Busy Week (part one)

This week has been so busy! It was my final week at University, a process I am struggling with as I will miss it so so much. Therefore, I decided to make the most of it and fill it with as many fun activities with friends as I could in the time that I had left. Because of this I have not had time to write the blog and this post will be in two parts. I hope you enjoy it! 

Monday

The day started off with a trip to Starbucks. We have one located on the University Campus which is great for my taste buds, and lethal for my wallet. Me and my friend Yente had a round of coffees with our lunch and had a fascinating conversation about the biological differences between men and women, and if there actually are differences of if we only believe that there are because of the gender roles we are meant to fit in to. She's great to have these discussions with because she tries to see things from all perspectives, so we never really found a conclusion but we had fun trying. 

I then went to the Common Room to do some work. Later, my friend Sarah came to meet me and we went and also got Starbucks (I told you it was lethal!). I read my book, Vagina: A New Biography, for the Banging Book Club (and also the source of me and Yente's feminist conversations) while Sarah watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

I had to leave Sarah at 5 o clock to go bake Coca Cola Cupcakes with Johanna. We are both in the Last Lecture committee and we wanted to thank our Committee head for all her hard work. They turned out really well, although I have to admit they didn't really taste of Coca Cola.

After I returned to the company of Yente. Our friend Anastasia joined us to watch Game of Thrones with a feast we had prepared. It was a very emotional episode so we were very to have comfort food on hand. When it was over we watched a ton of Game of Thrones theory video before we eventually went to bed.

Tuesday

The next morning, we continued to watch Game of Thrones Youtube videos with a brunch Yente had kindly made for us. She filled us up with omelettes, falafel, bread, fruit and yoghurt. 

I left for class after only to find out it had been cancelled, so me and Sarah (who does the same course) went for coffee again. This time it was at the Esplanade, the main bar at the university, instead of Starbucks. 

We had a nice chat about the differences between a Basilisk and a Cockatrice (a Basilisk is an egg from a toad or serpent hatched by a cockerel, and a Cockatrice is an egg from a cockerel hatched by a toad or serpent). Then I met up with Yente (we can't stay away from each other!) to get our hair done together. We went to my favourite hairdressers, Cosmo, to have our hair cut and coloured. I went a darker blonde, she went a lighter blonde and we both got it cut shorter. We felt pretty fabulous when it was done.

Next I had to rush to University, as the Last Lecture Committee had our final event for the year. We organise events called 'Last Lectures' where we invite speakers to present their final words, lessons, insights, etc as if this would be the last lecture they would ever give. We had organised three this year so we were really proud ourselves! After each lecture, free drinks are provided so we had a couple of those in the Esplanade to celebrate, with the cupcakes me and Johanna had made. Sammi, the head, loved them!

We stayed at Esplanade for most of the night, chatting with people from other committees. At the end of the night, Yente came back to mine for a sleepover (she is very present in this busy week). That's the first half of my busy week done with, the next half will be up soon!

Fem

A Weekend in the Country

Back in February it was my sister's 21st birthday. To celebrate, we traveled to the Cotswold and spent a weekend in the countryside. Our dad's best friend lives there, in a house on a hill, isolated from the rest of the world. This sounds very much like the start of a horror movie, and I must admit it would be a great setting for one, yet the only scares to be had were when I left my baby in Primark! Don't worry, this will all make sense soon...

First, we strolled into town. After working up an appetite from browsing the endless amounts of charity shops we stopped off for some lunch. The weather was grey and rainy so warm tomato soup was ideal. While we were eating I explained to my parents, and Tessa, that I needed to find and buy a baby doll to be a prop in a play I was participating in. Luckily, later that day, I did find and buy this baby.

Once we had met up with the birthday girl, we treated her to an afternoon tea at the Well Walk Tea Room. This had to be one of the best high teas I had ever had, especially considering it only cost £10 per person. I have had far worse, in terms of amount of food that is offered, for double, even triple, the price. The quality and quantity of the food was fantastic! A wide range of vegetarian and meat sandwiches, scones and a variety of cakes were all provided, accompanied with endless amounts of tea. They had even made special vegan cakes and scones for Tessa. It's the first time she has been able to have a proper High Tea without any restrictions on what she could eat. 

Vegan Cakes!

Vegan Scones!

Feeling deliciously satisfied we moved onto Primark, the scene of the drama... It took me half an hour after leaving to realise that I had left my baby there! Top tip: don't exclaim 'Oh god, I left my baby in Primark' unless you want to be given judging looks from the passing public. After retrieving my baby, and realising I was not ready for motherhood, we headed back to the house on the hill.

Tired from walking most of the day, we all set ourselves up in the living room and settled down to read our books in front of the fire. This was made even more enjoyable with the arrival of cheese.

While we were sitting there eating cheese, my dad's best friend had been busy in the kitchen preparing a three course meal for us all. The first course was stuffed peppers, the second course was an array of curries, and the final course was a vegan chocolate cake (unfortunately the sparkler fell and burnt one half of it). Not only was the food really tasty, it was laid out like a banquet such as one you might see in Game of Thrones, so of course that made me enjoy the meal even more.

When the food was demolished we all went up to bed. Sleep was needed as the next day we went for a two hour walk in the countryside. My sister left later that day back to Cornwall, and me back home to London. It was a great weekend, void of any technological distractions, meaning we could fully appreciate each other's company. Try it for yourself! If a house on an isolated hill isn't available to you, try to avoid technological devices, even if only for an hour, and just sit in each other's company. You won't regret it! 

Fem

A Premature Celebration

On Thursday, I had my Dutch oral exam. I was really nervous although I am half-dutch myself. Obviously, this meant I had an advantage but I felt that it also meant I had more pressure to succeed. Thankfully, it went really well and I had dinner and cocktails with friends to celebrate... well prematurely celebrate as I get the results in a couple of weeks. 

Dinner was vegetarian moussaka. My friend Cleo has been trying to avoid eating meat after watching Cowspiracy so we replaced mince meat with quorn mince, and you really couldn't taste the difference! The whole meal was delicious in general. After some catching up (and a juggling lesson), me, Cleo and our friend Jamie moved on to the Havana, the cocktail place from last week. 

As I mentioned it was Thursday so this can only mean one thing... Tiki Thursday!! Wanting to try out different cocktails from what we had last week, I ordered a Cuban Zombie and Cleo ordered the El Presidente. The only reason I chose the Cuban Zombie was that it came with a flaming head! I have always wanted to see that in real life, and it was as awesome as I had imagined... until I had to blow it out. None of us could extinguish the flame and it was made even more embarrassing when the waitress removed it with one single blow. As cool as it looked (the cocktail, not us), it didn't taste very good so I guess I will have to keep experimenting until I find the perfect one. We already plan to go next Thursday.

Although not too much happened on this day, I quite enjoyed writing this short post. I like that I can have a sort of online visual diary of my daily activities for me to look back on, however mundane they may be. So far, this has been my favourite aspect of writing a blog, and I couldn't be happier that me and best friend started this challenge. 

Fem

Mini Holiday in Haarlem

This mini holiday was only meant to be a day out in Haarlem. It ended up being a two night stay there instead. My best friend, Tessa, had just become a work away in the 'Hello, I'm Local' hostel in the centre of Haarlem and I went up to visit her. Unfortunately, I had picked a pretty bad day to see her as it was a public holiday in the Netherlands so everything was closed. As a result we spent most of our afternoon chatting in the lobby with the new friends she had made. Later in day we moved our conversation to a new location, the Bloemendaal Beach. 

One of the guys we had spent the afternoon with worked at a beach bar called San Blas so naturally we were inclined to go there. He was waiting for us with tapas, and we shared some beers before he started work. We then proceeded to order more tapas and nachos and of course, more beers. 

After the beach we went back to the Hostel to continue drinking beers outside on the patio. Sitting by the fire we befriended two guests, a girl from Canada and a guy from Bristol. I decided at that point I was having too good a time to even consider leaving so I subsequently bought a room for the night.  

The next morning we started on the plans we had made the night before and headed out to the Dolhuys museum. It was fascinating and so incredibly insightful that we spent two and half hours taking it all in. I think it deserves its own post, so look out for that in the next couple of days.

Dolhuys Museum

The museum visit lasted much longer than we had expected so we were now very hungry. Pizza had been on our minds all day since Tessa and her roommate had said there was a bar that served the best pizza we will ever eat. With high expectations we arrived at the bar, the Oerkap, and first ordered a few local beers. 

Oerkap

Ongelovige Thomas, my favourite local beer

After a in-depth discussion about psychology (we couldn't get the museum out of our heads) we finally had our pizzas, and I have to say that even my high expectations were exceeded; it really was the best pizza I have ever eaten. 

My two favourite things: Tessa and Pizza

Full but still thirsty, we had a couple more rounds of beers on the raised seating area on the fake beach surrounding the bar. We laughed while people watching and one of us even started snoozing... surprisingly not me this time! I can't blame them, it was such a relaxing atmosphere.

Eventually, we headed back to the hostel. I stayed one more night and we watched a horror film in the night watch room. Tessa had an exam the next day, and I had to get back to my life in Tilburg, otherwise I could have stayed there forever! The location, the company, the food, the drink, the atmosphere... everything was incredible.

Fem

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake (vegan)

This is a recipe I tried out a while ago, and this time it turned out a success!! I found the recipe from this site Dora Daily. You can follow the recipe on there or you can wonder in my step by step picture directions! 

 Ingredients: 

• 2 Cups Flour
• 2 Cups Sugar
• ¾ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• ½ Cup Melted Vegan Butter
• 2 Tbs Ground Flax Seed
• 1 Cup Almond Milk
• 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Black Coffee
• 1 Cup Peanut Butter
• 1 Cup Vegan Butter
• ⅛ Cup Agave or maple Syrup
• 
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 190 C.

Mix together almond milk and apple cider vinegar.

Add vanilla essence.

Add coffee.

Add flax seed.

Add melted butter and whisk to combine.

Add flour to sieve.

Add baking soda, baking powder, and salt to sieve.

Add unsweetened cocoa powder to sieve and then proceed to sift all the dry ingredients.

Add sugar.

Whisk until combined.

Divide into 9 inch cake pans (I divided it between 3 cake pans)

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean.

While it's baking, start to make the frosting. Add peanut butter to a bowl.

Add butter.

Add sweetener (I used maple syrup).

Whisk until smooth.

Place in fridge until ready to use.

When cake is cool, frost your cake. Frost each layer and then a final layer on top.

The finished cake!!

It may not look as glorious as the cake in the link, but it was incredibly tasty and so moist! I made it for my sister's birthday back in February and we demolished it. It's when baking ends in results as good as this that I don't feel demotivated when it goes so, so wrong. 

Fem