Anyway, 'tis Halloween! Time of celebration, so without further ado...
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| Week 44. |
On Monday I went to class as usual, soon to be not the usual, sad. I lied on last week's post because this was actually my last visit to the cafe. I sat outside with some other people, it was cold as fuck and I should have really gone indoors. I stayed there as long as possible anyway before heading to class. All went as usual, so, it went well. As soon as I got off the train I went to the supermarket and picked up a bunch of ingredients to make raspberry streusel cupcakes.
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| Farwell...! |
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| Meanwhile, at home. |
I began the cooking and something went wrong because these little fuckers tasted weird and did not peel from the paper cups even though I buttered the hell out of everything. So disappointed!! I made a back up batter in like the middle of the night.
Woke up very early on Tuesday and went to the corner store and got white and milk chocolate and crumbled it into the batter from last night. These muffins/cupcakes turned out way better but I was just so annoyed that the previous batch was such a disaster. I packed everything up and grabbed some tea bags with me too. I went on my merry way when I realized I forgot literally all the snacks at home and sprinted back but luckily my mum met me half way and handed me the snacks, I made it to the train. No pics because this was a major culinary fuck up, I was so ashamed I did not even think to photograph them.
I spent the time before class in the main park one last time for a while. I actually didn't forget my camera this time and took some pics of the autumnal trees. All the fallen leaves looked very cool in the fountain and the camera seriously gives the photos so much more flavour.
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| Crispy leaves and icy waters! |
I came into my last class. We did a little work but we spent most of the class signing documents with Aicha. She read out final notes she wrote about me and Hamza to us. It was very encouraging and heartwarming. As usual, I felt my ego a little too inflated! Everyone had a muffin and tea which was great because I was worried no one would be interested. It was a great day for all that because literally everyone was shivering and shaking. As my time for the train was approaching I said goodbye to everyone and they all wished me luck. It was sweet, I'll really miss my classmates but since we all live in the area I hope we'll see each other out there.
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| Goodbye! |
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| Maria made me this gift: the rainbow beads keychain! |
At home I was pretty exhausted but we still played some video games. I went to bed pretty early because we are going daytripping to Bordeaux tomorrow! We haven't been anywhere as a whole family in a while so I was excited. Also, we'd have lunch at IKEA and get some stuff: I really need some boxes for my pants, they totally do not fit in the dresser. It's a cute dresser but it's not very big.
We took the 9AM train to Bordeaux, it was chilly but probably too warm for the jacket I brought with me. Curse my bad weather estimation. Our first stop was the Asian store for some snacks. I also dropped by the record store and found Bloc Party's Intimacy and a cute pen at Flying Tiger. We went straight to the Museum after that. Here's some pieces I really liked, though I forgot to record who the artists were...
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| The main collection. |
A lot of the Bordeaux tram line was closed down so we had to walk to Quinconces, from where we took a working tram to IKEA. We went straight to the cafeteria, I usually get meatballs and veg or fries but this time I got salmon. Regret, it was not that good. I always also get a lingonberry drink and a cinnamon roll. We all ate a lot and so we decided to keep desserts for after shopping. We left my brother in the cafeteria with a cinnamon roll, two chocolate cakes, a pink cake, a cheesecake, and a canele. Motherfucker looked like he was doing a mukbang. We joke but he could really eat all that, he is insane.
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| Attack! |
I got the cutest candle ever and those boxes that I needed, made a post about it on finnymemo. Later at the station, I went to the HEMA and bought some notebooks. The cashier was super friendly and complimented my wallet but I was so wooden I think I weirded him out. Poor guy.
On the train ride back I finally finished the Jason Molina biography, Riding With The Ghost by Erin Osmon. I knew how he died but there isn't too much online about the days, months, even years that led up to it like the way it's in the book. Very painful.
On Thursday the work began. We know a guy though friends who runs a kiwi farm and it was the season of kiwi harvesting. It's not a huge plot but still pretty sizeable. We met up early at 8:45 or so with him, his family, and some others he hired to pick kiwis. It was very hard work but not for the reasons I expected: so you basically reach low and high for the kiwis but they pop off easy, you just need to only collect the good ones and place them in a bucket, then you gently pour them out into these big crates that a tractor driver's slowly driving through the row of kiwi plants. My back and arms felt totally fine even after like 4 hours of uninterrupted labour but my legs hurt bad. I probably need to see a doctor about it because my flat-footedness is really achey.
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| Day 1. |
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| Me and my mum. |
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| This trail looked so cool with the moon! |
I also got stung by nettles at every damn step. I got a nettle to the face! Where I grew up at my grandma's, there were nettles everywhere so I'm no stranger to them but coupled with my recent random allergy to some unknown plant I was really crawling out of my skin.
We got an hour long break and sandwiches for lunch that the farm owner provided, it was super nice. We even got to order a preferred sandwich and drink for the 2nd day, everyone chose tuna. I didn't know that many people love tuna. I talked to the guy's kids, kids in the sense that they are related to him because they are 30 and 25 respectively. They all used to live in China too so that was cool to reminisce about. The son who's 30 is starting his education again at a nursing school and he was a bit awkward about starting so late but I think it's totally normal, we had 30 year olds in our program. Plus nursing school is like an undeniably good career path. His daughter just finished her psychology master's and we also met her friend who's in hospitality.
We wrapped up at 5:30 on the first day and it was good to get home. Monique dropped us off and came in for a little wine and snacks, she also had a good work day. We played a little Diablo III and went to bed pretty early because tomorrow was gonna be busy too.
Halloween morning we were dressed up as farmers because on that day we were farmers. We continued clearing the rows and this time I got fully wrapped up to avoid the nettles, this is when I got slapped in the face by a nettle, the only place I left uncovered. Dammit. We got to ride on the tractor though and that was awesome.
The most tedious part was going back to the rows we already did to find stray kiwis. That was hard, the rows are really long and you're hauling your bucket solo, no more tractor. However, when you're in a row all by yourself where all you can see are the kiwis and the net above and the ends of the rows are so far that the rows seem like an endless maze, it's a little magical. Weird.
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| This bastard...! |
The good thing was we finished early, maybe about 4PM. The farm owner very kindly dropped us off at home and we even got four crates of ugly kiwis for free: 2 for us and 2 for Monique! I took a deep shower, got all the random leaves out of my hair. My sister was already midway through costumes, she was still debating between vampire and werewolf (oh, Twilight). I started doing my make up while my brother was playing Amped 3. Trick or treaters kept coming over and I either greeted them with half my make up on or my brother would with his gas mask which legitimately scared some kids.
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| He just looks like a burglar. |
Most of the kids were very sweet and humbly took a candy each and I encouraged them to take a little more. There was only one set of rude kids who took too much, one kid didn't get any so I brought out some extra for him. At the end of the night a very small girl came by and I was biased and I gave her the most candy. She also pet Simona and told me a long story about some cat I did not personally know who looks exactly like our cat apparently. Nothing more entertaining that a small child going on a tangent with you like they know you for years.
First we dropped by the town theatre to see what they cooked up, there were some fun things going on like some kind of gaming set up and trampolines but since we arrived late most kids were already gone. There was also the classic haunted garden, but this time with actors!
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| RPG-ass character creation menu. |
We walked to McDonalds which is not really close to our house at all, that was a choice after the day we had. But my sister really wanted to go so we did. When we finally got home, everyone dropped on the couch and we pulled up some Dead Space at last. However... because I was running the BadUpdate exploit off of an ancient 2009 drive... it didn't load the levels right. I was so upset and totally fatalist about it but fixed it later by just putting it onto a new USB instead. So since Dead Space didn't work we finished Over The Garden Wall, one of my favourite series ever. I still remember when it was just airing, it was really special.
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| An attempt was made. |
Saturday was crazy too. We accidentally hosted a huge dinner. At first it was supposed to be Soam and her mum only. But I also invited Tom and he asked if his mum can come and we said sure. But then if we invited Tom's mum we had to invite Audrey because they're good friends and her son Artur. And Audrey wanted to bring her boyfriend. But then Tom's mum said she couldn't come! It was crazy.
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| Halloween deco stays ON. |
We prepared everything for the dinner and picked out some games to play with Soam, Tom, and Artur. Everyone trickled in slowly and we all had lasagna after which the adults all chatted away while us, sort-of adults, and the kids had fun with Blur and Modern Warfare. Obviously Soam and Artur first made their Xbox guys. Tom stayed really late and we played some Skate 2. He was bitching about how ugly the Skate 2 guys were and well, not everything is Final Fantasy and cute, okay?!
Sunday I think I just melted. Total decompression from this week. It was pretty wild. I packed my stuff for the unemployment office on Monday and fixed our broken bathroom door lock sort of. We spent most of the day lazing about, just playing a little Dead Space and such.
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| End of the week, end of the month! |
This Week I'm Excited For...
Again, excitement isn't exactly the right word but I'm anticipating my meeting with France Travail and whatever that will mean for my future. Hope's are not up, expectations are low but still. Excited to be paid for our kiwi-related labour however.
Song Of The Week...
In honour of Jason Molina, thought this is not the month of his death or birth, I would like to present you with one of my favourite tracks of his. It's impossible to pick only one song of his, or even one album. There are almost no bad tracks. But if I have to go by what I'm feeling in the moment, I have to pick No Hand Was At The Wheel from Autumn Bird Songs from his late solo work. The actual songs were recorded much earlier when he just cancelled his tour with Will Johnson in 2009 but the album was released in 2012, a year before he died. He was suffering a lot during this time, living alone and still drinking into death. Didn't know him obviously, but he haunts this place too.
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