So it’s been about 3 years since I had a cold (that time has now been broken) and since then I’ve changed a lot. For one I’ve started reading and reviewing, and secondly I started university.

The thing is, despite that fact that it was just a cold – even if at the time it was wretched – I have confirmed knowledge about myself that I’ve had for a while. If there is a break in something important I am doing, it’s difficult to get back on track quickly. The result is that 2 weeks ago I was ready, both intelligence-wise and raring-to-go-wise, to write my essay. I had all the information in my head, the written notes, and I knew what I had to do. The cold came during the transition period – the day in which I should have begun my plan – and now I’m sat here not sure what to do, what to write, and very much aware that all the structure and sourcing ideas have left me.

And the fact is it sounds ridiculous that I can’t get back into my routine, a routine I very much like. At the moment I can’t even write a good book review, although that’s partly because I can’t remember much of what it’s about. Tomorrow I will read all the information again and go through my notes. But there must be a better way of doing things.

Maybe I really am just an extreme do-it-now person. That’s a good quality to have, until things come to a forced halt.

This isn’t a paid post, I’m not being rewarded in any way for featuring the products here, and there is no communication between myself and the companies discussed. This is a post that was created on the spur of the moment as I was on my way back from the shop.

The first time I found myself really needing a good notebook was when I was in the full throws of passion for personal blogging. I had had notebooks before, because I’d dabbled in lyrics and music, but because it had been necessary to just find any paper that could be used for moments of inspiration, I’d tended to buy cheap store brand jotters. You know the sort, the ones with badly recycled paper that you can’t use anything but pencils and Biros on because anything with liquid ink blots.

These are no good when you become serious about writing.

Looking for a book that would make me feel positive when attempting to write, I found a Pukka Pad, and bought a small A6 one because I wasn’t sure I’d get round to using it much (before then I’d never reached the back page of any diaries or notepads I’d owned). It’s that green one on the right, now pretty much exhausted and due to be flicked through for content I might not have posted yet and want to keep.

And I loved it. Although I soon grew bored of its smallness – it’s so difficult to write in a tiny book – I loved the quality of the paper and the colourful cover. When I realised that having only one notebook wasn’t a good idea, and came to see that having one for my bag as well as a second for home would mean less shouts to my family to ask if they’d seen it, I went back to buy a couple more. They had to have a good number of pages. They had to be Pukka Pads.

Now, although I hardly write my personal blog any more, indeed it’s currently down for redesign and is likely to be for a while, when I started to review for The Worm Hole I found that an A4 pad would be best. When I went to summer school I bought a couple more and most recently I shunned store brand refill pads, after having finished all three I had, and have bought Pukka once more.

I don’t know what I’ll do if Pukka ever goes into administration.

In regards to pens, as soon as I was allowed to use a cartridge pen at the age of 12, I never looked at Biros or pencils again. But cartridge pens can get scratchy and stop working properly if you write very fast, which I tend to do when my course gets boring and I want to finish it quickly, so I found a fantastic alternative. With Uniball my handwriting has never looked better.

Unfortunately Uniball Eye pens are both very expensive and rather difficult to find in stores.

A good second option is Pilot, and I am considering using the Tesco’s versions if the nib looks okay.

I love stationary, as long as it’s good quality and makes me feel like a professional when I use it. I have definitely become picky, but I think that’s alright.

Do you have a preference where stationary is concerned? Do any brands have a monopoly on your desk?

This weekend my boyfriend and I made our first curry from scratch. It was something we’d been wanting for do for a long time, and as my boyfriend gave me an Indian cookbook for our anniversary it seemed a good idea to use it before Christmas.

There is a concept I’ve been introduced to by many Indian friends – Indian time. Indian time, as per their description, is a case of working slowly, of not always being on time. So when the cookbook said that the curry would take 20 minutes to make, perhaps we should have thought twice and ordered a takeaway instead. We begun cooking at 7pm.

At 10:30pm we finally sat down to eat. My father had given up waiting for his meal and had gone to bed. My sister had had her shower, completed her epic preening routine, and left.

Making the curry was an experience. As we were making it from scratch we found that we were in need of a spice mixer to make the garam masala. In trying to find an equivalent we did a variety of activities including watching out for the arrival of party-goers, offering a child a banana, and putting a plastic bag over a bowl in an attempt to stop a multitude of cumin, cloves, and peppercorns from creating a Van Gogh-inspired piece out of our kitchen. Creating garam masala with a hand mixer is like putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave, punching a hole in the bag, and leaving the microwave door open.

Once we’d created the masala, which we later found we needed only a single teaspoon of, we started cutting up the onions and garlic. My boyfriend looks like he’s been distraught for weeks, while my trousers, by themselves, smelt enough to stink out an entire room when left to air overnight. And like all good newbies, it was only after dicing up the onions and garlic that we realised we needed to mix it into a paste anyway and so we might as well have thrown them in whole. At least my boyfriend now had a true reason to cry.

By this time both of us were in pain from standing so long so we sat down to a slice of red velvet cake. Red velvet had been my choice – for a few years I’ve read blog posts by American bloggers on this type of cake and I’ve wanted to try it. I thought I’d have to make one myself but we found one in a shop and I have to say they are gorgeous, I can see why you guys on the other side of the pond talk about them. I must recommend, however, that you don’t eat them after you’ve been cutting up garlic, even if you’ve washed your hands three times first.

Cooking the chicken was easy, as was pouring in the onion mix, sprinkling the garam masala, and squeezing tomato paste over the top. What we won’t do again, and this we had a feeling about prior to the event, is believe the author when he says to add half a pint of water.

The end result? Chicken swimming in lightly spiced water. The curry flavour was there, but there was an invisible barrier between it and the meat, and the rice just added to the problem.

Suffice to say we won’t be following the recipe quite as strictly next time.

The rest of the weekend proved fun. Mix family with music and the suggestion of putting bathroom activities and stereotypical elderly actions in place of regular dance movements, and those tears we gained from the onions will start streaming again, only this time in laughter.

In case I don’t have the opportunity to come back before Christmas and say it, I hope you all have a merry Christmas and happy new year!

You may remember that around this time last year, I wrote a post to say where I had been. Well it’s that same time of year again, and I’m writing a similar post.

Our (my boyfriend and I) anniversary falls at an awkward time of year. In fact I told him that if in future I am in the situation of being asked to be in a relationship again, I will take a few moments to consider the day, and if it falls during a peculiar period, will ask the person to ask me at a later date. Because when it’s almost but not quite Christmas, no where is open. Because everyone is preparing for Christmas, they don’t let you in while they’re working. And everyone is surprised to hear that you’ll be leaving before the advent events.

That will teach me to tell a man that it’s high time he asked me to be his girlfriend instead of leaving it to him to do – indeed the blame here rests with me.

However I can’t say that it’s all bad, and of course there are upshots like knowing my boyfriend will be able to take the time off work without his colleagues scrabbling for the days – as well as knowing that the time falls just before my university essay big rush.

Highlights included:

• Bringing incense sticks and candles to find that there was no way to make a fire with which to light them because everything was electric.
• Going to buy matches in order to create fire, lighting the incense, and only then finding the accommodation information that said please don’t burn anything.
• Going to a major viewpoint to find that the rain was heading from that viewpoint and thus we had our umbrellas in front of our faces, obscuring it further.
• My boyfriend buying not-cheap tickets for a private tour of a manor house which included parts not open to the general public. When we went back the next day as regular customers in order to see the parts available to the public, so that we could say we’d seen the whole house, we found the public access to be the same as the private because the normal public sections were closed for refurbishment.
• Going to a small tourist attraction in the middle of the week to find that there was a teacher’s strike on and parents had chosen to take their children out for the day. The tour guide was obviously knowledgeable but of course ended up conducting it in kiddie mode.

The lowlights were:

• Breath-taking journeys through hilly passes.
• Gorgeous dinky villages.
• My boyfriend bringing something to surprise me, which turned out to be the same thing I had thought of bringing to surprise him. I ended up in fits of laughter which wasn’t particularly appropriate.
• Spontaneous trips to the supermarket at 11:30pm to stock up on Pringles (crisps, or potato chips to those of you on the other side of the pond).
• Accommodation that was based in 1700s foundations – as a history freak I was in my element.
• Well needed time together without the usual distractions of life.

It felt over before it had begun, a week is too short, but it was very much needed and has given me, and I hope him, some positivity for what we want to achieve both together and individually in the next few months.

As the weather is very dull and is making me feel rather unproductive, I thought it might be an idea to look at what is coming up in the autumn/winter, to put a positive slant on the grey weather.

University is starting back, and I am so glad for this. These last four months have felt so strange to me, having no essay deadlines to worry about, or any reading that absolutely had to be done. I was living in limbo during my free time and I didn’t enjoy it. Although this year is going to be markedly different to last, with a lot more work to do, harder questions to answer, and more to think about when making notes, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

I have two more works of Austen to go, Mansfield Park and Emma, and have Emma ready to begin as soon as my current reads are finished. Even though I’ve the same number of Charlotte Brontë novels left, Austen’s larger collection makes completing hers more of an achievement. I’m looking longingly at Cecilia and will likely make Frances Burney’s books my next classics mission. I also plan to get through a good few more Harry Potter books.

A winter holiday for my third going-out anniversary (as opposed to wedding anniversary). My boyfriend has organised all and is keeping it under wraps so I don’t know much, but I do feel that, as it’s now far nearer than it was in summer, I can be excited.

What are you looking forward to this season?