Soul Food Made Easy!

TOMATO PASTA WITH SMOKED DRIED CRAYFISH

Cooking time (30minute)

Ingredients: for four people


2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp. fresh parsley
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh basil
2 onion
1 carrot
100g mushrooms (sliced)
1 vegetable stock (cube)
20 g smoked dried crayfish
olive oil
2 tbsp tomato puree
6 fresh tomato or (one can plum tomato)
500g spaghetti
100g olive
dried herb (mix herb)

Cooking Method:
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add one onion, mushroom, tomato puree and garlic and let them gently cook for 2 minutes.
Blend together tomato, carrot, parsley, onion and the mix in the sauce pan.
then all you do is let the tomatoes simmer on a very low heat, without a lid, for 20 minutes or until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
then add smoked crayfish, olive, vegetable stock, dried herb and salt & pepper for more 10 minutes.
Cook the spaghetti in rapidly boiling salted water for about 9-10 minutes, or to taste. When cooked drain well in the colander.
Toss the pasta into the tomatoes sauce using the pasta tongs to mix well. Add the chopped basil leaves and combine.
Serve at once, passing grated Parmesan cheese (optional) with a fruity glass of wine like Chardoney.

BON APPETIT!

Women want surname claim in Marriage.

Asian women want equality in marriage right to keep surname.

From the beginning of time in the majority of countries, it has always been the husband’s name that leads on the family. Women drop their fathers name to take their husbands. How long will this last for? Are all women, mostly the working class, educated and rich, happy with this? In the UK and most countries, women are allowed to have or keep their fathers name and it is a matter of choice to take the partner or husbands’ name.

Female celebrities get to keep their surname even when married at a matter of choice, mostly if they become famous before marriage. Female celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gwen Stefani, Opera Winfrey, Catherine Zita Jones and  Beyonce Knowles  went along with it.
Today, a group of Japanese citizens are currently battling a 113 year old law, stating that a married couple must share the same surname. In Japan, couples are allowed either surname name but have to decide whose name they are taking, the male or the female. However, custom indicates that it is the wife who loses her name claim. The same applies to most African countries but it is always a must to go with the husbands’ surname.
Recently, four women in Japan are filing a lawsuit calming that law violates constitutional equality and are demanding the law to be changed. The future is looking promising for them and change could be in the horizon. Will other parts of the world not exposed to this tradition follow the stream? Will women from countries suffering from the same issue stand up  for them selves some day in the future or will they stand by the culture they have always known and accepted?

James Cameron SANCTUM

 A new 3D cave-diving adventure drama film, Produced by James Cameron and directed by Alister Grierson an Australian film director and script writer. Sanctum script was inspired by the near death experience of one of the writers, Andrew Wright who when leading a diving expedition miles into a system of underwater cave, and while trying to find a way out after a crazy storm collapsed the entrance.



In Sanctum, five people got trapped in an underwater cave exploration in Papua New Guinea when a cyclone started flooding the cave. The water rapidly went high in the cave and air was running out, their only hope of survival was to travel through the unexplored wide underwater cave following the course of river that leads into the ocean, but how many people will survive such risk? The main explorers’ life revolved around caves with passion. He brought in his seventeen year old son into the situation and was worried about his life. During this tragic incident, father found son and son found the father he never knew. “The action doesn’t quite conjure up the claustrophobic intensity you expect, but the father-son-storyline is sufficiently muscular”a comment from rotten tomatoes.



Sanctum was shot in Warner Road show Studios and the Queensland Gold Coast, it employed a 3D photography technique James Cameron developed to film Avatar. This breath taken and unbelievable under water sequence took place in a large water tank at the Village Road show Studios in Queensland, just like Titanic in a water tank. The real caves were also filmed in South Australias cave-diving region around Mount Gambier. Sanctum was out on the 4^th of February 2011. Sanctum didn’t win much viewers heart but a great film to see because it set your mind in the thinking mood and leave your breath taken as you keep expecting the worst. Sanctum is an example for cave divers and rock climbers. It could help widen their imagination and experience.

James Cameron is the writer and producer of Titanic (1997) and The Abyss (1989) the worlds’ greatest underwater gripping adventure films.

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctum_(film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sanctum/

Martina Cole a great writer of all time!



Are you a novel reader? Martina Cole a crime writer from Essex in England will not fail to wrap and bound you with one of her thrilling crime novels. She is a strong female crime writer “the person who tells it like it really is”. Majority of her novels have gone straight to number one best seller in the UK. The first money she made from writing was for a TV comedy, she wrote about a multi-racial family on drugs. Her first book that got her a publishing deal was Dangerous Lady, the story of how a seventeen year old girl took on London gangland. This is one of her favourite novels of all time. Most of her novels examine London gangster underworld and she has gain sales of over ten million pounds in the UK alone. Her novels usually feature a female protagonist however behind a strong man. She uses this phrase well “behind every successful man, there is a woman”. Most of her settings take place in England and within the Irish community around London. Majority of crime writers are always male novelists, there are only few female writers and Martina Cole is one of them who stand out. Have you ever want to read about London slangs, all the swearing, all the dirty talks, and the under word business and ways of life? Martina Cole has got it all. Her novels spill it out like a bean and takes you into a dream world which sends you into an odyssey with London gang stars of the west end and many more.

 

I was first flowed away when I read her first novel “Dangerious lady”. I got lost into the story and her way of writing, and made her my favourite writer straight away. She didn’t fail to entertain me with her story of a London west end woman as I never dropped the novel until I was done. After Goodnight Lady, I promised myself to read each and every novel she has written. The Telegraph news paper said “she always looks at the dark side of life”. She tells the filthiest jokes, added another news paper.



It was like she was born to know men so well. She reads their mind and writes about them like a god. She also made a comment saying “once I start writing, the story takes it over”. Such words come only from amazing writers. A writer, whose story can come to life once they create the character, has unlimited bound. Some of her novels such as Dangerous Lady; which is one of her very best of all time, The jump; the ravishing one, and The Take; which is the unimaginable one have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. The Take was serialised on British television on Sky1, on the 17th of June 2009. She also created an investigative documentary in 2009 called; Martina Cole Girl Gangs: Los Angeles which was filmed and focused on the role of girls in a game gang, which have been responsible for drug dealing and auto theft, to robbery and murder. She is a true writer indeed because she never failed to write a book every year, she kept it going and has now written 17 amazing readable books.
Martina Cole was born in 1959 which is 51 years today. She is as single parents of two children, she has a big extended family and always referred to her upbringing as shaping her life to the woman she is today. She never studied to be a writer in college or university. She was just a single mother who didn’t have much to do and when bored, decided to take up writing.  Martina Cola is a great writer indeed and I will recommend her to anyone who enjoys crime, murder novel and who wants to feel the London underworld life and hard core language at the same time in a novel. 

The Lady Killer (1993)





Dangerous Lady (1992)



 BOOKS SHE HAS WRITTEN SO FAR

Goodnight Lady (1994)

   

The Jump (1995) 





The Runway (1997)


  

Two Women (1999)



 

  











 

Broken (2000)

 Faceless (2001)

The Know (2003)

The Graft (2004)











 

 

Maura's Game (2002)



The Take (2005)



Close (2006)



Faces (2007)



The Business (2008)



Hard Girls (2009)

The Family (2010)

Almost writing for 20 years. From 2000, she wrote  novels every year until 2010,what an amazing writer who wrote novels for a whole decade None stop. Some say she goes around before coming to the point, but then, don’t they enjoy the whole journey?


References



http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/martina-cole/ 

http://www.martinacole.co.uk/author.htm

http://www.martinacole.co.uk/article.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_Cole

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=sr_kk_2?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Amartina+cole+books&keywords=martina+cole+books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291117280





Snow hits London again

The great snow makes a come back today. The weather is unbelievably cold, feels like it is going to snow more heavier than the last two weeks this time. Londoners trow ice ball on each other as some are happy to see the snow again. It might be a white Christmas next week.

Here, Saint Paul, The Tate Gallery, Shakespeare globe, Millennium bridge all embrace the snow earlier this afternoon. ghrrrrrr!

 

Matt Cardle X factor Winner 2010!

Matt Cradle is the  winner of X Factor 2010. He won the British Music talent show on December twelve with his incredible voice. The 27 year old from Little Maplestead in Essex who was once a lonely and shy boy is now recognised and own one of the greatest voice in music. It was unbelievable because his rival and co-singer Rebecca Ferguson was brilliantly amazing as well. Both of them stood out early in time during the whole contest, both were really shy in the begging and ended up being brave, strong, unbelievable and breath taking at the end of the programme. it was left for the public to choose their winner, and they choose Matt, it was also said that Matt had the highest vote of all time throughout this year programme.

    This is the seventh UK series of the programme and a product of ITV. This year, Simon Cowell the music gurus' show started airing on August 21 2010 and ended on December 12 with Matt as the final cake winner.

    Majority of viewers were very happy to see Matt Cradle win, most believe there aren’t enough male singers in the British music industry and Matt winning will be more helpful compared to a female winner. Most of them also accepted that Rebecca has got the voice and will make it any way because over the past few years, JLS has proved it that runner ups can make it as much as the winner. Some viewers also thought it was all about the judges and was very happy to see Dannii Minogue win this year.

      

   Matt Cradle didn’t undergo a happy child hood he was diagnosed with a wired tumour, which was a form of cancer as a toddler and recovered after one of his kidneys was removed at the age of two. Before applying for the X Factor, he was the front man and acoustic guitar of a band called Seven Summers. The band with alternative Rock, pop and urban was struggling and managed to grab a Panice Best Band 2010 award. For pocket money and beer money, he was a house painter and decorator before auditioning for The X Factor.

  

   His Runner up Rebecca Ferguson twenty four from Liverpool is a single mother of two.  She has previously auditioned in The X Factor and P. Diddy’s Starmaker in New York and was unsuccessful on both over the past years. As dream never dies, destiny can never be taken away but can only be delayed. She made herself known to the word as she tried again in The X Factor 2010.

What is next for Matt Cradle?

Well he is still finding it unbelievable that he won.  He is in every News paper and Magazine out there with news about his win and he is still celebrating his win obviously. The winners of the show go away with a recording contract with record label Syco Music Ltd. With a stated value of one million pounds, this also includes a cash payment to the winner of which the majority is allocated to marketing and recording costs. The winners also have a chance in becoming the Christmas number one, hopefully Matt Cradle will make it in this years Xmas number one with his debut single “When we Collide”. Good luck Matt!

PREVIOUS X FACTOR WINNERS AND RUNNERS UP

2004 – Steve Brookstein. Runner up: G4, Third place: Tabby Callaghan
2005 – Shayne Ward        Runner up: Andy Abraham, Third place: Journey South
2006 – Leona Lewis         Runner up: Ray Quinn, Third Place: Ben Mills

2007 – Leon Jackson        Runner up: Rhydian Roberts, Third Place: Same Difference

2008 – Alexandra Burke   Runner up: JLS, Third Place: Eoghan Quigg

2009 – Joe McElderry      Runner up: Olly Murs, Third place: Stacey Solomon

References

http://www.itv.com/#intcmp=NAV_HOME1

http://xfactor.itv.com/2010/

http://xfactor.itv.com/2010/videos/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1337708/X-FACTOR-FINAL-Matt-Cardle-shortest-backed-favourites-win-ever.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_X_Factor_finalists_(UK_series_7)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(UK)

SNOW BRITIAN SNOW!

London

Amazing places with snow so far...

The magical cold weather hit Britain on Wednesday the 24th of November, covering places such as Scotland, Yorkshire, Wales and many more on white dust, leaving London very cold up to -10 degrees and expecting snow at any time. The beautiful white soft and cold dust didn't hit London not until Wednesday the 1st of December, not as powerful as predicted at first, day two didn't fail to create that beautiful winter wonder land everyone was expecting for over a week. it left the Central part of London beautiful cheering Xmas shopper up and at the same time, making their day the most dreadful day without a cuppa. Still very cold and icy, is also melting like a Hagen daz ice cream having a melt down. Day 2 brought the closure of most air ports and train stations. "Please dear snowie, don't be horrible, be nice to us and make it a white Christmas for the little ones".

WORD OF ADVICE! 

• Be careful when you are out there make sure you dress to keep warm and not to impress
• less slippery shoes to give you less broken bones,
• check the weather forecast before leaving your comfort zone
• expect to slip and fall down, that way you are ready to get a grip
• buy or carry any hot drink with you when possible
• own a hat, a scarf and a pair of glove earlier than later

Do most of this and many more, that way you keep safe and out of trouble however, ready for the big frizzy bash!