- Far more mature than I am.
- In long lasting committed relationships.
- Are not neurotic.
THE little CRITIC
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Signs of a Cat Lady
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Last Minute Panic Sets in
Now is the moment where you MUST go into the shops as online shopping now is futile! Here's just a quick little guide on what best to get family members and partners from the high street in one fell swoop.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Can't Fight That Festive Feeling!
Now if you, like me and copious amounts of my friends, have found yourselves lacking funding to buy outstanding presents then read on. If you do find that you have money to buy them, then please think of your Little Critic and send a Kitchen Aid my way please.
I've noticed lately that every newspaper and magazine in the past week have spreads on spending on a budget. Funnily enough, the things under £10's were either socks, underwear or something that has no real function. No. Just no. I have had my fill of festive socks and underwear. It is only acceptable to buy a woman underwear if you are either A. Her boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/wife/partner B. Her Sugar-daddy C. Her boss down in the local "Tease and Tassels" club. If you are not in these three categories then don't do it. If you are then please, please, PLEASE buy something sexy. Novelty underwear is fine......but don't expect sex. You have been warned.
Moving swiftly on. For those of us who will not be receiving things and shall only be giving this Christmas, I have carefully selected items that you can either make or buy for the ones you love. Now I could put them all in one post but unfortunately I have flu and my motivation levels have dropped after opening the first door on the advent calender. But I'll give you the first thing that I can think of for the moment.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Lazy and Talentless
Now for those of you who are not Ireland and have not had the opportunity to witness "original" Irish tv, then this will be a pleasure for you. Two shows that are the bane of life for the sheer lack effort and thought. The first is called Fade Street and the second is called Tallafornia. In general, to me, reality shows like Jersey Shores and these two monstrosities are great examples of cheap media and highlight the increasing lack of common sense within my generation and younger. Right so let me divide this up into little rants so you can see my well formed and constructed argument about these shows.
1. People are actually getting paid to star in, make, produce and edit them. I have various friends who are in this industry and have put forward so many genius ideas that have been put down due to them being deemed "unsuitable for Irish culture." It can't be just me who feels that this is a little reminiscent of Father Ted in the 90's when no Irish station would back the comedy about the Irish priesthood so Channel 4 took them in. Channel 4 then basked in the praise and the revenue created by it!
2. These shows encourage children and teenagers to behave in such an inappropriate way that is sickening. Now I'm no angel myself but I do believe that once you are past the age of 20 that you are allowed certain liberties but still I do not dress like a very laxed prostitute waiting for my next set of Botox sessions to come through. HOW are these shows allowed to be shown and encouraged?! From the 60's through to the mid 90's, music was the highway for sex, drugs and rock&roll. These were deemed unacceptable but somehow telling young girls that yes it's ok to behave like some little idiot and that needing to shag anything insight as long as you've got inches of fake-tan on is socially acceptable? People wonder why their kids are going out and drinking at 13, smoking at 14 and pregnant at 15?
3. What is the actual point of these shows? I don't actually know if it's just me being funny but I like shows to have some sort of baseline issue. The new comedy "Threesome" feature Amy Hubberman carried the baseline thought of modern day pregnancies within unconventional settings along with the realization of coming of age. There may be a possibility that I relate to the lead female character (without the pregnancy bit) but still it presents issues that my generation are being to face. Again these shows present no form of anything educational or touches any modern realistic issues that are neither staged nor put forward by somebody who I doubt could find the location of the local GUM clinic!
4. It's all been done before. It was terrible when the states did it. It was dreadful when the UK did it and now it's an absolute train-wreck when Ireland did it.
These are things that frankly, fuck me right off. Whenever I come home I automatically watch English channels because I know I can be guaranteed originality. What I would love to see is a producer in Ireland taking a risk and questioning modern Irish society. I want a show that presents modern issues such as the deepening of the "Depression Recession" amongst a young generation, the social stigma that surrounds being anything but straight and the under the breath racism that I have noticed more and more. These are issues that are not deemed as offensive in England to air but in Ireland it feels like blasphemy to even suggest real topics and agenda's be introduced without some political or religious agenda.
Please somebody, can you stop things like Tallafornia being made and actually make something worth watching.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
I Love my Life as a Dickhead......
In true LC fashion, I have not portrayed my evening well. Lets start again. Having been greatly let down by Mother Bar in Shoreditch, by greatly let down I refer to the fact that charming our way past the bouncer without paying the £7.50 fee in was the highlight, we decided to jump in a petrol deficient cab and run back to our increasingly favourite haunt in Dalston, The Alibi
Now for those of you who live in the general London vicinity, you will be mildly aware that Dalston is slowly revamping into the "it" place to live and go out. Of course, Blondie and I did not randomly find this place. We carefully chose it out of a handful of "hip, young places" and did not just happen to wander int he first time because there was 1. No cue and 2. the guys ahead of us had tattoos! What sort of narrow minded girls do you think we are?! The right kind, that's what!
When you walk past The Alibi you can feel the coolness oozing out of it in the exact way mist oozes out of a grave in low budget film. Guys shuffle past with cheeky grins and colorfully impressive ink, whilst the girls dance about with equally impressive ink. The odd think about the place is that everybody is friendly! To those of you unused to places such as this, they usually posses some cold sharp edge of uncaring cruelty that renews some sense of childish vulnerability. Which is bad. The Alibi however is a concrete basement that emits warmth and friendliness. This may have been a drink induced warmth but I am still sure that most of the people I spoke to in there were nice!
Situated down the road from the infamous Dalston Superstore and run by Real Gold, The Alibi has hit all the right notes in my books for a pretty decent night out. The drinks are at a reasonable price for the basics that they are, the bouncers are amusing and highly aware of every passing, the staff are friendly, the music flows quite happily and finally there seems to be a rather large ratio of males to females. This naturally does not impact our judgement on where we always end up.
We are good girls. Well from 9-5 we are.......
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Silence is Not So Golden
Ah well that was a long absence wasn’t it! You may thank a variety of factors, personally I’d like to blame work schedules and a severe lack of internet...JOY! However have no fear, despite all this I’ve been eating, watching and casually getting drunk with the help of some fairly prestigious people, damn them and their seductively smooth tequila!
Moving swiftly on, well actually that’s what the blog shall now be doing. It has come to my attention, via one of my regular conversations with myself on a crowded tube, that I’m finding it difficult to just keep focus on just food and that my attention is starting to stray towards general lifestyle. So now I shall be delving into lifestyle and will try very hard not to cross over into Sexy Exy’s territory of fashion, (although it was my territory first, I just let him have it because he makes a good rent boy.)
So you can expect a long blast of reviews stored up, mini illustrations, photos, lifestyle goodies and my usual dose of insanity!
Enjoy lovlies xx
Friday, February 11, 2011
I've got an Itch that Needs to be Fixed...
Dark Chocolate Soup
with Cinnamon Croutons
Who doesn’t like soup?!
Makes 8
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Soup
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water
pinch of salt
6 cups of half and half ( half milk, half double cream)
2 tsps instant espresso powder
24oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate finely chopped
8 small scoops vanilla ice-cream
Cinnamon Croutons
1 loaf of bought pound cake
1/2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of unsalted, melted butter
Soup
- Combine the sugar and the water in a large sauce pan over a medium heat. Cook, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and starts to change colour.
- Increase the heat to high and boil until the syrup turns a deep amber colour, 4-5 mins. NB: watch very carefully because this can burn quickly!Immediately remove from the heat and add the salt and half-and-half, the carmel will start hissing at you.
- Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring to dissolve the caramel in the half-and-half, about 2mins.
- Remove from the heat and add the espresso and chopped chocolate, stirring until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Divide into 8 shallow soup bowls. Carefully place a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the centre of each bowl and float 4 pound cake croutons around each scoop of ice-cream.
- Serve Immediately.
Croutons
- Preheat the grill.
- Cut a razor thin slice from both ends of the pound cake to reveal the interior.cut the trimmed loaf croswise into 8 equal slices.
- Trim each slice to form perfect, uniform squares. Stir the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.
- Brush both sides of the croutons with the melted butter and sprinkle generously with the cinnamon-sugar.
- Place the slices on a large baking tray and grill until the sugar on top starts to bubble and turn brown, 1-2mins. Remove from the oven, turn over and grill the other side for a further 1-2 mins.
- Transfer the sheet to a wire rack to cool, use a serrated knife to carefully cut each slice into 4 equal squares.