Honeycomb

Personally, I have never really though about honeycomb as something I could ever make, it never really crossed my mind. However, when I saw 2 people on my Facebook say that they had made honeycomb I thought I would give it a go to see how it went. 

When I found the recipe on Google I was really surprised at how easy is sounded, as I hadn't expected it to be that hard. 

The recipe I found only needed golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and some water to test when it was ready. I made sure I had all of this and then set about making my honeycomb. I will post a link at the bottom of this post in case you want to try it yourself.

In the recipe it says you need a greased 10cm square tin and I was thinking... err no thanks I think I will line it with greaseproof paper, this could get messy! You start off by making a syrup and then take it off the heat and add bicarbonate of soda, which makes the mixture expand A LOT. Now luckily I had plenty of excess paper sticking out of the tray, as the mixture continued to expand when I poured it in. Note to self: next time use a bigger tin. 

Now this is the end product, it tasted scrumdiddles!

After a day or 2 they start to go a bit sticky, and therefore a bit difficult to eat so next time I am going to cover them in chocolate so we can have our very own crunchy bars!! Yummy!

I have been thinking for a while about starting a cookery channel on YouTube as I do quite a lot of cooking at home but I'm not sure yet, and besides I would need to get a video camera first. Let me know what you think. Either in the comment section or if you know me... on Facebook or something. 

If you want to make honeycomb then click here for the recipe. 

My Extended Essay Hates Me...

Anybody who is doing/ has done the IB will understand how frustrating this is. I am currently doing my extended essay on food technology, specifically genetically modified foods. Because it is a food technology I have to do an experiment. For me, this involves making 2 batches of cakes, one containing lecithin powder. 

Now to start of with back in June/July I did my experiment 3 times using a different flour, later finding out that I would never have got the right results because it was the WRONG flour!! I then only found 2 companies which sell the right flour so had to contact them, but they could not send me it before the end of term... this was when the deadline was. 

Luckily, I was given an extension until September. Now, I have literally just been making my cakes and yet again I have faced problems. I had put all the ingredients into the bowls, I whisked the first batch containing no lecithin powder... that was fine. I go to whisk the batch containing lecithin and BOOM my whisk dies. It didn't literally explode but it did die. Graham said the motor has gone and it even made that horrible smell that electrical objects make when the motor dies. 

I swear my extended essay just hates me, it is fate that I'm going to fail it!! Well, I hope not!! 

Luckily, James was at Joely's at the time so my sister rang him and in 20 minutes or so he was back home with Joely's electric whisk!! Thank you Joely! 

Hopefully they will turn out well this time and actually give me good results!! Fingers crossed. But I guess the feeling is mutual... I hate my extended essay as much as it hates me... probably more! 

Summer Holidays So Far

This holiday has already got off to quite a good start, I have been out, seen friends and just generally had a good time... even on the days when I am inside because I have my pooch! So I am just going to 'summer'ise... yeah I know it's terrible but I genuinely accidently wrote that when meaning to write summarize.

Thursday 28th July - Imogen came over, to meet Ella and see me of course. She loved Ella... even though Ella later attacked her (playfully of course, she wouldn't mean harm - honest.) Also, because we both love boardgames we played monopoly a couple of times. The first game I won by more than 6500 monopoly dollars and the next game Imogen won by an amount similar to what I won by. They were good games. We also played scrabble, it was pretty crap game, we had rubbish letters and so nothing decent got put down. I had a ton of vowels and Imy ran out of them... wonder where they went. Well, Imy won that too. I think we also played downfall, but I don't remember who won those games. We had a great day, well I know I did anyway...

Friday 29th July - BBQ at the beach. Now this day was not the best weather, a little cloudy, but it was still nice to meet up with people and the BBQ wasn't all that bad. We bought lots of food from Iceland, including burgers, skewers, burger buns, fizzy drink and pink and whites. (I had already bought the sausages and people had already got the BBQs.) I was even smart enough to bring some tongs with me... it would have been a little more challenging if I had not remembered! The food was good, I did now touch the burgers because they looked like circles of ice cream and just complete crap. I think only a couple of people had any. Alex mainly... he took the remains home. There was also a little dog that came on to the beach, no owner about, and it found a string of sausages (not left by us) and it was pretty funny watching this little dog and the big string of sausages walk around the beach. After this, Maddy, Lauren, Dan and Amy asked to come and meet Ella. I had got the train, they got the bus so I told them where to get off and Dan used his phone satnav to get to my house. It worked well and they all loved Ella... of course! 

Tuesday 2nd August - Pottermore. This is the day I got my pottermore account. I got the right answer of the question, after failing the day before, and was sent to a guardian website. Meanwhile, Tim had already found it so he was telling me where it was and thinking I was thick when I couldn't see it because apparently I couldn't miss it. I was getting so annoyed because I couldn't see it. Then I realised that my adblock might be blocking the quill, so I paused it, refreshed and... what do you know... there is the quill!!! So irritating. I registered but I still don't have much of a clue what Pottermore is so I shall have to wait for my welcome email. Kinda excited! If anyone knows what Pottermore might be... let me know!! 

Wednesday 3rd August - BEACH! I had heard the day before that the weather would be good, so I had already decided I would go to the beach. But I had nobody to go with because my sister kept abandoning me for her friends. I didn't think anyone was free but then Tim decided he would change the week that he had planned to do his extended essay so I invited him over to see Ella and go to the beach. My sister and her friend Emily also came along and we took the dingy too... it was great fun. We used the oars as bats and played some sort of ball game with a tennis ball. Although... I later broke the oars... oops! Never mind... they are fixable! And to top it off we had toffee and butterscotch ice cream, which was SO nice! Yummy!

Thursday 4th August - Boardgames Day! Now this really was a great day, so fun! Imy hosting the day this time, so me, Tim, Julian, Jess and Jack all got the train over to hers... although Tim missed it - stupid boy ;)

We played all sorts of games, uno (which Imy said she would win... but didn't haha), cluedo mysteries, scrabble and of course... Articulate. Probably one of the best games ever!! I will definitely get that game for myself at some point! It's basically pictionary but speaking instead of drawing, and you only have 30 seconds for your team mates to guess as many as possible. Everyone gets so excited. The other team (Tim, Imy and Julian) got to the end and they had to do one nature question... the answer was trout. Tim was the speak and jsut told them to name lots of fish. They were naming cod, mackrel etc and Tim said 'bigger fish, bigger fish' and Imy shouted 'SHARK' and Tim was getting so frustrated, it was so funny. Meanwhile, Jess, Jack and I were staring at the timer waiting for the last drop of sand to go through and cheered when it did. So funny. They still ended up winning though. We played another game after that and Jess, Tim and I won. 

Harry Potter

As one of my summer goals was the read AT LEAST one Harry Potter book, I took Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone from the bookcase upstairs on Monday right after I wrote my blog. However, I didn't get to start it until Tuesday evening due to school. And even then I was too tired so only managed a few chapters. I took it with me on Wednesday when I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 - which was amazing by the way, a lot of action in it and even funny in places - so I could read it on the bus, as I would have nobody to sit with. 

By midnight on Thursday I had read 99 pages. And I am not pretty proud of myself that I have finished the last 124 pages today!! And I'm really not much of a reader. Ask anyone I know and they will agree! 

I'm kind of annoyed with myself that I haven't read this amazing books before, they really are great. Ok, well I tried once before the read but I got bored by the first page, I had a low attention span! It could also be partly down to the fact that I was convinced that reading was bad for your eyes. My excuse for not reading being this because all librarians and a lot of English teachers have glasses because they read too much. At the time I felt my excuse was pretty good and now I just think it is funny. I know I was being stereotypical but never mind, it's funny! 

I have now got Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets off of the bookcase from upstairs and will start it in a while! I will let you know how this one goes. 

I shall leave you with a few of my favourite quotes from the latest film:

• 'Not my daughter, you bitch!'
• 'Yeah, you and whose army?'
• 'That's my girlfriend you numpties!
• 'I've always wanted to use that spell'

Just a Few Goals For the Summer

I break up from school in a few days so thought I would make a quick list of things I want to do over the summer:

• Go to the beach, but that goes without saying really. Hopefully the weather won't stop that one!

•  Finish Breaking Dawn as I haven't had time to read it.  

• Read AT LEAST one Harry Potter book. I know, it is shameful that I haven't read any!! 

•  Have a boardgames day, not had one for ages.  

•  Finally make Jack his muffins, which I said I would do for his birthday... in March. Wow, that's bad. Sorry Jack if you're reading this.  

• Do my extended essay experiment and actually make it work!  

•  Complete more of the A part of CAS.  

•  Go and see the next Harry Potter - Hopefully on Wednesday.  

•  And to go with that last one, watch all the other ones too, just to reminisce. 

•  Try and write some/ all of my personal statement.  

•  Find some more good university courses I want to take. 

•  See my friends. Especially those I haven't seen in ages. (Imy, Dani etc)

 I think that should keep me busy. 

'Help I'm stuck, gimme a push'

After repeatedly pulling the cat flap, barking at it, sticking her head in etc, Ella finally managed to get through!! I knew we had a Houdini dog, she has already managed get from the trellised patio into the grassy area, and we have no idea how.

My mum texted me around lunch time to tell me that Ella had got out through the cat flap, and sent me a picture at evidence. Apparently, she then did it another 2 times, so Zoe got a video (which I will upload at another point)

When I got home I took her outside etc and then took her back in and gave her a toy. When Zoe came in she was very eager to go outside, so decided she would take the cat flap route. She stopped while going thought the gap, with her little back legs trying to get in. She got stuck... so I obviously just took my phone out and took her picture because she looked so funny!!

I told her that she wasn't a cat, but she wasn't having any of it. Then Zoe gave her a little nudge in the backside so I could gently let her out the other side. It was very funny to say the least.

Ella's New Tricks and a New Blog Layout

The first thing to notice are the changes to my blog. Basically, I felt like a bit of a change. So I sorted out a nice little banner for the top, using Photoshop and a little help from my brother to cut out the image of Ella and I. I'm pretty pleased with it, but it didn't fit in with the pinkness of the blog before so I thought I ought to change it. After all, I have had it like that since the beginning, so a change is quite nice! It now feels like a completely new blog. I tried to write a little sentence for the description but I couldn't really describe what my blog is, so I just left it! 

Now to the main bit of my blog. As you know, we got a puppy 2 weeks ago, so I thought I better update you on how she is getting on. 

She has settled in extremely well, and Zoe and I even taught her to sit on the second day of having her! Wow! Clever little pup. Then, within the first week Graham taught her 'paw' and then this trick:

Isn't that amazing? Well I think it is, considering she was only 8 weeks! We sent a link of the video to the breeders on facebook and they were amazed that she had managed to learnt that trick so quickly! Graham has also taught her to lay down, which is always helpful. We are now working on roll over, she seems to be thinking about it but isn't too sure. She did it for me yesterday, but it took a while.

Other than all the tricks she has been learning, she has been having good and bad days. She's been really good house training wise, absolutely brilliant! 

However, one thing we are working on is her getting aggressive, it's not nice. She ripped my favourite shorts, which I wasn't happy about. And also ripped Zoe's pj shorts, perhaps she just doesn't like shorts, haha! We have found a couple of good techniques... either putting her in her crate for a couple of minutes or everyone leaving the room. 

When she is put in her crate after being aggressive, she either rips the newspaper to shreds, knocks over her water and then we wait until she calms down, or she just goes to sleep. So it seems that she mainly gets aggressive when she is getting tired. Silly little puppy... just go to sleep. When we leave the room, she tends to bark fairly loudly for a bit, as it is as if she has been abandoned by her 'pack', and then she goes and finds something to chew on. 

We, well Graham, have had to make some adaptations to the house and garden too. A baby gate on the kitchen door, a little homemade wooden gate on the back door (for when we want the back door open but Ella inside), and a short trellis for the patio to stop her jumping off of it.

Today, she got a little aggressive, but calmed down quickly, which is always nice. Everyone went out this afternoon, so I stayed home to dog sit, as it was nearly dindins time. I took her outside for a run around but put her collar and lead on because the cat was out there too, and the lead takes up a lot of her attention so she wouldn't notice the cat. While I wasn't looking she got herself in a pickle with her lead, so I ran inside to get my camera...

'Help, I'm stuck'

 I made some icing for mum's cake so Ella decided to come and lay down by my feet, how sweet is that? It was probably just in case anything dropped...

'What you got cooking'

Last weekend, Mum and Graham went out and they bought Ella a little bed for during the day if she doesn't want to use her crate, or for if we want to let her come in the living room with us. She seems to like it, but is also equally happy in her crate.

Zzzzzz

Don't fancy the comfy vet bed then?

It is safe to say that we have all fallen totally in love with her, she is absolutely adorable... apart from when she is biting your bum and ripping shorts! Even James absolutely loves her, which is really nice, as he wasn't sure about having a dog at first. How cute, I'm so pleased that he loves her. 

Cuddles

If you come and visit us, I advise you to count fingers and toes first... ;)