Tea, art & other things

[narcasse]

Since Tea Palace have a free shipping deal this week in celebration of the opening of a store in Covent Garden I decided to take advantage of it and order some samples of Eve’s Blend, Forever Eden and Cassis.

Eve’s Blend is something I’ve wanted to try since it was introduced since it seemed like it might be a lovely blend of rose and jasmine without one overpowering the other. And it’s turned out to be lovely, though I’m not entirely sure that I can detect much jasmine under the sweetness of the rose.

Forever Eden on the other hand was a little weak for my taste which seems to be the general theme with Tea Palace’s blends. It smelt wonderfully pungent in the jar but came out rather thinner than I would have preferred. It’s fruity enough if you like a fairly weak tea though.

Cassis on the other hand I took an instinctive dislike too the minute I opened the tin. There’s just something about the undertone of it that seems a little off to me both in its scent and once brewed. I suspect that this might be due to the ‘wild strawberry leaves’ in the mix but I still don’t particularly like it. If you say ‘cassis’ to me I expect blackcurrent possibly alcohol with nothing else to dilute that so I can’t say that I’ll be ordering this one again, or necessarily finishing the entire sample.

In fact if anybody wants the Forever Eden and Cassis sample tins I’ll be happy to send them off. There’s only one tea scoop’s worth used so there’s still plenty left.


In other news, levyrasputin asked for music a little while ago prompting a very daft comment on my part which led to the production of this piece of Triniy Blood art. And of course there’s much more where that came from.

Also: wiki’s list of Romanian adjectives because while I can’t even order two beers in the language (something that is essential to know in any language) I’m rather interested in figuring out a little of how Romanian word construction works.

And while I remember, alarming event of the day: watching the quick-light coal reignite after I’d put it on the bowl. That’s never happened to me before but it’s probably my own fault for not watching to make sure the coal lit the entire way across.


Sunlight (PG. 2067 words.)
Forsaken by the light Ion watches Radu in the sun.
(Every time I write a younger Radu getting involved with Süleyman he seems to get younger and younger. He's fifteen this time round which is almost Knightly/Emma territory.)

Comments

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

I’m definitely interested in how they first became involved with each other, especially since Süleyman seemed to trust Radu enough by the end to have him taking on such important duties in respect to the rebellion. In fact I suspect that I’m working my way down to finally writing Süleyman first sensing his own attraction to Radu when Radu is as young as thirteen because from the background given by the manga at least Radu at that age is quite a sweet, bookish little boy with none of the malignancy of later years. I suppose I’d like to think that Süleyman fell for Radu for the same reason he fell out of love, somewhat, with Seth: both have such potential and though neither of them really seems to be able to achieve their dreams at least, in Süleyman’s eyes, Radu does give it a good shot. Radu has youth and with it that desire to risk all to achieve his aims, where as Süleyman has for far too long allowed himself to be comfortable with the way things are simply because he’s had time to get used to it. Süleyman needs Radu to fuel his desire for change: Radu needs Süleyman to orchestrate the change he craves. In that way they’re something of a distorted mirror of Isaak and Dietrich because while Dietrich is otherwise arbitrary evil which Isaak gives direction, Isaak’s direction isn’t nurturing or particularly bothered about Dietrich’s wellbeing: Dietrich is a tool for the Orden and Isaak certainly doesn’t care if said tool breaks after he’s done with it.

I also like to think that no matter how twisted he became Radu still kept that regard for Süleyman that to an adolescent might easily be taken for love. He certainly manages to come back from the grave to save Ion and even in Carthago already doesn’t at all seem to want to do what he’s being forced to: he says the words expected of him but sounds like he’s weeping and apologises when he knows that Ion will never hear him. I’m very much of the opinion that he’s been misrepresented in fandom as this violent badass who wantonly destroys things because he enjoys it when what he actually seems to be is a fairly sappy teenager who made a mistake, probably based on his romantic notions of revolution, that destroyed his entire life.