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First of all, thanks for the chocolate and postcard. The chocolate was a pleasant surprise and as you can see from this photo, it wasn't reduced to crumbs! I've eaten it already.... ;D I hope you guys had a good holiday and you have satisfied your need to look at trees (mum and dad anyway...) The campervan south island holiday will be known for looking at graveyards and this recent holiday will surely be known for looking at trees :P

Anyway, since Ryan is coming back tomorrow (:D) it is only natural that I bake him something. I made some blondies. The recipe is from http://www.cakespy.com/ I'll write it out here just in case anyone wants to know. And for my own personal reference to :)


Blondies
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup peanut butter (I didn't have any so I used 1/4 cup of pam's white chocolate spread and it worked just fine :) )

So you just sift together the first 3 ingredients in bowl. Then, in another bowl, beat the (softened) butter and sugar together. Then add the (beaten) egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour bit by bit, mixing well in between. Finally, add the peanut butter (or other thing) and mix. Bake in a tray for 30 minutes on 180 degrees.

This is actually only half of the original recipe! It would have made heeeeaps with the whole thing! I containered them for Ryan and subsequently ate what didn't fit in the container... ;D


On the food note, I recently found a blog that is amazing. So I thought I might share it. It's a blog made by a father. He regularly posts all the different kinds of pancakes he makes for his daughter. They aren't just ordinary pancakes either, scanning through the posts I found ones where he made characters like spongebob, pankcakes made to look like bacon and eggs or a hamburger, but the most impressive of all is the pancake which is a ferris wheel. Actually like a 3D ferris wheel. It's amazing. So if you're keen to be amazed: http://www.jimspancakes.com/

In other news, I've been asked a few times what I do in linguistics or what linguistics is about but I haven't really been able to give a substantial answer so far - mainly because the semester has only started so I don't exactly have a solid idea myself. So far, the lectures have been thoroughly interesting. Generally speaking, it's just all about language. More specifically, so far we have learned about theories on how language began as a human ability, about how and why language and languages are different and about how and why they change.

Today's lecture was on the changes that have happened specifically in English over the years. Accordingly, we looked at English translations of the bible over the last 1000 years. Our lecturer called the four different ages we looked at old English, middle English, early modern English and modern English. I was really surprised at just how much English has changed. The old English (which Ryan informs me is actually not really English, it's another language) is really different - it looks like something out of lord of the rings and when you hear it, it's like they're speaking German with a Scottish accent or something. Very cool.

That's it from me for now!