I like it Rough.

Cause I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all.

Does anyone ever sync youtube through the sound system and blare random playlists whilst they clean the house?? I love doing this - some of the most random songs ever always make an appearance!

Today, I cleaned the walls (among other things). Probably the most tedious task ever, so I researched ways to make it easier/more exciting than simply scrubbing the walls with a sponge doused in sugar soap...

Want to know the easy way to clean walls? Read on! :)

• First, dust the walls so you're not smearing the specs of dead skin and other gross stuff all over the place. Dry dust is one thing, but it's significantly more annoying once it gets wet!
• Then, grab a magic eraser block thing. These are one of the best inventions since the mobile phone! Follow the eraser directions and scrub at the more stubborn marks such as texta, handprints, scuff marks, etc. 
• Next up, you can go one of two ways. You can either fill a bucket with water and multipurpose cleaner and use a cloth to wipe down the walls, or you can buy a refill pack of those dettol floor cleaner things and use those to clean the walls! I went with the latter today because I wanted it to be as easy as possible! 
• Once you've finished cleaning the walls, grab some dryer sheets (I was fortunate to have a friend send me a bunch of awesome smelling ones - shame I don't have a dryer!) and wipe the walls and skirting boards. (you know, that wood that runs along the bottom of the wall?) These, as I discovered during my research, help REPEL dust, meaning you wont have to clean as often! YAY! (I'll report back on whether or not this is actually true.)
• Once you've completed your wall cleaning duties, grab your (clean) mop, a glass of wine, and crank some tunes to dance to whilst you admire your clean walls before unleashing your spawn to dirty them once more.

I am currently up to the last step. I bought myself a lovely bottle of red for mothers day and felt it necessary to 'test' the wine before sharing it with others tomorrow. ;)

Today's Playlist: (sample)
Three Days Grace - Pain
Hilary Duff - Chasing the Sun
David Guetta ft. Ne-Yo & Akon - Play Hard <--best cleaning song ever.
Ke$ha - The Harold Song
Andy Grammer - Honey, I'm Good
Hilary Duff - All About You
Christina Perri - Human
Go Comet! - Worlds Apart

This was similar to my actions earlier, lol.

Job Interview.

Oh, yay. I do love me a good job interview!

But seriously, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to shine brighter than the sun come interview day??? My interview is tomorrow, so I still have a little time before the nerves kick in: this will more than likely occur at midnight tonight, for optimum effect.

I'm awesome. I graduated with a GPA of 3.3. Sure, that's not the greatest, but when you take into consideration that half of my first semester was spent battling glandular fever, thus giving me a GPA of 2.2 for that year.... I did GOOD. My transcript is more HD than anything else, I have a photographic memory, I'm reliable, hardworking and optimistic... I'm also a single mum, I live an hour train ride away, I'm frumpy and in desperate need of an eyebrow wax. But still, I'm amazing! I just need to remind myself of this.

Say it with me, crazies: I. AM. AMAZING! I. AM. A. WARRIOR! I. CAN. KICK. BUTT!

Meh. In less amusing news, I've spent half the weekend preparing for this interview, whilst the other half has been spent researching Aspergers. Have I mentioned I love researching things? Because I do. Just not medical things, apparently. So confusing. My brain can't make heads or tails of anything that I'm trying to retain, thus resulting in an entire waste of a weekend.
*sigh*

Life is great. I have a house, I have food, I have my health (to an extent - let us not go there!), and I actually manage to obtain interviews at prestigious law firms. More than I can say for many, I suppose.
(this was more for me than you.)

Peace out.

- L. x

Beef & Red Wine Casserole

OH. MY. GOSH.
Seriously, I am not a massive casserole fan. I'll throw things in the slow cooker occasionally for convenience, but no meal to come out of it has ever rated highly on my tastebuds. Blame my mother; I pretty much grew up on casseroles and other boring meals of the 90s, haha.

So I found this recipe and didn't tweak it a whole lot. I mostly wanted an excuse to buy and consume a bottle of red. ;)

INGREDIENTS:
500g beef steak, diced (I can't remember the name of the cut I used, but it was cheap)
4 pieces of shortcut bacon, diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbspn plain flour (I used GF flour)
1 cup red wine - I used a lovely Cab Sav
1 cup beef stock
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
3 carrots, sliced
salt & pepper, to season

METHOD:
Preheat a large frying pan to medium-high and add 1 tbspn olive oil. Add bacon and cook for two minutes, add onion and cook for another two minutes, then add garlic and cook for one minute. Tip mixture into slow cooker.
Toss diced beef with flour to coat, then add some more oil (just a little!) to the frying pan and add beef. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until flour is cooked and beef is lightly browned - you do not want the beef cooked completely though, just browned.
Tip beef into slow cooker, then put the wine into the frying pan to deglaze - about 30 seconds). Pour wine into cooker along with the tin of tomatoes, stock, carrots, and salt & pepper to taste.
Put slow cooker on low for 6 hours, remembering to not lift the lid at all during the cooking process!
I served the casserole with lovely mashed pumpkin & potato.
This meal is great for lunch/dinner the next day, as the flavours are even better!

Sorry, no photo. It smelled so good when it was cooking that I was ravenous by the time it was ready at dinnertime!

- L. x