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80s4life · 3 years ago

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The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

Word Count: 4,438

Status: Not Requested

Fandom: Back To The Future 1985

Relationship: Biff Tannen x Female Reader

Summary: As time is altered for a total of 2 weeks (I extended it slightly), you and Marty struggle to get his parents under control, having problem after the next. But, when an unexpected solution occurs, you find yourself willingly okay with it, soon finding the exact reason as to why.

Warnings: language, fluff, Biff being a dick, slight angst, cute Biff

Masterlist Back To The Future Masterlist

Prompts: (from this list @youneedsomeprompts)

Y/C/S= Your Choice of Sport/ Your Chosen Sport (you don’t have to honestly play one, just choose one you like or one that comes to mind)

{gif and prompts are not mine, gif credits go to @backtothefuturemovies and credits were given above for prompts!}

No one ever said time travel was fun. No one ever said the job was easy. And no one sure as hell told you the consequences that come with it. Well, at least not before you, and your best friend, Marty McFly, had gone dead-on through a barn, sacred a neighboring family of ‘alien invasion,’ run into younger McFly parents, and altered time just enough to fuck you over for a few days.

I mean, who would’ve guessed right? Your mom just so happens to be romantically interested in you, their child. Well, that was at least in Marty’s case. For you, you had just managed to run into the biggest dickhead of the century, Biff Tannen. Or so you thought?

Making your way out of bed, you automatically go to where Marty was sleeping in the garage, waking him along with Doc up. The go-to plan for the day was to go undercover as usual students in the 50′s, secretly following Marty’s parents around, finding out where they lie in this part of time, and try to find ways into manipulating them together once more in time for Marty and you to get back home. Easy enough, right?

Groaning, Marty goes to slap your hands away weakly, mumbling something along the lines of ‘Just a few more minutes.’ You giggle slapping his hands back in an attempt to wake him up cheerily. Mornings weren’t really your forte either, so any upbeat wake-up is better than a pissy, tired, horrible morning.

Doc, on the other hand, was happy to return the affection, getting out of bed to give a quick hug and kiss to the forehead. Then he makes his way over to the bed, going to tickle Marty’s feet as you go to tickle his sides. Finally, in a fit of laughter, Marty gets up and goes straight for the bathroom. You were going to argue him, having to use the bathroom first, but decide to just leave it be, heading for the makeshift kitchen instead.

You smile fondly as Doc and Marty play around a while later, wrestling about, cracking jokes. It was only just a few hours ago that you and Marty had witnessed the untimely death of the currently very lively man in the house. Witnessing the blood loss, the machine gun in action, and the bullets that whizzed pass with only one malicious intent: to kill. But he’s here now; he’s safe and sound, having many years until that date will arrive.

With the freshly cooked smell of eggs, toast, and pancakes, the boys straighten up, Doc clearing his throat in an attempt to organize himself, and Marty leaving his shirt ruffled as he follows the smell of deliciousness. You giggle as both men of different ages act exactly the same, piling their plates high and digging in, giving thanks through mouthfuls.

///LATER///

After breakfast had finished, you and Marty made your way to the school, not wanting to be late, and, quite frankly, not wanting to miss a second in the disaster we’re in, wanting to fix it as soon as possible. Upon entering, the building erupts in laughter, tears, screaming, perfume, cologne, aftershave, and lots and lots of both testosterone and estrogen. Fucking high school, you smile.

Going to “your locker” right besides “Marty’s,” you both place the books and supplies that are unneeded inside it and take only the things you need for the first two classes, somehow having those together. As Marty catches glimpse of his father, George McFly, he winks at you, moving to catch up to him. Rolling your eyes playfully, you turn back towards your locker, just barely missing a group of young men some ways down the hallway, locking eyes with a particularly taller man, towering almost everyone in the halls.

You pay no mind, however, being blindsided by three girls your age. Instantly, you recognize the one right in front as Lorraine, Marty’s mother. Smiling nervously, your cheeks tint only a little, being unprepared to see her so quickly, not yet having a plan made up on how you could help tackle the situation with Marty.

“Hiya! I’ve never seen you before, are you new here? I’m Lorraine Baines, and you are?” she asks cheerfully, her books clasped tightly to her chest.

Taking an obnoxiously long time staring dumbfounded, you finally realize you haven’t spoken, quickly recovering with newfound purpose and confidence, “Ah, yes! I am new here! Sorry, I’m just trying to get used to this place a tiny bit. I’m Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Well that’s quite alright, you can come with us!” she says once more in a cheery tone, taking you by the arm and lacing her arm around yours, locked elbows. You smiled, knowing exactly where Marty’s cheerful and people-person nature had come from. Walking down the halls, she had asked for my schedule, checking classes to see what we had together, “English, History, and Agriculture- Hey! You should try out for cheer leading!”

Shaking your head lightly, “Nah, I’m more of a Y/C/S myself to be frank.”

“But...We don’t have that sport here? There are no girls sports at all actually...” Lorraine says confused. You go to cover it up, choosing to say it was a sport you play for fun at home, in the backyard. However, a beefy arm separates you momentarily from her, as the owner of the harm moves to pin her to the lockers.

You were going to walk away, figuring it was some sort of make-out session in the works, but upon looking at her before going, you notice that the man was absurdly unwanted.

“Get your meathooks off me Biff!” she screams at the man, his huge form towering her much smaller one. Not taking the message, the pair continue to squabble, neither of them being successful in winning. The warning bell sounds over the halls and classrooms, alarming kids to get their asses moving, but it seems whoever this dick is, he feels he is greater than the school, and god forbid, knowledge.

“Hey, you do realize your not making a damn bit a difference, right? She’s not interested! And, quite frankly, it seems as if no one does! Now, if you don’t mind, could you please be kind enough to unhand her as some of us treasure a piece of mind and how to take a hint?” you finish, quite ticked off as the last bell warns, cursing under your breath as you already know your in for detention on the first day.

It finally seems that he’d caught a grip, thankfully, letting go of Lorraine’s arm and she quickly scurries out of his proximity, taking your hand to lead you to the class you both needed to be in. As you go to walk in, you are stopped by the teacher, scolding both you and Lorraine. Looking at her regrettably, she smiles defeated. So you decide to do what’s right, take the fall.

“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know where to go as I was trying to find where all of my classes were before I ended up lost every time classes switch. I caught up to Lorraine here at some point, and as she was hurrying to this class, she was kind enough to show me where I needed to be,” you finish, sighing guiltily.

“Well, as you’ve taken acknowledgment to your mistake, then you’d be just as happy with detention. After school, on Friday, as the first week is extremely busy. As for you, Miss Baines, thank you for your help. You are off the hook for now,” the older gentleman finishes, nodding to each of you personally before turning around and beginning just one of the classes you’d have today. This is going to be fun!

///LATER///

Finally, after grueling hours of just a few of your classes, lunchtime had came round, giving you a slight break. Catching sight of Lorraine, you smile and wave, going in the direction of Marty, or Calvin Klein, as you’d heard Lorraine go on and on about. You’d known it was him the second she’d said it, the brand not yet known to man yet; or at least in this timeline, it wasn’t.

As time had went on, it was only natural for the peace to be broken, as a newly familiar face was starting to appear more and more, Biff Tannen, as you’d known his name by now. But, instead of heading towards Lorraine, he makes his way over to the table you were residing with George and Marty, sitting himself right beside you.

At first, you were trying to ignore him, knowing his presence was there, but keeping your eyes trained on either Marty or George, eyes dancing between the two. Biff, being the everlasting child he was, tried to catch you attention, trying stupid ass things after the other: kicking your shins, pulling your ears of hair, flicking your head, and even trying to tug on the 50′s style dress you’d been forced to wear to play your part.

Only when he goes to tug your hair once more is when you finally snap, turning a furious glare to the hulking figure beside you, shoving his shoulder in a feeble attempt to create distance. He giggles at this, his body not moving an inch at all. “You can’t be serious right now! You don’t know when to quit it, do you?!” you scream, fed up with his shit.

“Well, if you’d give me the human decency of turning your head when I’m trying to talk to you, then I wouldn’t have to pester you, now would I?” he asks in a teasing tone, no doubt taunting you, but all you do is stare him down, getting lost in a staring contest, daring him to say something again. “Alls I wanted to say was that we have detention together. Just thought I’d let you know since you got me in all that trouble this morning.”

“Why you-!” And with that, he gets up with a shit-eating grin plastered to his face, prancing out of view and back to the table he and his gang usually sit. Watching the whole interaction, George smirks at Marty, the pair giving an unspoken mutual agreement to whatever they had both caught on to, bursting into fits of laughter moments later.

“You have a longer tolerance than I do, I-I-I’ll tell you that much,” George says, his usual slight stutter back in place, Marty laughing once more. As George joins in again, you couldn’t fight it either, giving into the childish antics.

///LATER///

To say your week had gotten any better than the first day was a lie. It hadn’t gotten any better, and your meetings with Biff at lunch had only gotten all the more common and all the more infuriating. He’d made it his duty to agitate you in any ways possible, even resulting in whispering something nagging in your ear when you weren’t paying attention, usually doing something in your locker.

Either way, he was on the countdown to Friday, it being constantly on his mind, mentally counting down the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the two of you were locked in a room alone.

Unfortunately, that day had seemed to come way faster than you’d like, Friday rolling around quite quickly. School had finished, and you were making your way to the front office, awaiting a tiring 2 hours with only yourself and Biff as company for the time being. You hadn’t known where the room was, and instead of spending time looking for it, you gave up and looked for the office instead, the nice front desk lady leading you where you needed to go.

Upon entering the room, there was Biff in his prime, casually spread across his chair, legs crossed atop his desk nearest the windows. Sighing, you ignore him, deciding to sit on the opposite side of him, the front desk lady giving you a sympathetic smile before she closes the door behind her. You look at the wall, head turned away from him like the plague.

You knew it’d only last so long until he’d speak, the time coming way faster than you pleased. Given it was Friday, you couldn’t even do homework or even study in order to block him out as he started to blabber, running his mouth over stupid shit once more. Inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth slowly, you straighten in your seat, hands clutching the desk so tight, your fists turned white.

“Biff, Sweetheart, Baby, Doll Face, Hun. Please. PLEASE. Shut up for five god damn seconds. I know you truly have nothing to say, so why do you insist on speaking so much?” you finally say, hands prying off the desk to turn in his direction exasperated.

“Well, if you’d just talk to me, Shortcake, I wouldn’t have much to say at random,” he answers, copying your actions and posture. With this change in childish demeanor, you give in, laughing at him in an unexpected rush, running your hands through your hair tiredly.

Although you hadn’t seen it, he’d smiled in satisfaction upon seeing you laugh, the glitter in your eyes much more captivating than it ever was when he looked at Lorraine. He hadn’t barely pestered her since you’d barreled into his life. It was weird, but he welcomed it with open arms. And for the first time, he learned what it was like to have an actual, clammy-handed, closed throat, warm, cheek-tinted, teenage crush. A crush that left his heartbeat loud and fast, breathing ragged and uneven, and his behavior out of character and out of his control. Lorraine was way under whatever level he’d placed you on, holding you up on a pedestal like you were the sun or sky.

Of course, you hadn’t taken notice to his antics, just thinking he was annoying. Just Biff being his notorious self. But, as you finally calm your breathing down, the giggles fading, you decide to give him a chance, knowing that sitting in silence is just going bore you. Smiling warmly, you say, “So what do you want to talk about then?”

///LATER///

Grabbing your bag, you get out of your seat, giggling at a story Biff had told you. He follows your lead as well, getting his own as he lets out a bark of laughter at a certain part. You guys looked like idiots as you shoved each other down the halls, making your way out of the school as your detention had came to a close. Sighing as the warm sun radiated on your skin with the light, spring breeze, you stretch out any kinks the classroom chairs and desks had left. Biff watched you intently, your small body easily swallowed by his shadow beside you.

The sun was setting and it was getting late, although you weren’t concerned. The boys knew you wouldn’t be home ‘til late due to the detention you had initially despised. Now, you and Biff were side by side, walking peacefully to his car in the school’s parking lot. For once, he was quiet, great company to have. It was something else for sure, but you enjoyed it. As you came up towards Doc’s place, you’d realized that Biff had drove you home like a gentleman, too lost in the conversation to notice earlier on.

Sheepishly, you itch the back of your neck, realizing your mistake and feeling guilty for making him walk all this way to now have to walk all the way home. “Ah- Sorry...I didn’t realize I’d dragged you all the way out here. Now you have to drive all the way back.”

“It’s no problem, really. I liked it. It’s nice to talk to someone other than the guys every now and then. And to have A female speak to me instead of screaming,” he answers, now being the one who is a bit shy.

“You do know that you bring that on yourself right?” you say teasingly, now leaning your head on your hands, propped up on the passenger side door. “Not every girl would want to kick you in the groin if you showed a little more respect, “ you finish off with a smile.

“Yeah...Yeah I know. I’ll try harder, I swear.”

“That’s all I ask,” you say with a wink, drumming your hands on the door as you take a step back, waving as you start walking down Doc’s driveway.

“Hey!” Biff calls from the car, stopping you in your tracks to turn around, facing him with a smile. “Uhm- Well- The Enchantment Under the Sea Dance is coming up next week...Would you mind being my date?” he asks, stuttering as he feels his cheeks heat up, nervous as hell.

“I’d love to!” you answer, turning back around to walk into the house. Biff does a little fist bump as he puts the car back in gear, excited for what is to come.

///

Marty was a little less than amused with this newfound knowledge once entering the door and going over the events of the day. It was only when Doc had suggested that the date with Biff would keep him away from Lorraine, giving George the freeway to attract her long enough for their True Love’s Kiss. Then, and only then, did Marty give the okay, shaking his head, but liking the fact that it’ll give George some time, being the nerd that you know and love.

///Enchantment Under the Sea Dance///

Checking yourself over in the mirror for the final time, you let out a nervous yet satisfied sigh, feeling like an absolute princess. You never minded dresses too much, although you couldn’t deny the fact that normal pair of shorts, jeans, or even leggings were your first choice. All that mattered was that you liked the dress you were wearing, it fit you; it was your favorite color, length, and strap(less) type to hold everything in.

Walking out, you grab the pair of heels to match, knowing that you couldn’t get away with sneakers in this generation, painfully grimacing at the reminder. Finally standing, you recount when you had gotten the dress just a few days ago, having gone with Lorraine and the her two friends, Babs and Betty. They were very endearing and supportive the whole time, you not having to worry about being “to picky” as they were just the same. You ended up loving the dress given that you’d taken the time without pressure.

As you walked into the main room of the garage, you heard a low whistle of Marty, Doc slapping him on the back of the head for it. Giggling, you curtsy and spin in the dress. Doc, the gentleman he always was, compliments you, “You look amazing, my dear. Let’s hope this boy deserves it, hmm?”

As an answer, you hug him tightly, knowing that, by the end of the night, he will be nothing but a dead man at home, in a lonely, dark parking lot. Your eyes tear up just at the mere thought of it, clutching him tighter. Marty seems to be on the same wavelength, going to interrupt the moment with great urgency, trying to pass him a piece of paper.

“Marty, if this has anything that involves my future, do not. And I repeat, DO NOT try to hand it to me. Whatever happens, happens young man. That’s how the world works,” he says in a warning tone. You wanted to disagree, but you knew the truth that was laced beneath it, as if it was a punishment. You whimper instead, pulling him in tighter; Marty looking down in defeat, soon switching to anger. In the midst of it, he storms out of the garage, getting in the car to go pick up who you’d hope was Lorraine for the dance.

“Just let him go...” you start, sadness evident, “He’s just not very happy with the outcome of what the future has in store for you. Quite frankly, neither am I.”

“I’m sure whatever the outcome is, that I wanted to go with it, dear. I assure you, I’m fine,” Doc answers in a consoling tone, wiping the tears that had slipped from your eyes. You knew it was just a mask, no one wants death, but you knew he needed to go no matter how much you hated it. So you nod, not having to say much more as a honk sounds from outside.

“That’s Biff...”

“Have a great time! Make sure the McFlys kiss!” Doc screams, following out of the garage, scolding Biff from behind you.

“Yes sir!” you scream back, saluting him as you take a seat in the passenger.

///

“You look beautiful Y/N,” Biff says after a while, finally working up the courage to speak.

“Thank you Biff. And you look handsome yourself,” you giggle, the car pulling into the lot.

He shuts the engine, grabbing his keys from the ignition and closing the door, making his way around to you as you let yourself out to straighten yourself out. He takes your hand as he leads you to the entrance of the dance, you sighing in relief as you catch a glimpse of Marty pulling up in a car with Lorraine. Finally, you relax, grasping on Biff a little lighter and with more meaning now as you have the night to yourselves. He smiles down at you as you wrap your arm within his, something Lorraine does with you quite often.

With the party in full blast, you let loose with the music, dancing and joking around with Biff. At some point, however, he says he needs a drink and will be right back. Although, he doesn’t seem to actually come back. You’d thought you’d seen him spiking the punch just as few moments ago.

Just as you were going to in the direction of the hallways to the rest of the school, you notice Match, one of Biff’s friends, storming out of the gym through an exit. Taking your bets, you follow behind him, soon being greeted by a huge commotion of screams, all of them from familiar people. Biff was in a car with Lorraine, her dress pulled and taken off in parts. He was no doubt about to do something stupid, the fact pissing you off, saddening you in some ways as well.

The others that were screaming were also George and Marty, the pair trying to get Biff to stop before he regrets it. He doesn’t listen, unfortunately, until your voice booms over the rest, “Biff!”

His head snaps instantly in your direction, the situation dawning on him the instant he looks at your face. You hadn’t meant to portray your emotions so clearly, but your face had shown such distraught and hurt. He lied. He had gotten over Lorraine, yet the moment she was alone, he runs right back to her.

With his momentary change of focus, George finally steps in, “You get your filthy hands off of her!” finishing with a blow to the jaw that knocks Biff off balance.

Marty looks to you sadly, but tries to smile in cheers as George and Lorraine leave together, motioning that he was going to follow them just in case. You nod, looking down now as your play with your fingers. You didn’t know what to do now as the only reason you were really here was for Biff. You weren’t needed for Lorraine and George, you knew Marty had it.

You decide to make your way home then, as there was nothing else you could do. Dances were just drags anyway, nothing worth while. “Your just going to leave? Just like that?” asks a deep voice, his body having gotten back off the pavement and stood by the car he was pinned against.

Without turning, you answer his question with another, “Why not? There’s nothing left here for me is there?”

“And why wouldn’t there be?” Biff asks once more, no doubt ticking you off at his usual teasing tone.

“Well, let’s see. You. You asked me to the dance as your plus one. I came here as your date. We have a good time, we dance, we talk, and then you come up with an ‘Oh I need a drink’ charade, not returning. Then, I come to find my date in the parking lot, about to get his licks in on a woman he was apparently over with! So tell me, what is left here for men here, Biff?” you finish, tears pooling your eyes over the time, although you don’t let the fall, keeping them there.

He looks guilty, you can see it, but you don’t care. Your not in the wrong this time. But, as your blood starts to cool down, you do notice the look in his eyes, the change in his demeanor, and the utter remorse that has overcome him. He has his head down, fists clenched at his sides, body stock still. He doesn’t know what to do, all he knows is that he’d fucked up.

“Or was this your fabulous way of telling me that you love me?” you finally ask, eyes moving to look up at him in a teasing manner.

He hadn’t expected you to speak, head snapping up to meet your gaze in confusion. Being as you’d looked at him with a glint in your eyes, he finally lets everything click together; you’d forgiven him. His face heats up in bashfulness however, as your words resonated within him as well, hand going to itch the back of his neck again.

You giggle, walking up to him now, hands going to his collar. Pulling him down, he gazes at you in amazement, his own hands falling to rest on your waist. Then, you crash your lips to his, pulling him ever closer. It takes him a moment to get the hang of it, soon pulling you closer to himself as well. Lifting you slightly, he sets you on the hood of his car, the height difference a definite stretch for him. But he wouldn’t have it any other way, you were perfect. Just the same as he was perfect for you.

#biff tannen x reader #bttf #back to the future #biff tannen imagine #bttf imagine #back to the future imagine #thomas f. wilson #crispin glover #george mcfly #christopher lloyd #dr. emmett brown #doc brown #doc #michael j. fox #marty mcfly #lea thompson #lorraine baines

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marryat92 · 4 years ago

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Cooking with the Captain: Jack Easy’s Pea Soup

A long-standing goal of mine has been to attempt to replicate the pea soup enjoyed by Jack Easy, his first hearty meal aboard HMS Harpy in Frederick Marryat’s novel Mr. Midshipman Easy. Jack has been incapacitated by seasickness on his first voyage, and when he finally recovers he asks for muffins, milk, and coffee. The incredulous master's mate reminds him that the ship is now on blue water, far from any bumboat women. Mesty the steward suggests pea soup instead, since some still remains in the galley's copper kettle.

In a few minutes the black brought down a bowl of soup and whole peas swimming in it, put before our hero a tin bread-basket full of small biscuit, called midshipmen's nuts, and the pepper-castor. Jack's visions of tea, coffee, muffins, dry toast, and milk, vanished as he perceived the mess; but he was very hungry, and he found it much better than he expected: and he moreover found himself much the better after he had swallowed it.

For guidance on the pea soup and ship's bread I turned to Janet Macdonald's book Feeding Nelson's Navy, which I highly recommend. ('Midshipman's nuts' are simply broken-up pieces of ship's bread, described by Herman Melville as well as Frederick Marryat).

Whole peas floating in the soup are specifically mentioned by Marryat, ruling out the more typical dried split peas found in US grocery stores. There is some debate about whether the 19th century Royal Navy used whole dried peas or split peas; Macdonald suggests that around 1856 split peas were issued, but ships may have used them earlier and the evidence is inconclusive. Other dried pulses could be substituted for peas in far-flung stations, but in Marryat books it's always peas. (Recalling Mr. Chucks' threat directed at a sailor in Peter Simple: "Mark my words, you burgoo-eating, pea-soup-swilling, trowsers-scrubbing son of a bitch!”)

Whole dried peas, unlike split peas, require overnight soaking like dried beans. I have previously experimented with them in historical recipes, and while you can get away with no presoaking if you simmer your stew for a good five or six hours, this time I let them soak. As you can see, they gain a lot of volume in the process.

Unable to find ham bones, or salt pork not cut into thin slices, I ended up making a pea soup with a slightly suspect amount of fresh vegetables. Slightly suspect. My excuse is that fresh produce could be obtained in any port, as well as by packet ships (according to Macdonald), and the early 19th century Royal Navy was full of some determined characters as far as obtaining favourite foods in difficult circumstances. Macdonald describes a luxurious array of spices and condiments purchased by officers to improve their provisions, and most impressively, Admiral James de Saumarez kept a pet Guernsey cow on board to supply fresh milk and cream. (Jack Easy was on the wrong ship!)

I followed Macdonald's recipe for ship's biscuit, including kneading the dough for a full 30 minutes. "Use white flour for the captain's table, wholemeal for the mess decks," she instructs. Inspired by a (soft) bread recipe from The Fort George Bill of Fare that was a great success for me, I used approximately 40% whole wheat and 60% white flour. Maybe it would have been more "silky" if it was entirely white flour, as Macdonald describes the properly kneaded dough, but I doubt that it would be any less cement-like in baked form.

The resulting cracker-like product is just as hard as legend, although it has a good taste when fresh and weevil-free. I'm reminded of the scene in Jacob Faithful when apprentice watermen Jacob and Tom lose their wherry and find themselves pressed on a King's ship:

“It's hard to lose our bread this way,” replied I.

“We will find you bread, and hard enough you will find it,” replied the lieutenant, laughing; “it's like a flint."

“So we ask for bread, and you give us a stone,” said Tom; “that's 'gainst Scripture.”

One thing I have noticed in trying to source authentic recipes from the Age of Sail is a lot of jokey language in modern interpretations. Even the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich instructs you to "scrub the decks or hoist the mainsail" as your dough rests. The anecdote about putting ship's biscuit into a cloth bread bag and whacking it with a belaying pin to break it up, however, has the ring of truth.

I was able to get some coarse midshipmen's nuts by putting my ship's bread into a plastic freezer bag and hitting it with a rolling pin, but the bag didn't fare so well and was torn by the hard bread. If I make it again, one thing I'm going to try is rolling out the dough as thin as possible: only 3mm/one-eighth inch. I made it twice as thick as that, following Macdonald's directions. Even without leavening it swells slightly in the oven, and the word "flint" keeps getting used for a reason. (Herman Melville calls midshipmen's nuts "small, broken, flinty bits of biscuit" in his novel Typee). The thinner the biscuit, the easier it is to crumble and eventually soften in hot liquid.

After a good 20 minutes, at least, in the hot pea soup, my midshipmen's nuts were finally edible. They completely absorbed the liquid for a very hearty, filling meal. I can see why sailors would enjoy them in this form, besides the difficulty of trying to eat such stony bread without assistance. Freshly-ground black pepper like Jack Easy had at his disposal would probably improve it, but I made do with prepared ground pepper in a less aesthetically pleasing form.

#frederick marryat #captain marryat #age of sail #food #royal navy #sailor's food #recipes #mr midshipman easy #jacob faithful #ship's bread #pea soup #midshipmen's nuts #feeding nelson's navy #janet macdonald #jack easy #midshipman easy #cooking #cooking with the captain

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magnesiaandlemonjuice · 4 years ago

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Thursday 14 December 1826

6 55/60

11 1/2

my bowels not right this morning - they were never in this sort of inactive way in my life before - I must take more exercise - In my salon at 7 55/60 - made some alterations in my general Day-book at Shibden from January to July - read the whole of the newspaper - breakfast at 10 10/60 - Just before George brought me 2 letters one from M- Lawton one from Mrs James Dalton (Croft Rectory, Darlington) to thank me for the jujubes which they had only just received - read both my letters - Had not much noticed George’s coming in before breakfast to ask if I had got the silver table spoons - till the porter’s wife came to me at 11 1/4 - to inquire about them - they are all 6 stolen and we make it out it must have happened since George opened and left open the outdoor at 8 this morning - it must have been between 8 and 9 1/2 this morning - he put them safe by at 8 1/2 last night and nobody entered last night after this hour who would take them besides the door was kept locked - 6 silver forks were close to the spoons but these were left - tis altogether strange - told the porter’s wife I had just (on Sunday night) missed a petticoat out of my drawer but begged her to say nothing about it - I was not quite certain about it - but I am quite certain I have lost nothing from the wash and the petticoat is gone -

I think the theif [sic] must be in the house -

told the porter’s wife the spoons were gone and the next thing must be to pay for them and then was an end of it - I will have the plate brought into my room at night and we will see if we cant take better care in future - doing my hair and writing all the above of today but the 1st 1 1/2 line took me till 12 1/2 - finished dressing and went out at 1 1/4 - stayed talking to my aunt 20 minutes - then went to our butcher’s thence to Amyot (bookseller) rue de la Paix - he had not received English almanacks - bought an 18mo [octodecimo] copy of Sheridan’s School for Scandal (printed for Baudry, Paris, 1822) which Madame Galvani sometime since advised me to translate into French - told the man I must have an allowance of 10 per cent and he returned me 2 sols out of a franc - thence to No 11 a papetier to get a blank book for my weekly summaries - such an one as I want 1/2 ruled that is laterally (without the longitudinal ruling) will cost 14/. - thence to Mellerio to look at silver spoons being determined to have our own plate and pay the porter for the stolen spoons and give him back the rest - fixed up the spoons - to have 1/2 dozen about 24/. each - would send the arms to be put on - then along the rue neuve des petit champs at the turn into the rue Sainte Anne bought 4 couverts, à 1/25, of a man who had them spread out on a cloth in the street - bought them for dinner - then to Madame Huchez - saw herself - said I thought 43/. for cleaning and turning my merinos a great deal and she abated the 3/. - thence in returning along the rue de Rivoli called at the pastry cooks to see the potted shrimps they advertise in Galignani - bought a very small pot at 30 sols - got home about 3 1/4 - took the plate (engraving) of our arms, and a silver fork and went back to Mellerio, having taken him also the bill of what the porter had had for the spoons - Mellerio will tell me what I ought to pay - then ordered 6 tablespoons 6 forks, 6 teaspoons and 2 salt spoons all to be engraved and sent home on Monday - the couverts so heavy, “si forts”, they will be 46/. instead of 44/. the couvert, and 30 sols the couvert engraving - and will altogether cost about 360/. - told the circumstances of the spoons being stolen this morning - he advised me to lay any information before the police - got home at 4 20/60 - had the porter’s wife up - the man who brought the milk this morning was the crêmier’s father, so the porter’s wife could not say a word - yet the thing is extraordinary that only he and the baker came upstairs this morning - and one of the servants upstairs saw a man dressed just like the milk man go out of our apartment this morning and afterwards go upstairs - the man never comes into our apartment an 2nde always takes the milk upstairs and left it there this morning - told the porter’s wife the bijoutier has strongly advised me to lay any information before the police immediately - told her to tell her husband - and do what they thought best - I had made up my mind to the loss of the spoons, but should like to find out the thief - said I should have the new plate on Monday and would then settle with her - dawdling over this and 1 thing or other till Dinner at 6 - came to the salon at 7 40/60 - afterwards wrote the last 26 lines which took me till 8 20/60 - then wrote 2 pp. to Mariana which took me till 10 20/60 - fine day - went to my room at 10 25/60 O [two dots, marking discharge] -

[Margin - fine soft morning F46o at 8 a.m. 48 - 12 25/60 p.m. 47 - 10 25/60 -]

SH:7/ML/E/10/0029 and SH:7/ML/E/10/0030

#December1826 #AnneLister #GentlemanJack #AnneListerCodeBreaker

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unfortunate-stranger-losers · 5 years ago

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Six Baudelaires AU, Part Two: Reference Guide

A quick guide for everything I intentionally referenced in The Six Siblings, Part Two: This Tale is All Sorrows and Woes.

{ao3} {tumblr} {part one reference guide}

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING - the plot twists from this section of the fanfiction will be discussed at length.

Without further ado…

Chapter One / Prologue - in which Lilac has to Older Sister

“Release Nick, you fiend!” Violet tackled Klaus to the ground, as both of her brothers burst into giggles. “Never! Nick’s my prisoner of war!” Klaus said, trying (and failing) to push her off.

Nick being the “captive” in the childrens’ game throughout the chapter is a bit of an obvious foreshadow to his captivity from Chapters 12-20... which meant it was really fun when none of you noticed until then and then tried to kill me. XD

A full reference of the books namedropped in the childrens’ game:

Violet and Nick’s kingdom, Terabithia, is from Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Their original characters, either Susan/Lucy and Peter/Edmund, are a reference to The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.

Lilac and Klaus’s kingdom, Gwyntystorm, and their characters, Irene and Curdie, are from The Princess and the Goblin and its sequel, The Princess and Curdie, by George MacDonald.

Lilac says she thought Nick was Eragon, from The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, and Klaus says he was Aragorn, from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Nick’s suggestion for a new name, Glaedr, is also a character from The Inheritance Cycle. Nick finally decides to be Peter Pan, obviously from Peter Pan by JM Barrie.

“Naw, they definitely are.” Nick nodded. “When a new baby is born, one of the other children has to die. Everyone knows it.” [...] “Now, since it’s a girl maybe, they could take out one of them,” he gestured towards Violet and Lilac, “But you’re the most useless, Klaus, so-” [...] “But yeah. Babies suck and we should totally throw our sister off the roof.”

Direct reference to Addams Family Values (1993)

“Watch me.” Nick’s eyes lit up. “Wait, no, better plan. You guys remember Moses-”

Reference to the story of Moses, who was placed in a basket in a river as an infant.

Lilac quickly answered the phone, saying, “Baudelaire residence. This is Lilac Emily. To whom am I presently speaking?”

Lilac’s middle name is taken from her actress, Emily Browning.

“We’re sensible and proper!” Nick added.

A reference to S Theodora Markson’s catchphrase in All the Wrong Questions.

“What was that, Dad? No, no real ropes. Yeah, promise. We’ll go to bed on time, too. But you’ll all be back in the morning? Yeah, I know. Don’t open the windows.”

The Baudelaire parents don’t want to risk their children getting recruited.

“He said we have a new sister.” Lilac reported. “Solitude Theodora Baudelaire.”

A direct reference to S Theodora Markson.

“Can we make a blanket fort?” Klaus asked. “Like we used to?”

Much like the last prologue, this is a reference to the scene from the 2004 film.

Rest of the fic under the cut.

Chapter Two - in which the Baudelaires move into a nice Shack

As he stood, Nick turned to look at his brother, and after a second, he realized something. “Wait a minute.” he said. “Are you… taller than me?”

A reference to Louis Hynes’s growth spurt inbetween TMM and TAA in the Netflix series. (Though, fun fact, at this moment in time, Liam Aiken is currently taller than Louis Hynes, so I guess Nick eventually does end up taller.)

Violet groaned and stood, and Solitude said, “Winnie,” which meant, “We could have Babbitt judge; they’re good with numbers!”

A reference to the main character of Babbitt’s namesake, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.

After a moment, Nick said, “I’ll give you a tip.” “Yes?” Nick smiled slightly. “There’s a book, about the mother of a girl who reminds me a lot of you, in that everyone thinks she is adorable and perfect. The mother gets scared when the girl’s classmate drowns on a field trip and her daughter steals something shiny off of him, and she then finds out that she has a very suspicious genealogy.”

Nick giving tips in the form of book recommendations is a reference to Lemony’s habit of doing the same thing to Pip and Squeak in All the Wrong Questions. This is a double reference, as Liam Aiken, Nick’s actor, read the audiobooks for ATWQ.

The book he is referencing is The Bad Seed by William March.

“Gah-ahc.” said Solitude, which meant, “Let’s sleep outside.”

One of Soli’s lines in the 2004 film.

Chapter Three - in which the Baudelaires make new friends

Sunny narrowed her eyes. “Armoracia,” she muttered, which meant something like, “That doesn’t sound right. Apples and Horseradish taste very differently.”

Early foreshadowing for Sunny’s cooking interest.

“I can get the windows,” Lilac said, “Should be an ordinary-enough pin-tumbler lock.”

The phase “ordinary enough pin-tumbler lock” is repeated a lot, as a reference to the second All the Wrong Questions book, When Did You See Her Last?

“Yeah, there’s no locks.” Duncan said. “Bonnie said that they fell off a few years ago and never got replaced.”

A reference to a main character from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.

Chapter Four - in which Duncan and Isadora break into a Library

“See? Researcher. Like Klaus.” Nick said. Klaus narrowed his eyes at his twin, trying to figure out what Nick was on about. “Is that… really important?” “Yes.” Nick said, and failed to elaborate. [...] “I think Klaus and Duncan should take the fungus.” Violet said, sharing a look with Nick. “The rest of us can keep an eye out for that book.” “Why should we take the fungus?” Violet held back a smile and shrugged, but Klaus quickly figured out what was going on. His face went red, and he glared at her, but Duncan said, “I’m fine with that,” so all he could do was shrug and keep shooting his siblings dark looks.

Violet and Nick are trying to set Duncan and Klaus up, much to Lilac’s horror.

“Like a little cat.” Duncan said. “One of those feral ones that are super tiny.”

A reference to the world’s smallest cat, the Rusty-spotted cat.

“That doesn’t sound right, but I really don’t give a shit.” Nick shrugged. “We’ll find it, won’t we, Soli?”

A reference to a line from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode 5x03, “The Great Recession”, which later became a meme - “That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about stars to dispute it.”

Chapter Five - in which the children run amok at Prufrock Prep

“You’re lucky.” Isadora said, sitting on the edge of the roof and kicking her legs as she looked down at the dying grass fields. “Our parents’ estate’s executor doesn’t give a fuck until orphans are ‘in’, whatever the hell that means.”

As revealed in The Slippery Slope book, Esme was left in charge of the Quagmires’ estate.

Lilac giggled. “Yeah. Mom used to have [a necklace] just like it, except instead of these gear patterns, it had her initials. I always thought it was pretty, but she never let me wear it, so I learned how to make my own. She was… so proud.”

2004 Film Violet does indeed have a necklace throughout the entire film; I just added a backstory.

“Nick Liam Baudelaire, what the hell is that?” Lilac shouted.

Nick’s middle name is in reference to his actor, Liam Aiken.

“Marbeau,” said Sunny, meaning, “Maybe they’ve finally opened a daycare or toddler school.”

A reference to Firmin Marbeau, who pioneered a forerunner of modern daycare.

Chapter Six - in which the Baudelaires have Gym Class

“Tik,” said Sunny, meaning, “No! Typing and stapling is so hard when we’re tired!”

“Tik” spelled backwards is “Kit”, which, no, is not a reference to Kit Snicket, but Kit Kittredge, who famously carries a typewriter.

“Say goodbye to Nick, Solitude.” Lilac said, grabbing the toddler’s hand and dragging her to her feet.

Another bit of foreshadowing for Nick’s capture.

“Olil.” Sunny groaned. “Leave me alone to die.”

“Olil” spelled backwards is “Lilo”, as Sunny is directly quoting a line from Lilo & Stitch (2002).

“Speaking of which,” Carmelita said, “As this is the second message I gave you, I really deserve a tip at this point.” “There’s a book about what happens when you let a bunch of schoolchildren run around unsupervised,” Klaus said, “And it features a pig’s head on a stick.”

Once again, the book recommendation instead of a tip is an All the Wrong Questions reference.

Klaus is recommending Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Chapter Seven - in which Nick gets them all in Even More Trouble

“I’m just telling you what I was told to tell you.” Carmelita giggled. “And since this is my eleventh message, you’re overdue eleven tips.” “We gave you our tips.” Nick said, glaring at her. “But here’s today’s; there’s a book that was made into a popular film that is about a hound dog and a fox. In the book, at the end, the hound kills the fox.”

Once again, ATWQ reference with the tips.

The book he’s recommending is The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P Mannix; and, yes, that IS how the book ends. The Hound dies, too. You’re welcome for ruining your childhood.

“Klaus?” he sounded very uncharacteristically terrified. “Klaus? Are you okay?” Klaus, startled, quickly stumbled out, “Y-yeah, I’m fine…” as Lilac and Violet also jumped up, grabbing the infants, and the Quagmires hurried to their feet. “Did your glasses break?” “No, I’m-” “Are you hurt?” Nick pulled away from his slightly, his eyes moving fast as he scanned his brother.

While Nick’s PTSD worsens much later, the first signs of it start showing here; he’s still traumatized from Klaus’s hypnotism, which was always kicked off with him getting tripped and his glasses breaking.

“I wouldn’t say that.” said Nick, glaring down at the floor. He hadn’t looked anybody in the eye since he’d attacked Carmelita.

Nick isn’t ashamed of attacking Carmelita; he’s ashamed that he “overreacted” to something so minor. He doesn’t like admitting he needs help, which becomes a problem after his capture.

“We know what homeschooling is.” Violet said. “We were-”

In this continuity, the Baudelaires were homeschooled before the fire.

“Halloween, age nine,” Isadora said, “Was when we wanted to go as a certain family of six children. The problem being that there’re only three of us.”

A reference to The Brady Bunch.

“We know you’re not asking.” Isadora said, smiling. “We’re volunteering.”

whelp.

Chapter Eight - in which Lilac Snaps

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Nine - in which the Baudelaires are given Fashion Lessons

They fell silent again, and then quietly, Lilac started to sing. She sang a song that was normally played very loud and energetic, but she gave it a slower melody, quietly soothing Sunny as they walked up and up the large staircase. It was a song about how everybody’s looking for something, and as they walked, listening to Lilac’s soft voice, they all really hoped that whoever was looking for the Quagmires would find them quickly.

A reference to “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by Eurythmics, but more specifically, a reference to Emily Browning’s cover version.

“Ah, you’re very adventurous!” Jerome said. “Just like your mother. We were friends a ways back. We hiked up Mount Fraught with some friends- gosh, it must have been twenty years ago-” [...] “Hmm? Oh, no, just the Snickets and that Markson boy.” Lilac narrowed her eyes. “Who?”

“That Markson boy” is a reference to the theory that Bertrand Baudelaire was adopted by S Theodora Markson’s family. Lilac’s recognition is not of her father’s maiden name, but of “Snicket”, which she vaguely remembers from her childhood.

Chapter Ten - in which the In Auction is planned

Currently, the Baudelaires were spread out in the living room. Nick and Klaus were trying to read through a book on Emily Dickinson that they’d bought the other day, while Violet and Lilac were going through the newspaper, trying to find something interesting, or some news on the search for Count Olaf.

The Baudelaires miss the Quagmires so much they’ve accidentally picked up their habits; Emily Dickinson is a famous poet, and Violet and Lilac are reading the newspaper.

“She seems like the kind of person who’d try to set me up with some rich kid.” Nick said. “And I’m never getting married, not even when I’m older. I’m gonna live alone in the woods, and the only one who can come visit me is Soli.”

Nick is aromantic.

“Ihering!” Soli said, which meant something like, “I’ll live with you and we can raise reptiles in the woods!”

A reference to Hermann von Ihering, a zoologist.

The waiter nodded. “I didn’t realize this was a sad occasion.” [...] “Did you say-?” Lilac began.

The waiter is a VFD agent; once again, Lilac vaguely recognizes the code phrase.

Chapter Eleven - in which Klaus finds an Ersatz Elevator

“I’m not going to let us chase red herrings!” Lilac shouted back, hurt.

Dark foreshadowing to the red herring statue.

“Solitude is,” Nick said, moving past him to find a pencil and paper, “Sunny is the albatross that curses us.” “Doom!” Sunny cheered.

A reference to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

“It worked.” Violet smiled. “We never expected otherwise.” Klaus said.

A reference to the line from “The Bad Beginning: Part One” in the Netflix series.

Chapter Twelve - in which the Baudelaires fall

“Not so bad.” Solitude muttered. Then, she said, “Radec,” which meant, “Just think of it as a ride, instead of an actual fall.”

“Radec” spelled backwards is “Cedar”; a lowkey reference to Cedar Point.

“No, we’re going to make a lockpick.” Lilac said. “Flamethrower’s too volatile. Besides, I don’t trust you with it.”

“Too volatile” is a reference to the phrase being used in The Grim Grotto.

She spun on her heel, exiting out a door behind them. As she did, Nick said, “Should I go after her and tell her the kitchen was out the other door?”

Esme went to call Olaf and the henchpeople, instead of going to the kitchen.

“Yeet Babbitt.” Solitude suggested.

A reference to the vine/meme.

They had to walk through a parlor to get to the door, and as they did, Nick stopped a moment, glancing at the phone. It didn’t look broken. “Hey, guys?” he called, but they didn’t hear him, so he started to run to catch up.

Nick started to run to catch up; he never did, because that’s when one of Olaf’s henchpeople grabs him.

And then, with a swish, there was a thump, thump, thump, and the Baudelaires stopped falling.

Only three thumps- because Klaus and Lilac were carrying the toddlers, and Nick didn’t fall, only three kids hit the net.

“Nhojnod!” Sunny shouted. “You bastard!”

“Njohnod” is “Don John” spelled backwards, a reference to the character from Much Ado About Nothing, who is a bastard in both the legal and ethical use of the term.

Chapter Thirteen - in which Sunny crawls up an elevator shaft

“Sunday Theodora Baudelaire!” Lilac shouted. “You get back down here right now!”

Sunny’s middle name, “Theodora”, is once again a reference to S Theodora Markson; even after her death, she’s still confusing people about what the S stood for.

Sunny sighed and turned slightly towards them, calling out, “Salvo!” which probably meant something like, “I’m going to go get us some rope and see if I can find Nick! I’ll be back soon!”

“Salvo” is a Latin verb, meaning “to save.”

Sunny bit her lip and shook her head. “Appentier,” she said, meaning, “He’s not in the penthouse, at least from what I saw.”

“Appentier” is a french word from which “penthouse apartment” is derived.

“Kim?” Sunny asked, meaning, “Wait, we get leeway for being kidnapped?”

“Kim” is the name of the girl who is kidnapped in the film Taken (2008).

Solitude glanced at her in confusion. “Greywater?” “Yes, Soli,” Violet said, “A word which here means, ‘basically piss and shit.’”

A reference to a line from IT: Chapter One (2017).

Chapter Fourteen - in which Some Children are sold at auction

“You’d be surprised what’s legal and what’s not, actually.” Esme said. “For instance, in our society, cannibalism is legal, but religiously frowned upon-”

A reference to the only ASOUE canon that matters, the Real-Time Fandub. (part one, part two)

“Very interesting.” Olaf said. “And I suppose you think that your dear sister Lilac will take care of you then?”

Olaf is taunting Nick here, as he’s about to drop quite a lot of secrets to him, but mainly that Lilac is his half-sister.

Notably, Nick is the only Baudelaire not present in this header image.

Chapter Fifteen - in which Nobody’s having a good time

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Sixteen - in which Lilac has a bad plan

For sapphires and fortunes we are held in here. Only you can end our fear.

Isadora’s poems are ever-so-slightly different in this AU, due to Nick’s presence.

The addition of and fortunes indicates that Nick is still with them.

Until dawn comes, we cannot speak speak. No voices come from this sad beak.

“voices” is more specific than “words can”; Nick has already started to go nonverbal due to his trauma, and Duncan and Isadora are unable to yell through the statue.

Chapter Seventeen - in which the Village makes a Big Mistake

But as she passed the Baudelaires, her hand slipped, and the man turned and met Lilac’s eyes. He stared for a moment, as if he realized with a shock he recognized her from somewhere. Then, he said, very quietly, “The world is quiet here.”

Jacques is realizing that Lilac has Lemony’s eyes; if he hadn’t realized before she was his niece, he does now. He tries to signal her with a VFD codephrase.

“Now,” Lilac said, “We will need full access to all your inventing materials.” “And I’ll need blueprints of the uptown jail.” Klaus said. “Dead fly.” said Solitude.

While this is an obvious reference to Soli wanting to feed Babbitt, it is also a reference to a similar request made by Wednesday Addams in the 1964 sitcom The Addams Family, episode 1x10, “Wednesday Leaves Home.”

The first thing you read contains our clues: An initial way to speak to you.

“Our clues”, once again, signals that Nick is still with the Quagmires.

Chapter Eighteen - in which Count Olaf was not murdered

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Nineteen - in which the Twins get a Birthday Present

“You won’t keep Nick.” Lilac added. “He’ll get away from you, and the Quagmires, too! We’re never going to give up, and neither are they!” “Baudelaires don’t give up!” Solitude shouted. Olaf just smiled. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

Nick’s trauma has already caused him to shut down completely, and Olaf knows this.

Inside these letters the eye will see Nearby are your loved ones and the VFD

Nick and the Quagmires are still together.

Chapter Twenty - in which Sunny drives a Firetruck

“Nick, hey.” Isadora slowly pulled away from Violet and Lilac and stepped closer to the fountain, her voice very soft. “Your siblings found us. We were right. They found us.”

The Quagmires aren’t as traumatized as Nick; they’ve learned how to avoid the wrath of their captors, and have complete faith that the Baudelaires will save them. Nick’s been tortured and told quite a lot of things that temporarily broke him.

Duncan and Isadora shared a glance, and to the Baudelaires’ surprise, Nick flinched and also shared the triplets’ look. “Well, that’s not a surprise.” Duncan said. “He was the brother of a man who-”

Duncan, Isadora and Nick all know about Jacques Snicket, his relationship to Lemony, and Lemony’s relationship to Lilac.

Nick was backing away from the fence, eyes wide, gripping onto Solitude so hard his knuckles were white. Isadora ran forwards, and Lilac realized then that he was shaking uncontrollably. “Nick, Nick, it’s okay!” Isadora said. She reached forwards, grabbing his face. “Look at me! Look at me! Duncan-” Duncan ran over, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder, as Nick said, “They’re going to find us. They’re going to catch us. They’re going to find us-”

A lot of Nick’s trauma came from punishments after he attempted to escape, so he goes into a panic whenever they’re about to be caught.

At that moment, Solitude pushed Babbitt onto Nick’s shoulder and said, “Hold this!” She immediately started running, jumping over Lilac and crawling through the window and onto the seat beside Sunny. Then she slid to the floor and jumped on the gas pedal, causing them to take off again.

A reference to Pip and Squeak from All the Wrong Questions, who drove their taxi in a similar way.

Klaus stared back, and then his gaze hardened, and his siblings had never seen him look so furious. “I’m going to kill them.” Klaus vowed, and he meant it. “I’m going to kill them, Nick.” Nick’s eyes widened, and for several seconds, he looked like he physically could not process what his brother had just said.

A running joke up to this point was that Nick would suggest murder and Klaus would remind him that was illegal; after seeing his brother in such a state of shock and fear, this gag drops as Klaus decides Olaf and his troupe have to die.

Chapter Twenty-One - in which Nick is not feeling great

Meanwhile, Klaus was leaning against the wall, with Nick leaning onto his shoulder, curled up so he could be as close to his brother as possible. He had his eyes shut, but Lilac knew he wasn’t asleep; she didn’t think he’d slept at all.

A symptom of severe trauma is the loss of sleep, either because of nightmares, or fear of what could happen while in such a defenseless position. This will be explored in Part Three.

Nick bit his lip, and then nodded and said, “I-I’m sorry-”

Nick’s gotten over the initial shock of his rescue, and he’s starting to regret breaking down and starting to hate being so obviously traumatized.

“Wait, Li…” Nick paused. “Can I… can I talk to you?” “Of course.” Lilac said softly. Nick glanced from Klaus to Violet to the toddlers. “Alone?”

Nick has decided it’s Lilac’s right to know she has a different (possibly living?) biological dad than the rest of them, but he also knows it’s her decision who else she wants to know, hence why he wants to tell her alone.

Nick looked up at Klaus, and said, “I-I…” he shut his eyes. “I thought I heard… no, no, I must’ve… I thought I heard her, but… I had to… she wouldn’t… have found us this fast…”

Esme and Olaf were Nick’s main tormentors; they trigger his panic attacks more than the presence of the rest of the troupe.

“No! No, don’t leave!” Nick shouted, leaping forwards and grabbing Klaus’s arm.

Nick is absolutely terrified of isolation/abandonment, especially in enclosed spaces.

“Never!” Klaus pushed Nick farther, incredibly terrified by just how quiet his brother was.

Nick was punished a lot for “backtalking” his captors, so when he’s around Olaf and Esme, he almost never speaks.

Chapter Twenty-Two - in which the Baudelaires break into a Hospital

“Dimidium,” Sunny said, which meant, “Well, it’s only half a hospital.”

“Dimidium” is a Latin noun, meaning “half.”

“We could kick down the door.” Lilac suggested. Then, she gave Nick a small smile. “Remember, Nick? When you were locked in the closet and wanted Mom to kick down the door?”

A reference to a previous one-shot for the Six Baudelaires AU.

“Do you think that’ll have the information we need?” Violet asked. Nick flinched again, and then he said, “Um-”

Nick heard the word “Snicket”, and immediately assumes the worst- that it’ll out Lilac to the rest of their siblings.

Chapter Twenty-Three - in which Solitude steals some shit

Nick still didn’t respond, and Violet’s voice broke. “You have to remember. You couldn’t have been younger than… six or seven. Mother and Father were so mad, when they found us I thought they were going to explode… but you weren’t even upset, I cried but you just said you’d… you’d heard some kind of animal cry, and you thought it might need help, and I was the only one awake to help you… they got even madder, told you you should’ve stayed with them, but you didn’t see anything wrong, and… Nick, please tell me you remember that…”

An animal cry is a signal from VFD recruiters to prompt the children to say the codephrase that begins recruitment. The Baudelaire parents don’t want their children recruited, and were terrified to wake up and find their children gone on a night that they could have been kidnapped.

Violet carefully pulled the scraps from her pocket, spreading them out in front of her, while Klaus turned to Nick. “Did they tell you anything?” he asked. “While you were… with them? About VFD, or this whole ‘Snicket’ thing, or Olaf?” Nick didn’t look anyone in the eye. “There wasn’t… much time to chat. I only… Lilac, can we talk?”

Pretty much all of Nick’s pleas for Lilac to talk to her are brought on when Snicket is mentioned.

Nick pulled away, scratching at his arm, “That’s not…”

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: IMPLIED SELF HARM

Nick’s arm scratches are a tic he picked up during his captivity; he starts to scratch whenever his captors are mentioned, to keep himself alert. This will be discussed and resolved in Part Three.

Nick looked sharply up at her and said, “Mom stole from Esme. She wouldn’t give a shit.”

Nick knows about the theft of the sugar bowl, as well as the Opera Night. (which are separate incidents, fuck you Netflix.) He’s very pissed at his parents for keeping vital information from them.

Chapter Twenty-Four - in which Violet makes a decision

They went to the Js. Then, quietly, Nick said, “Can we go to the L cabinets?” “Why?” Lilac asked. Nick glanced towards his siblings, and then away. “Just a guess.” Lilac shrugged directed them to the Ls, and Nick flipped through one drawer, eyes narrowed. Then he shook his head. “Nothing here.”

He’s looking under both “Lemony” and “Lilac.”

Nick paused. “I mean… we don’t have to- to watch it right away.” [...] “Li, please,” he said, “Can we talk? Just outside, just the two of us, there’s something-”

Nick wants to be able to tell Lilac about the whole “Lemony Snicket” thing before they can risk having her find out from the file.

“I did.” Jacques nodded. “I managed to contact-”

He managed to contact Quigley.

“We’ll find them.” Lilac swore. “Are you okay?” “Yeah.” “Are you scared?” “I’m scared you won’t let me make a flamethrower and turn it on that bitch.”

A reference to this incorrect quote, which is, of itself, a reference to a line from the television show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, episode 3x10, “Yippie Kayak.”

Still no response. Lilac looked around in terror, her hand flying to her necklace. “Violet Malina Baudelaire! You get the fuck out here!”

Violet’s middle name is taken from her actress, Malina Weissman.

Chapter Twenty-Five - in which Lilac breaks down

“I’m not…” Lilac sniffled. “I’m not like you.” Nick froze. “What does that mean?” “You all are so close.” Lilac shut her eyes. “You and Solitude, you and Klaus, you and Violet, Violet and Klaus, Klaus and Sunny, Solitude and Sunny… all of you. You’re all each others’ best friends. None of you care about me like that. [...] I just… feel like… like there’s this wall between us. That we can’t see, but we can’t cross. And I can see you all… you all together. And I just… can’t be like that. Cause I have to be responsible? Cause I’m the oldest? Cause… cause I just can’t be loved?” “Li!” Nick put a hand on her cheek, turning her towards him. “Li, we do love you. You’re our big sister! You’re our sister! You are our family! Sure, we pick on you, but not because we hate you! We all love you, too!”

This is why Nick doesn’t take the opportunity to tell her about her heritage; he wants to wait for a moment where the information won’t give her more anxiety, or make her think she’s somehow less family.

Nick paused a moment, and then he leaned his head on her shoulder, shut his eyes, and said, “They fuck you up, your Mom and Dad. [...] They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had, then add some extra, just for you.” Lilac stiffened for a second, and then carefully put an arm around Nick. “Where… where’d you learn that?” “The Library.” Nick lied.

Nick is quoting “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin, which is later quoted by Olaf in “The End.” He learned the poem during his captivity.

“Nick.” Lilac wiped her eyes, and then put her hands on his. “It’s okay to… to talk about what happened to you.” Nick bit his lip. “That’s…” “I’ve been busy, yes, but I’ve also been scared. Scared that I’ll… I’ll hear something that makes everything worse.” Lilac’s eyes darted to the ground a moment, before going back up to Nick. “But I’ll listen. I want to hear you. I want you to tell me.”

TRIGGER WARNING: CSA MENTION

Lilac has been avoiding Nick in fear that he’ll explain what he suffered under Olaf. While she knows learning the details can help her better protect her brother, she is terrified that she won’t be able to handle it, and she’s completely terrified he might have been sexually assaulted, seeing as Olaf threatened to do that to Violet specifically to punish Lilac, and he had Nick under his control for a while.

Nick smiled at her. “You can do anything, sis.”

Nick knows she’s biologically his half-sister, but he wants to make completely sure she knows he will always consider her his sister and his family, and nothing can change that.

Chapter Twenty-Six - in which Klaus impersonates a Doctor

Nick flinched. “You want to be like him?”

Something to note: After his capture, Nick never refers to Olaf or Esme by their names; just him or her.

Nick took a deep breath. “These vents are a lot bigger than I thought, but, um… they’re still pretty cramped.” Solitude shrugged. Of course it didn’t seem cramped to her, she was only a little over two feet tall. “I was just… I’m not sure I like how small it is.”

Nick’s claustrophobia, gained from being trapped in a red herring, a statue, and possibly other small spaces inbetween, is starting up.

“Doctor Howser.” Lilac said in an austrailian accent, thinking very fast. “We’re going to perform surgery soon.”

A reference to Doogie Howser, MD, which starred a young Neil Patrick Harris, who played Olaf in the Netflix series.

“Since when could you do an Austrailian accent?” “You don’t know everything about me.” Lilac scanned the list.

Lilac’s actress, Emily Browning, is Australian.

Chapter Twenty-Seven - in which the Baudelaires jump out a window

Nick had placed Solitude onto the ground and now held Violet by the shoulders, shaking her slightly as he shouted. “What did they do to you, Vi? Vi, what did they do?”

Nick knows exactly what could have happened to Violet in captivity, so he’s completely and utterly panicked.

“I’m with Klaus.” Nick said shakily. “We go together or not at all.”

A reference to the track “Together or Not at All” from Doctor Who, by Murray Gold.

Chapter Twenty-Eight - in which the Baudelaires visit a Carnival

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Nine - in which Solitude finally morphs into a reptile

“Well, if they…” Nick shut his eyes. “We just… better get there before they drink too much, that’s all.”

Nick has had experience with the troupe while drunk, and would rather attempt to speak with them before it goes too far.

“Well, then,” Lulu said, stepping forwards and looking a bit confused, “What exactly are you, please?” “You can call me Babydoll.” Lilac said.

A very clear reference to the character that Emily Browning played in Sucker Punch (2011).

Surprisingly, the henchpeople looked a little startled at that, as did Lulu, but Esme laughed. “Sounds like my kind of girl!” she said. “I drowned an ex once. So did you, dear, right?” Olaf was taking another swig of wine, so they couldn’t exactly see his reaction.

Olaf “drowning an ex” is a reference to the Netflix show canon, where he left Georgina Orwell under a bridge to drown.

His reaction being hidden is because, for obvious reasons, he doesn’t quite want to talk about murdered parents.

“Well, I’m Elliot,” Klaus said, “And this is my other head, Janus.”

Janus was a Roman god with two faces.

“And that down there,” Lilac said, pointing her thumb at Solitude, “Is our little pet gorgon. We call ‘er Euryale, cause her actual name is just a buncha hisses.”

Euryale was one of Medusa’s sisters in Greek Mythology.

Chapter Thirty - in which the Baudelaires put on a show

But as they started to leave, they heard a low rumble, and Nick immediately grabbed onto Klaus’s arm and let out a nervous gasp that was, thankfully, missed in the noise.

Nick recognizes the sound of Olaf’s car.

Chapter Thirty-One - in which the Baudelaires play fortune teller

“Or maybe,” Nick said, very quietly, keeping his eyes shut tight, “They were told not to find us.”

Nick learned a lot about VFD during his captivity, including their recruitment. He’s worried that their surviving parent may be ready to give them up to the organization.

Nick grabbed a selection of paper, staring curiously, and then he quickly tried to shove it back, but Klaus’s eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of it, and he grabbed it from his brother.

Nick, once again, sees the name “Snicket” and assumes the worst.

Chapter Thirty-Two - in which the Baudelaires are asked to murder

“No, thank you.” Esme said, looking down a Sunny and frowning. “I’m afraid I don’t like cinnamon in chocolate anymore, the woman who introduced it to me recently perished in a fire. But it’s very kind of you to offer.”

The Baudelaires received their taste for cinnamon in hot chocolate from their mother.

“Sounds good.” Kevin said. “I’ve committed crimes before. Why, when I was no older than Elliot and Janus-”

A reference to the theory that Kevin from ASOUE is the same as Kevin Old from File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents, who committed vandalism and thievery.

Chapter Thirty-Three - in which someone is pushed to the lions

“I’m sure you are.” Olaf smirked, and he reached forwards and put a cold hand on Nick’s cheek. Nick tried very hard not to cry, but he wasn’t succeeding very well. “Now go jump into that pit. We want to see you devoured by lions.”

Olaf, who knows that the freaks are the Baudelaires, specifically picked Klaus and Nick to sacrifice to the lions specifically to torment Nick more; he knows what effect he has on him, and is relishing it. Once the boys are gone, they can grab the rest of the Baudelaires and escape.

“I wish we had a cartographer with us.” Violet sighed.

A reference to the next book, where Violet will have a relationship with Quigley, a cartographer.

Chapter Thirty-Four / Epilogue - in which they should have said something

“Come on.” Bertrand said, taking Violet’s hands and spinning her as she giggled. “It’s Duke Ellington. That’s your fav, Li.”

A reference to All the Wrong Questions.

“What song is this?” Violet asked. Beatrice smiled over at Soli, who was curled up on Nick’s lap, biting his sweater. “It’s got a very special name, isn’t that right, dear?” Solitude giggled.

“Solitude”, by Duke Ellington, likely Ellington’s song in All the Wrong Questions.

“Dashiell if it’s a boy,” Bertrand replied, “Sunny if it’s a girl.”

“Dashiell” after Dashiell Qwerty from All the Wrong Questions.

“We could adopt one of the outdoors animals.” Nick suggested. Beatrice and Bertrand turned to look at him. “The what?” Bertrand asked. “I keep hearing animals outside my window, every now and again.” Nick shrugged. “Howling or yipping or sometimes breaking a branch. Maybe if we brought them into the house, they wouldn’t get in so much trouble.”

Recruitment attempts that have not been working, because Beatrice and Bertrand refuse to let their children join VFD.

She turned to a selection of beach photos, slowly pulling out a small picture of baby Lilac, sitting on Briny Beach. It hadn’t been the first time she’d seen the ocean, but she’d still been so excited to splash in the water.

Since Lilac was born eleven months before Violet, it’s likely she was born on the island.

#asoue #asoue netflix #asoue movie #a series of unfortunate events #six baudelaires au #six baudelaires bonus #six baudelaires official fic #six baudelaires reference guide #mine

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firesidefantasy · 5 years ago

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so last night i realised i had almost hit 500 posts on this account. and then i had the brilliant, genius idea to make a post with 500 facts about monster house for my 500th post.

this was not a genius idea in any way shape or form.

i am not a genius.

but i did it anyway, so now i present to you:

five-hundred-fucking-facts about monster house

enjoy.

KENZI

1) Kenzi was abandoned as a baby 2) She was adopted by Monster House 3) She does not know when her birthday is 4) Her best friend growing up was Toby 5) Kenzi thought she was a vampire when she was a kid 6) She went around biting people’s necks for weeks 7) Kenzi loves photography, Instagram, and modelling 8) She has ran four marathons and six 10ks 9) She has been dying her hair since she was 14 10) Kenzi’s favourite chocolate brand is Cadbury’s 11) She loves cooking and hosting parties 12) She hates being human and wishes she was a monster too 13) She is almost fluent in French 14) Kenzi has no idea what she wants to be when she’s older 15) She never wants to leave Monster House 16) Kenzi is always chewing gum

HARLOW 17) Harlow dyes her hair black 18) She plays drums because her dad told her it was for boys 19) She plays basketball because her dad told her it was for boys 20) Her mum died three years ago and Harlow has never got over it 21) She lives with her dad, their relationship is recovering 22) Harlow won’t leave the house without a beanie 23) She loves video games like overwatch and call of duty 24) She is absolutely shit at video games 25) Doritos are her favourite snack 26) Harlow has lost count of how many cousins she has 27) If she could be any monster, she’d be a vampire 28) She’s in a college band called ‘4am’ 29) They’ve played three actual gigs so far 30) Harlow wants to be in a famous band 31) Harlow does NOT want to ever get a real job 32) She writes a lot of songs 33) Nobody will ever see these songs 34) She hates the beach 35) The only thing she hates more than the beach is spelling errors 36) She also hates vegetables and weather over 20 degrees C 37) She loves the sound of rain and thunder 38) She hoards TV boxsets and prefers them over Netflix 39) She loves antique stores and charity shops 40) She has an impressive vinyl collection

TOBY 41) Toby is bisexual but prefers guy 42) He’s known he was bisexual since discovering Tom Holland 43) His favourite superhero is Iron Man 44) Spider man is a close second 45) Toby wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid 46) Now he wants to be a super villain (#edgyteen) 47) He’s enrolled in school part time 48) Avoiding sunlight makes school difficult 49) The kids at school joke that he’s a vampire because of this 50) They don’t know why that’s so funny 51) He plays bass guitar but never lets anyone else listen 52) Except Matty. Sometimes he joins in with the ‘drums’ 53) Toby loves going to the skate park at night 54) He once wrote a 500 word essay on why the moon is better than the sun 55) He knows every constellation and loves stargazing 56) He loves sitting on his dad’s balcony and watching the stars 57) Toby doesn’t know who his mum is 58) Metal and rock music is his favourite 59) He chews on his finger to satisfy his desire to bite things 60) Sometimes he’s tempted to see if he could bite his finger off 61) He never has 62) Toby loves tomato ketchup 63) Immortality intimidates him 64) He only wears band tee shirts 65) He starts wearing beanies everywhere after meeting Harlow 66) Toby idolises Harlow 67) His favourite food is pancakes with chocolate sauce 68) Kenzi makes him pancakes to apologise after they fight 69) Toby buys her bars of chocolate to apologise 70) Kenzi and Toby bicker a lot 71) They are also best friends 72) Toby’s favourite period of history is the Roman emperors 73) Caligula was his favourite emperor 74) Toby almost turned Kenzi when they were 14 75) He despises pop music 76) Kenzi and Toby fight over nothing more often than pop music 77) Custard makes him want to throw up

KAI 78) Kai has six older sisters 79) He is one of two guys in the witches coven 80) He speaks French and Italian (almost) fluently 81) He volunteers at the local animal shelter 82) He does not get along with his family 83) Kai tries to fit in but he isn’t very good at it 84) He gets very upset if his hair doesn’t look right 85) He struggles with dysphoria but his parents won’t let him get T 86) Kai loves doing jigsaws and watching reality shows 87) He listens to music to drown out his parents arguments 88) His oldest sister Natalia is his favourite 89) She cut his hair and bought him guys clothes after he came out 90) Natalia plays board games with him and helps with homework 91) Kai loves baking - especially banana bread 92) He hates bananas but could eat banana bread all day 93) Being a witch is hard and he’s really really bad at it 94) Kai once turned a dining room chair into a frog 95) He also turned his mother’s earrings into a donkey 96) They never let him keep the animals 97) Pop music and indie rock are his favourites 98) Kai is scared of the dark 99) Science and maths make no sense to him 100) He plans on leaving the witches coven when he’s 18

PHILLIP 101) Philip is a history professor at Seabrooke University 102) He was born in 1893 under the reign of Queen Victoria 103) He campaigned with the suffragettes - and even broke a window once 104) He is a hardcore liberal and despises the conservative party 105) He attended the 1908 summer Olympics held in London 106) He once had a fling with a maid of George V’s 107) Phillip had entered a competition to be on the titanic 108) He was an engineer during world war 2 109) His nose was broken at a protest for women to be given degrees 110) Phillip has been married three times 111) The first died, the second left him for another man 112) The third was a Vegas marriage about 30 years prior 113) Phillip is straight - but he’s experimented extensively in the past 114) He does the newspaper crossword puzzle every morning 115) He bans TV until after 3pm 116) Phillip moved to Monster House in the 70’s 117) He despises the movie ‘Twilight’ above all else 118) He is the one who decided to adopt Kenzi 119) Phillip is essentially in charge of Monster House 120) He adores barbecues with his family 121) He hates Russia, incorrect grammar, and coffee

MATTY 122) Toby brought a stray dog in one day 123) The next morning, a toddler was asleep in their living room 124) Phillip decided to keep him 125) His hobbies include chewing people’s shoes and phone chargers 126) He has broken exactly seven bones 127) There is no soul clumsier than Matty 128) His face is full of freckles and his cheeks are always red 129) He runs everywhere 130) He wants to be a footballer or an astronaut when he’s older 131) Matty breaks Phillip’s morning TV ban so he can watch cartoons 132) His favourite game is fetch 133) Toby created a machine for him that throws a ball over and over 134) Matty hates it - he likes playing with an actual person 135) His wolf form is small, fluffy and a little too blonde 136) Phillip has been assured that he will get less blonde as he grows up 137) Toby once tried to enter him in a dog competition 138) They won £20 and bought the biggest ice creams they could 139) Matty loves porridge almost as much as he loves shoes and Toby 140) He has an imaginary friend called Boris who he blames for everything

CALLIE 141) Callie is half fae and half human 142) Her full name is Calypso, but everybody calls her Callie 143) She cannot tell lies, but is excellent at talking around the truth 144) She’s introverted and shy - but also amazing at public speaking 145) She wants to be a legal aid barrister 146) Her hair is naturally brown but she dyes it red 147) She plays acoustic guitar in 4am - the same band as Harlow 148) Her roommate is a werewolf but she doesn’t know about it yet 149) She has travelled to France and Italy 150) But she wants to travel the world 151) Her bedroom walls are covered in maps 152) She has an emergency supply of snacks in a room at all times 153) Her biggest dream is to have her own library room once day 154) With a secret bookshelf door, of course 155) Her lava lamp and beanbags are her prized possessions 156) She does not have a good relationship with her parents 157) She struggles with insomnia and rarely sleeps 158) Coffee is her one true love 159) She adores long car rides and she adores driving 160) She works part time at a coffee shop 161) Her car is her other prized possession 162) Callie can devour bags of skittles in an instant 163) She forgets everything in her personal life 164) And remembers everything in her academic life 165) She loves fire and will sit and stare at it for hours 166) Sometimes she goes to the local aquarium to study 167) Change is her worst enemy - everything needs to be consistent 168) She has been a straight A student all her life 169) She goes for a long walk every Saturday afternoon 170) Callie writes songs when she’s feeling bad

MILO 171) Hiding antlers in public is the bane of his existence 172) He is part of a group who want to tell humans about monsters 173) Milo does not particularly like humans 174) He has curly blonde hair that is usually a mess 175) One of his eyes is darker blue than the other 176) He loves blanket forts and fairy lights and hot chocolate 177) He has a part time job delivering pizzas 178) This means he gets a discount on pizzas, which he takes advantage of 179) Percy Jackson is the main reason he’s doing a classics degree 180) He enjoys writing fantasy books in his free time 181) He is reasonably fluent in Ancient Greek and Latin 182) ‘Out of Bounds’ signs are a welcoming invitation to Milo 183) He will explore everything and anything 184) Milo wants to travel to South America the most 185) He has two mums 186) They both adore Callie 187) He goes rock climbing in his free time 188) This is so he can climb trees, fences, and monuments better 189) He claims he’s climbed several mountains 190) Callie does not believe this claim 191) He was not raised in Seabrooke and had few monster friends as a kid 192) Milo is a nymph 193) His father is one of his mother’s best friends - also a nymph 194) His ‘father’ taught him to garden and to bake 195) Milo never called him dad - he was always Uncle Barney 196) He loves growing his own flowers 197) Nymph magic allows him to grow the most beautiful plants and flowers 198) It also allows him to bake exceptional cakes and cookies 199) He adores his younger brother and sister 200) He is double jointed and left handed

KENZI AND HARLOW 201) Making out is their favourite pastime 202) Harlow spends most of her free time at Monster House 203) They enjoy joking about how ‘platonic’ their relationship is 204) Kenzi loves cooking for Harlow 205) They spend a lot of time watching TV shows together 206) Stranger Things and Friends were their last binge-watches 207) Harlow is always invited round for Friday Board Game Night 208) Kenzi constantly steals Harlow’s clothes 209) Harlow loves playing with Kenzi’s hair 210) Harlow loves holding Kenzi’s hand 211) Harlow just loves touching Kenzi as much as possible 212) They both have a years pass to the local petting zoo 213) Kenzi goes to all of Harlow’s band gigs and basketball games 214) She wants to set up a cheer leading squad for the basketball team 215) Harlow just wants to see Kenzi in a cheerleader costume 216) Harlow asked Kenzi to be her girlfriend 217) Kenzi said I love you first 218) They’re planning on getting an apartment together after graduating 219) Also a dog 220) Harlow adores getting Kenzi to play (and fail at) video games 221) Kenzi is a massive flirt - Harlow does not appreciate it 222) Harlow once stabbed Kenzi on the hand whilst cooking together 223) Kenzi and Harlow do not cook together 224) They bicker a lot 225) But Harlow adores Kenzi more than anything else, and vice versa

TOBY AND KAI 226) Toby only got the guts to ask Kai out because his dad made him 227) They are polar opposites in just about every way 228) Toby didn’t know what being transgender meant before meeting Kai 229) Toby calls Kai ‘sunshine’ 230) Kai calls Toby ‘grumpy guts’ for the most part 231) They fall asleep on the phone together a lot 232) They also fall asleep in the same bed a lot 232) Kai’s parents do not like vampires so they don’t know about Toby 233) They met through the Monster House toddler group when they were kids 234) They both went to the Monster House study group as kids/teenagers 234) Nowadays, they ‘study’ in Toby’s room instead 235) Kai drove Toby mad up until very recently 236) It wasn’t exactly love at first site 237) Toby threw up on Kai - the hatred only grew from there 238) Over time, Toby developed a soft spot for Kai 239) Nowadays, Kai still drives him crazy, but in a good sorta way 240) They have every intention of moving in together after school ends 241) Kai has a drawer of clothes at Toby’s place 242) Toby has punched six people in defence of Kai 243) One was an eleven year old. He has no regrets 244) Toby frequently takes Kai stargazing 245) Toby also taught him how to skate 246) Kai speaks French to Toby and he loves it 247) Sometimes Kai takes Toby to volunteer at the animal shelter with him 248) Their biggest fights are over pop music and science 249) They plan on getting a turtle when they move in together 250) Kai loves sitting on Toby’s lap 251) He also loves stealing his sweaters 252) He also loves fixing his hair 253) He frequently picks flowers for Toby and spends hours arranging them 254) Kai also loves falling asleep on Toby 255) Toby kisses Kai’s cheek a lot 256) Toby adores Kai, but he rarely admits to it 257) He took Kai to a Troye Sivan concert in February 2019 258) Kai sends Toby selfies a lot throughout the day 259) Toby saves every single one to his phone - but won’t admit to it 260) Toby’s dad r e a l l y wants him to marry Kai

CALLIE AND MILO 261) They met when they were both searching an abandoned church 262) They thought the other was a ghost 263) For the longest time, Callie was ‘ghost girl’ in Milo’s phone 264) Their first date was in Starbucks 265) But they tell people it was back in that abandoned church 266) They are both too terrified to ever go back to that church 267) They have plants to travel the world together 268) Callie’s phone background is Milo and his messy bed head 269) Milo’s background is Callie in one of his sweaters 270) Callie hoards Milo’s sweaters 271) Milo practically lives at Callie’s apartment so he doesn’t mind 272) Callie only really sleeps when she’s with Milo 273) Milo likes playing with her hair while she reads out loud 274) The sound of her voice calms his anxiety 275) Callie frequently plays guitar and sings for Milo 276) He considers himself her number one fan 277) Callie likes listening to him ramble about history and classics 278) She often falls asleep while he talks - he never seems to notice 279) Callie drives Milo everywhere 280) Milo always makes the best road trip playlists and snacks 281) Milo’s mum’s adore Callie 282) They go for family dinner every other Sunday 283) They are going to Greece together over the summer holidays 284) Their opinions on monster politics differ wildly 285) Callie enjoys teaching Milo how to play guitar 286) Milo grows his own flowers to give Callie 287) He also enjoys cooking for her 288) Sometimes he brings her breakfast in bed 289) He usually gets a blowjob in exchange for this 290) They make a game out of fucking in as many places as they can 291) This has included: the grocery store, a church, the forest 292) Milo’s parents frequently bring up marriage 293) They’re both quite content with how things are 294) One day, they’d both like a small wedding in Europe somewhere 295) Zoos, petting farms, and aquariums are their favourite dates 296) Milo is basically Callie’s pillow 297) Callie writes songs for Milo 298) Her parents do not approve of her dating a Nymph 299) Callie’s roommates adore Milo and love that he basically lives there 300) They fight about how much wardrobe space Milo takes up frequently

BACKGROUND CHARACTERS 301) Callie’s roommate is a werewolf 302) She doesn’t know that Callie isn’t human and vice versa 303) Werewolf roommate (Arya)’s family is originally from India 304) Arya loves escape rooms 305) Callie loves petting Arya in wolf form 306) Milo is the only one who questions why there’s a wolf in the kitchen 307) But Milo still feeds Arya-in-wolf-form blueberry muffins 308) Bruce the Minotaur has lived in Monster House forever 309) Nobody really knows where or when Bruce came from 310) He has a very distinctive Greek accent 311) Bruce makes the best waffles 312) And he knits a damn good scarf and woolly socks 313) Which is incidentally what everybody gets for their birthday 314) Sheryl the Siren is like a crazy aunt to the kids in Monster House 315) She auditioned for X Factor once - she didn’t get in 316) Her vocal inspirations are beyonce and mariah carey 317) Sheryl is married to Mary-Anne the Mermaid 318) Mary-Anne lives in the coves behind Monster House 319) Sheryl loves singing for Mary-Anne 320) Maybe it’s the water-clogged ears, but Mary-Anne enjoys the singing 321) They had a beautiful beach wedding twelve years ago 322) Kenzi was a flower girl, Toby was a page boy 323) There is a ghost living in the attic of Monster House 324) It never seems to come out 325) Bruce sits outside the attic door each night to keep it company 326) Sometimes it likes to play drums with pots and pans 327) Nobody really has a name - it’s just ‘the ghost in the attic’ 328) They leave cookies for it at Christmas - they always get eaten 329) Sometimes Matty gets there first 330) Grace the Gorgon is an interior designer 331) She wears a veil-like head cover to hide the snake hair 332) Most humans just assume the head cover/snake hair is a new trend 333) Grace constantly redecorates Monster House 334) The house usually puts everything back overnight 335) Monster House does not like change 336) Grace is a wanted felon for the murder of a man named Perseus 337) Humans seem to be destined to forever walk past Monster House 338) Thus, Grace has never been caught 339) It is rumoured that she was once called Penelope 340) Nobody quite knows what Perseus did to warrant murder 341) Nobody quite trusts Grace with a knife, either

SEABROOKE 342) Seabrooke is a small, sleepy seaside town in southern England 343) It is the suburban hot spot for Monster life 344) Seabrooke has a population of 4,500 345) Around 250 of these are monsters 346) For some reason, Seabrooke has it’s own university 347) Nobody really knows why - it’s possible Phillip had a role in this 348) Seabrooke has two primary schools, a secondary, and a sixth form 349) It gets a lot of tourists during the summer 350) Everybody hates the tourists - especially Monsters

WITCHES COVEN 351) When Bruce the Minotaur gets sick - he can’t be taken to the doctors 352) The Witches Coven is the main place Monsters go when they’re sick 353) Witches are difficult creatures and the Coven are no different 354) If you get on their bad side, they’ll refuse you service 355) The Witches Coven therefore practically run the town 356) There are three families that make up the Coven 357) Admittance is only to witches with the blood of prestigious families 358) Kai is part of the Witches Coven 359) Kai’s family practically runs the Witches Coven 360) There is a lot of tension between the Witches and Phillip 361) Largely because they both have a lot of influence over Seabrooke 362) Regardless, Phillip still genuinely likes Kai 363) The Witches tend to be high maintenance and spoilt 364) The parents are like the worst white suburban soccer mums ever 365) Regardless, they are excellent at healing magic 366) But also excellent at ruining your life 367) They have definitely killed a few monsters - but it cannot be proved

LOCAL NEWSPAPER 368) The Daily Seabrooke is ran by shapeshifters 369) Nobody remembers when the TDS was started 370) Philip adores it for the crosswords 371) Apparently the crosswords are ‘out of this world’ 372) TDS is ran by a group of crazy looking students 373) Of course, they’re shapeshifters, so they’re probably all 1000+ 374) The shapeshifters behind TDS don’t mingle with other monsters 375) At least not as themselves 376) They report on human politics and news as well 377) Only monsters are sold the copies with monster news included 378) Half of TDS is gossip about the people in Seabrooke 379) Nobody is really safe from their snooping 380) Their methods include being a literal fly on the wall 381) Most breakups, Witches Coven drama, and Vamp/Wolf fights are put in 382) TDS is extremely controversial amongst Monsters in Seabrooke 383) Kenzi thinks it’s fucking hilarious

SEABROOKE UNIVERSITY 384) The University is crawling with monster life 385) Several professors are monsters 386) Most notably are Phillip and Steven 387) Phillip teaches Modern History 388) Steven teaches Medieval History 389) Phillip is a Vampire, Steven is a Werewolf 390) They have a competition for who gets History Professor Of The Year 391) This competition frequently gets out of hand 392) Everybody knows about their rivalry, few knows why 393) Nobody knows how long the two have worked there - most say forever 394) That wouldn’t be far from the truth 395) Steven happens to be Arya (Callie’s Roommate)’s father

MONSTER HOUSE 396) Monster House is practically alive 397) It constantly expands and shrinks 398) There are always exactly as many rooms as are necessary 399) Only the first floor can be seen by passersby 400) And they often walk straight past it 401) Ordering pizza is a nightmare 402) It’s like the human brain cannot comprehend where it is 403) Even though it’s in an incredibly obvious location 404) When they do see it, they see only a normal house 405) The construction of the house makes no sense 406) There are rooms hanging over nothing and stairs leading to nowhere 407) Sometimes bedrooms move and finding them is a nightmare 408) The living room and kitchen like to switch places 409) On Monday’s the kitchen is green and nobody knows why 410) It is black and white the rest of the time 411) It is almost impossible to paint or decorate Monster House 412) It prefers to do that itself 413) Somehow the bedrooms always look exactly how they are wanted 414) At least they save on paint - that shit is expensive 415) Unfortunately, Monster House doesn’t clean itself 416) Toby has registered several complaints about this

LULU 417) Lulu’s full name is Lucifer 418) It has been living in the basement since the beginning 419) It has only been seen by four people 420) Phillip and Kenzi are two of those 421) They call it Lulu because Kenzi couldn’t pronounce Lucifer as a kid 422) The nickname kinda stuck 423) Lulu gets fed raw fish every morning 424) They just dump a bucket full down the hatch in the kitchen 425) Sometimes Toby threatens to feed Matty to Lulu 426) This causes Matty to have nightmares and sleep in Toby’s bed 427) So that one kinda backfired on Toby 428) Nobody actually knows what kind of creature Lulu is

MISC. FACTS 429) Harlow’s favourite song is ‘Lights Down Low’ by Max 430) Seabrooke is not on any map - nobody knows why 431) I really regret this 432) Never ever try to write 500 facts it will not be fun 433) Callie’s favourite kind of law is criminal law 434) Particularly fatal offences 435) She also likes land law because she’s fucking weird 436) Kai got into reality TV because of his sisters 437) One of the arcades in Seabrooke is monster themed 438) Toby works there on Saturdays - always taking the night shifts 439) Kai really wants to own his own bakery one day 440) He tried to get the local bakery to hire him but he’s too young 441) Kai also wants to live in France or Italy 442) He also wants to be on reality shows and get a fake tan 443) (Okay. Toby is pretty sure he was joking about that) 444) Kai always has to wish on a lucky star 445) Milo wants to be a published author one day 446) Kai has tried to run away from home twice 447) His parents put a tracking spell on him and found him too fast 448) Toby wishes he could skate at the park with the other kids 449) But he also secretly likes that everyone finds him mysterious 450) Toby used to have a (massive) crush on Kenzi 451) Now they’re both pretty gay 452) Everyone is gay tbh 453) Monsters have no concept of heteronormativity 454) Kenzi’s favourite colour is pink 455) Callie’s favourite animal is an octopus 456) Kai has a picture of him and Toby stuck on his bedroom wall 457) Kai has had a crush on Toby since they were kids 458) Coming out as trans wrecked Kai’s relationship with his parents 459) It is seen as a disgrace for witches to have male sons 460) Men are submissive in witch culture 461) Kai’s parents frequently misname and misgender him 462) The kids at school are much more accepting 463) Kai came out when he was 14 464) Toby has actually been one of his biggest supporters 465) Natalia has been his main supporter as well 466) Toby likes Kai a lot more since he came out 467) Kai feels more real to him now - and irritates him less 468) Toby doesn’t know how long Kai has liked him for 469) Kai is pretty open about being trans 470) Seabrooke is quite accepting, even if his parents aren’t 471) Kenzi is terrified of being rejected by the monster community 472) She really wants Toby to turn her so she can be an actual monster 473) She wears contact lenses so her eyes look purple 474) She doesn’t really like school and puts the bare minimum effort in 475) Harlow is taking four a levels - a difficult thing to do 476) Fuck this was the worst idea 478) Harlow channels her anger out through drumming 479) It’s therapist mandated so her dad cannot stop her 480) Even though he very very much wants to 481) Harlow’s favourite video game is overwatch 482) Her mains are lucio, junk rat, bastion and rein 483) Harlow despises spelling and grammar errors 484) Matty likes stealing Toby’s tee shirts 485) Between Matty & Kai, Toby barely has any clothes left 486) Which is fine as far as Kai’s concerned 487) Matty is like a little brother to Kai 488) Originally, Callie & Arya were part of a polygamous relationship 489) I cut that out, though, because I couldn’t think of a third girl 490) Seabrooke tends to have mild weather 491) During the summer, the heat can spike to 25-30 C max 492) It rarely snows, but it does rain a lot, and there’s a lot of wind 493) Most of the houses in Seabrooke were built 100ish years ago 494) It has a train station - nobody knows why - it’s the last stop 495) There is a Seabrooke museum ran by a vampire and a Fae 496) There is a secret monster section in the back 497) Idle Town by Conan Gray reminds me of Seabrooke 498) As does This Town by Neil Horan (I think that’s the name idk) 499) Fuck you to @livvywrites for not stopping me 500) I am never doing this again

tag list: @livingthelovelylife, @commasinsidequotes, @4kidsopfan, @thatworldinverted, @livvywrites @ravenpuffwriter @the-writer-turned-procrastinor @livingthelovelylife (ask to be added or removed more likely after this shit)

#writeblr #writeblr community #monsterhouse #this was the worst idea of my life #never again #do not do this #b a d i d e a

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kazlifeadventures · 5 years ago

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Trinidad & Tobago - Carribean dreams...

I am so ‘vex’ that I won't be ‘liming’ in this beautiful place any more. I have been one lucky person to have been able to come here and hang with a local for almost a week. Jasmine has shown me her Trinidad and for that I am truly grateful. I have eaten so many local foods and they have all been fantastic. I have impressed the locals no end with my love of pepper sauce. The food here is tasty, spicy, and pretty much specific to this island. ‘Nah boy’, I am so very much enamoured with this country! One of my friends asked me if I had posted photos of the food. Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of pics, its not the most photogenic, and I seriously just wanted to eat it! I have partaken in the local speciality of doubles, with ‘plenty’ I might add - for those unaware that is with extra hot sauce and/or the mango bone that is infused with more pepper. Doubles is made with 2 baras filled with a curry channa (chick peas), it originally started as a breakfast food, progressing to be an anytime of the day food. It’s nutritious, tasty, and sold at street side vendors everywhere. Apparently even pizza and KFC taste better over here. This I can now say I agree with. Not sure if the food tastes better, or if its adding the ketchup, mustard, and pepper sauce that assists with the taste upgrade.....

Jas took me to the home of street food a little town called St James, and made sure I got to have saheena, (seriously amazing spicy little deep fried spinachy deliciousness ) as well as alloo pie...amongst other things. The locals only really eat out at restaurants on special occasions so that meant Jas cooked for me a lot of the time, and wow, just wow. I loved the chicken curry (brown), smoked herring, baigan choka, salt fish, home made roti, the fabulous goat curry.... I could rave on, but google Trinidadian food and you’ll understand. Jas lives out in the ‘country’ to the South of Port of Spain, the capital. We spent one evening heading around to some of the local rum bars. Rum bars are everywhere here. Beer is cold and cheap (and made here - love the Stag and the Carib!). I got to meet a few of the locals. Over here they will buy you a drink even for something as simple as the fact that they had to order over you slightly. At the bar. They loved to meet the ‘white girl from Austalia’, as out here they dont see a lot like me... The good thing is none of it was them just trying it on with the foreigner. These are genuinely lovely, polite, caring people. I had a dance off with some girls from Venezuela, and ended up drinking way more drinks then I paid for, eating (they sell bar snacks and’cutters’ only at the rum shops) some tasty wontons at one place, and some really tasty fried chicken at another. We then got some free food from another lovely local who bought us a drink, and also then brought us across some Souse and Corn soup from his food stall (across the road from the rum shop). Anyway I can now say I have tried Souse, not sure I’d eat it again, it was flavourful, but pigs trotters in broth with onion and cucumber is not on my list of things to eat again! I think I have decided that I need to come back to Aus and start my own Trini food store, I think it’d be a huge hit. Love the local beers. Love the rum here. Jas made sure I tasted the Puncheon rum - 75 % and you never get a hangover or upset stomach... I wanted to bring some home, but alas no room in the suitcase! One of the biggest things, I was not aware that this is the home where Angostura bitters is bottled. It was first created in the town called Angostura in Venezuela by a German surgeon stationed in Venezuela, originally produced there between 1824 - 1830. In 1875, the plant was moved to Trinidad and that’s where it’s secret recipe is still produced today.

One of the main religions here is Hindu, they have a giant (85 feet - 26m) statue of Lord Hanuman Murti located in the grounds of Dattatreya Yoga. The statue is the second tallest in the world, and the tallest one in the western hemisphere. When we pulled up onsite there was one man looking after the bookstore who allowed us to enter the grounds and take photos. We weren't allowed to enter the temple/yoga centre as we weren't appropriately dressed. The gentleman then showed us the book explaining how the statue had been built and answered all my gazillion questions. It was like having our own private tour! Jas then took me down the road a little further to show me the temple in the sea. This temple was originally constructed by hand 1947 -52 by Sewdass Sadhu an immigrant from India. It has since been added to, and tidied up, but it's an amazing place, and a site of pilgrimage for Hindus. It's also one of the designated locations for Hindus to perform the funeral pyre. Hindu religion requires that the dead are burned near water and a holy place.

Brian Lara is still HUGE here. He is a home town Trini boy so I completely understand. Cricket is massive, and the new Brian Lara stadium is a huge landmark. They had a cricket game on when I was here (Trinidad vs Jamaica) but they had sold out the tickets otherwise we would have gone.

I spent a day at the beautiful Maracas beach, located on the northern part of Trini. On the way there we stopped at the lookout and had a quick look at the food stalls. I got to try some ‘Chow’, a garlicky spicy way of preserving such things as Pineapple, apple, mango, cucumber... its yummy and not too spicy and I really appreciated the stall holder giving me a taste ( and Jas’s friend Isabelle for buying some of the pineapple one). Maracas beach is a favourite with the locals and its a thing to do to have a ‘bake and shark’ when you go to the beach. Betcha cant guess what I had... Can I say amazing (again!!) You not only get your bake (which is a deep fried Roti) You get beautiful fresh deep fried shark fillet inside it, then you go to a buffet like area and add as many of the additions as you want . Yep, of course I added a bit of EVERYTHING . I had to taste it all. Seriously that thing was amazing. BTW I do taste everything first before adding pepper sauce... pepper sauce heightens the flavours. Jas’s friend Isabelle got her son in law to give us a shout out on the radio station he worked at ( they had it playing at the beach), so ‘Karen from Australia’ is now Trini Famous... love it!!

Jasmine took me out to the Pitch lake, in La Brea, and I’ll admit, I had no idea what it was ( I thought it was a lake!!) Anyway, some how we ended up with a colourful local as our personal guide, he was You tube famous and has apparently featured on David Attenboroughs visit to the lake. I have to sit and edit my ‘documentary’ when I’m back in Australia, it’ll be awesome.. I promise. Suffice to say the lake is the most amazing tar pit. Seriously amazing tar pit. The roads leading into the area are all like travelling over mini crazy hills due to the impact of the tar movements in the area. You have to use an authorised guide on the site, which is fair enough as a wrong step could see you disappear forever into the tar... literally... Trinidads pitch lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world (estimated to hold about 10 million tonnes) Its covers about 100 acres and is about 250 feet deep. There is a cool legend involving the origin of the lake the involves a hummingbird (I like the story), Historically Walter Raleigh re-discovered the lake on his expedition there in 1595. It has that charming rotten egg smell, and the mud and sulphur water apparently have healing properties. Locals were there immersing themselves in some of the pools while we were there. As we didnt have swim suits we had to settle with getting coated in the mud on our legs, and for me, also my face...lol!!! I didnt get a chance to put it on myself, out guide was very keen to smear it all over my face... (and shirt and hair.. etc...). Rinsing it, after it had set, was a whole other process involving splashing what looked Iike green water all over my face (and legs), all I wanted to do was rinse my face with some fresh water afterwards - and it took over an hour or so until I finally got somewhere to do it. Let’s not talk about how much scrubbing it required later that night to get the last bits of our skin! A great fun day though, made all the better for our colourful guide! I have had a crash course in some of the Trinidadian slang/words and between that and their accents I am sometimes lost in a conversation... (definitely accents particularly when you are trying to enter the country and the border control guy is talking to you and you have to continually say, sorry what??? ) I’m a lot better now!!

Jas couldn’t make it over to Tobago as she had work scheduled at her house that she needed to be around for. So I decided to head over for a night, hire a car, and see what I could see. Its literally a 20 min flight over (only costs about 50 US return) FYI 24 hrs isn’t really enough to see everything. I didnt get to the water fall or national park. I had headed down to Store bay beach when I first arrived with instructions to try the curry crab, conch and dumplings in Tobago (its their local specialty, amongst a few other things). Have to say I liked the conch, crab was over cooked and dry, and dumplings were kind of chewy. The ‘provisions’ that I got with it were really nice though - Plantain, Potato, green banana, avocado ..I would have liked to have tried another outlet to give a second opinion, but didnt have the time. I did get to the beautiful Pigeon Park, a natural reserve area, filled with some shops, water sports hire, beautiful beaches and glorious spot to watch the sunset. I also got out to the Fort of King George in Scarborough hiking up the giant hill to take in the glorious views. Hilariously there was a traffic hold up on my way there due to some goats being herded along the road. Island time boy. I would have to say, as much as its a part of the one country, Tobago island is completely different to Trinidad. Its a lot more touristy for a start, it has more servicible beaches. The roads are not as pot holed as Trinidad. The people are still lovely, but you get the tourist scouters who are looking to sell you on anything they can. Its a beautiful place and I’m so glad I got to go across and visit. As always, I can always go back!

My time in the Caribbean has come to a close. (9-16 Oct). What an adventure. I have had a fabulous time, and recommend to anyone to come here and see this place, taste the food and meet the people for themselves. The country has their own issues with government corruption which impacts the improvement of infrastructure like roads etc. And there are warnings around safety as there are elements involved in crime that impact locals and tourists alike. This just makes Trinidad Tobago, not unlike a lot of other countries that I have visited on my adventures. It just means the more prepared you are to be open to new things, different ways of doing things, different cultures. The more you are aware of your own safety, and that of your belongings , the more you can avoid crime. Crime can impact you anywhere in the world, countries like this dont have it any more or less than others, it just seems to be in the media more....

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lovingunderratedcharacters · 7 years ago

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Band of Brothers: What it’s Like/How They React To Reader Spending the Night

Anon: I hope I’m not bothering -I know you have so many requests already- but I’ve been having some BoB feels lately and came up with 2 ideas for requests (can’t help it, I love those guys!) How about how would they take care of you when you’re sick & vice versa (I thought that would be kind of cute...) And how would it be/how they react the first time you get to spend the night at their place? Anyways, I’d be excited whichever one you write to be honest! Thank you! :)

Richard Winters: He is the perfect gentleman, cooking you food and spending the night talking to you. Even when things get heated, he still stays very chivalrous and always makes sure you’re comfortable.

Lewis Nixon: Lew’s first instinct is to make you a drink, and he knows exactly what you like. But he definitely tries to start something quickly, making a couple moves and trying to sweet talk you in every way imaginable.

Harry Welsh: He definitely had a major plan for taking you home, and it involved really soft sheets and candles galore. He loves to romance you and hopes that you take it well.

Ronald Speirs: He didn’t mean for you to stay over, and neither did you. But he invited you over for a barbecue and when you went to leave, your car wouldn’t start. The two of you spent the night together and he promised to fix the car in the morning.

Carwood Lipton: Lip is very sweet when you come over. He invited you in after a wonderful date and you happily obliged. He got the two of you wine and you spent some time talking before you got down to business. (wink wink)

Darrell “Shifty” Powers: It took him forever to invite you over to his place. It actually ended up with you requesting that you guys have a casual movie date. You ended up making a pillow fort while watching your favorite movie together.

Floyd Talbert: He took you out dancing earlier that night, and it just felt natural to go back to his place. You two hadn’t been dating for too long, but he made sure that you were completely comfortable.

Bill Guarnere: Bill had you come over on a home date, where he made you an incredible dinner with great wine. Afterwards, he slowly moved the two of you into his bedroom.

Joe Toye: You two were pretty close, so when he came home to find you on his couch crying, he wasn’t completely surprised. You had just had a really bad day, so he had you stay the night with him so that you’d feel better.

Denver “Bull” Randleman: He wasn’t really worried about you coming over to his place. There’s no awkwardness when the two of you relax on the back porch, drinking and discussing the future.

Eugene Roe: He’s a bit nervous, but stays calm on the surface. Neither of you are all too sure about this, not because you don’t have feeling for one another, but because it’s been a while since either of you have been with anyone else.

Lynn “Buck” Compton: He was a bit of a cocky ass when he brought you over to his place. It’s not like he’s new to bringing people over to his place. However, he calms down once he realizes how amazing you are.

David Webster: You met him at his place so that the two of you could discuss a book that you were both reading. He lost track of time and before the two of you knew it, it was midnight and you were still in deep conversation.

Joe Liebgott: It wasn’t supposed to happen, but the two of you got so into the moment that you just ended up at his place. You didn’t even make it into the bedroom. ;)

Donald Malarkey: You were a really good friend of his, so it wasn’t uncommon for you to crash at his place. However, one night the two of you were relaxing together and well, one thing led to another. You ended up spending a lot more nights there after that.

Edward “Babe” Heffron: What a cutie, he asked you back to his place after a wonderful date. He spent some time just relaxing with you, but it eventually went to the bedroom after you got handsy.

George Luz: George brought you back to stay the night after you had had a pretty rough day. He made sure you were smiling and laughing before he made any moves.

Charles “Chuck” Grant: It took him a while to ask you to come over, but only because he wanted to make sure that you were completely comfortable with the situation. As soon as he was sure, though, things progressed quickly.

Frank Perconte: Frank was so ready for you to come back to his place, and you two had known each other for so long that it didn’t take too much to get you to come over. The whole night was comfortable and caring.

Johnny Martin: He was really experienced with this stuff, so being nervous wasn’t a problem for him. The entire night was very casual and relaxing, as he made sure that you had lots of fun.

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travelingtheusa · 3 years ago

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VIRGINIA

2021 Jul 7 (Wed) – We have been working furiously on finalizing plans for the NY Caravan. We have had to change some things. One restaurant said they are changing their prices every week because of the high price of chicken. Really??? How do you run a business like that?

We set off for NY tomorrow, traveling through PA. Joe & Diane and Rick & Brenda will travel with us. Ed & Sue were supposed to go with us but they are stuck here getting their rig fixed. Maybe they’ll be able to join us in a day or two. Hank & Brenda will be meeting us at the next campground in Intercourse, PA. We will be there for 3 nights. The pre-caravan is on!

2021 Jul 4 (Sun) – We took Ed & Sue and Joe & Diane over to the PX and Commissary this morning. Neither of them is retired so they are not entitled to shop in either store. We show our ID and they get to buy what they want.

After lunch, we did laundry. Sheba hawked up a hairball last night and left it on the sheet. So we pulled the sheet off and took it along with the rest of the dirty clothes, over to the laundry room.

We all enjoyed a barbecue for dinner. Afterward, we watched the fireworks that people were setting off across the bay. There was quite a bit.

2021 Jul 3 (Sat) – The four of us went to Washington’s Distillery & Gristmill. It was quite interesting. Washington had to be convinced to put the stills on his farm but once he did, he had five installed. His first year of operation, he made more money from whiskey sales than he did from all of his other endeavors combined. With his gristmill, he was producing flour, grits, cornmeal, and livestock feed. He was quite the entrepreneur.

We stopped at the post office to pick up a package the Rick & Brenda have been waiting for, but it hadn’t arrived. Then we shopped at the Commissary. Brenda made hamburgers and baked beans for dinner. We put out hors oeuvres and drinks for happy hour. Joe & Diane and Ed & Sue came over to join us for dinner. (Ed and Sue were supposed to be here but their RV and car both broke down on the way to Fort Belvoir. They are currently staying at a hotel on base while they wait for repairs.)

After dinner, we all gathered around for a campfire.

2021 Jul 2 (Fri) – Joe & Diane lent their car to the couple that broke down. Not only did their motorhome breakdown, but their car did as well. Both are getting worked on today. Since Joe & Diane lent their car to their friends, they needed a ride to the commissary. We took them at 9 this morning. They picked up some items at the PX, then food at the commissary.

At 1:00 PM, we met Rick & Brenda and drove to the Pope-Leheighy House. It is a home that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a beautiful architecture and we enjoyed the tour. Located next to the house was Woodlawn. This was a beautiful colonial home built by George Washington for his nephew and granddaughter-in-law. He gave them the house and 2,000 acres from his Mount Vernon property. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the house. They were just finishing up a needlepoint display and they had taken all the house decorations down for the display. They will be putting everything back together and opening to tours again after July 25.

At dinnertime, I cooked zucchini chips and Paul barbecued an Alaskan salmon. Rick & Brenda made the salad and cooked up some scallops. It was a good meal. Afterward, we had a campfire.

2021 Jul 1 (Thu) – We went food shopping at Amazon Green today. It was a near digital experience. They have a shopping cart with a scanner. You dial up the app on your smart phone. Then as you pick up each item you want to buy, you scan it on your phone. Shopping bags are already located in your shopping cart; you put the items you scan in your bags. When you are done, your credit card is charged (Amazon has that info on file) and you leave. You have no need to go to the cashier. We changed our minds at the last minute and did not use the app. I do not like anything that holds on to the information about my credit cards or bank accounts. We shopped the old fashioned way.

I went to Great Clips for a haircut. I tried to talk with the hairdresser but she spoke very poor English and she was hard to understand. After I got home, I did more chopping on my bangs as I felt they were still too long.

We stopped at Baja Fresh for lunch. It was a kind of Mexican fast food place. The food was ok. I cooked an elbow macaroni dish for dinner which we shared with Rick & Brenda.

I drove to the campground office to pick up the check-in documents for 3 folks coming into the campground. The office closed at 3 and they still weren’t in. George & Sue arrived and I gave them their paperwork. Joe & Diane arrived later around 6; the couple traveling with them had a breakdown and they left them on the road waiting for a tow. Joe & Diane will be traveling with us through Pennsylvania to the New York caravan.

2021 Jun 30 (Wed) – We drove over to WalMart to get an oil change in the truck. While it was being serviced, we walked across the road to Panera Bread and had bagels for breakfast. We then walked next door and wandered through the World Market then Home Goods looking for new rugs for the RV. We didn’t find what we wanted.

When the truck was done, we drove back to the base PX and bought a new grill. Paul and Rick had priced the grill on the internet last night and the PX was the cheapest price. Add to that the fact that they don’t charge tax in the PX and we had a real good savings.

Merlin came by us wearing his face mask. He said he started feeling bad last night and worse today. So he went to the base hospital and got tested for COVID-19 . . . just in case.

Bonnie has had diarrhea for on and off for the past five days. We cooked chicken and rice for her one day. It seemed to help then things got worse again.

Two rigs have dropped out of the New York caravan. That brings us down to 16 paying rigs. One more drop out, and we will be at the threshold for canceling the caravan. Hope we don’t lose anyone else.

2021 Jun 29 (Tue) – The four of us went to the National U.S. Army Museum. It is new and we haven’t been here before. We spent over 3 hours wandering around the displays. There was so much to read and look at. We had lunch in the cafeteria. During our visit, we found out that the museum only opened in October last year, 2020, then closed a month later. They just reopened 2 weeks ago.

After we got back, we had dinner together. Brenda made pasta and I made salad. Everything was very good. Merlin was too tired to join us.

2021 Jun 28 (Mon) – We went into town to look for a grill. We couldn’t find what we wanted. We went to the PX and looked for an RV dealer nearby but there were none. We picked up pet food at Pet Smart and found a toy for Sheba. We were delighted! Lunch was at Famous Dave’s. I had ribs and Paul had burnt tips. The food was on the spicy side.

Rick & Brenda came over for drinks. We made margaritas. Another SMART member, Merlin, pulled in today.

2021 Jun 27 (Sun) – We went into Washington, D.C. for a 12:15 p.m. admission to the International Spy Museum. Brenda & Rick drove. We had been there in 2013. The building and entire area was totally different from when we were last there. The place was huge! You could easily take 3-4 hours to see everything. The museum was very crowded and it was difficult to get near much of the displays. But we all managed to enjoy the place any way.

When we got back to the campground, Rick & Brenda brought their grill over and we enjoyed steak, potatoes and salad. We visited afterward as it was too breezy to work on the travel guides. We have time to get to them. There’s no hurry.

2021 Jun 26 (Sat) – We did our laundry early this morning. The laundry room was full of gnats and other flying insects. We brought wipes to clean off the tables and machines so we could fold our clothes. It was gross!

We also drove to Food Lion to pick up some groceries and to Office Depot to get the printed copies of the Travel Guide. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch; something we don’t do very often.

We drove to George Mason Gunston Hall with Rick & Brenda this afternoon for a 2:00 p.m. tour It was an 1800th century home of one of America’s founding fathers. Mason wrote Virginia’s Bill of Rights, which Jefferson later modeled to write the Bill of Rights for the new nation. It was a lovely home and had several outbuildings on the property to explore as well.

Afterward, we stopped at Fair Winds Brewing for beer and BBQ. We all sat out on the patio and enjoyed beers (except me since I don’t care for beer) and food. When we got back, we started work on putting the travel guides together. It was slightly breezy and made it difficult to work but we were able to get 11 books done.

2021 Jun 25 (Fri) – We finished up the Travel Guide this morning. Brenda and Rick picked us up and we drove first, to Office Depot, then to Occoquan, the quaint little town we discovered a few years ago. We had lunch at a restaurant on a patio overlooking the Occoquan River. There were several people in kayaks and on paddle boards.

After lunch, we walked down the picturesque street with its historic buildings. We popped into a chocolate shop and had a wonderful visit with the owner of the establishment. He gave us quite an education on cacao beans and the chocolate process. We all bought chocolate bars.

More walking and exploring, then we stopped in to the VFW Lodge. We sat at the bar and ordered cocktails only to be told they only serve wine and beer. It didn’t fit the bill so we left.

We went to a Tiki Bar on the river and had cocktails on the patio then returned to the campground around 5:30 p.m.

2021 Jun 24 (Thu) – We pulled up stakes and left Fort A.P. Hill at 10:15 a.m. It was an easy two hour drive to Fort Belvoir. We had our site number already so we drove directly to the campground rather than stop first at Outdoor Recreation. Oops! There was a gated entry into the campground and no room to turn around. I called the office and got the gate code and we parked on our assigned campsite. After set up, we hurried over to Outdoor Rec, got checked in, got our permit and other paperwork, then rushed to the main gate to help Brenda & Rick get passes onto base. They were already there and walking out of the visitor center with their passes. We got in front of them and led the way to the campground. Since we had the gate code and they knew their site assignment, we led them directly to the campground. We advised them to sign in at Outdoor Rec after they were set up. They didn’t hear (or understand) what we said and took their time setting up. By the time they went over to check in, the office was closed (open from 9 to 3).

At 4 p.m., Brenda and Rick came over and we had happy hour until 5:30 p.m. When they were gone, I popped a pizza in the oven for dinner. Gene (President of the Nomads) and Sharon stopped by. They are only here for the one night. After pizza, we played card games. SYN (Screw Your Neighbor) and Kings in the Corner were a lot of fun. They left when the sun was going down and it was getting cold.

Tonight was the last Supermoon of the year. It is called a Strawberry Moon, because it is when the strawberries are in season. It was a beautiful sight.

2021 Jun 23 (Wed) – We stayed in the campground all day working on the Travel Guide for the caravan. We are pushing to get this done so we can get it copied at the next town. There won’t be any big towns after we leave Fort Belvoir.

2021 Jun 22 (Tue) – We packed up and left Verona at 9:25 a.m. It rained on and off during the drive to Bowling Green where we are caped at Fort A.P. Hill. It is a fairly new campground with full hookups. The campground is about half full. We have a pull through site with no shade. We are only here for two nights. We will try to finish up the travel guide so we can get it copied while we are at Fort Belvoir. We don’t think there will be any big cities between there and when we start the caravan in New York.

2021 Jun 21 (Mon – First Day of Summer) – We stayed in the campground all day today, working on the travel guide and maps of the NY Caravan. We only have a few days left before we start to join up with other members of the caravan in D.C. We are almost done.

2021 Jun 20 (Sun) – We drove to the Grand Caverns this morning. I bought a two-for-one ticket on Groupon and $40 tickets wound up costing us $19.99. That’s a pretty good deal! The caverns were fantastic; every bit as phenomenal as Mammoth or Carlsbad Caverns. The rooms were huge and there were lots of speleoforms to admire. In addition, they had formations called shields. No one knows how they form but they seem to be unique to these caverns.

We went to Rack ‘Em Smack ‘Em for lunch. It was a ribs place. They were OK. Paul had mac & cheese. Still pink like them put ketchup in it. After the caves, we went to the Barren Ridge Winery. We were supposed to make a reservation ahead of time but didn’t. They were able to seat us out on the patio any way. I didn’t like any of the white wines. Paul liked one of the reds and we both enjoyed the port. So we bought 2 bottles of port and one bottle of the red wine.

I cooked some meatballs for dinner that we had bought at the supermarket the other day. They were so spicy hot! I took one bite and pushed them aside. We wound up heating up a pizza for dinner.

The campground pretty much emptied out today. I am glad we left for the day so we didn’t get caught up in all the activity of so many trailers moving out.

One of the campgrounds we will be going to upstate during the caravan tried to call but I told them to get back to us on Tuesday when we move. Hopefully, the cell phone signal will be better.

2021 Jun 19 (Sat) – We worked on the travel guide. At noon, we packed it in and drove into town for lunch at the Edelweiss Restaurant. It was a German restaurant with an authentic German waitress. The food was good, as was the wine and beer. Next stop was at PetCo to pick up dog food then to Kroeger for groceries and cat food. Since the cell phone signal is so bad in camp, we made a couple of calls to friends and our grandson while we were out and the signal was good.

The campground is chock full of campers. There is a lazy river that runs next to the campground where they have tubing. Groups of tubers walk by with their big tubes on the way to the launch point. The day is very warm and muggy. I bet the water feels good.

Bonnie woke Paul up at 2:30 a.m. She has diarrhea. She’s been good for a long time. We stopped giving her the supplements and goat’s milk when we started making sure the food we give her is AAFCO approved. That seems to have been good enough. We’ll see if this is one day or another bout.

2021 Jun 18 (Fri) – Work on the travel guide is going slow. The problem is the very poor internet signal here in the campground. We just can’t connect which makes it impossible for Paul to get the maps done.

We finally took a break at noon and drove into town for lunch. Staunton (pronounced STAN-TEN) is a very lovely, historic town with lots of brick buildings and round towers. We had lunch at the Clock Tower Eats & Sweets. The food was bland and unappealing. And the waitress was slow.

After lunch, we walked down the block to the Camera Heritage Museum. What a fascinating place! The museum, if you could call it that, was a small store front jam packed with cameras from all eras. The owner followed us around the store as we admired all the cameras, regaling us with stories of cameras and pictures. His collection was amazing, yet he said it only represented about 25% of his total collection. He is trying to raise money to buy a building that can house his collection. Trip Advisor voted him among the top world attractions. Quite an honor. Unfortunately, he needs to raise millions of dollars before he can reach his goal. He only has four years left to do it.

When we returned to the campground, there was a long line of RVs coming in. We sat in our chairs and watched droves of campers arrive all afternoon long. The campground of more than 200 sites filled up almost completely. There are lots of children and golf carts. The smell of outdoor cooking and campfires fills the air. We tried to have a campfire but it was too hot sitting in the sun in front of the fire. We got up halfway through and went back in to the air conditioning to watch the fire through the window. Lol.

2021 Jun 17 (Thu) – We went to the Augusta Military Museum. When a soldier returned home after the Civil War, he found all the schools burned down. Wanting the boys/men to have a decent education, he built a school. It later became a military academy when it was obvious that better discipline was needed. But it was not intended to be a preparatory school for military service, although many of the boys went on to service in the military. The school remained in service until 1984 when it closed due to financial difficulties. The museum was in the home of the former schoolmaster and exhibits were displayed in four small rooms on the first floor. We also watched a half hour video about the school and the men who attended.

Next, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. The interior had tables and booths arrayed around a large, open room. The waitress was very fast and efficient – a delight down here in the south. The food, however, was terrible. I had a chicken salad wrap that had too much vinegar in it. Paul had a mixed wrap that was very dry (it was ham, turkey, cheese, tomato and lettuce). It needed mayonnaise. His mac & cheese was pink, making us think they put ketchup in it.

After lunch, we went to the Stonewall Brigade Museum. It was all about the history of a local unit from the French & Indian Wars to today’s Gulf War. It was small compared to many other museums we have been to but it accomplished its purpose. The campground is filling up. It will be full this weekend. The camper next to us has two large dogs that they don’t leash. In addition, the owner doesn’t pay attention to what his dogs are going so that means he’s not picking up after them. We will have to make a complaint.

The Verizon cell service around here sucks! I can’t open the mail and other postings just sit there. The Internet is inaccessible at this point. Even in town, the service is severely limited. This town must be down in a big hole. **sigh** Not even the cell phone booster we bought is helping.

2021 Jun 16 (Wed) – We rode to Staunton today. First stop was at the Yelping Dog for lunch. It was a pizza and taproom. We each had a glass of wine and a sandwich. After lunch, we walked up and down the street. The town was very quaint and had lots of historic buildings and shops.

Next, we went to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum. There were three buildings. The first one we entered was the home that Woodrow Wilson was born in. He only lived in the house for 18 months then his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. There was lots of family in Staunton though, so they came back to visit often. Woodrow Wilson always thought of Staunton, VA as his home even though his family moved several times. He was the only president to earn a doctorate despite the fact that he had a learning disability that made it very difficult for him to read. What an interesting character he was!

The middle building was a private home where they placed the ever popular gift shop. The third building was the museum. There was a display of a WWI trench. That kind of thing always makes me shudder. It was thought to be so cutting edge in its day yet it was so barbaric. Ugh. We walked through rooms with lots of plaques to read and artifacts to view.

2021 Jun 15 (Tue) – We packed up and left Fancy Gap at 9:30 a.m. The weather (finally) was clear with blue skies. It was a long drive. We stopped at a humongous truck stop. They had 500 parking spaces for trucks with a truck wash, medical testing for drugs, a clinic, a steak place, a fast food eatery, and fuel station. We just parked to use the bathroom and walk the dog and then were on our way. We arrived at the campground at 1 p.m.

This is a KOA. It is a large campground spread out over low hills with lots of grass and trees. It is very pretty to look at. There is a river and waterfalls at the back of the park. They rent tubes for campers to float on the river. There are lots of things to do – a large pool, four hot tubs (currently closed), pool tables, a video arcade, horseshoe pits, etc. We have a 30-amp and water hookup but no sewer. The bathrooms are pretty far away. There are rabbits everywhere! They even have signs us warning not to pick up or chase the rabbits and they sell food to feed them. The cell phone signal in this campground is the pits! I can’t post on Facebook and it is difficult to research anything on the internet. This will be a tough week since we have to start coordinating with the various campgrounds and venues for the caravan.

We spent the afternoon and evening working on the travel guide. Things are starting to come together nicely.

2021 Jun 14 (Mon) – We took a ride into town for lunch at the Gap Deli. The food was pretty good. Afterward, we drove around the area for a bit. This a beautiful area. Lots of greenery and well built homes.

2021 Jun 13 (Sun) – We stayed in the campground today, working on the paperwork for the caravan. We did the laundry and bought dinner from the office. The smoker was going all day and the smell was very appealing.

2021 Jun 12 (Sat) – We took a break and went for a drive, stopping at 13 Bones for lunch. The ribs were not that good yet the place was packed. We figured it must be something pertinent to this region. We also stopped at WalMart to do some shopping. Returned home in the worst rainstorm. Ugh. Thunderstorms rolled through and poor Sheba spent the day hiding in the closet.

2021 Jun 11 (Fri) – We stayed in the campground all day working on the documents for the caravan. Our tail gunner had put together maps but we couldn’t get the program he used to mesh with the program we are using to create the Travel Guide. Paul wound up having to recreate all the maps. Ugh. What a waste of effort!

We had lunch and dinner at the KOA BBQ office. We met a couple parked to us from NC. We had a very interesting conversation until our dinner was delivered. Ray asked for information about SMART. Paul gave him a magazine. We would have given him a brochure but it got rained on the other day and we lost all the brochures we had sitting out for people to take. We will have to send for more.

2021 Jun 10 (Thu) – We went food shopping at the Food Lion today. Before then, we stopped at Aunt Bea’s Dining Room for lunch. It was a kind of cafeteria. You picked your food from a variety of items on a hot table, then sat at a table in the dining room. It was ok.

2021 Jun 9 (Wed) – We took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway today. There are so many lush, green trees in this state. We stopped at the Mabry Mill, an historic Appalachian homestead on the parkway. It had a mill, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and other artifacts. A ranger was working in a shed on a weaving loom. She explained the process to us and showed examples of her work. It was an interesting stop. Also along the Blue Ridge Parkway was a rail fence exhibit that showed several different types of fence made by wooden posts and poles.

We stopped at a winery in Floyd. You could only have a tasting if you were fully vaccinated. Since I am not vaccinated, we sat out on the patio and had a glass of wine with bread, cheese, meats, and fruits. Neither of us enjoyed the wine but the experience was nice. It rained pretty hard most of the day.

The program for the Max Air Fan in the kitchen arrived. Unexpectedly, it worked! The fan is now in action again. How wonderful!

2021 Jun 8 (Tue) – Well, I am back from New York. It was a long 3 weeks. I had originally planned to help out my sister, Susan, after knee surgery but she changed her mind and cancelled the surgery. My plans were already made so I left them alone. I stayed at her house and borrowed her Tesla during my stay. That is quite a car! Great for a speed demon like my sister.

I had a PET scan at Memorial Sloan Kettering. The results were spectacular! There were no metabolically active lymph nodes. Unfortunately, my oncologist moved to Texas and a new doctor was assigned to me but could not fit me into her schedule. I will see her at my next appointment. I asked the nurse if I could stop the chemotherapy but she said to continue as usual until I talk with the doctor.

I also saw the cardiologist. He ordered a stress test which I passed with flying colors.

I got to visit with my brother, Chris, and brother and girlfriend, Dennis & Denise, over the holiday weekend. I took my grandson, Caiden, out a few times and visited with my daughter and husband, Lilah & Kenny. I also stopped over my Cousin Claude’s house and visited with him and his daughter, Kathy. I also caught up with our friend, Jan, who happened to be outside in her garden when I drove by. She had knee surgery and is recovering nicely. And I got to have dinner with my daughter, Gina.

Susan volunteers at a wildlife rescue center and I was able to go with her twice. That place was overrun with raccoons, squirrels, and ducklings. Wow! There were many other types of animals and birds there as well. Susan’s daughter, Sharon, flew home for a few days and we went into the city for a day. Sharon has ongoing dental treatments at a specialist in New York City. Except for less people and cars, everything looked the same.

My flight home was disrupted by thunderstorms and I wound up spending a night at a hotel in Baltimore. But I ultimately made it home to my honey. While I was gone, Paul got the Spyder Control program fixed and we are back on the road! We were afraid that we would have to cancel the caravan if we didn’t get the problem resolved. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

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clove-pinks · 4 years ago

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Top Five Historical Recipes? Either things you’ve made or want to try?

Oh man I knew I was forgetting something. Since I answered this question from @handfuloftime with the top five historical recipes that I regularly make, I will answer the second part of your question since there are quite a few things I want to try!

Traditional pudding made with beef suet. Shredded beef suet for human consumption is like, IMPOSSIBLE to find in the USA. (And don't tell me about "vegetarian" suet, which is just vegetable shortening: I specifically want to try the unique properties of animal suet).

A beef stew recipe from The Fort George Bill of Fare that calls for meaty beef bones i.e. bones that still have a significant amount of flesh on them, simultaneously making a bone broth and cooking up tender bits of beef. I managed to find a US-based speciality butcher online who ships out meaty bones and beef suet(!), but needless to say it's pretty pricy and I have been dragging my feet. (That and the whole notion of paying $$$ to make such humble fare... arrgh).

"Sea Pie", using the recipe in Janet Macdonald's book Feeding Nelson's Navy. Beef suet required for the crust.

Mushroom Ketchup, 18th century-style. Townsends makes this, and I also have a recipe in Laurie McDonald's and Darlene Montgomery-Fawcett's UELAC cookbook Loyalists at Table. The amount of labour involved is daunting.

Boiled mutton with caper sauce, which is the only thing mentioned in the gun-room dinner in Marryat's novel The King's Own that I haven't yet made. I have made the pea-soup with whole dried peas and the Irish Stew, these men eat a lot of sheep and peas. (If I make all of these things at once I need an entire mess of grown men and teenage boys to help consume them).

BONUS ROUND! Whitebait Dinner. I even have the whitebait in my chest freezer! Just need to be motivated to thaw and fry them.

#ask #food #cooking #historical recipes #thank you for the ask!#i am reinvigorated by this to-make list #shaun talks #cooking with shaun

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years ago

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Seed Money: Black Entrepreneurs Hope Pandemic Gardening Boom Will Grow Healthier Eating

DENVER — Ietef Vita had planned to spend most of 2020 on the road, promoting “Biomimicz,” the album the rapper had released on his #plantbasedrecords label in January. Vita, known to his fans as “DJ Cavem Moetavation” and “Chef Ietef,” had those plans unexpectedly cut short.

This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.

“We were in Berkeley, California, on Feb. 29, playing there and literally got out of town right before they shut the whole country down,” recalled Vita, 34, who has performed for the Obamas and is widely considered the father of what’s known as eco-hip-hop. “It was scary.”

Suddenly sidelined at his metro Denver home with his wife, Alkemia Earth, a plant-based-lifestyle coach, and three daughters, Vita struggled to pivot. Eventually, he accepted that he would need to stay put and, as the saying goes, bloom where he was planted.

With his wife’s help, he launched an impromptu campaign: mailing out thousands of the more than 42,000 packets of kale, beet and arugula seeds he’d planned to sell at his shows, all emblazoned with his likeness and the QR code to hear his digital album. With the help of a crowdfunding campaign, he sent them at no cost to urban farmers anywhere and everywhere the couple could think of — Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York City, several parts of California and his hometown of Denver. He hoped the seeds might help alleviate the food shortages and long lines at grocery stores and food banks in economically disadvantaged communities hit hard during the pandemic.

His effort of putting out beets with his beats was a success. And, more than a year later, his seed business is still growing. Vita is among an expanding list of Black gardening enthusiasts-turned-entrepreneurs across the country. They run seed businesses that have benefited from the pandemic-inspired global gardening boom that seed providers, still overwhelmed with orders, hope won’t subside anytime soon.

Gods Garden Girl, Coco and Seed, Urban Farms Garden Shop and I Grow Shit are all Black-owned companies that share in Vita’s mission of drawing more diverse people into gardening and also illuminating it as an active, pandemic-safe pastime that facilitates healthy eating.

It also provides an escape from stress, including racial stress, which has simmered and exploded at times after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.

Research has found that exposure to plants and green spaces while gardening is beneficial to mental and physical health. In fact, a 2018 article in Clinical Medicine noted that merely viewing plants can reduce stress and diminish feelings of fear, anger or sadness by reducing blood pressure and pulse rate and also relieving muscle tension. The same report urged health professionals to encourage their patients to spend time in green spaces and to work in gardens.

Leah Penniman, a farmer and food activist in New York, wrote in her book “Farming While Black” that Black America’s connection to seeds dates to the days of enslavement, when some Africans braided seeds into their hair when they were shipped away from home. It was, as Penniman wrote, “insurance for an uncertain future.”

But many Black people in the U.S. have intentionally disconnected from farming since then because of its association with the painful legacy of slavery, said Natalie Baszile, author of a recently published anthology on African American farmers and the “Queen Sugar” novel that inspired the Oprah Winfrey Network TV drama centered on a Black family’s Louisiana farm.

“Part of our cultural narrative has been to move away from the land, because moving away from the land represents progress,” Baszile said. “The farther away you are from the land, the more successful you are. You go away to school, you get your education, you get another degree, you get a job in a field where you don’t have your hands in the soil.”

But Baszile, too, hopes the seed and gardening trend will inspire more Black people to see the health benefits of gardening.

“There is a therapeutic element to being outside planting, even if it’s just a flower garden,” she said. “There is something absolutely essential and healthy and meditative about getting outside doing something physical; you’re moving your body, you are getting exercise, you’re breathing clean air, you’re connecting to the Earth.”

And she said connecting to the soil empowers people, whether they are growing their own food or selling seeds as an entrepreneur.

The owner of Melanated Organic Seeds, Devona Stevenson, agrees. She said she initially took up gardening for relaxation in 2018 after a bout of depression. She then launched her seed business last June at the height of the pandemic, because she saw a need, even dating to her days growing up near Miami.

“All I saw around me was fast food and people eating junk food from the corner store,” said Stevenson, who is relocating from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to nearly 2 acres in Fayetteville, Georgia. “I believe that representation matters. So, basically, I saw a need and decided to fill it. For me, it’s also about reaching an untapped market, a group of people that have not really been marketed to, in terms of gardening and farming.”

Her efforts are not going unnoticed. Stevenson said her list of Instagram followers has swelled from 7,000 to more than 20,000 since she began posting gardening tips last July. She said she believes many Black seed business owners like her are driven by the need for education and economic empowerment.

“My business is for all people — we’re all human — but I happen to be a Black woman and a business owner, and if someone out there wants to support a Black-owned business, a Black gardening business, we provide them with that opportunity,” she said.

Vita’s entrepreneurial endeavor — “pushing seeds,” as he calls it — seems to be having an impact, too. Online site Thrillist named him one of its “Heroes of 2020” and Oscar-winning actor Natalie Portman included his “Sprout That Life” line, which runs about $19 for three packs of 55 to 100 seeds each, in her 2020 Top Gift Picks list in the December issue of People magazine. Actor Mark Ruffalo followed by publicly donating money to Vita’s GoFundMe campaign that supported his seed distribution effort, prompting social media shoutouts from rapper Cardi B and comedian Cedric the Entertainer.

Vita said he sees the fruits of his efforts in the photos people send to him of the food grown from his seeds. He could not be prouder of how he is reaching communities of color, especially Black communities, who he said disproportionately live in food deserts and are plagued by health disparities. “I wanted to change the way that they’re eating, let alone change the economic approach,” he said.

To date, with crowdfunding support, he has distributed more than 20,000 of his seed packets free of charge. He said he hopes the effort, along with his online vegan cooking and gardening demonstrations, will help inspire more Black people to try a plant-based diet and spark, well, a growing movement.

“If we can flood our community with unhealthy food and drugs, I believe we can also flood it with seeds and love,” he said. “We can flood it with positivity and urban farming and juice bars; without gentrification, without the urban renewal replacement.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

Seed Money: Black Entrepreneurs Hope Pandemic Gardening Boom Will Grow Healthier Eating published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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sapphired17 · 5 years ago

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It feels surreal to me that we have passed the 2010s already. Time went ahead like an express train without a single stop. What’s more shocking, the first half of 2020 hasn’t even come to an end but the hassles have been getting out of hand. It was peaked with the news of corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak since the beginning of January 2020 and is still an ongoing issue up to the present time, albeit, thankfully, we have also seen a lot of recovered cases. One of the biggest aftermaths of the outbreak is in the tourism department, in which most governments would put a temporary travel ban as a means of preventive measures.

And have I told you about my yearn of traveling, haven’t I? I wrote a post about my first-time-backpacking-experience in Singapore last year, and my journey didn’t stop there. I’m making my itineraries for my upcoming trips to Japan and South Korea already just to showcase my utmost excitement upon discovering brand new things. Unfortunately, the trip schedules are still on hold as I’m waiting until the whole pandemic comes to an end. As an self-comforting attempt, I decided to write about my previous one-week vacation in Malaysia last December 2019 so that I could reminisce a bit about the lingering feelings.

Day 1: Mind-cleansing and peace-making attempts

By the time one enters the pit of adulthood, there are endless things to do, and I really mean my words. Working earnestly, either to fulfill your or your parents’ desire; adjusting with the workplace and making sure to get along well with everyone; getting the work done without skipping meals or sleeps; socializing with friends even if it requires you to be present in tame parties or gatherings; building new meaningful connections while maintaining the existing ones; finding a lover and deliberating whether you both will make a great match, then proceeding to marriage if it is, or starting over if you are doomed; and also making more money; not to forget about looking after your family and attending family occasions to meet with relatives who might shower you with ruthless curiosities; also taking part in side volunteering activities in case you are a social person; then definitely making sure that everything goes well in between. Whoa, being a social being is surely busy, isn’t it?

Just like how humans need sleep everyday in order to stay alive, breaks are also needed so that we may keep living. I didn’t think too much on my way to Malaysia, only overwhelming excitement within. And my crazy journey slowly began.

I booked a direct morning flight with AirAsia without extra-baggage to save cost, then went straight to my friend’s apartment from KLIA2. There is a Skybus service that departs every 30 minutes on weekdays (and 60 minutes on weekends) from KLIA2 to various routes available daily, and I left for One Utama stop for MYR 15. It’s one of the biggest and most popular shopping centres in Klang Valley. My friend stays in a condominium nearby along with her co-worker, leaving a one-room space for me to sleep for the next three nights. Later that evening, another Malaysian friend took me to Tanjung Bungah Nyonya in Petaling Jaya’s SS2 area, known as an authentic restaurant to grab essential Nyonya dishes.

As for the public transport, Malaysians mostly use Touch n Go card to commute with train or bus services. You need to buy the card for MYR 15 with a purse value of MYR 9.80. This reusable card can easily be topped-up in convenience stores.

We had sweet fried chicken, fried tofu and sayur Paku, a vegetable dish known in English as wild fern shoots. I didn’t think I had ever had one in Indonesia but that one was pretty pleasant to my tongue. They all reminded me to my mom’s home-cooked meals.

We stopped by at Restoran Kayu Nasi Kandar SS2 nearby for this delicate roti canai and roasted chicken with dip-in curry sauce, not to mention this sweet roti tissue. Thanks to her, I went home with happy tummy and smiley face.

Day 2: Fun trip, group trip

Haven’t I told you about the superb Couchsurfing app, have I? So basically I managed to gather more people for a one-day trip. Long story short, there were five of us going to popular tourist attractions like Batu Caves and Genting Highlands.

The history of Batu Caves is affiliated with Hinduism, and this is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, which was built in honor of Lord Murugan. If you are familiar with a huge statue at the entrance of Batu Caves, yes, that is the statue of Lord Murugan. Batu Caves itself is always swarmed with visiting tourists.

It cost me my bloody sweaty t-shirts and tanned complexion to reach the huge cave on top of the stairs.

The next destination was Genting Highlands. With the entrance fee of MYR 16, you can roam around the French village, Japanese village and also many other awaiting attractions. We stopped by Colmar Tropicale, a gorgeous Medieval French Village in Berjaya Hills. The cold wind was mild but humid and I indeed felt like leaving for a far far place.

One of the most fascinating experiences was visiting Amber Court, a 23-story apartment building known more as a haunted hotel in Genting. Legend said, a lot of gamblers committed suicide there after losing everything in the casino. If you look up on Google, you might find several interesting testimonies from people who once visited Amber Court. We, too, entered one empty room once and felt something creepy inside. It definitely isn’t a place you’d be comfortable roaming around.

To wrap up the visit, I visited Sky Avenue Shopping Mall and entered the Sky Casino, known as the largest casino in Genting Highlands. In order to make an entrance, you need to register the membership to receive a membership card. As part of the regulations, you are allowed to enter the gate unless you are underage, a Muslim or wear slippers. Photo-taking is also forbidden inside the casino, but it is definitely a huge-scaled casino. You can top-up the balance of the card in order to play the game. Machines are everywhere and people are busy gaining money under the supervision of CCTV cameras and security guards.

Later that night, my local friend took us to Restoran Tiong Hokkien Mee (non-halal) located around Damansara Utama to try the oriental Hokkien Mee there. The texture of the noodle is thick and coated with greasy seasoning, also added with seafood and samcan chops. Definitely a great meal to end day for only MYR 45 (a big portion for 3-4 moderate servings).

Day 3: Lone wanderer in Malacca

The days ahead were pure solo traveling for me. I took off at 7 in the morning to catch the bus to Malacca, a historic state located in the southern part of Malay Peninsula. There is a plenty of bus services that depart from TBS (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan) every 30 minutes with particular operating hours. I bought a TBS – Melaka Sentral bus ticket for MYR 11.4 (including TBS Passenger Insurance Protection for MYR 0.40). The trip approximately lasts for two hours, but the seats were comfortable to sleep on so it didn’t matter. December is still on the rainy season so I was told to bring an umbrella with me in case of any drizzles, which did happen upon my arrival there.

One of the most popular tourism spots in Malacca is Jonker Street, known also as the centre of Chinatown. Although it is mostly packed in the evening for the fabulous Night Market, some shops are also open during the day to welcome local or foreign visitors. Snacks, full meals, handicrafts and souvenirs are available along the long wide alley.

This is the widely-known chicken rice ball that I tried at Famosa Chicken Rice Ball outlet. the savory rice ball cost MYR 1.20 each and tasted like the Japanese onigiri. Added with a steam otak-otak for MYR 13, they made a mouth-watering palatable lunch menu to my mouth.

In Malacca, you may discover gorgeous ancient landmarks and fortresses that spark British, Dutch and Portuguese vibes. It is a relatively small city but I only had half a day to roam around. Thus, I managed to witness several ancient churches and other buildings upon walking down the road from Jonker Street. Some buildings of walkable distance are Christ Church Melaka, St. Paul’s Church and A’Famosa Fort. No entrance fee required.

I ended my solo trip in Malacca at around 5 and went back to KL using the same means of transportation and the same bus fare as well. Upon my arrival, my local friend took me to Big Big Wantan in Damansara Uptown, Petaling Jaya for a bowl of warm wantan mee for MYR 6.5. I would say that it was one of the best wantan mee I have ever tasted with great thin mee’s texture and yummy pork dumplings, 10/10 lah.

*Not exactly a photogenic angle, if not an atrocious one, but yeah.

Day 4: A fresh start in Penang

I wanted to experience another side of Malaysia after spending some days in KL, and my choice fell on Penang, or known also as Pulau Pinang. It is a state located in the northwest coast of Malaysia Peninsula. Many people, including myself, probably have heard of Penang because of the prominent advanced hospitals. You can ride a bus, take a train or fly with a plane from KL to Penang. I flew with AirAsia airline for around MYR 80 and stayed with a host from AirBnB. It was a cozy room in an apartment located in Bayan Lepas, about 5-minute distance (by car) from Penang Airport. The rent cost about MYR 13 (including the service fee) per day. I think AirBnB does a great job in accommodating single or group travelers with clean cozy budget rooms in strategic locations of the town.

The capital city of Penang state is a city named George Town, or officially the City of Penang Island. It has it all; good signature cuisines, entertainments, night markets, malls and cultural heritages. Bayan Lepas, however, is a free industrial zone that contributes to the financial improvement of Penang as the financial centre of the northern part of Malaysia. It roughly takes around an hour or more to reach George Town from Bayan Lepas by bus. I had to go past more than 30 bus stops in order to get there, but staying close to the airport surely has its own perks.

The astounding breath-taking view from the window of my AirBnB room during the day.

And the rest of day was all about food-tasting experience.

This is the authentic hokkien mee from the Three Road 888 Hokkien Mee at Presgrave Street, George Town, and dawet cendol from the stall in front of the store. It comes with yellow noodles, bean sprouts, half a boiled egg and pork. The soup is thick and robust and everything else perfectly fits into places. 8.5/10 for me. And the dawet cendol makes an awesome fresh dessert.

There is this popular place to eat Nasi Kandar, a northern Malaysian dish that comes with well-spiced curry broth. Nasi Kandar is originally brought by Tamil Muslim traders from India that settled in Malaysia. Restoran Deen Nasi Kandar is quite well-known in George Town and the queue is crazy. I waited for around 20 minutes before being able to finally sit down and have a proper dinner. It is somewhat similar to Nasi Padang, one of Indonesia’s signature food from Minangkabau, North Sumatera. Regardless, if I have to compare the taste between Nasi Kandar and Nasi Padang, I’d say that Nasi Padang is more on the spicy side and Nasi Kandar is richer in spices. Both are delicious in their own ways. Prices are affordable depending on your choice of add-ons.

Lastly, my final culinary experience ended with a koay chap from a regular street stall in George Town’s night market. Made of hard-boiled egg, mushrooms, pork belly, pig intestines, pig skin, this is not a kind of food I would like to eat on a daily basis, but still acceptable as a culinary choice. It probably cost around MYR 10.

Day 5: A lost day in George Town

The next day was another solo adventure to George Town. Penang isn’t as advanced as Kuala Lumpur in terms of public transport, but they surely provide a lot of buses to hep people commute from here to there. However, the biggest downside of public transports in Penang is that they accept cash but do not give change. I only had the RapidKL card with me, surely non-usable to tap in the buses in Penang. There is this Mutiara card which local people use as a top-up card, just like the RapidKL card. However, I believe that it’s only applicable for locals because you need to register with your identification card. Thus, I spent lots of coins and banknotes more than I should have done because they offer no change.

Another point to note if you are about to travel around Penang by bus is to pay serious attention to the bus stops mentioned by the loud speaker or written on the screen because there slight differences might occur with the guideline written in Google Maps. One time I received quite a backlash from a bus driver for being accused as a free-loader. I initially planned to visit Snake Temple so I checked the location via Maps and even memorized the stops. Unfortunately, I missed the stop because the names of the bus stops were unfamiliar (I was sure I did check the route of the correct bus number, though). I wanted to get off soon but the driver saw my bus ticket and he thought I purposefully checked in for Snake Temple for a cheaper fare. It was indeed a baffling situation for me and I ended up putting in more coins and got off in George Town. Nonetheless, that experience left a bitter taste in my mouth.

George Town is a beautiful town surrounded by classic yet historical buildings and polished by modern infrastructures. The weather was relatively hot but also quite windy, so walking down the long street is not exactly devastating. The sky and floating clouds offered a marvelous view along the horizon. And my first quest was all about food.

I found Yeap Noodles Cafe by accident while walking down Lebuh Chulia street. This is Yeap Noodles in Herbal Soup with pork slice, crab sticks, fish ball and beancurd skin for MYR 11.9. Not aesthetically pleasing, I would say, and it tasted quite bland in my opinion. Maybe I should’ve ordered different menu like the ones with thicker broth or the fried noodles. 7/10 since I was starving at that time, but I believe that the price was quite overrated.

And of course I didn’t want to miss the view of Batu Ferringhi Beach while in Penang. It took around an hour to reach the beach from George Town by bus (I took the bus from Komtar Terminal, where nearly all local Penang buses make a regular stop). Sky was disgustingly bright and clear at that moment, definitely a great place to clear your mind and rest for a bit. They offer banana boat and parasailing activities too!

If I had to mention a recommended noodle place in Penang, this is it. Hong Kee Wan Thun Mee (also known as Hong Kee Bamboo Noodle) in Lebuh Campbell, George Town. They seriously serve one of the most authentic Chinese mee in town. Thick and chewy in texture, added with yummy dumplings on the plate. I’d give 9.5/10 on this one, really. Spent MYR 8.3 and it’s really worth-it.

In the end, my lost day was impressive enough albeit I did spend hours roaming from here to there even with the guide of helpless Google Maps, or helpless me. I walked from here to there, even went as far as visiting Batu Ferringhi Beach by myself and made an entrance only to sit on the sand for hours with blank thoughts. I was exhausted and my legs almost gave in but somehow I managed to catch the bus and rest my body for an hour before I reached the apartment by 10 PM local time. It marked my last day in Penang and I felt that time flew too fast but I was fortuitous to have seen good things, eaten good food and met good people. I believe that I have found the true joy of traveling, which is all about good experience. And although getting lost was not exactly a pleasant experience, it has told me that as alone as I might have been, I still have myself and this self will never leave me in whatever mess I have gotten myself into. And that being said, I should take a really really good care of myself, and so do you.

Day 6: A Medan day

I didn’t have a particular reason for visiting Medan other than a short escape in an unfamiliar place. Medan is merely an hour away from Penang by air transportation, so why not? Coming back to place where people speak the same language as I do after quite a long time was finally breathing a fresh air after suffocation. There weren’t many things to do other than eating good food and sight-seeing good things. I booked a room for a night with a cool budget price from AirBnB.

I found Rumah Makan Tabona upon surfing on the internet to look up iconic food and places in Medan. It was established in 1983 with curry bihun as their signature dish. I ordered curry mee and it’s heavenly-tempting and rich in taste. The curry broth surprisingly matched well with the mee and I was really in awe. 9.5/10 and I believe everyone should have a try!

In the evening, I was recommended to try Kwetiau Ateng by a friend, to which I welcomed with an open hand. I mean, who doesn’t like kwetiau and the chewy texture that digests well in your stomach?

The complete set of kwetiau dish includes fishball, lapcheong, chasio, shrimp and egg. It’s inarguably 10/10.

Indeed one of the best kwetiau I have ever had in my life. A legit 10/10!!

Day 7: A night at KLIA2

In order to fly back to my hometown, I took multiple flights as following; from Medan back to KLIA2, then KLIA2 straight to my hometown. It had been planned beforehand as I had calculated lots of different options and this one was the cheapest, if not counting the extra-baggage cost that I paid later.

I woke up quite early in the morning and prepared myself for a brief adventure before an evening flight to KLIA2. The weather was great and the sky was as clear as crystals, so there wasn’t any reason to be dispirited.

As a choice of breakfast, I tried Soto Kesawan Medan, another prominent culinary option for tourists and locals. Usually soto is served as clear chicken soup, but soto kesawan comes with thicker broth (but different from curry broth) and is served with shrimp as the main menu (but chicken is also available so you can choose anything that goes better in your mouth). Personally, I don’t find soto kesawan mouth-watering enough to be willing to come over for the second attempt. 7.5/10 is enough. Not my cup of tea, I guess.

Before my flight back, I visited a historical place named Tjong A Fie Mansion, a classic residence located in a neighborhood called Kesawan, West Medan. It is registered as a historical landmark as well as one of Medan’s cultural heritage. Entrance fee is IDR 35k including tour guide-service to go sightseeing around the two-storey mansion. Tjong A Fie is a successful Chinese entrepreneur who literally built an empire in Medan that employed over 10,000 workers at that time. He became a prominent figure of Chinese leader respected by the people.

When the time was close to a farewell, I got back to the airport and waited for my upcoming flight. It was only like a short two-hour flight that I was already back in KLIA2 at around 5 PM local time. The upcoming flight to my final destination was early in the next morning, which marked my first attempt staying out in the airport. It was bothersome, anyway, to leave the airport and commute again so early, so I’d rather hold out until the final straw. It was a brand new experience beyond shadow of a doubt. I kept walking here and there without direction like a lost puppy.

The stores inside KLIA2 generally close at midnight and reopen at dawn, but there are a few food shops that open 24/7. When I was extremely used up after a long walk, I sat down on the floor near a charging outlet so that I may recharge my smartphone. There were also people beside me who did the same so it didn’t feel weird at all. I waited for a long time trying to stay awake amidst the fatigue and cold room temperature. Finally, I visited a food shop at 3 AM named Ah Cheng Laksa to digest something warm to my stomach. The one i ordered was Asam Laksa without any meat, and it turned out to be one of the worst food I had ever had all my life.

The distateful laksa that burned down my MYR 21 huft

Didn’t know exactly how an Asam Laksa is supposed to taste, but this one definitely made me lose my appetite. Thin soup with highly sour taste, bland laksa and fresh-looking veggies. Not gonna give any score because of how bad it was, sorry.

It’s an unfortunate thing that I haven’t been able to experience the real Malaysian laksa (that fits well to my appetite) during my visit to Malaysia.

Some traveling tips which might be useful for beginners (like myself lol)

Budget airlines are not exactly budget-saving if you plan on buying souvenirs, this is the most important thing I realized after I spent extra cost on over-baggage fee on the spot, which was almost twice the regular fee. AirAsia, for example, offers super affordable airfares compared to fellow airlines. However, they don’t come with baggage facility unless you add baggage to cart during the purchase. Not necessarily making the airfare pricier, but baggage cost does make a difference, so pay attention more carefully on it.

Bring yourself an umbrella when you travel around the end of the year. It rained occasionally in December when I visited Malacca, and securing an umbrella in the bag is surely much better than spending extra cost on buying one, isn’t it? Frankly speaking, I was lucky that my host was thoughtful enough to remind me to take her umbrella when I went out.

Always prepare extra small-denomination banknotes if you plan on taking public transports. Just like what I experienced in Penang, it would become an utter hassle if you run out of money just because you spend large bill only to be notified that the bus service doesn’t provide change money.

Anyway, let’s pray that the pandemic shall end soon so that traveling and face-to-face interaction no longer become impossible and let’s not take any relationship for granted. Stay safe people!

Total budget spent: around MYR 1,400k to 1,500k

Go Backpacking: 6D5N in Malaysia It feels surreal to me that we have passed the 2010s already. Time went ahead like an express train without a single stop.

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auroargraves · 8 years ago

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band of brothers Valentine’s Day AU

since it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow so I thought why not?

winnix

okay Lewis Nixon would definitely be that Extra Boyfriend™ who goes big on everything just because it’s Valentine’s Day.

big bouquet of roses? checked.

big fluffy teddy bear? checked.

humongous heart-shaped chocolate? checked.

he knows that he doesn’t have to do all of this because what he and Dick have is more than just material possession.

but it’s nice to splurge once in a while for his husband – to be sappy without having to find any silly excuses because it is Valentine’s.

and though Dick always sighs at the extravagant spending, he still smiles softly at Lew, still takes everything with open arms; leaning in to kiss Lewis on the lips and whispering, “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you.”

baberoe

that couple who lowkey celebrates Valentine’s Day at home together because they want to enjoy each other’s company.

Gene cooks special dinner for them.

he even asks the recipe from his Mama and forbids Babe from entering the kitchen because something will definitely burn if he’s there.

so Babe waits by queuing up all the cheesy romantic movies for them to watch after the dinner.

he even builds pillow fort and wraps fairy lights all over the sofa which might be dangerous but Gene hasn’t seen it yet so he’s not gonna take it down because it’s pretty.

it’s a lowkey celebration.

a home-cooked meal made with love, and snuggling against each other underneath the warm blanket while watching The Princess Bride.

it’s simple and it’s happiness because he is with Gene.

speirton

Ron wants to book the whole fancy restaurant because 1. he has shitloads of money, 2. he wants to have a nice dinner with Carwood and no one else should interrupt their nice Valentine’s Day dinner.

except the restaurant refuses to entertain his request because Ron isn’t the only want who wants to celebrate the holiday, thank you very much.

so Ron packs an emergency basket fills with good food and even great booze and load them and Carwood in the car to go somewhere.

somewhere turns out to be that stunning place on the hill overlooking the city – beautifully lit by all the bright lights.

but for Ron, nothing is ever as beautiful as Carwood’s smile when he leans in to kiss Ron and murmuring “I love you” on his mouth.

luztoye

George owns a flower shop in the busy street business district.

he’s a certified florist with all the fancy training but he hates Valentine’s Day with passion because it’s the busiest day of the year which means he cannot take a day off to celebrate it.

he has to sort out all of the orders and arranges flowers according to the customers’ preference even when he has three workers to help him around.

honestly, all he wants to do is scream FUCK VALENTINE’S! and close the damn shop for the day but the money is good for the business so he grits his teeth and works on the bouquets.

but his boyfriend is even better.

because in the midst of people walking in to buy last minute flowers to declare their undying love for their significant others; Joe walks in with determine steps; looking all sharp in his suits, carrying two boxes of takeout from the Chinese place George loves so much.

and okay fuck the flowers because what’s the point of hiring these kids to help out if he wants to do all the work because look, Joe is here with food and he looks so good to be the dessert and these orders can wait because he has a boyfriend to make out with.

webgott

Webster always says that Valentine’s Day is a pointless day invented by big companies so the can profit from all the romantic at heart people.

“it’s not even real holiday, Lieb! but this corrupt capitalist-oriented day is celebrated worldwide and it makes single people feel bad!”

so no thanks. he will not celebrate Valentine’s Day even when he has a fiance.

he always tells Lieb that he loves him anyway and even when he doesn’t verbalize his feelings, Lieb still knows because they put with each other’s behaviors and for them that’s love enough.

“so you don’t want this?“

you guys should also know that Liebgott has made it his mission to knock off Webster from his I’m Too Good For This Shit high horse and he’s using the shark plushy as a bait by shaking the soft toy to entice his fiance.

the fucker.

Webster knows Lieb knows that he cannot say no to anything shark.

it pains him to do it but he snatches the shark plushy right from Lieb’s hand and cuddle it protectively; ignoring Lieb’s wide smirk of triumph but tilting his face up when Lieb leans in to kiss Webster softly on the mouth, murmuring “Happy Corrupt Capitalist-Oriented Day. I love you, nerd.”

#winnix #speirton #webgott #luztoye #baberoe #band of brothers #myau #HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

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pixelatedlenses · 8 years ago

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So it’s the 20th in Japan, but the 19th in America, and that means that this still counts. I hope I can accurately convey my feelings. Please understand the meaning of this, and honestly, if you have any statements of the “But Japan bombed Pearl Harbor!” or “But Japan was a colonialist country” variety, don’t comment at all. Japanese-Americans and their Diaspora are significantly different from Japan and the actions of the former Imperial Army. Japanese-Americans often fought against Japan and the former Imperial Army and definitely fought against the Axis Powers. Do not discredit that history by saying, “But all Japanese!” anywhere on my blog. Today, and this blog, are not the place to have that very important conversation concerning Japanese imperialism in China, Korea, and Southeast Asian, which yes, is very important. As a historian who focused on that very thing for their thesis, I will tell you it is necessary to engage in that conversation. There’s a lot to unpack and discuss, especially considering recent dialogue between both countries and rising tensions that stem from the 1906-1910 forced colonization of the Korean peninsula. That is something that we must discuss.

But not today, and not in this moment of remembrance.

Today is about Japanese-Americans and their respective diaspora specifically, about interment, and remembering why we cannot let another people become a scapegoat and captive in America again.

If you didn’t come here with that intent, please accept this blessing in the form it comes. Also, forgive me: this is a five page blessing that goes into a lot of discussion. The blessing’s still there, it’s just tucked between a bit of a reflection.

Some articles to read:

From the LA Times, an article about survivor and member of the 42nd Regimental Combat Team Tokuji Yoshihashi, age 94.

From CNN, an article by George Takei talking about Japanese-American interment from a personal point of view. I recommend also reading up on his play Allegiance which focuses on Japanese-interment.

From The Japan times, a general article discussing current measures to establish designated, government recognized days, and additional measures, for Day of Remembrance.

Note: These are only a few resources, but I encourage you to seek information and open dialogue to learn. We remember because we don’t want to forget horrible grievances, and learning allows us to keep from treading that ground again. Find your local Japan-America society, go to universities or Japanese Community centers, and respectfully allow yourself to be taught about this part of American history so that you can become an ally and understand a bigger picture.

Today is Day of Remembrance in memory of the thousands –tens of thousands, to the sad tune of 120,000 American citizens– . It’s the 75th anniversary, and many who lived in the camps still are alive, living testaments to racism in America that is currently seeing an ugly revival. It comes in the form of White Nationalists calling for persons of Muslim faith to be put away in camps, in anti-Semitism, in the school-to-prison pipeline that steals away innocence. It comes in racism blocking change.

As I made my commute from Minami Fukushima to the station this morning, I listened to the final chapter of Book 1 of Harry Potter on Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. It’s become something I really enjoy lately –shoutout to @hpsacredtext for such a quality product, all the way from Fukushima City, Japan– and have felt has revived my spirituality through the use of a pop culture medium being used to reflect on ourselves through religious practices.

The focus of the podcast was love, in many different forms.

I had to pause it before they got to the type of reflective practice they were going to use, and before they give a blessing to a character: both are parts of the show I rather like, and almost look forward to each listen. However, in the spirit of HP and the Sacred Text, I want to offer a blessing, in my own, small way, of love to Japanese-Americans on this day.

It is, of course, a blessing of love.

I want to start with the fact that it is, in its own right, interesting that this day comes during Black History Month. I don’t think I ever noticed this growing up because honestly, my education about Japanese persons was limited to social media and what I understood from poorly written textbooks: it wasn’t until college that I got a Big Picture education. Black persons have often been imagined to be composed of grief: a grief of a lost heritage, of a lost land, of being taken, used, called chattel, then ignorant, then colored, and now thugs, of being continuously beaten down by society so that we will settle into “our place” and one day, ascend to become good persons, productive members of society, but always remember that we’re still Black, and therefore less. It’s a quite privileged image to see a people as constantly overcoming and therefore strong: it kind of excludes the fact that many Black persons feel incredibly deep pain from that forced rhetoric.

In the words of many Black persons greater than I that have come before me, that’s some mess if I’ve ever heard it.

But above all else –above a fetishized image of the sexualize image of Black persons, above self-serving guilt about our pasts, above a month where we’re barely the spotlight– we are made of love, and that is a fact I’ll take to my grave. It is writ into the fine lines and creases on a grandmother’s face, put into her cooking and the warm hugs she offers. It is in the smiles of the multitudes of black women who are living their lives, lights up in the eyes of black men facing adversity. It is in our children who are the future, in a black child’s victory for the entire community, in a president that made it possible to have a 2nd, 3rd, 20th, 50th Black President, in a light that shines through a national community of brown and black bodies, eyes looking ahead towards an even brighter future.

I feel that the same light, the same pervasive brightness and power, is in Japanese-Americans also, because it wasn’t so long ago that we were cut from the same cloth: dangers to society, hated, and forced into captivity, made to be scapegoats for a war that wasn’t there, and forced to atone when they were American citizens. For a long time, persons of Asian Descent –Chinese persons in the 1800s, Japanese persons in early part of the 1900s, then Korean and Vietnamese persons in the latter part of the century, and now, persons in the Middle Eastern regions – have been the target of hate. This has always been alongside Black hatred: I’d dare say that the hatred of Asian-descending persons and African-descending persons almost always occurs alongside one another.

This has not changed, of course, since 1942. As my grandmother would say, the shackle’s just aren’t visible anymore, but just because you can’t see something don’t mean it doesn’t exist.

75 years may seem long, but my grandmother is 94: she saw this, and many other acts of hatred, exacted upon Japanese-Americans. She saw the One Drop Rule be extended to Japanese persons: one drop of Japanese blood, and you were suddenly the enemy. One Drop, and you needed to be contained.

(I should add that I came to realize, shortly before I left for Japan, that my grandmother is first generation also: first generation born free. Perhaps that why this day of remembering persons of captivity is so important: I’m only the third generation, and just recently –only since really, the late 1980s, but more the 1990s – got to experience what freedom with all rights attached feels like, and it’s still an ongoing struggle to keep those rights. My hope is many generations will continue to experience rights and that one day, they will be a part of their being and no blood will be shed to protect them. I will most definitely fight for that future knowing I won’t see it: it’s worth it to me.)

Sadly, she and I and many people around the world are both seeing the return of that sickening thought as it’s exacted upon persons of Muslin faith, primarily from the Middle Eastern regions. Once more, the One Drop rule is coming into play. One Drop, and you’re suddenly a terror that needs to be contained. One Drop, and you lose the right to exist as a free person, as an American. You’re labeled a threat. One Drop is enough to damn you to being exclusively bad: it’s a hideous truth that has made a return, notable especially during last year’s political race, and with the ascension of a transparent, White racist businessman bent on excluding as many “bad people” as he can.

(I even live near a former site where German-American persons were held: two places actually, one of which is a beautiful lake, the other of which held Japanese-Americans exclusively. You’d never guess that thousands of Japanese-Americans waited there, assumedly wondering why they were there and where they’d go. Texas, being a state of big empty places, is of course, riddled with former camps and forts that hold the memories of Japanese-Americans alongside German-Americans. Regretfully, little to nothing is taught in Texas schools, though with its vicious desire to repress anything that’s not family friendly, it should come as no surprise that Texas Education administrators want little to do with its continuously ugly history.)

So I want to give you a blessing.

I give a blessing to all the Japanese-Americans that will get asked, “But yeah, how much Japanese are you?” today, to the people that will get asked to read Chinese fortunes, write their friends name in kanji, read a stranger’s tattoo, or otherwise be pushed into a racist box. I give a blessing to people who are white-passing and are told it’s “cool” you’re Japanese, to Japanese-Americans who are called Chinese, to Japanese-Americans who have ever been told their lunch smelled weird, have been policed by others about how much of their own culture is theirs, have been told that they have no right to it because they’re not Japanese enough. I give a blessing to Japanese-Americans with parents from Japan who have heard teasing remarks, to Japanese-Americans who feel distance for being American and Japanese. I can’t imagine that struggle: I’ve never had to have it. But I’d imagine that it aches sometimes.

I give a blessing to older Japanese-Americans that may still struggle to love America when it betrayed the trust of its citizens. I give a blessing to all Japanese persons who lived in those camps and still say the pledge, who sing the anthem and feel pride for their country, who want to make America a place for all. I give a blessing to first generation, second generation, ongoing generations of Japanese descending persons who struggle to be mixed in a world that wants things Black and White. I give a blessing to all who are a part of the Japanese Diaspora and are proud, who need representation and work to create it, who can’t create and wish for it.

Most of all, I offer a blessing of protection in these dark times when a percentage of America wants a return to internment, wants to see groups of people labeled and placed away, partitioned off from society. I offer all Japanese persons a blessing that they never see that day again, whether for Japanese persons or for Jewish persons: for Black persons, persons of the Muslim faith, or anybody who is marginalized, brown, black, and different. I pray that your children, your families, your friends keep strong hearts and know that we will not let that happen. I do not want another Executive Order to take us back to fear mongering and scares.

We cannot let that happen again.

I give a blessing from the bottom of my heart that you’ll find what you need and feel that American is Your America through and through. I hope that you will let love in its many forms guide you, and let that keep you and let your head lay peaceful at night.

Love is what will get us through these dark times, when racism, White Nationalists, White Terrorism, and fear by all is so prevalent. Love from white allies, from Persons of Color, and for a future where Our America is a colorful tapestry of heritage, languages, culture, and representation will help to enact the change to break down racism and open up dialogue.

God be with you, and also with you. Lift your hands up and rejoice because we will all rise together. This is my blessing to you, Japanese-Americans. I see you, I hear you, and I proudly stand with you. Go forth in glory, for you’re Our America. You make up My America, a Land for All. Hate will not win when we band together. Hate cannot prevail in the face of rightful justice. Hate cannot prevail when peoples –formerly oppressed– do not let hate rise up.

Hate will not be the victor.

That is my blessing as we go forth.

Amen.

#day of rememberance #japanese-american interment #blessings #thoughts #japanese-american issues

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keywestlou · 4 years ago

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BLACK FOURTH OF JULY

Juneteenth. Never hear the word till 2 weeks ago. Already a bill being prepared for Congress to vote on to make the day a federal holiday.

Juneteenth is the special way June 19th has come to be pronounced over the years. Often described as the Black Fourth of July. It is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S.

How the day came to be.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became effective January 1, 1863. What most people fail to realize is it did not free all the slaves. It only freed those living in rebellious states. Lincoln wanted to weaken the South by freeing the slaves. Hopefully they would run away from their plantations.

June 19, 1865 is recognized as the birthday of the Black Fourth. Note the Thirteenth Amendment which freed slaves was not ratified till December 1865, some 6 months later.

Texas was the most remote of the slave states. Received Civil War news later than other states.

Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas on June 19th. They brought news that the war had ended and slavery had ended.

The blacks were jubilant. Most left immediately for the north. Traveled looking for relatives in other states.

June 19th was coined as a day of celebration. It grew in Texas in succeeding years. Then in other southern states. It became a time for the blacks to reassess each other, pray, and gather family members together.

Then except for Texas, the day began fading. Its resurgence came with the Civil Rights movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Received another significant move forward with the Poor People’s March on Washington.

In June 1980, Texas made Juneteenth an official holiday. Since then Juneteenth has experienced exceptional growth. Celebrates all African American freedom and achievement.

Most likely George Floyd’s death and that which ensued is responsible for the attention the day is now receiving. Black people want it formally recognized as their Fourth of July.

Key West is celebrating the day. Today. A Freedom March.

The March begins at 5 with speeches at the Key West Cemetery. At 6, the group will begin a march to Mallory Square.

There are some things I don’t like. They bother me.

Like tearing down Thomas Jefferson’s statue. Tearing down or vandalizing statues of other American heroes with little connection to slavery in years long prior to the Civil War.

Changing Aunt Jemima’s picture and name I find troublesome.

It has been announced that Uncle Ben’s, Mrs. Butterworth, and Cream of Wheat are rebranding in fashion similar to Aunt Jemima because of their racist origins.

Learned yesterday that many Blacks object to the use of the terms “Uncle” and “Aunt.” The words were a Southern form of address first used with older enslaved peoples, since they were denied the use of courtesy titles.

Respectfully, it seems society is going a step too far. Too much is being asked by Blacks.

An exciting week for Supreme Court decisions. Two significant ones. The first the recognition of the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender rights in the work force. The other, the DACA victory. Which blocked Trump from deporting the children brought by their parents illegally to the United States.

A significant federal court hearing at one today. Trump is seeking an emergency order to block the release of John Bolton’s book.

Justice in this case would be permitting the publication to go forward. The book was already reviewed by Trump’s people and whatever they wanted removed was removed. Now Trump at the last minute claims there are more objections.

Additionally, the book has been sent to media personnel already. By whom, I am not sure. The book’s contents have been freely discussed on news talk shows for several days. The cat is out of the bag!

Typical of Trump and his insatiable quest for personal gain, the Court is being asked that in the event it fails in its request for injunctive relief, that Trump receive a share of the book’s profits.

People are hurting. Unemployed number 46 million. And the number continues growing weekly.

Compounding the problem, many are not receiving their unemployment checks. Months late in some instances.

The reason obvious. The states have run out of money. How is this problem to be remedied?

Another example of how government cannot be relied upon in case of emergency.

Recently, I began a 3 part series. The first 3 worst hurricanes in recorded history. One left to go. The Hurricane of 10/17/10. Not today, however.

I have been researching the hurricane. Came across an item I suspect will be of interest to those of you who read the Key West Citizen.

May Johnson is the belle of 1896. A 20 year old school teacher. A major item of fun is dancing at La Brisa as many times as possible. Like several evenings a week.

Researching for the Hurricane of 10/17/1910, I came across a La Brisa item.

Someone wrote comparing it to roulette. In doing so, the 10/17/1910 hurricane was compared to the 10/1909 one of the previous year. Described as a storm of the greatest intensity.

A gambler I am not. However the term “repeater” is prevalent among roulette players. It means that a certain number will come up twice in succession 1,296 – 1 times.

The Hurricane of 10/17/1910 was considered a “repeater.”

La Brisa was a pleasure pavilion. Primarily used by the affluent. Dancing, dining, etc. It was located at the Atlantic end of Simonton Street.

Owned by the Key West Electric Company.

La Brisa was washed from its pillars and dashed to pieces. Most washed out to sea.

Rain, rain, rain. Are we having rain! Almost every day for 3 weeks. Heavy pouring rain. Strange. Not the rainy season yet.

The local feeling is coronavirus is going to strike Key West and the Keys in general soon. We came through the virus pretty much ok till recently. The numbers have started to creep upward.

The Monroe County Commission voted wednesday that all businesses must require employees and customers to wear masks. Mandated!

Any violation a civil rather than criminal one. Subjects the person to a $500 fine. Had it been criminal, the fine would have been $500 and 60 days in jail.

Not going to work!

Greece has come through the virus well. The government was tough. The people listened.

Punishment was heavy. The owner of the business was fined, not the customer, if someone was not wearing a mask. The fine $20,000.

Louis says fine the owner and make the sum astronomical as the Greeks did. Guaranteed everyone will be wearing masks!

Hurricane Irma. Almost 3 years ago. Hit 9/10/17.

People and places still hurting.

Every now and then we hear about money coming from some government source. This time $4.9 million from the Florida Historical Department to repair 3 local historical sites. The Key West Lighthouse and Keeper’s Quarters, Pigeon Key’s Honeymoon Cottage, and the Citadel at the Fort West Martello.

The coronavirus of today the yellow fever of yesterday.

On this day in 1865, the bark Adventure put into Key West. Four of the crew had yellow fever. They were taken to Marine Hospital.

The fever spread to the Army troops stationed in Key West. An epidemic began. Three hundred thirty one cases. Seventy one died.

The fever spread to the locals. The number who contracted the disease unknown.

Today, one of significance. My 100th day in self-quarantine.

Wow!

How has it been?

Not bad at all. The 100 days has swiftly gone by. I do not feel I have been inside that long. I had 2-3 days out of the 100 where I thought I was getting a bit goofy. Passed, however.

I have learned to cook a bit. My food is delivered. Needed something more than ham sandwiches. I have reached the point where I can cook some fish dishes. Two filet mignons a week. Must be careful. Overcook and the rare flavor is gone.

I do a little ironing. Not much. Where am I going?

My time has been spent primarily researching and writing. The blog takes a minimum of 5 hours a day. My tuesday talk show several hours during the week and then 5 more tuesday afternoon.

I have worked on 2 books. Never will finish them.

Read several books. Used the internet for tons of additional reading.

All kept me busy day and night. Worked for me only because I enjoyed what I was doing.

I need to talk to people. Compulsive. Thank God for the internet. I have made several new internet friends. I Skype or Facebook message with them.

You are already aware of Cathy. Cathy from Seattle. Cathy who in the 1980’s lived 3 years in Key West.

We have cocktails once a week on Skpe. Labeled Cocktails at 7. Chat about 2 hours. She imbibes. I only occasionally. Try to limit myself to Diet Pepsis.

How long more will I remain self-quarantined? For a while yet I suspect.

Key West did good coronvirus wise till recently. The numbers are creeping up, however. In 2 or 3 weeks, we are going to have some significant numbers. Key West reopened too early and tourists from the mainland began coming down. Partying without benefit of masks and social distancing.

Enjoy your day!

BLACK FOURTH OF JULY was originally published on Key West Lou

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