#he's so small compared to a couple of the jamaican guys

[eternal-learner]

He's Josef Grool. He's one of the best drivers in the world.

Peter Outerbridge as Josef Grool COOL RUNNINGS (1993)

[relaxandlaughatyourself]

Recap of Ika’s IG Lives July 20, 2018.

She did two lives (the first one paused and ended) totaling about an hour and a half.

She has a meeting today and is getting ready. She did ger her phone fixed so she can do lives again. She notes that she feels rusty because she hasn’t done a live in so long.

She thanks everyone so much for supporting the youtube channel, she can’t believe how much it’s growing.

At her meeting today she’s going to be doing videos and pics today so she needs to look good. She has some cool stuff coming up, “I’m designing…something lol”

She really doesn’t like her brows and is trying to make the microblading go away; she says her brows remind her of Super Mario.

Dem is posting the youtube video tomorrow, and she is scared. She usually edits the videos but Dem is doing it tomorrow. She says we won’t believe what he did to her. He won’t let her watch it, he told her she can watch it with the rest of us. Whenever she edits, she edits and then Dem oversees it and makes some changes; they usually watch them together before they’re posted.

That was her last skin treatment the other day.

She rants a bit about her skin (body skin, she loves her face) and how it’s always dry and how she’s gotten irritation lately. Notes that Dem’s skin is completely flawless and it drives her crazy. “I like Demetres’ body skin. He has such nice body skin.” 

Swaggy is in the live (driving and watching), and Ika says she likes him, it sucks he left. She adds him but we couldn’t hear him. Ika says if Swaggy didn’t go early, he would have went far.

She caught up on BB this morning and saw Winston go home. She said that she wouldn’t be too public about her like and dislike for people this year on bb20, but she still has the people she likes and dislikes. She tries to be neutral.

Ika does note that her and Dem got a place in Tornoto, but he has a few deals to close in Edmonton, so he’ll be there for the rest of the month and they have a wedding there in early August so she’s going there early August (not their wedding lol) then there’s another wedding at the end of August so she’ll be there then too.

Someone commented about how she said once they’ll get married in secret. She said that when her and Dem get married they won’t tell anyone “we’ll be married and be like ‘two years ago we got married’”. And it would be a very small wedding. “Probably Karen and Bruce and that’s about it; they’ll be the witnesses.” It would be a small, private one.

Someone asks what’s the point of getting married if no one knows? “It’s for us. We were just talking about this and marriage is now about the wedding. We’re not getting married for centerpieces and flowers.” They should get married because they love each other. They’re not getting married for anyone else, to show off, they’re getting married for themselves.

She says she feels comfortable with BB fans, but with youtube, she feels weird with them. Someone asked if she was Ika from youtube and it was weird. She feels that BB fans know her, know her personality, etc. Youtube is different. People are asking about her real hair and if she always wears makeup, and she’s not as comfortable with it yet.

She takes rude comments on youtube differently than other platforms; it’s easier for her to brush off because the person’s thoughts on her is because of that one video and she knows what they’re saying isn’t true. People aren’t forced to watch the video and leave a comment, whereas they have to watch her on BB because they’re watching for other people. She doesn’t fault the BB fans because they had to watch her. She also notes that on youtube they get a lot more love on youtube than hate. BB fans have a pretty good idea of how she is because they watched her on live feeds and the show, it’s different than youtube fans, and because of that she feels more comfortable with BB fans.

They never expected to have this many subscribers. They waited a year to start it because their relationship comes first, everything else is secondary. They wanted to make sure they were solid before they do anything as a couple.

They knew they’d have our support, but they didn’t expect to get people who didn’t know them. The video that got them a lot of the subscribers is the three rules video, which they didn’t think would do well. It’s the most fun they’ve ever had filming and for some reason they thought it would be the least successful. They filmed a video filming the hair that they unboxed on youtube. After they filmed that video, Dem suggested filming the rules because he had to learn them and they ran with it.

It paused and ended, then she started another live.

Dem will have her looking crazy if he does her makeup, someone suggested that.

Divas Wigs sent her six boxes of wigs. She’s thinking that her and Dem should do a “Boyfriend rate my wig” video. There’s a blue one, a blonde one, a kinky one, an ombre one, one with bangs. Dem hasn’t seen them and she thinks doing a video where he sees them for the first time.

Divas Wigs are expensive and she remembers first watching them on youtube when she first started wanting to wear wigs; she reached out to them to ask if they would send her one and they did. She loves their wigs so much. Ninety percent of her Dem and her’s inbox for business inquiries is filled with hair companies offering to pay them to do reviews. They thought it was so cool and she decided to work with two other companies and they sent her wigs, but they decided not to do the review because the wigs weren’t good, she’d rather lose out on the money; they do not even compare to Divas Wigs. RPGShow also sent her stuff and she didn’t like that particular wig, it didn’t fit right. She reached out to Divas Wigs again, and they sent another (they let her choose the wigs, the six they sent she did choose them because she wanted different ones). She would love if they would pay her to promote the wigs as they’re her favorite.

She got her phone upgraded but she might have to take it back cause she thinks they gave her one with less storage.

Dem said they should do a giveaway and he said they should giveaway the wigs because they get so many offers. They’re trying to think of a cool giveaway. She’s thinking maybe her skincare stuff too because people are always talking about that; she’s in talks for that.

She says that she has hung out with Erica twice, it was genuine and good conversation; they just didn’t post on social media.

Ika says that on youtube, 22 percent or so are Canadian and the majority of subscribers are American. Whenever she sees a Jamaican person or Canadian person comment she gets so excited.

Mentions a vlog will be up tomorrow. They’re trying to post on Saturdays. Ika says again how she’s so nervous for the video and she doesn’t know why she agreed to it.

She says she very reluctant to doing The Amazing Race because it’s so hard.

Ika says she feels as though she’s chill, when people meet her in real life who know her they are almost scared of her because she is so calm and chill. People always seem to think that she’s going to yell at them or go off. “Dem is always like ‘yeah… she doesn’t yell lol.’” Ika says she’s quiet when first meeting people and people are always side-eyeing it. Her and Dem always talk about that, how she’s not as loud and crazy as people think. But she can’t control her facial expressions.

She says she will hold a grudge for Demetres, even if he has gotten over it. He had someone who did something to him, “who does something to him, he’s the nicest person.” They apologized and wanted to be cool again. This was last year in Edson. They showed up to visit, and Ika barely said hi to them and then she went inside to watch TV and left them outside; she acted uninterested. Dem came inside to get beers and he picked up the kind that he likes and Ika told him to put it back, the other person can drink the cheap kind. A year later Dem messaged her that he’s going somewhere with this person and Ika got quiet… the person was with Dem and said hi to her through the phone and Dem told this person that Ika said hi and she didn’t lol. A year later Ika doesn’t like this person and she doesn’t care if Dem forgave the person, she does not. Dem also called her and said a couple guys were staying over at his place and she asked who and he named three people “that’s a few people, you said a couple, there’s not room for that other person.” She did like the person before she met them, Dem had told her about him, but after the show “he really tried my boyfriend” and she won’t forgive him.

Someone was dead wrong to both her and Dem, and Dem forgave the person, and Ika is being cordial, but no. Dem wants Ika to like the person so he tells her that the person asked about her and was complimenting her, essentially telling her the person changed but she doesn’t buy it.

Ika says that someone has to really show their ass for this to happen, not everything is unforgivable. If it came from a deep-rooted place that is the issue, if it was not malicious or was a one-time thing, it’s fine. If it’s revealed that this person has been feeling some way for a long time but has been essentially faking it, no. It’s hard for her to like people how she liked them before if something like that happens; Dem will forgive. “I am not going to risk getting laugh lines for you. They are reserved for my boyfriend, my kids, you guys, my friends.” She’s not going to risk getting any lines, her face will be stone with most people and things. When she explains these things to Dem he says she’s nuts and crazy. “I’m nuts and crazy and well preserved.”

She says she has to go, and she wouldn't be surprised if Dem is secretly watching the live

[infinitetao]

From the Somme to the Blind Side Blitz

As a small boy of two years old my mother's dad, or 'Dada' as she called him, came over from Ireland to stay with us. He had worked at Cork Railway Station for many years. His main past times were reading the racing section of the Derby Telegraph, drinking Guinness from the bottle, and watching the racing in the afternoon, which for some reason used to get him 'giving out' to the tv. This was where our wills crossed, and I wasn't to be messed with. He would want to watch the 12:00pm at Doncaster and I wanted to watch 'Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men' or 'Spotty Dog' on 'Watch with Mother' , which perversely was scheduled always at the same time. Unluckily for me he had a few tricks up his sleeve. ..

My mam loved a good shop, and would get the 32 bus from the Cavendish just outside our house into the town to the market place most days. She took the opportunity of my grandad being around to pop about unencumbered by her smallest blue eyed boy, so with a 'Mind the boy' she was off and the games began. I was a precocious child and would quickly turn the channel over before my grandad could launch his folded newspaper at my head. After a short bout of this he would then use trick one; to banish me to the kitchen. He would shoo me out using the newspaper and close the door which was stiff and I couldn't open. Then things would escalate. I would use all the power in my lungs to drown out the commentator naming horses and their placement at ten to the dozen. My grandad was hard of hearing, something to do with all the artillery shelling he'd endured, so the tv would always be at full blast, but that was nothing compared to me! Later in life I was trained as a singer and my powerful lungs came in quite handy. This is when he used trick two, which sounds terrible today but most parents were happy to use back then, though he was a little more forthright than most, giving me Guinness. He would pass out a bottle of the dark heavy stout, and I would gladly gulp it down. My mam would often find me sleepy and grizzling in the kitchen on her return, I'm sure curious as to why I wasn't in the garden playing as usual...

I remember my first day at school vividly. I was so desperate for learning that somehow we actually arrived a day early and I was placed in a class with the year above me. I seemed to cope so they left me there for the next two years! I was pretty sad when my friends left and I had to stay another year. Normanton Infants School had been a Victorian village school in Old Normanton, and still had the separate entrances for boys and girls and a totally un-child friendly workhouse air about it. Unbeknownst to me at this time the Northern Ireland Conflict had just begun. The first effect it had on me was that soon after I had started school an older boy had for some reason dragged me across the playground laughing while scraping away all the skin from my right elbow. At this time I had a strong Irish accent and this seemed to upset some people, including teachers. I had to visit a clinic to have it checked every week and couldn't use my right arm for a few months, so I started to write with my left hand. Strangely enough this seemed to be the start of my ambidextrous quest; I began doing everything on both sides purposefully and in later life this really helped me in my endeavours.

I was a natural leader and soon had a little gang of guys who would follow me around the playground. The posher Sunny Hill kids stayed well away. I was a rough kid, though I didn't know it, and scared the bejeezus out of them even though I was smaller and scruffier. My compadres came from the same part of Normanton towards the town centre and had more of an affinity for my rough and tumble ways.

I would run home, yes five year olds would make their own way to and from school back then, and recount my adventures to my grandad. He was in his way a nice old man. He never hit me or raised his voice, in fact he was very quiet and didn't talk much. I think it was to do with his experiences in the First World War at the Somme. The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest battles in history. By it's end the Allies and Central Powers had lost 1.5 million men. It was a miracle he survived, this fact was probably due to being captured and becoming a prisoner of war, but he never talked about it, though he would let me play with his medals. It was ironic that after everything he had done his grandchild was being bullied by British kids...

I mentioned to grandad that I had Indian friends at my school. We had a 'reverse Columbus scenario' happening. Columbus mistook the indigenous Americans for Indians, reasoning that he was in India so they must be Indians. Why that was never corrected I'll never know! Grandad had watched a lot of cowboy movies and assumed I meant Comanches and was just fantasising. So he would say 'Did ya foight the Comanches today?' and I would assure him I had. This was when I took to jumping of walls on to my Indian friends as if in battle with a knife in my teeth; this was the best way to deal with Comanches Grandad said. I often ended up banished to the verandah, which was the worst punishment for a boy with too much energy, only allowed to watch the other kids play. Eventually my older sister Yvonne worked out what was going on and put grandad straight telling him to stop inciting me to fight the Indian kids!

When I was eight I arrived at Normanton Junior School and things really kicked off. The troubles in Ireland had expanded to England and anti-Irish sentiment was high. I would have teachers calling me a 'little Irish bastard' and was attacked by the older boys. I remember being pushed down some icy concrete banks and being knocked out, then coming too with them kicking my bag around. Big mistake! I was from a large Irish family and fighting for survival with my older brothers was second nature. This is when I developed the 'Blitz'. I decided my best course of action was to get as close as I could and hit them so fast and so often that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. It worked, and those Sunny Hill boys didn't know what hit them and they made a bee line for a teacher and I got detention.

The Blitz worked really well. Even after I started martial arts this was my go to strategy for winning a fight. I would naturally end up on their right hand side, little did I know that later in life Grandmaster Cheung would teach me how to get to the blind side and properly control it! I started incorporating knees in to my routine and when I was at Comprehensive school I began to get a name for myself as a tough fighter around Derby. It's a fact that sometimes I would fight with someone and ten minutes later we would be best friends, I'm not sure what that is but I suppose with literally hundreds of kids around you shouting 'fight' you have managed to come through the ordeal and it's a shared experience that you are glad is over!

The last time I use the Blitz was when I was sixteen. I was a prefect as now I was an older boy and we had duties and responsibilities around the school to stop kids running in corridors, making sure they went into class, and also to move kids out of areas they shouldn't be in... very Hogwartien! Myself, Trevor Cherry and Ronnie Stanley who were both well over six feet tall and who were the guards in my basketball team, me being the ball handler, were sent into the toilets to move out some Jamaican kids who were smoking. Trevor and Ronnie weren't to be messed with and easily pushed them out and on to class, they were also from Jamaica and were giving it full 'patois' as they went. I was warned by the kids as they left that I was in trouble but didn't think much about it.

I was sitting in the lower sixth rec room, which was part of what used to be the Colonel of the Sherwood Foresters house, brown brick and long tall ornate chimneys, when there was a bang on the window coming from the stable yard. Outside was a boy called Winston, I say boy but he was about six feet tall and heavily built. He had recently arrived from Jamaica and was probably a couple of years older than me. He called me out 'Ryan, come outside!' I went outside and said 'What are you doing here? This place is off limits'. I noticed Mr Ludlum the form head peering out from his office through a gap in the curtains, looking a bit unnerved. 'I'm going to teach you a lesson!' In a way I felt sorry for him as he was new and I told him 'Those guys aren't your friends they're just using you to do their dirty work, so just go now while you can'. I had a flair for the dramatic even then! He was standing with his legs astride and arms behind his back. Suddenly he swung at me with a long heavy pole that he had hidden behind him. I can't actual remember what happened then, even immediately after the fight. I was so incensed that he would use a weapon, which just wasn't done then, that I lost it. When I came to my senses I had the pole in my hand and he was lying on the floor. Apparently I had Blitzed his ass then taken the pole and finished him off then chased his 'mates' around the stable yard! This was the last time I would use the Blitz strategy.

Mr Ludlam was I think secretly impressed. He didn't report what happened but somehow word got out to the deputy head, the dreaded Mr Done, and I was summoned to his office. Mr Done taught me English. He could dissect Shakespeare with aplomb. I'm pretty sure he could also dissect people just as easily. I once saw him hammer fist a wooden desk and split it in two. He once ushered us back into class while smacking the head of a claw hammer repetitively into his hand with a strange look in his eye... Winston was already there. Whoever tended to his wounds liked to watch Tom and Jerry as he had criss cross band aids stuck all over. After hearing the full story Mr Done told us to 'shake hands boys' and let us leave. Winston whispered on his way out 'You're Kung Fu was no good!' I went home, being distantly followed by Winston...

This following continued for about a week. His follow team grew larger and larger until it eventually became a few hundred people. I would stand in my front garden as they would traipse by down Derby Lane hoping to see some action. Winston had by this time removed the band aids and perhaps this helped him forget what had happened as he eventually stopped in front of my house and again called me out. 'Ryan! Ryan! You're Kung Fu was no good!' To have hundreds of people outside your house is pretty intimidating, but I'd been used to having large crowds watch me fight in tournaments by now. My younger brother Declan was so worried he ran out with an ornamental Scottish Claymore, I told him to bring it back inside! I was told by one guy 'Ryan, why don't you just go home?' I told him 'I am home!' Something had to be done and I was the one to do it. I walked over to Winston and the crowd roared. Again Winston said 'Ryan, you're Kung Fu is no good' this time I said, and I quote 'You want Kung Fu, I'll show you Kung Fu!' and cracked him in the temple with a spinning axe kick. He was out on his feet, but he was a big strong lad and didn't fall, his mates helped him away. The crowd went wild but sadly no video exists, no mobile phones back then. My big sis Deirdra came out I ushered her back in as she was going to try and chase him and give him a slapping for attacking her little brother!

About four years later I came down from London to visit and was at the house in Derby Lane. There was a ring on the door bell. It was a real bell with a pull device at the front door and it would ring in the living room. Someone had pulled it violently. I went out to answer, opened the door and there was Winston! He'd obviously held a bit of a grudge. He said 'I heard you were back. Since I last saw you I have been training, training hard for four years, every day, in Karate. I have been running and doing conditioning and sparring waiting for this day and...' I said that's nice good for you!' and closed the door. He never rang the door bell again and that was the last time I saw him! Hopefully all that training will have forged him into a better person...