The Susanne

I am writ­ing an essay on Tess of the D’Urbervilles. It is the first time I have come up with an idea about what I want to write, then an essay out­line, and THEN star­ted writ­ing, in my entire car­reer as a stu­dent. I feel so… well, I feel good. And clever! True, my essay is due tomor­row and I only star­ted writ­ing today. But I will do it! I will com­plete my mag­ni­fi­cent essay and reap the glor­i­ous rewards.

Turns out, I have ter­rible memory! That was not my first dress at all. About a year ago I made a stun­ning blue wool dress for 17. May, it’s a ’60s style ‘mini’ dress from an ori­ginal pat­tern I found in a Burda magazine from the early 1960s! Actu­ally mum and I bought the magazine and the fabric in 2003 after I had got it into my head that I couldn’t live without an authen­tic ’60s mini dress. But of course it all came to noth­ing as I was young and wild at the time. ha!

I just made my first dress. I per­son­ally believe it’s gor­geous. Made from an old bed sheet and some cheap cur­tain mater­ial I got from IKEA, I tried to find a pat­tern online but found noth­ing like what I wanted. So I ended up impro­vising, as I am wont to do. It took all night and many tries, but I actu­ally man­aged to make my very first, amaz­ing dress. I wonder if I should sew in my own label.

I bought a Jane Austen note­book today. It’s bril­liant! It has blank pages except a quote on the bottom on each page. I love it, and can’t wait to fill it with….well… I don’t know yet what I need it for, I just need it. Just as I needed the five books I bought whilst wait­ing for the bus the other day.

Yes­ter­day I had the best sur­prise I’ve had in ages! The boy­friend and I went to check the mail for some video games he had ordered (they hadn’t come) and behold! there, in our mail­box, was a strange envel­ope post­marked Flor­ida, addressed to me! Stand­ard letter size, hand writ­ten. I was amazed. Who on earth do I know that is in Flor­ida and has my address?!

Well puzzled, I opened the envelope…and (drum­roll) I found a Laugh-Out-Loud-Cats car­toon! Custom made for ME! It’s beau­ti­ful! and incred­ibly funny. To me, at least. And The boy­friend. In fact it’s our own very private in-​joke and I’m not going to explain it. Ha! But I’ll post the car­toon. Maybe you’ll find your own hil­ar­ity in it:

Also I have been think­ing a lot about my love of food lately. There is prob­ably noth­ing (next to read­ing) that I love as much as cook­ing. But I seem to have a some­what dif­fer­ent take on cook­ing than most other hobby chefs out there. I have hardly ever used a recipe. I usu­ally look through cook­books for inspir­a­tion and maybe look up cook­ing time for a roast if I’m making one. But besides that I always just think of what I would most like to eat, and make it. So if I feel like salmon, mush­rooms and broc­coli that’s what I’ll make. I never say never but still: I never cook ‘complete meals’ like the ones you will find in recipes. I.e. this one from Martha Stew­art (whose web­site I use a lot for inspir­a­tion). It’s basic­ally pork chops, which I like to make every now and then. But I don’t see myself making that meal. Instead I would prob­ably think ‘Oh! Yum! Fennel and garlic!’ and make the chops with fennel and garlic, and whatever I felt like on the side. Prob­ably pota­toes as I love them and I’d most likely make a pan gravy, and whatever veget­able I felt like that day or even whatever was in my fridge.

I have been feel­ing a little self-​conscious about my way of cook­ing. But I have real­ised that my way is just as good as any other way. Besides, with the amount of love that goes into each of my (ori­ginal!) recipes they all taste amaz­ing! So, yey me! I’ll even throw in a pic­ture of what I’ve got in the oven right now. I found the recipe…nowhere

And that’s it. I’m done toot­ing my own horn. For now.