Blog Every Day in May: Book Love

I remember when I was younger I always used to be one of those kids who could spend days and days reading. I read Harry Potter I read my mum's murder mystery books I read all sorts. I have to admit though that over the last couple of years I haven't been reading as much even though my love for books is still the same. I am thankful for this topic today as it reminds me how much I love reading and that I should most certainly get some of those books out and just read again.

ok but before you think that I'm a person who doesn't touch a book anymore or doesn't read, that's not true, I just tend to read more of my science magazines lately but there are books thrown in every now and then so I thought I'd tell you about one of my all time favourites as well as one of my recent discoveries.

Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

originally german (there is an english version though) Inkheart is the story about books and how they can be much more real than we sometimes think. it's about Mortimer and his daughter Maggie who together with aunt Eleanor discover the world of books while trying to escape Capricorn who somehow ended up in the wrong world.

I love this book. I love it and I will always love it. there are two more parts to it aswell and they're all equally as good. a must read for every book lover.

DNA: The Secret of Life - James Watson

we have all heard about the double-helix that is our DNA and many of us might even remember that it's called the Watson-Crick-Model, but did you ever wonder how it was discovered? in this extremely honest book James Watson tells the story about the path that lead him and his colleague Francis Crick to one of the most important scientific events of our time.

I am a science person yes and I would most certainly recommend this to anyone who is interested in that kind of thing too. maybe even to those who aren't. it's most certainly not all scientific and sometimes you even ask how they could have been as brilliant as they were. most definitely worth a read. I could read hundreds of books like this.

so there you go, those are two of my favourites and both definitely worth giving a go if you're into that kind of book. this post definitely made me want to read more. if you have any recommendations for me (especially science ones) leave me a comment.

Magdalena.

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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

Blog Ever Day in May: Travel Dreams

if I could go anywhere in the world right now, where would that be?

traveling has always been one of the most important things in my life. not only when it comes to food have I always been someone who likes to discover new things. the different cultures, people and surely cuisines of different countries have always fascinated me for as long as I can remember. when I was in school I used to spend hours and hours in the geography section of the room just staring at maps or playing this wonderful game we had where we had a map which was made out of wood and little pins with the names of cities on so we could find where they belong. I knew every capital city on every continent at that time.

I have my parents to thank for taking me places ever since I was a baby. I used to go to greece with my dad every summer until a few years ago and me and my mum have been on some great journeys together; sweden, from belgium to the netherlands and back home through france, we're a good team that's for sure.
now that I'm 21 I have already travelled a few places by myself and I just love journeys even though they can sometimes be rather exhausting. but I love being on a plane or on the bus or a train. I could surely think of so many places I'd like to see and I love so many places I've already seen and I want to go back to.

at the moment however, I can only think of the one place I want to be if I could be anywhere in the world right now and that's great britain. and that is because I have been there so many times now and so many more times than I thought I would have the chance to but I have been very lucky and I have already seen so many things but I always want to go back. also it is because I have wanted to live there every since I was about 13 years old and I have never ever changed my mind about that. and this september finally I am traveling there but not for a week or two but to stay and that's going to be the most amazing journey of my life. 
this might sound extremely cheesy now and I do know that it's not all wonderful and pretty there but is there anywhere that's like that? but for me it is where I want to be and it is where I would be right now if I could be anywhere in the world.

here's a little selection of pictures I've taken over the last two years and which remind me of the places I love. some of which will seem obvious and some just have a meaning to me personally.

Magdalena.

Oxford

Cardiff

Manchester - Salford Quays

Manchester - Oxford Road Station

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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

Blog Every Day in May: Favourite Social Media Channel

so here we are and it's already day 9 of the BEDM challenge. can you believe it? I sure can't believe that I've been blogging every day for 9(!) days and I have to say I'm kind of proud. even though I know I'm not the busiest person at the moment and there are many people who are in work full time and still do this every day so (imaginary) hats off to all of you.

talking about social media is probably not the most difficult topic for any blogger but it surely is interesting to find out what people prefer and what the advantages and disadvantages of the different platforms are.

firstly I should say that I do spend quite a bit of time on the internet and social networks but I am not one of those people who has to be part of every single one of them (not that that's a bad thing). I already find it difficult to switch between facebook and twitter and those are pretty much the only ones I use.

my facebook page! (here)

I've been on facebook for a while now (personal me I mean) so it seemed the obvious choice when it came to going social media with my blog. I do like my little space on facebook and I like sharing links and it's like a little tiny community. the main thing I like about my facebook page is that it's a good way for my friends (well those who are interested in my blog) to keep up to date with what I'm cooking and eating and just generally doing blogging wise as most of them are only on facebook and no where else in the social media world.

the one thing I don't love about facebook is that I just don't tend to get as much feedback as I do on twitter. this may be because there are just not that many people liking my page but it's just something I miss on there.

all in all I like facebook for putting stuff out there and my friends knowing what I'm up to but I miss it's actual social communication.

my twitter me! (here)

twitter has always been somewhat like a big mystery to me. I don't want to say that it seemed too complicated for me but it just didn't seem to make a lot of sense. so what I can tell people what I'm up to or thinking in 140 letters but let's be honest who's gonna care? well nosy as I am I chose to still give it a try especially since I was running a blog and all I thought I'd be interesting.

I have to say I've really grown to love it. yes I still find it weird sometimes to tell people 'I'm eating ice cream now' or 'I'm making pasta for dinner' but hey, if people want to read it they should and if not then that's fine with me too. but what I especially love about twitter is how many lovely bloggers and people in general I've met through there. there's a great community of food bloggers and all sorts and it's so amazing to find people who share my interests and interacting and I've actually found friends on there it seems.

I guess twitter has exactly that communicational side that I miss about facebook and I guess that's why I like having them both. I guess I'll manage having two social media channels right? 

obviously there are so many more like instagram which I would love to try (just to post pictures of my meals) but it won't work with my current phone so I'll just have to wait until I get a new one so I can try it out, but it seems like a fun thing.

go check out my little social media collection if you want to and I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's posts from today. are you a facebook or a twitter kind of person? leave me some comments people!

Magdalena.

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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

Blog Every Day in May: First Job

first of all can you believe we're already this far into the blog every day in may challenge? I certainly can't and I'm proud I've done every single post so far.

today's topic is another perfect one for me (*cough* not so much) but I will do it anyway and the good thing is it involves food. firstly it's not that easy as to what I'd class as my first ever job as we've done work experience for a week at a time for school already when I was about 10 but let's be honest it was a good experience but neither can I completely remember every detail or interesting story or was it extremely interesting. so I chose to tell you about my first summer job which me and my friend got when we were about maybe 12 or 13. at the time it was my absolute dream to become a chef just like jamie oliver, I wanted to go to a school where I had cooking lessons (which I did) and go to study where jamie oliver studied and live in the UK (which I still want). so far so good. as my friend's dad knew this guy who happened to be a chef and owned a catering business (complicated right?) we got ourselves a three week contract (which was big at the time).

another big thing was getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get there but I was surely happy to do that so I could do some kitchen stuff. the main thing I remember was the smell of warm chocolate that greeted us every morning when we entered the kitchen in our cooking outfits (we must have been incredibly cute and I wish I had a picture but I can't seem to find it). and believe me this smell of chocolate must be what put me off a career in the cooking industry (or the fact that I now love science and many other things) but it surely wasn't nice.

we spent most of our time preparing boxes for their deliveries and cleaning shelves which I guess is what they needed us for and fair enough but I would have liked to do a bit more. 

another highlight was cleaning the cold storage which we did wearing our jackets whilst the cleaning utensils froze to the shelves. it was actually quite fun as we often took sneaky bits of cake that were on the shelves.

surely the best part must have been the breaks when we got the most amazing dinner ever (and that every day) which is I guess another reason I'm glad I don't still want to become a chef, I would be huge! also one day they made loads and loads of buckets full of milk rice which smelled and tasted delicious (we got a bowl or two of it) how cool is that?!

so I have to say it was a great experience and we had fun too even cleaning the shelves and putting boxes together and I've learned over time that being a chef is not my dream job for now but surely food will always be important and I'll continue learning new things every day.

so this was my first job and I can't wait to read about everyone else's!

Magdalena.

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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

BEDM #1

BEDM #2

BEDM #3

BEDM #4

BEDM #5

BEDM #6

BEDM #7