Being Queenie

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Urgh 'love songs'. They all make me cringe. Rock ballads should be banned, and those stupid women who scream lyrics which amount to "I will stalk you!" make me want to vomit.

Don't even start me on duets.

In short, yuck. I can haz decent music plz?

Firstly, some cautionary words. If you have never boiled sugar before, please, please read up on the effects. A sugar burn is one of the worst you can get!

675g caster sugar
500ml water
The juice of 1 lemon
100g cornflour
25g powdered gelatine (I used 2 sachets of Dr. Oetker beef Gelatine)
25g icing sugar
3 tablespoons Absinthe

This produces a pale yellow-green mixture, if you want a brighter colour, you can add some food colouring at the same time as the absinthe :)

1. Put the caster sugar in a pan with the juice of 1 lemon and 300ml water. Bring to the boil over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Mix 75g cornflour with remaining 200ml water until smooth. Stir into sugar mixture. Once mixed, sprinkle on the gelatine and stir in thoroughly.
3. Return to the boil over moderate heat. Simmer briskly for 20 minutes. I stirred this almost constantly (ouch) as I didn't want it to burn. The mixture will be the colour and consistency of honey.
4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
5. Stir in absinthe, and food colouring if desired. The absinthe may go weird and milky as it hits the sugar - this is normal, just stir like crazy!
6. Prepare a tin (I used an old square biscuit tin!) by lining it with cling film. Mix the remaining cornflour with the icing sugar, sifting them together. Sift LIBERALLY over the prepared tin. You have to do this or it will stick like crazy!
7. Allow to set. My recipe recommended 12 hours but mine was set in 1 hour - in the end, I left it for 8 hours.
8. Sift cornflour and icing sugar onto a chopping board. Turn set mixture out onto the board. Sift liberally with icing sugar and cornflour; place the rest in a bowl.
9. Cut delight into bite sized chunks and place into the cornflour and icing sugar. Warning - the plain mixture, without the icing sugar mix, feels horrible, like those gummy hands you get at halloween.
10. Shake off excess and transfer to airtight container (I used a glass storage jar with a sealable lid).

Keeps for up to 1 month, or until your friends get at it!

400g icing sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons Absinthe
3-4 tablespoons water

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. You're making a fondant, which is a thick icing, like royal icing. It should come together like a very stiff dough. Try to keep it as dry as possible!

Roll it out on a board dusted with icing sugar, dusting your hands and rolling pin with more icing sugar. The easiest thing to do is to roll out a long sausage shape and slice it up.

Lay the pieces on a wire rack to dry, and sift icing sugar over. If you don't have a wire rack, put them on a plate and turn them a few times to ensure they dry fully.

You can dip the shapes in melted chocolate for an even more calorific and decadent sweetie :D Please note that these are white, if you want an absinthe colour, add a little green food colouring when you are mixing the ingredients!

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Yes, unless they've already told you they need to (if, for example, they're on call, or are waiting for an important call, or are responsible for a child/ elderly relative who may be the subject of said call)

If they just don't want to miss some random text about crap, or bad jokes, or if they're checking email/ FB just in passing, then I'd get annoyed and say something.

NOW I'm confused.

In 2008, I was kicked out of Tynemouth Priory for photographing some models in outfits for my website. They said I would be using the photographs for commercial purposes, despite me speaking to someone on the phone who told me that so long as I wasn't selling the photos, there was no issue.

I have accepted this, and frankly haven't set foot in an English Heritage property since, as they were very rude in the process.

I still maintain it's because all the amateur photographers were more interested in us than in their shoddy organised event, which was pants. A nylon shawl and wicker basket do NOT cut it as a Victorian costume, kthnxbai. And I let anyone who asked come and photograph my models and my outfits - in fact I had several members of a camera club stop by and thank me, as they rarely get to photograph models!

So today, I am on Flickr, and have a look at the pretty pictures of Whitby Abbey.

And they have photos of dressed up people in there. On their approved site.

There's also a woman on Flickr who makes Victorian outfits, photographed at at least 3 of their properties, using her pics for commercial purposes.

There is NOTHING on their website which says I can't take pics at their properties and use them on my website!

So, is it time I got medeival on their asses?

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I detest romances and 'chick lit'. I just have no empathy with the characters. I despair when a perfectly good book starts rambling off into romance territory. Urgh.

As to films, I'm not fond of romantic comedies, especially modern ones. I just wind up wanting to slap most of the characters in the head. I'm not hugely fond of action films set in the modern period, either, where it has no plot beyond a flimsy excuse to blow things up and race around in souped-up cars.

And finally, 'horror' films which are just one long round of blood, gore, torture, and chasing half-naked girls. I thought that went out in the 70s, but apparently not.

I put up with them when I'm forced to, but most of my friends have zero interest in these kind of films either, thankfully :D

It caused more problems when I was working in offices, and was forced to have conversations with the kind of people who read chick lit, go to see rom coms at the cinema, and griped endlessly about not being able to find 'a perfect man'. I just had no patience for them, and would sit in the corner of the cafeteria, reading something I liked, and ignoring them!

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I didn't think there was, but today highlighted one for me.

Equality of the sexes.

If you don't think women should have equal rights with men, I can't see us ever seeing eye to eye. I won't even apologise for this; I don't see why I should.

If you're going to treat women as if they're somehow less because of their genetics, then I will probably have some very strong words to say to you.

Aside from this, I am happy to discuss and question opposing viewpoints. I am often friends with people who hold diametrically opposing viewpoints to my political and religious convictions :)

So who's got Facebook pages they want to pimp?

Do it, you know you want to :)

http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/?ref=sb#/pages/Forever-in-Black/10400826049

^mine

http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/?ref=sb#/pages/The-Charnel-House/9977549009?ref=search&sid=620268735.387116919..1

^The Charnel House

Ultimately, I don't think it will make much difference.

However, if the FB group which managed to get RAtM to number 1 picked a song a month out and all bought it, then THAT would be a serious 'sit up and take notice' to the major labels, especially if they chose songs which were NOT by bands signed to major labels.

That might force the big labels into a re-think.

Currently, all that has happened is that Sony made a chunk of cash, and Simon Cowell/ Cheryl Cole/ Louis Walsh have all played butthurt for the press. The level of stupid in their comments was beyond hilarious.

Half a million people bought that single. HALF A MILLION. Channel the energy, direct the anger, and make a difference.

Music is for life, after all, not just for Christmas.

1. Make a cup of tea.
2. Watch True Blood
3. Dye roots, staying strawberry blonde for the moment
4. Sleep

Tomorrow:

1. Sew
2. Do hair
3. Go to Grendel gig
4. Come home exhausted at about 2am and moan on LJ!

:D