Arts and Crafts for Cash

Over the past two days we've got very creative!

Ninny has decided to learn about making Fur-suits with Blue in order to earn some quick and easy cash. I've also got into the creative mood for Halloween and Christmas. So on alternate nights, we either have paints, newspapers, cardboard and templates out, or foam, fur, hot glue and carving knives.

This is what we get up to when we should be writing up our assignments.

We've also been looking at photos and videos on our computers and iPhone, and considering sending in some for the £250 reward.

Being creative can be cash rewarding, however, don't over spend on your materials.

In other news:

Our washing machine is still a problem
We've been told we haven't paid our rent
The shower is leaking
We might be seeing some horses for us to work with in order to gain experience

More updates later!

Fantasy

Something a Student should do at least Once!

When you start University, you have so many things you want to do, and so many things that you are expected to do at least once. These things include going to the fair, going out drinking, going paint balling, going to laser quest, and much more.

But for some, there is one thing that a student should do at least once, as its a great chance to meet new people, make friends, and learn some cool stuff, and that's going to Cos-play meets. It is so much fun! You can even go as yourself and not dress up.

Here are two pictures I took at the end of the meet. The two furries are Schmellion (dressed as Gir) and Blue (dressed as Meds).

As I was the photograher, I'm not in these pictures

Fantasy

Malfunction!

Been a while since I last posted.
This is because I had an important presentation I had to prepare for and present, as well as sort out an insurance claim when I tapped a wall with my car; I even I had to go on trips for my courses.

So let us start with the once thing in that above sentence which has caught your attention; my car accident.
I was at the local petrol station which had recently been remodeled and they built a 2 ft wall where the air pump used to be, so when I though I was backing to the pump, I actually backed into the wall. As luck would have had it, I tapped a weak point in the wall which caused it to crack and partially fall off. My car had no damage except for a single scratch, which is amazing considering what a small car it is and the amount of damage it caused. So now I'm sorting out the payments for repairing the wall. Scary part was that they police were then involved in and I had to try and make it a personal case and not a criminal case.  Thankfully I got it sorted and now only waiting on the quote.

Now time to explain the title of this post: Malfunction!

We still have a leaking shower....and our new washing machine arrived! Only for it to not work...The electric kept tripping whenever it was turned on, and when we went for a closer inspection...we realised we were given a second hand washer...Annoying, I know.

Ninny celebrated her birthday on Wednesday, so she has gone home for the weekend, and Lou disappeared on Tuesday. That means I've got the chance to go to a Cos-play convention with Schmellion and Blue. Something I'm looking forward to.

That's it for now.

Fantasy

Heartache

Today was really stressful for me.

I slept in as it was my day off, and was only woken when my landlord, Aka, knocked on the door. I let him and this potential new housemate in to have a look around (while I was still in my PJs). As it was mid afternoon about 3pm, as soon as they left, I went outside to check on Ninny's rabbit as I wanted to play with him a little. 

I got the biggest scare in my life.

He was lying down almost dead. I immediately brought him inside and wrapped him in a towel whilst I rang Ninny. This poor rabbit was freezing cold and unresponsive, but I knew he had a heartbeat. I warmed him up while I started looking online for the local vets and Ninny contacted Smellion for advice. We all decided on the vet, and I left immediately.

Got to the vet only to be told that I had two choices. As the rabbit was not mine, and I lost contact with Ninny, I chose the latter option and was transferred to another clinic with better facilities. After a 20 minute drive through rush hour traffic, I got to the clinic and had to consent for emergency treatment. After that, I could not consent for anything else except the putting down option, which I refused. 

After what seemed like forever, Ninny, Smellion and Blue arrived. I sat with Blue, and relived my stress and pain with her, as she comforted me, saying it was not my fault and I made right choices. I have to admit, it was tough on me, and I did burst into tears twice when waiting for everyone to arrive. I love that rabbit as my own, as I also share the chores in looking after him.

Thankfully, he perked up and became more responsive in the three hours since I found him, and Ninny chose to have him in for observation instead of making that difficult choice. Before we left, everyone except Ninny went to see him, and I admitted he looked a lot better than before; bright eyed and moving, if only a little.

One thing I learned from this is; I'm never having a small animal, ever! If it gets ill, the vets are quick to consider putting them down, unlike dogs and cats.

Ninny went home for the weekend in order to sell some of our junk on the car boot sale, so its Smellion and I who have to go in the morning to see Houdini. 

I'm praying for the best.

Fantasy

Edit: Houdini died just now 

Spicy Vegetable Noodles

I made this recipe when I got bored with plain instant noodles from a packet, and wanted to add more flavours.

Ingredients:
1 packet of instant noodles (curry flavour advised)
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup of frozen carrots
Chilli sauce

Method:

1. Boil water in the kettle, whilst heating the pan on the hob on high.
2. Pour hot water (amount indicated on packet noodles) straight into hot pan, add the packet noodles and powder, frozen peas and carrots.
3. Stir whilst slowly breaking up the noodles.
4. Add the amount of chilli sauce you desire, as many people's tastes differ
5. Cook until most of water is absorbed and noodles are of right consistency, then serve.

This serves only one.

You can experiment with this recipe and if you have any success, do tell!

Fantasy

Long Weekend ending with a BANG!

Long time since I've managed to get to my blog.

We've just bought a rabbit hutch for Houdini. Preloved is brilliant for students as we bought a second hand hutch for £7, not bad for students. It could even fit in my tiny car!

Friday was a lazy day for me until Ninny got back from University. But we went out in the evening to go and collect her eBay purchase of The Lord of the Rings box set which included The Hobbit. On our journey, we learnt a great many things, such as the retail park that was behind the park at the back of our student house, there is a shopping complex only 5 minutes away which is cheaper than our usual shopping venues, and that the directions given to us were extremely accurate.

"Follow the road all the way to the end, after the brats in the road, turn left"

Saturday killed Ninny and I. It was the local horse trials at our Campus, so we volunteered to help out and learn. 

The morning started for us at 7 am, as we had to get there for 8 am to start our first shift, which was car park duty for 2 hours. I don't know what happened to Ninny for 2 hours, but I do know that I had about 2 hours to learn where everything was and where people had to go. By the end of my shift, I was the expert in guiding people around the horse trials.

In the afternoon, we were part of the Dressage arena, so we spent a good 5 hours down at Dressage. Learned a lot, but it was tiring walking between scores at Show Jumping and Dressage.

Thing is, once we got home at 4.15 pm we both collapsed and fell asleep - Ninny upstairs, and me downstairs in front of the heater on the floor. So blogging was out of the question. When we did wake up at about 8.30 pm, Ninny got OCD and because Lou did nothing as per usual, we cleaned the kitchen and living room.

During this, Ninny screamed at a spider, put the laundry on, moaned about plumber's half finished work (hole in ceiling), and the washing machine went BANG!!!!!

Our washing machine broke. So we had to  sort out Ninny's wet washing, whilst giggling hysterically about thinking we might be cursed. Hey, we might be!!!!

Fantasy

My Three Tantrums

Got kicked off the internet this evening because I fell asleep whilst doing my assignment in the lounge, so Smellion logged onto X-Box Live. So it's only about now that I have full access to the World Wide Web.

So I've got three rants to give out this evening. Got mighty annoyed this evening, hence the nap when I was doing my assignment, the bottled stress was redirected to me sleeping on the sofa.

1. Thy landlord is thy enemy.
• Just as my tutorial with my course manager and head of department started, I got a text from my landlord. Basically, he sent me a reminder of our rent which was due, however, we had requested on the 21st September for the payment schedule as we had just got our student finance. So along with this reminder, came a massive fine for not paying the rent on time. Furious, I sent a text back informing Aka that he had not sent any invoices or payment schedules and that the fee was incorrect as he was charging the wrong rent. During all this I was in the middle of my group tutorial and everyone said that it was the first time they had ever seen me lose my temper. Bit comical, but still infuriating as I had to sort out Aka and then soothe Ninny who also got the same text. So after several hours of texts, we finally got the payment schedule (ironically sent to my email only), and arranged a meeting the following Wednesday to sort out the fine, as we are refusing to pay it. Because Smellion was catching a lift back with me, he avoided our house for most of the evening, as he did not want to get caught in the cross fire, so I had to placate Ninny for most of the evening.
2. Lou can't do her laundry.
• Seriously! I came home and saw Lou had done some of her laundry as they were on the clothes horse, however as I was sat in the lounge, I could smell this really pungent stench. Turns out her laundry is foisty and not even put on clothes horse properly to dry. So the lounge now stinks, and my nose burns. Lou escaped upstairs before I could even make comment. Ninny refused to touch the clothes horse, so it was up to me to move it into the kitchen. Honestly woman, learn how to do your laundry!
3. Recruitment pisses me off.
• Okay, everyone generally knows what recruitment is right? Employers looking for prospective employees. So why is there a massive book detailing the whole process and putting in all these dumb theories to why people are employed and not employed, and how the interview can be swayed by other influences etc. I spent about 1 hour reading these 5 chapters of this book, and then picked up another book which simplified the whole process in 2 pages. Who thought of writing up a book about HRM? Drives me insane, considering I have to complete my assignment about the recruitment process and all the finicky details by 21st October...ARGH!

So those are my three little rants out of the way. I wonder how Smellion and Ninny survive when I throw my mini tantrums?

Fantasy

Early Birds Catch the Car

Woke up 7 am this morning.

A sad truth of the matter for a university student, is the means of transport from the Student house to University. There are usually several options to get to universities; walk, cycle, catch the bus, or by car. Those who are able, can wake up especially early in order to catch the bus to our out in the countryside University, since walking and cycling is out of the question.

So for those who have cars, their lives become hell, as they become taxi drivers for fellow students who live nearby. They have to get up early and be ready to leave as soon as their passengers arrive at their door, and then deal with their banter throughout the journey. Then, decide whether or not to bring home the passengers later on that day.

Ninny and I have to deal with this problem as we are both car owners. Thankfully, on Mondays, we car share, however the day starts at 11 am and then finishes at 8 pm. For me on a Thursday, it is only I who needs to drive in, so of course, Smellion and his housemates all grab a lift from me. Not that I mind or anything.

But I did agree to bring them home, so that means I have to wait an extra hour and a half for them to finish up their lectures in order to get home. Of course, I hold on to the car keys this time as much as I trust Smellion, I don't want to become stranded without my keys. Good lord, if that were to happen, I would most definitely cry.

Fantasy

Lazing on a Wednesday Afternoon

At the moment, I'm watching Smellion play on the X-Box (Live is banned when I'm using the internet as there is something wrong with the connection, and I lose the WiFi when Live is connected), and Ninny is fast asleep on his lap, snoring. Thankfully we have two leather sofas in the lounge, and I always have a sofa to myself, so Ninny is spread across Smellion and their sofa and the alcove (A small space between the wall and the sofa which is filled with cushions and bags). 

So, in walks Lou from being out all day, and I ask the burning question which has been bugging me all day - "How did you wash your hair this morning?"

I ask this because at the moment, the shower is Out of Order due to a leaking pipe and now we have a hole in the ceiling in the lounge. Because of this, we are now using the kitchen sink to wash our hair. But this morning, I went into the kitchen and all of the previous nights dishes were still in the sink and over flowing. The dishes on the rack had not been put away either. I went about and cleaned up the kitchen, washed all the dishes and then proceeded to wash my own hair.

She replied to me, "Oh I moved the dishes out of the way and then washed my hair. I then put all the dishes back into the sink."

"Where did you go today?"

I knew Smellion and Ninny had gone out to organize for the dyslexia test, and that this was our day off from Uni.

"Oh I had to go into town and hand out some CVs."

I accepted that, but one thing bugged me. Why didn't you do your own dishes last night after I asked you to? Turns out that she didn't because the tray was too hot. So I told her that was best time to wash it, as the food wasn't dried on and could be rinsed off under the tap. 

So after this discussion, Lou went upstairs to sort stuff out (what I have no idea.)

Honestly, the girl could have at least did some of the dishes, but no, instead I had to wash up all the dishes, before washing my own hair and then working on my pet project. 

We have a shed/garage in the back of the garden and we've nicknamed it Aladdin's Cave because of all the neat stuff we found in it. So far, I've been cleaning anything of use, such as pots, pans, baking trays etc. So I'm currently cleaning a massive pot, which was yellow to start with. It is now gradually turning silver again. 

I spent a good 30 minutes on it before coming into the lounge to watch Smellion try and set up the X-Box, and establish that Live was banned. During all of this, poor Ninny was fast asleep as she only had four hours of sleep, bless.

Last night we were so bored, Ninny and I decided to watch films all night. Smellion joined us at the last movie before bed, which was a film he had never seen; Labyrinth starring David Bowie. Lou joined and then left us during Eragon - A film we picked apart with the book in our hands. Before that we were watching Fool's Gold, Sahara, and XXX2. Great films.

Okay, I think I need to stop soon. I'm going off on tangents here whilst watching Smellion on X-Box lol.

Fantasy

Tuna and Vegetable Pasta Bake

This is a nice way to make a simple dish seem posh and still taste really nice!

Ingredients
1 Tin of tuna
1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
1 Cup ofFrozen Peas
1 cup of Frozen Carrots
2 cups of Pasta
Grated Cheese

You will need:
A deep pan/pot
Tin opener
Wooden spoon
Large Baking Dish

1. Fill pan with boiling water from the kettle, or bring to boil.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
3. Pour in pasta and frozen vegetables. It is optional to add a pinch of salt as well.
4. Leave to boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
5. Once boiled, drain the water, turn heat to low, and stir in tuna and tomato. It is optional to add pinch of ground pepper and seasoning.
6. Leave to simmer for 3 minutes.
7. Pour pasta mix into baking dish, then sprinkle grated cheese over the top.
8. Put in the oven for 25 minutes.

Once out the oven, leave to stand for a few minutes, and then serve. There should be enough for at least two people.

Enjoy!