#i saw it twice in less than 24hrs

[eternalxvenus]

⇢ ˗ˏˋ broken promises pt. 3 ࿐ྂ

summary: Rafe promised to take you out and spend your birthday with you, but you don’t hear from him all day and then suddenly he shows up at your door trying to explain.

wc: 1.4k

notes: part three out in less than 24hrs?!? who would've thought

previous chapters: part 1 | part 2

Topper: hey we need to talk, it's about Rafe.

Your heartbeat started to pick up, but you weren't sure why. Topper didn't say it was anything bad, but you knew realistically he wouldn't be texting you unless it was.

You: hey Top, what's going on?

Topper: are you busy? can I swing by?

You: i'm on the mainland right now, can you tell me over text? i'm worried

Topper: yeah... so I don't know if you know but Rafe went to Kelce's party a couple days ago.

You: yeah I know

The sinking feeling in your chest lifts a little. You figured Topper was going to tell you Rafe had been doing coke since he knew Rafe was supposed to quit.

Topper: while he was there he started doing lines off the table. then a little later he started making out with Sofia. i'm not sure how far it went

You stared at the message for what felt like forever. Then a video pops up in the chat, so you click play.

There are some random people doing lines, but then in the back corner, you can see Rafe and his ex-girlfriend Sofia practically trying to eat each other's faces. You couldn't seem to find the energy to be sad about it. You felt almost indifferent but shocked at the same time.

You: thanks for letting me know Top

Topper: of course and just know you don't deserve that.

You click out of your messages and before you can think twice, your phone is ringing, waiting for your call to be picked up.

"Hello?" Rafe's voice came in through the speakers. He sounded tired but not like he had been asleep.

"Rafe. I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth." 

"Okay... what is it?"

There was silence as you took a deep breath. Your voice was smooth and calm as you asked, "Did you cheat on me?"

You heard shuffling on the other end of the line. "What?"

"Did you cheat on me, Rafe?"

"No, I didn't cheat on you. What is going on?" He sounded baffled by your question.

"Don't fucking lie to me, Rafe! I saw the video," You tried to keep your voice low since your parents were probably asleep.

"Baby what are you talking about I'm not lying! I didn't cheat on you. You know what, I'm coming to the mainland. I'll be over there soon." 

He ended the call before you could tell him not to bother. The last thing you wanted to see was his stupid face, knowing his lips were all over Sofia's, and God knows what else they did. 

At the beginning of your relationship you were really insecure because of his history with Sofia but Rafe always assured you that he wasn’t interested in her anymore. You laid in bed staring at the ceiling while the video played over and over in your head. All you could wonder was what made your relationship with Rafe go left so quickly. You felt like crying and punching Rafe all at once. He made you feel so much at one time it could be so overwhelming.

⭑*•̩̩͙⊱✩•̩̩͙⊰•*⭑

Your phone chimed a while later with a text from Rafe saying 'I'm here. Please let me in so we can talk.’

With a sigh you begrudgingly made your way downstairs and to the front door. When you opened it Rafe was standing there with a tired yet worried look on his face.

"Can I please-"

You put a finger up to your lips. "Shh. You'll wake up my parents." You let him inside and signaled him to follow you into your room. Before you can close the door fully, Rafe starts asking questions. "Why do you think I cheated on you? What video are you talking about?"

"Rafe, I saw a video of you sucking face with Sofia at Kelce's party. Did you fuck her too? Is that why you didn't text me all day?"

Rafe was looking at you like you'd grown two heads. "I am so fucking lost right now. I don't even think I saw Sofia at the party!"

You pull up the video and show it to Rafe. He watches it a few times before sitting on your bed with a sigh, dragging his hands over his face. You watch him with your arms crossed, waiting to see what he'll say. Rafe then pulls his phone out of his pocket, pulling something up.

"Look, this is a picture taken the day of the party." He shows you a random photo that was taken of him and Kelce, also displaying the date on it.

"So what?"

Rafe grabs your phone going back to the video and zooming in on the spot where he is seen kissing Sofia. "My outfit isn't the same in the video. It's an old video from when we were together."

Looking at both the phones you realize that he's right. "Oh... well why would Topper send me this if it's old?" You question out loud

"Wait a minute, Topper sent you this?"

"Yeah he texted me earlier saying we needed to talk but I told him I was on the mainland." You show Rafe the texts from Topper and he's seething.

"I could kill that son of bitch!" He shouted, and you had to cover his mouth, reminding him your parents were asleep. You sat on the bed looking at him, now you were the one who was confused so you decided to flat-out ask him what was going on.

"When you weren't talking to me I had told Kelce and Topper what was going on and he was the one who convinced me you didn't wanna be with me anymore. You were ignoring my calls and everything so he said I should just forget about you and not make things worse." Suddenly Rafe was on his knees with his hands on your hips.

"Baby listen, I know that I can be a major fuck up sometimes and that I don't have the best way of dealing with stress and everything but I would never cheat on you. I'm sorry about y'know, the coke and your birthday and everything else that I've ever done wrong, but I hope you realize that I love you so fucking much. You mean the world to me, and I don't wanna lose you." You stared at him with wide eyes as tears started to fall down his cheeks and brought up your hand to gently wipe them away. "So if you still want space, I'll give it to you. But I know I'm ready to change and make everything up to you."

You leaned down to place a soft kiss on his lips. You definitely weren't expecting him to pour everything out like that. "I love you too, and I don't want you to think I'm ever judging you or being a hardass. I just worry about you. If something ever happened to you..." you sighed, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"I promise not to make you worry." Rafe stood up and kissed you hard while cradling your face. He tried to leave to give you space, but you insisted he'd stay and said you'd head back to the OBX tomorrow. Rafe wanted to talk to Topper in person, which you didn't see going well, but you'd worry about it tomorrow.

You gave him plenty of blankets and pillows since he didn't want to take up so much space in your twin bed and chose to sleep on the floor. Once you'd gotten under your blankets, sleep whisked you away. 

Rafe, on the other hand, could barely get his mind to calm down. He was fucking enraged with Topper for trying to pull some bullshit like that. Rafe should've known he was a snake. He noticed the way Topper's eyes would linger on you or how his hugs went on for a little too long. But Rafe didn't think Topper was stupid enough to try and break you two up.

Now that he had finally cleared everything up with you, he wasn't worried. Rafe was going to take care of Topper as soon as he got back to OBX. He'll make sure to get the point across that nobody fucks with his girl and his relationship.

part 4

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[happy-shitting]

Dune + colors

[dadzawa-adopt-dabi]

Transbodyswap fic

Keigo had only gotten hit with the quirk because he had shoved Shigaraki out of the way. It was a stupid move on his part, body moving without thinking. Shigaraki had already been attempting to dodge but Keigo hadn’t given him time to finish getting out of the way. He hipchecked Shig out of the way, resulting in him getting smacked with the quirk instead. A beam of light shoots from their palm,hitting one of his wings. Dabi shoots to his side when he wavers, having trouble standing upright. He feels slightly dizzy, like he has a concussion.Him shoving Shigaraki gave him a chance to finally get his protective gloves off and shove himself to his feet. Dabi shot a plume of his blue fire to cover Shig and it melts the asshole’s shoes to the cement, effectively trapping her as he grabs a pair of quirk cuffs hanging off Keigo’s belt.

“You're so goddam lucky I'm not able to incinerate your trashy ass right now.” Dabi hisses as he clacks them around her wrists. Keigo could drop her off at a police station in a few minutes. 

“Save it Dabi, Didn’t do anything but make me lose my balance for maybe 30 seconds.” Keigo huffed from where he was leaning against a wall.

Dabi’s hands flutter with the want to help him but don’t touch him.

“Keigo are you alright?” Dabi reached out and grabbed his shoulder, cupping his face with his other hand. Tilting his face towards him and removing his visor, checking his pupils to see if he had a concussion.

“Aw worried hot stuff? I was just knocked a little off balance. I’m fine.” Keigo still leaned into the hand on his face. He made no move to stand up straight instead letting Dabi sling his arm over Dabi’s thin shoulders. 

“Dizzy? Nauseous? Do we need to try and get you to a hospital or to a vet here birdy?” Dabi was only half joking. He truly was worried and it showed in his eyes as he frowned Keigo seemed to shake it off.

“I go to a commision appointed doctor, you know that.” keigo smirks up at him and flaps his wings to get the others to give him some more room.

“What the fuck were you thinking you peice of roadkill?” Shigaraki snarled at him. Trembling in either anger or fear. He seemed to come to his senses and grabbed the villain who was sitting against the wall. She would be dropped off by Kuroguri since Hawks seemed to be down for the moment. Might have been the quirk or with how Hawks had been working lately it could also just be exhaustion.

 “We don’t even know what their quirk does, it could have been anything and you might have just gotten hit with it because you couldn't stand to what? Couldn't stand to let a villian get hurt?” He furiously messed with his phone in his other hand. Either texting Kuroguri to complain or to get them a portal home.

“I accept that whatever happens is my fault for jumping in front of you. You probably could have dodged. I just didn’t give myself time to think.” shrugging off the last of their concern he grabbed Dabi’s arm. 

“Now I believe we were on a mission for Disney movie night? Snacks are in order and I’m not letting a random vigilante attacking us try to ruin league night!” Keigo’s voice isn't even forced into being chipper, he’s genuinely excited about movie night it seems. A warpgate opened next to them and Shigaraki sighed.

“They still want to get snacks I guess. Can you warp her outside the nearest police station?” He nudged the vigilante towards the portal and pulled back on his gloves. Artist ones Dabi had gotten him that left all but his pinky and thumb exposed.

“Fucking hell, roadkill waiting to happen thats what you are.” shaking his head, Shigaraki pushed the vigilante through the portal the rest of the way and started walking in the direction of the 24hr convience store.

“I’ll let you know I eat roadkill for breakfast and you're being very rude by bringing it up!” Hawks turned his nose high up in the air and arched his wings. Playing up being offended to watch Shigaraki sputter and Dabi threaten Shig with silent dagger eyes. It was cute in a way, making little butterflies flutter in his stomach, the way Dabi thought he needed to be defended. 

He hadn’t felt anything for anyone in what felt like years, not like this at least. Pure attraction tugging a smile onto his face. He still hadn’t made a move to respond to Dabi’s flirting.  He wanted to but just...didn't know how Dabi felt yet he guessed. 

He was a villain but he seemed to be so kind, and Magne was always respected around them. Maybe Dabi just didn’t want to date a trans person? He wasn’t ready to deal with the heartache if he wasn’t. Didn’t want to confess to something so personal quite yet.

Movie night ended up going as just like Keigo hoped it would. Popcorn being thrown everywhere and impromptu sing alongs to a lot of songs. Dabi kept trying to get him to duet with him. He had only ever sung for Rumi before. Well,  Dabi had walked in on him once when he was singing in the kitchen. He had broken in but Dabi had a habit of making himself at home in places he wasn't supposed to be.

Most of the others fell asleep in the living room but when he started nodding off on Dabi's shoulder Dabi had gently shaken him awake to lead him to his room.

“I can’t - i mean. I should- it's better if I just go home Dab’s, what if whoevers room this is wakes up and finds me in their bed?”  He hovered outside the doorway.

“This is your room. For when you're here anyways.” Dabi leaned against the doorframe and smirked at him.

“I'm not here that often though? Are you guys sure, I'm still a Hero you know.” Hawks lips were twisted up in a smile when he said it,but it was his hero persona talking to Dabi, not Keigo. He still had the bad habit of covering anything he was unsure or too emotional about with his Hero persona. It was too easy for him to do so, Dabi had worked hard to see the cracks in the shield and read the person underneath.

“It's alright to leave if you're uncomfortable with it. Shigaraki won’t change his mind about giving you one either way.'' Dabi reassured him. He had no right to be looking as hot as he was. Leaning against a doorframe and smirking at him.

“It's not that I'm that uncomfortable with it, but how will everyone else feel with me sleeping here? A Hero in your home?” He countered. 

“Everyone was pretty excited when we told them we were giving you a room, actually pretty bird” Dabi shrugged. He was tempted to offer Hawks his bed but Hawks rarely responded to his flirting as it was and he would rather not scare him off.

“Pretty bird now huh? Not roadkill or chicken? Careful, I'll think you're getting soft on me hotstuff.“ Keigo smirked and leaned forward jokingly. Like he was going to give Dabi a kiss, puckering his lips cartoonishly.

“I’ll take you up on that kiss in a heartbeat if you're not careful” Dabi smiled and leaned in closer as Keigo regained control of his senses and stepped back into his room.

“Night pretty bird i'll dream of you” Keigo could hear Dabi laughing on the other side of the door not the least bit put off or sour.

“better keep it pg13!” letting out a tired laugh Keigo flopped onto his bed. An entire room without surveillance he could just relax in. A room for him for when he got tired of being a hero 24/7 and wanted to be a person for a little bit. 

The league did a lot for him and they didn't always realize it, things like this room. Reserved for someone who might rarely if ever use it. Like the raw ground turkey meat in the fridge, because Toga drank blood and Shuichi ate raw eggs. So really Keigo’s dietary needs were not that abnormal for someone with a predatory animal quirk. Just about everyone helped him preen his wings.

 He fell asleep almost the instant his head hit the pillow.

When he woke up he didn’t recognize anything. Maybe because this room belongs to him his guard was down lower than usual?

He stretched and felt the lack of wings on his back. Oh, one of those nightmares. Okay, he could deal with this, he didn't usually lucid dream but he had once or twice. He knew the general rules to keep his dream in control.

Then a certain lower body part that did not usually feel like that brushed against the sheets, jolting him fully awake. He shot bolt upright out of bed. Floundering to throw off the covers and take stock of himself.  He saw deeply scarred purple skin held to healthy skin with shiny staples. It caused him to reel back out of shock, he ended up falling completely out of bed with a wince.

 That- that was not his. He would know if that was his. It didn't occur to him to not check it, that this wasn’t his body to look at. He had just looked down and there it was. Jesusu fucki- fuck, it was even pierced. Oh fuck,it hits him like a brick. Slightly harder, because he’s been thrown into bricks with less force than the realization that he is in Dabi’s body hits him with.

Then where was- Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Shit god damn it. He starts reading to leave, yanking on a pair of nearby pants with a t-shirt. He hears a curse and a thump from where he guesses his room is and starts to walk quickly down the hall. He hears the start of Dabi waking up in his body, cussing and the sound of his wings throwing Dabi out of bed and picks up the pace to a run.

“What the fu-” is all that meets his ears before he slides around the corner and slams himself into the front door before he can stop and open it.

“Dabi? What’s wro- ” Magne starts to ask in concern before he’s out the door, pushing Dabi’s already burning lungs and aching muscles to go faster.

He hears someone call for Dabi but by the time anyone thinks to call for him, Keigo, He’s already almost out of earshot. Running in Dabi’s body is different, his lungs won’t work and he keeps gasping. He almost falls several times, catching himself at the last moment before his face can meet the pavement. Once or twice he over balances and he has to smack his hand against the ground to shove himself back upright to keep going, still in a panic. He’s pushed Dabi's body too hard, smoke escaping from the seams. His lungs burn and his muscles twitch consistantly.

Keigo stares over at his building from the dirty alleyway, debating how he’s going to get into his apartment while in Dabi’s body.  A loud Hawk screech sounds startling him. Dabi hadn’t, had he? He knows what he sounds like when he’s been startled and a few weeks ago Dabi had startled him badly enough that he had lost control of his vocal cords. Which led to him letting out a startled screech, always so loud due to his quirk. He smacks at the pockets on his pants looking for the phone and finds it in the hoodie pouch. Did he accidently steal Dabi’s phone? Fuck the phone actually, he techniccally stole Dabi’s body by taking off like he had.

He flinches as he thinks about it. He stole Dabi’s body and left him stuck in his. He silently mourns the flirting and discrete courting Dabi had been attempting. The research he had done for nothing, the gifts he had been giving Keigo and the preening he teased him with.

 Dabi’s phone gives another screech in his hand and he opens it. There’s two texts from his number. His number was saved under ‘A pretty bird’.

>I'm going to assume you went home. We’re going to track down the women who hit you with her quirk.

> You need to go in through the back service entrance and use the elevator there. No one should spot you.

The phone is silent for a few seconds as Keigo ducks into the alley beside his building, he finds the service entrance relatively easy and eases inside, wincing at the creak of the door. Then it screeches again and he yanks it out of his pocket to turn the sound down. Heart pounding he checks what Dabi sent now.

>I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable. I'll try and stop by later if I can so we can talk if you want.

He notices as he shuts the service door that a sponge is tucked into the lock. His security really did suck if this was how Dabi was always getting into his building. True to Dabi’s word though he didn't see anyone as he rode the elevator up to his floor.His apartment door is never locked anymore, anyone who would come over already knows how to lockpick. 

< I’m sorry.

He finally responds to Dabi and tucks himself into his nest. Curling up under a blanket and looking through Dabi’s phone games. There’s not much. Collect some goldfish, a couple match 3 and a hidden objects one. Nothing like Keigo’s mix of cafe and gacha games.

>What the fuck are you sorry for? Not your fault the bitch whammied you with her quirk. 

<You know what I mean. I didn’t tell you and you're stuck in my body, so now you know.

>We’re talking about this later when I can see your face.

Keigo’s heart squeezes and he feels like he should be crying but there’s nothing there when he brushes his hands against Dabi’s eyes. Catching on the staples there reminds him that he still has to clean and disinfect Dabi’s staples. He would give anything to slip into a muscle bath soak right now to ease Dabi’s twitching muscles but he doesn't know how the scars would react.

He checks what damage he can see first. Dabi’s staples around his wrists and on his face. Before realizing he can feel something wet dripping down his legs. Glancing down he wonders how he didn’t feel the staples tearing out of Dabi’s skin before. He presses hard on a patch to check and just feels a small bit of pressure instead. He can't, Dabi can’t feel anything on his scars he realizes. Keigo feels like his eyes should be crying again.

He puts the staples back in that he can and presses a peroxide soaked cotton ball to the wounds. Then he takes a roll of cloth bandages and wraps the seams as best as he can. He leaves his bathroom a mess, figuring he can clean that up later. 

He flops back into his nest feeling cleaner and a little less like he’s going to fall apart. He gets a text from Dabi warning him he’s coming in after passing a ridiculous amount of levels in one of his games. A swirl of black and the sounds of a busy house fill his silent apartment. Sako promising not to cut himself if Kuroguri let him help cook breakfast. Jin arguing with himself over if he wants coffee or juice. Toga sleepy and demanding Shigaraki sit next to her. Keigo’s gotten attached and he hadn’t even noticed. He knows what they like to eat in the morning and how they greet him when he stops by for what’s essentially his lunch but everyone else’s breakfast. 

“-and you better fucking kiss him, Don’t come back until he’s been well fucked and well kissed.” Magne's voice cuts above the chaos as one of Keigo’s red wings pokes through the warp gate. Frank and loud as always, bringing him back to the present situation of Dabi coming through a portal to his utterly trashed apartment. For fucks sake he has a half empty bottle of alcohol uncapped and left on his bedside table. Not to mention the trash all over. He plucks a pop tart wrapper out of his blankets before he shrugs and leaves it, nothing he could do about his mess of a personal life now.

“Can you not? I’m fucking trying to eat breakfeast.” Shigaraki hissed at her. 

“Just get his ass back here when this mess is fixed.” Dabi steps through the portal in Keigo’s body and it lacks all of his usual grace. He’s more like falling through it,wings obviously unbalancing him.

“He’ll come back if he wants assface. I ain’t going to force him to do shit either of you.” He gestures to Kuroguri to close the portal as their very loud complaining starts up. Keigo’s wings relax and droop to the floor, as Dabi turns around and looks at Keigo’s sty of a room. He raises an eyebrow but that’s it. Looking at Keigo in the nest however has his wings lifting up into a protective shield.

“Hey Pretty bird.” Dabi sits on the edge of the nest and Keigo’s wings he’s wearing relax again. They seem to be extremely expressive on Dabi, constantly moving themselves wherever they want and getting in his way.

“I’m sorry.�� he gulps while curling into himself until he feels a stretch of skin somewhere on his back tug sharply. Fuck, Dabi must have scars on his back too. These didn’t have the lack of feeling around it like the others did. “This isn’t how I wanted to tell you. I promise I was going to before we did anyth-”

Dabi gently tugged on his stapled limbs, interrupting Keigo and making him unwind himself from his little ball. It wasn’t a comfortable position on his scars, he knew from experience.

“I said I would talk to you. About this. It doesn't have to be now either, or really ever.”  Dabi gestured to the body he was currently wearing while he was speaking. It didn’t really matter what body parts Keigo had, not to him at least.

“I care more about your comfort level than what’s in your pants. Have I been making you uncomfortable with all the flirting?” Keigo’s wings rustled and twitched on his back. He had no idea how Keigo kept them from moving all the time. The feathers themselves moved a lot but the appendages themselves were attention grabbing.

“No It’s, It’s not that.” Keigo grabs his own body’s hand, feeling Dabi’s heart skip a beat. “I liked flirting. Didn’t want it to stop actually.”

“It doesn't have to stop then.” Dabi wove their fingers together and squeezed his own hand. Keigo’s wings flared open as wide as they could and he swayed as he fought to not be overbalanced by them. Keigo pulled on their joined hands so he flopped fully into the nest and laid over his own body’s legs.

“I'm more concerned with the way your body aches all over. Why do your wing joints feel like they are on fire? Trust me I know what that feels like.” Dabi propped himself up and noticed small drops of blood on Keigo’s sweatpants. Shit, Keigo must have torn some staples in Dabi’s legs earlier.

 “you can tell me how to fix that after we take care of my staples. You tore a few while you were running off this morning.” Dabi helped Keigo out of his nest, blue eyes locked with his golden brown ones. Keigo’s wings flared again and Dabi smirked, he was starting to get an idea of what the flaring meant.

Keigo gently laughs as he sits on the lid of the toilet and pulls down his borrowed sweats. Keigo’s wings flare wide as he sits down between his own body’s thighs to inspect the damage. It’s not as bad as it could be and he asks about Keigo’s wings to distract them as he carefully straightens and wraps them.

“Um that’s.” Keigo blushes as he tries to find the words to explain courtship displays when he realizes Dabi is the one attracted to him. Dabi is the one fanning himself out and kneeling between his legs. It’s his body displaying the signs but it’s Dabi who’s turned on at the thought of kneeling between Keigo’s legs. “Serious? I can’t believe you're getting turned on right now. I just fucked your staples up and you're having to help patch me up.”

Dabi snorted and gently unwrapped the mess Keigo had slapped on his wounds. “I’ve got a snarky bird in front me who I happen to like very much. Sue me. This quirk should wear off in about two days. We can stay here or we can go home.” He finished wrapping his seams and looked up at Keigo gently smoothing the seams as he focused on trying to fold Keigo’s wings to his back.

Keigo glanced down at Dabi, wings spread and licked his lips at the image.  “I’d like to stay here if it’s alright, I think I want some time with just us.” 

 “I’ll let the League know I won’t be back till later then.” Dabi stands, pulling Keigo gently up with him to avoid stressing his staples again. He goes to turn away and Keigo grabs his own wings and yanks him back in for a kiss. Dabi let’s out a startled moan at the action.

“You can do that after you help me with something else.” Keigo smirks so largely he can feel the staples in Dabi’s face struggling not to tear.

[hoppingaround]

Day #1 of UK trip in Manchester with chithi, Madhu and chitya :)

I'm going to copy paste chithi's account of the day as she does such a good job of explaining things and events of the day :)

Day 12 : 27th June 2019, match day, girls day-out day and Dishoom day*

Appu and Niveditha arrived. 910am? Hot breakfast of rava upma and apple, ID filter coffee.

The men headed out to Old Trafford and the girls arattaied, and then headed to Altrincham - market town in West Manchester. Trams full day ticket. Very useful.

Arattai continues. Explored the small market with kiosks full of wonderfully smelling food. Thursday is trinkets and antiques day in Altrincham - interesting to see shop selling only dog leashes, dog sweaters, dog coats etc. Remarkable 😜.

We spotted an old Indian rupee in an antique shop. Also saw what is called a eudimonium.

Lunch in a vegetarian kiosk - tried polenta fries with mayo, Jamaican jack wrap and banana +peanut butter smoothie. Great food 😊

Macchiato at Caffe Nero for Niveditha. Pen pencil purchased at a quaint Japanese shop. Walked around the shopping high street of Altrincham. Decided to visit the IWM, North again.

Tram station. Passed Old Trafford exactly when Dhoni hit a six in the last over. Crowd was cheering rapturously - cdnt resist the temptation to get down and go to the stadium. Also possible to meet the match goers - innings break coming up soon. Got down quickly, met the threesome, selfies, chatted excitedly - the atmosphere was electric in the last over, what with chants of Dhoni, Dhoni...

Sea of blue in the stands, hundreds of Indians

After the brief meeting with Appu, Madhu and Sampath walk to IWM. Passed thru the Manchester United stadium, which is very close to the cricket stadium also. Less than 10mins.

The stadium is huuuuge. More after the stadium tour tomorrow 😎. The ManU Enterprise is very impressive and amazing. It is on a scale that was much more than what I had imagined.

IWM after a longish walk. Hot sun. Niveditha was very impressed. We had about 90mins to tour the museum today.

Today we watched a 5min documentary abt Al-mutanabi street bombing in Iraq. Also a huge exhibit from the World Trade Center air crash of 2001. A mangled piece of steel which formed part of the structural columns of one of the skyscrapers. Tragic memories.

Left the museum around 5, went to Media City tram station and took a tram back home.

The junta came home around 730? Brought victory back home. And then we all set out to Dishoom for dinner.

Appu had painstakingly studied their menu online, talked to many people who recommended it. Brilliant choice 👌.

The place has got a few more things out of the ordinary, other than of course the food. For one, no reservations - once we get in and book a table, we are handed a pager which is expected to buzz when a table has freed up and has been allocated to us. We also got instructions that at least one person of the group should wait at the restaurant and we need to be in the signalling radius of the paging system.

But all this hanky panky was justified by the food. Well worth the wait!

The waiter attending to us explained the menu, various sections of the menu, the recommended dishes in the small plates (pav Bhaji is classified in small plates here, BTW), main course, dessert and drinks sections of the menu. Have never seen this before in a restaurant. In fact he took the trouble to repeat everything twice at 2 ends of the table for us, since there was so much noise around us 😅

Dinner was a sema jolly affair with pav Bhaji, chilly cheese toast, grilled paneer and pineapple Tikka, chole batura and sheera, lassis, tulsi-sour, masala chai, jackfruit biriyani with raita, wonderfully creamy dal makhni, roomali roti, kulfis, kala-khatta gola ice.

Podhuma 😜🤗😜🤗.

Deserving special mention is their toilet. With "souchalay", "mahilayen" and "purush" written in Gujarati Each WC has a wash basin inside with brass fittings and not to mention the rosewood toilet seats 😅😅. Niveditha's recommendation to please visit the toilet. 😃😃.

Walked back home. Piccadilly arcades, Market square and then via northern quarter. Deserted alleys. Bought onions for hot breakfast tomorrow at a 24hr SPAR outlet. Home at about 12am.

Sema fun. US junta had Airbnb cancel their stay for some power failure problem. So innum super and we all stayed together.

Retired for the day. The boys in eager anticipation of the next day's stadium tour.

Good night 😘

[sirwallahoo]

92 truths

tagged by @silvercistern​ and @painpackerrisingsun​ (GINA, I’M DOING IT (JUST BARELY) LESS THAN A MONTH AFTER YOU TAGGED ME. TAKE THAT)

rules: once you have been tagged you are supposed to write 92 truths about yourself. at the end, choose 25 people to tag (AHAHAHAHAHA)

LAST… [1] drink: water [2] phone call: my mom [3] text message: ...telegram giving me my activation code? or Ian [4] song you listened to: um. Pillow Talking by Lil Dicky (beginning of the video is NSFW, for like 45s? Parts of this make me think of Bokuto. Also this is long.)  [5] time you cried: last night

HAVE YOU EVER… [6] dated someone twice: nope [7] been cheated on: nope [8] kissed someone and regretted it: nope [9] lost someone special: yeah but i’m a monster and it didn’t affect me as much as it “should” have [10] been depressed: i think, but dunno [11] gotten drunk and thrown up: nope

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS: [12] bright green [13] deep blue [14] uhhh...silver? or a different green 

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU… [15] made new friends: yeah! [16] fallen out of love: nope [17] laughed until you cried: i did that within the last 24hr [18] found out someone was talking about you?: not in a bad way  [19] met someone who changed you: not really because i don’t meet new people like ever, except online. i guess maybe they’ve changed me a little. [20] found out who your true friends are: nope, i’m a hermit and have successfully whittled my friends down to very few [21] kissed someone on your facebook list: nope

GENERAL… [22] how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: 90% [23] do you have any pets: one bird, nine dogs currently but really only four dogs [24] do you want to change your name: nah, too much hassle and my parents would be upset. i do go by my middle name a lot, though [25] what did you do for your last birthday: avoided everyone i know [26] what time did you wake up: 4am, 7am, 10am [27] what were you doing at midnight last night: watching BNHA and playing games [28] name something you cannot wait for: next episode of BNHA [29] when was the last time you saw your mother: this morning. she is why i woke up at 7am [30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: wow it would be cool if i was motivated to do like....anything [31] what are you listening to right now: ...latest episode of BNHA  [32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: yeah [33] something that is getting on your nerves: why can’t crunchyroll autoplay the next episode on chromecast (this is not really actually getting on my nerves because i’m pretty chill right now, but i couldn’t think of anythign else) [34] most visited website: neopets, probably [35] elementary: what does this question mean? it was a private catholic school. i was a member of the like two not-white families who attended there [37] college: i went to a nerd school. it was fun. i should have done some things differently. [38] hair colour: black [39] long or short hair: it reaches my butt, but i’m thinking of cutting it [40] do you have a crush on someone: kind of? more like a squish [41] what do you like about yourself? boy i am really easily entertained [42] piercings: one in each ear. i think about getting a tongue piercing sometimes, but i am a baby with pain and also i’m allergic to a lot of jewellery [43] blood type: B+ [44] nickname: none IRL, several online [45] relationship status: single  [46] zodiac sign: gemini, snake [47] pronouns: she/her mainly (and always IRL unless you don’t know me), they/them are ok and i’ve gone by he/him in the past [48] fav tv show: HQ or BNHA atm  [49] tattoos: none. i think about getting one, but again, baby with pain + i cannot commit to something long-term.  [50] right or left handed: right

FIRST… [51] surgery: wisdom teeth, otherwise none [52] piercing: i was young. four or five? [53] best friend: douglas [54] sport: soccer [55] vacation: when i was very young, we drove from New York to Miami. Not sure if that counts as a vacation though, as we didn’t go for vacation-y purposes. Maybe Niagara Falls...?  [56] pair of trainers: my guy, i don’t know what kind of sneakers i own now, i don’t remember my first pair

RIGHT NOW… [57] eating: tacos [58] drinking: water [59] i’m about to: rewatch this episode because I don’t have control over my life [60] listening to: see question 31 [61] waiting for: the hammer of death to strike me down [62] want: juice [63] get married: how is this a “right now” question? I’m not getting married right now. It’s not a priority for me, but if neither of us are married by the time we’re 40-ish, I’ll marry @ardathsade for the dual citizenship convenience. [64] career: boy...money would be good...

WHICH IS BETTER… [65] hugs or kisses: don’t touch me [66] lips or eyes: i guess eyes. i don’t notice people’s lips. [67] shorter or taller: taller. i like to feel small (i am not small) [68] older or younger: older [70] nice arms or nice stomach: both are good. stomach if i have to choose. [71] sensitive or loud: both. sensitive if i have to choose. [72] hook up or relationship: i guess relationship, but not really interested in either atm  [73] troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

HAVE YOU EVER… [74] kissed a stranger? nope [75] drank hard liquor? nope [76] lost glasses/contact lenses? not lost as in forever. misplaced temporarily, then all the time [77] turned someone down: yeah [78] sex on first date? nope [79] broken someone’s heart? hope not. doubt it. [80] had your own heart broken? not broken broken, but close [81] been arrested? nope [82] cried when someone died? yeah [83] fallen for a friend: almost exclusively

DO YOU BELIEVE IN… [84] yourself? nope [85] miracles? nope but kinda [86] love at first sight? i become attached to people easily, but i wouldn’t say love. i can’t decide for other people if they’re in love or not.  [87] santa claus? nope [88] kiss on the first date? i believe this is a thing that happens... I probably wouldn’t because I am so so weird about being touched. [89] angels? His name is Kouda Kouji.

OTHER… [90] current best friend’s name: katie probably, maybe saranya  [91] eye colour: brown [92] favourite movie: I don’t watch a lot of movies. The latest I’ve seen and really liked was Kimi no Na wa....so that. 

tagging: um I don’t know who among my friends have done this because this was going around like a month ago. 

how about some mutuals i never talk to (hello you guys are cool, i’m not sure why you guys still follow my trash blog, but thank you, no pressure to do this, sorry if you don’t like being tagged!!): @irnnotaboutthatlife @buddhistmamaduck @widow-tracer @omelettable @indigoire aaaaand @ardathsade (well...we don’t talk on HERE very much..)

[survivorinternational]

Episode 3 - "I wish you were BORN in 1920 so you wouldn't be in this org" - Emily

I was close to getting an idol without searching more than twice. Michael told me he had been gathering info and narrowed down to three locations, I had already searched one so thats two. Tyler was going to search one, micheal the other. So i thought: if i beat one of them to an idol search i will have it without then knowing. But idol was gone, rip. At least I have an alliance now, i like tyler idk about michael though. Anyone who can gather that much idol info must be shady to some degree. 

I am pretty good at Semantris but we are not winning this challenge.

----------

Oh yeah I guess maybe I shouldn't try too hard to not be a challenge target at merge. I guess I'll try to get the promised 6k ; my top 5 scores are 6k - 9k for comparison so it might not be the easiest thing. 

----------

So far Vilma, Richmond (Clash) and Ginger have said they will attend the watch-together. Hopefully we have a good time. 

----------

Day 5: God that music video is hilarious... basic... but funny Immunity win! YES! Still undefeated as a tribe. Continue to build social relations. Worked out most places that have been searched... Maybe i should do a spread sheet. Tomorrow Me and Tyler will search the last few places and hopefully find the idol. Day 6: GG Ruthie. Reward challenge, Word association, ok. Idol search has produced nothing... This is concerning... Someone must have it by now but no-one is saying. My guess is that its Stephen. Dean is more distant, this is also concerning. Dean is sitting out this challenge. Approached Tyler and Stephen about an alliance, Its going ahead, invited Jacob to be a 4th. If all goes to plan, I should know where all votes are going atm, It seems that most players trust me the most and are willing to work with me, but this is a double edge sword. Talk of a swap is happening... god i hope not yet.

So Laelaps comes up and tells me that there's an alliance of 4 forming with me not inside - Tyler, Stephen, Jacob and himself. Yes it does give me some comfort that he's told me and that we're still sticking together, but I don't like being possibly on the outside 4 to 2. I'm just trusting in my alliance of Jacob and Laelaps that even if they're playing both sides they'd rather take me, and I'm trying to appear less threatening to save myself here.

I hate to sound like that brawn comp beast girl but my tribe is full of inbreds and incapable of doing anything well. first of all, our music video was SHIT because only me and patrick actually tried and contributed something worth anything. second, this flash game is literally so easy..... and they're all like uWu I can't do it :/ like are y'all dumb dumb STUPID dumb? like what's up man? I've been doing this for like an hour at most and I've been getting 4400+ consistently and Patrick goes "my high score is 1920" bitch WHAT I wish you were BORN in 1920 so you wouldn't be in this org that was mean I'm kidding lol but im not I hate this tribe they're all so BORING I need some different timezones in my life. someone put vilma on my tribe. I don't know her and post season I really hope she doesn't think these confessionals are creepy. vilma I want to be your best friend everyone on my tribe sucks ): also last vote (sorry I didn't make a confession about it early) was okay - Ruthie wanted to go so we voted her out. ): rip her I love her so much. I was really looking forward to playing with her. but the good thing was it was easy and simple. if we go to tribal again idk if it'd be as simple lol. also im so bad at talking to these people???? they're so bland!!! maybe others are talking but im certainly not getting anywhere socially except with randy occasionally. I'd want to work with randy or Patrick. im not the biggest fan of liana or Daniel so if we went to tribal again that's who id want to go. I think I could make it happen too. maybe? who knows maybe they have it out for me fjdlkasjflas uhhhh okay bye bye

if the 24 hour challenge is word race i will flip 

I love European Michael, he is the best European. 

During the word making immunity challenge the Europeans were up at 4am kicking our butts and Tyler who isnt participating starts talking about a European girl on their tribe that seems to be good at everything so I go to check and I think it's Vilma and want to confirm with him. Then the next word we had to make was coincidentally V5, so guess what I wrote xD 

I think I'm coming off bossy in my tribe. Which I don't want to seem. But everything has got to be perfect and in order so there are no mistakes. We must win. 

You know what? im going to bed. If we lose the challenge so be it, itll be healthy to vote someone out. I am not slugging away through a 24hr challenge against a beast. I’m just not. And if Veni whats to make himself known as a challenge beast, he can do that, I’ll just be gunning for him come merge/swap. I know other people might do the same. But, you know, good for him.

So the w9 game is going on and my tribe has 3 and the others have 20 so it’s like for sure that we’re going to tribal tomorrow. And I have professed my love for randy and he returned it and I like Emily and we’re talking about our idol searches, so that’s 3 of 5 already. My tribe is just like a very quiet tribe nobody talks besides Emily. When I saw how good the other tribes music videos were I got very concerned about their amount of communication compared to ours. Idk who I want to vote out I think I like David a little more but I’ll see what the other two think. 

I am literally so happy I've got such devoted comp beasts like Vilma and Veni in my tribe ! And we're also close allies ;) It's cool, I don't need to slay comps to win this... I just need my social skills with me and they can continue to write words :) 

Patrick keeps calling Daniel David and if that doesn't tell you enough about my tribe idk what does. but who does it say more about? Patrick or Daniel? honestly who cares. Patrick, Randy, and I kind of banded together like "we're the only active ones lol let's vote together" so I think it's gonna be Daniel! sorry but the dude does NOT speak. and I know this is his first org over here and we're super boring... I feel bad. but yeah he's also boring! and he's sort of good at comps but not really dude. so I think it's gonna be him. after this tribal, im pretty sure that we are tribe swapping. yay final 14! I don't mind going to tribal honestly. I feel safe because I'm slightly more active than some of the other people. like it's sad to say im the most active member of my tribe but im constantly out with my friends or at work or neglecting my responsibilities. oopsie! yeah so im gonna hope and pray no one is planning a blindside on me but like if they were they'd be fucking stupid also there's no god damn way they're pulling something they don't care enough? like genuinely this tribe is so quiet. it's not that they're not talking to me. it's that they are not here. that makes the pre-merge easy for me because I can control what happens on my tribe for the time being... because it's easy? and everyone kind of thinks of me as a leader I think? because I TRY. that's IT. anyway lol yeah my plan is to vote out Daniel. and then swap onto a tribe with Vilma pls 

Our tribe results: *posted early in the afternoon that we lost* Tribe: *doesnt talk to me* Me, a few hours later: *messages everyone trying to start a conversation and no one responds for a while* Emily: *responds once and goes offline * Pat: *responds once* Emily: *gets back online and I see both her and Pat's green circles but neither has responded to me* Me: "are you bitches conspiring against me?" Whatever I will probably have to play my idol and I am thinking about playing it against pat or Emily.  Daniel is just new so that's a good excuse for him. 

If it wasn't a double tribal we'd all still be here but unfortunately we have to go to tribal tonight. Tonight for me could go very simply, keep my alliance of Michael and Jacob happy by voting out Dean who no one seems to have connections with, but I am getting a bit paranoid because besides Tyler, knowing seems to be talking to me or continuing my conversations which to me is a telltale sign that you're not included. The good thing is that I do have an idol and if I need to play it I will because better safe than sorry. 

All right, so we’ve got alliances out the wazoo rn. Along with a heavy handed dash of loose lips. So tyler tells me that sluggy made an alliance with everyone but me and dean, then sluggy tells me he had a super early alliance with michael and jacob. All this tells me that Micheal especially is playing the middle, being in two alliances with him already myself. It also tells me that sluggy cannot be trusted with info. But sureeee ill be in a 2man alliance with you sluggy -_- Right now I dont trust anyone, even tyler, but ill keep this info to myself, if sluggys playing me this might be a test to see if i tell tyler or anyone else. I just need to make sure I lay low and keep the target off my back. Fingers crossed I don’t get blindsided, but at least I know I am in no way in control of this tribe, keeps me on my toes. 

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So i think ive settled things enough to feel safe, i think everyones voting dean, deans voting jacob. The only wildcard is jacob who wants to split, but doesnt know who. Tbh if he does i dont want him to tell me who it is, ill only feel guilty if he does. As long as it aint me right? 

I guess to summarise the word race because I doubt I did confessionals during that. - Michael the helper was really cool and I really enjoyed our banter in tribe chat hopefully we cross paths again. We did add eachother on Snachat. - Me and Vilma once again were the most dedicated scoring 34/35 for our tribe together. She is absolutely my ride or die partner in this and I will do anything to get one of us to win the thing. - Survivor Africa watch was good, we watched the first 3 episodes though it was just me and Vilma (see the trend?). Sadly apparently that will become illegal if we swap and are not on the same tribe which is pretty sad. - Swap is incoming, everyone knows that. Question is, will it be entirely random? If so, I flipped a coin to test my luck and it failed me. My predictions have been on point this season so moral of the story: this swap won't work well for me. - ALSO I CALLED THAT IT'S WORD RACE I HATE YOU ALL BECAUSE I AM TOO DEDICATED FOR MY OWN GOOD GODDAMNIT peace out homedogs 

After that intense tribal council I am shaking so much, I did get to talk to Stephen and Tyler a bit alone afterwards in the call so it was nice to be able to get a feel for their true feelings without the disguise of text. At this point if Dean didn't have that idol, either Michael/Stephen have it, or it hasn't been found yet. The good news is that with it being final 14 i can expect a tribe swap into 2 tribes of 7, and that gives a lot of room for bonding, I'll continue to do what I've been doing with the friendliness and hopefully I'm not just swapped alone. I can always try to weasel my way into the cracks of a team if I am, but I'm not quite ready to play the victim card, I still have a long stretch of game left in me before I do that. 

Well what's cooking is that I really really think it's gonna be me this vote lol, no one has talked to me and well, yeha 

2 immunity wins in a row hell yeah! Ngl, I wasn't SUPER worried about this one because if we lost, I think it was almost certain that Ginger would go. Ginger didn't submit in the last immunity and barely helped in this one and has barely spoken to any of us. Clash and I had a call the other day which was good and gave us an opportunity to discuss a bit of game which was good. We talked about who we liked/disliked and I found out that he knows Ginger but doesn't like him. It's almost certain that next round is a tribe swap and I'm praying I get put with Clash. Right now, my ranking of who I'd want to go forward with is probably : Clash>Vilma>Veni>Ginger 

Oh bless at us winning but at the same time I don’t trust ginger so idk if that’s the best but let’s hope for the best and hope I am in a tribe with Vilma and randy next tribe swap hehe 

Where is this idol?? No one claims to have found it and I sure haven't either. Could use a clue right now. Too bad my tribe mates didn't agree, since THREE of them STRIKED at the reward challenge. I literally burst into laughter when I saw that. My I C O N I C fail of a tribe. Veni and I are the only ones who truly care about challenges. Well Allan cares a bit as well, but he also seems to have a life, so, I'm happy for him, although jealous! But I bet we would've lost every single pre merge challenge if Veni and I weren't overly enthusiastic about them. I just hate tribal, okay? Plus I guess I admit I'm somewhat competitive, because I don't think I could handle just throwing a challenge without trying at all. That would feel simply wrong. Veni and I went all out in the immunity challenge too, we napped in shifts and made sure one of us was around throughout the entire challenge so we had the possibility to score a point at all times. Plus we made a huge ass google sheet so we could just copy and paste answers whenever a new letter got posted. The first 15-17 hours or so I thought the Aussie tribe was for sure going to beat us (they were soooooo fast, but so was Veni thank god), but I guess they got sleepy by the end and we won!!!! YAYYYYY NO TRIBAL Veni almost posted a gif of himself as a chicken to the challenge chat I would've died if we got a warning for that He meant to post it on tribe chat https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/410716559632367616/599331778934603786/mmm_veni_2.gif I don't know who I'd vote if we went to tribal that's why I really would like to avoid it Plus I'm scared Veni and I's activity is pissing people off Don't wanna go home yet I'm having fun Ugh fuck I'm losing focus LOOK AT THAT FOUR AUSSIES GOING AGAINST ONE LITTLE ME HELP Ugh Veni will be busy in about 30 mins and then I'm gonna be in big trouble At least he let me shower I feel like a human again But it'll be tough If I was normal I'd just chill but I don't have it in me I don't know how to chill I love winning too much I gotta get that bag It's a thug life It's a thug life WE WON CHALLENGE WE GOT A BIG LEAD THEY CANT CATCH UP FUCK YEEE I CAN SLEEP EARLIER I am just glad we don't have to vote anyone out Would've sucked I feel like these past 24 hours brought closer together So I would've hated it if someone had to leave (Especially if it was me) But F14!! WOOP We're surely going to swap after the double tribal and I'm excited but scared!!! Excited because I'm ready to meet some new faces even though I've grown a liking to my flop tribe, and scared because I feel after the last challenge it's pretty apparent Veni and I were the more active members of our tribe and we could get targeted for that. My plan is to try to lay a bit low at swap, but still make sure I get to know everyone one on one to make solid new connections. I really hope I don't get swapfucked, hope to remain in the same tribe with as many og Faatasi as possible. Let's go!

Damn work keeping me to busy to do confessionals. Reward Challenge: This appears easier as we go on. Quite enjoy this. Aim for over 5000. Got 7200 in one of my first tries... Aim is 10,000 Settled for 8200, sick of looking at my screen. Some of these word associations don't make sense. Who doesn't associate Video games with words like Play or fun... REWARD CHALLENGE WIN! AWWW YER!!! Comfort Items get! And in comfort items... A Vote Blocker!!! BOO YAH!!! Immunity Challenge: I called this 12 hours before the challenge began. I am a legend. Seems that most people are busy this weekend. I will do what I can but i will be busy for a good 6 hours of it as well Veni and Vilma are thorns in my side with this, they just type so quick VENI DOESNT SLEEP WTF!!! I cant keep up, I tried my hardest but cant keep going at 3am. We lost :( Tribe life: Current Alliances: The UHC Alliance, The Idol Hunters Alliance. Sluggy has suggested an Alliance between Tyler, Jacob, himself and me which I agree to. Vote is very straight forward, We are all voting Dean as he isn't very active unfortunately. I wanted to try and keep him around but I think I was the only one chatting to him. If Dean has an Idol then it will be Jacob going, which is also fine with me as I think Jacob will be a hindrance later in the game Dean is voted out 5-1 The idea of a swap is brought up, which we all agree is likely to happen. In the UHC chat, Sluggy brings up the point that Veni could spill the beans about knowing each other out of this survivor. Its a good point and I really didnt want to but I told my Idol Hunter Alliance about the fact I knew Jacob, Sluggy and Veni outside of the game but I play each survivor without using my relationships from outside the game effect it.

RIGHT so here we go again u crack heads. Hate u all, this is for round 3 btw so dont get it TWISTED, sorry I made a VIDEO confessional and forgot to post it OOPSIES. Anywho, like the who’s from whovillie here we are partying minding our own business, well me at least because while I went out clubbing everyone else had to do the challenge. Sorry about it. They all love me anyway so ALL good in the HOOD. Here we are thriving Michael is absolutely carrying the team. So while the challenge was popping off Sluggy approached me asking if I was in any alliance, I high key avoided the question and just said who im trying to trust, and HIGH KEY dropped hints that dean wasn’t one of those people. He start saying if we should make an alliance chat, I was elated by the idea and smiles were HAD. The alliance included Myself, Sluggy, Michael and Jacob which is everyone expect Dean and Stephan. This is the exact same as the other alliance chat but without Stephan and Sluggy in his place! I like Stephan tho, so I went and dibba dobbed on sludgy real quick, like a speed demon u could say. Sluggy was out here trying to make ME make the alliance chat, like no thank u that can be UR job I need to tell people I was DRAGGED into it so I CANT make it SORRY. Anywho he made it. So we accidentally LOST the challenge, and much to my SURPRISE due to my lovely CONNECTIONS with these lovely people! I wasn’t targeted at all even tho I sat out and went clubbing. Yee haw, I exclaimed out of excitement. My target is Dean going into this tribal. A.) he seemed really arrogant and annoying during the music video round. b.) his video submission gave me NIGHTMARES now I can’t even hug my pillow without feeling UNSAFE and C.) we dont talk. So ooop here come the kiddies lining up in formation asking what we should do for the vote. Ooo I want to vote Dean but I simply never say it because im not a GOOSE well I try not to be a GOOSE. I say how I feel good with … but never include dean, I then wait for them to say anything negative about dean and oops I agree real quick and keep the convo focused on dean. People were talking in a alliance chats but I was highkey ignoring them because I COULDNT BE BOTHERED I talked to everyone in pm’s tho, love that for me. So Michael is over here being everyones friend so I threw him just a BIT under the bus for a later date. Like I built the ramp and the final destination is under the bus but we aint gonna push him yet. ANYWAY Dean went home yay he will be missed just not by me. 

[witch-y-princess]

A Classic In Modern Times

Chapter 1

It's Sept. 26th, there was a soft breeze coming through the window. A girl wakes up due to the chilly autumn air filling her room. She checks her clock, it reads 2:48 am, she looks around her room to find her window is open. The girl is confused for a moment then begins to panic and frantically tries to turn the lights on. As she is making her way to the light switch, she's tackled to the ground and is getting gagged by some sort of cloth. She tries to fight whoever is on her back, but as she does she feels her back getting warmer and warmer. Her clothes are getting soaked in something liquidy and warm. Before she realizes what's happening, with a crack her vision goes dark and she begins to feel very cold. Then there was nothing.

The sound of silence was only broken by the noise of crunching and tearing. The girl's younger brother has now awakened to go to the bathroom and on his way, he hears the strange sounds. Still a bit groggy from just having woken up he dismisses them. He finishes his business and goes back to bed. Although he tries to go to sleep, he still hears the unusual noises through the wall. Growing more and more curious, he gets back out of bed.

The cold air is starting to fill the rest of the house as he walks down the hall to his sister's room. Making sure to make as little noise as possible due to his growing anxiety, he carefully places each foot softly on the cold hardwood floors. He finally reaches the door and begins to slowly open it. The sound stops as the door opens ever so slightly. It's too dark to see anything so the boy turns the lights on. The sound of a blood-curdling scream sent throughout the house is broke the silence of the night aside from the wind blowing in through the window. What the boy sees is the sight of his sister brutally torn to shreds. Her head has been torn off with a half eaten face left on it, showing the bloody skeleton and muscle tissue underneath what used to be his sister's face. Her spine has been partially torn out of her back with a few vertebrates scattered about, the rest is held together by a few muscles as it rests in a pool of crimson blood. Her arms are missing from the biceps down and the skin is torn much less cleanly than the neck's. The stench of all the guts plus the unholy amount of blood pooled up or splattered about makes the kid vomit on sight. He didn't even have time to react to whatever else was in the room that was hunched over his sister gnawing at one of her arms. All he saw were the silvery-white pupils surrounded by a blacked out eyeball. The next thing the boy feels is a hand wrapping around his throat beginning to crush his windpipe. He tries his best to let out any resemblance of a noise but the being won't let him. Then he falls to the ground, but he notices his body didn't fall as well. It's still in the hands of who, or whatever the being is. His vision goes dark as he hears the panicked footsteps of his parents racing up the stairwell.

~•~

A few hours later a girl wakes up to the sound of her alarm clock. It's now 7:30 am and she'll be late for school if she doesn't hurry up and get ready. She throws her silvery-grey hair with black strands up in a bun as she's running to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She then makes sure she's got her necklace on while sliding a red gemstone ring on her right hand, a blank silver ring band on her left hand, as well as another gemstone ring, this one being blue. The necklace is a pendant of a crescent moon, in the crescent, there's a diamond shape and a circle with a dot in the middle of it hanging around her neck from a twine cord. She then throws on the nearest pair of black skinny jeans, her cleanest bra, an oversized death metal band t-shirt, and a pair of black converse as she runs out the front door with her pack in hand and purse flying behind her. The sun is out and is shining bright already. She runs down the flight of stairs, hurrying to the parking lot, and jumps in her car, a white 2018 Chevrolet Impala with tinted black windows. She hurries her was to her morning class, on the way she's listening to the local news.

"Mr. & Mrs. Langsworth, along with their two kids, Jacob and Lendsie were found dead this morning when a neighbor's kid who walks to school every morning with Lendsie found bloody footprints on the sidewalk outside the house. They told their parents who called the police, who so far only have said that it seems to have only been one attacker. There were no signs of robbery as nothing was taken. They also haven't been able to find any prints or evidence to get a lead on who it might have been."

As the girl pulls up to her uni's science building and frantically tries to find a parking space at 8:10 am she realizes she doesn't have class till 10 am. She parks anyways and heads towards the library. On her way she runs into a classmate, his name is Logan. His hazel eyes meet her silvery-white eyes for a moment. He's a little bit taller than her, standing in at about 5'8", an athletic build due to his years running in track, compared to her more average build and standing at about 5'5". He's got light brown hair that looks like he just woke up. His face has a few freckles speckled all about. The loose-fitting single colored dark blue t-shirt has a little bit of syrup on it.

"Good morning Lilith, how are you today?" He says with a cheerful smile.

"Still kinda tired, didn't get much sleep last night. What about you?"

"I'm doing quite alright. Seems like we were both in a bit of a rush this morning huh?"

"Haha, yea I guess so. Did ya forget class was at 10 am as well?"

He scratches the back of his head with a nervous chuckle, "Yea I did, but I was thinking about going to the library to get a bit of extra time for the homework we had."

"Oh shit!!! WE HAD AN ASSIGNMENT?!?!" Lilith shoutedly asks.

"Uh, yea. It was given to us two days ago. Have you started on it yet?"

"No, not at all.." she mutters.

"Well, I can help you if you'd like."

"Really?! That'd be awesome!!! Thank you so much!"

The two head off towards the library together. Logan talks about how he's excited for the next track competition in a couple of weeks, and how he hopes she's going to be there to cheer him on as usual.

They reach the library and he starts helping her find books about advanced physics. They start working on the assignment together and with Logan's help she's able to get enough done by 9:50 am for a passing grade.

As they walk to their class, a girl who is in a hurry trips over a curb and drops all her books and papers. Lilith rushes over and helps her up and gathers up the papers flying around and the books scattered about the ground.

"Thank you! My name is Emily and it's nice to meet you."

"Don't mention it. My name is Lilith, nice to meet you as well," she says, giving the girl a smile as she and Logan walk towards class again.

"You know we'll be late now right?"

"Ehhh, who cares, if class was at 8 am we'd have been late anyway. Besides, who's a couple minutes gonna hurt?"

"Haha, yea, fair enough I guess."

~•~

It's finally the end of the school day and Lilith is on her way home she passes by the park and looks at the autumn leaves' colors in awe. She pulls into her apartment complex's gated parking lot which is packed as usual with many cars.

"Alright, I got a couple of hours till I gotta go into work, let's see how many episodes of anime I can watch in that time." She thinks to herself as she's unlocking her front door and stepping inside her apartment.

Inside there's her living room with a flat-screen tv sitting atop a dark brown tv stand filled with movies and games, in front of a dark brown wooden coffee table with a circular glass center. A black 2-piece couch with a lot of anime plushies on top of it. Next to that, she's got a bookshelf full of figurines in all sorts of different sizes and poses. To the right of that, there's another big bookcase full of light novels, manga and normal books as well; there's even an entire shelf dedicated to her knife collection. She has easily two dozen different knives, all different styles. The walls are covered in many posters and artworks, as well as many swords hung up, so much so you can barely even see the creamy white-painted wall behind it all.

She sets her pack and purse next to the front door and walks to her kitchen, which is separated from the living room by a granite topped island. She grabs a can of soda from her fridge. She notices that she still has to do the dishes but shrugs it off thinking "oh I'll do 'em later," before she slouches down into her couch and turns on her tv. She calls over Midnight, her hell-hound familiar, he's a big black dog that's roughly twice the size of a German shepherd. His pitch black fur is silky soft, and he too has silvery white eyes after becoming Lilith's familiar. He jumps up into her lap and they snuggle as they watch tv together. She pulls out her phone and texts her partner, Miyabe

~•~

Before she realizes it its time to go in for work. She gets dressed and heads out, it's now about 7:30 pm as she drives. She arrives at work and as usual her the gm Linda greets her with a kind smile.

"How are you doing tonight Lilith?" She asks and Lilith puts her number in the computer to clock in for her shift.

"I'm doin a'ight I guess, school was a bit stressful today but it worked out."

"Well, that's good to hear it went okay, ready to have a relaxing night?"

"Totally, I love the graveyard shift." Responding with a slight chuckle.

The night goes pretty uneventful as usual, getting the normal 30 or so customers throughout her usual 8pm-4am shift at a local 24hr café/tea bar.

As she is getting ready to leave though there is a fight going on between a group of guys in the ally in between her café and the bar next to it. She at first doesn't want to intervene but then one of the guys hollers at her, which in turn gets the other guys to notice her. Some are still fighting but the most have stopped and are starting to walk towards her.

"Hey sweet thang, whatcha doin out here this late at night? Huh?"

They all look at each other and snicker before rushing at her. A few of them seem like regular drunkards with a beer belly to show for it, and a few of them are relatively well built.

As one gets close to her, she punches him straight in the jaw, breaking it and knocking out a few teeth in the process, knocking him down and out. The others hesitate for a second but then charge at her again. She runs to a different alleyway a couple of buildings down and gets cornered, but turns around to face them with a smile on her face. As the roughly 7 guys run after her into the ally they get frozen in place out of pure terror when they see her face; which now has been morphed to look something inhumane. With what to them feels like her silvery-white eyes are piercing their souls, they can't help but stand there utterly frozen.

She begins to punch, kick, and claw her way through them, leaving them with broken arms, legs, skulls, ribs, knocked out teeth, and gashes in their bodies so deep you could see bone. Just by looks, you'd think they got run over by a speeding semi or train.

She then calmly walks back to her car and drives home.

Continue reading here

[usamotorscycle-blog]

Yamaha Reflects On Impressive LeMans 24-Hour Performance

Yamaha goes one-two at LeMans, with the teams separated by less than one minute over the course of 24 hours! Begin Press Release: Yamaha Deliver Le Mans Masterclass with Incredible Double Podium The GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team and YART Yamaha Official EWC Team delivered a masterclass in Endurance racing over the last 24 hours. The two Official Yamaha Endurance teams took first and second on the podium respectively for the 2017 FIM 24 Heures Motos at the Bugatti circuit in Le Mans, turning the event into a two horse race as they fought less than a minute apart, over the entire race, ending 11 laps ahead of the rest of the field in their own class. GMT94 Yamaha’s David Checa enjoyed a strong start, fighting in the front pack from fifth at the first corner to rise back to fourth, before handing over to teammate Niccolò Canepa who came back out to third position. Canepa was able to increase the pressure before handing over to third rider Mike Di Meglio who continued on the same form to get the race into play. It wasn’t long before the French team were up in to second position in their rhythm and chasing race leaders YART Yamaha Official, the two soon leaving the rest of the field behind. The early hours of the morning saw committed riding close the gap down to around 15 seconds, before YART began to again stretch it out. As morning broke over the circuit GMT94 raised the game again, cutting the lead back down to around 20 seconds as the two Yamahas continued their duel for the win. With just over four hours remaining Mike Di Meglio was on fast form, dropping the gap quickly to Nozane in front. An unfortunate contact with a back marker caused him to crash out, but Di Meglio himself was not slowed and with just under four hours to go he was able to catch Nozane, fighting closely through the first three turns for the lead that would become the overtake that secured the race victory. From that point the GMT94 Yamaha Official riders were able to slowly stretch out the margin to the final lap, wrapping up the race after an exhausting 860 laps and 24 hours. Adding to the drama, Canepa fell ill with fever during the night, continuing to ride until 9am in the morning through fever and sickness before retiring to allow his two teammates to complete the final seven hours between them. It proved to be a great start for Broc Parkes on the no.7 YART machine from second on the grid, fighting to secure an early lead and immediately dropping into the 1’36s lap times. The Australian led until lap eight when a safety car came out for a couple of laps, bunching the competitors and bringing the competition in. He fought with the group until handing over to Marvin Fritz, who came out to lead the pack again. Fritz kept the pace up, maintaining the lead for his stint before passing on to young Japanese talent, Kohta Nozane. Nozane ensured the team’s race leading pace was respected, keeping the YART YZF-R1 at the front of the pack whilst displaying incredible corner lean angles as he powered around the Bugatti circuit. The three worked hard to keep and grow their lead as day turned to night, the riders taking repeated faultless turns on their R1. As the night turned to early morning, fellow Yamaha riders GMT94 Official had worked hard to close the gap to just over 15 seconds by 5am in the morning. The YART Yamaha trio then picked up the pace again, growing the gap to nearly 50 seconds just over an hour later. After leading the race for an incredible 20 hours, the gap wasn’t to last, as the daylight brought with it an unexplained loss of pace. GMT94 were gradually able to regain the time creating a tense, exciting atmosphere as Yamaha hunted Yamaha on the Bugatti circuit. The winning pass was made with Di Meglio passing Nozane with just under four hours to go. YART kept their pace high as the clock counted down, discovering at the final riding stint of Parkes that the bike had been accidentally switched to wet map resulting in a lower bottom end power. As a result they crossed the line in second place 19.819 seconds behind GMT94 to secure second. Yamaha Viltaïs Experience enjoyed a great start to their Le Mans weekend, riders Axel Maurin, Bastien Mackels and Florian Alt working hard to secure the Superstock pole position. A great start to the race saw them quickly in sixth position, climbing to fifth after the first pit stop. From there their pace continued to increase, as they climbing to a highest of fourth as they battled for the Superstock victory. Without doubt the most competitive stock team on the track, an unfortunate technical issue with an oil filter plagued them twice, costing valuable time. Despite this they kept coming back and working even harder, and had regained second position in the Superstock class when an unfortunate crash in the final hours again set the clock back. They eventually brought their YZF-R1 home in a hard fought third position, ninth overall.

David Checa

GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team I don’t think I’ve ever done a 24hr race like this, it was incredible. I have to say congratulations to YART, their riders made it a Superbike race that lasted for 24hrs, which is not usual! When we knew Niccolò was not feeling well we decided to continue to ride until the morning because the rhythm was so high and we didn’t want the risk to be exhausted at the end. In the morning we decided to push, we made nearly a minute riding but then lost it also nearly in the garage. In the end we managed it and for me it was an incredible race. We never gave up. It shows everyone that the R1 is fast and works well, to be 12 laps ahead shows what the bike is capable of, and also what the Dunlops can do.

Mike Di Meglio

GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team This race was amazing, very hard, very close fighting with YART, the lap times were so close. It was more difficult with Niccolò being sick as I had to finish the race with David. I was afraid how I could do it physically with short break for food and massage between rides, but we did it and found a great pace to become first. When I was behind Nozane I gave 100%, it was like qualifying but for 32 laps!”

Niccolò Canepa

GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team “We are really happy for the final result, winning a 24hr race is something unbelievable, it’s my first time so it is something incredible. I’m a little upset because I was feeling sick all night with fever so it was really hard for me to ride every stint here where it is really physical. The gap from YART was really close so we had to push a lot all night. At 9am I decided to stop. My teammates did an amazing job taking the victory, I want to say thanks to them and the team, they did an amazing job. It’s been a fabulous day for me!”

Christophe Guyot

GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team Manager If we are going to fight with anyone I want it to be with Mandy as he is my friend. I’m very happy for him as he proved that his team is incredibly strong and professional, he deserved the battle we had. His rider line was also so strong, it was important that we also had a strong rider line up to compete. Mike and David and Niccolò were amazing, and I think in all the riders from both teams were the best of the whole race. It was a two-team race between GMT and YART. After two hours settling in to the race we were ready to fight and then the only bike that was impossible to catch was YART! Their pace was unbelievable. We tried many strategies and it took until 20hours to reach them. Congratulations to them, and to Yamaha because for us to fight like that we needed an amazing bike, strong, reliable and fast. This success today is a sign of the Yamaha family all working together across teams and engineers to share our data and learings so we can all be more competitive. Finally of course thank you to my team who worked tirelessly through the weekend to make it a win.”

Broc Parkes

YART Yamaha Official EWC Team From a team perspective I think we did a great job, unfortunately we didn’t win the race but we only lost five points to GMT over the whole weekend. We showed that as a team we are very strong and we led over 20 hours of the 24 hour race. We just missed out a little bit at the end. We knew this would be one of the hardest races for us, the eight hour races will be better and riding at circuits that the other two will know. The positive is we performed really well, now we can look forward to the next races and we are not too bad on points. Congratulations to my teammates who did a great job.”

Marvin Fritz

YART Yamaha Official EWC Team It’s my first 24hrs so I’m really happy for second place, its good to finish and get good points, only five less than GMT because we led after 8 hours and 16 hours. We made a good job, Bridgestone were great, its just a shame we had the issue with the wet map that we didn’t find until nearly the end when Broc had his last stint and was on the pace again. We are on a good level and now we focus for Oschersleben, Slovakia and Suzuka. I’m happy for the team, we are fast and in with a chance.

Kohta Nozane

YART Yamaha Official EWC Team The race was really long, but an amazing experience for me. I really enjoyed riding with my teammates, my English isn’t so good for communicating but we still managed to find a good way to work together to make the best set up and feeling, which is really nice. I’m really tired today, but I think tomorrow I know I will want to come back next year with the same teammates and win the race!”

Mandy Kainz

YART Yamaha Official EWC Team I’m very proud of my riders and my team here. Everybody gave everything they could and we proved that for 20 hours of the race we were untouchable. It’s unfortunate that we had the problem of the accidental wet map change on the bike, I think without it the end of the race could have been different, and definitely closer! Our two young riders who have never been here performed at an impressive level, and the R1 was also the perfect bike. To not only lead for 20 hours, but to be two teams 12 laps ahead of anybody else says a lot. We are very happy to have great support from our partners Bridgestone here, and we look forward to going to the next round prepared to fight for victory. Congratulations to Christophe and the GMT team, they rode an amazing race, and provided an exciting Yamaha battle to remember.

24 Heures Motos Race Results

GMT Yamaha Official EWC Team – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 860 laps  24:04:27 YART Yamaha Official EWC Team- Yamaha YZF-R1 – 860 laps  +19.819 Team SRC Kawasaki – 848 laps  +12 lps Suzuki Endurance Racing Team – 848 laps  +12 lps F.C.C. TSR Honda – 843 laps  +17 lps Tati Team Beaujolais Racing – 837 laps  +23 lps Moto AIN CRT – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 834 laps +26 lps Maco Racing Team – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 831 laps  +29 lps Yamaha Viltaïs Experience – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 829 laps  +31 lps AM Moto Racing Competition – 824 laps  +36 lps

EWC World Championship Standings

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team – 95 points TEAM SRC KAWASAKI – 92 GMT Yamaha Official EWC Team – 71 F.C.C. TSR Honda – 67 YART Yamaha Official EWC Team – 62 MACO RACING Team Yamaha – 54 EVA RT WEBIKE TRICK STAR – 53 Tati Team Beaujolais Racing – 48 MOTO AIN CRT Yamaha – 48 Yamaha Viltaïs Experience – 38 Click to Post

[nel-4]

The last blog of the trip: it's a long one I'm afraid (don't feel obliged to read it)... It's Nagano with snow monkeys, deep fried locusts, fish saké, "karaoke" and a stop at the lake to clear our heads; Tokyo with the Shibuya crossing, cherry blossom trees galore, the Kamen Joshi girl group and Asimo the Honda Robot; and Hong Kong with accommodation in little India, Sofar Sounds, a rooftop pool, the peak, soho with escalators and an anticlimactic symphony of lights show.

We went to Nagano after Kanazawa/Shirakawa-go. Our main purpose here was to fulfil Zee's dream of seeing the legendary snow monkeys that bathe in the hot spring saunas up in the mountains. His wish came true! We did a day trip to the snow monkey park and mingled with them for the afternoon as they bathed and huddled together to keep warm. There were lots of baby monkeys too and we witnessed a few adults thieving from visiting customers. Back in Nagano town we thought it about time for another night out as Zee, the machine, wanted to get "aaat on the laaash"...it started orderly but ended with Zee pushing me over on the pavement (accidentally), resulting in a hole in my trouser knee, us all raiding the 24hr family mart for snacks at 3am and then Zee vomiting on return to the hostel whilst laura and I broke the 'lights out in communal areas after 11' rule. Zee had made it his mission to not be outdrunk by me - he matched me consumption wise but not in handling terms, ha! The evening was a cracker though - we went to a great restaurant where we had deep fried locusts as a side dish and a bowl of Saké that is brewed for a while with a fish soaking in it. We devoured the saké and the fish! Then went in search for a Karaoke bar, only to find it was way too expensive, but luckily found a lounge bar that had the instruments of a band all set up but no band. Well, nedless to say we belted out a few numbers - Taylor Swift, The Beatles and Oasis made appearances, and the only two other people in the bar were obliged to politely clap at the end of our set. Not done yet, we headed to a sports bar and muscled in on some locals' night's out, joining them for matches of table tennis and pool before playing clocks on the dart board. So so tired by home time which I expect contributed to the falling down and ripped knee! (I'm so so sorry Mrs Ralph 😜 - soon you won't have to read of my drinking habits)! Hangovers ever present, the next day we took the train up to stay at a lake side lodge hostel called LAMP hostel. It was a great place with comfy beds, log cabin stylings and an onsen style bath which I unfortunately only had a few private minutes in, before 2 slight Japanese ladies arrived, stripped off and got in together (I vacated the bath on their arrival in the changing area as didn't think they'd appreciate a large, bobbing (you float in them) westerner disturbing their chill time). Anyway, we took naps, went for walks in the snow around the lake and ate many a carbohydrate to recover from the night before. It worked well and by the next day we felt ready to take on Tokyo city after our few days in the snowy countryside. Laura's brother and sister in law (Shaun and Becky) were on holiday in Japan and we'd managed to coincide our Tokyo time. We met them for dinner on the first night there and spent the next couple days together. We visited the scramble Shibuya crossing where the volume of people crossing reaches thousands sometimes. Was 'quiet' when we went unfortunately but still had a go at taking some arty slow shutter speed shots like Jack had taught me in HoiAn 🙂. We explored around here some, and tried to plough our way through the hoards of people on Takeashita (lol) street to get to our sushi restaurant we fancied. This was really fun - you ordered on a personal tablet in front of you, then a siren would go off to let you know that your food was about to zoom towards you on a conveyor belt and stop right in front of you. Much fun!! We ended the night at a saké market, sampling a few different ones and made friends with some young people from TaiWan called SunnySu, Celine, Pierre and Paul (see selfie of us all on Facebook)!! Next day was spent in Ueno park under the cherry blossom. There's soooo many blossom trees all over, it looks great! I'd been to Ueno park under two weeks before and it wasn't out very much then but it was now near full bloom 😀. We then went round the Ginza area which was full of pretty posh designer shops so couldn't really purchase anything but we had a nice wander around and a last meal with Shaun and Becky with a few beers to follow. Penultimate Tokyo/Japan day was spent at the Senso-ji temple and doing some souvenir shopping in the Asakusa and Kapabashi areas. One of our favourite nights was then upon us...we'd seen Joanna Lumley (in Japan) go to watch an all girl singing dancing troop where all the audience members (99% male) know all the dance moves and get obsessed with all the girls - we had to see it for ourselves and it definitely didn't disappoint! They are a 30ish strong group called Kamen Joshi and perform twice every night (5 and 8pm). The ticket's a bargain at £12 which gets you entry and two drinks or some tucker! They perform in smaller groups and all the men are so so involved in chanting and doing dance routines to the songs. The girls have different coloured outfits on and the men race forward waving their affiliated coloured glow stick each time their favourite girl took a solo. Afterwards, you can meet and greet all the girls (they all look very young (15-20) and the men's average age was probably 45) - it was fascinating to see the men being so shy then talking to the girls after being so confident on the dance floor. However, the overriding feeling was creepiness, and the men would pay for photos with them or pay for the girls to pose together for photos! Whacky Japan! Final day in Japan was a late start followed by a trip to the national museum of emerging science and innovation, called Miraikan. Had a cool trip down to it on the hybrid train over the docks and estuary - real flashy buildings around here. When there we saw a demonstration by the Honda Robot, Asimo, who ran out of his home giving us a wave. He did some hopping, backwards walking and sang a song whilst doing Japanese sign language along to it! He was so cool, glad we saw him. We also had a go on some Honda "uni cab" prototypes and went on a tour around he museum on them - they're like a sit down Segway that you control with your weight distribution sitting down. The lady was quite strict with us though as I think she could tell all we wanted to do was zoom around on them rather than listen to her tour. She didn't let us go very fast 🙁. Headed back to central Tokyo after and had a great last meal of tender raw steak that you cook on a little grill box on your table yourself - I made the mistake of using my metal chopsticks to turn my meat on the grill and then to feed myself, burning my upper and lower lip on one side in the process (injury no. 547??!!) 😩 Friday was our travel day to Hong Kong with an early start, arriving in HK late afternoon. Initially impressed with the transport into the city our good moods were cut short on arrival to our hostel. The building was called ChingKung Mansions and housed loooooads of hostels on 15 floors. The whole of the ground floor was just like the markets we'd seen in India and as soon as we arrived the hassling started, offering us places to stay and things to buy. Luckily the China based Indian people were less pushy than some of the India based Indian people had been, so there was no bother, was just unexpected as one street over was all the designer shops and posh hotels whereas this building was really run down. The hostel we were staying in had messed up too and were asking us to move rooms to a different hostel after the first night - we said we would at first but then changed our minds so we stayed put. May have been a mistake as in this block only one lift was working so there was a big queue for it or it was walk 15 flights in muggy heat. Queue was so long one night we did take the stairs but to instantly regret it - on the first floor we found a rave and loads of people hotboxing in the corridor, then the staircase smelled so strongly of wee and poo it made you gag - I've never walked so quickly up 15 flights of stairs but was so worried that I'd get sick from it all again, I pelted up them!! All good though. Anyway, our first night in HK we'd booked onto the city's first Sofar Sounds gig which was really good. Last artist was the best but the other two were good too. Met a few people and got some recommendations for things to do in the city. Polished the day of with a second McDonald's in 10hours, oops! Spent Saturday at the Sheraton hotel rooftop pool and spa (bought a day pass) for a well earned rest and to enjoy the warm weather again. Had an interesting dinner at a cooky restaurant where they gave you a free half a roasted pigeon with every meal. It tastes a bit like duck! Strolled the waterfront after dinner and went for a cocktail in a skybar called 'eyebar'. Had a cocktail called 'Susie wrong' which was advertised as HK's version of the Singapore sling - wasn't quite the same I don't think!! Last day in HK was spent with Sian and Dan and their friend Jenna. Dan was working in HK for a few days and Sian had joined him for a holiday. We went up to the top of the peak (getting a really cheap taxi compared to the expensive tram that had an hour long queue) but only got an overcast view of the city as was pretty cloudy and smoggy that day. Then explored the soho area that had escalators running up and down the streets with happy hours galore at bars on every level! Headed over the water then to the Kowloon side to watch the symphony of lights show from the harbour side (all the buildings emit laser beams from their roofs and the building facades light up with loads of different patterns). Unfortunately we were expecting much more than we got. It may have been the cloudy skies that prevented the full effect from coming across but to us it didn't look that different to the lights that are always going day and night on the buildings. Nice to see though and didn't last long :) Afterwards we headed up town to a street food area where we came across a street artist performing our classic hits that we'd performed earlier in the week - we happily obliged his request to sing along to Hey Jude and Yesterday 😁. After tucker we bid farewell to Sian and Dan and headed back for our last sleep of the big fat holiday and left early in the morning with much heavier rucksacks (mine was 18.5kg, started at 14.5) for our journey home. Had two flights with Aeroflot, with a short stop at Moscow airport en route. Unfortunately it was too short of a stop for them to manage to put my back on the flight to Heathrow....my 19th flight and I lost my luggage. Best it happened on this flight though and luckily he was found the next day and is now safely returned to me. Can't believe it's all over, it went by so quickly, but it's lovely to be home. If you've read down this far, I salute you, and fanks!!

[melimoe]

Wednesday March 22nd

The rest of our time in Cuba passed quickly and restfully. One Wednesday, after our late night, we didn’t get up and moving until after 11am. We headed to see Miguel and book ourselves into the Spa for the next afternoon. He told us how the spa worked. There would be a ride at 1:45 for us in the hotel lobby the next day.

When we were finished the buffet was closed so we headed down to the 24hr bar and had a quick meal. Then I needed sunscreen before I could spend more time in the sun, all the stuff we brought was used up. We went into the little shop at the resort. They had sunscreen, the cheapest bottle was 18CUC or 25 Canadian Dollars. The most expensive sunscreen I would own, but better to pay then to burn.

We headed to the pool and sat in the sun and read for a few hours, until we felt hungry. Then it was off to lunch. After lunch we went to the room to drop off everything we had. Then it was back to the pool. This was the first time I got into the pool, despite it being the 4th day at the hotel. We swam out to the pool bar. That’s where most of the people in the pool hang out.

We met so many other Canadians at the bar. I think out of the few hundred people at the resort 95% or more were Canadian. People mainly came from the East coast because it is closer for them and also significantly less expensive then travelling from the West Coast.

We stayed at the pool bar until it closed at 5pm. After we joined a few others in a game of pass in the pool, they had both a Frisbee and a football. We had a fun time and we were also able to watch a budding Spring Break fling between two of the others.

When the sun went behind the buildings and the night began to cool. Amber and I left the people in the pool and headed for our room to dry off and change for dinner. When we finished dinner we headed back to the room. We decided to have some quiet time and stayed in. We tried the TV but it was bad. The best thing on was the Disney Channel. We played cards, Amber taught me a new card game. I took it home and taught it to my family and we are really enjoying it. I also learned a dice game, something that I have never played before. It was a night relaxing night.

Thursday

We spent all morning at the pool. We had breakfast and then claimed two pool chairs and moved only to flip over. There was something going on for the children that morning. Staff members were dressed as pirates and were taking kids all over the compound following a map. I heard that in the end they were digging for treasure down on the beach.

For lunch we tried the beach restaurant. It fills up fast so we went there right at noon when it opened. By 12:20 or 12:30 the place was full and people were waiting. The place was busy because other then the buffet it is the only restaurant that doesn’t require reservations.

After lunch we went back to our pool chairs until it was time to run to the room and drop off some things and get what we would need for the spa. We waiting in the lobby for our ride, it ended up being about 15 minutes late but other then that the spa was so relaxing.

The spa building is very nice. We walked into a large open area with a garden in the centre. We went to the deck and looked at the packages. We decided to add to the package we chose. We had:

Chocolate wrap

45 minute back massage

15 minute foot massage

30 minute facial with exfoliate, massage and mask

Access to the different salt water pools

We stopped to have a relaxing welcome drink, then we were given looker keys and led to the change rooms. From there we exited to the pool area by the beach. We relaxed in the pool chairs. The only other people were getting a message in a pavilion by the sea. After a short wait we were taken to one of the seaside pavilions and that is where we had our chocolate wraps. It was amazing, a cute guy dipped his hands in chocolate and massaged it all over me. Then I sat and enjoyed the view while he did the same to Amber. Then we were left for a bit while the chocolate did it’s job, exfoliated and drew out toxins (or something like that).

Then came the worst part of the entire thing. Getting of the table. While we had relaxed the sticky chocolate had glued us to the table. It was painful to sit up and hop off the table. Also my thighs suck together so bad that I had bruises later from where my skin pulled as my thighs unstuck. We were taken back to the change room where we could shower off the chocolate.

Then it was back out to the pool. This time there was a new couple in the jacuzzi. The bar was included in the spa trip so we thought about getting a drink but before we could get one we were collected for our massage.

We, unfortunately, did not have a seaside massage, but we had a small double room. We lay on the bed and relaxed as we had our back massage. It was so nice. I felt so boneless. When we were finished we flipped over and had our facial. The guy who was working with me had very gentle hands. He was so soft. Then the mask was applied and while it dried he moved to my feet.

I think I did well, I only twitched once or twice while he was massaging my feet. Then he was a bit firmer and it was no longer ticklish. I never wanted it to end. It made me think of Thailand and the hour long foot massages that you could get for about 10$.

Then it was time for them to remove the face mask and finish their services. We were free to relax in the room for a minute and then move to the pool area and we could leave when we wanted too, they would call our driver.

Amber and I headed out to the bar and had a quick drink looking over the water. Then it was time to change out of our robes and leave the spa. I was sad to go. I wish that it was more affordable at home. I would treat myself more often.

Back at the hotel we sat by the pool getting the last of the sun until it was time to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at the oriental restaurant. I was curious to see what the menu was like. It was westernized and similar to what would be found at a Chinese restaurant in North America.

When we were seated the lady told us that the portions were small and she recommended that we order a starter, rice, main, and a dessert. Okay with me. I had teriyaki meatballs, vegetable rice, beef noodles, and caramel flan for dessert.

As we exited Amber thought a different path would be shorter back to the room and I thought not, so we set a walking pace and raced back to the hotel room, I won. We headed from the room up to the lobby and tried to use the internet. It was such a pain that night. Not only that but people were smoking a lot by the bar. We went into the internet cafe to escape the smoke. When we finished with the WiFi we headed back to the room because Amber was feeling sick. We decided to go to bed early and hope Amber felt better in the morning.

Friday

For Friday morning we set an alarm. Not because there was anything important to do but because the sun rose on our beach and we wanted to be up to see it at least once. We learned upon waking that Amber had caught something was still feeling poorly. She powered through though and we headed down to the beach to sit and watch the sun rise.

The weather was windy and there were clouds in the sky. It was a great morning to watch the sky. There were no other people only some birds fighting the wind to find leftovers along the beach.

After a wonderful sunrise we headed to the buffet for a quick breakfast. Then it was back to bed. We napped and lazed around until about 9:30. We went to change our destination and laze around by the pool but before we could there was papers stuck in our door. We left them in the room and headed to people watched and read by the pool. We saw some of the same people that we’d been running into the entire trip. They told us there was a beach party that night. We said we’d think about it.

Around 1 started to get hungry. Amber was so miserably sick she wasn’t hungry at all, I went to eat alone for the first time. I returned to the pool after and we lay around until the heat and sickness drove Amber back to the hotel room. We rested and napped in the room for awhile.

Amber asked me for the time and I told her 5:59pm. She jumped up, we had a dinner reservation at 6pm. I had forgotten, oops. We were up and dressed and out the door in less than 5 minutes. We weren’t to far from the BBQ Grill where we were having dinner, so we weren’t that late.

Our choices for dinner at the restaurant were chicken, fish, or steak. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a steak but if I have it was more than 15 years ago. So I decided to order one (medium-well). It will never be my first choice of meals but I could eat it again if it was offered.

After dinner we headed to the lobby to get some change for the last of our tipping. We stopped at the lobby bar for a short while. Then we headed back to the room and filled in the paper that had been left, they were opinion cards. If you hand them in your entered into a draw for a free stay next year.

When it was time to think about the beach party there were two factors we considered. Amber was still sick and would not like to be out all night at the mercy of the tour bus, it had also started to rain heavily. Not something that would absolutely stop us from going but Amber was already sick. And really I don’t think either of us felt up to it on our last night in Cuba. We stayed in instead.

Saturday

I did not sleep well Friday night. Maybe it was me trying to deny that I to leave. Most trips I take are busy as I try to pack in as much as possible during my time. This trip was a relaxing, slow paced trip that I need to consider doing a little more often.

I woke a few times and just went back to sleep. I checked the clock at 5am and went back to sleep. It wasn’t until 7:30 that I decided to read rather then go back to sleep. Amber was still sleeping and I didn’t want to wake her. She didn’t stir until closer to 9. She was still sick, so much so that she didn’t want to get up and head for breakfast. I went alone, tasked with bringing back toast for Amber.

When I got back it was time to pack our bags and do a final check of the room. We put off leaving as long as possible. So long that reception phoned to ask if we wanted a porter to come and help with our bags. We said no thanks and made sure we had everything before leaving the room at almost noon.

We put our bag in holding and went to go sit by the pool. It wasn’t crowded but every lounger had a towel on it to reserve (even though there are signs asking you not to).

We walked along the stretch of beach in front of our hotel. Many of the beach loungers here were also full. We made it down to the beach in front of the neighbouring hotel. That hotel looked empty compared to ours. There were so many empty sunbeds. We walked until the beach ended and a rocky outcropping started. We turned and walked back to our hotel. We went for our final lunch at the buffet. After a week the food was beginning to feel very familiar but there was still enough choice that we didn’t feel sick of it.

After lunch we went back to the beach and realized that the only bar we hadn’t had a drink from was the beach bar. We remedied that fact and then took in our last bit of Cuban sun while sitting on loungers on the beach. When we left the beach we headed up to get our bags from the storage room. We had put a change of clothes suitable for the cold Canadian weather we expected to face. Amber changed but I held off.

We went down and had our last dinner at the buffet. Then all we had time for was to grab our bags out of the storage room again. I changed into jeans and layers and we waited for the bus to come and take us away. The bus picked us up and had many of the people that it had dropped off a week ago. We were all sad to leave.

The airport at Cayo Coco is small. It only has about 10 desks in total. Some of those desks were for Air Transat and some were for Air Canada. With only 4 desks open and everyone getting off the bus, with more buses arriving we had a little bit of a wait to check in our bags. Both were under weight and no shuffling had to be done. This was good because all the souvenirs were in the hard shelled suitcase.

Customs was some small little closed in paths that had an agent behind a desk. Then it was a quick pass through security to the waiting area upstairs. The airport is one long rectangle with a gate at either end. People mingled in the middle while they waited for their flights.

Around 10:30pm we boarded our Air Canada flight to Toronto. I quickly fell asleep after take-off. We landed just before 2am. We had to go through customs at this time. Thankfully many large Canadian airports, Toronto included, have mostly done away with custom agents and have move to an automated system for Canadian nationals. This meant no long lines. We were quickly through customs and off to collect our bags and check in again.

The departures area is not the easiest place to navigate but we figured it out. We tried to get seats at an automated stand but were unable to. So we went down to the domestic area to drop our bags off for our flight. In our tiredness we tore of the baggage tags in anticipation for new ones but we shouldn’t have done that, they were tagged all the way to Vancouver. We waited in line with other people from our flight and watched as at just before 3am other people joined us in our line. Of course there was only one person working in domestic at the time and his current job was to turn on all the computer and get ready for the day, not help the people waiting.

At about 3am we were able to get new bag tags and drop our bags. We asked about why our boarding pass said GTE. We were informed we were on standby. It wasn’t that guys fault so I had no reason to get mad but I wanted to. I paid for my flight, and I had many hours of travelling still ahead after reaching Vancouver. I was going to do everything in my power to be on that flight. But if you are put on standby and do not get on your flight you will be monetarily compensated. Not that they could pay me enough to miss my flight.

We went to security but it wasn’t open. We heard rumour it opened at 3:30am so we sat inline and waited. It didn’t open at 3:30. At about 3:45 someone came out and saw the line and seemed shocked while disappearing back behind the closed doors. Just before 4am they opened up and we were able to get through security.

We found our gate and found that there were no comfortable places to sleep. All the chairs had armrests. Instead we tucked out things under the chairs and curled up on the floor to try and get more sleep. I drifted in and out.

I think it was around 5:30 that the gate agents arrived. There were a lot of people that flooded over to them because they had also been put on standby. From what I overheard a plane was going to be late and so people were taken off the flight to Vancouver but then made up time en route and were put back on the flight. I have no idea what that has to do with us though, we had checked in long before they would have known this and I still didn’t have a seat.

The poor lady kept giving everyone that same answer, she was working on it. Before I had been hoping we would get bumped up because the plane would be full but after seeing how many people were on standby with us I knew that we wouldn’t get bumped. I waited rather then hassle the poor woman, she was already working on the problem. They began to call people as they put them in seats. Amber and I ended up with seats in the very last row. That sucks a little because they don’t recline as far but at least we were on the plane.

While we waited for the plane to board we talked with other people that had come from Cuba and were flying on the Vancouver and other destinations, many on the island. We were talking about the ferry and one woman said she was taking a seaplane. These are 20 minute little flights that go from the South Terminal to Nanaimo Harbour. We ended up thinking about it. As the lady pointed out our time was valuable and we shouldn’t wait for a 2 hour ferry before making our long drive home, the extra fare on the flight would be worth our time.

Once on the plane I started to watch “Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them” but couldn’t get into the story. I eventually turned it off and got a few more hours of sleep. I wanted one of us to be rested and Amber was still sick and has troubles taking naps. When I woke up we had about an hour left in our flight. I watched a bit of TV. Amber and I also hummed and hawed about taking a flight vs. taking the ferry.

When we landed and were able to use the phone we looked up the times for the flights and found that we could catch the 11:40am flight and land on the island at noon. If we took the ferry we wouldn’t catch it until noon and arrive on the island around 2. We called and booked to flights on Harbour Air. It was a great decision on our part.

Because the flight had been domestic there was no customs or anything to take up our time we headed directly to the luggage carousel and waited for our bags. Once they came we headed upstairs to find somewhere for breakfast. Airlines now a days don’t seem to feed you nearly as much as they used too and by that I mean not at all, or not included anyways. I feel that I already paid hundreds of dollars, the least you could do is give me a snack, or not charge me 15$ for a sandwich. On the airport side we found a restaurant and had a nice sit down breakfast.

Then it was off to the other terminal. There is a shuttle service that takes you there. It is nice to have because we were back in the dreary, drizzling Pacific Northwest, one of the rainiest places on earth. It was raining hard too, with wind for extra fun. This comes to play because Harbour Air flights take off from the river nearby and not the South Terminal its self, so we still had a walk in the rain but it was much shorter.

We check into our flight and they had a little lounge area with free treats and hot beverages. It was a nice little wait for the flight. It doesn’t take them long at all to load the plane and get ready. It also only has 13 seats, so there’s not much to do for baggage and stuff.

I found some earplug in my seat so I popped those in and waited for take off. The flight was a little bumpy because of the wind but it was also pretty great because the plane flies so low you can see everything. There were some ships on the water and you could watch the little islands pass by.

We landed without a problem but because of the wind and the plane landing ahead of us, once we landed we did a few circles on the water to wait for space at the dock to open up. We docked about 20 minutes late, but we had passed they ferry before ours, so we had made great time.

Grandma was waiting for us parked in some unknown location at the terminal. She said where but neither Amber or I were sure about where she meant so we walked around in the wind and rain until she drove up and found us. Then it was back to where we’d left the car so we could begin our drive home.

Amber brought some audio books so we listened to one of those for the drive home. It wasn’t bad, I’d do that again for the long drive, especially because there is a 2+ hour stretch with nothing but AM radio, if that.

As much as I loved my time in Cuba it was great to get home and sleep in my bed.

From Relaxing in Cuba to Coming Home to the Cold Wednesday March 22nd The rest of our time in Cuba passed quickly and restfully. One Wednesday, after our late night, we didn't get up and moving until after 11am.