#and I didn’t want to have two Winter Kings in a row on my blog because.. no.

[theoddholloway]

Oh @cosmosoddyssey !!

I have a I’ll something for you…

I’m sorry… 😵

[snowdice]

Little Kestrel (Part 53) [Birds of Different Feathers Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan & Patton & Virgil (future Virgil/Patton but not in this story)

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton, Virgil

Appear: Thomas

Mentioned: Janus

Summary:

It was supposed to be a quick job either way. Either Virgil would assassinate King Thomas of Prijaznia or he’d be caught and get executed. Yet, when Virgil gets the wrong bedroom and gets caught by Prince Logan and his future royal advisor, Patton, the job ends up getting way more complicated for the 14-year-old. He also ends up sleeping in a (actually pretty comfortable) closet for a few weeks…

Notes: Implied/referenced child abuse, assassination attempt, knives, torture mentioned, captivity, teenagers being really dumb, sexual coercion of minors implied, a minor offering sexual favors

This is a prequel to Kill Dear. I wrote it 100 words at a time on my blog, but this is the edited version. If you want to see how it was crafted (and possibly some future content), look at the tag proofread stories.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29 Part 30 Part 31 Part 32 Part 33 Part 34 Part 35 Part 36 Part 37 Part 38 Part 39 Part 40 Part 41 Part 42 Part 43 Part 44 Part 45 Part 46 Part 47 Part 48 Part 49 Part 50 Part 51 Part 52

Virgil and Mr. Deknis took their time planting the orchids. Virgil had done everything Mr. Deknis had instructed him to do with the plot of land prior to planting. He’d had Mr. Deknis write it all down, so Logan could read him the instructions each morning, and had dutifully followed each step. The sheet of paper was in Virgil’s pocket even now. He knew the words so well at this point that he could have recited each list item even if it had words he still couldn’t read.

It had been hard work getting the soil just right for the flowers he wanted to plant, but it was fun hard work. Working hard was different when he didn’t have to do something but wanted to do something. He’d also noticed it was easier to do physical labor when he wasn’t hungry, something he hadn’t been all winter in the castle.

He’d thought since he hadn’t been training as much as usual over the winter months that he’d be weaker when Spring came, but he actually felt stronger and had much more energy.

He’d also grown taller without realizing it thanks to Logan’s nutrition potion. He’d noticed when he’d been in the shed earlier. When he’d first hid in the shed upon arriving at the castle the previous fall, he’d been able to walk under all of the hanging tools in the back. Today, he’d hit his head on some of the them.

His body had changed a lot in the past few months. It made planting with Mr. Deknis much easier.

Virgil had already helped Mr. Deknis with planting some vegetables this Spring, but he still was careful to pay attention as the gardener showed him how to plant the first few orchid bulbs.

Then, Virgil was handed the container of bulbs for himself to try planting. Mr. Deknis watched him plant the first few orchids and Virgil glanced up for approval before moving on each time. He always got a nod and small smile.

Eventually, Mr. Deknis took a few bulbs himself to the opposite end of the patch of soil and started planting some himself, trusting Virgil to plant his portion of the flowers right without supervision. Virgil couldn’t help but be happy about the show of trust given to him.

“Good job,” Mr. Deknis said after the two of them had planted two rows of orchids. “You’ve got an eye for planting things.”

“Thanks,” Virgil said bashfully.

“How old are you again?”

“I’m 14,” Virgil said, unsure why he was asking.

Mr. Deknis nodded. “Maybe in a few years you’ll want to get a job as one of the gardeners here,” he said. “I could always use one who knows how to respect plants like you and with how much you’ve been volunteering to help already, you’ll know a good amount by then.”

“Really?” Virgil asked.

Mr. Deknis nodded.

“Why not now?”

“You’re only 14,” Mr. Deknis said. “You don’t need to worry about working. I’m happy to let you tag along and watch or even help a bit with planting when you want, but you should just be a kid.”

That confused Virgil. He’d been considered out of training to be an assassin as soon as he’d turned 14-years-old last fall. Now he was being told he needed to wait a few years to help plant seeds?

“I could do it,” Virgil said.

“I know you could,” Mr. Deknis said, “but you don’t need to. Have a little fun this summer.”

“But I want to,” Virgil said.

Mr. Deknis huffed out a laugh. “I know,” he said, “and you can feel free to care for your orchids and help me out all you want, but no jobs until you’re at least 16.”

“It’s better than any other jobs I’ve had,” Virgil muttered, honestly annoyed he couldn’t become a gardener right now because of his age.

Mr. Deknis raised an eyebrow. “And what other jobs have you had?”

Virgil froze. That was not a good line of questioning. “Uh…” Virgil said and Mr. Deknis’s expression was changing in an alarming way. “Different things. I’ve carried things for people and, uh, cleaned.”

“Carried things and cleaned, huh?” Mr. Desknis said. It felt like he wasn’t only testing Virgil’s words for lies but observing his face and posture too.

Virgil should be good at lying. He should. That was a major part of being an assassin, but Virgil had started to slip after spending so long around people who were not a danger to him.

At least not a danger to him as long as he didn’t get caught in a lie.

He’d been sloppy with the way he’d frozen when asked a question and with the stuttering. He should have been prepared; he was prepared for the next question.

“You only had to carry things and clean some things up?” Mr. Deknis asked, his eyebrows still raised.

Virgil carefully smoothed out his face, forcing his shoulder to relax as he shrugged. “And some other things,” he said easily. Not a lie. He could feel his heart race anyway.

Mr. Deknis’s eyes bored into him for a long moment and then he titled his head to the side and squinted at him.

Virgil just shot him a small smile. “Can we finish planting the flowers, please?” he asked politely. “I was very excited about it and would like to finish it today.”

Mr. Deknis did not reply for a long moment, and Virgil was careful to keep his expression blank.

Finally, the gardener relented, breaking his stare. If this was because he believed Virgil or not was unclear.

“Yeah, kid,” he said slowly. “Let’s finish planting your flowers.”

Virgil nodded, and he didn’t have to lie as much now as cautious eagerness returned to him. He really did want to finish planting his flowers in addition to stopping Mr. Deknis from asking uncomfortable questions about where Virgil had come from.

Mr. Deknis nodded to the bag of bulbs. They went back to work planting the flowers, but Virgil could feel Mr. Deknis’s eyes on him almost constantly. He had a feeling that this time, he wasn’t watching for how well Virgil was planting the bulbs, but something else.

Virgil was careful to not let his mask slip at all the entire time.

When they were finished planting Virgil’s entire plot of land, they cleaned up the equipment and stored it back away in the garden shed.

Another day Virgil might have stayed and helped Mr. Deknis with other things. Today he was still trying to cover for his bad lying earlier, however, so, Virgil decided to just go back to the castle and shower.

To his surprise Mr. Deknis also started walking off in the direction of the castle.

“Don’t you have more planting to do?” Virgil asked when they got to the door. He knew the man was very busy and his workday was only a bit more than half over.

“I do,” Mr. Deknis confirmed, “but I needed to talk to the king about something first.”

“Oh,” Virgil said. “Okay. I’m going to go shower.”

Mr. Deknis nodded. “I’ll see you sometime later then,” he said.

“Thank you for helping me plant the orchids.”

Mr. Deknis smiled slightly at that. “Anytime, kid.”

Want to read more? Click below!

Birds of Different Feathers Master Post

My Masterpost

[morkmywords]

Not Really a Cinderella Story | Royalty au | Exo | Sehun | Part 12

Masterlist | Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 8.5 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12  Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 [FINAL]

Royalty!AU

Length: 3.2k

Note: uhhhhhh hi, so school ate my life and i have no time anymore but this is finally finished even if its a shorter part also its not edited but when is it ever

I also want to that @haveanotherkpopblog and @theonethatcompletesyou  you have supported me since i first started this fanfic and blog in  general and you guys are my main motivation most of the time and i’m so sorry i can’t update more regularly but I hope you like this

Warnings: nothing really

Pairing: Sehun x Reader

Genre: Fluff/angst

Summary: When a strange string of not so great events somehow and you with a job at the palace punching the wrong people can be not so great.

The tapping of your slippers against the old marble floors was the only sound aside from your breathing as you once again stepped into the ballroom. The murals which decorated the domed ceiling of the cavernous room seemed to be covered with a grey filter, blurring the once bright colours which were now peeling away. You had been in Oclaria’s palace for almost two months now but the image of the forgotten ballroom haunted you as if the spirits of the people who once danced within it were buried in your heart. Ever since you had crossed the border between the two countries it felt as if a thin sheet had been thrown over your eyes, everything felt so familiar yet the sheer fabric only let you see shapes, hiding the details from your eyes.

Soon after entering the palace you quickly learned about the king who had passed, Sehun’s uncle. Long before you or Sehun were born the Queen, whom the King loves dearly, finally was pregnant with a child to the joy of the entire kingdom. Parties were held at every street corner, that is, until the baby was born still and took the Queen’s life with it. Heartbroken, the King locked himself away, sending every courtier back to their own territories and dismissing all the staff, keeping only those necessary to make sure the palace didn’t crumble around them. Nobody heard or saw from the King aside from those few servants, no parties or meeting were held and thus the palace was forgotten. Instead, being taken over by years upon years of dust and cobwebs.

The staff you arrived with easily outnumbered the current ones left by the King five to one, they were given the option to leave or stay when Sehun arrived and much to everyone’s surprise many chose to stay. With that, slowly the palace began to fill up again, more staff were hired, the stables and gardens were restored, and slowly the lords and ladies once again took up their places at court. The palace quickly transformed from the desolate and erie place you arrived to, when the grime was scrubbed away and a new coat of paint was slathered on the walls the palace was beautiful, more so than even the ice palace of Matus. But the ballroom was left untouched along with most of the east wing, which made it your favourite place to spend the long days. Though more often than not, you found yourself spending most of your time alone, the days were never predictable. For a man who was supposed to be preoccupied with learning how to govern a country Sehun sure managed to find a lot of free time. Almost every morning you would wake up to find a gift addressed to you waiting in front of your door from none other than the soon to be king. The gifts ranged from anything as simple as a bouquet of your favourite flowers which as the note explained, he grew in the gardens himself, or a new book for you to read. Sometimes he would to to such extremes as leaving a huge arm chair so plush and cushioned you had no idea how it would fit through your door, and gifting you an entirely new wardrobe full of hand crafted gowns, all with sleeves that would cover to your wrists. When there weren’t gifts there was always a letter left, your name scrawled on the envelope in familiar hand writing asking you to meet later in the day or apologizing and promising to make it up to you if he’s too tied up with work.

His favourite place to go with you was the palace gardens, a maze of paths twisting in between rows of flowers and plants that stretched almost as far as the palace itself. The first time you visited it with him he told you that the previous queen had loved to garden too, so much in fact, that as a wedding gift his uncle had ordered the expansion of the garden to add six different expansions, spring, summer, autumn, winter, day, and night. Over the course of her life the gardens were constructed one by one. Spring which bloomed every year with a myriad of colours in the warm rain, summer which was filled with ponds, a large oak tree with a swing hanging off one of the large branches in the center. Autumn was lined with orchards and other crops, providing endless produce that will last throughout the season and into the winter, speaking of which, winter was a forest of pine and spruce trees, pond in the middle freezing over and creating a skating rink. Day and night were the last two gardens going to be created but as soon as day’s glittering greenhouses and sparkling fountains were completed, the Queen died along with the baby girl they were going to name Luna after the moon which she admired. Overwhelmed by grief, the king had ordered the construction of the Night garden to be stopped and over the years it never resumed and thus fell into disrepair.

One of his other favourite things to do was to steal you away to the palace kitchen under the rouse of cooking a meal together when in reality you usually ended up doing all the work as Sehun played around with whatever weird vegetables he could find. Sometimes you two would wander around the city together, or you two would just sit in each other's company reading in the library. As much as spending time with Sehun made you bubble over with joy and your heart soar it didn’t.

And it all started when he first asked.

“Will you marry me?”

The chuckle in his voice and smile on his face would suggest there was a light heartedness around his question but with one look in his eyes you could see how it was weighing on him. With a seriousness you had never seen before. Jokingly you brushed it off, making some excuse about him snoring to loud but he kept asking. And with each time he asked the seriousness grew no matter how much you turned him down. There was always a nagging at the back of your mind, making your stomach churn with nerves so you kept turning him down.

The fact that most of the palace residents knew of your infatuation wasn't doing much good either. Many of the staff members fawned after your relationship, telling you their endless dreams of finding a significant other that was as sweet as Sehun was to you but as much as the mention of your relationship to the prince made you squirm they weren't the problem. The real problem was the court officials, it was no secret that they were pushing Sehun who had only just been crowned king to get married and for good reason too. He had to solidify his standing as king and the best way to do that was to find and marry a queen so there was always a seemingly endless stream of eligible women in the palace and yet through all their finery he turned them all down. And it was no secret to anyone that you were the reason why. The glares weighed heavy on you like a clock made out of led, and even if you were with Sehun, whether he noticed and chose to ignore it or was simply oblivious to the watching eyes their gazes still found their way deep inside of you. As the little worms of doubt and anxiety buried themselves in the lining of your stomach, arms, legs, and even through your spine and up the back of your neck you firmed your decision. As the seriousness in Sehun’s proposals grew so did the seriousness in your answers, there was no way you could marry him and become queen, he couldn't forgot marrying some rich young lady from a family of power and marry you, some lowborn commoner, it wouldn't be fair to him or the people of his country.

Fortunately the people of Oclaria are much kinder than those of the court. Lord Cha had grown to be much more of a father figure in your life over the past while. Whenever you weren't occupied, which was more often than it may seem, he took you to see the wonder of Oclaria. It was the second largest kingdom on the continent after the freezing plains of Lokya which were bathed in eternal winter that it said to have been cursed by a with centuries ago when the continent had no kingdoms, or kings, or queens. And after so many trips through the large cities with bustling markets and the quiet countryside with hills covered in flowers you had barely even seen a third of it.

----

Moonlight filtering through the stained glass windows which lined the walls and creating colourful patterns on the floor was the only thing illuminating the hallway aside from the quickly melting candle you clutched in your hand as you scurried through the hallway. You found yourself in quite similar situations for longer than you can remember at this point, nerves wriggling inside you and refusing you sleep until the early hours of the morning. Books had been the solution to quelling the pent up writhing of your emotions and you had taken refuge in Lord Cha’s private library as he too, was often a stranger to sleep due to reasons unknown. Earlier in the month you had borrowed a book titled ‘Greatest Composers of the Five Continents’ and as interesting as it was, it was incredibly long and you had finally finished it. Feeling ever so enlightened about the history of music in your great world you pushed open the door and stepped into the library. Without looking up from the diary on his lap Lord Cha offered you a wave a greeting which you quickly returned before diving into the shelves of books.

A few moments later after having successfully shelving your borrowed book and grabbing a new one you were settled in the generously stuffed armchair across from him.

“Y/n I wanted to ask you about something,” Lord Cha said as he put the cap back on his pen. He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses before placing whatever he was writing about on the table side him. “In two days I'm heading back to the territory I'm from, Iyle. It's the largest territory in Oclaria, covering the border to Edesea and all of Oclaria’s southern coast and islands. It's been without a lord for many years since the line died out and I've been put in charge of governing it and I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope you'll come with me.”

You stared at him blankly for a few moments before clearing your throat. You shifted in your seat as your mind raced, to what you didn't know, but it was flying so fast you couldn't even form a coherent sentence.

“Lord Cha, It sounds amazing- I'd really love to go- but the thing is-” you sputtered out.

“It's okay darling,” he cut you off with a chuckle as he reached over to pour you a cup of tea.

“I really would love to go-”

“I know, it's hard to decide in this moment. You have a lot to consider seeing as you've only just arrived in Oclaria and you'd be leaving the man who you loved enough to follow here for who knows how long as I don't know yet when we will return to the capital,” He smiled at you, “It's a hard decision to make and I don't expect you to make it now,” he straightened his tie and stood up, “We’re leaving at Sunset in two days time, meet us at the southern gate if you wish to come.”

With that he bid you goodnight and returned to his chambers and you returned to yours.

----

The darkness of your room didn’t seem dark. You stared at the ceiling, then rolled onto your side and looked out the window, before rolling onto your stomach and burying your face in the pillow. The soft glow of the sunrise was making your room brighter and brighter and with the light came the realization that you hadn’t slept at all the night before. You tossed and turned endlessly because of the nightmare that was your reality at this point in time. Lord Cha had invited you to go with him and you almost agreed on the spot but you hesitated. As much as you wished to escape the empty palace that seemed to be closing farther  in on you every day, trapping you within the confines of the gilded walls and luxury, you couldn’t make the call. A small nagging in your heart which you had been feverishly trying to burry over the past weeks had unearthed itself and halted you from making a decision because if you left, would you ever be able to come back?

The sun had risen when you finally pushed yourself from under the quilt and got dressed, it felt almost mechanical as you went about your daily routine.  You felt empty, why were there no tears? No frustration and indecision? Why were you nothing but a shell?

When the realization finally dawned on you it walls you had created came crashing down all at once and dread filled the pit of your stomach.

No letter came that day, nor did any gifts and you were thankful. A decision hadn’t been reached by the time you drifted into sleep in the late morning and slept the rest of the day away.

The nagging invaded your dreams and filled them with all your unanswered questions.

Should you leave Sehun alone?

Should you leave without telling him?

What if while you’re gone he gives in to the court and marries some noble lady?

Why do you care if he marries a noble woman? He’s a king after all…

Why do you care so much about him?

----

You had to make the decision today, your bag was packed and shoved under your bed but would you take it or not?

You were pacing back and forth in your room trying to decide what to do when a knock on your door interrupted you.

“You’re needed in the garden,” the guard said, “please follow me.”

Nodding you trailed behind him as he offered up no more information. The two of you snaked through the familiar halls to the garden, a path you had gotten very familiar with very quickly. Time seemed to slow as you stepped through the glass door and around the rose garden to be met with a beautiful sight. Sehun waiting for you, sun dancing on his face like rays of pure delight as a smile lit up his entire face when he spotted you. The guard who escorted you hung back as he rushed to meet you, grabbing your hand in his own and kissing your cheek lightly. Today something seemed different about him, maybe it was the changing seasons but he seemed lighter than before, like the world wasn’t resting on his shoulders anymore.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he whispered and instinctively you smiled brightly back at him.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” you said.

He chuckles and clutched your hand tighter, “You’re right on time, we have to go somewhere but first promise me you won’t ask any questions, okay?”

You raised an eyebrow, “Should I be worried?”

“I don’t think so,” he answered pretending to scratch his head which made you laugh, “just trust me.”

You eyed him up and down. Pretending was hard especially since his joy was so infectious, so you nodded and stuck out you pinky which he gratefully took before pulling you after him. You walked for what seemed like only seconds when his hand clutched yours like it was the only thing that mattered. Another twinge was felt in you heart as you spotted a small gazebo which is where he seemed to be headed.

He dropped your hand and stood across from you, you shivered from the loss of the warmth and comfort against your palm, “Sehun, wha-”

“You promised not to ask questions, right?” he said. There was a different tone in his voice now, something between excitement and nervousness, but why? “Just let me talk first.”

You nodded as the atmosphere suddenly changed into something more serious.

“You know I love you right?”

You nodded again.

He took a deep breath, “I know I’ve been asking you this over and over for the past few weeks, and I know you needed time to think but I think a month is enough time to make a decision. Y/n, will you marry me?”

You felt you heart shift, “Sehun…….. No.”

HIs demeanour changed. He was dripping with something you couldn’t place and towering over you even if he was only a few inches taller than you in reality.

“Y/n I’ll give you one more chance, this is the last time I’m going to ask, so what’s your answer!” he asked.

It was as if the whole world had stilled, “No.”

“WHY?!” he exclaimed, latching onto your wrists in desperation, “Tell me why you have to keep turning me down when I love you so much!?”

“No Sehun,” you cried out trying halfheartedly to wrench yourself free from his grasp, “I can’t-I can’t be a queen!”

“WHY?!”

“Because I don’t love you!”

You could see his heart shatter in that very moment as his arms fell to his sides and his eyes went blank, focusing on something in the distance.

“Sehun-”

“LEAVE!” he bellowed, “I don’t want you in my sight!”

No tears fell as he spun away from you and you could do nothing but back away in horror at what you had just done. As you sprinted back into the palace your tears fell freely even if his didn’t because in that moment when the words tumbled from your lips you knew they weren’t true. Even if you had never been sure enough before to say it out loud you always knew deep down. And as soon as you opened your mouth you knew that you did love him, possibly more than he loved you. But now you had broken him beyond repair so you pulled your bag from under your bed and raced out to where Lord Cha said he would be waiting, hoping desperately they hadn’t left yet as the sun was beginning to set.

He didn’t question the tears which were still streaming down your face bus helped you onto a horse before setting off.

When the palace walls disappeared into the darkness behind you, you also felt the last shreds of something inside you snap.

[captainnickjohn-blog]

Hold My Beer. I Need a Career.

Forgive me, I'm a sucker for stupid rhymes.

I normally really don't enjoy bringing attention to myself, but for my first blog post, I wanted to, well....bring attention to myself.

Specifically, I wanted to write about my interest in beer. You might be wondering, "yea, who isn't interest in a beer right now?", or just straight up, "how is that even an interest?"

Well, over the last couple years I've spent time reading books, watching videos, visiting places, speaking with experts, all about beer. It’s something I've appreciated learning more about and I wanted to discuss how this interest has brought me to where I am today. This is an exercise in reflection for me. For you, there are some insights about me as well as some decent photos of beer!

I'll be examining how my beer interest came about and how I threw myself into it. I'll also talk about how I hoped to take this interest and turn it into something of a career. Finally, some thoughts about where my head is now and how my goals may have altered, but not eliminated something that I really enjoy.

Also just FYI, it's been really f**king hot outside. Let this post be a reminder to cool off with a delicious, cold pint. *insert wink face*

Beer Beginnings

It was September of 2016, I was a line cook at Jack Astor’s and I just got moved up to becoming a server. Moving from a line cook position to serving was a lot to take in all at once: learning the steps of good service, carrying three full plates at a time (took a lot of trial and error, and hungry irritated guests), and learning all of the different specialty drinks and beers.

At that time, Jack Astor's had over 20 draught taps and already I was wondering, "how on Earth am I going to remember all of these?" As luck would have it, the restaurant decided to add an additional 20 taps to their repertoire, which made me double down with, "Seriously, how on EARTH am I going to remember all of these??"  

Memorizing the names of all the beers was one thing, but retaining every beer's style, flavour profile, aroma, and attitude (I’m kidding, that's not a thing) were daunting to me. My solution: I had to learn about beer!

Back then, I was only drinking classics like Canadian or Budweiser; if it were hot enough I'd even go for a Kronenbourg Blanc or a Shock Top, but for me, that was a bit of a rarity. Hell, I honestly didn't even know that beer was broken up into two categories: ales and lagers, maybe YOU didn't even know that!

So to tackle this problem of mine, I took the time to watch several beer videos and look at beer infographics. Once I felt I knew about enough about the foundations of beer, I went back to the Astor's 40+ draught beer menu and guess what - it took WAY less time than I'd thought to remember all of the beers!

My work was done; I knew all 40+ beer taps and their styles, and I could even somewhat comfortably talk about the beers’ tastes to guests (with a pinch of BS). However, the more I spoke about beer at work and after reflecting on the beer learning I had done, I had the realization that I genuinely LOVED learning about beer. That whole process for me was actually kind of a blast. 

While writing this part I've thought about a time before this where I had a blissful learning experience, and I completely blanked. That was very telling to me. So, I figured I should commit myself to learn more about beer.

To get started, I ordered the mother of all beer books from Amazon, "The Oxford Companion to Beer." Given the size and scale of it, I prefer to call it The Holy Beerble:

P.S. I am aware I don't keep a very neat workspace, coffee stains and all.

Over 800 pages of diligent research on almost every single thing about beer that you could imagine. Beer countries? No problem. Beer styles? Yup. Beer history? Child's play. That one famous beer guy who did that one famous beer thing? It’s in there. This encyclopedia was amazing. The sheer amount of research done to create this is absolutely astounding. Even today, I will read through it and continue to make notes. I even ordered a couple more books on beer:

This was fun for me. I didn't mind taking the time to learn more about something I ACTUALLY liked.

Committing to the 'Craft'

Work at Astor’s was slowing down going into the winter of 2017. By then, I would casually read beer articles online or look through some of my beer books. Beer is a fun subject to learn about and share with others. That said, I felt that it was time I should try making my own beer! I knew a solid amount about the beer-making process already i.e. the mash, the boil, fermentation, bottling, etc., and I felt I should apply what I know to make something of my own. Maybe I could impress friends and family, save money on buying beer from the LCBO or The Beer Store, and it would add another layer to this new hobby of mine.

I figured a brewing kit would be my next subsequent Christmas gift to myself, so what I did was start simple: a 1-gallon starter kit, 10 empty beer bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, other miscellaneous brewing equipment, and some 2-row barley and Cascade hops.

Homebrewing and commercial brewing are different behemoths, and I knew more about the commercial brewing process. That wasn't really going to help me here because I didn't have 50+ hectolitre tank to brew beer in, so I had to watch a few YouTube instructional home brewing videos to get in the right mindset.  

I was eager to brew my first batch: a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) pale ale. A super simple recipe to start with that would ideally lead to a nice tasting beer. For those who don't know, brewing beer require ALOT of both patience and (ugh) cleaning. Literally, I spent over half of my time brewing just cleaning all of the equipment again and again. Any sort of impurity, big or small, is enough to completely ruin a batch of beer. I already respected brewing as an art form, but I learned more about how difficult it really is to make delicious beer that adheres to a certain style. After a 6-hour brew day plus a few weeks of fermentation, this was the result:

Aesthetically, it's a nice looking SMaSH beer, right?! But the taste....let's just say the taste did not match the look. This was a very important lesson in detecting off-flavours in a beer. There was plenty of them.

I didn't get discouraged; I crafted a chocolate maple porter that tasted pretty solid as well as a decent red ale. Despite my improvements with small batches of beer, I really had a difficult time seeing myself get too serious about it. For one thing, I didn’t always have enough room to fit 10-12 bottles of beer in my fridge. Imagine I start making 5-gallon batches that can yield over 50 bottles of beer, where the hell would I put all that? And if I ruined the batch? That’s a hell of a lot of waste. So, I decided I’d stick with learning and not doing. 

YouTube videos and books are great and all, but it's helpful to have a more hands-on learning experience. Enter Prud'homme - a Canadian beer education program with 4 levels of certifications, the top one being "Level 4 - Beer Sommelier."

Prud'homme Level 1 was a lot of fun, and while I knew the lion's share of introductory beer knowledge, the class gave me, even more, to think about. It was a group of 10 in my class (including myself), and each class we were given different styles of beer to try. Up until then, I never really kept any actual notes of the beers I've had, but in class, we would dissect a beer's taste, mouthfeel, finish, colour, clarity, and additional info.

The longer I was in the class, the more I realized that I preferred talking about a beer's characteristics over brewing the beer myself. I'd bought and read all these beer books, I've experimented with brewing, and now I've worked towards my Level 1 Beer Enthusiast certification; clearly, there's something here for me to dive into. I'd been out of school for over a year by that point, and here was this interest of mine that I'd spent time on.

I thought to myself that I should take this more seriously and try to shape this newfound passion of mine into the beginnings of a career.

The Pursuit of Hoppiness

That nugget of internal thinking actually helped influence my decision to apply for a postgraduate degree. Before this, I'd been glancing at different school programs in London, Waterloo, Toronto, etc., but it was mostly looking at programs that might complement my Criminology degree i.e. social work.

If I'd taken this strongly to learning about beer, how can I apply that interest and start a career? I did some thinking over a couple of weeks and ultimately, I decided that getting into marketing could be an excellent opportunity to pursue my interest. Not to mention that marketing is a very versatile degree that would open a lot of doors for me.

I liked the idea of being able to help out the little guy (small-scale craft/micro-brewers) over becoming a cog in the wheel of the bigger beer corporations. Ultimately, I found my way to the George Brown College Digital Media Marketing program web page. It checked off a lot of points on my program criteria list: 1-year in length, a good distance from London, learning all about digital tools used in the workplace, and a semester of work experience!

Getting Forked

Now that I'd made a decision to pursue marketing that could lead to a gig marketing beer, I figured I should find some REAL work experience of being in a brewery.

First and foremost was trying to get a job at Forked River Brewing Company. By then I had met and developed a solid rapport with a few of their staff, and eventually, it led to me landing a job there!  

In mid-March, I was hired to help in different areas around the brewery. Sometimes the bosses needed me to work retail or within the brewery, it really depended on the demand of that week. My main goal was to get a very clear idea of how a brewery operates and about their approach to marketing.

On the retail side, I would talk with customers about the beer, sharing with them all of the traits of the beers. There were also other run-of-the-mill retail tasks like handling the cash register, stocking the shelves, or just making sure that people don't steal any beer.

During my time in the brewery itself, I would mostly help the brewmasters with canning (so. many. f***ing cans.) and filling up kegs, but I was also given a chance to help with the actual brewing. I'd go in twice a week early in the morning and work for about 5-6 hours. What I enjoyed the most was the very relaxed atmosphere compared to my time at Astor's. Both were fun, but for entirely different reasons.

I was even given a chance to work a couple of beer festivals around London and in Sarnia. Those days were the most fun because I could speak about the beers with confidence and encourage festival-goers to try our stuff. Overall, I had a great time over at Forked River and I am grateful to have had that opportunity.

George Brown Ale

Before I knew it, September came along and I was starting my program at George Brown. It felt weird to be back in school but I was excited to be taking this step towards a new career. In order to keep my mind fresh on everything beer, I got a job as a bartender at Biermarkt Don Mills; they've got 150+ beers including draught and bottles. Weekends were my game, closing bar Friday through Sunday (goooood times).  They were kind enough to give me another beer book that doubled as an employee handbook:

This new program was looking to be a great fit. It's worth noting though that I had spent a lot of my internship search on breweries or beer distribution companies. I wasn't having much luck with that until the next best thing came along - My Wine Canada, a wine/spirits marketing and sales company right down the street from my school building.

Was it beer? Nope. But it's the next best thing.

And also, wine's pretty great! The role itself was "Digital Marketing Manager", very expensive-sounding, right?

What enticed me about it was this internship would give me as close a perspective of what it's like to handle the marketing for beer as I could get. I was setting up social media content calendars, editing and creating photo content, writing wine blogs, drafting weekly emails, and coming up with catchy and funny captions.

Seeing the Bigger Pitcher

The funny thing is, after spending four months with My Wine Canada, I wasn't as certain about wanting to find a marketing job related to beer. Oddly enough, I spent so much time obsessing about finding a job just like it, that I forgot to really sink my teeth into marketing. I was surprised to find that I really liked learning about marketing. Made me reflect (again) on what I was doing.

In my final semester, I've wondered about whether or not my priorities were as straight as they should have been. For most of this program, I've been so narrowly focused on finding a marketing job involving craft beer that I may have completely missed other great opportunities. I don't want that to happen going forward, so I'm taking that into account and keeping an open mind without losing sight of why I got into this program in the first place. Beer is a hobby that's going to stick around in my life and because of it, I have gotten involved in great things and introduced me to some amazing people, and I wouldn't trade that away.

[behindthedish]

The GOAT SS: Omar Vizquel

Growing up as a kid in NE Ohio who loved baseball, the Indians were my life blood. I mean, my mother seriously recorded games on VHS so I could sit there and watch games throughout the winter. This was probably viewed as bad by MLB but whatever. As a child, I definitely needed to be able to watch baseball in the winter, or I was literally going to make my mother’s life hell. All I wanted to do was play baseball, to the point where I got this little fake baseballs made of foam that I used to throw off the walls. When I was younger I played middle infield, you know, before I became the fat kid and got put at catcher because I could hit. My favorite players were Sandy Alomar Jr., whose trade from the Indians led to me being a Yankees fan (I’ll explain someday,) his brother Roberto, and Roberto’s double play partner and GREATEST SHORTSTOP OF ALL TIME Omar Vizquel. There you go, there is my edge, Omar is the best shortstop to ever step foot on a field, and to me, it is a National treasure equivalent robbery that he is not in the Hall of Fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKNSHiiNdNI incase you need an intro* 

Listen, I hear all of you out there arguing Ozzie Smith, and we’ll get there, because you’re wrong. Maybe because you never… never mind, we’ll get there. The reason we’ll get there is simple, because Ozzie is the only other answer that I will even generally consider, but it is still wrong.

First I would like to touch on the arguments from my generation: Derek Jeter, Nomar, and Arod. The easiest of the three for me to Argue would be Nomar, who was absolutely amazing in his own right, quirky, and fun to watch. But due to injuries, he cannot be compared to Omar, his career just was not long enough, or stellar enough. I considered using the overshadowed argument, but after further review, if I wasn’t a kid in NE Ohio, Omar would have probably been overshadowed by the other two as well.

The second contender, and second easiest to put down, at least for me, is Arod. Who was the best shortstop of the three, but because of his respect for the game, the Yankees, and DJ, moved to third base and really didn’t spend enough time in the 6 hole to really give an argument. Was Arod a better athlete, probably, was he a better hitter, definitely, a better shortstop, maybe for a short time. Then again, I can’t really say he was better. To this day I hear people talk about “bare handing something like I was Omar Vizquel,” you don’t hear that about Arod.

Last but not least, Jeter, who is the toughest for me to argue, and also probably right there with Nomar, but for different reasons. Jeter was limited in range, limited at the plate, and didn’t win a gold glove until Arod was his teammate. What DJ has that none of the others do, is the fact that he was the face of the Yankees and the face of baseball. There are not many other players I would pick to have up to bat in a game deciding situation, Jeter was just ice fucking cold. But when you are the second best shortstop of the three ‘top’ shortstops in your generation, you’re not better than Omar, cap.

Anyone in the game today, I just can’t see being considered a better shortstop than Omar. A big reason for this is the fact that the bat means more to the position than it ever has before. If your glove is the better skill for you, you are not going to be a big league shortstop for a long time, example Jordy Mercer, who is also silky smooth. Tulo could have been up there, but injuries shut him down. There are great shortstops in the game right now, but I will leave it to two, Francisco Lindor (sorry for the pain Cleveland fans) and Javy Baez. I would say that the others are either two young, Tatis, or too reliant on the stick Story, to be in the conversation. I am even a bit biased to Story, we share a birthday, but also a little anti Javy, I live in Pittsburgh. Lindor is the total package, and truly might be the best shortstop in baseball. He is the only guy in the game today that I would just watch the game to watch him play, if there is somehow a Mets game on in Pittsburgh, I’ll watch just for him. Maybe we’ll come back to this in a couple years, but it is too early to compare the two.

DISCLAIMER *stats are going to be used going forward. All gotten from Baseball Reference*

Now, the moment that most baseball fans have probably been waiting for, Ozzie smith is lesser of a shortstop than Omar ever was. There I said it, by the time I stop writing blogs I might be baseball’s king of hot takes, and this might be my hottest, but I am steadfast in my belief here.

Here’s my biggest point, it’s a whole lot fucking easier to field a ground ball on artificial turf than it is on a grass, or even the newer age turf. Guess what friends, Ozzie played on a whole lot of fields that used old school artificial turf….. AND HE WAS STILL A WORSE FIELDER THAN OMAR. “But dude Ozzie won 13 gold gloves…. IN A ROW,” yes he did, and it’s top of the line. Ozzie gets Omar in the gold glove category, 13 to 11, and a previously mentioned duo probably got in Omar’s way of winning more (see DJ ad Arod.) Omar got Ozzie in age though, winning his final gold glove at the age of 39, compared to Ozzie’s 37. The only other category I looked at where Ozzie outshined Omar on defense, was assists. Both of these men were wizards in the field, there is no doubt. It my honest opinion, Ozzie is thought as better to Omar simply because he shined more, he was on better teams, was more of a showman, and outshined the other shortstops of his time.

Both of these dudes where known for their gloves, although both were switch hitters, which is such an advantage as a player. Ozzie played less time than Omar, so the batting stats probably aren’t as important, but I am going to list them anyway. Ozzie had less strikeouts and more stolen bases than Omar, he was caught fewer times, and he was on base .01% more of the time than Omar, which is pretty negligible. Doubles, triples, homeruns, RBI, total bases, the often ignored sacrifice, and hits are all places where Omar takes the cake. Now, Omar played in five more seasons than Ozzie, but of his final five seasons, he only played more than 65 games twice. So I am going to say that the more season’s argument is pretty null. To prove this point, in those final 5 seasons Omar had 3 homeruns, 6 triples, 40 doubles, and 279 hits, all of which would still outrank Ozzie. So, take a hike on your argument there.

Was Ozzie Fantastic, yup sure was. Was Ozzie one of the best ever, yup sure was. Was Ozzie better than Omar, no, he sure wasn’t. Ozzie is the iconic Shortstop in most people’s minds, and a first ballot hall of famer. There’s no way you can tell me that Omar shouldn’t be in there with him. Let’s not get started on the hypocrisy and idiocy of the hall of fame voters, because this is just one of the MANY misses that they’ve had, and will continue to have.

If you have ten minutes, enjoy the highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhfDLyKmzHs

[kateemmerson]

Musings of a Café Writer living #LocationFree

Living #LocationFree for the past 5 years is often met with wide eyes, scrunched up noses, and some weird questions. I know it might sound like nothing more than terrifyingly homeless mixed with exhilaratingly glamour-filled champagne parties on yachts, Instagram style.

It honestly falls somewhere smack between these two extremes.

While it may be very real that digital nomads (aka global nomads, remote workers, location free, etc.) might not have one permanent base to call “home,” we are certainly not “homeless.” We have a gazillion ways we each live into this lifestyle, and we can pretty much make it up as we go along – if we don’t like somewhere, we can move on to more suitable spaces, cities, countries (Covid and visa/passport reliant of course). Plus, folk living this lifestyle are not doing so because they have zero responsibilities, no partners, kids, animals, etc. – we are all working and contributing to society in some format. We have just figured out the best way to earn the required dollars en route – whether working remotely for a company, working in the digital online space, working in the country they are in, running global companies, have property investments, Bitcoin, or business investors – any type of work is possible, to be honest! The worklist is as varied as your creative brain allows … with the added benefit of freedom from a location. Of course, we sleep in beds too! Whether in fancy hotels, rented homes, snazzy apartments, Airbnb options, co-living, house-sitting, or any combo of the above. What binds us together as a tribe is that we are not bound to one location for work or life. There is a sense of freedom, mobility, choice, and possibility!

Possibility of options, countries, cultures, environments, lifestyle, etc

Right now, I’m chilling in a quaint café on the prom of Portobello (see pic taken at Miros <<<) with the quieter than usual buzz and banter as “we-are-in-weird-lockdown-life-but-still-allowed-out” vibe. I’ll soon be self-isolating again before I make my way to my mum in the UK for Christmas, so I am making the most of a little thrill of being outdoors at Edinburgh’s Seaside. There is a delicious light shimmering off the sea and bouncing off the clouds, reflecting the changes in the sun as we edge towards winter solstice. After 7 years of spending most of my time in summer or what travel agents refer to as shoulder seasons, I am fondly referring to my current city of choice as Edinburrrrrrr.

Remember my cold water swimming escapades on Iona that I shared earlier this year? I will manage one more cold dip this month, which means I will have been cold water immersing for 6 whole months! I didn’t even know that I wanted to try it before starting my significant retreat and detox process on Iona. I’m still in a bikini with no warm booties, gloves, or wetsuits like many swimmers – just keeping it real and semi mad. Even if my swims are super short -they still count as a cold water blitz of energy and immune-boosting habit!

  This week, I launched my fifth book, and I feel like a kid in a Christmas Santa store, to be honest. It’s some insights, sharing, and tips from living the last 5 years #LocationFree. I also interviewed 16 other souls (between 40 and 60 years of age) living in similar ways to me. It’s a super exciting collection of tips snd stories for anyone who is intrigued about the possibility of downsizing, packing up, and living and working globally.

One of my all-time favourite things to do when I travel is sitting in a café or restaurant on a beach somewhere – from Malaga to San Fran, Cape Town to Skala Eressos. I simply need my laptop and a strong coffee or a fab glass of vino, depending on the time of day. And always water – and usually a kitty somewhere close by. I seem to attract them and consider myself a bit of a cat-whisperer. Did you spot the content kitty on my book cover?

There is an element of pure delight that is elicited when I can look up from my computer and see water – waves, sand, pebbles, sheep munching seaweed (yes 100% on Iona!), people laughing, kids playing, folk squealing in the waves and that heady aroma of sun, sand, sea, and sun-lotion. Or the smell of rain mixed into it more often than not, here in Edinburrrrr.

I find myself in this glorious city for most of winter 2020, exploring somewhere North. I am still officially #LocationFree and will be for the foreseeable future. I was only planning to be location free for one year, to figure out what country I wanted to live in, but it turns out it’s been too much fun, and here I am five years later.

Ooooh, the cafes you will find when not in your hometown. From dingy and downright skanky, to glamorous, elegant, and exotic; to simple family-run salt of the earth to trendy hipster vibes with a gazillion delicious choices; or the simple paired back local café that only serves one type of coffee and eggs – just the way you like them: the smells, the chalkboards, the conversations, and the locals. The cakes and the decadent treats made with love – from the latest LA trend to grandma’s secret pistachio and rose water recipe. A café is always filled with possibility – and is still the first place I seek out to feel like a “local” in a new spot. It’s one of my “settling-in” hacks I share in my book “10 Lessons for Living #locationFree

So I find myself with a big grin on my chops as I own the fact that I am a café writer. It can be a table on a busy cobbled street, a hotel lobby with glorious views of the pool, a tiny spot perched precariously on a hill, or my all-time favourite, seaside café!. Anywhere in the world, this will put always put a smile on my face.

If there is some Latin Salsa or Bachata music drifting out of the speakers even better, offering the quiet promise of a party as day turns to night….that will always make me type faster and get through my workload ready to pop on my salsa shoes and have a whirl on the floor.

I don’t even need earphones, really –in fact, my ears always get sore trying to wear earphones, no matter the brand or style! I usually welcome the buzz around me and find ways to switch off when I need to focus.

I have amassed a few “offices’ around the world that I have stamped my name on. To this day, there is one table at Gialos on Skala Eressos where we run writing retreats, which is known as Kate’s office. Although I didn’t get to work there in 2020, I know it is waiting patiently for me 2021. I am usually sitting at my “desk” by 6 am before the rest of the sleeping Greek village stirs. While the restaurant is still being cleaned and set up for the day – George will even stop his daily prep to bring me a double greek Coffee. Or as we order there – ena diplo hellenico para kalor!

PIC: This one below taken at my “office” Gialos in Skala Eressos when the world cup was on (and my Argentinean partner at the time was in Russia supporting his team) 

It’s always about the views, to be honest. I find vistas open up my creativity and thinking. Sea trumps everything for me – being able to sit outside and feel the sunshine and breeze is high on my list of needs. When not working, I also love to be a fly on the wall, simply watching people. I can make up stories in my head ad Infinitum. Travelling a lot on my own, I also love to smile and then connect, laugh, and chat with total strangers. It’s bizarrely natural for me to make random comments and speak to people I walk past or sit next to. I will always talk to cats and dogs and stop owners for a cuddle of their four-paws if allowed. I guess that’s why I have found it relatively easy to be location free. What’s the point in staying separate and cut off from others– even when communicating from behind a mask nowadays, we can still connect energetically and with a twinkle in our eyes.

  PIC – The awesome Malaga crew where I pulled together a writing group and started my book 10 Lessons for Living #locationFree exactly one year ago!! Note the lovely views right on the sea! 

Wi-Fi is surprisingly not always high on my agenda, as I prefer working offline with fewer distractions when in writing/blogging mode. In fact, I will often choose cafes that do NOT have Wi-Fi – especially if I am running a writing group – as that just distracts everyone.

My challenge to you today is to visit a local café and watch the world unfold around you! Make it an adventure if you haven’t done it for a while. Take your laptop, a great book, or your journal to pen some thoughts. Let me know what you find on your café outing – I’d love to hear what great conversations you engage in or inspired ideas you come up with when sitting with a different view.

A dear friend just sent me this on Whatsapp this morning – so I will do my level best to simply keep on writing from my heart wherever I am. I just have to. What about you?

“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate, and the governor is out of the country, and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.” Alan W Watts

WANT SOME INSPIRATION ABOUT POSSIBILITY? GRAB MY BRAND NEW BOOK  10 Lessons for Living #LocationFree 

Do you wish you had the courage to follow your dream, to quench your wanderlust? To downsize, pack light and explore the world while still working? Do you honestly think others are able do it because they’re younger, richer, are single and have fewer responsibilities, with no kids to tag along?

Wrong. That’s simply not true. This book will show you that it’s possible no matter what your age! Do you really want to play it safe just because you’re no longer in your twenties, waiting on tables as you backpack around the world?

Musings of a Café Writer living #LocationFree was originally published on Kate Emmerson - The Quick Shift Deva

[daughterof-chaos]

Show Me

Author’s Note: This is a Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz imagine based on Kneesocks by Arctic Monkeys as requested by a wonderful Nonny. I hope you enjoy, let me know. This imagine is rated M for language and slight smut.

This is my work–originally posted to my old blog @callmemrskozik which is no longer in use. Just wanted to put it out there so people don’t fill up my inbox accusing me of plagiarism.

Show Me

-XX-

You got the lights on in the afternoon And the nights are drawn out long And you’re kissing to cut through the gloom With a cough-drop-colored tongue And you were sitting in the corner with the coats all piled high And I thought you might be mine In a small world on an exceptionally rainy Tuesday night In the right place and time When the zeros line up on the 24 hour clock When you know who’s calling even though the number is blocked When you waltz around your house wearing my sky blue Lacoste And your knee socks

-XX-

She sits tucked up in the corner of the clubhouse, a book in hand as her eyes scan the growing crowd for what seems like the millionth time. She can’t help it, she needs to keep an eye out for her cousin, Lyla, lord knows no one else will, never mind the fact that she’s the younger of the two, she’s always been the more responsible of the duo. Always. Besides, she doesn’t trust this new crowd Lyla’s found herself wrapped up in, even if it is the happiest she’s seen her cousin since she had Piper.

She spots Lyla, arms draped around the neck of a sober faced man, and with a shake of her head she turns her attention back to her book. She’s read and re-read the same page at least twenty times since Lyla insisted on dragging her to this party; but she’s finding it increasingly hard to concentrate as the mixture of voices and music seems to increase by the second.

Giving up she slips the book into her bag and getting to her feet decides it’s time to search out somewhere a little quieter, her body winding through the crowd, offering tight lipped smiles whenever she’s bumped into, having to bite back the anger that bubbles to the surface when not one but two different men find her ass a viable resting place for their hands; but she makes it through finding herself in a dimly lit hallway.

Her eyes are immediately drawn to the end of the hall where rows of pictures hang, and curiosity gets the best of her, forcing her feet to move. Her arms cross over her chest as she scans the faces staring back at her. Every picture hung is a booking photo, which doesn’t surprise her. This is SAMCRO after all; what’s to be expected. Some of the faces are handsome, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t find a certain degree of attractiveness as she looked, but unlike her dear cousin, she knew better.

She grew up in Charming. Granted, she had very little run in with the boys of SAMCRO, but she heard the whispers, stories passed around the halls of the high school, or shared in the aisles of the grocery store. It’s a small town, word gets around, and because of that she has managed, until now, to stay far, far away.

Turning her head, she finds a row of doors, and following her curiosity she lets her feet carry her towards them. She looks around to assure herself that she’s alone, and taking a breath she opens the first door she comes to, shock coursing through her when she’s met with how clean the room is.

The bed is neatly made, nothing out of place, not so much as a sock on the floor; not exactly what she pictured a biker’s room to look like, and with the door shut behind her the noise is muffled nicely and content she shrugs out of her sweater, toes out of her shoes, and settles with her back braced against the foot of the bed determined to finish her book.

::

He’s barely buzzed as he makes his way to his room. The party is still going wild and loud, but finding no one whose caught his eye, he’s thinking of turning in early and calling it a night, and pushing open his door he takes a step inside only to come to a quick stop when his eyes land on the red head sitting on his floor. Her head is bowed over the book in her hands, and before he can open his mouth she looks up, her eyes swimming as a tear rolls down her cheek.

“She died…” her words are soft as she shakes her head and his eyebrows knit together. Sure he isn’t drunk, but the little alcohol in his system does nothing to help him understand.

“Who?” he asks, and she sniffles shutting the book, pressing it to her chest.

“Anna…she earned the right to decide what to do with her own body and then she just…died,” she cries openly and because he doesn’t know what else to do he closes the space between them, mirroring her position as he wraps an arm around her shoulder.

She shocks him more by resting her head against him, and looking down he studies her. She’s pretty. Not in the way the girls in the party are, her pretty is softer, not so loud. Tears cling to her eyelashes and he fights the urge to reach out and brush them away, and while he studies her, she looks up at him. Her eyes are smoky gray and her lips painted a soft shade of pink beg to be kissed and because he wants to close the distance between them and see how she tastes he clears his throat.

“Juice,” he says offering a smile.

“My name, is Juice,” he says watching her as she brushes the tears from her cheek with the back of her hand.

“Juice? That can’t be your real name,” she says on a laugh and he finds his lips curving with a grin.

“It’s Juan,” he says noting the ghost of a smile that dances on her lips.

“I like that better…I’d never be able to call you Juice with a straight face,” she says letting her legs slide straight in front of her, feet crossing at the ankles. “I’m Mia by the way. Sorry you found some stranger crying on your bedroom floor.”

“You know, it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve found here.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

-XX-

Well you cured my January blues Yeah you made it all alright I got a feeling I might have lit the very fuse That you were trying not to light You were a stranger in my phonebook I was acting like I knew ‘Cause I had nothing to lose When the winter’s in full swing and your dreams just aren’t coming true Ain’t it funny what you’ll do

When the zeros line up on the 24 hour clock When you know who’s calling even though the number is blocked When you waltz around your house wearing my sky blue Lacoste And your knee socks

-XX-

It’s been a six-month roller coaster ride for him and Mia; and closing his eyes he can still see her. She was curled up on the couch, one of his TM shirts hanging loose on her, pale blue knee socks covering her legs which she knows drives him crazy.

His hands itched to slide over the material, to tease soft skin, to hear her moan her name in the throaty way she does when he’s getting her wet.

Instead, he slipped out of the house, leaving her on her own. He didn’t want too, God knows, but the club calls, and when it does you have to answer.

Mia says she understands, but he sees it wearing on her. The light in her eyes that glowed bright from the moment he found her sitting on the floor of his dorm crying over a book, growing more and more dim with every broken promise.

He can’t blame her, but he can and does hope to hell that she’ll just keep holding on. Like he’s said, a million times before, it can’t be like this forever.

-XX-

The late afternoon The ghost in your room that you always thought didn’t approve of you knocking boots Never stopped you letting me get hold of the sweet spot by the scruff of your Knee socks You and me could have been a team Each had a half of a king and queen seat Like the beginning of Mean Streets You could Be My Baby

-XX-

She’s tried being patient. Telling herself that things would smooth out eventually, trying to believe Juan when he says that things will quiet down, but as she sits at the kitchen table, picking at the dinner in front of her, she knows it’s over.

More and more she’s finding herself alone. Not even being around Lyla and the kids help anymore. Her life had become school, work, Juan, repeat, only now, it’s school, work, wait for Juan, worry for Juan, cry over Juan, repeat; and she’s exhausted.

Carrying the plate over to the sink she starts scraping it clean, stopping only momentarily when she hears the sound of the Harley pulling into the drive way. It’s going on ten o’clock, and while that’s generally early all things considered, it has been four days since she’s seen him.

“Mia?” her name is a question as she turns on the water in the sink. “Babe, I’m sorry. The run took longer than expected.” She finishes washing her dinner dishes and turning the water off she turns to look at him. Fresh bruises and scrapes, why is she not surprised? All she can do is shake her head.

“Dinners in the microwave,” she says moving to brush past him, “I’m going to bed.”

“Really?” he demands and she stops, turning slowly to look at him.

“What do you want me to say Juan? I’m tired…”

“Get some sleep, we’ll talk in the morning,” he offers but closing her eyes she shakes her head.

“I’m tired of us Juan,” the words slip through her lips before she can stop them, and opening her eyes she hates the look of pain on his face.

“What are you saying?” he asks hands bracing on the island counter.

“I’m saying, I’m saying I don’t think I can do this anymore,” she says her hands gripping the hem of her sweater. “I thought that I could, but I can’t. You were gone for four days, four days Juan and not so much as a text to let me know you were okay.”

“You know how runs can get Mia, I can’t just text you whenever I want!” he says in disbelief.

“Why can Opie find the time to text Lyla? Even Jax squeezes in a call to Tara, my God even Tig manages to check in on his dogs for Christ’s sake. One text message Juan, just one, that’s all I want, and I can’t even warrant that. I deal with the whispers at TM, all the girls who say you’re ashamed of me, that’s why you don’t bring me around. I’m a joke to them Juan. A Joke, and do you know what I hate more than knowing that’s how those women look at me? It’s the fact that I care! I never used to be the type who would give a single fuck about what women who hang around SAMCRO think of me; but then you happened. You happened, and all I can do is care. All I can do is compare myself, and worry. Worry that nights when you don’t come home you’re there fucking some crow eater, or God forbid dead somewhere. My life has turned into one big worry!”

“What do you want from me Mia?” Juan asks through clenched teeth and all she can do is laugh, a hollow sound of exasperation as she throws her hands in the air.

“I want to know that you fucking care Juan! I want to know that falling in love with you is not just a waste of my fucking time!” her chest heaves as she screams and in the blink what seems like the blink of an eye he’s crossing the kitchen floor, backing her against the wall.

His jaw clenches tight as he stares down at her, his arms coming up to cage her in.

“You think I don’t care?” he demands a hand sliding down to wrap around her throat, his hold is gentle despite the fire that burns in his eyes, “you are all I fucking think about. You’re in my goddamn system; you have been from the moment I found you sitting on the floor of my dorm.”

She wants to believe him, she can hear what she believes is sincerity in his voice, but she can’t be sure. Voices of doubt and fear screaming in the back of her head, and shaking her head she fights the tears.

“Show me,” the words shake from her lips as her hand comes up to grip his t-shirt. “Show. Me”

His mouth covers hers; hands diving into her hair, and when she finally opens up to him, she wonders how she ever thought she could go without it; without him. He surrounds her completely, the taste of him intoxicating as he slides a hand up her shirt, fingers scraping against her skin, setting her nerves on fire.

This part has always come easy, like they were born just for this, body’s slick as they slide together, breathy promises made as they push each other again and again until they both find a release that leaves them breathless.

-XX-

(All the zeros lined up but the number’s blocked when you’ve come undone) When the zeros line up on the 24-hour clock When you know who’s calling even though the number is blocked When you waltz around your house wearing my sky blue Lacoste And your knee socks

-XX-

-Six Months Later-

Mia lifts her buzzing phone smiling as the word blocked flashes across the screen, and answering it she walks to the front door, flipping the lock.

“Door’s unlocked for you baby,” she murmurs into the phone, “I’m in your TM shirt and favorite knee socks…come show me how much you’ve missed me.”

[andrewuttaro]

What’s wrong with Rochester Sports?

Of all the questions I ask blogging this is one that is closest to my heart. For the last several years this question has been asked in different words by many people in Rochester and her orbit. This line of questioning arises from a few factors, not least of them being the thinning down of the number of sports teams in the City in recent years. We had a lot of sports teams for a mid-sized City. Now we’re losing some. The Rochester Rattlers (outdoor Lacrosse) moved out of town, the Western New York Flash (professional women’s outdoor soccer) moved out of town almost five years ago, the Rochester Knighthawks (indoor lacrosse) are going through a bit of a cup trick, and the Rochester Rhinos (professional men’s outdoor soccer) went on hiatus and left their relatively new stadium after a decade in attendance decline and lease disputes with the City.

I have been critical of those in my home City insisting Rochester has lost her “Sports Mojo”, in part because that is an easy way of encapsulating three dozen variables into an answer that really doesn’t mean anything. However, the more I look into it the simpler it seems to become. In the examples I provided two are the results of dispassionate ownership (the Flash and Knighthawks) and the other two are the result of fan attendance’ steady decline over several years. The situations are all unique enough to not be encapsulated by “Sports Mojo” but the idea something is up with Rochester in particular seems credible at the surface. Blaming the fans for any problem in sports is always the least neaunced answer. It’s often the kiss of death. So how can we say there is a problem with Rochester in particular beyond the more obvious observations of bad ownership or attendance problems? This tact of refusing the premise is where I sat on it for a while.  Then the County Executive tweeted.

Whatever you think of Cheryl Dinolfo aside, she shared something that got me thinking. She tweeted a link to a Bloomberg article that put places like Syracuse, NY and Rochester in the top twenty in destinations for Millennials to find work. I’m a millennial and for years I’ve watched folks my age heading south and elsewhere for work after graduating college. It’s mainly teachers and other helping professions but certainly many others have left as well. I’ve seen the story repeat itself over and over. Dinolfo’s retweet was obviously politically fodder but it points to rays of light breaking through that youth diaspora trend we’ve been used to for a couple decades here. Depopulation here skews towards younger people and as a region, we export college graduates if you haven’t noticed. The rays of light the Bloomberg article referenced got me thinking a new way about Rochester’s sports woes in recent years.

I went to a Rochester Americans playoff game last month. My dad had got these wicked second row seats by the team benches and my wife and I had redesigned my Captain America shield for what was surely to be a deep playoff run by our hometown hockey team. It was not a deep run and my shield was not exactly welcome at that fateful Game One. Not by security, I had it throughout the game at my seat; no, it wasn’t welcome because a woman sitting behind me gave me an earful about how it was nice, but it obstructed her vision and I had to keep it down. Ok, I’m not an asshole, I kept it down. Later in the game, that same woman did her best shrieking-Indian cheer, her words not mine, and I thought to myself: something is backwards here. All the research and first-hand experience with this problem in Rochester sports came flooding back with some clarity now.

Demographics has a part to play in Rochester’s sports woes. The woman behind me was well over 60 and spoke of her affection for the St. Paul street area of North Rochester/Irondequoit but vocalized how much its “gone downhill” over the years. The discussion of specific sections of Rochester aside, there is a generational imbalance going on in Rochester Sports that I think goes unspoken more often than not. I’m sure the woman sitting behind me is a wonderful lady and has many great memories cheering on the Amerks, Red Wings, and maybe even the Rhinos; but older adults aren’t what drives a sports team’s crucial numbers. Yes, they have the disposable income to help but successful sports teams these days pull in a cross-section of the public skewing towards the crazy folks who want to yell and scream. I’m not saying older folks like the woman behind me don’t yell and scream, trust me they do, but there is clearly an imbalance in this equation; particularly with the teams still in town making it work.

Hold your horses, I’m not trying to single out any groups or individuals with this criticism. I am not here to write an ageist think piece on how boomers are ruining Rochester sports. Although that would be hilarious given the surplus of pieces written about how millennials are ruining everything because they think they’re so darn special! No, I think there is a more stylistic change slowly unfolding. It has a lot more to do with how sports are marketed. I am no sports management or marketing expert but there are some huge differences between the leagues and teams hitting it big these days and the ones atrophying and folding. The difference is how you talk about what you’re building… and also what that product is meant to do.

Credit where credit is due, the Red Wings are doing a great job pulling in a cross section of Rochester’s little piece of humanity. The Rochester Rhinos on the other hand are in dire straights right now in large part because of the push they made for MLS in the early 2000s. Crowds packed Frontier Field and even Sahlen’s Stadium in its early days because we all wanted to be a part of the first Rochester sports team going top-flight since the early 1950s; not to mention they were just a really friggin good team back then! When that didn’t happen, the crowds dispersed. The Rochester Americans were world-beaters for four decades before they fell off the banner-raising beat, and the crowds have been tepid in the years since. These two teams are a case study in what’s going on in Rochester sports: failed expectations and a lot of them. Failed expectations lead to mediocre interest which leads to lack of coverage which leads to poor recruitment of young, new fans. It becomes a vicious cycle.

You have to be what you tell you’re fans you are going to be. Of course, I don’t fault the Rhinos for not making MLS nor do I fault the Amerks for not winning three championships a decade like they did fifty years ago but the point remains the same: tell the people what they’re getting and get them excited about that. To the Rochester Americans’ credit, they’ve bounced back to some degree. Crowds can be slim some nights but for the most part the averages have returned to an acceptable level. The Rhinos have not had the same recovery but there is potential for them to do so. There is more to this than butts-in-seats though, right? Yes, the king of Rochester Sports teams has this next part nailed down – and that’s kind of funny considering they’re the oldest club in the City.

The aforementioned Rochester Red Wings Baseball Club, or at least their marketing department, has a handle on something Rochester teams have been struggling to catch up with: online engagement. That may seem of negligible importance but that’s why I made the attendance/expectations point first. The Red Wings have put on a master class in how to keep your supporters thinking about your team even when its not playing. Two years ago, the Red Wings did a brilliant promotion focused on Rochester that is uniquely baseball but still something to be emulated: The Rochester Plates! So, if you’re not familiar with Rochester, there is this dish called the garbage plate. There is a number of foods that can go on a garbage plate but nonetheless its one of those things that makes Rochester unique and as a born and raised Rochesterian I will defend the dish to my last breath! The Red Wings, Rochester’s oldest professional team of any kind, made several promotional nights, jerseys and a whole line of merchandise out of the Plates. It was just a chef’s kiss, brilliant!

That kind of thing emphasizes the uniqueness of a town and local fans love to get behind it. You cheer for where you’re from and garbage plates are where I’m from. That is the sports marketing of the future. The Rochester Americans have caught on and added more themed nights and promotions that really scream Rochester. I could do without the Blue Collar Built tagline, but beggars can’t be choosers. Speaking of the future, I would be remised to not bring up the third piece here that needs to be said: the changing way sports teams are covered. This one is going to be a little bit meaner so bear with me because I think this is a conversation we need to have. While some folks have complained about how no one leaves their houses anymore because of how many entertainment options are out their Soccer Sam Fantauzzo, the same guy who yells about pizza for a living, managed to pull 3000+ into the Dome Arena this past winter for… wait for it… indoor soccer! The local maestro of vaguely irritating promotions got 3000 men, women and children to leave their homes in the dead of winter, at night, to drive down to Henrietta for indoor soccer. Nothing against indoor soccer but the argument no one will consume local sports anymore doesn’t hold water. Period. It doesn’t. I say that as preface to what I’m about to say.

The Democrat and Chronicle abandoning Pro Sports coverage is shameful. A handful of writers at that paper have defended their dramatic pairing down of all local Pro Sports coverage online for the most legitimate reason anyone arguing with nameless twitter eggs can: money. Apparently the coverage of the Red Wings, Americans and Rhinos just wasn’t getting the clicks and therefore wasn’t lucrative enough for ad revenue. That would be a great argument if it weren’t so lazy. Before I go off listing the numerous sports blogs that are growing into lucrative businesses just in upstate New York, it’s worth pointing out priorities. The guys I’m grilling at the D&C right now are probably facing cuts no matter what. I’d rather that paper cut sports than something far more important like investigative journalism. That’s actually important in the real world so let me just place that disclaimer. However, this is a sports blog and not covering sports in this City, arguably the best minor sports City in America, is pretty awful.

What makes it so awful is the trend it sets. After the D&C gave up you could see the other local print sources and local broadcast networks pair down as well. In spite of print media’s decline nationwide, the sports section in most towns still has some power of influence in local media. Before Jeff DiVeronica left the D&C last year he was really making headway in my personal opinion with D&C Digital and the video pieces he was putting out. I don’t know the numbers, I didn’t see what they were doing in ad revenue, I’m not going to pretend I know the financially sustainability of that; but the vast strata of sports blogs arising from every corner of the sports world these days leads me to believe it can be done and excuses shouldn’t be made when it’s not getting done in a City as sports-hungry as Rochester, New York. Remember what we said at the beginning: blaming the fans is the kiss of death.

Those are my three points: a generational shift, a marketing shift and a coverage collapse. If there is something wrong with Rochester Sports there are probably a million little factors we can discuss but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I’m not writing a burn book; this article is meant to point out shortcomings as a means to growth but if you have something to talk about on this topic I genuinely want to hear from you. I hear a lot of anger when it comes to Rochester Sports and I don’t quite know why. If there was going to be a fourth item on this list anger might be it because holy crap when you say anything about this City in a public setting it seems like hordes of angry folks come yelling. If you have something to say about this please say it to me in a non-angry way. That’s a lot more helpful in having a productive conversation. If you do say it me angrily, well hey, it means you care and that would make two of us.

[robdwebster]

Stuff of the year, 2018

"Mum, look! He's shitting out the thing again!"

Game of the year:

Two Point Hospital

Celeste

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I dragged my feet on a lot of cool games this year. I didn't play Smash Bros. until the last week of the year, and got round to Celeste on NYD 2019! Smash is an unremarkable triumph - it is exactly the game I expected, but it's so good and there's so much of it that it was easily the best Switch game this year. Celeste is more interesting; brutal, but kind to the player, with a cracking soundtrack and some magical design. It gains a lot of points for being about something - that punishing difficulty makes you feel like you’re really climbing a mountain, and the frank way it discusses mental health is really phenomenal.

But Two Point Hospital - man! Like Sonic Mania last year, Two Point Hospital is a spiritual sequel to one of my favourite childhood games. Unlike Sonic Mania, it's not perfectly realised. I'm still not a big fan of the art-style, and there were some genuine balance / difficulty issues at launch affecting things like queue length and patient AI. That said, this game has had a ludicrous half life. I love the challenge, I love the mechanics, I love that it's easy to pick up but tricky to master. I love its tone, I love its sense of humour, and some 140 hours in I still don't feel like I'm done enjoying it. Just wonderful.

Other games I liked: Bomb Chicken, Donut County, Fallout 76, Graveyard Keeper, Jackbox Party Pack 5, Nintendo Labo, Pokémon Let's Go!

Album of the year:

Gorillaz - The Now Now

Muse - Simulation Theory

Gesu no Kiwami Otome - Suki nara Towanai

Hey! A year where I loved more than three albums!

It's nice to have a new band in the top three; I'd never heard of Gesu no Kiwami Otome before this year, but their new album is great. It's even nicer that Muse's long-awaited new album is actually good! I pre-ordered it reluctantly, fully expecting it to be mediocre, but Simulation Theory is a dorky, retro joy. Best of all is that Gorillaz have released two albums-of-the-year in a row! The Now Now was a chilled out treat, the perfect record for a lazy summer evening. Or a winter evening. Or whenever, really. Just play it. It’s grand.

Other albums I liked: A Perfect Circle - Eat the Elephant, Kero Kero Bonito - Time 'n' Place, Polkadot Stingray - Ichidaiji

TV of the year:

James Acaster: Repertoire

Orange is the New Black

Aggretsuko

This year has been ridiculous for brilliant television, and there is so much that it's killing me not to include. Last year's winner Taskmaster aired one of its best ever series, but a more uneven run at the start of the year plus stiff competition kept it out of the top three. King of Bots is Chinese Robot Wars, it is berserk, and it has an even more berserk spin-off show - both of which I’ve omitted!

But, three shows that nailed it. Aggretsuko, with its charming characters and acerbic office satire. Orange is the New Black, which has no business being in such rude health after six seasons. James Acaster's four (four!) interlinked stand-up specials. Hard-earned!

Other shows I liked: Bojack Horseman, Derren Brown: The Jump, Disenchantment, Hilda, Inside No. 9, King of Bots, Taskmaster, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Horne Section Television Programme, The Mash Report, This is Fighting Robots, Who is America

Film of the year:

The Shape of Water

Isle of Dogs

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

I'm usually a bit sniffy about Oscar nominees - I always expect them to be worthy snorefests about how tragic life is. Maybe my tastes are changing, maybe I misjudged them - or maybe this year just happened to be a belter, but last year's Best Picture nominees were superb! I watched four out of the nine, and am gutted to have missed two more. Two of them were released this year in the UK, and are therefore eligible for this blog: The Shape of Water, which is beautiful, romantic, and turns the cold war into a romantic fantasy without sanding off its rough edges, and the morally grey but socially conscious Three Billboards.

Meanwhile, Isle of Dogs wasn’t nominated for any awards, but it was about some nice dogs, so that’s still good for second place.

Other films I liked: Mary and the Witch's Flower, Ready Player One

Podcasts of the year:

FiveThirtyEight Politics

Reply All

Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonalds?

Temptation is to try and make these lists different every year, but when Reply All and FiveThirtyEight keep nailing it, what else can you do? Reply All did have a slightly more muted year, mostly due to behind-the-scenes stuff, but earns its placement with The Snapchat Thief alone.

The sole newcomer in this list is Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonalds, an investigative journalism programme (or IJP) that isn't afraid to ask the big questions. Mainly, whatever happened to pizza at McDonalds?

Other podcasts I liked: Adam Buxton Podcast, All Killa No Filla, Everything is Alive, Hello Internet, Kermode & Mayo Film Review, Lovett or Leave It, My Dad Wrote a Porno, Oh No! Ross and Carrie, Off Menu, Pod Save America, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, Secret Dinosaur Cult, So You Think You're Smart, The Horne Section Podcast

Gig of the year:

Gein's Family Giftshop, vol. III

I only went to a couple of gigs this year - all of which were good, but I wanted to give Gein's Family Giftshop a special mention.

GFG were already my favourite live comedy act - they perform as a three-person sketch group, a sublime blend of the crude, the audacious and nihilistic. They are fucking phenomenal; I've linked to one of their YouTube sketches above but it's only a tenth as good as the live show.

Anyway, when they played in Bristol, their third member had tonsillitis. Rather than cancel the show, Kath and Ed performed the whole show on their own, and stormed it! Live shows are always best when they feel spontaneous - the danger of knowing anything could go wrong (and to an extent already had!) adds an electricity to a room. Watching it all go right is even better! I laughed so much - one of those events where you just had to be there, and I'm so chuffed that I was.

Stuff of yesteryear:

Gesu no Kiwami Otome - Odorenai nara, Gesu ni Natte Shimae yo (album)

Arrival (film)

Nier: Automata (video game)

My annual category for “stuff that wasn’t released this year but I enjoyed checking out.” Nier: Automata was the right kind of ludicrous - full of batshit ideas. Arrival was a more low-key brand of batshit, but still incredibly inventive and oddly optimistic - one of those films where you emerge from the cinema and the world feels a little bit different.

But only one of these moved me to blog. Click here to read me very excitedly discovering Gesu no Kiwami Otome, back in May. The listed EP is the best, but you can’t go wrong anywhere.

Other parties I enjoyed arriving late to:

Games: Bayonetta 2, Cities: Skylines, DmC: Devil May Cry, Dishonored 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, Overcooked, Superhot

Books: Everybody Lies, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, The Humans, The Signal and the Noise

Films: Ex Machina, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Kubo and the Two Strings

Bands: Polkadot Stingray

Single of the year:

Gorillaz - Tranz

Muse - Pressure

Gesu no Kiwami Otome - Onna wa Kawaru

I don’t really like this category because there’s a lot of crossover with album of the year, but it’s a pretext to post the Pressure music video, so... shrug!

It also means I can give Dream Theater and The Constellations honourable mentions even though they didn’t release full albums this year. Well done Dream Theater and The Constellations. I liked your nice songs.

Other songs I liked: Dream Theater - Untethered Angel, Kero Kero Bonito - Make Believe, Kero Kero Bonito - Dreams of Oneonta

DLC of the year:

Octo Expansion

Bigfoot

Sonic Mania Plus

Considering it's been my favourite home console franchise since the day it was released, I have given Splatoon short shrift in end-of-year roundups, picking Fallout 4 as my number one game in 2015 and Sonic Mania in 2017.

I don't regret either of those picks, but I'm delighted that Splatoon finally gets to run away with a number one placing this year. The Octo Expansion is incredible value for money, a more-is-more single player campaign with playable octolings at the end - the team nailed it. Phenomenal stuff.

Person of the year:

I did this last year, right? But everyone’s been so terrible this year!

Who did I choose last year? Rilakkuma? Fine - keep the crown, RK. No public figure has been better than a lazy cartoon bear. It’s yours indefinitely, until the world gets good again.

[nzingaain]

I have been on a hiatus, I haven’t felt like writing, Even when I DID feel like writing I couldn’t muster up the motivation to get started…I just haven’t been present in almost half a year… But I’m back, yay! And I recently had my 23rd birthday (recently as in April lol) and for that birthday I decided I wanted to travel. Settling on Havana, Cuba… here’s how it happened.

The Decision Process

I just took, the best birthday trip I have ever experienced. Months before my birthday I knew I wanted to go somewhere, and it was largely based off price on where I decided to go. My criteria for picking a place was:

Warm

Out of the country

Under $500 round trip

Easy to get there and back AND experience things within a week

So. Some of the places I was looking at were Paris, Tokyo, Mexico, Cuba and Hawaii.

Paris was excluded because of the political unrest going on there, also price. Tickets to paris were about 500-600 roundtrip.

Tokyo was excluded because of price and how long it takes to get there. (I don’t even know why I thought it would be an option).

Mexico was in. Cuba was in.

And Hawaii was a little bit too expensive (plus technically not out of the country).

I settled on Cuba over Mexico because, well honestly it was cheaper. I was surprised how cheap it was to get to Cuba. The tickets were only $240 roundtrip. PLUS the ones I chose included an overnight in Panama and then an eight-hour layover on the way back in Panama.

So I was sold. For reasons unbeknownst to me I’ve always had a strange obsession with Panama and I was really excited to be there, even if it was only for a day or two.

And luckily my borfriend was all in to go, so I had the perfect travelbuddy! ❤

Getting Into the Country

As I’m sure you know, it’s way more difficult for Americans to get to Cuba than it was when we had our beloved Obama as president. But to be honest it isn’t very hard at all.

I entirely overthought and overworried while planning my trip. I read all these blogs that said I needed x, y and z in order to make it in. They said that customs would interrogate me and that my itinerary needed to be flawless and blahblahblah. It isn’t true. I do have some tips for making it in and out smoothly (and cheaply).

Unless you happen to live in Miami, you probably will need more than one flight to make it into Cuba. I strongly suggest that you take a flight from your homecity to another city in Central/South America and then fly into Cuba from there.

This is mainly becausee to get a visa to enter the country from America is doubly more expensive and complicated than getting one from practically anywhere else.

American visas to Cuba are $80 + shipping and handling fees.

My visa to Cuba from Panama was only $20 dollars and they just gave it to me as I boarded my flight to Cuba.

It’s said that you need Cuban traveling insurance, and for some people this is true. You get this when you land in Cuba before exiting customs. However, when I brought it up to the Cuban custom officers they said I was fine and didn’t need it.

To be honest it appeared they said that because of my age, older travellers they tend to make you get it. If you’re in doubt and don’t want to spend the money (it’s apparently $7/day more or less) just wait till you’re almost out of customs and ask them if you need to go buy it or not. They’ll be sure to let you know.

And  honestly that’s it! I made a very loose itinerary, I didn’t stick to it, and not a single person asked me about it on the way there or back.

Panama City, Panama

My first stop on the trip was Panama City. (But honestly it was just the Tocumen/Panama City Airport and the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel).

It was a lovely hotel. It ran at about $70/night and the amenities were amazing!

https://riandehoteles.com/en/aeropuerto/amenities/

They had a free shuttle that ran every 30mins from the airport to the hotel. There was paintball, multiple pools, free breakfast buffet, bars, restaurants, a spa, a boutique, a casino AND it was entirely pet-friendly.

Alas I didn’t bring my pet bunny…

My Pet Giant Flemish Rabbit

But I don’t think he would have liked the heat anyways. Plus my parents said he really enjoyed the stay at my housee… I question the truth of that statement (my parents have a cat that dislikes him and a dog that refuses to let him do ANYTHING in peace) but he’s back home and happy again regardless!

My favorite part of the hotel was the outdoors restaurant, the bar (lol), and the giant chessboard by the pool!

Our stay at the hotel was short and sweet. The rooms were nice and airconditioned, the bathroom was pretty amazing (hello rainfall showerhead) and the food was good overall!

Tip: I highly suggest you try their bbq grill platter for dinner, it feeds two easily and  it was so delicious I wish I could go back tonight and have some more…

Havana, Cuba

Cuba was amazing. As soon as I set foot into our Airbnb I felt like I was at home. The food, music, living quuarters, people, pretty much everything except the language reminded me of my haitian family in Miami. It was entirely natural being there and I would go back in a heartbeat given the opportunity.

Our Airbnb host was Helmo and his mother. They were so super helpful and sweet and I would absolutely stay with them again and recommend people to them for any travels to Havana.

Their Airbnb was in the neighborhood of Vedado, so not in the heart of Old Havana or Central Havana but instead 10-15mins away by the sea. It had a King sized bed, a nicely sized bathroom, a kitchen and eating area as well as a living room and balcony.

The balcony was our favorite spot in the apartment. We eneded every night on there and started most of our morning up there as well.

Helmo’s mother made us breakfast every morning at $5/person. Totalling to $10/day and $30 for the entire stay (Wednesday morning we overslept and ended up skipping breakfast and Friday morning we left very early for the airport and decided to forgo breakfast).

Her breakfast was AMAZING. If I could have packed her up and kept her with me forever and learned all her cooking recipes I would have. Alas, she only spoke Spanish and my Spanish is so slow and painful we didn’t get to communicate much outside of me thanking her everyday and her telling us breakfast was ready.

Each day was packed with things to do. It WAS some months ago, so I’ll try my best to remember everything. But forgive me if I miss some things.

Day One

We got into Havana around 8pm and made it to our Airbnb by 9ish. They gave us a tour of the house and then recommended Karma for dinner.

I ADORED KARMA.

We went back there literally everyother night for dinner. Their food was impeccable, their prices were great and their flan!!! Omg. I didn’t even know I liked flan. It turns out I love flan. Especially theirs.

Tip: their mojitos are great and only $2…be careful. I definitely had one or two too many and lived to regret it.

This was the night going into my birthday. I actually almost died that night (don’t tell my parents).

The story is… I was drunk (remember those mojitos I was talking about) and Thaddeus and I walked to the sea to get a look at it. I saw this 500 Habana sign and decided I should take a picture by it and… well underneath it was a very large gap that fell into the highway. And right before it was a large, but hidden, metal bar.

I tripped on that metal bar and almost fell into the gap… Luckily I grabbed onto the sign last minute and managed not to kill myself three minutes into my 23rd birthday.

Here is the photo evidence.

Habana Sign….Almost died getting this photo

Shortly after we headed over to a club, but didn’t go inside. This is where we experience our first attempt at being scammed.

My lovely, friendly, sweet boyfriend cannot resist talking to everyone he meets. Regardless of me telling him that people in Cuba are out to scam the tourists and that we just have to walk away if we hear any of the classic scamming schemes.

The one that night was the “it’s my birthday buy us all drinks!” scam. And they were entirely thrown off by the fact that it was ALSO MY BIRTHDAY.

They almost lost face until they decided to take it into stride and say “even more reason for us all to get drinks! Yay!” And then the woman tried to kiss my boyfriend and then hug me. At that point I was naturally entirely done with the situation and I grabbed him and pulled the both of us away from her.

Right after a cab driver tried to insist on taking us home…which we  nicely declined because our Airbnb was just a few blocks away.

Ending the night we tried to go to sleep but those mojitos said no and I threw up for a good chunk of the night. Oh well.

Day Two

We started the day with breakfast, and then had an 8hr tour of Havana, Cuba. And omg it was so packed.

The tour whipped back and forth between Verdado, Central Havana and Skirted through Old Havana.

There was actually an hour of the tour we decided to skip, which was a walking tour through Old Havana at the end. But I was so tired by the time we got to it I asked to just go home instead and we did the walking tour on our own Wednesday.

Our tour guide was Julio and he was so kind, so well-informed and just a pleasure to be around for 8+ hours two days in a row!

Day Three

We spent all of Tuesday in Viñales.

It. Was. Beautiful.

The scenery was so gorgeous it felt unreal. I looked at the photos after and could only believe I took them because I experienced it.

The drive up to Viñales was about 3 hours. Half an hour in Havana, two hours on the highway and then another half hour or so on country roads.

While we’re speaking about roads, I saw a lot of blog posts before I went saying how their road are in terrible condition and bumpy and awful. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. Their roads are literally the same as ours. If anything better than Chicago’s at least because they don’t have many potholes since they don’t experience Winter.

The only reason the roads feel rough at all is because the cars are old. The newer cars they have there (sometimes we took a taxi or coconut-cab) I didn’t feel a single bump or rough ride. But the older cars, the ones you see in the photos and wonder at, those simply don’t have the shocks and mechanics put into place to have a smooth ride. It’s as simple as that.

If you want to experience a non-bumpy car ride then take a newer car. If you want to get a true Havana (tourist) experience and be in the cars from the 50’s then stop complaining about the bumps because that’s a part of the ride.

Also, speaking on the cars, the EXHAUST omg. I couldn’t breathe while on busy city streets if I was in the backseat of the car. The exhuast is just so much more potent than what I’m used to from modern day cars.

I eventually got used to it/stopped sitting in the backseat and opening windows. But wow that first day or two was rough. It literally made me nauseous.

Okay. Back to Viñales.

 Our daytrip was to a family-owned tobacco farm, where we would learn the cigar making process as well as ride horses and attempt to pet goats! The family was very upfront and transparent about their tobacco making secrets. I won’t spill them past saying each farm in Cuba has their own special recipe for boiling the tobacco leaves. And that secret recipe is how you get different flavors and smells when smoking a cigar.

I am not really a smoker. But I did have a few puffs of one of the freshly-rolled cigars! They dipped it into their own home-made (bee-made…whatever) honey and IT. WAS. AMAZING. Really I think I just liked tasting the honey more than smoking the cigar.

Viñales was a whole day of trip. By the time we got back I don’t think we did much more than find some dinner and head home.

Day Four

We took a day out into the city! We went to the marketplace area of Havana (that was the walking part of the tour that we missed on my birthday because I was too overwhelmed). And I adored it. Blocks and blocks of little shops with art and food and books and just anything you could ever want.

Our little coconut cab dropped us outside of the square and we walked for probably hours up and down.

I think the best part of Cuba was that as long as we were quiet and didn’t speak English we were mistaken as Cubans. Which, as a tourist, is great. However, as soon as we spoke Cubans would immediately try to sell us things or tell us stories to get us to give them money. So do keep in mind, you will lose all your money and be scammed into many things if you’re too naive as a tourist there (as a tourist anywhere if we’re being truthful).

We ended the day at Karma again. More flan, more mojitos. No throwing up this time.

Day Five

The last day. We turned it into a beach day and it was fantastic.

The beaches are about 45-60mins outside of the city. I suggest getting a shared car there because the ride will be faster than the bus, but much cheaper than getting your own taxi.

This best way to get a shared ride is to go to the bus that heads to the beach then find a taxi driver (or let them find you) and he’ll offer you a price of 10ish dollars per person if he has a full car. Which is a great deal for him but an even better deal for you, because it includes both ways.

DO NOT miss the time to get back if you do get a shared driver though. Because you WILL be stuck at the beach. The bus stop drops you off about a half mile from the beach and there will be no choice but to walk that walk if you want to get home. Plus the buses stop running fairly early… so be careful.

We didn’t miss our driver, but two girls we went down with did.

At the beach it’s almost like a summer beach-house town. There are restaurants and bars and shops but it all is rather relaxed with a “no pressure” vibe. The restaurants are expensive in comparison to the rest of the city,, but do give generous amounts of food. They will even bring food to you on the beach!

The bar is rather cheap, and the drinks are delicious (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

Pro tip: BRING SUNSCREEN!! And I don’t just mean to the beach. I mean to Cuba. They don’t have ANY in the country. It is not for sale there you cannot get it.

I give you that tip because I got BURNT. And then I got red. And then I peeled. And it hurt. It was not plesant at all. Just remember to pack sunscreen.

The next day

At the crack of dawn (before dawn truly) we left! Our AirBnb host set up the taxi for us and it was a quick hop over to the airport.

A favorite trip of mine. Especially now that I have been to another island (be on the look out for my post on Jamaica). And I honestly would love to go back… If only w could get rid of Trump then maybe I’ll be able to 🤷🏽‍♀️

    Birthday In Cuba (plus Panama!) I have been on a hiatus, I haven't felt like writing, Even when I DID feel like writing I couldn't muster up the motivation to get started...I just haven't been present in almost half a year...

[namastayinbedthanks]

It’s the blog post that no one asked for, but everyone gets. I’m gonna list of some of the better moments from this year’s Olympics. There were a lot of amazing wins and a ton of history-making moments. There were also a ton of mishaps like Jackson/Timberlake wardrobe malfunctions, bully skaters, poor sports, and Russians doping for curling. (Drugs for curling though. Wowzers, amiright?)  However, unless I find those bad things to be funny, then I probably won’t list them. Let’s focus on the good, huh?

Most of you know that I really don’t like sports and know nothing about them. So why did Annie watch sports every day, all day, for a month, you ask? My dear father answered that perfectly: “You like to binge watch shows. So you binge sports for a month and then you don’t need to see any more sports for another two years.” Yep, that’s real. The Olympics are particularly fun because I go into them with practically zero knowledge of most of the sports or athletes and I come out crying over everyone’s stories and can rant off fun facts for a good ten minutes about figure skating jumps.

Not to mention the fact that the Winter Olympics are completely psychotic. Whose mum let these kids launch themselves over a hundred meters in the air down a mountain or rocket down a track going 80 miles an hour in a sled? It’s a competition of the stupid stuff people do, and I love it.

Let’s do this. First. The gems of the Games, I like to call: Unauthorized Bois™️

There was the streaker in the tutu, just trying to spread Peace+Love, and then the unauthorized man that snuck onto the Opening Ceremony stage, not once but twice. It begs the question…Who’s in charge of security there?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Snowboarding

First of all, Chloe Kim. Let’s talk about this amazing girl. She won Gold for Team USA, as the youngest woman to win a snowboarding medal in half-pipe. Being a 17-year-old girl, she didn’t want to cry after winning because she worked so hard on her eyeliner and posted these tweets IN BETWEEN HER RUNS.

A blessing to this world. Next, we have the greatest team in snowboarding. The Finnish team aka Team Knitting. They were caught doing their favorite pastime back in Sochi and stepped up their game this year. The cameras caught their coach nonchalantly knitting while sending his boarders down the slope. It was shared later that it is not just the coach that does it but the whole team gets together and knits and is currently knitting a blanket for their president’s newborn son. IS THAT NOT ADORABLE?! I wanna be Finnish. 🇫🇮💙

And of course, the pride and joy of America. The swearing 17-year-old boy who binge-watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine the night before his run causing him to oversleep, borrow someone else’s jacket, and win USA’s first Gold of the season after starting in last.

Disclaimer: No, I will not be talking about Shaun White. He’s out, man. I’d say to move over for Red and Chloe, but they pushed him out with their skills all on their own, son.

Bobsledding You know what it issssss. Bobsledding, the second best Winter Games sport. (Fight me if you disagree, have you not seen Cool Runnings??)

And you can bet I’m gonna talk about the two greatest bobsled teams. Because the Olympics are more than just winning medals. ✌🏻

The Jamaican Bobsled Team, Women’s Edition: It was history in the making as the first female bobsled team from Jamaican made their debut this year. There was a ton of scandal around it because their coach quit while they were AT the games, and took away their sled. But! In the true spirit of the Olympics, Red Stripe (the beer company) bought them a brand new sled so they could continue to compete. 🙌🏻 Bonus: They danced it out during the Opening Ceremony with no cares. #Respect

The Nigerian Bobsled Team: Okay. These ladies are my favorite of the whole year and all events. Made up of runners, these women from Nigeria decided to become not only the first women’s team from Nigeria, and not just the first bobsled team from Nigeria in general, but also the first bobsled team from AFRICA. Mmmhmmm. These ladies rule. They built a homemade wooden bobsled and started a Gofundme account that had the whole world pitching in so they could make it to the Olympics. If that isn’t the meaning of the Olympics, then I don’t know what is? #CoolRunnings2

Figure Skating

Ahhh, yess. My favorite. Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue. We all love them. No one was surprised when they got Gold. Moving on.

Yuzuru Hanyu is also pretty obvious, but how can I not talk about him? Two consecutive Golds in a row. Beautiful. The poise. The style. I can’t. Since I could go on about his skills forever, I’m going to address how much of a drama king he was. Here Yuzu comes in like two days late with an ARMY of bodyguards like some suave mob boss and stole all the media’s attention while simultaneously hardly talking to anyone at all. THEN after having a huge media blackout prior to the Games, he shows up late at night to practice with every camera in the country watching him and does like two simple jumps, bows, and walks off without saying anything. What a guy. Even with all this, he was still the sweetest person ever, so at least he’s not mean about being the Olympic King.

My mood: Nathan Chen walking towards the women’s bathroom on accident on live television. This kid. 🤣 Nathan Chen didn’t medal, but he made so many records that he’s still a winner. Completing INSANE tricks that had never bee done before, he blew away the world with his quad jumps. However, and I may get flack for it, I am glad he didn’t win anything yet (it’ll come) because he’s so young and I’d hate for him to get cocky over it. He’s got plenty of time to master ALL of the parts to figure skating and not just the quad flips.

Bonus Favorites

-The Rio-famous Tongan in the Opening Ceremony who learned how to ski just so he could go to the Winter Olympics, oil up and carry his nation’s flag shirtless in negative degree weather. Boy, you crazy.

-Doubles Luge became a sport this year (why?!) and right before two men shot down an icy slope whilst laying on top of each other, one man looked at the camera and shouted, “Risk it for the biscuit, baby!”

-Some teams represented with SUPER DOPE outfits including the alpine skiers from Mexico, and the Norwegian curling team.

  What a time to be alive. I loved it all. Now I’m good until the summer Olympics.

*insert cheeky peace sign* ✌🏻 Bless.

              Winter Olympics 2018 It's the blog post that no one asked for, but everyone gets. I'm gonna list of some of the better moments from this year's Olympics.

[talesfromafork]

In August 2016, I went to South Korea for two weeks and loved it, which came to me at a surprise. Despite my entire family being from Korea, I never had a desire to go there until my husband suggested we go to learn more about a culture, and of course, I’m glad he did! We went to Seoul, Busan, and Jeju Island where we indulged in lots of eating, hiking, and exploring. Check out what we did, and as a result, the nine reasons you should go to South Korea in 2018!

– Pin now! Read later. –

Eating Lots of Delicious Food

The main reason we went to South Korea is to eat! Well, I guess that’s the main reason I go to any country. From $5 meals at the market to $150 tasting menus, Seoul itself has a wide array of foods to try for any palate. It has everything for meat eaters, vegetarians, and especially dessert lovers so don’t shy away from this seemingly foreign cuisine.

One of the best things about the food scene here is that there is street food everywhere so you don’t need to even think about breaking the bank to enjoy the local food! So when you’re not sure what to eat, just walk around randomly until you hit a street cart, and try out whatever you see next.

Immersing Yourself in Street Art at Gamcheon Culture Village

I absolutely love the story behind this village in Busan. In the 1950s, about a million refugees fleed to Busan to find relative safety from the Korean War. Of those million refugees, about 4,000 began to build their homes in the Gamcheon making homes out of scrap iron, wood, and rocks. Overtime, a man named Choi-je Cho helped build up the village into the solid concrete homes there you see today. Still, this area was known as one of the poorest areas of Busan until the early 2000s when the Dreaming of Machu Picchu in Busan project started. Artists painted the city and installed art projects throughout the city, which now attracts thousands of tourists daily making this a prosperous village.

It’s worth coming to this city to see how much it has grown. It’s quite inspiring! If anything, you should definitely come for its many photo opportunities for Instagram.

Pro Tip: Make sure to come early as possible on a sunny day because starting at about 10-11AM, there will be huge flock of tourists everywhere.

If you feel more comfortable on an organized, this package brings you here and most places I mention in this post in a one week trip around Korea.

Hiking the Fortress Wall Surrounding Seoul

Photo via Flickr by Gaël Chardon

If you love hiking and cities and don’t want to choose between the two, you don’t have to in Seoul because the city is surrounded by its ancient city wall that connect four mountains. I didn’t get a chance to do this because of my fibromyalgia, but my husband did it and got spectacular views of the city.

All in all, the entire hike is 18.6km (11.5 miles) but the wall is split into four courses so you can pick and choose the amount of time and energy you want to spend hiking!

Watch the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

In February 2018, the ever-exciting Winter Olympics will be held in PyeongChang, South Korea! You can see the best athletes of the world compete in a biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating, and skiing. If you’re going to be in Korea for the Olympics, might as well check out Seoul and Jeju while you’re there.

Go to sites like the Gyeongbok Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, and Tongin Market in Seoul and Jusangjeolli Cliff, Seongsan Ilchulbong sunrise peak, and Majanggul Cave in Jeju just to name a few with Pacific Holidays. Check out the package here.

Relish in the Past at Bukchon Hanok Village

Taken with a Sony A6000

Bukchon Hanok Village, a UNESCO Award of Distinction honoree, is a village that lies in the Northern part of Seoul and definitely worth a visit as it’ll bring you back 600 years in time when Seoul was ruled by the Joseon Dynasty. In contrast to the ultra modern Seoul you know of today, you’ll get to experience a neighborhood where noble families and high-ranking officials once lived.

If you want to really get into it, you can rent a hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) to walk around and take photos! But if you want free entrance into one of the palaces, then save your hanbok rental time for that. You’ll find out why in the next reason to go to Korea.

Experience Royal Life at Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) Palace

Gyeongbokgung Palace is one of the five grand palaces in Seoul. We chose this palace out of all the palaces since it’s the first palace to be built by King Taejo in 1395 and the largest and main one.

Pro Tip: If you wear a hanbok to the palace, your entrance fee is waived! A hanbok rental is about $15-20 for the day depending where you go. If you walk around the palace, you’ll find a ton of places that rent hanboks.

Unlike other cultures, it is not inappropriate to wear a traditional outfit even though you are not Korean. Koreans welcome foreigners wearing hanboks and love to see their colorful traditional clothing worn by all. Don’t be shy!

Already convinced that you should go to South Korea in 2018? Check out this one week package including airfare that goes to Seoul, GyeongJu, and Busan by Pacific Holidays. It includes most places I mention in this blog post and personally went to.

See the Beauty of Cherry Blossom Festivals

Photo via Unsplash by Timothy Ries

From March to May, South Korea is enveloped in beautiful cherry blossoms everywhere. You can see them as you go about your normal tourist activities, or you can join in on the fun at cherry blossom festivals, tunnels, and parties throughout South Korea.

Find Peace at Jogyesa Temple (조계사)

Taken with a Sony A6000

Jogyesa Temple is the main temple of Seoul and the center of Korean Buddhism. As the head temple of the Joyge order, it’s the main venue for Buddhist events, rituals, and ceremonies throughout the year.

We came here to walk around and enjoy the many beautiful lotus flowers. Mike and I even sat inside the temple for a few minutes to meditate and a moment of respite from the busy city life of Seoul.

Beautify Yourself in the MyeongDong District

Photo via Flickr by Doug Sun Beams

MyeongDong is one of the main shopping districts in Seoul and the first place any tourist can think of when they want the top beauty products of South Korea. It’s no surprise as 1 million shoppers are in this neighborhood alone daily!

I’m not big on beauty products but because of the great products and prices, not to mention free samples, I made sure to stop by this neighborhood to stock up on products for the next year. I also made a stop by Myeongdong Kyoja for one of my favorite Korean noodle soups, Kalguksu, from childhood, and dumplings!

Brands to Watch Out For: Some brands of beauty products I like are the Face Shop, Etude House (for more inexpensive but still good quality items), Skinfood, and Too Cool for School, but really, they’re all good. Just walk in and out of the stores, and test the products out to see what works best for you.

Pro Tip: Most of these shops are tax-free, but if it’s not, make sure to get a receipt to get a tax refund at the airport.

Doesn’t Korea sound like the complete package for food, nature, and history? Take it from me, and book a trip to Korea now! It’ll be a trip of a lifetime.

If you book a trip to Korea and have any questions, feel free to reach out to me via Facebook. Thanks for stopping by! xo.

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9 Reasons to Go to South Korea in 2018 In August 2016, I went to South Korea for two weeks and loved it, which came to me at a surprise.

[cilla44]

If you haven’t read my blog on how I got to Finland you can read it here. There’s a lot to cover so I’m just gonna jump right in.

We officially landed in Helsinki on June 29th at 11pm after a 2 hour flight from Stockholm (there’s a 1 hour difference between the two countries.) The first time I experienced someone not acknowledging me when I spoke to them was when we asked how to best get to our hostel at the information desk at the airport. The guy that told us to take the bus kind of ignored me when I spoke to him and didn’t make eye-contact. It was a few minutes until our bus would arrive and my friend was hungry so she got something to eat at a Burger King at the airport. I bought a water but it was an unnecessary struggle. I literally had to repeat “1 water bottle” like 20 times before another person said “she wants a water bottle” to the cashier. He apologized, but it was really off-putting. I don’t have a strong accent and I’m especially cognizant when I’m speaking to someone that doesn’t speak English as their first language.

Anyways, we took the bus to our hostel that was a 30 minute ride away. We had to get off at Hattulantie, and I swear I said the name correctly (my friend had told him first too because I figured pretty quickly from my interactions at the airport that my appearance is off-putting to some people.) The bus driver understood us when we initially bought the ticket to Hattulantie, but when we asked him during the ride there he couldn’t understand us. I noticed during my stay that bus drivers don’t speak English well. Lucky for us a woman on the bus was getting off at our same stop so she helped us get to our hostel.

We were actually super lucky to meet this kind woman! She just got back to Helsinki from a tour around the world and was staying at our hostel for a night before she headed back to Lapland. She was super nice and friendly and walked with us to the hostel. She also called the hostel since we didn’t have a key or a code and helped us check in. Like she made sure that we were all settled in before she situated herself. We couldn’t thank her enough. We slept pretty late in the night and the sun literally never sets in Finland! We were tired though so it wasn’t hard to fall asleep the first day.

I brought a vegan protein bar & had a black coffee fyi

07:30 was my wake up call for Tuska Day 1. We got ready and headed out to Café Succès (it had high reviews so we went there of course) for breakfast. I think we just people watched for a while and took it easy until we headed out to Tuska around noon. We took the metro to Tuska and the metro is so simple it’s kind of ridiculous. We didn’t get lost at all finding our way to the abandoned factory area since there were a ton of metalheads on the metro as well. We just followed the sea of black and in no time we were there. Also metalheads are nice people IN CASE THE WORLD IN STILL IN THE DARK ABOUT OUR CULTURE

We got our Turbo VIP tickets and forgot that it included a bag with free merch. I said this on the breakdown post, but we got a Tuska tote bag, a Tuska sweatband, Tuska lanyard with the Turbo VIP pass, a magazine that featured all of the artists, a schedule, and 3 free meal tickets. When you walk into the festival, after security checks you, you’ll see a huge merch stand to the left. They only take cash though so we had to walk back to the metro and withdraw some. The only bands we wanted to see the first day were Anneke Van Giersbergen’s Vuur, Wintersun, and Sabaton so we didn’t miss anyone we had planned to see.

It was FREEZING cold (to a Texan/Californian) on the first day. I was literally shaking from the cold. The wind was SO GNARLY that we had to camp out in the VIP area a few times to avoid it. The VIP area has a covered dining area as well as a bar that’s covered. Also it’s own restroom which was super nice itself. I think we hung around the back of Anneke‘s set, ate burgers quickly (they had a vegan jackfruit burger option!) then ran off to see Wintersun’s set at the main stage.

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Wintersun 6/30 16:20-17:20

I didn’t get as close as I would’ve like to the stage for Wintersun, but the performance was still epic! I honestly never thought that I would ever see Wintersun play live (I’ve been a fan for about 5 years), so this experience was kind of surreal to me. It was hard for me to grasp that I was actually seeing them perform in person that I just stared throughout the whole concert basically. I lost it during some of their songs lol it’s so hard not to jam to “Beyond the Dark Sun” and definitely to “Sons of Winter and Stars.” I loved the band’s synergy. I didn’t know what to expect since they added an additional guitarist to the group, Asim, but their set flowed smoothly and their performance seemed very natural. Needless to say, Wintersun’s set got me stoked for the rest of Tuska! Also during the closing of their set Jari looked straight at me and gave me a power metal salute!! I was so far in the back that I didn’t think they could see me, although I did smile at Asim and Teemu while they were playing, but my friend turned to me and was like “DID YOU SEE THAT/DID THAT JUST HAPPEN!?” I was literally freaking out for a straight 10 minutes. Then we found out shortly after that they were having an autograph session later that night.

There were actually quite a lot of people in line for Wintersun’s autographs. Like I said before, I didn’t know the magnitude of a lot of these bands popularity until I visited their homelands. We waited so long that we sat down lol, and the line was moving pretty slowly because everyone wanted a goddamn selfie. They are all super nice and from the few minutes that I spent with them they seem really down to Earth and humble. I had a funny conversation with Jukka. I think he got bored while waiting for the line to move so he drew a “mushroom” in my friend’s autograph book. I asked him what it was & he said that it was supposed to be a mushroom. I told him that it looked like a cow. He was like “um no it’s a mushroom lol” so I asked him to draw something on my card. He thought about it for a while then scribbled something and called it a flamingo. I laughed at it because it kind of looked like a shape with a beak, but stopped making fun of him and moved on to Teemu. Teemu was polite. He asked me where I was from and if I was staying for the full 3 days of Tuska. Jari was probably the most grateful (?) out of the group. He shook my hand, signed my card, and told me thank you in like the best way possible (with hand motions and stuff à la Jari style.) Overall that band was dope before and they are super dope now. I actually can’t wait to meet them again!

Top left is Wintersun

I think in between sets we basically walked around. We visited the Inferno stage briefly (to shield ourselves from the cold tbh), the convenience store because my period decided it wanted me to experience THE MOST TUSKA out of anyone at that goddamn festival, but mostly the VIP area where I saw some random rockstars chillin’. I made eye-contact with Archie from Santa Cruz who was with Olli Herman from Reckless Love, but decided not to say hi to them because they were chillin with their  homeboys.

Eventually we walked to Insomnium because my friend knew of some of their songs and thought they were a good band. I was in so much pain from my period that I felt kind of high during their set. But from what I remember from my experience they play music that I would actively listen to. We were kind of at the back of the crowd so I couldn’t see the stage because #shortpeopleproblems

#shortpeopleprobs

We kind of saw Devin Townsend‘s set, but we listened to his/their (?) music before the festival and only dug a few songs. He had a straightforward sense of humor that was pretty hilarious.

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Sabaton 6/30 22:30-00:00

Sabaton was a big artist that we wanted to see that day. We literally stood for an hour at least before their set so that we could get as close to the stage as possible, and we ended up being 1 row from the gate to the left of the stage near Tommy. I went to see them in San Francisco not too long ago and I was excited to see the tank during their set, but they didn’t have it at the SF show. When they revealed everything for their Tuska set it was everything I wanted. They had a tank, visuals on the screen, confetti, and a wardrobe malfunction. It was SO FUN. The crowd knew all the songs and although the cadence/jokes of this set was basically a repeat of their SF show the volume of people genuinely enjoying their time made it so much more fun. We sung/screamed until we couldn’t anymore and jumped until we were sore. I was getting pretty tired towards the end of their set and Pär would look at me and smile every time I was fading away from fatigue lol I felt so bad but also your girl was hella tired. Sabaton is always a fun show to see and I recommend them to anyone that is looking for a new band to get into.

That night we arrived at our hostel around 1am, but I didn’t sleep until around 2am because I absolutely cannot fall asleep if I haven’t taken a shower beforehand. We met some girls who were also attending Tuska for all 3 days. They were from Poland and I forgot where else lol but they were pretty cool. The only not cool thing was that 1 girl snored like a TRAIN all night. Like it was so ridiculous that the girl sleeping in the bunk under me would get up in the middle of the night from frustration and kick that girl’s bed or wake her up to tell her to shut up lol

Here’s the schedule for day 1 (I didn’t get autograph times because they were randomly added throughout the day):

13:00 Gates open

14-14:45 Rotten Sound

14:15-14:45 Huora

14:45-15:35 Brother Firetribe

15:15-15:45 Kohti Tuhoa

15:35-16:20 Anneke Van Giersbergen’s Vuur

16:15-16:45 Ratface

14:20-17:20 Wintersun

17:15-18 Baptism

17:25-18:25 Brujeria

18:25-19:25 Suicidal Tendencies

18:30-19:15 Pekko Käppi

19:25-20:25 Insomnium

19:45-20:30 Barathrum

20:25-21:25 Devin Townsend Project

21-21:45 Trap Them

21:25-22:30 Mayhem

22:30-00 Sabaton

01:00 Gates Close

I’ll cover Tuska Day 2 in the next blog!

Later Sweethearts, Cilla

Tuska 2017: Tuska Day 1 If you haven't read my blog on how I got to Finland you can read it here…