The Band Gazebo

Adventures in cooking continue… Abigail made more plum jam at the weekend, this time using a sugar thermometer. We thought it might be too runny but we trusted the equipment and lo and behold, perfectly set jam! That also tastes amazing. And passed the Mammy/Nanny test so yay! She also decided to make lemon drizzle cake on a rainy Monday and oh my lord it was the nicest thing I’ve eaten in ages. Anyone who tried it said the same. She was delighted.

She also had fun with Grandad and went out with him to buy an apple tree for the back garden. (Their back garden, as in my home house back garden, not the house I live in currently). Which was duly planted and then Dad got an idea. Why not pull down the rotten trees on the property line between our house and my uncle’s next door (they’ve been in flitters since an unfortunate bonfire incident about twelve years ago and oh boy is that a whole ‘nother journal entry) and put apple trees in their place? Long story short, five more apple trees are being delivered tomorrow. Abigail is delighted. Mam thinks we have all lost our minds. Considering Abigail spent a fair bit of today driving Dad’s ride on lawnmower, I’m not sure she’s wrong, but at least she’s happy!

And in fandom news, my copy of “What’s Next” The West Wing book written by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack arrived on Tuesday. It is almost 600 pages of behind the scenes anecdotes (seriously, it’s huge!) and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I’m enjoying it so much that I feel a rewatch coming on. Himself has never seen an episode - I know! - and I’m almost nervous to show it to him because if he doesn’t like it, I will simply have to divorce him. We shall see.

Dad got another batch of plums off the tree yesterday which lead Abigail to ask the question, "What else can we make with plums, Nanny?" Mam duly suggested plum crumble, possibly because Abigail's apple crumble is the food of the gods (seriously lads, this home ec business is great) so that is what was done this afternoon. Crumble was duly taken over to my parents' house this evening and devoured with gusto by all. Abigail was delighted!

Have also spent more time looking at the Olympics - Noah Lyles ran the 200m with covid? *shakes head* I do not get that at all. I don't know how he did it, I don't know how he was allowed to do it and I'm furious that it was allowed to happen. What happened to isolating when you know you're infected?

Abigail and I sat down for most of the morning and looked at the final day of Olympic gymnastics. Wow, was that a mistake. Well, not entirely, there were some great moments. But there were so many women falling off the beam (on the same spot) that I was having Sydney 2000 vault flashbacks and the high bar was not a whole lot better - so many missed catches and four (?) falls on landings where the landings looked fine but then they pitched forward when they hit the mat … Rhys McClenaghan was on twitter saying to check the height of the bar so it wasn’t just me wondering!

But then Alice D’Amato won a surprise beam gold after being fourth twice, keeping her balance when all around lost theirs. And Rebeca Andrade won the floor for a much deserved gold medal, and Jordan Chiles and her inquiry lifted her to a bronze and her reaction and Simone hugging her was delightful. And then the two of them kneeling before Rebeca on the podium was so sweet. The ladies have been so supportive of one another and so much good sportsmanship on display, it’s been a pleasure to watch.

Then tonight we watched the athletics. Mondo duPlantis having won the gold already at 6.10m decided to go for 6.25 to break his own world record, just for the craic, and made it. And then we had some surprising skin in the game because it turned out the British girl, Keely Hodgkinson, who was the favourite for gold, races for Leigh Harriers. “Leigh?” says Abigail, because that is where Himself used to live and sure enough, a quick Google reveals that Leigh Harriers are based in Leigh Sports Village, right beside the Holiday Inn where we stayed for a week last month, and around the corner from the Whistling Wren, the pub where we had some meals (currently busier than usual, watch party anyone?)So then we had to shout for her like she was one of our own and she won! Fingers crossed we will get to do the same for Rashidat Adeleke in the 400, she looked good in her heat today!

Despite my best plans, Himself coming down with bronchitis on the bank holiday weekend, necessitating a trip to the out of hours doctor meant I couldn’t sit down and watch the Olympics as planned. I know the vault results and am about to sit down and watch it now, but I did get to see the pommel horse live which, let’s face it, with Rhys McClenaghan going for gold, was the big one for me. ( “spoiler )

In other news, myself and Abigail attempted plum jam this evening! We shall see how it tastes tomorrow. I’m slightly worried it may set a bit too much… it was very runny til it wasn’t but fingers crossed!

1st of August seems like a good time to try to get into the habit of coming on here again... not crossposting to LJ because that truly seems to have gone the way of the dodo, but we shall see...

I spent much of this afternoon/evening watching Simone Biles try her very best to give us all heart failure with the Olympic gold medal. ( Let's see if I remember how to spoiler tag )

I saw on twitter that Francine Pascal, creator of the Sweet Valley High books passed away. Those books were a huge staple of my teenage years, I devoured them. I think I might still have some up in the attic somewhere. This is a really good interview about how she came up with the series and how they were written.

Not had too many writing wins this year but allbingo had a drabble challenge (for fills of 100-500 words which is not a drabble but I digress) and I decided to make my life a little harder by ensuring all my fills were on either hundred or the fifty word count. I got a blackout on a 5x5 card by the skin of my teeth so yay me!

Links are I hope under the cut… fandoms are Law and Order SVU, RFDS, Magnum PI (2018), FBI/NCIS Los Angeles crossover, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist

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I got a lovely comment this morning from someone who had read one of the old fics that I posted to AO3 back when the rumour was going around that LJ might be disappearing from the internet, which reminded me that there were about 20 drafts that were going to die come Sunday so I sat down and tided and posted them. And then I noticed that there were certain pairings that were missing stories, so I tracked down my AU100 table and found more stuff that apparently I posted to that comm, but not on my LJ because apparently crossposting must not have been a thing for me? IDK. So I imported a whole load of those too. And then I remembered other stuff up on LJ that didn't get moved over so that's on my list for tomorrow!

This is to say, basically, that anyone who gets about 50 backdated notifications from me? I'm so sorry!

I wrote this for tumblr earlier today which is where most of the NCIS/Ellick fandom appears to be, but I find tumblr a hell site for being able to find anything so I’m also posting it here.

There are spoilers for the finale that aired in the states last night, although I’ve not seen the full episode and am going from reviews and one particular scene that’s been posted to tumblr and Twitter. It also contains a very brief reference to NCIS Los Angeles and their finale from Sunday night.

( “spoilers )

Name: helsinkibaby
Fandoms:  The Mentalist, NCIS Los Angeles
List of Prompts:  AU: Fantasy, Future Fic, Seinfeldian Conversation, Inspired by Poetry, In Another Man’s Shoes
Link to Card: My Card
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. 
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For some reason my lj is not showing up on the iPad as the custom journal I’ve had forever and a day? And now I have the ugly as sin generic one? I’m logged in and when I check the settings and go to customize it says that I’m using the customised view... any one else having this issue?