Adjusting to life at home...

Leaving Seoul I had to leave a lot of great people behind. When you spend so long in a place it inevitably becomes a home from home, and the people you see everyday during that time can become just as close to you as those you grew up with. It was a weird feeling to suddenly be back in the UK, where I 'belong' technically, but where I felt like a tourist. Being the kind of person who tends to just go with the flow, I'm much more accustomed to my new/old home and I think the effects of 'reverse culture-shock' have worn off.

When I first came home there were so many things that were strange to me, I had forgotten how to get to places I used to go every day, I had no idea how to sort out simple thing like my oyster card, I didn't know where things in my own house were, I was living with my sister, who I haven't lived in the same city with since I went to University in 2001...

Things weren't bad but they were un-familiar and I had some kind of mental shut down. I just wanted to stay at home and not really see anyone as I found it hard to go out and be social, I found that I was no longer speaking Korean and struggled a little with English as I had come to think in Korean a lot. I found it intimidating to walk the streets of London I used to cycle around in such a carefree way all those years ago.

Now a few months have passed and I feel like I am home again, I re-discovered a lot of places and a lot of memories have come back to me, tourists are still asking me for directions (although I can't help them as much), I'm itching to get back in my car and get out. As my life is starting to come together around me again I realise more than ever that I miss my friends over there. With an excess of 1000 phone numbers I have accumulated over the years I can say that I knew a lot of people there but distinguishing between friends and acquaintances I know I had a few real friends there. People with whom I shared exciting, traumatic, life changing, ridiculous moments with.

One of these people is Cory, I have memories of visiting cafes, bars, clubs, random shoots, shops, markets, a hospital, karaokes, you name it we've probably been there. It isn't the same living without my partner in crime and I harass her to come here every time we chat..

Because it is fun to play with blood and wear random costume we both loved Halloween and she has a party brand that hosted bloody/scary parties when it wasn't halloween.. lol

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2009

She owns an on-line store called Closet Creeper that sells a cool selection of fun and versatile clothes and accessories mainly, but not only, from Korea.

It is a shame her father became American and didn't sort out any paperwork for her because she needs to come be my partner in crime again. Someone sort it out.

Nutella Consumption Guide

Nutella! My favourite source of chocolatey goodness. 

Nutella has been produced since 1964, and if you want to read more about that kind of thing the Wiki article is here

Ferrero were sued last year, because "Nutella's misleading promotion led consumers to believe that Nutella carries nutrutional and health benefits, marketing it as part of a nutritional breakfast" but to the Fererro family $3m is nothing so they took it in their stride, and contnue to produce the pure chocolate ecstasy that is their hazelnut spread.

If you believed that liquid chocolate was part of a nutritious breakfast you deserve a slap for being a fool. Nutella, in all it's delicious awesomeness, doesn't have to be a source of nutrition to make it to people's breakfast / lunch / dinner tables, computer desks and small tables next to the sofa for perfect access while playing video games.

I have in the past not answered a phone call on more than one occasion because I was wrist deep in a jar of Nutella, and well.. priorities.. 

750g jar of Nutella

Anything less than a 750g jar is easy work in a mere hour or two, sometimes minutes, so obviously the 750g is the best way to go, and if you are not sure where to find this happiness in a jar, check your local supermarket, E-Mart, Costco and Sainsbury's have it for sure as that is where I go to feed my addiction. 

Consumption Guide! :D

Preparation:

You will need a knife, a spoon, and freshly thouroughly washed hands.

I suggest settling in front of the TV or computer or wherever you watch things, and put on your favourite TV show or anime series for eating this (doesn't matter what it is, the taste of Nutella even negated the gore I was exposed to while watching "The Walking Dead".) as getting up and moving around can impede the consumption process, (although if you have access to this than you can get over that problem). 

They suggest breakfast as a good time to eat Nutella, but that is way too limiting, and I rarely eat breakfast. Especially now I am unemployed breakfast = lunch anyway. Sometimes eating while playing games can be OK  but you will need both hands or the great speed and coordination to lick a spoon clean in seconds while simultaneously gripping a 750g jar between your knees and holding a console controller in the other hand (I have this coordination).

1st Stage of Nutella Eating

It all starts in a reasonably civilised way, with a nice loaf of bread or a crumpet, and a knife for application. When you run out of bread, progress to the 2nd stage.

2nd Stage

At the 2nd stage only a spoon is needed, often at this point you get thirsty so you need a glass of water at hand for this stage. Scoop mountains of Nutella out with the spoon, the more you can actually pile on the spoon the less energy you will have to waste dipping the spoon in the jar. It's all about efficiency.

After the 2nd stage you will start to find that the spoon comes back less than completely coated more often and then you need to progress to the 3rd Stage.

3rd Stage

The next stage requires one to revert to ones most basic hunter gatherer skills, the gathering eating part mainly. Before one undertakes in this part of the eating stage, although I am sure that most people would have done so already, washing your hands is essential because licking unwashed hands can lead to all kinds of sickness. 

The use of ones finger will result in the removal of all but a small trace of chocolate love from the jar. I find it is better to keep a fingernail short for this purpose, as getting chocolate out from under nails can be difficult and result in tongue cuts.

As you can see the jar opening is just wide-enough to allow an adult hand to get in there. I see this as the makers of Nutella encouraging us not to waste any of this chocolatey goodness.

I hope this guide can help you to enjoy Nutella.

(NB: Excessive consumption of Nutella could possibly lead to high sugar related disease like diabetes and obesity, and in my case eczema outbreaks but I think think there is anything wrong with a treat every now and again!!!)

Bracelet

Recently I had a school friend's birthday, and she is one of those people who seems to have everything she wants, I haven't been here for a while so I can't say I know her as well lately but, I mean that like she doesn't seem to procrastinate. A lot of things I would ask for as a birthday gift would be things that I had wanted for ages, but could never get round to getting, or things I hadn't managed to find, and she seems like she would just go get it or find something that she wanted. Anyway my point, and there is one, is that I had no idea what to give her. So a combination of time, cute things laying around and some inspiration led me to make something.

I used a thin stretch of black denim like fabric as a base and arranged buttons on there with a thin ribbon, a piece of denim, and another piece of cloth. The buttons were all from my mothers button collection (ones that had actually come with clothes) that has been accumulating since the 80's. I used to play with these buttons as a child, and we used to trade them as currency when playing other games.. I think it would be hard to get my future kids to play with buttons... 

I don't know how she managed it, I was a super hyper child and I wasn't allowed Tizer among other fizzy drinks because I would rocket around the house for hours until I crashed (which was headache enough for my mum) or till me or my sister had a trip to A and E. Usually it was the latter, and I think that was what eventually prompted the ban. They should have had a points scheme at A and E, for the number of times we had to go there. Between my abhorrence of all things girly, my tendency to take statements by the local boys as challenges, and my tendency to use my sister as a guinea pig, Mum could have an MRI or something, and those aren't cheap..

I remember one weekend all my local friends were busy and I was being all hyper in the house and my mother tried to get me to go outside and play;

Mum, "Go and play outside!"

Me, "I can't! No one is here this weekend..!" *pouts, then carries on being hyper running around my mum*

Mum starts getting more irritated, "Well, if no one is around then just play with yourself!"

Dad chimed in, "When I 'played with myself' you told me off! Hahahaha!"

*Mum gives Dad a stern look*

I had no idea what that was about till I was about 20 and it came to mind.. lol

Anyway, here is the finished product. I wasn't really blogging then so I don't have any 'in the process pictures', but I don't think people need to see my janky stitching and bleeding fingers so no loss there really.. 

Turns out she wanted a mix CD too so I made her a CD of all the 'jamz' I've been bouncing around to lately, classics like this, this and this (but the original, which isn't on you tube >.< ) along with tracks from some of my CTEPA agents. even that process was a blast from the past, because I haven't made a CD for ages! I mean.. Hardly anyone uses them any more and it took a lot of digging to find a blank one. But it was a fun experience, and I needed a recent playlist. Win Win!

Apple Crumble.....! :D

My Sis hit Costco today and came home with coma inducing amounts of Nutella, but also with apples and my hormones were craving dessert. I decided to put off the inevitable eczema, that always results from consuming large quantities of Nutella for about a day, and embarked on an apple crumble adventure..  

yaaaay....!

So there are two sets of ingredients, one for the apple filling; Apples, I used 6 (you can see the size in the picture, I have large man hands by the way, that's a decent sized apple), three tablespoons of sugar, a tablespoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ground cloves, and four tablespoons of Amaretto~~!

Peel, core and dice apples! (couldn't find out corer, so this took AGES -_-;; )

Enjoy some Amaretto!

And one for the crumble, I used about 120 grams (half a mug??) of brown sugar, and flour, two tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon of ground cinnamon, about 5 (crushed) biscuits.

Crumble ingredients; brown sugar, and flour, butter, ground cinnamon and (pre-ground cinnamon sticks)

I used 'Hobnobs' for the biscuits. They're my favourite biscuits! :D pretty easy to come by, but you can use digestives, almonds, or rolled oats, to add a little extra crunch to the crumble :)

Hobnobs! "Nobbly".... lol.. oooooook.

1. Put all the apple mix in the pan and heat over a low heat for about 15 minutes, I  stirred it occasionally, and while that was on I made the crumble:

Pan with apples, cinnamon, cloves, and Amaretto.

2. Mix all the crumble ingredients together by hand. I also tried crushing the Hobnobs by hand and after I started to mix the other bits together, I realised there were too many big bits of biscuit, so used this pumice got the best biscuit texture.

(all this could be negated if you use a blender to mix the crumble ingredients, but I hate cleaning those things and couldn't be bothered to move everything else on the side just to make space to use it..)

3. I buttered the baking tray, and poured the apple-ly contents of the pan in the baking tray, poured the crumble over it, and put it in the oven. 

I used a fan assisted oven preheated to 200C, and left it in there for 20 minutes, yours might take a little longer or a little less (20-30mins) so I suggest you check on it towards the end.

Here it is on the way  into the oven,

Here is the finished result:

Not diet food!

Definitely not diet food, covered in custard....!

I heated some Ambrosia custard and used my captive audience of my sister and her boyfriend as willing test subjects for my first baking adventure in a while.. (I never had an oven in Korea!) and they seemed to like it! No one has died, and I fell into a food coma straight after eating this. Good times.

Anime Addiction

Over the years I have developed an interest in Japanese animation, and naturally, you watch all the famous ones first right? So now I am in need of inspiration!

Any recommendations for something new?!.....

Any questions on the one's I have seen??

Another

Appleseed
Arve Rezzle: Mechanized Fairies 

Ayakashi Japanese Classic Horror

Azumanga Daioh

Baccano!

Battle Programmer Shirase

Black Cat

Bleach (and movies)

Blood+

Blue Drop

Bokura ga Ita

Btoom!

Cencoroll

Claymore
Colorful

CowBoy Bebop

D.Gray-Man

Darker than Black 1&2, Darker than Black OVA

Deadman Wonderland

Death Note
Death Parade

Detective Academy Q

DragonBall

Durarara!!

Eden of the East

Electromagnetic Girlfriend

Elfen Lied

Ergo Proxy

Final Fantasy Advent Children

Five Numbers

Fooley Cooley

Fruits Basket

Full Metal Alchemist

Gankutsuou

Gantz

Ghost Hound

Ghost Hunt

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 1&2 (and all

movies)

Gilgamesh: Who's side are you on?

**Gintama**

Grave of the Fireflies

Great Teacher Onizuka

Gundam Seed

Gundam Seed Destiny

Gundam Wing

Gungrave

Haibane-Renmei

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

Howl's Moving Castle

Inuyasha

Karas
Kami-sama no Memo-chou: It`s the Only NEET Thing to Do. 

King of Thorn

Kiki's Delivery Service

Laputa; Castle of the Sky

Lupin III

Mardock Scramble

Maria+Holic

Metropolis

Mnemosyne

Monster

My Neighbour Totoro

Nana

Naruto

Natsume Yuujinchou

Natsume Yujincho 2 

Natsume Yujincho 3 

Natsume Yuujinchou 4 

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion Reboot

Ninja Scroll

Nyan Koi

Occult Academy

One Piece

Origin - Spirits of the Past.

Ouran High School Host Club

Pale Cocoon

Paranoia Agent
Patema Inverted

Perfect Blue

Phantom, Requiem for the Phantom

Princess Mononoke

Psychic Detective Yakumo

Psycho-pass 1 & 2
Red Garden

R.O.D Read or Die

Rurouni Kenshin

Samurai Champloo

Samurai Xanothe

Serial Experiments Lain

She and her cat
Soul Eater

Shiki

Speed Grapher

Spirited Away

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Sky Crawlers

Time of Eve

Trigun

Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight Guilty
Vexille

Welcome to the NHK!
When They Cry

07 Ghost

5cm per second

(I have only included series that I have watched to the most current episode including movies)

Model Portfolio

Made a makeshift model portfolio...

It is a shame I don't have a lot of the pictures from shots I did.

I am really stressing out trying to get a job in science again.. 

Haven't gone to any 'go-sees' although I don't want to have to sit and wait with people half my age...

 

"The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson

On 3:40am on Wednesday I finished reading "The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson. It was a rather interesting read, he has a really funny writing style, so the book went by and I hadn't even realised.

Safe in the knowledge that I am not a psychopath I could rest easily for one night at least. Throughout the book he interviews a number of interesting doctors, patients, convicted criminals, a hippy, and people with views on psychiatry. He also delved into Scientology's war on psychiatrists and paired up with a Scientologist for some of his investigating, which I thought was brave.

He interviewed a death squad leader, who claimed he just wanted people to like him. It was really disturbing how he thought that the worst kind of person was a thief, and to be accused of being a thief was a huge insult, and this is after his men had been raping and killing their way through Haiti.

I also found myself thinking about the plight of 'Tony', eventually he was released, but his situation was a little unnerving, as I had never really thought about how proving sanity could be a lot more difficult than showing insanity. It is in so many films, where the main character see's the ghost/monster and tells their relatives/friends only to be put in a mental home, resulting in the monster/ghost having to go all the way there to get the job done, and just for the irony, to kill the doctors who didn't believe them. The way the Terminator freaks out the psychiatrist in three consecutive movies, but he still doesn't believe Sarah's story, is one of my favourites.

But it is always something you assume right? Sane before proven Insane? If we all had to prove our sanity.. how would you do that? What is normal?

I always get into books and find myself absorbed till I'm on the last page and wondering where the day(s) went.  Papillion was the only one that I didn't finish. I don't know why, I got half way through that book and to the part where he is living in a jungle with a few wives or something, and just stopped reading. Actually I have tried a few times to pick it back up but its like my 'interest' switch is off.

I received "The Lucifer Effect" and "Nudge" as gifts from a friend so I have started on those, I found the writing style in Nudge to be a little boring so I switched to The Lucifer Effect for now, and I will get back to that later.

Might watch T2 now.....

mmmmmmmmmm........uhhhhhhhh......

Breaking my Hermit Ways - Liverpool

Breaking routine and pulling myself from the protective womb of my living room out into society for a whopping second time in no less than three days, I'm finally on my way to Liverpool.
I find long train journeys really relaxing.. chilling out to music while watching scenery.

When booking online I chose the seat with a plug socket to allow worry free phone use the whole way.. nothing sucks more than running out of battery and losing music, while also opening your ears up to potential crying babies and people who laugh louder than I do, while on a journey. However my seat choice also meant that I would have to sit facing a stranger. I sometimes wonder whether people look at me and can tell that I'm unemployed.. like a cartoon smell.. the are wavy 'unemployed' lines rising from my head.. I'm past the age where people would assume student, and I look way to chill to have an army of children, I dunno. Maybe because I like to guess what other people do, where they're going, whether they like Marmite or not, I'm just over thinking.

I managed to make it through most of the journey avoiding eye contact with the successful looking business man sitting across from me, and took some scenery pictures :)

Most of them were poo because as soon as I saw a nice view I'd unlock my phone, go to the camera app, and by the time I was ready for my pic there was a line of trees blocking the view.. or a wall.. so after a few shots I got this;

Snowy fields seen  from the London - Liverpool train

When I first took that and posted it on Instagram it seemed really eerie.. then I looked at it again to post it here and it seemed really chill/peaceful. The only difference was soundtrack;

First time;

Second time;

Soundtrack is so important..

Shiki

Last night I started watching 'Shiki', an animation based on the manga of the same name. I thought It was a murder mystery anime from the description, but it turned out to be way creepier than I had anticipated. The first few episodes were interesting, but the real scary shit goes down after the 7th-8th episodes.

from http://animatrixnetwork.blogspot.co.uk

I am still in the middle of watching this but it is better than I had expected so far. The characters have grown on me with no one safe from being killed off by the looks of it.

I will keep watching.. Hopefully I can sleep tonight!

The Attic

Tomorrow I'm heading to Liverpool to meet my final project supervisor for a catch up, some career advice, and to give some books I borrowed in 2006 back..  better late than never.. stop judging me!

When I left a lot of my possessions were boxed up and put in the attic. I had known about this meeting since last week but, as with all things that are, or will probably be unpleasant, of course we leave them till the last minute, and of course because I am going tomorrow I was forced to go to the attic today.

The attic is a treasure hole of things from my youth, old pictures drawn as a child, toys, posters I covered my uni dorm with, clothes no-one should have worn from the 80's etc. So from that point of view its always fun to look for things up there, but there is another side to the attic, something like the "hell" often seen in silent hill games.. without Pyramid Head and probably without un-dead nurses, although I can't be sure about the dark corners even the flashlight from my phone can't penetrate.

There are things that move up there, in my peripheral never quite coming to clear sight, there is a layer of dust, a REALLY thick layer of dust, that is probably full of dust mites among other things, on nearly everything, and spider webs EVERYWHERE.

I am sure as I write this, there are a number of spiders trying to make new homes in my hair, my lungs, and  finger cracks, and ears, and eyelashes are covered in dust mite poo, among other things, and I am in urgent need of a shower. But whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? I found the text books, an old study Japanese Kanji book, and best of all I found this! 

I was 10 years old when DOOM was released, and I think I was 13 or 14 when I found this version at our house. My father did his best to hide it but of course I found it and inspite of its (15) rating, I was playing it on the sly and it became one of the first game addictions I had. This game was epic at the time, I remember a lot of my friends playing it too, even though all of us were the same age. Ah what a classic.

PS. All that talk about Silent Hill reminded me of this;

LOL.. Surely you'd just turn around and give up on what ever it was you were going to do. Besides you'd never actually get to do anything because you'd be fighting blades-for-limbs-ass-head monsters, psychotic butchers with pyramids for heads, minions from hell, hoards of zombies, mutants etc. with a metal pipe, or if you were really lucky a handgun half full of ammo and a flashlight that works sometimes.

See turning around is the best way. 

Or suicide. That could work.