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[personal profile] gfrancie
I dragged the children out for shopping. The drive can be a bit winding as the roads go everywhere and the drive between our house and Barnstaple, has a habit of making the kids car sick. Miss Biscuit felt pretty awful and just before we reached our first destination she threw up. Just before she threw up I instructed Senor Onion to hand her a bag. (yeah, I keep barf bags in the back seat. I am that much of a professional.) The best part was hearing the commentary from Senor Onion. "Oh no...she is throwing up I think. Yep. She is throwing up in the bag. It's coming out. Yeah... HEY MOM, SHE THREW UP PINK!!! It's a lot of pink." I ask Miss Biscuit how she is doing. She moans a bit. I tell her it will be okay, because I have water and I will help her out. We park, she is all right and yeah she threw up a lot of pink. (She had had raspberries at breakfast.) I said we should rename the car the Vomit Comet, and the kids thought that was a riot and told Mr. Jenner the tale at dinner. The kids decided that Miss Biscuit must be a unicorn if she threw up pink. (Senor Onion asked at dinner if it was possible to fart pink. Dinner is always civilized.) Within seconds of being tidied and getting out of the car she was pretty cheerful.

Senor Onion grew out of so many things, so we re-clothed him for another day. I found a few things for Miss Biscuit, and then I found myself a simple cotton Summer dress... and a scarf. I ran into my sister in law while shopping. She had her kids, I had mine. I admired a skirt on display and said, "oh that is nice." My sister in law said, "isn't it? I am buying one." I said, "well damn, now I can't get it." She said, "Of course you can, just text me if you are wearing it, so I won't wear it." I declined to get it. I have a number of skirts and I think that skirt suits her more. We are such utterly different body types but do have merging tastes at times. I took the kids off to European Food'n'stuff. Mostly bought food, but the stuff was all right. THEN I made an executive decision. "Hey let's go to McDonalds." It was their second time to visit this little American embassy of their culture. We all had chicken nuggets, fries and something to drink. They enjoyed their happy meals, I enjoyed my milkshake and free wifi. The kids also got balloons. They were totally enamored with the experience. It is very very rare but it was mighty fun. We stopped at another store, found out that North Devon/Cornwall is not a place to find a fucking fresh artichoke. England, we need to talk about this. I know that half of you don't eat vegetables but come on, it isn't the 1970s. You have learned to handle garlic, you seem to appreciate a bit of spice, but you can't get down with steamed artichokes and aioli? What? Is it too foreign???? I have to let that out.
Then we came home, enjoyed the obscenely gorgeous day, said hello to the baby bulls living in the orchard, and ate biscuits in the garden.

I cooked up a fantastic mackerel salad for dinner I quickly sauteed some mackerel fillets with some cherry tomatoes, and then tossed that with lamb's lettuce, rainbow chard, basil, a bit of beet, and then a little olive oil and vinegar. We had that with some roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, and some steamed carrots and broccoli. ALL of the vegetables. There was cake for dessert. I made that a couple of days ago. Shirley temple cake (supposedly the child actor's favorite chocolate cake) with a cream cheese filling to kind of cut the sweetness) and a chocolate buttercream frosting.

A package from my sister arrived in the mail. A copy of Saveur (I miss that. I should subscribe again.) a PAAS easter egg kit, theo chocolate, and OMG Peanut butter. The kids and I have been discussing how we have to ration this out. We can't eat all of it at once as much as we would like to. But there will be peanut butter on toast at breakfast. I kind of want to go into the kitchen right now and eat a bunch of it.

Date: 2014-04-15 09:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] queenthesixth.livejournal.com
Miss Biscuit has my sympathies. I'm not great with winding roads either and there is one particular place we sometimes have to go to for leaders trainings that has the windiest bloody road and unless I'm sitting in the front or in the middle of the back seat where I can see out the windscreen, I get so nauseous. There is one leader who sometimes does the driving to this place and she always makes sure I'm okay when we're driving. It helps her car is quite high; it's a seven seater - she has a big family - so I can see the road quite well and I don't feel as sick when we're driving.

Date: 2014-04-18 09:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
I am like that on certain roads around here. I have to stare hard at the windshield or I will lose it. I nearly lost it once on a replacement rail bus. BLERGH.

Date: 2014-04-16 02:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cutebutpsycho99.livejournal.com
Poor Miss Biscuit. And pink barf is kind of magical.

How long of a drive is it to get stuff? I know you live in the country, but admittedly my sense of distance at times is messed up because I live so close to the grocery store, movie theater and kid's school. As well as Target and other things.

Date: 2014-04-18 09:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
Senor Onion asked if she could fart pink as well.

Hrm. Well it depends. Like if I want to just get some milk and bread, go to the butcher, mail a package I have to drive to the nearest village, and that is about 5-8 minute drive. Give or take. I first have to drive on the little country lanes before coming to an A road to get into the village. (so while it isn't that far in some ways, you can't drive all that fast.) If I desire more, that takes about 15/20 minutes. (The proper sized grocery stores, gas station, the dentist/doctor, the good bakery, book shop, drug store, library, etc. 25 minutes to the movie theater) but for significant stuff like hitting up Marks & Spencer, going to a really large grocery store/super store, Lidl, the train station, where I get my hair cut, a wider range of shops, the BIG hospital with a proper A&E for super serious stuff, then that is about a 40/45 minute drive. Which isn't super long (especially by American standards) but the road is super windy, and it is still quite a rural drive. I also live in a part of the country that is pretty far from a train station, and public transport in general is minimal. Once upon a time there was a train station that was only 15 minutes away but they got rid of it in the 60s, when some super genius thought that cars were the way of the future and fuck the railroads. But there have been some noises made by our MP about restoring some part of the line so that people don't have to travel as far. The thing is, with the closest rail station, you still have to take the train to Exeter to transfer anywhere else. So many people will drive further (about an hour or so) to the Tiverton station, because that one will get you more places with fewer transfers. Oh man, I just totally blathered about transport and driving like a fucking English person. I am going to go and eat a taco or something.

Date: 2014-04-16 12:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com
It is amazing how quickly kids recover from throwing up. The day we drove to my friend's wedding, S threw up about six or eight times and was utterly destroyed, but within two minutes of getting out of the car she was completely cheerful.

Date: 2014-04-18 09:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
Yeah, I recall being like that as a kid. Throw up like some kind of demon, and then hey let's eat some cake!

Date: 2014-04-16 10:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jillithian.livejournal.com
So what is the brand of peanut butter you dream about out in Cornwall?

Date: 2014-04-18 09:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
well it isn't so much brand but peanut butter without stuff in it. Just peanuts and salt. Not peanut butter with palm oil and sugar and whatever other weirdo stuff someone adds.
(impossible to find at times, and while I can make some peanut butter, it wears out the blades of the food processor pretty quick.)

Date: 2014-04-17 05:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ms-pooka.livejournal.com
violet just this morning was telling me how all the vomit is pink. there's a conspiracy going on there.

she also said it's made of gas.

Date: 2014-04-18 09:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gfrancie.livejournal.com
well I suppose it is easier to face if the vomit is pretty.

Date: 2014-04-20 08:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-sybil.livejournal.com
ok, so you can't get artichoke (I think they might be a seasonal thing in the UK, wait a couple months) but you *can* get mackerel fillets (which I've never seen in SoCal. To get any kind of mackerel I have to go to the Japanese supermarket two cities away). Not sure who's got the better deal, here.

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