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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa: The Isle at the Edge of Time (Thank You Comission For Rosie Isla)

Hello all you happy people! Today’s review is a bit special as it’s the result of another review. See I had trouble finding a translation of the subject of last weeks’ mother’s day special, Family Ties.

No not that one. I have Paramount+. I can watch all the Family Ties I want and that’s a fact that i’m pleased as punch about.

No it was the story 80 is Prachtig, called Family Ties in the copy used, Della’s first major comics appearance and one that explains what happened to her in the classic continuity, one that clearly served as the foundation for her far more fleshed out 2017 versions personality and backstory. It also had Pinocchio in it for some reason, and spent most of it’s large run time on a meta comedy plot that had nothing to do with the reason anyone wanted to read this story in the first place.

But despite being a vitally important story, it never got an english translation, something that baffled me till I read the story and found cameos of the racist indigenous stereotypes from Peter Pan. In 2014. You may commence booing. Even with how weird the story was I simply couldn’t find the story googling it and the Della tag is too vast and deep to go spelunking in.

So what’s all this have to do? Simple I put out a post last month when neither I nor Kev, who wanted to comission it as part of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my coverage of all three season 2 Ducktales story arcs, could find a copy and offered a review to whoever found it. Weeks passed I got nothing.. then in the 11th hour I got a break as the lovely @rosieisla found a translation that was on this very site, one she seemed to have helped with. As a result I could do the review and as a man of my word, offered it up despite her clearly having not seen that part of the post and simply having done this to be nice. Still she gladly took up the offer and offered me my pick of two stories: The Carl Barks Story Back to Long Ago or this one.

As for WHY I picked this one Back To Long Ago didn’t seem bad, i’m just not a fan of “The Cast is put in the past as their own ancestors” type deals. Or in some cases put the cast as people from that time period. It’s just not for me and is most often done in TV where it can get really goofy, Beverly Hills 90210 being a prime example of this, though Girl Meets World was no slouch in being embarassing... that being said I really need to finish that show and miss it.

So yeah when put up against a story with two intresting hooks and FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, even if i’ts not the version that’s my boy, it was no contest. So what are these hooks you ask? Well join me under the cut and find out.

We open with a weird stylistic choice: This story has a narrator complete with caption boxes. Now for those of you familiar with comics or pastiches of comics in tv and film, this probably dosen’t seem like a big deal. It was a common thing in comics from their inception to 90′s to have caption boxes, big boxes of text narrating the action to help move things along faster. It did start to fade out by the 80′s and was gone by the end of the 90′s for the most part, replaced instead with first person narration. It’s the kind of thing you’d see most often in the Golden and Silver Ages, with stuff like tihs

It’s not a BAD device, it’s good old cheesy and bombastic fun and some writers did get clever with it.. like that time Chris Claremont used the narration to yell at a greiving cyclops after he lost a teammate early in his long and storied run on the uncanny x-men.

This is a objectively weird scene that’s still somehow effective by the by. On the one hand it does come off as Chris Claremont essentally bullying Cyclops who already feels guilty for a death that was not in fact his fault as Thunderbird was told the plane he was attacking with fleeing villian Count Nefaria was about to explode and refused to listen.. and that they needed to get rid of either him or Wolverine as both served the same purpose and chose the non-white guy.

On the other htough it comes off just as much as Scott beating himself up in his grief and anger over the event and his perceived failings as a leader. It’s good stuff and shows why this run caught on as this was only three issues in. Also the rest of the issue features the X-Men fighting a giant cyclopian demon that Cyclops accidently freed in his rage by destroying the stone thing keeping him imprisoned. No really here’s the cover

Huh so tha’ts what Nifty’s dad looks like. Neat. Also I REALLY hope we get the X-Men fighting aliens or demons in the MCU. Unlike the XCU the MCU isn’t alergic to getting batshit.. and for the record Deadpool and New Mutants are the exception, not the rule.

My point that I swear I do have is that this was common practice for most comics.. but never really for Disney Duck comics. It popped up ocasionally, like with Scrooge’s introduction, but Barks and those after him never really used them that much. Sure they’d have caption boxes for flasbacks and what not but Barks and Co geninely only used this sort of thing to set up a story. The most i’ve seen it in a duck comic is life and times and even then i’ts usually only used for gags or to set up the passage of time, as the story IS covering decades and thus often needed to have montages to show time passing, and in the case of chapter 11, had to cover decades in the span of a single chapter, so it’s not like they had many other options. So even Rosa as a personal quirk didn’t really use these often.

Rosa used this specifically because he felt the plot was complicated by the use of the international date line. As for what it is, it’s essentially a line marking calender dates from one side of the hemisphere to the others. To use the offical defentition from the National Ocean Service I found via a quick google:

“The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.

The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time."

Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.”

Rosa felt this made the story complicated.... and that... really isn’t remotely true. The narration is mostly used for gagas and really dosen’t clarify anything. it’s mostly used well in the opening.. but the actual explinations for the date line are clear enough in the story that even if I hadn’t looked the thing up, I still would’ve got it and i’m sure a kid would’ve too. It just feels like a weird thing to ruminate on, especially because he’s got actual things to make up for: while to his credit the native american characters he cribbed from carl barks are sympathetic, their culture respected and treated decently and used for a green aseop, their dialouge is stitled and sterotypical something he dosen’t even comment on (And these trades ewren’t THAT long ago)

And of course it dosen’t help that he dosen’t even comment on using a common device in american superhero boooks.. in the same volume where he ONCE again makes an unwanted and outdated diatribe about superhero comics. I’ll probably cover the Super Snooper Strikes again so I can throughly tear this apart but higlights include: Calling superhero comics “Unwanted” just because he dosen’t like them personally, when people like me would disagree and they’ve lasted through a LOT of highs and lows, outdately saying they took over the American market as the only suitable comics which while true for a TIME,but by 2015 when this book was printed is laughably out of date, as non superhero works like The Walking Dead, Saga, and Scott Pilgrim were massively popular, one of my faviorite comics that is entirely slice of life and would go on to bea huge hit, Giant Days, re-debuted that very year. He also has the fucking gal to insult The Uncanny X-Men by name and I swear to god I did not know this when I made those references earlier, but as you probably guessed REALLY god me livid.

And this is just on his COMMENTS on the story I can’t imagine just how bad the content itself is and having read the first few pages which come off as Rosa using Donald to essentially do an “old man yells at cloud rant” about superhero comics, I really don’t want to. Might make htis a patreon exclusive or again would do it on comissoin. You all make the call.... the point is I don’t likes his elitist bullshit about superhero comics, and this is clearly something that gets my hackles up as I just spent a good two paragraphs of an entirely unrealted review yelling at the guy for it. I don’t like when he does this and this authors notes entirley felt like an excuse. I GET the dark age of comics were bad, they REALLY were that bad, but I will NEVER accept painting an enitre genre as bad just because one work in it is bad. And I wont accept it from someone who himself writes about an often throughly unlikeable anti-hero for a living. Scrooge may not have a gun on his gun on his gun or get to stabbing or have pouches, but he DOES finacially abuse his nephew, scoff at people’s personal troubles, and often refuse to use his wealth to help others in general. So yeah in conclusion Rosa really needs to say less about this subject.

Okay so where were we.. right the story hadn’t even started yet. Jesus.

Okay so our story begins with the narrator. Whose going on about time and what not. The main point of this speech about time is that it’s night in Duckburg and Scrooge is going to bed as, even being the workhorse that he is, he can’t keep going 24 hours. While he’s snoozing though something major happens and it’s the hook that made me pick this story along with the international dateline one.. an island rises thanks to volcanic erruption.. and the lava is GOLD. That’s just pure unabashed classic Duck Stuff: a mysterious treasure or phenominon of gold bound to bring scrooge in.

But Scrooge isn’t stupid: the sun comes up and the world still spins while he sleeps, so he set up a satalite to monitor for this sort of thing. The thing naturally goes nuts.. and even more naturally breaks down becasue Scrooge bought cheap parts. A nice gag and a fully in character way to bring our antagonist into the picture, as the Satellite of Loaded falls in the middle of South Africa... right on the property of my boy Flintheart Glomgold.

This is something Rosa brought up in his commentary for the story i’d never thought about. It turns out Glomgold being a citzen of Duckburg WASN’T an invention of the original Ducktales but the comics: some overseas had understandably moved him from his home country of South Africa. Him bieing in the same town as Scrooge instead of half a world away allows for easier setups and more intresting ones.

Rosa however being obdient to Barks Version of things, ketp Glomgold in South Africa like barks did, which was an .. ifffy decision given Apartheid had JUST ended at the time of this story. Not so much in the reboot as not only had apartheid been long gone by the time of the reboot, but that’s more fair. Still we do get some gorgeous vistas as a result as Glomgold’s minon goes to look at it and finds it’s from McDuck Mining company... Glomgold’s reaction is obvious.

So on that note we cut to Scrooge rushing to Donalds house and forcing him awake and not telling him anything at first. Look his Ducktales Counterpart straight up kidnapped his donald in my last review, I’d call this a win. He also tries to dress Donald while explaning both his panic to find the crashed satlitle and what it found: the golden island. The end result of him dressing donald is worth a chuckle

So after Donald puts his shirt and little hat on our heroes get rollin rollin rollin what keep rollin rollin rollin who to Manilla. On the plane we get the scene I mentioned: The boys make a quip about Scrooge having lost a day and the group go over the international date line. It’s a fun little scene especially Donald trying to get paid early at the end. Classic scrooge and donald stuff without the abusive undertones some of their classic stuff has.

Meanwhile Glomgold works out the data and finds out about the gold island, and his excitement accidently wakes a giraffe outside.. welll it was nice knowing him, Giraffes are the deadliest species known to man.. here’s an educational video t back that up....

youtube

So at Manilla Airport, Scrooge finds out abotu the south african crash, figuring he’ll get a laugh out of glomgold being there ... only for Donald to spot the Jet. Scrooge figures this can’t be anything good... now come on man maybe he’s just promoting his energy drink.

As super sayin god super sayian as my witness, I will never get tired of Ultra Instinct Glomgold here.

Scrooge isn’t so nice about that though and figures he better find out if Glomgold knows about the island and bribes one of the fueling crew for his uniform. He sucesssfully eavesdrops on Glomgold talking to his pilot, finding out from him exactly WHERE the island is. He ends up hilariously botching the mission though: when getting ready to leave Glomgold complains abotu the price of gas and that naturally causes Scrooge, just as cheap, to join in... and Glomgold to find out it’s Scrooge. The two wrestle outside the plane but before this can progress to a game of Naked Robber an airport security guy comes up and Scrooge cleverly claims that Glomgold’s plane has an infestiation, requring it to be quanrantined and allowing Scrooge to jet on.. thoguh not with an actual jet. With Glomgold seemingly dispatched, he can afford to save some money and take his time with a seaplane and I know just the man for the job.

Oh nope looks like he’s busy. So one time related rambles later we meet Keoki, their asian pilot from the tiny island of Wookawooka.. and no that’s not a real place i checked... and no Fozzy dosen’t own it his check bounced. That being said it is a very well done represntation of someone from a smaller country: he’s doing this job to try and bring money back home, but being a seaplane captain just isn’t enough and his island is dying. Scrooge naturally is about as sympathetic as you’d expect, having apparently never even heard of the idea of a bonus when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests it.

Even less suprising is that Glomgold streaks by in his Jet:turns out Manilla was already overun with the bugs Scrooge claimed and Donald rubs it in that had Scrooge got a JET this wouldn’t of been an issue.

So Glomgold easily beats them there, and to add insult and actualy injury to a cash based one, our heroes get blasted by golden lava on the way in and crash. Should’ve gotten launchpad... got the crashing professional. Keoki is dispondent as this means his people are doomed. He also dosen’t know waht staking a claim is when Scrooge mentions it and the boys bring him up to speed with the poor guy saying he wish he could for WookaWooka. Donald also makes a valid point about how greedy and heartlress scrooge can be.. and really billiionares in general.

No no YOUR the Grouch who refuses to have one drop of emapthy. Donald’s just pissed at your general selfish and terrible behavior.

Glomgold glomgloats and has seemingly won... but naturally that rant that seemed extranious at the time about the date line comes into play: turns out the Island is on it, and since glomgold put his marker int he west, Scrooge simply puts his in the east which is a whole day before. Now GRANTED there’s nor eal legal prescendice for the intetaoinal date line itself , as noted above... but there’s enough witnesses in Scrooge’s favor that it simply does not matter anyway. Scrooge SEEMINGLY wins.

But Huey, Dewey Or Louie instead backs another claim: Keoki’s from earlier. While it was made in gest, he and the others along with Donald back it as witnsses instad. WookaWooka is saved and SCrogoe ends the story yelling at the narrator.

Final Thoughts: Don Rosa.. did not like this story, feeling it wasn’t one of his best and apologizing for it. I however.. really loved it. It’s not PERFECT: the narration feels not entirely necessary and the gag isn’t as funny as he thinks, though the payoff of scrooge saying “it’s time for this story to end” is fucking hilarous. I also feel it’s a bit too compressed: the story is only 16 pages and was only THAT long because Rosa added a few for exposition, a worthy addition. This feels like one of his 30 page adventure stories but slightly crammed into half the length. I also feel the golden island bit was BADLY underused as it’s such a cool setting but barely shows up in the story.

But despite that.. it’s still a fun story: as is standard for Rosa the art is gorgeous and the humor is great. And unlike some stories where Rosa casually ignores how terrible scrooge is, here it’s his own greed and hubris that do him in: had he actually agreed to help Keoki, the boys likey would’ve let him keep the island but his own cold refusual to be a human being does him in, just as his cheapness nearly did. Flintheart is also decent here.. not the deepest foe but frankly most classical duck antagonists really aren’t all that fleshed out, and we still get some good bits with him. The dateline bit, while telegraphing that it will be important, as I said REALLY isn’t that hard to understand. All in all while i’ll agree with Rosa this isn’t his BEST, it’s still a really damn good story and one he shoudln’t be ashamed of.

Tommorow: Green Eggs and ham is back for some train shenanigans! Kay.

Saturday: The Tom Retrospective returns for it’s last detour! Eclipsa and Moon team up to stop meteora but grapple with diffrent wants: One to save her daughter.. the other to stop waht she clearly sees as an out of control monster. The result.. will only lead to tragedy and a hell of a two parter.

If you liked this review consider joining my patreon, patroen.com/popculturebuffet. At as low as 2 bucks a month you get accesss to my patreon discord, exclusive reviews, and to pick a short when I do one of my shortstragavanzas, a marthon of theatrical shorts honoring a characters birthday. And given Donald’s is next month, now’s the time to get on board.

But if you go up to 5 you get a guaranteed review of whatever you want every month, and will get me to my next milestone, which will give everyone including yourself a monthly public darkwing duck review, reviews of the two Ducktales minis’ I haven’t covered (Time is Money and SuperDuckTales) and a reivew of the Danny Phantom film the Ultimate Enemy. So please join today and if you cannot, like this review, subscribe and give me your opinions on it bellow. Or even if you can feedback is always appricated and I will see you at the next rainbow.

#donald duck #scrooge mcduck #don rosa #ducktales #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #flintheart glomgold #gold #island #volcaones

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xmxisxforxmaybe · 6 years ago

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Remnants, Part IV

This chapter is another build--there’s going to be a little more action in the next.

Summary: You are in the midst of formulating your dissertation, but you’ve hit a wall. Your doting aunt, Rebecca, has a solution that brings you face to face with Ahkmenrah, Fourth King of the Fourth King. As the connection between you and Ahkmenrah grows, and as the secrets of his ancient tablet unlock, the once-king will find himself faced with a difficult choice.

Thanks so much to @kitkatcronch @kpopperotp12 @seafrost-fangirl @sassystrawberryk and @perfect-rami for reading : ) If anyone else wants added to the taglist, let me know. I’ve greatly appreciated all of the feedback!

Warnings: Another wee, mild reference to sex. Ahk is a solid 20 years of age to be certain to avoid any squick factor.

* * * * *

You couldn’t stop thinking about Ahkmenrah’s long-returned-to-dust bedtime garment. Of course, you couldn’t stop picturing him in it and chastised yourself for that, but as his friend, you also longed to help him combat some of that nostalgia. You were really beginning to create a vortex of chaos when it came to your thoughts about the once-pharaoh. You saw him as a person now, a complex, oddity of a person who loved the thing you loved the most, too. The distance you told yourself to keep was now more of a suggestion than a rule.

You sighed, frowning and mentally swearing to recement your own rule. It was for Ahkmenrah’s safety as much as it was for yours. You two couldn’t have a life together without you sacrificing everything, and you couldn’t bear the thought of having to break his heart if the two of you got in too deep. The true problem was that it was very easy to reestablish a solid boundary when you weren’t looking into his beautiful, intense eyes.

Oh! Senet! Yes! You thought to yourself, remembering the board game that the ancient Egyptians played. While the rules had never really been discovered, you were sure Ahk would know exactly what it was. There was an antiquities store in Greenwich Village that specialized in recreating ancient artifacts. There was a niggling remnant of a memory in the back of your mind of you gliding your hand across the smooth top of the board, wondering what it would have been like to sit on a rooftop with a fire and the night sky providing just enough light as you played, the burbling of the Nile in the background, its din a sweet music to your ears.

Yes. Senet would make the perfect gift for Ahkmenrah.

As you packed up your bookbag after a long day at school, you mentally mapped out your late afternoon. You had just enough time to journey into the Village to try to find the game for Ahk before you needed to begin the first chapter of your dissertation. Today had been a great day as you met with the three professors who would be serving as the chairs for your dissertation. Out of the three, there was only one who intimidated you. She was known for being tough, but you weren’t about to let something as little as criticism get in the way of your dream.

You were just about to step out when your phone buzzed.

“Done. Give it a look?”

Your thumbs hovered over the letters as you decided when to meet Ryan.

“Busy tonight. Tomorrow?”

“Brunch. North Square on Waverly?”

“Perfect :)”

A small part of you longed to tell Ryan about the museum; he would love it, and you knew he would keep it a secret. However, you also knew it just wasn’t worth the risk. You considered Ryan your closest friend, but Rebecca was family, and she had risked everything by telling you about the museum’s secret. You also remembered Larry’s torturous induction; Ryan’s dissertation would be finished by the time Larry actually let him meet an important display.

You shoved your phone into your bag and headed for the Village, picturing the delight on Ahk’s face when you surprised him tonight.

* * * * *

Even though you had to explain some of the newer pieces, like dice, Ahk was impressed with how close the reconstruction was. He immediately went over the rules and you then spent the better part of the night losing to him again and again. He was so happy that you didn’t mind at all. And when you finally won a single game, you were highly suspect that he had let you win.

“May I ask you something?” you questioned as you moved your piece to yet another square of bad fortune, falling further behind Ahk’s own seemingly blessed by the gods gamepiece.

Ahkmenrah rested his chin on his hand, a look of concentration on his face as he stared at the Senet board.

“You may ask me anything.”

“What was it like for you at Cambridge?”

Ahk furrowed his brows and looked up, disregarding the dice as he explained, “Well, when I arrived at Cambridge, it was the first time that I had awoken since my entombment. According to Jack, he was the scholar assigned to examine the findings from my tomb and he later became my close friend, the tablet was stolen right before my tomb was sealed. During the excavation of the pyramids, it was actually discovered sealed up beneath a statue of Anubis. For years, people thought it was cursed. Jack, he was such a clever man, pieced together that it was the Tablet of Ahkmenrah, although he got quite a shock when he reunited me with it.”

The game lay forgotten between the two of you as you listened to Ahkmenrah’s story. He had a strange look in his eyes, as if remembering something bittersweet that he had tried very hard to forget.

“You don’t have to tell me anymore if you don’t want to.”

“No, Y/N. I swore to always tell you the truth. It is painful to remember, but I suppose it’s a good kind of pain. It means I’m still human, still alive.”

Yes, you thought, it most certainly did.

Your mouth formed a small o of horror as you realized, “So you came to life, literally thousands of years later. That had to have been a shock!”

Ahkmenrah barked out a sharp laugh.

“To put it mildly, yes. If it weren’t for Jack, I think I would have lost my mind. He was so patient, obviously eager to learn, like you, but he really took time to explain everything to me. He would sneak me out to take me to all of Cambridge’s museums, and he even took me to the Museum of Natural History. He helped me understand where I was, what life was like now—well, then. He taught me the history of my empire, and more importantly, empathized with me as I grieved for the loss of everything my people had worked to build.”

“Oh, Ahk, do you still feel that way? Like your Egypt has been lost?”

“In some ways, yes, because it certainly has. That way of life, my way of life, is gone. But Jack showed me many of the things that my people have given to this world and that brought comfort.”

“And that was in the 1940s? 50s? We now know even more about the advancements that are credited to the Egyptians, probably because of the work of people like Jack.”

And then it dawned on you: “Wait a minute. Jack. As in Jack Cecil Evans?”

“Yes. Do you know of him?”

You reached into your backpack and pulled out your laptop. Ahkmenrah moved to stand behind you, watching your fingers dash over the keys. Google retrieved several images of Jack, along with the many articles he published on the subject of the Tomb of Ahkmenrah. Ahk was Jack’s life work.

Ahkmenrah reached out a shaky finger and traced it over the image of Jack on your screen.

You quietly asked, “What happened to Jack?”

Ahkmenrah took a deep breath and returned to his seat across from you, his eyes glistening in the light.

“He died a few years before my exhibit was moved to the United States. I suppose that is when I really began to understand loneliness. Jack knew he didn’t have much time left, so he ensured that I would be safe, able to get out and to move. It wasn’t long, though, before the allure of my tablet attracted those awful men who moved me here and locked me up.”

Silence settled between the two of you, Ahkmenrah lost in his memories, you lost in making sense of the layers of pain that Ahkmenrah hid beneath his cheerful demeanor.

“Ahkmenrah, if there’s one thing I could do for you, what would it be?”

“You have given more already than I could have ever hoped. You are proving to be as good of a friend as Jack, except, you’re a bit younger and much prettier.”

Your soft laughter pulled a smile from Ahkmenrah.

“I’m being serious, though. What do you want or wish you could do?”

Ahkmenrah’s face transformed as it filled with a childish excitement, making him look much younger than his 20 years.

He spoke softly, as if afraid someone might overhear: “I want to see the city, really see it. I want to know life as a normal, modern man.”

Once again, you found yourself forsaking your rule, and you broke out into a grin because Ahkmenrah’s excitement was contagious.

“Ahk, that’s a pretty simple request.”

“Is it? You go and ask Larry. I’ll wait here and listen for his bellow.”

“Larry doesn’t own you. You were a king, Ahk.”

“Perhaps Larry needn’t know?”

“No, he needn’t,” you said slowly, returning Ahkmenrah’s sly grin.

You began to chew on your bottom lip, thinking deeply about what you would need to do to take Ahk out for a night. Clothes and shoes, maybe practice with those, figure out places to go, you didn’t want to wander around in the city and overwhelm him, and—

“Care to share?”

“I think we need a night to plan. I can pick up some clothes tomorrow morning and tomorrow night we will make sure they fit. Then we need to plan out where you want to go.”

Ahkmenrah, his voice filled with anticipation, asked, “May I offer some suggestions of places I have been most curious to explore?”

“Of course! It’s your night!”

“There was a photography exhibit a few months ago that showed the view from the Empire State Building. I am curious to see just how high this building is.”

“Done. I’ve got a friend who can get us tickets. What else?”

“Music—some of my favorite nights during my youth were sneaking into my parents’ parties and listening to the music, watching the dancing and revelry. I miss. . .people.”

You smiled, sadness tugging at your heart, but knew this wish was an easy one to fulfill, too.

“Also as good as done. I know the perfect place in the Village, and it’s near my apartment.”

Ahkmenrah’s face threatened to split into two as his grin widened even further.

“Jack told me about life and he explained it well, but he never let me live it. When I was locked in my sarcophagus, I spent most nights worrying that I would never get the chance to live. And you know how Egyptians felt about the gift of life.”

Indeed, you did. Well, so much for your rule—you’d have to once again reconcile that what you were doing for Ahk was more meaningful than maintaining a boundary. Besides, just because you were giving Ahkmenrah a taste of life didn’t mean that you were in love with him; you were being a good friend.

“I’m going to duck out a little early tonight to get some sleep. I’m meeting a friend for brunch tomorrow, before work, so I’ll need to run the errands first.”

“Thank you, Y/N. I am forever indebted to you for your kindness.”

“Uh, remember those 4,000-year-old papyruses you gifted me with to allow me to finish my dissertation proposal? I’d say we are barely scratching even.”

Ahkmenrah couldn’t stop smiling and you elbowed him in the ribs as he walked you to the front desk to say goodbye to Larry.

“Stop smiling,” you hissed. “You’re terrible at being discreet.”

Ahk composed himself for all of 10 seconds.

“Fun night?” Larry asked, raising his brow and taking in Ahkmenrah’s unabashed happiness.

“Y/N brought me a game that we used to play in my time. It was a real. . . blast from the past.”

Larry laughed and you chuckled, too.

“You’re really catching onto the slang, Ahk,” Larry said.

“I’ve always been a quick study.”

“Goodnight, boys. I’ll see you tomorrow!” you called, waving as you dashed out.

* * * * *

Shopping had been a success, although you were now ten minutes late for your brunch with Ry, which was highly uncharacteristic for you.

“I was about to call the coppers.”

“Sorry—had to run some errands. I’m starving, though!”

You picked up your menu and scanned for what you wanted. Ryan knew you well enough to know that you couldn’t focus on anything he said until you determined what you were ordering. Once the waiter returned and the two of you placed your orders, you turned your full attention to him.

You asked him how he thought his proposal turned out, and he explained what he wanted you to look for during your proof. He knew your time was limited, but you assured him that you didn’t mind.

Conversation flowed without effort and you found yourself smiling, falling into the charm that was Ryan. Things were so easy with him, so easy in the bright light of the sun that streamed through the window of the café.

“Our mates are all headed out tomorrow night. Any chance I can convince you to meet up?”

“Tomorrow, huh? I’ve—”

“You’ve got plans,” Ryan said, his smile faltering a bit. “Any chance you wanna tell me what’s got you so busy all of a sudden?”

“The same thing that’s going to have you so busy soon enough. I thought you and I didn’t do the whole jealousy bit?”

“I’m not jealous—just curious.”

“Mmm. You forget that I know you better than that.”

“I don’t want you working too hard. You know how you get, Y/N. Your passion for your research is enviable. Is it wrong to wish that maybe you were that passion about something else? To keep a little hope that maybe it could be me?”

“If you recall, I showed up at the airport and begged you to take me to Australia with you for the summer after the first year of our ‘friendship.’ God, I’m still not over that embarrassment.”

Ryan laughed, the sparkle returning to his eyes.

“What happened to that girl?”

“She’s still here, just a little preoccupied.”

“Well, I’ll text you, just in case you change your mind about Saturday.”

Ryan held the door open for you as you exited the café. He pulled you into a tight hug, and asked, “Going my way?”

“You know I am,” you replied and linked your fingers with his proffered hand.

You and Ryan walked to NYU, hand in hand, the sun warming your skin and wrapping you up in his radiant energy.

* * * * *

You had bought two sizes of everything, planning on returning what didn’t fit to the store tomorrow. It had been a long time since you had a boyfriend to dress up, so you were really loving the idea of seeing what Ahk looked like in your purchases. You also brought along some product to attempt to tame his curls.

You crammed all of your purchases into your backpack, while simultaneously cramming down any thoughts about what you were doing. Brunch with Ryan had reminded you of exactly why you shouldn’t be getting so close to Ahkmenrah. The two of you would never stroll hand in hand through the New York streets in the sunlight. You could never wake up in Ahk’s arms, and the thought of exactly what would happened if you did should have been enough to scare you straight.

Should have been.

Except, once again, there he was, and he was barely able to keep from bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet the instant he saw you.

Ahkmenrah swept forward, his cape billowing behind him, as he grabbed your hand.

“Come on—I know where we can go to avoid detection.”

You followed Ahk through the museum and into an old, clearly forgotten storage area. Stacks of boxes lined the walls, overflowing from the shelves that also had boxes and items of antiquity stacked to the ceiling. The room was about the size of a modest living room and was cast in a greenish hue from the single, fluorescent overhead light.

Ahkmenrah locked the door, stating that as far as he knew, no one at night had a key.

He started shedding his garments, faster than you could register and when he pulled his belt off, you said, “Whoa. I know nakedness isn’t, like, a thing for Egyptians, but it is for me, well, us, you know what I mean. . .”

“My apologies. I am just so eager!”

You laughed shaking your head and pulling the clothes from your bag.

Ahkmenrah stood patiently now, and it occurred to you that he seemed to be more presence than actual personhood. He was fit, gorgeously proportioned, but he wasn’t a big guy. You sifted through your purchases and selected the smaller sizes.

You pulled out a package of boxer-briefs and explained to Ahkmenrah that he should put these on before his pants.

He examined the underwear closely, his nose scrunching up at the idea of being constrained, then proceeded to ask no less than ten questions. You considered yourself a patient person, but finally just exclaimed, “Ahk! Try them on!”

He hooked his thumb into the tie of his shendyt and pulled, and you whirled around to give him the privacy that he clearly wasn’t concerned about.

You listened to his shuffling and when he stilled, you asked, “Are they on?”

“Yes.”

You turned around and drank in the sight of the once-king in nothing but a snug pair of white boxer-briefs. The white complemented the darkness of his skin, even under the subpar lighting, and for the first time, you noticed the faint trail of dark hair that led beneath the waistband of his newly donned garment. His legs, just as perfectly proportioned as the rest of him, were muscular, strong, and you found yourself wondering if you could make the muscles of those thighs twitch if you were on your knees—

“Does this look suitable?”

You swallowed as you attempted to appear perfectly in control of your body’s reaction and nodded.

“What’s next?” Ahkmenrah asked, still barely containing his excitement.

You grinned, “Pants.”

“Damn.”

“Come on. Don’t discount them before you’ve even tried them.”

You had chosen a pair of tight-fitting tan pants made of a soft, stretchy fabric. You were a little worried about his reaction to them, so you had also bought a pair of looser fitting jeans as a backup.

You handed the pants to Ahkmenrah and he put them on slowly; you couldn’t hold in your giggles at the faces he made as he pulled them up his legs and over his hips. It was like you’d made him try on pants made of fire and barbed wire instead of cotton.

Then, he puzzled over the hook-snap and the zipper for a moment before declaring he was afraid of getting something important caught if he were to zip up the pants. You laughed and told him to tuck himself in while you grabbed the two sides of his open pants. You assured him that everything would stay safe as you zipped up the zipper. Ahkmenrah sucked in a breath, clearly terrified. You showed him how the snap worked, and once he released the breath he was holding, you stepped back to look at him.

The pants were certainly snug, but they fit him well. He was standing with his legs comically spread a part, clearly unsure about being this confined.

“And this was why I wanted to practice,” you said as you pulled a shirt out of your backpack.

“Alright, last piece before shoes. I think you’ll like this one.”

You pulled out a thin, black, long-sleeve shirt. You figured it would be the perfect balance for a New York summer night that was muggy, but sure to cool as the night wore on.

“This is nice,” Ahkmenrah said as he ran his hands over his arms and smoothed out the material.

“I thought so—it’s primarily a linen blend, something not too far removed from your clothing. And now for shoes.”

You pulled out a pair of black, high-top tennis shoes that looked like a more expensive version of Converses. Ahkmenrah’s feet ended up being a little bigger than you thought, so you’d have to exchange for a size up, even though he didn’t want to admit that his toes were flush against the shoe.

“I promise it’s not a big deal. I’ll bring the right size tomorrow. Our night won’t be delayed. You wouldn’t even believe how easy it is to just get another pair of shoes.”

“I believe it if you say it is true, but it is still difficult to imagine.”

“If we have time, we’ll walk by a shoe store so you can see just how many pairs are readily available.”

“Do I look acceptable?” Ahk asked, biting his lower lip, his eyes shining with worry.

You smiled as you took in Ahk’s appearance before nodding your affirmation.

“But let’s get to work on that hair.”

#Ahkmenrah #ahkmenrah fanfiction #ahkmenrah imagine #ahkmenrah x reader #natm ahkmenrah #NATM #rami malek imagine #rami malek

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pinerant · 2 years ago

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Focalpoint phone confrence

FOCALPOINT PHONE CONFRENCE UPDATE

FOCALPOINT PHONE CONFRENCE SERIES

The conference will be called the xxx Conference in association with your company name.This package is the ultimate – with a prime location during the event, a speaking opportunity, logo positioning on the top of the logo and your name in the event title – “Thames Estuary Development Conference Sponsored by YOUR COMPANY NAME” Our partnership packages will put you at the forefront of the industry discussion allowing you to be there, be active and be an expert within the construction and property sector, the future vision for the thames corridor and the whole built environment industry.īecome the headline partner of this conference and get mass awareness and brand visibility. We have various partnership packages available, including packages with speaking opportunities and huge exhibition space large enough to promote your business, allowing you to address your whole target audience for maximum brand awareness and impact. London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Lisa Dee, Head of FilmĪssociate your brand with the Thames Estuary Development Conference and position your brand at the forefront of one of the UK’s biggest discussions and debates about economic growth, development and regeneration within the Estuary.

FOCALPOINT PHONE CONFRENCE SERIES

Session 4: Transformational Development Initiativesīlue-chip developers and investors showcase their forthcoming land and property development projects through a series of presentations, following by interactive Q&A.įar East Consortium John Connolly, Head of UK Development Transport for London Peter Elliott, Head of Property Development Thames Estuary 2100/Environment Agency Cantor Mocke, Area Flood and Coastal Risk Manager, London University of Greenwich Professor Jane Harrington, Vice-Chancellor This panel will comprise of the decision makers charged with delivering a major programme of works over the next 10 years.Ĭhair: Arcadis, Peter Hogg, Partner and UK Cities Director With over a million people expected to live in new communities across the estuary, public services will be designing and building new developments to cope with societal needs. Session 3: Thames Estuary: A Post-Covid Blueprint for Growing, Green and Socially Inclusive Places Vattenfall Heat UK Adriana Rodriguez Cobas Regional Director, South UK Peabody Housing Association John Lewis, Executive Director, Thamesmead Swan Housing Association Duncan Innes, Project Director Our audience will hear from the major residential developers who will talk about their forthcoming schemes and how the supply chain can support their goals. One million homes are needed to support economic growth for the 2050 vision. Session 2: Building Neighbourhoods of the Future on the Thames Estuary Port of London Authority Robin Mortimer, Chief Executive

FOCALPOINT PHONE CONFRENCE UPDATE

Private and public sector leadership provide an exclusive update on the social and political news surrounding the whole Thames Estuary ambition and give an insight into how our audience can help with challenges and opportunities.Ĭhair: Urban Catalyst Ken Dytor, ChairmanĮbbsfleet Development Corporation Ian Piper, Chief Executive Session 1: A Case For The South When Everyone Is Looking North You can also invite any other attendee to video chat, direct message.Īnd you can visit our exhibitions, chatting directly to them or watch their brand video and register your interest. Thames Estuary Growth Board Kate Willard, Thames Estuary Envoy & Chairĭuring the break period you’re able to move around the event – with a speed networking area to allow you to video chat at random so get your elevator pitch ready. Their Action Plan, ‘The Green Blue’, which was released in July sets out the vision for driving sustainable and economic growth, regenerating infrastructure and improving transport and connectivity. It has a dedicated Growth Board, led by Government-appointed Envoy Kate Willard and has plans to deliver the greenest and most productive Estuary in the world. The Thames Estuary has potential to create 1.5m jobs and £115bn GVA to UK economy. Enjoy some networking time with those also attending the conference and visit the exhibitors – with the ability to video chat with attendees, enter the speed networking area or visit the booths of our sponsors.

#Focalpoint phone confrence

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mapsontheweb · 7 years ago

Photo

The most significant face of each English county and London borough.

by Speech500:

Each county and borough displays the face of the most significant person born there.

Some of the counties and boroughs had multiple significant people, or had no really significant ones at all, so some of them are subjective and you may disagree.

I'd be interested to see how many people can guess based purely on the faces, but the people included are as follows:

Bedfordshire CHARLES WELLS

Berkshire RANULPH FIENNES

Bristol PAUL DIRAC

Buckinghamshire TERRY PRATCHETT

Cambridgeshire OLIVER CROMWELL

Cheshire LEWIS CAROLL

Cornwall RICHARD TREVITHICK

County Durham ROWAN ATKINSON

Cumbria WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Derbyshire THOMAS COOK

Devon FRANCIS DRAKE

Dorset THOMAS HARDY

East Riding of Yorkshire WILLIAM WILBERFORCE

East Sussex SIMON COWELL

Essex JAMIE OLIVER

Gloucestershire J. K. ROWLING

Greater Manchester EMMELINE PANKHURST

Hampshire JANE AUSTEN

Herefordshire NELL GWYNN

Hertfordshire CECIL RHODES

Isle of Wight VIVIAN FUCHS

Kent CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

Lancashire RICHARD ARKWRIGHT

Leicestershire GARY LINEKER

Lincolnshire ISAAC NEWTON

Merseyside JOHN LENNON

Norfolk PRINCESS DIANA

North Yorkshire JAMES COOK

Northamptonshire ALAN MOORE

Northumberland CHARLES GREY

Nottinghamshire WILLIAM BOOTH

Oxfordshire WINSTON CHURCHILL

Shropshire CHARLES DARWIN

Somerset JOHN CLEESE

South Yorkshire SEAN BEAN

Staffordshire LEMMY

Suffolk THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH

Surrey JULIE ANDREWS

Tyne and Wear JOSEPH SWAN

Warwickshire WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

West Midlands JOHN CADBURY

West Sussex JOHN PELL

West Yorkshire JOHN HARRISON

Wiltshire CHRISTOPHER WREN

Worcestershire STANLEY BALDWIN

Rutland ELIZABETH QUEEN OF BOHEMIA

Barking and Dagenham MARTIN GORE

Barnet GEORGE MICHAEL

Bexley JACK WALL

Brent MUTYA BUENA

Bromley H. G. WELLS

Camden STEPHEN FRY

Croydon KATE MOSS

Ealing JOURDAN DUNN

Enfield AMY WINEHOUSE

Greenwich QUEEN ELIZABETH I

Hackney ALAN SUGAR

Hammersmith and Fulham DANIEL RADCLIFFE

Haringey ADELE ADKINS

Harrow LORD BYRON

Havering FRANKIE BRIDGE

Hillingdon JAMES CORDEN

Hounslow DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

Islington HELENA BONHAM CARTER

Kensington and Chelsea QUEEN VICTORIA

Kingston upon Thames DONALD CAMPBELL

Lambeth DAVID BOWIE

Lewisham RICHARD BRANSON

Merton MICHAEL MCINTYRE

Newham JADE EWEN

Redbridge BERNARD ASHMOLE

Richmond upon Thames KEIRA KNIGHTLEY

Southwark CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Sutton JAMES HUNT

Tower Hamlets DAMON ALBARN

Waltham Forest ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Wandsworth TONY BLAIR (This is wrong - I was lied to by the Wandsworth tourism website. Scoundrels)

Westminster ALAN TURING

City of London JOHN KEATS

#maps #london #england #people

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dubmill · 1 year ago

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Woolwich, London; 23.1.2022

#photography #photographers on tumblr #dubmill #London #Woolwich #England #UK #Britain #architecture #brutalist #council estate #original photography #original photograph #walk #Barking to North Greenwich #2022 #23012022

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green-eyeddragonfanfiction · 7 years ago

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Time: Chapter 1

Summary: Soulmate!AU/Reincarnation!AU. Female!Reader lives in a world where alien invasions and hordes of death robots occur and past lives and soulmates are very real. Like most people, she gets brief glimpses of her past. although a person’s past lives and their current life may have little to nothing in common, soul mates tend to transfer between lives, the core of a person staying the same throughout the eons. Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader, Steve Rogers x Female!Reader Warnings: Language, violence, death, guns Word Count: 2,301 A/N: I’m back, friends. I hope you enjoy! Things I never thought I’d be doing at 5 am: looking up gun models and how to shoot them. Also, Steve’s middle name is Grant.

Masterlist // Next Chapter

2012, New York City

You’d thought about moving many times. New York was nice, but way expensive. You owned a small coffee shop in The Village. The property had been in your family for generations. It was stable enough now, after five years of hard work, that you weren’t worried about it falling apart if you weren’t physically there to look after it. You’d looked at some places a little farther north, and even a couple places on the west coast near Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. A change of scenery was something you needed after living in the Big City your whole life. Now, you’d wished you had.

Debris rained down around you as you ran away from Midtown Manhattan. To where, you weren’t entirely sure. Away from the murderous aliens on speeding hovercar contraptions was a good first step. It was the end of the world, you were sure. Unlike everyone else, who’d gawked dumbly at the sky when a giant beam of light shot up from Stark Tower and ripped a whole in reality, you had run. You’d seen enough horror and sci-fi films to know when shit was about to hit the fan. Some people might have once you thought silly for putting stock into the fantasy world of comic books and movies, but you argued that you practically did live in one with men like Tony Stark and Captain America around. Hell, the Captain even had trading cards.

You weren’t sure how much of a head start you got, but it didn’t feel like much of one. Within two minutes of the portal opening in the sky, the aliens had come pouring through the streets. People ducked behind cars and upturned patio tables in an attempt to survive the barrage of energy blasts coming from the aliens’ guns. Your lungs burned as you ran through the streets of Greenwich Village.

You ducked into your coffee shop, narrowly avoiding the blast of an alien’s gun. A few patrons were cowering under the tables, bags clutched in their hands in front of them like shields.

“May! Get everyone into the back,” you yelled, locking the door behind you. You were thankful you’d sprung for nice, stylish, sturdy metal doors. As much as you missed the beautiful old oak ones, these would hold much better against energy blasts... or so you’d hoped. May and Dean’s heads popped up from behind the marble counter, eyes wide with fear.

“Boss, what’s happen-” May began.

“Now, May! Dean, you start closing the shutters. It’ll be harder for them to get in if there’re metal bars in the way,” you barked. They didn’t move. “Now!” you growled. “Unless you don’t like living anymore!”

That seemed to return the feeling to their legs. May hopped up, urging the customers to follow her into the back room, which led to a sturdy cellar that might hold out if they started dropping heavier artillery. Thank god for World War Two architecture. Dean reluctantly left his spot behind the counter but ran speedily towards the front of the shop and began closing the metal shutters on the two large front windows.

“Turn the tables on their sides once you’re done- they’ll give us some cover and turn into obstacles for those ugly bastards,” you direct him. You pushed past petrified customers and ran into the back room. You silently thanked your Papi for being way too paranoid and a little bit of a hick as you opened the large safe hidden behind some of your store’s merchandise. You punched in the last number and wrenched the door open, eyes scanning the guns inside.

Before he’d died, he’d shown you how to load and shoot all five of the guns. He’d kept a small army’s worth of ammunition inside the safe with them, and as much anxiety as that had caused you once upon a time, you were grateful for it now. You loaded the Glock 26 Gen 3 and placed it on top of the safe as you loaded one of the shotguns- a Remington 870. A hand on your shoulder startled you and you swiveled, ready to fight for your life.

May flinched, arms coming up to defend herself. You breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry, Boss,” she said, eyes wide, dark curly hair messier than usual, obscuring her pretty face.

“It’s alright, May. You know how to shoot a gun?” you asked, picking up the Glock.

“No, ma’am,” she asked, paling.

“Alright, it’s pretty simple. Hold it with both hands, keep your arms straight, aim, pull the trigger,” you said, handing her the gun carefully. “That Glock has no safety. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot,” you said, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder as she stared at you, horrified.

“Dean, get in here!” you yelled through the doorway. He appeared a moment later, cheeks flushed from the exertion of turning the cafe on its head.

“Do you know how to shoot a gun?” you asked him, picking up the Remington.

“My dad took me shooting once when I was ten,” he asked, looking from you to the shotgun in confusion.

“Alright, do you remember what you used?”

“A handgun, I think?” he said, doubtful.

You sighed. “Alright. This isn’t anything like a handgun except in that it also succeeds at killing things with metal and gunpowder. You see this?“ You asked, pointing to the lower tube. He nodded. “This is the magazine. I have four shots loaded,” A terrifying, loud explosion rattled the floor beneath you. May and Dean’s eyes widened in fear, heads swiveling for the source of the noise. “Focus!” you barked. Their gazes snapped back to you. “Four shots loaded. There are eight more on the butt of the gun here,” you said, pointing to the shells strapped to the side. “Keep count of your shots. When you run out or get a minute, you can reload here,” you explained, flipping the gun over to show where one could load it. You popped another shell into the magazine, demonstrating for him so he would hopefully remember. “Five shots, now. Here.” you said, handing it to him. He stared at you blankly, not taking the gun, face pale. You groaned, shoulders sagging.

“I know, Dean. Shit’s fucked six ways to Sunday, but you need to focus. I’m terrified, too. But if you think those alien bastards are going to take me down without a fight, you’re mistaken,” you said, shoving the gun to his chest. “Fight. For. Your. Life,” you said forcefully, staring him down. He gulped and nodded, taking the gun from you. “Good man. Brace the gun to your right shoulder. Stare down it to aim. Pull the pump back to load a shell into the chamber. Push it back forward into place to finish loading it. Pull the trigger to fire. Rinse and repeat,” you said, turning back to the safe to finish loading the last of the guns. You loaded the Colt Python revolver for yourself, jamming it in the back of your pant’s waistband, internally cringing at the breach of gun safety. You loaded the other Glock, placing it on top of the safe. At last, all that was left was the Ruger 10/22 Semi-automatic. You threw its strap over your head and onto your shoulder, gun on your back, and handed May and Dean boxes of ammunition.

“I pray to whoever might be listening that they don’t make it through those doors, but if they do, we have to be as ready as possible,” You said, grabbing ammunition for your three guns. May and Dean nodded. You could see it on their faces; They were determined but afraid. You internally cursed at the travesty of gun safety as your jammed the Glock into the front of your waistband. Desperate times and all that. You peeked into the store. Whatever had caused the explosion hadn’t seemed to affect your store. You took up a defensive position behind the counter. “May, you’re going to be shooting whatever comes through the windows or door, with me. If it gets closer, let Dean take care of it. The shotgun is better at close range- tiny death pellets’ll rain hell down upon ‘em from that thing. You just focus on trying to make sure they don’t make it that far. Keep your head down as much as possible. Try not to pop up in the same spot- they’ll expect it. Got that?” you said, glancing at the two of them next to you, sitting beside each other. They nodded, unconsciously reaching for each other’s hands. Huh. You wondered when that had happened. “Don’t get dead, guys,” you said, standing to rest your arms on the counter to help steady your aim. “If we survive this we’re going out to a fancy restaurant for dinner- I’m buying,” you said winking down at them. They both gave you a brave smile. You turned your attention back to the door, trying to ignore the fear in the back of your mind. You wondered if you had been a soldier in one of your past lives- it might explain why you were able to stay calm even though every nerve in your body was screaming at you to run. But you had a shop full of customers downstairs. People with friends, family. Who had no hope of defending themselves. You refused to stand by and let yourself and others be killed.

The aliens that had been clambering over their dead companions suddenly dropped, lifeless. You stared at them in disbelief, waiting for them to move again. You hadn’t shot them. After a minute, when they didn’t so much as twitch, you rose up from behind the counter slowly. You raised your revolver and fired a round straight into the chest of the one closest to you that had been alive a moment ago.

Not so much as an eyelid flutter or gasp of breath. No hiss of pain.

Next to you, Dean was sobbing, clutching May’s lifeless body to his chest, gun forgotten at his side. His hand grasped hers, his lips placing tender kisses to her umber knuckles and forehead, begging her to wake up. His fingers tangled into her messy mop of curly black hair. Her dark, glassy eyes stared up at the ceiling, seeing nothing.

You sunk down to the floor next to them, adrenaline leaving your body now that there wasn’t an immediate threat in front of you. “She’s gone, Dean,” you whispered, tears filling your eyes.

“No, no! She can’t be- She-” he broke off, sobbing as he rocked back and forth, clutching her to his chest. It was like he didn’t see that a sizeable chunk of her chest was missing, vaporized by a shot with one of the alien’s guns. “She was my soul mate,” he whispered in a choked voice.

“Oh hell, Dean... I had no idea. You never told me,” you said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“We only just found out recently... asked to see each other’s soul brand... We both thought it might be each other, y’know?” He smiled faintly at the thought. It slid off his face as he returned the present. “Sure enough, our initials were on each other’s brand. When I saw D.A.H. there on her skin... I was the happiest man on earth. She saw her own initials and-” he sobbed and tears dripped down onto May’s face. “-I’ll never forget her smile. She-” he broke off, unable to stop the sobs as they wracked his body. You wrapped your arms around them both, ignoring the acrid scent of burning flesh coming from May’s body and rubbed circles into his back. There were no words of comfort you could give him. Losing one’s soulmate was nearly worse than dying. And he had watched it happen in front of him. He’d been unable to protect he and she’d died helping defend him. The only comfort they had was that they might meet again in their next lives. But that wouldn’t be very comforting to him. They were both young, fresh out of high school, working at your cafe to save money for college. He would have to go through the rest of his life without her.

You held him as he cried out everything he had, clutching his dead soul mate to his chest. Something in the corner caught your eye. The TV had turned back on, broadcasts returning to inform everyone of the situation. Apparently a group called The Avengers had closed the portal and stopped a nuke from destroying the city. Allegedly, as soon as the portal closed, all of the aliens had dropped dead. If you hadn’t seen it happen with your own two eyes, you wouldn’t have believed a word of it. Whatever The Avengers did stopped them, though. You felt your breathing stop as a choppy, grainy video of a man and woman fighting in the streets of New York came on. She wore a suit made entirely of black leather and was expertly killing aliens with one of their own weapons.

The man was who truly caught your attention, though. Even though the outfit had changed a bit, you recognized him immediately. You’d heard rumors he was back, found preserved like some sort of human popsicle in a huge iceberg near Greenland or something. You hadn’t dared to believe. But there he was, fighting aliens on New York streets. Your heart ached, one of your past lives recognizing him as the love of its life. You sighed, melancholy. You glanced down at your wrist. In your mind’s eye, you could see the initials S.G.R written there beneath the scrap of fabric you kept it hidden with.

Chapter 2

This series is finished, but if you want to be tagged in my other fics, check out this post! Sorry, but responses to this post asking to be tagged will be ignored, so send me an ask or like one of the taglist posts!

☕ Buy Me a Coffee! ☕

#marvel fanfiction #Bucky x Reader #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #captain america #winter soldier #soulmate!au

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science-criticaltheory · 5 years ago

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Locust Swarms, Some 3 Times the Size of New York City, Are Eating Their Way Across Two Continents by Bob Berwyn

Millions of locusts swarm in Tsiroanomandidy, Madagascar. Credit: Rijasolo/AFP via Getty Images

Climate change is worsening the largest plague of the crop-killing insects in 50 years, threatening famine in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

What I learned writing about climate change and the US south for a year.

As giant swarms of locusts spread across East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, devouring crops that feed millions of people, some scientists say global warming is contributing to proliferation of the destructive insects.

The largest locust swarms in more than 50 years have left subsistence farmers helpless to protect their fields and will spread misery throughout the region, said Robert Cheke, a biologist with the University of Greenwich Natural Resources Institute, who has helped lead international efforts to control insect pests in Africa.

"I'm concerned about the scale of devastation and the effect on human livelihoods," Cheke said, adding that he also worried about "the impending famines."

"Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the region needs money and equipment to deploy insect control teams in the affected regions," he said.

New swarms are currently forming from Kenya to Iran, according to the the United Nations locust watch website. Addressing the outbreak requires urgent, additional funding and technical help from developed countries, Cheke said, because the tiny size and budget of the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization team responsible for locust monitoring and control is already overwhelmed.

Changes in plant growth caused by higher carbon dioxide levels, as well as heat waves and tropical cyclones with intense rains, can lead to more prolific and unpredictable locust swarming, making it harder to prevent future outbreaks.

The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) needs moist soil to breed. When rains are especially heavy, populations of the usually solitary insects can explode. In Kenya, one of the biggest swarms detected last year was three times the size of New York City, according to a March 12 article in the journal Nature. Swarms a fraction of that size can hold between 4 billion and 8 billion locusts.

At times, the locusts in East Africa have swarmed so thick that they have prevented planes from taking off and their dead bodies have piled up high enough to stop trains on their tracks.

Global Warming's Many Impacts on Insects

The changing climate has spurred other insect invasions. Warmer winters, for example, are magnifying an ongoing bark beetle outbreak in western North America. Until the 1980s, periodic cold snaps kept the beetles in check. But since then, the tree-killing bugs have swarmed—not as fast as desert locusts, but just as destructively. Since 2000, they've killed trees across about 150,000 square miles in Canada and the western U.S., an area nearly the size of California. In recent years, historic bark beetle outbreaks have also devastated European forests.

Other research shows that seasonal shifts caused by global warming are disrupting cycles of insect reproduction and plant pollination, including a recently documented decline of bumblebees, threatening food production in some areas.

Global warming is also affecting the feeding and breeding patterns of North America's grasshoppers, species that behave similarly to locusts. In the 1930s, swarms of grasshoppers destroyed crops in the Midwest, even eating wooden farm tools and clothes that were drying outside. States like Colorado used flamethrowers and explosives to battle the insects.

It's hard to predict how grasshoppers will respond to today's changing climate, said University of Oklahoma biologist Ellen Welti, who studies the relationship between insects and plants.

But, she said, "Warmer winters, with less egg mortality and changes in precipitation patterns that affect the amount and quality of plant food, could lead to outbreaks of particular grasshopper species or other herbivorous insects."

Locust outbreaks could be driven by changes in plant nutrients caused by extreme weather, Welti said, like more frequent soggy tropical storms, which make plants grow faster but dilute elements like nitrogen. "Locusts have a weird physiology—they like low nitrogen plants," she said of connections she explored in a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

But the current locust outbreaks, Welti said, are occurring against the backdrop of an alarming global decline in overall insect abundance, which is also, to some degree, connected to climate change and will have far-reaching ecosystem impacts.

Extreme Weather, Failed Governance Favor Swarms

Warm weather and heavy rains at the end of 2019 set up a perfect storm of breeding conditions for the destructive bugs. The outbreak followed an unusually active West Indian Ocean cyclone season with several of the storms bringing extreme rainfall to parts of East Africa.

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#locust swarms #pandemic #climate change

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bluemagic-girl · 5 years ago

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🔥The fast-changing areas for home buyers to have on their radar in 2020🔥

Buyers looking to start the 2020s in a new London home face big decisions, the first being how close to the centre of the capital they need to be. But if the answer is “very”, the options don’t necessarily have to be limited.

Factors such as a history of good price growth — but with room to grow in the future — and regeneration potential are as important as the quality of local housing stock, the range of transport links and local amenities.

As the new decade gets under way Homes & Property shares its tips for London locations which appear to tick all the boxes.

Greenwich Peninsula

Greenwich Peninsula is a waterfront suburb with thousands of new homes (Daniel Lynch)

If you like your regeneration zones box fresh, this £8.4 billion project could be just the thing.

In total 15,000 new homes, shops, cafés, bars, restaurants and 48 acres of open space is creating a new waterfront suburb in the shadow of The O2.

The nearest station is North Greenwich on the Jubilee line with services taking just two minutes to Canary Wharf, eight to London Bridge and 18 to Bond Street.

Two new schools are part of the scheme and nearby Millennium Primary is rated “outstanding” by Ofsted.

Why Greenwich Peninsula is tipped as one to watch in 2020

It’s going to be a big year for the peninsula with the completion of Upper Riverside, one of a series of planned new residential neighbourhoods.

This year will also bring the Design District, a business district for creatives with studio, workshop and desk spaces, galleries, a basketball pitch and walkways.

The pros: vast investment is creating an innovative location with masses to do for all age groups, morning, noon and night.

As the population grows, so will the vibrancy of the area.

The cons: at present there are no senior schools on the peninsula. St Mary’s Magdalene C of E School has Years 7 to 10 at the moment, and will cater for Years 11 to 13 by 2022. Other options in Woolwich and Greenwich include the excellent St Ursula’s Convent School but there are also some, such as the Royal Greenwich Trust School, not currently well rated.

Average house prices in Greenwich Peninsula — and what there is to buy

The peninsula is in SE10 where the average price of £550,000 covers a huge range, from seven-figure riverfront penthouses to majestic period houses in Greenwich village, and down.

Upper Riverside prices start at £550,000 and you could buy a three-bedroom flat with wonderful views for just over £1 million.

A four-bedroom townhouse at Greenwich Millennium Village is £900,000, while in a slightly older scheme, £430,000 to £500,000 buys a two-bedroom flat, or you’d pay £300,000 for a one-bedroom flat.

Barking Riverside

East London’s biggest development, with plans for more than 10,000 new homes, shops, restaurants, schools and leisure facilities is taking shape on a 443-acre site that was once home to a huge power station.

Work started on the £3.5 billion project in 2008 and will finish around 2025. When complete there will be seven new on-site schools and a population of up to 30,000. The Barking Riverside site has a mile of tidal Thames frontage, with big skies, mudflats and a nature reserve

Why Barking Riverside is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Transport for London is on track to complete a two-mile London Overground extension in 2021, giving Barking Riverside a train link to Barking and beyond. Journeys to central London will take just over 20 minutes. Transport improvements have a strong record of increasing property prices — just look at Crossrail.

The pros: the site has a mile of tidal Thames frontage, with big skies, mudflats and a nature reserve. Negotiations to add the area to the Thames Clipper river bus service are ongoing, as are plans for a safe, segregated cycleway between Barking Riverside and Ilford.

The cons: an entirely new neighbourhood can feel soulless and the nearest neighbour, Barking, is very run down, though regeneration plans are afoot. Early residents who moved to Barking Riverside in 2012 complained of feeling very isolated. A growing population and new station will help.

Average house prices in Barking Riverside — and what there is to buy

The starting point is just under £60,000 for 25 per cent of a one-bedroom shared-ownership flat. Full ownership of a one-bedroom flat starts at £262,500. London Help to Buy is available (barkingriverside.london).

Old Kent Road

Teetering on the edge of regeneration for the past several years, a series of massive developments could finally change the fortunes of an area which has for generations been known as a cheap buy on the Monopoly board.

This ancient route from Bermondsey towards New Cross has been used by Londoners since the Celts ruled England, and was later paved by the Romans. Today it is dismally scruffy but its future looks increasingly upbeat, with new homes and facilities on the horizon.

Stations nearby include Zone 1 Elephant & Castle on the Northern line Tube, and South Bermondsey, with five-minute trains to London Bridge. But a real game changer, down the line, would be if the Bakerloo line extension goes ahead and Old Kent Road gets a station of its own. Transport for London will make a decision over the next couple of years.

Local schools include Phoenix Primary School, which gets top marks from Ofsted, and Townsend Primary School, Pilgrims’ Way Primary School, Ark Walworth Academy (seniors), which all have “good” inspection reports. Planning permission has been granted for Cantium, a new mixed-use development at 520 Old Kent Road, bringing more than a thousand new homes, including a 48-storey tower

Why Old Kent Road is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Developers are poised to start massive investment in the area. Last March Galliard Homes and Aviva Investors were given planning permission for Cantium, a £600 million mixed-use scheme at 520 Old Kent Road, including a 48-storey landmark tower, 1,113 new homes, new piazzas, a public square and a linear park.

In total, £10 billion is expected to be spent on developments along the road, focusing on the two miles between the Bricklayers Arms roundabout and the junction with Ilderton Road.

Pros: close to the bars and restaurants of neighbouring Bermondsey and Peckham, and enjoying a ripple of buyers priced out of these areas.

Cons: right now it’s grotty and traffic-clogged, and its going to be a building site during the short and medium term. Some of the developers will probably hold fire until a decision on whether the Bakerloo line extension is happening.

Average house prices in Old Kent Road — and what there is to buy

Most of Old Kent Road is in SE15, a postcode with an average price of £570,000 according to Rightmove, up around a third in the past five years.

£650,000: a three-bedroom terrace house just off Old Kent Road in Peckham

Property on and around the road ranges from elegant Victorian townhouses close to Burgess Park, to smaller period terrace houses around the Bermondsey and Peckham borders. A three-bedroom house would cost £600,000 to £700,000.

Two-bedroom flats on the northern side of the Old Kent Road cost £450,000 to £500,000 but buyers will find better value closer to New Cross, where there are two-bedroom terrace houses priced at £450,000 to £500,000, and one-bedroom purpose-built flats priced between £250,000 and £300,000.

Brentford, west London

One of the capital’s many industrial backwaters getting a much-needed makeover, Brentford is the west London hotspot you can afford.

Thousands of new homes are under construction overlooking the area’s three waterways – the Thames, the River Brent and Grand Union Canal – bringing with them new shops, restaurants and cultural and sporting facilities.

These new homes are augmenting the area’s existing stock of period houses, and although out in Zone 4 Brentford’s transport links are fast – trains to Waterloo station take just over half an hour.

Most local schools hold at least a “good” Ofsted report and Lionel Primary School and Gunnersbury Catholic School (seniors) are both considered “outstanding” by the schools’ watchdog.

The Brentford Project is set to bring 900 new homes, an arts centre and cinema

Why Brentford is tipped as one to watch in 2020

The smart money gets in early in the regeneration process for maximum uplift. Ballymore launched the first homes at its 12-acre site by the River Brent in September, with “exciting announcements” expected this year on the shops due to move into a rejuvenated high street.

The Brentford Project will eventually include almost 900 homes, plus facilities including a leisure centre, and an arts centre and cinema. Prices start at £442,500 for a one-bedroom flat; two-bedroom flats are priced from £652,000. Visit thebrentfordproject.com.

Ballymore is not alone in scenting potential in this town. Brentford Football Club’s home is getting a new stadium plus new homes, and another 700 or so homes are coming at Brentford Lock West (brentfordlockwest.co.uk) beside the Grand Union Canal.

The pros: proximity to the lovely Syon and Gunnersbury Parks.

The cons: regeneration comes at a price. Boat owners at the moorings at Waterman’s Park have been moved on to make way for a new marina. The High Street is basic and marred by empty shops. Motorway noise from the M4 blights some streets on the north side of Brentford.

Average house prices in Brentford — and what there is to buy

Average prices in TW8 have topped the £500,000 barrier, at £511,000 according to Rightmove. Five years ago the average price was just £376,000.

There’s not a huge number of houses in this area, which pushes up prices. A two- to three-bedroom period terrace house will cost around £550,000 to £650,000.

Flats are in plentiful supply and the new homes landing in the area have also pushed average prices upwards. Buyers have a good choice of newish two-bedroom flats – and the odd period conversion – for around £450,000 to £500,000.

More dated purpose-built two-bedroom flats have price tags closer to £300,000.

Poplar, east London

Makeover: the transformation of ChrispStreet Market is part of the multibillion-pound Poplar regeneration

Its location just north of Canary Wharf means this former Victorian slum has long been ripe for regeneration.

Now, finally, Call the Midwife country is being reinvented for the 21st century. In the pipeline are some 3,000 flats – in new buildings and revived brutalist landmarks – plus shops, offices and new parks.

There are also a few streets of period houses for families in search of a traditional home, while one of the area’s four primary schools gets an “outstanding” report.

For older children, Langdon Park Community School is rated “good”. Poplar is served by several Docklands Light Railway stations, all Zone 2.

Why Poplar is tipped as one to watch in 2020

A hugely symbolic year is in prospect for this ugly duckling of the East End as residents move back into the newly restored Balfron Tower.

The brutalist Sixties landmark designed as social housing by Ernő Goldfinger (of Notting Hill’s Trellick Tower fame), has been rebooted as upscale apartments. One-bedroom flats start at £365,000. Visit balfrontower.co.uk.

The pros: much more affordable than Canary Wharf. Lots of change on the cards. The old-school Chrisp Street Market is in line for a £280 million redevelopment with apartments and a new market, despite existing traders claiming they could be pushed out of the area. As well as stalls, there will be space for one-off events such as live music, ice rinks, vintage fairs and open-air screenings.

Regeneration of the sprawling Aberfeldy Estate, renamed Aberfeldy Village, is well under way, with more than 1,000 homes plus shops, a gym and a linear park, completing by around 2025. The High Street has a reasonable selection of useful shops, and there is green space in the form of Bartlett Park and Poplar Recreation Ground.

The cons: for all the billions of pounds being spent, Poplar is still rough and ready. The architectural Marmite that was the Robin Hood Gardens estate has been lost to redevelopment despite huge opposition to its demolition from leading architects. Critics say locals are hopelessly priced out of all the shiny new apartments springing up.

Average house prices in Poplar — and what there is to buy

Poplar shares a postcode with Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs, and the average price in E14 is £512,000 up a respectable 15 per cent in the past five years.

In Poplar a budget of £500,000 will buy a one-bedroom flat at Orchard Wharf by Galliard Homes, with the added benefit of a communal roof terrace with amazing views.

You could equally buy a more dated two-bedroom purpose-built flat, or a two- to three-bedroom period terrace house – although the challenge here will be finding one.

Woolwich, south-east London

Berkeley Homes’ multibillion-pound regeneration of the Woolwich Arsenal features 5,000 new homes (Daniel Lynch)

Five miles down the Thames from Canary Wharf, Woolwich is shaping up as a real alternative, with Berkeley Homes’ multibillion-pound regeneration of the Woolwich Arsenal, featuring 5,000 new homes plus bars and restaurants revamping the waterfront, and Crossrail due to upgrade transport links in 2021.

Down the line, British Land is planning a five-acre mixed development on inland Woolwich’s grotty high street, while Greenwich council has pledged £40 million to repurpose a series of historic buildings on the waterfront into arts and cultural venues.

A former ammunitions factory will become a performance venue with seating for more than 4,000 people.

Transport is provided by DLR (Zone 4), and schools include the Ofsted “outstanding” St Peter’s Catholic Primary School and Cardwell Primary School.

Why Woolwich is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Of all London’s regeneration zones, CBRE tips Woolwich to enjoy the biggest “regeneration house price growth premium” – 7.6 per cent per year.

The pros: the river. Plenty of green space, in the shape of Oxleas Wood and Plumstead Common.

The cons: Woolwich’s waterfront flats are expensive, and the streets of period homes further inland have a rather bedraggled air. Local council estates are downright scruffy.

Average house prices in Woolwich — and what there is to buy

An average home in SE18 costs £481,000, according to Rightmove, up from £272,000 five years ago – a massive 77 per cent.

These average figures hide a massive range of homes. Berkeley Homes is currently selling a splendid two-bedroom duplex at Royal Arsenal Riverside for £1.3 million. But you can buy a two-bedroom flat at the site from £600,000.

In the town centre you could pick up a four-bedroom period house for between around £550,000 and £600,000.

Prices for apartments drop the further from the river you move. A two-bedroom flat would cost between around £350,000 and £400,000, or less for ex-local authority property.

Bayswater, west London

Whiteleys shopping centre is being redesigned with new shops and restaurants, along with luxury new homes

Historically, Bayswater has been the shabbiest but also the least expensive of the neighbourhoods encircling Hyde Park.

Its shops may lack excitement but its Zone 1 location is brilliant, its unconverted townhouses are elegant and, most importantly, regeneration is gathering pace.

You can walk to the West End or hop on the Central line at Queensway station or the District and Circle from Bayswater. From 2021 a short walk to Paddington will be rewarded by Crossrail services direct to the City or Canary Wharf.

“With its neighbour Notting Hill to the west and Marylebone to the east, where values can easily exceed £3,000 per square foot, Bayswater has long been the forgotten area of prime central London,” says buying agent Caspar Harvard-Walls, partner at Black Brick.

The reason for Bayswater’s Cinderella status? “Bayswater is blighted by Queensway, which is dominated by fast-food takeaways and mobile phone shops.”

Why Bayswater is tipped as one to watch in 2020

The clean-up of Bayswater is already clear. The first homes at the landmark Grade II-listed former Whiteleys shopping centre, which closed in 2018, go on sale this year. Prices are still to be confirmed and if you need to ask, you probably can’t afford one.

There will also be shops and restaurants at the redesigned centre, rebooted by starchitect Norman Foster. Meanwhile, a cluster of smaller developments on and around Queensway will have more flats, shops and offices that will generally smarten up the street.

The pros: Bayswater is relatively underpriced for its prime location, and Crossrail and regeneration will produce price growth.

“We know the effect that improving the public realm has on property values,” says Harvard-Walls. “The redevelopment of Marylebone High Street, Mount Street in Mayfair and Sloane Square in Chelsea have led to surges in the price per square foot in those areas. We expect 2020 to be the year the wider market really starts to sit up and take notice of Bayswater.”

The cons: it is good value for prime London, but it’s still not cheap. And there are still too many shabby two-star hotels.

Average house prices in Bayswater — and what there is to buy

An average home in W2 costs £1.25 million, according to Rightmove. Unlike other prime districts, where prices have flopped 20 per cent in the past two years, values are up slightly, from £1.2 million five years ago.

White stucco townhouses, often divided into flats, could again become the area’s loveliest homes, priced at £1,500 to £1,600 per square foot for a modernised property.

Prices for newer purpose-built flats are considerably more affordable at about £1,000 per square foot.

Goodmayes, on the fringes of London and Essex

Game-changer: Weston Homes is planning a major development of almost 1,300 new homes

Right on the fringes of London and Essex, Goodmayes has got a quiet and leafy suburban feel and the kind of quality Edwardian housing which would be totally unaffordable if it was a little closer to central London.

Nobody could claim it is a chichi urban village, but this multicultural neighbourhood has both transport improvements and big investment on the horizon, making it one to watch.

It’s already a good option for people working in the City because of its 23-minute rail links to Liverpool Street, with the annual cost for a season ticket £1,400.

Goodmayes Primary School and Mayespark Primary School are rated “good” by Ofsted. For seniors the closest option is Chadwell Heath Academy, which has an “outstanding” Ofsted report and excellent GCSE results, even though half its pupils don’t have English as their first language.

Why Goodmayes is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Goodmayes will be on the Crossrail line, with direct services to the West End and west London on the cards in 2021.

Weston Homes is planning a major development of almost 1,300 new homes on a site currently occupied by a Tesco superstore, of which a third will be affordable and aimed at first-time buyers. There will also be a new primary school, shops and cafes, and landscaped grounds. A decision on the planning application is expected this year and could be a game changer for the area.

The pros: lots of bang for your property buck. Goodmayes Park has got a lake, basketball and tennis courts.

The cons: there’s nothing really wrong with it, but Goodmayes lacks a heart: traffic-clogged Goodmayes Road, while perfectly serviceable as an everyday high street, doesn’t provide one.

Average house prices in Goodmayes — and what there is to buy

Average prices in RM6 stand at £364,000, up from £263,000 five years ago – an increase of almost 40 per cent.

As yet there aren’t many flats in the area but it is a good hunting ground for houses. A four-bedroom terrace house would cost anywhere between £650,000 to £800,000.

A three-bedroom Thirties semi would cost around £400,000 to 450,000.

Blackhorse Road, north-east London

Blackhorse Road has good Zone 3 transport links, with the Victoria line and London Overground (Alamy Stock Photo)

Waltham Forest is one of London’s best-performing boroughs of the past 10 years, and this unassuming swathe of workers’ cottages, old factories and workshops is starting to emerge as a real alternative to trendy Walthamstow.

The council’s masterplan for Blackhorse Road is not only to oversee the creation of 2,500 new homes – developers are rushing to invest – but also to attract a new generation of makers, designers, artists and start-up entrepreneurs to breathe life into the area. To this end, the authority is insisting that new developments include workspaces and studios.

Blackhorse Road already possesses good Zone 3 transport links, with the Victoria line and London Overground. Schools include Hillyfield Primary Academy and St Patrick’s Primary Academy, which both hold “good” Ofsted reports, and Eden Girls’ School Waltham Forest (seniors), rated “outstanding” by the schools watchdog.

Why Blackhorse Road is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Blackhorse Road is changing, swiftly and for the better. Barratt London, London & Quadrant and Transport for London started work last summer on Blackhorse View, with 350 new homes of which half will be affordable and aimed at first-time buyers, plus 17,000sq ft of shops and workspace to a design by RMA Architects.

Design standards are generally looking high across Blackhorse Road: housing associations Catalyst and Swan are using CF Møller, the firm which designed phase two of the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum, to build 330 lower-cost homes on the former Webbs Industrial Estate.

The pros: Walthamstow Wetlands, London’s fantastic new nature reserve created around a series of Victorian reservoirs, is just to the west of Blackhorse Road.

The cons: a lack of much to do in terms of shops, bars and restaurants.

Average house prices in Blackhorse Road — and what there is to buy

Blackhorse Road is in E17 where average prices stand at £484,000 according to Rightmove, up from £378,000 five years ago.

The streets around Blackhorse Road Tube station are lined with neat terrace houses, originally built for local factory workers. A three-bedroom house would cost £500,000 to £550,000.

At Taylor Wimpey’s Eclipse development (taylorwimpey.co.uk) buyers could opt for a new flat, priced from £329,000 for a studio and with London Help to Buy available.

Mitcham, south London

MitchamCommon is bigger than Hyde Park, offering 460 acres of green space which stretches from the town centre to the edge of Croydon (AlamyStock Photo)

Pleasant, leafy and – to be brutally honest – rather dull, this outpost of south London is nevertheless a safe option for first-time buyers and families alike.

Its popularity stems from its affordability and good transport links. It is also earmarked for serious investment in new homes and new facilities to replace run-down council estates.

Trains from Zone 3 Mitcham Eastfields and Zone 4 Mitcham Junction will get you to Victoria in around 20 minutes, or Blackfriars in less than half an hour.

Local primary schools get an almost clean sweep of “good” reports from Ofsted, and there is a very large choice. For seniors, Harris Academy Morden is considered “outstanding” by the schools watchdog.

Why Mitcham is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Housing association Clarion is leading the £1.3 billion regeneration of three shabby post-war former council estates in the area, providing 2,800 new homes for council tenants, shared owners, renters and for private sale. There will also be new shops, leisure facilities and open spaces

The pros: the 460-acre Mitcham Common is bigger than Hyde Park.

The cons: the town centre is a boring backwater badly in need of investment. Merton council is actively seeking a developer to breathe new life into it.

Average house prices in Mitcham — and what there is to buy

Buyers are moving to Mitcham from more expensive areas including Streatham and Tooting. The average price in CR4 is £394,000, up from £281,000 five years ago according to Rightmove, a paper profit of well over £110,000.

For families a three- to four-bedroom terrace house, either Thirties or Victorian and in good condition, would cost £500,000 to £650,000. The closer to Peckham the higher the price.

There are also maisonettes priced £300,000 to £350,000 for a two-bedroom property.

At Redrow’s Millfields development (redrow.co.uk) fans of new homes could pick up a three-bedroom townhouse by the River Wandle and set in landscaped gardens, from £580,000. London Help to Buy is available.

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crazyflyingspip · 5 years ago

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Calling all first-time buyers – Zoopla reveals the most affordable hotspots in the UK

For many, the prospect of ever affording a home seems unlikely and sometimes even impossible. However a recent report by Zoopla has revealed Britain’s popular locations, deemed most affordable for first-time buyers.

As a result of property experts have calculated how much it costs to buy your first home in each area.

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is crowned Britain’s most popular location for those looking to buy their first home.

Followed by Leicester for East Midlands, Bristol for South West and Midlothian as the most attractive option for those in Scotland.

More info: Time to start pinching those pennies as the average first-time buyer deposit hits a record high

Zoopla’s most affordable for first-time buyers

Image credit: Simon Whitmore

The most popular first-time locations all share one common characteristic – they’re within reach of the UK’s biggest cities, but still relatively affordable.

Affordability has been calculated by analysing demand from first-time buyers over the past three months. Then ranking locations with the highest percentage of demand submitted from those identifying as first-time buyers.

Based on the above these are the top most affordable hotspots across Britain – and it turns out you can get quite a lot for your money…

1. Barking and Dagenham

Image credit: Zoopla, Dagenham 3 bed terraced house, £300,000

Winning the accolade of most popular location is the borough of Barking and Dagenham. The most in-demand property for first-time buyers is a three-bed terraced house valued at £300,000.

Those looking to buy their first home will require a deposit of £45,000 and an income of £56,667 to buy.

2. Tower Hamlets, London

In second place is London’s borough of Tower Hamlets. In comparison first-time buyers in this area will need to earn £80,278 and have a deposit of £63,750 for a home valued at £425,000 – for a two-bed flat.

3. Newham, London

Third place in the capital is the Borough of Newham. Here first-time buyers are looking at two-bed flats priced at £340,000. A first-time home in Newham will set them back £51,000 for a 15 per cent deposit.

4. Reading, Berkshire

Image credit: Zoopla, Reading 2 bed flat for sale £240,000

Heading outside of London, Reading is the most popular location for first-time buyers. In this large town the average home value enquired about is £240,000, again for a two-bed flat. A home of this value requires a £36,000 deposit.

5. Wolverhampton, West Midlands

Image credit: Zoopla, Wolverhampton semi-detached house

This city in central England is a top hotspot for buyers, where you can bag a three-bed semi for £145,000. The deposit required is £21,750 with an income of £27,389.

6. Thurrock, Essex

Just outside of London, in 6th place is Thurrock. Here first-time buyers are looking at three-bed terraced house priced at £260,000. The 15 per cent deposit value is £39,000 with a desired income of £49,111.

7. Greenwich, London

We’re back in London for the 7th hotspot, this time in trendy Greenwich. Here first-time buyers are looking at two-bed flats for the sum of £340,000, with a deposit of £51,000.

8. Luton, Bedfordshire

Image credit: Zoopla, Luton 2 bed terraced house for sale £215,000

First-time buyers in Luton are looking at two-bed semi detached properties to the somewhat affordable sum of £215,000.

9. Southwark, London

Who’d have thought London would appear so many times in the most affordable hotspots?! In again at nine, is the borough of Southwark where first-time buyers are looking at two-bed flats in the region of £435,000.

10. Crawley, Surrey

Lastly the number 10 hotspot is Crawly with three-bed terraced houses cost £255,000. Where a deposit costs £38,250 and the desired annual income for affordability is £48,167.

Regionally Leicester is the most popular location for first-time buyers in the East Midlands. While the bustling city of Bristol tops the list in the South West.

North of the border in Scotland, is the historic county of Midlothian is the most popular destination for those buying their first home. The first-time buyer home costs on average £145,000, with a £26,250 deposit.

Related: Calling all first time buyers! You can now pay for someone to find your first home for you

Zoopla also provides the average property value first-time buyers search for in each location and the most popular property type. Additionally they calculate the typical deposit and average income needed to service an 85 per cent loan-to-value mortgage.

For those looking to buy their first home anytime soon, it goes to show the importance of location, location, location.

The post Calling all first-time buyers – Zoopla reveals the most affordable hotspots in the UK appeared first on Ideal Home.

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man-with-van-london-uk · 5 years ago

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Removals Man with Van London Covering, North, East, South and West London. 🇬🇧 www.manwithvanlondon.co.uk Van courier delivery service, London, Nationwide. House, Flat, Office and Student removals, 7 days / week. Sameday, nextday, overnight courier delivery 🇬🇧 UK Removals Man with Van London www.manwithvanlondon.co.uk #Barking #Dagenham #Barnet #Bexley #Brent #Bromley #Camden #City #London #Croydon #Ealing #Enfield #Greenwich #Hackney #Hammersmith #Fulham #Haringey #Harrow #Havering #Hillingdon #Hounslow #Islington #Kensington #Chelsea #KingstonuponThames #Lambeth #Lewisham #London #Merton #Newham #Redbridge #RichmonduponThames #Southwark #Sutton #TowerHamlets #WalthamForest #Wandsworth #Westminster (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1JQs2MHvCp/?igshid=1epkgqtway48f

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dubmill · 1 year ago

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Barking, London; 19.3.2023

#photography #photographers on tumblr #dubmill #London #Barking #Barking Abbey #England #UK #Britain #graveyard #cemetery #construction #cranes #original photography #original photograph #walk #Barking to North Greenwich #2023 #19032023

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yogurtcut5-blog · 5 years ago

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The Year We Remembered That Restaurants Are Political Spaces Too

It was supposed to be a quiet work dinner on a hot June evening in Washington, D.C. The United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and an unidentified companion chose to meet in a dark corner in the back of MXDC Cocina Mexicana, a scene-y Mexican restaurant and bar run by celebrity chef Todd English, just two blocks from the White House. Their small booth seemed discreet enough as not to draw too much attention or foot traffic. But someone in the restaurant recognized the secretary and sent a quick text to a friend, a fellow political activist.

A few minutes later, a group of about 15 people began live streaming as they marched into the restaurant and up to Nielsen’s table. “Secretary Nielsen, how dare you spend your evening eating dinner as you’re complicit in the separation and deportation of 10,000 children separated from their parents,” a member in the mob shouted as Nielsen and her dinner mate tried their best to ignore the barking. “If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace,” the group chanted.

Two security agents were able to stand in between Nielsen and the angry group — organized by the Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America — which pointed out to the other diners the irony of Nielsen, the executor of the Trump Administration’s newly enacted zero-tolerance border policy, eating in a Mexican restaurant while thousands of Latin American migrant children were sleeping in cage-like compartments, separated indefinitely from their parents. “Shame!” they chanted.

Nielsen’s public shaming wasn’t the first or last time in 2018 that restaurants served as the backdrop for a political showdown. A few days earlier, Stephen Miller, senior policy advisor to the president and reportedly instrumental to the development of the controversial zero-tolerance policy, had also been confronted at a Mexican restaurant and called a “fascist.” In July, a bartender at a sushi shop in D.C. reportedly followed Miller on his way outside, shouting profanities. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was dining in a Cuban restaurant in Louisville when a man allegedly grabbed the Kentucky senator’s doggie bag and tossed it outside while shouting at him about his stance on Social Security and healthcare. Texas senator Ted Cruz was harassed out of a swanky Italian spot in D.C. for his support of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who had been accused of sexually assaulting psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers in the 1980s.

The confrontations sparked a debate about civility. California Representative Maxine Waters told supporters, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Critics, meanwhile, called the backlash “uncivil,” arguing that restaurants were no place for rage-filled shouting matches. David Axelrod, former chief campaign strategist and senior advisor for Barack Obama, argued that the hostility only served to further divide the country. The Washington Post editorial board, in a piece titled, “Let the Trump team eat in peace,” described the confrontations as political feelings spilling over into the “private sphere,” saying “we understand the strength of the feelings, but we don’t think the spilling is a healthy development.”

But restaurants have long been platforms for civil unrest, for social justice, and for activism — a fact that has been obscured in the fog of recent history. In the early 1900s, feminists forced their way into restaurants, demanding that they be seated in the main dining rooms, to protest that many American restaurants would not allow women to dine during evening hours without the company of a man. (Many restaurants at the time relegated women to special dining rooms called the Ladies’ Ordinary.) The fight to be seated in the same spaces as men, which extended to court battles, coincided with the women’s suffrage movement and women’s liberation movement.

In the South, for the majority of the twentieth century, a culture of Jim Crow segregation kept people of color from dining in the same establishments or areas as white people. In 1960, during the civil rights movement, four black college students decided to push back by holding a “sit-in” at a lunch counter in a Woolworth retail store in Greensboro North Carolina. Per policy, the counter staff denied service to the group, but the students refused to leave. They returned each day with more volunteers; by the fourth day, 300 supporters had joined them. News coverage of the protests spread, spawning sit-ins at diners, restaurants, and other segregated businesses throughout the South. In some cases, mobs of white segregationists violently confronted the activists. The resulting images of protesters being doused with condiments, hot coffee, and other beverages rattled the country. Black customers began boycotting segregated businesses until many places felt financially compelled to end their discriminatory policies.

Queer people living in mid-century America used a similar tactic to challenge institutional homophobia. In New York City, vague laws permitted restaurant and bar owners to refuse service to “disorderly” people. At the time, living openly as a gay man or woman was considered “disorderly,” in effect permitting restaurants and bars to discriminate against gay and lesbian patrons; establishments that welcomed LGBTQ clientele, on the other hand, were subject to constant police scrutiny. In 1966, a gay rights group called the Mattachine Society held a sip-in at Julius, a Greenwich Village restaurant after they were refused service. News of the protest spread, prompting the New York City Human Rights Commission to clarify in court that bars and restaurants could not in fact use the New York State Liquor Authority laws on serving “disorderly” people to discriminate against gay patrons. Three years later, police raids at the Stonewall Inn, a bar a block away from Julius, sparked riots that would be a milestone in the fight for gay rights.

These historic events took place in restaurants because, while privately owned, they are public spaces — in particular, they function as communal sites outside of home or work, making them a natural stage for the expression of the most deeply rooted tensions in public life. In April, a barista at a Philadelphia Starbucks called police on two black men who were having a business meeting at the store. A video of the encounter between the men and the police sparked a national conversation about black people constantly being asked to prove that they have the right to be in a space. Shortly afterward, countless videos of black people being questioned about their presence in various places, from universities to gyms, went viral, exposing the vast gulf between ideals about public spaces in America and the reality that many face when they simply try to exist in them.

Starbucks, for instance, expressly declares its commitment to being a “third place” where customers are encouraged to not only buy and drink coffee, but stay and get comfortable, socialize, maybe even sit and cry. The company’s website even states that “It’s not unusual to see people coming to Starbucks to chat, meet up or even work. We’re a neighborhood gathering place, a part of the daily routine — and we couldn’t be happier about it.” But the workers charged with putting it into practice have to reconcile that lofty concept with their own biases and the imperfect social structures that construct them — which is how two black men using a Starbucks location as intended can be kicked out by police, while everyone else is left alone.

Owning a business ultimately means wielding power, and wielding power often means taking a political stance or making a statement, for better or for worse. Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the United States government, owned a tavern outside Washington D.C. that was well-known for catering to a largely Confederate clientele. It’s where she helped John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators hide ammunition and other tools they needed to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. More than 150 years later, members of the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a white nationalists hate group, met up at a Los Angeles bar one night in July. When word got out and protesters arrived to confront the Proud Boys, some employees at the bar seemed to defend the group, with one bouncer allegedly saying, “the only color I see is green” (implying that as long as the men were paying, they were welcome). Police were called as the confrontation intensified, prompting them to shut the bar down for a couple days.

Restaurant owners can also attempt to avoid overtly political issues, but sometimes activists or the government give them no choice. Under a commitment to boost immigration enforcement, ICE conducted four times the number of worksite enforcement raids this fiscal year, according to the agency’s 2018 fiscal year report, and restaurants remain a prime target, with 12 percent of the food preparation work force consisting of undocumented immigrants, the latest statistics from Pew Research Center show. In response, some restaurants have been forced to close or lay off employees. While some restaurants owners have tried to protect workers, refusing to let ICE agents search their kitchens for individuals, many comply, leading to detainments and arrests. In New York City, activists retaliated against a local bakery for complying with ICE audits and firing employees who couldn’t provide papers; top New York restaurants that used the bakery as a supplier, like Le Bernardin, got caught in the crossfire, and were pressured to cut ties with the bakery by protests.

Political clashes in public space are ultimately unavoidable, and restaurants may be America’s quintessential public spaces. While the clashes of the last year may appear “uncivil” and alarming at first, moments like these have historically been springboards for a better — and more civil — future. As the country remains politically divided going into the next year, restaurants will continue to bring together Americans with different beliefs, values, and ideologies, putting them in the position of confronting these issues again and again and again, for better or for worse.

Vince Dixon is Eater’s senior data visualization reporter.

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Source: https://www.eater.com/2018/12/28/18157209/restaurants-politics-civility-kirstjen-nielsen-starbucks

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The 1856 Columbian Hook & Ladder Firehouse - 102 Charles Street

In 1854 volunteer companies made up Manhattan's fire fighting force. Their members, who all had other jobs, lived near their firehouses. Called "laddies," they scrambled to the station on alarm of fire. That year a new group, Columbian Hook and Ladder Company No. 14 was organized in Greenwich Village.

The property at No. 96 Charles Street, nearby the new police station at No. 100, was deemed a good location for its firehouse. In June 1855 a Board of Aldermen report recommended the property as the new firehouse. It was owned by Samuel D. Chase who lived nearby on West 11th Street. Only months earlier he had completed a house on the the site with a stable in the rear.

If the need for a new fire company in the immediate neighborhood was ever in doubt, a fire one month after the Aldermen's report may have eliminated the question. Ironically, the blaze which broke out around 2:00 on the afternoon of July 16 was in the stable behind No. 96 Charles Street. It caused damages of about $100--nearly $3,000 today.

This would not be the first time the city's architect was tasked with converting a residence into a firehouse. In 1854 an upscale home at No. 269 Henry Street was transformed for Americus Engine Company No. 6. The Charles Street house, too, would emerge as a handsome firehouse. The renovations were completed in 1857. As was typical, large, centered bay doors were flanked by entrances. The arched stone pediment over the bay doors was echoed above the upper windows. An understated sheet-metal cornice crowned the design.

The ground floor held the company's brand new truck, constructed by Pine & Hartshorn in 1856, and its team of sturdy horses. The second floor held a dormitory, a library, and a "grand meeting room and parlor." The top floor housed equipment including racks for drying hoses, for instance, and a "trunk room."

Members of the Columbian Hook and Ladder Company, No. 14 represented a wide variety of mostly blue collar jobs. The 1857 roster includes clerks, cartmen, three ice dealers, several carpenters, two painters, a locksmith, a bookbinder and a grocer. There were also one silversmith and a jeweler in the group. The "laddies" came and went as their schedules demanded; but one member, Peter W. Fraleigh, lived here full-time.

A few weeks after the Civil War broke out Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, organized the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, composed entirely of fire fighters. Several of the member of Columbian Hook and Ladder Company, No. 14 joined the unit known popularly as the Fire Zuoaves.

The group quickly saw action, winning a battle in May 1861 almost immediately upon arriving in the South. The enemy's flag was sent home. On June 1 The New York Times reported "The first Confederate flag taken in Virginia by the Fire Zuoaves, will be hoisted, union down, under the Stars and Stripes, on Sunday morning, at 10 o'clock, on the house of No. 14 Hook and Ladder Company, at No. 96 Charles-street."

The firefighter soldiers would return home to a changing fire department. The Act of 1865, enacted on March 30, coupled Brooklyn and New York with a paid “Metropolitan District” fire department. The volunteer companies were disbanded and No. 96 Charles Street became home to the new Hook and Ladder Company No. 5. The unit's importance in squashing the many fires in the district was evidenced in January 1884 when the Fire Commissioners decided to "double up" Hook and Ladder Company No. 5 by providing an additional truck and "a sufficient additional force...to man the reserve apparatus." Most fire houses acquired a mascot and Hook and Ladder Company No. 5 adopted Ginger in 1882. The New York Times described him as "a nondescript dog, pedigree unknown." The mutt was a favorite among neighborhood girls who "stopped at the truckhouse on their way to and from school for a romp with 'Ginger.'" But Ginger was more than a playmate, he was a true fire house dog. "Ginger was essentially a fireman's dog and took an almost human interest in the affairs of the company. He was prompt to answer alarms of fire, and when the truck rolled out of the quarters his short, sharp bark mingled with the gong's louder tones as he ran at the head of the horses," wrote The Times. But then, on November 17, 1888, 16 years after the dog first arrived at the firehouse, The New York Times ran the headline "Ginger Is No More." Ginger was "taking his constitutional walk in Bleecker-street," the day before when he was run over by a truck. A policeman, recognizing that the dog's wounds were fatal, ended its misery by shooting it in the head. Ginger's body was laid out with dignity in the side yard of the firehouse. "When his death became known yesterday to the school children they thronged to the truckhouse for a last look at their pet." He was buried there the following day.

Possibly, Ginger's unmarked grave still exists in the adjoining yard.

The galloping horses pulling the heavy fire equipment presented a danger to vehicles and pedestrians despite the loud gongs of the trucks' bells. When a fire erupted at No. 8 West 13th Street on the afternoon of November 18, 1901 Hook and Ladder Company No. 5 responded. Mrs. Mary Smith, a missionary of the Church of the Strangers, stepped into the street directly in the path of the charging fire truck. The Evening World reported that the driver "tried to save her" by veering the truck; "but the horses knocked her down." The fire truck then ran directly into a street car. Hook and Ladder Company No. 5 never made it to the fire and Mary Smith was removed to St. Vincent's Hospital. The company appeared in the press most often, however, for the heroics of its members. Such was the case on March 9, 1921 when fire tore through the apartment of J. W. Ferrington at No. 249 West 11th Street. Ferrington was an invalid, unable to get out of his smoke-filled rooms. Fire fighters broke in the door to find that "flames were sweeping across the rooms," according to The Evening World. Fireman Hogan dropped to his hands and knees and felt his way through the apartment. Other fire fighters aimed their hose directly on him. "The only possible manner by which he could penetrate the flames and smoke was by the protection of streams of water constantly played upon him, and in this manner he went from room to room." Hogan finally found Ferrington, who had managed to tumble out of the bed. He was crouching by a window, trying to breathe. The newspaper reported that Hogan "dragged him to the hallway, the water drenching both throughout their progress." In the meantime, the fire spread to two apartments on the floor above. Mrs. Simon J. Medico was visiting with her 8-month-old son, Simon, Jr. on the fifth floor. She "became hysterical when she found her way blocked by smoke and screamed from a window." She managed to climb part way down the fire escape and pass her baby to a neighbor in an adjacent building. The fire also extended into the apartment of Daniel J. Phelan, whose 16-year-old son, Edward, rushed upstairs after the blaze was extinguished. The Evening World explained he needed "to assure himself of the safety of two pet canaries and his first long trousers. The smoke had killed the canaries, and the flames had burned the legs off the trousers." In 1936 the Charles Street block was renumbered, assigning the firehouse the new address of No. 102. A five-alarm blaze on June 20, 1942 wrecked nearly the entire Greenwich Village block bordered by Hudson, Washington, Leroy and Clarkson Streets. The inferno resulted in 50 injuries to fire fighters, $15 million in damages by today's standards, and the total loss of Hook and Ladder Company No. 5's truck. At one point, according to The New York Times, "The north wall crashed with a tearing, crunching sound and a barrage of flying bricks...Hook and Ladder Truck 5, stationed at 102 Charles Street, and accordingly one of the first pieces of apparatus to respond, fared worse than any of the men." The truck had been pulled "close in" on Leroy Street. When the wall smashed down, it flattened the fire truck. Amazingly, warned by a large crack that appeared in the masonry, all of the fire fighters escaped.

Fire fighters clamber over the wreckage of Company 5's truck. The New York Times June 21, 1942

As had been the case in the 1880's, Hook and Ladder Company 5 had a mascot. This one, named Prince, was no mutt like Ginger, however. He was a pedigree Dalmatian--the iconic fire house breed. The men of Company 5 held their dog in such high esteem that they entered him in the special fire dog category in Brooklyn Kennel Club Dog Show on December 3, 1949. A month earlier, on November 24, The Times reported "Firemen are stealing a little time from polishing brass these days to groom their Dalmatians for the special competition." Fire Chief Joseph J. Scanlon tried to discourage the practice of fire dogs, telling a Times reported "Officially, the department has no interest in dogs," adding "A firehouse is no longer a good place for a dog in these high-powered, mechanized days. They may fall off the speeding trucks answering an alarm, or get run over or they sometimes get lost in the crowded city. The average life of a firehouse dog is not much more than one year today, I'd guess." The cold water the chief threw on the event did not discourage the men of Hook and Ladder Company No. 5. Prince was shown at the show by Fireman Leonard Smith. Because it was a special category, no award was given.

Prince is groomed by Company 5 fire fighters before the show. The New York Times, November 24, 1949

It was cats which caused problems to the fire fighters 11 years later. In the fall of 1960, unknown to the men, two feral cats took up residence in the basement. One had a litter of kittens there. They were not the only new residents.

On September 11 the men began scratching. One by one they showed signs of bites until, as reported by The New York Times, "After two days of scratching, the company captain, Benjamin J. Ciranna, complained to Battalion Chief Cornelius P. Harrington." Chiefs Harrington and Otto H. Knochenhauer went to the firehouse to investigate. They were promptly bitten.

A Fire Department spokesman said "investigation proved the invaders were not gnats or mosquitoes but straight out-and-out fleas--the dog type." The firehouse was vacated. The Times quipped "The twenty-five officers and firemen of Ladder Company 5, victors over raging holocausts, collapsing walls and barricades of beams, have been forced to retreat before an ignoble enemy--an army of fleas."

The truck and its men were temporarily lodged at Engine Company 24 at No. 78 Morton Street. Pioneer Exterminating Company spent three days in the firehouse, fumigating it with a "machine vaporizer." The firefighters returned home on September 16.

The 136-year history of No. 102 Charles Street as a firehouse came to an end in 1993. A renovation, completed the following year resulted in a store at street level and one apartment each on the upper floors.

For years the ground floor, formerly home to horses and then motorized fire trucks, held the Plane Space art gallery. It houses an upscale handbags and accessories boutique today. photographs by the author

Source: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-1856-columbian-hook-ladder.html

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