Watching Hotel Pro Forma and the Knife's Darwin inspired performance was an intriguing experience. It was my first (and maybe last) electro opera, with a geological and biological touch. A strange, dream like combination woven together with slow, mezmerising movement.

In the beginning, I expected an average modern exprimental theatre piece, that would soon bore me out of my wits. Then, as a red clad lady stepped onto the the front of the stage, singing a legato opera piece about some kind of natural mineral erosion, I changed my mind. And later, when the entire back of the stage moves sideways, and beams of green lazer shot over my head in a sea of smoke and dry ice, it was clear that this performance is in no way old or boring, however there were periods that dragged out to the point that it was mildly sleep inducing.

The audience was comprised of an older, cult crowd, probably Hotel Pre Forma fans, and a younger, hip electro group, The Knife's followers. That is also partly, in my opinion, why the dreamy production was such a hit! Two very accomplished groups working together.

As a whole, it was an interesting and unforgettable experience. A storyline with many layers to be discovered and thought about, with Karin Dreijers remarkable soundtrack and the choppy, experimental choreography, unlike any other dance performance I've ever seen. Topped off with melancholic opera and occasionally a smooth, sweet pop voice, it was truly unique.

One word, wow! As I sat at home, listening to an old Coldplay album over and over again, I couldn't help but to wonder if there wasn't more good music out there. Don't get me wrong, I do like alot of music apart from Coldplay, but I felt like I was in a rut, always the same bands in my fave playlist on Spotify. And then, in my moment of musical despair, there they were, The Kooks!


Of course they didn't just apear, the shaggy Brighton dudes have been a band since 2000. Lead guitar and vocals, Luke Pritchard, thrills with his amazing accent, dreamy voice and clean guitar riffs.

According to me, as a critic, their best album is Inside In/Inside Out. Some of my favourite songs are Naîve, their biggest hit, Seaside, which gives me shivers from the sheer perfection, and Always Where I Need To Be, with it's brilliant guitar and bass riffs.

I highly recommend them to Arctic Monkeys fans like myself, or anyone who enjoys a good indie band. Five =) =) =) =) =) out of five!

Lactose intolerant? Even if your not, you have probably heard it before from an aunt or an associate.
"Oh I'm sorry, I'm lactose intolerant, do you have soy milk or something like that instead?" That's what they all say, and you barely ever just happened to have the strange, bean based liquid they crave! For all those whom are lactose or milk protein intolerant, and for the considerate yet confused people who aren't, but want to learn more about us alien people who are, here's a guide to the strange world of intolerance!

To start off, here are some basic facts about lactose or milk protein intolerance.
*To be allergic and intolerant is not the same thing. Allergies are when you react to a food product or another substance with some form of uncomfortable reaction, and intolerance is meerly that your body is lacking the substance we use to digest lactose or milk protein.
*You can be intolerant to lactose, milk protein, or both. In some countries it is very common to be intolerant to one of them, like in Finland, where lactose intolerance is a run-of-the-mill hardship, or in China where milk protein intolerance is often seen.

If you aren't intolerant, you may think cooking or even drinking coffee without dairy would be a big hassle, but hopefully the following paragraphs will prove you wrong!

Purple Monsters's Official Guide to the Perfect Dairy Substitutes
Whether you are intolerant and need a little help with your every day dairy substitutes, or just a slightly confused non-intolerant person who happens to have an intolerant sister or such but feel as though you need a GPS in the soy isle of a super market, i hope you will enjoy the following guide.. =)

Substitute for:

Drinking milk/Cereal milk
I would suggest rice milk with added calcium, because of it's delicate, milk-like flavour and it's nutritional value.

Cooking milk for savoury or unsweetened dishes
Soy or oat milk is best for cooking according to me, they heat up well and dont add sweetness to your dishes. Oat milk is generally more available in northern European countries. For asian stews or other foods, coconut milk is an often used "dairy", both for dairy eaters and intolerant people.

Cream/Butter
I tend to use vegetable oil (such as canola or palm oils) based butter substitutes, they taste good and are better for your cholesteral levels than real butter. For cooking/coffee cream, vegetable oil based cream products work as well, or if you live in northern europe, oat cream works well in savoury dishes as well as coffee. You may also want to try powdered, dairy-free coffee creamers.

Yogurt
From my experiance, soy-based yogurt imitation products ("soy-gurt") taste the best.

Cooking milk for desserts
If you are looking for a flavourless dairy free option, go for rice milk. It won't add an unwanted flavour to your dessert. Other, more flavourful options, are almond milk or coconut milk. Observe that rice milk is a quite sweet product, so you may want to reduce the amount of sugar you add to your dessert.

This is a story I've been writing in english class:

England

1808

March 26

Suddenly, I woke up! My three year old brother Morris had crawled up on my tummy and was pounding on my chest with his little fists. On my right Currie started to stir, and Grey who had his arm around me gave out a low, sleepy groan. I got up slowly, lift Morris onto my hip and walked towards the mouth of the cave, bending over so I wouldn’t hit my head on the stalactites. Our cave was a rather small room in a big rock right on the seaside. It had been shaped by the violent waves that must have come in at high tide many years ago. Nowadays we were lucky and had very calm water in the bay that we called our home.

It was a very foggy morning, and I could hardly see anything so I walked in the direction of the sea, and then I saw a tall human silhouette up to his knees in the water.

   “Trisso!” I yelled, and the silhouette turned around.

   “Book!” You are awake! Look what I caught!” he said and held up a big greenish fish.

   “That’s food for all day!” I exclaimed. Morris started to doze in my arms and the three of us headed back to the cave with the fish. At the mouth of the cave grey had started a fire, and trisso hung the fish over it to cook. 

Currie, Morris and I are siblings, and Trisso and Grey are brothers. We are all orphaned and we live in a cave on the beach because we fear the cruel life in and if we don't hide, the government men will take us back.

The rest of the day we spent doing our chores, preparing food, sweeping sand out of the cave and collecting oysters between the wet slippery rocks on the west side of the beach. By sunset we were exhausted, so we took a quick evening swim and then we crawled into the corner furthest into the cave and went to sleep.

At first I thought I was dreaming, but as I felt the cold, hard, sandy rock beneath me I realized that the voices I was hearing must be real. I peered out through the mouth of the cave and saw the silhouette of three men in police helmets holding batons! It was then I knew we would have to flee.

   “Grey!” Wake up!” I whispered softly.

   “Whatizzit?” he answered sleepily.

   “The government men are here! We will have to wake everyone and and get out of here fast!!!” I whispered back. We got up and quietly woke everyone. We gathered our few belongings and and one by one crawled out of a small hole in the cave wall, our emergency exit. I was the last one out and as I wiggled my way though I heard one of the men say

   “I swear it was here somewere that the lady reported to have seen a group of homless children.”

We tiptoed along the low shrubs in the dunes, until we were out of sight and earshot from the men.  The we walked along the beach for what felt like all night. Grey and I took turnes carrying Morris, and Trisso carried Currie. We hadn't seen the men since we left the cave, but we decided that we must find a new place to live were they would never find us.  By the time dawn broke, and a small slice of the sun could be seen licking the surface of the sea at the horizon, we were all exhausted and starving. Currie had woken up and was strutting impatiently. Suddenly she exclaimed,

   “Look! There's a house!”

And sure enough, far ahead, a rather big red farmhouse could be sighted, and nexto it there was a barn.

   “I’m really tired, do you suppose we could sleep in that barn?” Trisso said.

   “Maybe.. Lets go see if there is hay or something we could sleep on!” I answered , as we walked in the direction of the barn. The door was open and we stepped in. It was very dark in there, and little sunbeams trickled own from the roof. The whole barn was filled with hay and it smelled strongly.  As I lay down in the soft, blond grassy mass and put my head on Grey’s shoulder, I wondered if someone might find us, yet I was so sleepy that I didn't care.

Once again, I woke up suddenly! Someone had opened the barn door and  the sunlight blinded me. A rather tall, balding middle aged man was standing in the door opening staring at us!

   “Gertrude!”  he called out,” Look what I've found!” 

A moment later a middle aged woman with a frilly pink apron came rushing into the barn!

   “Oh, goodness me! Children!” she exclaimed, surprisingly happily. 

Then Trisso decided that it was time to introduce us, so he said

   “Goodday Mr. and Mrs, my name is Trisso and theese are my frineds and my brother. We ar sorry to have borrowed your barn for  the night but we were terribly tired, you see we have traveled a long way!”

   “Why hello dears!” said the woman, “But were on earth are your parents?

   “But we don’t  have any parents.” I answered quietly. “The reason we had to leave our home and sleep in your lovely barn is that some policemen tried to put us in an aweful orphanage.”

   “Oh, that's just dreadful!” said the man, “You must come into our house and have something to eat, you must be famished!”

We woke Morris and Currie, and walked into the big, red farmhouse with the friendly couple.  The man who apparently was named Charles, showed us to a cozy table in the kitchen, and Gertrude served us scones, tea, cheese, butter and marmalade.  We thanked them graciously and ate until our stomachs wouldn't hold more.  Then I stood up, ready to leave, but Gertrude stopped me.

   “We were thinking, if you and your friends wanted to, you could stay with us for a few nights until those horrible men stop looking for you.”  I gave her a surprised look, and then I looked at Trisso and Grey. 

    “That sounds like a fine offer." Trisso answered for me.

    “Yes, it most certainly does."  Grey added.

    “Well then it is decided!" Charles exclaimed.

The couple led us up a squeaky flight of stairs, through a hallway, and into the most delightful room I have ever seen outside of a book.  It had two beds with lacy, flowered quilts and pillows.  A huge window that beamed with sunshine, a cot with a small quilt that would be perfect for Morris, and a vanity with a mirror decorated with lillies of the valley.

   ”Oh goodness me, this is a beautiful room!”  I exclaimed with delight.

   “We thought that you and your sister and brother would take this room, and your friends would take the room next door.” Gertrude said, hiding a laugh at my enthusiasm. 

We gladly agreed to the sleeping arrangements, and quickly made ourselves at home.  I placed my only lipstick on the vanity, one that a noble woman once had given me when I sang at the town square to make money, and Currie curled up on the delicate quilt to see if it was as soft as it looked. 

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, Charles brought us outside to show us the farm.   There was a field of corn, a strawberry field, a henhouse, a pasture with cows grazing, and a very fat dog with sad eyes and droopy ears.  Charles explained that the dog was so fat because it was going to have puppies. This made Morris very excited, so he started playing with the dog hoping some puppies would suddenly appear.

We ate the sandwiches Gertrude had packed for us, and spent the afternoon helping Charles with the farm chores. Later that evening, after dinner, the couple said they wanted to tell us something. We curiously quieted down. 

   “We have often wished for children like you, for we don’t have any of our own.We have very much enjoyed to have you here, and before dinner Charles called the town council.  He asked if it would be possible to adopt some homeless, orphaned children, and the council said yes! So we were wondering if you would like to stay with us. We would give you food and shelter and you could go to school.  We would be like your parents!” Gertrude said looking at us.

I looked at her in shock, then at Grey, last at Trisso.  From their eyes, I knew what I should answer.

   “Why that is the kindest thing anyone has ever suggested to us!  We would love to stay here with you!”Gertrude hugged me, and Charles was tear eyed with joy.  And from that day on, we were no longer the homeless children, we were the happy children at Charles’ farm!

I have recently been reading an amazing book, and I just finnished it today, so i thought I would write a review of  it here :)

The name of my blog has the word random in it, and the other day i was thinking, what exactly does it mean?  Well i came up with that in the way that my friends and I use it, it means something that doesn't have anything to do with it's surroundings, for example:

When you read the title you probably thought that I had gone totally mad!   Well I haven't I just enjoy doing yoga! Surya Namaskara is Salute To The Sun/Sun Salutation in English, and is a quite normal combination of 12 different yoga poses. It stengthens the back and is generally very good for the body.