Don't stop me now!

This blog post was originally going to be called 'It's all about the music' but I decided that was a bit naff, so thought I would name it after one of my favourite songs.  Music is such a massive part of my life, sadly I don't actually play any musical instruments, but for as long as I can remember songs are intertwined with my memories.

I love so many different types of music and I'm not ashamed of any of the bands or songs I like!  I thought I'd share a few with you all for a laugh and please let me know if these songs remind you of anything :)

Seal - Kiss from a Rose (are you all singing it in your head or is that just me??).  This song instantly transports me back to being 13 and 'camping out' in our back garden. This simply involved sleeping in a tent with friends instead of sleeping in the house! 

R Kelly - Bump n' Grind.  From a similar time as Kiss from a Rose, I can't listen to this and not cringe at the silver lycra mini dress I used to wear to the unders' disco!

ODB - Got Your Money. I've not heard this in forever, but writing this post made me think of my music memories and this song is all about student nights with my wonderful flatmates in the Garage nightclub.

Queen - Don't stop me now.

Source
Please someone buy me this comic / artwork, it's amazing! 



This song brings so many memories, countless nights out dancing with friends and singing at the top of my lungs.  We also had this song to walk back up the aisle after we got married (and as our second dance song).  I find it impossible not to smile when I hear this song.  Oh to have seen Freddie live.

Kylie - Spinning Around.  Bam I'm on holiday with B in Tenerife (wishing my ass could rock a pair of gold hotpants like that!!).

The Killers - Somebody Told Me.  I remember exactly where I was when I heard this song for the first time on the radio.  I was doing a stock count by myself for the first time in a massive warehouse full of blokes and everything was going wrong.  I wrote in my notes that I needed to google The Killers when I got home....they are now one of my favourite bands and I've seen them / Brandon live so many times.

T-Rex - I Love to Boogie.  I'm a little kid dancing on my dad's feet round the kitchen :)

When I get home from a stressful day at work, the first thing I do when I get home is put on our Sonos and pick an artist or album that I want to listen to and nine times out of ten the music will cheer me up.  It's amazing.  If you tried to make me pick between music and books I honestly don't know what I would do!  But you can take my tv any day of the week.

Lauren and I are off to see Lana Del Rey at the SECC tonight (anyone else going?).  I just missed her gig in the Oran Mor in November 2011 which I was disappointed about and although her Born to Die album has been out for a long time, I am still looking forward to hearing what she sounds like live.  As a very welcome bonus, Kassidy are her support act (Lana is dating one of the lead singers Barrie-James O'Neill).  I saw Kassidy play live at a small charity gig in December 2011, having never heard of them before, and have followed their music with interest.  I'm not sure I would buy a ticket just to see them but I'm happy to hear them live again and this gig might just change my mind for the future!

The main dilemma for the concert is what to wear...not in the usual 'urgh I have nothing to wear' way but the concert is standing only and in my experience the hall gets very hot.  Thanks to the lovely spring weather we currently have in Glasgow, we will need our winter coats to get to the gig!  B never let's me live down the fact that I fainted at a Killers concert in the SECC (as a result of said sweltering conditions!).  We were about 5 rows from the front, right in the middle of the stage and I properly fell to the ground fainted.  Two security guards actually climbed over the barriers to lift me up, towards the stage, as the Killers walked on.  I'd love to say this story has a brilliant ending, like me getting to meet Brandon and the guys backstage, but in reality I got to miss the first 3 songs as they wouldn't let me out of the first aid tent!!  Lauren I promise not to faint tonight...

I'll leave you with a song from an artist that I would love to see live, I am Foxes and their single Youth.  You can check them out at a small gig in the Hoxton in London on 30th July, I would love to go but can't justify the expense of a trip to London.  This song is actually the first song I ever Shazam-ed, it's from a rather fabulous tv series set in New York, any guesses peeps??




Roz xx

Tweet

What Bex is wearing to the wedding in the woods!! ;)

I had planned on making my dress out of the dragonfly fabric I printed by now but sadly life has intervened and I haven't had the time, courage (I'm scared I'll mess it up!) or inclination to do it yet!

What's a stressed out girl to do?  Go shopping!  A bit of retail therapy was in order this week and I found a couple of dresses I like.  I think my mind is pretty much made up but feel free to give me your opinions below!  (I'll see if you all pick the same one as me!)  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute, eh?!

Option 1 - red flared wrap dress, black wedges/wellies, leopard print belt, beige & red clutch, gold accessories.  (Also the dress is called Bella so the lovely Bella shall be even more there in spirit!  Oh and I wish I had that gorgeous Astley Clarke dragonfly pendant!)

Red dress by olivedragonfly featuring shiny boots

Hunter shiny boots / Faith colorblock handbag / leopard belt / Phase Eight - Bella Fit And Flare Dress

Option 2 - olive green maxi dress, black wedges/wellies, gold necklace (long to dress it down a bit and make it more festivally - does it all look too bridesmaidy?  Any other ideas to make it more casual?), peridot ring, black clutch, possibly cute crystal headband I bought last week to hippy it up a bit since this is Amy's wedding! :)

Green Maxi outfit by olivedragonfly featuring platform sandals

Alexon evening dress / Hunter knee length boots  / Accessorize gold pendant / Accessorize heart drop earrings / Anthropologie headband

Option 3 - Black & white stripe dress (I haven't received this yet and actually don't think the skirt shape will suit me but I LOVE IT so want to try it on and none of the stores here have it in stock!), black wedges/wellies, silver accessories, red clutch (don't have this either and the one I've chosen on polyvore is just me dreaming!).  I think this one might be a bit too smart for a woodland wedding?

Stripe wedding outfit by olivedragonfly featuring pendant jewelry

Phase Eight wrap dress / Hunter fitness shoes / Oscar de la Renta , £1,040 / Tiffany & Co. pendant jewelry / 

Incidentally I haven't got black wellies yet either so if anyone can lend me a size 7 or 8 please let me know!  I will probably be hunting down a pair in town tonight as I am actually working this Thursday for once, typical.  (And they're not my wedges, mine were Topshop ones I got for £5 off ebay when I was a student but they're similar-ish!)

So, what do you think?  Which option do you like best??

Tweet

Buttermilk & Blueberry Smoothie (Pin It Do It)

We don't have a Pin It Do It for today but this is one you might like to Pin and do yourself!?  I highly recommend it!

I'm trying to be healthier again.  It's been over a year since I started trying to lose weight and get healthier with a new lifestyle of more exercise and a better diet.  I kept up the exercise for 6 months and lost over a stone but I soon lost my momentum after returning from Italy as we came into winter.  I've tried to keep up the better diet but have been naughty on a few too many occasions and my weight has crept back up to what it was!  I don't feel as sluggish as I had been when I started though and don't think I look as overweight as I did before I started, probably because I did do a lot of exercise for so long.

Unfortunately winter doesn't seem to be over yet with multiple hail showers on Monday (the instagram photos below were all taken on the same day)!

11am - hail storm, 12pm - glorious sunshine

2.30pm - hail again, 4pm - bit of both!

I've been finding it difficult to motivate myself to walk to work, not knowing when I might get drenched!  I have been trying to be a bit more conscious of my diet again though as I've been guilty of becoming lazy again.  All too easy when life gets stressful and busy!  I really enjoyed my diet last year and found if I was organised it was very easy to stick to.  It wasn't a 'diet', just healthy, sensible eating with plenty of salads, fresh fruit and healthy home cooked meals.  I love salads and never got bored or cut anything out, cake was still on the menu!  It was just a case of having the time to get to the shops regularly and making the effort to prepare things so I wasn't eating fatty convenience foods and snacking on naughty things all the time.

Anyway, I am determined to get there and have recently found a few delicious sounding, healthy recipes when sorting old food magazines.  Below is one for a smoothie I made the other day which is lovely and very low fat!  It was in an old Waitrose LOVE life magazine.

I know smoothies aren't always the best option due to the high natural sugar content but I feel I need a boost at the moment as I've been suffering from a terrible cough and cold for over a week now and the above mentioned stress and busy lifestyle are definitely causing me to become a bit rundown.

Ingredients:
2 small bananas
190g blueberries (I used frozen as they were cheaper as not in season yet)
284ml carton buttermilk
handful of ice (I used 4 cubes)

Method:
Place everything in a blender and whizz until smooth.

Apparently this serves 2 but I split it into 3 portions of around 250ml (one shown in glass)
so the nutritional information works out per serving as:
105 calories
4.1g protein
20.6g carbohydrate
18.3g sugars
0.7g fat
0.3g saturated fat
1.3g fibre
0.1g salt

Tweet

Street Food Tour - Seoul, South Korea

We booked a walking food tour on our third day in Seoul as we had visited a food market ourselves and been a little apprehensive to try many things as we found it difficult to know what was what.  (The trotters and pig's heads were obvious!)

We started the day with breakfast in a bakery just next to our hotel, Paris Baguette.  They have this chain all over Seoul and as much as we loved trying the Korean food, it was nice to have a change once in a while.  We really liked this bakery and I fell in love with the coffee cups!!  They're SO cute, I wish packaging was that good here, I'm a total sucker for it.

There is a huge range of delicious looking breads, cakes and pastries.  I would have loved to try more things but we only ate here twice.  Their breakfast items were rather interesting. The first time I tried this eggy concoction wrapped in eggy bread and a slice of bacon which they heated up for me.  Nik was boring and had a croissant ;)

The tour started at the O'ngo Culinary School with a demonstration in how to make a Korean seafood pancake (which I will detail in another blog post as this one's gotten a bit long!).  Had we been in Seoul for longer we would have definitely been interested in some of their Korean cooking classes!  The place seemed very organised and their kitchen classroom set up was great!

Bibimbap being made by a class

After our demonstration and taster of the pancake, we headed out to our first stop at a market.  We NEVER would have found this market used by locals.  It was down a ramp and underground...

It sells pretty much everything, food - groceries and ready to eat, shoes, crockery, all sorts of things you'd usually find in a department store.

Bowls galore!  They need them all for all the sides they serve!

Soy bean paste, chilli paste, various other things which I have no idea what they are!

Raw cabbages used to make Kimchi

Various types of Kimchi

Making Kimchi

More pig heads

Korean man eating breakfast/lunch

Grinding dried chillies to make chilli powder, you could smell the spiciness!

Various pulses and seeds

We stopped for some Gimbap (or Kimbap - Gs and Ks seems to be interchangeable in Korea, Gangnam is actually pronounced Kangnam) while we were down in the market and the woman who made it was so quick!  Gimbap is very similar to sushi and has various fillings.  This one had a bit of everything, pickled radish, crab stick, burdock root, fishcake (the thing that looks like a pancake), spinach and omelette.

Gimbap

Served with Kimchi of course!

Our lovely tour guide, Soung Jin

When we left the underground market we went to a rice cake shop which had SO many kinds of rice cakes (kyong dong) in different flavours and stuffed with various fillings.

Pumpkin rice cake

Our tasters

My favourite, stuffed with sweet red bean paste

We then went along to see some street vendors making Kkultarae which is made from a solid block of honey and cornflour, stretched into 16,000 strands which is then used to wrap a mix of nuts and cocoa which sadly meant we couldn't taste it as we're both allergic to nuts :(  It's very entertaining to watch though - check out a video!

And here's our video...

We then took a wander along Insadong gil where we discovered loads of places we wanted to return to after the tour.  We saw spice shops, more street food and lots and lots of souvenir and crafty shops.

Our next stop on the tour was to try dumplings.  The place we were taken to was down a side street and had a massive queue of locals which was a good sign!  The seating area was also full but we just got one each to take away.  Places to eat are difficult to find in Korea even if you have a recommendation as most of them only have Korean signs.  We found tripadvisor very helpful as there were pictures of the restaurants so we knew when we'd found the right one!

I honestly have no idea what was in my fried dumpling, I could identify the glass noodles and some vegetables and what I think was pork...

Turns out I preferred Nik's so we swapped :)

These were obviously prawn!

Continuing round the alley we ended up in Ssamzigil which is a fabulous sort of artist's mall with food stalls and lots of little shops run by designers and crafters.  We went back there in the afternoon and did a lot of shopping there!

While there on our tour everyone sampled the rather off-putting looking treats below but they also contained nuts so our guide offered to buy us a drink of rice punch instead (as the tasters were included in the tour price).

We then went to see a traditional Hanok and found a little art exhibition which we had a quick look round before our tour ended at lunchtime.  I would highly recommend O'ngo food tours!  They were well organised, knowledgeable and friendly.  It was easy to book online and we're so glad we did.

Little Korean musicians

Gorgeous paper butterflies

The rest of our day in Insadong gil will be in another post as this one's already over-Bexed with photos!  :-/

Tweet