Limited Vegetarianism, Copyright Pending, and a Week of Screams...

Lolz. I'm all for
dismissing Blue Monday
out of hand, but I'm
not sure that means
this gif is right.

Hey there, how's it going? Depending on your echo chamber of choice, you may have been bombarded with Blue Monday nonsense last week. Alternatively, you may have remained happily ignorant of this particular marketing ploy. Feeling down can come at any time and generally lasts longer than a day.  So let's knock Blue Monday on the head, yeah? Excellent. And on we go.

The planner (and additional
notebooks) of dreams!

Writing News

Oh I DO love this stage of the game. My planning notebook's full of blank pages whilst my head is full of ideas. And right now I get to spend weekdays merging the two. Hurrah for my self-indulgent life; this is the fun part! Fun it might be, but I'm still being productive. The past week has seen me really hone in on the overall plot of the next book. I've got a double page spread of the key narrative points, over the twelve months/chapters. That's my planner's control centre. That's what took the longest time to lock in. From that, I've made a page-per-chapter section, where all the smaller details are stored. I'm still adding to that as we speak, but it's filling up nicely. My planner needs to be as robust as possible before I start to type actual sentences. But it's getting there. It really is.

Culture

Last week I told you I'd seen the new Scream film and it had been very good. That's still true. But what I didn't say was how much I'd been unable to shake it off afterwards. The 5th film, currently in cinemas, really hooked into the appeal of the original. I couldn't get it out of my mind. So in the end, I did the only sensible thing possible. I rewatched Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3 and Scream 4, and then listened to the Hello Sidney podcast where an entire episode was dedicated to each film. I am now fully immersed in my 1990s memories, including all those times at school when a masked killer was on the loose. (It is possible some mental lines have blurred.) Either way, I am fully Scream-ed out whilst having had a marvellously retro week of horror. 

Here's what it would've looked like
if I'd have dropped my pan of
chilli before adding the cheese
and macaroni. Hope that helps.

Food and Drink

A TV chef that generally annoys me, reminded me about laksa this week. So even though I begrudge them their career, I found myself popping some coconut milk and noodles into my trolley and whizzing up spices. It was delish. A similar version of what I did, is here. Meanwhile, I can report that I've had the best culinary idea of my life. Is this already a thing? If not, I'm claiming it. First of all, make a chilli. However you like, but keep it a bit more liquidy than normal. But then - and this is the genius bit - add macaroni! Yes, cook the pasta so it soaks up the liquid and softens in the chilli. And then - and this is the second genius bit - stir through a load of Philadelphia and any other cheese that needs using up. Yep, I have invented chilli macaroni cheese, or as I'm calling it on the copyright forms, MacChilli. Spicy, cheesy, warming, and gorge. It's my heartfelt gift to you all.

Lamb curry at Mowgli!

Out and About

Mowgli, Mowgli, Mowgli, you are my favourite of all the restaurants. And it makes me smug to my back teeth that you started life in Liverpool, and have only recently found a space in London. On Saturday night I was in my happy place on Bold Street, eating House Lamb Curry - my vegetarianism has it's limits. Mowgli's lamb curry will be never be kept from me - and feeling all happy about the world. 

Hopefully, happy moments involving food, films, work productivity, and/or everything and anything else have littered your week, willy nilly. If not, they're bound to be on their way for next time. Defo.

Have a lovely week, folks.