Taste like whiskey when you kiss me.....

This is my new favourite song! I have it on repeat and it sounds very country folk singing BUT i love it! She is defoo going to be one of those singers who people go "remember Lady Gaga" or she will be 80 and still doing small gigs for people.

Anyway I wanted to blog it because it's a very good song! Im really sad about hearing that Steve has quit Apple. I suppose he is the image of Apple and it seems other people agree because their shares fell as the market closed for the day. I wonder what that actual means, does a small person press a button and say "market is closed" and then that is it for the day? I just wonder who actually has control of closing the market.

Par from that i have been R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G for the first time..... I AM LOVING IT! I am also going on holiday next friday, so I shall take photos of the place and get them up on the blog. In the mean time hit replay on the song..... you know you can't resist.

OH! in other news, I ordered four new books.... what? I feel the need to consume some books and i can only satisfy that with a shopping trip to waterstones.... dont begrudge me of that? Do you?

Im signing off in a very happy mood :) puurrrr!

My Epic Day

BAM! You know when you wake up and feel like rubbish? But you have a exam to do so you scrap yourself out of bed, where its lovely and cosy and start to get changed? Then you go to you're exam wearing no make up because you think "no one will be there"... only for you to get there and it to be an actual full scale exam hall with about 40 people. I'm not great at the best of times wearing no make up around people, but I have yet to do this in uni and the one time I decide to do it? Loads of people, granted I don't know them from Bartha but still!

Anyway the exams... are OVER.... eek! So happy. I'm stress free and i plan to be such a lazy person it is unreal. Tonight me and my boyfriend went for a lovellyyy yummy get in my belly please meal at the Parson's Nose (situated in hillsborough)

For starters I had: Seared Queens Scallops in a pea risotto with crispy bacon THEN to follow I ordered Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek pie with veggies along with a shared side order of potatoes. The meal was so great! I recommend it to anyone who lives near the area or is on holiday etc etc.

I also went to see the movie, Inbetweeners, which is another movie I would recommend, unless you don't like crude sexual jokes.... But all in all it was a veryyyy good day! :D

Maybe I can eat a few novels mentally over the weekend. Ohh so excited!

Grab your rain mac!

It's the start of the hurricane season and I want everyone to be introduced to Irene (right) She looks like a beasttt! Mother Nature is not happy. I'm going to be honest here and say that hurricane tracking via the media is one of my favourite (but geeky) hobbies. I just love hearing the updates as it gains strenght and people plan for its arrival. To have that power... it is a great example of how the world works. She could potientally make landfall in areas such as Florida and Carolinas. I wanted to document it on my blog because this is the first hurricane for the 2011 storm season and she looks like she could cause some harm. At the minute her winds are gaining over 100mph and has already brought flooding to the areas in the photo. BUT that is what is so great about mother nature, she could decrease as she moves further inland. You never know.

In other news, I am still on my steroids after going to the hospital today. I don't mind still needing to be on them, due to the whole "safety net" theory. When the time is right I am sure they will allow me to slowly come off them. Tomorrow is my final first sit exam, so fingers crossed.

In weird business news though this article caught my head, a london office has introduced bee hives in the workplace to "boost work morale" So my question to you is do you think it could actually boost morale? My opinion? In this modern society where people grow their own vegetables in small pots out their back garden, purchase more organic food or high food standard food than a couple of years ago and recycle until their heart is content. It can only mean one thing: people are open to new concepts and ideas. The whole bee's boosting morale in work? That's a brand new idea, which certain type of businesses could benefit from, especially if they start to produce their own mini products to give as bonus' presents to staff e.g. honey jars. The Bee Article

Toodles for now. Don't let the Hurriance get you :P

Get in my Belly....please?

Whisked sponge with a buttercream and raspberry filling

One of my favourite past times is baking. I find it so relaxing and I must admit, I love eating the left over mix that somehow didn't meet my quality standards (what?!)

Anyway this is a simple recipe that I have had in my recipe book since GCSE and the thing I love most about it, is that its a whisked, or as some call it "fatless sponge". This is my quantity that is enough to fill two sandwich tins (not sure of the size of mine, but they are mediumish in the look)

Ingredients

• 100g caster sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 4 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180 degrees. Add the eggs and the sugar until your mixture is pale, slightly fluffy and the whisk leaves a mark for 5 seconds
2. Sieve the flour BIT BY BIT into the mixture and FOLD (this allows more air and a lighter mix)
3. Pop mixture into sandwich tins and put them in the oven. I left mine to cook for 20mins, but depends on your oven and heat type.

I used a simple buttercream mix, 5oz of butter/stork and 280g of icing sugar with a splash of milk to make it less thick. Only spread icing sugar once the cakes are on the cooling rack and have cooled completely. For the raspberry filling I used Marks and Spencer raspberry jam, which i beat up in a cup to smooth it out and make it more workable (the jam isnt seedless, which made the overall end result look better)

So maybe you could try it yourself? Its very simple and in the last hour since it has been made there is only a quarter of my cake left. Its a great recipe to get small hands to help with, as there is little to no mess and you only need one bowl for everything (just wash it to make the buttercream obviously)

Toodle pips for now *drags stomach along the floor*

Is competition actually good?

Due to my love of marketing and also my choice of degree, I try to keep myself updated with what is going on in the media world. This one article stuck out and I began to question whether
a) it was worth the business re-investing money into their scheme
b) whether it would be enough to overtake their current competitors
c) whether it is too late for this company to successfully change their long standing coroprate image and values that have been engraved into their target customer's heads.

The article in question is about Pizza Hut and Pizza Express. The fact of the matter being that Pizza Express has announced better profits and expansion plans. The first thing I found odd was that Pizza Hut have never been "intimidated" by another company similar to their own. Pizza Hut is well known for being a place of fun family dining along with good food at great prices. Even when new take out pizza places opened, Pizza Hut seemed to hold their own in the market. This was before Pizza Express announced their plans to open up another 200 outlets, especially at a time when the recession and share prices are balancing on the edge of a very rocky cliff. This I expect has made Pizza Hut decide to "up their anti" with customer satisfaction and the image of their overall company.

Pizza Hut's plan is vast, which means a lot of investing revenue into the new scheme, which will hopefully increase sales and customer service. Pizza Hut have openly admitted that their customer satisfaction has decreased over the past few years. An example of one of their plans is to re-vamp their buffet option, resulting in making it less "trough feeding" for customers.

My question though is, will this "revamp" plan be enough for a company that has now socially become a "family" restaurant?

I personally see Pizza Express as a restaurant that can offer sophistication to their customers along with home made pizzas that include that bit of something special, for example toppings, whereas Pizza Hut has over the years become a chain pizza business that screams more of wanting profit than wanting customer satisfaction. Pizza Hut have become a business that tries to get their customers in and out of the door in under 60 minutes.  I just feel that they are too late in trying to change their entire corporate image and personna, especially in the face of their competitor who offer a different type of pizza eating experience, one which Pizza Hut couldn't afford giving to family, which at the end of the day is their target market, unlike young adult and special events, which Pizza Express try to target. I suppose I wanted to shed a light on the idea that even though the economy is struggling many businesses are willing to risk a lot of capital on changing their entire business layout/personna in order to gain back their market share and get ahead of competitors.

I have posted the full article link below for any of those interested.

*The opinions posted are my own and this blog post is my thoughts on the matter and can not be 100% accurate due to it being a opinion*

Pizza Hut Overhauls UK business

It's just....candy?

Well I forgot to update you about hospital my precious bloggyyyy *feeds it a steroid and waits for affect to kick in* and the prof (as I call her) has decided to keep me on the steroids for another week and then maybe slowly wean me off the candy? Apparently you have to do this slowly so you don't wake the GVH... its like a grumpyyy monster ;)

THEN! THEN! I start to sloowwlllyyy like teenie tiny tip toes get lowered from my anti rejection drug which I'm currently on 100mg, twice a day.... so that will take donkeys because they have to lower the night dose then balance the morning dose like scales. Oh well, everyone gets to their finish line at some point....

Par from that she was really happy with my bloods and said that she would expect them from a normal 20year old female. WHOOP! Of course I just nodded, because I never get excited about anything but its good to know my body is finally getting some rest, I feel sorry for all I have put it through. I probably know this is a silly thing to say but I deffo won't take my body for granted like others do to theirs.

Another person that I talk to at the clinic finally got their donor, so they are heading to Dublin in Sept, which I'm very happy about because it means that the sooner they go there and get it done, then the sooner they can go back to being normal BECAUSE that is what matters. So what if i did shit in a maths exam, cus at the end of the day I am.... well (lol sorta jus hit me how silly i was being)

Well that's all folks for tonight. I shall be looking after my sister's new puppy tomorrow night with my boyfriend. A wee rascal she is (the photo to the right is Tilly) THEN I will be revision crazy until Wednesday so I get awesome sauce marks in my FOM exam....

Tilly Pip ;) see what i did.... *pats blog goodnight*

Too hard on yourself?

I can honestly say I'm my own worst enemy. In every aspect of my life I never congratulate myself, and if I do something wrong or fail I punish myself by going over and over it again until I just feel a bit crappy about it.

Major examples of this include: me getting the clear on my PET scan, I shrugged my shoulders and said "okay"... thats not normal is it? I passed my exams whilst being ill... I said "cool".... I am awful at maths but still did a exam on it today and i am now kicking myself about obviously failing it. Why is it that you are you're own worst enemy? Maybe not everyone is that way, but I can't seem to praise myself for ANYTHING I do in life... BUT this is where it gets more weird, I can get SUPER excited about a new book, or driving with a new playlist for my car.... but never about important stuff....

I think you can guess that my exam did NOT go well. I actually couldn't answer a break even question (worth 20 marks) and I ended up walking out before the time was up on the exam... first time ever! I think if you really knew me as a person in the flesh you would understand how shocking that is for me.... I'm a nerd... NERDDDD! Gah! kicking myself much? I hate... no loathe loathe loathe MATHS! ggrr!

After my exam I took a trip to Mcd's for some lunch because my stomach was even talking in my exam like major gurgles. Anywayyy i tasted their new deli wrap with sweet chilli and lettuce..... TO.DIE.FOR.... so yummy and I felt less fatty for getting a wrap. You get me? I'm really wanting to keep the weight off that I have lost through chemo treatment, because I find that I'm somewhat happy now with my figure... so hopefully it continues (the healthy eating) I'm loving anything that has a creamy sauce because sometimes I still find food unmoist from my salvia not returning properly.... also i love mushrooms and peppers and anything that involves chicken atm... I had the same dinner two nights in a row because i was in food heaven with it!

I have another exam on the 24th of this month.... and it's all I can think about. I just feel so bad about this exam. I sound nutterish. Probably because I am.

I went also to the cinema tonight with my friend to see "Bridesmaid" was decent enough BUT i thought it could have been funnier, and they should have had the character "Helen" in more scenes, she was flipping hilarous!

Gah! I need a shower for my head... as my bf says "i need to put my brain in a jug of ice cold water" Can't wait till I can go off for a weekend and be... I dunno.... free? (in the sense of no worries... im stressed atm)