kobenhavn jazz

Copenhagen has an amazing and vibrant jazz scene. At Copenhagen's oldest jazz club, La Fontaine, there is a jam session every sunday that will blow you socks off. Truly fantastic and varied musicians all jamming on stage.

action sampler

So I have ben playing with an application on my iPhone called lomolomo. It allows me to take delicious lomography inspired photos. While not being able to do true justice to the original it is a lot of fun... it also can take amazing portrait shots.

the real lomo-camera looks like this

and can make a photo in a cafe more interesting

and people in the background want to be in front

four shots = four times the fun

and you can join friends together

360 degrees in -35 degrees

So I recently got back from a short visit to Norway. Apart from it being stunningly beautiful, containing the Northern Lights and being the most expensive country I have ever visited ($12 for a beer is a little ridiculous) it also gave me the opportunity to play with 360 degree panoramic shots.

click on the pictures to see them up close

the docks

81 husky dogs

an amazing moonscape

but also a warm place to eat some food

Valentines Day

So for the last few years I have been trying to make Valentines Day extra special for those around me. I write extra-special love letters then run off a few copies (this turned out to be surprisingly hard in Copenhagen as finding a photocopier was not easy) and then headed out in the cold with the help of some friends to warm the hearts of complete strangers.

The letters said things like;

'Dear You,

How do you write a love letter to a stranger? You don't. But you're not strange at all, you're lovely. Lovely face, lovely smile, lovely way... it's why you're lovable.

Happy Valentines Day.

From A Stranger'

and

'Dear Stranger,

I love your look, it had to be said. You're so funny (I'm pretty sure) and your smile lights up a room. Thank you for being here today so I could finally give this to you and express how I feel.

Happy Valentines Day.

From Another Stranger'

The love notes came with a Hug Coupon that had written on it,

'This coupon can be used in exchange for one free hug with anyone... but we suggest you hug a friend.'

Some people were uncomfortable. Some people just looked at us weirdly. Some people gave us hugs and were very excited by it all, and one cafe got us to hang up some of the love notes on their wall.

If this looks familiar it is based around the work of Jake Bronstein from ZoomDoggle who has done some amazing things to spread happiness including sending love letters to strangers.

Splash of colour

So a while ago I ordered I ordered a lomo colorsplash flash.

It is a basic horseshoe flash attachment with a hell-ova lot more fun. It throws a coloured flash burst onto a scene, giving everything a dreamy feel.

it looks like this

or like this

and makes photos look like this

and this

adding whimsy

and makes birthday cocktails look as good as they taste

and for magical fairy gazing to be more real

Vodka is done!

Now all it needs is to be made into a delicious martini

Ingredients

Aidan's Pomegranate Martini

• 1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
• 45 ml pomegranate infused vodka
• 30ml Cointreau
• Cup of ice
• Splash of sparkling water or lychee juice (optional)
• lychee for garnish

Shake ingredients in a shaker and put in chilled martini glasses.

iced vovo

It was Australia Day yesterday and to celebrate I made some traditional Australian biscuits. The oh so very famous iced vovo. Recipe is down the bottom.

I started off with Vanilla Snaps using Donna Hay recipe from “Modern Classics 2″

Ingredients:

• 185gms butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• icing sugar to dust

How to make:

• Preheat the oven to 180 c
• In a food processor mix the butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth
• Add the flour, egg and egg yolk and process until the mixture forms a soft dough
• Take the dough out the processor and knead slightly bringing it together in ball and wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes
• Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface or between 2 sheets of baking paper until about ½ cm / 5mm thick
• Cut the dough into approximately 7cm rounds
• Place the dough rounds on a baking sheet that has been lined with baking paper or silicone baking sheets
• Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown

Remove the biscuits carefully from the baking tray and allow them to cool on a wire cooling rack as they have a tendency to carry over cooking and could turn too brown once removed from the oven (I generally cool all biscuits on a cooling rack).

When cooled I added the topping

• 125g unsalted butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 1/2 cups white or pink marshmallows
• Pink food colouring
• 1/2 cup raspberry or strawberry jam, whisked until smooth
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut

How to make:

• Place butter and sifted icing sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add pink food colouring to lightly pink
• melt marshmallows in a pan over low heat with a tiny bit of water
• using a spatula add the melted marshmallows to the mixture and mix well
• spread the mixture over the top of the biscuits leaving a strip down the middle for jam
• dollop jam down the middle of the biscuits and cover with desiccated coconut.