Planning at a café
May 15, 2026 Filed under Curious
I had unanswered questions about my schedule, so I went in search of another café to plant my butt on.
Now that is a little car.
I headed north, stopping at a couple of bakeries to buy a single croissant at each, but none of them offered a mocha.
I wonder if that’s how the locals see me? … Naaah.
I finally found a tiny café on the edge of town that had snacks, a mocha, and a nice spot to work. The lady at the counter pointed me to the lasagna in the display case and made a little monologue about it, saying she made it herself with only ingredients she approved. It was a hard sell but she was so charming…
I got it for “take away”, along with a wee quiche, which came with a wee salad. The lasagna looked very dense so I figured it would be dinner.
When she came to my table with the mocha, the lady said “You know, I have chicken soup too. It goes good with the quiche.” So of course I bought a bowl of it to eat there, and dang, she was right.
A tomato-based chicken soup. Very tasty.
The lady asked where I was from, and when I said California she said “Oh I went there 20 years ago! I was an exchange student for a year, from Belize. I went to Connecticut. Every weekend I took the train to New York! I went for free because of my job. But my boyfriend said we should see California so we flew to San Diego and did a road trip.”
We talked about how awesome New York is for a while, and I confessed that she’d seen a lot more if it than me. I couldn’t help asking: “So how did you end up in Haugesund?”
“Oh you know,” she said. “My husband likes to travel, and he found work here. So we went together. But Norwegians are so nice! So nice.”
I noticed that she spoke pretty fluent Norwegian to the rest of the customers, and she seemed to be in charge of the place. She really landed on her feet!
A house of cupcakes? LET ME IN.
I don’t know what it means but I dig it.
Yep, lots of cupcakes, as advertised.
Time for cupcake! (Isn’t it always?)
Something-“work”, but beyond that, I dunno.
A sprinkly day down by the water.
… And from the high of the last episode, we go to a relative low with this one.
The first two-thirds are a boring-ass exposition dump from the boring-ass Big Bad. This is enabled by a complete brainfart of a plot twist: Hitomi, Van, and Allen are teleported right into the guy’s throne room, for no raisin, giving him a convenient audience.
The only bits I like here are small character bits in Hitomi, mostly conveyed through the animation. I don’t know if it’s being earned by the previous 17 episodes of time with her, where she acts morose and afraid and adrift, or if it’s just being expressed so well in this episode that I’d see it without them, but either way, Hitomi broadcasting confidence in herself and her friends is delightful. There’s an earnestness to her character that keeps it from sounding hollow. Also, the look of horror on her face when Allen picks her up and carries her onto the mech is a hoot.
Anyway, daring escape, yadda yadda, and we’re mostly back to the status quo we had in episode 17.
