Wellington-on-Sea

Mr McNutt puts a positive spin on nearly everything

Ferries: it's like a boat that gives a car a piggy back.

Bridges: it's like roads that hover.

Miss Trapper

Sometimes it's helpful to be a terrifying old trout.

It's time to celebrate the wins and live with the losses.

* Information derived from 'That Christmas' aired by Netflix *

Multimedia Dinners

Amorini

Heart shaped chocolate coated in silver or bright colours.

First meal as Queen on flight to Entebbe, Uganda

Venison, duck, ham, orange sauce, boiled egg, salad, strawberries and cream.

Food for the corgis

Steak, poached chicken and rabbit.

Prince Charles' underaged drinking in Gordonstoun 

Cherry brandy.

Other foods mentioned

Porridge

Sausage and mash

Butter pats

Bottled plums

Afternoon tea

Pancakes with lemon and sugar

Other facts

King Charles loathes chocolate puddings of any kind.

Prince William had two cakes made for his wedding reception: 

• An eight tier fruitcake decorated with cream and white icing

• A cake made entirely of McVitie's chocolate biscuit

(What a Thing to Say to the Queen written by Thomas Blaikie)

Smithy's Indian takeaway order

Chicken Bhuna

Lamb Bhuna

Prawn Bhuna

Mushroom rice

Bag of chips

Keema Naan

Nine Poppadoms

Sag Aloo

(Gavin & Stacey, S3:E2)

Supper at Eric Harrison's Gloria Avenue bungalow in Van Nuys

Cashew nuts

Caviar 

Smoked salmon

Lamb

Beef

Vegetables 

At least three puddings 

(According to Miriam Margoyles in This Much Is True)

Salatim

(Laser Wolf, Philadelphia)

• Sally Albright: I'd like the chef's salad please with the oil and vinegar on the side and the apple pie a la mode. 
• 
  
• But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side, and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream but only if it's real. If it's out of a can, then nothing.
• 
  
• Waitress: Not even the pie?
• 
  
• Sally Albright: No, just the pie, but then not heated.

(When Harry met Sally)

Food/drink served at Grace de Pointe du Lac's Creole wedding

Checkered cake
Pompano fillet
Boudins
Dirty rice
Beef
Green beans
Wine

(S1:E1 Interview with the Vampire, TV series)

Daniel Molloy has a lavish meal at Louis' home in Dubai

Duck foie gras terrine, pickled fruit, roasted apple bon bon.

Ajoblanco (bread, crushed almonds garlic, olive oil and salt) and a garnish of green grapes.

Rabbit, three ways.

Debbie McGee cooks dinner for Louis Theroux

~ Apple and mushroom soup with hot bread.

~ Chicken in a marsala and mushroom sauce served with mashed potatoes, beans and carrots.

~ Banoffe pie.

Memorial meal for Jeffrey and Julia

~ Melon soup, prosciutto di Parma, mint and basil.

(Episode 2:15 The Mentalist) 

The Gardner family favourite foods

Doug/dad: Apple pie a la mode, from scratch.

Sam/son: Chicken fingers, from the box.

Casey/daughter: Bacon-wrapped figs.

(Episode 1:4 Atypical)

Christian Grey orders a drink in Georgia

Gin and tonic. Hendricks if you have it, otherwise Bombay Sapphire. Cucumber with the Hendricks, lime with the Bombay.

Christian Grey orders dinner for himself and Anastasia Steele

Two steaks, medium.

Fries.

Green vegetables.

A bottle of the Barossa Valley Shiraz.

Gunther makes dinner for Sebastian Valmont

Sweetbread mousse.

Ladies First food order

• Iceberg wedge, no blue cheese dressing and no bacon
• Bone in, ribeye rare
• Double cheeseburger with onions and the truffle fries
• Green salad

Maggie and Rose order food after a night out (In Her Shoes)

Two stacks of whole-wheat honey pancakes.

A side of bacon.

Simon and Rose have sushi for lunch (In Her Shoes)

2 x uni

1 x masago

2 x tako 

2 Hamachi

1 x Tara

What Simon and Rose plans to have at Le Bec-Fin (In Her Shoes)

• Foie gras with Roquefort-stuffed fig
• Scottish wood pigeon with cabbage and porcini cassoulet
• Chocolate mousse with raspberries and hazelnut macaroons

Gerry and Helen night out (Sliding Doors)

Large Grolsch 

Large Jack Daniels with ice

Lamb Pasanda with double tarka dahl

Anna Delvey

Salmon at Lucien

Amish Chicken at The Waverley

Du Bellay 2005

1975 Dom

1996 Chateau Petrus

June 2026 update:

Voicemails for Isabelle

Bastien a la creme.

Blue crab and corn fritters with smoked jalapeno aoili.

Chicken pot pie with cornbread crust.

Dessert tacos.

* Food mentioned in books, TV shows and films *

Conscious Uncoupling 2016

"While we still love and care about each other, we have decided to separate"  - (Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow).


"If 'A' is open to processing with 'B' then friendship with an ex will help to put a fullstop on a painful chapter." 

"Just because a romantic relationship ends doesn't mean that the other facets of your relationship have to end or, indeed, doesn't mean they can't get better" - (Chris Martin).

"People change. Feelings change. It doesn’t mean that the love once shared wasn’t true or real. It simply means that sometimes when people grow, they grow apart" (500 days of Summer).

"Our habits and energies did not align" - (unknown).

WGS84

Genuflect: Kneeling on a pew in worship.

Cicadian rhythm: Your body's natural 24 hour clock. Your wake-sleep cycle.

Proletariat: The workers of society/the working class.

Solipsism: Believing that only your mind or your views exist or are valid

"It's equal rights. I have the right to see fine in every colour" - (Mary Jackson, Hidden Figures).

"If you don't like how a sausage is made, eat it with your eyes closed" (John Shaft II).

"I'm an equal opportunities ass whooper" (John Shaft II).

"Apologising does not always mean you’re wrong and the other person is right. It just means you value your relationship more than your ego" 

- (Mike Matthews)

• "And so he told me his secret formula for happiness. Part one of the two-part plan was that I should just get on with ordinary life, living it day by day, like anyone else.

• 
  

• But then came part two of Dad's plan. He told me to live every day again almost exactly the same. The first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing

• 
  

• And in the end I think I've learned the final lesson from my travels in time; and I've even gone one step further than my father did. The truth is I now don't travel back at all, not even for the day. I just try to live every day as if I've deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life."

- (Tim Lake, About Time)

Corinthians 13:7 

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home? (Paul Newman)

The world is perfect. Appreciate the details. (Dean, The Dead Don't Die)

Contentment is the greatest wealth above all.

A monks true duty is to become a beacon of hope for others especially those who have made mistakes and have nowhere to turn.

The only thing that does not change in this world is change itself.

- (Monk Anek, Episode 'Buddha Data' from Tomorrow + I)

It wasn't a judgement. It was a comment of sincere praise.

(Yo-han, The Fiery Priest, S1:E5)

If the celestial bodies are the great universe, the world humans live in is the small universe. Each human is a star and I'm studying the stars everyday, one by one, while scanning barcodes.

(Yo-han, The Fiery Priest, S1:E7)

The bigger the star, the sooner it burns out. You're going to burn strong and long, just like a small star.

(Yo-han, The Fiery Priest, S1:E8)

A tiger that protects the King.

(Song-sak, The Fiery Priest, S1:E13)

With age, people should gain dignity, not visceral fat.

(Kim Hae-il/Father Michael, S1:E14)

You should think carefully, since you only have one canvas (when Prosecutor Park wondered if she should get a tattoo).

(Kim Hae-il/Father Michael, S1:E14)

I was just feeling the gravity.

(Yo-han, The Fiery Priest, S1:E20)

Kindness should never be against the rules.

(Father Brown, S12:E7)

My nerves are turned on. 

I hear them like musical instruments. 

Where there was silence the drums, the strings are incurably playing. 

You did this.
Pure genius at work. 

Darling, the composer has stepped into fire.

(Anne Sexton)

Watch out for love
(unless it is true,
and every part of you says yes including the toes)

(Anne Sexton)

Have nothing in your room that you do not believe to be beautiful or know to be useful.

(William Morris)

===

WGS85

Are you sure you aren’t applying 21st century standards to a patriarchal value system that was normal then but no longer informs the ethos of our society?

===

Gender egalitarian society.

===

A new type of thinking is essential if mankind

is to survive and move to higher levels - (Einstein).

===

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.Violence ends up defeating itself.

It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers - (Dr Martin Luther King Jr).

===

A society that values women without diminishing men.

===

Raise daughters to take their place as equals and feel confident, beautiful, capable, and courageous. Raise sons to love and admire their female equals -  (Maleka from Merumaya)

===

It takes a strong back

and a soft front

to face the world.

— (Roshi Joan Halifax).

===

I find social media to be a soul-sucking void of meaningless affirmation - (Wednesday Addams)

===

There's a blessed equity in the English social system that ensures the public school man against starvation

- (Captain Grimes from Decline and Fall written by Eleanor Waugh).

The above quote and the 'tempering discretion with deceit' notion reminds the Domestic Goblin of certain buffoons in the Tory party... 

===

Their democratic flavour doesn't suit my palate (Lestat, Interview with the Vampire)

===

Cyrano

Food demanded by Kirsten and Rick

~ Truffle mac and cheese, kale salad and a hamburger.

~ Seared cod, uni, buttered carrots, mashed potatoes, crispy onions rings.

~ Saffron-infused Kobe beef cooked medium rare.

Rick's favourite food

~ Filet from Ai Fiori's.

Rick hates

~ Geoff spelt with the letter G.

~ Sour cream.

Description of Kirsten

~ A stunningly beautiful woman with dark hair and a fierceness thats both scary and inspiring.

Kirsten's favourite food

~ Green curry, medium spicy from Thai Leaf on Broadway.

Kirsten's favourite place

~ Squam Lake in New Hampshire.

* Post inspired by the film Set it Up starring Lucy Liu as Kirsten and Taye Diggs as Rick *

28 April 1876

Is it your habit, sir, to simply enter a conversation without introduction?

The meal is the result of reflection and study. Menus are prepared in advance and timed to perfection. It is said without the culinary arts, the crudeness of reality would be unbearable.

You shake and shake the ketchup bottle. None will come and then a lot'll.

Perhaps one day when you have awoken from a pleasant slumber to the scent of a warm brioche smothered in marmalade and fresh creamery butter, you'll understand that life is not soley composed of tasks, but tastes.

Do you require a chaperone? His intentions are obvious.

If we were courting, as a matter if honour, I would have informed you of my intentions in writing.

I warn you scoundrel, I was trained to ride at the Kings Academy and schooled in weaponry by the palace guards. You stand no chance. When you run, I shall ride. When you stop, the steel of this strap will be lodged in your brain.

Basement at the Louvre; unspoiled by dilettante.

Merry Andrew.

No one wants to be romanced by a buffoon.

You admired her but hesitant to make an overture since you were told she was courting another.

Overture: make your intentions known. Think of pleasing her, not vexing her.

Some feel, that to court a woman in ones employ is nothing more than a serpentine effort to transform a lady to a whore.

No, not a serpent. That's too grand a word. Simply a braggart and a cad.

Dearest Catherine,

I behaved as an imbecile last night. Animated in part by drink, in part by your beauty and in part by my own foolish pride. For that I am profoundly sorry. Please accept as a gesture of my apology, a private dinner on the rooftop tonight at eight o'clock.

Orange lily implies hatred.

Lavender implies danger.

Begonia implies uspicion.

Amaryllis or cabbage rose declares the recipient a most splendid beauty.

You've made an impression on me.

Nine-grain toast with strawberries and mascarpone.

* Quotes taken from the film: Kate & Leopold *

Tom's December Holiday Events

~ Prep and decorate @ Lisa's

Tree time!

~ Decorate the tree

~ It's a Wonderful Life screening, 7pm

~ A Christmas Carol @ Arts Centre

~ Ice sculpture contest

~ Dinner @ my place

~ Reindeer petting farm

~ Tree lighting

~ Take Ella to see 'Santa' at the Mall 

~ Christmas trivia at Irish Pub

~ Cookie bake-a-thon

~ Evening sleigh ride

~ Christmas carol sing-a-long

~ Help Ella make cardboard sled

~ Ice skating

~ Office Christmas party

~ The Nutcracker

~ Ella's cardboard sled race

~ Light ride

~ Dinner at Lisa's

~ It's Christmas!

"It takes faith to believe in the unknowable" (Tom)

"I'd rather be wrong having faith in something wonderful than wrong because I didn't have any faith" (Tom)

" The only difference between religion and Santa is that as we get older, religious grownups tell us that our faith was right all along. But they don't have proof either. They just tell us that the stories we believe are true. But with Santa, the grownups are there to tell you that the stories are not true" (Assan)

* Information taken from 'I Believe in Santa' * 

Antique Advent Calendar

1) Boots

2) Christmas tree

3) Nutcracker

4) Candy cane

5) Ice skate

6) Reindeer 

7)  

8)

9) Caroler 

10)

11)

12)

13)

14) Christmas wreath

15) Three wise men

16) Christmas hat

17) 

18)

19)

20)

21)

22)

23)

24)

25) Snowflake

527 Main St

Christmas 8pm

* Information taken from the film The Holiday Calendar *

The Many Names of Huang Qing Shin

My name is Santa and I own a year-round Christmas shop.

My name is Kitty and I work at a pet shop.

My name is Miso and I work at a health food shop.

My name is Muffin and I work at the bakery on Edgeware Road.

* Information taken from the 2019 film Last Christmas *

We're Going to The Winchester!

Shaun's original plan:

• We take Pete's car
• We drive over to mums
• We go in
• Take care of Phillip
• Then we grab mum
• Go over to Liz's place
• Hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for all this to blow over

However, Ed does not want to stay at Liz's place. If they hole up, he wants to:

• Be somewhere familiar
• Know where all the exits are
• Be allowed to smoke

Shaun's revised plan:

• Take Pete's car
• Drive over to mums
• We go in
• Deal with Phillip
• Grab mum
• Go to Liz's, pick her up
• Bring her back here, have a cup of tea and wait for all this to blow over

Then they realise their home is not exactly safe.

Where's safe? Where's familiar? Where can Ed smoke?

The final plan:

• Take car
• Go to mums
• Kill Phil
• Grab Liz
• Go to The Winchester**
• Have a nice cold pint and wait for all this to blow over

How's that for a slice of fried gold?

We're coming to get you, Barbara!

Shaun's survival team:

Liz (his girlfriend)

David (friend of Liz)

Dianne (friend of Liz)

Barbara (Shaun's mum)

Ed (Shaun's friend)

Yvonne's apocalypse group:

Declan (her boyfriend)

Mark (her friend)

Maggie (her friend)

Yvonne's mum

Cousin Tom

* Information/quotes derived from the 2004 film: 'Shaun of the Dead' - part one of the Cornetto Trilogy *

** Please note that the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces and places of work did not come into effect in the UK until July 2007 **

Gird Your Loins!

Miranda Priestly quotes from the film adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada

~ I don't understand why it's so difficult to confirm an appointment.

~ Details of your incompetence do not interest me.

~ I asked for clean, athletic and smiling. She sent me dirty, tired and paunchy.

~ I don't want dacqouise. I want tortes filled with warm rhubarb compote.

~ Is it impossible to find a lovely, slender female paratrooper?

~ That's all.

===

~ So you don't read Runway and before today you have never heard of me. And you have no style or sense of fashion. No, no. That wasn't a question.

===

~ Is there any reason why my coffee isn't here? Has she died or something?

~ I need 10 or 15 skirts from Calvin Klein.

~ Please bore someone else with your questions.

===

~ Where's that piece of paper I had in my hand yesterday morning?

===

~ Why is it so impossible to put together a decent run-through?

~ Why is no one ready?

~ You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and select that lumpy blue sweater because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean.

And you're so blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Rental did a collection of cerulean gowns and then it was Yves Saint Laurent who showed cerulean military jackets. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers and then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled down into somebtragic Casual Corner, where you no doubt fished it out of some clearance bin.

However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you hy the people in this room from a pile of stuff.

===

~ I thought you could be different. I said to myself, go ahead, take a chance. Hire the smart, fat girl.

===

~ Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.

~ Perfect. Thank God somebody came to work today.

~ Only when the first assistant hasn't decided to become an incubus of viral plague.

===

If I see freesias anywhere, I will be very disappointed.

===

~ Of all the assistants I've ever had, Andrea was by far my biggest disappointment. And if you don't hire her, you are an idiot.

===

~ I don't understand why it's so challenging to get my car when I ask for it.

~ Go.

Bonus quotes from other characters:

Fashion is not about utility. An accessory is merely a piece of iconography used to express individual identity - (Doug).

Corn chowder. That's an interesting choice. You do know that cellulite is one of the main ingredients in corn chowder - (Nigel).