Tag: vegan food

Open University

Bits, Birthdays, and Bobs

kllewellin

Yes, I know, I haven’t posted in nearly a month, my bad. It’s been a bit of a busy month, but also a fairly uneventful month; lots of little things going on, but not things that warrant a posting on their own.

I haven’t even been to the cinema since seeing Spiderman. Seriously, what happened to all the summer blockbusters? School holidays are normally jam-packed with films, but there’s been nothing worth seeing this year. September looks promising with Kingsman, and possibly American Assassin (yay Keaton!…swoon), but until Thor comes out in November, there’s bupkiss. Actually, there’s also Blade Runner 2049 as a possible see in October, but yeah, 2017 has been a bit thin on the ground film-wise.

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I had a birthday, but as there was nothing worth watching on the big screen, I made do with going blackberry picking on the Anglesey coast (I sure know how to live life to the fullest) followed by a meal at my local(ish) vegan restaurant. The place is called Voltaire, in Bangor, and the food at the place is a-may-zing! I had a huge burger, filled with chilli beans, nachos, and sour cream, which came with a huge side of fries. Honestly, the photo doesn’t do justice to the burger’s size. Its circumference was about three hand spans!

I then stuffed down the best choc-fudge sundae ev-er! It had ice cream, topped with whipped cream and choc and fudge sauces, and in the centre was a large chunk of a choc-fudge brownie with even more sauce.

I was so full I was in pain, but boy, it was sooo worth it! Not sure my coastal walk put me in enough of a calorie deficit for all of this, despite my glutes aching like crazy the next day. Looks like September is going to be a work-those-lbs-off month.

The bigger news is that I’ve finished my first Open University module. Yep TU100: My Digital Life is done and dusted. I did the final online test (got about 96%) and turned in my final written assessment a few days ago (10 days early!), and now I have a month to kill before I officially start my next two modules. Although, as the material gets posted this month, I can always make an early start on things. In the mean time, I’m filling the gap with OpenLearn courses (doing one on the Internet of Everything at the mo) and job applications. Exciting stuff I know! I won’t get my degree module result until mid-October, so fingers crossed for a distinction grade. Fun thing, the OU Student Union got in contact with me asking to use my material unboxing photo from last year in some social media posts for the next intake. Which was cool.

I wonder if I’ll ever use the SENSE board again🤔….

Open University, Social Media, Uncategorized

Thanks Doris!

kllewellin

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Boy, has it been a fun week weather-wise. Storm Doris hit North Wales, bringing with her rain, gale-force winds, and power cuts. The day of the actual storm wasn’t too bad, with the power going off for only a couple of hours during the day. Admittedly, it cocked my schedule up a bit, as it went off before I had accessed my online university material. As soon as the power came back on, I opened up EVERYTHING in new tabs, just to be on the safe side. Yeah, I get that as it is a section on the internet, it stands to reason to do some of the work online, but having ALL the reading material online ONLY is a bit short-sighted IMHO. Storm Doris a case in point.

The next day was another power cut, this time courtesy of the electricity company. I had literally just finished my OU material, when bam, no power. Time ticked on. I couldn’t do anything with the MARINElife newsletter, as the resources I needed were online. I couldn’t do my social media stuff, cause again, no wifi. Time dragged on. The temperature started to dip. I wrapped myself up in bed and read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on a thankfully recently charged Kindle. I couldn’t do all my fitness training, as the fly-wheel on my cross-trainer needs electricity. It eventually got too dark to read.

My housemate got home to find a distinctly pissed-off me. He was in the process of going and asking the engineers what the hell was going on, when he bumped into a neighbour. Turns out, storm Doris had wrapped a couple of trees round various power poles, and things were being in the process of being repaired. Anyway, long story short, I was without power for four and a half hours, and spent the last few of those hibernating under two duvets. Eventually the power came on, I did my training, late, had dinner, even later, and did my social media stuff, even later still. I was not impressed, specifically because the engineers hadn’t bothered to warn people they were going to cut the power. Extremely thoughtless, but that’s Scottish Power for you. My mate was on hold with them the other day, waiting to speak to them about a cock-up with his account transfer. He was on hold for them for two and a half hours. Eventually their machine just hung up on him. Good times.

A few days later came the annual, try and make flat fried dough things and fail, aka, Pancake Day. Making pancakes is hard enough. Making vegan pancakes is even more of a set up for failure. I chose to make them savoury, to prevent me from eating too much, so I cut out the sugar, and added some fresh and dried herbs to the mix. The mix itself was simple; 1/2 a cup of soya milk, 1/2 a cup of flour, a 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder, and a dash of water to thin it out. The mix made two, largish, pancakes, and they actually came out quite well, if a little bit anaemic.

I topped them off with sautéed mushrooms and onions, a dollop of Tesco’s roast caramelised hummus, and a sprinkling of good ol’ nooch. And you know what? They tasted pretty nice. It’s times like these I wonder why I don’t make pancakes more often, after all, they’re simple to throw together, an cheap to make. I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and make some sweet ones later. Though knowing me, later = a year’s time.