Breaking In by Baking In

What a week, weekend, week, weekend... It dawned on me, cruising through The Village on the 493, that being a housewife is a dream job. Our mothers don't know how easy they had it.

Naturally there's plenty of yummy mummies round here, so (a) you get plenty of time to spend on yourself.

And baby needs fresh air of course, to make the most of all those Junior Genius tapes, so (b) hanging out in the park is practically the law.

The house has to be clean, and the bread winner fed of course. And children shipped between improvement classes and play dates, which leads me to (c) the rest of us do that shizzle anyway.

So today has been a typical day - running behind on most things, can't find the beaters for the electric whisk - so in preparation for the hen tonight and a different wedding tomorrow, it's multitasking time, despite it being a day off.

Which leads to today's photo. Will be wearing these brand new shiny patent cream confections all day tomorrow, so they needed a bit of breaking in while whipping up delicious confections for tonight.

Sadly the enduring absence of the beaters means no macarons, but speciality tiramisu flashes her skirts once more.

And if the extra lottery tickets pay off tonight, I'll not need the sugar daddy to carry on baking long into the week.

What's your pitch?

Apparently many people don't speak at their natural - their most breath-efficient - pitch.  For a variety of psychosocial reasons both sexes may artificially adjust their voice pitch up or down, until it bcomes second nature and subconscious.

Photo: L.Lukatsky @Flickr

So much of our identity, emotions and history is bound up in voice the process of finding the natural pitch may be cathartic or hugely overwhelming.  Especially if you're not aware you don't speak like wot you oughtta. 

Try out this exercise if you want to see how different your natural voice is...

Keeping within a sustainable range so that each count is at a very similar pitch, and without hitting a falsetto, count at moderate speed from 1 to 20, alternating between lowest and highest pitch.


After 20, take a breath, and then hum with the lips just closed, for a few seconds.


Then speak.  What comes out?

This will probably work best  for you if warmed up and loose, so sing in the shower or phone the bank first.

Zen and the Art of Coffee drinking

The yin of morning withdrawal and yang of afternoon excess...

I read a post about an iconic NYC coffee cup yesterday, and was introduced to the concept of objective correlative.

So when today's eventual departure to Bimble to get some film developed resulted in this, I thought I'd pander to my love of new gadgets and upload it. And keep an eye out from now on for incidental philosophy and unnoticed sentiment in daily circulation.

Erin K & Tash

This is the incredible Erin K & Tash who played at The Troubador last Thursday. Check them out if you get the chance.
Perfect summery anti-folk for London life and beyond. This is sex, drugs and baking for an era of expression and entertainment where personality is more important than pills.