Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

We had a little "Leaving London" party at the weekend. A house-cooling if you will! We had a lot of fun, but best of all I tried a new cupcake recipe and it made the nicest cupcakes I've tried yet! So I thought I'd share the recipe.

Ingredients
10oz/275g self raising flour
2oz/50g Cocoa powder
1teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda
8oz/225g caster sugar
8floz/250ml olive oil
5floz/150ml orange juice
5floz/150ml cold water

Method
So simple!

Seive and mix the first four ingredients into a bowl.

Mix the last three ingredients together and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix up (preferably with an electric mixer) and put into cup cake cases.

Bake at 160 degrees C/325 degrees F/Gas Mark 3 for about 25 minutes.

Let them cool overnight before you put the frosting on. I just mixed 2oz/50g vegan margerine, 2oz/50g cocoa powder and 40z/100g of icing sugar together with a little water with an electric whisk until the consistency was right and then piped it on.

So yummy!!

To be beside the seaside!

On Sunday we decided to get away from all things house moving and work related and we headed off to the south coast for the day. We ended up in Hastings (which is famous for a Battle that took place nearby in 1066) and had a lovely day just enjoying the sea air and each other's company away from the horrors of real life. I think we needed it more than we realised, we came home with a sense of reconnection to ourselves, to nature and to each other which was rather nice.

So we're now well into our penultimate week in this house. I'm madly applying for jobs in Cambridge and we're just generally plodding along to a point where we're ready to start packing. It's all very close now and neither of use can wait!

I'm not teaching tonight - instead the teacher who is taking over from me is teaching and I'm going to be practicing with the class, which will be weird but fun. Then next week is my last week of classes. Four more to go in fact! Eeek!

My Right Hip

So last week I asked my chiropractor if we could have a look at the x-rays of my hips and pelvis. About three years ago when I first started seeing this chiro he x-rayed pretty much my whole skeleton. As most of my main issues were in my upper back and shoulders we've been concentrating on them predominantly. However, recently these issues have been getting much much better and the old issues in my right hip have been playing up again. My right hip keeps seizing up, so badly that I had weird spasms in Pigeon pose the other day and had to fall sideways out of it :)

I have mixed feelings about what I saw in the x-ray. There is a definite difference between the two sides. My left hip sits nicely in it's socket with lots of space to rotate, my right is kind of stuck in a small socket and I am now aware that the clunking noise I sometimes hear from it is the ball of the top of the thigh bone hitting the bone of the socket. It's really hard to describe but basically there will never be the same rotation of movement in that hip as in the left one. In some ways I feel good about this, it's the way I'm made and I don't have to beat myself up for not working hard enough. On the otherhand it's yet another part of my body that does not damn well work properly!!!

So this week I will mostly be working on mindful accpetance of my right hip - keep the ligaments loose but don't force anything and love my body just the way it is. It's my karma after all.

More on food and moving on

If you read my relatively infrequent blog updates you will know that over the last few weeks I have been slowly trying to draw myself back to an animal free diet. I've really surprised myself with some absolutely delicious meals - and secretly I think Himself has been rather surprised as well. He certainly hasn't complained. And he's been wonderfully supportive - although he has been cooking himself bacon on the BBQ in the back garden :)

My favourites so far have been the refried chili beans with brown rice and corn chips (still working on tracking down vegan sour "cream" in the UK) and the vegan Mac and "Cheese" I made last night (which could have done with a bit of extra Cheezley to be honest, but I'll know for next time). The daal was also good but I made enough to feed an army so I got a bit bored of it!

Also been baking lots of nice vegan treats :)

=

We have been taking some time to visit various places that we probably won't see again once we move to Cambridge. I'm not sure it's always a good idea to re-visit places that have good memories attached, yet I persist in doing it (and persist in being let down!).

So on Saturday after I'd finished teaching, we took a nostalgic trip to the Fishponds. Back when we were first dating, I lived in North London and used to come down to Surbiton for the weekends where many a happy afternoon was spent at the Fishponds doing... well those things people who have just started dating do ;)

We haven't been for ages and ages so we thought it might be nice. We were wrong. All the fish seem to be dead. The ponds themselves have barely any water in them and the ducks are sort of paddling about in 6 inches of green sludge. On top of that there was a girl chucking rocks at ducks and her parents were just letting her. I really wanted to say something but I just don't have the guts. It reminded me of the time I saw a woman letting her lab shit on the verge outside my house and then just walk away. I wish I'd said something to her to. My mum said I should have just taken her registration number and reported her. I'm sure I used to be more confrontational but I'm also very aware these days of trying hard not to think bad thoughts. Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

Anyway next week I believe we're going down to the East Sussex coast and ruin some memories there! :)

This and that!

Well I've just worked out I only have ten yoga classes to teach before the big move. In one way I do have a sense of relief. I am so very ready for a change of scene, some deeper work on my own practice and a little bit of time to reconfigure my brain before I start teaching again.

There's a lot to do, and I've been busily applying for job, making affirmations that the right job will come along and generally keeping my fingers crossed.

So now we're just awaiting September 1st!

In other news, yesterday was the cats' birthdays. Mr Johnny Park was one and Miss Aurora was two. I don't think they actually share the same birthday but Aurora is a rescue cat and all we know is that she was born in August 2007. That and that she was taken away from her mum too soon and was badly neglected :'(

Anyhoo, we had a little party last night when I got back from teaching for them with "cake" made from tuna fish (*vomit vomit*) and new toys. They have very short attention spans so it was probably the shortest birthday party I've ever been to but here are some pics for you :)