I went to see a Derren Brown show!

A few days ago my mum's friend asked my mum to look after her son for a few hours. The reason why, is because my mum's friend was going to see a Derren Brown show, and she needed someone to look after her son. My mum then teasingly said to me, "Aren't you jealous?" (I love watching Derren Brown shows.)

When my mum's friend got back, she told us that she had extra tickets, which she explained, she had booked for the wrong day, and couldn't get a refund for. She then, offered us the tickets. Unfortunately my mum couldn't take me, and my sister  was too young to go. Fortunately, my dad could take me (And he was old enough to go.) So we took the tickets. We were then told by my mum’s friend that the only thing she could tell us about the show was that it was amazing. She couldn’t tell us anything else for fear of spoiling it. I can only agree with her that it is amazing, and say nothing else, for fear of spoiling it.

Actually, I can say more than that – just nothing too specific about what was in the show.

Here are the things I can say:

1.     I think one of the  best bits of all shows is when they begin. Before that you’re just waiting and wondering in the dark of the theatre (Perhaps getting a bit bored) which makes the beginning extra exciting. This was definitely true for the Derren Brown show I went to.

2.    It was really cool.

3.    Two was sort of boring

4.    I think he might have been planting things in our minds from the moment we stepped into the theatre (Maybe even before.) Perhaps just subtle things like a golden banister instead of a silver one, mirrors in certain places, the language used to advetise the show, certain colours of carpet or lighting etc,

5.    He actually seems quite nice in real life. In the shows he just has this poker face all the time and is really confident. In real life he has more personality.

6.    My dad got me a milkshake on the way there.

7.    The show is a mixture of different tricks, not one main thing.

8.    There are plenty of surprises.

Bloggers are so self centred

A few days ago I had this funny thought that maybe I shouldn't be posting that many blog entries about myself. I thought I must sound really self centred. I'm always going on about, "I did this, I did that, we did this, we did that." But then I thought, "Isn't that what blogs are meant to be about?" And that's true, actually. Blogs are like diaries except you don't put in stuff you don't want people to know about. Yes, it would be nice not to ALWAYS post entries about myself, but I have (A few times) not written about myself, so it's okay. I think...

The recording studio (Boring name for a post but not so boring post - hopefully...)

My mum's friend is a singer and songwriter. She has her own radio station and I went with my mum and sister to watch her talking for the radio. I thought it would be an interview but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was songs. 

We had been warned not to talk in the recording studio so when we got there we were making sure to be extremely quiet. We crept into the room -  but it turned out we could have been louder, because my mum's friend was currently playing a pre-recorded song, and no-one could have heard us if we'd spoken, anyway. Jeez, that was the longest sentence on the planet. 

My mum, my sister and I were immediately introduced to two of my mum's friend's friends. Okay, that might be really confusing but I always try not to say anyone's names on my blog. So I hope you understand it! Anyway, the two ladies who we were introduced to were going to do a few pieces together on the radio (One is a singer and one is a songwriter) so we listened to them as well - and they were great! We had a song from my mum's friend (Of course) which was stuck in my head for ages after we'd left the studio. But before that, my mum's friend asked my sister and I to recite a poem - on the radio!! Beforehand, when we had been told not to be noisy in the studio, my mum had jokingly sent a text to her friend saying, "OK. I'll make sure the girls don't recite a poem while you're trying to talk on the radio." But her friend hadn't even seen the text, so it was a bit weird that she'd got the idea to ask us. 

So we had one (Kinda failed) practice session, and then we started with the poem (The jabberwock.) The guitarist in the room played into the microphone while we were reciting, which made the poem sound a hundred times better - seriously. I think the guitar has magic powers.

Sorry I have not updated in ageeees!!! There is a proper reason though!

Okay, the reason I have not updated my blog in ages is because I wrote a whole long post - but I couldn't publish it. Whenever I clicked post, nothing happened. So I waited till the next day, thinking the internet would be working better or something – but that was not the case. I then tried everyday for a few days, but it didn’t work. After that I got my dad to help me. So I logged on to show him, but half of my post was gone. It had just disappeared. Then, my sister suggested I try, “Apple zed” but all that did was erase the rest of my post – well, the rest except for half a line and the title (And that really isn’t worth posting on its own.) We looked up on the internet how to get a post back but couldn’t find anything interesting. So I was annoyed, frustrated and stuck.

I’m not going to rewrite the post for a couple of weeks because it feels like I’ve done it too recently, and it will be boring. The post was about the things I do regularly every week.

Pastaaaaaa!

As I have written before, our family hosts a lot of couch-surfers. Couchsurfing isn't just about hosting and being hosted (I don't know whether I've said this before!) but you can also meet up with people (Not to stay with them or host them), and do, "Kitchen-surfing." "Kitchen-surfing" is where you meet up with people in someone's kitchen to cook together.

ANYWAY!! 

We hosted this, "Kitchen-surfing" event in our house, and a guy came over to teach us to make fresh pasta. Unfortunately, I missed the first part because I had a drumming workshop to attend, but luckily I was there for the fun bit - kneading and cutting the pasta.

First of all, we had to roll the dough in this special way - it wasn't difficult, but you still had to follow a guideline.

Next, the guy who was teaching us rolled the dough through a machine. There were different thicknesses you could decide on. He then folded the dough over and put it through the machine again. He did those two steps a few times, and then put the dough through a setting that cuts it into tagliatelle strips.

After that, he boiled the pasta. It only took about a minute and thirty seconds - maybe just a minute - each for the two batches of pasta. 

Finally, we sat down to eat. I thought the pasta would taste more like dough than pasta, but it didn't - at all. It just tasted way nicer than commercial dry one; it was softer and chewier. We ate it with roast vegetables, mushroom and yoghurt sauce, salt, pepper, cheese and olive oil.

I can't describe how... yummy... it was. Now, that was a boring word. So is, "delicious" (I think) - and, "Amazing," can be a bit boring because I always use it. Tasty? More-ish?... Cool?? So I'm just going to say, "I'll definitely be making this dish again."

Only three people (Not counting my family) other than the main cook/ teacher/ head chef came (There was another person but she left early). That doesn't seem like much - in fact, it isn't much - , but it meant I got to properly talk to each of the people, something you don't get to do when lots of people come.

Like the chocolate milkshake, I wrote this post ages ago. But seriously, like, a good few months ago. But I didn't post it because I couldn't find the photos I was going to attach, which would have made this post sooo much better. Uugh. So annoying!!