30 Day Song Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 - A song that makes you happy.

Guess what?

It's not Happy by Pharrell.  Shocking I know!

This one has some story behind it, so gather around kids, and Aunty Sam is going to tell you a tale.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away ( Sydney, Australia),  there lived a girl called Sam.  She thought she was a pretty hip and cool teenager because she had recently decked out her room in Guy Sebastian posters (If you don't know who he is... shame on you, but stay tuned to Eurovision this year cos he will be making an appearance), but she also discovered the presets before any of her other friends.  Sam was "so cool!"

That is until Sams' older sister started talking of a band.  A band so magical, that the only thing that describes their first album is to say "oh my god".

They sounded so different to anyone that Sam had heard before.  She started telling her friends.  They all thought that she was a little stupid for singing the lyrics "oh my God I can't believe it, I've never been this far away from home" while she was in the costco parking lot.

Fast forward to 2014 and Sam found herself camping in England at a little known festival called Glastonbury.  She was very upset because she was working the festival and although this band was going to be playing, she found out she was working when they were on stage.

Until the first morning, Sam was awoken from a deep cider induced slumber to the glorious sounds of the KAISER CHIEFS.  They were on stage playing a 'to be announced' gig.  Unfortunately because Sam is an idiot and didn't take her phone, she didn't want to leave camp without someone in fears of never seeing them again.

Sam however did start singing and dancing in her tent to a song that makes her happy.

After all, how can you not love a song with the lyrics

What do you want for tea?

I want crisps!

  

Aussie Out
xo

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30 Day Song Challenge - Day 2

Day 2  - Least Favourite Song.

I'm a huge music lover.

There is not a lot of music that I don't like so this one is a little tricky.

So the only thing I can think of right now (in light of a recent event of mine) is the winner of todays choice.




This song is just so cringe. 

It just gives me flashbacks of awkward moments of standing around not knowing what to do, while people are singing at you.  Not to mention the huge amount of pressure of blowing out all the candles at once and know that everyone is going to try to make you kiss the nearest boy if the knife comes out dirty when you cut the cake.

Yeah this song can burn in hell.

Aussie Out
xo

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30 Day Song Challenge - Day 1

Inspired by my timehop of when I did this 4 years ago, I thought I would try this again.

30 days.

30 songs.

Brace yourself... 30 DAYS OF POSTING IS COMING!

So lets start with today.

Day 1 - Favourite Song.

I don't know how I discovered this song.  I just remember always loving it.  It's not a song you hear on the radio often so it didn't get ruined by being overplayed.

I have a memory so clear in my head of being in a random shopping centre with my Mum and I heard this song being played throughout the shopping centre and telling my Mum that it was my favourite song.  She didn't know what to think and just ended up replying with "God you're an old soul"

So sit back, and enjoy the glorious hairstyles of the 90s





Aussie Out
xo

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Birthday Blues

I've never enjoyed my birthday.

It's just never really been a big deal in my household.

I was born the same day as my Dad so our celebrations were always together.  Same cake, half with blue candles and half with pink.  Joint birthday "dinners" as I don't recall ever having a party of my own.

Then there was my 16th birthday were my family moved houses.  I woke up on the sofa and spent the day lugging furniture backwards and forwards towards the old and new house.

So when the dreaded date approached, I didn't think too much about it.  I didn't want a fuss.  I was scheduled to work and that was just fine.  

Charlotte however seemed to want to make my life hell, telling me about a surprise that she had planned for me.

That is my idea of my personal hell.  I hate surprises more than anything else. 

I don't like people making a fuss about me.  It leaves me so uneasy to think that people have spent time trying to do something for me. (Yay for having issues!) 

So the week leading up to the dreaded day wasn't so bad.

I was at a pub and a guy thought I looked 23 and when I told him how old I actually was, he claimed that I had great genes.

Not that age is an issue.  It's a fact that we all get older, so there is no point in it being a huge deal, but people saying that you look young is always a cheeky bonus.)

So as Saturday rolled around, I was at happily at work until I felt my phone starting to go crazy in my pocket.  And then I realised that it was officially my birthday at home.  

It's a strange feeling knowing that it's your birthday at home, but where you are is still the day before.

So the night before I had an early night, ready and dreading what the surprise could be the next day.

So work was fine.  My workmates sang me happy birthday a lot and then got me a card which everyone had signed.  

After work,  Charlotte and Lucy met me and surprised me with cards and cake.  They didn't want to tell me what we were doing but after seeing how un- enthusiastic I was about this surprise, Charlotte decided to give in.  We were going to Karaoke!

So we headed to so-ho, where we met up with Thom and Steph and chilled out in the park watching people play table tennis for a while.  We then headed for some food at Ed's Diner.

After that we, headed out for a wild night of singing cheesy music and jumping up and down making fools of ourselves.

Seeing as singing cheesy music in the living room is a regular thing in my household, this was the perfect thing to do for my birthday.  

Even though I hated the fact that it was a surprise, it all worked out well in the end.

So now I'm another year older.

I still hate surprises.

I still hate people making a fuss about me.

But this year will be a good year - I hope!

Aussie Out

xo

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Going Retro

Sometimes the most fun you can have on a Friday night is going old school.

It all started on a random night in where most of us in the house thought how quirky and cool it would be to go to a roller disco.

So after a quick google we found a Roller Disco hall, and bonus, it was close to home.

Bad point, is that the place was closing down... ohh and Charlotte can't skate.

So we decided to give it a go the next week.

Friday rolled around (get it... rolled around.. roller skating... moving on), and the house started getting ready.  We had a couple of drinks but decided to not get smashed as alcohol and roller skating wasn't going to be the best combo.

So we headed to Vauxhall to get our retro on.

After the huge struggle of trying to find the place and deciding that because it was so impossible to find would be the only reason why the place was closing down, we finally found the place.

So we paid out entry fee (£12 skated included), and started noticing that we were very under dressed.  We lacked leg warmers, tutus and lycra which apparently was the uniform of the roller disco.

So we all sat down and put our skates on.  We must of looked nervous as a worker came over to us and taught us how to stand up without rolling away and pulled us over to the rink so we could get our skate on.

Turns out skating in a circle to uptown funk, shake it off and sing is the ideal way to spend a Friday night.

There were 2 rooms, one which was a professional room where if you could not skate up to standard, then the marshal would blow a whistle, point at you and shame you away back to the normal room.  No pressure!

I have to say that it was super refreshing to have a great Friday night and not have a sore head in the morning.  Just sore legs.

So even though that this roller disco is now closed *tear* I highly recommend to find one near you and just give it a go.

You might even surprise yourself and not fall over (like me.. BOO YEAH!)

Aussie Out
xo

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Stranger Danger

Hello.

My Name is Sam and I'm a bad blogger.

I have plenty of "Reasons why I haven't done my homework" type of excuses however.

1. Life got in the way.  Sad to say that this is the biggest lie but I thought I would start with it cos hey lets start off with a lie.  I work weekends.  During the week, I have nothing to do.  If anything I should be blogging more.  Soz.

2. I was in a slump.  Very sad to say this is very true.  You know when no matter what you do, you just cannot motivate yourself?  Well I had that for a week.  It got so bad that I didn't even want to walk downstairs because my housemates were in the lounge and I didn't want to pretend to be happy, So I spent many a night dying of thirst.  I am not proud of myself but I am out of that funk so happy to announce that I have a tea sitting by me right now.  Yeah I'm such a semi-functional human being!

3. I was sick.  Also the truth.  I decided to pick up some cheeky overtime shifts at work to help with my slump.  Turns out that standing in the wind and rain for 8 hours was not what my body thought would be a good time and it struck me down.  I came home from work on Monday freezing cold.  Sat on my sofa shivering.  Decided to go to bed, put on my warmest pjs, put the heater on along with the raditor and snuggled under my duvet... shivered and shivered.  I woke up the next morning with what can only be explained as the fires of hell in my throat and no voice.  Today being my 1 week "omg I'm dying" anniversary, today is the first day I'm actually starting to sound like myself. Take that life!

But the overall reason is ... I just got lazy.

I'm Sorry.

But I'm making a comeback so watch this space!

Aussie Out

xo

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Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

So it's been a while since I wrote a baking blog.

I've wanted to make something I haven't made before, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to make.

Charlotte wanted me to make lemon drizzle cake, so I changed it and made it into cupcakes.

I've never made lemon drizzle cakes, nor have I ever tried a lemon cake, so totally unsure about how it should actually taste, it was time to bake.

This recipe should make 24 cupcakes 

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius

You will need:

250 grams of unsalted butter at room temperture

400 grams of caster sugar 250 grams for batter, 150 grams for icing

3 eggs, lightly beaten

250 grams of self-raising flour

zest and juice of 3 lemons

Line cupcake tray with cases.

With an electric whisk, whisk the butter, 250g of the sugar, eggs, flour, zest of 2 lemons and juice from 1 lemon until just combined. Fill the cases two thirds full, then bake on a middle shelf for 30 minutes, until a skewer poked in comes out clean.

Leave to cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.  Once slightly cooled, poke holes in the top of the cupcakes.  Pour remaining lemon juice over the remaining 150 grams of sugar and the zest of 1 lemon and spoon over the cakes.

These cupcakes are super sweet and not recommended if you are on a diet.

Enjoy!

Aussie Out

xo

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