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)

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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?

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Gender egalitarian society.

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A new type of thinking is essential if mankind

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

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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).

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A society that values women without diminishing men.

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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)

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It takes a strong back

and a soft front

to face the world.

— (Roshi Joan Halifax).

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

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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... 

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

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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.

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~ 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.

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~ 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.

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

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~ 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.

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

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~ 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.

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

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~ 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.

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~ 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).

Matcha Green Tea Dark Chocolate with French Grey Sea Salt

Food featured on Always Be My Maybe

~ Kimchi-jiggae.

~ Meat course of venison sous vide that plays with the concept of time. It comes with headphones so you can hear the sound of the exact animal you are about to consume, illustrating nature's life to death cycle.

~ Micro greens and lettuces encapsulated and served with dehydrated seaweed and dried fish flakes (what Marcus calls fish food). 

~ The body of the fish is lightly scaled as it swims collecting the particles that sheds into the ocean (what Marcus calls fish dandruff).

~ Clear asparagus soup extracted with a centrifuge.

~ All black monochrome course.

~ The flavour of Caeser salad.

~ Crystallised lavender sugar bubbles prepared by Wallace.

"The only stars that matter are the ones you look at when you dream..."

Belmont Summit Resort

~ Wedge salad with artisanal house smoked bacon.

~ Valenyagi.

~ Pleather/ vegan leather.

~ I don't eat fish. They are exotic pets in my saltwater aquarium (Tad Fairchild).

~ Sierra Belmont's engagement ring: 

12-15 carat, radiant cut yellow diamond, set on a white gold band. The centre diamond is flanked by two trapezoids on the shoulder, at .80 carats each (information provided by experts from Steven Stone).

* Most of the information was derived from the Netflix film 'Falling for Christmas' starring Lindsay Lohan *

Chung King Forest

In the 1994 film 'Chung King Express / 重慶森林' (directed by Wong Kar-Wai), there is a scene in which Faye lets herself into Cop 663's apartment and removes the labels off his many cans of 'Fried Dace with salted black bean' (豆豉鯪魚) and replaces them with 'sardines in tomato sauce' labels.

Cop 663 returns home and is enjoying a meal of instant soup noodles and what he believes to be sardines in tomato sauce. He starts wondering if it's the change of season which has contributed towards his increased powers of observation.

In the original Cantonese, he says: "連茄汁沙甸魚都有豆豉味". In the English subtitles, this sentence is mistranslated as "even sardines taste different". The actual translation/meaning is: even sardines with tomato sauce have a black bean flavour.

To be continued...

Architecture according to George Wade

"What I love about architecture is:

• Its ability to shape a community;

• Its ability to turn strangers into neighbours;

• How the right design for a park can make people feel secure;

• How a school building can be functional and beautiful so that kids feel engaged instead of imprisoned"

* Quote taken from the film: Two Week's Notice *

Veronica's Diary

Dear Diary...

Heather told me she teaches people real life. She said, real life sucks losers dry. If you want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly.

I said, so you teach people how to spread their wings and fly? 

She said, Yes.

I said, You're Beautiful...

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I want to kill and you have to believe it's for more than just selfish reasons; more than a spoke in my menstrual cycle. You have to believe me. 

Christ, I can't explain it, but I'm allowed an understanding that my parents and these Remington University assholes have chosen to ignore. I understand I MUST STOP HEATHER.

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Betty Finn was a true friend and I sold her out for a bunch of Swatchdogs and Diet Cokeheads. Killing Heather would be like offing the Wicked Witch of the West. Or is it East? West! I sound like a fucking psycho. 

Tomorrow I'll be kissing her aerobicized ass, but tonight, let me dream of a world without Heather. A world where I am free.

===

Dear Diary,

My teen angst bullshit now has a body count. The most popular people in the school are dead.  Everybody's sad, but it's a weird kind of sad. Suicide gave Heather depth, Kurt a soul, Ram a brain. I don't know what it's given me, but I have no control over myself when I'm with JD. Are we going to prom or to hell?

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Heather told everyone about Heather. Yes, Dear Diary, I've cut off Heather Chandler's head and Heather Duke's head has sprouted back in its place like some mythological thing my eighth grade boyfriend would have known about. Heather's even doing the old note trick.  

I've seen JD's way. I've seen Miss Pauline Fleming's way. And nothing has changed. I guess that's Heather's way. And Jesus, what about JD? I can't get him out of my head.  Wait...where's Heather going?

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Dear Diary – last entry. No one can stop JD. Not the FBI, the CIA, or the PTA. He once told me that the extreme always makes an impression. Well, now it’s my turn. Let’s see how the son-of-a-bitch reacts to a suicide he didn't commit himself.

* Diary entries taken from the film 'Heathers' *

La Celeste Praline Chocolaterie Artisanale

The Window Display

"On a white marble shelf are aligned innumerable boxes, packages, cornets of silver and gold paper, rosettes, bells, flowers, hearts and long curls of multi-coloured ribbon. 

In glass bells and dishes lie the chocolates, the pralines, Venus’s nipples, truffles, mendiants, candied fruits, hazelnut clusters, chocolate seashells, candied rose-petals, sugared violets...Protected from the sun by the half-blind which shields them, they gleam darkly, like sunken treasure, Aladdin’s cave of sweet cliches. 

And in the middle she has built a magnificent centre-piece. A gingerbread house, walls of chocolate-coated pain d’epices with the detail piped on in silver and gold icing, roof tiles of florentines studded with crystallized fruits, strange vines of icing and chocolate growing up the walls, marzipan birds singing in chocolate trees…And the witch herself, dark chocolate from the top of her pointed hat to the hem of her long cloak, half astride a broomstick which is in reality a giant guimauve, the long twisted marshmallows that dangle from the stalls of sweet-vendors on carnival days."

Vianne Rocher's personal favourite

Mendiants: Biscuit-sized discs of dark, milk or white chocolate upon which have been scattered lemon-rind, almonds and plump Malaga raisins.

Hot chocolate preferences

Anouk: With creme Chantilly and chocolate curls.

Vianne: Hot and black, stronger than espresso.

Josephine Muscat: Chocolate curls and Chantilly, decorated with two coffee creams at the side.

Armando and Luc: With cream and Kahlua.

Vianne's knack for guessing what people's favourites are...

~ Monsieur le Cure/Francis Reynaud: Huitres de Saint-Malo (small flat pralines shaped to look like tightly closed oysters).

~ The bitter one: zesty orange twists.

~ The sweet-smiling one: soft-centred apricot hearts

~ The girl with the windblown hair: mendiants. 

~ The brisk, cheery woman: chocolate brazils.

~ Guillaume Duplessis: florentines, eaten neatly over a saucer in his tidy bachelor’s house. 

~ Julien Narcisse: double-chocolate truffles.

~ Caroline Clairmont: cinder toffee.

~ Josephine Muscat: chocolate almonds.

~ Lucie: white chocolate mice.

~ Armande Voizin: champagne truffles.

Roux's houseboat party

~ River crayfish, split and grilled over the embers 

~ Sardines 

~ Early sweetcorn

~ Sweet potatoes

~ Caramelized apples rolled in sugar and flash-fried in butter

~ Thick pancakes and honey

~ Spiced wine, cider and apple juice.

 

~ Music: a flute and a fiddle and some drums improvised from cans and dustbins.

March

A good month with February blowing out of the back door and spring waiting at the front. 

A good month for change..

Josephine makes dinner with Vianne after leaving her husband

~ Salad of green beans and tomatoes in spiced oil, red and black

~ Olives from the Thursday market stall

~ Walnut bread

~ Fresh basil from Narcisse

~ Goat’s cheese

~ Red wine from Bordeaux.

Preparations for the Easter Chocolate Festival

~ A giant chocolate statue of Eostre with a corn sheaf in one hand and a basket of eggs in the other, to be shared between the celebrants.

~ Delicate liqueur chocolates

~ Rose-petal clusters

~ Goldwrapped coins

~ Violet creams

~ Chocolate cherries

~ Almond rolls

~ Nests of spun caramel with hard-shelled sugar eggs, each topped with a triumphantly plump chocolate hen 

~ Piebald rabbits heavy with gilded almonds

~ Marzipan creatures

~ Cakes and truffles

~ Gingerbread bells

~ Gilded pains d’epices.

Armande's 81st birthday party

Friday 28 March, Good Friday

Table setting

Damask tablecloth with a fine lace border.

    

White Limoges plates with a tiny border of yellow flowers running around the rim.

Three different kinds of crystal glasses.

Centrepiece of spring flowers.

Napkins folded neatly beside each plate. 

On each napkin, inscribed cards with the name of the guest: 

Armande Voizin, Vianne Rocher, Anouk Rocher, Caroline Clairmont, Georges Clairmont, Luc

Clairmont, Guilaaurrie Duplessis, Josephine Bonnet, Julien Narcisse, Michel Roux, Blanche Demand, Cerisette Planpon

Party Menu

St Raphaël Aperitif. 

Salted pine nuts and tiny biscuits.

Soupe de tomates a la gasconne 

served with fresh basil and a slice of tartlette meridonale.

'85 Chablis 

Lemonade

Herb salad.

Foie gras on warm toast.

Vol-au-vents.

Elderflower sorbet.

Plateau de fruit de mers with grilled langoustines, grey shrimps, prawns, oysters, berniques, spider crabs and tourteaux, winkles, palourdes and black lobster.

Lemon wedges and mayonnaise.

Mint salad.

Champagne.

Chocolate fondue with pieces of cake and fruit.

Chocolate ice-cream, truffles and coffee with a calvados chaser.

Birthday presents

A picture of a cat in a red envelope from Anouk.

A jar of honey from Blanche.

Sachets of lavender from Zezette.

A carved oak leaf with a cluster of acorns clinging to the stem from Roux.

A big basket of fruit and flowers from Narcisse. 

A silk scarf and a silver flower vase from Caro.

A red silk slip wrapped in an envelope of crinkly paper from Luc.

A small gold locket from Josephine.

* Information derived from the book 'Chocolat' written by Joanne Harris *

"We must measure our goodness not by what we don't do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude. Instead, we should measure ourselves by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include" - (Pere Henri, from the film version of Chocolat).