In which I debate the merits of chocolate cake. And travel. And wayward green pigs.

So a friend has given me a recipe for chocolate-cake-in-a-mug-that-takes-five-minutes. It is, as may well be guessed, disastrous as regards the whole "not gaining weight" thing. But it's the ultimate in comfort food, chocolate. If only it didn't come with the evil, evil calories... And quite unexpectedly, even after my cake-induced moaning and stomach-rubbing the other night, I did the inevitable and made another one last night. Oh yes. I am THAT stupid.

Nice though. Chocolatey.

Moving on. Another friend of mine is in Africa at the moment, and my parents just left for the UK, while my flatmate is five weeks away from jetting to the USA. It's all making me pine for travel, and especially to the first two destinations (I could take or leave America, although DC was pretty great...and Disneyland...). I miss the heat of Africa (although sometimes I could've done without it) and the sunrises and sunsets. The quiet majesty of the mountains and the early morning walks through the jungle up in Hodespruitt. The yawning roars of the lions and the eerie whoops of hyenas. Playing with the honey badgers, and tracking leopards in the camp. I miss the deep bright green of England, and the grey-mossy brown and green of Scotland. I miss the smell of the air, and the sense of history...and the bustle of London, and even the tiny soot-blackened mice that you find running around on the tracks of the underground. It's the things you wouldn't expect to miss, but because they were part of the whole you end up feeling quite sentimental about it all.

Sigh.

Better be careful, or I'll need another chocolate cake!

(Don't do it! cries my poor stomach, while my tastebuds jump up and down in a collective mexican wave, shouting about how the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few)

Yesterday I caught the middle of Disney's Alice in Wonderland cartoon. My word, but Mr Carroll had a special kind of imagination. Excellent use of onomatopoeia. I love words like "brillig" and wabe". Mome raths. They sounded like such sleepy little creatures. Although there's certainly a big difference in what people expect from them. Observe:

versus:

Hmmmm. The original text has Humpty Dumpty describing "raths" as "a sort of green pig", while "mome" is suspected to indicate being lost. One only guesses at how this reached the above depiction at Disney.

Ah well. Time for food!