natural history

 Jurassic Park is real, there were baby dinosaurs.

I mainly wanted to visit the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs. I mean I do really like taxidermy and all that too, but as they are so old they don't look their best anymore and I am all for the museum's policy of not killing more animals in order to get a better display. Dinosaurs are about 90% more interesting anyway. A young Laura would have been so so happy to see them, and present Laura was fairly happy as well:-) I used to want to be a paleontologist when I was wee for quite a long period of time, and dinosaurs were kind of a big deal. I might have told this story before at some point, but apparently I even run away from home once because I was an aspiring paleontologist. And in my 5-year-old's brain the best way to achieve a career in paleontology was to run away from home and walk from Finland to Canada where I supposed all the dinosaurs were at. That didn't really go to plan, and almost two decades later I now got to see some dinosaurs.

It was only afterwards that I realised I hadn't been to see all parts of the museum, so I'll have to visit again at some point. But, to be honest, I was more into the architecture anyway (once I'd seen the dinosaurs). The museum is such a stunning building. I love the structures and the muted colours and the little statues. I wouldn't have even known that it was built specifically to be the Natural History Museum if I hadn't overheard a wee boy tell his parents that it was so and you could tell it from the animal statues incorporated into the building. I was a bit annoyed that an 8-year-old knew more about it than me, haha. Although I don't feel the need to let everyone know that I know something anymore, I'm still a bit of a know-it-all inside my head.. But all in all, I did really enjoy the museum!

project 365: 145-151

145 One of my hobbies is eating an entire bag of these in one sitting and then dying because they're so hot. (Haha.)

146 Sometimes you're too hungry to take photos of your food, so here's the recipe used instead.

147 Eating leftover potato salad again. This's just one of my favourite things to eat, especially on Meat Free Mondays (even though last week I didn't make it on Monday). And now while writing this, on yet another Monday, I'm actually eating this spud salad again, and will probably have some left for tomorrow. How monotonous is my life.

148 My face of the day has basically been this simple lately; I do my eyebrows and add some lipstick. Saying that, I actually ended up putting on a full face later in the day when going to the pub with my house:-)

149 All my weekly photos seem to be food related.. I've been having porridge and strawberries for breakfast all week, and it's been very good.

150 A lil' self-portrait.

151 Sundays.

eliza acton's apple soup

 It's been such a long time since I last posted any recipes or things like that, so here's something of the kind but something different at the same time. Yes, you read right; apple soup. Yes, it's a savoury soup made of apples. It is as strange as it sounds, but it also tastes quite good! I had this with my mum quite a while ago, and although for me it's definitely something I'm not used to (le mother seemed to really like it!) I think I will be making this again. Before writing this I did a bit of research on le internet, and I found soups with apples in them, but used only together with other ingredients, like broccoli or carrot, to add some extra flavour. So if you fancy being brave and trying something new, this would be the perfect thing. The recipe is from one of my favourite cook books at my mum's place, and it suggests serving the soup with rice. I don't know if you're meant to have it separately or put it in the soup, so we had rice in a gravy boat, haha! And we also had Karelian rice pasties because we were in Finland and I love a good Karelian rice pasty. It's also suggested on a menu list for May, so now's pretty much the best time to try and eat this lil' soup.

 This is how you make it:

~340g (cooking) apples
2 pints beef/mutton/vegetable stock
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons (long grain) rice

If you've actually made a proper stock, remove any fat from the surface. Wash the apples and chop them roughly, without removing peel or core. Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan, add the apples and cover the pan with a lid. Simmer the soup over low heat until the apples are tender. Pour the soup through a sieve, but try to get as much of the pulp as possible through as well. (I suppose, as the book is from the 70s, you could now actually just remove the core of the apple and then use a food processor, a blender or something like that at this point, I just wasn't that clever when I was making this, haha!) Stir in the ginger and season with salt and ground pepper. Re-heat the soup and remove any scum. (What a nasty-sounding word, but you know, all the foam &c. And again if you use modern kitchen appliances, this might not be necessary..) While the soup is cooking, boil the rice in plenty of salted water. Drain thoroughly and keep the rice warm. Spoon the soup into bowls, and serve the rice separately.

Hope you like it if you ever decide to give this a go!

project 365: 138-144

138 Rewriting and revising all the notes.

139 First exam done!

140 Far too many books and documents that I had to learn.

141 Some days my hair's actually quite nice, some days I have no idea what is going on with it. I've actually been thinking I might need to start straightening my hair, but I'm pretty sure I've either given my straighteners to my mum or sold them. Genuinely think it's been  at least six years since I last straightened my hair, haha!

142 Very happy to have done my last exam and finished uni!

143 Now I can finally start reading non-uni books, which is quite exciting:-)

144 I've had this giraffe ring for years, but I rarely wear it as it's a tiny bit too big. Might try giving it more use though because it is cute!

project 365: 131-137

I'm a bit bummed that I couldn't keep to my schedule, and last week's project 365 photos are now a day late, but, you know, life happens. I was dying in bed all day on Sunday and revised all day on Monday, so there wasn't too much time to spare for editing and posting. But I've still been doing this project every day, which is good and I'm almost half-way through! How exciting.

 131 Took some outfit photos in my favourite place and there was lots of lil' flowers, too.

 

132 I'm doing grandma chic quite well at the moment, if I do say so myself.

133 Leftover spinach pancakes for lunch! I may have made enough pancake batter so that I had pancakes for three days..

134 In addition to pancakes, jaffa cakes have been my latest food obsession. Does anyone else eat something for weeks without getting enough of it and then go off the food for a while, haha? That's me. I eat in phases, and now's definitely a 12-jaffa-cakes-a-day phase.

135 Emotional times. If you don't share my love for Steven Gerrard, I don't want to hear your opinion. Really.

136 Half a day of revising, but after the disastrous Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace game everything went downhill and I spent the rest of the day watching TV and films with my housemates.

137 Like I said, I spent all of Sunday in bed dying of a migraine. I'm not too fond of not-having-a-good-head life. And my head's been really bad lately. Anyway, here's a not at all interesting fact: my favourite position to lie in bed is on my back with my feet up. Also, a good reading position. Although, I mainly do it when no-one's there to see me 'cause it does look weird. But not weird enough not to share on le internet. If you have a foot fetish, you're welcome, and if you hate feet, I'm sorry!

V&A

 A puppy coming out of a flower, because why not?

 I don't know why but I want/need this wine cooler in my life.

All of this belongs to you. I feel like that is a really nice museum sentiment.

 A bit annoyed at myself for thinking I'd remember what the story behind this was, and now I can't even remember the name of the statue..

 Love this ceiling, the colours are stunning.

 Felt a spiritual connection with the middle angel. All the other angels seemed to have a purpose of playing an instrument &c. whereas the middle one is just posing there as if he either had no clue or just had a fabulous attitude.

I've been meaning to visit the Victoria & Albert museum for so long that it really was high time I did it. And I wish I had done it ages ago because now I'm in love with the place. It is so beautiful and everything is so visually pleasing. I found out that I have a thing for the colour combination of white and gold, as well as for pictures of myself in centuries-old mirrors. I rediscovered the feelings I had in the period in my life a few years back when I was really into keys. I also thought about the strange(ish) fact that queen Victoria is always portrayed in her later years and the sculpture of a young Victoria is probably one of my favourite things at the V&A. A bit envious of that rose flower crown, too. If you've seen my selfies with Victoria and Albert on Instagram, you might have been reminded that they're my favourite royals. I half on purpose forgot that I was recommended to have a scone at the V&A, so now I have a reason to go back soon. If I lived any closer, I could see myself spending a lot of me-time here, haha:-) So beautiful.