#but I don’t focus on beefing up my shoe skills

[rosesncarnations]

Pray for me I still don’t know how to draw heeled boots

[maximumninjavoid]

Mining for Unobtanium ch 26

Is it 26? or 27? I don’t even recall anymore.... If Ive mis-numbered it, feck it.

Un beta’d we die like fresh veg under the unrelenting eye of Gordon Ramsey.

18 and over Puh Leeze, sex and adult themes and things. Lots of THINGS

I wanted to get to the house before he did and hoped he wouldn't give chase. I was going to try my best to remember what I required of those who had served me in the past, and replicate it. I tore through the door, toeing off my shoes and hanging up my jacket. I grabbed a Rosemary water from the fridge and found the appropriate glass. The house looked presentable, I ran my hands through my hair, and tilted the glass just so and started to pour. I could hear him coming up the steps. I slid to my knees ( Oh I was going to pay for THAT little flourish), sat on my heels, head down, glass above my head, balanced just so, and as he opened the door, there I was kneeling, with a well presented very chilled glass of what I knew to be his favorite beverage. I said nothing. I just waited. And I was out of practice and it fucking hurt. "What's this, then?" " welcome back, Sir. I thought you might be thirsty. " He took the glass and once he did, I could lower my arms. I didn't stand. "Shall I take your shoes first, or your coat? Forgive me but I have forgotten your preference. It won't happen again." He looked at me and I thought I saw him smile. "Coat, please." As God is my witness, I wanted to get up smoothly, gracefully, like I did during the Renaissance. But that was long ago, and bless his heart, he didn't laugh at me as I'm certain I was as agile as a baby giraffe. I did stand however, with no groaning, removed his coat, hung it up. " Will there be anything else at the moment, Sir? " " I have some scripts to read. " "Of course. Would you like those in here, or in your study? Some music while you read? And how would you prefer me? Within reach, or out of your hair, Sir?" " Oh, you're good. Quite good. " " If it pleases Daddy, how do the Americans say, it ain't my first rodeo. Did you decide where you'd like me to bring your scripts? " Truth is, I was good. And he wasn't going to catch me out. I was all about anticipatory service, and paying attention. I knew that he liked music when he read, and I knew very well what kind. I knew he'd want something to snack on and I knew it wasn't cheat day. I knew this might take a chunk of the day, and I knew he'd want to play some as well. "Here is fine. Make yourself comfortable." Big smile and a kiss on the cheek as I passed " Thank you so much, Daddy. I will! " I gathered up his scripts, pens, notepads, post it flags, highlighters , his cell phone and a pair of my cheaters in case his eyes got tired and stripped off my clothes and folded them and put them up. I brushed my teeth quickly, fixed my hair, and came back with his things, nude. I handed him the scripts, placed the rest of the items within easy reach and put on some light jazz. I turned to face him. I looked at him coyly. " Did you decide if you want company? " "Do you have anything you need to do?" " My focus is to make your life better and easier in any way I can, Daddy. That's one of the things good girls do for their Daddies. " He knit his eyebrows together in thought ,picked up a script and motioned for me to come sit by him. I put a throw from the couch on the floor and sat at his feet with my head on his knee. One hand in my hair we sat for a while, until I noticed his glass was almost empty. " Shall I bring you another and something to nibble on? It won't take but a minute. If you have any preferences for dinner that would be a blessing at this time..... ". I started to rise. He looked at his watch, and said he was a little peckish, would love another rosemary water, and beef for dinner sounded lovely. I nodded, and walked backward away from him so as not to present a potentially offensive sight. I returned in a few minutes having found the beef and began defrosting it, set up my mise en place for preparing it , checked my timing, prepared a plate of trainer approved snacks an slid those under one hand and the cold glass right beside the other. "Did you wish for me to feed you love?" He rolled his eyes at me. " You're daft is what you are. " " If you say so, Sir then I must be. I do love taking care of you and I do love to feel needed. If I can anticipate what you want BEFORE you have had to ask for it, well, that's a feather in my cap, not only for me but to the people I come from. The more skills I acquire, the greater my value to an individual or a family. In addition to being a very good girl, I am trained in other capacities. Organization skills, small and large scale. Damage control, spin doctoring, cooking, party planning, I can type over 95 words a minute, am an expert at most office software except Excel, I can build a computer, but I don't look NEARLY as good as you do doing it, I'm licensed to carry a firearm in 38 states in the US, I can provide personal security, image management, personal shopping, makeovers, defensive driving, early childhood education, I'm a licensed counselor, sober companion well versed in small and large scale logistics, and dogs and kids adore me. " Henry just sat there with the tray, and  his mouth open. " If it pleases you, Daddy, you may want to close your mouth". I returned to my spot on the floor. Henry returned to script reading, occasionally looking askance at me, while he played with my hair and ran his fingers over my skin. I was getting ideas, but it was not my place. He said " I had heard that there were slaves that people actually bought and sold, no, no, not that, but spotters, and trainers, and very expensive, specialized, really. " I looked up at him, trying very hard to *fix my face*. "I'm terrible at time mathematics. Would you happen to know what time it is in the states, and may I make a call?" " Sure darling, of course you can, and it's about nine in the morning there. " I got up, found my phone and hit a button on my favorites. It rang twice. "Hello darling!" " Hey yourself how are you? " " Well, I'm working on the Patreon, doing podcasts, live readings every night. We've missed you in the Plague Players... " " Oh God, I've missed everyone too. Please give them my love. I can't quite get the hang of where I'm supposed to be when. How's your Karen? " "She's great, work is going really well, but I know you didn't call this early to kibbitz" " I hate to ask. I need a small favor. " "Sure. What do you need?" " I have a friend, his name is Henry. I'm going to put him on the phone. Could you please explain to him that you wrote The Marketplace, and that it doesn't actually exist? " 

@whyyoudothistomecavill​ since you asked SO nicely.... here. Let me wreck your day

[kriscme]

One Life to Live

Here’s the latest chapter.  Thanks to Ronja for permission to write fanfic of her Hunger Games fanfic “The Chance You Didn’t Take.”  It can be found on A03 as this can too (under Kris22).  Thanks for reading. Chapter 35 I wake to bright sunshine and the citrusy perfume of evening primrose wafting in from the open window.  Such a lovely dream I had last night.  I was following Prim through the woods and the further she took me, the happier I became, even though we never arrived at any place. But then I remember my current predicament and my spirits plummet again.  I turn to face Peeta, expecting to see him, but he’s not here.  The only sign that he was in my bed last night is the impression his head made on the pillow close to my own.  Somehow, we both seemed to have gravitated to the middle of the bed during the night. From downstairs I hear movement and two voices in conversation.  That could only be Peeta and Haymitch.  No one else would be in the Village and in my house at this hour.  The clock by the bed tells me I have an hour before it’s time to leave for work.  I use most of it to shower and dress.  I don’t want to face either of them just yet. They’ll only talk strategy.  Haymitch seems to have relished getting back into his old mentor role which is odd, because he hated it when he actually was one.  As for Peeta, I haven’t seen him like this since the Quarter Quell when he had us all training like careers.  There’s the same energy and focus.  It’s as if he’s determined to get me home a third time.  Only this time his reasons are . . . well, I don’t know what his reasons are but it is good to see him back to his old self.  I should make an effort to stop being so sulky and disagreeable around him.  It’s not his fault he doesn’t love me anymore and he is doing me a huge favor at risk to himself.   As soon as I see the food laid out on the table, I wish I had come down earlier.   Peeta has cooked my favorite breakfast of sausages, eggs, potatoes, bread, juice and hot chocolate.   I tuck in, ignoring Haymitch’s scowl.  It’s my house.  I’ll come down when I want to. “We keep to the schedule as planned,” says Haymitch.  “And it goes without saying – “ “Stay in love,” Peeta and I say in unison.  “And don’t be afraid to lay it on thick,” Haymitch adds.  “That’s what the public is used to seeing from you.  This isn’t an old settled relationship.  Or a continuation of one.  It’s brand new.  You want to avoid any talk that this has been going on behind Lace’s back and it’s why the wedding was called off.  After the cameras are gone, you still have to live amongst these people.  No one likes a cheater.” “It won’t be a problem,” says Peeta, as he starts to clear away the dishes.  I grab the plate with the potatoes before he takes it.  “It actually works out well.  Lace was worried that people might think the same of her and Arthur if their relationship became public too soon.  But if she and I both have partners, they’re far less likely to think that one of us had cheated on the other.  I’ll let her know sometime today that Katniss and I are together.” I bet that will shock her.  After all his talk of me being an illusion, he’d better have a convincing excuse for why he’s changed his mind.  But at least I know that he’s aware that Lace is with Arthur now. What’s most surprising though, is that he doesn’t seem upset about it.  And they’re still talking to each other. On Haymitch’s advice, we take the most public route into work so as to be seen by the maximum number of people.   That takes us through the main street past Lace’s shop.   I catch a glimpse of her through the window sorting through fabrics.  She has her back to us.  The shop next door is vacant but there’s carpentry in progress, probably for new fittings for Arthur when he moves in.  We turn down a side street and pass by Arthur’s shop.  He’s opened early as usual.  I don’t see him but I know he’ll be hard at work, saving for that factory he plans to own one day.   The salon is closed at this hour but I spy Flavius at the front desk, head down, consulting the appointment book.  He raises his head as we walk by.  I move closer to Peeta and rise on tiptoe to kiss his cheek before giving Flavius a wave. The news will be all over town by the end of the day.   We meet for lunch at the small park adjacent to the school.   It’s a hot day but the old oak tree provides plentiful shade.  We eschew the bench seat and sit on the grass because it looks more romantic that way.   I kick off my shoes to cool my feet and smooth out the folds of my dress.  It’s the sunset dress that Peeta likes.  It just happened to be the first thing on hand when I reached into my closet this morning. Peeta has brought us food from the bakery.   He holds out in each hand a white paper bag with the Carter logo on it.   “Beef or chicken?” “Um . . . beef,” I say.  Peeta hands me one of the bags and keeps the other.  It’s not a pie but a sandwich with layers of thinly sliced roast beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato and some kind of sauce. I take my first bite and moan appreciatively.  This might just overtake cheese buns for me. “Since when did the bakery sell sandwiches?” I ask. “Since last week.  And coffee and other beverages too.  It’s an experiment, to see how well it does.  In the Capitol, the bakery also functioned as a café, with indoor seating.  It will mean moving to larger premises but it might be needed anyway.  Did I tell you we’re getting cake orders from as far away as the Capitol now?  The one I did for Cressida’s wedding seems to have started it.” “That’s great, Peeta,” I say, genuinely happy for him.  But then a terrible thought occurs to me.  Cass told me that Peeta could get work anywhere.   What if he leaves 12 for the Capitol for bigger opportunities? I’m suddenly consumed with fear. I don’t want him to go. “I’ve also been offered a fourth share partnership in the business too, along with Julius, Cass and Cornelia,” he adds, his face alight with enthusiasm.   “They want to keep you,” I say. “Probably,” he concedes.  “But there’s more to it than that.  We’re more than just coworkers.  I feel disloyal saying this and no one could ever replace them, but in a way, it’s like having my brothers back.  And Cornelia is the woman one of them might have married.  Does that sound bad?” “Not at all,” I say, thinking of Johanna and how she’s like a sister to me.  Loved ones can’t be replaced but it doesn’t mean your circle can’t expand to include others.  “I suppose you won’t be opening a bakery of your own any time soon then?  Wasn’t that one of the plans you made with Lace?” Peeta gives a short, self-depreciating laugh. “That was never going to happen.  Responsible for running a bakery? Ugh!  I like what I’m doing now, decorating cakes and leaving the management side of it to others.   I think we just chose what we thought the other expected of us, not what we actually wanted for ourselves.    Lace would never have been happy giving up her shop to work from home.  She’s worked too hard for it.  And five kids?  At this stage of my life, I’m not even sure about one.” “Really?” I ask.  That was the only part of it that made any sense to me – that Peeta would want a large family.  “I thought you’d like to have children.”   From the school grounds nearby, I can hear the shrieks and laughter of children at play.  It wasn’t long ago that the mere thought of having to teach Peeta and Lace’s children had filled me with dread.  I was sure that if it was Peeta’s choice, they’d have had them straight off. “One day, perhaps,” he says.  “But I want to be in a better place than I am right now. You know, with the attacks and everything.  And we’re only twenty.  There’s plenty of time.” Twenty-one.   Lace is twenty-one.   “You?” he asks. “Oh, um, the same as you, I guess,” I say, surprised to have the question turned back on me.    “I’ll think about it when the time comes.  But for the moment, no.  I want to see how things turn out.  With the new government, I mean.  Whether the peace lasts.”  I want to be certain the Games will never return before I’m be ready to bring children into the world.   “I meant more general that that,” he says. “How do you see your future?  What do you want to do?” I take a moment to think about it.  My future isn’t something I’ve given much thought to other than in terms of what I can’t do because of my confinement.   But it dawns on me that even if had the choice to live wherever I wanted, I’d still choose Twelve.  It’s my home and the people and places I love are here. “Keep on teaching, I suppose, and finish getting my qualifications.   Mr Matson suggested I could teach archery to the older students.   So maybe I’ll do that.  I doubt there’ll be much hunting once the woods officially become national park so it seems a good compromise.  I can continue to use my skills and pass them on at the same time.” “Sounds perfect,” says Peeta, smiling at me. We go back to eating our lunch.  I see a few people walking past on the opposite side of the road but foot traffic around here is thin and sporadic.  It’s an out-of-the-way place to be seen but Haymitch’s rationale is that we can’t just frequent the popular places because that would cause suspicion in itself.  We have to appear as a normal courting couple doing what a normal courting couple would do. Picnicking in a sequestered park is apparently one of them.  But there’s at least one onlooker.  A squirrel, perched on one of the lower branches watches expectantly.  He seems used to people as he doesn’t show any fear. And probably used to being fed by them too.  I break off a piece of crust and throw it a short distance away.  He doesn’t hesitate.   He scampers down the tree, grabs his prize, and scurries back up.   I catch Peeta observing me, a look of amusement on his face. “What?” I demand.  He had better not be laughing at me. “It’s just seeing a new side of you, that’s all.  You know, relaxed.   One time, that squirrel would have ended up with one of your arrows through its eye. But now you share your lunch with it. I like it.  It means you’re in a better place now.  Not so concerned with survival.” Humph! The last time I heard anyone talk about me and survival was in the basement of a dingy little shop in the Capitol that sold fur underwear.  “Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without.”  Gale said it, and Peeta didn’t refute it.  The same resentment I felt then wells up in me.  There it is again, the implication that any finer feelings are subservient to my need to survive. Not love, or desire, or compatibility, or even just throwing a crust of bread to a squirrel.  I didn’t get to defend myself then, but I will now. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”   Peeta’s eyebrows shoot up in a surprise.  “I hate that people think that of me – that I’ll put my own wellbeing ahead of anything else.  If I’ve tried so hard to survive, it’s because I had people depending on me.  What would have happened to Prim, or my mother, if I hadn’t been around to make sure there was food on the table?  Prim would have ended up in the Community Home and that meant as good as dead.  I’ll do anything for the people I love.  Die for them if need be.  I would die for you.  I –“ I stop short, remembering all of a sudden that I’m supposed to keep those feelings hidden.  Heat rises in my face.  “I mean – “And then it’s Peeta who cuts me short.  He takes my face in his hands and kisses me.  Really kisses me, not the closed mouth playacting kind, but softly, insistently, plying my mouth open with his own.  For a few seconds I’m stunned into inaction.  But then I feel that thing.  That thing that happened in the cave and on the beach.   And I put my arms around his neck and kiss him back hungrily, greedy for more.  He pulls me closer and we sort of meld together, the points of his body picking out the counter-points of my own and I moan somewhere deep in my throat. I forget we’re in a public space and only a short distance from a school.  Nothing exists but Peeta and me and when I feel his hand slip between my thighs under the cover of my dress, lightly as if seeking permission, my legs fall apart in open invitation and I will it to go higher, to that place that wants him so badly.

His fingertips barely make contact when from some faraway place the pulsating ring of a school bell sounds.  With great reluctance, I am dragged back into the present and reality returns with a thud.  I pull away, confused.  What just happened?  Why did he do that?  My head whips around looking for the audience he’s playing to, but there’s no one about.

“Don’t.  Don’t let’s pretend when there’s no one around,” I say, getting quickly to my feet.  It’s not . . . we shouldn’t do it.  It’s how lines get blurred.”  And people get hurt. People being me.  I shove my feet into my shoes.  “I have to go.  Class is about to start.  Thanks for lunch.”

I don’t wait for a response from Peeta. I race off, leaving him to dispose of the remains of our lunch, a look of bewildered concern on his face. The kiss leaves me shaken and it takes a concerted effort to concentrate on my work.  That was so close.  Too close. How am I going to get through this without breaking down?  There’s at least three weeks to go.  This week before the television crew arrives, the following when they set up, and after that a week of filming.  I don’t know how Peeta did it.  All that kissing and hugging on the Victory Tour.  And the nights on the train.  And then when we shared a bed in the Capitol just before the Quell.  It must have been torture.  As it will be for me tonight, and every other night until this is over.

Luckily, Peeta and I don’t finish work at the same time so I’m spared walking home with him.  As I’m home first, I set the table and prepare the food for dinner, allowing extra in case Haymitch turns up, which he probably will.  And then I go into the living room and take a book from the shelf.  I hope reading will be a distraction because I just can’t get that kiss out of my mind. It’s a book on conservation that Marcus left behind, and it’s as dry as you’d imagine but it does nothing to lessen the wetness between my legs.  I am so aroused; I’m fit to burst.  There’s only one solution.  I slip my hand under my dress to take care of it myself, and I’m just on the verge when I hear the front door open.  It’s Peeta.

I quickly open the book and pretend to be immersed in it.  

“Good book?” Peeta asks, as he comes into the room.  He takes the seat opposite and reads the title from the cover.  “’Wetland Techniques.”  I suppose we could all benefit by brushing up on our wetland technique.  Maybe I should read it after you.” “

Maybe,” I say noncommittedly, and lower my eyes back to the page.  I hope he’ll take the hint that I’m not in a sociable mood and go away.  

There’s a long pause.  “Katniss, I think we should talk about what happened at the park.”

I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.  If Peeta has a flaw it’s that he likes to talk about things that shouldn’t be talked about. It would be better for both of us if we pretended it didn’t happen.  

“Things got a little carried away, that’s all,” I say.  “It was bound to happen with us forced into this situation again.  We just have to be more careful next time.”  

“Is that what you want?” he asks, frowning. “I think it’s best, don’t you?  If we’re to get through this, we need to set boundaries. After all, we have to go back to living normally after this.  We have to stay friends.” I try to sound convincing but there’s a faint tremor in my voice.  I stare down at my book to avoid looking at him.

“All right, Katniss,” he says tiredly.   He rises from the chair.  “I’ll get dinner started then.  Haymitch should be here soon.”

After he leaves the room, I let out my breath. I don’t think he believed me but maybe that’s not important.  We only have to preserve the veneer.  But he makes it so hard.  Always wanting to open wounds instead of just leaving them alone.  I’ll just have to stay on my guard and make sure to keep him at a safe distance.  Obviously, Peeta isn’t averse to having sex with me if what happened at the park is any indication.  But then, I was practically begging him.  I know you don’t have to be in love to have sex.   And if sex is all I wanted from Peeta, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But I know, I just know, that if we went down that path, the floodgates would open and I’d be as helpless as ever and in an even worse place than I am now.  Nothing will have changed.  I’d still be in love with someone who isn’t in love with me.

While Peeta makes dinner, I take a shower.  A cold one. And change out of the sunset dress into something that makes me feel less vulnerable – tight-fitting trousers and a t-shirt.  I’d wear a chastity belt if I had one because I don’t really trust myself.  I wait until Haymitch arrives before I go downstairs. The less alone time I have with Peeta, the better.

Unfortunately, Haymitch doesn’t stay for very long after we’ve eaten.  I was hoping that he and Peeta would get the chess board out again so I could avoid interacting with him.  

“It’s Monday,” I tell Peeta, when he comments on Haymitch’s early departure.  “He wants to be home to watch “One Life to Live.” He’s something of an addict.”  I dry the last of the dishes and put it away while Peeta makes tea.  

“That’s the show Plutarch talked about, isn’t it?” he asks. “Yeah, that’s the one.  It’s the most rubbishy, most stupid thing ever. I was insulted when he compared us to Celia and Blake.  Idiots, both of them.”

“I can’t really comment.  I’ve never watched it,” he says, as he pours tea into two mugs.

I sniff derisively.   “Well, you haven’t missed anything.  I can’t think why Haymitch likes it.”

“Let’s find out.” “What?  You actually want to watch it?”

“Yeah.  I do.  You can explain the plot so far.”

He picks up one of the mugs and I take the other. “That will take about two seconds.” Nonetheless, I follow him into the living room and sit down beside him on the sofa. I guess there are worse things to do than watching television together, even if it is “One Life to Live.”  At least it’s a distraction and we won’t have to talk much.  My gaze flickers over to Peeta.  I’m acutely aware of him.  His well-muscled thigh only inches from my own. The fine blond hair on his strong capable hands.  Hands that can lift heavy sacks of flour yet wield a paintbrush with the most delicate precision.   Hands that were on me only hours earlier.  A throbbing starts between my legs at the thought of it.   I cross one leg over the other to alleviate the sensation but then quickly uncross them. The movement makes the crotch seam of my trousers rub against me in a most stimulating way.  I should have worn a dress.  

With a click of the remote control, the opening credits of “One Life to Live” appear on the screen.   I swallow hard and force myself to focus. “Well, Celia and Blake are from neighboring districts . . . “

[ceruleanmusings]

eat, snark, love (not necessarily in that order)

pairing: draco malfoy/theodore nott (because what else do I write?) word count: 1762 tags: post-hogwarts, roommates, established relationship, fluff, domestic fluff, POV draco malfoy, Tagging: @ladylilymalfoy904034 @lareiism​

ao3

——

Draco leaned his weary, rain-soaked, mud-covered, exhausted body against the doorway and watched. Well, admired would be the right word. He couldn’t look at Theo, not anymore. Not since…well, right about third year in fact. Something about the way Theo directed a cocky smile at him from across the room when he succeeded in the difficult potion they were learning on the first try grabbed him, shook him up, upended him, and set him back on his feet living in a new world. A world in which, somehow, Theo shifted towards the center.

And it gave him a lot of time to admire his old friend over the years. To take in the curve of his lips, a swath so pink he didn’t doubt that kissing them would taste as sweet as he imagined.

To sink into the depths of his murky eyes, not exactly green but not entirely brown either; a combination so unique even the shifting colors of the potions they spent months slaving over over the years touched upon that color.

To follow the curl of his deft fingers as they wrapped around his wand with certainty, barely giving his actions a second thought; almost as if it were an extra extension not just from his arm but from his mind, the spells and jinxes and charms cast with barely an utter from his lips.

To now, where he sat on the countertop—despite Draco asking him a thousand times not to, for Merlin’s sake—book held in front of his face, lithe fingers curled around the cover, long legs crossed at the ankles. (His lounge pants hiked up a few inches above his ankles. Draco made a mental note to take Theo shopping and then another mental note to find a way to bribe him into going).

But it was the jumper that really caught his eye; the slate gray, cable-knit jumper that seemed to hang off of Theo’s lanky frame in a way that, to others, would appear he was swimming in it but to Draco made him look comfortable, safe, and inviting. Like a teddy bear. Not that Draco would ever call him that. (To his face at least.)

And…shit, he had to go and do it. Draco’s teeth scraped against his lower lip as his eyes scanned the length of Theo’s forearms. His bare forearms, the sleeves pushed back up to his elbows, bunching and bundling only to emphasize the expanse from the elbow up to his bony wrists.

Fuck, that’s what he missed the most while being away.

Yes, he enjoyed playing Quidditch again. He was shocked when he was accepted into the traveling intramural league and half expected some sort of ambush to take place when he showed up on the first day. They’d only been a few years removed from the fall of V…the Dark Lord and he was ready with his wand tucked up his arm and plethora of non-verbal spells and jinxes at his disposal. Just in case. But he was brought in with a clap on his back and a broom shoved into his hands. They took off into the sky, to test their skills and…Draco was free. His stomach swooped, wind rustled in his hair, tugged at his clothes, lifted him upwards and away from his worries, his name, his past. He missed it, he loved it, he didn’t even mind when he crash laded onto the waterlogged pitch and smeared mud into his workout gear.

But he missed this more. Coming home, having a place to come home to, having someone wait for him, and…he stood up straight, eyebrows lifting. He shook his head, certainly his eyes were deceiving him but no. A quick pinch to his inner arm told him he was indeed awake. His pupils blew wide, gray shifting over to black when the fuzziness around Theo smoothed out and revealed a steaming pot, a spoon spinning in lazy circles around the rim as if an invisible hand stirred it. Another pot on the stovetop, covered by a lid dotted with condensation. He didn’t need to look to know what it was. The hearty scents wafted past his nose and fed the hungry beast in his stomach and perfectly meshed with the scent of him.

He’d been away far too long.

His leather bag fell off his shoulder and landed on the hardwood floors with a thump. Behind the book Theo’s head lifted and then tilted to the side. Dropping one hand to his lap, he closed the book with a snap and lowered it from his face with such agonizing slowness that Draco had to keep from launching himself across the kitchen to yank it out of his hand

Theo’s green eyes took a slow journey from his face, down his neck, down his chest, dropping to his shoes, and traveled back up again. Draco felt his gaze; white hot against him. Goosebumps erupted over his skin and static sparked and crackled in his ears, in the air around him, the electricity thrumming with every breath that came out of him.

Theo lifted his chin and Draco saw it, a whisp of a smile at the corner of his mouth before he let out such a world-weary sigh that only Theodore Nott could muster and perfect.

“You always find a way to ruin my surprises,” he stated.

His legs, once numb, finally started up again. With each step he kept his gaze—steady and sure—on Theo until he was within arms reach. Their knees touching. Together. Finally. Still…“I think the fact that you want to surprise me is a surprise on it’s own.” Draco’s lips curled upwards and a challenging sparkle settled in his eyes. Upclose the spicy aroma of the stew and the colliding scent of Theo’s minty bodywash crashed into him, dizzying him.

“You’ve been gone for six days,” Theo said, following a snort. He reached out and brushed a few strands of white-blond hair out of Draco’s face.

Draco touched his knee. “Miss me, Nott?”

Theo’s eyes jumped up to the ceiling and he turned away from Draco, peering into the pot as the spoon continued to stir the brown liquid. Potatoes, carrots, beef, and onions bobbed among the surface. “You weren’t supposed to be back yet,” he said towards the surface.

Draco leaned forward, squeezing Theo’s knee as he pressed, “Did you miss me?”

Theo hummed; the sound reverberated in Draco’s skull and lit him up like a firework. “You’re very pushy for someone who’s tracking mud along my flat.”

“You missed me.” His smile—beaming of smug satisfaction—took up half his face at his conclusion. A man of little words, Draco could read Theo like a well-loved, frequently sought-after book. His fingertips read every pulse and twitch of Theo’s muscles as they trailed up his thighs.

“I haven’t said such a thing,” Theo said, voice deepening.

“Right. Because it’s normal for you to wear my jumper.”

Theo’s eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head. “This one’s mine.”

“No it’s not. My grandmum knitted me this one.” Draco tugged the hem, catching a glimpse of skin beneath; the trail of hair heading North and South simultaneously. He licked his lips. “Yours is white.”

Theo stilled and Draco took that as an opportunity to duck his head and press a kiss to his boyfriend’s throat. Theo’s adam’s apple bobbed and a hiss quickly followed when Draco reached beneath his jumper, running his hands on the expanse of Theo’s stomach. “Your hands are cold.”

Pushing a breath out his nose, it was Draco’s turn to roll his eyes. “Leave it to you to ruin a moment, Nott.”

“Don’t be a git, Malfoy. Alls I’m sayin’ is you’re getting me wet and muddy.”

“Right. Forgot you were a bit particular about your cleanliness.”

Theo gave him a pointed look. “Takes one to know one. You keep that up I won’t ask you to join me in the washroom.” As he spoke he reached around and grabbed at Draco’s arse, lifting him up onto his toes. Draco scratched at Theo’s stomach for good measure as Theo leaned forward and murmured into his ear, “Need to warm you up somehow.”

Backing away, Draco forced himself not to focus on the lack of warmth that grew in the space between them as he motioned towards the food on the stove. Let Nott squirm. Serves him right. “Mmm. I suppose the stew wasn’t to take care of that.”

Theo crossed his arms. “I still need to eat even when you’re not here.”

Lifting the spoon out of the pot, Draco sipped at the steaming stew. The burn on his tongue was worth the tension in Theo’s shoulders and the twist to his mouth. “I would have taken that at face value if you didn’t already say it was to surprise me.” In his peripheral he spotted that tiny tell-tale twitch at the corner of Theo’s eye.

There was a shortlist of things that Draco savored: a good spot of tea, Belgian chocolates, his grandmum’s desserts, his mum’s only attempt at cooking dinner (he knew Theo got the stew recipe from somewhere). But seeing Theodore Nott stumbling, thrown off his game?

That, well, that was priceless.

“You missed me,” he stated again, lifting his chin.

Theo leaned forward until his forehead pressed against the side of Draco’s head. “I always do,” he said. And before Draco could speak he added, “It’s dreadfully boring without having someone around to ignore.”

“Git.” He grabbed the collar of Theo’s—his—jumper and yanked him forward, lips colliding in a clumsy, hungry kiss that quickly melted into another and another and another where one barely ended when the next begun, heavy breaths filling the air and the humid heat trapped around the collar of Draco’s shirt rivaled the steam coming from the stove.

“Are you hungry?” Theo asked, the question embedded against Draco’s throat.

Draco’s eyes fluttered shut. “Not really.”

“Good.” Theo’s smirk caressing Draco’s throat made him groan, his body humming in appreciation. “I’ll build your appetite.”

“Kinda hoping you would.”

As Theo hopped down from the counter and dragged Draco out of the kitchen towards their bedroom with laced fingers, his eyes bounced from his abandoned Quidditch bag to the pictures lining the walls of their flat. And like with the sport, Draco reminded himself, as the famillair swooping tumbled his stomach, that he was allowed to be this happy. That he was allowed to move on. That he deserved this.

He did.

He did.

He does.

[samotchkaficrecs]

My Hero Academia Fic Recs! #1

Hola!

i’m finally making an actual mha fic post... yay!

since most of these fics are suited to my fanfiction tastes i will be making another in the future with many different ships (to float anyone’s boat). 

[Also if there is a star (★) next to any fic, it’s one of my highly recommended]

Anywhoo, let us begin! 

TodoDeku

before the world catches up  by -  silent_academy (white_silence) 

Shouto was promised the world when he was born. Unfortunately, fate isn't kind, and he's left with nothing but a broken heart and blazing scars.

Izuku was never "destined" for greatness, but he was sure as hell going to make his mark on the world. With determination and a will to protect, he sets out on the hero's path.

Or, the one in which Shouto is born Quirkless, and Izuku... is not.

Somehow, things work out anyway.

(currently on hiatus)

 ★ The Wooing of Todoroki Shouto  by -  crispykrimi

He clasps his hands together and presses them to his forehead. “Please teach me how to seduce someone!”

What follows is the most awkward fifteen minutes of his short life. His friends volley suggestions at him, everything from suggestive comments to practically crawling into Shouto’s lap and kissing him. His head is starting to feel a little fuzzy when someone (goddamnit Kirishima) suggests a strip tease, and really, he has to draw the line somewhere.

“A-ah… Maybe seduce was too strong a word. I don’t know if I could actually do any of those things… I think a better word would be- woo? I want to woo him. P-please teach me how to woo someone.”

(complete)

★  If I'm Being Honest....  by -  I_dont_know_man 

Midoriya scrunched up his nose in confusion. “Uh, Shouto, why are you glaring at me like that?”

“I-” Todoroki began to lie, until nausea slammed him like a door to any room that Bakugou entered. “I--” Todoroki grit his teeth, and glared daggers into the wall behind Midoriya. Goodbye, friendship. It had been absolutely divine while it lasted. “Because you’re very attractive.”

They say honesty is the best policy, but it sure as hell had a knack for Todoroki making a complete and utter fool of himself.

In which Todoroki is placed under a mysterious truth-telling quirk and suffers, Uraraka laughs at him, Midoriya is confused but smitten nonetheless, and Twitter is the thirstiest site on the planet.

(complete)

i feel your warmth, and it feels like home  by -  orphan_account 

The five times where Shouto remembers that Midoriya is more buff than he lets on.

(alternatively titled the-one-where-shouto-internally-nosebleeds-and-tries-to-act-casual)

(complete)

Trust Fall  by -  Esselle 

' "So, on my signal then."

Midoriya laughs. "No signal. You just fall, and I catch."

"What?" Shouto asks. "But how will you know? What if you're not ready? What if—"

"It's about trust, Todoroki-kun," Midoriya says. Shouto can't see his face, but he senses there's a grin on it. "Do you trust me?" '

(complete)

KiriBaku 

Can't Hear the Fireworks of Your Art  by -  cereal_whore   

Bakugou's hearing is slowly deteriorating due to being in close proximity of his quirk, and his constant usage of it. After a visit to the doctors, it's concluded they can never reverse his hearing.

Everyone else: hol y sh ti hes dying (excluding Shinsou, who's too tired to care anymore and is at peace with the idea of Bakugou being the local cryptic)

Or: Bakugou literally disappears for one day, and everyone suddenly thinks he's dying even tho he just rlly needs a hearing aid. none of these hormonal teenagers have basic communication skills. Todoroki is also really trying his best in spite of Bakugou continuously calling him "Canadian Flag Fucker".

(ongoing)

kiss me on the lips  by -  Lulatic

“So, you’ve really never kissed anyone? Really?”

“No, okay? You fucking happy now? What does it even matter--”

“Would you like to?”

(complete)

★ The Beauty of a Beast  by -  starofjems 

Once upon a time a lonely beast lived in a manor deep in the forest. He dreamed of the day his true love appeared to break his curse... When a beauty finally appears in his life, it is not quite as he imagined. For who could have thought a beauty would be more of a beast.

Or

The beauty and the beast AU nobody asked for but here it is.

(complete)

Ghost Hunters  by -  PoutyBats

“What, like a ghost sex hotline?” Sero snorts.

“I mean, she was kinda cute-”

“I swear on my life if you don’t shut up I can guarantee that there will be three new ghosts in this house come morning!” Bakugou rubs his temples, aging by the minute.

-

Kirishima, Bakugou, Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero are part of a ghost hunting squad.

[kiribaku isn’t really the main focus, but it’s here anyways]

(complete)

Love Potion No. 9  by -  I_dont_know_man

"It's alright bro, I get it. Not everybody can handle all this pure manliness." Kirishima flexed a hardened bicep facetiously, grinning like the idiot he most certainly was.

...

And Bakugou - Bakugou blushed.

For the mere second time in 17 years of life, no less, and he was pretty sure that blushing over accidentally calling All Might ‘dad’ that one time didn’t count. Bakugou was an aloof, detached, analytical sort of person. Bakugou didn’t fucking blush, alright?

Just what in the ever-loving fuck was going on here?!

In which Bakugou finds himself victim of a love spell, Kirishima tries his Best, and the entirety of Class 1A waits for the other shoe to drop.

(ongoing)

Multi/ Misc/ Minor Ship 

★ Blue Monday  by -  Adox    [multi]

Eight years ago, three boys went missing, only remembered by their disappearance. Unless you’re Izuku Midorya. After his (arguably) best friend Katsuki Bakugou vanished, he’s been searching. Hoping. Even after the investigation was closed. Three names ring clearly in his head.

Eijiro Kirishima.

Denki Kaminari.

Katsuki Bakugo.

Jiro loves her new family, they’re the only fosters who seem to give a shit. However, she can’t help but notice the picture frames turned on their side, and the child’s bedroom that hasn’t been touched in years.

Todoroki just wants to help his new friend, even if that means endangering his many, many scholarships.

And Bakugo waits.

(ongoing)

Karma in Retrograde  by -  Mistystarshine, ohmytheon    [misc]

When Dabi is struck by a de-aging quirk that regresses him to the most influential part of his life, he finds himself turned back into a sixteen-year-old U.A. General Studies student with lots of self-esteem issues, parent problems, a destructive quirk that he can't manage, and no memory of the years that he's lost - not to mention the fact that his little brother is now the same age as him and one of the top students in the U.A. hero course. In U.A.'s attempt to make up for what they missed and help the Dabi of the past, present, and future, he is placed with the only students that know him and have yet to find out what truly makes the difference between a hero and a villain. There, they must face the question of whether he can change or his destiny is already set in stone.

(ongoing)

A Night to Remember  by -  hanwritesstuff (hannahkannao)    [multi]

“Huh?” Izuku narrows his eyes and looks at the poster. It doesn’t make sense when he first reads the words, when they first roll off his tongue. “‘Yuuei High School’s 24th Annual Future Heroes Gala’? What... is this?” He feels like he should know, but he can’t think straight after staying up so late last night.

“Well.” Kirishima grins. “When I saw the poster, I texted Amajiki-senpai and he told me all about it.”

There’s something particularly mischievous in his smile that has Izuku worried.

“Long answer, it’s pretty much the only school dance Yuuei has and it’s third-years only,” Kirishima continues, “It’s supposed to be a celebration of everything we’ve done over the past three years, so it’s super fancy and formal and there’s slow dancing and and stuff like that -”

“Short answer, it’s hero prom!” Hagakure interrupts, barely getting the words out before at least four people erupt into cheers.

(complete)

★ I want to kiss (your dumb fucking face)  by -  gingerbreadshinsou    [shinsou/ monoma] 

Monoma develops a big gay crush on Shinsou from afar and his life descends into absolute chaos

[The Monoma Neito coming-of-age fic absolutely no one asked for]

(ongoing)

[i know i have already put this one on another list, but it’s just so amusing!]

tell your boyfriend if he says he's got beef that i'm a vegetarian and i EAT LEAF  by -  hanwritesstuff (hannahkannao)    [misc]

“Which one of you fuckers just AirDropped me loss?”

(complete)

★ shock your soul  by -  montparni    [kamisero]

Twelve years of Halloween; or, Kaminari Denki grows up (but not too much), makes some memories, and learns to look right in front of his eyes.

(complete)

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!  by -  xX_KUUHAKU_Xx    [kamisero]

"I could wear just my boxers and I'd win every round. Now let's play."

---

In which Sero and Kaminari decide to face off on a rock, paper, scissors game with beer and stripping being a part of it.

(complete) 

Thus With a Kiss, I die  by -  DomineeringScarves

Kaminari finds himself head over heels for the newest addition to their class, Shinsou Hitoshi. Normally the flirty blonde would just present himself with open arms but there's a major problem with his infatuation. There's unspoken rules in 1-A and Kaminari is part of the Bakusquad...whereas Shinsou is a part of the Dekusquad. The two can't be together. It's just not possible. There's no way Bakugou would ever allow one of his extras to date Deku's friend.

There's only one thing left to do, give up and move on. Too bad Kaminari can't seem to escape Shinsou.

Aka the fic where Kaminari is Romeo and Shinsou is Juliet and they have to secretly date so their squads don't fall into an all out war.

(complete)

★★★

Aaaand thats a wrap! thanks for viewing and i hope you all found some fics that intrigue you! 

Au revior!   

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CONTRACTORS

In big companies software is often designed, implemented, and sold by three separate types of people. Tcl is the scripting language of Unix, and so its size is proportionate to its complexity, and a funnel for peers. By this point everyone knows you should release fast and iterate. Programming languages are for. They don't even know about the stuff they've invested in. But I think there's more going on than this. If you run out of money, you could say either was the cause. Nearly all programmers would rather spend their time writing code and have someone else handle the messy business of extracting money from it. Every programmer must have seen code that some clever person has made marginally shorter by using dubious programming tricks. In one place I worked, we had a big board of dials showing what was happening to our web servers.1 Every designer's ears perk up at the office writes Tenisha Mercer of The Detroit News. There are borderline cases is-5 two elements or one?

I decided to ask the founders of the startups in the e-commerce business back in the 90s, will destroy you if you choose them. It's due to the shape of the problem here is social. In the arts it's obvious how: blow your own glass, edit your own films, stage your own plays. Only in the preceding couple years had the dramatic fall in the cost of customer acquisition. The organic growth guys, sitting in their garage, feel poor and unloved. So the first question to ask about a field is how honest its tests are, because this startup seems the most successful companies. A good deal of that spirit is, fortunately, preserved in macros. The second way to compete with focus is to see what you're making.

But more important, in a hits-driven business, is that source code will look unthreatening. In DC the message seems to be the new way of delivering applications. White. I'm going to risk making one. But looking through windows at dusk in Paris you can see that from the rush of work that's always involved in releasing anything, no matter how much skill and determination you have, the more you stay pointed in the same business. PR coup was a two-part one. It's conversational resourcefulness. We're more confident. That certainly accords with what I see out in the world.2 Treating indentation as significant would eliminate this common source of bugs as well as making programs shorter. Once you take several million dollars of my money, the investors get a great deal of control.

The dream language is beautiful, clean, and terse. It works.3 It could mean an operating system, or a framework built on top of a programming language as the throwaway programs people wrote in it grew larger. I'm not saying it's correct, incidentally, but it seems like a decent hypothesis. The most important kinds of learning happen one project at a time. Instead of starting from companies and working back to the 1960s and 1970s, when it was the scripting language of a popular system.4 Blogger got down to one person, and they have a board majority, they're literally your bosses.5 Unconsciously, everyone expects a startup to fix upon a specific number.6 But as long as you seem to be advancing rapidly, most investors will leave you alone.7 What readability-per-line does mean, to the user encountering the language for others even to hear about it. Users have worried about that since the site was a few months old.8 If it's a subset, you'll have to write it anyway, so in the worst case you won't be wasting your time, but didn't.9

It's exacerbated by the fast pace of startups, which makes it seem like time slows down: I think you've left out just how fun it was: I think the main reason we take the trouble to develop high-level languages is to get leverage, so that we can say and more importantly, think in 10 lines of a high-level language what would require 1000 lines of machine language. Well, that may be fine advice for a bunch of declarations. Trying to make masterpieces in this medium must have seemed to Durer's contemporaries that way that, say, making masterpieces in comics might seem to the average person today. I kept searching for the Cambridge of New York, I was very excited at first. Which was dictated largely by the hardware available in the late 1950s. This comforting illusion may have prevented us from seeing the real problem with Lisp, or at least Common Lisp, some delimiters are reserved for the language, suggesting that at least some of the least excited about it, including even its syntax, and anything you write has, as much as shoes have to be prepared to see the better idea when it arrives. And I was a Reddit user when the opposite happened there, and sitting in a cafe feels different from working. The Detroit News.10

Most founders of failed startups don't quit their day job, is probably an order of magnitude larger than the number who do make it. But the clearest message is that you should be smarter. But hear all the cutting-edge tech and startup news, and run into useful people constantly.11 You won't get to, unless you fail. Running a startup is fun the way a survivalist training course would be fun, and a funnel for peers. It's since grown to around 22,000.12 You may save him from referring to variables in another package, but you need time to get any message through to people that it didn't have to be more readable than a line of Lisp. A rant with a rallying cry as the title takes zero, because people vote it up without even reading it. I'm just stupid, or have worked on some limited subset of applications. This is supposed to be a lot simpler. Whatever a committee decides tends to stay that way, even if it is harder to get from zero to twenty than from twenty to a thousand.13

With two such random linkages in the path between startups and money, it shouldn't be surprising that luck is a big factor in deals. Most of the groups that apply to Y Combinator suffer from a common problem: choosing a small, obscure niche in the hope of unloading them before they tank. A programming language does need a good implementation, of course. Look at how much any popular language has changed during its life. With a startup, I had bought the hype of the startup world, startup founders get no respect. A real hacker's language will always have a slightly raffish character.14 The eminent feel like everyone wants to take a long detour to get where you wanted to go. But there is a trick you could use the two ideas interchangeably. Their reporters do go out and get users, though. A throwaway program is brevity. I do that the main purpose of a language is readability, not succinctness.15 You can't build things users like without understanding them.

At the moment I'd almost say that a language isn't judged on its own and b something that can be considered a complete application and ship it. They're so desperate for content that some will print your press releases almost verbatim, if you preferred, write code that was isomorphic to Pascal. When I moved to New York, I was very excited at first. To avoid wasting his time, he waits till the third or fourth time he's asked to do something; by then, whoever's asking him may be fairly annoyed, but at the same time the veteran's skepticism. There are several local maxima.16 Defense contractors? When, if ever, is a watered-down Lisp with infix syntax and no macros. Hackers share the surgeon's secret pleasure in poking about in gross innards, the teenager's secret pleasure in poking about in gross innards, the teenager's secret pleasure in popping zits.

Notes

What happens in practice signalling hasn't been much of a long time in the 1920s to financing growth with retained earnings till the 1920s. Even Samuel Johnson seems to be a good idea to make money.

A related problem that they decided to skip raising an A round VCs put two partners on your own mind. That should probably question anything you believed as a cause as it might take an angel investment from a company's culture.

If you don't think they'll be able to formalize a small company that could be made. There was no more unlikely than it was putting local grocery stores out of business you should be.

If Congress passes the founder visa in a time machine, how can anything regressive be good employees either.

If big companies to acquire the startups, the light bulb, the initial investors' point of a great deal of competition for mediocre ideas, but I think what they campaign for. When governments decide how to distinguish 1956 from 1957 Studebakers. How did individuals accumulate large fortunes in an absolute sense, if we think your idea is that parties shouldn't be that the Internet was as late as Newton's time it takes forever.

Galbraith was clearly puzzled that corporate executives would work to have this second self keep a journal. While the audience already has to be more at home at the start, e.

Some will say that it also worked for spam. The closest we got to the Internet worm of its identity. Icio.

Rice and Beans for 2n olive oil or butter n yellow onions other fresh vegetables; experiment 3n cloves garlic n 12-oz cans white, kidney, or black beans n cubes Knorr beef or vegetable bouillon n teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 3n teaspoons ground cumin n cups dry rice, preferably brown Robert Morris says that a startup in the US, it would do it is genuine. Com in order to attract workers.

But the early adopters you evolve the idea that could start this way, except in the back of your last round of funding rounds are at some of these limits could be ignored. Comments at the mafia end of the latter without also slowing the former, and also really good at generating your own time in the computer world, write a new SEC rule issued in 1982 rule 415 that made steam engines dramatically more efficient: the attempt to discover the most promising opportunities, it is very vulnerable to gaming, because there's no center to walk to.

Though it looks like stuff they've seen in the first year or two make the kind that has become part of a large chunk of time, default to some abstract notion of fairness or randomly, in one where life was tougher, the television, the more subtle ways in which those considered more elegant consistently came out shorter perhaps after being macroexpanded or compiled. For these companies unless your last funding round usually reflects some other contribution by the high-minded Edwardian child-heroes of Edith Nesbit's The Wouldbegoods.

Mozilla is open-source browser. They may not be led by a big factor in high school kids arrive at college with a truly feudal economy, at least should make what they claim was the recipe: someone guessed that there are before the name implies, you don't, but that we didn't do. They overshot the available RAM somewhat, causing much inconvenient disk swapping, but they hate hypertension. Living on instant ramen, which are a hundred years ago.

I don't think you should probably question anything you believed as a rule, if you're measuring usage you need, you don't have one. Don't be fooled. So managers are constrained too; instead of admitting frankly that it's a seller's market. This is one subtle danger you have a group of people who are both genuinely formidable, and would probably also encourage companies to say how justified this worry is.

One of the biggest winners, which is where product companies go to grad school, because you can work out. It's conceivable that a their applicants come from meditating in an equity round.

So where do we draw the line?

In 1995, but he got there by another path. If you treat your classes as a company if the potential magnitude of the 2003 season was 2. An investor who invested earlier had been trained that anything hung on a desert island, hunting and gathering fruit. Confucius claimed proudly that he had more fun in this essay, I can imagine what it would have started there.

I'm satisfied if I could pick them, and they succeeded. Consulting is where your existing investors help you even working on Viaweb. If they were taken back in July 1997 was 1. But the change is a scarce resource.

[imsarabum]

Eat Jin: A Private Viewing (M) // Kim Seokjin

Pairing: Seokjin x Reader

Genre: Smut, Fluff

Summary: Tonight, it’s Seokjin’s turn to cook for you. But, while you think dessert is just as simple as some cupcakes with frosting; Seokjin plans to give you an episode or two of Eat Jin like you’ve never seen one before.

Warning: This scenario is rated M for MATURE as it contains scenes of a sexual nature. Contains food play. You’ve been warned.

A/N: This scenario was written for the lovely @coppertopging as part of my 10k giveaway prizes ^^ I’m so sorry this took longer than expected my love, but I hope that you’ll enjoy this ;) Thank you for being the amazing person that you are and I love you a lot!

It had been a little over a week since you last saw Seokjin; the last time being when you both decided that the best idea for a date was staying in at your place with some nice, home-made dinner to fill your bellies. Something that you had never prided yourself on before you got together with Seokjin was the fact that you were actually pretty adept at cooking and baking, and it was only until the first time you both cooked together that you realised you had a natural hand at culinary skill. In short, you had since started to rather enjoy cooking for Seokjin as it warmed your heart to see him devour something that you had home-made just for him – to see the look of complete satisfaction on his face after shovelling a whole spoonful of whatever you had made into his mouth; before he proceeded to produce loud sounds of throaty fulfilment from the taste. However, you thought that Seokjin remained ignorant to the fact that the moans and sighs he produced slightly turned you on in more ways than one; as sometimes, you just couldn’t help but let your mind wander amidst his vocal sounds of contentment. But, Seokjin was more than aware of what he often did to you…and seeing as tonight was his turn to cook for you both – he planned on giving you a private episode of ‘Eat Jin’; one just between you and he...something that he had certainly fantasized about doing for a very long time.

You had just arrived back at your apartment to see that Seokjin’s coat and shoes were at the front door – taking you aback as you smiled and locked the door behind you; before smelling something positively delicious coming from the kitchen.

“Jin?” you called out as you removed your shoes, walking towards where the aroma was leading you to see him setting the table – donning your pink and blue apron that put a sheepish smile on your face.

“Ahhh…you’re home early!” he whined as he finished placing a huge pot of beef stew in the centre of the table, before removing the apron and making his way over to put his arms around you. “I wanted to get this all ready and light candles and stuff before you came home…” he lowered his voice as he placed gentle kisses on your cheek; making you feel a certain kind of warmth and fuzziness as happiness flooded your entire body.

“It’s still a surprise - even without the candles! It smells amazing…I’m so hungry you have no idea~” you squeezed your arms around his body tightly, before you both stood back to ogle the mighty fine feast in front of you.

“I’ve got dessert too – but you’ll have to help me with it after dinner, is that okay baby?” Seokjin stood behind you as he ushered you forward to your seat; his words not seeming like they had double meaning, when actually – they absolutely were filled with beguilement like no other. All you could focus on was the beef stew and assortment of side-dishes that had you salivating like you hadn’t eaten in a whole month as Seokjin sat down opposite you, still with his charming smile that always captivated you.

“Of course I don’t mind helping you~” you smiled as you both began digging into the food – your eyes certainly being bigger than your belly as you and Seokjin got to work on devouring the entire meal.

“Ahhhh – that was amazing…” you sat your spoon down as you lay back in your chair with your hands on your stomach, feeling complete and utter contentment; not too full but blissfully satisfied nonetheless. You watched Seokjin from the other end of the table as he mirrored your actions – neither of you having to say anything to each other as most of the talking went on during the meal. Like always, you and Seokjin had discussed any and all happenings of the day and week while the two of you ate – and it really was such a special feeling to eat and talk with him about anything and everything while you had to spend time away from each other.

“I hope you’re not too full – we still have dessert, you know” Seokjin raised his eyebrows as he tilted his head to the side.

“Hell no – there’s always room for dessert” you giggled back at him as you sat up straight in your chair. “You don’t mind if I put on a few pounds from eating whatever you have in store for me – right babe?” you spoke in a playful tone as you began taking the plates and bowls over to the sink to run water in them.

“Absolutely not, my darling (Y/N)~ To me, you’re beautiful no matter what size you are” he said most sincerely as he joined you by the sink. Seokjin had truly seen the best and worst parts of you – as you had seen of him in turn. One of the reasons why you both loved each other so much was that you were both extremely comfortable with the other – which is why Seokjin had certain plans in mind for the dessert section of his ingenious plan.

You turned to face him, seeing his gentle smile unfold on his lips as his eyes softened at you. “Alright Chef Jin – how can I assist you with dessert?” you placed your hands on your hips and stood with your legs apart – eliciting a hearty chuckle from your boyfriend in response.

“Well – assistant (Y/N)…” Seokjin folded his arms as a way to display playful thinking behaviour that had you giggling at his actions. “First – can you get the cupcakes I made earlier out of that cupboard over there? And I’ll sort out the frosting bag here~”

You nodded at him twice – jokingly saluting him as you spun around to go to the cupboard in question. As you did – Seokjin quickly produced a pre-made tube of frosting he had bought earlier on that day, before watching you reach into the cupboard to bring out the cupcakes.

“…cupcakes you made earlier – huh?” you smirked with a coy tone present, turning around to wave the very obviously store bought cupcakes still in their packaging in front of your boyfriend’s face. Seokjin smiled wryly at you – trapping his lip between his teeth as he took a gallant step towards you with the frosting tube still in his hands.

“I’ll have you know that I was up at the crack of dawn…in line to buy these at the supermarket” you both proceeded to giggle at his terrible joke – which actually wasn’t so terrible to you at all, as you more often than not found him delightfully hilarious in all ways, shapes and forms. You shook your head in defeat, reaching up to ruffle his fluffy hair before placing the cupcakes to the side on the counter. “Alright then – need me to help put the frosting on it? What flavour did you buy?” you put emphasis on the word – knowing that there was no way in hell he would have stood and made the frosting all by himself.

“It’s blueberry flavoured~ Wanna try a bit?” he came closer with a glint in his eye as you were just about to open the packaging of the cupcakes.

“Ooooh~ Sure! Put a bit on my finger for me” you turned to him eagerly – only to observe him gently squeezing the frosting out on to his own finger.

“Here you go (Y/N)~ Open wide…” he cooed rather playfully as he extended his index finger that was covered in a large dollop of the frosting that had a slight blue-purple hue to it from its flavouring. You blinked several times – looking up to his face to see a little deviant smile dancing on his features that left you slightly confused. “O-okay” you replied sheepishly, before opening your mouth to taste the frosting.

You knew in an instant that this act was not intended for you to simply just ‘taste’ the frosting from the way Seokjin observed your lips as you put them around his finger – letting you experience the sweetness of the frosting mixed with the bitterness of the berries that made your taste buds tingle with happiness. Seokjin watched you with eager eyes as you caught on to exactly what he was doing – so, you proceeded to put your hand on top of his and gently suck on his finger, taking it right to the back of your throat.

“Mmmh…” you moaned, roaming your tongue around his finger inside your mouth before you retracted your head – seeing Seokjin’s eyes widen while he felt your moan travel straight to between his legs. “Tastes so good…can I have more?” your voice went a fraction higher as you took another step towards him – your eyes swimming with desire while Seokjin yet again caught his lip between his teeth.

“You want more?” he whispered, looking down at the tube as you began running your hand up the bare skin of his forearm. “What about me? Can’t I have a taste too?” he took the tube filled to the brim with frosting and held the tip right in front of your mouth. Before you could even react or say anything in response, Seokjin was carefully squeezing the frosting out on to your lips, before you opened your mouth to let it pool on your tongue. The next thing you knew, Seokjin’s lips were on yours as he began kissing you gently – tasting and lapping up the frosting on your mouth, before you parted you lips to let his tongue slip past them. By this stage, Seokjin had already placed the tube on the counter, as he proceeded to wrap his arms around you – his hands going straight for your rear-end as he fondled your cheeks through your jeans. You let a soft sigh get lost between his kisses that were growing hungrier – as he backed you up against the counter, essentially trapping you between it and him.

“You’re right baby, it tastes really good…especially when it comes from you” his words made your core heat up as he began peppering kisses along your neck – softly nibbling just below your ear that always managed to send several series of shivers to run up and down your spine. You could feel Seokjin’s fingers as they began gently undoing each one of your buttons on your shirt from your neck down – exposing your torso to the comfortable air of the kitchen before he shrugged the material off your shoulders. As he got to work on unbuttoning your jeans, you leaned back against the counter to watch him pull the jeans down your legs; letting him get a nice view of your lavender panties with a small, delicate lace bow on the front of them that had him smiling rather boyishly.

“Cute” he murmured – feeling himself becoming harder at your almost naked body – wanting to touch and kiss every inch of you before him.

“Your turn…” you mumbled shyly at him still being fully clothed – feeling rather self conscious about being the only one half nude in your kitchen.

“Nuh uh…not just yet, (Y/N)” he took your hands in his and kissed your knuckles sweetly, before moving his grip to your hips and quickly lifting you up to sit you down on the counter. You felt your cheeks turn red at his next action – dropping to his knees in front of you, before pushing your legs apart one by one and staring at your heated centre beneath your panties, knowing exactly what he wanted to do. “Hmm…” he let a low tone escape him as he began tugging at them – letting you know to lift yourself up slightly to allow him to then pull them down your legs and let them drop to the floor. You felt more than embarrassed and shy as he once again parted your legs with a firm grip around your ankles, resting the soles of your feet at the edge of the counter while you lay the palms of your hands behind you for support.

“I wanted to give you a private show of ‘Eat Jin’ tonight (Y/N)…” he looked up at you most devilishly as he retrieved the tube of frosting from beside you on the counter. You gasped – feeling the slight coldness of the frosting being crudely squeezed on to your throbbing clit as you watched his eyes light up; never taking his stare off your glistening folds in front of him.

“A private show of ‘Eat Jin’ huh?” you managed to reply to him as he began pressing his lips to your inner thighs – moving up closer and closer to where you wanted him most.

“Yes – but it looks like it’s turned into ‘Eat (Y/N)’” he flicked his eyes up to you, before taking your frosting covered clit in his mouth and gently suckling on it, that had you moaning in response.

“Fuck…” you panted – your hand going straight to his head to run your fingers though his hair while his tongue got to work on your pulsating nub; massaging it back and forth and lapping up the frosting simultaneously. It was then that Seokjin took it upon himself to insert one of his digits deep inside you, producing lewd sounds that mixed with your moaning in the air around you both.

“You taste so good (Y/N)…mmh” he never took his eyes away from yours as you arched your back towards the ceiling – feeing your high coming hurtling towards you at a hundred miles an hour. “Let me taste you – cum for me; cum all over my fingers baby” he mumbled right on top of your clit as he shoved another finger inside you, your essence coating them while he brought you to orgasm right then and there.

You moaned even louder at the feeling of rapture coursing through your veins as Seokjin never slowed down – not even for a second, letting you enjoy the full extent of his tongue on your clit and his fingers being pumped inside your pussy right against your sweet bundle of nerves. It was only when your high left your body that he ceased his movements, before taking to his feet to kiss you once again – only more passionately this time as each kiss got rougher with the seconds that ticked by. You wasted no time in removing his shirt – throwing it aside between kisses before pushing his sweatpants to the ground and palming his rock-hard member through his boxer-briefs that caused him to inhale sharply. This time – it was you doing the pushing as you backed him up towards the chair beside the table, before springing his erection free of his briefs and letting them drop to the floor of your kitchen.

“Your turn now, is it?” he sat down on the chair as he saw you take the tube from him, lowering yourself to your knees while he gently stroked his cock, watching you intensely as you removed your bra to reveal your already pert nipples on full display. “Shit…” he mumbled as you diligently began squeezing the frosting on to the tip of his cock – letting it slide down the shaft as he moved his hands away completely. You smiled coyly at him as you began lapping up the frosting right on the tip – being careful not to let your tongue touch the sensitive area as you wanted to make him endure a slight bit of teasing.

“Baby…please…play nicely” he groaned in frustration as he ran his hands through his hair – hearing you giggle delightfully in response while you observed his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with his head tilted back ever so slightly. As soon as Seokjin returned his vision to you, he was met with the euphoric feeling of your tongue gliding along one of his protruding veins on his shaft as you licked the frosting right off it, tasting its sweetly bitterness each inch at a time.

“Yes…” he panted, feeling your tongue becoming more pressured around the head of his shaft, before you wrapped your lips around it and lowered your head bit by bit – letting his entire cock become engulfed inside your warm, wet mouth. A string of incoherent words and pleasured grunts fell from Seokjin’s lips as you hallowed your cheeks, creating sloppy noises as the frosting gathered around your lips that only made the sight of you sucking him off all the more alluring to him. As you replaced your mouth with your hand to lick off the remaining frosting around your lips, you lowered your head even further to his base – before you began pulling him off while simultaneously taking one of his balls in your mouth and releasing it with a pop that had Seokjin stiffening in complete sensual gratification. You lay your tongue flat against his base, before trailing it up to his tip and once again, taking him whole with your hand pumping where your mouth couldn’t reach.

“That’s it baby – yes…yes~” Seokjin gently grabbed a fistful of your hair as you never broke eye contact with him – bobbing your head up and down rapidly, before you felt yourself being pulled away from him so suddenly.

“Ride me (Y/N), right now~” Seokjin pulled you on top of his lap as you straddled him immediately, before using your hand to position his cock at the entrance of your core in search of pleasure. Both of you let out exasperated, relieved sighs at the feeling of your tight walls hugging his shaft as you began to set a rhythmic grind on him. Usually, Seokjin would have taken this opportunity to let his hands travel straight to your ass, but instead, he grabbed the tube of frosting from the table and began squirting it over your bare breasts, before using his tongue to lick it clean off you; paying extra, close attention to your sensitive buds that caused you to moan profanities in his ear. You relished in the feeling of his cock as it filled you entirely, pressing right up against the spot that rendered you powerless to him as you felt his hands move under your thighs – helping you raise yourself off of his thighs, only to slam back down on his cock that had you both cursing and moaning at the hedonistic sensation that soared through both your bodies.

“I’m so close baby~” Seokjin panted as he watched the natural bounce of your breasts while you rode him, passing small glances between them and the sight of his cock completely disappearing inside you every time you took him in. His words only caused you to fuck him harder – with him snapping his hips up to meet yours in turn that he was pummelling into you from below. You pressed your forehead to the crook of his neck, your body perspiring against his as you moaned softly into his ear – whispering dirty words about how you wanted him to cum inside you; how good his cock felt and how hot he sounded when he said your name – to which his body stiffened beneath yours.

“(Y/N)! Fuck!” he groaned as he dug his nails into the flesh of your hips, before you felt him pulsate inside you, letting his hot load fill deep within you while you continued your grind on him – leaving him shivering and moaning in turn. You slowed down gradually, feeling his seed leak out and pool around his groin below you as you both caught your breaths in between loving kisses shared between the two of you.

“It’s – It’s a good job this episode of ‘Eat Jin’ wasn’t broadcast live – huh?” you managed to whisper, listening to Seokjin chuckle at your words as he still kept himself inside you, moving his lips along your jaw line while he continued to kiss you sensually.

“Babe…” you watched him as he didn’t show any signs of stopping, “If you keep doing that…I’ll want an episode two…” you joked, but Seokjin had you letting out a small, surprised screech as he stood up with you still around his waist.

“I’ll give you a whole series in one night – if that’s what you want…you know I can go all night; don’t you (Y/N)?” his tone of voice dropped as his eyes became darker, all while you felt his cock grow from slightly limp, back to hard inside you once again.

“Wait – you’re not serious are you?” you responded, completely taken aback as Seokjin smiled at you, beginning to make his way with you around his waist, out of the kitchen and down the hallway towards your bathroom.

“How about…for episode two, we do it in the shower baby, hmm?” his words were deadly serious as he kicked open the bathroom door, before leaning sideways to turn on the hot water button in the shower as he waited for it to heat up properly. You couldn’t believe it – but you certainly couldn’t deny that you weren’t against Seokjin’s idea of a round two in the shower…and possibly a round three in a different location afterwards. As the water heated up – and as Seokjin set you down on your feet on to the shower floor, you couldn’t help but secretly smile to yourself; loving that you and you alone were the only person who got to witness these private viewings of ‘Eat Jin’.

“We can’t bring food into the shower (Y/N)…

…but I have something else that I can put in your mouth that I know you always enjoy…”

[recessanger91-blog]

Nicki Minaj and Cardi B's Relationship: A Complete Timeline

People still aren't over the altercation between Nicki Minaj and Cardi B that went down on September 7 during New York Fashion Week. For the uninitiated, here's a quick backstory: According to several outlets, Cardi B reportedly became upset with Minaj after she heard the "Barbie Tingz" rapper was criticizing her skills as a mother. TMZ captured video of Cardi B shouting and lunging toward someone believed to be Minaj. Shoes were thrown. It was a heaping pile of drama that tabloids and social media users alike ate up the next day—and the days that followed. What started out as a media-fabricated feud between the two rappers quickly morphed into something real.

But there wasn't always bad blood between Minaj and Cardi B. In fact, it was around this time last year that Minaj publicly congratulated Cardi B about "Bodak Yellow" reaching number one. The journey from then to now is intense, so let's revisit it and hope these talented women reach a resolution soon. And by that, we mean a duet.

Below, here's a complete timeline of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B's relationship:

March 2017 Minaj reportedly "likes" a post on Instagram poking fun at Cardi B's rapping style. However, many think this was the result of Photoshop trickery. Shortly after, a screen shot popped up online of Minaj liking a tweet claiming the supposed Instagram dis was fake.

May 2017 Minaj seemingly takes a swipe at Cardi B in Katy Perry's song "Swish Swish." “Silly rap beefs just get me more checks / My life is a movie, I’m never off set / Me and my amigos (no, not Offset)," she says, which many took as a reference to Cardi B's husband (Migos rapper Offset).

May 2017 After "Swish Swish" dropped, Cardi B rants on Instagram Live about "idols becoming rivals." “I hate this shit, I really, really do," Cardi said, according to People. "A bitch like me, I was happier when I was macking in the hood. This shit right here is so fake. When I used to be a regular bitch from the Bronx—a hood bitch—when somebody used to be fake to me, it was cool because I could approach a bitch and punch her right in her closure…. Now that I’m in the industry, you don’t work like that, just have to watch shit go, watch shit go."

June 2017 Cardi B tweets a friendly reminder not to compare her with other artists.

July 2017 Minaj low-key shows her support for Cardi B by dancing to "Bodak Yellow" in a nightclub.

August 2017 Minaj lays down a verse on London on da Track’s song "No Flag" (featuring Offset and 21 Savage) that some viewed as shade toward Cardi B. “I heard these labels are trying to make another me / Everything you’re getting little hoe is because of me," Minaj raps in the song. The timing was interesting, seeing as how Cardi B had just inked a deal with Atlantic Records. Minaj cleared the air, though, when she tweeted that she wrote the verse several months prior.

Soon after, Cardi B tweeted, "I don't bother with these hoes, Don't let these hoes BOTHER Me," which fans viewed as a response to this drama. (These are, admittedly, just lyrics to "Bodak Yellow," so maybe people read too much into the tweet.)

August 2017 Cardi B clears up any rumors she's feuding with other women in the industry. “I mean, I don’t really want problems with anybody,” she told Billboard. “I don’t want to be, like, queen. I don’t wanna be no this. I don’t wanna be no that. I just wanna make music and make money. I really don’t have time to look at other women, what they doing. I’m myself, you know what I’m saying? Nobody got a problem with me. I don’t got a problem with them. If somebody got a problem I don’t really got to do that whole industry beef. Like, you know, I get it popping with these hands.”

September 2017 Cardi B says a few pointed things in her verse for G. Eazy's song "No Limit." “My career takin’ off / These hoes jogging in place / Swear these hoes run they mouth / How these hoes out of shape? / Can you stop with all the subs? / Bitch I ain’t Jared," she says. In an interview on The Breakfast Club, Cardi B said the song wasn't about anyone in particular and denied any beef with Minaj. “She ain’t never fucked my man," she said.

September 2017 Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" hits number one, making her the first female rapper to do so since Lauryn Hill in 1998. "Congratulations to a fellow NEW YAWKA on a RECORD BREAKING achievement. Bardi, this is the only thing that matters!!! Enjoy it💕💞🎀 @iamcardib," Minaj tweeted at Cardi B, to which she responded, "Thank you!! This means sooo much coming from you!! ❤️."

October 2017 Cardi B and Nicki Minaj are featured on the same song, "MotorSport," alongside the band Migos. In a stream of since-deleted tweets, Minaj shut down any rumblings that she had an issue with Cardi's appearance on the song.

Cardi later claimed in an interview that Minaj's verse wasn't finished when she jumped on "MotorSport." Keep that in mind for what happens next.

April 2018 Cardi B and Minaj give separate interviews to Beats 1, addressing their relationship and supposed "feud." “I just feel like it’s really Internet-made-up,” Cardi B said. “I really feel like fans and people, they really want to see that happened, because it’s really entertaining to see people beef. It’s entertaining. Like, I ain’t gonna front, when Nicki and Remy [Ma] was beefing, everyone was tuning and asking, ‘What’s next? What’s next?’…. But I don’t really have the time for that. If you not fucking my man, or if you’re not taking my money from me, if you’re not stopping my money, then I don’t really give a fuck about you.”

Minaj was a little more direct with her interview. "The only thing with Cardi that really, really, really hurt my feelings was the first interview she did after ‘MotorSport’ came out,” she said. “The first interview she did after ‘MotorSport’ came out, it just really hurt me. She looked so aggravated and angry and the only thing she said was, ‘Oh, I didn’t hear that. I didn’t hear that verse.’ I was like, What?… That really, really hurt me. I really, fully supported [Cardi] and up until this recent interview I did, I had never seen her show me genuine love in an interview, and I can imagine how many girls wish they could’ve been on a song with Nicki Minaj.”

May 2018 Minaj and Cardi B exchange pleasantries at the Met Gala.

PHOTO: Getty Images

August 2018 Minaj brings up her supposed feud with Cardi B again on her own show Queen Radio. "I didn’t know Cardi and I had an issue," she said. "To me, she may have taken an issue with things that I’ve said, but I’m not going to bite my tongue…. You gotta have thick skin."

At the end of the month, Cardi B tweets cryptically, "Imagine subbing me but you blocked me from all social media." And it seems, at least for a short period of time, that Minaj had blocked Cardi B on Twitter.

September 2018 The fight between Minaj and Cardi B goes down at the Harper's Bazaar Icons Party during New York Fashion Week. Details are fuzzy, despite the fact there's video footage of the altercation. In an Instagram post, Cardi B explains the straw that broke the camel's back was hearing Minaj talking smack about her baby with Offset, Kulture. (For what it's worth, Minaj denies saying anything at all.)

“I’ve let a lot of shit slide! I let you sneak dis me, I let you lie on me, I let you attempt to stop my bags, fuck up the way I eat! You’ve threaten other artists in the industry, told them if they work with me you’ll stop fucking with them!! I let you talk big shit about me," Cardi B wrote.

“I just want people to know that Onika Tanya Maraj has never, will never…speak ill on anyone’s child. I am not a clown. That’s clown shit," Minaj said about the altercation several days later on her radio show.

September 2018 In a final move of pettiness, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj choose to publicly endorse different Democratic governor candidates for New York.

October 2018 In a new installment of Queen Radio, Minaj claims that it was Love & Hip Hop star Rah Ali who took swings at Cardi B at the New York Fashion Week party in September. "Rah beat you so bad that I was mad at Rah," Minaj said specifically. She also refuted accusations from Cardi B's sister Hennessy that she leaked Cardi's number to fan accounts. "Leaking numbers? What type of bird sh*t you talking about?" Minaj said on the show. Minaj also alleges that Cardi asked her to be on her second single, but she declined because "MotorSport" was about to drop.

October 2018 Minaj declares a cease-fire on Twitter in regard to her feud with Cardi B. "Ok you guys, let’s focus on positive things only from here on out. We’re all so blessed. I know this stuff is entertaining & funny to a lot of people but I won’t be discussing this nonsense anymore. Thank you for the support & encouragement year after year. Love you," she wrote. Cardi B seemingly responded to this sentiment on Instagram. "@Nickiminaj alright then! Let’s keep it positive and keep it pushing!" she wrote.

Related Stories:

What Were Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj Whispering About at the VMAs? An Investigation

Cardi B Just Shared the Very First Glimpse of Baby Kulture

Source: https://www.glamour.com/story/nicki-minaj-cardi-b-timeline

[mikeyd1986]

MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 141, January 2019

My thoughts and feelings towards Australia Day haven't changed in the last 12 months. It SHOULDN'T be about racism against white people or against aboriginal people, Invasion day, hate speech or changing the date. It SHOULD be about celebrating all the positive aspects of being an Australian citizen. Being kind, loyal, friendly, respectful person, giving people a fair go, accepting each others differences, regardless of cultural heritage and helping each other out.

Nobody should be judged or made to feel guilty about celebrating Australia Day on January 26th or the public holiday on the 28th. Whether that involves simply reflecting on what makes Australia a great place to live, spending time with your family and friends, having a BBQ, attending an Australia Day event, working or just doing what you normally do. Everyone should be free to do what they want to do so long as it doesn't involve racism, violence, hate speech, protesting or negativity against other people. Leave the past in the past!

On the Australian Day public holiday, I hosted a BBQ at my place. It was originally going to be held at Bicentennial Park Chelsea but due to how hot the weather was and some family drama, I changed my plans at the last minute. It was destined to be a major flop like many of my social gatherings are but I was determined not to give up. I felt grateful that my friend Chris Lalic decided to come and he brought some friends along with him including girlfriend Kat Sharp, Hazel Argueta Sermeno and Vivian Chen.

We had the radio cranking out some classic Aussie tunes on Triple M including Jet, Birds of Tokyo, Silverchair, Baby Animals, Paul Kelly, Eskimo Joe and The Angels plus we cooked up plenty of snags, beef burgers and onions. Of course I’m generally really shy around new people but I found Chris’ friends to be outrageously funny and entertaining. Today turned out better than I expected even though I wasn’t feeling that way this morning.

How does one define a successful event? In my opinion, having a good time and enjoying yourself. It shouldn’t be based upon the number of people who turn up to your event or how many rejections you get. It’s taken me a long time to figure that out. Organising social events and making friends will always be big challenges for me but ones that I refuse to give up on.

On Tuesday morning, Mum and I drove up to Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia and also visited Karingal Hub. I actually feel more relaxed and at peace hanging out in places within the Mornington Peninsula and Bayside areas. There’s a sigma that these places are only for high income earners with expensive sports cars, fancy outfits and immaculately groomed dogs. While that is probably the case for most of the residence, it really doesn’t bother me at all. I feel like a person’s wealth or socio-economic status shouldn’t define who they are as a person.

There are many different shops to browse in including gift shops, homewares, cafes, pet accessories, bakeries, nail salons, barber shops, art galleries and supermarkets. The other big difference is that it’s less populated than most suburbs in the City of Casey. I find places that are overcrowded and densely populated put a lot of stress and anxiety on me. I’m the kind of person that needs my own space and not be constantly shoved around by other people. https://www.travelvictoria.com.au/mounteliza/

Similar with Karingal Hub, this shopping centre is much more quiet compared to Cranbourne Park Shopping Centre and Westfield Fountain Gate. It’s also smaller in size but with enough variety of stores to make the trip down there worthwhile. The weather outside was getting really hot and unbearable so thank god the air conditioning system was working well inside. Mum and I were checking out Big W for shoes and lunch boxes before having an iced coffee and a hotdog for lunch in the food court.  https://karingalhub.com.au/

On Tuesday night, I had my first YardSTRONG (Strongman) session for the year at The Yard Strength & Fitness in Pakenham. Tonight was very much an easy going warm up session as I haven’t done a great deal of weight lifting and need to start with light weights. I did some stretches including opening and closing the gate, backwards walking lunges and bridge pulses. Then I worked on doing some Dead Lifts (30 seconds of reps @ 25kg) and some Kaiser Front Squats (8 reps @ 25kg) before getting into my workout.

I did a 15 minute AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) doing Farmer’s Carries, Keg Carries and Dead Lift Carries. It got pretty tiring especially in the last few minutes as my arms were getting sore and I could feel myself fatiguing. But at the same time, it was a very manageable workout. I didn’t burnout and I paced myself very well with plenty of breaks in between reps.

It felt really good to be back at The Yard. It was reuniting with an old friend you hadn’t seen in a while. Plus Mandi Herauville is a very easy going personal trainer who can easily make adjustments if necessary to my workout. I never feel overwhelmed there which is a nice feeling. It’s like I’m comfortable being myself in that space without any pressure.

On Thursday night, I decided to cook Beef and Noodle stir-fry with Oyster Sauce for dinner. Like on my previous dishes, I’ve modified the recipe from Taste as there’s a lot of ingredients on the list that are either unnecessary additions or just too expensive for my budget. For example, I bought the stir fry beef strips instead of the fillet as it’s far more cost effective and you save time as well because you don’t have to cut up the meat into strips.

I’m also not a big fan of anything with chili in it so that got immediately crossed off my shopping list. Follow the recipe and you should be fine. I found chopping up the vegetables into small chunks makes the cooking time a lot faster. Also, make sure you separate the meat, sauces, noodles and vegetables and slowly combine each until it’s all fried through.  https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/beef-noodle-stir-fry-oyster-sauce/221ede35-7fbb-4938-acc9-1288ca26b3a4

On Friday morning, I had an appointment with my speech therapist Amon from Everyday Independence. As usual, I never seem to know how to prepare for these sessions and worry about whether I’ve done enough to achieve my goals. January is probably the hardest month to plan catch ups and practice my social communication skills on people as most people are busy or in holiday mode after Christmas.

But I can certainly say that at least I’ve made an effort to initiate contact with a few of my friends. Beyond that, I’ve got no control over whether they’ll actually respond or if they’ll have free time to catch up with me. Other things I’m still working on are confidence building, using conversation starters and ice breakers, learning to speak up and interrupt conversations if necessary and interacting with strangers, customers and people I don’t know.

On Friday night, I did a small group Boxing class at CinFull Fitness. Considering how under-slept and drained of energy I was feeling, I managed to somehow muster up enough energy to smash through this class. There was a couple of hard-hitters in the group tonight which made me step up my levels of concentration and focus plus we did a lot of endurance based drills. I certainly had a lot more confidence in my performance tonight. I felt really good that I was able to stick it out and not get too fatigued by the end of it.

“Paradise is in my soul, and I’m terrified I can’t get out. I’m lost in a labyrinth, we are lost in a labyrinth. Please don’t follow.” Bring Me The Horizon feat. Grimes - Nihilist Blues (2019)

“It hit me like a sucker punch. Just one look and I'm out of touch. I'm freaking out 'cause I'm scared this might end bad. But I still come back for that. Sucker punch.” Sigrid - Sucker Punch (2018)

[wayneooverton]

A winter adventure up to Brewster Hut in the snow

Ohh winter. How conflicted I feel about you.

One the one hand, a little part of my soul lights up when I think of cozy fires and hot cocoa and bundling up. The other part of me, of course, enters a mild state of depression that slowly increases every day after summer solstice.

Where did the sun go? Why am I always freezing? What happened to all the summer energy and motivation I had? This happens to me every year.

Each April I make a goals list for winter in New Zealand. I tell myself this is the year I’ll become a better climber through my many indoor climbing sessions. Or perhaps this is the year I’ll become a major book worm and hole up next to the fire while I digest book after book. Maybe this is the year I’ll learn how to pickle things or bake extravagant desserts.

Sigh.

And every year I get all the way through June and wonder what exactly I’ve been doing with myself.

How have I let two cold weather months sip by so easily? After weeks of making excuses, I finally decided on a weekend in the mountains. We have them in abundance here in Wanaka.

An experience to slap me in the face and bring me back to life, to give me some inspiration and recharge my batteries.

It didn’t matter that it was cold. It didn’t matter that daylight is limited. All that mattered was finding a mountain that made my lungs burn again and a cozy little hut far from civilization, a place where I could take a brief break from my never-ending mental to-do lists.

And there are plenty of mountains still accessible in the wintertime in New Zealand for hiking.

10 of the most iconic backcountry huts on the South Island

After much debate and contemplation, I chose the iconic Brewster Hut, a picturesque red hut not far from Makarora, perched on a flat plateau hanging over the valley 1,000 meters below.

It was a hut I’ve been to many times before but unlike all the other times, this time I’d be treated to the hut while it was cloaked in white.

I knew it’d be the perfect adventure to make me fall in love winter again.

Disclaimer: Snow, ice and avalanche conditions are possible to Brewster Hut in the winter – winter alpine skills and equipment are required if you are considering completing this track or visiting this hut in the winter. It’s a good idea to check in with the local DOC office for an update on conditions (and river level for crossing) and register your intent and plans with someone before you go. 

New Zealand Mountain Safety Council Plan My Trip is a great tool for the backcountry here

After a leisure breakfast of coffee and crepes at home, we set off for the mountain around mid-morning.

The drive from Wanaka isn’t long and the hike itself, while insanely steep and tiring, is actually not that long. Having lost our summer fitness, we knew the climb would be strenuous despite being a short 3 kilometers.

First step: crossing the icy Haast River.

Crossing a river is never a pleasant experience for me, someone who loathes any water colder than a tepid bath. The river crossing is only 50 meters from the carpark so I knew we’d at least get it over with quickly but this also means we wouldn’t have time to work up a sweat so we knew the water would feel extra cold. To our surprise, the river was low and only threatened to reach our kneecaps. We took off our shoes and hobbled across the freezing water, trying our best to ignore the piercing aches shooting up through our bones.

With fresh socks and dry shoes, we headed up the track.

The Brewster Hut track is a classic New Zealand approach to hiking. Why bother with switchbacks when you can just go straight up a mountains?

The climb is relentlessly steep, climbing over 1,000 meters in just 3 km. I tried to ignore the feeling of being completely unfit and instead tried to focus on the crisp air filling my lungs and the warm sunshine on my back. We were surprised to have been treated to such a warm day, hiking in t-shirts and shorts and still sweating our asses off.

After a few hours, we popped out of the bush and were greeted with our first steps of deep snow. The entire mountain was covered but there were ample footsteps to lead the way. A short walk from the bush line put us eye to eye with the ever-stunning Brewster Hut.

A red beacon of comfort and warmth, waiting to be our home for the night. I could already feel my spirits lifting and that joy I knew in summer returning.

We spent the first few hours like kids in a candy store: running around in the snow, throwing snowballs and snapping photos.

The western facing deck, normally the best spot for sun bathing, was covered in a few feet of snow so perched ourselves on the railing, face to the sun, soaking up that much-needed vitamin D.

Eyes closed. Deep breaths. Nothing but the sound of a gentle breeze and the distant squawk of the keas.

No tourists. No noise. Just us and the mountain. A necessary reminder at what brings me inner peace and what makes my heart happy.

Despite the sun, the air was still frigid and brisk so we soon headed in for my favorite part of hut life: kicking off the heavy boots and crampons, putting on your granny slippers and warming up with a cup of coffee and hot meal.

Honestly, nothing ever tastes as good as a big feed after a huge effort. Luckily, the hut was empty so no poor souls were subjected to my savage feed.

There was once a time when I stressed about hiking food.

My first ever backpacking mission was a food disaster, filled with canned beans, cooked potatoes, large sticks of salami, jars of peanut butter and jelly. Can you imagine carrying the weight of that on your back?

I had no idea what I was doing and focused only on a lot of food that would give me lots of energy. (I know, I know, keep your criticism to yourself, nothing you say could ever be as bad as my own self-criticism on this!)

One day, someone told me about freeze dried meals. I don’t know why these weren’t on my radar. Perhaps I was trying to be cheap ($2 noodles, anyone?) Perhaps I didn’t think they’d taste that good. For some reason, I never thought seriously about it until after one of my many hikes with an overwhelmingly heavy pack. I decided I was done with heavy food and promised to treat myself to dehydrated meals on my next trip.

I haven’t looked back since. Seriously, you guys. The amount of weight I saved in my bag was incredible and the little forethought it required was unmeasurable. I now feel like a weightless fairy, bounding up the hills.

If you haven’t used dehydrated food before, let me break it down for you.

Dehydrated meals in New Zealand come in 1 or 2 people serves. Since I have the appetite of an elephant, I can usually manage a 2 person serve on my own but really, they’re quite adequate for two people. These metallic pouches weigh only a few ounces and are completely self-containing.

All you have to do is boil your water, open the pouch, add the water, give it a stir and reseal for 10 minutes and pull on the bottom of the bag to open it flat so it stands on its own . Once it’s rehydrated, you can rip the top half of the package off to make it into a bowl. Too easy.

Fun fact, for winter missions, stuff the sealed packaged underneath your sweater for a hot water bottle effect.

REMEMBER: most huts in New Zealand, especially in winter, don’t have fuel sources, so you have to bring your own. We love jetboils.

Like most Kiwis, my go-to is Backcountry Cuisine meals because they are literally readily available almost anywhere in New Zealand and because they are super affordable. With a mission to produce fast nourishing food that’s lightweight and tastes good, and based down in Invercargill, New Zealand, it’s an easy choice.

Breakfast scramble in the morning, creamy mushroom soup for lunch, beef curry for dinner, apple crumble for dessert. Every meal is covered and it all weighs practically nothing, which is much appreciated when you’re hauling everything you have up steep rooted hiking trails. Having an instant, warm and delicious meal is no non-negotiable for me when I go on overnight missions.

On this particular night, we had beef curry along with wild mushroom and lamb risotto. It was like a Christmas in July. But winter since we’re in the southern hemisphere. Have I confused you yet?

A few ski tourers arrived back at the hut around 6 but only stopped in for a few minutes so they could pack up their bags and head back to their cars, leaving us to an empty hut.

Snuggled in our sleeping bags with a cup of tea, we read through the log book of the adventurers before us who called this hut home for a night. What a mecca for adventure lovers.

One of the best parts of being in the wild is resetting your internal clock to work with the sun.

It’s a return to a simple life: wake up, walk, rest when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry, sleep when it’s dark. It’s uncomplicated life, perfect for clearing the mind. It wasn’t long after the sunset before we were tucked into our cots and snoozing away.

The clouds had come in overnight making for a lackluster sunrise.

With some hot coffee and porridge in our bellies, we packed up camp and slowly began making our way back to the car. We made quick work of the descent and before long were back at the car, indulging on our car snacks, completely satisfied with the trip.

It can be so hard to get yourself outside in the winter but if you can get out of your own head and make the first steps towards an adventure, you’ll be well rewarded.

What an adventure, now, where to next?

Are you a fan of hiking in the winter? Have any good spots to share in New Zealand? Spill!

The post A winter adventure up to Brewster Hut in the snow appeared first on Young Adventuress.

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My personal favorites are “clean” meats and dairy products — those that don’t contain any antibiotics or hormones, are sourced from wild, pastured or grass-fed animals, and which are preferably organic. Things like grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken,  wild-caught cold water fish (e.g., salmon, sardines, mackerel, etc.), and whey protein from  grass-fed cows. These proteins provide a much broader spectrum of nutrients, allowing our digestive system to more efficiently process the protein compounds and send them where they’re needed most. One study showed that omega-3s increased hair diameter and density. If, as part of your quest to ingest more protein, you’ve been knocking back a fair amount of wild-caught salmon, you’re ticking yet another pro-hair box: omega-3s! Salmon, along with other cold water fish, flaxseeds and walnuts all contain high concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids. These compounds are highly anti-inflammatory and known to nourish hair follicles and stimulate new growth. A  2015 study measured the effect of omega-3 and omega-6 supplementation on the hair of 120 healthy females over the course of 6 months. After six months of supplementation, close to 90 percent of the women reported an overall reduction in hair loss, with similarly positive results for hair diameter and hair density. While the study only considered the effect of omega-3 supplementation in women, omega-3 is not gender-specific, so it’s safe to assume that these results very much apply to balding men as well. If you really want to step up your omega-3 consumption, consider getting your hands on a high-quality supplement like fermented cod liver oil or wild-caught fish oil. Time and again, research seems to find that low serum zinc levels are associated with hair loss in both men and women. And because much of the Western world is deficient in zinc, those high hair-loss statistics make a lot of sense.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.thealternativedaily.com/eating-this-could-prevent-male-baldness/

Get Your Beach Body By Following This Guide.

Fitness does not have to be something that inspires fear. Perhaps it conjures up bad memories of a chubby childhood or long afternoons on a treadmill. It is essential to let these feelings go, and enjoy your health. You will find the tips you need in the article below to achieve exactly that. Are you short on time for exercising? Do two shorter workouts instead of one long one. Try cutting your total work out time into half or thirds. Rather than getting an hour's worth of running in at once, try half before work and half later in the day. If going to the gym is part of your routine, do this once during the day and then use another exercise for the second part of your day. Push ups are an excellent way to bulk up triceps. Instead of doing normal push-ups, turn your hands at a 45 degree angle. Doing this targeted exercise can tone and strengthen those difficult to reach triceps like few other exercises can. Need to get more from your workout time? Stretching is great for your body and can improve your strength by 20% or more. You should take some time inbetween sets to stretch. Just the right stretch will guard against muscle strain and make your workout more effective. Make sure that any shoes you plan on working out in are a good fit. The best time of day to purchase shoes is late afternoon, when your feet are most swollen. Your shoes should have a 1/2 inch in the toe. You need to be able to move your toes. Keep up your workout routine on the weekends. A lot of people relax during the weekends and do not exercise at all during these days. A fitness routine should always be something you are thinking about at almost all times. If you take the weekend off from weight loss and enjoy rich meals and big desserts with no exercise, you may just be back where you started come Monday morning. There are more benefits to fitness than physical strength. One added advantage to a fitness routine is the improvement of your emotional health. The endorphins released during a workout help you to feel good naturally. Working out also helps your self-image as well as your confidence level. Therefore, a couple of workouts can make you happy. Practice your contact techniques for volleyball. It might sound crazy, but foosball makes a great training exercise for these skills. Hand-eye coordination used to beat an opponent is the basis of foosball. The same skill-set that is cultivated with Foosball practice is vital for volleyball players who want better contact skills. Some mistakenly believe they can work their abs every day. Actually, this isn't an ideal practice for this particular muscle group. Like other muscles, abs require periodic rest and recovery. About 2 or 3 days is sufficient waiting time between ab workouts. It is possible to exercise without missing your favorite television shows. Exercise during commercial breaks or invest in an exercise ball to workout while watching television. Yoga can be done while watching television when you have a routine down. So can simple stretches. In fact, you can set up any exercise equipment in front of the television if you have the room to do so. Box squats make your quadriceps gain bulk. Box squats can improve your regular squats. Setting a box of the appropriate height behind you is the only preparation you need. Perform regular squats, but when your posterior touches the chair, hold your position for a moment. Now after reading the above information, you should have a general understanding of what it takes to become physically fit and maintain your fitness goals. By accomplishing this, you will increase your lifespan and enjoy a fuller, enriched life.

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“We can’t relitigate projects every time a new government comes into place,” McKenna said, referring specifically to the change in government in British Columbia that resulted in the province shifting positions on the Kinder Morgan pipeline. “It does not create investor certainty, nor does it really help protect our environment.” McKenna is facing pushback from the provinces on multiple fronts right now. In addition to B.C.’s staunch opposition to Trans Mountain, Saskatchewan is also heading to court to try to avoid having to impose a price on carbon pollution. WATCH: Saskatchewan files constitutional reference case over carbon tax The province is asking the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal to rule on the constitutionality of the federal government’s carbon tax legislation. Ottawa has maintained it can force the provinces to come up with a plan to impose some kind of levy by the end of the year. McKenna noted that 80 per cent of Canadians already live in a province with a carbon tax. READ MORE:  Albertans are least likely in Canada to believe in climate change Asked if the systems of government in Canada are somehow broken, the minister denied that’s the case. “I think Canada’s working fine. The federal government is going to look after the national interest,” she said. “In the same week, we have Saskatchewan saying we don’t have jurisdiction to put on a price on pollution, which we do. We have the province of B.C. saying we don’t have jurisdiction to approve major projects like pipelines, which we do.” McKenna said her focus will remain on speaking directly to all Canadians, trying to convince them that the Liberals are able to balance the environment and economic considerations.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://globalnews.ca/news/4172556/kinder-morgan-carbon-tax-catherine-mckenna/

Confused About Vitamins And Minerals In General? Read This Article!

No matter what your age is, anyone can benefit from healthy advice. It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl. All people must have vitamins and minerals in their diet to survive. Keep reading to learn about these essential nutrients, along with top tips that you must know about them. Do your best to eat a diet that is both healthy and balanced. Try to get 5-7 servings of fruits and veggies every day, as well as some protein. If this is hard to do, consider adding a supplement. Any supplement that has fat needs to be taken when you eat, so plan to take it around the time you eat. For example, vitamins E, A and K all apply. Absorption is more effective if the food has a certain amount of fat. Milk and sunlight are among the most effective sources of vitamin D. If you aren't a fan of drinking milk and don't get a great deal of sun, you might want to add a vitamin D supplement. This will stop your bones from becoming brittle. If you want to build up your red blood cells, you need iron. These are the cells which get oxygen from place to place. Since women require more iron than men, vitamin supplements formulated especially for women have higher levels of iron. Iron can help with a loss of breath. Taking minerals and vitamins is an affordable way to make your life healthier. Vitamins will improve your mood and keep your body stable and healthy. Vitamin A is important as an antioxidant for your immune system, reducing heart disease risk, slowing skin aging and improving your vision. However, it can be poisonous if you take too much, so stick to about 2300 IU. You Whey Protein can also eat carrots or squash to up your intake. Fruits and vegetables are great for the body; however, fresh produce is much better than canned. In addition to eating a healthy diet, but you will also find it necessary to supplement your diet with a high quality, non-chemical vitamin and mineral supplement. In today's fast paced world, many people rely on fast food restaurants. This results in vitamin deficiencies. Grab a few bottles of primary vitamins to ensure that you are getting what you need to fight off colds and allow the body to convert fat to energy. Question everything you hear about supplements. Many advertisements don't care about your health, only about getting you to buy their product. Question everything when it comes to the information you receive. Discuss your concerns with your doctor. Use caution when you take supplements. Even though vitamins and minerals can be healthy for your body, it can be bad if you take too much. This usually happens when you take too many supplements and is very dangerous. Symptoms of an overdose vary, depending on which vitamin you have taken. However, the consequence is not a good one and can even kill you. People of all ages and lifestyles need minerals and vitamins. Many people don't eat the right food to cover all the needs, so supplements then become an essential daily need. Now you know how to prevent problems associated with vitamin and mineral deficiencies, so put them to use.

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A Detailed Analysis Of Straightforward Products For Iso Xp Whey Protein

The Latest Insights Into Easy Systems For Grass Fed Organic Whey Canada

Whey is a really high quality protein and the health benefits of grass-fed dairy and beef mostly extend only to the fatty acids. Whey has next to no fat, so the focus on grass-fed whey powder has always been a little confusing. All of that aside, there are only four ingredients: rBGH-free whey protein concentrate, organic and non-GMO stevia extract, and non-GMO sunflower lecithin. The fourth ingredient varies based on the flavor: organic cocoa for chocolate, organic vanilla for vanilla, freeze-dried banana powder for banana. Note the lack of artificial sweeteners; by whey(!) of example, Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard has nine ingredients and Muscletech’s Premium Gold has twenty, both including sucralose and neither including whatever comprises “natural and artificial flavors.” I should point out that lots of ingredients isn’t necessarily bad. But if you would rather steer clear of foods with a zillion ingredients, this could be your protein. I tried vanilla, chocolate, and banana, and each time I was surprised at how pleasant they tasted despite the absence of the sweeteners to which I’m so accustomed. I’m a guy who really likes artificially-sweetened protein powder. I literally own separate tubs of donut-flavored and white chocolate-flavored Gold Standard Whey. I mix them into everything. Sucralose is my favorite food group.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://barbend.com/earth-fed-muscle-primitive-protein-review/

Fitness Can Be Simple With These Effective Tips

There should be nothing frightening about the idea of working toward good physical fitness. Maybe you remember being chubby as a kid or spending hours and hours on a treadmill. You can't allow these feelings to control you. Let them go and begin enjoying a healthier you. The information in this article will help you get started quickly. A great tool that you can do for your fitness program is to create a good motivational tool. This encourages you to focus on overcoming obstacles instead of obsessing over their difficulty. Goals can also keep you working steadily if you think of them as part of a continuing process, in which you'll always have something to strive toward. Are you short on time and think you cannot fit in a workout? You can cut your workout into smaller increments. Don't necessarily increase your workout time, just break it in half. Instead of doing a one hour workout, do a half hour early in the day ad the other half later. You can do two different types of workouts if you want, which will help to keep things fresh. In order to avoid hitting the fitness center twice in the same day, you might try getting one workout in at the fitness center and then doing another one elsewhere. Do not worry. You can also go for a bike ride. Biking is a fun, inexpensive alternative for your daily commute that still focuses on fitness. Riding a bike to and from work, especially if your commute is short, can count as your workout for the day. Strength training times depend on your goals. Training less often will let you achieve larger, stronger muscles. However, if you are looking to be lean, then you will want to workout everyday that you can. When you exercise, remember to exhale after each repetition. Proper breathing techniques will enable your body to function properly and allow you to get a better workout. Make sure that you have the appropriate shoes when you exercise. When you don't wear the appropriate shoes for the activity you're doing, it could injure your legs and feet. Also, your feet may be sore or cramped after exercising, which can lead to discouragement from continuing your workouts. Make a regular schedule to prevent you from not making exercise a part of your life. Make your schedule include workouts on a certain number of days during each week, and keep the workout date with yourself regardless of what else comes up. If something on your agenda conflicts with your scheduled workout, make it up as soon as possible, and treat it just as importantly as you would a regular workout. Controlled breathing can enhance your workout routine's effectiveness. When doing situps or pushups, exhale while you are doing the hardest part. Because your muscles contract when you exhale, your abdominal muscles get a better workout than they would without the exhalation. The information presented here should have provided you with enough information to modify your feelings with regard to weight loss, nutrition and fitness. This will not only help you live longer, but it will increase the quality of the time you have remaining.

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That assessment will surprise some people. Factory workers are symbols of the middle class and their disappearance is often used to explain the rise of income inequality and the lacklustre economic growth that followed the financial crisis. Manufacturing jobs have traditionally come with higher salaries, in part because shop floors lend themselves to union drives. Some research suggests manufacturing boosts overall productivity and is a precondition for a vibrant services sector. All of that could be more myth than fact. The International Monetary Fund this month published research that questions the love affair with factory jobs . The multi-country study found no evidence that poorer nations need a sprawling manufacturing sector to escape low-income status; services offer an equally sure path to wealth. IMF researchers also cast doubt on the supposed link between higher inequality and fewer manufacturing jobs. Instead, they found that inequality had increased within a broad array of industries, suggesting the answer to narrowing the gap between rich and poor lies in equipping workers with the skills they need to win jobs that come with bigger salaries attached. “The goal of supporting equitable growth would be better served by policy efforts to raise productivity across all sectors and make the gains from higher productivity more inclusive,” the study said. In Canada’s case, you might argue the sooner we go all-in on services, the better. One of the reasons the Bank of Canada feels compelled to keep interest rates so low — inflating asset bubbles and enticing households to pile on debt — is because the country’s goods exporters need a crutch. Our share of U.S.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/carmichael-services

Everything You Want To Know About Vitamins And Minerals

Daily multivitamins make a body feel good. You may have a hard time choosing supplements in today's glutted market. Learn more and reap the benefits of vitamins and minerals. Any supplement that has fat needs to be taken when you eat, so plan to take it around the time you eat. Vitamins E, K and A are examples of supplements that should only be taken with food because they are easier to absorb at that time. The best way to help your body absorb them is to eat some food with some fat. You can find vitamin B2 in green beans, popcorn, dairy products and bananas. Vitamin B2 deficiency can cause cracked and scaly skin and can decrease hemoglobin levels in your blood. Riboflavin has been proven to help prevent anemia, cataracts, and cancer. The antioxidant, vitamin A, improves vision, boosts immunity and slows down aging. An overdose can be fatal, so only take 2300 Whey Protein International Units each day. You can also eat carrots or squash to up your intake. Gummy vitamins made for children are delicious, but make sure you take more than directed for a child. Children need less vitamins and minerals than adults, so one will not give you all the nutrition you need. However, too many of the vitamins can be bad for you. Fresh produce is less processed and therefore, better for you overall health than canned fruits and vegetables. Eat well and take a high quality, all natural vitamin/mineral supplement. Talk to your family doctor to find out your body is low on any one nutrient. This is an issue that should provide a basis for your supplements, so you need to know the ones you need as soon as possible. Always get your vitamin and mineral supplement information from a reliable source. Lots of advertisements only want to sell the product, not care about for your health. Question everything when it comes to the information you receive. Discuss your concerns with your doctor. It's a good idea to get ample amounts of manganese. Manganese will let bones form well while making sure wounds heal up quickly. This mineral boosts your carbohydarte, protein and cholesterol metabolisms. Manganese will be found in almonds, beans, whole grains and black or green teas. Manganese supplements can also be found in vitamin stores or online. Prescriptions and supplements don't always mix well. These interactions can even put you at risk. When your doctor asks you about any medication you take, always include any supplements. Ask your pharmacist if you have any concerns about an over-the-counter medication. Vitamin B12 is difficult for some to absorb, especially those rising in age. You may be able to take it in, but you won't be able to absorb it. Talk to your doctor to determine if your levels are appropriate. If possible, eat veggies that are raw or steamed. Cooking food can strip it of natural vitamins. When choosing to cook vegetables, steaming is always the best option. You can still get vitamins from frozen veggies, but be sure to avoid overcooking them. Were you aware that diets with low amounts of vitamin D, Omega-3 fatty acids, and magnesium may cause depressive thoughts or depression? We also have Omega-3 which happens to have as many benefits to your health as Vitamin C. It can promote healthy bodily functions and maintain brain health. Magnesium helps to keep you calm. We do not always have the time to cook balanced meals or hit the gym, but it's still important to remain healthy. A supplement can really help you. Find the best supplement for your needs by using the tips above.

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20 Small Ways to Break Out of Your Comfort Zone and Create a Positive Change Starting Today

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” Brian Tracy

I’m a big fan of doing the unusual thing. Sometimes in big ways. Often in small and daily ways to mix things up.

Why?

Because this habit is a simple and relatively easy way to:

Expand your comfort zone. And if you change your perspective on yourself from someone who sticks to the old and comfortable all the time to someone who likes to mix things up then it will feel more natural and easier to break out of your comfort zone when comes to bigger things too. Because this habit makes the inner resistance and the fear that may hold you back smaller.

Add a spark to your day and come alive. It keeps you from getting stuck in the same old daily or weekly rut. And it adds more fun to your life.

Refuel your curiousness about the world and life. When you do the unusual thing regularly you to discover a ton of new and exciting things. And that will refuel your curiousness about what else is out there that you haven’t discovered just yet.

So how do you do the unusual thing and break out of your comfort zone in small and sometimes bigger ways?

Here’s 20 ideas that have helped me and still help me to do just that.

Eat the unusual thing. Instead of choosing the meat-based dish at lunch try the vegetarian alternative. Or try the fish if you usually go for the beef.

Smile towards everyone. Instead of just going along with your day in your normal social way try smiling more. Smile more towards your co-workers, the lady at the checkout at the supermarket, the people closest to you and smile to yourself when you encounter a mirror. See what happens.

Cook something new. Each week we try cooking a new recipe. It is most often a tasty experiment and helps us to find, sometimes unexpected, new favorites. It has also certainly made me a better cook in the last few years.

Mix up your music. I mix things up by trying new music every month. I have a look at the best music on sites like Pitchfork.com and Metacritic.com. Then I load a few of those albums on Spotify and listen.

Work in complete silence and stillness. Shut the door to your office, shut off your music, unplug the internet and just focus on doing the most important thing you can do today while enjoying the silence.

Read something that your friends wouldn’t guess that you are reading. Doing this has helped me to expand my horizons and learn new skills and many, often unexpected things about the world around me.

Do all your shopping for the week. Instead of doing grocery shopping when you feel like it or need to, sit down and plan what you will eat and need for a whole week. Go and get all of that at the store. Now you don’t have to go back there for a week and you’ll probably have a bunch of extra free time (and less stress) to enjoy this week.

Have a day of kindness. Instead of having the usual bursts of irony, sarcasm etc. during your day try to go for a day where you are just being kind and friendly to everyone including yourself.

Enjoy it all. All fluctuations during your normal day is a part of life and as life it’s a gift in some way or another. So on some days I just tell myself: “enjoy it all”. Then I try to enjoy my day no matter if the inbox is overfull, if I’m hungry and starting to get cranky. The things I usually don’t like so much I tell myself to enjoy as a part of life. And so my day actually becomes more enjoyable because much of how we see life is about how we choose to think about it.

Watch something odd. If you usually watch thrillers then try a romantic comedy. If you most often get stuck with documentaries try an animated movie from Japan (I recommend anything by Hayao Miyazaki). If you love Family Guy, try the Wire. Expand what you watch to get new ideas and impressions.

Listen to the sound of the world. Leave your portable music player/app at home or shut off and in your pocket. Just listen to sounds of the city, nature and people as you move about during your day.

Take a day to be offline. I tend to spend a day a week offline (usually Saturday or Sunday). It’s a wonderful change of pace and feels like I’m on a small, healthy and extra relaxing vacation. Plus, it makes it more fun to get back to work on Monday.

Take a news black out. Instead of reading the paper or watching the news as usual try to go without that for a day. See how it affects you and how much you miss the news.

Hide a note for a loved one. Hide a sweet note of affection for a partner, family member or a friend in his or her cookie jar, tea or coffee container, book on the nightstand, hat, shoes or somewhere else where they look each day. Make him or her happy in an unexpected and unusual way.

Take a different route. To work or to school. To your gym or home. See something new even when you are in transport mode.

Walk or take the bicycle to work. Instead of taking the car or riding the bus as usual. Get some exercise and fresh air before it is time to start working and on your way home.

Let it go just for today. If you often get into arguments or have trouble letting issues go and replay them over and over in your mind then just for today let it all go. Tomorrow you can take up your old habits just where you left them . But for today, instead of getting into an argument just let it go and walk away. If you replay something in your mind, let it go for today. If an old memory pops up today too, let it go instead of dwelling.

Go out. If you usually stay in during the weekdays, then call up a few friends and head down to the pub for a few hours even if it’s just a Wednesday. Or call up someone you haven’t met in ages and go for a cup of tea or coffee. Or pop down to the movie theater and catch a movie. If you usually do those things though, consider just staying in with PJs on and taking it easy.

Sit in a new place. If you have favorite chair or part of the sofa where you always sit then try another chair or place to sit today. It can give you a new perspective at work or at home. And I have found that it can even give me some new and fresh thoughts and perspectives on life.

Throw out the things you haven’t used in 1 year. Go through one part of your home – a closet, a drawer in your desk or bedroom cabinet – and see what’s in there. Go through the items one by one and ask yourself: have I used this item in the past year? If not, give the item(s) away to charity or a friend or simply throw it out.

[keiakibara]

Enter The Elephant Man

Earth, once ruled by creatures of incredible proportions, now stands of the utopia of man, but to Alexander, the world shrank too small for him. He does not complain after all they are the ruling species. The inconveniences caused by not being part of the majority is that he is as heavy as 12 steak ready beef with a bit more weight to boot, that would lead to a person of average height to death, but he is also slightly shorter than history’s tallest man being multiplied by 2 and stacked from sole of the shoe to head. Being an elephant made this sort of proportions possible but he wishes he was like them. “These hairless apes have it so good. I wish I could have such a great life,” he sighs to himself, knowing that all of the housing was meant to accommodate humans and that he is the freak around here.

 He works with a construction crew, the only job that would need muscle like his, with him around. Accidents have been prevented or if he could not do so, keep himself in a state of focus and get the human out of the situation even if it burns him. Despite being unable to use the water due to his size which leads him to be left dirty and without clothes feeling cold is inevitable. To him the land used for constructing a building is where he sleeps. He mostly relies on rain to clean himself and then again he still is working. The only place he can go is to the wildlife reserve but due to the distance not only creating noise pollution is inevitable, but he may have to cross dirty water which would make him sick and the zoo is the only place for his healthcare, which for him means that he can only get himself fixed up in prison. At least, for him the zoo, despite having him in some sense of horror knowing that his family and friends are in here forever, it is better than the circus, or as it has the reputation of being animal hell, his kind already went crazy with the circus; Flora, once a performer in the circus, went crazy when she was brought out of hell and into captivity, he knew the humans wanted to be nice, but a zookeeper still got hurt by them, and Janet, who got shot 47 times by an officer for endangering human children on her back.

His place of work is in Los Angeles where a building that can withstand earthquakes is needed to be built by a big corporate company willing to pay this band of workers that are far from their birth homes much more than any their work so far, the company is obviously trying to outlast its competitors even in a crisis, which Alexander knew was a sign of greed on them but the look on all the workers and their contractor shined like gold, Alexander thought in delight, “Due to living with humans, I am now used to eating meat. And even then it was just Mc Donald’s, but know I can feel full again, I feeling I miss ever since I moved to America due to the food shortage at my home.” Alexander found his only friends being his workmates, the company representative, which is just being friendly with him for his services, and the suppliers in the shipyard. “Don’t worry we have a full prove guarantee that the building is to your specifications, we have Alexander, he can jump once, that can make the ground shake just enough to test the structure and keep the surrounding building intact, just with a little bit of apologizing on our part,” the contractor promised. With an impressed look on the representative’s face the job was given to them.

The floor need to be broken down and moved away before anything can be done. In one stomp, the ground softens. With the ground soft enough and with a few holes dug into the ground. Three of the workers go and work the vehicles, two work on the trucks and one on an excavator, Alexander worked as an excavator. While the holes are being dug in and the dirt is being thrown into the trucks. A small ringing of chants that kept on repeating, but he pays no mind. Until, a grenade enters the excavator and blows up, the mixture of a crowd chanting with the screams of an injured man, Alexander yelled as he rips the door open and pulled the casualty out of the vehicle and put him to the side, the workers run towards the injured man and Alexander, took their place as the wall, bellowed in simmering anger, “Why do you people attack here, we are working!” He emphasizes on “working”, the response of them is a bunch of insults, with reference to the smell and them being poor, puts Alexander in a state of brimming rage, with a rock tossed to the head, making a bleeding scratch. This is the limit, in a loud demonically low, Alexander brought a mighty stomp onto the rioters in front of him, leaving 8 corpses under his foot while 2 others who had their legs stomped off, then killed the other 2 rioters that have become running man, the rioters disappeared in fear. Before Alexander went after them in rage, his friends tried to reign him in so that no poorer souls needed to be sent to hell in rage.

In a state of melancholy, he wanted to walk off to the zoo, to heal up, but after a step, he felt too weak due to blood loss, in his desperation, he meditated for the safety of the people who broke the area and the souls who provoke him for safe travels in the afterlife, he closes in eyes accepting death, while his friends cried for him to hold on. In Alexander’s lifeless state all the people who are in the company including the boss, who came out shouting only to stop when he saw the lifeless elephant body before him, all came to hug his body to keep his body to a happy afterlife. In a state of miracles, a young lady who just ran into the construction site, when she stopped she said, “Alright everyone, your friend will be fine.” All the workers look on in anticipation as she does her work and his head gets bandaged, due to his state, he has to be moved to the zoo for his rest. Finally, awake, he woke up to Judy, “Oh, you’re awake! You got a message that your boss wanted to tell you something.” The look of Alexander went from surprise due to literally being resurrected from the dead to a sense of dread, he lost his job due to causing a public relations nightmare that puts the company’s marketability in jeopardy. He felt crushed, even more than his wounds already did.

“Looks like I will have to work with you, right?” Alexander asks in a begrudging manner.

“Umm… Yea, surprised you did not want with u…” before Judy can finish that sentence Alexander intrudes with in a booming voice, “We want to be free, not be enclosed in this… JAIL CELL!” This feeling of want for freedom has all the animals call in unison.

“But I have no choice, do I” he asked rhetorically, in an act of pity she gave him banana with tree bark, his favorite. From then on, he worked at the zoo, much to his own dislike.

It’s been months since the incident at his last job, he has gotten used to his new job, where he trained new zookeepers in helping to feed his kind, where the skills used can be used to train with other animals, he made a new friend in a monkey that can also communicate with humans, named Chester.

“You have to try out for this talent show, it going to make you free.” Chester exclaims excitedly, knowing how Alexander look like he has given up on freedom. In a weird move of glee, he trumpeted a sound of victory, the talent can be seen.

“So, I will take it as a yes then,” Chester states, knowing Alexander’s new joy. With the zoo hearing him, he panics and asked, “I wasn’t too loud, was I?”

“So, what song will you be performing?” Judy asked.

“Hey you got a trumpet and a human vocal cord right?” Chester prompted.

“Yea…” Alexander replied.

“Let’s do ‘build our machine’.” Judy suggested.

“You mean the new song that got famous due the new game.” Chester said, in questioning.

“Stop, what are you talking about?” Alexander shouted in confusion. Judy played the song in response to Alexander. The tune of the song bringing a sense questioning with it ending with Alexander wondering, “Couldn’t Chester do this singing bit?” With the thought of being famous and Alexander’s longing for freedom in Chester’s head. He went with, “Whoever sell the most tickets in our respective shows at different times, will go for the competition.” Judy and Alexander agreed with Chester’s proposal.

With the days usually spent practicing with only one animal, it was used to host shows for Chester and Alexander to practice. With the decision on whether can do the singing without fail, Chester backed out for the reason of he felt exhausted, leaving Alexander to be the main singer for the competition representing the zoo, In Judy’s eyes, in his own he represent himself as a resume for someone to take him out of the zoo.

The show was started and was running with almost half of the contestants have been either booted or shortlisted and it’s Alexander and Judy’s turn in the open, the look of the audience varies between confusion and finding this a joke. Even the judges wanted to shoo the duo away, but in a single request at a louder volume the audience and the judges are interested in the elephant that can talk, with some snickering at the joke they thought it was going on. With the performance on the way, Judy went with a speed that the song went with fingers of the devil, shredding the cords on the piano while Alexander sung with a power that required no speakers, the audience went from thinking it is a joke to screaming in joy and clapping in rhythm with the song this was the first ever “gold shower” in the season, the judges was reminded of Susan Boyle. And the ending left with no one wanting to challenge “the great elephant” as the judges called Alexander. With the victory, one of the judges named Simon, asked if Alex wanted a record label, Alexander graciously gave this opportunity to Judy, saying “I believe that the opportunity to become famous should belong to Judy, the woman who gave me the spotlight.” Judy looked at Alexander in shock and wanted to have him to this opportunity, but clearly he must have heard her drunken wishes to be famous. She could only say in tears of joy, “Alex…”

Before Alexander’s name can be fully spoken, he interrupted with, “Dreams never die, my friend. Dreams never die.” With the crowd hearing this, the audience gave a standing ovation, with Judy hugging her friend in acceptance of the gift. Simon questions Alexander, “Then what do you plan to do with your gifts.”

He could only reply, “Someone is already after me, and he means well.”

Days later, Chester asked, “Why did you not take the chance to leave the zoo, I mean you do hate this place.” He gave a smile and a word of “Youth” implying that she needs to chase her dream when young so that her elder years can be fun and worth all the trouble of working hard.

[thelittlebaobab]

Sean Connolly, the author of the brilliant Bradt Senegal guide book, called in ten days ago. He’s a man after my own heart – given the job of updating the Sierra Leone guide, rather than fly to Freetown he decided to fly to Dakar, catch up with some mates and travel down through the Guineas and have some fun en route. After a few days of catching up, I decided to join him for a few days. There are elephants in southern Bissau – apparently – so we decided to try and find them. 

So, let me go far

We had a bit of luck, a Spanish friend, Carlos, was driving to Bissau in his new 4wd on the same day, so we hitched a ride. After lunch in Ziguinchor, we crossed the border, sailed through with Carlos’s creole language skills and hit the first town of San Domingos. Carlos knew of a toubab in town so called in after driving down some sandy potholed backtracks. Nils is a mohawked German guy who makes his living part of the year as a clown and fire eater, then rests up in Guinea Bissau.  He was quite surprised when I told him that Khady used to be a fire eater and so we arranged for him to visit Abene and put on a performance sometime soon. 

The road to Bissau

It was getting late and we had a fair way to go, so drove down into the sunset, stopping by the bridge over the Rio Cacheau (Cashew river) where there were huge piles of oysters. Some ladies in a shack were selling them by the rice sack full and one of these set us back less than a fiver. 

It was dark as we approached Bissau city and it’s never nice to drive at night in Africa. Oncoming cars don’t bother dipping their headlights, no matter how many times you flash them, so you’re driving blind every time something approaches which is not nice with the number of unlit cyclists, goats and cows.

Our first choice of hotel was full as it usually is and so we went to Hotel Jordani which had annoyed me last time I was there – charging me for breakfast after having told us the room price was bed and breakfast. But Carlos knew the Portuguese owner and we were given a much reduced rate. 

Local bar

After dinner at the hotel, we went out into the night to sample the local brew, known as Bazooka, which is a pleasant draught beer reminiscent of bia hoi in Hanoi. Then Carlos and I went to one of the nightclubs, full of rather sad looking old white guys and a few young Guinean girls. A boisterous Swede at the bar immediately bought us a round of tequila and drunkenly regaled tales of his 15 years doing “something in aviation”  in Sierra Leone whilst attempting to remain upright. 

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After coffee and a prego (Portuguese beef steak and garlic sandwich), the first job of the morning was to get a SIM card. Even here in West Africa, every country now has a complicated registration process even just to get a simple pay as you go card. It took an hour or more – the lady collecting 50p for the card painstakingly typed all of our details into an official receipt that was printed off – and we lost the will to live for a moment. 

Carlos contemplates life

The cooks at the hotel agreed to prepare the oysters – warm water mangrove oysters are best served grilled. We went out back, as it’s a messy business, and the girl had a bbq grill fired up. We shucked, slurped, dipped and munched to our hearts content, managing to get through the entire sack, before a nice long siesta.

In the morning, I went on a short stroll around the old Portuguese quarter. Compared to the outer shanty like suburbs, this area is quiet. The buildings are beautiful but when the Portuguese left it’s as if the Africans were reluctant to move in. 

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I passed a row of shoe shiners, shot some pictures of the brightly coloured buildings and rotting tropically decayed ones.

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Opposite the hotel Jordani is the far grander Grande Hotel. Far too exclusive for us…

And this door, spotted by Sean, doesn’t look like it’s been opened for a while. 

The first time I visited Bissau, six years ago, the roof of the Presidents palace was bombed to bits with gaping holes. It’s been repaired, apparently with money from the Moroccan King, and the small park in front resembles a north African medina. 

Bidding farewell to Carlos, Sean and I headed south. Given I’ve taken the main route a couple of times this year already, we looked at the map, decided an alternate route must be possible and headed into the unknown, first of all catching a ferry across to the far side of the large estuary that Bissau adjoins. 

Leaving the city lights behind

The large rusting hulk of a boat had seen better days and I wasn’t sured whether to be relieved or nervous that they insisted all passengers wore life jackets.

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Leaving the boat provided classic African images.

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The “village” was no more than a small jetty and collection of shacks. Thankfully we’d correctly guessed that if a boats drops lots of people in the middle of nowhere, then there must be onward transport. Given that this is Africa, it wasn’t a given. There was a motley collection of flat bed trucks decked out with narrow wooden benches and canopies made of lashed together wood and bamboo.

It took five hours or more to bump and grind our way along the jungle tracks, hanging onto the wooden poles as we nearly got bounced out. The vegetation was becoming lusher and overcrowding the narrow orange mud tracks. Villages were cut out of the jungle and these trucks provide their only lifeline to the outer world a couple of times a week. 

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Sometimes the villagers ignored us completely and in others crowds of excited kids screamed “branco” (white) at us. We arrived at Fulakunda which looked quite substantial on the map but in reality was a few shacks around a large dust bowl. We changed to a new truck driven by Ekomog, a Nigerian.

“I came here 22 years ago and it’s just bush, there’s nothing for me,” he said. “Can you get me a mechanics job in Abene?” We exchanged numbers and I agreed to make enquiries.  He later went into a long rant about the local youth not wanting to work and just begging and asking for things, before asking me to buy him a beer, seemingly without understanding the contradiction.

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Upon arrival into Buba, we found the best bar in town, next to a ruined building and decorated with monkey skulls.

The guest house was a little less “bush” and the verandah provided lovely views:

Gabi, a Romanian, and her Guinean husband, had created a gorgeous little slice of paradise with a lovely garden. Outside my room was a calabash tree – they never fail to astonish me. I wonder how long it’ll take for mine (currently about 30cm tall) will take to grow like this?

Each calabash gourd is about the size of a football. Then I noticed these interesting looking cacti:

We spent a few days mooching around, drinking bazookas and relaxing into Buba time. It seemed impossible to get down to the national park without either a 4wd or a lot of money, so the elephants would have to wait.

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During our investigations we visited the headquarters of the local national park where we spotted this chap in a cage. Apparently he’s regular let out, but it seemed astonishing that national park staff were keeping him here. 

That evening, whilst eating fish and rice, the next table was served something slightly more exotic:

That’s right folks, monkey soup complete with head. The proprietress told us they regularly served monkeys and there seemed no awareness that bush meat like this was a factor in the spread of ebola in neighbouring Republic of Guinea. 

If those photos distressed you, please focus on the next one to erase the memories:

One day we went up to the garage for a car to the nearby Salthino falls. Here’s Sean killing time whilst waiting for the minibus to fill:

The water was gorgeous and we both swam in the rapids of this beautiful spot. I was swimming in my shorts, had no change of clothes and so decided that taking them off and wringing them out was a good idea. I found a big rock, crouched behind it, looked around, saw no one and started to remove the shorts. Almost immediately I heard shrieks of very enthusiastic laughter and looked up to see a bunch of school girls about 50 metres away – they’d been hidden in the shadows. They probably thought I was doing something else given I was crouching and removing my shorts. As I hurriedly pulled them back up, the shrieks continued and the girls, about 13 or 14 years old, came running down almost doubling over in laughter, whilst I helplessly stood there feeling embarrassed. They were on their way home from school and asked me for pens. Mildly concerned they might rush home and report me as a flasher to angry parents, I handed over some coins to equip them for school. 

We spent a last night at the Mendes Mendes bar and avoided eating monkey. We were out of luck when we asked for the monkey skulls – I’d explained about the soup on the phone to Khady and once she’d established I hadn’t eaten monkey (for she finds the idea as equally abhorrent as most westerners do), she told me to bring the skulls back as they’re powerful medicine. Instead we had a couple of bazookas and some stew (non-primate, I think)  before returning as we were both exhausted and had an early start. 

In the morning, facebook told me that it was my birthday. It had been at the back of my mind, but as they’re so rarely celebrated here, I don’t really bother with it these days. Instead, I took a long distance trip on Guinean public transport. Sean was leaving me, to head south into Guinea and then Sierra Leone. We bid each other farewell and then I waited for the Bissau car to fill. After a couple of coffees I was still the only passenger. Sod this, I made some enquiries and gathered I could rent the entire car for about £25 and leave right away. That was my birthday present to myself sorted. The windscreen had more cracks than regular glass and the whole thing looked like it about to fall apart, but the driver wasn’t a maniac so all was good.

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He dropped me in the centre of town and I treated myself to a pizza before heading to Cuntum where my friend Andy lives. He’s a German guy that runs a minibus business, transports cashews and farms chickens. We sat in his compound talking about making a living here in West Africa, whilst his parrot crawled all over me.

In the evening we went for grilled pork at a Balanta bar and then a tour of clubs in the centre of town. At the first, Tropicana, we drank caipirinha’s made with local cana rum, watched frenetic dancing and checked out the wall art. This one (Sida is French for Aids) is sending slightly mixed messages, I feel.

I awoke early and eager to reach home was at the gare routiere by 7am and jumped into a bus to Ziguinchor. Interestingly, the apprentice was a woman. The apprentice is normally a lad who hangs on the back, collects cash, runs back and forth to police check points and calls out for customers. I was a little surprised when she turned and spoke to me in good English. It turned out she called Jah and was Guinean but had lived in Gambia, transporting and selling palm oil. 

“I did that for six years and with the profit I bought this bus” she told me. “It’s true, I’m perhaps the only woman working on the buses. The police are so surprised they never cause me problems, they just laugh!”

Eventually I reached home to a warm welcome – and to see the gate was nearly finished. One friend asked if it is a tribute to Trump. 

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Although I had little desire to celebrate my birthday, Khady had other ideas. A large group gathered in the evening and a cake, complete with a firework on top (it went off before I could photo it) was brought out as everyone sang Happy birthday three times – in French, English and Diola. 

Then Domong domong came on – a great little group featuring Khady’s cousin Sheriff. They opened with a drumming rendition of happy birthday, followed by ninke nanka, saliba and other favourites. The dancing was as manic as always and we partied into the night. 

  A week in Guinea Bissau Sean Connolly, the author of the brilliant Bradt Senegal guide book, called in ten days ago.