AmsterDAYM Day 1

How have I not yet posted about the hilarity of the trip that was Amsterdam?! Fail... Its so far back now that I don't even remember half of it (though that could have been down to the 'vibe'), but luckily I did some writing while I was out there which I've just found! So, here are my ramblings from my trip to Amsterdam...and some pictures too!

Well its been a while in the making, but here I am in Amsterdam, coffee shops galore! The people are lovely, the city is beautiful, and the coffee shops...wow. Not that I've gone full blown tourist and smoked away my whole time here thus far. Me and my partner in crime have wandered the streets of our quaint suburb of Haarlem. For anyone that's interested in visiting Amsterdam, I would definitely recommend staying in Haarlem- it's nicer, cheaper, and though quite a way out of the main hub, definitely worth it. Despite being called Haarlem, I think it resembles a Dutch version of Bath. Organic food, tea rooms, fancy restaurants, lovely! They even had a rather impressive flower festival on our last day...but back to the beginning!

After a beautifully sunny bus ride into Haarlem from the airport, we stepped off into a rather brutal hailstorm which proceeded to destroy our rather flimsy map every time it was exposed. However, we eventually arrived at our Wimdu destination and were pleasantly surprised by our lovely little attic room above an organic restaurant equipped with two very comfy beds, a chandelier, and a kitchen with fridge and freezer at our disposal - not too shabby! 

So after enjoying a glass of wine with our landlords, we ventured out to find Haarlems nightlife and found ourselves at an open mic night...of pretentious proportions. Deciding we stuck out a little too much in our travelling gear, we got directions to the nearest coffee shop where we purchased a modest amount of hash and proceeded to terrorise a lovely lad from Finland with twenty questions. He seemed a little slow, and after 2 tokes of his spliff I could see why. Good christ. There's a reason its called super skunk. Once we could no longer keep it together, we embraced the streets in hysterics and laughed our way home. Not a bad first day! Although there was slight embarrassment when we couldn't make the key work when we got back...shockingly our landlord had no problem when we finally went to ask for assistance...

Basic blogger

So clearly I am the worst blogger like EVER. Laaaaaaaazy. In my defence, I didn't want to bore people with mundane bits of information but as I have 3 followers, I don't think it matters cause no-ones reading it aaaaaanyways!

Now I've had this epiphany (and am currently unemployed-more on that another day) I have de died I am going to blog AT LEAST once a week. I have no excuse now that's have a swanky iPhone-the world is at my fingertips!

So look forward to many a post of my cooking inventions, I like to experiment, and if your lucky, some mundane thoughts.

I think my baking passion was born when I became completely obsessed with The Great British Bake Off. Bizarrely it was while I was dieting, I couldn't go a day without watching some sort of cookery programme, although that was my favourite. So unsurprisingly I decided to try one of the recipes from the show this morning when I decided my very hungover friend needed some cupcake love. I call these little gems, Strawberry Inspired Orange Cupcakes!

Here's where you can find the original recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/raspberry_and_cream_89607

Cupcake love

Although I made a few amendments... Before any cooking began, I boiled an orange after zesting it and cutting it in half for about an hour until it was reeeeeally soft and then blitzed it with a hand blender. Keep the orange zest separate as I did do this once and blitzed the entire orange but the skin made the mix a bit bitter so better to zest it first and then boil.

I then made the cake mix according to the recipe above, and added in the orange mush at the end. Whilst tasting, add the zest bit at a time until you feel the taste is right. I'd probably use roughly half, but trust your tastebuds!

After lining the muffin cases, I put a dollop of cake batter into each cases, followed by 1/4 tsp of strawberry jam, and a 1/4 of chopped strawberry, before adding another dollop of cake batter. You want the piece of strawberry to be well covered to ensure it doesn't burn in the oven.

Popped into the oven, I let them bake for roughly 20 mins whilst getting on with the icing. Again, I followed the recipe above pretty closely except for adding in strawberry jam instead of fresh strawberry's and a little bit of the orange zest from earlier.

After allowing the muffins to cool, I made an icing bag out of a plastic zip lock bag and piped it on. As you can see from the photo, the first ones (left) took an a rather dog turd aesthetic...not ideal. So I attempted to do hearts on the rest of them.

Gotta say, pretty darn yummy! And before getting involved, I recommend watching this brilliant lady....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-BxWV77MGc&feature=player_embedded&fb_source=message

Happy baking kids!!! Xxx

New Year, New Fun!

Well well, Happy New Year to all who I haven’t said it to yet. I have to say, I am rather excited about what this year has to bring. We’ve barely skimmed the half way January mark and behold, I have a 12-month plan in place. Knowing me, it will change daily but it’s always nice to have something to look forward to isn’t it?! I’ve found that its much easier to power through the tougher days/weeks when I know I have something to look forward to at the end of it. For instance, to shake off my post-xmas January blues, I am currently on the train to go and visit friends and family very spontaneously and I’m already feeling on top of the world! It’s a beautiful sunny day, I’ve managed to bag myself a table on the train (which was a ½ price deal, otherwise it would be coach-lucks on my side!), they have the heating up on full and I’ve got a brilliant packed lunch of home made red pepper hummus, mixed salad, and a freshly cracked coconut (by me, for the first time!) in my bag- ahh life’s little pleasures!

It’s been a while since my last blog, which is probably why I’m babbling, so to get you up to date, I’m now eating conventional food again. Post diet, I’m a size 12 and loving it (although not loving the few extra pounds that xmas was kind enough to bring). I think I’m now just getting used to finding my own style. Although I had a certain way of dressing before, I don’t think I felt like I could pull off any of the looks I’d like to. The problem now is that I have so many ideas, and looks that I want to try and absolutely no cash to back it up! In fact my purse strings are well and truly frayed due to the amount that they’ve been pulled. I’m very proud of myself from walking away from this amazing purple fur coat from top shop that I spied en route to catching my train today. Why I even tortured myself by going in in the first place I don’t know, but there it was- beautiful, in my new size and £60 off…I made a swift exit…

 I recently finished my third assignment in my Open Uni course. Now, not to be a bragger but I must say I am doing rather well – much better than I ever thought I would. Its really nice to get such a boost from learning, I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it! I have recently booked a flight to NYC for a month, yes I said it, a MONTH!!! I’m beyond excited. Not only do I get to go to the city I’ve been dreaming about since Sex and The City / Friends entered my life but I finally get to go and see the New York School of Jazz. I’ll never be able to afford to go but I can’t wait to just look around, meet the tutors, and see if I could actually get in (after I’ve completed all my grades and music theory…dullsville!). It’s been said before, but the website is so very nearly there. Had a look at it the other day and its coming on really well, just need to tidy up a bit here and add in a bit there and then we’re flying. However, for me it must be up by the end of the month so if need be I’ll stick up a ‘coming soon’ page and get the others up there so at least there’s a place to go and get in touch with me, and check out all upcoming gigs, if you so wish!

Talking about gigs, I kicked off the New Year with a blaster at The St George’s Acoustic Music Festival. The boys and me did 6 tunes, all originals, and were tight, as you like! The sounds in that place really is amazing, whenever I stand on that stage I feel so much history. Thinking of people I’ve seen perform there before me is a very special thing. So let me say a big thank you to Jelli Records for inviting me to play there and treating us so well. That was the first time I’ve ever been given a green room. When I inquired where I could find a tap, someone bought me a bottle of water 5 minutes later, I felt like a celebrity! Parts of the set will be broadcast on BCFM Radio, I’ll let you know when so you can lend your ears! I’ll also get the file of the whole thing so I can put it on the website so you can listen at your leisure.

Righty, I think that’s about all you need to know for this month, apart from- catch me at Plantation on the 11th Feb and at The Croft suppting DJ Derek on the 25^th Feb – I’ll be there, with the boys, original songs on hand, and at some point, the newly refurbished Hop House… For all news please refer to my page www.facebook.com/ngaioanyia until the website’s up and running, and pass on to your friends, family, acquaintances and annoyances, and get me heard! I thank you in advance.

Until next time, chin up, shake of the January blues, there’s always something to look forward to!

Much love xox

Shambala bala bala

Well well, here we are in September already! Why does the summer always have to go by so quickly? I feel like I’ve barely seen the sun in between working and gigging! However, it is an amazingly lovely day today, which is nice to wake up to.

So, biggest achievement in August was playing at Shambala festival all by myself! No double bass or guitarist to keep me safe, just me, and four completely new songs never heard before and my very basic guitar playing. May I at this moment remind you that I started playing guitar from scratch last summer so as you can imagine I was shitting myself! Zipped myself up in my tent for almost the whole of Saturday practicing until my fingers were raw, but all in all I must say it went incredibly well. I was playing in a little yurt in the healing fields called the Glo Stage, which was very chilled out and full of the most attentive audience members I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing for!

Of course being nervous I started on the wrong capo on the third song, and sped up to a rather incredible speed during my fourth song but it was brilliant. Huge cheers and lots of pats on the back after my set, (even an encore which I hadn’t prepared so left them wanting more…which I think is always better in the long run!) and two people came up to me after and told me I’d made them cry with my songs! Obviously tears are never my intention, but it’s always nice to know that my songs are touching people.

So yes, Shambala performance wise was incredible, and the festival its self was absolutely insane! For such a small festival, it has an epic impact. I didn’t stop dancing for the full four days I was there which is saying something!

As if that wasn’t enough to give August month of year award, I came home to discover all my Open University materials had arrived- yeeesssss!!!! I cannot wait to start my course- The Arts Past and Present. It looks fascinating, and I feel like my brain needs to be exercised a bit more, no-one has use for a lazy brain. Not to mention, all the stuff I’ll be learning will surely give me some more song material, which would be awesome as Shambala, has given me the acoustic bug!

Aaand last but by no means least my website is finally ready for the world! It should be up by this evening if all goes to plan and then there will be a Ngaio hub of knowledge for anyone who’s interested. We’ve got all the usual suspects- bio, blog, gallery, music, contact etc and I am SO excited! A massively HUGE thank you to the brilliant Sophie O’Kelly for designing it and Chris Humpherson for persevering with it. And a special thank you to Kal for the building business. It wouldn’t of happened without all of your genius people so thanks.

Right, well that’s my babbling done. Have a wonderful day in the sun, and have a cider for me ;)

xox

Teaching, Living, and Appreciating

Well, after 5 days of chord finding, songwriting, singing, teaching, assisting, camping, camp-fireing and lighter-lifeing in the great outdoors I must say that when I got to Wiviliscombe I was knackered to the point of falling into the spare room at my aunt and uncles house after a well deserved bath and sleeping until my cousin got up the next morning- she’s 8, it was early.

Now that I’ve had some time to re-couperate though I must say I’ve realized how much I do love the countryside. Having lived in Wales from age 5-9 and having to deal with the racial issues that come with being the only ethnic person in a small town where everybody talks, a part of me had decided that yes the countrys nice for a visit, but ultimately not to live…thankfully I’ve realized that’s completely untrue. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to move to the country tomorrow, I love Bristol life way too much for that, but its definitely something to consider when old age comes a-calling. This is enhanced by the fact that I’m at this moment sunbathing in a beautiful garden with nothing in the distance except fields and the blue skys- not too shabby!

Back to my last fun-filled week, being workshop assistant at Imayla’s Music and Film Camp was even more brilliant than I thought it was going to be. Yes it was cold, and rained almost everyday (except the day we went home…typical!) but the energy that came from everyone there was what kept me going. There’s no better feeling than helping someone make something that they’re proud of. The inspiration I get from working with young people is next to none. The ideas that come out, the melodies and the words, it reminds you of how hard it is being younger, and even though I still feel like a young person, and am in a lot of ways, I think that the resilience in people to withstand whatever’s thrown at them and still manage to look at the world in a positive way is remarkable.

The whole experience was amazing, and the last day where it all comes together and everyone shows each other their work is the biggest pay-off. It was emotional and beautiful and is already being reminisced about. I can’t wait to get the DVD/CD’s so I can re-live it all again! I definitely need to look into working with young people a lot more in the future, there’s nothing like it.

In terms of next week, I’ll be doing some evaluating of the week just passed and then I’m off to Shambalah to perform COMPLETELY by myself, which has never been done before. I will be armed with only my acoustic for company, just hope I can keep it together for the full set- its only 20 mins so I’m feeling fairly hopeful. And then I get to go off and enjoy the entire festival, well I’ll be coming back on Saturday so pretty much all of it.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, the website is very nearly ready. It’s all been designed, all I need to do is put in all the relevant text and update the gallery and then we’re ready for launch baby!!! Watch this space….

Once again, much love. Update you soon xox

Silent thoughts in the Social

Introspection can be a curse
Especially if your good with words
Who knows what you'll drag
Out of your mind?

So much self obsession
To try and find some meaning
Some understanding
In things that don't make sense

Life isn't there to be figured out
It was never meant to be solved
The only power we have
Is over how we live it

For if we don't live by religion
And morality is nothing but good intention
Whats to stop this society
From falling into the forgotten generation?

Nothing to fight for
Except more power
Nothing to live for
Except desire

Who can define our identity
And be able to sum it up entirely?
What makes us different from the rest?
Apart from the screens embedded in our heads?

So focussed on whats happening
Somewhere else in the world
We can't see what's here
Right in front of us

So dependant on someone else's fantasy
We can't pick our own
Banished imaginations
Adds to mondane conversation
No wonder you're bored.


All content copyright to Ngaio Anyia

Sat 6th Aug, 2011 - My first blog entry

So I guess I've decided to start my blog today because it's the first day I've actually been able to sit down and reflect on the major changes that have happened recently.

To ease you in I moved house at the beginning of this week. The location is amazing, right next to St Andrews park which is for any Bristolians who may be reading, the best place for the summer. My new home is small, wonderfully warm, and full of boxes. There's been no time to unpack but I've got my cosy bed area sorted and really thats all that matters at the moment!

I've also entered the month mark of doing LighterLife which has been a big change but is something that is actually fairly easy to do and has such quick results it's hard not to stay on track. I've been doing it for a month as I said and I've lost 1st4lb's which are hard results to beat!
I've also very nearly got my music website up and running which I'm really excited about because it looks awesome thanks to my lovely friend Sophie O'Kelly designing it in her spare time for nothing except my undying love, which she of course has :P

The bands going really well, me and my lovely guys have begun to introduce a drummer and are working on building up the horn section so that we can start doing bigger, better gigs. I'm also going to be going along to a rehearsal with a new reggae band because gigging with Laid Blak did show me how much I love singing reggae, chiiiiillll viiiibes. So we'll see how that goes- keep ya posted.

Finally, http://www.boohoo.com/ is the best place for fashionable, affordable buys and I've fallen for these heels just a little bit....If only I could walk in heels! I will teach myself....

And despite not actually eating any conventional food at the moment I have started watching cookery shoes- not for any masochistic reason, purely because I love discovering new recipe's so here's one I watched today-http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pork_sausages_with_43956 - pork sausages with pineapple salsa. Now I'm not a pineapple fan but this salsa looked really rather good. I'll be trying that once my life is lighter!

Right well, hope you enjoyed my first rambling blog!

Much love xox

P.S I would recommend 'A Tiny Bit Marvellous' by Dawn French- laugh out loud in the truest sense.