Dream Of The Shore Near Another World

I shared my Viennetta with some of the 4A girls last night, and with Aishia, and it was a lovely dessert experience. Apparently I'm not the only person with childhood memories of this most unique ice cream, and it was interesting the way that this simple food brought up all sorts of memories and stories. More evidence toward my theory that eating is one of the ultimate social experiences.
Of course, that's also the way I grw up, isn't it? Unless it was a meal in front of the TV or something, mealtimes were when we did the most talking, the most interacting with each other. Meals were also the central aspect of larger family gatherings, too. Holidays, reunions, weddings, funerals - almost all of them have a big planned meal or potluck involved. Plus, cooking can be very rewarding. I, for one, really like being able to create something and then share it with the people I care about. Despite their simplicity, that's one of the disadvantages to TV dinners; you can't really share them (and they're often not worth sharing in the first place). On the other hand, as rewarding as cooking can be, I still despise having to clean up. And because of the condition in which our kitchen usually is, if I do clean stuff up, I usually end up cleaning more than my fair share. That's almost enough to put a person off from cooking altogether. But what's the alternative, eating every meal out? Sheesh, that gets expensive (and a little repetative, since there are only so many restaurants in the area that are cheap enough for me to eat at). Maybe I'd be willing to reconsider that position if there was an Elizabeth's and a Monterey across the street. But that's about all that would make me reconsider.
I don't think I'm the only one who lives by the whole food-social connection. At Hammersmith they're kind enough to serve refreshments (coffee, tea, and biscuits) after meeting, and I had a very nice conversation with a man named Simon over tea today. He told me a little about the history of the meeting (apparently their original meetinghouse was down by the river, but got bombed out during WWII, and the government turned the land into a park. In return, they built them a new meetinghouse on a small plot of land, and that one's been operational since about '55), a little about current events (apparently the company that owns Tesco is petitioning the Hammersmith town council to buy that entire block so they can open a new supermarket, and many of the residents and the meeting members understandably don't like that!), and some things in general.

There was an anti-war protest outside the Labour Convention in Manchester yesterday. I had planned to go to it for a while, but decided not to at the last minute, and I'm kind of glad that I didn't. Apparently things got a little...tense. Mr. Tony Blair was speaking at the conference (understandable, since he's still the Labour leader right now), but his very own sister-in-law was amongst the protesters. She did a short interview on TV, and she had some very forward things to saw about Mr. Blair. Yikes....


This afternoon will probably be mostly for studying for my Islam midterm and watching TV (I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous but TV-watching is part of my homework for my Media class, and I've been neglecting it pretty badly). Later me and Chelsea are gonna go out and find some ice cream. That'll be a nice break.

P.L.U.&R., mates!