I have not bought one single piece of underwear since November 2013. I have not bought underwear in Australia since 2010, which was my second ever trip to Oahu, the first being in the 1980’s..
Macys have these clearance racks where you can get underwear for $2-3 dollars. Underwear you would pay $15-20 a pair for in Australia. When I discovered this, I went on the largest underwear shopping spree of my lifetime.
You have to understand, I was not someone who buys underwear very often. I usually find something I like, and I buy that until it is no longer available. I will sometimes buy extra to put aside for later years, if I feel that my favourite item will suddenly cease to exist.
While I returned home with enough underwear to outfit a couple of netball teams, it has been a while and some of the underwear is starting to show their age. Not to mention, my recent weight loss is causing some fit issues.
Bra wise, I got a bunch of these Coobie bras so gorgeously displayed like a rainbow in a shop. They are my favourites for going out wear. I also bought several Genie Bras from the As Seen On TV shops over there. Those things are super comfortable, especially for around the house and workout wear.
It is really difficult to accept the fact of paying $15-20 for one pair of underwear, when you’ve bought so many for $2 and $3. I love the brands I found over there – Vanity Fair Illuminations being my favourites. Here I can buy 3 pair of those for $64 or so. When I was paying $2 a pair! NO WAY!
This post was inspired by a post from Beth at Almost Posh. There are a couple of bras to win, if you want to drop by over there!
Traditional crumbed chicken is something my grandmother taught me to cook when I was growing up. It was one of the very first dishes she taught me. It involves love, time, and a lot of effort, plus plenty of eggs and butter. I can never make it without thinking of her.
Love, time, and a lot of effort are not always something I have on hand. So when I discovered Healthy Chicken Nuggets at Skinnytaste, I thought I would give them a try. They turned out awesomely and The Other Half was a big fan.
Me personally, I wanted a strip rather than a nugget, because I was the one crumbing them. And he didn’t mind what format they arrived in, as long as they got in his belly. I now make a big batch of these on Sundays, and he takes some for lunch each weekday.
I have tweaked the original recipe somewhat. Here is how I make them, step by step with pics. This is not a recipe where I use exact amounts, myself. You will get messy making this!
You’ll need –
Chicken to crumb. I use breast chicken cut into strips. If we are eating it for one meal I will use 250g of chicken for each person. Extra virgin olive oil to lightly coat the chicken. Baking trays lined with baking paper to place your crumbed chicken onto.
For the crumbs –
Breadcrumbs of your choice. Parmesan cheese. Parsley. Black pepper. Any other herbs you like to add.
Mix these items together on a large plate. Don’t use too much cheese. When you’ve made it a few times, you’ll know how much is best.
Set the oven to 200C and get it warming, while you do the crumbing.
Place the chicken into a bowl with some olive oil, and then smoosh it around until all the chicken is lightly coated. Take the chicken out of the bowl and lay it on a plate so any excess oil can drain off.
Add the oiled chicken to your crumbing plate. Turn the chicken over, pushing it down into the crumbs to coat it. Do this to each side of the chicken until all sides are covered.
Lay the crumbed chicken on your baking tray. Once the tray is full of chicken, place in the oven for 15 minutes, then take the tray out and flip them over once. Return to the oven for a further 15-20 minutes. If you like them crispy on the outside, do 20 minutes each side.
These are great to have in the fridge for a snack, they can be eaten hot out of the oven or cold out of the fridge. I recommend making a double batch each time and saving the other half for lunches. ;) Or making a huge batch like I do each Sunday, for weekday work lunches for The Other Half.
Unpopcult has been one of my most favourite television blogs for a long time now. So as a part of my new blog series – Snoskred Faves – I sent off a few questions to CJ and Jed, and here are the answers.
The Interview –
You are both named after The West Wing characters – Jed, what is it about Jed that made you choose to use that name, more so than Josh or Leo or Toby or any of the other male characters on the show?
JB: A hasty decision. I conceived of and set up Unpopcult in the course of an evening, and as it was always intended to be about (predominantly) American TV I chose a name from my favourite show. If I’d thought about it a bit longer it would have undoubtedly been Josh Lyman, and if I’d known we’d still be going over seven years later it would have been something else entirely. But it’s stuck.
Jed you and I were both big fans of Dexter up until the end of seasons 4 or 5, around there somewhere. Looking back at the show now, is there one particular scene or moment from the show that was your most favourite, that stands out to you?
JB: The death of Doakes at the end of season 2 – I’m not sure the show was ever quite the same afterwards – and the scene in the first episode of season 4 where the Trinity Killer murdered someone in a bathtub.
It is my feeling that CJ Cregg was one of the best television characters of all time, so CJ what was your most favourite CJ scene from The West Wing?
CJ: Thank you for giving me the BEST excuse to spend an afternoon messing about on YouTube trying to decide on my answer :-) I thoroughly enjoyed doing “research” for this question and fell in love with The West Wing all over again as a result, but I finally settled on this scene where CJ destroys a reporter (who completely deserves it) in an air-punchingly awesome fashion – Ker-pow!
CJ, You loved ER – in fact I think that is how I first found your website to begin with. Dr Mark Greene and Dr Carter will forever be locked in a battle for best ER doctor in my mind – which doctor was your favourite – or do you have a similar battle going on in your mind? :)
CJ: I feel guilty about overlooking Pratt, Ray and Susan Lewis, all of whom I loved to bits, but, as soon as I read this question, I knew it had to be a battle between Dr Doug Ross and Dr John Carter. Sigh. I had such a crush on Doug Ross and his bad-boy-turned-good love story with Carol is one of the best ships ever. I will never get over how romantic their reunion (when she just upped and flew to Portland) was and how invested I was in it. But, while Doug was the romantic (if flawed) hero from the start, I feel like I grew up with Dr Carter – we watched him learn and grow and become this beautifully-realised, marvellous, caring character that we wanted good things for, and his return made the series finale one of the most moving things I have ever seen. Actually, I’ve now talked myself round. Dr Carter it is!
How do the two of you choose which person is going to get to review which show?
JB: It just kind of… happens? We now review so many shows that there’s never much of a discussion; one of us will be more enthusiastic about a new show, or one of us will have more space in our schedule, and we’ll offer to review it. Occasionally shows swap hands because one of us is under pressure: CJ took The Good Wife from me a couple of years ago, and I took Person of Interest from her.
Have you ever thought about going back and reviewing The West Wing together or maybe your top 5 episodes, as a sort of team effort? The show ended in 2006 so next year it will be 10 years.
JB: It’s unlikely, to be honest: we now watch so much TV, including the stuff that we don’t write about, that we rarely have time to watch anything on more than one occasion. There’s always something else to watch, or another new “unmissable” show on the horizon. One of the perils of the age of FOMO.
How did the name Unpopcult originate?
JB: It’s short for Unpopular Culture, the blog’s original name. The concept was that we would be a place to discuss American TV shows which got – and still get – hardly any viewers in the UK, where we live.
And now, The Snoskred Five –
What did you eat for dinner last night?
CJ: Fish’n’chips.
JB: A sort of cottage pie but with turkey mince.
Do you have a favourite blog post on your blog? If yes, can you give us a link to it?
CJ: Not really, but if I had to pick, maybe this one? Poldark s1 e3
JB: I’m almost never satisfied with any of my blog posts after they’ve gone up. Sometimes after a couple of years I can look back and think that an individual post wasn’t too bad, but I’m too self-critical to have a favourite, I’m afraid. The best posts on our blog at the moment are CJ’s about Stalker.
When you were growing up, what books did you most love?
CJ: “The Chinese Egg” by Catherine Storr about two teenagers who try to help find a kidnapped child was one of my favourite books ever. I was also a huge fan of The Chalet School series when I was at school, before wholly embracing my shipping tendencies and moving on to Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances as a teenager. (I still break into the odd bit of Regency slang every now and again.) Oh, and I loved Anne of Green Gables – I started reading that series after watching the glorious TV adaptation with Megan Follows and the late Jonathan Crombie. Lots of shipping there too!
JB: When I was very young, anything by Enid Blyton. After that, I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on. The first “adult” authors I liked, when I was about 12 or so, were probably Frederick Forsyth and Arthur Hailey. Forsyth’s fallen out of fashion a bit these days, and his politics are unpalatable to me, but at the time of publication The Day Of The Jackal and The Odessa File were top-notch thrillers. And Hailey was hardly a prose stylist, but he wrote lovely great big pageturners.
What is your most favourite movie and why do you love it?
CJ: I agonised over this and couldn’t narrow it down to one, so can I cheat and pick three favourites? In no particular order,
– the most recent adaptation of Hairspray because – *puts serious hat on* – it manages to drive home themes of diversity, respect and self-esteem while being hilarious, sweet and having one of the best soundtracks ever.
– Speed because, although it’s completely ridiculous nonsense, whenever I come across it on TV I have to stop what I’m doing and watch it, I love it so much. It’s the perfect fast, fun action movie and Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are great together.
– Wadjda, a Saudi Arabian film about a girl who wants to buy a bike, because it’s an absolute joy. Wadjda the character is smart, strong and tenacious, you’re cheering her on throughout all her struggles, and the film itself is so brave, warm, funny, feminist and uplifting – I just adore it.
JB: Vertigo. Essence of cinema.
Tell us about a TV show you love which is not “popular” eg not Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones – a tv show that is not very well known.
CJ: The Almighty Johnsons! It finished a couple of years ago after three seasons, but it’s a hilarious comedy/drama from New Zealand about four brothers who are reincarnated Norse gods. It sounds mad and it is, but it’s also one of my favourite TV shows ever – it’s incredibly bawdy, but also insanely clever, witty and really moving sometimes. It’s not about superpowers, really, it’s about love and family and brotherhood and growing up and it’s glorious. If you’ve not seen it yet, get cracking!
JB: Perhaps The Americans, which is no longer being shown on UK TV, and which doesn’t have a huge following in America. It’s an astonishingly good show, but I know quite a few people – including CJ – who have tried it and just not liked it. I think it’s up there with the very best TV being made at the moment.
Thanks CJ and Jed!
For answering my questions. :) This has been a most awesome interview!
If you enjoy television, you should add Unpopcult to your feed reader. It is thanks to them that I found my favourite show of 2014 – The Missing. Plus it is thanks to them I have watched so many shows I might have missed out on, like The Good Wife which I have grown to love and Mr Selfridge which is just a beautiful show.
I leave lots of comments over at Unpopcult, quite often on older posts as I go through and watch a series for the first time, or when I see an episode which makes me want to type. CJ and Jed probably have no idea but they often push me out of my TeeVee comfort zone and get me watching shows I would never have discovered on my own.
I deeply enjoy reading their thoughts on shows.. :) Love your work, CJ and Jed..
If I could go back in time, perhaps becoming a doctor would be on my to-do list. As it was, terrible grades, a hatred for school and homework, and an apparent inability to handle things a doctor might have to handle, eg everything from stitches because I was not great at sewing right up to dealing with dying people meant the doctor career path was a no-go area for me.
One of the fantastic things about the internet is that you can live vicariously through the blogs of other people and this blog is no exception. The blog began as a place to post cartoons which Dr Fizzy had drawn during medical training and a place to share memories from that same training.
I strongly recommend going back to the start of this blog and enjoying the cartoons there because they are deeply awesome, and it is my opinion that Dr Fizzy has beautiful handwriting.
I sent an email to Dr Fizzy asking if she would be ok with answering a few questions and thankfully she said yes. Here we go!
There have been a lot of doctors seen on our TV screens over the years. Do you have a favourite TV doctor? If yes, who is it?
Actually, I’m not a huge fan of TV doctors. In general, they annoy me and don’t seem real. But I felt scrubs was one show that sort of got it right, and I loved Dr. Elliot Reed.
Do you have a favourite blog post on your blog? If yes, can you give us a link to it?
If you had access to a time machine and could go back in time and give one piece of advice to yourself as you were starting medical school, what would you say to yourself?
Run! (I’m kidding. Sort of.)
What is the one food item that you cannot resist?
Gourmet pretzels, especially the kind with lots of salt.
If I gave you an all expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world, where would you most like to visit?
I don’t really care, as long as it’s someplace warm, with a beach and free cocktails.
I love it when bloggers I read and enjoy post about blogs *they* read and enjoy. It happens regularly and I often end up adding the blog(s) they wrote about to my feed reader..
I always mean to write a post about my favourite blogs but never quite manage to get around to it. So today I will like to thank Sammie from The Annoyed Thyroid for writing this post which has pushed me to finally start a new series here on the blog – it will be called –
Snoskred Faves
This will be a series of posts, not just one post. There are so many blogs I love and want to highlight, if I put them all into one post it would be incredibly long.
How Will This Series Work?
I’m not really sure yet. I might post about one blog at a time. I might do a post with 3-5 blogs. I might send a little interview request to some of my favourite bloggers and see who replies. It might be a once a week thing, or I might post one when the mood strikes me. We Will See. :)
How I (Blog) Roll.
I actually enjoy *all* the blogs listed on my blogroll.
There are 206 blogs presently listed on my blogroll. That is a lot of blogs! Within that 206, there are some blogs that stand out from the crowd.
These stand outs are blogs that I am super excited to read another post from, blogs and bloggers that I think about when not near my computer, bloggers who say things that stick in my head and pop up in my conversations away from the web, blogs that I look forward to reading and mentally know approximately when the next post should come to me as a surprise.. these blogs end up in..
Faves Folders
These blogs eventually get picked out of their folders and placed into what I like to call “Faves” folders – there are now multiple faves folders so I can break up their goodness into small and tasty snacks.
Sometimes new feeds blogs get moved to a Faves folder long before the 6 month test out new blogs time ends. They still get added to the blogroll at the usual time – that is, when I do the new feeds review at the end of 6 months.
Making Contact
Some of the blogs I love make contacting them a little bit difficult – please, bloggers, if you are reading this, make sure you have either a contact form or an email address somewhere that people can easily find it. :) If I can’t reach you via email or a contact form, I’ll leave a comment asking you to email me.
Not Listed On My Blogroll?
If you are not on my blogroll but I have left a comment on your blog, chances are you are one of the new feeds I am trying out.
If you are not on my blogroll or my new feeds list, but you would like to be, you can contact me with a link to your blog. Your blog will then go through my new feeds process.
Coming Up –
In just an hour, I will post the very first Snoskred Faves!
Over to you!
In the meantime, if you want to suggest blogs to me that I should be reading, please do. I value the opinions of my regular readers and commentators and some of your favourite blogs have become my faves, too.
From time to time, in my internet travels, I somehow stumble upon a blog that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. A blog that involves truly beautiful writing on a difficult subject. A blog that makes me start thinking. A blog that starts conversations with family and friends..
Today I will like to mention one of these blogs –
But Before You Click –
I will like to add a note that sometimes you will see images of the dead on the blog I am about to link to. They will not be gory images, at least thus far I have not experienced that at all. The images I have experienced have all been people at peace.
If you click through now, there may be images of the dead on the page you land on.
Also, if you read the blog via a feed, you will not see images in the feed and you will usually be given plenty of warning that the post contains images, so you can choose whether or not to click through.
Sometimes I do click through if I see such a warning, sometimes I don’t. I like that it is my choice, unlike a recent Youtube incident where I suddenly found myself viewing very disturbing images of some of the Air Asia plane crash victims. Thanks so, SO much for that, Youtube, I will never unsee that no matter how hard I try.
This blog is thought provoking in a multitude of ways. I interviewed to be a funeral director once and I still feel a bit drawn to that area, though I am not sure how well I would deal with some of the sights and smells.
If you decided not to click through, here is an article on the blog which does not contain any images of the dead however it does contain one image of a couple in the process of dying – Couples that Died Together: Five Stories
(For what it is worth, I would just as strongly label and advise people if I were sending them off to view images of spiders, because that is something I cannot stand to look at, and I would never, ever, never, post an image of a spider on my blog!)
