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kareinaOn Saturday I received a call from the seneschal of the local SCA shire, who invited ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
clovis_t and I to a bbq today. He told us how to get to his place, on the far side of Milan, by public transit, and suggested that we meet him there at 10:00, since the plan was to meet everyone else at the bbq at 11:00, and we would be heading out of the city. Little did he know that he'd just invited two people who tend to be not only punctual, but often run early to things.
We had no idea how long it would take to get to his place, since the trip involves a 20 minute walk to the nearest metro station, then train to the central station, change lines, head to the end of that line, then take a bus. So we opted to give it plenty of time. Since he'd mentioned that everyone would be bringing food to share, I opted to bake some cookies.
I haven't yet purchased vanilla, and don't care for chocolate (so don't have any of that either), but I did have some other supplies. Not having taken my computer home, and not having any of my books yet, and not the correct supplies for any memorized recipie, I had the fun of making something up.
I cut off a chunk of butter (roughly 1 stick worth), and softened it (this takes seconds with the local heat) and added somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of white sugar, a small spoon full of honey, and then an egg (mixing each addition in completly before adding the next, of course). I then added flour, rolled oats, baking powder, and a dash of salt (a little flour, a little oats, a bit more flour, a bit more oats, etc. until the dough was no longer really wet and sticky) and some chopped almonds. I scooped the dough onto baking sheets, pressed a whole almond into the top of each (to communicate that there were nuts present, to serve as a warning on the off chance that there was someone with an allergy) and baked them. Much to my delight, they really liked them, and were very impressed when I said that I'd made them up by tossing stuff into the bowl.
I made the cookie dough the night before (staying up later than, perhaps, I should have), but chose to bake it this morning, so I got up just after 07:00, whcih gave me time to have breakfast, bake four more bread rolls (since the oven needed to pre-heat for the cookies, and bread likes going into a cold oven--it rises nicely while the oven comes to temperature), the cookies, get a shower, and do the public transit thing such that we reached the home of the seneschal at 09:50. He answered the buzzer with "You are early!", to which we thought "10 minutes, that isn't much", and he greeted us still in his robe--he expected us to operate on local time scales, which, apparently, means that if you have a 10:00 social engagement you show up at 11:00. So I happily worked on a sewing project (the skirt I started on the way to the US with fabric I purchased in Sydney--I think I'm approaching the half way mark on that project) andclovis_t managed to sleep a bit while our host got ready. He then showed us some cool books he's got with amazing photos of period clothing, some very nice armour, and his fabric collection, which not only has many tubs of linen, but includes "Two hundred year old hand-made linen, I'm going to put it on my shield".
Eventually, we got in the car and drove 20 minutes out of town to a village near the airport, and then turned into a dirt road, and a short time later we drove through this gate.
to this house, which our host assures us is "much smaller inside than out".
Where we enjoyed a relaxed afternoon enjoying this view.
and temperatures much cooler than in the city. The other guests, who were expected at 11:00, started to arrive around 12:30, and by 15:30 food was on the table, and shortly thereafter the last of the guests arrived. We sat around the table enjoying food and conversation for several hours before cleaning things away and starting to make leaving motions.
I really enjoyed the contrast of the energy of this bbq with the other one I've attended in this country. The first seemed to be devoted to standing around drinking beer, smoking, and consuming great quantities of meat from the bbq, with little to no other food in evidence, and such a huge crowd of people it was hard to hear, and conversations happened in little groups, which changed people as often and as randomly as atoms are said to exchange electrons. Today's, on the other hand, was a relaxing, low key, gathering of people who spent a good part of the time all in a single group (there were 10 of us present, and I only saw two of them smoke, and then they stepped away from the others to do so) sharing food and one conversation in which everyone took part (Switching back and forth between Italian and English, since two of us have no Italian, and two seemed to have little English, but everyone else was fluent in both--particularly the lady whose mother is from New York, but whose father is from Rome).
It wasn't until people were preparing to leave that the adventure happened. One of the ladies had brought along her three-month old cat, whom she described as her "baby". During the day it had the run of the house, and played happily near us outside, so long as its person was in sight. However, when it came time to go she fastened a leash onto the kitten, before putting it back into the cat-carrier in which it had arrived, and the kitten did *not* like it. She fussed, scratched, and managed to get in a very good bite into the hand of her person before escaping, leash and all, and running into the undergrowth along side of the river. To no one's surprise, the kitten did not return promptly when called. Eventually, she emerged from the undergrowth and as her people tried to once again attain custody, she started up a tree. They had a hold on the leash, but the kitten had a grip on the bark with amazing strength, and fearing that the leash might be doing it harm, they managed to remove it from the harness, at which point the kitten went up the tree (predictably).
Alas, the tree was a bit too slender for a human to climb, and the kitten would not come down (no kidding! Poor thing had suffered enough trauma already). A short walk down the road by our host revealed a latter learning up against a neighbour's barn, so they brought it back and managed to lean it up against the tree. The lady whose kitten it was went to climb it, but our host pointed out that the dress sandals she was wearing were probably not the best for climbing an old wooden ladder. So I went up, wearing my birkenstock sandals, as I know they are fine for climbing, taking care not to step (much) on the hem of my ankle-length skirt. The ladder was just tall enough that by standing on the top rung the kitten would be in reach. The kitten was still in a very bad mood, and hissed mightily at me. I spoke soothingly to her for a while, then went back down to ask for some leather gloves (not wanting my skin punctured the way its person's skin was). Gloves procured, and dress shoes changed for athletic shoes her person went up after her, but was too short to get within reach of her. Then several of us suggested trying a bribe of food, so she came back down the ladder and obtained a container of cat food. Since she was too short, we sentclovis_t up it (each time several different people held the ladder to keep it secure), wearing the gloves, and carrying the food. He easily reached high enough to offer the food, and the kitten calmed down enough to put her head into the bowl (though, of course, there is no way he could tell from below if she ate or merely sniffed). He tried a couple of gentle pats, but then she pulled back, and he came back down the latter, not wishing to scare her further up, and not willing to risk the parts of his arm which were not covered by the glove (he's got pretty much no experiance with cats, never having lived with one). So back up the ladder I went, gloves on, and food in hand. I too, offered the kitten the food, and spoke soothingly to her. Then she let me pet her for a bit, and finally, I managed to lift her up and carry her back down the ladder. There was much rejoicing, a few victory photos, and the party went their separate ways.
A very fun day! I enjoyed meeting everyone, and made a few friends. However, I think that only our host is in the SCA, though the New York/Rome lady says that she's been invited to events on more than one occasion.
clovis_t and I to a bbq today. He told us how to get to his place, on the far side of Milan, by public transit, and suggested that we meet him there at 10:00, since the plan was to meet everyone else at the bbq at 11:00, and we would be heading out of the city. Little did he know that he'd just invited two people who tend to be not only punctual, but often run early to things. We had no idea how long it would take to get to his place, since the trip involves a 20 minute walk to the nearest metro station, then train to the central station, change lines, head to the end of that line, then take a bus. So we opted to give it plenty of time. Since he'd mentioned that everyone would be bringing food to share, I opted to bake some cookies.
I haven't yet purchased vanilla, and don't care for chocolate (so don't have any of that either), but I did have some other supplies. Not having taken my computer home, and not having any of my books yet, and not the correct supplies for any memorized recipie, I had the fun of making something up.
I cut off a chunk of butter (roughly 1 stick worth), and softened it (this takes seconds with the local heat) and added somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of white sugar, a small spoon full of honey, and then an egg (mixing each addition in completly before adding the next, of course). I then added flour, rolled oats, baking powder, and a dash of salt (a little flour, a little oats, a bit more flour, a bit more oats, etc. until the dough was no longer really wet and sticky) and some chopped almonds. I scooped the dough onto baking sheets, pressed a whole almond into the top of each (to communicate that there were nuts present, to serve as a warning on the off chance that there was someone with an allergy) and baked them. Much to my delight, they really liked them, and were very impressed when I said that I'd made them up by tossing stuff into the bowl.
I made the cookie dough the night before (staying up later than, perhaps, I should have), but chose to bake it this morning, so I got up just after 07:00, whcih gave me time to have breakfast, bake four more bread rolls (since the oven needed to pre-heat for the cookies, and bread likes going into a cold oven--it rises nicely while the oven comes to temperature), the cookies, get a shower, and do the public transit thing such that we reached the home of the seneschal at 09:50. He answered the buzzer with "You are early!", to which we thought "10 minutes, that isn't much", and he greeted us still in his robe--he expected us to operate on local time scales, which, apparently, means that if you have a 10:00 social engagement you show up at 11:00. So I happily worked on a sewing project (the skirt I started on the way to the US with fabric I purchased in Sydney--I think I'm approaching the half way mark on that project) and
clovis_t managed to sleep a bit while our host got ready. He then showed us some cool books he's got with amazing photos of period clothing, some very nice armour, and his fabric collection, which not only has many tubs of linen, but includes "Two hundred year old hand-made linen, I'm going to put it on my shield". Eventually, we got in the car and drove 20 minutes out of town to a village near the airport, and then turned into a dirt road, and a short time later we drove through this gate.
to this house, which our host assures us is "much smaller inside than out".Where we enjoyed a relaxed afternoon enjoying this view.
and temperatures much cooler than in the city. The other guests, who were expected at 11:00, started to arrive around 12:30, and by 15:30 food was on the table, and shortly thereafter the last of the guests arrived. We sat around the table enjoying food and conversation for several hours before cleaning things away and starting to make leaving motions. I really enjoyed the contrast of the energy of this bbq with the other one I've attended in this country. The first seemed to be devoted to standing around drinking beer, smoking, and consuming great quantities of meat from the bbq, with little to no other food in evidence, and such a huge crowd of people it was hard to hear, and conversations happened in little groups, which changed people as often and as randomly as atoms are said to exchange electrons. Today's, on the other hand, was a relaxing, low key, gathering of people who spent a good part of the time all in a single group (there were 10 of us present, and I only saw two of them smoke, and then they stepped away from the others to do so) sharing food and one conversation in which everyone took part (Switching back and forth between Italian and English, since two of us have no Italian, and two seemed to have little English, but everyone else was fluent in both--particularly the lady whose mother is from New York, but whose father is from Rome).
It wasn't until people were preparing to leave that the adventure happened. One of the ladies had brought along her three-month old cat, whom she described as her "baby". During the day it had the run of the house, and played happily near us outside, so long as its person was in sight. However, when it came time to go she fastened a leash onto the kitten, before putting it back into the cat-carrier in which it had arrived, and the kitten did *not* like it. She fussed, scratched, and managed to get in a very good bite into the hand of her person before escaping, leash and all, and running into the undergrowth along side of the river. To no one's surprise, the kitten did not return promptly when called. Eventually, she emerged from the undergrowth and as her people tried to once again attain custody, she started up a tree. They had a hold on the leash, but the kitten had a grip on the bark with amazing strength, and fearing that the leash might be doing it harm, they managed to remove it from the harness, at which point the kitten went up the tree (predictably).
Alas, the tree was a bit too slender for a human to climb, and the kitten would not come down (no kidding! Poor thing had suffered enough trauma already). A short walk down the road by our host revealed a latter learning up against a neighbour's barn, so they brought it back and managed to lean it up against the tree. The lady whose kitten it was went to climb it, but our host pointed out that the dress sandals she was wearing were probably not the best for climbing an old wooden ladder. So I went up, wearing my birkenstock sandals, as I know they are fine for climbing, taking care not to step (much) on the hem of my ankle-length skirt. The ladder was just tall enough that by standing on the top rung the kitten would be in reach. The kitten was still in a very bad mood, and hissed mightily at me. I spoke soothingly to her for a while, then went back down to ask for some leather gloves (not wanting my skin punctured the way its person's skin was). Gloves procured, and dress shoes changed for athletic shoes her person went up after her, but was too short to get within reach of her. Then several of us suggested trying a bribe of food, so she came back down the ladder and obtained a container of cat food. Since she was too short, we sent
clovis_t up it (each time several different people held the ladder to keep it secure), wearing the gloves, and carrying the food. He easily reached high enough to offer the food, and the kitten calmed down enough to put her head into the bowl (though, of course, there is no way he could tell from below if she ate or merely sniffed). He tried a couple of gentle pats, but then she pulled back, and he came back down the latter, not wishing to scare her further up, and not willing to risk the parts of his arm which were not covered by the glove (he's got pretty much no experiance with cats, never having lived with one). So back up the ladder I went, gloves on, and food in hand. I too, offered the kitten the food, and spoke soothingly to her. Then she let me pet her for a bit, and finally, I managed to lift her up and carry her back down the ladder. There was much rejoicing, a few victory photos, and the party went their separate ways.A very fun day! I enjoyed meeting everyone, and made a few friends. However, I think that only our host is in the SCA, though the New York/Rome lady says that she's been invited to events on more than one occasion.
