Tumblr proceeded to collectively inform me that tomato juice is a thing absolutely everywhere. My question now is how the fuck did I manage to live in the UK for three years and not see tomato juice in a single Tesco/Sainsbury's. Ukrainian exceptionalism goggles or whatever
I mentioned tomato juice in my last post, so here's a tomato juice story for your amusement.
Scene: London, UK.
Time: late 2024.
Dramatis personae:
Me, a Ukrainian, craving tomato juice like it's the only thing that can save my life.
My beloved flatmate, also a Ukrainian, going through a chronic illness flare that causes horrible brain fog.
Flatmate: I'm going to the Polish shop. Do you want anything?
Me: I do have a request, but I feel like you'll refuse to have THAT in our fridge.
Flatmate: ???
Me: Tomato juice. I'm craving tomato juice. I want tomato juice SO BAD.
Flatmate: ...only because I love you.
An hour later, my beloved flatmate enters the kitchen with a bag full of Polish groceries. I salivate at the thought of my tomato juice and run up to them.
Flatmate: Okay so I was picking between spicy and not spicy, and decided that you would want it not spicy. Here.
They proceed to hand me the following:
Me: I mean, I'll give you that, it's not spicy.
Flatmate considers terminating the lease on the spot.
Exeunt.
I debated posting this on here because this sounds SO MUCH like a Tumblr fake story from 2012 that I don't think anyone will believe me but I promise you, before we get into this, that it did happen and not a single person clapped.
One of my origin stories as the person I currently am is going to appeal my results for a English language competition in like 10th grade (of Ukrainian school, so ~15 yo) because most of the marks I was deducted was because of my handwriting (hi undiagnosed dysgraphia) and them being unable to decipher what I wrote. So I come, the examiner and I sit at a desk and go through all my "mistakes", and she goes:
"See? You said "we don't know of it". It should be "about"."
And I swear to you, I went:
"Actually, Shakespeare used "of" in "Hamlet". "And makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of"."
And then I pulled up the poetry foundation with To Be or Not To Be, showed it to her and she gave me the fucking point, too stunned to speak.
I had learned TBONTB by heart by reading it out loud to myself in the dark in my room at night multiple times in a row because I have always been sane and was never autistic actually.
It's such a loss that I wasn't on Tumblr as a teenager. I was grown in a lab to have a Tumblr blog that I will regret when I'm older.
The same "he". To me
He died doing what he loved. Being fatally injured.
Followed a Wikipedia source in hopes of finding something useful for my essay about Kafka's Metamorphosis and stumbled upon something much better
Tried to insert an image into a Tumblr post for the first time and failed and yelled "TUMBLR WHY ARE YOU SO HARD" and my flatmate said without looking up
"well it likes you"
Okay so yesterday I saw someone mention that during the two months that I was away they started selling lime and chili flavoured yoghurt back in Ukraine. I repeat, LIME AND CHILI.
Obviously I had to task my boyfriend with acquiring it so that I can try it the moment I step off the train at the end of the month. Also, obviously, I googled it. Here's what I saw:
Okay, sure. Some choices have been made with the colours (I find the purple atrocious but I'm not good with colours so who knows). But wait, the "flamin' hot" banner reminds me of something. Haven't I seen it before?
Yep. I looked it up - Чудо and Doritos are both owned by PepsiCo, and PepsiCo straight up recycled the Flamin' Hot banner.
I really, really don't know what to make of this.
Also as I type this I realised that they also recycled the fucking horrible purple colour. This is torture.
At the end of the month I'm trying the Doritos-flavoured yoghurt, apparently. Watch this space for a review.
nothing more flattering than someone saying "oh don't get her going" in reference to you when a topic you're passionate about is brought up
UPD from the field:
The ad says: "Will you dare to try it?"
Yes. Yes I will. At least two of these.
(It should be noted that tomato juice, spiced or otherwise, is a completely normal occurrence in Ukraine, even though opinions vary on whether people who enjoy it stray farther and farther from God with every sip) (I am those people. I enjoy tomato juice)
Okay so yesterday I saw someone mention that during the two months that I was away they started selling lime and chili flavoured yoghurt back in Ukraine. I repeat, LIME AND CHILI.
Obviously I had to task my boyfriend with acquiring it so that I can try it the moment I step off the train at the end of the month. Also, obviously, I googled it. Here's what I saw:
Okay, sure. Some choices have been made with the colours (I find the purple atrocious but I'm not good with colours so who knows). But wait, the "flamin' hot" banner reminds me of something. Haven't I seen it before?
Yep. I looked it up - Чудо and Doritos are both owned by PepsiCo, and PepsiCo straight up recycled the Flamin' Hot banner.
I really, really don't know what to make of this.
Also as I type this I realised that they also recycled the fucking horrible purple colour. This is torture.
At the end of the month I'm trying the Doritos-flavoured yoghurt, apparently. Watch this space for a review.
Okay so uh this double breached containment and I'm really really scared because this was my second post on Tumblr dot com out of the two I made in total and now it has like 650 notes so I hope it'll make you guys happy to see my flatmate's mug that has The Phrase on it.
Bonus: the other side that says "what did I do to deserve this".
One of the biggest issues of moving to England as a person who is Ukrainian AND neurodivergent is not knowing how to answer the small talk question of "how are you", but today I was reminded that Ukrainian blessed me with the phrase that roughly translates as "living is hard but dying would be a pity" and can we please naturalise it so I can use it all day every day
Seeing a coworker/classmate sitting to the side and reading a book while on their break and then coming up to them and asking "what are you reading" should be illegal actually
Fledging Ukrainian translator and writer. t.me/hoovering_the_motherlandrussians DNI please
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