.: so comes snow after fire :.

First of all, a big hug to all of you always leaving me wonderful messages! You make me feel all warm and fuzzy and loved, you're the best!

Health update, the side effects are basically over, although I still get tired easily, as the meds will still be in my system for another week. Yesterday, for the first time since this all started, I went shopping on my own. First I went to the hospital to change the bandages on the cvc, then I went to the pharmacy, then to the farmers' market. It was a lovely sunny day, the air was crisp and cold, and I did it all by myself. It felt amazing! I'm slowly winning my old life back, one step at a time. \o/

I also bought a train ticket for the 12th, when I'm going back home for a week. I'm so excited! This time there won't be no side effects slowing me down, I'll even be able to go downtown to the Lush store, and the Disney store, I can't wait!

And now, as promised, fandom news! A couple of weeks ago they released Kingdom Hearts Unchained Chi in North America. I downloaded the apk, and I've been happily playing it ever since. I set up a party, and having so much fun! The only downside is, it consumes battery life like there's no tomorrow, so I always try to play connected to a power outlet.

Last November I started watching Rick and Morty. I stopped after three episodes, not really feeling it. Then recently I read both the creators of Steven Universe and Gravity Falls praising it on twitter, so I decided to give it another go. And I loved it. As it turns out, I just had to wait until the Meeseeks and Destroy episode. I loved how they explore sci-fi concepts, like multiple universes and hive minds, in a new and unique way. And I love, LOVE the fact that it's set in a universe with no god. As an atheist, I really wish there were more shows exploring the universe as ruled by chaos, instead of always having some fate/religion/destiny plot. It's refreshing.

I also watched all the Erased anime. It's one of the best series I've ever seen. And so devastating. I cried once an episode, no kidding. And I loved it to pieces.

I promise I'll try writing more frequently now that I'm feeling better. ♥

For the first time ever, the other day my therapist was so tired she gave me the wrong day for our appointment, and I found out only when I got there. The worst part wasn't the useless trip, as it was a pleasant walk, and I even got a little bit of tan on my arms, but the fact that she feels so guilty about it she's just spent the last two days apologizing to me! Plus yesterday there was some kind of huge emergency at the clinic, and we had to cut our session super short. Today I'm finally getting my whole hour, yessss. And I'm also going to start using sunscreen: the first couple of days of summer heat it's when I get my healthy tan, for vitamin D purposes, and the rest of the summer I always wear sunscreen walking around Venice, otherwise I'd end up as a burnt burrito in no time at all. My dermatologist once told me I have the skin of a redheaded person, and have to act accordingly. Ever since I've started carrying sunscreen around, I've stopped getting awful burns. ^^

In fandom news, yesterday we had a wonderful announcement, as Matthew Vaughn confirmed he's working on the Kingsman sequel! The movie was a commercial success and all, so a sequel was to be expected, but it's so wonderful to have a confirmation! And we're going to meet Kingsman agents from across the pond too, I can't wait. :D

And they just released the third season of Orange Is The New Black on Netflix: watch how I say I'm going to savour it, without rushing it, and then binge watch it all in one night. I'm so predictable. And I still remember how mad I was at myself last year when I watched it all in two days and then complained I had to wait a whole year for new episodes! I never learn. ^^"

Only a few days left until the Square Enix conference at E3: there's going to be Kingdom Hearts news, and I'm so excited I'm doing a happy dance just thinking about it. *______*

And now lunch, therapy, and then I'm going to buy all the ingredients to make Gazpacho, and properly celebrate the summer. ^^

First things first, thank you all for the birthday wishes! You're all wonderful! \o/

I spent a truly lovely birthday with Tati. She made me all kinds of tasty food, we watched cartoons, played music together, and in the evening we went to a new Japanese restaurant in Treviso, and ate a bowl each of delicious ramen. Just like the ramen I used to eat in Tokyo!



And here's my birthday gift to me. Yes, I'm still going through a heavily obsessed Kingdom Hearts phase, and it's not going away. :D In the meanwhile I'm still organizing the book shelves, and it's finally showing. I'll post pictures when I'm done. ^^

Yesterday I woke up early in the morning with a terrible stomachache, and spent the day hugging the toilet. According to the doctor it was a virus, one of those 24 hours things, coupled with the first day of my period. I finally felt better in the afternoon, but I had to postpone all my appointments to next week. Today I feel better, but I've lost a lot of blood. The first thing I did upon waking up was eating a raw egg. Not pleasant, but very effective.

And now I should really lie down again, my blood pressure is still quite low.

Last weekend the first heatwave of the year hit the country, and it's been pretty horrible ever since. With my low blood pressure and retinal migraines this is the worst weather ever for me. Sakura took a seat under the air conditioning unit three days ago, and I have a feeling that's where she's going to stay for the foreseeable future.

Yesterday I finally finished proofreading and re-writing my cousin's high school graduation thesis. I now know more about oil wells, dynamos and motorbikes races in England in the twenties, than I ever thought possible. At least the part about World War II I knew about, so that was the easiest one to do. And by that I mean Hitler's rise to power, the actual war up to the nuclear bombs, that part. Not the motorbike races part. That I knew nothing about. Oh boy I can't believe it's finally over.

The other day I watched Snowpiercer, that 2013 movie by Bong Joon-ho with the train, that everyone was talking about. Yes, Chris Evans is indeed amazing in it. Yes, it's a fascinating dystopian sort of Terry Gilliam-esque take on sci-fi, socialism, the cost of living, just like they said. That being said, it was also very nauseating. Seriously, I get queasy just thinking about it. I wish someone had told me before I decided to watch it in the evening. So yeah, proceed with caution. I finished watching it at midnight, and I had to wait until 2 am before my stomach would allow me to even think about sleeping.

In other, happier news, yesterday I made cookies, tomorrow I'm going to make Sea-Salt Icecream! Mostly because it's hot as hell, but also to celebrate all the news we just got at E3 about Kingdom Hearts 2.5! *___________*

Short entry, but I have to record it here for posterity: today I beat Marluxia on my second try. After beating Axel, also on my second try. Since every Organization XIII member in Kingdom Hearts Re:COM took me at least six tries, the only logical explanation is that Tati is my good luck charm, and now she'll have to sit next to me everytime I play a videogame, forever and ever.

And now off to bed because I'm still sick, but I have to record all my KH milestones in here. Especially when they involve bosses I thought would take me days to defeat. \o/

Also they did that awesome thing on Once Upon A Time, and even if it was sad it was also so great, and representation matters, and jhfdskhdfjkdshfkjh I'm so happy just thinking about it. Good work, show! ♥

Real life entry, and it's going great! On monday I went back to the gym (had to skip September because of my foot), and this time Tati enrolled with me. So now we have lessons together twice a week, and we stand next to each other and it's amazing! Today the teacher chose a Best of 80s cd, and it was so hard not to burst into song every five minutes. I should get a medal for my self-restraint, managing to stay silent everytime they said "who you gonna call?". The Final Countdown was excruciating as well.

Today we finally made Sea-Salt Ice Cream together! And since the proper stamps and sticks had arrived yesterday, it looked like this:



I gotta say it, I feel super proud. I think Roxas and Axel would be proud of us too. :D



The only problem is, they're less salty than they should be, but the custard was better. I took lots of notes, the next batch is probably going to make the universe implode by its sheer perfection, you have been warned. ;) And the best bit is, I have loads of ice cream to eat before I make another batch. For science.

Such happy days! And now off to bed I go! \o/

Lo and behold, what follows is a lenghty, image-heavy entry about a project I've been working on all week. It combines two of my passions, plus some healthy advice from my therapist, and a good trip down memory lane. And a sprinkle of fairy dust. :D Do not forget to listen to this while reading this entry, it was my soundtrack all day. ;)

Two weeks to buy the tools, read tens of versions of the same recipe, buy the ingredients twice (one never knows), consult with my therapist (who sent me multiple texts to know how the cooking was going), and now I can finally present you:



Sea-Salt Ice Cream


And now, a little intro. Tati goes on holiday next week, and I've been spending the better part of this month trying to come up with something really cool to celebrate her return. And then Kingdom Hearts 1.5 came out and I spent every free minute playing it (I might have skipped a couple of lunches too, oops), and halfway through the 358/2 Days movie, while sobbing in Sakura's fur, I had this great epiphany: I should make her Sea-Salt Ice Cream!



For those who haven't played the game, sea-salt ice cream is a flavour of ice cream created by Scrooge McDuck in Radiant Garden, ten years before the first game. It is then eaten by various characters in very poignant scenes of the games, and it's one of those things that instantly bring Kingdom Hearts to mind to a fan. What we know about it is that it's blue, it's sweet and it's salty (like tears - yes, that's canon). And that Nobodies can eat nothing but it for a whole year.



It symbolizes the friendship between many of the characters, especially Axel and Roxas, and later Xion. And since it was invented for a videogame, many people tried to come up with a suitable recipe. The one I chose (there are so many out there, it's great) is for simple ice cream, custard and vanilla-flavoured, with a touch of sea salt. It's fantastic. Sweet and salty, and it tastes amazing.

Contrary to what I usually do, this time I took a picture of every step of the recipe. That's because today was more of a test: the ice cream sticks were delayed, so I had to go with purple stamps, but I wanted to try my new ice cream maker this weekend, in case something would go wrong and I had to send it back. Plus it was my first time using food colouring. I took a lot of notes, and this entry serves both as a recipe for those who'd like to try it themselves, and as a helpful guide for me. ^^

What we're going to need is:


2 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt, blue food colouring. For European fans (and sane people, because measuring stuff in cups makes no sense) it's 1/2 liter of milk, 80g of sugar, 200g of cream. Cups. What the hell.

( Under the cut for lots of pictures! )

Since I only had six stamps (thanks to the courier, who delayed my proper stamps and sticks until next week), I had a whole bowl of the stuff left. It took me longer than I care admitting to realize there was only one way to solve the problem:


That's my Stitch bowl, by the way. Since Stitch was in Kingdom Hearts too, I thought it appropriate. :D

And at 9 pm, here are the proper, Radiant Garden, Axel-approved Sea-Salt Ice Cream sticks:



I started working on it this morning at 9.30. At 10.30 the mixture was in the fridge. At 15.30 I did the last steps, and by 16.30 the stamps were in the freezer. I chose to do it on a Saturday to be safe, but it doesn't take much time, and it's both a great treat for a fan, and a lovely way to eat ice cream that's completely natural and safe. Not to mention it's a great recipe for simple ice cream as well. Just skip the salt and blue steps. But trust me, it tastes fantastic as it is. *__________*

Next week I'll have the proper sticks, and I'll post pictures of the final result as well. Stay tuned! ♥

Oh happy day! Today is the day they released Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD in Europe! I pre-ordered it in May, and patiently waited all summer, counting the days, and it's finally here!



Yesterday I received a text message that the local Gamestop had tried to call me while I was on the phone. They always call the day before a pre-ordered game is released. I called them back, with the conversation going like this:

Me: "hi, did you just try to call me to tell me about Kingdom Hearts???"
Cashier: "yep"
Me: "could you please, maybe..."
Cashier: *clears throat* "your Kingdom Hearts copy is here"
Me: "OH MY GOD"
Cashier: *laughing* "we open at 9 am tomorrow, I'll be waiting"

This morning I had to call the doctor, then my aunt called because I'm her IT gal, so in the end I got there at 10 am. As soon as I walked in the guy saw me and greeted me with a "you're late! I thought I'd find you here when I opened the store!" and we spent the next 30 minutes talking about keyblades and pure hearts and the merits of magic vs swords. It was awesome. :D

In other brilliant news, yesterday I finally saw Edgar Wright's The World's End. Now, Hot Fuzz is my favourite movie, and I adore Shaun of the Dead, so I was equal parts excited and worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, but was I wrong to worry. Holy moley, I wasn't expecting it to be so freaking good. If I had to use three words, "really, really good". Wait, that's two words. How about "absolutely bloody brilliant!"?

And thank the gods of cinema I managed to avoid spoilers, because this is one movie that needs to be seen without knowing anything in advance. I knew the genre they were spoofing, but I quickly forgot five minutes in, I was so taken by the characters, and then the main story happened and it blew my mind. Also, the acting was superb. There were a couple of scenes that made me cry like a baby, other scenes that made me gasp and literally jump in my seat, and I spent the last 15 minutes sitting on the floor in front of the tv, armchair forgotten. Simon Pegg is such a good actor, holy shit. I mean, everyone was brilliant, but with him I keep forgetting it's the same actor, because Shaun is nothing like Nicholas Angel, and Gary King is completely different, and such a realistic character, I kept forgetting he wasn't actually real.

And the soundtrack was fantastic!!! I ordered it yesterday before going to sleep, and then downloaded it this morning, so that I could listen to it while going downtown. Let me tell you, marching to the GameStop while the Doors sing "show me the way to the next whiskey bar" in your ears, it doesn't get any better than that. :D

Oh, and just a sidenote for those who haven't seen it yet, it is the darkest one of the trilogy, so trigger warning for depression and alcoholism. It made me cry a lot, and I don't get triggered by those two topics, so better safe than sorry.

To those who have seen it, here's a fantastic analysis of the themes of the movie, especially regarding the Arthurian legends. It makes for a great reading, trust me. ;)

Stay tuned for another happy entry regarding health, future surgeries, why I had to go to the doctor this morning, in the near future. ♥

Yesterday evening it finally rained. It's been the first time in two months at least. I had actually forgotten what the rain sounded like. This morning the air was crisp and fresh, and leaving the house was finally pleasant, instead of reminiscent of Dante's Inferno. And the meds I had to buy for my mom finally arrived (seriously, three pharmacies, and when I found someone who had them I had to wait three days for them to actually arrive, what the hell, are they made of plutonium or what), so that's a huge thing off my list.

Earlier I was reading on the couch, when Sakura decided that my leg was apparently the comfiest place to fall asleep on, and she stayed that way for more than an hour. I didn't move, because she was snoring and everything, but I managed to take a picture with my phone.



Her head is on the right, behind my calf. I still have pins and needles in my left leg, but she was so cute!

I also found a great Travelling Lemon picture, here on tumblr. I'm sure all you Cabin Pressure fans will appreciate it. ;) Speaking of which, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is coming back on 22nd August, I'm so excited! I thought it was coming back in the fall, or even later, so glad to be proven wrong. \o/

Sort of still in topic, I'm going to see Frankenstein in a cinema in Milan on 2nd October. So excited about it! I booked the motel, and I'm waiting for the tickets to be available so that I can pre-order them. *_________*

And I finally got the Unbound Keyblade for Sora! It's ugly, but hey, I need it to defeat the secret boss. I'm way behind with Riku, as his enemies are obviously stronger. I have a feeling it'll be easier to just level him up to 99 first, and then finish doing his secret bosses.

Oh what a day, I recieved all the orders I did in July. Which is weird, because they're from different sites, on different dates, and one of them was even supposed to be a birthday gift for myself (so, you know, next month), but apparently the stars are in position or whatever, because my room looks like Santa Claus just paid me a visit. \o/



First, the birthday gift. It's an amazing Avengers skirt I bought on Etsy. It's custom-made, so I had to give them my measurements, and I thought it would take them a lot longer to make it and ship it. And yet, here it is. The quality is great, better than I hoped. It's very soft, comfy, and the red ribbon is actually a belt, so it fits perfectly. And the best part is that with the appropriate stockings I can wear it in the winter too!



Then, the other two packages. My new S.H.I.E.L.D. bag from Etsy (the same seller who did the I Am Sherlocked minibag, she's so talented), The Art Of Marvel artbooks (a note on artbooks: when we first got into the anime/manga fandom, Mom and I started collecting every artbook we could get our hands on. We bought the first one two days before my first surgery, that was painful as hell but went fine, so we had this inside joke that artbooks brought us good luck. Plus we loved them. So now that I found out there are artbooks of Marvel movies, I wanted to buy them all, but they were quite pricey. Then a fanfic writer I follow on tumblr told me there was this special edition, which costed one third of the collective price for all four artbooks, and I obviously got it straight away), the Kingdom Hearts 3D official guide (which looks exactly like the first Kingdom Hearts guide, cue trip down Memory Lane), the second Cabin Pressure boxset (YYEEESSSSS! Best summer ever!), Carry The Fire by Delta Rae and Rock Swings by Paul Anka.



The artbooks came with a poster. An amazing, gigantic poster that made me squee in delight and do a little dance all around. I have a couple of ideas about where to hang it, although I'm an older and wiser Emperor now (and if you got that reference, I must hug you), and I'm going to put it in a frame first. I have two other things I have to frame before hanging them on the walls, and I'm waiting for the end of the summer to do it. That's because the shop is on the other side of town, I'd have to go there on foot carrying a bag with precious, fragile prints, and I'm too lazy to do it in this heat.

You can also see the S.H.I.E.L.D. necklace I bought along with the bag, it has the acronym on one side, the logo on the other.



Close-up of the Cabin Pressure boxset. I'm worried as it doesn't have the Christmas special, it ends with Limerick. I wonder if they're going to put it in the third boxset, although it wouldn't make much sense. I just hope they didn't cut it out entirely, because it's one of my favourites. Crossing my fingers here. This time the booklet is written by Douglas, we have the Hey Chief notes, a few lists (dwarves, sins, etc), a few phone numbers from various women, a Hangman game that looks suspiciusly like a grumpy Martin, and pictures of cheeses.

And yesterday I had an amazing night of sleep. I was wearing ear plugs, as the neighbour upstairs is very noisy when getting ready for bed, and has an annoying smoker cough, but the other times I used them I woke up around 1 am and took them off. This time I fell into a deep sleep, and woke up all nice and cozy just before the alarm went off, and it was so refreshing. Hurrah for ear plugs and for my uncle who told me to buy them! *_______*