Çerkez tavuğu

Having sniffled and sweated my way through a particularly nasty cold, I celebrated my first day of feeling well with a trip to Manchester with Amy this week; we did a bit of window shopping, returned something hideous I’d bought and most importantly we dropped in to a Turkish restaurant at 205 Deansgate: Topkapi Palace. Apparently Roger’s been to the real deal on a school trip; alas, I am but a poor lout who’s never been to Turkey. I’d seen this place the week before on my way to the Museum of Science and Industry and noted how it actually had people sitting inside, as well as a decent lunch menu of £7.95 for two courses, so we decided to give it a try.

Isle of Wight- The Garlic Farm

Here’s the deal: the MA is extremely time consuming. I’m having to read about 12 articles per seminar a week, which doesn’t sound like much but if you actually try to take everything in and make notes and all that jazz like I’ve been doing, it’s a long process. With PhD applications in and amongst everything else, I’m posting up two articles that I wrote last summer after I graduated. Those days were so warm and sunny, it’s nice to remember a bit of sunshine...

If Julie Andrews was forced to sing a song about my favourite things, I think she’d have a hard time. Garlic, cream and olive oil don’t rhyme very well. Plus they’re a cholesterol nightmare, but who cares? The magic properties of garlic are supposed to help with that.

My friend Lawrence lives on the Isle of Wight. With University finished and an expanse of a holiday before us, not to mention Lawrence dying of boredom on the Island, a road trip was in order. Cue a four-hour train journey to the sunniest depths of Warwickshire, where Roger and I drop in on Maddie and her equally mad family.  After meeting her lovely little stroke-riddled pooch, Buddy, Maddie then gave us a tour of her collection of grumpy horses before we finally met Grace, a big-eyed tubby sheep, blissfully remaining under the delusion that she’s a dog. After stopping to say hello, she followed us around the field, prompting us to continue scratching her big curly butt with a nudge using the full force of her big, warm sheepy body.