28/03/2012

Yesterday I got my hair cut (nothing hugely different, just tidied up a bit really), then met Dodo for ice cream at Chin Chin Labs. For those of you that don't know, Chin Chin Labs is an ice cream shop in Camden that freezes the ice cream right in front of you using liquid nitrogen. As well as the making being really cool, it tastes amazing, and they have interesting flavours that change weekly.

My outfit (this was before the haircut). 

And here is my Dodocliff. 8)

The flavour of the week was "White Chocolate Easter Egg". Dodo's is on the left with raspberry sauce and chocolate-coated crisps, mine is with raspberry sauce and caramelised pretzels. 

After that, we decided to walk to central London because the weather was really nice, and ended up getting Korean food from Seoul Bakery (tiny Korean restaurant with cheap food). 

Bulgogi bibimbap

Then we got some peach alcohol and sat in Trafalgar Square for a while.

Dodo has cool shoes.

-Finlay

Konnyaku Noodles

I recently discovered Konnyaku/Shirataki noodles, and I wanted to tell you about them a bit because I think they're cool haha. C: You can get them from the Japan Centre for about £1.

Basically, these are noodles made of konjac yam plant, and their selling point is that they have practically no calories or carbs.  You can use them in place of noodles or spaghetti in many dishes to create a lower calorie version, which is great if you're on a diet but still want to eat big meals.

Preparation is really easy. After draining the water from the packet, you'll notice that they smell quite bad, so you have to rinse them then put them in boiling water for about 5 minutes. After that, just drain the water and they're ready!

They have no actual flavour of their own, so I highly recommend that you add some kind of sauce or other food with a strong flavour. However, they do absorb other flavours quite well. I can't cook to save my life, so I just put some pasta sauce on mine, then added some left over salmon that needed to be used up.

So, this meal only comes to about 300 calories! (I realise that it doesn't look very appetising, but I'm sure anyone who's a decent cook can make something much better.)

Good points:

• Very low calories and carbs.
• Can easily be used instead of pasta or noodles.
• Easy and quick to prepare.
• Very filling.

Bad points:

• They have an odd, slightly unpleasant, chewy texture, a bit like jelly cubes (but you get used to it).
• They smell awful at first.
• They don't provide any nutrition.

-Finlay

26/03/2012

Yesterday was nice. In the early afternoon I had a short photo shoot. The location was really nice; a sort of wooded area in Hampstead. It was an editorial style shoot for an interesting jewellery collection made of rope, and was very simple, with a plain white dress and very little make up (so as to not detract attention from the jewellery, I suppose). Apparently the photos turned out well, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. As the photographer hadn't yet been sent all of the jewellery, we haven't finished yet, and are meant to be shooting the rest of it on Thursday.

The photo shoot was over by about 4 or so, so I decided to go to Oxford Street in search of some new shorts (mine are a size or two too big). I didn't quite find what I was looking for, but I did get some shorts/hotpants from Bershka that I really like:

I wandered into Topshop at some point, and was mobbed by hairdressers looking for models, because just about everyone else in there had long hair. Also, I noticed that EVERYTHING there is ridiculously hipster at the moment. I bet the hipsters aren't happy about that; they're gonna have to change everything to avoid being "mainstream". 

After giving up on Oxford Street, I decided to walk home via Soho, because I wanted to see if the Kokon To Zai sale was still on. It was, and I got this dress for £15 (not sure of the original price, but judging by the pricing of similar items, it probably would have been about £150 haha):

Shape-wise, it's not the sort of thing I'd usually wear, but I really like things with multiple patterns. 8D I'll have to see what I can do with it. 

I also found the Yao Ming meme face outside a pub:

-Finlay

This weekend

University finished for the Easter holiday on Friday, so on Saturday my dad drove to Birmingham to pick me up and take me back to London.

After arriving home at about 3, I had a few hours to get ready before Dom came over. When he arrived, we lazed around for a while before going to Japan Underground.

Before leaving. 

There weren't as many people I knew at Japan Underground as usual, but it was still fun. There was a good band (ASIDBLOW) playing, and they gave out free CDs after, which was nice. The band seemed really friendly, too. After pulling me into a group photo, one of them gave me a CD, then we had a short and slightly awkward (because he didn't speak much English and I just plain don't know how to speak) conversation.

The next day, the weather was nice, so we got some food, then went to a park to eat it.

Peach alcohol :D

-Finlay

Hello!

So, this would be where I introduce myself.
My name is Finlay. I'm 18 and from London, but I live in Birmingham now. I'm studying modern languages (French, Italian, Japanese) at the University of Birmingham.
I don't really know what else to say, and I'm pretty sure only people I know will read this anyway, so I'll leave it at that. I'll try to make future posts longer than this!

-Finlay