Mastodawn

Ms. Que Banh 3d ago

Next 2 hours will be spent counting/sorting/packing hundreds of rare seeds.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

I spent 4 hours on seeds last night & passed out after finishing a big pile of sorted/labeled packets.
Early 8am work day start. I'm back with my Somalian client today. I'll be working with him most of the day. I have another client to check in on, around 4pm.
I'll engage more here, after having dinner this evening ✌️
I'm just grabbing a quick tea refill while my client finishes washing up. I'm taking him out to get some Moroccan food & some flowers for his room.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

I took my client out to Welland Community Orchard & wheeled him around the community orchard park. He had never been there before & loved seeing everything there. It was a lovely post-lunch outing.

These are some of the purple flowering broccoli plants that we grow in our raised bed food gardens at the community orchard park.

#FoodSecurity #FoodSystems #FoodEquity #GrowFood #GrowVeggies #WellandCommunityOrchard #FoodGarden

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

We are heading back to his suite & he is bringing out his Connie Francis records. We will enjoy an oldies vinyl music listening party 🙂
I just found out that he is a huge, longtime fan of Connie Francis' music. I would have never guessed that.

I told my client the story of how one of my galpals is obsessed with stealing condiment packets from BC Ferries while aboard any BC ferry or inside their terminals. She mostly aims for the Coffee Mate packets but will also stuff her purse/pockets with other condiments & wood/plastic utensils too. Her reasoning is that we pay a lot of taxes & for ferry service fees, so taking extra condiments/utensils won't be hurting the corporation. When she first told me this personal fact, we were in our 30s, en route to Pender Island for a galpals retreat. When we got to her Grandma's cottage there - she dumps out all of her stolen BC Ferries condiments loot. It filled the kitchen table surface 🤣

My client laughed so hard - saying, I can almost picture that scene! Then, he tells me that he is also guilty of pocketing condiments packets from BC Ferries 😂 Telling me, they're useful for when you're traveling/camping & he also figured since we pay a lot for using the government owned ferries, those condiment packets belong to the people. We laughed some more. I admitted that, I'm also a free #condiments pocketer, on #BCFerries. We laughed again 😅

High seas, condiments pirates.
Kind of, but not really.

@PhoenixSerenity Every time I hear someone justifying doing things like this because of paying high taxes, I say to myself: You make a strong argument...LOL.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@rlstone4dems We bought those condiment packets with our tax monies. They belong to the public.

@PhoenixSerenity They indeed do, @PhoenixSerenity!

@PhoenixSerenity I pocket condiments too! For my son. In fairness, the condiment in question ISN'T available for sale in any way. I don't know why. We store the pods in empty plastic pretzel nugget containers.

I should note that I always buy plenty of stuff from the place, and tip generously.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@Quasit In our cases, we are taking condiments from government owned public ferries. They've continually raised the rates for using the ferries. The ferries are the only way islanders can connect to mainland & to other nearby islands. It is part of our public transportation infrastructure but has been used as a pseudo-government corporation.

@PhoenixSerenity
My grandmother lived through the Great Depression. Apparently she used to grab all the condiments she could whenever she went out to a restaurant. The family used to joke about it. They said she'd even pour the contents of the sugar bowls into her purse.

Once there was a terrible fire at a nightclub in our area. A huge number of people were burned to death. When we found that there was a silver ladle among my grandmother's stuff with the name of that nightclub on the handle, we used to joke that she pulled it out of the charred and crispy hand of a waiter! 🤣

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@Quasit Great story share!

@Quasit @PhoenixSerenity

The depression was a really formative experience. My former aunt-in-law was a child at the time, living on a dust bowl farm in Texas. She not only took condiments but also had a plastic-lined purse for buffets and a chest freezer filled with what seemed like hundreds of frozen half-eaten big macs and other never-to-be-defrosted leftovers.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@AdrianRiskin @Quasit I know that folks who survived the Great Depression & suffered famines - tend to live very frugally & tend to prep for emergencies, as a lifelong survival instinct. My parents never got over having their entire lives upheaved & were frugal preppers for entire life in Canada. We are still doing that, after Dad's death.

Corvid Crone 2d ago

@PhoenixSerenity @AdrianRiskin @Quasit

My grandma had the opposite reaction to the great depression. Once she became an adult, she never wanted to wear anything homemade ever again.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@CorvidCrone I wonder if it's due to wanting to forget the hard times?
I know Mom enjoyed buying some new clothes in 80s/90s but even when shopping for those - she would check prices & not buy if it cost too much. We mostly bought used clothes or got a lot of great free clothes. My parents rarely had to buy the family nice clothes to wear. People threw out a lot of perfectly good clothes back then & they still do that wasteful stuff in 2026.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@CorvidCrone My Mom was also actively saving up funds to return to her village in 1985. It was her first trip back since our family fled in 1978.

Corvid Crone 2d ago

@PhoenixSerenity

My grandma was many things, but never frugal.

My mom learned frugality from my great grandma.

Corvid Crone 2d ago

@PhoenixSerenity it's because my great great grandma and great grandma ran an atelier in Chicago that catered to "the ladies who lunch" so my grandma developed a complex about wearing homemade clothes as a child despite being dressed in literal copies of Parisian fashion because "the ladies who lunch" (and their kids) would never be caught dead in homemade clothing.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@CorvidCrone Funny how super rich folks will pay a ton of money for homemade stuff now.