{"id":604,"date":"2011-11-02T15:05:47","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T07:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=604"},"modified":"2013-06-17T18:23:43","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:23:43","slug":"one-for-me-two-for-the-bowl-semarang-indonesia-11022011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=604","title":{"rendered":"One for me, Two For The Bowl \u2013 Semarang, Indonesia \u2013 [11\/02\/2011]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sonny?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes Miss Shaughnessy?<\/em><\/p>\n

I know they\u2019re supposed to be for guests only, but it\u2019s so hot, and there\u2019s no one here, and if I promise not to tell anyone\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes Miss Shaughnessy\u2026but I think we only have blueberries…<\/em><\/p>\n

And he disappears into the back room, and comes out five minutes later, one gloved hand placed protectively over a small side plate, which he carefully hands to me over the counter. And my eyes light up as he takes his hand away from the plate\u2026<\/p>\n

Raspberries\u2026<\/p>\n

Just for you miss\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

A bit of explanation here as to why one of the Lido servers fetching me a tiny plate of raspberries is a cause for celebration: There are some things onboard that are reserved specifically for the passengers only.\u00a0 Little things. The good desserts at dinner, one whole side<\/em> of the Lido restaurant (which has a totally different menu from \u2018our\u2019 side), and the real fruit, the kind that hasn\u2019t been sitting out all day, and hasn\u2019t been pulled out of the freezer ten minutes before the lunch hour starts and left to thaw into a soggy mess that may as well be yogurt.<\/p>\n

To get real berries on board you have to know one of the servers very well. And they have to take pity on you. Once in a very great while, I work up the nerve to ask. Most of the time, I get shot down \u2013 even when I asked on my birthday I got shot down.But sometimes, sometimes you catch just the right person at just the right time.<\/p>\n

Why raspberries? Well, that\u2019s for a number of reasons. \u00a0For one when I was somewhere around 26 or 27, living in a falling down flat (which had its charm I\u2019ll admit), in the UK, working two jobs to put myself through theatre college. My budget then wasn\u2019t even a shoestring, it might have been\u2026a button? I don\u2019t know, what\u2019s less than a shoe-string? I couldn\u2019t afford much in the way of groceries (though I never did resort to kraft dinner), and anything in the way of fancy desserts was out. But once in a while, raspberries would go on sale at the local market.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to dole them out to myself, and I had to put notes on them to keep my roommates from nicking them. Special occasions only.<\/p>\n

Really though\u2026even then ,it was because of something else.<\/p>\n

Raspberries are an instant transport for me. The second one touches my tongue I\u2019m somewhere else. Somewhen else. I\u2019m no longer wearing company colors, sweltering in the Indonesian heat, thousands of miles from home. I am<\/em> home, it\u2019s July, in my Gran\u2019s garden \u2013 and I\u2019m ten years old. My parents are sitting on the back deck, drinking something cold to stave off the heat of the summer (I wonder sometimes now, if a Victorian summer will ever feel truly hot again)\u2026and I\u2019m trying to figure out whether I should go inside and ask my Gran to borrow the sugar (which would mean admitting I\u2019d stolen the berries in the first place, as if she didn\u2019t already know that), or if I should just sit there next to the vine and pop them in my mouth as is.<\/p>\n

My childhood? Smells like salt water and sunshine, and tastes like California lemonade, and homegrown raspberries.<\/p>\n

One for me\u2026two for the bowl\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sonny? Yes Miss Shaughnessy? I know they\u2019re supposed to be for guests only, but it\u2019s so hot, and there\u2019s no one here, and if I promise not to tell anyone\u2026 Yes Miss Shaughnessy\u2026but I think we only have blueberries… And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,39,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-asiaaustralia-2011","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-9K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2193,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}