Something I Found Funny

I was trying to find a cello piece and I turned up this advert which for some reason I find absolutely hilarious...I say some reason, but come on, who wouldn't find this funny??? At one point the guy even rubs an orange on his face!!!

PYO At Greyfriars Kirk

I hopped on a bus at Perth last Thursday along with an army of PYO supporters (and some members of the orchestra). Our destination? Edinburgh, of course, to see Perth Youth Orchestra in action at its Fringe Festival debut. Although excited to listen in on the Youth Orchestra's first concert since its trip to Florence, I couldn't help but fall asleep on the bus. I don't tend to mix well with vehicles of any kind, though I have to say, falling asleep is generally more agreeable than being violently travel sick...but enough about me. 

We arrived (somewhat groggily) in Edinburgh among the Fringe ruckus and hurried towards Greyfriars Kirk, just in time to hear the end of PYO's first piece of the night, Jig: Vivace - from the infamous St Paul's Suite. After fidgeting in the wings, waiting for the piece to finish, we hurried to take our places in the Kirk Hall. 

The St Paul's Suite was followed by a trumpet concerto composed by Alexander Aruturian, performed brilliantly by Magnus Pickering. I might say this in just about every review I write up about PYO, but the orchestra sounded brilliant. And I really mean it. I think it came down to a combination of skill and enthusiasm (on part of the orchestra and conductor Mr Allan Young) and the amazing acoustics of the Kirk, which left the pieces sounding crisp and clear. 

Interval time: food ticket paid for, I grabbed a cup of orange squash and scarfed as many custard creams as I could...  

After much scoffing of biscuits and beverages the audience returned to their seats to listen to Merran Kay's wonderful performance of Kol Nidrei on cello. Then the orchestra moved on to play the roaring beast that is Robert Smith's Inferno - as you can probably tell, it was my favourite piece of the night by far. I say this not because the other pieces were lacking in any way (because they weren't) but because the way Inferno was performed nearly threw me off my chair. The evening's performance concluded with a rendition of Salute to the Cinema and Les Miserables.  

As we travelled back to Perth, I couldn't help thinking that it would definitely be worthwhile for PYO to continue performing as part of the Fringe. I hold high hopes that they can build a larger audience, not just made up of the relatives of orchestra members, but of people who might not know the first thing about PYO except where and when they'll be playing. Or, perhaps, even better, people who have heard about PYO through the grape vine and are interesting in finding out for themselves just how good they are. 

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

On Saturday 27^th, I attended the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. An event being hosted by the Bookmark Festival committee in order to raise funds to go toward the festival. For those of you who haven’t a clue what the Bookmark Festival might be, here’s where I do a little bit of explaining!

The Bookmark Festival is a brand new festival being held in Blairgowrie, organised by a group of dedicated volunteers. It’s going to take place on the 18^th to the 19^th of October this year and will feature discussion from well-known authors on their novels, poetry and what it takes to be a writer. Guest authors include Liz Lochhead, Fiona Armstrong (BBC news presenter), James Robertson and many more. Mairi Hedderwick, creator of the popular Katie Morag series will be among many authors hosting events aimed at younger children. So, the festival is for people of all ages, and I think (and hope) it will prove to be very popular. If you’re reading this and you happen to live in the Perthshire area, or anywhere close by, and are interested in learning more about the Bookmark Festival you can click on this link which will take you to the Bookmark website.

www.bookmarkblair.com

You can also book tickets for the festival via the website!

Anyway, back to the tea party. The weather was brilliant which was nothing short of a blessing seeing as the tea party was being held outdoors and I can’t imagine it going as well as it did in the pouring rain. I arrived with my friend (and co-blogger turned P.A for the day) Nadia, not being entirely sure on what to expect. I wasn’t sure how we would be received! Even though I am part of the Bookmark Festival (I hesitate to say I’m a member of the committee seeing as I didn’t help organised the festival or anything like that) I had only ever spoken to the ladies responsible for everything via email. I had in my mind for some reason that they would be aloof and look down at me for my lack of experience. When I arrived all those rather silly notions were completely overturned. Nadia and I were treated like old friends and everyone at the tea party was exceptionally welcoming. I don’t think I’ve actually ever met nicer people!

We paid for our tickets which automatically entered us in to the raffle, which had some fantastic prizes as I was told, and were then introduced to other committee members. I even had my picture taken with the Mad Hatter!  Nadia and I then went off to explore our surroundings. We were in a beautifully kept garden with a neatly clipped lawn which played host to five different stalls selling all manner of things. The second stall was the one we were immediately drawn to as it was selling cakes. Who wouldn’t make a beeline for something like that? I bought a lemon sponge cake (later on though) which I brought home and shared with my family who all agreed that it was delicious. The whole thing was eaten that evening.

After looking over all the stalls, taking part in the tombola – winning a prize each, and buying a book for £1, Nadia and I decided to sit ourselves down at one of the many tables laid out on the patio for guests. This was where we met John Swinney, a local MSP and Elizabeth Quigley, a BBC journalist and Mr Swinney’s wife. While I was talking to them I realised that I really should have brought along my Dictaphone so that I could get a few comments. Luckily I managed to get Mr Swinney’s email address and he emailed me these comments on the event:

John Swinney –

“It is fantastic that a group of local volunteers have taken the initiative to establish the Bookmark Festival for Blairgowrie. This will add another key attraction to the annual program of events in the area and I am sure will attract many people to come. Elizabeth and I have already bought tickets and it was a pleasure to be at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party on Saturday to give further support to the venue.”   

Elizabeth Quigley –

“We are really looking forward to the programme of events and such a huge amount of hard work was put in to the event on Saturday and in to the production of the programme. There is such a wide range of attractions in the programme. I am sure the Festival will become a major event in the annual programme of Blairgowrie and Rattray.”

After chatting to Mr Swinney and Ms Quigley (a bit of a surreal moment), we were asked by one of the Book Mark committee members (who were all kindly serving teas, coffees and cakes) whether we wanted cakes to which the reply was obvious. One never refuses an offer of baked goods! A platter brimming with a selection of scones, cupcakes, a flapjack and a brownie was then swiftly brought to us. I wish I could say we were able to finish the lot, but unfortunately we weren’t. What we did manage to scoff though was delicious. I mean, I have never tasted scones like those in my life! Wow, is the only word that springs to mind. 

Later on we decided we were going to leave, but were persuaded to stay for the raffle draw. And I’m really glad that we did stay because we were then introduced to Sir William McPherson, who was sporting a Mad Hatter’s top hat, and his friends and invited to sit with them. Sir William told us that the tea party was “very, very fine.”

They were really lovely people and had so many interesting things to tell us. They were also very curious to know what exactly a blog was. It was hard giving an exact answer, how do you explain what a blog is? Well, I was asked what the dictionary definition was and I couldn’t give the answer then, so here it is now –

a web site containing the writer’s or group of writer’s own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images or links to other web sites – taken from http://dictionary.reference.com 

When the raffle was drawn Nadia won a couple of CD’s and I won a ‘I love Blairgowrie’ mug. So I can’t say we didn’t leave empty handed. In fact, I came home that evening with the lemon drizzle cake I’d bought, two books (only £1 each!), the mug and a box of chocolates but more importantly I came home feeling lucky to have met so many brilliant people in one short day. 

Training days

Hey guys. This is method free running's latest video. You should check it out, and if you like what you see there's more like this on our youtube channel. Enjoy!

I've just written something on Wattpad! Interested?

The Longest Day Of Summer Chapter 1 - Page 1 - Wattpad

If you're interested in reading it and would like to give me some feed back on my story, feel free to click on the link above. It's far from finished as I've only done the prologue and the first chapter, but I'm going to keep writing and see how the story goes from there. I really hope you enjoy it...oh, and I should probably tell you what exactly it's about shouldn't I?

The Longest Day Of Summer follows the story of Cait, a girl who has known about Faerys ever since she moved to the rural Kilentully estate. She knows they're dangerous and not to be trusted, yet her friendship with Kieran, a Faery of the Seelie court goes against everything she has been told. The friendship threatens to draw her in to the increasingly unsettled world of the Faery, and in to danger.

Yeah, this will probably only appeal to a few people, but not to worry. Once I've finished the story (and I have promised myself no matter how much I end up hating it, I will finish it) I'm going to start by putting up some more stories that I've had in the back burner for a while. I don't really mind if nobody reads them or whatever, I'm just happy to see them out there. Wow that was cheesy.

Ok, so before I end up making this all into one big pile of mozzarella, I'm just going to stop typing!

Enjoy! :)

A day of free running

Check this out. This is method freerunning, made up of me, Murray and Justin. This is our latest video but if you want more go to our channel and subscribe!

Cupcakes!

Hey readers! It’s been a while since I last posted anything about baking, and seeing as I’ve been doing quite a lot of that lately, I thought I should put this up. I decided to bake something for my last day in music before the exams and I realised that I should probably make a variety of things. But, I didn’t really want to end up baking batches upon batches of different bakery items so I figured that making a few cupcakes would be my best option. So, I googled a plain cupcake recipe and edited a few things. I doubled the ingredients and then added a few extras. What I ended up with was six plain cupcakes, six with chocolate cream icing, nine with a chocolate centre and three with a chocolate centre and chocolate cream icing. Ok, so not that varied but they catered to everyone’s taste and it proves that you can take a plain recipe and do whatever you want with it. So, here’s the recipe! It should make around 24 cupcakes…

 

 

Ingredients:

·         250g butter softened

·         250g caster sugar

·         4 med eggs

·         250g self raising flour

·         Splash of milk

·         1tsp baking powder

·         1tsp vanilla essence

·         Chocolate spread (I used plain cheap stuff but feel free to use nutella or whatever else you may prefer)  

Utensils:

·         Seive

·         Large mixing bowl

·         Small mixing bowl

·         Glass bowl

·         Small sauce pan

·         Electric whisk (I didn’t use one and the recipe takes up a lot of time and effort if you don’t have one, but if like me you prefer baking without an electric whisk you’ll need a wooden spoon and a fork)

·         Set of Scales

·         Set of measuring spoons + teaspoons!

·         Cupcake cases

 

Method:

1.       Pre-heat the oven to 190c or gas mark 5

2.       Cream the butter and sugar together in the large mixing bowl

3.       In the smaller mixing bowl whisk the eggs and add the vanilla essence

4.       Sieve the flour and baking powder into the butter mixture

5.       Fold in the eggs and add the milk

 

 

 

6.       Spoon in the amount of mixture you want to use for plain cupcakes into the cupcake cases

7.       For chocolate middle cupcakes add one teaspoon of mixture to case then make a hollow in mixture

8.       Next add a teaspoon of chocolate spread and cover with another teaspoon of cupcake mixture making sure that no chocolate spread is left visible

9.       Put cakes into oven for 10-12 minutes.

10.   When done, leave to cool for a bit before transferring them to a wire cooling rack.

 

For the Icing:

I found a recipe for the cream icing in a cookery book I own and halved it. Feel free to use the normal amounts if you want to ice all of your cupcakes…here’s my version:

1.       100g of whatever kind of chocolate you like

2.       100ml of double cream (a good low fat alternative is Elmlea) 

Method:

1.       Break chocolate into chunks and add to the bowl and melt them over a pan of simmering water

2.       Take bowl off heat and let the chocolate cool for about 5 minutes

3.       Stir in cream and leave in the fridge for a further 5 minutes to thicken the mixture

4.       Ice your cupcakes! (but make sure the cakes are completely cooled first. My advice would be to stick them in the fridge for a while)

 

I’m happy to say that the cakes went down really well! I turned up at school with three tubs full and came home with the tubs completely empty. By the way, the chocolate spread cakes taste amazing when they’ve just come out of the oven because the chocolate spread in the centre is melted and sooo good. My advice is to leave a few of the chocolate spread cupcakes un-iced because you can pop them in the microwave later on to warm them up so that the chocolate spread goes runny again.

It'd be great to get some feedback on what you guys think of the recipe, and hopefully I'll have some more for you later on!