Randomness

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Review: The Swallow Bakery, Cheltenham.

JpegMy first visit to the Swallow Bakery was back in 2012, whilst working at The Times Cheltenham literature festival (in the kids tent), and en route to the train station homeward bound, decided to stop by because it was right next to the festival tents. In a rush I grabbed a cupcake which was so scrumptious with a generous serving of icing, I knew I would have to comeback again. 
JpegCut to December 2014 and beyond I throughly enjoy returning because the cakes are THAT good. Above on the left is the three-tiered lemon cake.JpegAs you can see there is luscious, thickly spread icing between the beautifully moist sponges and very tasty icing on top and a squiggle of cream! Indulgent and satisfyingly creamy. Not the place to go when you’re on a diet! The slices are gigantic! You definitely receive generous, dreamy servings in this bakery.JpegFirst I ate the panini on the far right . It is a delicious, can’t-go-wrong: chicken, mozzarella and pesto filling. All good and served hot. This savory sandwich was followed by the lemon cake and Bailey’s cupcake eaten in alternating intervals of the cakes; per two bites. My taste buds relished the juxtaposing rich, creamy lemon cake followed by bites of the chocolately cupcake. Yes I am indulgent like that! Greedier than Nigella Lawson! The icing tasted of Bailey’s and sat atop the complimentary chocolate cupcake sponge. Absolutely fabulous! I urge you to visit the Swallow Bakery. (Or better yet order online as they prepare x24 cupcake batches for home delivery! Wow!) For readers outside of the UK at the time of this writing: http://swallowbakery.com/pages.php?pageid=2   states: “We can ship to virtually anywhere in the World.” Double Wow!!!

Though I am happy to commute an our for an afternoon in glorious Cheltenham and loose-leaf tea & cakes in this particular café.

The drawbacks to this lovely place is that the cakes  sit prettily with no cake stand glass lid! Argh! So if you’re lucky the cake will be fresh and moist. If you have popped in on a quieter day then with no lid covering the cake you find one slice horribly dry and unappetizing. Damn!

No problems with the panini’s tasty and sufficient fillings inside. However the other ‘warm’ foods like the mini burgers are  cooked presumably earlier on in the day then simply left out on display so when you eat it, it is COLD!!!!!  *Bleurgh!*

So this lovely café receives 7/10. In my humble opinion this deserves a “very good” label.

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When Beyoncé met Terry Richardson. (2013)

bey3Beyoncé’s photoshoot for GQ magazine shot by Terry Richardson encapsulates everything about the post-noughties era we are in. Let’s start with that hairstyle.

The extremely highly placed bun a.k.a. The Basic Bitch Bun. Still worn with wildfire vigor by “extra regular girls.” The setting of a minimalist interior echoes the growing surge in simple-living. Throwback continues to be the word du jour and that is made manifest by the Warhol-esque image of Beyoncé on the wall behind her asserts all that Andy stood for: fame, making the ordinary extraordinary and embracing the All-American. The entire photograph itself reflects just that with irony thrown in for good measure.

Why is one of the most extraordinary woman on the planet having her her up in the “extra regular girl” style? The newspaper she holds is angled to show the word “sanity” and one can  assume the folded prefix part prints the letters “i” and “n”. An All-American baseball sports sweatshirt lies on the couch with her. Her glasses perhaps represent the thriving pseudo-intellectualism rife on the internet or she’s copying Terry’s signature look.

Having always thought Richardson’s aesthetic was always the same, like his photos could be viewed as having been taken on the same roll of film even if the photos are decades apart. Today I notice the  subtle shifts in his work. When you look closely his images really do tell you how new or old the shot date was. Terry Richardson has done an excellent job of capturing the post-noughties zeitgeist and as always we will appreciate it more years after seeing the photo.

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My 3rd Biggest F-A-N-T-A-S-Y.

I wish I could runaway. ESCAPE. Leave everything, everyone. I wish I could delete every single person OFF Facebook. Forget about ‘friends’ and family. I just want to have a fresh new start in a NEW city where nobody knows me. I want new, fresh, positive experiences and encounters with NEW people, good people.

In this fantasy I would NEVER encounter a soul I had met or have interacted with before. Anybody in anyway linked to my past would cease to exist.

Should I do it? Should I run away and escape. I REALLY want to delete EVERYONE off Facebook right now. Like, really REALLY!