24/1/2017 - evening

Credit

Ah, I'd forgotten just how wonderful it feels to write in this space. After a brief interlude of lecture, lunch, class (in which I knocked my head on a pillar), I now sit on my bed, feeling rather exhausted and thankful for my duvet and the solitary nature of my little room, and writing to you again.

'To you' - a funny thing. I never really know who is reading this anymore. Sometimes in conversation I want to retell stories I have already told here but am unsure if the repetition will be laboursome, or other times I withhold a story so I can process it and write it out here with spell check and revision. (In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.) In recent times (according to the stats board on my blog interface) there has been an exponential increase in readers from France, so bonjour.

I wonder how you read this as well - before bed, the blue light of your phone casting a glow on your face, at your desk with your sandwich stowed in your bag, sitting on the toilet with your phone held before you? Does anyone intentionally think 'I will check Miriam's blog now'? The only person I can imagine doing that is Dad (hi dad!) but I am happy for this place to be an after thought.

Anyway, some brief things before I go into the kitchen to paint with Alex, and then a Burns Night Formal:

1) The coconut yoghurt was both a success and not - it succeeded but then 画蛇添足 I added too much psyllium husk in my desire for it to be thicker and as a result it is jelly/thick greek yoghurt thick. Next round (and yes, a next round is possible because yogurt is a living food!) I'll put in far less psyllium husk, and maybe put it in when heating the coconut milk so that it dissolves better into the mixture.

2) I've discovered Nerdwriter, a youtuber who does short informative clips that make you feel very clever after watching them. His explanation of the twisted fairy tales in Pan's Labyrinth made me think harder when watching it, I enjoyed his exposes of Cezanne, Thanksgiving and what's in a film title, and this one on how to understand a Picasso.

3) After watching Pan's Labyrinth, feeling sad but also not quite ready to go to bed, I created a collage of photos to stick on my cupboard door, and whilst doing that I listened to Gandalf recite the Rime of the Ancient Mariner - what could be more perfect than his growly voice for the gruesome twists and turns of Coleridge's lyrical Ballad?