#London/ireland/scotland trip

[dinner--starving]

Hey there! We are a family of 5 (4 youths, 1 55 year old) planning a trip to UK, Scotland and Ireland in month of June/July 2024.

Can you guys help me with some pro tips? Some things we are interested in are

hidden gems/off beat attractions

local activities

best/cheap travel options

What's the best way to reduce too much walking for the 55 yr old family member? Maybe like scooter rental options?

vegan food options

Recommended stay options - probably Airbnb is best?

Money saving tips - visitor oyster cards, London pass, Explorer pass. I've read britrail pass isn't worth it? What are things I can book in advance apart from accommodation and train tickets?

Best way to spend

Things to buy

Things not to do

What to carry

Any month specific attraction?

Is there anyway I can catch a play/show that stars celebrities during this time? (no points for guessing I'm interested in anything with Benedict/Martin)

Sherlock related attractions - shooting locations, souvenir shops

Northern Ireland recommendations (applying schengen visa)

Anything else you recommend?

Thanks a lot!!

[abby420]

love being an older sister sometimes bc like i get to be like omg i am going to fill your lives with so much joy and great memories

[ladykailitha]

Around the World Part 6

Hello! And welcome to another chapter of this very underrated fic. Thank you to everyone who has given it love in the way of comments, reblogs/tags, and likes.

It's London calling! And we meet a Murray Bauman in the wild. Eddie and Steve get a little introspective and Steve does something rash.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

~

Their trip through the haunting and beautiful Ireland was amazing. So many tales and history. This is why Steve wanted to do more than just America like Eddie had originally wanted, because America just didn’t have the history Europe and other places did. Not unless you wanted to disturb actual First Nation people and that was something he wanted to avoid at all cost, thank you.

They were on the ferry from Northern Ireland to Scotland and Steve was looking out over his shoulder at the water as he leaned against the guardrail. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, allowing the wind to blow through his hair.

Eddie slid his arm around him and Steve laid his head on his shoulder.

Today Eddie had his beard and faux-dreadlocks in a light blue button up shirt and cream colored wide-legged pants. His chunky sunglasses covered the his face.

“You know,” Eddie murmured, “until we reached this leg of our journey and you started to disguise me, I didn’t realize how much I missed just being Eddie Munson, regular guy. I can really see the appeal of you and friends’ way of doing it.”

“Yeah,” Steve said softly. “Of course it means that we can’t go all out and buy everything we want, stay in fancy hotels, show up at restaurants without a reservation and get in. But I can go into my local grocery store and buy two tubs of mint ice cream because I felt like it.” He lifted his head to look Eddie in the eye. “Like some Karen would judge me, but it’s not going to go up on TMZ that I’m letting myself go.”

God, Eddie had had that happen more times than he cared to count. Like once Chrissy was on her period and he went to go get her chocolate, Ben and Jerry’s, and pads. Before he even got to his car it was all over the internet that he was letting himself go, just because it was 2am and his best friend needed something to help her feel better.

“You think you’ll ever come out?” he asked, pulling Steve in closer.

It was a familiar and well-worn topic of theirs; whether or not Steve would ever come out as bisexual at least.

He ducked his head and looked away. He didn’t know. He didn’t like hiding parts of himself for those he loved. He would like to tell people this is the love of my life.

“Would you leave me if I said no?” he mumbled, not daring to look up.

Eddie placed his finger under Steve’s chin and lifted his head gently. “Of course not, Stevie. There are literal actors who have been married for years and no one knows. It’s just between them. We could do that too. Just a quiet ceremony, Robin and Chrissy as the witnesses, and a justice of the peace.”

Steve let out a weak sort of watery laugh and shook his head. “I want all our friends there, famous and otherwise. I want a full tilt party with music playing into the early hours of the morning. I want fancy tuxes and flowers galore. I know I might not get that, the absolute coward that I am. But if I marry you, it be to scream from the rooftops that I love you.”

Eddie bumped their shoulders together. “Softy.” Steve blushed. “Besides there is nothing in the world that says we can’t have it both ways. Have a quiet little ‘just us’ and then go full tilt when you come out. You don’t even have to tell anyone. Just a little comfort that I’m not going anywhere.”

Steve pressed a gentle kiss to Eddie’s cheek. “I’ll think about it.”

Eddie kissed him deeply and then tucked his head under his chin and they stayed like that until the ferry docked in Scotland.

~

God, Scotland and England were beautiful countries Eddie decided as he watched the rolling green hills from his train window. That was another thing he really liked about Europe in general, just all the different ways to travel that weren’t a car.

He looked over at Steve who had his glasses on and reading a book. He smiled at the title. His boyfriend wasn’t a fantasy fan or science fiction either, really, but put a clever mystery in his hands and you would have to pry to the book from his cold, dead fingers.

He glanced over at Chrissy and Robin who were playing Go Fish! They had asked him if he wanted to join them, but he passed. He rarely got time to just relax and watch the scenery go by when he was on tour. He was always doing something related to the band. Writing music, practicing, talking about the next venue, interview, or TV spot.

Him and his friends had fun, because of course they did. But it was nice to just let his mind wander. Currently he was sad that they were going to have to miss Wales this time. He really wanted to buy some Welsh gold jewelry. It’s super rare and absolutely gorgeous.

Maybe he would have to come back later and get something special for Steve. Just something simple like matching bands even if it wasn’t on the left hand. Or necklaces. Just something simple to prove they were it for each other.

“I made an appointment with a well-known tattoo artist in London,” Steve said nonchalant, but like he was reading Eddie’s thoughts.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to Steve. Robin nearly giving herself whiplash in her speed.

“As your friend, manager, and platonic soulmate,” she said darkly, “I advise against that. You can cover it up but someone, somewhere will see it.”

Steve looked up from his book and leveled her with his best bitchy glare. “Not if it’s on my ass.”

Chrissy and Eddie’s eyebrows shot up and they shared a shocked glance. Eddie always loved tattoos, he had a couple of stick and poke style ones from when he was young and stupid and couldn’t afford to pay for an artist to do the job, but there was one place, well technically two if you included his dick, which he absolutely did, that he refused to get a tattoo on and that was his ass. Not being able to sit down properly for what would probably be weeks was not his idea of a good time.

“Not really, though, right?” Chrissy asked with a grimace.

Steve took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Of course not really. Sheesh, you guys. But I hid fucking hickies from the both of you for a year and you never noticed, so I’m pretty sure I can hide one fucking tattoo.”

Robin and Chrissy shared their little ‘manager’ glance and Chrissy folded first.

“You’re right, Steve,” she said calmly. “Not once did you forget or slip up and you should be applauded for that. But is there a reason you’re deciding to get a tattoo now instead of waiting until we’re back in the States and you can use Eddie’s personal artist?”

He looked over at Robin and their little telepathy thing went off again and this time Robin folded first.

“It’s for Eddie,” she murmured. “They can’t be out as a couple and with Steve being the romantic that he is, wouldn’t want to get married without all his friends there, so this is his way of telling Eddie he isn’t going anywhere either.”

Eddie blinked for a moment. “Do you think they take walk-ins?”

“I booked it for both of us.” Steve smiled at him and took his hand. Eddie beamed back at him.

“They are so disgustingly cute,” Robin huffed, crossing her arms. “I bet Steve has this really sweet idea for a tattoo that even if people do notice it they won’t be able to tell the meaning but he and Eddie will know and be so sickeningly precious about it.”

Eddie gave him a huge kiss on the cheek. “I love my super clever boyfriend and can’t wait to see what this brilliant plan is.”

~

Steve’s brilliant plan was half of a white mask on Eddie’s inner wrist and half of guitar on Steve’s and when they held hands it formed almost heart.

The tattoo artist was really impressed with the idea and was more than happy to implement it. Steve walked out of there, completely smug as Chrissy pointed out. Deservedly so.

They were to stay in London for three days because of all the haunted places in London alone, there were so many worth visiting. They were going to start at Jack the Ripper tour and move onto the tour of London.

The tour they learned with deep dismay had accidentally been scheduled at 2pm and not 2am like Eddie had thought it said. It was so boring and their tour guide so dull, Eddie accidentally tripped of one of those concrete pillars they had in the middle of the sidewalk to prevent cars from driving up on it.

“Oof!” Eddie wheezed as he straightened up. “Why do they even put those things here?”

“Chrissy Cunningham,” a nasally voice said from behind them. “What are you doing in my neck of the woods?”

They all turned slowly to see a weaselly little bald man with thick horn-rimmed glass.

“Holy shit,” Chrissy said slowly. “Murray Bauman, as I live and breath. What the hell are you doing in London?”

He shrugged. “Eking out a living doing tours for bored tourists. When the biggest metal band in the world drops you, so does everyone else.”

Chrissy and Eddie shared a grimace. Corroded Coffin had deliberately did that to Nancy after the shit she pulled with Steve and trying to be The Fallen’s agent. But this one was a complete accident.

“Oh fuck off,” Robin said with a grin. “You love it. I can tell. You have actual notes written down, you have a map marked with all the spots the murders take place. I bet you have all the great stories.”

Murray flushed and cocked his head to the side. “I mean I didn’t want to brag. But yeah, certainly better than Molly over there.” He jutted his thumb at their tour guide. “Most of the good ones are from tour companies and then you get people like Molly who make it look legit online and trick people into taking day tours.”

“God, I was so bored,” Eddie huffed, shoving his hands into his pockets, “I felt jet lagged.”

Murray’s eyes instantly narrowed and cocked his head to the side and instantly everyone else tensed up. He took in their reactions and mimed zipping his mouth shut.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said, “if you’re still in town tomorrow, meet me here at 9pm and I’ll give you a proper tour.”

Chrissy licked her lips slowly. “Or what?”

“Huh?” He was confused for a moment before he smacked his forehead. “Oh! No, no. I’m not going to blackmail you. Holy shit. If people want to enjoy a vacation without all the publicity, good on them.” He looked Eddie up and down. “Looks good on you kid.”

Eddie was suddenly glad for the large sunglasses and beard because it hid the blush on his cheeks.

“No, I’m just saying,” Murray continued, “that if you wanted to experience a proper Jack the Ripper tour, I’m willing to do it. I don’t have a tour currently booked and beside I like her.” He pointed at Robin, who grinned back him.

The four them all shared glances at each other.

“I’m down,” Steve said with a shrug. “If you’re as good as you say you are and aren’t trying to actively ‘get back’ at Chrissy for taking your job, I know I’d be interested in seeing what Whitechapel has to offer after dark.”

“I like him too,” Murray said brightly, rubbing his hands together. “So what do the rest of you say?”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Steve’s three menaces said together.

He just smiled fondly and shook his head.

~

Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

Tag List: CLOSED

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3- @goodolefashionedloverboi @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog @irregular-child @blondie1006

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[ukrfeminism]

Women in the UK are waiting almost nine years for an endometriosis diagnosis, according to research that found many women are "dismissed, ignored and belittled".

The study by the charity Endometriosis UK found waiting times for the condition to be formally identified have significantly deteriorated since the pandemic, increasing to an average of eight years and 10 months - up 10 months since 2020.

The report, which surveyed 4,371 women, also found that almost half of respondents had visited their GP 10 or more times with symptoms before receiving a diagnosis.

Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

It impacts around one in 10 women and symptoms can vary from person to person.

"My periods are… painful to the point where I'm bedbound," said Sanchia Alasia, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2010, after 15 years of symptoms.

As a former mayor of a London borough, she has led a busy and productive life - but pain and discomfort were never far away.

"I've missed so many engagements," she said.

"I remember missing my nephew's funeral. I've missed dinners, day trips. I wouldn't even count the amount of money I've lost over things that I've booked and not been able to attend.

"It can be incredibly frustrating," she added.

Emma Cox, chief executive of Endometriosis UK, said the problems with diagnoses persist because symptoms are often misunderstood.

"Day to day, without a diagnosis, some people have real issues both physical and mental health, because they'll be in severe pain," Ms Cox said.

If left undiagnosed and untreated, endometriosis can lead to worsening physical symptoms and even permanent organ damage.

The charity's research showed that, while women in England and Scotland wait an average of eight years and 10 months for a diagnosis, those in Northern Ireland wait nine years and five months, and those in Wales wait nine years and 11 months.

It also found that 52% of respondents had visited A&E at least once due to symptoms of endometriosis.

Ms Cox said: "We want this to be a real wake-up call for governments and the NHS.

"What we'd like to see is a commitment from the NHS and governments in each nation in the UK, to have a target of an average diagnosis time, by a year or less by 2030.

"We believe that's doable," she added.

Minister for the Women's Health Strategy, Maria Caulfield, admitted more needs to be done to improve women's experiences of the healthcare system.

"From getting an initial diagnosis to getting the right care and treatment, we must learn from this report," she said.

"We launched our Women's Health Strategy to do just this - listen to women. Endometriosis is a priority area within our strategy, so expect to see more in this space.

"Through the strategy, we are working to turn 'dismissed, ignored and belittled' into 'listened to, understood and empowered'."

[thefisherqueen]

I came across the surname Baskerville in a text completely unrelated to Sherlock Holmes (in a book about wild camping), and it's gives some really interesting insight into the history and present state of UK inherited titles and landownership so thought I would share!

'William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 and then made himself king. It was like any other invasion of conquest, in any other time or realm. King Harold the Second was dead. Long live the King. Life goes on. But there was a difference. New laws saw all of the land seized by the Crown - a relatively unique development in the history of conquest. Sasxon barons were replaced by the Norman lords and their allies. The Domesday Book - the most definitive land registery document every devised - was produced on William's orders in 1086 to identify the new owners and their land holding and what they might owe, in tax, favour and loyalty, to the king: the sovereign Landlord.

Landownership had worked broadly in the same way ever since our ancestors abandoned the nomadic life, and took up the shovel and plough about 10.000 BC. What the Normans changed in Britain was the communal right of access over the land. That system of non-communal access is still very much in force today amoung the modern-day descendents of the Normans. Which is why William's 1086 census - the Domesday Book (and its modern version, the Land Registry) - remains so important. It serves as a legal document that established ownership by the legal holder of the title.

My research into where I could roll out a sleeping bag today meant looking at landownership. I discovered that very little had changed sinde the Norman invasion. Just 0,6 per cent of the population still owns 50 per cent of the British land, and most of this elite are the descendants of the 11th-century Norman aristocracy.

A report - "Who owns Britain?' - by Country Life magazine in 2010 was said to be the most detailed survey of its kind in over 100 years. The research claimed that just 1200 aristocrats and their families own 20 million of Britain's 60 million acres of land. The top private landowner in Europe was the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, who owned 240.000 acres in England and Scotland. Research by the London School of Economics in 2013 claimed that the Normans who conquered England - with surnames Baskerville, Darcy, Mandeville and Montgomery - still dominate the student rolls for Oxford and Cambridge universities, still make up a large proportion of the elite that holds the prime positions in professions such as medicine, law and politics. They also control a good number of the political agencies, public bodies and charitable organisations that oversee rules regulating land management and access.

But 1066 was about more than Saxon lords losing their holdings. It was how it affected the peasants that mattered most. The common rights over common lands like Sherwood Forest and the Kentish Weald were gone. Those rights included the right to roam over woodlands, marshes, moors and coasts of many common areas; to graze animals, collect wood for fuel, tools and buildings, to eat fruits, to collect water from rivers and streams, to catch fish and generally to do all the things that made it possible to live off the land."

From: Wild camping. Exploring and sleeping in the wilds of the UK and Ireland, by Stephen Neale, page 29

I've been to the UK several times for hiking trips, and I remember being puzzled by the system of access to nature at first. It is quite bewildering to be just walking on a perfecty good path, only to suddenly find it fenced off, with aggressive signs warning walkers to KEEP OUT!!! Why are hikers treated with so much suspicion even in areas famous for its good hiking? And what do you mean by Right of Way? How come there's major roads and motor cross terrains within a national park? (turns out they are largely privately owned). Myself, I've never been shy to climb the occasional wall or fence, and pitch my tent somewhere even on private lands. I consider it my own gentle way of resisting the very idea of private property, which creates so much inequality. I've never yet faced any trouble for it, by the way. Turns out land owners have little desire to actually hike on their lands, especially in rain or cold or darkness, and the people who work for them are usually not payed enough to care about a lonely hiker who is causing no disturbance or damage whatsoever xD

[onepagelovestories]

I made a discovery/theory that I thought I might share in case it's of use or interest to anyone else!

How big is Valisthea?

TL;DR - It's just Scotland, Cymru (Wales), Ireland, and England but flipped upside-down and photo bashed a bit.

These are just purely my observations, so I'm throwing them into the void!

So, for fan fiction purposes (and just general peace of mind), I really wanted to figure out exactly how big the twins were, considering how insanely quick everyone moves around. This is obviously true for video games in general but I felt it a lot more in FFXVI than other comparable games imo.

There's not a ton to go off of, just some throwaway dialogue lines here and there that give you the general sense that you can move from one location to the next in a day or two primarily by foot (chocobos are a whole other side tangent, as is the Enterprise or whatever the hell Dominants are capable of).

Some of those specific references include;

The trip from Rosalith to Pheonix Gate and back taking an expected 5 days total (with Clive, Tyler, and Wade arriving that night despite the detour through the marshes),

The boat ride from Port Isolde to Drake's Breath taking 3 days,

Someone from the hideaway referencing that they leave for Lostwing each day for work. (Couldn't find the exact example don't quote me on that one.)

Twinsides/Origin being "Hundreds of Leagues" away from The Hideaway

There's probably a few others, but most of the other examples I could find were open to interpretation, merely implying that travel took place in the same day but could be interpreted to have been spread out over longer were it not for 'video game logic and scale'.

That being said, I like things being a little more grounded for head canon purposes and wanted to know how much down time was reasonable in and between trips back and forth.

In general, I feel like the game should have been spread out over the full 5 years. But understanding game development limits, I get why that'd have been a nightmare! So the time skip makes sense practically, and I just choose to headcanon that events are a little more spread out. (Like them taking the full year in 873, from Clive and Jills rescue to destroying Drakes Head, rather than a couple of weeks like it seems in game.)

Shout out to this reddit post for doing an awesome estimate based on an average measure of the aforementioned "hundreds of leagues" quote. This was my starting point.

They concluded that Valisthea was likely closer in size to India or Australia, which I like a lot in terms of Valisthea being a full-scale continent. However, it does mess with the timeline a lot.

Also, I'm from a large country so my sense of what is a "reasonable" distance is pretty thrown off compared to a lot of other places. A 2-5 hour (200-400km) car ride to another city is nothing in my head until you realize that distance would take 1-4 weeks to walk or even ride (Horse metrics. Again chocobos are weird and probably a bit faster due to being all terrain and more robust than horses but are also birds so I don't know what endurance levels carrying heavy loads would be like).

Soooo, I began looking for European contemporaries since the game is very eurocentric (and all the criticisms that come with that).

Which led me to the realization that Valisthea is literally just the UK and Ireland, but flipped.

Now. Am I 100% certain this is what the devs did? Of course not. Is it so damn close that I'm 99.9% certain? Yes. Storm is Britain, and Cymru. The Northern Kingdom and the Iron Kingdom are Scotland but broken up. And Ash is Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Major cities or points of interest all have approximate real-world contemporaries and even follow geographical features on the map in that there are matching rivers, topography and even highways.

The biggest giveaway to me was Pheonix Gate just literally being London, as well as Norvant Valley matching exactly in shape with an upside down Bristol Channel (which would put Caer Norvent in Swansea). Even The Greatwood lines up relative to a major national park (forgive me UK peeps, it's hard to tell from a map alone if that's all one giant forest or several parks smooshed together).

So, if we're working off that assessment, with the quote from Tomes where he mentions that Valisthea is a small continent, then the time/distance ratio makes a lot more sense!

Of course, by our world standards – the UK alone does not a continent make.

But I'm honestly ok with that? I'd rather the land mass be small to match the timeline rather than warp the timeline to match the land mass.

So, here's a list of some of my estimated real-world contemporaries for all major landmarks on the Valisthean Map. Of course, they don't line up 1-1, and are not at all reflective of the locations themselves. It's all just for a relative sense of scale.

Rosaria;

Martha's Rest - Oxford

Eastpool - Reading

Pheonix Gate - London

Rosalith - Cambridge

Port Isolde - Peterborough (ignoring that it's not on the coast)

Deadlands

Cid's Hideaway - Stratford-Upon-Avon

Clive's Hideaway - Birmingham

Sanbreque;

Lostwing - Tauton

Caer Norvent - Swansea

Northreach - Exeter

Oriflamme - Kingsbridge

Kingsfall - Salisbury

Dhalmekian Republic;

Kostnice - Leicester

Drake's Fang - Sheffield

Dhalamil - Derby

Dravozd - Wolverhampton

Tabor - Shrewsbury

Boklad - Lampeter

Ran'Dallah- Tregaron

Waloed;

Shadow Coast - Belfast

Eistla - Kinnegad

Edge of Infinity - Westport

Ravenwit Walls - Wenagh

Stonhyrr - Cork

Other;

Twinsides - Fishguard

Kanvar - Chester

Drake's Breath - Ipswich

Dzemekys - Aberystwyth

Going off of those locations, I was able to get the rough time/distance of certain trips (using google maps metrics in pure walking hours not how long it took them because of *variables*)

Routes;

Rosalith to Pheonix Gate: 86km, 20hrs

Hideaway to Pheonix Gate: 172km, 39hrs (to Martha's Rest: 67km, 15hrs; +Eastpool: 41km, 9hrs; then to Pheonix Gate: 64km, 15hrs)

Hideaway to Oriflamme: 295km, 68hrs (Hideaway to Lostwing: 184km, 43hrs. What shortcut Cid?? +Northreach: 48km, 11hrs; +Oriflamme: 63km, 14hrs)

Lostwing to Caer Norvent: 199km, 46hrs (Benedika and Co were at that fort for days, not hours. Also, how hard did Cid knock Clive out if it took more than a week to get back to the Hideaway after the Garuda Fight?)

Shadow Coast to Stonhyrr: 755km, 171hrs. (Shadow Coast to Eistla: 169km, 38hrs; +Edge of Infinity and back: 181km, 41hrs x2; +Stonhyrr: 224km, 51hrs) meaning crew were gone in Waleod for WEEKS.)

So, all in all a bit longer than in seems in game but still well within range given that they probably shaved off arbitrary travel days for narrative flow.

That being said, I love the potential of more "down time" moments. And it really shows just how often/long everyone would be gone from the Hideaway at any given moment.

It puts into perspective Gav's side quest, "You keep sending me wherever you need to, I'll keep going. Safe in the knowledge that I'll have a home to come back to." And how they all remark that they never seen each other, or how much their trips away together were really meaningful.

(Also kinda excuses the fact it took Clive and Jill 5 freaking years to get together. They were too busy walking everywhere!)

Is it possible to just pop down to Martha's for a quick supply run? Yes. But unless you're on a chocobo, you're camping out at Three Reeds then staying the night at the Inn before heading back. It's more of a 4-7 day trip rather than an afternoon and back.

Anyhow, I hope this all makes sense!

Now, time to go write about Clive/Cid camping overnight in the Greatwood together on Clive's first real night of freedom. 😭😭😭

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

So, I weirdly haven’t written enough about this on this blog so far, given what a big thing it is for me – I’m going to the fucking UK this summer. For real this time. For real. Here is a post about it.

I first posted on this blog about wanting to go to the UK in early 2021, I think. I remember making posts about how maybe once the vaccines were finally released, and I was all vaccinated, travel would be safe, and I could go for a little while before I start my college courses again. That didn’t happen for quite a few reasons.

I spent much of 2021 planning a hypothetical trip, knowing it probably couldn’t really happen, because obviously things like this don’t really happen, but I needed something to fantasize about in the depths of lockdown. It’s odd that a global pandemic made me interested in international travel for the first time. Pre-COVID, my life was so full of a single sport that I didn’t really have time to think about anything else as a hobby. I was on the road most weekends, but that road was the 401, driving off to the same few cities anywhere from two to twelve hours away, to sleep in a cheap hotel or on someone’s gym floor and then shout at teenagers at day and immediately drive home. Every once in a while we’d go to a tournament in the States, which counted as exciting international travel. The idea of actually seeing places that are not in or near the border with my country just hadn’t occurred to me.

Then the world ended, I fell deep into the Britcom rabbit hole, all that stuff. And in 2021, I got really into 1) memorizing how to label all the countries and major cities in the world, and all the counties or other regional areas in the UK and Ireland, on a blank map, because I’d learned that the larger world existed and I wanted to be clear about where it all is, and 2) going through places I’ve never been on Google Earth, usually while listening to audio comedy. I also took to looking up things to do in the UK on Trip Advisor, mapping the route on Google Maps and following it on Google Earth, knowing this was all for a hypothetical fantasy trip but still researching things like train fares and schedules because it was more fun if it felt like it could be real.

I’m fascinated by the idea of places that are Different From Here being actual real physical places where people could actually go. Which is especially weird in this case because I actually have been to the UK. I have a godmother there, whom I’ve met in person three times, twice when she’s come to Canada and once when for my sixteenth birthday she paid for my mother and I to go to England for a week. We stayed at her place in London, did all the tourist-y things, also spent a day in some spot in Somerset but I’m fuzzy on where or why, it was 2006. My clearest memory of the week is seeing Spamalot on St. Patrick’s Day and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. I’ve also got fairly clear memories of climbing stairs at St. Paul’s Cathedral, thinking Westminster Abbey was the most beautiful building I’d ever seen, and seeing some extremely cool stuff at the British Library including some original handwritten Beatles lyrics. And I remember the tube and being impressed that the cars really do have driver doors on the wrong side, that’s not just a thing they made up on Fawlty Towers.

Still, it was so long ago, and it was such a short time compared to the amount of time that I’ve spent watching Britian on TV, that it does feel a bit like Britain is a fictional place that exists on TV. Obviously I realize that’s a very ignorant North American thing for me to say, and in my defense I think I know a hell of a lot more about Britain than the average ignorant North American. I can label all the regions in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales in under five minutes. But I’ve got to admit, on a visceral level, learning all that stuff does feel a bit like memorizing lore in a fantasy novel.

There is kind of an appeal in the idea that… okay, the last time I was this obsessed with something besides a sport in which I actually participated, I was a kid in the Harry Potter fandom. I was a kid who read a lot of books, and a lot of my favourites happened to be British fantasy or sci-fi novels (Harry Potter, CS Lewis, Tolkein, His Dark Materials, Douglas Adams), but Harry Potter was the one that took over my life from the ages of about ten to fourteen. You classic situation of – didn’t have friends in real life, all my social interaction came from Harry Potter message boards, a vast chunk of my free time dedicated to reading every passage of the books over and over and over and analyzing them and writing things about them and I made some friends on the internet who loved Luna Lovegood as much as I did. Then I got to high school and started wrestling and made some friends in real life and slowly moved away from online fandom, didn’t do anything except that for fifteen years, then the world ended, I came back and found a new online fandom that was also British but had less magic and more panel shows, then the author turned out to be a terrible person and ruined my childhood.

Anyway. The point is that I remember when I was a kid, obviously I spent ages fantasizing about being able to actually go to all those places in Harry Potter. But I couldn’t, because those are not real places. Well, my new foray into fandom also feels a bit like that – like this fictional thing I’ve got obsessed with that no one around me knows anything about but some people on the internet are into it. Except that this time, the place where all these things happen is actually a real place, and I can pay money to go there. This concept remains amazing to me.

So I mapped out the idea of this trip a couple of years ago, and for a long time, it stayed in a limbo between fantasy and genuine possibility. I did actually start working out budgets and putting money aside for it, but all the while thinking this won’t actually work. I was starting to do things post-lockdown again, the sense that we were all locked down so nothing is real so I may as well engaged in some escapism and plan some fantasy trips – that started to give way to regular life, and in regular life, I’m not a person who does shit like that. I can’t just fly across the ocean to see a fictional place. I still had it vaguely in my head that maybe someday I’d like to, but I stopped actively planning anything.

But at the same time, the whole concept of Britain was starting to feel a bit less fictional (I’m… I’m feeling the need to clarify, again, that this is just a sort of emotional automatic response to put “the place where Britcom happens” in the “fictional” category in my brain… I did not at any point genuinely think the United Kingdom was fictional… especially since I’ve been there before). I do remember the first time I got physical, tangible proof that the people in the fictional Britcom world are real, when Russell Howard came to my city in March 2022 (my then-girlfriend got us tickets because she knew I liked British comedians, she was excited about it so I didn’t tell her that actually I’m mad at him for the Jordan Peterson apologism so don’t want to go, it’s not something I’d have chosen myself but it was a thoughtful gift and to be fair an extremely fun night), and I could not get over the idea that the man from the fictional place was here in real life displacing air like he’s a real human being and actually all of it is physically real. Over the next few months I did an 8.5-hour drive to New York City to see Nish Kumar, and then two months later a 2-hour drive to see him do the same show in Montreal, because it was that fucking great a show. I also saw James Acaster in Montreal, and a club night with Dara O’Briain and Fern Brady and Phil Wang and Tom Allen and Sindhu Vee and every single one of them was an actual real person breathing the same air as me. Before the show I saw Dara O’Briain on the street and was so shocked that I hit my mother too hard to show her and she jumped and the commotion attracted his attention and I didn’t know what to do except stare at him like he was a zoo animal until he smiled awkwardly at me and went on his way.

Things like this did rather renew my interest in a trip, not just for the novelty of seeing a place that feels fictional, but for the more practical purposes of seeing my favourite comedians live. My interests within Britcom were starting to shift significantly toward stand-up, I got obsessed for a while with learning everything about the history of the Edinburgh Festival in the 21st Century, it seemed like another world, the time of the Chocolate Milk Gang and 24-hour shows from the early 00s, but then I watched videos on the internet that were filmed at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival and realized this place is actually real and still happening now and it is technically possible to go there.

After that, the concept rapidly became de-fictionalized in my mind when I sent someone a message on a comedy forum, in the hopes of finding a few comedy recordings that I heard existed, and by complete coincidence stumbled upon the best person I possibly could have. I’d thought worst case scenario is he doesn’t reply and I will be left to assume he saw my message and considered it horribly rude, great scenario is he has a few things I’m asking for, amazing best case scenario is maybe he has lots of stuff and is willing to share. As it happened, I got the best case scenario, plus far more than that. Specifically, a the coolest fucking person I could possibly have found, as a new friend, direct interaction that made all of this seem a hell of a lot less fictional very, very fast. He said things like “So are you ever going to come out here and actually see this stuff yourself”, and I said things like “Obviously I have plotted a route and looked up train fares but don’t be silly, that was just the stuff of lockdown-induced dreams.”

I quickly started planning things more seriously, but at the same time, the editing work I’d been doing started drying up, I had a bit of a financial crisis where I became concerned that I’d be unable to pay rent, and couldn’t save for a trip. I followed the 2023 Edinburgh Festival from afar, from NextUp streams and hearing stories about it from a friend who actually went there and sent me pictures, which was so fucking cool, and it was all so very very real.

I got a new job, this one much harder because it involves leaving the house all day for five days a week, but also it’s much more stable than the editing work I did for all of lockdowns, and I was able to start saving money in the second half of 2023. I learned that the place where I work shuts down for the last week of July, and the Monday of the following week is a holiday. So I put in a request for just four days off, the Tuesday-Friday, to create a two-week holiday. One week in London at the end of July, and one week in Edinburgh during the first week of the Edinburgh Festival.

The time off got approved (barely, I was told I can’t book any other vacation time in 2024, but I got it) in late 2023, and it was so exciting, and that’s the first time it started to feel even a little bit real. Then I booked an Air B&B for the week in Edinburgh, because it’s my understanding that accommodation availability and prices are a huge issue there and you want to book early. I think I did well, though. Found a place that’s not cheap but not unfeasibly expensive, I can have my own room and it’s a 50-minute walk or 10-minute bus from Edinburgh city centre. It was so exciting to book the place, put some money down, finally have something on the books for sure. Though I did triple check that it’s fully refundable if I cancel up until pretty much the day before, just in case something goes wrong.

I booked the flights over Christmas. They weren’t cheap, but I was able to afford them without destroying my ability to pay rent, because it turns out there is a reason why I put myself through human interaction for 8-10 hours five days a week. I did pay an extra fee to give myself the ability to pay another fee and cancel them, because still, it felt like I can’t be totally sure this will actually work. But that was a big commitment.

And that’s pretty well the main things sorted out. I still have to book a whole lot of train tickets, but I have the flights. I have the time off work. I have the Edinburgh accommodation. I have accommodation in London, because the absolute coolest person I could possibly come across on a comedy message board has a spare room, and is extremely kind and generous with his time and space, and I’ve said some pretty disparaging things about that message board before (based on some quite bad threads from like fifteen years ago, that I spent weeks reading in their entirety because, you know, autism), and I would like to take them all back.

Now they’ve announced the first bunch of acts at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival, and I’ve been going through picking out which ones look most interesting to me, and for maybe the first time, it’s finally feeling completely, entirely real. This is happening. For real this time. I am going through an Edinburgh Festival catalogue not just to take screenshots of the most interesting blurbs so I can save them in a folder and/or post them on my blog to say here’s an interesting piece of history. I am going through it to pick what shows I wish to see.

So here’s my plan, that I’m writing because I now feel confident that I think it’s actually going to happen. Obviously I have a spreadsheet with various tabs, and a KMZ file so I can open Google Earth with all the places I might potentially want to see already marked. I have been planning this trip for years. I have two weeks in the UK, and I don’t want to waste a single second. I want to make sure all that time spent planning comes to something, because as a fundamental part of my personality, I have always believed that there is a level of planning you can do to guarantee that everything goes right. This belief has been proven wrong time and time again, but I’ve never tried something with this much planning beforehand, so surely this time it’ll work. No taking a chance on some tourist attraction that might turn out to be shit, because I’ll have looked at it all on Google Earth beforehand and ranked things in order of how cool they look.

I have organized my spreadsheet into seven tabs: overview, plan by day, places to eat, things to see London, in Edinburgh, in Cambridge, and things to pack. I have organized each “things to see” tab into three sections: things I want to see for reasons related to general tourism, things I want to see for reasons related to comedy, and things I want to see for reasons related to Harry Potter. I apologize for the latter, and obviously I will not be doing anything that would give revenue to JK Rowling. But nothing JK Rowling can say in the 2020s will change my childhood, and I need to spend some amount of time indulging my childhood dreams of running around fancy buildings feeling like I’m in a magical British land.

London, tourism: pretty straightforward. Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral are on the list, because I remember how cool they were last time, and because for some reason when I stopped being Christian at age 16 I did not also get rid of my awe at fancy churches. I want to see Parliament and related areas, I want to try to get a picture of the Number 10 door as seen in Yes Minister. I want to see some bridges. Take a cable car across a river. Go look at Douglas Adams in Highgate Cemetery (I realize there are more famous people than Douglas Adams there, I’d like to see them too, but mainly Douglas Adams). Go see what The British Library has going on while I’m there. There are too many pubs on the list given the fact that I’m currently trying to stop drinking, I am going to cut some of those pubs off the list and I’m just trying to decide which ones, but I really love a good pub and the ones in London look so cool and even if I can’t have a pint I want to sit there in the atmosphere and have a burger or some shit.

Harry Potter tour of London is simple. Obviously I want to go look at King’s Cross Station, I did it when I was 16 and it was so fucking cool, I don’t care how stupid that is. Otherwise, I’ve looked up three different areas that were used in filming Diagon Alley, and according to Google Earth, seem like the do sort of look like Diagon Alley-like places. That’s what’s interesting to me. I’m not really interested in places where the movies just happened to be filmed (the movies were fine, I’ve seen them a couple of times each, but it was the books that I read until I had them nearly memorized), I want to see places that look like they could be where the books were actually set. And Goodwin’s Court appears to look like where Harry Potter could have actually been set. So I’ve made an appointment to go walk down a road.

For the comedy-related locations in London, there are a few venues I want to see. Ideally while something’s playing in them, but even if there’s nothing I’m interested in at the Soho Theatre while I’m there, I’d still want to go in and just see the building, after the all the shows I’ve seen and heard that were recorded there. Same with The Bill Murray. Battersea Arts Centre. I also wish to make a pilgrimage to the bit of Regent’s Park where Daniel Kitson’s done some of the most landmark nights of comedy in the last twenty years. Obviously I want to go stand outside the gates to the Taskmaster house and see just how close it is to that golf course. (There will also be a few hours of the itinerary where I might just leave some of the details blank, no need to get too much into what I want to see there, it’s in my spreadsheet as just “Crystal Palace”, and I will say that if you don’t want people to go look at a place where you used to live, don’t make your address the title of your theatre show – I need to stress again, just so we’re clear about what level of creepiness I’m talking about here, it is a former address, not anywhere that anyone significant lives now or has lived for the last fifteen years, it's just the subject of comedy stories that are now long in the past, as are various surrounding landmarks, it’s archaeology.)

Now, in Edinburgh I’ve put a lot fewer things on the itinerary, because I want to leave most of my time for going to see comedy shows. And going to see a couple of music shows, because that first wave of events they’ve announced includes a couple of traditional Scottish music things that I am so excited about, it’s going to be mostly comedy but I do want to do that as well. Celtic music, Harry Potter, British comedy – all the biggest special interests of my life besides the one where you beat people up, all easy to access at this festival (I mean, technically Edinburgh has something called wrestling too, but it’s best if I don’t hear anyone try to compare the Max + Ivan wrestling to the sport that I do).

I do want to climb Arthur’s Seat, because I’ve done it about a hundred times in Google Earth so I just have to do it in real life. When Mark Watson released his book last year, I got the signed and dedicated version and he said we can tell him about a problem we have for him to solve in the dedication. I said my problem is I’m going to London and Edinburgh next year and need advice on where to go, he said I should climb Scott’s Monument. Even though my levels of respect for Mark Watson have dropped significantly since that book actually came out, I am still going to climb Scott’s Monument because Mark Watson told me to.

Similarly, this extremely kind and cool person I know recently got the chance to get me an autographed copy of Tim Key’s new book (which I unfortunately won’t get until I go to London and pick it up in person, but it looks great), where he also asked Tim to give me some advice for my trip. Tim Key said to go to Mosque Kitchen, and Indian restaurant in Edinburgh, so I’m doing that. Oh, and while I’m in London I have to go to a place called Kebab Kid, because it’s Nish Kumar’s favourite shawarma place in England, which I know because I know a guy who could just walk up to Nish Kumar after one of his gigs and ask him what his favourite shawarma place is. Have I mentioned how fucking cool this is?

Anyway. That’s the extent of my interest in Edinburgh tourism, mainly. I mean, if I were going when the festival weren’t on, there would be plenty of other stuff I want to see. But I don’t want to take time away from festival events. I might do the castle. The castle’s probably cool. I definitely want to walk up that hill, as I’ve done many times on Google Earth, and look at the castle. Whether I pay to go inside will depend if there’s a hole in the comedy schedule, I guess.

In the Edinburgh – Harry Potter section, I have a few things. Greyfriar’s Kirkyard, the graveyard with the story about the dog that’s probably bullshit (I mean, it happened, but I think someone was just feeding that dog) but the story about how it inspired Harry Potter character names that’s true. Go get a picture of Tom Riddle’s grave. I’ve marked a couple of streets and a couple of buildings that look particularly like they could be from Harry Potter, those are on the list of places to walk. There’s a Harry Potter store that I want to go in and look through the stuff because the interior seems really cool, but I promise I would never spend money in there.

And then Edinburgh – comedy will probably take care of itself. I want to see The Stand and The Gilded Balloon, as the sites of many of my favourite comedy events over the last twenty years. But I’m hoping I’ll end up in those places anyway to see shows, so no need to make a special trip. If not, though, I’m making a special trip. I have to see the stage where the cow got torn apart. I absolutely have to go see it in person.

There is also the Cambridge tab, because I have blocked off one of my London days to take a train to Cambridge and back. I have made a Google Earth document with about 20 of the most interesting-seeming colleges marked. Obviously I’m not going to see 20 colleges, I’m going to look at them all in Google Earth and then rank them by how cool they look and go see as many as I can in order. I have also, of course, marked down which ones let you take tours and at what times. The place I’m most excited to see is the Wren Library, which appears to be a library from Harry Potter or His Dark Materials or something. I want to see Trinity College because it’s the college on which Douglas Adams based the college in the first Dirk Gently book. A few of the colleges have chapels that look really pretty and are interesting to me because I have for some reason not lost my awe of pretty churches. And mainly, I just want to walk around the Cambridge University grounds looking at stuff.

Oh, and we’re leaving another day to take a train to Kent, where they have an archive of stand-up comedy materials that I wish to see. But I haven’t made a tab for that, because I just want to see some stuff in the University of Kent and then go back to London.

I am also hoping I can block out one day from the Edinburgh week to not book any shows, and just take trains around Scotland. I have always wanted to take trains around Scotland. I have always romanticized trains, I have always romanticized Scotland, taking a train through rural parts of Scotland will make me feel like I’m on the Hogwarts Express, it’s everything my over-romanticizing heart fantasized about when imagining this trip. I’ve checked, and while it would be an incredibly long day, it is possible to take a train from Edinburgh to Mallaig in the morning, have a couple of hours in Mallaig, and take another train back at night. This would take me, twice, through something that’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world, from Glasgow to Mallaig. Mallaig is a tiny village on the West Coast of Scotland and it’s got a hiking trail and a pub and I just want to take a train across a country and walk around the trail and then sit in that pub and look at the ocean. I want that so badly. It’s been a rough couple of months, I find it hard to spend 8 to 10 hours a day interacting with other people, the thought that one day in early August I might spend one hour sitting in a pub in Mallaig looking at the ocean is really getting me the through the day at this point. There are a few pubs in Mallaig, but obviously I’ve picked out my favourite. I want to eat seafood. I love seafood. That’s not just a Mallaig thing, seafood is my favourite food and I always eat lots of it when I visit the East Coast of Canada because it’s better near the ocean. All of Britain is near the ocean, so I want to eat all their seafood.

Okay, that’s the plan. I was going to write about what I’m thinking in terms of actual shows to see, but I might let that turn into a different post. Right now, I’m just excited about the idea of posting this on the internet because it is real and I am actually going to do it and having this to look forward to is way too big a proportion of my motivation at this point in my life.

[ghostofbambifanfiction]

Hi thanks for these beautiful stress inducing chapters and spoilers! I'm so sorry to hear about the insomnia and not feeling well; hope you feel better soon <3

Trying to combat my hopelessly American geography ignorance here -- thanks to google maps and your gif clues I just learned a LOT about places you can travel to from London without flying lol. I *think* the guess I've been harboring about Lily's trip abroad is right! But, just to be super thorough -- can I ask what would be considered "abroad" from a British perspective? I'm afraid I have a shaky understanding of whether parts of the UK are technically their own countries, and if they would count as abroad or not?

Anywhere outside of the U.K. would be considered "abroad" whereas Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland would not be even though they are their own countries (and in many cases the Republic of Ireland, even though it's not part of the U.K. at all, would also not be considered abroad)

[deanaferal]

tickets for london/scotland/ireland are booked! I will probably be on my own for a portion of the trip bc my friend is getting her groove back with a man in each country and I am just tagging along to look at buildings and moss and cows :)

[shittycampari]

Weird question but I need to know, what are Campari and Cognac’s favourite and/or worst British city they visited or been to?

Campari

I imagine he is well posh so Campari would refuse to go anywhere that wasn't the South of the UK (the south is well posh so its his comfort zone). He would probably have a strong disliking for any city in the north (so places like Hull, Manchester or Liverpool), but his favourite city might either be the City of London (not to be confused Greater London- he doesn't like the suburbs of London) or Oxford cuz when i went there for a school trip once, i noticed everyone was some sort of posho intellect (and ofc you got one of the most prestigious universities in the UK there)

Cognac

I dont think Cognac is as posh as Camp, I reckon Cog would be a midlander, he aint posh but he isn't that chill to end up in the north. I don't think he would like the south because i don't think he's a fan of the uptight aristocrats (so no oxford for him lol). i reckon he's a bit of a geezer so i think he would like Birmingham, it might remind him of the chaotic universe 4 he looks after, you got nice bits and shit bits in Brum, it really is the best of both worlds. but i reckon he wouldnt mind a visit to the North

TL;DR- Campari would like Oxford and/or City of London but wouldn't like anywhere outside the south and Cognac would like Birmingham and dislike anywhere Campari would like

Edit- realised i didn't take Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland into consideration, but each place probably has 1 or possibly 2 notable cities rip)

[house-of-galathynius]

The Long Road Home

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Thirteen - Chapter Fifteen

Word Count: 2.3k 

~ 

London, England. April 2022: Two Hundred and Forty One Years Later

Spring in London was her favourite time. It always had been— although it was starkly different now than it had been when she had lived in the city over two hundred years ago. Although the trees still lined the streets and the parks were just as lovely as before, much had changed. The streets she had wandered all those years ago were now covered with concrete, towering skyscrapers were sat where wooden stalls of the market had been. There were still some familiar places that transported her back, like the the domed roof of St. Pauls Cathedral, the Tower of London and even some of the taverns that she had frequented as Arobynn’s wife. She’d searched for the place her parents had owned, but had been disappointed to find it demolished.

She had wanted to come back to London for some time. Her urge grew stronger after each loss of Rowan… but she had never been able to make the trip. But this time she had felt compelled more than ever. Despite the compulsion to return, she had still felt like she needed to build up her eventual return. A hundred years ago she might have been able to spend two or three weeks on a boat sailing here— enough time to prepare her for coming back to her home. But today, a plane journey was so quick that it would not give her ample time to prepare. So she had eased herself back.

After leaving Madrid she had gone to Ireland. Then after a few years or travelling through there, she had hopped on a plane to Scotland and finally explored the highlands, living in cabins and inns— meeting the greatest people. Scotland had been wonderful, but she felt unsettled, so she made the final push into England. She stayed in York for a while, but when she grew restless— so close to being home, yet so far— she had gone to Brighton.

If she thought London had changed, Brighton was a completely different city. It was dirtier and so much busier than when she had been there with Rowan. But it was a good thing. She liked that there was little familiarity there. She could walk around without being constantly reminded of him— of them. The sour taste that she had been left with as she was dragged away from the city, away from him.

Her eventual decision to return to London had been more of an impulse thing. She had thought about getting a train to Cornwall to see if she could find any remnants of Elena— honestly she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought about going back there before. Then she had been tempted to find where Rowan had grown up before his parents had died… but none of it seemed to feel right.

Then, when she was least expecting it, she received an email from one of the estate agents informing her that they needed to discuss some things about the property she owned. Aelin wasn’t sure what property that was. All her money— the little that she did have left— was secure in various banks. She had no idea how they had found her email, but she supposed Elena had been hard at work again. Either way, it had spurred her to pack her things and return.

The city was blooming all over, not just the trees and the flowers, but the people too. Every corner there were crowds chatting and laughing, drinking pints of beer and enjoying the warmth of the spring sunshine.

It was still her city, the city she had loved and hated and cried in.

The tube was busy when she finally entered onto the platform. She wasn’t sure where she was going… or maybe she did. She moved with the flow of the people and into the carriage, grabbing hold of the yellow rail and nervously watching the world go past.

“The next station is Turnham Green. Change for the District Line to Ealing Broadway.”

Exiting the tube she followed the small hoard of people to the exit and then she turned left and found herself on the busier high street. Buses roared past her, cars honking their horns at people running across the road. People walking their dogs smiled at each other before having to yank their pet away to continue. This wasn’t new to Aelin, she had seen this in every city, but it felt different in London.

She thought about the flat that had been sitting here for her. Rent being paid into an account in her name for years and years. She had acted knowledgeable the entire meeting, as if she was completely aware of the fact that she had six hundred thousand pounds sitting in a bank account, building interest over the last fifty or so years.

The flat itself was only down the road in Richmond. A small one bedroom place with a Juliet balcony from the kitchen and a little terrace off the living room in the back. It was nicely decorated, as if someone had been keeping it modern and looked after until she finally decided to come back. Aelin had been given a set of keys by the estate agents and then she had informed them she would be living there now. Although she was still staying in the rental place she had got, partly afraid of what she might find when she went to the flat in Richmond.

Aelin spotted a cafe across the road and made her way towards it. There was a table outside, enough room for five people, but it was the only one available. So she grabbed it quickly, getting comfortable whilst she looked through the menu. Moments later a waiter had appeared and she was ordering a slice of cake and a coffee.

For a while she just observed. The children giggling, swinging their school bags around. Teenagers strolling along holding hands, elderly people pulling shopping trolleys behind them. She loved the diversity of the city now. People from all walks of life just… living.

She heard him before she saw him.

Aelin didn’t move her head, she didn’t glance over even though she wanted nothing more than to do so. Distracting herself for a moment she brought the fork to her mouth and chewed and swallowed a bite of the cake.

“… I’m sorry, but we don’t have any tables free at the moment.”

Aelin finally looked.

He was wearing dark jeans and a dark green shirt that was unbuttoned, a white t-shirt stretched across his muscular chest underneath. He had a thick silver ring on the thumb of his right hand and a leather watch on the same wrist. His clothes were the only thing that ever changed, but his face would remain the same throughout time.

“Is there a chance you can move the tables? Or I can move them if you want.” Rowan said kindly.

Aelin watched him intently. She noticed the twitch of his jaw as he stood there waiting, the length of his eyelashes as he blinked. Those small things had faded from her memory. Things that sometimes she had never been able to relearn about him.

“I’m really sorry, but if you come back in half an hour I can make sure there’s something for you here.” The waiter said again.

No, don’t leave. Aelin thought. She was still watching him, and like he could hear her thoughts his own gaze found hers. It was only a second, but it was enough.

Aelin got up from her chair and waved to the waiter. “I’ve got enough room for more people here… you can move my table or,” she looked at Rowan, “or you can just join me. I’ll be going soon.” She pointed to the table she had just been at, “you can say no. But I thought I’d offer.” She smiled.

The waiter seemed to relax a fraction. Rowan thought for a second then nodded. “That’s kind of you, thanks.” His accent was almost identical to what it had been when she had first met him. The subtle northern lilt mixed in with a hint of southern English. She could remember making fun of him for the way he said things, giggling as he would repeat the words over, making a point to say them in a more stupid way each time.

She led them to the table, moving her things across making some space for him. She hadn’t been lying about leaving soon. She hadn’t really decided what she was going to do this time. After Madrid, she had told herself that enough was enough. But there was something nagging at her, a tug of a thread that was telling to just wait a little longer.

“… filter coffee.” She turned to Rowan who had finished ordering. She was a little unsure whether to strike up conversation. She was intrigued to see what name he’d have in this life— what he did, who his friends were. She would be lying if she wasn’t a little hopeful about the fact she had met him again in London, where they’d met the first time. That his voice was the same as before too. But she knew not to let that hope seep into her too much. Fate had a funny way of taking those pieces of happiness from her.

“Thanks again for letting me sit here. I could’ve gone down the road to somewhere else, but they have the best cinnamon rolls here.” As he spoke the waiter placed his pastry down in front of him and then the coffee before leaving. Rowan grinned down at the food and then to Aelin, “I mean look at how good this looks.”

Aelin laughed lightly. “It does look good.”

Rowan cut off a piece and carefully placed it on her now empty plate. “Try some.”

She widened her eyes and shook her head. “It’s yours. I’ve already had mine.”

He rolled his eyes playfully and took a bite of what was on his plate, groaning in an exaggerated way as he chewed the pastry and swallowed. “So good.” He mumbled, mouth still half full.

Aelin laughed then, finally taking a bite and nodding her agreement as she chewed. Putting her hand up to her mouth to cover her eating. Rowan watched her with a kind of curiosity, the look gone in an instant, returning to a neutral smile.

“Sorry, I’m told I can be a little forward at times. Feel free to ignore me from now on.” He chuckled.

Aelin never wanted to ignore him. She could listen to him talk for hours, even if it was just about how good food was. She would listen to him read out his shopping list or recite equations. If it meant she could listen to his voice.

She wanted to ask him. Aelin wanted to know his name. But she was terrified that it was going to be the same as before. It was harder and harder every time to let him go, to know that she could love him for a while but never long enough. She didn’t want to think about how in a blink of an eye he could be gone and she would have to continue on like she was fine.

But there was something about this time.

Something… different.

“Do you come here often?” Rowan asked eventually.

“It’s my first time, actually.” She rolled up the sleeves on her top and leant on the table, “I’ve just moved back to London, so I’m trying to find the best spots again.”

“Do you live locally?” He asked.

“Richmond. Not far really, but I used to live in Chiswick when I was younger.”

Rowan pondered for a second. “That can’t have been too long ago…?” His question trailing off, but she knew what he was implying.

“It was a while ago. At least long enough that I’ve forgotten a lot.” She didn’t know what to tell him. Her fake passport and drivers license said she was twenty-two. But she still looked like a nineteen year old— even with some make-up and nice clothes.

“Where did you go whilst you were away?” More digging.

She shrugged. “I’ve studied, travelled, worked a little.”

He relaxed a little and smiled again. “Did you study anything interesting?”

Well… she’d studied medicine, law, psychology, literature. And the rest. Although, she couldn’t exactly tell him she had studied half these things, if not because there was no possible way she could have had the time, but because she was technically twenty-two and medicine would have kept her at university until at least twenty-five.

“I graduated with a degree in psychology.” Close enough.

Rowan’s brow rose, impressed. “Do you think you’ll specialise in anything?”

She’d thought about it of course. Going to do a masters, but she changed her mind— like always. “I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll go back and getting a teaching degree or do a conversion. Who knows. I’m young, I’ve got plenty of time to figure it out.” Not a lie. “What about you?”

“I finished my masters a year ago in cyber security. I moved to London to start a new job at a bank.”

Aelin scrunched her face, “at a bank?” That isn’t very you.

He stilled and looked at her confused. Like he had heard her again. But he shook it off and nodded. “Making sure their systems are secure and whatever. Not very glamorous but I enjoy it.” He laughed and sipped his coffee before placing it down. “I never got your name.”

Aelin swallowed. She couldn’t leave now. If she got up and left now she could feel in her bones that it wouldn’t happen again. That this was the moment, the opportunity.

“Aelin.” She replied eventually.

She swore she saw recognition flash across his face, but it was gone in a second. Her heart was beating faster as she waited for him to reveal his name in this life of his. She prayed it was something nice.

And then he said the words she had been dreaming of for hundreds of years. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Aelin. I’m Rowan.”

~

Tag List: 

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[princesscatherinemiddleton]

Princess of Wales - 2022 Statistics (FULL YEAR)

In 2022, the new Princess of Wales completed (by my count) 168 engagements, around 53 more than the amount of engagements she completed by my count in 2021 and 39 more than 2020. As well as this, she was sighted (or appeared) 16 times and appeared in a whopping 26 official (or unofficial and leaked!) photographs.

She gained four new patronages throughout the year and finished with 25 patronages. Of her 168 engagements, 67 were related to one of her patronages, averaging at one patronage visit every 0.39 engagements. Her most visited patronage was, of course, the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales (formerly, the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge), with 46 visits. This was followed by the Lawn Tennis Association and the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (with 3 visits). She performed no engagements on behalf of The Air Cadet Organisation, the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, Evelina London Children’s Hospital (she unofficially visited the hospital during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations), Family Action (she supported them in an article in Good Housekeeping), the Forward Trust, the National Portrait Gallery (her birthday portraits were released in conjunction with the NPG), the Natural History Museum, Place2Be, the Royal Photographic Society, the Scouts, or the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Of her engagements, 64 have been solo and 73 accompanied by her husband, the Prince of Wales. Five were also with either Prince George or Princess Charlotte, five with a range of foreign royals (including the two in Denmark), as well as 20 with either the whole or most of the working British Royal Family (note: some of the events with foreign royals also included a lot of members of the British Royal Family), and one with one other solo royal (the Princess Royal).

105 of her engagements physically took place in England, with all bar 48 physically occuring in the United Kingdom (with none in the Republic of Ireland). Of the 105 engagements which took place in England, 70 occured in London. Catherine's engagements also took her to 19 other areas of the UK. Only 7 were online or via telephone. Catherine also performed engagements in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Catherine also undertook a working trip to Denmark, a tour of the Caribbean (which saw her visit Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas), and an official visit to Boston in the USA.

During the year, she performed engagements on a variety of themes. 32 of those engagements were predominantly related to her Early Years initiative, while 15 were linked to culture and 13 linked to sports. Due to the return of overseas trips, State Visits, and the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II, 35 engagements were diplomatic in nature. 10 engagements were on the theme of mental health, while she also completed 9 engagements linked to children and young people, 7 linked to the military, 5 linked to Covid-19, 3 linked to the outdoors, and 1 which was specifically linked to the Commonwealth. Catherine also completed 38 engagements which could not otherwise be categorised.

Clotheswise, her most worn designer has been Alexander McQueen, with 25 outfits, followed by 10 outfits from Catherine Walker, while 18 items of clothing were unidentified. Her most carried bag designer was Mulberry (12), followed by Emmy London with 9, and 5 which were unidentifed. Mulberry has been her most carried bag designer in every year apart from 2020. Her most worn shoe designer returned to being Gianvito Rossi (with 37 wears), followed by 11 pairs from Emmy London, and 6 from both Rupert Sanderson and Jimmy Choo. Gianvito Rossi was her most worn shoe designer in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Despite Kiki McDonough creeping back into her earring rotation (with 18 wears), Catherine predominantly wore pieces inherited from either Diana (20) or the Queen (19). Aside from them, she also wore Annoushka jewellery 11 times. When it comes to accessories, she continued to wear face masks from Amaia Kids (5 times), although the return of hats meant her top accessories designer was Philip Treacy. She also wore 8 unidentified pieces. According to my (100% wrong) calculations - created from my own criteria (where items are counted each time she wears them), she wore £109,654.98 worth of new clothes this year and £271,423.79  worth of clothes in total.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Moody the Evangelist

In 1856. Dwight Lyman (D. L.) Moody moved from Boston to Chicago for a better job after he had become a Christian in his uncle's shoe store. Within three years Moody felt called to move full-time into ministry, working with the YMCA and helping with evangelistic and social ministries in Chicago. Burdened for the poor youth, Moody established a mission Sunday school in the slums of Chicago. In six years it grew into a church, with Moody as the pastor and is now the famous Moody Church.

But things changed 1871. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow (allegedly) knocked over a lamp in her barn setting off the Great Chicago Fire that destroyed a third of Chicago including Moody’s home, his church and the YMCA. This was the beginning of a new direction for Moody.  While in New York raising money to rebuild his church and the YMCA, “a presence and power” came over him. He felt called by God to redirect his ministry solely to evangelism.

Moody asked vocalist Ira Sankey to join him on an invitation to go to England. They were part of a great revival that was sweeping across the United Kingdom. Moody and Sankey spent two years holding campaigns throughout England, Scotland and Ireland.

Dwight had admired the famous preacher Charles H. Spurgeon and was eager to visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. They became good friends. Spurgeon poked fun at Moody’s American accent by saying Moody is “the only man who could say ‘Mesopotamia’ in two syllables.” Spurgeon later invited Moody to preach at the Tabernacle in celebration of Spurgeon’s fiftieth birthday.  Like Whitefield and Wesley, they were great friends even though they had theological and methodological differences. Moody said after hearing Spurgeon speak, he came back to America “a better man.” Spurgeon said of Moody, “He is a king of men; commanding and finding everybody eager to obey; and all the while utterly lost in his work, and as devoid of self-importance as a new-born babe.”  When Spurgeon passed away, Spurgeon’s wife sent to Dwight her husband’s Bible and a complete set of his sermons.

After the successful evangelistic campaigns in the United Kingdom, Moody and Sankey were internationally famous. Many calls came in for Crusades. They toured cities in the American Midwest and Atlantic coasts when they came back to the US, regularly speaking to crowds of 10,000-20,000. In another trip to England, seven Cambridge University students, led by popular cricket star CT Studd, pledged to go to China with Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission. These men influenced university students in England and the United States to consider world missions.

Moody’s compassion toward the poor, particularly kids, never waned. He opened the Northfield Seminary for Girls and the Mount Herman School for Boys both for educating poor and minorities. He also founded the Chicago Evangelization Society (now called the Moody Bible Institute). He started the initial meetings that later became the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, which led to over 20,000 missionaries sent throughout the world over the next few decades.

“There is nothing novel in the doctrine Mr. Moody proclaims,” said one English Presbyterian minister. “It is the old Gospel — old, and yet always fresh and young, as the living fountain or the morning sun — in which the substitution of Christ is placed in the center and presented with admirable distinctness and decision. It is spoken with most impressive directness, not as by a man half convinced and who seems always to feel that a skeptic is looking over his shoulder, but with a certainty of the truth of what he says, as if, like our own Andrew Fuller, ‘he could venture his eternity on it’; as if he felt that ‘if he did not speak the very stones would cry out.’”

[surprisebitch]

maybe i should plan a trip to the uk either this year or next. i do miss london and i havent been to other parts of the uk like i could visit manchester or go to scotland again. maybe even visit ireland. there are still parts of the uk i havent been to. and i can do this solo. i feel like london is my domain. last time i went there was before covid and i spent two weeks there and it was so fun and i just felt like at home. sigh if only brexit didnt happen. but at the same time, i cant imagine what my life would be like if i stayed. i wish i could know

[aringofsalt]

rules: tag 10 people you want to get to know better (or more if you want. I’m not the boss of you)

tagged by @scarcrossdlvrs thank you!!!

relationship status: dating one partner for ~4 years and the other for about 8 months! also occasional casual dates

favorite colors: yellow 💛 it's happy and reminds me of my bestie

song stuck in my head: disloyal order of water buffaloes by fall out boy. no i have no idea why but BOYCOTT LOOOOOVE

last song i listened to: like real people do by hozier

3 favorite foods:

sushi

nachos

mac and cheese

last thing I googled: "veins in the throat" ....okay listen it had relevance in a thing i was writing lmao

dream trip: i really want to go back to the uk and am lowkey planning a trip for august to surprise my bestie!! i have gone once before but this time i would love to also see scotland, ireland, and wales, last time i stuck to london and liverpool.

anything I want right now: some sushi now that i mentioned it up there lmao

no pressure tags: @gayngerthings @spacebarrette @babygirlharrington @graveyardlilies @cxwzkeys and anyone else who's into it!

[l-adynesta]

tagged by my bestie @milfcoded love u vi 🫶

favorite color

dark ish turquoise but I love all darker shades of jewel tones!! ruby red, emerald green, amethyst purple, etc… I know turquoise isn’t exactly a jewel tone but y’all get the vision. or is it? idk

3 favorite foods

potato soup, potato casserole, hash browns. cue dolly voice “I never met a spud I didn’t like”

last thing googled

“best skincare routine for people with oily skin” bc I have oily ass skin and don’t do anything to help it but I just bought a whole bunch of stuff so hopefully it works and I stick to it lol

dream trip

literally everywhere!!! I’m already going to London, Paris, and Rome in about a month but I want to visit Scotland and Ireland (where my dad is from) and the Czech Republic (where my mom is from) and Germany and Greece and Peru and Costa Rica and Hawaii AND EVERYWHERE. not to be cheesy but I literally was not made to sit and stay in one place.

no pressure tags!! @aemondtragaryen @rhaenyratargayen @rhaenryas @littledemondani & whoever else wants to!