#hendos

Got excited that World Market was distributing Hendo's in the US... Wait, the fuck is this?

It tastes the same but what the fuck is up with calling it "Worcestershire Sauce"! It's Yorkshire spicy relish! Is this an American marketing thing? I'm so confused.

Happy birthday to my dearest @hendos!❤️❤️❤️ Please accept my humble offering of NidoRino, and I hope all your wishes come true on this special day.

You’re one of my favourite people in the Milan fandom, on this website, and in this whole country, and I wish once the lockdowns ease, we’ll get to spend more time together and go to Milan again because there’s no one else I’d rather do it with. Thank you for being my friend, my eternal support, and my partner in AU crime. I love you, Kellin!

kellin you can’t throw full ideas in my face like this! i’m trying to give myself some short low-threshold stuff and in my hands this will definitely turn into another monster! T__T

thank you!! 3 rando facts about me.. hm let me think

1. if tom holland walked up to me and said ‘i’m in love with you, drop everything you currently have and run away with me’ i absolutely would without hesitation

2. the first time i ever went to anfield, we played chelsea and lost 2-1. i must have been about 4 and full of rage bcos i’ve hated chelsea ever since

Perparim Hetemaj - because it's Perpa, do I need to explain it? Watching him in Serie A was my only connection to Finnish football long before my love for the national team was reawakened. Also he's a huge troll.

Teemu Pukki - The One. The player that singlehandedly pulled me back into the swamp that is Finland nt. Will be on my jersey if I ever get around to buying one.

Lukas Hradecky - what can I say, I'm sucker for goalies? The Best goalie Finland has ever had, in my humble opinion. Also seems like a lovely guy all around, someone I imagine would be really fun company to grab a beer with.

(limited myself to active male players, because I was watching the men's team while doing this)

fortnight: what wip do you plan on posting next, if at all?

Finishing the ongoing one would be a good start skajasjkdklhflsjks

Out of the unpublished ones, there’s only one thing I’ve officially started working on (i.e. have words on paper) -- a Chiello/Monto thing where they’re awkward teenagers awkwardly falling in love between junior tournaments and azzurrini training camps -- so all things considered that should be the next one, but that doesn’t count for much before I actually continue working on it.

september: share a comment or review which still warms your heart?

So many. So many. How am I supposed to pick just one?

I’m gonna go with one of the recent ones, namely the first one I got after getting back to posting after almost a year’s hiatus (on the Monto/Alessio thing, obvs):

“I loved this so much!

Here's a meandering (consider yourself warned!) account of how I discovered your work and how much I love it!

So I discovered this whole football fandom thing only last year - and quickly figured out that serard (Ramos/Piqué) is my OTP, and I love love love angst. An advantage of coming so late to the party was, I had a whole back catalogue to work through. But then, nothing lasts forever and at some point I ran out of angsty serard. So I read any serard. Then I ran out of serard all together (oh the horror!). But luckily for me, my favorite serard author had written about other pairings too, and I learnt they didn't have to be my OTP for me to enjoy their stories. It's okay to cheat a bit. So I was on my merry way, till I just kinda sorta ran out of well written angst all together. The ones which feel like a published novel, you know?

Then the Football Challenge 2018 was on, and I was there mainly for the serard fix. But I saw the Pirlo/Inghazi fic in the list of works for the challenge and went, well I love Pirlo and they have angst in their name, and I have read all the angst about the pairings I like, so why not. Boy was I impressed! I was SO impressed, that I went back and read all your back catalogue, and enjoyed all of them! Even though I had to Google who Montolivo is, who the other people are, and what the references are. (In my defense, I took a decade long break from football after 2007, because, well Life, and came back only in time for the 2018 World Cup. And I an EPL person through and through)

Even in this fic, I had to Google most of the references - thank God for the internet and it's archives of information :-D But I enjoyed every single word of it!

Your writing is wonderful, brilliant and a gift to humanity ;)

I didn't comment on any of your back catalogue because I, like most of the internet, am a lazyass person who thinks "this deserves so much more than a generic how wonderful comment! I'll come back and leave a proper appreciation note later" and well, as they say, tomorrow never comes.

I was going to leave this piece without commenting too - not least because I haven't actually finished reading it. There has been a dearth of "my kinda work" on AO3 recently - and there's always a shortage of writers as good as you (no, really, your works read like professional published content, not a fan writing imagines about their favorite players). So my heart leapt with joy when I saw your name in the fic list, but also sounded a warning - "you finish this, you'll have nothing left to read". So I am rationing this fic - I shall read only a little each day, and make it last. So ya, this time I had a legit reason for procrastinating.

But then I saw you had posted on your Tumblr that football fandom being as niche as it is, you worry that you might not have any readers at all and have to be your own cheerleader. So here I am telling you, you do have readers. You have readers who love your work so much, they go back and read your entire back catalogue, and take the trouble to Google the players and get to know them, and their stories - all thanks to your writing.

I still don't follow Milan, or Seria A. And I won't watch Italy play unless they play England in the Euros, or reach the final. But I love your stories - they are so universal, and so so beautifully angsty!

Wow, that was a lot of words to tell you I absolutely adore your writing ♥️ Please do keep leaping angstily!”