Love is Triumphant
Jan. 23rd, 2016 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyYour regularly scheduled finger update: Today I noticed a funny little red bead growing under the cuticle, so I showed it to my mother who declared it to be "proud flesh". Don’t google to check she didn’t just make that up if you want to sleep tonight. It’s quite common in horses, apparently, judging by the number of images. That said, the soreness does seem to be localising again, back where the original lump was, so maybe whatever splinter caused it is still in there and is having another crack at bursting out? One can but hope.
This summer, the City by the Sea has gone crazy for outdoor markets. We can’t get enough of them. We had an artists’ market in the old clothing factory gardens and craft markets on the green before Christmas, and now we’re having evening markets at Lake Pertobe every Friday in January. Lake Pertobe is a giant playground behind the foreshore, so there are lots of tourists at the market. The straw hat stands were doing a roaring trade last night. Every single person on the beach today must have been wearing one.
I actually went to the market last Friday, and it was so good that I took my mother this week. I lured her with the promise that there was a food area with more than just the usual junk food stalls; actual restaurants had set up food vans. My mother allowed that she might be interested in purchasing some nice food to take home, rather than eating it in the street like riffraff.
It rained yesterday morning, and as we walked past the foreshore carnival they were getting the rides ready by running them all empty to get the water out of the seats. Imagine sheets of water pouring out of this thing. We also walked past a couple of policemen doing a casual foot patrol around the market. One said about the stallholders, "How much of this do you reckon they put on their books?" and the other one said, "We’re not here for tax". The City by the Sea’s finest. A bit later, I heard the first policeman say to a woman selling lavender products, "Big crowd tonight. Trade good?" and she said yes, it wasn’t bad, obviously pleased that this friendly young policeman was taking an interest, completely unaware that he was considering her a potential tax dodger.
My mother chose to buy her meal from the Thai van, and she came back thrilled, because the woman who runs the Thai restaurant was a friend of my great-aunt Claire (the one who died a few weeks ago) and my mother had met her recently visiting Claire in the hospital. "So she gave me a free curry puff!" (She let me have a bite; it was a good curry puff.) The man who runs the gourmet fish and chippery puts away the gourmet fish and chips on special occasions and runs a Genuine Sri Lankan Curry van. So that’s what I had. Just to show what a small place the City by the Sea is, in case you haven’t guessed that by now, the gourmet fish and chip shop man is married to Angela’s sister-in-law. They were busy, so I didn’t get a chance to ask after Angela, sorry. I know her fans will be disappointed.
Thwarting my mother’s plans to go home and eat, the food was in lidless containers, so she agreed that a picnic by the lake would be all right. And it was. We watched the ducks being supremely unconcerned by the pedalos (or pedaloes, like tomatoes?). We also watched people queuing at the food vans. The Just Chips van was popular (guess what it sells!), as was the Squid and Chips van (menu: calamari rings, chips, egg and bacon rolls). Far and away the most popular stand was the Original Korean Potato Stick van, which sells potatoes on sticks. I’ve never had one, but they do look good. (I didn’t see the other staple van that is usually at these markets: the Arguably The Best Baked Potato And Rice Cakes In The World van.) What I take from that is that if you are thinking of starting a food van, you can't go wrong with potatoes. People love potatoes.
Then we treated ourselves to a double ice-cream from the Timboon Gourmet Ice-Cream van (salted caramel and vanilla for me; passionfruit and chocolate for my mother) and went home.
This summer, the City by the Sea has gone crazy for outdoor markets. We can’t get enough of them. We had an artists’ market in the old clothing factory gardens and craft markets on the green before Christmas, and now we’re having evening markets at Lake Pertobe every Friday in January. Lake Pertobe is a giant playground behind the foreshore, so there are lots of tourists at the market. The straw hat stands were doing a roaring trade last night. Every single person on the beach today must have been wearing one.
I actually went to the market last Friday, and it was so good that I took my mother this week. I lured her with the promise that there was a food area with more than just the usual junk food stalls; actual restaurants had set up food vans. My mother allowed that she might be interested in purchasing some nice food to take home, rather than eating it in the street like riffraff.
It rained yesterday morning, and as we walked past the foreshore carnival they were getting the rides ready by running them all empty to get the water out of the seats. Imagine sheets of water pouring out of this thing. We also walked past a couple of policemen doing a casual foot patrol around the market. One said about the stallholders, "How much of this do you reckon they put on their books?" and the other one said, "We’re not here for tax". The City by the Sea’s finest. A bit later, I heard the first policeman say to a woman selling lavender products, "Big crowd tonight. Trade good?" and she said yes, it wasn’t bad, obviously pleased that this friendly young policeman was taking an interest, completely unaware that he was considering her a potential tax dodger.
My mother chose to buy her meal from the Thai van, and she came back thrilled, because the woman who runs the Thai restaurant was a friend of my great-aunt Claire (the one who died a few weeks ago) and my mother had met her recently visiting Claire in the hospital. "So she gave me a free curry puff!" (She let me have a bite; it was a good curry puff.) The man who runs the gourmet fish and chippery puts away the gourmet fish and chips on special occasions and runs a Genuine Sri Lankan Curry van. So that’s what I had. Just to show what a small place the City by the Sea is, in case you haven’t guessed that by now, the gourmet fish and chip shop man is married to Angela’s sister-in-law. They were busy, so I didn’t get a chance to ask after Angela, sorry. I know her fans will be disappointed.
Thwarting my mother’s plans to go home and eat, the food was in lidless containers, so she agreed that a picnic by the lake would be all right. And it was. We watched the ducks being supremely unconcerned by the pedalos (or pedaloes, like tomatoes?). We also watched people queuing at the food vans. The Just Chips van was popular (guess what it sells!), as was the Squid and Chips van (menu: calamari rings, chips, egg and bacon rolls). Far and away the most popular stand was the Original Korean Potato Stick van, which sells potatoes on sticks. I’ve never had one, but they do look good. (I didn’t see the other staple van that is usually at these markets: the Arguably The Best Baked Potato And Rice Cakes In The World van.) What I take from that is that if you are thinking of starting a food van, you can't go wrong with potatoes. People love potatoes.
Then we treated ourselves to a double ice-cream from the Timboon Gourmet Ice-Cream van (salted caramel and vanilla for me; passionfruit and chocolate for my mother) and went home.