The world is fine, by the ocean

England and all it's rainy glory may be a place I call home but nothing prepares you for two winters in a row.  It has rained elephants and rhinos (cats and dogs being far too delicate creatures to convey the torrents) for what seemed like weeks. Utterly. Depressing. But finally; a gap of sunshine warm enough to charge into the sea at Bondi beach for early morning swims. The water is slightly "ouch" cold but bearable and so worth the feeling afterwards.  I don't know about you but swimming always leaves me starving and ready to inhale anything edible within reach so I pack a little tupperware of Greek yoghurt and homemade toasted oats (sort of granola but much better for you).  I wouldn't normally go near worthy seeds and oats but this really does work well and is so very good for you!

TOASTY OATS AND YOGHURT

Prep:10 minutes

Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Raw Oats

Dried coconut

Almonds

Pumpkin seeds

Linseeds *

Method

1. Gently melt 200g butter with a tablespoon of honey (or to taste, I'm not a big fan so personally go for a subtle hit of sweet).

2. Gather the dry ingredients into a large bowl and thoroughly mix in the melted butter and honey.

3. Cover a large flat baking tray with tin foil (saves you washing up) and whack the oven on to 175°C.

4. Once the mixture is golden, take out of oven and leave to cool. 

5. When cool chuck in some dried fruit - raisins, goji berries, apple, apricots -  I've been loving blueberries.

To serve heap onto a couple of spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt - yum. Try out your own combination of nuts and seeds - they are so nutritional, packed with those important omega things that nutritionists talk about and it's great fuel for busy mornings.

* We were forced to play Lacrosse at school (horrible, violent game) and to look after the sticks we had to rub them with Linseed oil. Ugh I can still remember the smell which I have to say is not great - it reminds me of standing freezing in a muddy field, commanded by some lunatic PE teacher to only wear a flimsy sports skirt, muttering assurances to the damned stick that our relationship was to be short lived.  It happily lived stashed under my bed at home for the ensuing decade and is now used in my parents house to keep the bathroom window up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynf0ERJVB9I

Hello I love you won't you tell me your name

What I did in May this year could have been described as totally bonkers.  I was living in London with a darling friend who I'd known for over half of my life. (sadly unable to discuss anything age related, it's a horrid number that not even as a child would greedily be counted in extra halves and quarters but a number cast into the memory attic along with exactly how humungous my overdraft is...) My job working on a top food mag was awesome, underpaid yes, but a knock out experience where I learnt something new everyday and worked with some of the most brilliant people I reckon I'll ever encounter.  The rest of the time was spent careering around town with my bf eating out a lot (queue: oh god double chin!) and hanging out with friends laughing our heads off. Things were ok, good even, not crazy perfect but what is? So packing it all up to move to Sydney, a city upside down from everything and everyone I knew and loved could have seemed a bit bonkers.  But in the words of Billy Connolly "you don't make anything if you don't make mistakes".  So hellloooo Sydney, my name is Biscuit, how do you do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzM71scYw0M