I'm an absolute mug

  Buongiorno! How's everyone doing? I've spent the past two days firmly ensconced in front of my computer, revising [I didn't actually leave the flat once yesterday] so I don't have any lovely photos of Edinburgh in Autumn, which looks exactly the same as Summer, but with a little more sun. Instead, I've been baking as revision breaks - so voila! Amaretti-style biscuits. They break your teeth and lift your spirits.

  Why might my spirits be needing lifting? Well aside from the whole hermit-thing, I had an absolute disaster on Tuesday. I repeat, disaster. I drove down to the hospital for a lecture, and was persuaded by my passengers to park in a nearby council estate. 

  For the record, parking makes me very anxious. I hate it. It's my least favourite part of driving. 

So here I was, leaving my poor little Freddie [yes I named my car] all on his lonesome in a scary estate. Cut to three hours later, and Freddie is nowhere to be found. Cue a massive panic, as I immediately jump to the [quite reasonable] conclusion that my car has been stolen.

  After spending 40 minutes looking through CCTV footage with the security guard and my very patient friend, I spot a nearly identical car park in the corner of the screen. 

  "Umm...what's that?"

  So, turns out Freddie was actually parked in a completely different car park, and I am an idiot. 

  Has this happened to anyone else?

Jose Vanders & Luke Leighfield - Blindsided [Bon Iver cover]
Ruffled Feathers - Blueprints For Our Failed Revolution
Airto - Someone Like You [Adele cover]

UPDATE: Turns out it quite possibly runs in the family - my father has admitted to driving my grandma's car into the local city when he was younger, then forgetting and getting the train home. Classic.

Scarf-related smugness, rodent-related terror

There has been a mouse spotted in our flat. A mouse. And, by all accounts, a super-speedy half-footer of a mouse. Normally I quite like mice, but after hearing tales of mouse droppings being found in people's beds, on chopping boards, and even an actual mouse living in a duvet case being accidentally drowned in a washing machine - I am freaked out.

After voicing my fears of having a mouse chew my face off in my sleep, my friend reassured me with "yeah, you do a lot of baking so maybe you smell of food to the mice". Right. That's it. I'm sleeping surrounded by a circle of mouse traps.

In other news, as those of you who follow me on Twitter might already know, I knitted a scarf! It is officially my most successful scarf to date, and so I can't stop myself from flaunting it everywhere, like a newly engaged woman with a ring. 

"Oh it's SO cold, I'm SO glad that I've got my new SCARF I knitted MYSELF. Oh THIS THING? Yes, I knitted it just the other day. On a WHIM. HA HA HA."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go buy rhubarb for my crumble. Yum. I leave you with some tunes.

James Vincent McMorrow - Higher Love [Steve Winwood cover]

Dear Reader - Idealistic Animals 

Canon Logic - Howl In The Night

Autumn Is My Happy Place

Hello September. I'm relatively happy to wave August goodbye, with its unseasonal thunderstorms and floods, in order to welcome in the start to one of my favourite times of the year. Autumn, second only to Christmas [which is a November - January affair for me].

September is the ideal time for making New-School-Year Resolutions. As in, this year I will make notes throughout term time and not just in the week before exams. This year I will make the most of my weekends and go off on casual jaunts. This year I will complete all assignments well before the deadline. I will not do any of this but the pleasure of a good resolution is similar to a good list.

 So, September resolutions: chilly walks with dogs, mittens on strings, flasks of alcoholic hot chocolate, natural history museums, lazy Sunday mornings with newspapers and coffee, risottos and stews and potatoes.

What are your resolutions?

Alex Turner - Piledriver Waltz 

Rachel Goodrich - Light Bulb [ANR remix]

Pepper Rabbit - Lake House