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A Meal of Pastries

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Our first guests are arriving in about a minute, and Cléo and Cyril clearly need some time to collect before they spend time with anyone who isn’t each other. I’m not sure what they find in this teenage movie, but I guess it’s the kind of things you forget. Though I can’t remember this being my kind of thing.

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We have quite the guest list today. Aunt Miranda, cousin Nolan and Gram, of course. But also Amanda, Cléo’s “friend” (Cléo absolutely insists that they’re just friends), and…

And a work colleague of mine, Lev. I suspect Mom and Dad are getting worried their eldest daughter has a friend, and I don’t. Neither of them has said anything, but I can practically hear it nonetheless.

At this rate, Cléo’s gonna become the heir.

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Cléo is eating her doughnut, totally oblivious to this line of thinking, even as Mom and Dad are basically doing the wooing of my colleague for me. Not that I would want to do it myself. I don’t dislike the guy. I can even see why Mom and Dad think he would be a good fit for me. Sort of.

I just don’t want any part of this.

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Instead, I’d much rather grill our last, and late guest, Shanna. One of Mom’s high school friends. I want to know everything she has to tell me about my Mom’s past. Because of my interest as an archeologist, of course. Of course.

Anyway, Mom did it first. She thought she was whispering low enough, but they had a whole conversation about how really, it wasn’t surprising at all that Marie and Romain broke up, and good for Marie.

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I also want to know what Gram will think of my cupcakes. I am already infinitely grateful to her to pay close to zero attention to Colleague Lev, but when I see the sincere smile on her face after she takes a bite of the chocolate icing, I could just go and hug her.

In fact, I do just that.

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Once our bellies are full and heavy, we all gather around the television, to varying degrees of “collapsed on the couch”. But there’s still quite the sugar rush in our veins. And since it’s much too cold outside to actually exercise, we switch on the console.

Amanda isn’t half-bad at video games, and next to her, I can see Mom approving silently. Meanwhile, Colleague Lev has politely declined the controller he was offered. I know this is an instant disqualification from the acceptable list of suitors for my parents, and I smile internally.

So long, Colleague Lev.

Another Odd Machine

Having your mom work in a high-tech lab really comes in handy.

For example, in honor of Ice Day, she brought home a cupcake-making machine. It makes my job a whole lot easier, though it did take a minute to get the hang of it.

I like this machine much better than whatever mess was there a few weeks ago. You know, the one that almost got Dad frozen to death from trusting Mom too much.

No one’s ever died from a chocolate-strawberry cupcake.

Cooking

Officially today “Ice Day”, but really, we all call it “Get-Fatter-In-The-Winter Day”.

It’s all about entertaining guests with pastries, plenty of pastries, all the pastries. Mom and I start working on biscuits — which is the only thing she can not mess up — and cupcakes early. Dad watches and does his best to help by handing us the ingredients.

Our kitchen is big, but not that big, so we end up sending him to the living room, where he does a little celebratory dance in preparation of the meal of pastries ahead.

Spice Snowpal

The Spices have lost their grip on my body, and now I’m cold again. Probably doesn’t help that I decided to give snowpal-making another go, in the middle of the plaza, next to an artist’s unused station.

I’m still terrible at it, but at least I feel like he fits in the spirit of the Spice Festival. He’s got an edge.

Finding Treasure

Look, Selvadorada isn’t the only place you can find treasure. There’s treasure in the antique snowballs and the colorful, one-of-a-kind posters you can find around the San Myshunian alleys. They’re less valuable, perhaps. They have fewer centuries of histories behind them.

But it doesn’t mean they’re not interesting.

Also, it turns out the Curry Challenge T-shirt is plenty warm enough when you just ate food that made your body’s temperature go up fifty degrees.

Curry Challenge

I’m not going to lie and pretend the curry sauce was a breeze. But I was raised by my mother, and no matter how terrible of a cook she is, she did teach my taste buds how to withstand spices — all kinds of spices.

If anything, her inability to dose them properly has led to a few times she had a heavy hand with the hot pepper, the perfect training for tonight.

Dad, Mom, and I, the three of us win the challenge and a stylish set of T-shirts. Mom is the only one who can still feel her lips enough to beam at the prowess, but the spirit is there.

The Curry Challenge

Look, I know I was breathing fire earlier, but the bubble blower has somewhat emboldened me. When Mom gets up to go take a Curry Challenge plate and “show these tourists how you do it,” I jump up to my feet and proclaim high and loud that I, too, can conquer the challenge.

So as mom and daughter, we walk to the red tables of the challenge, and each of us picks up a plate of flaming hot, literally flaming hot, rice and yellow curry sauce.

Wish my mouth luck.

The Bubble Blower

One of the lesser known parts of the Spice Festival is the traveling bubble blower. It’s always there, every festival, without fail, in a nook in the plaza of the Spice Market.

Mom says it can get dangerous, and judging by the unnatural skin color of a reckless tourist, I’m inclined to believe her.

I’m also inclined to believe that it looks like a heck of a lot of fun.

In under a minute, and after I’ve gotten the hang of it, I’m breathing up colorful bubbles, and my brain and body feel lighter. It’s like I’m somewhere else, transported up above and on the other side of the world.

How have I never tried this before?