Pilfering the universe of anything joyous

There isn't really a point to that title, I just quite liked the idea of using the word 'pilfering' and pilfering the universe sounded like a grand idea and joy is always a welcome state :0)

I suppose this post could be more aptly titled, though it would be a bit dull, 'Clearing the air, pizza and calzonery, busted shoes, and crafty projects GO!'

I find myself sitting in our lounge breathing in fresher air than I breathed yesterday. Thanks to the green allergy goblins that are abounding through London's airwaves and the hubster's battling with sleeplessness and hayfever, we have procured two new ionic air purifiers and it really has made breathing in the London air that permeates our flat so much more enjoyable. I loathe to imagine my blacklung as a result of only a few years in the big smoke. At any rate, we've now cleared the air and managed to secure a good night's rest for us both once again.

On a more interesting note, we have also been enjoying the experimentation that is pizza making (and also the art of folded pizza making- calzones!). It's a great filling and versatile meal, and who the heck doesn't like pizza?! Not to mention that it can be done on a shoestring. We managed to perfect our dough (recipe below) on a spinach and ricotta calzone that was absolutely goldeny deliciousness!!! See for yourself!

After binging on calzones for several weekends straight, we decided to unfold the idea and have a pizza with what was on hand the other night. Rummaging around I saw that we had a few large onions, tomato sauce, mushrooms, yellow cheddar cheese and spinach along with some spices and other necessities. I thought I'd see what google would come up with for spinach and mushroom pizzas and I stumbled upon a recipe that also incorporated carmelised onions. Rather than using a tomato sauce it used a garlic cream sauce which made for a nice break from tradition. Here's the link to that specific recipe which also goes into carmelising onions (good thing we had some vinegar on hand as well). We tweaked it a bit according to what we had in our cupboards (substituting garlic powder, frozen spinach for fresh and cheese types for example) and it still turned out amazingly.

I'm so not looking forward to stir-fry tonight after seeing these! They're great not only because of their adaptability and budget-friendliness but also because you can work it well for vegetarians and vegans alike. That's a plus for us since we have so many friends of both persuasions! Here's that gorgeous dough recipe. It's measured for one pizza base or for one calzone (so if you make 2 calzones double it!)

Pizza dough recipe:
175 g flour
1 tsp salt (we found that doubling that for 2 calzones was too much)
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar (since we use activated yeast which requires sugar we don't add any additional)
1 tbsp olive oil (we use veg oil since we po'folk)
2-3 tbsp cornmeal/polenta to roll out

Okay so here's the dealio: Mix all that stuff together and add just as much water as is needed (just a bit at a time, likely only a few tbsp) and knead for 3 minutes. Leave covered for 1 hour or until doubled. Deflate it and then roll it out, using cornmeal to keep it from sticking in a terrible mess. Bake your goods with the oven whacked way up til it looks done. I'm a professional with these recipes, I tell ya. It's somewhere around the 20 minute mark.

In other news, we've managed to get our wedding photos all printed up now, so on with the next project of getting the photobook all put together. I'm sort of half looking forward to it and half dreading it but mostly just want the damn thing done with. I'm also working on another sewing project which I shall not tell much of here since one of the creations will be a gift for a friend.

Finally I'd like to salute my pink shoes. I purchased an incredible and bright pink pair of Diesel slipons a few years back at The Rack. The fabric is a sort of oriental pattern, very delicate and every time I wear them I get compliments, either by words or by looks of seething jealousy. I love it. But alas, I've been holding the wretched things together with staples as of late (introducing the shoes to the punk ethos) and their time has come to move on. I truly wish I could recycle them (or heck, just replace them with the same exact pair!) but I'm drawing a total blank about how that could be done. If you see any lovely shoes that might earn my love and replace these dear ones please do let me know. For now, RIP darling little shoes and the staples that adorn you.

An Ode to the Terribly Wonderful 90s

I was sitting here tonight when my iTunes suddenly switched to the unmistakeable intro lyrics 'U Can't Touch This' and just as happens every other time the song comes on my body begins twitching and swaying and the entirety of the song then proceeds out of my mouth- like it or not- and shamelessly so. I've since gone on a bit of a musical journey tonight and am convicted that if I don't share this experience the world will truly suffer a bit. Therefore, I proudly (perhaps too proudly) present a musical trapse through my 90s, the formative years in my musical taste development.

The journey begins, as we have already, with the now Reverend Hammer. Hammer pants and a bit of the ol' dissin' other artists... good stuff!


MC Hammer: U Can't Touch This 1991

I'm not sure how easily we can move on with this journey, seeing as that was untouchable by most people's standards, yet we must perservere, for it would otherwise be a dull trip. Our second stop involves a band very near and dear to my heart. My first love, my first CD (and I also owned them on vinyl and cassette), my first concert experience. And, I kid you not, my first staged walkout in protest of a cause I believed whole-heartedly in: having being teased for being a 'blockhead' relentlessly, when a teacher took up the banter I was compelled to rally the other fans together, exiting geometry class, my back emblazoned with the large lettering (straight from the fanclub itself)- New Kids on the Block.


NKOTB: The Right Stuff 1989

Now them's some moves! But I'm not sure that I've ever recovered from the jealousy of seeing those girls in the car with my boys, especially not with Joe *huff*. But as that was in fourth grade and I'm now happily wed, we'll let it slide once again. Onwards the music plays...

Perhaps a bit less recognisable, I'm not even sure who this dude is! But I can vividly picture the cassette single that I'm sure is still sitting in a box at my mom's house. A one hit wonder, with a dull video to go with it, so focus on the music, puhleeze. I'm sure it'll deliver ;0)


Paperboy: Ditty 1993

The next video is not for the faint of heart and I certainly hope that Tipper Gore doesn't get a glimpse of my blog. My first act of musical rebellion, so far as my memory serves, was with a stealthy purchase at The Warehouse of the single that raised absolute hell with censorship in the year 1990. So shake a fist at the system and enjoy the glimpses of fashion- in particular the giant peace sign earrings which I too owned in pink splatter paint!


2 Live Crew: Me So H***y 1990


Alongside all this early hip-hop and rap and pop crap, an untapped area of music layed in wait for me. I stepped into high school and was welcomed by rock n roll, greeted warmly by Metallica in the nightmareish form of Enter Sandman.

Metallica-Enter Sandman

Metallica: Enter Sandman 1991

I may easily get my fill of NKOTB these days but Metallica still owns. And while I've managed to let go of the fashion carryovers from the previous videos, the metal and grunge remains (and I'd still quite like to get an undercut!).

So that's part one of what could easily be 10 parts but for now we'll leave it as is. I hope you've enjoyed a bit of silliness and also been delighted to see me settle for something more acceptable. Oh and a word of warning: I saw today that scrunchees are coming back into style. Beware the return of the early 90s!

what a let down...

Rob walks into the bedroom today after getting up and checking the mail. He has a big envelope marked special delivery in his hand. It's document size and recogniseable to both of us Americans. My visa application. I tell him to sit down with me while I open it. I tear it open and pull out the documents. A lengthy letter explaining that just days before I posted in my application they increased the fees. My application was therefore invalid.

Fortunately they will refund my heap o cash and sent a new application. So today I will hastily fill out the new app and keep checking my balance for the money's return. Then reapply. And wait yet again.

Such a let down.

Prescription nightmares, being brutally honest, crafting Collectivity, and loving life with Aslan.

The last several weeks have been pretty immense. Rob and I got an update letter together to send to friends and supporters and it was so crammed full of what's happened with us since February. But especially the past couple weeks- they've been amazing!

I have been for the last several months really battling with being depressed and hopeless and I kept thinking it might be down to my birth control pill, hormones etc. but kept putting off going to have the prescription switched. Finally after yet another spell of crying and hating life (seriously) I decided to make a hasty appointment. The doc readily switched me and my mood improved within a couple days. I am so much more energetic, hope-filled, and just plain happy. It's like the sky has cleared. The thing that annoys me is that this particular pill, microgynon, has been a major issue for a lot of people, so I don't understand why they still dispense the crap. Apparently it's the cheapest on the market so that likely has something to do with it.

So that hurdle overcome, I can see life around me blooming with a lot of greatness and joy. This change came at a paramount time for me, being that I was speaking at The Bridge on some things that happened with my family a few years back and the death of my dad. It was the first time I'd publicly shared this and we (my family) were a bit afraid of doing so, but I knew it was what God wanted. To keep it in the dark would never help to liberate people from similar fates. I asked lots and lots of folks to pray for me in the week leading up to the Sunday and while I did have a few moments reflecting on everything that were heart wrenching, it was definitely covered in peace and hope. On the day I was sitting during worship and the thought came that this would be my last chance to change my mind. Once it's out there, it's out there and those words cannot be taken back. But just as that happened I felt like God was right there with me in the form of Aslan from Narnia, a great big menacing and fierce lion who would defend and protect me, but he was so cuddly and comforting to me. I buried my face in his coat and was filled with a sense of renewed peace and he stayed there by my side the entire evening and I could still feel that sense throughout the next few days. Even now it comforts me thinking about that. God always shows up in the most meaningful ways.

I shared my family's story and it was podcasted and it's soared in downloads with somewhere around 80 downloads in 3 weeks. When I think of all these people listening to this pain it really is humbling and a bit scary. So just to intensify that I'll post a link here lol http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebridgecollective/260409.mp3

Following that intense week we began prepping for the London Zine Symposium. We put together our own zine for the event, Collectivity. It was so much fun but a hell of a lot of work. We hand-stitched over 100 covers with the title and the zine was given out free at the symposium. We were blessed to get a table so that we could also put out Bridge flyers, Revolution of Love CD's, patches, and Speak Network booklets. We quickly gave away all of our zines to people who were stunned that it was such quality yet free. We got rid of nearly all of our flyers without even offering them to people forthright, all of our teaching CD's were sold (wonder what they think of them!), and all of our patches were sold too. All of the Speak materials were given out and we pretty much had a blank table for a couple hours hahaha! Rob was told by one of the organisers of the Alternative Press Fair that we should also attend and make Collectivity available. The guy made it pretty clear that he's not into religion but he really liked our zine- which isn't at all preachy but very much based on Kingdom values and the life of Christ. Hopefully it'll make a real difference in people's perceptions of church (along with our Jesus was a Heretic and We're not Assholes flyers, just for a bit of controversy) and we'll see some people live life for Christ.

I'm now listening to Dick Dale, enjoying a coffee and life in general. Oh yeah, I got my hair cut after trying my own hand at it and failing, so I went out and bought some cute punky ribbons to put in it. We've been able to begin tithing again and since have seen our finances change. I'm not into the whole 'health and wealth' gospel (even though bits are definitely true, but perhaps over emphasised), but this has proven true in our lives- give and it will be given to you, in good measure. God is so good, so faithful, and such an awesome dad!