The Sugar Bar

I’m writing this post all dizzy and heady from extensive sugar consumption so I’m quite sure when I read back on this, I’ll realize how much rambling and nonsense has gone into this. Then, I’ll sit in my room all embarrassed and avoid Twitter for a bit. But I suppose that’s all fine since rambling about food is better than not rambling at all. In fact, it must be the best rambling in existence. Gosh, someone stop me. I’m going off like a train without brakes. Anyhow right this moment, I am quite pleased to carry on and hopefully some of this sugar rush will rub off on you.

I thought quite long about this weekend and how everyone’s all excited that Chinese New Year and St. Valentine’s fall on the same day. That makes me (initially) less psyched about this weekend. I never liked Valentine’s Day and if I had ever celebrated, it was amongst girlfriends. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a cynic or a single lady suffering from sour grapes (I am single but that’s really not it ya know). I just don’t like getting left out of any festival or celebration and I feel frustrated that I’m frustrated about it at all because I know there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being single or coupled-up or married or not at all! What’s the fuss about? And how odd to celebrate a relationship with the rest of the world, left right centre up down underground. It’s just all a little weird and contrived. Point is, why am I celebrating or not celebrating, and what does it mean to others?! Surely things like anniversaries would mean more since it’s unique to a person or couple? But each to their own. Nonetheless, if I get another email or stupid leaflet about that special Valentine’s dress or lipstick I need, I might just grab the nearest person and snuff the very life out of him/her.

But after all that ranting, I realized I wasn’t the only one feeling the same way. And why bother being all grumpy about it. Nonchalant. The attitude I have adopted to this whole schmuck ya know. Let’s just all be calm, cool collected. KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. Or…

Never be too trusting of signs (especially the ones that direct you down dark alley ways), that’s what I would like to tell all ya kids out there. But trust this one. Mowie, if you’re reading this –> this pink sign is just for you! Smooch. (Actually it’s a poster, I might buy it)

All that blizzarding, snow and bone-chill has resulted in a hideous itch in my sweet tooth. So boy, was I happy to check out Hummingbird’s newest addition to their stores - the Wardour Street one. The Portobello store is quaint and the mama of the trio; the Kensington one is quite beautiful and elegant set away from all the bustle, noise and crowd of the Portobello area; the Wardour store is possibly my favourite now as it’s a lot bigger than the others, very snazzy with the brown and pink checkered floor with burgundy velvet bar stools and oh, spotless dustless greaseless cake counter! My heart’s just racing thinking about it now. And of course, what I’ve always loved about Hummingbird is the immaculately dressed staff who are all smiles and lovely to speak to. You’re simply treated like cupcake royalty.

Black Bottom Cupcake: Chocolate Cupcake with Bitter Choc Chips & Cream Cheese Frosting

And like royalty, into the corner burgundy velvet sofa I placed me fat bum into and snogged my Black Bottom Cupcake. We were made for each other. Totally loved that the chocolate chips were bitter chocolate ones, or it would have been too sweet for even me to handle I reckon. Nicely done. And almost as brilliant as the Red Velvet in my opinion, almost. Although I overheard the manager telling a confused customer that the Black Bottom is their bestseller. I would second that in an instant if not for my undying love and loyalty toward the big red V.

As if that cupcake wasn’t enough to floor me to the ground and max out my week’s calories, I did ‘The Take-away’. Totally guilty - unabashedly guilty, I’m afraid. Really, I wanted to share some love with my flatmate anyway. Spread the cupcake love, she says. And that’s why living with me is probably a very exciting thing (this self-praise is really the sugar talking. I’m not gonna remember any of this tomorrow). I bring home the goodies, when I can.

Valentine’s Day Chocolate Cupcake

Valentine’s Day Vanilla Cupcake

And just before I zip off to rest my dizzy head, check out the front of the shop. As much as I dislike all the big va va voom hearty farty decorations of Valentine’s Day, this was rather cute along this flat grey end of Wardour Street (it’s a little away from the Chinatown side of Garrett Street). And I’m sure Hummingbird, blessed with such romantic theme colours, milked the colours associated with Valentine’s Day for all it’s worth.

Whether or not you’re taking part in the Valentine’s Day craze, surely you can spare some time and calories on a cute cupcake?

Happy Vday, like it or not. Because this cupcake sure is mindblowingly good and even if I don’t celebrate it, I can at least use it as an excuse to eat this monster yes (and gad yes, I need to massively detox starting NOW)?

Hummingbird Bakery - Wardour Street
155s Wardour Street
Soho
London
W1F 8WG
Tel: (020) 7434 3003

I have a sweet tooth. (I’m sure you guilty ones reading this have one too) And I’ve never once felt like my penchant for sweet things was ever a curse. Until now.

The past week has been a great one. I was a little snowed under with my special preparation for Food Blogger Connect 09, our first ever UK food conference, with my new part-time job at American Apparel (whilst I struggle with a full-time MA at Birkbeck College), with keeping in touch with my mates all over the place, with feeding myself, with my readings (not to mention I now have a whole new employee guide to read as well). So not only do I find myself getting all freaked out with the work, nervous about meeting all the other talented food bloggers I’ve been communicating with, my naughty hand has been creeping into sweet bags, fudge packets, mint tubes, etc. It’s getting bad beyond bad!

And what topped it all? I made something sweet, sugary and cute for my fellow cyber mummy cum member of the morning Twitter Breakfast Club - Deeba of Passionate About Baking, a little belated birthday gift. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed myself making these gorgeous (can I say so myself?) little truffles and seeing Deeba’s face brighten up when I presented it to her. I couldn’t be any happier when they were successful since it’s been years, about 15 years probably, since I last made chocolate truffles or anything sweet related really. After carefully transferring the extra truffles into a little pop-n-lock box and then wrapping it up in a recently purchased furoshiki, I couldn’t be any more proud of myself. The recipe’s certainly easy to follow, nothing complicated at all. And I know I bitch, complain, whine and procrastinate quite a lot and so sometimes my blog goes into desert-mode with no sweet concoction blogged about for ages. Now, I don’t have an oven so I’ve decided to venture more into candy-making. And yay, the first candy post is a good one.

So if it’s all good, then why have I slapped on the curse factor? Do you how much of the work/candy/truffle-in-progress I consume? Do you know how bad that little OREO crumb tantalizes me, how much I can’t bear to not lick off that bit of candy coating on the back of a spoon? Also, do you know how much toothpaste I’m going through at the moment?! It’s mental! Sensodyne is totally enjoying this. And there’s also my sugar high problems. I’m going crazy twitchy giggly and talking at super fast speeds (I bet half the people I grab, hug, smooch and then chat AT, rather than TO don’t even understand the words that are just rolling out of my mouth). 2 minutes into the sugar phase, I’m wondering why the lights are so bright; the world so bulbous and huge to the point that it’s pressing into my own eyeballs; I’m amazed at how delicious tap water tastes and I think I’m blushing. These are just a few of the more common side effects. The end result is less exciting and is usually me feeling tired, headache-y and a little sick.

What happens after a bit of rest or a few days of rest, depending on how good I am? The process repeats itself. Goodness! I’m blaming it on this week of food celebration! I’ve never eaten better and oh, look at me just lazying on the bed feeling fat and glorious. What a Nigella of a Diva. My coursemates have even started nicknaming me ‘Fatty’. Don’t worry, they’re just taking the piss. I call one of em ‘Pervert’ and the other ‘Fanny Pack’. It’s all good. We love each other all around, really.

I missed Deeba’s birthday and felt awful about it. What made me feel even more guilty was that I’d only found out on Twitter. Heck. I find out everything on Twitter these days - and if I feel like sharing with it others, I simply Retweet it to the high heavens like a loudmouth. It’s like who needs the newspaper when I’ve got Twitter on my laptop and on my blackberry? Seriously, even The Evening Standard’s now going free on the streets and the people giving them out pretty much beg you to take the paper off their hands so they can chuck aside that disgusting neon orange jacket they wear so they can finally escape our horrid English weather and head home for tea. Twitter’s great. Trust me. Now we just gotta get the rest of the foodie world onto Twitter and we’re sorted. (Cook Sister, hope you’re reading this. I’m wondering if my -does the magical hand movement- hypnosis that night worked! Haha)

Whilst I was doing the daily Food Blogger Connect (FBC) countdown on Twitter, our Twitter Breakfast Club were furiously direct-messaging each other about things we wanted from our respective places of residence. Deeba kept bullying me into telling her what I wanted from India. And I’m not exaggerating. That woman, bless her gorgeous heart, is tiny but she’s a real bully. But I love her anyway. She was so sweet to go shopping for a lamp (I love anything to do with candles and lamps, especially fans and masks if you wanted to know!) and a lovely Indian turqoise scarf for me. I am deeply touched and feel so loved and looked after. How could I not send the love back?

Pam from The Cooking Ninja, as well as Sunita from my favourite Sunita’s World, were simultaneously asking after me for any gifts I wanted. How nice of them!

But like Sunita, I believe homemade gifts are the best. You put the most thought and effort into them (sometimes I bloody slice a finger off for it, or scar my arm on the oven for life, ya know). A lot of ‘you’ goes into it and it means more, I’m sure, to the person receiving it to see that extra special-ness in a gift homemade by you rather than something storebought that gets bought up by a million other people. I do believe gifts handpicked from the store are great too but anything homemade is always just a step further in being more lovely, now don’t you think? And so, dearest Deeba, Happy Belated Birthday! Here are my OREO truffles for you!

Deeba’s, all wrapped up - pretty in pink

I did bring some extra truffles to FBC and those lucky few who tasted it, if you liked it, yay for me. If you didn’t, oh no! But don’t be afraid to send some constructive feedback my way as I’ve much to learn.

Ever since I stumbled upon Bakerella’s website, I have constantly played with the idea of making the gorgeous cake pops and candy I’ve ogled at so much. Bakerella’s a bit of sweetie goddess. Her truffles (you’ll find the recipe if you click here) were super easy to make and beautiful to look at. I loved it. Will definitely be making these again and again whenever there’s an occasion that calls for it and I’m hoping to experiment with other sorts of fillings. Careful though, as they’re quite addictive, what with being so bite-size and all. This is me, venturing into the chocolate/candy-making arena. Woot woot. How exciting. Makes me happy just talking about it now.

Naked truffles - pre-coated with candy coating

Just a bit about the truffles before I move on to FBC, remember to use candy coating or white chocolate flavoured coating instead of white chocolate itself. Using melting/baking chocolate will not set the truffles unless you put them in the fridge. But once you remove them, they’ll start to melt a little or between your fingers when you touch and hold them. Try to get candy coating or chocolate bark which is the best thing to use when making chocolates and candies. Can’t seem to find them? Try the cookie craft shop - can’t for the life of me remember the exact name of the shop off my head right now - but if you venture onto my Bake Shop page, you’ll find the link to their online shop there. For the pink ones, I’ve used Wilton’s Candy Melts in Rosa. Wilton’s is a little stiffer when melted so you get lovely little peaks and troughs when coating. I made the white ones with Squires Kitchen Easy Melt White Coating which produces a smoother, more drippy and liquid-y coating mixture. Hence, you’ll notice the white truffles are a lot rounder with less peaks and troughs. If you swirl the tops, they do tend to set with the swirls on but less noticeable than Wilton’s. Both products I found were lovely and tasted good, producing two types of looks which I think will come in very handy for future chocolate making.

Also, Bakerella says to use 8oz. softened cream cheese and 1 package of OREO cookies. I’m not sure if the US packs them cookies differently from the UK manufacturers but I found that I used 2 tubes of cookies (14 cookies in total), about 3/4 of the cream centers in total and just less than 1 pack of cream cheese. I chucked the rest of the cream centers as I didn’t want my truffle filling too sweet or as sweet as the candy coating itself. Not everyone’s as brave as I am with sugar. My Mum for one isn’t as she always complains about the things I make, so just be a little careful there with the cream centers.

It wouldn’t have felt right going to FBC, which was held at Levant Restaurant on Wigmore Street here in London, empty-handed. What else did I contribute? If you know my current predicament - no oven - you’d understand that I couldn’t bake anything and that’s not for lack of trying. The girls on Twitter went wild when I posted about LOLA’s November Flavour of the Month - Toblerone. I initially offered to get a few for the girls to take home but our breakfast club was rapidly expanding and not one to step on anyone’s toes for lack of sugary treats, I decided to order a box of mini cupcakes so everyone at FBC could have a taste of the latest flavour, their classic vanilla and my top favourite and love of my life - Red Velvet. And then, the RSVP list for FBC was expanding loads too so I emailed the lovely lady who’d I’d kept in contact with from LOLA’s and asked about a bigger order.

Courtesy of LOLA’s, we had 3 boxes of beautifully decorated and fairytale-like, glittered mini cupcakes sent to Levant for our enjoyment. Thank you LOLA’s! The cupcakes were gorgeous and I think everyone who had one were very impressed. Certainly, with the Toblerone cupcakes. I found myself standing by the table of cupcakes for a little bit explaining how LOLA’s had designed the Toblerone cupcakes, using Toblerone chocolate to make the cake and then white chocolate to make the ganache. You should have seen the faces, lips smeared a little with buttercream or white chocolate ganache frosting, break into grins after hearing that. I even know a few foodies who headed to Selfridges after the conference to stock up on some cupcakes! Wish I’d done so but the rain made me a little grumpy about trudging down the cobbled street in heels and a gia-normous bag full of yummy goodies.

I’ve never eaten edible glitter. Oh shoot me now, don’t I sound like an idiot? But goodness me, the thought of eating glitter itself sent me a notch higher up the sugar scale! I was well chuffed. Period.

FBC was amazing. Hosted by Jamie from Life’s a Feast, Hilda from Saffron & Blueberry, Beth from Dirty Kitchen Secrets and Mowie from Mowielicious, the event was a real success and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. A big thank you to all of them. Also, learned so much from the awesome bloggers and photographers who presented at the conference: such as Jamie, Jeanne from Cook Sister! (who has a wicked sense of humour!), Kang from LondonEater, and Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey?

Kang gave some fab tips on food photography. I think I understand my camera a little more now. But whether or not that’ll induce better pictures from me, I’m still pretty unsure about that so don’t get your hopes up, kiddo. It was great to finally meet the man behind the very successful LondonEater as well. Meeta was so bubbly and her presentation was a joy to listen to. I took notes! Yes I did. Check me out.

Finally got to meet the Twitter Breakfast Club too and we totally hit it off as though we were old friends. No shit about me being the baby of the group either. They were just my cyber mammees and daddees (if that applies to you Alessio :D) Met Nic of Cherrapeno, Sarah of Maison Cupcake (your red hair rocks!), Alessio of Recipe Taster, Pam of The Cooking Ninja (I teased her for being unfriendly on Twitter when really, she just didn’t understand how it worked), Claire of Colloquial Cooking, Kerrin of MyKugelhopf (who has a sweet tooth the size of China, hello this woman’s amazing) and some other new foodies I discovered.

Completing our Lebanese lunch with a LOLA’s cupcake

We were all really excited about meeting each other. Upon entering Levant, which is beautifully decorated and scented by the way (you gotta go down the stairs which is illuminated by scented candles and rose petals in plates of water), you see everyone hugging, cheek-kissing, waving, blowing air kisses, etc. So much squealing, talking and hugging. It was fantastic! And of course, lots of food goodies being passed around. I was pretty delirious with happiness by the time I’d just set my bag down on the floor after spotting Sunita and Deeba.

The lunch was very delicious. I really liked the halloumi cheese on tomatoes, the falafel was especially good. Some said the size of it was too huge, but not a problem there for me. Not at all! There was a particular dish, don’t know what it was, but it was one with loads of nuts in it. That was out of this world. Only thing is, it gave me a garlic breath that was equally out of this world. Not great for saying hello to new foodie friends. Surely, they didn’t want my well-practised firm handshake and a ‘Hello, pleasure to meet you’ to end all hellos?

We all got on fine nevertheless. So, free love all around and garlic breath all around. Spread the joy of food and care not about silly things like the latter. Time passed quite quickly and before we knew it, FBC was over. We had goodie bags with Maldon salts, olives, West Country cheese, unearthed pannetone (had one this morning with a cup of tea and wow, very yummy), and some other exciting stuff. Yes, we were sent home with food. If I didn’t already feel like the young one of the group, if I weren’t already called the ‘Dancing Diva’, I’d have done a little happy dance right there with my ‘Dirty Kitchen Secrets’ goodie bag. But nah, I pass.

the wonderful bunch who inspire me

The night ended with dinner with a small group of us at Vivat Bacchus near London Bridge. Food was very nice. The wine even nicer. Pam had a hilarious little flirt with the waiter who took our coats. Goodness! Much banter, giggles, and laughter. Some stories and words of wisdom were shared. And the whole experience was something I’m very glad I didn’t miss. I have loads to learn and these lovely people have inspired me much. Despite being on the food blogosphere since 2005, I’ve nearly abandoned it for long periods of time a couple of times. And being a young high-schooler to college kid, I didn’t have the money, time, or kitchen space to explore much. But The Sugar Bar has grown quite a lot and I’ll continue to expand its horizons and test the waters out there! Watch me.

What about the foodie friends I’ve made? Bless them all! They are awesome and just talking about them, waking up to tweet with them puts a smile on my face and chases away any Monday/morning blues.

P/S. We somehow have also set up, not just friendships, but an international shopping community. Networking and globalisation sure has brilliant benefits

Big hugs to all I’ve finally gotten to meet and the new ones I met. It was a joy and I’m excited to keep in touch with everyone. Bisous!

And a final thank you to LOLA’s Cupcakes for sending us their lovely cupcakes to taste. They were little bits of heaven for us, for me definitely, and for FBC 09 I’m sure!

I promised a big red velvet feature after a previous Cupcake von Tease post. And I had meant for this feature to be quite a big one but the week’s kinda got a little busier, a little more hectic with deadlines and other exciting posts that clamoured to the top and pushed this red velvet feature down to the bottom.

And when a friend and I finally made it to the bakery - we trekked all across London just for these babies, it was a horribly dreary, wet, windy day and our cupcakes and cakes nearly got squished and ruined on the journey back. We would’ve liked to sit in and enjoy these, savour the glorious moment but the Portobello shop isn’t as big as the one in Kensington. Expect to be trampled upon by other cupcake fanatics and tourists visiting the area. It ain’t very pleasant but I’m not complaining now that I have red velvet in the fridge, good for a few days of sugar cravings and cream cheese daydreams.

The red velvet once again didn’t let me down. It’s still pretty much one of the best I’ve tasted - the frosting is great but I particularly love the cake bit as it’s hard to get this taste right!

•••

So what’s this about Diva Talks?

Some of you may have noticed that my blog’s gradually changing and I’m talking a little more about myself. I’ve tried to give the blog more of a personality. It’s less about just putting up recipes that I’ve experimented with or tried. And as I now have no oven to work with, I’m venturing more into the cooking arena and will be, I hope with much diligence, attempting sweets and chocolates those sorta things that have no need for a convection oven. I’m more of a baker than a cook - I think being a little OCD means using the right measurements down to 1/4 tsp gives me a great sense of security and achievement at the same time unlike the free-and-easy ways of general cooking. But that means I get to have more fun this year. So bear with me, those who know that my blog prefers to experiment more with the sweet rather than savoury - hence the name: The Sugar Bar.

Nevertheless, that’s not really what I’ve been wanting to share. The past summer went by quite painfully for me. I’m not one to really talk about personal issues publicly (nor with anyone else really except with my very close girlfriends) but I went through a heartbreak that totally caught me by surprise. I mean boy, it was tough. Like the boys I meet, they can never bring themselves to spit out what exactly they’re thinking so I took hold of the reigns, grabbed him by his balls and said it like it was. They always say that women are stronger but I find sometimes that’s a real contentious thought. I think we’re just cleverer and to-the-point when needs be. So I broke it off. But somehow it felt worse that I’d done it because that wasn’t what I wanted. It was something he couldn’t deal with because he was afraid and wanted to crawl back into his shell and find comfort in his own little hole. Fair enough. I liked him enough, adored him to pieces in fact, to let him go. Said ‘goodbye and go’. Cried myself to sleep. Woke up the next day and continued to pretend like it hadn’t affected me at all.

We parted ways. And the friendship now is pretty shaky I believe. Give it time and I know things will be alright. But a couple of months before now, and when I first returned to England to settle down in my new pad in London, you can imagine how dead I was inside. Everything about London screamed at me : you were meant to be here with him, enjoying your favourite season of the year, watching spring turn to fall and anticipating an amazing Christmas together. Obviously, that was me being sulky and I had a hard time trying to enjoy myself here. Although I did in time to come. And believe me, I really do now! I didn’t really let it out of me proper. Even when I met up with him to get my stuff back, I couldn’t sob about it like I wanted to and that’s just me I know.

At the bus station, we said goodbye with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. But the whole 30 minutes that I saw him, I knew every second was just a second I wanted to disappear. Although disappearing wouldn’t have made anything better, or made any difference to the status quo, it was just that - it wouldn’t matter, as he was treating me like our relationship had never existed. Non-acknowledgement of my existence in his life. And that was the most cruel stab I could endure I believe. No one has ever done that to me before. Even the term ‘friendship’ suddenly became a joke to me. Our friendship, our great banter, the laughs and cheeky grins in that 30 minutes reminded me of the real stuff we used to have before the shit hit the ceiling and now it was all quite ridiculous. Like a charade, like something we had to perform.

It’s taken a while and a good, a real good, let-it-all-out cry at my bestfriend’s for me to realize I hadn’t really let go, or gotten over it as I’d kid myself into believing. And now, even though I’m still hurting, I feel like I can dust off my bum, smudge some rouge on my cheeks and offer a fresh face to the world. I can brave it out there again.

And why this has anything at all to do with my foodblog and hence, gain a right to be on this page at all, is because I was finding it hard to write like I normally did. I used to sing (pretend) I was a rockstar in my bedroom. I did it regularly for a laugh and because I really enjoyed it. I used to write all the time, because I found a great pleasure in giving birth to my little literary works. But the summer killed me a little and I found no inspiration for anything. It was like someone pulled the carpet from beneath me and put the stops to everything. Nothing came from me, I offered nothing to the world. Part of me felt like I had to completely deny myself of the normal outlets of release, of anything I took joy in. And it seemed part of me wanted to deny myself food which was a truly bad way of attempting to take control of one’s life. I went shopping, I indulged and milked my heartbreak for whatever it was worth. Even fashion and the usual quirky photography I took so much joy in couldn’t fire me up. Couldn’t feel satisfied, however much I tried. But I remembered my blog and it gave me a breather, a different avenue to unleash.

The girls on Twitter who I met and started to communicate with on a daily basis made it a lot easier as well. And getting to know fellow so Spiffy, whom I adore for her courage and ballsy attitude, told me to pull my socks up, get a grip and snap out of this dream-state that was slowly eating me away and robbing me of my usual creativity and vivaciousness. The girls, whom I call the Twitter Breakfast Club, were chirpy and lively every morning. They chatted about anything and everything - from food, to shoes, to love handles, to children, to being happy. And before I knew it, I started to realize I was looking forward to getting up in the mornings. My wake-up alarm got shifted from a disgusting 10.30am to an 8am just so I could get a quick chat in with the girls. They’re mothers (and fathers, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten you boys!)and a little older than me, but wiser and still as cool and quick as a whiplash. How could I not enjoy the wicked banter and intellectual conversations I have with them? I’ll be meeting some of them at the first ever UK Food Blogger Connect conference and I’m so excited about it! We’ll be sure to have such fun.

The close few girls I keep in touch with, if anything, have un-deadified me. They inspire me and always make me feel like I had so much to offer. A lot of love shared on Twitter.

And so yes, I have taken a step out of my coffin and found my mojo back.

These girls are amazing and so Spiffy is like my light at the end of the tunnel. My bestfriends from uni have also been real troopers listening to me rant, offering me a shoulder to cry on and giving me time to deal with things. I don’t like talking about it but now that I’ve changed my phone to leave the past in the old, I now find that this post must be something I have to do to wash it all away. I don’t need to start again as I love everything of my past and everything that has happen. God plans it all according to his greater plan and I do not regret nor hold grudges against anyone for anything. I am just thankful that I have now opened my eyes and said goodbye to some unhappiness at least.

I have always been thought of as the strongest girl out of the lot. The half-girl half-boy for being so nonchalant and a little cold, if you dare. But I know I’m not. If anything I’m the fieriest of the lot because I have passion that’s brimming (a little too hot to handle, LOL) and I have to hold that back a little so I don’t go mental. And I can now feel that passion in me again. I’ve started writing and I’ve definitely found it in me to start singing and screeching like a mad git in my own bedroom to AC/DC, Lady Gaga, System of a Down, Stereophonics, etc. Booyah. I’m back.

And I intend to make sure everyone knows it. Even if he can’t see me, that’s fine. We got to take charge of our own lives and get up when we fall down. Blame no one for your mistakes, for your upsetting times, and definitely not for your broken hearts. Grab the reigns of your life, look the bull in the eye, get ballsy and face the music. Get mending.

Oh yea.

Cupcakes healed me too.