It’s a Friday afternoon and I wanna bake. I start to make Mary’s Florentines because I have all the ingredients and biscuits are easy to make…right? I get to Cranberries and hunt the pantry high and low, but low and behold, my packet of cranberries has disappeared. Then I realize, I don’t have candied peel, blanched almonds or dark chocolate. Oh well, nothing that a trip to the shops can’t fix, I had been meaning to get to the library today anyway to take back my overdue books, so I put the melted butter, sugar and golden syrup on hold and take off.
Well that didn’t take too long, but what did surprise me was that I managed to spend $66.71 on my 3 ingredients. Isn’t it always the way.
Shopping!!
Supermarkets are not my friend, they are a trap, my nemesis and whoever invented them are geniuses. For I cannot go in there without NEEDING to buy more, what is that about? Over consumerism, over packaging and poverty seem to go hand in hand, well the last one might be a stretch but its making me poor all these visits to the supermarket for one or two things. The only good thing about this visit was I bought Rosé and some bubbles and as it is after 5 o’clock now, I might just indulge in a tipple.
I bought this apron in Las Vegas when I travelled there last year to do some research for my next novel, which I am starting on Monday btw!! We were going to Mexico to visit our daughter who was doing a university exchange for a semester. We rocked down the strip that Sunday, enjoying the safe and lively atmosphere of all the sights. What a crazy town, done well, an adult Disney land!! We got to Mandalay Bay at around 7pm and watched all the cowboys and girls going to their country and western concert and we thought, “how quaint and benign and safe this place is.” Then we got back to our hotel early (lucky for us, we were going to the Grand Canyon at 6am) and my sister facebooked me from New Zealand at 10.10pm. “Are you guys okay, there’s a shooter in Vegas.” We locked the doors, we turned on the news, 2 dead, over 50 injured, so terrible, we slept with the sound of our facebook messenger dinging all night from friends at home and helicopters, emergency services and running feet. I for once was grateful we were in a three star on East Desert Road with no outside window to the street. We got up to disaster, over 50 dead and many injured. Being present in Las Vegas for this tragedy, has touched my heart, for the town, for the people and has ignited my absolute opposition of the overzealous use of guns in the USA and the incessant disregard by the government to enforce changes to protect their people and keep them safe. I am watching with absolute enthusiasm and support the student protests and movements currently taking place to enforce stricter gun laws. Logic must prevail to go against the NRA and make a safer America.
Your smiling eyes
You looked into my eyes
and smiled from piercing dark brown pupils
A cheeky look of self-assurance and pride
with your patent leather boots sculpted onto your feet and lower calves like a statement.
A cowgirl at heart, your legs naked shone above brown leather below denim shorts
You sauntered past me down the ramp at The Luxor next to Mandalay Bay,
the sound of southern tunes surrounding us like a safety net,
a benign happy nonchalant atmosphere not lost on anyone.
How quaint
a country and western concert in Las Vegas….
How wrong?
We wandered back to The Rita Suites on East Desert Inn Rd
and the first we heard of the shooter was a Facebook message from my sister in New Zealand
“are you safe, there’s a shooter in Las Vegas”
We flicked on the news – 2 dead and over 50 injured
We locked the door.
We secured the chain.
We thanked God we were in a three-star apartment with no exterior windows to the street.
We stayed safe in our hotel while the world went crazy outside
and the sound of footsteps running, and helicopters and sirens sounded over the rowdy air-conditioning unit.
In the morning, 2 dead had grown to
over 50
and over 500 wounded
The sultry sounds of benign innocence we had witnessed the evening before
had become wasteful carnage
The next time I saw your face, your smiling gentle face
with your black waves falling down around your shoulders in a luscious waterfall
was on Channel 13 Fox
You with the patent leather cowgirl boots so neatly scalloped around your calves
You beamed back at me from the TV screen
Young, innocent, Christiana,
dead,
shot by the mad man from the 32nd floor
his actions facilitated by the 2nd amendment
the government’s constitutional right to be free and bare arms,
to buy weapons of mass destruction,
weapons of war
17 guns, semi-automatic assault rifles stockpiled
But where was Christiana’s right to be safe?
In 1980 a big fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas killed 87 people.
People were endangered,
so the government implemented major changes to the fire safety codes
It hasn’t happened again.
But who advocated for Christiana’s rights to be safe in her own country?
In 1973, New Zealand suffered its highest ever road toll
843 deaths in a single year
so significant changes were implemented to avoid such an horrific toll happening again
-Lower alcohol limits, hard hitting public awareness campaigns, speed cameras
Governments are there to protect the health and safety of its citizens
Who was protecting Christiana from harm?
When someone with a beard and a foreign accent attacks
the US government goes into overdrive, taps phones, builds walls, invokes trade bans
takes every precaution to keep its citizens safe.
So why are gun laws in America not aimed at keeping citizens safe?
A white American male on a no-fly list with a mental illness can buy an AK 47.
And 56 senators voted against closing the loopholes that let people avoid background checks
while a bill sits before parliament to legalize the sale of silencers.
Where is the logic in all of this?
And who is standing up for the voice of the girl with the smile in the patent leather boots,
for the innocent victims slain by these mass shootings and attacks?
When will logic prevail?
Back to the cooking, I get back with all my wares, and chop and combine and bang, there you have it, Golden Florentines coming out of the oven, perfect.
I go to melt the chocolate to coat the backs and find I need a thermometer…don’t have one… I guesstimate the temperatures required. It was certainly not the most technical technique trying to guess 53 degrees and 26 degrees respectively. That’s probably why the chocolate stayed soft! Then I happen to notice that instead of choosing a simple biscuit recipe this afternoon, I have chosen a “Technical challenge”. Oh well, the biscuits tasted great and healthy so that’s the main thing.
