Pancake Tuesday!

Seeing as it's Shrove Tuesday and as a result I've decided to share the recipe I use for pancakes. I'm wheat and dairy intolerant, so I have to use special ingredients for most of the things I make. And contrary to popular belief, they don't taste all that bad!

The flour that I normally use is completely gluten-free, so it's suitable for people with coeliac disease. You can buy it at Dischem; it's the Cake Flour mixture from the Nature's Choice range. It's possible that you might be able to find it at health stores as well.

Depending on how "rich" you want your pancakes to be, you can use either water or milk for mixture, or use 1/2 water and 1/2 milk. For dairy-free milk, I like to use rice milk (I'm not crazy about the taste of soya). You can buy rice milk at Woolworths or Pick n Pay, or buy the milk powder at any health store. If you do buy the powder, mix it into milk first before beginning with the recipe.

I haven't made any pancakes today, simply because I'm too lazy, so I've no pictures to share. But the cold weather's coming along soon, which is perfect pancake weather, and when I make some again I'll put some photos up.

Dance One Year In, Kiss One Goodbye

The view from my room a few Christmasses ago

Well, that's exactly what I'd been hoping to do this year on New Year's Eve: dancing. Unfortunately, I was painting buckets (or "chundering" as Simon calls it) the new year in at an unprecedented pace. And no, it wasn't from drinking (I don't drink) or stuffing myself with delicious nothings (I'm not an over-eater). My digestive system has always been rather dodgy, so whenever a little germ comes along that seems to think I would make a nice host, I can be assured of a few bucket painting exercises.

It's certainly not the best way to ring in the new year, and I've definitely had better New Year's Eves, but at least I made it into the new year in one piece. This all happened while the parents and I were visit my sister and her in-laws in the lovely little seaside town of Struisbaai next to L'Aghulhas. I really like it there and I think the lighthouse is beautiful; I have a thing for lighthouses. But we stayed too weeks, which was just a little too long for my taste this year. With my eldest sister living the high life in Belgium and spending her Christmas in Corsica - us mere mortal remaining content with the 3hr drive from Cape Town - Christmas seemed less Christmassy this year, even with a new addition to the family in the form of my niece, the main reason we were all drawn together to celebrate in one spot.

If I'm away on holiday I usually start missing my friends right after Christmas and usually prefer to spend NYE with them (no offense to my lovely family, of course). The plethora of viruses that seemed to have struck us down the last month hasn't helped. But now it's over, a new year has begun and I'm finally back home... bucket painting and a near hospital scare not withstanding.

"another chance, another start
so many dreams to tease the heart"
- Sunset Boulevard

Happy Valentine's Day!

I can't believe it's Valentine's Day 2009 already. This year has been going so fast already, and I think I'm still stuck at Christmas!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I discovered "End of the World" by Matt Alber. I was browsing on the net early one morning this week and came across the video. It's such a beautiful song, and by the end of the video I was in tears! And it's very rare that that happens.

Have a look and keep a tissue near, just in case.



So, if you had a crappy, bad luck Friday the 13th yesterday, I hope that Valentine's Day will be able to make up for it. And remember, if you don't have someone to share it with, do something romantic for yourself!