What's my age again?

Work worries surrounded by the craft chaos...

Age is a funny thing. We spend our childhood desperately wanting to be a grown up, to sit at the adult table, not be told what to do. I didn't know the specifics of what I wanted, I just knew that life as 'one of them' would be so much better than my awkward teenage years. Now that I think I'm almost getting there, well I have friends nearer to 30 than 13 and I spend a lot of time with my mum and boss who are in their 50's and 60's I have realized that adults spend time wishing as well. They don't wish to be older though, they spend their time reminiscing on their youth. 'Back in the good old days' Its a bit of a joke in our house, whenever mums struggling with something technological but it's true. Over lunch the other day they were talking about childhood friends they remembered from school, the games they would play, adventures they went on. How much easier it was at that age. It isn't that they want to be a child again, but as an adult with responsibilities they miss some of the easy things we see as burdens when we are children. 

What happens when you're in the middle though. You no longer long to be an adult, yet you don't quite look back in happy memory at your childhood. What happens when the age you look, the age you behave, the responsibilities you have and your age you are don't quite match up.

Age is a tool we all use to judge others. Wise old man. Silly young girl. She's only 18 she's a bit naive. We've all done it, we all do it. But why should age be a factor when meeting people. Does age effect our intellect, our passion, our commitment, our responsibility. Yes with age can come knowledge, but I know plenty of 17 year olds that could hold their own in many a debate against others in their 60's.

I'm 21. I've been volunteering for the same organisation since I was 15, working for them since I was 18. Elsewhere I've taken part in leadership courses, was a founding member of our cities youth council and at 17 was running workshops in primary schools. In those 6 years I have learnt more about myself, about business and about working for organisations and with children than I could ever of dreamed of. To put it bluntly I know my shit. I don't know everything, heck I barely know anything but when it comes to my job I can really hold my own. 

Feeling sick of being known as "the little'un" at work, and being referred to, albeit with know bad intentions, as the baby of the building I found myself venting to a couple of friends over coffee, their responses baffled me slightly though. Their suggestion was that of course I wasn't being taken seriously by other people at work because I dressed like the kids I work with. Now, all I really heard there was "Molly you should change the way you look in an effort to make people listen to whats already inside you!" Something I not only disagree with but have adamantly recommended people not to do. I'm young, and can easily pass as one of my volunteers on some days but that doesn't effect whats in my head and the skills I possess. If I was to wear a pencil skirt and shirt, or a suit, would I suddenly become more responsible, better at my job? To be honest, that would probably negatively effect my work as I spend my days painting, and building and crawling around rehearsal spaces. 

So, here is my question. Should age matter, and even if it does, should we change our appearance to fit in and look the 'typical' responsible adult? Does our skills and personality define us, or is it merely our age and look?

Blogging without a computer isn't really blogging at all..

Hello Hello and happy Friday to all you lovelies out there. 

I'm beginning to notice a pattern around these parts, I have a good week of blogging and then a somewhat lazier week. This week was definitely one of those lazier ones. It wasn't meant to be. In fact the number of times I have snapped my fingers and gone "Holy Moly avocado and cheese this would make a good post" have by far out numbered the fun things I've done this week. However for every happy bloggy moment I've had a dawning moment of disappointment. Y'see it's pretty hard to blog without a computer, scratch that, without ANY technology.


This week has just been one string of technical disasters after another that have led to now. In work an hour earlier just to use the laptop to stick this sorry excuse for a story out into the world and to let you know that I will be back to my usual rambling self by next week.


So what actually happened I hear you ask. Well.. It all start just over a week ago when the good old North East got hit by a pretty big thunder storm, I mean nothing compared to all you from far away american lands, but for England it was a pretty big one. I spent my morning walking to work wondering how the sky was managing to be quite so sunny and still be hitting me in the head with hale stones. I then found myself running into work because my fear of being struck by lightning is pretty bad when I'm the only the person in the middle of a field and lightening is happening every couple of minutes.


At the same time my boss was sat at home trying to finish off our publicity and watching the storm out her window. That is until the storm was inside her house. Lightening somehow managed to strike her computer (or something somewhere related to it...I don't get such techy things) and render it useless... no internet, no usb, nothing. Whatever she did on the computer was stuck on the computer.Not so useful when you're panic producing publicity.


Fast forward a couple of days and a small, old, office laptop is driving her crazy. Me being helpful and not quite thinking suggested she just borrow my laptop. I mean what do I really do that needs a laptop anyway? If I needed to do anything I could always just stay late at work. Ha. I was not feeling to clever a day later when I realised It was 8.30pm I was only just finishing my actual work (because sharing one laptop between 3 people means work takes a LOT longer) and I still hadn't even thought about blogging. 



And that folks is pretty much where we are, the computer is to be fixed this weekend meaning I get my laptop back on Monday and life can go back to its pre storm routine. Heck you might even get a recap of my week because it's been a pretty good one despite (or maybe because of) its computer less theme.


I hope all your weeks have been better than mine and that you have a smashing weekend. Don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Molls xxx

P.s. I may have also put my phone into a a puddle of water... so no photos of this week, and a trip to the apple store for me tomorrow. Yay for technological disasters like me.

Simple Spinach Soup and a Slice of Crazy

Oh Monday why are you always popping up and kicking Sunday out of the party, he's a chilled guy you should let him hang out with us more. Thanks to you yesterday was a loooong day filled with far too much work and not enough fun. Even though the sun was shining and I got to walk skip merrily into work eating fruit salad, and some of my work involved making beautiful flower baubles in the sunshine. I still somehow ended up spending 12 hours in an office building dragging very heavy boxes from room to room, all on that one fruit salad, and a slice of microwave pizza. Not what I usually call fun if i'm honest.

Now I complain a lot, but I do really love my job and sometimes 12 hours moving boxes and gluing petals and decorating tents just comes with the job. I'm also really lucky to be very good friends with all of my colleagues. That said when spending almost half a day in work I've managed to find some pretty sweet ways to entertain myself. A few of the bizarre games I found myself playing yesterday were:

Secret dance party - A classic when decorating the inside of a tent. Zip the door shut, pop your iPod on loud and dance until someone comes to investigate where the musics coming from. At this point you have two choices, awkwardly switch your music off and apologize for the noise, or invite them to dance and decorate with you. Job done twice as fast.

Hide and Seek - A slightly less productive game I like to play, especially when people don't know they're looking for you. But also a great way to find some peace and quiet to send some emails. A highlight of this game is the look on peoples face when you emerge from your hiding place. Beautiful.

Building a box fort - Okay so this one was less intentional. I was looking for a box in the corner of the room, it might have been at the bottom of the pile. Before I knew it I may have found the box I wanted and also have found myself fenced in behind the boxes.

Well there you have it, a slightly bizarre list of ways to have fun at work. I should probably also add that I played most of these games with my boss, as we were all starting to feel the stress of far too long away from the sunshine. In most other circumstances you probably shouldn't hide from people, build forts or dance to drastically loud steps songs.

Anyway I may have gotten a little distracted. Even though my day was horrifically long and I ate far to little, I still managed to have a delicious and healthy tea. This soup is one of my favorites and it's ridiculously easy to make. I'd made a big pot of it on Sunday and frozen half to eat later.

I didn't quite remember the whole recipe + photo = blog post thing.

As I'm a minor disaster I completely forgot to take picture as I went along so that's really all you're getting photo wise. But, I assure you it is oh so yummy and will make you feel superbly healthy.

Ingredient wise it's all pretty simple and should be stuff you just have hanging around in you're cupboards.

200g Spinach

2 big Potatoes

2 sticks of Celery 

2 cloves of Garlic

1 Onion

200ml Vegetable Stock

Plain Soy or Greek Yogurt

Now you get to see just how easy this recipe is, these ingredients should make you around 4 bowls of the stuff, enough for at least diner and lunch . 

First you want to chop your potatoes, celery, garlic and onion into nice little chunks and stick them in your pan. 

Next cover the vegetables with your vegetable stock and simmer for about 20 minutes on a medium heat.

Once those vegetables and potato have soften up a bit add your spinach to the pan. (it might look like you have too much for the pan, but it will shrink in no time and fit perfectly).

Simmer the soup for a further ten minutes, stirring frequently. 

After the ten minutes have passed let your soup cool slightly before pouring it into your blender (or getting your hand blended) and blend the soup so that the vegetable chunks have mixed in.

Finally, pop your soup into  a bowl and add a blob of whichever yogurt you choose. This bit is entirely optional but adds a slightly bitter bite to the soup, that cuts through the flavors nicely.

And there you have it, super simple spinach soup in less that 40 minutes. I had mine with think slices of read covered in butter.. just to ruin the healthy vibe. The soup is perfect on a colder evening but is a nice transition soup from winter to spring. 

Now, go whip yourself up a bowl and let me know what you think. And hey If you decide to comment back with a slice of crazy as well I'd be over the moon to know i'm not the only crazy cat around here this less than sunny Tuesday morning!