#paper salad bowl buy online

[sylviareviar]

🍴

"Oh, Teddie! C'min!" she called at the knock of the door. "Just a second, I'm almost done!" The tea kettle was whistling, her pot was boiling, her salad was chopped up and ready for serving, and of course, she had the smoked salmon and eggplant spread sandwiches spread around in a circle on a paper plate, ready for teatime and dinner.

This time around, she had decided to finally gather the ingredients she needed for it and make an online recipe for borsch, a Russian beet soup she hadn't had in literal ages.

She took the kettle off the communal stove just in time for the timer to go off. "Here, Teddie, sit down over there. Have some of the sandwiches while you wait for your meal."

Today, she had promised Teddie a chance to try some foreign food, which he had eagerly agreed to. She was careful to follow the instructions of the recipe as closely as possible, especially since it was her first time handling raw meat. Sylvia was starting to think maybe she had a knack with knives now, as she was starting to get the hang of cooking for herself and being independent.

Once she ladled the soups into two of her reusable, cheerfully decorated plastic bowls, she gave Teddie one of two Russian-style spoons she had managed to buy back home before bringing them with her. They had come in a set, along with some other decorated utensils painted with traditional Russian floral designs.

"Here, eat with this. Be careful, though, it's very hot. I haven't had this soup in a while, and it's not the same recipe my Papa used sometimes. So it'll be like a new experience for us both! If anything isn't to your liking, I can write it down for next time to change it." For her, personally, potatoes in her soup were a deal-breaker, so she'd been very careful to avoid those in her bowl. One or two snuck in, but she could be brave this once.

When she finished pouring her and Teddie's tea, adding sugar just the way they liked it, she sat down with him at one of the tables and said her thanks. "Thank you for the food."

[ferdiesnini]

Happy 64th birthday Daddy!

I’m a day late posting this year. I didn’t get to buy a cake yesterday. The thing is, my body clock makes it so that I’m awake in the wee hours, and asleep during the day.

I talked to Meann from 12 midnight up to about 3:30 in the morning. It started with us greeting you a happy birthday and then reminiscing about the past. Remembering the cake you got her for one of her birthdays as a grade schooler and how you barred her from going out the front door because the cake was outside. How you allowed me to go through so that I can light the candle and how you carried the cake inside afterwards.

How you’d always say “mukhang masarap yan ah” when you see us eating something to signify that you want some, and how you’d say “di masarap!” after finishing a plate of food, even if nasimot lahat.

I got to sleep for about an hour and then woke up to help your son in law get ready for the day. After he left for work, I looked through the cakes for sale on the food app in the but not a lot of options since it was early and so I decided to get back to it in the afternoon. I fell asleep afterwards. So when I woke up, it was almost 5pm and the only thing I could think of is dinner. Remembering I still have a salad bowl which I purchased the night before, I was covered for the night and was completely disoriented and forgot that I was thinking of getting a small cake for you, or maybe even a slice. Since it’s only me and my husband at home, cakes usually don’t get finished unless I eat most of it, which at this stage and in my age, wouldn’t really be a good idea. I’m trying to get back to eating healthier. Remember how stick thin I was growing up even when I ate like a construction worker? I’m still a foodie, but after passing 30 I started gaining weight. It is very hard to get back to how I weighed before. Can you imagine, I’m at 70kgs right now. That’s me after losing 2kgs Dad. I hope to go back to at least 56, hopefully 52.

Should we just share the cake I’ll surely receive for my birthday in several days? Unless I lose my fight with cravings later and ultimately purchase a slice, or a small cake— we’ll share that one, okay? Anyway, if you see the cake I’m sure you’ll say “mukhang masarap yan a!” Hehehe.

Oh, also… I’m not 100 percent sure but the baby girl who lives across from us, Lily— I heard it was her birthday last night (she was talking to her grandpa). So you might share the same birthday. Even with that my brain didn’t compute to remind me that it was November 9 and I was supposed to get you a cake. But anyway, what’s important is that I remember now.

We love you Dad. Still waiting for you. Happy 64th birthday Daddy!

⭐️🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔

November 15 Update

It’s my birthday today. It’s 7:20 in the evening and from our side of the family, it seems only Meann remembered it’s my birthday. Mom sent a picture of Tita Jane’s only daughter’s wedding but forgot to greet me. It’s alright though.

I woke up this morning with the sounds of activity in the kitchen. I realized it was my husband preparing his birthday surprise but decided to stay “asleep” to allow him to proceed with his plans. At some point, something fell so loud that I can’t just ignore it and had to wake up. By the time he approached with the cake, I turned my head towards him and he protested that he wasn’t ready yet 🤣 cos apparently, there’s still several things he haven’t set up yet.

He then proceeded to go back to the kitchen and handed me two bouquets of flowers.

And then brought in a sturdy paper bag with the word “switch” on it. Under it is an apple with a bite.

It’s an apple product. I wondered if he got me an apple watch because it’s the only thing in the apple store that I can think of that I don’t have yet. Although, I never really asked him for one or hinted at it, especially since I very much prefer the cheap version of it that I can get online for like, a thousand peso. If that breaks I wouldn’t feel so disheartened. But a watch that costs almost as much as an older version of an iphone or macbook— I don’t really think it’s worth it.

I opened the bag and I found a box for an iPhone 14.

He bought me a second phone because I whenever we go out, I would have to switch my simcard out of my iphone to get internet connection. Now my second sim has a new permanent home.

He also played some birthday music on TV via Spotify

And at some point we slow danced to it together. Not specifically the song on the picture but some other song in the playlist— that is also about birthdays.

And as promised, I share with you my cake Daddy.

It is a mocha chiffon cake with some buttercream frosting. Do you remember how I would always bake a mocha chiffon cake on everyone’s birthdays when I was a junior and senior in high school?

My husband asked me to lunch this coming weekend to celebrate my birthday. We’re inviting Mom and the siblings. David asked me to also invite my friends but I’d rather not. I realized one of them, the one I was closest to in senior year— never really appreciated the amount of affection I have for them, and my efforts to help them by sending information when they need it, were basically made to look ridiculous. Imagine how much effort I placed on writing them long letters back in the day after graduating high school, and her talking to one of our male classmates, you know him, the one I used to have a crush on, to basically make it seem like I just have a lot of things to say for no reason. Based on what she told us that she said to him— when the guy asked why I “was like that” when I sent a message to a group chat to tell him off after questioning her sexuality and surmising that maybe she was a lesbian, she replied that she doesn’t know, that I just write long things and it’s just that I’ve always been like that, I write paragraphs.

When the truth was, she complained to me and our other friends about him commenting on and questioning her sexuality. I basically defended her. And she knew hours before I sent that message that I will defend her, that I’ll take care of it— just like I always did for all of them cos they couldn’t confront people unless I start it. Anyway. I’m just tired of them at the moment. I told my husband I’d just see them next year.

Sorry for complaining to you on our birthday week hehe. Anyway, that’s where I am now.

I love you Daddy. I thank you and Mommy fo having and raising me.

My hopes are always the same. We still wait for you. Happy birthday to us, and Cha.

Nov 16 update:

Apparently Mom sent me a greeting yesterday which I didn’t receive. So I told Meann to have it resent to me tomorrow since it’s still my birthday anyway (my Chinese calendar birthday, that is.)

[swifly1]

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[earthan08]

Buy Dining table mats & runners in Hyderabad

Introduction

If you’re looking to spruce up your dining table, why not invest in some beautiful mats and runners? Not only will they make your space look nicer, but they’ll also protect your flooring from any spills or messes. Dining Table MATS & Runners, we have a wide variety of mats and runners to choose from, so you can find the perfect one for your space. Plus, our prices are unbeatable – so don’t wait any longer!

Types of Dining Table Mats

Table mats and runners come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and materials. Whether you're looking for a traditional table mat or something more playful, there's sure to be a mat that fits your needs. Here are some of the most common types of dining table mats and runners:

Placemats: These mats are often used as place mats at restaurants or cafés, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be made from cloth, paper or plastic and are generally easy to clean.

Runner Mats: Runner mats are specifically designed to protect floors from scratches and dents while providing a smooth surface for guests to walk on. They come in a variety of styles and colors and can be fitted over any type of flooring.

Floor Mats: Floor mats are made from rubber or silicone material and are designed to protect floors from food spills and other debris while providing a soft surface for guests to walk on. They come in a variety of colors and sizes and can be easily wiped clean.

Tablecloth Covers: Tablecloth covers are designed to protect table surfaces from dust, dirt, fingerprints or other contaminants while keeping your table looking beautiful! They come in a variety of designs, colors, and materials, and can be easily replaced if necessary.

You Can Also Check - Out :

Block print bed sheet

Ceramic salad bowl Chennai

Types of Dining Table Runners

There are various types of dining table runners available in the market. Some of them are as follows:

Linen Table Runner: Linen table runners are made from a cotton or linen fabric and are used to cover the top of a dining table. They come in different colors and can be customized according to your needs. They are also suitable for formal settings.

Damask Table Runner: Damask table runners are made from a diamond-patterned fabric and come in different colors. They are suitable for formal settings and can be customized according to your needs.

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Buying Dining Table Mats and Runners

Looking for dining table mats and runners in Hyderabad? Here are a few tips to help you find what you are looking for:

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Conclusion

Thank you for reading our article on buying dining table mats & runners in Hyderabad. We hope that we have provided you with the information you need to make an informed purchase.

[papersaladbowls]

The Kraft paper salad bowls are made from high-grade Kraft paper material coated with single PE material. Gujarat Shopee offers a premium range of paper salad bowls with lids online that is available in different capacities such as 550 ml, 970 ml, and 1275 ml etc.

[cosmiclatte28]

Cute Neighbor (Taeyong x you)

Okay sorry another Taeyong imagine! Coz i can't handle his charms 😭😭😭

Tell me if you're sick of taeyong imagines and i can write you someone else's...

WARNING : FLUFF, flirting, makes you wish you really have a neighbor as cute as him!

ENJOY!

The loud voice of heavy furniture moved around through the hallway irks you on a beautiful Saturday morning.

You close your eyes and ears with annoyance as you internally curse your new neighbor for moving in on a weekend. Didn't they understand that you need a good week end sleep to survive another endless lecture of chemistry?!

You never realize the walls of your apartment is that thin that you could basically listen everything happening around you.

After trying your best to bury your ears into the pillows, you can return back to your sleep. Thankfully, you're the type who can continue a sleep whenever you feel like it.

You make a mental note to maybe ironically tell them how your morning is beautiful with their loud moving in session.

However, turns out that never happens! Guess what? The new noisy neighbor moving into the room across yours, is hella cute!

You did not see him that noon, when you go out of your room to buy lunch. You shrug it off, thinking maybe tomorrow morning you'll get to see him and greet him. You ponder on what to prepare, but decided you'll not give them anything since they ruined your morning.

That night, you once again have to control yourself from not banging on the door to tell whoever is playing guitar that loud in the middle of the night. It's almost ten at night and the loud laughs and guitar could still be heard from your room.

It's not like you’re a party pooper, just that you kind of want them to at least tune it down a bit. But the good thing is they sound good! Like their choice of music and their singing are not disruptive.

The last song before you really fall asleep happens to be a fingerstyle so perfectly arranged. You shot your eyes open when you realize the pattern that neighbor is playing. Quickly you grab your guitar, pencil, and a paper. You press your ears to the walls trying your best to catch the now slow melody.

“Louder please! I love the melody and i'm dying to keep it in my mind…” you hopelessly whisper to the wall. Hoping to hear more of the masterpiece.

You failed though, you laughed at yourself for thinking you could catch the whole song, but in the last part the melody turned sad and blue … then it slowed down and you cannot hear anything else.

You sit down, mind now super wide awake! With gritted teeth you reach for your guitar, read the scribbles you made earlier and you quickly try to play the song.

It’s perfect and you definitely will look for it online! Why haven't you heard of this song at all?!

You try to resume the song, trying to find notes that can follow the piece and fit perfectly with the other ear pleasing voice.

Your brain works hard and drive you to sleep on the bed after leaving the guitar and notes on the living room table.

You never sleep that peaceful and well by yourself. You believe it was thanks to the music your neighbor played.

>>>>>>Sunday morning<<<<<<<

A constant bell on your door halts you from stirring your coffee.

“Coming" you yell and take a glance to the intercom.

There stood a breath-taking man on his messy hair and oversize sweater.

You check yourself on the mirror, thanking yourself for taking a bath already.

With a fluttering heart you open the door.

“Morning!” you greet him first. The boy looks a bit shy and sweet. Oh you love the way his eyes look into yours bashfully.

Though his body is bigger than yours, you see him as a precious small squishy.

“You're my new neighbor I believe?” you question.

He nods “As a matter of fact, yes! My name is Taeyong… I am sorry if I just come to see you today. Yesterday I was a bit busy configuring my room and putting on the things.

“No problem, name is (y/n) nice to meet you!” you shake his hand and smile liking how your hand fits in his.

“Have you done everything or do you need help?” your friendly manner naturally jumps out.

He smiles and relaxes a bit when he notes you're not the annoying neighbor.

“Oh thank you, but the boys helped me up yesterday and i'm done with cleaning too.” He scratches his neck.

You nod and laugh at yourself, how can you forget the loud noises last night.. of course they were from the squad.

“Well then, anything I can help?” you ask for you feel like he's hesitating to tell you something.

Bulls eye, he sighs in relief.

“I know I might sound so rude, but do you have eggs where I can borrow? I haven't gone grocery shopping and like I want a proper breakfast. The only thing I have is sodas!” he gestures a “mind blown" hand over his head and chuckles.

You laugh at his witty remark and you step aside from the door.

“Please sit down as I take out the eggs.”

He politely makes his way to your tidy apartment and takes a good scan over the comfortable living space.

“Your house … it's pretty…” he gasps “like you.” He whispers so low… you didn't catch them.

“How many eggs do you need?” You stand in front of your refrigerator wondering if you should just dump all of your week supply to this cute boy or not.

“How much do you need for a pancake?” he pops into your pantry now with his tidy hair, guess he monitors himself from the mirror.

“That'll be two… do you have the other ingredients?” you take out two large eggs and place them on a small bowl.

“Well yeah I have the milk and flour… guess i'll find my way to my kitchen.” He receives the bowl from you.

You shoot him a challenging look, “You never make pancakes don't you?”

He shrugs his shoulder, “There's always a first time for everything right? Want to help me explain briefly?”

Smooth jesus he's flirting with you like it was elementary.

The next ten minutes, you're explaining him what he should do and believe it or not this cute boy is just staring at you with hearts in his eyes.

“Umm Tae? You sure you get everything? You did not take notes!” you roll your eyes when the young man just taps his head.

“Let me try maybe i'll burn my kitchen or you could come and join me .. i'm sure seeing you do it will be a nicer way for me to learn.” He playfully winks and you feel your cheeks heating.

Ten minutes later you're already in his tidy apartment. It's majority designed with abstract theme and you see the boldness striking on every art piece he made.

You help him making his first pancakes and after the thirty minutes preparation, you're finally sitting on his new dining chairs.

Nice set of plates and cutleries are arranged over the smooth table. Two glasses of fresh apple juice greet you, he’s definitely lying when he said he only has sodas!

That refrigerator has some salad dressings, milks, and okay water…

You two learn and talk about each other over a good breakfast. There's only butter here and you brought your maple syrup along luckily. Underneath your table, his best friend dog companion, Ruby is eating her breakfast gently while listening to the two of you converse.

You soon learn he is also a senior like you, but you're from the school across his. Yes the two of you came to different universities that happen to be great rivals! Funny how he could stay quiet despite the numerous souvenirs of your school planted on your room. Come to think of it you also just realized this room is also full of his school's merch!

Imagine if your friend or his friend sees the two of you casually eating breakfast and slipping flirts here and there!

After the scrumptious breakfast and warm first meeting, you thank him for the offer and go back to your home. Across his door, lies your door and behind that door.. the cute neighbor has just stole your heart and won your number.

The end! 💖

[lihikainanea]

ok tiger is in a mood. Everything has gone been going wrong and she’s ANGRY. Gustaf’s calming tricks aren’t working, and sex with Billy isnt going to help her out of this one. So after researching what else she can do, Tiger resorts to buying a shit Ton of ceramic plates online to smash. She even goes as far as drawing the people who have pissed her off lately on the plates only to laugh manically and throw with full force em to the ground. Bill would come home w grocery bags in hand #terrified

Okay listen, I just recently found out about these break rooms this year, and let me say, I think they are the best thing ever. Like, somebody hands me a baseball bat and puts me in a room full of breakable objects? And then encourages me to break as many as I can, in the most aggressive way possible?

THAT IS MY HEAVEN.

But look tiger has had A Week. And Bill knew he was in a bit of trouble--not personally, he’s not in the dog house--but even after he dominated the hell out of her the whole night and really wrung it out of her, she still woke up this morning grumpy and pissy and frowning already. Bill needs some new tricks--so maybe he slipped out, went to the market, because when all else fails just make sure tiger is buzzed and full of good food. At least that gives him a more reliable base to start with, and he can try and make it better from there. So he steps out, and maybe tiger is packing up an old set of plates because cousin Layla is moving and needs some shit.

But you know, tiger never liked cousin Layla all that much anyway.

And it started innocently enough, tiger is clumsy and just accidentally dropped one--but then, the way it shattered was just so...satisfying. The loud bang, the million pieces, her anger at her own clumsiness faded almost immediately into...satisfaction. Sweet, sweet satisfaction. She picked up a mug from the box, undid the newspaper wrapping, and then let it dangle precariously from her finger before just...letting it go.

She smiled as it smashed into a million pieces.

A plate was next, a small salad one, except this time instead of letting it drop, tiger threw it to the floor.

And then she just couldn’t stop.

Bill walks in, brown paper bag in hand and another bag from the liquor store, only to find tiger laughing manically as she whips plates at the floor, the wall--anything. Bill nearly has to duck when a dinner plate gets whipped by his head like a frisbee.

“Tiger, are you--” he tries to get her attention, but a loud crash precedes a demonic laugh.

“Kid maybe you shouldn’t--”

Another loud, piercing sound as a mug perishes.

“Smashy smashy!”

“Tiger, why don’t you just--”

But he knows a lost battle when he sees one. And she just genuinely looks like she’s....having a blast. He approaches close enough, avoiding the broken porcelain on the floor, and grabs her wrist right as she’s about to fling a cereal bowl at the wall.

“Tiger, I thought you were donating these?” he asks softly. Her eyes are crazed.

“This is much more fun,” she says, “Besides, I was giving them to Layla.”

Bill stiffens.

“Well, in that case--” he takes the bowl from her hand, and whips it at the wall himself.

“Smashy smashy!”

[adhd-wifi]

MDZS Modern AU Fic Tips (Festivals)

So I asked a while back if anyone was interested in some fic tips for writing Chinese modern AUs, and y’all seemed enthusiastic. But…when I tried putting it all in a single post it got…really…really long…

So I split them into a bunch of posts (Yes I copy-pasted this intro on all of them because I’m lazy)! Here are the links:

Names & Stuff

Modern Chinese Cultural Stuff

Superstitions & Beliefs 

Festivals (You are here)

Living in China

Anyways, these are based on my experiences living in Singapore and China, and I hope these posts are helpful. On to it.

Content Warning: Magpie Bashing

Festivals (Warning: LONG. Good Luck.)

Note: I do not have personal experience with all of these. For those I have celebrated, I’ll indicate with a (*). Also I’ll only be talking about how we celebrate them (typically), because diving into the history and meanings of it all would take like 8 years (not literally but you know). Fee free to look them up, and ask your nearest Chinese human for any extra details. If they know it. You might want to look up what the lunar calendar is too. It’s basically the moon cycle calendar, but I am too bad at memorizing how it works so I just google the dates every single year. 

Also, I’m restricting this post to ONLY Chinese & Singaporean versions of celebrations. Many other regional ethnic groups celebrate the same or similar festivals, but I don’t know enough about their versions of the festivities. Another thing is that my family is from Dalian & Harbin in the NorthEast, so there is more Northern bias in my post so I might have some info that is inaccurate to festivities in the South. I did try to search for some South-specific traditions, since Yunmeng/Hubei is in South China, but I’m not entirely sure how accurate those details are.

Chinese New Year (*) - Late Jan to Early Feb (15 days after CNY day)

Before CNY, often on the eve of the actual date, we decorate our homes with red (don’t you dare skip out on decking your home with RED) decorations such as lanterns, red and orange flowers, those vertical paper banners with auspicious calligraphy on them (what are they called in English???) and whatever these things are

As kids, my sister and I would make those loop paper chains out of red and yellow paper a lot. We never knew what to do with them when the festivities were over

Spring cleaning is extremely important, we usually do it (extensively) from about a month before the festivities (and get yelled at a lot by our Chinese mothers & grandmothers especially) up to CNY Eve

Please don’t do any cleaning, particularly sweeping or throwing the trash out, on the day itself. You’re throwing the new year luck away. 

Other preparations include: buying new clothes, often with at least one red thing, visiting friends during the month prior so you don’t have to do so on the day itself and giving them little gifts and red packets, & burning new year offerings for ancestors

You will probably see lion dances on the streets and during new year parades a lot, sometimes accompanied by dragon dances, though the former is much more common. They also tend to give private performances at a discount during the CNY period, though lion dances aren’t restricted to only perform on CNY and in fact perform for special events in general, not just cultural festivities

On the night of CNY Eve, we have reunion dinners, in which we gather our entire extended family (when possible) and have a really loud, really energetic dinner party while watching the CNY Spring Gala on TV together. Or just eating if we don’t have access to a TV.

Include fish on the menu. At least one major fish main dish, not a side dish. It’s from a lucky saying: 年年有余 - nián nián yǒu yú, meaning something along the lines of “To have more prosperity this year”. The Chinese word for fish (鱼 - yú) sounds the same as 余, therefore we have fish every year. Yes it’s a pun, as many Chinese superstitions and beliefs are

Other menu items you could include: homemade dumplings (a FUCKton of them), uncut noodles, chicken or duck, pork, Chinese radish/carrot cake (side note: why the FUCK do Western articles ALWAYS translate this to “turnip cake” it’s made out of fucking RADISH or CARROT I swear to HELL), Chinese yam cakes, good alcohol and traditional sweets like tang yuan (this is basically the original version of mochi, filled with black or normal sesame filling and served in a clear, sweet soup)

There’s also one Cantonese dish known as (撈起 - Lo Hei) which is basically a salad of shredded carrot, radish, cucumber with strips of sashimi-style fish strips like salmon. You serve it to the table, pour crushed peanuts, fried dough crisps, and sweet sauce all over it, and your entire table reaches in with chopsticks and mixes everything together. It’s more common in Singapore and Malaysia than it actually is in Hong Kong and China, but I’ve had it in China before in the springtime. I fucking hate it. 

By the way, a fun game to play is the coin dumpling game. Basically, when you make the dumplings, put clean coins into some of them, and whoever eats the dumpling with the coins inside are considered super lucky for the year. I wasn’t ever allowed to make them though, my 20 years of dumpling-folding have failed me I still suck at it so everyone knows which ones are mine.

Usually, relatives living overseas would go to China for the New Year if they can, and they would take turns hosting the dinner each year. You would traditionally only have a reunion dinner in a family home, mostly because everything outside is closed

During the celebrations, lighting firecrackers and sparklers is part of the fun. Keep a close eye on the kids. 

Wearing traditional clothing isn’t necessary, but encouraged

At midnight, the younger, unmarried family members will present their married elders with gifts (usually two oranges per person or a small handmade craft) while wishing them well for the year, and in turn the elders will return the wishes and gift the youngsters red packets with money. 

The celebration period lasts for 15 days, but people typically go back to work a day or two after the actual CNY date

Personal note: I have only actually celebrated CNY once in China, back when I was tiny, so most of this is based on Singaporean experiences, what I know my in-China relatives, who live in Dalian, do, and what I’ve double checked online. But CNY is huge in China and many places celebrate it differently, so don’t get too worried about following this to the dot.

The Lantern Festival - Early to Mid Feb

In Singapore it’s actually illegal to celebrate the Lantern Festival traditionally on a large scale because of the potential fire hazards & pollution, so it’s somewhat merged with the Mid-Autumn festival here and thus I don’t know as much about this one in a “proper” Chinese context (I had to go to school in Singapore this time of year)

But anyways

The Lantern Festival comes immediately after CNY, on the 15th day of the first lunar month. It’s seen as a day of freedom for all, so everyone takes to the streets, lighting up the night with candles and lanterns

Lantern-walks are common, in which everyone holds a lantern - there are many kinds to choose from - and just walk up and down the streets together

These lantern-walks often take place alongside the official festival parades 

The dragon dances mentioned earlier are more likely to appear during the lantern festival than CNY, and the lion dances of course come as well

It gets crowded a lot. Hold onto your kids. 

Lantern riddles are fun games, in which they string up lanterns with papers hanging from them. Upon these papers are the riddles, and if you got them right you could win prizes. Or at least bragging rights amongst your family and friend groups

If you’re in a river town, you’ll likely have a chance to see water lanterns, which are also common during the Mid-Autumn Festival. They’re paper lanterns, sometimes made in lotus form, carrying wishes of prosperity. This can come in two forms, an official river lantern parade where they make HUGE lanterns for show, or smaller lanterns that just flow along. Sounds perfect for a Yunmeng Jiang family celebration, don’t you think?

Another one is the sky lanterns, which CQL watchers will recognize. People will gather together, usually on a hill, and release lanterns into the skies. Some will make them themselves, but most people will just buy pre-made ones. Like in CQL, you make a wish upon these lanterns, then sit down and eat tang yuan together.

They apparently eat a lot of tang yuan on this festival

A lot of romantic meet-ups happen on this festival (and the Mid-Autumn Festival) (y’all know what to do with this information)

This is considered the last chance of family time following on from CNY before you all return to your normal lives

The QingMing Festival (*) - Early Apr

AKA the Tomb-Sweeping Festival

To put it very basically, this is when we go to our deceased loved one’s graves and clean said graves 

We go to the cemetery in the early morning, wipe down the gravestones, clear them of debris like leaves and such, then we make offerings of food. A lot of the times, we would basically lay out a feast before the grave(s), lighting incense and also decorating the graves with flowers and such

Please do not ever eat anything in those offerings. It’s not for the living. Therefore, please feel free to stab your chopsticks upright into that bowl of rice.

You can burn offerings like paper too, usually in a burning urn (??? is it an urn?), but in my experience we weren’t allowed to do that at my grandma’s grave since it was a crowded cemetery so I don’t know how it works exactly

In my personal experiences, we usually stayed in the cemetery for about an hour, praying to the deceased and sort of chatting with them, hoping they’re doing well in the afterlife and updating them on our lives

After that’s done, we go have a picnic somewhere down the mountain and fly kites while getting bullied by asshole magpies

They keep stealing my food because apparently even they know you shouldn’t eat the food left out for the dead

One stole my necklace once ;-;

Anyways the food offerings left out are typically cleared the next morning (latest) by us or you pay the cemetery caretakers to dispose of it, but the latter is looked down upon for good reason

It’s really just best to clean it up yourselves when you can. For everyone’s sake.

The Dragon Boat Festival (*) - Late Jun to Early Jul

You could probably make a sports anime about this festival, because the main even at the Dragon Boat Festival is the dragon boat racing (shocking)

Okay all joking aside, during this festival, which is a summer event, dragon boat racers compete with one another in long, narrow wooden canoes with a Chinese dragon head carved out in the front and painted scales on the side, often really brightly coloured

They row to the beat of loud drums, with a drummer sitting at the head of each boat, facing their boat’s rowers, beating the drum as their team rows

People watching the races can do so from the shore, where they’ll be eating glutinous rice with meat/nuts/beans wrapped in large, woven bamboo leaves into a triangle shape, called 粽子 - zòng zi.  (The Malaysians & Indonesians have this too, but they use banana leaves instead)

In some places, you have viewers in viewing boats too, with the race course marked off with buoys. I fell into the water once from one of these. Luckily they make you all wear life-vests. 

Also a limited occurrence but rarer, some places will have sort of official “cheerleading” boats, in which a bunch of colourfully dressed people will shout and cheer for the racers as a whole, often waving flags the same colours as their clothes. They’re often standing, but in the same kind of dragon boats. You have to be affiliated with the local dragon boat community / heritage board to be allowed to be one of these “cheerleaders” though

When the official races aren’t happening though, visitors are often taken around the river. You can technically do this at any time, but the Chinese believe that the time of the Dragon Boat Festival is the best time for traversing the great rivers

Other things people do during this festival include drinking realgar wine, making perfume packets for children, and hanging mosquito-repellent herbs on doors and windows, but I’ve never seen this in practice and couldn’t find much else on these

To be honest, this particular festival is seen as a thing of lingering cultural heritage or just something of a traditional ceremonial practice, but is overall kinda dying as a full-fledged festival, with only the racing surviving the passage of time (In fact, this has become more of a leisure event than a festival in Singapore in recent years)

The QiXi Festival - Mid to Late Aug???

Not gonna lie I didn’t know this one existed until I looked it up

I knew the legend surrounding it (The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl - Please look it up it’s a beautiful story even though it’s not realistic because the magpies aren’t assholes) but didn’t know it was an actual holiday at all

Basically it’s kind of the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day, but it takes place in like August

Traditionally, girls took this time to show off their skills in the “feminine arts” such as weaving, sewing, fruit carving (???), tea-making (?????) and poetry (?????????). I’m confused.

They also ate special pastries and children gave flower garlands to the sacred ox statues

Apparently it’s mostly only celebrated in more traditional/rural areas now because most modern Chinese people just celebrate the Western Valentine’s Day

The legend gets to stay though

The Hungry Ghost Festival (*) - Late Jul to Early Aug (Start) / Late Aug to Early Sept (End)

This one is not a festive festival at all. You shouldn’t be enjoying this festival as a living person. But this is probably the best festival for any fics set in the modern world revolving around dead spirits being active out of everything on this list

This festival lasts the entire 7th month of the lunar calendar, so the Chinese will literally just call it the “Seventh Month (七月 - qī yuè)” or the “Ghost Month (鬼月 - guǐ yuè)” 

I’ve never even heard anyone refer to it by its full name in Chinese, which is apparently 中元节 - zhōng yuán jié or 盂兰盆节 - yú lán pén jié according to Wikipedia

Basically, the Gates of Hell the Afterlife have opened for the month to get the spirits of the deceased ease their suffering for a bit. So, the festival is actually NOT celebrated by the living, instead, it’s “celebrated” by the ghosts of the deceased

Living human practices during this festival include making various food offerings (the main point of the festival) for the spirits, usually much more seriously and/or extravagantly than typical offerings, burning offerings such as paper money, paper houses, paper cars, etc in large quantities because this is the best time for the spirits to receive them, putting on special “performances for the dead” in which performers will dance and sing to a room of empty chairs, and having special family prayer sessions in which we “speak” to the deceased directly (Luckily, they don’t usually answer us)

Nowadays, only the first two of those practices are really still practiced as seriously as they used to be, for individual families at least

Again, if you see food being left out on the side of the street, especially if there’s incense or something next to it, please don’t eat it or even touch it. Don’t be the ignorant guy in a horror movie

People who can see/hear/sense spirits and environmentalists hate this festival, because ghosts can be terrifying even when harmless, and all the burning contributes to climate change

I happen to be both of those. I am also sensitive to smoke. So...

Ironically I don’t actually hate this festival THAT much but...

Personal note: I’ve never been to China during the seventh month, and because they make it a point to not really talk about it, I only know the Singaporean experiences. Telling ghost stories is both encouraged and shunned during this month here. Malaysian-Chinese ghost stories are fucking horrifying. Give me more.

Mid-Autumn Festival (*) - Late Sept to Early Oct

My personal favourite festival on this list. I don’t like crowded places, but I make exceptions for this one when I can. I would call this the most fun and enjoyable festival out of all of them. 

When speaking Chinese, most of the time we’d just shorten it to 秋节 - qiū jié from the full name of 中秋节 - zhōng qiū jié 

When speaking English (in Singapore, but you can use these in English fics and people tend to understand it fine), we also call it the Mooncake Festival, the Autumn Moon Festival, or the Harvest Moon Festival (this one is quite an old name though)

In modern times, this is celebrated very similarly to the famous Natsu Matsuri (Summer Festival) in Japan, in which a huge festival site is fully decorated in colourful lanterns and filled with countless stalls of food, games, and festival products such as more lanterns, traditional dress rentals if you’re lucky, wooden toys, cloth products, “festival” tea & wine, and many more

You are encouraged to wear cheongsam/qipao to the festivities, but honestly most people don’t anymore, but they dress their kids in cultural clothing a lot (in Singapore you’ll also see kiddies running around in other traditional dress, such as yukata, summer hanbok, festive baju kurung, etc.)

In some places, special dragon or lion dances will be performing

Expect to find a FUCKTON of fresh fruit stalls, including pumpkins, melons, pomelos, persimmons, pomegranates, maybe starfruits, dragonfruits & guavas, and probably a heck lot of longans if you’re somewhere in South China. Also expect every individual large fruit to be decorated with red ribbons and colourful wrapping paper

Also out of every five stalls, at least one will be a mooncake stall

Mooncakes come in multiple varieties! The most common are the white lotus bean paste ones, the ones with salted egg yolks (single yolk and double yolk), snowskin ones which as much softer and sweeter, red bean paste cakes, etc.

They make some super cute shapes too!

There are even more savoury options with minced pork filling or prawn/fish filling (not a fan of the fish ones), but they’re made with a flakier pastry than the sweet ones (Note: sometimes we don’t call these mooncakes, but it depends)

Basically the sweet ones use a pastry that’s more like a typical sweet tart shell while the savoury ones use something that’s more like a non-sweetened croissant 

Traditionally, people would make the mooncakes together at home, and offer them to the moon goddess during moon worship, but nowadays most people just buy them and eat them

This festival also shares a lot of the same customs as CNY & the Lantern Festival, such as: 

Having another reunion dinner. Duck is a very common dish, along with seasonal crops. Lotus dishes are also popular around this time, depending on where you are. 

Lanterns everywhere. Water and sky lanterns are also common. You’ll also see people playing with firecrackers and sparklers.

In much more rural areas, you might get to experience the Burning Pagoda tradition, in which they set up a seven-tier tower made up of wood and straw and burn it while dancing around it. This practice is similar to the Bon Odori even in Japan. 

Fun fact: This is also basically the Lantern Festival of Singapore, because the actual Lantern Festival isn’t celebrated here

Bonus: I made a post about the most famous myth of this festival that relates to MDZS.

The ChongYang Festival - Mid to Late Oct

Also known as the Double Ninth Festival (in English) and the Senior Festival (slang)

This is basically the festival of paying respects to our elders, both living and dead

There are...going to be a fuckton of chrysanthemums everywhere. Chrysanthemum flowers decorating the place, chrysanthemum cakes (I don’t recommend googling it if you have severe trypophobia, some of the more traditional cakes have a lot of seeds and stuff on top which may be upsetting, but I would say it’s at least better than a hollow lotus pod), chrysanthemum wine, all of that

Common activities include going on easy hikes or mountain walks with the living elders, and maybe visiting the graves of those who have passed and paying respects

It’s dying in modern times, but still seen as at least a day of relaxing with your elderly family and friends

The DongZhi Festival - Late Dec (just before Christmas mostly)

The Winter Solstice Festival

Nothing much is done, we really mostly just have a special dinner together, eating dumplings, noodle soup, mutton, and hotpot. Alcohol is often present at such dinners, and you would toast to the solstice 

You’d also pray and stuff like most of these festivals, but I think that’s a given by now lol

Modern Chinese people will often get together during this time and merge it with their Christmas dinners

Aside from that, we really just celebrate Christmas, though now you can add a line of cultural significance to those modern AU Christmas fics :3

Bonus Info: There is also a Summer Solstice festival called the Xia Zhi Festival that’s essentially the same as this, except you eat a lot of noodles and go swimming, but it’s not really significant anymore in modern times, the DongZhi festival only really surviving because of Christmas, so I didn’t include it in the list

Alright, that one took like 84 years. I’m tired LMAO. 

[time-to-be-awesome]

Creating Moments of Happiness Every Day

Journal – there are lots of different ways to journal so find one that suits you, but try ending it by listing three positive things from the day. This could be things that made you smile, things you are grateful for, things you are proud of etc.

Be mindful – as you go about your day try to notice positive things in the moment. Take a little time to check in with how you are feeling and the connections to where you are, what you are doing, and what you are thinking.

Make a conscious choice – once you notice things that you find positive, make the decision to do them more often.

Check your thoughts – pay attention to the way you think about things. Try to find more positive ways to re-frame your thoughts. For example instead of ‘how am I going to survive this week?’ think ‘what can I do to make this week better/easier/more enjoyable?’

Set a realistic goal – each morning decide what a good day would look like. What are some quantifiable things you would like to do? Make your positive things something that you plan for alongside your obligations. 

Tick items off your list – you could use pen and paper, an app, or a whiteboard. Give yourself the satisfaction of  ticking off each item you complete.

Everyone will find different positive things that make their day happier, but here are some suggestions:

Get outside – stand outside your door, sit in a garden, go for a walk.

Find situations that fill you with awe – looking at the stars, standing in a wide open space, walking under tall trees, sitting near water, watching the sun rise or set.

Notice and appreciate all the different forms of weather.

Find a way to move your body that you enjoy – stretching, dancing, workout videos, walking, running, cycling, swimming.

Take care of your space – make your bed, spend ten minutes tidying things away, do all the washing up before bed so you have a clean space each morning.

Add a splash of colour – treat yourself to a bunch of flowers, fill a fruit bowl with brightly coloured fruit, make or buy some bright bunting or a painting to hang up.

Put fresh sheets on the bed and put on fresh PJs.

Light a scented candle.

Organise your wardrobe so you can easily find the clothes that fit well and make you feel good.

Create a pin board with photos and mementos from happy times, or create a vision or motivation board.

Grow or care for plants.

If you have the flexibility, try changing your routine to find what works best for you– try getting up and going to bed at different times, mealtimes, whether you do a workout in the morning or evening, creating more time in the day for the activities you enjoy.

When your commitments allow, go to sleep without setting an alarm and wake up naturally.

Schedule time for yourself and plan things to look forward to.

If you can afford to, splurge a little to make everyday things a little more special – get a coffee mug or water bottle that you love to use, get the premium version of a food you enjoy, get a body wash scent you love, use a fabric softener.

Incorporate the food you love most – add berries to your cereal, add avocado to your salad, have pizza every now and then.

Make it an event – prepare an aesthetic breakfast bowl on a pretty tray for breakfast in bed, set the table and have a candlelit dinner, treat a movie at home like going to the cinema by switching off the lights and your phone.

Keep a jug or bottle of water in the fridge so you always have chilled water, try adding fruit as well.

Wear a perfume you like, even if you are just staying at home all day.

Wear a piece of jewelry that feels special to you, maybe pick something out especially to serve as a reminder to look for positive things.

Connect with someone else – phone, send a text, share a cute gif in the Whatsapp chat, check in with a colleague, smile and say hello to people you walk past or see at the shops, comment on a Tumblr post, contribute to a Reddit thread, watch a chatty vlog style Youtube video.

Curate your social media to be a positive space.

Use Postcrossing to send and receive postcards across the world.

Volunteer or do a good deed for someone else.

Try cooking a new recipe.

Learn something new – read a book, a magazine, online articles, watch a documentary, listen to podcasts

Lose yourself in the flow of an activity you enjoy – drawing, crochet, cross-stitch, painting, colouring, doing a jigsaw, playing an instrument.

Challenge yourself with a crossword or Sudoku.

Listen to your favourite songs – make playlists for different moods, sing and dance along.

Use recommended artist suggestions to discover a new band to love.

Do something that makes you laugh.

Listen to a guided meditation or ASMR.

Pamper yourself – have a longer shower or bath, use a new product, do a face mask, paint your nails.

Look through old photos that make you smile – on your phone, print and frame them, put in an album, create a photobook.

Accept yourself as you are now, even if you are working to improve in some way. Find an affirmation you connect with and repeat it to yourself.

[autorobotcollectorx]

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Some helpful information on hamsters!

WHEEL AND ENCLOSURE

The plastic cages they sell at you’re local pet store are not safe housing for hamsters contrary to popular belief even for the smallest breeds of hamsters.If you cannot afford proper housing and enrichment for an animal then you should not go out and buy one.

You can only have one hamster per enclosure due to them being extremely territorial they will fight until one or both are fatally harmed its not worth the risk.

This is my rescue Nugget! He lives in a 200qt toat from Walmart($22) which is the bare minimum for a Syrian hamster.The bedding is five inches deep allowing him to burrow and hide underground during the daylight since hamsters are nocturnal animals and naturally live in burrows underground.He has a 12inch wheel! This is very important and notice how strait his back is when he runs on it! If you’re wheel is not large enough which Syrians should all have 12inch wheels then it can cause permanent damage to the spine and cause the animal allot of strain,back/spinal pain,posture issues,and ultimately spinal deformity.Also wire wheels can potentially break a hamsters toes and have before as well as they are just not comfortable for the animal i do not recommend.PLEASE do not get you’re hamster a ball these can severely stress out the animal making them feel trapped and panicked and has the potential to break toes as well.

The safest bedding to use for hamsters is aspen since most wood bedding's can cause health issues and can be very toxic to them!Please check online before buying any wood type shaving bedding's and make sure it is hamster safe.A good tip is that you can get a very large bag of aspen from Petsmart for $15 its also really good for burrowing into one of the best actually! if you want to add a softer top layer i recommend hemp bedding or any soft paper bedding!Please NEVER use any cotton based bedding products since these can damage a rodents body and cause sure death.

Change all of the bedding every other friday would be best.Also he drinks out of a bowl it only took him a few days to catch on and i empty/refill the bowl each morning to make sure his water is clean and fresh.

SAND BOX

He also has a sandbox in which he digs and rubs himself along it its kinda like a sand bath of sorts! Note you should use repti sand since sand with minerals can encourage the hamster to eat it and potentially make them very ill and most likely even pass away from it.This also gives the animal more enrichment in their natural behaviors. Please do not use dust bath mixtures or fine sand.

TOYS,CHEWS.AND HIDES

I give Nugget several toys to chew on! These ones i had found on ebay for $12 getting ten hamster chews and a se-saw as well.Its very important to get items you’re hamster can chew on it keeps them busy and keeps their teeth at a healthy length.Please DO NOT get the filled log chews or the larger ones that look like hides!They contain wood shavings and can cause really bad health issues for you’re hamster it is not hamster safe.Also they do not require salt or mineral chews and these are actually bad for their body.

Hamsters are prey animals and so having more then one hide in their enclosure is crucial to their personal safety and piece of mind.They need to feel safe in their own cage and i do not recommend digging them out or lifting those safe items to remove the animal.Respect their safe areas and they will feel more comfortable around you.Also remember that they are nocturnal so if they are not out and about during the day they are most likely sleeping and its best to not disturb them.

DIET

Please remember that hamsters eat nuts,seeds,grains,and fruits and vegetables NOT JUST seeds and pellets.As a treat you could also give them dried meal worms.Please look online for safe and unsafe fruits and vegetables for hamsters before you go out and buy whatever you think they would like its best to be safe then sorry.Dried fruits are not the best options due to most of them having allot of added sugars,fresh fruits and vegetables are the way to go but do not give them salads everyday.Got this from google “A captivehamster's diet should be at least 16 percent protein and 5 percent fat, according to Canadian Federation of Humane Societies” Only give them two teaspoons of food a day or one for smaller hamster species.Obesity can cause diabetes in these animals.

[chasholidays]

Clarke texts Bellamy terrible things she's cooking, such as Gatorade rice

how do people cook

The sound of the text notification pulls Bellamy away from the papers he’s grading, and he rubs his face, trying to figure out what time it is and how long he’s been at this. He signed up to TA for a summer term, which was a good idea for his finances and resume, but the professor seems to think of him as nothing but a machine that grades and answers emails, which isn’t good for anyone, pedagogically speaking.

He figures out, from studying his phone for a second that, one, he’s been grading for three straight hours and, two, Clarke is doing that “not using punctuation makes me look casual” thing again when she texts, even though she doesn’t know how to turn off autocorrect, so she has to manually uncapitalize her letters, which is the opposite of casual.

Me: Cook what?Or are you just wondering how it’s possible that people cook?

Clarke: both i guessi did not do well with dinner

She attaches an image of a very undercooked pork chop covered in what looks like paper mache; he’s not sure what she was trying to make, but it’s safe to say she didn’t make it.

Me: I can tell you cooked parts of it

Clarke: yeah?which partsbe specific

Me: The part of the meat that isn’t pinkWhat were you going for?

Clarke: artichoke stuffed pork chops

Me: For your first meal ever?

Clarke: it looked easy!!what are you up to?

Me: [image]Grading for the rest of my life apparently

Clarke: aren’t summer classes supposed to be easier?did I make that up?

Me: You did, yeahThey’re shorter and more intenseAnd this one is writing intensive so Diyoza has them turning in papers every dayAnd has me grading all of them

Clarke: good thing you don’t have a social life or that would really suck

Me: Thanks for understanding Did you start the new job yet?

Clarke: not yetnext weekbut this was when i could move into the new place so here i am

Me: How much effort are you putting into making your phone not capitalize the letter I

Clarke: i’m on my laptop right now so noneraven said my texting should be more casual if i was going to try online dating

Me: Did she tell you no capitals was casual? I think it’s more of a tone thingAnd are you trying online dating?

Clarke: trying or trying to try i guessworking on my profile now

Me: I don’t know why you’d want to be someone you’re not in online datingIf using capitals and punctuation makes someone not to date you, that’s a good sign you guys wouldn’t be good togetherAnd plenty of people like following stylistic rules

Clarke: do you have a source on that

Me: I do and I’m pretty sure you doSo that’s twoAlso I’m grading right now and I’m struggling not to correct all the errors in your texts

Clarke: OopsSorry

Me: Why online dating?

Clarke: Because it feels like the logical thingI’ve been single for a while, I’m in a new city with no real social group, I don’t want to date coworkersSo if I sign up for an app, I’m at least trying

Me: Yeah, that makes senseI’m just planning to die alone

Clarke: PleaseYou cough and people fall over themselves asking if you’re single

Me: Which is a fetish demographic I don’t care about appealing to so yeahDying alone

Clarke: [eyeroll]At least you can cook

Me: I’ll send you some easy recipes when I get homeBut yeah for now maybe just order a pizza

Clarke: Already done[screenshot]ETA twenty minutes

Me: GoodOkay, I need to finish this and get dinner tooBut keep me posted on the cookingMaybe send me pictures of meat before you eat it so I can approve it

Clarke: So if you’re away from your phone for a minute I can’t eat?

Me: Safety firstI’ll send recipes tonight

*

Bellamy met Clarke Griffin the first day of junior year, when they were moving into the dorms. She had the room directly above his, and for the first few weeks they had an ongoing pitched conflict because she was loud and he was trying to study, but then she broke up with her girlfriend who always wore heels. Bellamy made an asshole comment about how her new shoes were a huge improvement, Clarke snapped back that they weren’t her shoes, and suddenly they were bonding about being queer–bi in her case, pan in his–and breakups and school, and before he knew it, they were friends, and then best friends, and then one afternoon she smiled at him in the library and he realized he was in love.

In theory, they also should have been finishing college and going into the world at the same time, but he was in the BA-to-MA history program, so he had an extra year at school while Clarke moved home for a couple weeks before finding a job in Boston.

And now she’s texting him about cooking fails and online dating and he misses her more than he can stand.

“You could just tell her that,” Roan suggests. Roan is in the history PhD program and his mother knows Clarke’s mother, which means that he has seen Bellamy and Clarke together for more than ten minutes and therefore knows that Bellamy has a thing for her. That seems to be the standard amount of time it takes people to figure it out. “I miss you and I want to try long distance. People do that.”

“I’m aware that long-distance relationships are a thing, yeah.”

“I couldn’t tell if you were aware that relationships were something that you could be involved in, or if you just thought they happened to other people.”

“They do just happen to other people,” he says. “They’re not happening to me.”

“Which is shocking, considering you’re hung up on a woman you won’t talk to and turn down every offer that doesn’t come from her. Truly, your singleness is a mystery.”

His phone buzzes with a text from Clarke–Why are there so many kinds of olive oil? Why do I care how much sex my olives have had? Purity culture is out of control–and he waves the phone at Roan. “We’re talking right now.”

“I’m just saying, complaining that she’s not dating you when you’ve put zero effort into getting her to date you isn’t particularly sympathetic. You could at least try asking her.”

I don’t actually know why it’s called that but most recipes want extra virgin, he texts back quickly, then adds, How do you not have olive oil?

“I don’t even know what I’m going to be doing after this,” he says, turning his attention back to Roan. “If I want to go on to get my PhD or what.”

“Because you couldn’t possibly get your PhD in Boston.”

“I know.” He sighs. “I’m not mad she’s doing online dating. If she finds someone, I’m not going to be a dick about it. But I’m not going to tell her to wait for me or whatever.”

“Are you sure you understand what long distance means?” he asks, dry.

“I’m not ready to tell her yet,” he admits. “If that means I miss my chance–” He shrugs. “Then it sucks to be me.”

“Not the attitude I’d take, but I suppose I can’t stop you. I wouldn’t tell you to do this,” he adds, “if I didn’t think it would end well for you.”

“I know.” He taps the rim his mug, thinking it over. It’s weird, confiding in Roan, of all people, but he’s never willing to start conversations about his stupid crush, and Roan’s one of the few people who actually asks. So here they are. “I’m waiting to see if it lasts. Maybe with her gone, it’ll just go away. And if that happens, I don’t want to be dating her when it does.”

“There’s some logic to that,” Roan admits. “Not necessarily convincing logic, but logic nonetheless. Still, if you were dating her, I don’t think it would just fade away like that.”

“Maybe. Maybe I’ll decide I want to tell her.”

Roan raises his coffee. “I’m rooting for you.”

“Thanks,” says Bellamy, with a smile. “Means the world to me.”

*

Bellamy is working on his own dinner when his phone buzzes with a picture from Clarke. He was expecting meat, but based on the preview picture it’s something else, something much weirder, and the follow-up message doesn’t really help.

Clarke: Trying something out

Bellamy: Yellow rice?

Clarke: Gatorade rice

Bellamy: What

Clarke: I’m making a rice bowl and it wanted me to season with lime juiceI forgot to buy lime juice but I do have lemon lime gatoradeSo I figured I could just replace the water when I was cooking the rice to get the flavor

Bellamy stares at the words for a second, his brain trying to protect him from the reality of what Clarke has done, but the words burrow in deep and refuse to leave.

He’s not sure he’s ever called her on the actual phone before, but he’s dialing before he can think better of it.

“It doesn’t taste that bad!” she says, in lieu of a greeting.

“What the fuck, Clarke.”

“What? I’ve seen Chopped, I know you can substitute things.”

“Yeah, but those are people who know how to cook. You’re going to burn down your apartment.”

“Plus my rice bowl tastes really weird,” she agrees. “But it got you to call me. How’s it going?”

“Pretty good. Summer semester’s over, so I’m done with grading for a while.”

“Still working at the coffee shop?”

“Yeah, picked up some extra hours. I’m actually making dinner right now.”

“Yeah?” she asks, brightening. “What are you making?”

“Nothing very exciting. It’s hot so I didn’t want to cook and I had some leftover chicken, so I’m making chicken salad.”

“How did you learn to cook? I always knew you could, but now that I’m trying to do it myself I really don’t get how you got the skillset.”

“O’s dad was a good cook,” he says, trying the chicken salad and adding a little more salt and pepper. “I used to like helping him. After he died, my mom didn’t have time to cook, so I took over. He had cookbooks and stuff, but there was definitely a learning curve.”

“I think I just don’t have the cooking instinct.”

“You cooked rice in gatorade, so yeah, I agree,” he teases.

“It could have been really good!”

“Uh huh. The instincts develop,” he adds. “You make chicken and figure out what spices you like with chicken, you figure out what tastes good and use more of it.”

“You put gatorade in your rice.”

“You learn not to do that.” He grabs bread and sticks it in the toaster. “Do you have a rice cooker?”

“My roommate does, she said I could borrow it as long as I clean it. I’m going to clean it really well.”

“You better. How is she? As a roommate.”

He imagines her shrugging in the short pause, can almost see her doing it. “Fine. I honestly don’t see her much, we have totally different schedules. Any time we’re actually home together we make awkward small talk and then she goes into her room and closes the door.”

“Honestly, that could be a lot worse. She could want to be your best friend.”

“Yeah, god forbid anyone wanted to be friends with me,” she teases.

“How’s that going, by the way? The whole friends thing?”

“It’s going. I went out for drinks with my coworkers, they’re cool.”

“Any dates?”

“Not yet. What about you? Still just hanging out with Roan?”

“For now, but once fall semester starts up I’ll have other friends.”

“Really?”

“Hopefully.”

She laughs. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too. I wish I was there to keep you from putting gatorade in your rice.”

The words seem a little awkward as soon as they’re out of his mouth, but Clarke just says, “I wish you were here so you could taste it.”

“Never mind, I don’t wish I was there anymore. Did you try any of the recipes I sent you?”

“I did the chicken alfredo pasta, it came out pretty well. And I want to do the chili tomorrow. I was going to have it with more of the rice.”

“If you eat my chili with gatorade rice, never tell me.”

“You can follow my instagram. I think I’m going to be big.”

“What is it? Clarke Cooks Crap?”

There’s a pause. “It wasn’t, but it is now.”

“You’re really going to make that, aren’t you?”

“I’m registering as we speak.”

“I can’t believe I have to sign up for instagram now,” he says, with a sigh.

“You don’t have to. I’ll text you everything.”

“Thanks for crossposting for me.”

“I know you hate social media.” She pauses again, finally says, “I should let you eat.”

“Yeah, I should definitely eat. But I’m free tonight if you want to Rabbit something.”

“I could definitely watch something. Give me like an hour and I’ll text you?”

“Sure, sounds good. Enjoy your rice.”

“I’ll send you pictures,” she says, and he gets one almost as soon as they hang up, Clarke with a big spoonful of yellow rice halfway to her mouth, with the caption exclusive content not for instagram.

He sends back a picture of his own sandwich labeled actually good food and grins for the rest of the night.

*

Bellamy never thought much about Clarke and cooking, but if he had, he would have assumed she would be one of those people who followed recipes to a T and googled things like how much is a splash of olive oil to make sure she was measuring out the correct amount.

Instead, every text she sends is something that she seems to have come up with herself specifically to horrify him. When she sends an orange blob with two white eyes, she explains that she couldn’t decide between sweet potatoes and regular, so she just mixed them together, setting aside two small balls to serve as the eyes. Which, okay, it’s probably not bad as combinations go, but Bellamy would use them as sides for two totally different meals. And that’s the best of them. She seems to delight in using gatorade as much as possible, in sauces and glazes, once in salad dressing. She’ll text him things like “out of milk can I just use cream mixed with water?” and “I only need one kind of vinegar, right? They’re all basically the same” and no matter what she says, she seems to think he’s saying yes.

“You haven’t cooked for anyone else, have you?” he asks. He’s taken to calling her after she sends him particularly concerning messages, which happens at least twice a week.

The crush isn’t going away; cooking nightmares seem to be a turn-on for him.

“I’m getting a lot better.”

“You asked if V8 was a replacement for vegetable stock.”

“It was on sale!”

“I’m just saying, you say it didn’t taste that bad and I don’t really trust you. I want a second opinion from someone else who’s tried your cooking.”

“My roommate ate some leftover chicken and I think she’s still alive.”

“Wow, glowing endorsement.”

“That’s the point of food, right? It keeps you alive.”

“Sure, Captain Holt.”

“Obviously you just have to come visit. I assume you’re going home for Christmas?”

“Yeah. I missed Thanksgiving so I figure I have to make Christmas. Spring break is still open.”

“In March?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so much time for me to plan an all-gatorade meal.”

“All the greatest hits of your instagram together at last.”

She snorts. “Like you have any idea what my instagram’s greatest hits are.”

“I’m assuming the balsamic vinaigrette you made with white vinegar and red gatorade has to be up there.”

“I guess you’ll find out over spring break.”

It’s early December, so break is months and months away. He hadn’t even been planning to do anything, just take a week off and relax. Of course he wants to see Clarke, but he always wants to see Clarke. He hadn’t known how to just say to her, though, hadn’t wanted to invite himself over where he might not be welcome.

Now it’s all he can do to not book flights right away, to be cool and normal.

At least she can’t see how much he’s smiling.

“Yeah,” he says. “I guess I will.”

*

“So, I’m thinking I need to tell Clarke how I feel about her.”

To his surprise, Roan’s eyes narrow, and then he punches himself in the arm. “Ah, I’m not asleep.”

“You have dreams about my love life? I didn’t know you cared that much. I hoped you didn’t care that much.”

He waves his hand. “I dream about a lot of things. What changed your mind?”

“It’s been more than six months and I’m still in love with her. After I graduate, I want to be where she is and I want to be with her. So I should say something.”

“That’s what I’ve always thought. Congratulations.”

“Don’t congratulate me, I haven’t told her yet.”

“Honestly, at this point I’m proud of you for even thinking about it. I thought you might have given up.”

He probably would have, if he’s honest. He knows it’s not romantic, but if Clarke had graduated and they’d fallen out of touch, like he did with so many of his friends, he probably would have moved on. But not only have they not fallen out of touch, Clarke’s been reaching out too, keeping him in the loop with her cooking like he keeps her on the loop with classes. They’re both putting in the effort to not lose each other.

Hell, she’s texting him redundant content just because he doesn’t like Instagram. He could already get all of this stuff, but she sends it directly just to him so that he’ll call her.

He thinks he really might have a shot.

“I just don’t want to tell her over the phone, I guess. I want to make sure that once we’re in the same place again, it’s still good. Maybe I’m just really bad at reading tone over text.”

“As always, I will be shocked if Clarke doesn’t reciprocate your feelings before you’ve finished confessing them, but I assume it’s more difficult for you.”

Bellamy fixes him with a look. “Shouldn’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“Do you not bug Clarke about this? Why just me?”

“Clarke’s no fun.”

That does check out. Even her whimsical cooking is less fun and more terrifying. She’s probably really shitty to gossip with.

“So, you’re guessing but not sure.”

“Even if I wasn’t, she doesn’t text me meal updates. I haven’t talked to her since before graduation.”

“Well, I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m expecting you to hold me accountable if I don’t tell her.”

“I’ll text you for daily updates.”

“Terrifying, thanks.”

Roan shrugs. “All your favorite people seem to terrify you.”

It’s hard to deny. “What can I say? I’ve got a type.”

*

Clarke doesn’t meet him at the airport because it takes forever to get there on public transportation, so she tells him to just grab a cab and she’ll cover half the cost. It’s nicer than bringing his stuff on a couple of different trains, but he can’t help the waves of anxiety as he gets closer and closer to Clarke. It would have been nice to get over seeing her right away, to spend a long train ride talking to her, getting comfortable with her again. It was bad enough being on the plane, but now that he’s in her city it feels like they should just be together.

Once the cab lets him off, though, he still hesitates. All this time and all this way and he’s still not quite sure how to see her.

Then he takes a deep breath, marches to the door, and rings the buzzer.

She doesn’t unlock the door but comes down herself, the sight of her knocking the breath out of him for a second. She doesn’t look different, but she doesn’t need to. It’s not as if he wanted her to be different. She opens the door and pulls him into a hug and that’s everything.

“Hi,” he says, holding her close.

“Hi. Sorry I didn’t come meet you.”

“It’s okay. The cab was a lot easier.”

“Still. I feel like a bad host.”

He makes himself pull away, gives her a smile. “Don’t worry, it’s the all-gatorade meal that’s going to make you a bad host.”

She laughs. “That was the other reason to not come get you. I could get started on dinner.”

His stomach drops. “I figured that was later in the week. We aren’t going out tonight? I’ll pay.”

“Nope.”

She unlocks the door and he follows her up the stairs, trying to figure out what to say. “What are you expecting from me?” he finally asks.

“Sorry?”

“Honest reaction, or–”

She flashes him a smile over her shoulder. “I’m not expecting you to pretend gatorade rice is good, Bellamy.”

It’s a deliberate answer, for all her expression is easy, but she opens the door before he can formulate a response and he’s hit with the overwhelming, mouthwatering scent of roasting chicken.

Clarke’s cooking, and it smells amazing.

“Um,” he says, and she grins.

“You really don’t follow my instagram, huh?”

“No. Am I supposed to?”

“No. But if you did, you’d know that I’m actually getting pretty good at the cooking thing. You’re the only one who sees my gatorade experiments.”

“You’re doing real cooking,” he says, brain still catching up.

“Using the recipes you sent me, and then the Internet. I signed up for Hello Fresh, that was really helpful. It kind of sucked to cook for just myself, but I had you and instagram, so it worked out.”

“Did you actually eat all the stuff you sent me?”

“At least some of it. Honestly, I think it helped. Seeing how different ingredients changed the taste, what worked and what didn’t. Honing my instincts, like you said.”

“So gatorade rice made you a better cook.”

She looks nervous for the first time. “I guess you’re going to find out.”

He offers to help, but she waves him off, tells him to relax while she finishes up. Instead, he wanders around the apartment, checking out the decorations, guessing what belongs to Clarke and what belongs to her mysterious roommate, and then settles against the counter, quizzing her on her job and the city, getting updates he mostly already have.

They really do talk a lot. It’s nice.

“So, roasted chicken, what else? Mashed potatoes?”

She grins. “Potatoes and sweet potatoes. It’s actually really good! It adds some good texture and flavor.”

“Looking forward to it,” he says, and she looks so happy he almost kisses her right then.

Of course, she did spend months planning an elaborate surprise about how she really can cook just to troll him, so she probably wouldn’t mind if he did kiss her.

But it can wait until after dinner. She worked so hard. And he’s really excited to try everything.

Clarke doesn’t really have a dining room table–the apartment is small and space is limited–so they take their plates over to the coffee table and settle in. Given the setting, it’s not quite adult, but it’s a real meal, and an amazing one. Even the potatoes work.

“I can’t believe you were holding out on me,” he says.

“Deliberately deceiving you,” she corrects.

“For the big reveal?”

“Yup. As long as you never found my instagram, it was going to be fine.”

“Is it actually Clarke Cooks Crap?”

She looks down. “No, it’s Cooking 101 with Cara. Clarke’s pretty distinctive, I didn’t want anyone to know it was me unless I told them.”

“So I couldn’t have found the instagram even if I went looking for it, huh?”

“You could now.”

There’s something purposeful in her tone, like she’s daring him, and he wants to, but–

“After dinner. And I’m cleaning up, since you cooked.”

She smiles. “There’s dessert, too.”

“You really went all out.”

“I’m really happy to see you.”

“I’m really happy to see you too.” He clears his throat. “Did I tell you I’m looking for jobs here after graduation?”

“You know you didn’t.”

“I didn’t. I wanted to tell you in person.”

“Like me and the cooking.”

He has to smile. “Kind of, yeah.”

“Any good prospects yet?”

They’re done with food, so he fills her in on the research he’s been doing on the places he’s been looking for openings, the applications he’s working on. There’s no sign she’s anything but thrilled with the news, and Bellamy lets himself–quietly, tentatively, slowly–start to believe that this could be his life. Living with Clarke here, making dinner and doing the dishes and talking about the little details of his life that don’t make it into phone calls.

“What was the instagram again?” he asks, once the dishwasher is loaded and running. It seems more pressing than dessert; there’s something on there Clarke wants him to see.

“Cooking 101 with Cara,” she says. “The username is caracooks101.”

“Cara with a C?”

“Yeah.”

He plugs it into his phone, finds the account. The style is familiar–all of Clarke’s awful meals are photographed perfectly, taking full advantage of her art minor–but the actual content is completely new, even knowing she was lying to him. She’s made a lot, and all of it looks amazing. He scans a little, just taking it in, but then he scrolls back up to the top, where there’s an image of what looks like today’s meal, the chicken ready to go into the oven.

Okay, wish me luck, the caption reads, when he clicks it. B’s coming over, so it’s time to see if the way to a man’s heart really is through his stomach. Which is shitty and heteronormative, but whatever. I’m bi, I can like a boy. And I’m hoping he likes chicken.

Clarke is watching him, nervous, and all he can do is laugh. “Roan’s supposed to text me every day at two to ask if I’ve asked you out yet.”

She laughs too, all relief. “That was your plan?”

“He can be very annoying.”

“He can.”

“I’m so in love with you,” he admits. “I have been for years. I’ve missed you so much, I–”

She kisses him, which is nice for a lot of reasons, including, of course, that they’re kissing, and she’s warm and close and has apparently been sharing her food-based seduction plan on instagram for almost a year. She’s been putting in so much effort he almost feels bad for not trying harder himself.

But he’s got time to make it up to her.

“Are you ready for dessert?” she murmurs.

“Is that a euphemism?”

She bites his bottom lip. “Nope. I made red-gatorade popsicles. With real fruit flavors.”

He collapses against her shoulder, laughing so hard he feels like he might never recover. “Fuck,” he manages. “I love you.”

“I know,” she says. “So, dessert?”

“Please.”

And somehow, it really is the best thing he’s ever eaten. His girlfriend’s got a gift.

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DAYS 8-14

DAY EIGHT [JAN 8]

9:00 AM - Wake up still feeling full from yesterday’s black bean burgers. Make a chemex and start working. I have a performance evaluation today and as well as an after-work happy hour so I want to try to get everything done before the review and then workout after before HH.

10:30 AM - Eat a banana

12:30 PM - Have a short break before my performance review. Make a Greek-ish salad and drink a Seltzer before my quarterly performance review which I am slightly nervous for since I was very slow in both November & December.

3:00 PM - Performance review went well. No criticism from my boss, though I should’ve known. She is the most direct supervisor I’ve ever had so I always know where I stand. Eat some grapes. I’m not super sore today but there’s something in me that’s saying to take a breather from exercising today (probably my “reward” for a good performance review), so I slowly finish my work for today.

4:00 PM - My best friend (let’s call her T) from high school calls and we catch up for 45 minutes. Pour a mezcal soda while we chat. I let her go attend Happy Hour and realize this after work HH thing isn’t happening. Today is David Bowie’s bday and I get sentimental about the annual David Bowie Nights I would do with H (I never gave him a name in my last diary, but we’ve remained pals over the years and he will probably come up more this time around). I FaceTime H kinda drunkenly and he goes to the corner store and joins me with a bottle of wine. I pour a second mezcal soda. We chat until 7:45 and I lowkey make dinner towards the end.

8:00 PM - K and I eat veggie sandwiches with potatoes for dinner. He slinks off to work more and I facetime another friend, J to chat about H’s latest drama. 

10:00 PM - Go out on the couch to find K already falling asleep. I’m kind of drunk anyways and there’s no point staying up so we decide to turn in.

DAY EIGHT TOTAL: $0

DAY NINE

2:00 AM - Wake up sweating. This is my new hangover thing and has been happening throughout quar. Drink some water, turn on the fan, and stay up for an extra 30 minutes until I pass out again.

9:15 AM - Wake up feeling ok! Make a chemex and watch the latest episode of Dessert Person on YouTube.

10:30 AM - Get started on blog stuff for the day. I have a stacked list of stuff I want to shoot this weekend. I’m only one ingredient spread in before I start to feel light-headed from last night’s alcohol, so I break to make breakfast – tofu/egg scramble tacos with soyrizo. I still feel a little weird after so I drink a nuun and things start to improve.

3:30 PM - I shoot thousand island dressing, Russian dressing, cauliflower leek soup, and the first half of seitan corned beef. Tomorrow I’ll finish that, and shoot rubens, italian dressing and a greek salad. I don’t usually shoot 7 recipes in one weekend, but I’m very much out of content. 

4:30 PM - Finish shooting for the day and eat a small bowl of cauliflower leek soup. 

6:00 PM - Working out on the weekends is always hard because of lack of routine / structure, but I suck it up and do a barre live stream. Shower and watch the last of the Suns game and import photos. 

7:45 PM - Make veggie sandwiches with miso butter green beans for dinner. This is the last of our veggie sandwiches which is sad. I love them so much! Spend the rest of the evening with K. We watch part of the 76ers game where they only had 7 players, a few episodes of Letterkenny, and then I read Remain in Love while he played RocketLeague.

DAY NINE TOTAL: $0

DAY TEN

8:45 AM - Doomscroll in bed for a bit and finally make myself a chemex. Put on an old episode of The Challenge. Buy a very belated birthday present for a friend - mamafuku seasoned salts. $34.95

10:30 AM - Pump myself up for shooting for the rest of the day. I have to finish the seitan, then shoot a greek dressing, a greek salad, and reuben sandwiches. None of these things should take too long but I also shot all day yesterday so I’m dragging ass. 

3:15 PM - Finially finish! I ended up also taking a decent break to chat with my sister on the phone part way through. I think everything looks alright though. 

4:00 PM - Import photos, eat a cup of cauliflower leek soup with a La Croix, watch an episode of The Challenge, try to hype myself up to exercise but by the time I am ready to play DDR, K says we’ll be zooming with his parents in just a short while.

5:30 PM - Drink the last of the wine in the house – a true bummer – on zoom with K’s parents. Cook dinner after – reubens with miso butter broccoli with more La Croix. We watch some Letterkenney and then K plays RocketLeague while I read some Remain in Love / zone out on fone. 

9:00 PM - K finishes playing and I assume the DDR position. My tracking has already improved quite a bit since Tuesday. I play most of the tracks on standard and close my Apple Watch rings after 30 minutes. Rinse off, put the Challenge back on and edit photos of Russian Dressing. 

DAY TEN TOTAL: $34.95

DAY ELEVEN

8:30 AM - Ugh Monday. I actually have a lot to do already today. Make a chemex and do the dishes leftover from yesterday’s cooking adventures. Pure barre charge comes through. $15

9:45 AM - I have a giant stack of packages and mail in the house from the past few weeks. Open up one of them and it contains a phone case I bought from a “tech company” that is probably just a fancy version of Wish. Slap it on my phone. I honestly can’t believe I went over a month without a case without cracking anything. I’m amazing.

10:00 AM - Missed a call on Friday afternoon from an appraiser scheduler, so I call them back to get something on the calendar for next week after MLK day so I have the 3-day weekend to clean. Eat yogurt for breakfast.

12:00 PM - Make a greek salad for lunch with a La Croix. It’s really good but not very filling. I have a feeling today is going to have a heavy snack vibe.

2:00 PM - Eat a handful of pretzels. 

3:00 PM - Eat 2 clementines

4:00 PM - Eat a handful of tortilla chips. Start thinking about dinner. Don’t want to do reubens and burritos sound really nice so I start the process of making chile de arbol salsa and instant pot refried beans.

5:30 PM - Do a Pure Barre livestream. My focus is a little better than Saturday, so I’ll take it!

7:00 PM - Make rice on the stove while I clear some dishes and make burritos for din. Spend the rest of the eve watching random YouTube videos with K. He falls asleep at some point on and I turn on The Challenge. 

11:00 PM - Gently wake K up and we head to bed. Put on the Suns game from earlier and cuddle up. By the end of the first quarter, I’m asleep.

DAY ELEVEN TOTAL $15

DAY TWELVE

8:30 AM - Wake up to find a couple of weird charge notifications. One is from Instacart for the exact amount of my last order – a duplicate charge. And the other is an auto-ship from Thrive market but it was supposed to charge my mom. I text her to let her know she owes me $20. I won’t include either of these charges since I’ll get reimbursed / refunded. The autoship also reminds me to look at the account and cancel my next one with Thrive.

9:00 AM - Get the stuff sorted out with Instacart. They’re going to email my sister (we share this account) the deets and she’ll forward to me. Make a chemex and make my way through the stack of paper mail before starting my workday. One of them is a confirmation of my credit score – 749. Sign a bunch of papers and put them in a giant envelope to send back to the loan company.

10:00 AM - Eat plant yogurt for breakfast and try to focus on the outstanding tasks I have this AM which is surprisingly kind of a lot.

11:45 AM - H texts me saying he forgot his wallet to buy lunch and asks me to place an order at Chipotle that he can pick up. Always happy to help! Place the order online and it’s $10.43. He PayPals me $10 for the damage. $0.43

12:45 PM - Make a greek salad for lunch with a La Croix. This salad has like 5 calories since the dressing is oil-free and leaves me wanting more. 

1:00 PM - Eat a handful of mini pretzels. 

3:00 PM - Heat up a small bowl of cauliflower lentil soup. Officially done snacking until din.

5:15 PM - Done with workie. Make a nuun and do barre live stream. The class recording this time is actually “easy” which is nice – my body must be adjusting to the new moves. Make leftover bean cheeze and rice burritos for din.

7:00 PM - K and I watch King of the Hill for a bit and then he plays RocketLeague while I read some Remain in Love and then work on a post for Russian dressing. Watch some of the Challenge in the background.

DAY TWELVE TOTAL: $0.43

DAY THIRTEEN

8:30 AM - Good morning to me! See a charge come in from Blueland for soap & dishwasher tablets. Kind of a bummer because I don’t need them at all right now. Move my next delivery date to November 1 and put a note on my calendar a week before to check my stock. Note that the Instacart charge is gone. Hooray! Make a chemex, do the dishes and spray down the counters. $25.19

9:30 AM - Not sure what it is about today, but my calendar is clear and I know tomorrow is going to suck with meetings, so I really take my time and ease into the day. I don’t feel super confident posting the Russian dressing all over the interweb and would rather stage it as a thousand island vs Russian dressing kind of thing, so I just decide to post on Insta, Pinterest, and one Reddit forum before deciding that’s good enough. 

10:00 AM - Eat a yogurt. These Oui ones are really too sweet for me, but I’m at the mercy of whatever is on sale because honestly yogurt is a giant rip off. I should learn how to make my own.

12:30 PM - Make another greek salad with La Croix for lunch. Fully prepared to snack again since this guy is just not very filling. 

1:20 PM - Eat a handful of mini pretzels

2:30 PM - Eat a cup of cauliflower leek soup. I’m actually caught up on work for once which is nice. Looking forward to knocking out barre before 7 PM - hah. We’re still a week out from needing groceries, but it takes a while to plan/prep. With the appraisal on Tuesday, I know it’s not going to be a fun weekend so I start thinking about what I want to make for the rest of the month.

3:30 PM - Find a bougie polenta recipe I want to give a go as well as shoot oil-free instant pot refried beans and nacho cheese with potatoes and carrots. And use all of that to make sheet pan nachos. Should be a fun weekend of shooting there. Eat grapes. 

4:30 PM - I can’t hang with how hungry I am. Eat tortilla chips and salsa. Do a barre live stream and do a peloton 10 minute low impact ride. 

8:00 PM - K isn’t hungry for dinner so I heat up a Philly burrito and eat it with more tortilla chips and Sweedish Fish for “dessert.” I watch some of The Challenge and then K and I play Mario Kart and watch Letterkenny before turning in.

DAY THIRTEEN TOTAL: $25.19

DAY FOURTEEN

8:30 AM - I hate 9 AM meetings. Get my shit together enough to make a chemex before I have to be on the call.

10:00 AM - I can’t handle how many snacks I keep eating throughout the day. Toast a bagel for breakfast with Earth Balance, everything but the bagel seasoning, nooch, and salt. Eat some Sweedish Fish while I wait for the bagel to toast.

12:30 PM - Make the same greek salad with a lemon La Croix. I eat quickly as I have to present at 1 so I eat quickly in prep for that.

2:50 PM - It’s over! It went well and got good compliments on my presentation skills by all parties. AND I’m not starving. A win for all! I realize half the lights in my bedroom & bathroom are out which is a bad scene for appraisal. Buy some replacements on Amazon. $27.98

3:10 PM - Start building the grocery order for next Wednesday. I realize I’m doing this really far in advance, but I’m worried I won’t have the gusto for it this weekend. 

4:30 PM - Heat up a small cup of cauliflower leek soup for a snack. Debate to myself about whether or not I want to do barre and for whatever reason an hour of it sounds boring. DDR sounds fun though so I go for that instead. Get a good cal burn and even AA Kind Lady on Heavy. It’s coming back baby!

6:00 PM - Rinse off and make dinner – we’re doing Reubens tonight with roasted potatoes. Really really delicious dang. 

8:30 PM - Drink a yellow chartreuse with Lagunitas Hop Water and play Mario Kart with K. Then edit photos of cauliflower lentil soup for my blog.

DAY FOURTEEN TOTAL: $27.98

[paharvey99]

No Waitrose October 7: Days 30-31

Day 30

Friday – and the penultimate day of No Waitrose October. Also my nephew’s birthday, so when the four year-old I live with got up she was bundled in front of my phone to record a happy birthday video message. She’s done so many of these that she’s become an accomplished singer of Happy Birthday; I sent it to the family WhatsApp and my younger sister complimented her dramatic pauses and use of vibrato.

I’d bought my nephew some Minecraft Lego (Minecraft is one of those things where I’m not too sure what it is but we’re past the point where I feel comfortable asking. This is not a plea for anyone to tell me what Minecraft is, by the way), and I also wanted to get him something stupid and annoying, because he’s eight, so I got him a voice changer shaped like a mini red megaphone.

A couple of weeks back when I was buying all this on the internet I had thought it would be amusing to get him a retail-size box of chocolate bars, like 24 Bountys or something. He very nearly got 20 white chocolate Lion bars, but then I realised that maybe he didn’t even like white chocolate Lion bars, so I bought him a big Cadbury’s selection box type thing. I still maintain that a box of 20 white chocolate Lion bars is a fantastic present, I’m going to definitely buy one for someone for Christmas.

After the happy birthday message I did the nursery run and came home and did a load of work, had last night’s Sichuan pork dumpling filling noodles for lunch, more work, nursery run, and a nip into M&S Food on the way home.

You’ve probably noticed this month that I have been going to M&S Food quite a lot, and from the outside it might look like I’ve just replaced Waitrose with M&S Food and carried on as usual. However, this isn’t quite right. I will regularly do a big main shop in Waitrose, whereas I can’t bring myself to do that in M&S Food, which remains solely for “bits”. I bought some milk and something for tea, which turned out to be some trout in watercress sauce that was down from six quid to 90 pence. I knew the person I live with would tell me off later for giving her a ready meal for tea, but with a saving of more than a fiver I couldn’t leave it there.

By the time we got home my nephew had received his birthday message and presents and there was even a video of him using the voice changer thingy, which did seem to be as stupid and annoying as I’d hoped. This reminds me – the voice changer present was vaguely inspired by the book Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets by Quentin Blake. The title character has a range of unlikely items in her pockets, like trees and elephants and a kitchen sink and so forth. Spoiler alert: that’s the entire plot of the book. One of the things she has in her pockets is a selection of motor horns that go PAR-HURR and BEEEP BEEP, and I realised that a motor horn that goes PAR-HURR and BEEEP BEEP would be a fantastic thing to receive as a present. However, I chickened out of buying one for my nephew and scaled it down to the mini-megaphone voice changer. Maybe when he’s older.

I roasted some potatoes, courgettes, onions and a yellow pepper in chicken stock to go with the trout, I used a lot of stock and the vegetables ended up a soft, tasty mess, I was very pleased with them. As predicted, the person I live with expressed disapproval of the trout, saying that while it tasted nice she’d rather not eat a bought sauce. I know what she means; it may have been a cheap and tasty option, but I need to protect my brand better.

Just as we were going to bed I went to post a link to a previous blog on Twitter and noticed that the government had leaked news about a new national lockdown to the papers. I flicked through a few tweets and everyone was furious with the government for doing this, and I ended up furious as well. Then I wished I hadn’t looked at Twitter, as I was having a nice evening and all of a sudden I was furious.

It made me think, actually, that the government must be really pleased with the whole Twitter situation. Because really, they do abhorrent stuff, everyone on Twitter gets furious and then literally nothing happens. Boris Johnson is not quaking in his boots because a 90s comedian has got 33,000 retweets, no matter how incisive the skewering. He doesn’t even know it’s happened. Dominic Cummings is not rushing about going “Twitter is furious, what can we DO?”. He’s perfectly happy that he’s upset a bunch of lefties and they’re sitting about frothing in their own anger and doing absolutely nothing meaningful about it. No one is rustling up an angry mob with pitchforks and flaming torches, no one’s even writing to their MP. You want to change stuff, you’ve got to get up and do stuff; it’s the only way. Not me though, I’m too busy.

After that I calmed down and went to bed.

Didn’t go to Waitrose.

Day 31

As ever, Halloween marks the final day of No Waitrose October. I’m fairly sure I complain about Halloween every year, so I won’t bore you with it again, just know that I still don’t like anything about it.

The four year-old I live with and I got up and had breakfast while the other person I live with stayed in bed. After a while I took the person I live with through a cup of tea and complained about the new lockdown. The person I live with hadn’t checked Twitter last night and didn’t know about it, so I then felt a bit bad for waking her up with miserable news.

The weather was miserable too, not much hope of going out for a walk or anything, so we stayed in and pottered about all morning doing weird bits of tidying and video calls with family and stuff.

We made the unicorn Angel Delight that we bought in the week. I had to whip up three different bowls of gloop and assemble them accordingly, it was quite time-consuming. They did look amazing though, the kind of dessert that you see on fairytale tables laden with goodies. I put a picture of them on Instagram and we put them in the fridge for later.

For lunch I made fishcakes, peas and oven chips and somehow managed to mess up the oven chips. I don’t know what I did wrong, they all stuck to the tray for some reason. Still ate them, obviously. Then we had the unicorn Angel Delight for afters. I don’t know if Angel Delight has changed, or I have changed, or both, but it was pretty terrible. Just the kind of food that isn’t worth eating. None of us ate much of it, hopefully we’ll never have to bother with it again.

After lunch there was a break in the weather and the four year-old I live with was persuaded out of the house on the promise of going to Slimetown. Thankfully this was quickly forgotten and so we just went down to the sea, where the light was amazing but it was a bit windy, so we headed back inland. On the way back we went past City Books, Hove’s liveliest independent bookshop apparently. It reminded me that I wanted to buy Nigella Lawson’s new book, and then I realised that with the lockdown coming I wanted to buy it at an independent bookshop rather than online, support local businesses and all that. I had a look in and thankfully it wasn’t particularly lively inside, or we wouldn’t have gone in. I bought the new Nigella and I also bought a book for the four year-old I live with as a pre-lockdown treat, something called Shark in the Park.

Back at home I started reading the new Nigella, and it appears to be exactly what I want from Nigella right now; a text-heavy cookbook with loads of recipes and ideas. You may have noticed that I’ve been banging on about Nigella a lot this month, well that’s because I think she’s brilliant. People tend to think of her slightly daft tv persona, flouncing about in her big London townhouse eating cheesecake in her dressing gown at midnight or whatever, but when you read her books you realise that’s all for show. She’s actually someone who’s properly obsessed with making and eating delicious food, which is where her interests align with mine. And she’s not precious about it; there is a recipe in her new book - not even a recipe really – for roast chicken served on crisps. Literally, you roast a chicken, cut it up into pieces and serve it on top of a large bowl of crisps. The chicken juices soak into some of the crisps, the ones round the edge stay, well, crisp. I think I actually punched the air when I read this recipe, because really, you know that that is going to be absolutely sodding delicious. Roast chicken and crisps are among my top five foodstuffs of all time, so why on earth had I never thought to combine them before? That’s the genius of Nigella. She’s like Eric Cantona or someone, seeing passes that no one else on the pitch can see. You’d probably need a green salad with it, mind.

I showed the roast chicken and crisps photo to the person I live with and she expressed some reservations. Not sure I’ll get away with roast chicken and crisps any time soon.

After more reading and pottering and bed-changing and tidying it turned out to be bedtime. I’d had the song Memory from the musical Cats in my head all day, so I put the Barbra Streisand version on for the four year-old I live with on my phone. She didn’t take to it, so I put a related video on, which turned out to be Taylor Swift singing Macavity the Mystery Cat from the ill-fated film adaptation from last year. We have a storybook version of Macavity the Mystery Cat that we read a lot, so the four year-old I live with knows it really well and was very excited to see a video of it.

It hardly needs saying, as everyone said it at the time, but that version of Cats from last year really is very strange indeed, isn’t it? We watched a few videos from it, and it hardly seems credible that anyone thought it was ok to release into the public domain. Somehow it had a magical effect on the four year-old I live with, who fell asleep to Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer or something.

For tea I had made sausage, pumpkin and brussel sprout pasta, all baked in a creamy cheesy sauce, a proper ribsticker of a meal. The pumpkin was a nod to Halloween, even though I hate it (Halloween, not pumpkin).

After tea we watched a film on Netflix called The Trial of the Chicago 7, which we quite enjoyed, a solid 7/10. 

Then we got angry about the government. This new lockdown doesn’t seem like it’s going to be that big a deal for us, we weren’t going to pubs and restaurants anyway. I would like to know if the man coming to fix the hole in the ceiling next Thursday is still allowed to come, and whether the surveyor can still go round to do a report on the house we’re buying, but we’ll just have to wait and see I suppose. Then we went to bed. Another year over.

Didn’t go to Waitrose.