Comedic Life Advice


Unsure about your career? The meaning of life? 
How to define yourself? Torn between art and science? This one's for you...

Some genuinely great life advice peppered with gems of Minchin humour... "A famous bon mot asserts opinions are like arseholes, in that everyone has one. There is great wisdom in this but I would add that opinions differ significantly from arseholes in that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined."

The World's Most Delicious Pudding In 3 Minutes




So last night I wanted a really indulgent treat. We didn't have a lot in the house, so I raided the cupboards and decided to experiment with a vegan mug brownie. Start to finish it took 3 minutes. The results....wow. I have to share this with the world! (Duncan was pretty enthusiastic for a remake today so that it could be photographed.) Quantities are a little vague - I'm not the measuring type - but I don't think you can go too wrong. 

Ingredients
1 part cacao powder
1 part sugar (I used brown & white)
1 part coconut oil (or other butter/oil)
2 parts flour
a dash of vanilla essence
a splash of water
a pinch of salt


1: Combine the coconut oil/butter and water
2: Microwave for 5-15 seconds, until melted
3: Add the vanilla, salt and sugar and stir
4:Stir in the cacao powder (use a fork if there are lumps)
5:Stir in the flour
6: Lick the spoon
7: Microwave for 50-90 seconds on high
8: Leave to cool
9: Enjoy the delicious brownie goodness

Serve with ice cream if it's that kind of a day.

What In The World Is A Pluviophile?


I used to actively dislike the rain - being stooped over trying to avoid getting it in your face. I also used to straighten my unruly hair quite a lot which made the rain even more bothersome. But after living in Chile and not seeing a drop of rain in over half a year, I found I really began to miss it. More recently I realised that rain is only miserable when you are trying not to get wet. (I have also embraced the wild hair, which changed things a lot.) 

A friend from Pakistan asked me a little while ago how we cope with all the rain here. Here are some of my best reasons for not just coping with it but enjoying it...



It makes the countryside all green and luscious and wonderful.

Rainbows! 

Food. 

Jumping in puddles. 


Monkeys get married. (My grandma used to say that when it is rainy and sunny at the same time it's a monkeys wedding.) 

Rain is made in different ways - some blows inward and upward from sea air, some is made by warm and cold air colliding and some is caused by land moisture being heated by the sun. Learn more.

Being grumpy is much more dramatic in the rain. 


Dogs do funny things - mine bites the rain drops or pounces on them as they fall on puddles. 

Running in the rain.

If you're British it's pretty much part of your cultural heritage.

You can feel closer to nature when you're outdoors in the rain.

It smells nice after the rain. Read why.

You can sing and dance and swing on lampposts...


Ducks are really happy. 

Wasps are really pissed off. 

It's sexy time for frogs.

You can do stuff you've saved for a rainy day. 

Kissing is ten times more romantic



You can watch raindrops racing down windows.

Cultures all around the world have/had rain dances and rain gods...Chaac (Mayan), Tlaloc (Aztec), Cocijo (Zapotec), Yu Shi (Chinese), Indra (Hindu) to name but a few.

You can get under a duvet and enjoy warm drinks and old movies. 

Or you can just throw your arms out and enjoy it...


...like 15 month old Kayden here, who is experiencing rain for the first time. 




Optical Illusurrealism


I love surrealism. A genre of intricacy, creativity and that wonderful floaty feeling when it seems like the laws of physics are breaking. Although it is sometimes a little creepy, I think it is important to approach surrealist art with the knowledge that it comes from a movement designed to challenge the way we look at the world. An appreciation of surrealism is, arguably, a natural conclusion of being a nineties kid raised on Magic Eye. (Ok maybe that's just me but...) 
This post is a very small eclectic tribute to optical illusions and surrealism, 
hence optical illusurrealism. 

M.C. Escher - the king of mathemaphysical weirdness. Art critics may say he is not a true surrealist, but he definitely deserves a mention here. If you like his work you need to download the game Monument Valley immediately. 

 



This next illusion plays on the subjectiveness of proximal colours. These 'green' and 'blue' spirals below are actually the same colour...




I know right!?



Wonderful Dali...what does your eye see first?







Stare at the cross and watch the absent dot change.
If you want to know why check out the phi phenomenonafter-image effectsTroxler's fading and complementary colours...or just enjoy it. 


Cats or birds?



Vladmimir Kush beautifully incorporates animals into his thought provoking work...









optical illusions


Inanimate circles spiral out of control...



This one infuriates cats...





And this post would obviously not be complete without Magic Eye!

(If you've not Magic Eyed before what you want to do is get really close to the image so that it is all blurry and you are looking through it, not focussing on it. Then ever so gradually move away from the screen. A secret image will appear in 3D. The trick is to not try to focus your eyes, but let it happen for you.)






I'm hoping there are some people with their noses pressed against their laptops in public places


Laughing Quadruplets



Just stop and imagine for a second being covered in laughing babies...


Happy Facts


A reddit user was feeling down one evening, so asked the internet community to tell him anything that would make him think higher of the world. They responded in full...




- Every year hundred of trees grow because of squirrels forgetting where they buried their nuts.


It's impossible to say 'beer can' without sounding like a Jamaican saying 'Bacon'. 

- Even if they've never been able to witness it themselves, blind people smile when they are happy. Smiling is a basic human instinct.

- No two dogs' nose prints are the same, much like human fingerprints.

Newborn giant pandas are about the size of a stick of butter.

- There’s a superhero with a hearing aid called ‘Blue Ear’. He was created by Marvel Comics to encourage a little boy to wear his own!

- There is a program that makes prison inmates responsible for training and raising seeing-eye dogs. Many reported that they felt like they were making amends for their past actions by working with the puppies.

Dolphins have names for one another.

- Octopuses actually do make gardens by collecting stones and shiny things and arranging them in the sand. Ringo was right.

- The voices of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse got married in real life.

The man who does Winnie the Pooh's voice spends some of his spare time ringing up children in the cancer wards of hospitals putting on Winnie's voice and telling them how much he loves them and how brave they are.

- Speaking of which, Winnie the Pooh totally gets life...

Pooh- What day is it?
Piglet- It's today
Pooh- oh good that's my favourite day.

If you plug your nose, you can't hum.

There is a group of nine women in West Tennessee who call themselves the 9 Nanas. They bake cakes together and leave them on the doorsteps of the needy, unemployed, or those who have lost family members. They've been doing it for 36 years. 

- Worms communicate by snuggling.

- Cuddling releases Oxytocin which helps speed healing and recovery from physical wounds.

- Otters hold hands when sleeping so they don’t drift away from each other.

The word "suns" is written the same way upside down.

Crows play pranks on each other. 

- A 6-year-old applied for a job at a railroad museum in York. In his letter he wrote "I have an electric train track. I am good on my train track. I can control two trains at once." They hired him as Director Of Fun. 

An Homage To The Red Panda


Red pandas are arguably some of the cutest animals on this planet, but they are not all that well known. So here is a little more info on these little lovelies a.k.a. the red cat-bears. 


Found across the Eastern Himalayas and South West China, red pandas live in high altitude temperate forests. Excellent climbers, they spend most of their day snoozing up a tree. They become a little more active in late afternoon and early evening. Sensitive to temperatures, these little guys like to be warm. They also enjoy rubbing their backs and bellies on the bark of trees. Simple pleasures. 

I think it's fair to say that they are not all that adept in snow...



Like their distant cousins, red pandas can't digest cellulose and so have to eat a lot of bamboo. Bamboo is not a highly nutritious plant, so red pandas conserve energy by being active for only 56% of their day. In other words...they're super lazy. 





And they do NOT like being snuck up on...



With those faces and such magnificent tails, they're pretty impossible not to like, but in case you had any doubt left in your mind, here's one freaking out over a pumpkin...




Celebrating Global Progress





Us humans have a tendency to strive for more, to want the best. Most of the time that's pretty awesome; it can help us to achieve our goals and become more fulfilled. But sometimes in striving for the ideal, we can forget to celebrate the progress we have made. 

A classic example of the above is the progress on the Millennium Development Goals. There is a lot of criticism of them and yes, they omitted certain factors, yes, we might not achieve them all and yes, there have been issues in their delivery BUT - and this is a big but - there have been some truly amazing changes. 

Since 1990 ...




We have reduced extreme poverty by half. 

Child mortality rates have dropped by nearly half. 

Maternal mortality rates have dropped by 45%.

An estimated 3.3 million malaria deaths were averted (between 2000 and 2012) thanks to intervention. ~90% of those would have been sub-Saharan African children under 5.

22 million tuberculosis deaths were averted (since 1995).

The incidence of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped by over 50%.


The proportion of underweight under fives in Bangladesh has reduced by 25% (1990-2012)

The number of children not attending primary school has reduced from 102 million in 2000, to 58 million in 2012.`

We have got substantially closer to gender parity in education. 

The participation of women in politics has increased substantially. 

And millions of lives are being saved by access to better drinking water.




Now granted we still have a long way to go, but come on...that's pretty amazing right? 
We totally have the capacity for large scale positive change. 





If this has left you thinking, "but what can I do?" here are a few suggestions:
  1. Buy Fair Trade. Tea bags, bananas, chocolate - pay growers a fair price.
  2. Sponsor a child via a legitimate organisation who spread benefit across whole communities via initiatives such as clean water, crop irrigation, school houses and supplies for school children. 
  3. Stop buying from known sweatshop environments.
  4. Give canned goods to food-banks to help hunger in your community or donate to your local soup kitchen. 
  5. When travelling abroad, try to invest in local communities and pay fair prices. 
  6. Put pressure on your local MP and your government to take action on issues that matter to you. 
  7. Reduce your environmental footprint - take the bus, fly less frequently, eat vegetarian food more often. 
  8. Learn more about being an ethical consumer.
  9. Choose a project of interest and donate to a legitimate charity that uses funds to establish and maintain projects where needed. 
List adapted from developmentgoals.com

Unlikely Animal Friendships

 Because life's that bit better with slow lorises on your antlers...