The Adventures of Connor & Abby: Part 20

Sometimes time and space reveal amazing things, like four Doctors in the same room (or standing on the same book, as the case may be). 

And sometimes, it all goes one step further, as Connor and Abby found out when they found themselves in the presence of the tenth Doctor. Connor was thrilled; Abby was rather bemused by how thrilled Connor was.

Time for snapshots?

Then behold, along came the eleventh Doctor, as well. Just when Connor thought it couldn't get any better. 

Is Belle a Social Climber?

While I do think that Beauty and the Beast is a wonderful movie and one of Disney's best, I've started to have a problem with something in it. It has to do with the song "Belle (Little Town)" at the start of the movie.

This movie has good songs, this one included. But as someone who has chosen to live in a little town because I like it here, I'm pausing over the lyrics more than I used to. The question is, why does Belle have a problem with this town? Is it because it's small? Does she just want the chance to go to the theatre at night and a bigger book store during the day? Or does she want to pretend she's fancy folk? After all, the movie puts Belle in an ambiguous social standing. Traditionally, she is the story of a merchant, but Disney made her father into an inventor. He and Belle live alone in what appears to be a humble cottage home (they do have chickens, too) and seem to be counting very highly on his invention being successful. So Belle, in the movie, doesn't seem to have a very high social status--so why does she complain about the "little town" she lives in?

Admittedly, there is the problem of culture. Belle appreciates culture. She likes to read and think and come up with ideas. She's surrounded by farmers and bakers and hunters who don't understand her fascination with books. She simply wants people she can have a conversation with, and that's understandable. But that feeling of isolation can happen anywhere, even in a city. Why does she have to complain that the baker bakes bread every day? Then she's just acting like him, complaining that she reads books every day.

Then there is the desire, which often comes with youth, for adventure. Belle sees the town as little because she is just at the start of her life. She wants to travel, to see places, to meet people--to have adventures. Such a desire often implies that there will be a Wizard of Oz ending. You know, where Dorothy has a series of adventures that teach her that everything she wanted could be found within herself, wherever she happened to be. In Beauty and the Beast, I feel like there is no resolution for Belle's condemnation of the town.

In theory, Belle learns about what is most important. She learns that beauty is found within. She learns that a true connection between two people has nothing to do with outward circumstances. But this is also what Belle does: she leaves a small town to marry a rich prince in a big castle. True, he happened to be a beast when they met--but she always knew that he was cursed. What would have been the story if he were a cursed farmer? Would any of Belle's desires to get away from the "little town" have been satisfied then?

My next question is, should I even be complaining? What if we decide that this is an issue where there is no resolution within the movie. Does it really matter? Not everyone likes small towns. Some people like "to see the world." Belle decided she wanted something more and she went for it. What's wrong with that?

Zhena's Gypsy Tea: Chocolate Chai

In my great enjoyment of tea, I don't usually have a preference for a certain kind. Black, green, herbal, red, white, flavored, non-flavored. I'll try them; it's nice to have a mix of different things, anyway. Every so often, I'll find myself with something from Zhena's or Zhena's Gypsy Tea. Although I was drawn to this four tier cylinder for the Chocolate Chai, I held off for a while because of the Coconut Chai. Coconut is one of the flavors that I don't normally favor. 

While I had thought to force the Coconut Chai on unsuspecting friends or relatives, I ended up drinking it myself. Per flavor, there are only four tea bags, making this set not quite as good of a deal as Zhena's tends to be. But that also means that you don't get tired of any of the flavors. The Coconut was milder than I expected, tasting more of cinnamon and cardamom than coconut. It, along with the Hazelnut Chai, was made with black tea. The Hazelnut was pleasant, though not throughly memorable.

The other two flavors, Caramel Chai and Chocolate Chai, are made with red tea. I have mixed feelings about red tea. It's supposed to be fancy, but it tastes coy and unfamiliar to me, almost sweet. It can be pleasant, depending on what other flavors you put with it, but overall I don't love it. And sometimes when it comes to chai, the most original versions taste the best. Making chai with green tea or red tea or making it taste like this or that just gets weird after a while. 

The Caramel Chai was fairly on the mellow side, as would be expected. While I wanted to like the Chocolate Chai (and it was the reason I bought the set, after all), I can only find myself feeling lukewarm toward it. Total ingredients? Cacao powder, rooibos, cinnamon, roasted chicory root, ginger, chocolate flavoring, licorice root, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, shortbread flavoring, orange peel, pepper. Nearly all of those ingredients are organic, as is the case with all the four flavors. I don't specifically taste them all, though. I taste the roobos, maybe the chicory, perhaps the cardamom, and the chocolate. But what is that I see? Cocoa powder and chocolate flavoring? What exactly do they mean by chocolate flavoring? I ask because I'm caught feeling like the chocolate tastes artificial. Maybe I feel that way because the red tea is still the dominant flavor and I don't associate red tea with chocolate. 

So as something different to try, the Chocolate Chai and the whole set were interesting and pleasant. But I don't think I would buy any of them again. When I crave chai, I'll get a plain chai. When I crave chocolate tea, I'll choose something else. 

Zhena's Gypsy Tea Chocolate Chai Tea ( 22 BAG)

NEW! Zhena's Gypsy Tea Sampler Tins Chai Sampler Tin

September Favorites

As usual for September, most of these are either gifts or purchased with gift money.

1) Beaded Purse - Perhaps you can't tell in a picture how pretty this bag is. It has a metal clasp colored in gold, with a delicately gaudy pattern of vines on it. The material is made of soft grey stitches woven with blue-grey beads that catch the light and sparkle most brilliantly. It's perfect for an evening out, except that the space inside is so small that I can barely fit my cell phone and a lip color in it.

2) Pewter Dinosaurs - On the way back from the Painted Desert earlier this month, we stopped at a store with lots and lots of fossils and gemstones and rocks and such. It was all very exciting, but I don't have the space to buy more at the moment, so I just picked up a handful of tiny dinosaurs. They've been hanging out with my books--at Heathcliff's feet, in fact.

3) Tarte Glamazon Pure Performance Lipstick in Foxy - While I love Tarte's lip tints and shimmers (the ones that are like crayons), I've never had one of their lipsticks. This bright pink is much fuller in color than the tints, making it necessary to bring out my lip liner/primer, but it still feels softer than a regular lipstick. I think I'll like using it when the weather cools down and I want that extra bit of color to combat the cold.

4) Fairy Tales from Around the World - I know I already have two of the Barnes and Noble leatherbounds with fairy tales, but this copy was so pretty with its bright color and layers of pictures that I had to get it. (I also got a few more books while I was there.) It has stories from the Blue Fairy Book, the Red Fairy Book, etc. There are also a good amount of pictures.

5) Tarte Beauty & the Box Amazonian Clay Eye Shadow Quad in Just Deserts - This is my third of these shadow palettes; I do love them. While my other brown set has warmer shades, these are more stark. The darkest is a very dark brown, and the top two shades are very, very light. So I feel like this set is good if you want to do an almost black lid, but in a neutral way.

6) Notecards Set - While I was at Barnes & Noble, I wandered into the paper section and found this little set from Kartos. It's beautiful paper that folds open to reveal two pockets, which hold small notecards and envelopes with the same delicate design. I thought they might be nice to have in case I ever want to send someone a short note. And they look beautiful in my little Victorian writing desk (the lap one).

7) Shiny Gemstone Necklace - What I find pretty about this necklace is the subtlety of colorfulness. Shades of pink, blue, and ivory are set against gold to create something soft yet playful.

8) Green Mademoiselle Notebook from Niquead - I know, I have prettier notebooks than this one. But I had been eyeing it at Papyrus for a while because of the green dress, so I thought, why not? It has gold-edged pages.

8) Flower Necklace - At the same antique store booth where I found my watch necklace this summer, I came across these orange flowers. Again, this is my idea of fashion jewelry--not what the clothing stores sell.

9) Green Pants - I had been wanting some military green pants for a while, but couldn't find any that fit right. These are from Gianni Bini and they're in olive green and I think they were designed to fit above the ankle, which of course means that they fit short me just right as regular length pants.

10) Cameo Necklace & Bracelet Set - There I was at the aforementioned antique store. I turned a corner and there it was, gleaming in a display case. I paused and smiled at it, admiring its beauty. Then I tilted my head to see the price tag. No, I thought, that must just be the price of the bracelet. But lo, and behold, that was the price for both the necklace and bracelet. Deciding I wouldn't find another set like this soon, much less at this price, I brought them home. I do love cameos, and the metal (it's possible it's silver, but I really don't know how to tell on something like this) setting is filled with filigree and flourishes and of all the colors in the world, the little (faux) stones are green. Wasn't it made for me? I'm having a hard time researching these necklaces. The tag said it was Victorian. Some of the ones online say they're from the 1880's. I think somewhere said something about the 1930's. Either way, it's a beautiful set.

Once's Tale of Ice and Smoke

I had come to a certain way of thinking. Although I do think that Once Upon a Time's good moments make it worth sitting through the mediocre moments, I was beginning to think that the season openers and finales weren't the strongest episodes out of each season. So even though I was excited for Season 4 to start last night, I wasn't necessarily expecting much from "A Tale of Two Sisters."

For all my worry, this episode was well put together and bodes well for the rest of the season--even for the possibility of moving on past Season 4 into even more seasons. Let's talk about Frozen first. It does seem likely that this show was, well, ordered to include certain details from the movie (maybe not, but it does seem that way, doesn't it?). Sure, the fairy tales they do that already have Disney versions tend to echo those Disney movies--but not as much as the Frozen story line has already done in just one episode. Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff all look and dress exactly as they do in the movie; at least, there is significantly less variation than there has been for other stories. The short scene with the trolls almost seems like it's just added in so that the audience can see the trolls. You know what may have been my favorite thing, though? That wedding dress. That design, that fabric--that's a lovely dress.

Of course, it isn't as if the show is providing an exact retelling of the movie. It seems that we are coming into the story after the plot of the movie, so while much of those events may still hold true, where we go from there is different. And it would seem that I was right to wonder where Elsa's world was--it's in the same world as Snow White's, just a short ship's voyage away. That's where we make the connection to the current set of characters. While I wondered if the connection would come through Robin Hood and Marian or Regina, I completely overlooked Rumplestiltskin. How could I do that when last season's finale showed that Elsa was trapped in the lower level of his castle? What if he killed Anna? I would make that my theory--except that then Anna wouldn't be a present-day character, and that seems unlikely. But where is Anna, and how did Elsa end up trapped? And does Elsa know where she is when she finds herself in Storybrooke?

Maybe I liked this episode because the Charmings were in it so little. Maybe I liked the hinting at a new role for Emma. Maybe I was fascinated by Regina's new quest to find the author of Henry's fairy tale book. Maybe it was just nice to see Regina acting evil again. She's so happy when she's evil that I found myself so happy to see her embracing her evil smile and purple lipstick again, turning herself into smoke at every turn. Or maybe it had just been a while since I'd watched Robert Carlyle. Interesting that his little act of deception at the end of last season appears to be coming to a close and he does genuinely seem to want to start over. And wasn't it so nice getting the Beauty and the Beast dance? But what is that box, and what does he intend to do with it?

Questions, questions; I have so many. The questions are one of the best parts about this show, and we're off to a good guessing game this year.

Once Returns Once Again

Ah, sometimes life is very annoying. I just typed out this entire post, only to accidentally delete it all with no way of getting it back. So this time I will put it together differently--how about a list? Perhaps that will be more coherent, anyway.

Season 4 of Once Upon a Time is already starting up again on Sunday. Because it's a show with so many characters and stories, I'm quite curious to see what they do with it this time. I don't like to see spoilers, so I haven't been looking at cast lists, promo images, or interviews yet. But I do know that Will Scarlet (from Once Upon a Time in Wonderland) is going to be in this season and they will be doing a version of Frozen.

1) How will Frozen fit in with the current plot and characters? Perhaps one of the characters we already know will turn out to be Elsa's sister, or maybe one of them acted against Elsa in the past.

2) Will Elsa's world be part of Snow White's, or does she come from a different world? Given the inclusion of Neverland and Oz last season, it's possible that she comes from a different world, although that might make connections with the current set of characters more difficult.

3) Will there be crossover between the Robin Hood and Frozen plots? I come to this question, naturally, because it seems like these are two stories we're going to be exploring more of this season. They might still be separate, but it's always easier to build connections between new stories than existing ones. In last season's finale, I wondered if Robin Hood's wife might double as Anna's character--but I suppose I was wrong.

4) What does Emma have to do with any of this? Emma's first quest was getting to know her son and lifting the curse on Storybrooke; since then, she's gotten to know the rest of her family, saved Henry again, and reunited (temporarily) with Henry's father. She's the character designed to bridge the gap between the audience and the fairy tales. So what does she do now? And will the characters ever leave Storybrooke?

5) Will Bae come back? I've already explained why I want him to (you can read that post here). It seems odd to have Rumplestiltskin without his guilt and regret about his son. He can have guilt over his son's death, yes, but it's guilt without action unless the show lets Bae come back.

I don't know. We'll see how it all unfolds. I can't wait until Sunday night.

Milka: Hazelnut Milk Chocolate

I never know who has or who hasn't had a Milka bar before. Sometimes they're pretty readily available these days, either from World Market or another store selling international products--but not everyone goes to stores like that. So if you have not had a Milka bar before, I would recommend them as a good, creamy, sweet millk chocolate. World Market also has some pretty, cow-shaped Milka cookies right now. And if you have to heard of the brand before, Milka was originally made by Suchard in Switzerland; that company has been subject to different mergers and such and is now under Mondelez International.

The bar I'm looking at today, however, is not the plain Milka bar. It is the hazelnut milk chocolate. If you know me, you'll know that I like hazelnut and chocolate, as I think most people these days do, given how popular Nutella is. (My opinion: buy almost any other chocolate hazelnut spread besides Nutella and it will be better quality and less plasticy, with more chocolate.) The hazelnuts in this chocolate are in the form of hazelnut paste, so there is nothing crunchy to mar the effect of smoothness. The smoothness is, after all, what makes chocolate and hazelnuts so nice together. The sweetness is also a factor, which is why the combination is more irresistible with a sweet milk chocolate. 

And sweet milk chocolate is what Milka does best. The chocolate is so sweet and milky that my 80 degree house is much too warm for it. It sticks to the packaging and doesn't feel completely solid. But that's okay: soft chocolate is just a step away from chocolate spread. It's chocolate spread without the need for a spoon. This chocolate becomes instantly a melty mass in my mouth, tasting of chocolate and caramel and vanilla and hazelnut. Very milky, very nutty, and very sweet. It is nothing fancy and nothing gourmet, but it is everything irresistible and everything delightful. It's the kind of chocolate I buy when I'm celebrating quietly to myself, letting myself simply indulge.