#OH WOWWW that bag is so so so cool!!!!!!!!

[pascallllllll1]

The Happiest Place On Earth

Request: “Hi can I request a one shot where reader and Pedro Pascal have a daughter named Esmeralda? They go to Disney for the first time, they dress her up in a Grogu costume and go visit the Mando and everybody go crazy to see Pedro and his daughter.”

Pedro Pascal x Reader

Summary: follows the request above, I also made reader pregnant. Lots of fluff. Esmeralda’s age wasn’t specified so I made her like 4/5?

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: pregnancy, suggests smut but no actual smut.

Packing the last of the necessary items you’ll need for the day ahead in your backpack, you zip up the bag and readily set it by the front door of your room. Esmeralda had specifically requested that daddy book her in the fairytale suite so she could get her beauty rest like a real princess and being wrapped around her tiny finger Pedro went online later that day to book said room. The room your growing family of three is currently getting ready in. Cressessing your small bump you cross the room approaching your struggling husband who’s trying to fight your five year old into putting sunscreen on.

“NO DADDY!” She screeches, resisting his best efforts to apply the cream to her face and ears. 

“Princesa please, the quicker we finish this up the sooner we can leave and check out all the cool stuff.” He attempts to reason with her. Stubborn times such as this one remind you exactly how alike you both are, your living breathing karma of what you put your own parents through. You decide to throw Pedro a bone and come to his long awaited rescue. You fake gasp obnoxiously loud to catch your daughters attention;

“Oh. My. Gosh. Guess who I just found out is here?!” You ask Esmeralda dramatically, squatting eye level with her. Pedro laughs and moves over to make room for you next to him.

“Who?!” She asks, eyes widening in excitement.

“Grogu and Mando!!” You exclaim jumping up and bouncing around. Esmeralda screams at the information and launches herself forward tacking Pedro with a huff.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US DADDY!!!!”

“Careful,” You playfully chastise her. “Daddy’s getting old can’t be as rough with him or he’ll break on us.” You joke causing Esmeralda to throw her head back and fall over sideways exaggeratedly in a fit of laughter.

“I was gonna say sorry and give you your surprise mi hija but not if you two meanies are ganging up on me!” He pouts.

“Aw I’m sorry baby.” You coo, coming up to him to cup his face and kissing the patchy bald spot you love oh so much on his scruffy jaw.

“I promise to make you feel better later.” You whisper low enough for his ears only. Pedro closes his eyes and groans at your hidden meaning before standing to his full height and making his way over to his bag to dig for Esmeralda’s surprise. When he returns she’s waiting patiently trying to get a peak at plastic wrapped, outfit? tucked behind his back.

“IT’S A GROGU COSTUME!!!!!—“

“Wowww, inside voice please! I know it’s very exciting hun but there’s other people in the building.-“ He leans forward swooping Esmeralda up in his arms so she could further inspect the outfit.

“Sorry, daddy.”

“Thank you for apologising hun, it’s alright.” God he’s so patient and caring with her. Every time you witness this paternal side of Pedro feels like a gift. You really are the luckiest woman in the world blessed with the most loving, doting husband who excels at fatherhood beyond your wildest dreams and taking to it like a fish to water. This is it. Everything you’ve ever wished for is currently giggling to each other while dressing in the adorable costume. Your beautiful family, that soon but not nearly soon enough your baby boy will be joining.

“What do you think mommy, am I pretty?” Esmeralda asks, twirling around in a circle on one foot then posing with her hands on her hips. The large floppy green ears bounce and swing with every movement, she’s drowning in the baggy brown fabric of the robe, her bright pink converse sneakers peeking out from underneath, and wears a smile that says she’s never been happier.

“I think you look gorgeous baby, right daddy?” You ask teasingly, trying but ultimately failing to hold back a smirk. He crosses his arms and huffs. He’ll get you back for all your teasing later.

“Si te ves muy hermosa hija.” Pedro confirms smiling.

***

You follow and observe from behind while pushing Esmeralda’s wagon stroller as she leads your husband hand in hand through the bustling crowds towards the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attractions.

“Where would you like to go first, sweet girl?” Pedro asks, drawing Esmeralda’s wandering gaze to himself.

“I wanna make a lightsaber!!” She exclaims jumping up and down, her big ears slapping her face as she does causing both you and Pedro to laugh.

“Of course, let’s go head over there to… Black Spire Outpost.” He says pointing at the entrance of the workshop.

While Pedro pays for Esmeralda to do the activity you stand with your daughter admiring the beautifully staged rock cavern you're in. You’ve always loved and appreciated the Star Wars universe and its beauty. So many people and stories to explore within it that could continue going on infinitely. A warmth blossoms in your chest thinking about Pedro getting to be a part of that. He’d introduced everyone to a new character and without facial expression, only body language and tone of voice showed us the many layers and personality of The Mandalorian, Din Djarin. You are so insanely proud of him.

A kiss on your cheek and a hand drawing small circles on your belly brings you back to the present.

“Ok we’re all set, vamos!” Pedro announces giddily to which is met by loud cheers from your daughter.

The group you're with is small, usually that’s a positive but at the moment with such few faces amongst everyone to look at, your husbands very pretty and recognizable one is just that, more recognizable. You meet one of Savi’s Gatherers outside his workshop and Esmeralda chooses between four different hilts to build her lightsaber with, all having a different theme. Peace and Justice. Power and Control. Element Nature. Protection Defence. After hard consideration she diligently comes to the conclusion of choosing the Element Nature hilt which embodies the force, but mainly because she thought it was the coolest looking.

Next for the activity Esmeralda gets to choose a Kyber crystal, picking between red, blue, green and violet she confidently swipes the violet crystal.

“Now we get to put it together mommy!” She says smiling up at you with her crystal on display then runs to assemble the lightsaber with the help of her father. The process of putting everything together thankfully didn’t take long and in no time Esmeralda was wielding a blade of her own. By now you could feel the stares from those around you multiplying and you grab Pedro’s hand to signal his attention;

“Baby I think people are starting to notice who you are.” You speak quietly into his ear, playing it off like a playful kiss. He glances around inconspicuously and realises you’re right.

“Hey princesa, how ‘bout we go find some snacks, daddy’s getting hungry. Sound good babe?” He turns his head patiently waiting for confirmation from you. You peck his lips and respond with a, sounds good, and move to start making your way to the cantina cafe.

***

“Hi! could I get three small blue milks.. two roasted pork wrap Ronto Roasters and.. one grilled sausage, please!” You smile up at the cashier, she confirms your order and you tap your card on the scanner to pay then move closer to your family while you wait.

“Three small blue mills!” You grab your drinks thanking the worker and pass Esmeralda her own. She’s off in her own little world enthralled by the new strange drink.

“Babe,” Pedro says, getting your attention, then thanking you when you hand him his cup. You look up at him, eyebrows raising in question.

“People are starting to take photos and record, it’s only a matter of time before they start coming up to me-“

“-Two roasted pork wraps and one grilled sausage wrap!” Pedro sighs, moving over to grab the food, smiling at and thanking the worker again. He passes the food out and Esmeralda continues to zone out of yours and Pedro’s conversation and focus on the food set in front of her.

“How about you and Esmeralda finish up here and head towards a gift shop, I know she wants to grab some stuff for home. I’ll go use the washroom and walking around alone gives the fans some time to approach me without interfering with family time. I’ll come meet up with you both after a few photos.”

“Works with me.” You agree, smiling.

“Esmeralda, you wanna go space shopping while daddy goes pee?” The question has her snapping her head up at you and rushing to clean up her mess from eating.

“Ya! Ya! Let’s go, mommy!” She reaches for your hand not being used to push the stroller to hold and moves to leave, yelling over her shoulder to her dad;

“Don’t pee your pants, daddy! Mommy won’t be there to clean you up!” Pedro lets out an obnoxiously loud belly laugh that makes you giggle back at him before letting your daughter pull you down the path towards the promise of toys. After you and Esmeralda leave Pedro unwrap his food and scarfs it down quickly on his way to the washroom.

Esmeralda spends 20 minutes sorting through the many different options to bring home with her in Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities. By the time the two of you make it up to the cash register she’s piling shirts, stuffies, one lanyard, a handful of pins and a few toys onto the checkout counter. When you paid the outrageous cost for her small hoard of items you tried to reason with yourself that it was Esmeralda’s first trip to Disney, special occasion means special treatment, right? As you’re walking out of the shop you spot Pedro finishing up with some fans a few feet ahead of you. Immediately, Esmeralda spots her daddy and is rushing over to him and jumping up into his arms.

“Daddy! I wanna show you all my new toys!” The group of people now forming around Pedro laugh and gush over your precious daughter, commenting on how much she resembles him. Esmeralda, like her father, soaks up with attention like a sponge and loves every second of it. As far as she’s concerned this group of people are for her and not her father. They all adore her Grogu outfit and one person tells Pedro he should’ve dressed as Mando to match.

“It’s always a pleasure to meet all of you and I’m sorry I can’t stick around longer but I have to get back to my family now. Everyone have a good time and enjoy yourselves!“ Pedro waves and smiles to everyone, carrying Esmeralda back over to you and continuing on in a new direction.

“How was that?” You ask him curiously. He turns to you and huffs out a breath;

“Good. I love getting to meet and interact with my fans, I wouldn’t be anywhere without their support. But sometimes I wish I could draw that line of time and place a little more clearly to them, ya know.” He shares with you. You nod in agreement and wrap an arm around his waist to comfort him.

“Yeah, I get it.” You say staring up at him. He leans down and softly kisses your lips letting them hover after.

“Ew! No kissing!” Esmeralda gasps grossed out before falling into a fit of laughter. Pedro attacks your face in kisses to bug her more and all you can do is laugh and enjoy this time with your family.

“Ok! Ok! Ah, ok!! Let’s go check out something else, huh?” You question both the Pascal’s before you.

“Falcon one next!”

“To the Millennium Falcon, vamos mi familia!!!” Pedro shouts with a loud clap of his hands.

The three of you spent the rest of the day exploring the galaxy via rides and interactive activities, gorging yourselves on as many sweet treats as your bodies could handle. Later that night you’d reward your husband and show him how much you appreciated what a perfect father and spouse he was. Meanwhile twitter and Instagram would become flooded with photos of your family adventuring Disney, Esmeralda as Grogu causing fans to go wild.



Open to requests!!

[tfw-no-tennis]

onepiece liveblogs 811-812

yea babeyyyyy

811!!

wow caesar just completely unable to read the room huh. not even charming like when luffy does it 🙄

get his ass chopper

sanji looks so chill w his sunglasses on lol he looks like he's about to go cruising around in a convertible

luv the strawhats fucking up enemies

so all the women in one piece are drawn w/yuri legs but honestly brook and sanji have it a bit too lol

also obligatory - I haaate how the women look in modern one piece style, I miss the style from the beginning of the show sooo much, everyone was so cute ughhghhgh

the men too honestly why is everyone all roided out. why are the necks Like That

n e wayz

nah sanji don't listen to caesar of all people re: the minks

nami and wanda gay meetcute fighting <3

like liiiiterally nami pinning and straddling wanda????? nami my beloved lesbian

OOOOBHHHH chopper taking charge and triaging oooooobbhh I loooove when he does medical stuff awbhh

^biased bc I'm currently in medicine school

NAAMI ILY NAMI

chopper forcing caesar to help...yes get his ass chopper<3

omg nekomamushia Large. like I knew that but seeing sanjji climb on him puts it in perspective lol

all the straw hats helping w the medical stuff <333

nami wanda mistaken enemies to lovers speedrun

I luv franky did u know

chopper pulling day AND night shifts he's such a dedicated Dr aww

luffy's like fuck yes I wanna meet the giant cat guy

loving the subtle full moon foreshadowing w/the minks

brook should do some musical exposition

THE DRAMA I LOVE IT YUMMMMMMMM

omg pekoms I was wondering when he'd appear

this is so tense and it's taking so long to find out where sanji went I can't even imagine reading this live lol

812!

awwww nojiko and genzo!!!! <333

so many people in this arc wearing sunglasses lol

sanji becomes a furry then gets kidnapped: the arc

nami seeing sanji being annoying like :|

Kill Him Nami

yea I don't wanna see momo's human form either bc of that haircut 😅 ik it's traditional but uh. oof

caesar's evil thought bubbles of 'why must I be forced to do non-evil things' lmfaoooo

'the animal kingdom pirates'? that aint is chief lol

also me reading that as animal cracker pirates lmfao

HHHHHHHHHHHH THE DRAMATIC TENSION (for me, upon reread, seeing caesar freak out bc he thinks the big mom pirates are here for him, BUT THEY'RE REALLY HERE FOR SANJI...ok and caesar but ALSO SANJI)

'when did we become bros' ok get his ass sanji.

wowww caesar fucked over big mom. Good Going Moron lol

I do love when sanji gets to be like. strategic. that's one of my favorite aspects of his character, and it separates him nicely from zoro & luffy, the other main fighters - I especially love early on in the story when sanji will go full sneaky and run off to ruin the enemies plans before anyone realizes what's happening

so yea I love him being in charge here

him glaring down at bege...does sanji have any idea that bege is here for him??? I don't remember but hhhhhh juicy

brook is like. comically tall and skinny lol

HAHAHAHA the panel of pekoms hugging sanji is FANTASTIC lol

damnnnnn I forgot that pekoms was willing to let sanji go and take the fall w/big mom...

PEKOMS OH NO does he actually die I don't remember. doubt it

ok bege's power is like. SO weird and One Piece™ and also cool??? like wtf. his nickname is 'gang' and like. yeah. he is a whole gang bc he's a castle with a bunch of shrunken dudes in him lol

Bag Of Holding Ass Powers..

ngl i fucking LOVE in one piece when a character is like 'I have the ____-____ fruit. I'm a ____man' like idk why but that tickles me lol

like bege saying 'I have the castle-castle fruit. I'm a castle man' fantastic 10/10

omg I forgot abt bege's guy who looks like a cross between chrollo hxh and ryuk deathnote and is also named vito (godfather reference that I now understand after watching it lol)

like mannnnn it's so weird that they all go inside bege lmao but also it makes sense. bc its one piece

I feel like sanji must know something is up, with everyone else chained up on the floor and he's at the table talking to bege - though it could be that sanji's the one in charge, but stiiiiill...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THERE IT IS THERE IT IS THERE IT ISSSSSSSSSSSSS

SOOOOOOO FUCKING HYPE legit probably my favorite cliffhanger in all of one piece MANNNNNNNNN

like. listen. AUGHHHHH so much. the 'chapter 800+ secret family reveal' WOULD NOT WORK in like 99.9% of stories but it flows PERFECTLY in one piece bc there is such a precedent for this sort of thing!! for the sort of behavior where you never ever talk about your 'real' (biological) family or where you came from bc IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!!! OF ONE PIECE!!!!! that the characters get to CHOOSE where they belong and who their family is

(also this reveal happening so late makes the sabo reveal - the 'chapter 500+ secret amnesiac brother reveal' - seem practically early lol)

and like, obviously this theme of choosing your family is handled a lot - like everything with ace, who does exactly this ^ and yet is still burdened by his blood

but ok what I'm getting at is that in basically any other story, a reveal about one of the main characters coming this late would be suuuuuch a stupid asspull, but in this case, it's one of the best writing decisions in the story in ages

like half the straw hats have mysterious/unknown biological origins - nami, zoro (outside of SBSs), franky, sanji (before now), brook (ig lol)...even luffy's mom and robin's dad and stuff are never mentioned. and none of this is ever really remarked upon - they DO have family, even if it isn't by blood

so the story sets this standard that the found family is The family and it doesn't matter where the characters came from. and this is the 'right' way of going about things, that the straw hats and other 'good guys' support

however, not everyone in the story agrees with this. which is huuuuge and so so juicy. like, ace gets to choose his brothers and his pirate dad/family, but the world govt will NOT forget or ignore his biological parentage, and they kill him for that. GODDDD it's so goooood

so you get the POV charaters (straw hats) who believe that where you came from biologically doesn't matter, and a lot of the antagonist characters who think it DOES matter.

so this creates the perfect atmosphere for us to never hear about the vinsmokes, bc we're seeing things via the straw hats, and sanji would never want or need to mention them, ever

the antagonists, though...different story. so that allows the perfect time for a reveal here!!!!

and HHHHH there are some EXCELLENT little tidbits earlier in the story - obviously sanji mentioning he's from north blue, and even his name w/the 'three'...it's stuff that's so small that it can easily be brushed aside if it doesn't amount to anything, but since it did we can look back and be like oh shiiiit

even him calling himself mr prince!!! like...he technically IS a prince by blood!!!

and like, ik a lot of people thought he'd be a celestial dragon, but I think it's better this way, bc if he DID have knowledge of the celestial dragons, even from when he was a kid, that would be useful in a way that would make it look bad if he witheld the knowledge previously, whereas the vinsmokes existing and sanji knowing about them doesn't really help anything...anyways, rambling.

so I love the last panel here, with sanji just looking completely shocked and horrified. because it isn't like he's really been hiding his past on purpose - he thought it didn't matter where he was originally from, because with the straw hats, it DIDN'T!!

but I feel like he had to have thought about it at least sometimes - what would happen if the vinsmokes came looking for him for whatever reason

but at the same time, we find out later that they basically kicked him out and told him to never come back, so he probably thought he'd never have to deal with them again (though I feel like he had to have wondered if he'd ever run into them in his travels...)

aaaanyways okay this is getting long and this is literally just the beginning of my long meta rants I'm sure. more to come soon!

[meliakim]

Christmas Manito

Min and Mun join the boys for the Korean version of secret Santa.

“Wowww, Mun-ah!! I can’t believe you were able to cook this much food in one day!” Hobi said to Mun as he entered the dorm kitchen and looked all around at the baked goodies and snacks. “Well, it wasn’t just me though, I had help,” she said, eyeing Seokjin who was taking out his puff pastries from the oven… one of the things that she taught him to bake during one of their many cooking sessions. “Mun-ah!!! They’re perfectly baked this time!” he said excitedly, tilting the pan over towards Mun to show her. “See? I knew you’d get them mastered,” she said reassuringly with a huge smile on her face.

“Aish, they’re too cute,” Hobi said under his breath as he turned to leave the kitchen, though it was just loud enough for Mun to hear. A few seconds later, Taehyung roamed into the kitchen to have a look as well. “Tae! Come help me finish decorating the cookies,” she said to her fellow artsy friend. He went over to her and peered over her shoulder, seeing sugar cookies shaped like stockings, Christmas trees, and snowmen. “They’re so festive!” he said, taking the green icing that was being handed to him by Mun. “Are Min and Jimin back yet?” she asked him. He nodded and said, “they just got back with the pizza a bit ago.”

“The whole dorm smells so sweet!!” Jimin said as he placed the pizzas on the side table set up in the living room table. Min nodded in agreement and said, “they must be baking up a storm in there!” “I hope they’re almost done though, I’m so hungry!!” Jungkook said, laying on the couch. Namjoon and Yoongi both appeared from their rooms and put their gifts under the Christmas tree just as the three chefs came out of the kitchen with all the baked goodies. They put them on the table next to the pizza, causing Hobi to say “WoW!” and pull out his phone to take pictures.

All seven members and their two friends fixed their plates and began eating, sitting on the couches and on the floor… wherever they could find space. “Ok, so who is going to start the manito game?” Jimin asked, eagerly, wanting to know who his manito was. “Let’s use rock, paper, scissors to decide!” Namjoon said. They proceeded to do so, and Mun won, making her the first to give her gift to the person whose name she drew. She got up from her seat in between Seokjin and Tae on the couch and pulled her colorfully wrapped gift from under the tree.

She walked over towards Jimin and acted like she was going to give it to him before turning around last-second and giving it to Jungkook. Jimin pouted and the whole room was full of laughter. “Merry Christmas, Jungkookie!” Mun said before sitting back down. He bowed his head in gratitude and opened his present. It was a small travel art kit with a sketchbook, pens, and pencils. “Since you’re about to travel the world, I thought sketching would be a good way for you to document your trip!” Mun said as Jungkook looked at his gift admiringly. “JK JK it’s your turn!!” Jimin said.

Jungkook got up from his seat and pulled out his gift from the tree. Like Mun, he acted like he was going to give it to Jimin before handing it to Min who was sitting right next to him. Min smiled and said, “thank you, JK!” She opened up the perfectly wrapped gift and tried not to freak out of excitement. It was a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones that she had talked to him about a while ago when doing his makeup. “You’re always listening to music during our makeup sessions… and your old headphones were falling apart,” he said with a chuckle.

Min was next, and she followed suit by getting up and pulling her gift from under the tree. Of course, she couldn’t help but tease Jimin, causing him to pout and fall out of his chair while everyone else laughed. She handed her gift to Namjoon, saying “Merry Christmas, Joon!!” as she did so. It was rather heavy, so he sat it on his lap and ripped the paper off it. Min had been telling Namjoon to read the Lord of the Rings for months now, since he enjoyed the movies… so that’s exactly what she got him, knowing how much he loved reading. “Wow, Min!!! This is too much!! Thank you, manito!!” he said, bowing gratefully with a big smile as she sat back down.

After pretending to give Jimin the gift, Namjoon proceeded to give his gift to Yoongi, who was sitting next to Seokjin. He pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and broke down laughing, along with Seokjin, who had peered into his bag too. “Oh?? What is it?” Hobi asked curiously. “It’s underwear, I’m not pulling it out,” he said with a pink face, knowing that there were two ladies present. “Namjoon-ah! How did you even know his size?” Seokjin asked, still dying from laughter. “We wear the same size!” he said, causing everyone to laugh even louder. “So practical!” Hobi commented.

Yoongi got up to get his gift, causing Jimin to sit up taller in his seat… only for Yoongi to go back straight to his seat, handing the bag to Seokjin beside him. “Aish!! Yoongi-ah!! What kind of gift is this?!” Seokjin whined, pulling out a large stand-up photo of Suga, a Suga fan, a pair of Shooky socks, and other forms of Suga merch. “I thought you could put my photo on your desk so you can see me while you game,” Yoongi said with a smirk. “Aish!! Yoongi-ah!! So conceited!” Seokjin said, dramatically, causing everyone to laugh.

He got up and brought his gift straight to Taehyung, causing Jimin to roll his eyes restlessly, wondering if he would ever get a gift. Tae took the tissue paper out of the bag and first pulled out an iPhone case with RJ on it, then a Jin photocard, RJ keychain, and a Jin poster. “Hyung!! This is as bad as Yoongi-hyung!!” Tae laughed as he pulled out each item and showed everyone. Seokjin’s windshield wiper laugh filled the room as Yoongi playfully slapped his roommate’s arm. “So conceited, huh??” he playfully whined. “Wait, no it’s worse!” Tae said, taking a closer look at the RJ phone case. “I don’t even have an iPhone!” he said.

Through his tears of laughter, Hobi looked at the phone case and said, “oh!! Mun-ah has an iPhone XR, right? This would fit her phone!!” Everyone looked at Seokjin as his laughter shifted from windshield wiper to a nervous laughter, his ears turning bright red. Tae’s boxy smile got even wider as he shook his head and put everything back in the gift bag, passing it over to Mun sitting next to him, as the gift was obviously geared towards her.

Tae’s turn started with him getting his present, and… finally, giving it to Jimin, who was still eagerly waiting. “Ahhh, finally!!” he said, opening the gift. It was a small dumpling-shaped plushie with Tae and Jimin’s initials stitched onto it. “I thought it would be a good reminder for us to not fight,” Tae said with a smile. Jimin jumped out of his seat and hugged his friend before he could sit back down. “Let’s not fight again!!” he vowed, going over to the tree and getting his gift while he was up, handing it to Hobi. “Jimin-ssi!!! This is too cool,” Hobi said, pulling a polaroid camera, film, and photo book out of the bag excitedly.

“Ok, ok, last but not least!” Hobi said in a sing-song voice, taking the last present under the tree and handing it to Mun. She received it gratefully and opened the package to reveal a purple apron with a subtle BTS logo on the front. She stood up and put it on immediately, then recognized that there was handwriting all over the inside. She took it back off and read the notes, seeing that each of the members had written something to her. “Hobi!! This is so great,” she said, trying not to get caught up and take the time to read all the notes just yet.

“It’s for you to wear at work!! Even though we’ll be on tour, you can always have us with you and think about us during the day!” he said, smiling at Mun. She dropped to her knees to meet Hobi on the floor and pulled him into a tight hug, nearly knocking him over. “It’s so perfect… thank you,” she said, still holding onto him. Seokjin joined them on the floor, wrapping his arms around Mun, then was followed by Tae, Jungkook, Min, and all the others, so that everyone was piled on top of each other in a group hug on the floor. “Merry Christmas, everyone!!” everyone said to each other, just so happy to be together.

[his-winter-rose]

Friday 25th Mayyyyy (Part 4)

“that’s the other way you could do it, if you just want to in form class lines” 

“like a couple of groups go in to each form class and then do it” 

“yeah I mean you could do your own form class”. 

J put the lists down on the desk behind me and said 

“that’s the form class lists, and I’ll leave it over to you guys to work how you’re going to divvy those up between ya. Remember, include B for some”, I got the lists and was looking through them and said “so hold on. So me and G are in Mrs B. B and M are…” 

“me and GB are in…” E said. 

“you’re in Mrs W’s class aren’t you” 

“yeah we have Mrs A at the moment” 

“and then M, B and Beth are in WN. Should we just take our form class?” 

“yeah”.

I asked G if she wanted to look after ours and she said she didn’t mind so I was like okay I’ll look after it. I gave M her class one and gave E her class one, which GB then said 

“why didn’t you give it to me L” in a fake annoyed tone and I laughed and said

“shush GB”

“L square up, nah” we laughed, and J looked at us amused. 

He then told us to discuss he we’re going to get other year 13s to do the survey, suggesting some ways to get it done which went on for a couple of minutes. J then came up to me with the huge as pile of paper and said 

“you just wanna take 14 then pass it back” 

“oh god okay” and I started counting through to get 14 of them. 

I counted through a couple of times but doubted myself so I was saying to myself “I’m gonna have to count through these like 5 times just to make sure I have the right amount” but as J was walking past me, he laughed at what I said.

 I was still trying to do the rebus thing and I said 

“I remember why I gave up trying to do this last year. …I mean year 9” and a couple of the others laughed, and J gave me this amused frown before I corrected myself and I laughed and said 

“don’t ask me how”.

He gave us the deadline for the surveys as next Friday and I was like oh yayyyy same as everything else. He then said 

“if you’re were that scenario of doing all 14 and needing more sheets you can photocopy- oh tell you what, I’ll email you a copy is probably a good thing aye”

“yeah” I agreed, no one else did but he just took my word and was like 

“yeah cool, so when you hit that 14 like tonight-“

“hah yeah right!” 

“just go to the email, print out more or whatever you need”. 

I was gonna mark mine and G’s names off on the form list but to double check I asked 

“we can tick for who we’ve done in our form class aye” 

“say again?” he leaned closer to me as he always does. 

“we can mark these for who we’ve done in our form class” 

“yeah” 

“okay cool” 

“so the form class rolls, is that how you’re doing it, by form classes?” 

“yeah it'd just be easier” 

“so someone in each class has the roll and they can just tick it off once they’ve got it done” 

“what a shame that it’s Friday. If only this had been Thursday and we could have done it last period yesterday” 

“yeah it was kind of set up to get it done by yesterday but with big sing and things it’s sort of…“ 

“and considering the fact that we didn’t have class yesterday”

“yeah that kind of thing”. 

He said to hand them in once we’ve done ours and was saying 

“rather than have some done and lose them” 

“which will probably happen” 

“yeah haha which is frustrating for everyone”. 

He was getting the email sorted and said 

“I’m just going to send you this email then show you a clip” 

“what’s the clip about?” E asked. 

“ahh Kilauea” 

“is that a country?” M asked, and J chuckled, as did I. 

“It’s, it’s the volcano” I said in a soft, ‘oh my god’ tone.

“oh what?” 

“it’s the volcano” 

“oh” 

J and I laughed. I was doing the sheet of paper still of course until J started partially talking to me by kind of indirectly asking a question but he asked “how does B spell her name?” I started spelling it out then we all started and it got jumbled but he understood us and tried to do it but wouldn’t work. 

“B isn’t on my school system. What is she, B [last name]?” 

“B[last name]…?” 

“b-“ he started spelling it, and i finished it.

Then everyone started singing and I was like 

“are we having a karaoke session?” and a few of them plus J laughed. 

Then he asked G if she gets her emails on her phone but bless her for saying no because then I jumped in like 

“oh I do” 

“ahh check if it’s come through. L can check” 

“if it comes through”. 

I went into my Outlook app and was like 

“come on, update yourself” then it did and said I got it so he was like sweet.

 A video started playing on his laptop and the guy talking was Scottish I think but I said 

“oh he’s Irish” in an unintentional Irish accent, then said “or is it Scottish I can’t tell” 

“the best accent” he chuckled, and I let out a huff of laughter. 

E said we should go on a trip to an Island and so me and M said 

“we can’t even go on a trip to [city]!” and we were like lololol.

Just before he started the clip, J was saying about the survey 

“it’s best to be proactive and get it done now rather than put it in the back of your bag and forget about it so it doesn’t get done so let’s just be proactive this weekend, get it done early” 

“you wanna know what my priorities are this weekend?” 

“I actually don’t” he said sarcastically. 

“Art” I laughed.

He then played the video for the last 15mins or so but I just wasn’t really paying attention, I was concentrating on the bloody sheet of paper I was trying to finish.

There was about 1 or 2 mins to the bell when he stopped it and asked to get the chairs up, which was when I said 

“It’s annoying me I can’t get the last bits of this. Do you have the answers to this?” I held up the sheet for him to see and said

 “I’ve done most of it” AND HE FUCKING DOUBTED ME HE SAID 

“have you though?” 

“yeah!”

“that’s pretty good” 

“I got most of it I just can’t get a couple of them” 

“you were doing number 3 aye” 

“yep” 

“were I to fire,” 

“yeah” 

“an iron gun,” 

“yeah…wait no” 

“yeah hold on, were I to TAKE an iron gun,” 

“(both)and fire it off towards the sun, I grant-“ 

“(him) t’would“ 

“ohhhh okay” 

The bell went and he said- 

“thanks ladies, get those surveys done sooner rather than later! Monday form time is a good time to catch people because it’s 15 minutes. Tuesday you guys mind other classes, Wednesday/Thursday is short. So Monday if there’s not much happening in form time get those form classes done! Is there two in each form class at least?” 

“yeah there is” I confirmed. 

“oh yeah, sweet”. 

I looked at the sheet he was reading the answer to the rebus on, and I was like

“oh you were just reading it, you don’t actually have answers do you” 

“no, no, no. So, if I were to fi- take an iron gun, and fire it off towards the sun, I grant t’would reach it’s mark at last” 

“yeah” 

“but not till many years had passed. But should that bullet change it’s... force, and to the planets take it’s course” 

“okayyy” 

“t’would never reach the nearest star because it is so very far” 

“wowww okay”. 

I decided to get the bus, so I ran out to get my bags and walked back in to stuff my books and such into my bag. Once I managed that I saw all the chairs that hadn’t been put up but I said 

“I’d put your chairs up but I gotta go”.

I heaved my bag onto my back and had my 3 bags on and huffed a laugh because he looked at me amused but like ‘oh my god’. 

“as much of a pack mule as I already am” J laughed and repeated “a pack mule”

“thanks Mr have a good weekend!” 

“thanks!” he said cheerfully with a laugh and I left.

[randoreviews]

MATHIESON FOOD/COOKING/FOOD INTERVIEW

B: Y’all set? M: Yeah! B: Okay, cool. So my first question is, this sounds kinda dirty, but when was the last time you ate fluff? M: That I ate what??? B: Ate fluff! Like peanut butter and fluff. M: Peanut butter and fluff, huh... Uumm... Did we have that in New Zealand? It wasn’t an approved item in my mom’s pantry, that’s for sure, so, I would say... maybe high school at one of my friend’s houses? B: Haha. Yeah. So you weren’t really... a fan of it. M: No, we weren’t allowed to have anything like that. B: Okay. And you didn’t, like, sneak it? M: I was never really sneaky, I tried to be healthy like my father, but... when I first found Nutella, that was like my guilty pleasure. B: Okay. Yup. M: But fluff never really did it for me. B: Just too sugary or the consistency, err... M: Yeah, and I was more, I liked the jelly because you get a little bit of acidity to cut the fat, I don’t think I would have described peanut butter and jelly to you that way before I became a chef but, uh, I was more of a jelly person. Jelly and crunchy peanut butter. B: Mmm, that sounds good. And the jelly with peanut butter, like, it’s easier to eat. Peanut butter is really thick and then fluff is ALSO really thick, so it’s like... how do people even eat that? M: Yeah, and it would have been smarter if they had mixed them both together and that made it easier to spread on a piece of bread. B: Mhm, mhm. All right, so the second question’s a lot healthier and a easy one, uh, favorite vegetable... M: Carrots. B: Carrots. Okay... You wanna say why errr...? You don’t have to say why. M: I think carrots... I mean, they were generally overlooked for a little while, they’re a little more popular with chefs now just doing carrot dishes and things like that. But I love them raw. I think it’s the best vegetable you can just grab outta your refrigerator and chomp on. B: Mhm. M: I also remember a time at my dad’s house we would just eat like bags of baby carrots for dinner sometimes and it was great. B: Mhm. I have a funny mom story, you know when moms can just, like, take you down a peg or two when they feel like it... M: Haha. B: I was eating baby carrots one night... and you know, they’re organic of course and, you know, good for you, supposedly... you would think, and then my mom was like, uh, You know those baby carrots come, like, you know they’re like soaked in chlorine, right?, or something, and it was just that moment where you’re just like, Wa-Waa, and you just kinda put the carrot that you’re eating down. But, um, yeah, maybe I’ll buy a bag of baby carrots tomorrow. M: I’m sure that they could be packed in some sort of solution, but baby carrots are essentially, they’re large carrots, they normally come from horse carrots which are the biggest carrots you can buyy... B: Right. M: Soo... it’s a regular carrot, they just do something to it to get that shape and they use the rest of it for shredded carrots on like a salad bar. B: Yup... cool. All right, soo, I didn’t want to limit you to just one answer on this so I’m sayin, TWO favorite cheeses... M: Two favorite cheeses... Umm... I would say taleggio is like... definitely one of  my favorite cheeses. It’s kind of got a consistency where you can kind of spread it, it’s good on a cheese plate, and it’s also, like, super good to melt. B: Hmm! I don’t know, you said taleggio? Like, T? Like, Tim? M: T-A-L-E-G-G-I-O. Or something pretty close to that. B: Hmm, I don’t know if I’ve heard of that or had that. It sounds like a soft cheese err?? M: Yeah, it’s, uh, I would say maybe semi-soft? I mean you kind of cut into it like it’s a brie? It holds up a little better but, if it gets warm you can definitely spread it. You can SLICE it, make a sandwich out of it, I wouldn’t waste it on a sandwich, I think it’s just perfect the way it is. B: Too precious for a sandwich? M: Yeah, it’s a little salty. And when I first tried it, it smells really really bad. And at that time I wasn’t necessarily into stinky cheeses? But I think taleggio is like a gateway drug into the stinky cheese world, for sure. B: Haha... it sounds pretty Italian. M: It is, yeah. B: Nice. And your number two would be....? M: Ah, that’s a hard one... so many... B: Yeah... We can always come back to it, we can let it marinate for a few. No pun intended, and, uh, we can come back to it if you want. M: Yeah, let me come back to it. B: Okay! All right, so when did you start cooking? And did you know right away it was what you wanted to do... M: So when I first started cooking, I was probablyyy... fifteen or so? I was a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant in Plattsburgh called Dominic’s... B: Yup. M: ... and, um, one thing I did know is, I never thought I would be a chef because at that point The Food Network was just kinda coming ouuut, but I didn’t know much about chefs and the chef world. Really nothing at all. So, it wasn’t necessarily something I thought of? I thought of hospitality as a career but I also really enjoyed, like, my time in Nicaragua, soo... that’s why I kind of thought I would maybe go into the medical field. B: Mhm. M: Soo... I loved working at the restaurant, and I worked under the chef, the chef never took a day off, the first chef that I worked for, his name was Sammy, never took a day off once, and... hardest working guy but also, kinda cared about showing me how to do things. So I started out peeling shrimp in the morning and then washing dishes for the rest of the night and then I went and I kinda got more prep, I started breading the chicken parmesan cutlets and pounding them out and, that was more exciting than shrimp, for sure. And then I found I got into the pizza dough, making the pizza dough balls... B: Yup. M: And then from there, one day one of the line cooks, he was missing a couple teeth, I can’t remember his name, but he started yelling at me for something and, uh, the chef took him outside and I never saw the line cook again. B: He shot him? M: Haha, I wouldn’t say shot but... I was working the grill station after that, and that’s when I started, I would call my friends and say, Hey, come wash dishes at Dominic’s because, literally, if they came to wash dishes I was able to work the line. And it was exciting. B: Wow, cool! So he was like uhhh... your first mentor... in cooking... M: Yeah, kinda. It didn’t last for very long because, uh, the restaurant burnt down theee fall... So my first day was the day after prom, so I was a little hungover my first day. B: And you had to peel shrimp? M: Yup. B: Oh man. That’s rough. M: Yup, do the shrimp, wash the dishes, and uhh... sorry, I lost my train of thought... Oh yeah, the restaurant burnt down. So I got to work there that whole summer, and then they had another restaurant open on Rouses Point, so on the really exciting days they would be running out of something, like a vegetable or something like that, and I would drive their BMW, their black BMW... B: Nice. M: ... It was a little older, it had one of those built-in cell phones, and I’d drive it up to Rouses Point, to deliver whatever was in the trunk. B: Woww. Right along the water there?, that sounds like it’s on the water. M: Yup, it was on the water, it was pretty cool. And, uh, sometimes I would also mow the lawns. I would mow the lawns at the restaurants and at their house as well. B: Wow! Just doin it all like a renaissance man.   M: Haha. Yeah. But then it was my first day senior year of high school and it was my first day of school, and I woke up to a voicemail from my uncle who worked at the fire department that said, I hope you’re not working at Dominic’s, it just burnt down. B: Wowww. M: So then I kinda lost that kinda excitment, uh, I went to work in a couple other places around Plattsburgh, one of them was called Aladdin’s, and it was Lebanese cuisine, and I worked for an owner, her name was Houda, she was from... mm, I want to say... I’m not sure. B: But she was Middle Eastern. M: Yes, yeah. So they played this really loud Lebanese music, and they had belly dancing nights. And they liked me, and I got to write the specials and put them on the menu, and they would even use my name in the newspaper as, like, Chef Mathieson, and I think I was a senior that year. B: Daaaamn. The women are starting to take notice. M: Yeah. And there I found, there it was kind of a smaller restaurant, so I would wash dishes and cook the shawarma and tabouli and stuff like that. B: Ahh. Delicious. M: I really liked the food. And then, that restaurant closed pretty quickly too, in the springtime, and then the summer before I went to college I found a job at a restaurant called Minnie’s, and Minnie’s was this beautiful restaurant on Bridge Street in downtown Plattsburgh... I guess you don’t have to say downtown Plattsburgh... um, but uh, there I got to work the line. There was a chef there who was a culinary school graduate... B: Mhm. M: And, on the weekends, the owner let me be in charge of the Sunday brunch menu, so I got to write some brunch dishes, and I remember being at a college orientation in Potsdam, writing my menu for the weekend. And it didn’t really occur to me then that... I should just... be a chef. B: Yeah! M: It kinda happened when I got to school and realized how miserable I was. B: Right, yeah. You started missin peelin those shrimp. M: Haha, exactly. B: But what was the guy’s name at Dominic’s, one more time? M: Sammy. B: Does he have a last name? Is he still alive? M: Definitely still alive. I don’t knoww... Both of them live in Plattsburgh. He has a brother named Enzo, and I actually went and worked for them again... but... I wouldn’t know how to spell their last name, much less pronounce it. They were from Yugoslavia. B: Ah. Cool. Okay, so did it come out of necessity, you cooking, since your dad could subsist on popcorn and Labatt Blue. (God love him.) M: I try to stay away from that line of, but I started cooking at home before I got a restaurant job, I would watch The Food Network, and I would get home from school probly like an hour or so before my dad would get home from work. It was kind of like... it was kind of soulful, it was like, put the music on, start cookin... I had a lot of big flops back then, I remember I tried to coat, like, salmon with graham cracker crust cuz there wasn’t anything else in the pantry, but um, it was nice to do something nice for my dad when he got home from work. B: Yeah. M: And that was kind of a way I showed my appreciation for him. I’m sure as a teenager sneaking out at night to party, I didn’t do much of it, but... when I cooked, that’s how I showed it. B: Food is love, that’s the way I think of it. It can be hard to express feelings to people, but then you just, like, cook for them and that’s it. You know, and that’s all you really need to do... well, hopefully you do a few other things but cooking is really important. Um, so where did you study? Cuz you went to culinary school. M: I went to the Culinary School of America. B: And there’s a east coast campus, and a west coast campus, I went to the west coast campus with you, right? M: Oh yeah, yeah, the west coast campus is in Napa Valley. I went to the east coast campus, it’s like the OG, it kinda looks like Hogwarts, just an amazing, beautiful school, and, my eyes were just opened wide as soon as I stepped foot on that campus, because, um, I went from SUNY Canton... I can’t say much about SUNY Canton because that’s where Aunt Sheila went... B: Hahaha. M: I went from SUNY Canton to, I applied to culinary school the first month I was at SUNY Canton and I called my dad and I was like, Yeah, I’m comin home, I’m goin to culinary school, fuck this shit. And he was like, Well, you’re not livin with me. B: Hahaha. M: I went and I worked as a waiter to save up money for college, it was the second restaurant, so when Dominic’s burnt down they built a new one, in Plattsburgh. So I went and worked for them as a waiter. B: Just called Dominic’s again? M: They called it San Morino Two. B: Huh. Cool. M: But yeah, Culinary Institute in Hyde Park. B: Hyde Park... sweet. Was it... were people generally friendly, I know the restaurant businesses and cooking businesses, like a lot of businesses, can be kind of cutthroat but, were your fellow students there friendly, the professors...? M: Yeah, it was much different, it was very structured, almost like a military school in the fact that, you shave before you go into class, you have to be dressed up, you have to wear your chef whites in the kitchen and you have to wear one of those tall hats and it can’t be crumpled up, you can’t put it in your backpack or anything. B: Right. M: And as far as my friends, some of my lifelong friends I met there. People were great there. You always get a few douchebags who think they know everything. B: Right. M: And it definitely happens more in culinary school, I would say. I started there right around the time when you still had to work for at least six months in a restaurant before you’re allowed to go to the school, and you had to get recommendations from restaurant owners to get in. They stopped that kind of shortly after my class and then, people that didn’t necessarily know what they wanted to do would just go to culinary school. And our class, I think, we started with like 45 people and ended up with actually twelve that graduated at the same time there. So the dropout rate is pretty high there. B: Does that mean, since there were only twelve of you who made it at the end, did you really bond with them, er, not so much? M: Yeah, I had a little different scenario, my first year and a half in culinary school, the first six weeks is book classes, like culinary math and, culinary writing and things like that, and then you get into the kitchen, and first you start with your knife cuts, and then making stocks, like chicken stock, beef stock, things like that. B: Right, yeah. M: And then you go into your first skills class which is when you cook very basic French dishes. So as soon as you get into that class, you are graded every day on, you have to bring in definitions of different culinary terms and ingredients? But you also prepare certain dishes in a certain amount of time and you present each dish to the chef, for a grade. Sometimes you work in groups and sometimes it’s just by yourself. But I kinda like that. I had some success and some failures. Everything was in blocks there, so it wasn’t like first semester, second semester, but towards the end of my time before I got sent on my externship, I took a practical, I kinda flopped, I got the hardest one, it was a poached sol, you gotta break the fish down and all that stuff. B: Whoa. M: So I wasn’t proud of that but I still passed. B: Nice. And you said culinary math, that’s like memorizing tablespoons and ounces, what does culinary math mean? M: Yeah, so my first day in culinary math class, one of our first projects was to peel carrots, and when you start culinary school you get your own, like, knife kit of all the professional tools that you’ll need to work in the kitchen, and one of them was the peeler, which hadn’t been used yet. So I reached into the bag to get my peeler and I sliced my finger open in the math class, before I had even stepped foot in a kitchen. B: Oooooo. M: So, uh, I was kind of embarrassed, because a few people saw that I was bleeding from a peeler, but I managed to hide it with a napkin, and peel the carrot and then you weighed it, and then you figure out, if you buy the carrot for X amount and you take off X in carrot peels, how much is the carrot’s yield is what you’re looking for. B: Right, so in the long run, how much money are you gonna get back? Wow, man. That’s where my brain stops working, I was never good at any kind of math. M: I’m not either, trust me. B: So aside from testing out new recipes that you’ve been doing, what was the last thing you made for yourself? M: The last thing I made for myself... B: It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, just, honestly the last thing you made for yourself. M: I maaaade... ch-ch-ch-chhh.... I mean I’ve kind of been cooking for myself with all these Asian ingredients I have in my pantry right now, but I’m trying to think of something I normally wouldn’t do if I wasn’t doing what I am. I maaade... ravioli after Christmas with my grandfather. B: Mmm. Nice. Just, like, regular ravioli, err... M: So we do it, it’s a new day-after-Christmas tradition. Essentially it started with us finding the pasta machine and now every year we roll out pasta and I make the fillings. And last year was pretty special, it was the first year without my grandmother. Soo... we have three big nights in my family, we do Christmas Eve dinner, and Uncle Howard always used to come over and we would eat shrimp spaghetti which is actually your mom’s recipe... B: Nice, yup. M: And then Christmas... well, I’ll play this back, Christmas Eve turned into more of a roast, prime rib sort of thing and then on Christmas Day we have a ham and we have a turkey that’s roasted off. So last year I made three raviolis and one was Christmas Eve dedicated to my grandmother, Christmas Eve at her house. And I did a Christmas Day which was a turkey, I made a sauce with the bones and I made a cool filling. It kind of reminded me of what Christmas Day tastes like, it’s a little different than what Thanksgiving tastes like even though it was a turkey. And then the next one is, my uncle’s birthday, my Uncle Doug, my mom’s brother, and we always go out to dinner the day after Christmas too. And that one was, I used all the leftovers. Anyways, I got pretty intense with, this flavor, this filling, reminds me of this night. B: Cool. So each of the three raviolis had a different filling? M: Mhm. B: Wow, that’s cool. Cuz there’s the regular ravioli is like a meat or a kind of beef or pork filling and tomato sauce, but then I’ve also had butternut squash filling, you get the cheese filling with the white cheese sauce on it. Those are all really good. M: Yeah, yeah. And ravioli also reminds me, that was one of my dad’s numbers. I numbered the meals he could cook one through five. And Thursdays we normally had number four, which was ravioli with Paul Newman’s tomato sauce. B: That sounds really good. He could make five dinners? M: Yeah, it was tacos, ravioli, frozen pizzaa... He’s a little more creative now. That was always a running joke. B: Nice. Hey, five ain’t bad. That’s probably a couple more than most people. Okay, so can you explain to people what Fernet is? M: Yeah, so Fernet is a digestif, made with many different herbs and spices. The purpose is to drink it when you’re finished eating, essentially. It kind of helps you to digest your food faster. And it’s bitter so it kind of, I guess, cleanses your palette in a way. B: Right, yeah. How would you describe, besides the words you’ve already used, like herbaceous and it tastes like a spice, how would you describe the taste? Any other adjectives come to mind? Because I only know about it through you, I’ve had it with you. It has its own flavor. M: Definitely has its own flavor. I would say bitter would be one of the top flavors. It’s aromatic. I want to say, I don’t know this for a fact but there’s like sixty-three different ingredients that go into making it. B: Whoa. M: But it’s normally served after you’re finished eating, like the same time you’d get a coffee or espresso, you’d also drink a Fernet. My grandfather came over to visit me in San Francisco, and one of the bartenders brought me a bottle and my grandfather was like, Oh my god, your great grandmother used to drink this, and she was Italian. B: Right, okay, I was just gonna ask you, is it Italian? M: Yeah, it’s Italian. B: Okay, cool. That’s always a safe guess. And soo, for those not familiar, can you tell people what Michigans are, where they came from, why they’re important to your hometown and my mom’s side of the family’s hometown of Plattsburgh in upstate New York?... So, what’s a Michigan? M: Yeah, so a Michigan is a hot dog... covered in ground beef sauce. I’ve researched the recipe a lot, the authentic recipe, and from my understanding, they put ground beef into boiling water and simmer it for hours and hours, and then they add spices to it. And then, the technical recipe, unless there’s a secret somewhere that I don’t understand, some recipes call for tomato, I enjoy using tomato, it’s a little deeper flavor. And then the way to eat a Michigan is to... get it buried. So you get raw, chopped onions underneath the hot dog. And the hot dog bun always has to be steamed. B: Right. Make it a little soft, add a little moisture. And the buried onions really bring it to another level, I agree. M: Yeah, I think it really cuts into the fattiness of the hot dog, because you get all the flavorful Michigan sauce, but then when you get down in there, it’s just a hot dog. The onions really kick it all up. And then mustard as well. That’s the classic garnish B: Yeah, right. I was just gonna... and I never think to add ketchup really, it’s like the mustard is the condiment that goes with those three or four other things. M: Right. You do not need ketchup there at all. B: Right, yeah. Maybe because of the meat is already pretty sweet because of the Italian tomato sauce you use. M: Yeah, the meat’s a little sweet. Normally if I’m making it, I caramelize the tomato paste in the bottom of the pan and add some, like, aromatic vegetables, and then that’s kind of how I develop the cooking liquid for the beef. And then you just cook that down. It takes a few hours but it’s worth it, always. B: It’s so worth it. Soo, can youuu... this will be the last question like this... Can you tell people about cold shredded cheese on pizza. That seems like a life hack, or just a good tip. M: So, from my research, I’ve found that, it’s a college town thing in upstate New York to put cold cheese on your pizza, because when you’re drunk and really hungry and the pizza’s hot out of the oven, you want to cool it down a little bit. So cold cheese kind of came into play that way. B: Ahaa! And then they were, upon the first bite they were just like, this is also delicious. M: This is perfect. Why not have a little extra cheese on top? B: Nice. So my favorite restaurant experience, no question... and this is just, like, bragging at this point but... my favorite restaurant experience was going to Chez Panisse in Berkeley with you and our cousin Lauren, and we let you order everything... Can you tell people about this restaurant and maybe why it’s so good? M: Yeah, so, Chez Panisse, and Alice Waters, kind of were the pioneers, alongside of Jeremiah Tower in San Francisco, who kind of created the movement of farm to table in America, which wasn’t necessarily a thing because of the way our food system has been set up in this country. So Alice Waters spent some time in France and, um, came back and decided to set up a little restaurant called Chez Panisse, where she used only the highest quality ingredients and also became friends with the farmers and her purveyors and didn’t use a big massive company that brought her all of her ingredients, she found each specific ingredient as she needed it. And there are some chefs who will talk smack about Alice Waters, um, Anthony Bourdain was one of them, but I think the importance of what she did to the farm-to-table scene and also to incorporate a farm-to-table scene in children’s diets is also very important. There’s also some of the most talented chefs in California worked for Alice Waters. I believe Jeremiah Tower was one of them. I think he was the opening chef but don’t quote me on that. Jeremiah Tower had a restaurant in San Francisco called Stars, so it was kind of a similar philosophy, farm to table, he was more of a fine dining chef. I think the other important piece of Chez Panisse was it was more of a European style of restaurant, and that became influential because before it was kind of like, you got your Chinese takeout, you’ve got your Italian-American, you’ve got your steakhouse. But you didn’t necessarily have something like Chez Panisse that you could find in France and that sort of thing. And the way she sourced her ingredients, the way it was cooked... B: She essentially cuts out the middle man, right? She just... likes to deal with the farmers herself, right? M: Yes, yeah, definitely. And that’s definitely possible for a lot of people to do, um, it’s just... technically not, like, typical in a restaurant, you find your vendors and then you figure out what you want from those vendors and what the price is, and they deliver to you everyday or a couple, few times a week, depending on how your volume is. So actually it’s very difficult to not deal with that and go directly to people. You have to be extremely organized, in what quantity you’re buying, because most people that run restaurants don’t have that much time to do that, go to a farm to pick up a bag of beans. B: I was gonna say, you probably also have to be a little bit crazy to do that too. Have some OBSESSION with quality, which I know a lot of cooks already do, but... M: Mhm. B: And just being in that building, it was like being in the greatest house ever, it was just so waaarm. It was all, like, super high-quality wood, and just like perfect warm lighting, not too bright, not too dim. Just crazy, it was like being on a spaceship or something. M: Mhm. B: It was awesome. We gotta go back there. Umm, okay, so what country’s cuisine... we’ve talked about France, we’ve talked about Italy, what country’s cuisine has influenced you the most. M: That’s a great question. I don’t necessarily say I could give you a country but I would say California cuisine has influenced my cuisine more than anything else. B: Mhm. M: California cuisine was technically cuisine pioneered by Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower. B: Mhm. So just fresh, farm-to-table ingredients, nothing too fancy. M: Yeah. There were times when you wanna... I guess what I like about it is, it’s the ingredients and then it’s kind of, do whatever you want to it but you don’t necessarily have to say, this is an Italian dish, or... there’s no restrictions. Say you worked at an Italian restaurant and you wanted to do something off of the beaten path, it’s harder to get away with it. B: Mhm. Yeah, and I know Alice Waterrrs, she’s just like, you can’t really improve on things that, I guess you could say, God created but, she’s obsessed with, like, when a certain fruit is in season, tangerine, I’m forgettinngg the citrus fruit that she really loves, but she’ll just, like, present that when it’s ripe, and it’s the most delicious thing somehow. M: Yeah, and it’s perfect. That is a way that dessert is served in a proper Japanese restaurant, they’re gonna give you a slice of melon. Because they’re so obsessed with growing perfect fruit there. B: Huh! M: Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve ever gone to, like, a sushi restaurant where they’ve given you a slice of honeydew melon or something. But in Japan a melon can go for, like, twenty grand. B: Holy. I can’t think of having melon at a sushi place before but, wow, that’s cool. There’s gotta be something sexual about it, like melons... round, shapely, right? M: Haha. Yeah, I don’t know where it’s derived from, but I love the simplicity of Japanese cuisine, and that’s like the first real, ingredient-driven cuisine, a little insane. I mean obviously Italian cuisine is ingredient-driven. And then other cuisines are just from, this is what grows nearby me and I’m gonna find the best, most ripe piece of X, Y, Z, because you don’t need to do anything to it. Anthony Bourdain’s point about Alice Waters was that she ruined creativity in San Francisco, which at the time was the best food city in the country. B: Mhm, because she kept things too simple for his taste? She took the cheffing out of it in his eyes? M: I think she took, it was more just about the ingredients. But at the same time, there are so many spectacular chefs that worked for her and went on to do crazy things. Jeremiah Tower, for instance. A lot of people have taken what she’s done and applied certain things to it. Now I would say L.A.’s probly got the best food scene goin on in the country right now, but San Francisco’s not too far behind. B: Mhm, cool. Okay, so this is kind of a morbid question but, you’re on death row, what’s your final meal? M: ... Lasagna. B: Haha. Anyone’s lasagna in particular? Do you make it for yourself, is that part of, like, the last feel-good act is you make the lasagna yourself or are you just interested in eating it? M: You know, if I was on Death Row I doubt that they would let me hold a knife in my hand... B: Hahaha. M: ... But I would actually not cook for myself if it was my final meal. I would... B: There you go. M: ... I would want my mother’s lasagna. B: Of course. M: I do like Annette’s lasagna a lot, it’s really good. But I could never say that out loud. B: Haha. Good answer, good answer. Okay, so what would be your dream job situation. Owning a restaurant, is it a big restaurant, small restaurant, is it in the city or the country? M: My dream job situation would be, wake up in the morning, take a swim, go for a run in a field or something, and then go and grab some vegetables from a farmers market of some sort or go to a farm, and then not have to cook for a million people. B: Haha. Nice, nice. M: But I would have, like, a dishwasher and maybe a couple cooks, but it wouldn’t be a big staff at all, it would just be like people cooking together and enjoying it and not being stressed out. There are so many different facets that you could work in this business, especially just being a chef. But what I love about cooking is... how I feel, when I’m making someone else feel good. B: Yeah! Yeah. M: And that’s what I like the most about cooking. And it’s not about me being the most creative person in the world or anything like that, it’s more about me, just kind... I wouldn’t say it’s my craft at this point, I would saayy... it’s my, kind of, zone. B: Yup. M: And it’s what I love to do. And it’s really hard to find a job that I would be able to do that without being stressed out for the rest of my life. Like say I wanted to be a chef in New York City and create all these amazing dishes and have an R&D fermentation lab and do all this crazy stuff. And the only way I could do that is if I was worth millions of dollars and I could afford it. B: Right. M: Those restaurants don’t necessarily make any money. I’ve never been at that point though. I’m kind of like, taking jobs that, I either learn from, I learn a lot by working with certain people, or... I learn for myself. Like my job in San Francisco, at the golf course. I learned a lot for myself there too because it wasn’t a corporation, it was, this is gonna happen and, figure it out. And there was no one else to say, don’t do that or, do this, do that. It was just kinda like, you figure it out or you fucked up. B: Haha. I like those terms. So would the scaaale be on... I had a question here that I was gonna skip but my eye keeps going back to it, and it just says, Will we ever go to French Laundry?, would your dream job situation be... I imagine French Laundry’s pretty small, but is that also a restaurant that’s owned by someone who has plenty of money and because of the money they can do things their way errr? M: Well, Thomas Keller started The French Laundry in, I wanna say, 1990, but The French Laundry gained its reputation from just Thomas Keller working his ass off. And now it’s something totally different because, there’s cookbooks, there’s Per Se in New York City, there’s Bouchon, there’s Ad Hoc, there’s all these other restaurants, but... it all started at The French Laundry and The French Laundry is only gonna get better while his company’s expanding because... B: You can put more back into it. M: Yeah, and if you talk about... I think Thomas Keller, he’s more of a chef’s chef whereas I don’t think that’s what I wanna do every day, I don’t want to work fifteen hours a day in a kitchen, I don’t want to do that anymore. So I’m more looking at what I’m doing now for a little bit more balance in my lifestyle, um, to be a little bit healthier and have a little bit more of a life. B: Yeah, yeah. M: And if you want to do anything like The French Laundry, you’ve gotta give that all up again. B: Right. M: That’s why a lot of new types of concepts are popping up now that are actually run by really good chefs, like fast casual joints that are more of a lunch business and it’s more of a volume sort of thing, and it’s cheaper food but it’s really good. And that allows the chefs of those businesses to not have to work until 3 in the morning and get up at 7 to go to the farmers market. B: Yeah. Man. So my favorite restaurant around here, probably including Boston but it’s down in Providence, is just called Kitchen? And it’s a breakfast/brunch place, and it’s about the size of a closet. It’s SO good. And it’s just this one guy, Howard, I just know his first name, Howard, and he’s the only cook in there. And there’s one server. And it’s just the two of them and it’s like they just make beautiful music together. I don’t know what he does but, like, everything I’ve ordered from there, french toast, everything is perfect. And I think it’s like, Wednesday to Sunday, 9 to 1. And he just makes beautiful food. M: Yeah. That is amazing. It’s something I thought of, at some points in my life, like why am I dealing with the stress like I dealt with in Houston of 650 cooks and all of these restaurants and restaurant openings and I was like, what if I just cooked everyday and forget all this bullshit? B: Haha, right. Maybe one day. He’s also... you’re still young in the game, but he’s probably in his seventies. But he’s doing the lord’s work. So just a couple more questions, I gotta mention this. The Patriots are in the Super Bowl again, you can just do a real quick recap but, can you tell people about the now legendary Tom Brady grapes story? M: So, all I know is, I wasn’t delivering anything into his room, and you can’t include the name of the hotel in case this goes viral... B: Haha, okay. Somewhere in upstate New York... M: At this hotel there’s only room for twenty-two guests at a time. Each guest pays an exorbitant amount of money for the entire experience, you don’t just rent the room, you’re paying for the food. And it’s not the kind of place that has a mini fridge in the room. So, most people don’t bring their own food with them. So, yeah, Tom Brady showed up with his hairdresser... B: Haha. M: ... and the only thing that was ever brought to the room were grapes. B: Hahaha... green grapes, red grapes? M: Any kind of grape that we had in the fridge... they got. B: Haha. M: So if we didn’t have something in our kitchen, we would figure out a way to find it out and go and get it. But we also, we changed our menu every single day there. On Wednesdays and Saturdays we hosted a twelve-course tasting menu that was like a tuxedo event. B: Oh my gosh. Wow. M: It’s a tradition at that particular resort. The rest of the night it’s like a four-to-five course meal but it’s a dinner served at the same time. So people normally eat in the dining hall and then go back to their rooms and anything that they need in their rooms, there was a 24-hour butler service that would take care of any needs overnight. B: And he just had a need for grapes? M: A need for grapes. B: Haha. So last time I was at your sister’s, she was eating crackers and cheese for lunch and I thought this was pretty inspiring because I hadn’t had crackers and cheese in a while. Do you think this is a standard lunch for her? Is she big on the crackers and cheese? M: I would say it’s a possibility. My mom always ate cheddar cheese and granny smith apples for lunch. B: Whooaaa. Cool. Together? Like she would take a slice of the granny smith and a slice of the cheddar cheese and eat it together? M: Yeah. Who needs a cracker? B: Right. M: My father, I remember this distinctly for some reason, I even remember what plate he served it to me on, since when I was younger my mom was more of the cook, I don’t know if she was gone somewhere that day but, I was probably in maybe third grade or something, and I told my dad I was hungry and he made me a cheese plate. And it had crackers, cheese, and raisins on it. B: Mm! M: I was probably expecting a grilled cheese of some sort, but... it worked. It was a good combination. It was the first cheese plate I ever experienced. B: Mannn. Your dad gets a bad rap! He knows his way around the kitchen! He’s holdin out on me! M: They always had, in our fridge... I don’t remember cheddar actually. I remember monterey jack. That was the only cheese, because it was also the cheese that was used to make nachos, on Fridays. Which is also a very interesting dish and tradition. The nachos are made on Doritos Nacho Cheese, with refried beans that are spread individually on each chip. B: Whoaaa. M: My mom would even go as far as feeling each bag of Doritos to make sure that there weren’t too many crumbled Doritos at the bottom of the bag. B: Right. M: It was almost like watching Alice Waters pick a plum from a tree. B: Hahaha... So it was like, Nacho Friday. Nacho Fridays? M: Yup, nachos and we would get two VHSs, one for my parents to watch later and one that my sister and I had to agree on. B: Woowwww. Wow. So like a PG one, and then like a sexy one for your parents? M: Um, probably more like Die Hard. B: For your parents, okay. M: Something that we weren’t ready to see yet. B: Right. That’s one of my favorite movies. Okay, so this is the last question, and thank you again for doin this... Can you tell people about the new restaurant opening in March in NYC that you’re gonna be plying your trade... I’ll say your craft, you’ll be plying your craft at... M: Yeah, so it’s called Lucky Lee’s. It’s a concept dreamt up, um, not by myself but by my partners. Ariel and Lee are New Yorkers. Lee works in finance in New York and Ariel is kind of a wellness, social media... she went to one of the same schools that Elizabeth did. B: Mama Gena? M: I think it was the one at Columbia? B: Columbia, yup. M: So... Lee loved Chinese food and Ariel... didn’t want that shit in the house. B: Haha. M: When I first talked to Lee he was like, Listen, I’m a Jew from Long Island and I like Chinese food, like everyone in New York loves Chinese food, and my wife doesn’t want me to eat it. So I challenged her to create Chinese food that I’m allowed to eat. B: Wow. Nice. That’s really cool. M: Yeah, great story, they’re great people, I really like both of them, it’s been awesome working with them together, so... there’s no gluten at all. We’re not advertising it as a gluten-free restaurant but our soy sauce is made with pure soybean, our chicken is pasture-raised and free range depending on, we still have to negotiate some pricing with the vendors there and the farms, and our beef is grass-fed. And kind of, we’re taking higher standards while looking into Chinese cuisine, Chinese-American takeout cuisine specifically, so it’s something you can feel good about, like, the next day. We also don’t wanna talk shit about Chinese-American foods because, it’s great. That’s not why we’re doing it. We’re doing it because it’s kind of just a new take on... a new take on takeout. B: Nice. I like that. I think that’s a perfect way to end. I mean we can stop the interview here but, do you have a link, is there a website to the restaurant? I can put it at the end of the interview. M: Yeah, I can send it to you. I don’t think there’s much up on the website YET, it’s probly just a link to the Instagram.    https://www.luckyleesnyc.com/

[jitsuda-blog]

Chiang Dao Camping

The reasons that I am writing this blog because I think I fall in love with trekking. I think I understand now why people like to go trekking.

I am inspired by a book called “Born a crime” written by Trevor Noah. I like the idea that he wrote about his life, born in South Africa in English language which allows people from different parts of the world to understand and enjoy reading his experiences. And I am one of them. So, I hope that my messages will be seen by people, in India, Africa, small islands, small towns in other parts of the world somehow. I apologize for my broken English. I honestly would love to share my latest experience.

And most importantly, I am amazed by beauty of nature. Nature has so much impact on me. I also appreciated everyone in the trip who had helped me along the ways that were full of difficulties and wonderful adventures.

26 November 2017

My parents drove me to Chiang Dao Camping office (Chiangmai, Thailand), where I first met up with guides or porters and other trekkers whom I would be spending the whole 3 day journey with.

It was my first time going trekking alone. I had invited some friends, but they were not free to come, or they did not want to come, I was not so sure. But, I really wanted to go. What should I do?

Since I am always  inspired by Iroamalone website, which is created to advice how a woman can travel alone, I saw the possibility that I was not going to be in the jungle alone, I could just follow the other tourists. Besides, I actually am an adult. There is nothing for  me and my parents should be concerned or worried about that much.

It was 8.30 AM. There were total 10 trekkers and 2 porters for this trip. We all sat at the back of the pickup that would bring us to the trekking starting site.

Once the pickup passed the National park office, the speed began  faster. The driver sped up while running on the super rough road.

“Ahhhhhh!!!!! Ohhh Noo…..!!!! Ouch!! Ouch!! Seriously!!!” My butt bumped up and down the seat.

“Do you have to go that fast?!  I do not wanna die here. There is no seat belt. What if the car accidentally get off the road and go down the hill?!!!” I was crying inside. And I believe that everyone felt the same way, they all grabbed the bar tightly. It was such a fast and furious ride. [Later on, when we finished the trip, we complained about the fast ride to another driver, he said it is hard to bring the pickup full of people up on the high mountain if they go by slower pace. And they are experienced in driving to the area.]

Even I was panic on the intense ride, I still noticed the scenery along the rough road. It was foggy. I saw orange garden, with small little shop in the front, selling oranges and some snacks. The ride was not that bad actually.

It took one hour and a half on the scary ride, we finally arrived safely at the starting site. We grabbed lunch pack and 2 bottles of water and put into our bags.

The driver who is also the manager of the tour, He showed us the map and explained the directions.

Way up to the campsite: 8.5 km (4 - 5 hours walk)

Way down from campsite: 6 km (3 - 4 hours walk)

                                     Then, it was time to start trekking.

“Wowww…. isn’t it pretty?!!”  The track was narrow, so we all had to walk as one row. The weather surrounding was a bit cooling, but I  thought there was no need to wear long sleeves yet, because I would be sweating later.

The flower is called “Tian Nok Kaew”  you may see that  they look so much like small little parrots. [Nok Kaew means Parrot].

We stopped a while for lunch break. The sticky rice with fried pork and sausage filled up three quarters of my stomach. Around 2 PM, we reached the campsite. We stayed right below the big mountain. We rested a while, enough to recharge the energy to hike up to the big mountain that evening for sunset. 

OMG, I realized that climbing up to this mountain was not easy. It was very steep, certain path was tough, the narrow track was full of rocks. Further away by just inches was just nice cliff. I started to get out of breath. I breathed in and out deeply to calm myself. It seemed like the porter noticed my reactions. He stopped and called out for everyone to take few breaks along the way up. This was  the most extreme exercise I had ever done in my life.

Almost one hour later, I finally caught up with some other trekkers, we reached the top of “ Doi Luang Chiang Dao”,  at least  the ground on the top was flat enough for me to walk easily. [Doi Luang means big mountain].

Wowww........

Is this real?!!! I breathed in the fresh air deep down into both of my lungs. The aching from climbing suddenly went away. I could not feel anymore pain by just looking at the breathtaking view in front of me. I sensed only lightness and peacefulness. Was I dreaming? Last five minutes I was still suffering from the rocks and scary cliff. We were at 2,225 meters above sea level.

Others were checking their phone signals or finding their best spots for shooting photos. They probably could not wait to tell their love ones of what they just experienced.

The porter has been very nice, he liked to show us the different locations on top of the big mountain.  

At the end of the day, the sun disappeared slowly from the sky. It was time for me to climb back to my tent in the darkness (of course I brought flashlight with me). It was easier coming down, but still it was scary for me.

Next morning, I woke up around 4.15 am. We were heading to another mountain called “Gew Lom” for sunrise. The sky was full of stars, it had been long time that I had not seen that many stars so obvious.

Climbing up to Gew Lom was not easier than the day before. It was hard because it was dark and more slippery. Again, I was suffering with catching up my breath and trying to keep my body moving through the hard track.

At a certain part of the way to Gew Lom, Pi Ling, another porter, flashed the flashlight  up to a cliff, and we could see the reflection of an animal called “ Liang Pa” which is mountain goat. “They like to stand on the cliff” Pi. Ling said. [ Pi means older brother].

About an hour of climbing in the darkness, We once stepped on the top. Pi Ling prepared hot Milo (chocolate drink) for us. What could be better than having hot drink above the cold mountain. 

                                      And... the sun started rising....

After the sun had fully risen, we just enjoyed taking photos for a while. Pi Ling quickly presented us an interesting flower. The flower would break and spread out its seeds whenever we give slight squeeze or even when the rain falls onto it.

I  enjoyed making the flowers broken for a while. Then, we got hungry, so it was  time to climb back for breakfast. 

Oh my gosh, the way down was even more slippery. My walking stick did not help much. I needed to hold the trees and rocks nearby to help balancing myself.

Pi Chai, our chef, cooked wonderful dishes for us in every meals. I could not believe that up on mountain I still could enjoy tasty food. I needed to restore lots of energy. After breakfast, we all were happy to rest. We would start another trekking in the afternoon at 2 PM, this time we would go to another mountain linking to Gew Lom. Which means we would need to hike up to the same path as the morning, and continue further away another 25 minutes. That sounded so far away for me already.  However, after I had done hiking up and down mountains twice, I really gained much more confidence that it would be possible for me to go further.

There was a little cave hiden underneath the top of the mountain.  It was impossible  for us to go deeper inside, since the the entrance was too small. 

It was chilling up there. Pi Ling again was preparing hot drinks for us as usual. We were just looking for spots to sit down and could not wait to enjoy the drink until....we heard unexpected sentence.

“ Oh No !!, I forgot to bring the kettle” Pi Ling spoke out loud enough for us to hear. 

We were stunned for seconds and tried to process what we had just heard.

“ It is ok ” we all responded him with little bit sadness. I can just drink the cold Milo then. I still needed to restore some energy.

This afternoon, we could see only fogginess on the sky and surrounded the mountain. The sky was still unclear and it was almost time of sunset. We decided to go back to the campsite because of the heavy fog. We missed sunset.

Tomorrow would be our last day, we planned to go back to Doi Luang Chiang Dao, to see the stars and sunrise another time. 

5 AM, we reached the top, but still the whole mountain was full of fog. It was 15 Degree Celsius, with breeze. I could not stand the wind. I hid myself in front of the wood signage. Of course we still hoped that the sky would open soon, we waited until we were sure that the sun had been risen. The weather got warmer. “It is ok, I do not see sunrise, I still can enjoy the cloud!!”

let us go back to our tents for breakfast and get ready for long trek all the way back.

This is our kitchen. Pi Ling and Pi Chai were packing their stuffs.

On the way back, the sky opened,  I believed that the mountains showed up to say goodbye to us, or maybe to give us encouragement to get through the new hard track. The way back was very different from the way we came. 

It is 6 km, which is shorter distance, but seriously, walking down the long steep hill really hurt my knees. Pi Chai helped accompanied me from half way to the end. Other trekkers were walking very fast. I was very careful to step down the slippery path. I did not want to get any injuries, my knees already got hurt and tired. Pi Chai guided me all the way through and giving me some green oil to massage my knees. I was not sure to try. But since it is just herb, I finally tried. I liked the smell of it, though. “Not bad”, I felt less painful later on. We walked passed by bamboos jungles, wild bananas jungles, high rocks covered with moss all over them. Wow, this was like unusual landscape for me. It was like dinosaur era. I probably watched too much movies, or I got too tired until I became blurred.

OMG, I finally saw the same pickup  waiting in the front. I came as the third place, by the way:))

Thank you all friends along this trip, it was nice to meet you all. Thank you for help taking photos of me. Thank you Chiang Dao Camping for arranging  the program efficiently. Thank you porters for being so kind, funny and sharing your stories. 

                                                                            Nature is really amazing = D

 Last pic was shot by Ja with her GoPro (thank you so much)

                                                      Expense details(3 days,2 nights program)

Trip: 2,750 bht per person

Sleeping bag rent: 200 bht per night

Luggages : If you need porter to carry your bags, the price is 120 bht per kg ( mine was around 4 kg)

Further inquries please contact Chiang Dao Camping Facebook page

Additional information

There is no water for showering, the porters prepared only water for drinking and washing face or brush your teeth. 

Toilet: it looks like a hole with wood board for a person to stand on and squat to do your business,  they covered with black plastic net to make like small restroom. The smell is terrible. One of the porter said they will change new hole every month. It is better than nothing, I think.

Phone signals: AIS or One2call signals can be found on top of the most mountains. Truemove can be found only at Gew Lom mountain (mine is Truemove, I could make a call there). 

Phone signals cannot be found at the campsite and along the trekking tracks.

Accommodation: one tent can fit one or two people. I stayed alone in a tent, which was located near to other people’s tents. 

My opinion: Suggestions for trekkers ( trip during November) 

The weather can be 10-15 degree C at night  until early in the morning. It can be windy on top of mountains.

1. The sleeping bag from the campsite is not warm enough, you should bring extra sleeping bag or extra blanket. I, myself was suffering from coldness. Some other trekkers asked for extra sleeping bag even they already brought ones from home.

2. You may bring additional cushion/air cushion to put on top of the mat in the tent, so that it helps to prevent coldness transferring to your body at night. 

3. Bring some snacks or sweets if you have high metabolism, you will always feel hungry and you can share snacks to your friends too. There is no snacks available at the campsite. They provide only food, water, Milo and coffee.  Each usual meal may not last for long hours in some people.

4. Bring hot water bottle with you, because the water for drinking is as cold as water in a fridge. you can ask the porters to boil water for you to spare.

5. It is better to join 3 days 2 nights trip, because there is possibility that the sky can be foggy and you will miss sunrise or sunset if you stay just one night.