Octopus Balls and Curry Flavoured Fizz

Following on from yesterday's post, this one is dedicated to the food I bought at Hyper Japan Christmas Market on Saturday! Amongst other things, I tried a curry-flavoured soft drink, warm sake, and battered octopus balls...

Hyper Japan Christmas Market

On Saturday, my friend Sara and I headed off for fun and food at Hyper Japan Christmas Market at the Tobacco Dock, London.

The event involved more stalls/pop-up shops than you can shake a stick at, all selling goods relating to Japanese culture.

Queen of the Desert

At the beginning of the month, I went to a musical!
This was the first time I'd been to a musical, and I loved every moment of it.

The show in question was Prisculla: Queen of the Desert and starred Duncan James as Tick/Mitzi. (Performances at some other venues on this tour have Jason Donovan in the role.)

His popularity was somewhat evident by the number of delighted screams that erupted from the audience when he appeared on stage--which only grew louder when he stripped down to his underwear to change on stage! (Well, he does have a fantastic physique!)

The show was brilliantly acted, with some amazing vocal talent and seriously awesome costumes.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert is also a film, which I've watched multiple times, so it was interesting to see how close the musical was to the film.

The storyline is about two drag queens and a transgender woman (formerly a well-known drag performer) who escape the city in an old bus, and head across the Australian desert towards Alice, in order to perform a show. But a wrong turning and a frankly wrecked bus lead to the trio being stranded, and they swiftly end up on a journey far from what was expected.

My friends and I saw this show at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, which is a really gorgeous theatre!
I spent most of the performance either grinning in delight or staring, and left the theatre with CeCe Peniston's Finally stuck in my head, and mumbling, 'The costumes. The costumes!'

100% would see again!

Tea is a Herb!

So I've been eating more chocolate for goal #64 (any excuse, really): to try 50 chocolates that are new to me.
This time around, I'm deeming tea a herb, and proclaiming this post all about herby chocolate.
Well...tea is green...like herbs...right...?
The chocolates I've tried this time include green tea, basil and real rosemary...

New Goals

Reviewing some lists recently, I found a bunch of ideas for new goals for The List, and added these:

(Not my gif)

090. Ride a zip line

I'm not keen on the being suspended in mid air by a wire part, but whizzing through the air sounds like fun. Not sure where I can do this, but I'll try my best to do it with more finesse than Boris Johnson.

091. Make something with power tools

Power tools are noisy and dangerous. I have no idea how to use them. All the more reason to discover this and make something, right? I might even have a vague idea of what to make. Yay!

092. Learn a new skill

It's good to learn new things! I don't know what I'll learn yet, but there are plenty of options out there!

093. Complete 30 fanarts                            

Because I really needed another excuse to make art.

I've actually started a fanart project - mainly to practise digital art using Krita and a graphics tablet - but setting it as a goal makes it more likely I'll continue until I reach 30 pieces! 

The fanarts will probably all be of Full (who I painted a couple of times for goal #55). I like his style (sometimes dandy, sometimes a little unusual, sometimes outright insane) and his music is awesome. Also, I figure that drawing the same subject repeatedly is a good way to measure my improvement!

I'll post them here and on deviantART as I do them - am trying to make one per day!

So that's it for now. I can't believe that I still haven't reached 100 goals! 

Now to get working on more of them...

A Skirt for Autumn

Earlier in the year, I added a new goal to The List:

089. Make three items of clothing from patterns

As I explained before, the idea was to challenge myself to put more effort into sewing, as usually I'm very lazy, and avoid patterns if I can help it.

After making a dress for winter using a pattern from Burda Style magazine, I intended to use some of the remaining fabric to make a skirt from the same issue.

Now autumn has arrived, I finally made that skirt! (It's only taken me nine months to get around to it!)

The pattern is from Burda Style issue 01/2015, style 109:

As with the dress I made previously, this skirt was presented in two 'views' - one in multiple colours, as shown above, and one entirely in white.

I was inspired to make one using patterned and plain fabrics:

• Thick paisley cotton left over from making the dress (purchased at a charity shop).
• Liberty fabric. Possibly left over from somebody's interiors project (also charity shop).
• Red suit (I think) fabric, left over from a project so old I no longer own those trousers. (Tip: triple-check how much fabric you need, else you end up with masses left over!)

Despite my goal being to stick to the patterns, I did make some tiny changes:

1. Lengthened pattern

The original was too short! Also, the Liberty fabric I used was a skirt I'd made previously (and never wore). So I used the length of that as a guide!

2. Different fabric

In the view I was inspired by, the magazine had used suede. I used what I already had.

3. Adjusted the waist. Massively.

I will always have to adjust the hell out of garments I sew, because the bust-waist-hip ratio in pattern sizing never matches my body!

4. Different zip placement
The zip was in a weird place on the magazine's version, and the skirt I was cutting up had a zip at the back centre, so I used it! 

Time Taken:

1 day. I'm rather impressed with myself for that! 

Good Things:

1. The fabrics

I love patterns, and I love reds. This skirt combines the two

2. Coordination

It goes with other stuff in my wardrobe! Including the green waistcoat I never wore because nothing matched it! Yay!

3. Waistband interfacing

I have never heard of this stuff until now. It's amazing. The waistband turned out so neat!

4. Two down, one to go

Only one more garment to sew from a pattern before I've completed this goal!

What's Next:

I have no idea what will come next. A skirt? A dress? Trousers? A top of some kind? Maybe by next autumn I'll have made it!

Best Soup Ever

I can't believe I haven't posted this yet!
Back in July, I went to Lewes with my mum and sisters, and we ended up popping into one of Lewes' many cafes for lunch.

Le Magasin has a cosy and stylish atmosphere, and their menu had many tempting options, but as I wasn't very hungry, I opted for the soup of the day
The soup was mushroom, and came with artisan bread and a nice-sized knob of butter on the side.
Now, usually soup isn't something to get wildly excited about, but this soup tasted amazing. I enjoyed every mouthful and could have easily eaten a second bowl of the stuff!

Have a (tiny) Break...

 ...with the tiniest KitKats!

I picked these Japanese KitKats up at a stand at Kitacon, but hadn't eaten them until now, so that I could blog about them!

Also, I procrastinated over trying to figure out what one of them said...

Music, Wine, House Divine

Yesterday evening, I went to church, but did not worship.
Instead, I saw Moulettes, a fantastic band who I'd not even listened to until Tuesday evening!

After hearing the band on YouTube, I'd promptly forwarded links to a local friend, whose response was 'I am digging this!'. Then I collared my Dad and made him listen too. So the three of us went to the show together. Was slightly surprised to find a tiny bar set up, selling wine to us punters! Is it really okay to serve alcohol in a church...?! (Evidently. I think the vicar was drinking it too!)

The gig was part of Hurst Festival, which I wrote about last year, and held in the Holy Trinity Church, so you can imagine how fantastic the acoustics were!

Moulettes are a massively talented bunch who employ a whole range of instruments in their songs. Until this concert, I'd never seen any live performance that involved a bassoon or an autoharp!

The music is a real mishmash of progressive, psychedelic, neo-classical, folk rock, and I don't know what else. Lyrically, their songs are imaginative and inspired; the female-led vocal harmonies really show off the members' brilliant vocal abilities.

I really enjoyed seeing this band (and definitely had a 'daaamn this is great music' moment). As seen in the image above, the gig attracted people of a really wide age-range! During the intermission, a lot of people seemed to be impressed by what they'd seen so far!

The band had a merchandise table, which included CDs, T-shirts and....tea towels! (Could you get any more British?!)
I ended up picking up copies of their albums, because I have little restraint when it comes to music at gigs.
The recorded music sounds great too, but honestly, this is a band who you need to see live in order to appreciate their full talents.
If you happen to live in Canada, lucky you--they're just about to embark upon a Canadian Tour. (I mention this because I knooooow some of you live in Canada. :P )

You can find more information on Moulettes at their Official Homepage, including various social media links.


With this gig, I've completed a goal from The List, yay!

059. Go to 5 music events

It's taken me far too long to complete this goal, haha. This was one of my favourite shows, alongside last year's Sukekiyo gig.
The rest of my music event rambling can be found on the 59 tag.

Now go and listen to Moulettes! Look, here's their YouTube. See how easy I made it for you? :P

Anyone for a Spot of Chap Hop?

Back in July/August, I was up in Birmingham, feeding my inner nerd at Kitacon, one of the UK's anime conventions.
These conventions always have guests, and among them this year were 'chap hop' artists, Mr. Be The Gentleman Rhymer and Professor Elemental.

At first glance I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy their style of music (chap hop being like hip hop, but rather more posh-and-English)

I went along to their performance anyway, because the friends I was with wanted to go, and as another friend once said, "a free gig is a free gig."

And I found that I rather enjoy chap hop! With lyrics like 'Now, when I say "Earl Grey" you say "Yes please!"' (Professor Elemental, Cup of Brown Joy) how could I not approve?

Mr B. The Gentleman Rhymer was on first, singing entertaining ditties about being a chap as he played his banjo ukelele (...ok, so I had to wikipedia that instrument...)
(And yes, yes there is a devil of some sorts in the audience. It was an anime convention. Everybody was dressed up!)

Next up was Professor Elemental, wearing a fabulous union jack blazer and occasionally dancing around in the crowd. He and Mr B performed a few songs each time before switching, and also did a duet or two.

I know I've not written much about them here but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so go and check them out online:
Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer (Official Site | YouTube)
Professor Elemental (Official Site | YouTube)

Both are thoroughly entertaining characters, and in the words of Mr B., 'All Hail The Chap!'