January 13th - Skeptics Day

Luckily for this celebration most of my friends are skeptics of a lot of things and often like to discuss at length...

I was hanging out with a friend today who had recommended this book to me so we had a long chat about some of the concepts in it. I’m not really into self help books generally but in the same vein as running this blog I’m looking to crowbar more excitment and happiness into my life.

Our views are normally pretty aligned but on the topic of 'energy' they diverge. The book is great but quite hippyish. It's very... 

“Whatever you choose to call it isn’t important, what is important is that you start to develop an awareness of, and a relationship with, the Source Energy that’s surrounding you and within you (which is all the same energy), and which will be your best pal ever if you give it a chance.”

“I am one with The Universe. The Universe is awesome and so am I.”

I really like the ideas and would like to believe them but I just don't see any evidence backing them up. The argument for it is roughly along the lines of have faith that this all exists and good things will happen for you, be negative and you'll get the opposite. I'm very willing to go along with it though and see what I can get through a placebo effect. 

Anyway... A long and convoluted conversation was had and we're both still in our own camps but I'm going to keep reading and have an open mind. 

Skeptics day... 9/10. I love deep conversations about peoples deeply held beliefs and skeptics have some of then best of them.

January 12th - Kiss A Ginger Day

So I managed to forget about this whole thing while I was running about all day. I hung out with friends and then we went to an underground wrestling matching which was somewhat mad and distracting.

The event ran late and once I realised it was passed 11pm I panicked becuase I hadn’t checked what day I was supposed to be celebrating. My options were: Marzipan Day - I wasn’t going to be able to find marzipan at the wrestling match. Pharmacist Day - I wasn’t going to be able to find a pharmacist at the wrestling match. My last and final option was Kiss A Ginger Day. I looked around the packed room…no obvious gingers.

I had a brief panic at my friend Paul as it grew ever closer to midnight and he volunteered that he has a somewhat ginger beard. Aware of the time, I decided it was my best bet, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and had somewhat completed my goal.

As it felt slightly hollowly celebrated I also texted my gingerest friend a whole load of kiss emojis to cover my bases.

Kissing gingers: 5/10. If you find the right ginger I’m sure it’s lovely but I kinda messed this one up by not planning!

January 11th - Learn Your Name In Morse Code Day

Today I've learnt about Morse Code! It was invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1838 and I think we can all agree was his second greatest accomplishment after that glorious beard.

Morse code was used as an international standard for maritime distress until 1999 when it was replaced by the Global Maritime Distress Safety System. Which may explain why I primarily associated it in my mind with the sinking of the Titanic.

To learn my name I was going to figure it out from the chart below but fortunately I found Morse Code Translator instead!

Emelia in Morse Code is:
 . -- . .-.. .. .-

Exciting stuff right? I briefly considered doing my middle and last name too but that sounded like approximately 13 characters too much work.

Apparently it's better to not try to remember dots and dashes but instead remember the sounds. So...

And the final output Morse Code Translator gave me was light flashes which makes perfect sense but I hadn't considered Morse Code could come in.

(VIDEO PLACEHOLDER FOR WHEN I HAVE A NEW LAPTOP CHARGER AND CAN UPLOAD THE VIDEO PROPERLY)

Learning my name in Morse Code... 6/10
Interesting but ultimately kinda pointless, doubt I'll remember it beyond next week.

January 10th - Houseplant Appreciation Day

This was a good one today! I love houseplants and have a fair few so it wasn't too hard. I don't want to brag but I've had one of my orchids for 5 years, so ya know I've kinda got this down.

To celebrate the day I cracked out some cactus feed and watered my plants with it, I figured they could all have some as it's a special day for them.

I then also bought a brand spanking new bromeliad (for the less planty people it's the yellow one).

Also check out my incredibly cute yet totally unpractical watering can. I bought it as a present for a friend last year but then couldn't give it away because I'm a terrible person. (Sam that could have been yours!)

House plants: 10/10

I just need more!

January 9th - Apricot Day

So turns out I'm not a fan on apricots! Who knew. 

(You can tell from the smiling that I hadn't discovered I don't like them yet.)

I'd just gotten home from eating dinner with my sister and the last thing I felt like doing was eating an apricot. But in the spirit of celebrating all the days I forged ahead. It was pretty sharp and bitter and not exactly enjoyable. I'm willing to bet that's why someone was like 'guys hold up I have an idea, let's add a shit ton of sugar to this' and made the first Apricot jam.

Also let's talk about the fact that it's January and I can walk into a random Tesco's and find Apricots. That's madness. Don't get me wrong I was glad that I wasn't going to have to resort to eating dried apricots in the moment but why are we getting them in from South Africa! That's over 8000 miles away! If it's going to be that impactful on the environment we shouldn't be stocking them and as customers we shouldn't be demanding them (also they're kinda gross).

All in all... Apricots 2/10.

Not a fan and slightly annoyed that I now feel the need to eat the other 5 in the pack as they've got so many food miles clocked up. I may make a tagine at the weekend. 

January 8th - Bubble Bath Day

Today's celebration has been the most appreciated so far.

Typically I'm a shower kinda person but I have recently (coincidentally around the same time as I've taken up doing strength training) discovered the joy of long, blisteringly hot baths. Because I'm newly into baths I asked for 'bath stuff' for Christmas and David's family came through strong.

I had a super long extra bubbly bath (being new to all this I used way too much bubble bath) and relaxed more than I had done in a long time.

Bubble baths a clear 10/10!

January 7th - Harlem Globetrotter’s Day

This one has been significantly less weird than yesterday. It's almost swung too hard the other way and been a tad boring.

I had a look and the Harlem Globetrotters weren't playing in London tonight but I did also find out that it's crazy expensive to go see them live. I actually saw them years ago when I was a teenager. A friend had spare tickets to see them at Wembley and it was awesome! I was really into the tricks and even the clearly staged 'game' in the second half of the show was fun to follow.

So as seeming them live wasn't an option I turned to YouTube and watched some of their videos there. The best was, with over 3M views.

So I don't know if I'm just older now or if it's just way more impressive in person but I found the videos okay, not mind-blowing. They're all obviously really talented but it is essentially a sports themed circus act. I don't mean that in any bad way, in that context it's great! A bit hokey but great. I also really liked that they had women on the team, that wasn't a thing when I saw them way back when.

Overall, Harlem Globetrotters... 5/10 a fun act to watch, especially if you have kids but not mind blowing and too expensive for me.

It also fell down slightly for me because I've found the whole day less of a celebration of something and more of a marketing exercise. I don't know exactly why but it just seems a bit soulless.

January 6th - Fruitcake Toss Day

Today has been Fruitcake Toss day and one of the weirder ones so far.

According to Daysoftheyear.com Fruitcake Toss day is celebrated on the 6th January (First Saturday of January)…but today was a Sunday…either way I’ve gone with it.

“Manitou Springs has hosted the Fruitcake Toss tournament every year since 1995. During the competition, fruitcakes are thrown, hurled, catapulted and cannoned into the air using a range of inventive devices. Those braving this event would be wise to remember to look up occasionally – a frozen fruitcake in the face is a formidable force when fired from an exercise-bike-powered cannon.

Participants are expected to bring their own fruitcakes which should contain candied fruits, nuts and of course, flour, and not any inedible substances. The fruitcakes are inspected by the “Fruitcake Toss Tech Inspectors” before they are allowed to be used for competition to make sure they do not contain any substances hard enough to hurt a person that may get hit in the head with a flying fruitcake. However, you happen to forget your fruitcake at home, you may rent one on the spot.

The Distance Competition is about hurling a 2-pound fruitcake as far as possible. The winner is the person able to hurl the fruitcake the farthest. The distance is measured at the final resting spot of the fruitcake, not where it first hits the ground.”

— Daysoftheyear.com

I’d been out today and figured I’d swing past the supermarket on the way home. I’d assumed that they would be open till 6, but they weren’t. Fruitcakeless I wondered through Stratford. Lidl? Closed. Morrisons? Closed. Greggs? Only sad looking doughnuts. The Bakery? When asked if they had fruitcake pointed me towards a summerfruits gateau in a freezer. Our cornerstore? Various small cakes, none fruity or large enough. The other cornerstore? Finally success in the form of ‘a lightly fruited sponge containing rasins and mixed spice’.

I got home and weighed my fruitcake so I could find out how closely we were playing to the official rules. Turns out closer than I would have thought with an official weight of 343g (check out TastyBake being the MVP of the cake aisle with an extra free 13g) or 0.75lb, so not that close to the offical rules.

As it was now well and truely dark the park was shut so we decided to throw it down the street when it was quiet. We waited a couple of hours and then it was Toss time!

(VIDEO PLACEHOLDER FOR WHEN I MANAGE TO CONVERT IT TO UPLOAD PROPERLY)

David when got out the offical tape measure and as the cake was pretty much intact had his own attempt at tossing it.

The Results

Eme - 26.5ft

David - 40.1ft

Overall Fruitcake day: 8/10

I suffered a crushing defeat but I did have a lot of fun lobbing a fruitcake down a street (while a cat quietly judged us). Not something I would have thought I’d be doing a week ago when I started this madness, I’m very much enjoying the wierdness it’s bringing to my life.

I felt some guilt at literally throwing out perfectly good food but I was able to apease it by donating the same amount I’d spent to our local food bank online.

January 5th - Spaghetti Day

I failed to prepare for spaghetti day…it sounded easy. It wasn’t. Here is the tale of spaghetti day…

This Saturday didn’t get off to a good start, I unexpectedly slept until 4pm. I guess I needed the sleep but when I woke up I’d missed all the sun and was completely out of sync for the rest of the day. I ate lunch and figured I’d make spaghetti for dinner later on but because I’d eaten lunch so late I didn’t think about food again until about 10. It was then that I discovered that I had spaghetti and quorn meatballs but what I had thought was a packet of tomato sauce was in fact chickpeas, the horror.

It was too late to head out to buy anything sauce related and dry spaghetti sounded gross so I improvised. (By this point it was 11PM and I was running out of Spaghetti Day time so I paniced.) I briefly considered just cooking the pasta and shoving it in the fridge for another day, so I would have at least cooked spaghetti on the right day. That seemed like cheating though so I decided to cobble something together.

I had half a pepper and went to see what was lurking in the back of the cupboard that I could add to it. All we had was 9 tins of chickpeas, I don’t even particularly like chickpeas. I guess that’s why we still have them. At the very back I did find a long abandoned and yet miraculously in date pack of Tomato and Vegetable Cup o’ Soup mix. Tomato soup is just runny tomato sauce right? Right? Now I vaugely had something I could work with and got to it, apparently though while I had been leaning into the cupboard my forearm had been in a golden syrup leak I had failed to notice so when I pulled back I managed to wax myself :/

Eme’s Spaghetti Panic Recipe

Time: 20 mins

Feeds: A lot (no one wanted seconds)

• Sift 2 packets of Tomato and Vegetables Cup a Soup to harvest that delicious soup powder and get rid of coutons and misc. lumps.

• Take that power and mix it with some boiling water and stir until it looks kinda like tomato sauce.

• Cook spaghetti in a saucepan that is too small so you slightly burn the strands that are left exposed against the metal lip.

• Fry meatballs and half a red pepper.

• Add ‘sauce’ and throw in bay leaves because we fancy.

• Add ketchup and tomato puree until it doesn’t taste like soup any more.

• Keep adding more water while it cooks as the soup appears to have some kind of coagulant in it.

• At the last minute panic and add lots of vegetable stock and oregano to mask lingering soup taste,

• Reheat the spaghetti in the microwave that was done too far in advance and has now gone cold.

• Once that’s hot again plate up and add sauce and a lot of cheese so mask ever present soup taste.

The verdict:

“It was perfectly palatable but I wouldn’t want to eat it again”

— David

Spaghetti…8/10 (I hadn’t cooked spaghetti in ages I think I will cook it properly with the right ingredients in the future)

My spaghetti…4/10

January 4th - Trivia Day

Today has been Trivia Day! I’ve tried to impart various facts/trivia to people today and I’ve asked some people what their favourite facts are. I’ve decided not to fact check any of these, I’m just choosing to believe them all.

Things I’ve shared with others:

In Switzerland it’s illegal to own just one guinea pig, They can get lonely and die!

The inventor of the Frisbee was cremated and made into a Frisbee when he died.

Approximately 10-20% of power outages in the US are caused by squirrels.

In 1536 King Henry VIII confiscated Hyde Park from the monks of Westminster Abbey. He then used it primarily for hunting.

Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park is a traditional site for public speeches and debates since the mid 1800’s when protests and demonstrations took place.

Things people have taught me:

Every fig that matures and we eat has a dead wasp in it. The wasps pollinate them but they can’t then get back out so the ‘fig basically eats and dissolves’ it.

Crows like to hang out with wolves just because they like to.

Crows hate owls and will try and kill them if they see one.

Crows never forget a face and will tell other crows if there is a bad person about.

Facts day out of 10… 8/10. I could have leant more facts but I learnt new things about Hyde Park and Crows, could not have predicted that that was how it would go.

January 3rd - Drinking Straw Day

Today has been drinking straw day! The famous holiday…of straws…

So this one took a little bit more planning than I anticipated as the UK has recently banned disposable plastic ones so I couldn’t just pick some up at the supermarket.

In England, it is estimated that annually we use 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds. An estimated 10% of cotton buds are flushed down toilets and can end up in waterways and oceans.

Even though non-plastic alternatives are readily available, these single-use plastic items are used for just a few minutes but take hundreds of years to break down. Cleaning up the effects of littering costs local Government millions of pounds every year.

In order to eliminate these items from use, the Government intends to introduce a ban on their distribution and sale. The ban would come into force at some point between October 2019 and October 2020, subject to the views collected during consultation.

(https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-plan-to-ban-plastic-straws-cotton-buds-and-stirrers)

In the end David was my saviour when he swiped some from a McDonalds near his office last night. And they say romance is dead! I forgot to drink my cup of tea this morning with a straw as I was half asleep but bought a milkshake this afternoon as it seemed an appropriate drink to drink with a straw. I then later had another cup of tea using it. The heat was a bit wierd through a straw and the slight strawberry after taste was also…odd. The paper straw wasn’t holding up too well after that so I abandoned it half way through.

Trying to remember to drink through a straw and the practicalities were a bit difficult but I hadn’t fully appreciated just how many plastic straws had been being used before. I also hadn’t really considered the effects of single use cotton buds and although I’m sure a ban will be coming in the near future that would have forced me to change, I’ve gone ahead and ordered bamboo ones today!

All in all, regular straws 0/10, paper straws 6/10.

(I believe metal straws may be the way of the future if you are into such things. As I’m not overly attached though, paper will do me fine on the occasions where I can’t go without!)

January 2nd - Science Fiction Day

Today has been Sci-Fi day! I checked out IMDB’s "Top 250" Sci-Fi Films and the first one that caught my eye that I hadn’t seen was Blade Runner! Between Framestore working on ‘Blade Runner 2049’ last year and the original being set in 2019 the year I’m trying to celebrate it seemed like an obvious choice.

View fullsize

I thought the world building was amazing and the visuals through the city were really atmospheric and dystopian. I really loved the matte paintings! I found the story quite dated and slow paced though.

I can definitely see why it’s a landmark film and made such a strong impression on so many people when it was released. Back then it would have been mindblowing. Having come to it from this time period though and being more accustomed to the pacing of more modern films, I found that it was a bit slow for my taste. I was very into the ending though with the origami unicorn, athough apparently that’s only in the directors cut!

I’ve seen bits and pieces of 2049 that Framestore worked on but haven’t watched the full thing as I was waiting to see the original first. I don’t think I’d rewatch this one, but I am glad to have now ticked it off my list and am excited to see a fresh take on it. I’ll make a point of watching it soon.

Overall…Blade Runner: 7/10

January 1st - Hot Toddy Day

Day 1 is hot toddy day! I don’t drink regularly and not particularly a fan of whisky but start as you mean to go on…

THE RECIPE

Put 1 tsp of honey and a measure of whisky in a mug or heatproof glass. Add two cloves and half a cinnamon stick then top up with just-off-the-boil water. Stir in a slice of lemon and just enough lemon juice to balance the sweetness of the honey. Drink as soon as it doesn't burn your lips.

(https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/13/nigel-slater-classic-hot-toddy-recipe)

I ended up making a slightly bastardised version of the recipe, as I’m going to be doing this for a year I want to do it as economically as possible. We’ve had some whiskey knocking about from a friend staying with us last year so I went with that, substituted the honey for maple syrup and used ground cloves instead of whole.

All in all…Hot Toddy a surprising 9/10, would drink again!